Pittston Gazette

              % v t ( Oldest NewsDaDer in the Wyoming Valley PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO., PA., FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1891. A Weekly Local and Family Journal in a few minutes, that seemed as many hours, he came clown upon the beach. Ilis blood was f:iirly leaping1, and he ran along the sand pitching forward in his lameness, and looking pallid and wild in the moonlight. A little way beyond his father's broken boat ho came to a sort of landing, lie remembered having seen a rope there. Ye3, there it lay, coiled and wet, on the bow of a canoe. Ilis face lit up and he seized it with a joyous cry. IJut it was fastened to the boat! Instantly ho fell upon his knees, and began pulling and tugging at the knot, using both fingers and teeth in his eagerness. Uut it wns sodden and solid, and would not yield. Then he seized the But on the lower end of the boat that held the rope, and twisted it with all his strength. It turned; and in a moment he had it off, and, climbing upon the edge of the boat, he wound the rope about his shoulders and hands and lifted hard. Suddenly, as ho strained, the rusty bolt left its socket, and he plunged headlong from the boat's side upon the wet sand- Scrambling up, and snatching the rope, he hurried down the beach. Without waiting to take breath, or steady himself, ho plunged into the spray, and, climbing above the surf, took his dangerous way across the head. Onward he went, creeping along the dripping ledge, with clouds of mist rolling past him up the cliff, end now and then the moonlight breaking through upon him. As he approached the beetling point that hid bis father and the unknown child from view he paused with fluttering pulse and listened. No sound save the long rolling crash of the incoming surges met his ear. Tremblingly lief crept on round the point and looked down; there they hung! and his heart gave a great leap at the sight. The man with closed eyes seemed sinking down, but the child still held him fast about the neck. Suddenly a ship burst into the glare. It seemed coming straight upon the shore, and the boy shouted with fear, but it veered and passed away into the darkness. But what was that leaping along the billows? There it shone in the glare; now all was swallowed up in night; there it came again—a boat! and ho ran into the very arms of the billows to meet it as a long wave hurled it high upon the beach. With a leap he was beside it, and when the lightning came again he saw it was his father's boat, but—empty 1 A shock of horror passed through him; his wish had come true. The lightning fell about him, the ocean turned to froth, and the billows, bursting against the head, leaped up the shattered pillars in bluish, snowy sheets. But he gave no heed. Suddenly he seemed to hear voices calling. Now they seemed in the roaring wCSod across the bay; now far out to sea; then high up in heaven. It must be his fancy, he thought, or the winds wailing ■in the boles and hollows of the cliff. He passed around toward the front of the head and listened, but the blast roared in his ears, and the noise of the inrolling flood was so great he could not hear distinctly. ting in the hot ashes at «ie corner of the fire, was breathing sweet fragrance from its mouth. A wave of inexpressible thankfulness swept through him at the sight. The children clustered about him with exclamations of wonder, and the mother, placing the little stranger in a chair before the pleasant flames, went into the other room. The giant-like father, rubbing his hands before the grateful blaze, looked at the children witli a beaming face. "Ilv might hurt you, Paul. You know what he (H*. 1 t-j yon orise. I never could boar to see you near him since when he's bad. lie won't hurt me, no matter how wild he may l\j. lie's kind, you know, l'aul, only ivhen the drink takes away his mind. You mustn't feel ill towards him, dear, f »r lie's doing himself Isc." BILL NYE ON BUNCOMBE. cards?" The voice Clid not have a card with it, but spoke of the backward spring. I said, "Yes, it was rather cool and wet for July." "Yes," said the musical voice; "this with us is a very unusual year." I then did a very rnde thing. Very likely it hurt me in England. I angrily wrenched my umbrella from the little white hand, and dashing away down the alley at a frightful pace was soon lost to view. DEAR CHICAGO. Aal trareled from Chicago to the city of N«W York I practiced in the dining car at mttng with my For a Journalistic brother, whose career had hew begun Back in Gotham (he had worked, of cotte, with Dana on The Son), Volunteered the information that it wasn't worth my while To invade the eastern centers with my wociy western style. 8® X strove to square my manners with the manners of the east. And In hunger left the table, where I might hare had a feast. HE AND MR. VANDERBILT LIKE IT PRETTY WELL THERE. moro harm thu i "Yes, mother. Hemlersou County Was Pretty Guoil, but Lli.- boy; "I'll try !. him," and his George Wanted Him and l)« Yielded. Remarks About Pomology and Other not to foci 1 TliingH. lips trembled u it.; foci As the d.iy advanced the father ceased to leap up from the awful shapes that peopled his sleep, and sinkigg deeper and deeper ia slumber lay as if he might never wake. The child slept a long time on a blanket near the fire, and when she awoke she began to play a little with the children. Hut she seemed frail, and ever and anon her blue eyes would fill with tears. She was lost from those who loved her, but no golden-haired f iiry could ever have been moro worshiped by four little ragged lads than was she. Paul and his mother saw it all as they worked on at the washing, and doubtless many little thrills of tenderness touched their hearts as they watched the pretty sight. I Copyright, 1891, by Ed«ar \V. Nye.l Pomology is that science which treats of the variety, growth, decay, disease and culture of fruit. Here the apple is the most successful fruit, barring the grape. The Limbertwig is a good apple to grow here for foieign consumption, home consumption being unknown here. I have done very well with small fruits here, and my wife has put down enough for two families for eight years to come. All kinds of berries are to be had at five cents per big, honest quart, and with sugar at twenty pounds or thereabouts for a dollar it seems almost a sin not to put up or down, whichever is correct, fruit for the approaching unusual winter. "Wal, my hearties," he said, "ye see I've brought ye a little sister." P. O. Box 1712. I Boom vu.i,k, July 5, 1801. f The child, as if somewhat frightened by the circle of roguish faces, put out her hands appealingly, and the big man drew her into his lap and crooned over her like a woman. Dkak BiLt/— it has been a long time since 1 wrtJte you, but you seeni to bo getting on about as well as usual. For a month or two I've wandered solitary la the crowd. Ever missing, erer longing for the sight of something load- Any old familiar figure with his breeches la his boots. And his skin chockf ul of liquor and of liberty and hoots; Every day I walk the avenne and look In vain for him Who wears the air of freedom and the hat of gorgeous brim. Every night 1 try my latchkey In a or so. thing better. The doctor said, you know, when ho looked at your knees, that if some part3 that were pro wed together could be parted you would not be bothered much. But you would have to go away to a big city where they do such things, and it would cost a good deal." She could not bear to look np, and kept on washing, feeling the cloud that always hung over them grow thicker with thought of all their helplessness.1 writo you now not only to inform you that 1 am well—hoping these few lines will And you the ?ame—but to seek some information about the location of your North Carolina "Thought Works." 1 have the North Carolina fever myself, and it's getting less and less controllable. Vou see I have been In this state long enough to And out that ita glorious climate Is a fraud. 1 don't know whether you were here long enough to come to the same conclusion, but it's WAS only a, crippled boy,; with soft, sor-. rowfnl eyes, and a mat ot { urling hair| crowned with) an old straw: hat. He was ■ tanding on Bearer head, a' jotting-cliff that rises close upon the right of the little inlet bay of Redwood, on the northern "Don't ye be afoared, little thing, don't ye be afeard," he said. "If y'r pap or mammy never come ye'll be always safe with us. We had a little gal once, amost y'r size an' heft, an'—yes, she looked amost like ye. We called her IJreeze, an' I guess we'll call yo Gale, for y'r amost like her." 5 The child looked trustingly up into his sympathetic face, bnt it was plain she did not understand him. We have had a garden here this season and it has been so far a great success. I wished to give employment to my children, thus teaching them to earn money for themselves, so that they will not have dissipated my large fortune before the grass is kr ee high on uqr new made grave; a gravi;, I may add, that will have been made unpleasantly sloppy by a nation's tears. For the houses are as like as bricks ■iminlJul In a row. And I yearn for dear Chicago, where tbelolks are made of meat, Andaman can beg tubaccuh from a stranger on the street. "Yes," said the boy, aft or a little silcnce, "it would cost lots; but mebbe Bomething'll happen sometime, an' It Ven be done." How unspeakably fearful it was; his father out there in the wallowing1 waters. A picture of the man more vivid than life came into the boy's excited mind; his tall stature, stooping1 shoulders, ragged clothes, and laughing, vagabond air; his native good humor, save when liquor made him harsh; his love for children, and dogs, and hunting, and how, when he did not drink, he was the best axman and the strongest man in all the region. Ah, how darkly it all had ended. "I reckon ye can't make ine out, little bird, from the way ye look," he Rfttd; "but ye needn't be afcard, ye needn't be afeartL" One night I strolled irmmd to Harmun^ theater to see If Billy Morton It uf ««Cn ...mh. bered me. Bat, la, they'd never heard of Bifly Morton, 1 was told. Though Mr. William Morton care me weloomr) as of old. He pst me in a box, aa he oat west had oaed to do. And In compliment to Mm I sat the whole performance through; ' i Bat I felt a westward yearning as I thought  how I was wont Oat there to hear the whistling and D*»«» mim of "Down in front!" When the lady in the drama shrieked, "Unhand me, Bir;" and then the hero came and mopped the stage with half a dozen men; w, when the show was over, I had gone to BUly Boyle's, * l_ At - «. - - "Yes, something may happen," said the mother, soothingly; "it don't cost much to live hero in this old house that nobody owns, and as long as I have strength to wash we won't starve. May be sometime your fatherll quit—will be himself again." coast of Califor- The children were pressing about them, and the father drew Lannie upon his other knee. The pudgy little fellow looked at the pale-faced child a moment, then, touching her thin hand, he looked up into the man's facc and lisped; "She Lannie's sistcrl Lannic's new sister!' and the other children jumped up and down with glee. nia. Back of him a great stairway of forest-covered ridges climbed into the coast range, with all their tumbled ocean of treetops turning a golden olive in the sunset. On his left the earth sank sharply down to meet the waters of the bay, while just before him, with a sheer drop of quite a hundred feet, the head hung over the deep with its granite chin brushed by the buffeting flood. Its whole face was solid rock; the forehead trenched and furrowed like a giant's muscle-knotted breast, the cheeks rent and eroded by uncounted storms, while a vast slab of stone hung pendant in the center like a nose, with others fallen endwise in the surf below, and leaning against the wind-worn lips like shattered monoliths. So we had a colored man and brother, with iron gray cots wold hair and a 2- year-old roan heifer, plow np a space of ground, after 1 had warned him not to injure the stumps Trhich grow her® in great profusion. I paid him and then I got my own valet to remove the stone abutment on which the garden stood. He took out several cords of micacious granite and had left soil enough to just comfortably start a young orchard. Then General West said that we would needy something in the way of a gentle tonic to( the soil, so we got quite a lot of bone dust. We bought it at Asheville and it was carried by ns to Charleston. Our station is a flag statioa only and we have ice brought out from Asheville too. It sometimes goes by to Savannah, but it is brought back, for the road is the soul of honor. Ice that has been to Savannah and back these days has that tired feeling we so often read of in some of our most successful advertisements. We got some bone dust and mixed it with the soil at the ra to of eleven pounds bone dust to eight po inds of soil We were told afterward that we should have used more soil, but everybody I knew was using his scil and so I had to take what 1 could ge b. We planted potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, melons, lettuce, radishes, peas and beans. Her roice broke, and tho boy got up with an angry tumult in liis brcatDt and went down to watch Lannic and Gabe, who now were playing near the precipice. When he had sent them into the yard he stood looking gloomily out to sea. The sun had fallen into the water far on its western rim, with a flat mass of clouds lying over it like a dull red bed of coals. Above this a vast cloud hung in greenish folds, slit here and there with sharp, bright blades of light, while half the great vault above him was covered with a troubled, purplish scud. But presently, while he was thinking, the wind lulled, and a voice leaped out from the very lips of the head in a long, quivering cry for help. His blood bounded and stood still; then the ciy came again, rising above the clashing elements like a peal of anguish. Ah, it was his father's voice; and his blood leaped forward again with a great thrill, and forgetful of his lameness he ran in close to the bursting rollers and began to climb the face of the head. It seemed an attempt fit for something mad, for all below him lay a boiling abyss, lashing and thundering and leaping after him; but he had no time for fear; was not his father calling for succor somewhere out there in that abyss of noise and commotion? Tho mother licard it as she entered, and when she came forward with the tiny dress and shoes that once had clad their little Breeze, her heart was fulL Taking tho willing child to her breast she passed into the other room again to cloth her in dry garments, and the big, ragged, steaming man leaned forward and poked the lire, and tho children wondered, for his eyes were wet. Presently tho woman came back, and, with a quick step, 6et about getting breakfast. Armor remained leaning forward, steaming, and gazing dimly into the bed of burning knots. Pesentr ly his head sank down as if it were lead; he had fallen asleep from utter exhaustion. The womp touched his shoulder. NYE AND THE BEAR. n climate that yon don't want to put more confidence in than yon would in a New York bunco man. We have just got through a six d-iys' spell of "mean temperature," with a Claily range from 99 to 105 or thereabouts, with, a "relative humidity" of 50. 1 don't know" what that is, but I don't like It. 1 have five bushels of roasted apples in,der one tree, and VD demand for roasted apples either. Of course this is only "exceptional" weather, but I have had bo much exceptional weather since 1 came here that I am blamed tired of it. "Father! father!" shouted the boy, with warning voice, "I'm come! I've got the roDol" The chop house In the alley, where you set tw kinds of broils; Where they brew a deal of trouble and a deal of whisky punch. And yon watch a pleasant shooting scrap* the while you eat your lunch. Oh, how I long to be oat west, to feel once mm at ease. Where every one respects your right to so it as you please; Where even if your wife objects to your erratic course Yon can step right in 'most anywb»~ a cheap divorce; Where literary culture knocks the spots froau. old New York, And poetry goes gayly hand in hand with packing pork; , Where rare may be found and scholars who can tell 'em; Where Field gets both his Horace and his sausage bound In  I'd like to go and live and die where men and The man roused himself with a pitiful .smile and the boy made a hurried noose of the rope and cast it down. The father steadied himself and at length got the noose over the child's head and around its body. Then he kissed her andsaid, falteringly: "I don't know who ye are, little thing, an' I an't made out a word ye've said, hut ye've saved me so far, and mebby if we get outer Do you Intend to live permanently in North Carolina, and, if so, would yon object to having me live in the same county? Of course 1 have entirely reformed; besides, I have never been in the legislature of this state, and therefore 1 still look my friends In the eye without quailing. Frotn the crest the view was wide and beautiful, the sea spreading out its ever changing plain to the horizon; here, as the sky's moods came and went, a silver track, there a field of violet, and beyond it level emerald. In the far southwest a group of islands lay low in the sea, like blue monsters swimming outward, and beyond them a fleet of lumber schooners was fading in the offing. The boy drew a long breath of weariness as he watched them. He could not help feeling how sweet it would seem to be sailing away from all the heart-breaking trouble that tore his own and other bosoms there on Beaver head. But he took no note of the seeming prophecy of storm in the sky; he was revolving in a blind kind of way the thought that if his father were not in the world his mother and they would go back to her people in the east, and all PUTTING TIIK WATER-VOICE ON IIIS SHOUL- DERS, HE WENT TO THE SPRING. But what of the child? This dainty stranger blown in upon their shame and poverty from Heaven only knew what quarter of the world. What had; she to do with their destiny? Perhaps when he who was sleeping in the hut should wake, he could tell them some-i thing of this new but welcome burden be had added to their cares. I am in search of a good, reliable, kindly disposed, all round climate, and I like to live among people who don't put on too many frills. 1 want to live where 1 can have some real grass (not the alleged sort) without squirting vater on it for eight or nine months in the year. I want some big trees and some singing brooks with real flsh In them. Is Buncombe connty that sort of place, and about what does it cost an acre? hereye'll keep me saved from something worse than this. Good-by!" and get "Drink this cup of coffee, Trave," she said soothingly. "It'll strengthen you till I get some breakfast on the table." He knew every hole and sheli in the face of the precipice, and soon by the aid of the lightning flashes he was on a ledge leading toward the voice. It was a frightful place. Once he slipped and hung over the edge of the shelf, very close to death. A thick sweat broke out upon him, and his heart jarred his side with every stroke. After that ho crept forward more carefully, waiting for the lightning flashes and feeling his way with trembling hands. Thoughts and images were flying through his brain; the children sleeping in the hut, his mother stooping at the fireplace trying to kindle a fire, the stove in tho shed filling with water from the storm, and the millmen's shirts to be dried and ironed on the morrow. Suddenly the clouds broke open to a great height, and there swam the moon in peaceful fields of violet, the Berrate edges of the long rift shining like a cake of silver broken apart. Then grasping the rope tightly Paul began to pull and the child swung away from the man and hung over the piunging waters with wide, terrified eyes. Siovvly he drew her up, and tho man watched until she was safe on the ledge; then he said: "Now, son, I'll sec what good I am!" and he began struggling to get upon the end of the leaning column. But he could hardly drink it, his hands shook so, and he looked up piteously in her face. ' "Lucy, I'm amost pegged!" he said. [to be continued J 1 come to you with these questions because I feel that I can believe yon, while I would look on the information of a real estate agent with great allowance. "Yes; oh, Travc, can't you stop now? Can't you quit drinking?" she cried, and her thin frame shook from head to foot. women are. And where the one gives up his seat to t'other in the car— I'd like to go, and so I would, bat—here's what makes me sad- Bill Nye has written In to say the walking's dretful bad. —Sent to Chicago Mail from New York by Willis B. Hawkins. Information had come to Georgia that there had.been an increase in the family during Cfee night, and that, he would now have a little playmate. The newg seemed to disturb him greatly, but finally he met his father in the hallway and he concluded to settle a doubt. "Papa," said he, gently seizing his father by the watch charm, "I want to know whether I'm a brother or a sister."—Bingham ton Leader. ■i Wanted to Kdmt. What sort of fruitdo they grow around Asheville? I am a sort of horticultural crank, and 1 always grow fruit, though It costs metwentyflvo dollars a bushel. I got a good man to hoe them. Then the children watched them grow, now and then palling npjtt hill of potatoes to see if they were large enough to sell to their misguided father. So far eighty cents' worth of vegetables have been sold to me at a high price, the most of which sum has been used in the purchase of firecrackers. He was leaning against a tumbledown wall which crossed the crown of the cliff a few rods from where it dropped off to meet the sea. Near by there was a gap in the wall, evidently once a gate, and a littlo way back along the path an old stone house. A tall man could almost touch the eaves, but it was wide and long, being divided into two low but rather roomy halves, while its walls were thick, but cracked and matted with moss, through which two small, square windows peered out like sunken eyes. About the yard were • number of redwoods, massive and straight, with the sea winds purring among their branches and the sunshine ytellowing on their tops. Again and again he essayed it: he was so numb he could scarcely move. The boy watched him, with every muscle rigid from sympathy. The action seemed to warm and freshen tho man, and at last he got upon the pillar's end and sat still, with his forehead resting against the cool wall lDefore him. The man swayed forward over his knees and groaned: will If I kin!" But suddenly ho threw himself back with a look of torturyinhis face. "I need it now! I'm a-burnin' up, Lucyl" he cried. "Ain't there any in the house? Jist a spoonful!" 1 succeeded last winter In growing thirteen oranges here. The "hoodlums" got ten of them one night. The other three weri nice looking oranges but they had no juice in them. 1 shall be very glad to Lear from you when you have time to write. Sincerely, as ever. 1 E 17 — Romeo Ferguson (the under one)— ' see her anywheres, Jimmy? "Now, my son," he said, when he had gotten his breath, "take all the time 3-0 need for gettin' tho little thing onto dry ground. I'll be a-restiu' while y're gone. Don't hurry, I'll be a-rcstin'. Keep tho rope 'round the child, an' if she falls mebby ye ken save her again. I'd rather ye'd save her than me. Goodby!"A look of despair spread over the woman's face. "Trave, there ain't any," she said. "You must go to bed now, and sleep until y'r better," and she led him into the other room as if he was a trembling child. 1 have eradicated the name of the town at which the above letter is dated, also the name of the writer, because I did not wish to publish an unkind allusion to the state, which is generally regarded as a very attractive one. I would hate to build up any locality of my common country at the expense of another. Yon ask if I intend to live here permanently. I do not j et know. Land in the country is $40 and |50 per acre, and, as you may readily judge, it is not worth that for agricultural purposes. Is it worth that alone for building sites? That depends on whfr; may be your lot in life. If you can afford to support a farm here, you will like agriculture in Buncombe county, bt.t the poor farmer who has neglected to marry a wealthy wife till it is too lata, will have great difficulty in dying of gout On the Return from Lenox, The rain had almost ceased; only a few drops fell into the boy's white face as he lifted it to the light, and the voice broke out afresh. He shouted a reply, but seemingly could not reach the father's oar. and trembling and panting ho crept onward. In a moment he came to a jutting point, and. creeping When she came out again she asked for Paul, but none of the children had seen him, and she went anxiously to the door and looked out The boy was limping slowly up the path with his father's rusted rifle on his shoulder. He had found it in the bottom of the waterlogged boat. The inquirer is anxious to know of the horticultural and piscatorial merits of Buncombe county, also regarding prices, pomology, etc., etc. Several of these questions I have never answered publicly, and so a few moments may be pleasantly spent in their discussion, if I may be allowed to do the heft of it myself with the reader at a safe distance. The house had been built, so tradition said, years before by a weather beaten old tar named Beaver, who, strangely enough, deserted the sea for an Indian wife and this queer shelter on the head, only to forsake them in turn to take to the sea again. Then the seasons had flown on, and presently a village had sprung up about the inlet bay. with great sawmills at Its inner pnd, where a little river brought the logs down from the redwood forests. Here Trave Armor, the boy's father, drifting westward through the pineries of Michigan and Wisconsin, and making now and then a futile stand against drink, ill-luck and poverty, had come to work in the mills, but failing, through rum, drifted at last, with his ragged flock, into the old stone hut upon the head. "Oil, I'LL no IT, MOTIIEK." Slowly and warily the boy picked his way through the curling mist, guiding, lifting, leading the frightened child along the dizzy path. At last they came down and out upon the beaten sand, and as he took the rope from round the child's quivering form he heard a cry, and looking up saw his mother coming down the rain-gullied bluff, with the gray light of dawn breaking over the edge of the cliff behind her. might be bright and joyous again. But she would never go, he knew, ay long as his father lived and was helpless in tho chains of his galling habits. She clung too fondlyi to what was gentle in the man to set him adrift, or ever cease to hope that something at last might save him. And the boy himself, responsive to the tics of nature, felt a throb of pity fly to his heart when he thought of death for the one who had given him even so hurt and hateful a a life. "Breakfast is 'most ready, Paul," said the mother, and her voice was an infinitely tender caress. She did not praise him, but he saw an approval in her eyes too great for words. carefully around it, emerged upon a little platform pi stcne. There the shelf came apparently ,o an end, and as he turned about in blinding eagerness, to find a further way, the voice sprang out almost from beneath his feet. He' all but leaped into the sea with joy and fright i oame here early in the spring of the present year, partly because Mr. Vanderbilt, who is building a place near by, was not much acquainted and deeired a bright young person, whom he knew and in whom he felt an interest, to drop in of an evening and play Pedro with him. I also desired to lienefit my lungs, one of whom had begun to droop a little, leaking me walk one aided, I thought. I had, besides, some symptoms of oollapee from grin, gout and so forth. The physician. therefore, recommended that I try a dry, bracing air of 8,500 or 8,000 feet elevation, but in a mild, isothermal belt. Jimmy—Yes. She's a-mttin' by thb chimley corner. t B. F.—Make a sign to her and show her the enwelope, but don't let the old folks see yer do it!—Life. you "I'm not much hungry, mother," he said. "I'll get the tubs filled, so we can go to work when y're ready." "Oh, mother, he's comel Father's cornel" cried- the boy. "He's just 'round yander! I'll bring him in a minute!"When the poor meal was prepared he came in and ate a few bites in silence. The food choked him when he looked at In an instant he was down upon his knees peering over the brink, and there, almost in reach of his hand, was his father's upturned facel He was standing upon one foot in a break in one of the pillars that leaned against tho cliff,, * with his arms about its shattered top,; and upon its top and within the protecting circle of his arms, sat a thinfaced, yellow-haired child. Two Brave Hen. After a time, when the day had come nearer its close, he roused himself from his brooding stupor and turned toward the house. The west was now a vast bank of dead and smouldering fire, and he noticed that a ship seemed sailing directly into it, looking strangely black and motionless against the dull, red flare. Then he suddenly bethought him of his mother, and limped quickly up the pathway to the door. The woman's haggard face lit up as she ran forward to meet him. When she saw the child she stopped short. "Why—why, where did that little thing come from?" she asked. They met on the city hall steps. "I say you are a falsifier, sir," exclaimed the man coming down. "What's that? What's that?" asked the other one, bracing np and backing down. as they sat at the table, the father cried out wildly in the other room, and the wife ran in and they heard her strugD- gling with him. The children grew still and the little waif looked frighV ened and perplexed. his mother's care-worn face. Suddenly Mrs. Upperward—I wonder, Angus*, H everything is just as we left it? te Family Cat (plalntivelyD 1 PLOWING UP A SPACE. ■ "I don't know, mother. Father said she'd been holding him round tho neck an' keepin' him from drowndin'," said the boy, and he looked at the shivering' wail with something like awe. The country is beautifully watered. Every half mile you cross a crystal branch or find a cool, delicious spring by the roadside. Bee:* do well here, making honey all the day and foolishly acquiring mnch more than they need, never dividing it with those who are needy, showing through life great irritability of temper and finally dying miserably in the midst of plenty, like the founder of a trust. 1 think that the bee and the prairie dog are both greatly overestimated.Their progress had been pitiful enough, and Paul, the eldest of the five children, bearing its scars upon his body, and its infamy in his memory, had felt, with every season as he progressed toward manhood, a growing sense of blight and degradation. He knew whence his lameness came; that when he was a child his father once came home in a storm of drunkenness, and being pleaded with by the boy's "I say yon are a falsifier, sir." "And I repel the insinuation, and cal» umniate the insinuator." "What's that? What's that, sir?" snorted the upstep man., "I repel the insinuation, sir, and calumniate the insinuator," and he stepped up a step. "Well, sir, I accept your apology, sir, but don't let it occur again."—Detroit Free Press. "It was right up there o» the oeilin'l** cried the man; "right up there! an' it had green eyes and a red-forked tonguel It was an awful snake, Lucy, and it jumped down onto me an* got round my neck an' was chokin' met Oh, it was chokin' me!" It was the strangest, wildest picture Paul Armor had ever seen. As soon as I had, after some trouble, ascertained the meaning of the term isothermal 1 began to look about me for a belt of that kind. I at once, almost, strack upon a region of country about Asheville and in Buncombe county, though Henderson county offers also very excellent opportunities for those who need to build up their health with the kindly assistance of nature. I presume that if Vanderbilt had not made such a fuss about it I would have gone to Henderson county. Property is cheaper there, and yet the climate lasts just as long as it does here. But, as I say, I came here preferring to be among my own folks, as von might say, and where George and I could take off our lime spattered overalls at eventide and play cinch, rather than go to a strange neighborhood."Ken I help you any more, mother?" he asked. "Oh, father, don't ye let go! I'll save ye!" he cried. With the first look thei child stretched out her arms to him, and a light that was more than the; radiance of the moon broke over the. man's face. The child sat still on the rock where Paul had placed her, and looked from one face to the other. Iler clothes were fine and thin, but torn and wet, and her tangled curls clung about her thin neck like yellow silk. Her blue eyes were very appealing, and the woman dropped down on her knees beside the child with a great pang of pity at her heart. "Yes, Paul; we'll empty the tubs now. IH hang out the clothes in the morning, anc" try and get the millmcn's shirts done. Did yon notice which way your father went this morning, dear?" Paul got up and, lifting the little girl in his arms, looked at the children meaningly, and they followed him out. He placed his delicate burden on a bench in a sunny place down by the wall, and, asking Carl to watch them while they played, he went back to help his mother. She came into tho room as he entered. It struck him to the heart, she looked so worn and pitiful."It tuck a sight of hollerin' to raise ye, son!" he 6aid, half weeping in his' joy and weariness- "I'd 'bout made up my mind to let go and slide down among, the fish. I guess I'd done it only this Uttle shiverin' thing kep' holdin' me other, splintered his flask of liquor op the hearth in an ecstacy of i-age', and that he, a Wby crawling round the grate, had lapped at the liquid like a lion's cub licking greedily at blood, pad that his father had caught him up in a drunken fury and dashed him into the fire, from which he had come limping far on the road of life. pften be had fcl£ something like piortal hatred of his father rise within him, and that day when he turned from patching the lumber schooners get down over the blue flood, und saw his mother, worn with toil and faded with bitter care, bending over her washtnb that her children might have bread, an anger rose In his heart that was almost fit for taking human life. But when his mother spoke to him in tender cheerfulness as she always did, it vanished in a moment. "Up along the shore, I guess, mother. H® took the rifle in the boat with him." Peaches, cherries, apples, grapes and small fruits grow well about here. It is very popular, however, as an all the year round climate for those who need tonicity. In wintei the northern people are here, for it is like a delightful Indian summer most all Lhrough the winter. Then in summer tlje haughty southron comes and breathed the cool, crisp air during his vacation. " Too Soon. "Did you notice—was he—had he— been drinking?" "Oh, you poor, drowned, starvin' little thingl" she said, "what's become of your mammy?" The child gazed at her wonderingly a moment, and murmured something in a foreign tongue. Lafontaine was once found by his wife sitting at his desk bathed in tears. In reply to her sympathizing inquiry as to the cause, he described the distressing situation of the love stricken hero of a tale he was writing. The wife was deeply touched, and her eyes filled with tears aa she spoke: "Do let him have hert" "I don't know. " said the boy, without ThC Judge. nin*i looking up- "He sold the fish he got yesterday, I guess." After that they were silent. Xn a little time their meager supper was over, and darkness \vas thick without. It singularly warm and still even for the mild California coast, and after putting the children to sleep the mother went out and listened. • I'anl was leaning upon the ruined wall with his face turned seaward, and nothing stirred the silence save a faint whispering of waters out in the darkness. The atmosphere seemed utterly becalmed. But suddenly as they listened there came a little puff of wind like something invisible fleeing before the storm, then a sort of seething rose far overhead, as if the clouds were turning in, helpless fear about the ceiling of tho sky, and the sea began to chop and purr like an unseen animal whetting its teeth in the darkness. In a moment the few remaining stars were ingulfed, fuid in another moment there came a shivering crash, and the whole scene leaped into view. "Mercy!" exclaimed the woman. "It can't speak English; it's a foreigner!" and she put her faded shawl about it compassionately. A Great Financial Disaster. "Ah, my beautiful Edith, I am overoarno with anguish." **Why, Reginald?" "He's sleeping again," she whispered. "Don't you go in where he is, Paul, unless I call you; perhaps the spell won't come on him again." Suddenly the boy started up. "I'm go in' now, mother," he said. "I'm goin' after father!" and before the woman could comprehend he snatched the rope and ran up in the spray aiDd was swallowed from her sight. The act appalled her, and she pprang screaming after him, but she slipped on the wet rocks and the plunging surges beat her back. To her mother heart it was much as if he had passed into a billowing fire. The moments seemed interminable; would he never come back from that battering, pounding gulf of foam and noise? "I have como to tell you that our marriage cannot take place. A great financial disaster has overtaken me." Insect life here in prosperous and blithesome. Mosquit aea do not flourish here at all for some reason, and flies are not so plenty as they are in the north, but the woodtick, the "jigger" or chigre, the black hornet, the spider and other non-vertebrates do] well. The bed insect also grows to a great height and attains a wonderful age. So me of the best blood of Pocahontas and George III flows in its veins. It may jbe,found on the crest of some of our oldest families in the United States. I bought a billiard table of one of the American dauphins once at a sacrifice, and it was a year before I dared to play on itj W'th those who might criticise it and give their criticisms to the press. Oranges do not gTow here, but you can get them at Asaeville for less than your fruit costs you where yon are. Help is cheap and not of a high order generally. I had a colored man splitting wood for me four years ago here, and it isn't all split yeti He afterward went into agriculture with the aid of two little bright red bulls, which he drove in a harness made of iootlegs cut in strips and sewed together. His lines were made of clothesline. His name was Transom B. Walker, and he got two acres of corn up t]D where it began to "tossle out," when one Sabbath morn, while the neighbors were hitching their horses in front of Zion church for early services, some cows got over the fence, and, with loud snoi-ts and noisy bells upon them, ate up the corn of Mr. Transom B. Walker, of this state. "It won't do," sobbed out Lafontaine; "lam only at the first volume."—Universum.The boy turned aside and sat down before the fire, and began drying his wet and clinging clothes. The woman went slowly about her work, and sounds from the children playing in the sunshine came floating in. North Carolina is essentially a fruit growing country. Wild fruit I liuve never seen so plentiful. On the mountain four years ago myself and a large, hot-breathed mamma bear ate persimmons off the same bush for a little time, but I found another tree where the persimmons, it seemed to me, were better and less "puckerful, so I went to it. Besides I hate to have strangers watch me whilst I eat. "Alas, my poor Reginald) But we still have each other; and you forget that J have a little money." Both Agreed. Wife—Did you change the dress pattern and blow the man up for the mistake?"Yea, that's just it; it is so little. J always thought that it was at least a hundred thousand, but I've just found out that it can't exceed forty thousand at the outside "—Boston Courier. The two did not talk; some question touching the little stranger, who she could be, and through what mysterious peril she had come to them, may have ebbed through their thoughts, but they had no heart to «peak of it The children might gambol on tlae grass, with the deep indigo 6ky above and the fragrant rain-washed air coming through the pines and filling them with zest, but to these elder two the very atmosphere seemed thick and stagnant with the curse that lay upon the family. Husband—I had it changed, but the clerk declared that he knew yon were wrong. "I need some ainsing water, Paul," she said, straigljfcning up with difficulty in the hU arn of the tub, and stripping the glinting bubbles from her thin, tired arms. "If Jimmy or Carl would pnly stay round {'ft have them doit., but Jf. seom.-i like thej.'rc ,post always off fallen needed.'* '!0h, I'll do it, mother; I'll do it!" said the bov with a half pathetic smile. "I'm stronger than they are, only my legs ain't so gopd!" And taking up a wqoden yoke with a bucket attached to either end, he placed it across his neck and shoulders, and went limping down the hillside, whistling a little that his weary mother might hear. The woman stood a moment, leaning with her soap-eaten hands upon the tub's edge, and looked after him with tender eyes. Then she glanced at little Wife—Well, what did you do about it? Husband (grimly) — I shook hands with him.—Cloak Review. It Onto Dad. A half hour of terror went by; then suddenly he burst out of the wreathing spray above her, with a cry much as if he had opened eyes tn Heaven. Behind him came his father, drooping and staggering forward, and husband and wife fell into each other's arms, and stood swaying and sobbing on the sand, while Paul crept away, sick and broken, and orying to himself. A boy about twelve years old hung around the entrance of the bridge so long the other day that an officer finally walked up to him and asked: Berries grow wild here by the thousands of bushels. This year I never saw so many berries in my life before as there are here, though neighbors tell me it is tn unusual year. It is strange how the unusual year pursues me wherever I go. 1 was in California a year ago and it had rained till the entire state was a mighty lagoon, and Mr. Hearst told me it was an unusual year with them. Generally they did not have but eight feet of rainfall. That year it was nine. But he said it would be very good for cereals. A Bad Break. Reportah—How did your banquet go off, Banklurk? Banklnrk—Not as well as it might, you know. The toast master called on a gentleman who had lost an eye, an ear and a leg to answer to the toast, "Our Absent Members."—Harper's Bazar. "Are you waiting here for some one?" "Yes." "Who is it?" "My God!" cried the woman, starting forward, and Paul, with a faintness rushing over him with thought of the wish he had made in his heart, knew that she was praying for his father, out in his double darkness of his evil weakness and the gathering terrors of the night. IN AN IN8TANT HE WAS DOWN UPON HIS After a time the woman finished washing1 the poor, cracked dishes and went out, and the boy roused himself and stirred wearily about. lie felt stiff and heavy, much us if he were partly numb in body while his mind was painfully wide-awake. He found his mother putting the tubs In position under the shed, getting tihem ready at once for work. "Dad. I lost him 'way up here about two miles." KNEES, PEE BINS OVEB THE BBINK. round the neck." And the man's bloated cheeks were trickling with tears. He seemed to break down now that help had come. But what help! A lame boy, trembling and turning impotently about the ledge, while the liquor-weakened man, dizzy at times, and seeming to see an things go round and roun d, clujfe there with the billows tugging at his feet. "And can't you find the place where you last saw him?" Ah! he had been through great peril; he had don« a noble deed; ho bad brought back his self respect; but had not the old hovering darkness come along with It? "I guess 1 could, but 1 sha'n't try. It's dad who's lost, and I'll let him do the hunting."—New York Evening World. Time to Go. He (at 11:45 p. m.)—Time waits on no man. In Oregon the railroad north from San Francisco had not been In operation for over seventy days, owing to blockade and general coma from snow and *v»- lanches, so I had to ride on a coast steamer and swap confidences with the wind tossed waves. Mr. Fee, of the Northern Pacifio, said it- was an unusual winter with them. She—I don't blame it. It would lose lots of sleep if it waited on some persons ' I know.—Detroit Free Press. Mo Comparison. Together they hurried in and made the doors and windows fast against the coming storm. In a moment it broke, and roared and lashed across the cliff for hotirs, while the mother, with white Imoe, went to and fro, soothing the Children, and turning now and then as if she would go out into the storm and And the one she feared might never oome again. Pad's eyes followed her troubled face, with a look of  terror. Suddenly he seized the latch. When Trave Armor, following his wife, bent his tall, shambling form and "What's the matter now?" called a Newark mother as her eight-j ear-old came to the gate howling. "Mother, ye ain't fit to," pleaded the boy. "Ye ain't fit to work; ye didn't sleep nono last night, I know ye didn't. See, y're nil of a tremble now, mother; can't we wait tjj^to-morrow?" "We have nothing to cai; in the house, Paul," she said. "We must get these mill-clothes done an' get something to feed the children. Your father may have to have some medic.ne, too," and her lips trembled. P»be, si* years and three-year-old Lannie, who were playing under the, trees, and began washing again. "He's the best of them all," she murmured as she rubbed. "His heart's as soft as a girl's; he'd help me more than he docs If he could- Oh, if his father had only tiever done that awful thing to him!" And tears slipped down her cheeks and fell into the suds. f The boy stopped at a spring half way down the bluff, and, filling the pails, looked a moment &t the mills back of "I might inefcby get outen here but for the child," he said. "But I feel purty wabbly, son. If I let go I'll leave' her sittin' here, an' mebby ye ken fish her up some way." "Waiter, Pv« been here a full hour." said Chappie impatiently. Unexpected Sympathy. ~ V- 5 "=*—- "Bin grabbed by a bulldog!" be shouted between bia sobs. "Lor*, but what a start you gave met I didn't know but what you'd been over- a mosquito. Don't make such k fuss as that about a nip from a bulldog."—New York Evening World. "I've been here since 7 a. m.," returned the waiter. "It's tiresome, ain't it?'— New York Sun. In London, in the previous year, aa 1 •trolled along the lambrequin »f Trafalgar square with a nice new English umbrella over my head, a bright and cheery voice at my side said something regarding the dampness, and a little shapely hand took my umbrella and held it tar me as a pair of merry, bright brown •yes looked up laughingly Into mine. I presume that, according to the methods of studying American society adopted by Mr. Kipling and Mr. Aide, I should pause here to criticise the rather flippant and coarse custom among ladies of London of addressing gentlemen on the street, who are thinking of something else. But I was not writing a hook on England after eating breakfast, buying an umbrella and coming home, as some authors does. "Oh, father!" cried the boy, with straining eyes, "don't ye let go! I'll save ye!" "Was you away from home when they done eat op all yd cone?" a neighbor asked him. Husband—How did you get along with your shopping today? A Great 8uee«»«. "I won't let go if I ken help it, son," said the man faintly. "But y'd best get a rope; mebby ye ken save the child, if ye can't save me." Hotany in the City. Tommy—Pa, what are those men putting into the ground? "Mother, I'm going to the shore!" he said. The boy could have cried out against tlio whole world in his bitterness, but ho shut his teeth hard, and, putting the water-yoke across his shoulders, went down to the spring. "No, chile, 'case I was to home." ' Wife—Splendidly! I called at fifteen places and didn't bay a thing. —Cloak Review. "No, child, no!" she cried. "Well, whaffer you done let 'em eat up yo' whole crap, den, dat you bin fc yeah growing" the bay. Bed-stated logmen  Working With ' their cant-hooks among the brown ricks, their k Sing-song cry of "He-o-he-e-e!" as they lifted, coming in mellow waves across D the water with the long-drawn, neyer- "Ob, mother, I must! I must! Father may come!" and he sprang out into the' tempest. "Yes, father!" And Paul had started on his perilous journey across the face of the cliff again. Father—An electric light plant, my «on. Tommy—What species does that plant belong to, pa? The Wrong Man. Uc felt bruised and sore from his harc\ work on the face of the cliff, and caiuw back slowly. His mother was not at the tubs, but he heard her soothing the poor man in the hut, the sounds being mingled with pitiful cries. He sprang to the door and waited. But she did not call him, and in a little time she carac out. She was breathing hard and went unsteadily and sat down on tha bench by the tuba "I guess he won't bo bad like he Ja sometimes," sho panted, "because he goes off to sleep so quiek. Jt's not much more than bad dreams, 1 think." "Why can't ye let itie go in an' help "Why, yon ain'i gxDt 110 sepse. 'Case I was home at de time, bnt Law! I was in bed! t! Marshal Turenne, happening one hot day to be looking out of a window of his antechamber, a servant entered the room, and, deceived by his drees, mistook him for one of the under cooks. Ha came softly behind him, and with a hand which was not one of the lightest gave him a violent slap on the shoulder. The marshal instantly turned about, and the fellow, frightened out of his At first he was thrown from side to side and dashed against the house by the winfl, but presently got his feet and went reeling through the falling torrents down the hillside, and came upon the beach. Father—Considering the number of funerals caused by overhead wires, it ought to belong to the 'bury' family.— Detroit Free Press. As Paul Armor crept back along the ledge his heart beat very fast. Up and down, in and out, panting, hurrying, ho passed above the turmoil of waters. Would they be there when he returned? Oh, for wings, or even sound limbs! But how came his limbs so halting? He did not think of that now, with his father, who had maimed Mm, hanging there so near to death. Pity had turned the noisome current of hate aside, and he was being carried forward on the ever* saving, ever-healing stream of love. chapter n, whine of the feeding saws. Presently he labored back up the hill • with the water, and when the tuba were filled and his mother had thanked him gratefully, he sat down on a bench near by and watched her dreamily. "Mother," he said at last, "do yon 'spose wo will always live here?" "I hope not, dear.'* "Do yon think I ken ever go to work In the mills, mother?" More Interesting. The sea seemed alive with leaping ridges as the lightning fell upon them, and all along the base of the head it burst at times into lurid fire. The boy drew back before It, but his father was out there—out there where all things rolled together in convulsion, and ho clung in the teeth of the tempest, straining ear and eye upon the sea. "Come, my dear," said mamma encouragingly, "a little girl four years old ought to be able to say, 'New I lay me' through all alone by herself. Can't yon doit?" "Excuse me," I said, taking out a new card case that I bought on the Rue de Pinktuin, Paris, France, and presenting my card. "I do not recall your face. 1 am a plain American, passing through your town and pricing a lot here and there. Would you mind exchanging BevliM Version. SITE PUT HER FADED SHAWL ABOUT IT "What was the siubject of your commencement essay?" he inquired, quizzically, " 'Beyond the Alps Lies Italy?*" wits, beheld the face of his master. Down be dropped on his knees. COM PASSIONATE Mf. went weakly in through the low doorway of his humble home, a blight fire of pine knots was flaming and popping in the fireplace, and a pot of coffee, sit- "No, mamma," answered little Flo. don't believe I can; but I can say the whole of 'Four-and-twenty blackbirds.' * -Soinerville Journal. "I did use the idea," admitted the sweet girl graduate, "bat I modernized it into 'Over the Fence Is Out.'"—Indi- Indianapolis Journal, i "Oh! my lord, I thought it was George." "And suppose it had been George," replied the marshal, "you need not have sijuck so hard."' -Chatterbox. _"I hope so, Paid; or maybe a$ some- yc, mother