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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Times, 1916-01-06, Page 74 jam 217 6th, 1916 THE WINGHAIVI TIMES KeWeiWsewe Freckles. 13Y Gene Stratton - Porter 0.-----z----„..------- Copyright 1904, by Doubleday, Page & Co. w_go, laWiriennme isissewearestraj fie giving' iTte- baelraid: firotnise. Let me go?" "Why, Freckles!" faltered the angel. "You don't know what you are asking. 'Let you go!' I cannot. I love you better than any one, Freckles, I think you are the ye ey finest person I ever kpew, I have our lives all plarmed. I want you to go to be educated and learn all there is to know about sing- ing just as soon as you are well encergh. By the time you have com- pletdif your education I shall have finished college, and then I want," she choked on It a second. "I want you to be my real knight, Freckles, and come to me and tell me that you—like me—a little. I have been counting on you for my sweetheart from the very first, Freckles. 1 can't give you up uniess you don't like me, But you do like me—just a little—don't you, Freckles?" Freckles lay whiter than the cover- let, his eyes on the ceiling and his breath wheezing. The angel awaited SYNOPSIS. Freckles, a homeless boy, Is hired by Boas McLean to guard the expensive tim- ber in the Limberlost from tinaber thieves. Freckles does Ms work faithfully, makes friends with the birds and yesxns to know more about nature. He lives with Mr. and Mrs. Duncan. , —fie resolves to get books and educate himself. He becomes interested in a huge pair of vultures and calls his bird friendia his "chickens." Some St the trees he is guarding are 'worth 11,000 each. Freckles' books arrive. He receives a call from Wessner., Wessner aitempits to belbe Freckles to betray his trust, and Freckles whips him. McLean overhears them and witnesses the fight. Freckles' honesty saves a precious tree, Ile finds the nest of the vultures and li visited bv a beautiful young girl. She calls Freckles McLean's-Oh:Freckles calls her "the angel" and helps the Bird Woman in taking photographs. McLean promises to adopt Freckles. FR -ales ar-fa the -angel become verY friendly. Assisted by the Bird Woman, they drive Wessner and Black Jack, tim- ber thieves, from the Limberlost. McLean fears more trouble, but Freckle' insists upon being the sole guard of the timber. Freckles calla upon the angers father. 1E0 "Bled Woman ail-Vibeangiragaitt Tisk Freckles, and Freckles falls In love With the angel. The angel kisses him. Freckles is bound and gagged by Black Jack' gang, and the timber thieves start telling a very valuable tree. Wessner is to kill Freckles after the tree is stolen. The angel makes a daring effort to save Freckles and the tree. MoLean's men'notified by the angel, rush to save Freckles Ali the timber thieves except Black Jack are captured. "Is he dying?" demanded McLean. "He is," said the surgeon. "Ile will mot live this day out, unless some strong reaction sets in at once. He Is iso low that, preferring death to Ilre, mature cannot overcome his Inertia. If he Is to live, he roust be made to .desire life." "Then be must die," said McLean. "Does that- mean that you know -what he desires and cannot or will not, supply it?" "It means," said McLean desperately, "that I know what lie wants, but it is As far removed from my power to give It to him as it would be to give him a ,star. The thing for which he will die lie can never have." "Then you mnst prepare for the end very shortly," said the surgeon, turn- ing abruptly away. McLean caught his arm rotighly. "Look here!" he cried in desperation. ''You say that as if I could do some- thing if I would. I tell you the boy is dear to we past expression. I would .do anything—spend any sum Von have noticed and .repeatedly CO111111elltea On the young girl with me. It is that child that fie winds! Ile worships her to adoration, nod knowing he can never be anything to ber, be prefers death to life. In (lod's natne, what can I ,do about it?" "Barring that missing hand, I never handled a tiner man.' said the surgeon, "and she seems seelSeeize cletpted to Use MILBURN'S .LAXA-LIVER PILLS FOR A SLUGGISH LIVER. Mimi the liver becomes sluggish it is an indication that the bowels are not working properly, and if they do not move regularly many complications are liable to set in. Constipation, sick headache, bilious headache, jaundice, licartbtirn, water brash, catarrh of the stomach, etc., all (mite from a disordered liver. Milburn's Imita-I,iver Pills stimulate the sluggish liver, clean the coated tongue, avvecten the obnoxiotts breath, clean away all waste and poisonous matter from the eystem, and prevent as well as cure all complaints Arising from a liver which ha.s become inactive. Mrs. John V. Tanton, Itirnata. Ont., aritcs: take great pleasure in writing you concerning the great value T have received by using your Milburn's Laxa- Liver Pills for a sluggish liver. When my liver got bad, I woald have sevete head - Aches, but after wing a couple of vitas, I am not bothered with them any more." Milburn's Laxa-Liver Pills are 25e a vial, 5 vials for $1.05, at all dealers, or mailed direct en receipt of pike by The T. Milburn 01,,'Littiiied, Toronto, Ont. him,why cannot 'fib iiirce her e - "Why?" echoed McLean. "Why? Well, for a good many reasons. 1 told you he veas my son. You probably knew that he was not. A little over a year ago I had never seen him. He joined one of my lumber gangs from the road. He is a stray, left at one of your homes for tbe friendless here in Chicago. When he grew up the superintendent bound him out to a brutal man. He ran away and landed in one of my lumber camps. He has no name or knowledge of legal birth. The angei— we have talked of her. She has ances- tors reaching back to Plymouth Rock and across the sea for generations back of that. She is an idolized, petted only child, and there is great wealth. He sees it more plainly than any one else could. There Is nothing for the boy but death if it is the angel that is required to save him." The angel stood between them. "Well, I guess not!" she cried. "If Freckles wants me all he has to do Is to say so, and he can have me!" "That he will never say," said Mc- Lean at last, "and you don't under- stand. angel. I don't know how you came here. I wouldn't have bad you bear that for the world, but since you have, dear, you Must be told that it isn't your friendship or kindness Freckles wants; It is your love." "Well, I do love him." she said sim- McLean's arms dropped helplessly. "You don't understand," he reiterat- ed patiently. "It isn't the love of a friend, or a comrade, or a sister, that Freckles wants from you; it is the love of a sweetheart. And if to save the life he has offered for you you are thinking of being generous and pulsive enough to sacrifice your future —in the absence of your father it will become my plain duty, as the pro- tector in whose bands he has placed you, to prevent such rashness. The very words you speak and the manner In which you say them proves that you are a mere child and have not dreamed what love is." "I have never had to dream of love," she said proudly. "I have never known anything else in all my life but to love every one and to have every one love me. And there has never been any one so clear as Freckles. if you will remember, we leave been through a good deal to- gether. I do love Freckles, just as / say I do. I don't know anything about the Jove of sweethearts. but I love him with all the love In my heart, and 1 think that will satisfy him." "Surely it ought!" muttered the man of knives and lancets. "..ts for my father," continued the angel, "be at onee told me what he learned from you about Freckles. I've known all you know for vgiveral weeks. That knowledge didn't change your love for him a particle. I think the Bird Woman loved him more. Why should you two have, all the Brie perception e there are? My father is never unreasonable. He won't ex- pect me not to love Freckles, or not to tell him so, if the telling will save him." She darted past McLean Into Freckles' Nom, closed the door and turned the key. Freckles lay raised on a at love, his body immovable in a plaster cast, his maimed arm, as always, bid- den. The angel's heart ached at the change In his appearance. He seem- ed so tveak, so utterly hcipeless and so alone. She could see that the night bad been one long terror. For the first time she tried putting bete& In Freckles' place. What would it mean to have no parents, no home, no mine? No name! That was the worst Of all. That was to be lost, Indeed—utterly and hopelessly lost, The abgel lifted her hands to her dazed head and reeled ars she tried to faCe that proposition. She dropped on het knees by the bed, slipped her arm un- der the pillow, and, leaning over irreckles, !et her lips On his forehead. Be smiled faintly. "Dear Freckles," she said, "there le (dory in your eyes this Morning, tell me?' Freckle" draw a long, wavering breath. "Abseil," he beggeO, "be generous! Ile thinking of Me a little. I'm 80 ..litOrn Out, deo e angel, Hz LOVE YOU BETTER VIAN AwIt ONE, ennotrars." his answer a second, and when none came, she dropped her crimsoning face beside bim on the pillow and whis- pered: "Freckles, I—I'm trying to make love to you. Can't you help me just a little bit? It's, awful hard all alone1 don't know bow, *when I really mean it, but Freckles, I love you. I must have you, and now 1 guess—I guess maybe I'd better kiss you next." She bravely laid her feverish, quiv- ering lips on his. Her breath, like clover bloom, was in his nostrils, and her hair touched his face. . "Freckles," she panted, "Frecklesi I didn't think it was in you to be mean!" "Mean, angel! Mean to you?" gasp- ed Freckles, "Yes," said the angel, "downright mean. When one kisses you, it you had any mercy at all you'd kiss back, just a little bit. Now, I'm going to try it over, and I want you to help me a little. You aren't too sick to help me just a little, Freckles?' CHAPTER XXI. SEEXING A BIRTHllIGHT. HECKLES' sinewy fist knotted into the coverlet. His chin pointed cellingward and his head rooked on the pillow. "Wait a bit, angel!" he begged. "Be giving me a little time!" The angel rose with controlled fea- tures. She bathed hts face, straighten- ed his hair and held water to his lips. It seemed an age before he reached for her. She took his hand and leaned ber cheek upon it. 'Tell me, Freckles," she whispered softly. "If I can," said Freckles, in biting agony. "It's just this. Angels are from above. Outcasts are from below. You've a sound body and you're beau - Mutest of all. You bave everything that loving, careful raising and money can give you. I have so much Jess than nothing tbat 1 don't suppose .1 had any right to be born. It's a sure thing—nobody wanted we afterward, ate et course, they didn't before. $ome of them should have been telling you long ago." "If that's all yeti We to tell, Freckles, I've known that quite awhile," said the angel stoutly, "Mr. McLean told my father, and he told me. That only makes me love you more, to pay for all you've missed." "Then I'm wondering at you," said Freekles, in a voice of awe. "Can't you see that if you 'were willing and your father would come and offer you to me, I couldn't be touching the soles of your feet, in love—me, whose people brawled over me, cut off me hand, and throwed me Away to freeze and to die! Me, Who has no name just as much because I've no right to any,as because I don't know it When I Was little, I planned to find me father and mother when I grew up. Now I know me *mother deserted me, and roe father was maybe a thief and surely a liar. The pity of me Buffering and the Watching over me has gone to yoUr head, dear angel, and it's ine must be thinking for you. If you could be forgetting Me lost hand, where 1 Was raised, Mid that I had no name to give yea, and if you Would be taking mo ne 1 AM, SoMe day people such as mine Mita be Might COM° upon you, 1 tsed to pray ivory night and morning and many times tho day to tree me Mother, Now I only pray to die quickly and never rage 7 Heart Would Beat Violently. Nerves Seemed to Be Out of Order. The heart always works in eyrnpathy with the nerves, and unless the heart is working properly the whole nerve system is liable to become unstrung, and the heart itself become affected, Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills will build up the unstrung nervous system, and strengthen the weak heart, so that the sufferer will enjoy the v9ry best of health for years to come. Mrs. John N. Hicks, Huntsville, Ont., writes; 'I am sending you my testimony for the Lsnefit I have received from using Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills. As a nerve and heart builder they have done wonders for zne. At times my heart would heat violently, and my nerves seemed to be all out of order, but after using a few boxes of Milburn's Heart and Nerve i11s I feel like recommending them to others that they might receive benefit 'Is I did," Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills have been on the market for the past twenty- five years, and are universally considered to be unrivalled as a medicine for all disoreers of the heart or nerves. Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills are lidc per box, 3 boxes for $1,25, at all dealers or mailed direct on receipt of price by The T. Milburn Co., Limited, Toronto, Ont. your dear bead. ()h, do, for mercy sake, kiss me once more and be let- ting me go!" "Not for a minute!" cried the angel. "Not for a minute, if those are all the reasons you have. There are thousands of young couples who come to this country and start a family with none of their relatives here. Chi- cago Is a big city, and grown people could be wiped out in a lot of ways, and who would there ever be to find to whom their little children belonged? It's all so plain to me. Oh, if 1 could only make you see!" She buried her face in the pillow and presently lifted it transfigured. "Now I have it!" sbe cried. "Oh, dear heart! I can make it so plain! Freck- I les, can you imagine you see the old Limberlost trail? Well. when we fol- lowed it, you know, there were places where ugly prickly thistles overgrew the path, and you went ahead with your club and bent them back to keep theni from stinging through my cloth- ing. Other places there were great shining pools where lovely, snow white lilies grew, and you waded in and gathered them for me. Oh, dear heart, don't you see? It's this! Everywhere the wind carried that thistledown, oth- er thistles sprang up and grew prick- les and wherever those lily seeds sank to the mire the pure white of other lilies bloomed. But.. Freckles, there was never a place anywhere about the Limberlost, or in the whole world, where the thistledown Ideated and sprang up and blossomed into white lilies! Thistles grow from thistles and lilies grow other lilies. Dear Freckles, think hard! You must see it! You are lily, straight through! You never, nev- er could have drifted from the thistle patch. "Where did you get the courage to go into the Limberlost and face its ter- rors? You inherited it irom the blood or a brave father, dear neart Where Alt! you get the pluck to hold for over a year a job tbstt few men would Have taken at all? You got it from a plucky mother, you bravest of boys. You wad- ed single handed into a man almost twice your size and fought like a demon, just at the suggestion that you could be deceptive and dishonest. Could your mother or your father have been untruthful? Here you are, so hungry and starved out that you are dying for love. Where did you get all that capacity for loving? You didn't inherit it from hardened, heartless people vvho would disfigure you and purposely leave you to die, that's one sure thing. Yet you will spend miaer- able years torturing yourself with the Idea that your own mother might have cut off that hand. Shame on you, Freckles! Your mother would have done this"— The angel deliberately turned back the cover, slipped up the sleeve and laid her lips on the scars. "Freckles," she cried, "Come to your senses! Be a thinking, reasoning man! You just must see it! Like breeds like In ij13 vvorldl .You must LIINTOA,47 '..,,matariL,-1" aaitS,LL-.-AminueeMkaria Your Liver is Clogged up That's Why You're Tlred—Out of Sent—neve ae Appitite. CARTER'S LII TLE LIVER, PILLS will put you right in a feW clays. They do their duty. Cure Condi- Pee"' Biliaraness, Indigestion, ana Sitk IkadarAe. Siirall Pill, Small Dote", Small Price. Genuine must boar Signature anymerrinveuvemtmornmoevit be some 'Sort' of' reproduction ot your parents, and 1 ant net afraid to vomit for them, not for a minute. ".A.ncl then, toe, if more PrOOt 18 needed here it Is: Mr. McLean says that. you axe the moet perfect geu- tleman he ever knew, and ne as traveled the world over. Then there's your singing, don't believe there ever was a mortal with a meet- er voice than yours, and while that doesn't prove anything there is a point that does. Just the little train- ing you bad from that choirmaster won't account for the wonderful ae- cent and ease with which you sing. Somewhere in your close bleed is a marvelously trained vocalist; we every one or os believe that, Freckles. "Why does my rather refer to you constantly as being ot line perception, and boner? Because you are. Freckles. Why does the Bird Woman leave her precious work and stay here to belp look atter you? 1 never beard ot her losing any time over any one else. It's because she loves you. And why does Mr. McLean turn all or his valuable business over to hired men and watch over you per- sonally? And why is he bunting ex- cuses every day to spend money on yon? My father says McLean is fun Scotch close with a dollar. He is a hard headed business man, Freckles, and be Is doing It because he finds you worthy ot it. Worthy ot all we can all do and more than we know how to do, dear heart! Freckles, are you listening to me? Oh, won't you see it? Won't you believe it?" "Oh. angel," chattered the bewil- dered Freckles, "are you truly mean - lug it? Could it be?" "Of course It could," flashed the an- gel, "because it just isr "But you can't prove it," wailed Freckles. "It ain't giving me a name ar me tumor!" "Freckles." said the angel sternly, "you are unreasonable!" Why, I did prove every word I said! Everything proves it! You look here! If you knew for sure that I could give you your name and your honor, and prove to you that your mother did love you, why, tben would you just go to breathing like perpetual motion and bang on for dear life and get well?" A great light leaped into Freckles' eyes. "lf I knew that, angel," he said sot- emnly, "you couldn't be killing me It you felled the biggest tree in the Lim- berlost smasb on men' "Then you go rigbt to work," said the angel, "and before night 1'11 prove one thing to you; 1 can stiow you ets- ily enough how much your mother loved you. Tbat will be the first step, and then the rest will all come." Freckles caught her sleeve. "Me mother, angel! Me mother!" he marveled hoarsely. "Dia you say you could be finding out today if me moth. er loved me? How? Oh. arise!! Alt the rest don't matter, if only me moth- er didn't do it!" "Then you rest easy," said the angel, with large confidence. "Your mother didn't do it. Mothers ot sons like you don't do such things as that. I'll go to work ht once and prove it to you. The first thing to do is to go to that home where you were and get the little clothes you wore the night you were left there. I know that they are re- quired to save those things carefully. We can find out almost all there is to know about your mother from them. DM you ever see them, Freckles?" "Yis." said Freckles. The angel thornily pounced on him. "Freckles, were tbey white?" she cried. "Maybe they were once. They're all yellow with laying, and brown with blood stains now," said Freckles, the old note of bitterness creeping in. "You can't be telling anything at all by them, angel." "Well, but 1 just can!" said the an gel positively. "But how? Angel, tell me bow!" "Why. easily enough. 1 thouglit you'd understand. People that can af- ford anything at all, always get white for little new babies—linen and kieti, and the very finest things to be had l'here's a young woman living near its who cut up her wedding clothes to have fine things for her baby. Moth- ers that love and want their babies make fine seams, and twits. and put on lace and trimming by hand. They sit and stitch. and stitch—little, even stitches, every one just as careful 'Fbeir eyes shine and their faces glow. When they have to quit to do Some. thing else, they look sorry, and fold up their work so particularly. There isn't twirl) worth knowing about your mother that those little clothes won't telt.' A new tignt dawned in Freekies ('3 ('5 'Oh. angel; Will you go now? Will yen be hurrying?' ne cried. "Hunt away." said tne angel. "t won't stop fax a thing, and l'll hurry with all my might." She smoothed his pillow, straight- ened the cover. gave him one steady look in the eye% and went quietly from the 'MM. Outside the door, McLean and the stir,con anxiously awaited her. Me. Lean (-aught her shoulders. "Angel, WIRIt have you done?" he ti demanded desperately. id'he tinge] smiled de/intim "What have 1 done?" she repeated, i "I've tried to Save Freckles." i McLean groaned. I "Whet Will your 1 ePied. 1 "It !strikes Me." : "that IvIsett Greet:lea ! the Mitt." ' "Preckleel" burst out 1 "What eteald be say" ; "tat seemed to be able to Say Several i' thinge." &Sid the angel sweetly. "I fancy the one that eoacerila yOil Moat father stty?' he said the angel. said would be to McLean. onsimmaisimammummommimmint Children Cry for Fletcher's The Kind You rie,Ve Always Botight, and 'which has been ixt use for ever 30 yeas, has borne the signature a and has been made under his per. sonal supervision since its , 1..4e44" Allow no one to deceive you in this. All Counterfeits, Imitations and "Just -as -good" are but Experiments that trifle with and endanger the health of Infants and Children—Experience against Experiment. What is CASTORIA Castoria is a harnaless substitute or Castor Oil, Pare- goric, Drops and Soothing Syrups. It is pleasant. It contains neither Opium, Morphine nor other Narcotic substance. Its age is its guarantee. It destroys Worm and allays Feverishness. For more than thirty years it has been in constant use for the relief of Constipation, Flatulency, Wind Colic, all Teething Troubles and. Diarrheea. It regulates the Stomach and Bowels, assimilates the Food, giving healthy and natural eleep. The Children's Panacea—The Mother's Friend,, GENUINE CASTORIA ALWAYS!. Bears the Signature of In Use For Over 30 Years The Kind You Have Always Bought ,THK CCNTAUR COMPANY. NEW YORK OrrY. at areeint Was; that 'it my father would offer me to him he would not have me." "And no one knows why better than I do," thundered McLean. "Every day he must astonish me with some new fineness." He gripped the surgeon until Ile al- most lifted him from the floor. "Save him!" he commanded, "Save nlm!" be implored. "He is too line to be saerinced." "His salvation Iles here," said the surgeon, stroking the angel's sunshiny baits "and I can read in the face of her that she knows bow she is going to work it out. She will save him!" The angel sped laughingly down the hall, and into the street, just as she was. "I have come." she saki to the matron of the home, "to ask if you will allow me to examine, or. better stilt, to take with me, the little clothes that a boy you called Freckles, discharged last fall, wore the night you took him " The woman eyed her in greater astonishment than the case called for. "Well, l'd be glad to let you see them.' she said, "but the fact Is we haven't them. I do hope we haven't made some mistake. 1 was thoroughly convinced, and so was the superinten• dent. We let his people take those things away yesterday. Who are you. and what do you want with them?" 'The angel molted at the matron dazed and speechless. uThLe couldn't Inv° been a cols - take," she continued, seeing the girl's distress, "Freckles was here when I took charge, ten sears ago. These people had it all proved plain as day that he belonged to them. They had him traced to wisere he ran away down In Illinois last fall, and there they eompleteIy lost track of him. Pm sorry you seem so terribly disappointed. but it was all right. The man was his uncle, and as like the boy as he could possibly be. Ile was almost killed to go back without him. if you know where Freckles Is, they'd give big money to thid out." "Who are they?" stammered the an- gel. "Where are they going back to?". "They are Irish folks. Miss," said the matron. "They have been in Chl- 'Imo Mn itou *Nu witAT DO TOn 'WANT wpm Timm?' cago and ()Vet the Country for the last throe months, inoAqag hitt everywhere. They ha's given up and are ettarting honie- te0a3. Th.037"—. • ' "Did' they leaVe an address? Where could 1 find them?" burst in the angel. "They left a card, and I ootice the morning paper has the man!s picture, and is full of them. They've adver- tised a great deal in the city papers. It's a wander you haven't seen some- thing." "Trains don't run right. We never get Chicago papers." snapped the an- gel. "Please give me that card quick- ly. They may get away from me. I simply have to catch them!" The matron came back with a card. "Their addresses are on there," she said. "Both here in Chicago and at their home. They made them full and plain, and 1 was to cable at once if t got the least clew of Mtn at any time. if they've left the city, you can stop them in New York. You're sure to catch them before they sail—if you hurry." The matron caught up a paper and thrust it into the angel's liana as she rushed for the street. CHAPTER X X II. THE ANGELS GLAD STORY. HE angef glanced at the card. Tee Chicago address was suit 11, Auditorium. She laid her band 013 ber driver's sleeve. "There's a fast driving Una?" she asked. "Yes, miss." "Will you crowd it all you can with- out danger of arrest? 1 will' pay well. I must catch some people!" Then she smiled at tdm. The hos- pital, an orphans' borne, and the Audi- torium seemed a queer combination to that driver, but the angel was always and everywhere the angel, and iser ways were strictly her own. "I will get you there just as quickly as any man could with a team,* be said promptly. She clung to the card and paper, and, as best she could in the lurching. swaying cab, read the addresses over. "O'Mores suite eleven, Auditorium." '"O'More,'" she repeated. "Seems to tit Freckles to a dot. Wonder if that could be his name? 'Suite eleven; means that you are pretty well fixed. Suites In the Auditorium come high." Then she turned the card and read on its reverse, Lord Maxwell O'More, M. P., Iiilivany place, County Clore, Ireland. "A lord manr' she groaned despair- ingly. "A lord man! Bet my hoe cake's scorched!" She blinked back the tear e and, spreading the paper on her knee, read: "Alter three months' fruitless search, Lord O'More gives up the quest for his lost nephew, and leaves Chicago todny for his home in Ireland." She read on, and realized every word of it. The likeness settled it. It was Pretties over again, only older and elegantly dressed. There was not a chance to doubt. "l'inink you; and wait. 00 matter how long," she said to her &leer. Catching up the paper. she hurried to the desk and laid down Lora 0'N1 ore's card. "llas my uncle started yet?" she nsked, eweetly. The snrprised elerk stepped back on a bellboy, and covertly kicked him for tieing in the way. "His lordship Is in his room." be said, With a lOw bow. The clerk shoved the bellboy toward the anget. ,stiew tcar ladyShip to the elevator' and Lord °Mores suit." he NO. bowing double. At the bellboy'S tap the door swung open and the liveried etrirant thilast * card fro Wore thi angel. Th)3i CONTINUED.