Year: 1867

.


kuack Of tickling the pride of owners
Of nice uags IN the neigh hbOrhood. He
was handsome fellow By any means !;
but his smart ways and speeches made
him a favorite with many of both
sexes. The way I came to know him
was because We lived within a mile of
each other and met on the highway
and at country fairs and frolies. I
had seen him, too, a half dozen times
at TIlIOtt's house during previous
years. 1 had never liked, only endur-
ed him, knowing him as a very muscu-
lar fellow, a good wrestler and no mean
player with his fists in fact, a bully,
as you call that kind of a man In this
country. He was sitting On log by
the road side.


Good-evening, Bob, he said, as I
came opposite him. Going away soon
| hear.


A fortnight hence, I replied, not
stopping il my walk Seeing this, he
jumped up from the log and came af-
Ter me.


I" Stop, Bob, he commanded. Stop
We something to say to you; and l
want to say it tonight, now, because
I'm going away IN the morning.


Well, what is it 2 I said, stopping.
i m IN a hurry.


Yes, yes And you are truly 60
ing to America 2 he asked once more
il a musing sort of way, and looking
at me from toe to head And-aud-
c0nfound you is Bess going with
you z angrily.


Yes


DO you know, Bob Campbell, that
I loved that girl, that I love her now ?
and she said


There, there, don't tell me your Sc
erets 7 ] cried, with a wish in my
heart TO get peaceably away from the
fellow, who, it was plain to me, had
been drinking.


But [ loiU tell thee. Why not
listen quietly until I've done. I low
ed her aud told her so. And she re-
fused me but she did not tell me she
loved you. That | found out yesterday.
She threw me of for yOur baby-face
and few pounds you've begged or


Stop i commanded, pushing him
away from NE. TN hear no more such
vile stuff, aud [ walked off. But, I
had not gone three steps when [ felt
his arms clasped around my waist, hold
ing my arms close to my side.


You shall hear me, curse you! he





for you, to tell you that [ hate you
hate you because you're going to take
away from me the only woman on earth
I can love. You need Mt try to get
away. Be still, or I'll kill you. So
long as / live you will have an enemy.
You'd better remember that.


just then [ heard the rumbling of a
wagon coming towards US. He heard
1t too, and for a minute stood and lis
tened. Then with aa oath, he sudden
whirled me around and struck me
three heavy blows full in the face with
his huge fist, knocking me senseless on
the ground When I opened my eyes
again farmer, a neighbor of ours, had
my head on his knee and was wiping
the blood from my face the rascal
had given me one blow that had cut
open my cheek, and left mark until
this day. Tom BrintOn had run like
a deer across the fields, the farmer
said. Anyhow, that was the last seen
of him in the neighborhood as long as
/ remained. Bess and | were married
and came TO America as happy and
loving a couple as ever crossed the wa
ters. When I landed in New York
my pocket was picked of all my mon
ey-the few pounds I had saved to
buy me little land-and I was friend
less. 1t was an awful time that fol-
lowed. sir.


The poor fellow seemed overcome by
the memory. The perspiration bead
ed his forehead, his eyes filed with
tears and he nervously fingered the
glass that still contained few drOns
of liquor. Then, with a determined
effort showing itself in his compressed
lips. with a gulping noise in his throat
and dash of his arm across his face
he struggled with his feelings to con
tue the story.


After this misfortune, [ tried to
obtain work. Now and then I got a
| Job that gave me enough to buy US a
! little food. But what could [, far
mer and farmers son, do in a great
/ city that needed artisans, not farmers
1t was a hard and bitter struggle for
/ life. I had just got a place as porter,
at good wages. .When-When-my dear,
| darling Bessie-When shielded"
/ His grOans and tears and signs mas
/ tered his firmness and he bowed his
head upon the table. I could under
stand the loneliness of his life, and
! that the dead wife was a being wOr-
SHIPPED above all else in the world. 1t
/ seemed so cruel to obtain from my
/ guest so sorroWful a story, to recall
/ memories so fragrant with keen, un-
/ dying grief, that I placed my hand up
on the head of the weeper, and tried
/ by words of sympathy and of cheer,
to lead him away from the sad story


of his life and leave it untold. But
after a little while he raised his head,
the face white and the eyes fearful.


You must excuse me this weak
ness" he said. 1T is nothing new.
suffer every day, as now. I can not
forget my darling. 01ty when I m
dead will the trouble end, and the
/ hearb-ache stop, and the tears be un-
shed It doesn't seem right perhaps,


for a poor man to nurse his sorrow
for so many years Yet, many man


does it, and no one knows it but himself
One can not forget the happiness and


misery of the past the memory Oi


them grows upon him like a cloud.


ask God that it may soon end. "


For a little while he was silent, his


eyes closed and his lips moving as i
After Bessie's death, he continued
with a shudder, Il took to liquor jus


to stop thinking, to have an easy spell
But l only made matters worse an(
: finally, after touch of the freHseHs,
went on board ship and sailed to Cap
Town in Africa. 1t was five years be
fore I got back to America. I wa
5 tired of sailing and of life but no
5 having the cowardice to commit sui


eide, though I was always wishing my
: self dead, struggled along as of old
e to get my daily bread. Drifting hith
s er and tither, working week in one
? place, a month in another, I fBall
brought up as a laborer In an elevate
G in Chicago. It is not nice work,
5 must say but one grows TO be prou
S of the great things that dot th
d Wharves along the nasty creek. I
IS me an elevator always seemed a mon
e ster, restless with a hungry life ; an


we poor fellows did nothing but ten
= to its wants, running up stairs an
h down stairs through clouds Of chol


ing dust and deafened with the di
K of rattling machineFy-nO light jo
II sir, [ can assure you, seeing that 3


elevator is seven, eight, ten STORE
1 LIZ ,nI hTW anOuUh hold III