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Show : A FATHER'S REMORSE. (Written for the Inte'rmountain Catholic.) Cath-olic.) "Flowers, six for a nickel, roses ten for a. quarter," was heard near the Carrollton Hotel at Baltimore. The vender was a girl 10 or 12 years old. She had once been beautiful, and might be so again; but she now had a pale care-drawn face,-and a look as of one poorly fed. There were indications on her cheek that she had been struck; j one thought it likely that her home was one of quarrels, probably of intemperance. intem-perance. Still,- her sweet voice piped up a little ditty she had composed, and which pleased her. I , "Pinks and roses I Make pretty posies." "To smpll iih nnn " hroke in a merry newsboy near by. who thought it fair game to tease her by piecing out her composition. "There are some Jacuqes." exclaimed a lady to her husband, hus-band, "and we might get them now to take to the Church as a little offering offer-ing to the Sacred Heart, and we can patronize this little miss." "Yes, they are just the thing; nothing like jacqueminots jacque-minots for the altar, they keep so well. Do you have many of these roses, little lit-tle girl?" "No. lady; I can't generally afford, to get. them. But somehow, I sold a lot of pinks, and a boy came along with a bunch of these, and he sold them to me cheap." "Glad you did. Here is your money." "Let us take all she has left, Cecilia." "All right." Little Agnes Noonan watched them with a smile as they turned beyond the corner to the Church of Saint Alphonsus. But she looked wearily wear-ily at the great bunch of pinks, and w omiereti u tme eoum ever -sen mem before they would wither. An hour had passed without another sale; in sheer desperation, she planned to go to the stores to dispose of. them. She passed a saloon, one man in the doorway bought a dime's worth, and called out to the bartender that a few-flowers few-flowers 'would make a more attractive counter. The bartender seemed to think so and bought some, giving the pale-faced child two dimes and a nickel. The nickel had a hele in.it as if pierced with a punch. She bought a couple cf bananas, a penny bun, and Johnnie Tracy a newsboy, treated her, to a 2-cent cup of coffee. "I say, Jake" (Jacob A. Hagarman. who was a bachelor) said Mr. William P. Farrell a married man, (both of these gentlemen were staunch Catholics), Catho-lics), "don't it stir up something in your heart to see that poor girl dressed in that way? See, her two shoes are different; dif-ferent; and such a hat! It is too bad to put the weeds of ugliness on a young girl. I say. old boy, I'll buy her shoes and a hat, if you'll buy a dress for her; what do you say?" "I'd do it as quick as a wink," said Jake, the man appealed to, "but it would do no good: her father is not an ornament to society, as he used to be; and he would strip her of those very clothes we might buy for her, to buy liquor. How- I hate the demon- drink! How it transformed Tom Noonan! Time was when he was better bet-ter than the average. Why he was at one time a good practical Catholic and moved in the best Catholic society; but urinK nas macie mm a orate, tne oniy way we could help sissy is to give her something he can't take away." They agreed and arranged for her dinners for two iweeks- at a restaurant near by, and made the arrangement plain to her. She had good fortune for this day, and her half-drunken father gloated over the handful of coin the girl- brought home,- mentally wondering wonder-ing how many drinks he could get out of it. Suddenly he stopped. His look was, on the bored nickel. "Here, you young one!" he shouted, "where did you j get that nickel with the hole in it?" ! "I don't remember, papa; somebody gave it to me," said the frightened child. "Come here, I say! How dare you! I'll teach you to steal out of my pocketa and then lie to tae you" And the trembling girl full in the face, not the finst, but . the" hardest blow he had ever struck her. The mother ran to the felled child. "Oh, you'll encourage the brat in stealing and lying!" shouted the man to his wife. It needed only the glance of one in her senses to see what an in-OCTliricihlii ininrir tViof Krnfol him,. 1 had inflicted. The seal of the father's ring had struck and torn the child's eye. Tom Noonan Avalked up to the bar that night and called for drink. From his 1 andful cf coin he picked out two nickels, one of them the bored nickel, for two reasons; first, because it was disfigured; second, because he did not feel like keeping it; he was half ashamed of . that blow on his child, though he laughed at his wife's cry that he had cut Che child's eye out. "Ha!" said the bartender, "bad penny soon returns. That's quick work, anyway. any-way. What do you mean, Hanley?" "Why, I gave that bored nickel to a little, lit-tle, flower girl today for some pinks. See, here they are." "You did?" gasped the father. "Sure's you're a sinner," said the bartender. The father set down the liquor and rushed out. A cry escaped him; a mighty anguish was upon him. In remorse he rushed along, straight on, uiiui lie came iu o. Vincent s Church, where a mission was going on conducted by the Redemptorist Fathers and a Father Stuhl was just preaching on intemperance. Tom Noonan was so affected that after Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament he called to see one of the fathers and said: "I want : to take the pledge." He asked the Father I to pray for him and his family. An hour and a half later Tom Noonan, -in anguish as he. bent over his child again land again' kissed her, moaning: "Oh my child! my child! I have, this evening even-ing at St. Vincent's church, given my promise to God and man never to drink-any drink-any intoxicants as long as I live. Little Agnes in her terrible pain clung about his neck and said. "neVermind mv it I've got my father back." And more than once during the following dreary-weeks dreary-weeks to the father's remorseful, pitiful feeling, Agnes would say: "An eye isn't too much to give to God to have my father back again." The good wife and her child Agne never omitted a single clay in giving thanks to God for restoring the father to the fold of. the Church; they recited the Rosary every day in thanksgiving to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and His Mother, the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary. Ro-sary. These were the roses they placed at the feet of the Holy Family. . I will here state that Mr. Tom Noonan Noo-nan attended all the sermons of the Mission in progress at St. . Vincents Church, he made a good confession and from that time, became a good Catholic, a good husband and a good father,-. This is a true story of the grace 6f God. |