The Warwickshire Herald. — 1895-05-16 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

THE HOME-COMING.  It was very still in the little cottage. Only the crackle of the sticks and the bubbling of the contents of the tin pail hung above the flame broke the silence. Jess sat on the ground before it, lost in thought. All unknown to her, the figure of a boy leant against the winiow-sill. his face pressed against the glass, hie eyes fixed on her face. "I wonder if she remembers the brother who ran away to sea a year ago," he murmured. "She wouldn't know me hardly now, and she wouldn't care, either. I shan't go in, though I did come all the way on purpose. "She's all alone, and she looks sad," he went on. "I wonder if she did marry Tom Noakes." A sudden thought struck him, and his face flushed, and he drew hiniself up. "Perhaps," he said, "perhaps he drinks and illuses her, thinking she has no one to say a word for her! If he does—" One step took him to the door, and he knocked. He heard her move, and the next instant the door opened and Jess stood before him, a lighted candle in her hand. She gave one earnest look into his face, then with a cry of "Bert, Bert! " she dropped her candle and clasped him in her arms. Bert could not doubt his 'welcome. But one idea was uppermost in Bert's mind. When order was re.tored and the door shut he glanced round. "Where's Tom ?" he asked. " Tom! " echoed Jess. "Do you mean Tom Noakes? I threw him over months ago. He drank! What made you think of him first thing?" "You looked so sad," blurted out Bert. "I thought he might be illusing you because you had no one to stand up for you. But I've come back different, Jess, thank God." Jess's eyes were full. "Thank God," she answered. "No, Bert! I've only wanted you: I never knew where you were or anything." "I know," said Bert; "you must forget all that now I've come back. I say, Jess, I am hungry I " --Our Darlings.  Father (to the seven-year-old daughter beside him on the dog-cart, cutting the whip sharply through the air): "See, Dolly, how I make the horse go faster without striking him at all." Dolly (in an eager tone of happy discovery): "Papa, why don't you spank us children that way?" "Suppress dem puffs." An o'd-time darkey butler, such as may be found occasionally in Philadelphia,uses grander expressions the older he grows. He was helping a visitor the other day to don her walking-jacket, and, as he noticed that she was still struggling to push in her rebellious big sleeves, he suggested respectfully: "P'r'aps you will hab de goodness to allow me to suppress dem puffs, madam."  A gentle hint.—They were out shopping, and after .s round of about two hours' duration she had but one more call to make. "Jack," she said, "I am just going to run into Lace and Matchem's for some ribbons and trifles. Will you come in with me?" "No," replied Jack, who distinctly remembered a two hours' wait in a similar establishment some time previous. "Why not? What will you do, then?" inquired his better half, who for the life of her couldn't see why a man should so dislike that class of shop. "Will you wait for me? I shan't be a moment." "Well," answered Jack, "if you won't be long I'll just run home and put up that fowl-house, whitewash the kitchen ceiling, and then call round for you; but if you are going to be long, I'll get on with the paper hanging."  William Lyons, a Cookstown shoemaker, aged 54, who shot himself with a revolver during an altercation with his sweetheart on Thursday last week, died on Saturday from his injuries. Lyons, it appears, had lost a small sum of money at Cookstown races, and the young woman was reproaching him for indulging in betting, when he drew the revolver and shot himself twice in the neck. A woman named Fury, who attempted to commit suicide on Friday at Brecon and was rescued, escaped from her house during the night, and next morning her dead body was found floating in the river near by. The woman was married and had several children. It is stated that she told the doctor who attended her after being rescued that she was born to be drowned.