The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1915-09-03
cgAPTER XVIII-Continued.

had been very near death. Sui
\. mist have ended the struggle In
Am was engaged, had not this
.rledge Of actual and unpublished
Ia come to ease my conscience
A, scOvllle was worthy of death,
4 being SO, should receive the full
..,rd Of his deed. need hesitate
0nger.
nat night / slept. But there came
INT when I did not. After the pen
mad been paid and to most mems
a that episode was over. | turned
srst page of that volume Of slow
..l5sption which Is the doom Of the
Il, vho sins from impulse, and has
a, ,scoIl Of his own nature to face
,.lniIessly to the end Of his days,
c.,vale was In his grave. ! was alive.
s,rlle had shot man for his money.
I,,i struck a man down in my wrath.
snyDle's widow and little child must
~ cold and unsympathetiC world,
M small means and disgrace rising,
M wall, between them and social
rnusthy, If not between them and
~ sctual means of living.
DIVERS future faced him untouched.
n ,hadow lay across his path to hin.
h his happiness or to mar his
aices.
fbe results were unequal. l began
no them so, and feel the gnawing
hat deathless worm whose raw
lgps lay waste the breast, while hand
"a brain fulfill their routine of work,
though all were we'll and the foun-
atoms Of life mistaken.
suffered as only towards suffer. |
.n on to honor; held on to home;
held on to Oliver, but with misery
rny companion and a self-contempt
Thlch nothing could abate. Each time
mounted the bench | felt a tug at
b. arm as of a visible, restraining
ssnce Each time | returned to my
bone and met the clear eye of Oliver
aning upon me with it's eVer.grow-
hg promise Of future comradeship, |
apehenced a rebellion against my
tEl happiness which opened my eyes
hny own nature and it's inevitable
sHGld. | must give up Oliver, or
Ped my honors, make full confess
fa and accept whatever conse-
Hslces 1t might bring. am a proud
d and the latter alternative was be-
pa me- | could foregO pleasure,
Avel, social intercourse, and even
. cOmpanionship of the one being in
nom all my hopes conferred, but |
dd not Of my own volition, pass
ilaa the Judges bench to the felon's
Y There struck the immovable-
A impossible.
decided in one awful night of re-
uciation that | would send Oliver
1t Of my life.
TIE next day told him abruptly
hurting him to spare myself g..
had decided after long and ma
g thought to yield to his desire for
iaslsm, and that l would start him
Dig career and maintain him in it
nfee years If he would subscribe
tAe following conditions:
lley we're the hardest a loving "a
ever imposed upon a dutiful and
vng son.
INST ne was to leave home immedi-
within a few hours, in
eold, ne was to regard all rela.
7 between US as finished; we we're
strangers henceforth in every
GUAR save that of the money OBJ,
llon already mentioned.
iafd' ne was never to acknowledge
compact, or to cast any slur upon
amer whose reasons for this ap-
W unnatural conduct were quite
'lueeted with any fault of his or
seslre to punish or reprove.
'eRth' he was to pray for his ia
very night Of his life before he
this last a confession? Had |
It to be such? If so, It missed
lt 1t awed but did not frighten
~ % contend with his compunc.
as well as with grief and dis.
u was an hour of struggle on
gat1 ana Of implacable resolution
alne Nothing but such hardness
v part would have served me.
- ! ALTERED once he would have
y over, and the tale of my sleep
lts been repeated. did not
~ !, ana when the midnight stroke
through the house that night
palated by its peal a sin-beclouded
aaInan past from a future arid
solitude and bereft of the one
siOn to retain which nv sin had
hidden. ON nau
'oale a father without a son--as
y and as desolate as though the
.au0n between us we're that of
ansd. '''u anu 80 weakly
~, vas not yet satisfied. How
insure for myself the extreme
a ~ which nay peace demand,
Without hrinotrr. -.