Evening star., 1919-09-28

TNHE family began with widow
Mary and ended with q baby
nhrSd Ttm. And the baby was
blind. OAds and ends Of children
were wedged between the two. and they
lived In rickety frame. as like as twins
to other rickety frames that dis
xraced both sides Of tho street
only it wasn't a street: but an alley.
choked UP with want and favored
with babies and soapsuds. Tim was
always spotty with bruises from ad-
venturing into jungies OF chairs and
table legs and after each bump would
wheedle at his mothers skirts to have
the hurt kissed away. And. no matter
how heavy the wash, she would al
ways have time to lift him in her
steamy arms and rock him close to
her heart-as. is the way with old
fashioned mothers. After that the
odds and ends would pass him around
for more kisses, because. somehow.
they sensed 1t that love was the red
flower Of the cactus that bloomcd In
his thorny little life. And when 1t
was time for Kitty to come home
from her job. at the ten-cent store
and for Mike to show up after selling
bis papers there would be Tim walt
ing on the chip of a step for more
kisses and Any hoped-for penny that
might come his way. One evening
his adventurous daring took him. to
the pavement where he lost his bear
ings. and, toddling around the corner.
was crossing over whom an automo-
bile crushed him out of this world
into more wonderful one where even
the blind may see.
The driver did everything that NOR
tai man could do to atone. He car
ried the child to the nearest doctor
and then the two >of them took the
lifeless bit to the Widow Mary's house.
That night Baby Tim was laid out
on the ironing board set on two chairs
and draped with a sheet to the floor.
At his head stood smoke stained
her Child, between two lighted can
dies. and in one tiny hand that lay as
white as an apple blossom on his breast
cleaned the shine Of a new penny.
And King Solomon, in all his glory,
was never arrayed in the majesty that
clothed the tiny white. smiling thing
that used to be the Widow Alary's Tim.
Even the room reflected the dignity
that transflgured him, and tho sway
ing. sobbing figure by the ironing
board seemed akin to that other Mother
of Sorrows at the feet Of her Son.
The man settled the funeral ex-
penses. gave the widow $500 and.
through a friend, p ut Kitty among the
governments war workers. The doctor
did fine thing by Mike, and later on
helped the girl ana boy to find little
place out on the car line. where they
could raise chickens and the like. The
widow gave up her washtub and the
odds and ends began to be regular
children with enough to eat, sun
shiny place to play in ana the self-
in decent shoes.
1t all happened before the man went
to the war, and last week, when he had
returned to his home in Pennsylvania,
he came straight down to ask the doc
tor how the family was getting on.
He said he could have. wiped out the
whole German army with a relish, but
that the only way he could reconcile
himself to the death Of that baby was
by trying to reason it out that the
little chap might have been sent on a
sort of mission to prepare an ca sier
way for the others, and that perhaps
-~-just perhaps-it might have been
Intentionally ordained, and would the
doctor take him to see them.
So they went, and 1t comfortAd the
man to see the neat bit Of home and
pretty garden and to know that. any,
how, he had driven the wolf from the
Widows door and given the family a
brighter outlook on life.
When she opened the door and saw
the man she flung her apron over her
head and moaned the dirge Of a wake.
And the man came away. knowing that
the prosperity and happiness of the
new life meant nothing to her. Moth
ing! She was grieving herself to death
for Baby Tim
Which shows that a mothers heart
vNl