Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1909-12-30

widow had said to me on my last
visit, "that Bob Jones is terribly
cut up about the-job; but I bear
him no ill-will, for I know it were
just accident" and then she added,
with the characteristic resignation
Of her class, 'What's done mum be
put up VII" I told this to Bob, and
though he said nothing his face Wis
IDLY cleared. That very evening he
burst into the widows cottage with
the same abruptness with which he
had come into the Office. "Mrs.
Jenkins" he stamnered, GIVE come
to az yer pardon; 1 didn't go for to
do it, I udn't hurt worrum; it's
my temper as gets t'better O me"
A golden sovereign was found on
the table when he was gone. In this
way did Bob of the Furnace try to,
make amends and Bob, ladies and
gentlemen, had 35 shillings a week.
It was quite by accident that l
came to know anything OF Bob's
home life. It was rumored that the
cuckoo could be heard in the Belle
copse, and that there the bluebells
grew thick; SO one evening toward
the end of May bent my steps IN
that direction. About mile beyond
the smoke of the town a venture
some builder had flung up a row OF
red-brick cottages. In the narrow
garden that fronted one of them L
saw the furnace man. He had a
paint brush in one hand and was
putting a finishing coat of green to
a window box. On his spare arm
nestled an emaciated little child.
Her thin arms were about her
daddy's neck, and the tired head
lay back upon his shoulder. 81
came out this way to live" he e1-
planned to me, ''becos O. t little 'un;
she were nobbut sickly i yon town,
but she's pulling round, and ull be
reight well when t summer comes"
And / shall never forget with what
pride he held out the crooked little
body toward me, nor the lovelight
that TRANSPORTED the hard face as he
said: "Now, isn't she a bonnie,
bonnie BARN." Somehow, one felt
that in the rough furnace-man the
world had lost a saint.
With the summer came the news
that Bob of the Furnace had lost his
little lass and gone to the bad again.
For a full month he was absent
from his work and only when word
was sent that his place was about to
be filled did he return. With his
return came also a return of the
old temper the snarl reappeared, and
it came to be said that EEBob had
come back and brought t greater
part O. ovid Nick in t inside O
him."
But our opinions were to undergo
another change, and this is how it
came about. At the farther end of
the shed where Bob worked a deep
pit had been excavated in the floor.
Into this pit the large castings were
craned, the molds knocked apart,
and the thing left to cool at
leisure. Needless to say, an intense
heat was given off in the process.
Exactly how the accident happened
may never be known, but one night
one of the laborers slipped and fell
into the pit, in which a casting had
Just been lowered. Amid the up
roar that ensued one of the men
flung a pail of water upon the hot
metal. A report like a gun fol-
lowed, and it was this report which
brought us pellmell out of the office
to know what had happened, and we
were just in time to see an almost
naked and blistered figure climb out
of the pit bearing another naked and
blistered figure in its arms. 1t was
Bob, the furnace man, who had
risked his life to save his mate.
SwatIred from head to foot the
rescuer and rescued lay side by side
in the quiet hospital ward. In one
of the intervals of fearful pain the
rescued man half turned toward the
other bed and spake.
Bob, OVID lad" he whispered,
"yer'e brave una brave 'un." A
faint hoarse reply came from the
heap of cotton wool on the other
bed.