Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-04-24
THE MASTER OF MAN::,:By Sir Hall Game
An Ospoke and Moving
Manxmn The

sOWly up the aiS.e from the western
end Of the church to the altar steps.
Their carol was an account Of the
Nativity, scarcely less crude than the
the singers seemed to know nothing OF
that-how Joseph. being a just man
had espoused a virgin, and finding she
was with child before he married her,
he had wished to put her away. but the
angel Of the Lord had appeared to him
and told him not to. and how at last he
had carried his wife and child away
into the land Of Egypt. out Of reach oi
the wrath of HerOd the King. who was
trying to disgrace and destroy them.
A little before midnight the clergy
man rose and asked for silence. And
then. while all heads were bowed and
there was a solemn hush within. the
great clock of the Castle struck IL in
the darkness outside. After that the
organ pealed out ''Hark. the Herald
Angels Sing and everybody who had
a candle extinguishcd 1t, and all stood
up and sang.
The bells were ringing joyfully as the
congrega ton troopcd out of the church
but for some while longer they moved
about on the crinkling snow in front oi
it. saluting and shaking hands, every
body with everybody.
"a Merry Christmas and Happy
New Year to you."
Same to you, and many Of them.
They saluted and shook hands with
Bessie also.
Then the vcrger put out the lights in
the church behind them, and In the
sudden darkness the crowd broke up
one more Oiel Very over. and under
the slow descent Of the starlight the
cheerful voices and crinkling footsteps
went their various ways home.
Back at Derby Haven, Bessie. who
had been on the point of crying during
the latter part Of the service, ran up to
her room, flung herself face down on
her bed and burst into flood of tears.
If she, too. could only fly away, and
But how could she do that? And where
could she 60?
Two months passed. Bessie's time
was fast approaching, and the nearer
it came the more she was terrified by
the signs Of 1t. The symptoms Of COM
ing maternity which are joy and pride
to married mothers we're a dread and a
terror to her. Had she brought herself
so low that she could not live through,
the time that was before her! At one
moment she thought of going to Fcnclla.
Everyb body said how good Miss Stanley
was TO girls in trouble. But when she
remembered Fenella's relation to Stow
ell. and Stowell's to Cell, and her own
to all three, she told herself that
Fenella Stanley was the one woman in
the world whom she must never come
face to face with.
At length, thinking death was ccr.
tain, she saw only one thing left to do
to 20 back to her mother. 1t was not
thus that she had expected to return,
but nothing else was POSSIBLE now. in
her heiplessness and ignorance, having
no one to reassure her. the high. spirited
girl became u child again. Twenty
years. of her life slipped back at /,
stride, and she felt as she used to do
when she ran barefoot on the roads and
fell and bruised her knees, or tore her
little bare legs in the gorse and then
went home to lie on her mothers Ian
and be rocked before the fire and com :
fortcd,
But going home had its terrors also.
There was Dan Baldronima What
could she do? Was there no way out
for her?
One day the elder of the Misses Brown
(she gave music lessons to old pupils
at their own homes) came back from
Castletown with a shocking story. "
1t was about a witch. doctor at Greg
naish-a remote village at the southern =
most extremity of the island, where the
inhabitants were supposed to be de.
scended from a crew of Spanish sailors
who had been wrecked on the rocky
coast below.
The witch doctor was a woman.
seventy years of age, and commonly
curing rinrworms on children and
blood ting in strong men by mcana Of