The Carlisle independent., 1915-12-16
CHAPTER VIII.
The Mine for the Golden Altar


 Vedder Court was very drunkard among tenement groups. It's decrepit old wooden buildings, as if weak kneed from dissipation and senile de cay, leaned against each other crook edly for support, and leered down at broken-paned windows which gave somehow a ludicrous effect of bleared eyes. There had once been a narrow strip of curbed soil in the center of the street, where three long-since-de- parted trees had given the quarter its name of court" but this space was now as bare and dry as the asphalt surrounding it. and, as it was too small even for the purpose of children at play. wooden bench, upon which no one had ever sat, as, indeed, why should they? had long ago been placed on 1t, to become loose-jointed and weather-splintered and rotted, like all the rest of the neighborhood
 As for its tenants; they were exactly the sort of birds one might expect to find in such foul nests. They were of many nations, but of just two main va rieties: stupid and squalid, or thin and furtive; but they were all dirty, and they bore, in their complexions, the poison of crowded breathing spaces, and bad sewerage, and unwholesome or insufficient food
 Into this mire there drove an utterly o,,to of fy,1o 1ff1n o1nofr.r, ( the wheel was the fresh-cheeked Gail Sargent and with her was the twin. kling-eyed Rufus Manning, whose white beard rippled down to his sec. ond waistcoat button. They drove slowly the length of the court and back again, the girl studying every de. tail with acute interest. They stopped in front of Temple Mission, which with its ugly red and blue lettering nearly erased by years of monthly scrubbings, occupied an old store room once used as a saloon.
 50 this Is the chryss.is from which the butterfly cathedral is to emerge, ' commented Gail, as Manning held the door open for her, and before she rose she peered again around the uninvit. ing court" which not even the bright winter sunshine could relieve of its dinginess; rather. the sun made 1t only the more dismal by presenting i the ugliness more in detail
 This Is the mine which produces the gold which is to gild the altar" as. serted Manning. studying the side walk. T don't think you'd better come in here. You'll spoil your shoes"
 "I want to see it all this time be. cause I'm never coming back" insist. ed Gail. and placed one daintily shod foot on the step
 linen I'll have to shame Sir Walter Raleigh" laughed the silvery- bearded Manning, and, to her gasping surprise, he caught her around the waist and lifted her across to the door, whereat several soiled urchins laughed and one vinegary-faced old woman grinned, in horrible appreciation. and dropped Manning a familiarly respectful curtsy as he passed.
 There was no one in the mission ex- cept a broad-shouldered man with a roughly hewn face, who ducked his head at Manning and touched his fore finger to the side of his head He was placing huge soup kettles in their holes in the counter at the rear of the room. and Manning called attention to this.
 "A practical mission," he explained We start in by saving the bo lies"
 Do you get any further?" inquired Gail, glancing from the empty benches and the atrociously colored religious" pictures on the walls to the windows, past which eddied mass of humanity all but submerged in hopelessness.
 Sometimes" replied Manning gravely. T have seen a soul or two even here. It is because of these two or three possibilities that the mission Is kept up. It might interest you to know that Market Square church spends fifteen thousand dollars a year in charity relief in Vedder court alone"
 Calls eyelids closed, her lashes curved on her cheeks for an instant. and the corners of her lips twitched.