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Show t I s:..t ;' ucr yoiee a:..e. but i .- ;v.r! AXIs'S iLv-; U'3!iXU i;v i i.iZAnrrii c. sinrtii-iN. A-La Avkac' 'iL:ne:? 'A - AA : . h .-. six n:.jnti:s at .one place, a. t the years. The distress of tae l.t,;t-.; where ho was now ;:v;::g 1 rwv.ght to the door of his room a pile t f c'.oan. wars! clothing', and spoke to 'Aiow. Mr. Roberts. I want to see yea go Gx yo'se'i up nice and aeutc-el i:w.aro some things I'vo been get-tit.' get-tit.' ready 'gainst Ann come home. J-.ts: do yo' best to look spry, and IU -,j::l eld Ancle Josh in to trim yo' hair LA- murmured his thanks, his lit-nds snaking as he took the garments. "iJon't mention it. Mr. certs." site wort cm, conning into the ro- :.n to poUe t!:o dying' Are. "I'm not forgo-A::r' tnat 'A:e child started away from this i: trust". I can't help thinkin' about her. Site was svt2h. a peart little creature when she away. An' now you say she can just pick up and play anything she wants to." She looked at the old man to etnpha-slre etnpha-slre the remark. lie turned one trern-ub. trern-ub. r.s hand ever the other slowly, and :-jt:ld think of nothing else to say than "Yes." lie was iong'ing to cross to the matt-tel-pieee and take a draught from the -:-ot:at. brown bottle which stood there. Then he would be able to answer, .yet he know he must not drink to-day. Sirs. Jackson saw the glance of desire, ami foil constrained to speak, her voice deepening under tho consciousness of solemn advice. "Oh, pray, Mr. Roberts, don't touch a drop. It would make Ann ashamed, indeed, to see her father in drink today." to-day." It vexed him to think Ann was coming com-ing homo to a shameful father; Ann who used to love him, faults and all, as no one else could. If he could only free his tongme from its paralyzing dryness. Lis bent head and folded hands suggested a humility that almost al-most turned Mrs. Jackson from her mission. '"Ann, you know, is not the same t-hild she was. She is a young lady now, an' expects to find her father different from -what he was. I don't reckon she can stand havin' bottles anywhere but on the sideboa'd, trained up as she's been by anyone as strict an' set in their wajrs as yo' sister. Now, don't yo' reckon so, too?" "Yes," he assented. The remembrance remem-brance of his sister came into his mind and brought with it a sense of .self-abasement. But he inwardly repudiated re-pudiated any thought of change in Ann. . When the door closed a man walked toward the fireplace, feeling as he went that he was bowed and shabb3-. A glance in the wavering' surface of his dim shaving mirror confirmed the sensation. sen-sation. Shaggy gray hair stood out around a lined face, ruddy naturally, red now, and glazed from exposure and .drink. He stood pulling at his loeks, at one minute deciding that they needed to be trimmed, at another striving' to recall how he looked when Ann went away ten years ago. He could not remember. No need to recall re-call her face. It was before him every instant. But how did he appear in her eyes? Was he as degraded; as disheveled? di-sheveled? Were his hands as rigid; as scarred; were they ashesitating-; or had this come to him during the ten years? And Ann, duriug' the ten years, had been ascending till she stood like a. star above him. ller letters showed him that. He bad one in his hand now which be opened and looked tit, striving striv-ing to put together the unkempt, motherly little child he had known, and these clear cleg-ant characters. lie turned resolutely to dress, and fought clown his feeling. The clothes were, fiesli and well-fitting' ar.d he could not help thinking that he looked more "gt iiteel," as Mrs. Jackson said, in the white starched shirt and dark trousers. A rap sounded upon the door, and, closely .following it appeared ap-peared Uncle Josh with the implements of his trade lie gave an. cbscouious laugh. "La d A'inighty, Mr. Pohbuts, suh, 1 'clar I didn't know you. You look so young." "This hair don't look so young, Uncle .Josh. I reckon you'll have to give if a right good cropping-." "Dat's so, suh. 'Fears lak ha'r dose days tit us gray mighty soon." "Seems to me like I've be n go-ay all my life Was it 'his gravtcu years ago?" "Xo, .-ah. ansve-ed tint old uoi'i o, e:::ph:it:eul!y. "When MAs Ann was sent r.r ay yo' ha'r was as b.a-.-k us! coal.' Ho f icVcd Am tr" clarot;i,i tb-r- ck of tho vie tiir and ,- r.s runt: 1 : ;. bis o.n- L'uc!" A..A o .o v. .-AikA-i ho; a:.d -:"' ' '' 'I hoard, h, , :.:- i::.od - - - iG :: ,w cm:A ..o'thc -' l',.- ";: o-- the r -r.A is so 'hat ' 11 in a loos;- rail A,.-.- K-. , p. A - :,- I:-. :-. As ,io:. . 'A , kt.-o -A ..'. liit'o do t do sin All. 'ca -o de laolios cyan't bar it. ; an i soke's M:ss Ann am iaex oo res' o' kooriul now. suh, mighty keorftt': MAs Ann is a town lady now. A-u I rAways ! hvar tell what ve'v delicate noses dev has." . The operation was complotety over , now. and the barber stood a waiting k:s I pay. a bronming" glass of whisky from tho familiar bottle. As he drank to Miss A::ne's health, he regartA-d h:s I by a .r-Aamirig white iine just above ' one car ar. d olasoered down unon to.e I - , - "tore ilea. L in soo.optng waves. .'.o, ...e i tack of f'.ie head was another part. ; from which the hair was brushed j briskly atray on either side. The ef- extreme; but Uncle Josh loottcd upon . it as a work of art. II:s parting ro-j ro-j mark was to beg his model not to "muss it "fo" Miss Ann comes." Robc-rt d . lined his waistcoat and coat and walked to the wiudow. The trees on the horizon were lea'les- and black, but an afternoon haze sof toned their iron outline. The im-usts below in the yard stretoncd bare boughs, and the rose bushes had only stems to show aftor all their summer wealth. Among the dry brown leaves, which were shiftlessly left it: drifts, the hens scratched industriously. A line of ducks, contrary to orders, were mareh-: mareh-: ing across fire greensward on their ! way home after a late swim. Just be-! be-! low the window, propped aprainst the I great chimney, lay Turk, his broad bull neck upon-his outstretched paws. He was peacefully dreaming- in the austere warmth which the afternoon sun afforded. The man felt the chill from his drenched head. It crept downward and rendered the stiff shirt unbearable. Now it readied his heart and awoke despair. Everyone, even the old negro there, warned him that he was unfit ; for Ann. He had always known it, but he had hoped that their love met above and annulled the unfitness. How long he stood leaning against the window frame in mental numbness he did not know, but when he looked around the fire, had died out and the sun was half below the inky horizon. Ann would soon be here. He could not face her, the strange daughter whom he did not know. With trembling, burning fingers, fin-gers, he tore off the new clothes he had put on an hour before, and dressed himself in his ever3'day garments. They were rough, unbrushed and disreputable, dis-reputable, yet he welcomed them, lie felt that he was himself again, the outcast out-cast wdio worked long enough to buy ' whisky; who begged food, shelter and clothing-. He had dreamed of deliverance deliver-ance from without; a deliverance lie was too weak to effect within himself, which should be brought about by sympathy, companionship and protection. protec-tion. But the dream was over. He was only s drag- and a disgrace to the young lady Ann had developed into. He opened his door and crept down the stairs and across the hall. His fingers fin-gers rattled the knob of the door so uncontrollably that he feared some one would hear, and he halted, expecting a summons to explain. No voice questioned, ques-tioned, however. He- stepped out on porch, thence to the lawn and softly whistled to Turk. The animal bounded joyously around the corner of the house, leaping and fawning about his master. . The two struck westward across the lawn, and, as he went. Roberts Rob-erts heard the sound of a window-thrown window-thrown up and a voice crying: "Mr. Roberts, upon my soul: Mr. Roberts!" He gave no heed, but plunged into the orchald, f-teling- the cold eening air, and seeing- through the black twig's of bushes and trees the vivid thread of scarlet justabo'se the horizon line of woods He had a stick' with him, and thrust into a pocket of bis coat a bcAtle which he had seized from the mantel. As he went on anil the. eveion;. fell darker, and Turk walked ahead more sedately he could not- keep w enk tears from his eyes. He did not know what they wove therefor. Sometimes they seemed fo bow at the picture o.f bim-self, bim-self, lonely, homeless, without pdace or worth, tvatideritig in darkness, but mostly obey rushed unhid. lo." at, the thought of Ann, his little Annie of ton years bad;. To his 'hizod mind she seemed cb.ad, and he mourned over her as he would over a dead, chi'd J!o-.v she used to shield him' Vbon ho lay-weak lay-weak front his drunken sttipots, mind: here was warmth and an tinoydne: then he v.rcnch.od the bel'lo from hi pocket arid Hung' it far in'o the darkness. dark-ness. Ue listened to the faint crash, and sat m .-ct for a few mirr-tc--. A f'or awhile !f folded bis arms and ' ested Ids head, upon tlmm "I'll go presently." he real r.i nia. d. ; heavy vGA dro:o.i.t..-o. Tn -Ao- of I the bito"- cold sh-' I'Soem.-d bo'o-'. t .y near trod grnGfoi He b ,.--.0 in snaichos. now and again recovering com c:oe s--.---s. "It's 1 tAr for re,' le ictor'O.o. "it's bott, r for her. si. 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