Year: 1879

"Ihere IS w hlsky Blll who used
to drive the old white horse in front of
a 25.cent wagon" repeated the man in
tones of surprise.


"Yesp


"Well, now, it's curious case" he
slowly continued. "We all thought he
had gone to the dogs, for sure for he
was drinking pint of whisky day, but
a few months ago he braced right up.
stopped drinking, and now | hear he's in
good busidess and saving money 1t
beats all, for the last time | saw him he
was half underground.


When you go home at night and find
that all is we'll with your own flesh and
blood, do you 60 to sleep reasoning that
the rest of the world must care for itself2
Do you ever shut your eyes and call up
the hundreds of faces you have met
during the day, and wonder if the pale
ness of death will cover any of them be-
fore the morrow When you have been
once attracted to face, even il it be
strangers, do you let it drop from mem
ory with your dreams, or do you call it
up again and again as night comes down
and hope it may lose none of its bright
ness in the whirlinS mist of time!


So Whisky Bill was hunted down.
And inquiry here and there finally
traced him to q little brown cottage on a
by street. He sat OIL the steps in the
twilight, burly, broad-shouldered man
of fifty, and in the house three or four
children gathered around a lamp to look
over picture-book. ..


"Yes, they used to call me Whisky
Bill, down town." he replied, as he
moved along and made room. "But it
is weeks since l heard the name. No
wonder they think me dead, for I've not
set eyes on the old crowd for months,
and don't want to for months to come"


"They tell me you have quit drink
ing One could see that by your face"


81 hope so. | haven't touched drop
since February. Before that | was half
drunk day in and day out, and more of
brute than a man. | don't say that
my wife's death set me to thinking; but
I didn't stop my liquor. God forgive
me, but ! was drunk when she died,
half drunk at the grave, and meant to
90 on regular spree that night. l was
low down, sir, and was no better than
brute those days" .


"And so you left your motherless
children at home and went out and got
drunk"


"No. | said | meant to, but didn't
The poor things were crying all day, and
after coming home from the burial !
thought to get 'em tucked away in bed
before / went out. Drunk or sober
never struck one of 'em blow, and
they never ran from me when / stag
gered home There's four of 'em in
there, and the youngest isn't quite four
years yet. / got the older ones in bed
all right, and then came little Ned.
He had cried himself to sleep, and he
called for mother as soon as l woke
him. Until that night | never had
the boy on my knee, to say nothing
of putting him to bed, and you can
guess these big fingers made slow work
with tho hooks and buttons. Every
minute he kept saying, mother didn't do
that way; and the big children were
hiding their heads under the quilts to
drown their sobs. When / had his
clothes off and his nightgown on l was
ashamed and put him down, and when
the oldest saw tears in my eyes, and
jumped out Of bed to put her arms
around my neck, dropped the name of
whisky Bill right then and forever" i"


"Anl little Ned %


"Mebbie I'd have weakened but for
him." replied the man as he wiped his
eyes. "After | got the child's night
gown on, what did he do but kneel right
down beside me and wait for me to say
the Lords Prayer to him Why, sir,
you might have knocked me down with
feather There | was mother and
father to him, and l couldn't say four
words of that prayer to save my life !
He waited and waited and waited for
me to begin as his mother had, and the
big children were waiting, and when |
took him in my arms and kissed him, l
called heaven to witness that my life
should change from that hour. And so
it did sir, and I've been trying hard to
lead sober, honest life. God helping
me, no one shall call me Whisky Bill