Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1920-12-22

man; his marriage had proted that.
But he had made <his choice for once
and for all. He looked toward the
test tube on the table. The golden
liquid was slowly cooling into brown.
AND he knew that that lay between
them as surely as though each CLEAN.
Ing bubble on 1t were miser's gnld.
Ills past should never rise up % dis.
turD him now. 1t was to us:ill,;.e his
glef and disappointment at first that
ne had turned toward his researches.
NOW the hobby had become a tyrant.
and he had sold his soul into its keep.
ing. Ills choice was made. He tore
the paper into twenty strips and flung
them into the blazing stove lie had
but glanced at the address, and al
ready it had vanished from his mind.
NOW there was no turning back,
though his daughters words scorched
MS soul as the paper was scorching in
the fire.
lie turned to his work again. But
ne could work no longer. Phantoms
or his past rose up to reproach him.
There was his wife, Minna, looking at
him with her steady eyes; he had
never refused her anything, and he
Xne" that, were she alive, he could
not have treated her daughter as he
had done. And the liquid in the tube
was brown. burned out gold that had
lost Its power to charm him. He
stopped and listened. Somewhere up
the street the Christmas bells were
calling worshipers to church. So they
mad called him once, long ago, in Ger
many, when he was a lad with the
world before him and filed with the
zest OF life. The remembrances Of his
early days surged over him like q lava
Hood. He could stay no longer in that
big, empty room, and, clapping on his
hat over his gray locks, he rushed
wildly down the stairs and out into the
street.
A steady stream Of persons was
travelling In one direction, and lie fell
IN with them perforce because he did
not want to battle his way along the
curb against them. Presently the
stream began to pour into a church,
carrying him with it. Herr Mayo did
not know what denomination Of
church it was, and he might not have
known had his wits been alert, 80
long it was since he had been inside
one. But as he sat among the worship
ers, hearing the organ peal and the
words Of eternal hope and mercy.
something seemed to burst inside his
shriveled old heart and the warm tides
Of pity and love leaped through the
barriers that he had upreared against
them. In that moment he knew that
no was the worst Of sinners; he had
set up his pride, a cruel idol in his
heart. and pulled down the Christ;
and the idol was broken and only the
trasical figure Of the Son Of God re-
mained.
Children's voices were singing, up
raised in sweet. clear carols of praise.
He raised his head, the miserable old
man. and listened. Why, that was n
hymn that he had learned in Prussia,
when he was boy. And the old faith
remained for each generation, here,
too, across the wide Atlantic, and only
he was shut off from this holy com.
munion. He thought of NIinna; her
heart had been always his, and she
had been quite true to him, in spite Of
the stories people told about her rast,
and they had stood before the minister
in just such church, with ruin be.
fore them. and knew only the JOY in
their own souls. Then suddenly
through the gloom, and right across
the church, he saw Minna again. Her
face was as 1t had been on that day
Of their marriage, surrounded with a
halo OF yellow hair; but when he
rose, staring, and saw the woman stir.
he knew that 1t was not Minna, but
his daughter Ida.
In that moment he wanted nothing
80 much as to enfold her in his arms,
to lay his gray head upon her bosom
EZV - ~