FOR HIS SAKE.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 43, 27 July 1878, Page 4

FOR HIS SAKE.

■ . Plying Bead discharged hm . 1.!-.:..'.!- ut tin. London .'■ ■. • ■ ■ ■ ... itu among thcin a geutlenian who had boon absent from England nine years. All that time ho hail passed under the burning stms of India. He !..-..: Buffered as soldiers do. He had i i/t.i as soldiers fight. He had met the .-oidier's fate of scars and 'Wounds, and one of -them had invalided fcim home to England. It was th» first time he trod her shores for nino years, as we have said, and for the first time in any vear he was going to see his son, the lktio boy born after he left home, and whose birth had been his mother's death. Captain IV-nryn had only been married i yea* when he wasordered abroad with his regiment Six months from that dav a letter had reached him telling him his wife was dead.. It ended thus: The liaby, as fine a child as I ever saw is thriving. I've done my best for it lt,s mother's last wish was I should keep it, and perhaps, Sir, as Borne one must, you'd as leave las any other, I shan't be unreasonable in my charges, and I'm very fond of him already. With my duty to you in this dreadful trouble, vour servant, Ann Golden.

The poor broken-hearted man almost sank under the awful news. He had loved his wife passionately, and when the baby was old enough to travel she would have come to him in India, braving its terrible climate and the life of a soldier's wife abroad, because they could not live apart. Now he did not want a little baby on his hands, and ho wrote to Ann as soon as he could command himself to do so, appointing her his nurse. Every quarter since that time he had sent money to her for the child's board and clothes. A receipt was always returned with "her duty, and the young gentleman was doing well." And this was all be knew of Ellen's boy—the child of a love that had been as strong as it was tender. Now that his foot was upon England's shores agrin and the meeting was very near. Captain l'enryn felt new thrills of •a father-love through his soldier's heart, and longed for his boy's presence. "He would take him to himself," he said. " They would live together, sharing each other's joys and sorrows. He would make a man of the boy—not a soldier, for he knew the trials of a soldier's life too well: but something very honourable and creditable. He shoulu be proud of him, and he hoped—ah, how he hoped!— that Ellen's child would have Ellen's face. My beautiful girl," be said to himself, with the tears standing in his eyes, "how little I thought of this hour when I kissed her good-byo'" And then his heart grew even warmer to the pledge of their mutual love. He had the address that Mrs. Golden had given him in his pocket. He glanced at it now to refresh his memory as to the number. A plain, respectable street in ■one of Londou's suburbs: he remembered it well.

',But my boy shall see hettcr things, now that I am here," he said to himself. "I am not rich, but I can deny myself many things to make him happy. Will he love me, I wonder ? Then he thought how his own heart had been won by toys and sweetmeats, and coining to a shop where the former were sold, paused before the gav window and began to make a mental choice between a red and gilt stage-coach and horses and a train of bright blue carriages. He had discarded both for a box of scarlet-coated soldier's, when suddenly ho felt a tug at his coat-tail, and turning round, lie found a grimy little band half in, half out of his pookot. He caught it •at once, with his handkerchief in it, and gripped it tight. He was a soldier, and to a soldier the keeping of law and rule is a great thing. To give the little thief to a policeman, and appear against him the next day, was his first thought: but as the creature stood there' shuking and whining, tin; fact of his diminutive size struck the Captain forcibly, lie perceived his youth, which was extreme, and he sawthat, besides being young and small, and wan and dirty, and ragged, ho was deformed. His queer ltttlo shoulders were lioaped up to his ears, and his hands were like talons, so long and bony were they. The Captain hold the wrist of his mannikin firmly still, but not angrilv. What did you mean by that, sir ?" he . growled slowly, stooping down to look into the hoy's eyes. " I'm to hook it," said tho boy with perfect candor' Oh, please let me be! Oh, please let mo go! Oh, please, sir I won't do it no more—never oh please!" " I've a mind to have you sent to jail," said tho Captain. "No.please.sir!" said the waif. " Ploaso sir I"

" Who taught you to steal ?" asked the Captain. The boy made no answer. G rimy tears 'were pouring from his eyes. " Answcrine," said the Captain. " If I don't steal, I don't get no victuals," saidtheboy," andmy storuach is as holler—feel it. mister! —it's as holler as a drum ! .She's been a lieggin' to-day, and we'll have stew. I won't have none", if I don't fetch nothin'. Oh—"

" Who is she ?" asked tho Captain. " My mother," said tho boy. "I've boon hungry mysolf," said tho f'-aptain.thirikingasacortainludianprisou rapwienee. "It isn't pleasant. Thou he thought of his own boy. ".God knows I ought to bo tender to the little one, for the sake of Nellie's child," ho said softly ; thon aloud—Laddie, I'll nut sen i you to i

" Thankee, sir," said the urchin. " And I'M give you a breakfast," said the Captain. The dirty elf executed a sort of joyou.-war-dance. " Do you know why I forgive you ?" said the Captain. The child shook his head. " I have a little boy," asid the < Saptain, " He's very different from you poorehihl.' He would not steal anything. Ilu washes himself, My lad, you must wash yourself as soon as you find water. But I couldn't think of his being hungry, and for his sake I can't bear to see other little follows hungry. It's for his sake that I don't call a constable and tell him all about it. Remember that, and try to he like—like my little fellow, poor laddie, clean and good. Don't steal: try to get work. Will you promise ? The waif said " yes, sir," of course. Then the Captain led him into a cheap eating house, and watched him eat until his little stomach was not longer holler." " You little wretch !" lie thought, as he looked at him. "If I could see my boy and him together now, what a contrast !"

And ho fancied his boy round and white an pink, and fair of hair, like his poor lost Ellen, and I know he said that he Would pity this poor fellow and be kind to him. The meal was over. The Captain paid for it, and then drew the boy between his knees and lectured him. To be good was to be happy. Honesty was the best policy. Cleanliness came next to godliness. These were the heads of his discourse. Then he gave him half a crown, and bade him go and be good and clean. And the boy was ofriike a flash. " Thousands just such as he in this great city," sighed the good Captain, and he walked along. "Ah me '." Then he went in search of Mrs. Ann Golden and his own fair darling. But Mrs. Golden was not easily found as he had hoped. There was a little shop in the house he had been directed to, and the keeper thereof said that shehad bought it of Ann Golden ; " but I haven't seen her since," she said; " only there's a bit of card with her number on it—that is, I can find it." After a search she did find it, and the Captain, thanking her, hurried away ; hut another disappointment awaited aim. Mrs. Golden had not lived in thissecond place foryears. Shehadmovedinto('lumber Row, but what number no one could remember.

At Clumber Row, whither the Captain drove in a cab, a woman owned to having had her for a lodger. " She had a ohild staying with her, too," she said. " Little Xed she called him ; hut, to tell the truth, she drank so that I turned her out. I couldn't ahide such doings. She went to Fossil Lane, No. !>."

To Fossil Lane the Captain wont. It was a filthy place, and there was a drunken woman at No. 1) who was not Ann Golden, and who threw a piece of wood at him for asking for that lady. And now every clue was lost, and the Captain, nearly heside himself with anxiety, applied to the authorities for help; and after many days of great unhappiness he heard of an Ann Golden who lived in a quarter of London so low and dangerous that all decent people shunned it. " No wonder," the Captain thought' " if she lived there, that she should have had his remittances sent to the postoffice, and left him to believe that his child was still in the decent home to which she had at first taken him."

Almost ill with excitement, the poor Captain drove, with a policeman as protector, into the maze of hideous lanes, and courts that led to Ann Golden'sdwelling, and following his conductor, dropped into a filthy cellar, where, amid the horrible leakage of drain pipes, and almost in utter darkness, sat an old woman with a bottle beside her, who started up when the Captain and his guard entered, and cried : " What now ? What's the perlice here for Is it one of the boys again ?"

And, altered as she was with years and drink, the Captain knew his wife's old nurse, Ann Golden. He gave a cry of rage, and darted towards her. " My boy ?" lie cried. And she screamed. " It's tho Captain !" " Is my boy living ?" he asked. " Yes," said the woman shaking all over; " he's alive and well." " How dare you keep him here ?" cried the Captain. " How can I help being poor ?" whined the woman. " I couldn't give up the bit you pay for him. I'm very old ; I'm very ill. Don't be hard on me." " Good heavens I" cried tho Captain. "My Ellen's baby in a place like this!" He dropped his head on his hands; then he lifted it and clasped them. " I'll lmvo him away from here now !" he gasped. " It's over, and he's young and will forget it. Where is he ? Have you lied. Is he dead ?" " No, no," said tho old woman. " He'll be here soon. I hear him now. him. He'll be hero in a minute. Don't kill a pool' old boy, Captain—don't." " I could do it." cried the Captain. Listen ! There is some one coming. My ehihl! my child I" The door opened softly, a head peeped in low down, then drew back. " Como in," piped the old woman. " Tho parties »i 1 irter you I for harm. I rimNod.'

•t retched anus there crept in at the door — vrho ? what ? The wan, deformed and dirty creature who hail picked Ml pocket —whom he hud fed lor the sake of bis beautiful dream ehild—tlio wretch wail. forgotten utterly in the hist few days of anxiety. " Tufa him," croaked the old crone again. " That's your hoy—that's Ned." The Captain gave a (ay ; lie sank down on an old box close at hand, and hid his face and wept. His sobs shook him terribly [they almost shook the cra/.y building. They frightened the old woman, and set the policeman to rubbing hi* eyes with his curl's. The boy stood and stared for a moment, and then vanished. And what was the wretched father thinking ? So many thoughts that there are no words for them ; but first of all this horrible one—that that vile little object, that wretched child of the streets, was the darling for whom he had searched so long. " Better I had never found him," moaned the Captain, "or found him dead !" And just then a little hand crept over his knee. The thrill of hair was against his hand, and a piping voice said meekly, " Please, I'm clean now. I've washed myself." The Captain's swollen eyes unclosed. They turned upon the child. Somo (jueer knowledge of his father's feelings had crept, into his mind, and he hail tried to clean his face. A round white spot, appeared amidst the grime and out of it shone two beautiful blue eyes, that looked wistfully up into the Captain's. All of a sudden, a flood of such pitiful tendernessashehad never felt before swept over Captain I'enryn's heart. All the grief and shame and wounded pride left it, to come back no more. " Ellen's eyes," he sobbed; " I'llen's boy i" and took his son to his heart. " i'or his sake," ho said, softly, as through ho stood by the grave of the beautiful dream-child he had just buried —" for his sake and Ellen's!" And then he led the child away with him. In these days of trickery even a telegraph cable cannot he laid without a great deal of wire pulling. " Every cloud has a silver lining," and many a man wishes his poeket-book was a good-sized healthy cloud. Some genius proposes to introduce paper shirts. But a shirt made out of a story-paper would have too many sales. It is better that a woman should keep her stockings in repair than that she should know the origin of the rainbow. A man ran his head against a stone wall last week. The result of the race was that the stone wall was beaten by a head!

From the Boston Commercial Bulletin's answers to correspondents : —" Son-in law—Arsenic is the most certain. Put a little in her tea."

An Irishman, being asked for his certificate of marriage, showed a big sear on his head about the shape of a shovel, which was satisfactory. A farmer is opposed to railroads, lie says that when lie goes to town they „ bring him homo so i|iiick he hasn't time to get sober before he arrives." He is the greatest who chooses to dc right at all times. Your goodness must have some edge tc it: else it is none.

If you go on an excursion, and the seats are taken, stand up as long as you can, and then cry out, " Man overboard •" Every woman will rush for the rail. A married woman ran away with the proprietor of a menagerie the other day, and the bereaved husband tauntingly remarks that he doesn't know of anyone else in the world better qualified to manage her.

The New York Sun decides that the husband ought to get up in the morning and make the fire and if the Sun is able to make the husband do it there will be a revolution for society. Nobody will have any breakfast much before noon. Doctor. John Lindley states, in his work entitled the " Vegetable Kingdom," " The gates of Constantinople, famous forhaving stood from the time of Constantino to that of Pope Eugene IV., a period of 1100 years, were made of cypress pine." President: "We will take the ayes on the previous question." Member: '• A word or "twrj, Mr. President. Friends, Koreans, countrymen ' lend me your ears I" President: " Order, sir ! We will take the eyes and nose first." When he was a young man, he rushed into a burning building and gallantly dragged Iter out by the hair of the head. They wore married the next winter, and now she rushes in and drags him out by the hair of his head whenever she feels like it. Such is truo love. It is said to he a fact that every orchestra contains nt least two musicians with moustaches, one in spectacles, three with bald heads, and one very modest man

in a white cravat, who from force of circumstances, it may be observed, plays on a brass instrument.

A Scotch witness, somewhat given to prevarication, was severely handled by a cross-examining counsel. '•' By tho road it's twa miles." " Yes, but, on your oath, how far is it as tho crow flies '<" " 1 dinna ken ; 1 never was a crow." A I'ennsvlvimiuDutchman,who married his second wife tOOti after the funeral of tho first, wits viaitod with a two hours' serenade in token of disapproval. He ' ' ; '.-ally thus " f nv,

got ii> ne ashamed of yonrseUi to be makin' all dis noise veis dv Na* a funeral here so soon."