The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-21

able to find her. Things had gone very
 hard with him down in the country on
 Sir Joseph Bowley's estate. He did not
 stand well with his landlord and was
 looked upon as a revolutionary charac- ter. He thought he might better himself in London. Lillian was a very beautiful
 child and Meg took to her warmly, 'as
 did Lillian to Meg and Trotty. They had
 very pleasant evening and then Toby laid William away in loft-his own lodging place usually-and Meg took Lil- Han to her own little room. Trotty sat
 down by the fire to read his old paper
 again and to sleep there for the night.
 The awful things he read in the paper ! concerning the wckedness of the poor
 discouraged him again. He feared there
 was no help for them.
 Then he heard the chimes calling him. He could not help obeying and presently found himself up in the windy steeple where the bells hung. And now these
 bells all took on human aspects and each had a spirit of it's own, which came out and whrled about and talked to him. l The bells showed him many things. They | showed him his own body lying dead at
 the foot of the tower and told him that nine years had passed since he came up | into that belfry and that it was New
 Years eve again. They showed him Lil- 1 Han grown to be a young woman and, | because of her great beauty and her great poverty, gone wrong. They showed his loved Meg haggard from want and work and on the verge of starvation. They showed him Richard, discoura ged, drunk
 en and an outcast. They showed that
 Meg and Richard had never married be-
 cause of the wise words of the wise men
 who interrupted his little dinner of tripe long ago.
 | They showed him after a lapse of 1 time how Richard and Meg were at last married and more wretched than be- l fore and Richard dying in little room
 over Mrs. Chickenstall1er's, leaving Meg
 with a baby and then Meg turned out
 of doors. And they showed him Will
 Fern, turned, making his appearance | at a great dinner which was being
 given by that eminent friend and father
 of the poor, Sir Joseph Bowley, at Bow
 ley Hall, in honor of Lady Bowley s
 brother-which happened to be on New
 Years day, a coincidence which the To-
 cal newspapers considered as an es- pecial pointing of the finger of Provi-
 dence to number one as Lady Bowley' s
 destined figure in creation.
 | Bowley Hall was full of visitors. The gentleman who longed for the good old times was there; Mir Filler was there with his facts and figures; Alderman | Cute was there. The alderman had ! considerably improved his acquaintance with Sir Joseph, it appeared, on the strength of his Most attentive letters asking if Sir Joseph would have Will
 Fern put down. There was a dinner
 for the great people in one hall and another hall, and which the happy ten antry had done eating-or before-they
 were marshalled into the other hall, and Sir Joseph, in his celebrated char acter of friend and father of the poor,
 made a speech. Sir Joseph then gave a Itoast; Friends and Children and the
 Dignity of Labor"
 There was disturbance at the lower end of the hall and Will Fern ap- peared Trotty's ghost watched him with surprise. He was ragged, mfser-
 ably dressed.< .Gentlefolks," said he. you have drunk Tho Laborer-look at
 me-" Just come from jail," said MT
 Fish, the secretary" Just come from jail" replied Will, and neither for tbs first time. nor yet the fourth I was
 suspected-was to be put down. Your
 laws were made to trap such as me and they did trap me. l tried to live de- gently, but it was TO jail with himr was vagabond and 1t was to jail with him. I comes back and goes nuttins in your woods and by acci- dent broke branch or two. To jail with him. One of your keepers sees
 me in broad day near my own patch of