Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1908-08-20
Continued.

| did not come on at once, because l
had business that called me home.
But fortnight after / came over from
Ds~tmoor to Tavistock / did not come,
Is you supposed, up the river TO Beer
Ferris and along the road over your
r2wwn: no, / live at Buchfastleigh by
-1shburton. right away to the east
GROSS Dartmoor. l came thence as
gar as Tayistock, and there / founr the
players once more, who had come up
from Plymouth to make sport for the
foolish and ungodly in TaVistoch
They told me that they had heard you
lived with my Eve, and had not mar
ried her, 50 | did not visit you, but
waited about till / could speak WIN
her alone, and | sent a message 10
her by one Of the players that was
wanting a word with her. She came
to me at the place l had appointed
once-ay! and tWice-and she telgned
to grieve that she had left me, and
acted her part well as If she loved me
her father. | urged her to leave you
and come back to her duty and her
God and to me, but she would promise
nothing Then | gave her last
chance. told her l would meet her
finally on that rocky platform that
rises as a precipice above the river,
last night, and there she should give
me her answer
Ignatius Jordan's agitation became
greater, his lips turned liYid, his eyes
we're wide and staring as though with
horror, and he put up his hands Is II
warding off a threatened blow.
'You-you met her on the Raven
Rock?'
I met her there twice, and | was TO
have met her there again last night
when she was to have given me her
final answer, what she would do-stay
here. and be lost eternally, or come
back with me to Salvation. But I was
detained, and I could not keep the en-
gagement so | sent one of the player
men to inform her that l would come
today instead. So l came on to-day,
as appointed, and she was not there,
not on the Raven Rock, AS you call IT.,
and have arrived here,-but l am too
late
Jordan clasped his hands over his
eyes and moaned. The babe began
70 wall.
Still the yowl of that child ex-
claimed Babb. I tell you this as a
Jast instance of her perfdy.' He
raised his voice above the cry of the
child. What think you was the rea-
son she alleged why she would not re-
lurn with me at once-why did she
ask time to make up her mind? She
told me that you were Catholic, she
told ME of the empty, worthless vow
before an old pOpish altar in a de-
serted chapel, and l knew her soul
would DO lost IL she remained with
you: you would drag her into idolatry
And ! urged her, as she hoped to es-
cape hell fire, to Zee Morwell and not
cast a look behind, desert you and
the babe and all for the Zoar of Buck
fastleigh But she was a dissembler.
She loved neither me nor you nor hel
child. She loved only idleness and
Ieyity, and the butterfly career of a
player, and some old sweetheart
among the play company. She has
gone off with him. Now l wipe my
hands Of her altogether
Jordon swayed himself sitting as
one stunned, with an elbow on each
knee and his head in the hollow of his
hands.
Can you not still the brat?' cried
Bzekiel Babb; now that the mother is
gone, who will be the mother to it?'
T-I-In the cry of an eager voice.
Babb looked round, and saw a little
girl Of six, with grey eyes and dark
hair, a quaint, premature woman, in
an old, long, stiff frock. Her little
arms were extended; Baby sister, she
called, don't cry She ran forward,
and, kneeling by the cradle, began to
caress and play with the infant.
Who is this, asked Ezekiel.
MY Barbara, answered Ignatius in
3 low tone; I was married before, and
my wife died, leaving me this little
one
The child STOPPING over the cradle,
lifted the babe carefully out. The in
FAINT crowed and made no resistance,
for the arms that held it, though
young, were strong, Then Barbara
seated herself on a stool, and laid the
infant on her lap, and chirped and
snapped her fingers and laughed to it,
and snuggled her face into the neck
of the babe. The latter QuiyeTed with
excitement, the tiny arms were held
up, the little hands clutched in the
childs long hair and tore at it. and the
feet kicked with delight. Father!
father!' cried Barbara, see little Eve,
she is dancing and singing.
Dancing and >inging!' echoed Eze
kieI Babb, that is all she ever will do.
She comes dancing and singing into
the world, and she will go dancing and
singing out of it-and then-then, ne
brushed his hand through the ali, as
though drawing back veil. The gin
nurse looked at the threatening Old
man with alarm.
Keep the creature quiet he said
impatiently: I cannot sit here and see
the ugly, evil sight. Dancing and sing
ing! she begins like her mother. and
her mothers mother. Take her away,
the sight of her stirs my bile
A. a S;op from tho fathar Rarhara