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The Herald, 1912-07-26, Page 2,o rTHF \i• OR, WHAT THE THRUSH SAID. , d CHAPTER I, I was horn at Halesowen, in the Black Country. My father waS a chain•maker, and I worked with him from the earliest time I can remember until the day of hie death. Hewas an ignorant man, violent in temper, and given to drink. Every Saturday he would come home half ;mad, and would thrash me without mercy. Sometimes he would thrash my sister also; hut he never neglected me, and I was glad to get into a coal -hole, er any other place of refuge, when I heard his step, Many a time my sister erept upstairs to the garret to console me after he had waled me all over with the buckle -end of his strap. She used to sit on my bed, and take me in her arms and cry over me; and if she could find a crust of bread or a cold potato she would bring it to me, pressing me to eat it, while she whis- pered such words of hope as her simple heart could prompt. We had no mother. She died in child - bed, and I only know of her' from my sister's telling. My sister (Weer/bed her as a little frail woman, silent, and sub- missive to my father, though his evil ways and evil passions rendered her very unhappy. Only once did my mother re- sent his violence, and then not on her own account. It was on Sunday night, while my sis- ter was still a child. My mother, who was very religious, sat at the table read- ing her Bible, when my father came home in one of his most fiendish humors, and cursing her for a canting hveoerite, threw the Bible into the fire and struck her in the face with his fist. My sister, seeing this, ran between them, sereaming with terror, and tried to push my father away. Maddened with drink, he seized the child by the hair, and lifted his heavy hand to strike her, when my mother sprang up, snatched a knife from the table, and laid his eheek open from eyebrow to lip. He drew back then, and taking up the poker threatened to beat Thor to a jelly: but my mother put little Aliee behind her, and swore that she would ,send the knife through his heart if he moved an inch forward; so, eursing her my father staggered out of the house, and did not come back for a month. He never struck my mother again, but after her death he. seemed to wreak his spite upon p us. We. led a miserable life. From six in e morning until nine at night my sister Corked at the nail -making, and I helped ley father in the smithy. Nearly all my father's wages went in drink or gamin - and the few shillings Alice earned went the same way. so that we never had clothes to cover us, nor food enough to feed our growth. I have seen my sister take off her only under -petticoat and sell it to buy a piece of bread for my supper. I have known her to walk a mile to the eut side after ten at night and sell a basket of empty whisky bottles for a Piece of coal, when the frost was lteen and never a be of fire in the grate. And once when I had been down with a low fever, and was ervtne from weakness and want of food, she ,jumped up suddenly, kissed me, bade me be patient for a lit- • tle while. and went out, She came back in an hour, and brought me some white bread and a small hunch of grapes. I can remember that oceasion as if it were a thing of yes•.erday. Alice, kneel - .the on the hearth 'with her arm around me, and holding up • the grapes between me and the fire, so that I ;night sec the c light whine throteglr them; and I,,'with ray ,ite;:Ld'?r1. iteB.tiv..;'. out, "Is there onybody at whooam?" And Alice said "Yes." And then the woman asked, '"Is yowre Will wakken?" And Alice again said "Yes," upon which the woman said, "Coom alit; I've soomut to tell thee, wench, and I listened at the window and beard her say, "Ahm reit sorry fur thee, wench, but we conna fend sich things. Theer'R been a row at th'. Black 'orse tap, an' one o' th' follies her stabbed thee feyther, and 'e's deead." Ile was •dead, Thev brought him home after the inquest, and he was buried in the little smoke -grimed graveyard beside my mother, May he rest in peace! Save ape as he was, and cruelly as he used us. he was my father; and he knew no better. CHAPTER II. Father being dead, we had to give up our cottage, and my sister, as brave as ever, went out to service, and sent me money out of her poor wages. I went into lodgings with Black Jack, and soon found that I had lost a bad father and found a worse, The next six years of my life may be soon told. Hard work and ill -usage in the smithy by day and hard fare and ill -usage in the home by night. Amongst all my workmates I had not a single friend. My sister had got from me a promise that I would neither drink nor gamble, and I kept my word, and was despised and hated foleit. Day after day, and year after year, abuse and blows were showered on me, so that I. grew up silent, sullen, and bit- ter. I had never been to school, I could scarcely read or write, I had no compan- ions and no pleasures. Indeed, the only motives I had in Iife were to please my sister and to become a man. Ilow I could please or repay my sister I had no idea, except by stolidly bolding to my promise. What I was to do when I was a man I had no idea, except that I was determined to give Black Jack a thrashing. The hope of this righteous net sustained me under a thousand trials. I prepared for it with the secrecy and cunning which my friendless and solitary life had made my second nature. Every Saturday night I walked to a village a few miles away, where I was unknown, and took lessons in boxing from a groom who had been a Pugilist. Every evening after work I went down by the canal and wrestled with the colliers' }ads and bargees. These exer'- eises, added to the eons ant training af- forded by my use of the sledge hammer, caused me to develop rapidly into a lithe, active, and clever athlete, with muscle: of brass and sinews of steel. A dozen times a day I pinched my wiry arms and thighs, and thought of the reckoning that Black Jack would be called to on the day when I was twenty-one. No one sus- pected my design. How often soever I was insulted, cuffed and kicked by Black Jack. or by other lads, I never retaliat- ed, for I would not show my strength, and the latter being used to me, and growing witb me, hardly noticed my growth, nor did Black Jack seem to give the mattes' a thought. A boy I was when I was bound to him, and a boy I was until I wits, turn'd twenty, when a curi- ous thing occurred. It was one day in the heat of the sum- Imer, when the labor in the chain weeks mes almost past endurance, and even the keenest and the strongest are compelled !to rest at times, and I was strolling along near the railway lines during the dinner # hour, when I met, a gentleman and a ledge I think I noticed them first of all because: of their unnattu al cleanness. The e'en el truant, s a tt It 'hendsome tend, tdlrt ;. Olint o ab:ea nfie• '?if fine• ustid to- Tidwell and ••eonfldent in his own strength. The lady was as bright, as dainty, and as delicate as the lilies. she Carried in her band- I stared at her as a savage might have stared at her; but of course I was a savage. When they Dame close to nie the strnn- gers stopped, and the gentleman inquired the way to the railway station. I pointed out the way. It was very hot, as I have said, and the sweat was running over my blackened skin. I never knew before how black it was, nor bow low I was, nor how coarse and ignorant I was; hut I knew then, and when the lady looked at inc I felt ashamed to be seen. It was a peculiar look. She raised her eyelids slow- ly. and her large, dark eves seemed to shine with iucreesing light, reminding me of the sun when he gradually lifts his face above a cloud. For a second she looked at me in this way; then, as she Passed on, I beard her say; "Poor fellow, how hot and tired he seems!" Give him a shilling, Braida," said the gentleman. The lady turned half round, and say- ing "No; perhaps that would offend him," held out to me one of the lilies which she earrfed• I took it awkwardly enone:h from the little gloved hand. over whirls a bright gold bangle hnd seemed almost to the thumb, and I would have id "Thank you," but my tongue seemed hrod to my teeth. Anhey had cso orn ihey nto 11 andnt LeftInc stand ne shamefaced and silent, with the spot- ess lily in my grimy fist,. What was I to do with the thing? I could not take it into the smithy; the en would have laughed me to scorn. I diel not Pke to throw it away. It was line for me to go hack to my work. I turned the flower abnut and abotr:•, nd the more I looked at it the more bit- erly I felt the contrast between myself nd the gentleman who had just passed 0erhapsl she was called sis er,� I thought; and then I remembered my own sister, nd her homely face, and ugly froth, and ig, misshapen hands. and with a sudden repulse I flung the lily over the railway enee, and went back to my work. But though I had thrown the flower way I could not forget it, nor the strange weet gaze of the lady who had given it me. As I swung the huge hammer y mind kept running on. x thought of grow; I thoughtofwhere wherecsuch ladies lived; I seemed to realize for the first time that thee was a world outside our smithy yard, that there were green fields, and clean streets, and gentle and gooscowled round somewhere. drudg ng, swarthy counterparts of myself who toiled and sweated there amongst the glare and reek, and I thought of my past life, and all its miseries, and of the future which had nothing to make it bearable but re- venge. What aro you waiting for?" I asked myself, until "What are you wait- in- for? What are you waiting fore What are you waiting for?" became a kind of tune to hammer to. ideaintomy eminditI'' hammered a every other idea out of my mind, and as I eraduaily settled to my resolution my strokes fell slower, slower, and at last Black , Jack broke ordered titneensirike srasterr . ofr he'd fell me. But instead of striking faster I held the hammer poised for a moment above nay head, and then, turning very slowly ntoha h it with cinders several of away Black Tack straightened himself up, and let his 'hand -}rammer lie upon the eicethtne bible, wbile he stared at me with great mouth gaping wide, and his bleary felloweastarting thnexut t two his fies also •.'terrier croueleed, ssnorfng, with his broad black muzzle on his paws, I tried to eat the grapes, but my throat was too sore to swallow them. My lax muscles aelied and quivered, every hone of my body was sore, and I could feel each separate rib as my rough shirt fret- ted it: 7 was light-headed, ton, and full of Birk fancies, sn that at one time I thought the doe was swelling to a mon- strous size, and then began to cry out that the dead mother was tapping at the window. Years afterwards I saw a child upon a dhiartfare and tl e ague in with limbs, and • I Melted hint up and took him to my , lodgings, and nursed him for many' weeks. I did that more for my sister's 1 sake than for his or for my own. If 1. Imo, h ands amongstQthe chosen sister She was a perfect woman, and the great God, who made the west wind and the brier rote, never made anything mere worthy or more sweet than 'he, On the night I speak of she had gone down to the drink- ing den where my father sat amongst his savage mates-- drunkards, gamblers, child - beater', and wife -heaters all—and had leaved her way into the reeking tap -room to plead for me. My father had eurscd her for an Wein- sa dent slut, and had threatened to 1111 her e. else- with red-hot renders; but the land- lady, odious, lewd woman though she t was. griming in. cried shame upon the crowd of brutes and cowards, and OfPer- l ing to break a quart jug over the skull of any man who would lay a hand on the wench, had given my sister the bread m and the grapes and sent her home. Ruch was the life we led, until I was t turned fourteen, when I was bound, or rather ,cold for a Ballon of beer, to a a ehain•ameth called Black Jack, as an ale t prentice, at With the men at Telson's works one jug m of ale meant many. On the night of my :p apprenticeship my father and his boon companions held a great carouse, which ended., as was frequently the case, in a i 1i quarrel and a fight. That is another night I shall never for- get. Alice and I eOwered together in the dark beside the empty orate, and listen- ed fearfully for the sound of my father's lc heavy foot. We heard the church clock to strike twelve, and one, and two, and yeti m he threeoaewolnameopened the door quarter n called th A SHIER DRINK WHICH STRENGTHENS A delicious summer drink is iced Bovril. Mix a spoonful in a reed split soda water. This is both cooling and strengthening. Cold bouillon served alone or with toast or crackers is an exquisite afternoon refreshment. Make a quantity of Bovril with boiling water in the usual manner and cool it in the ice box, Many hostesses are serving this bobthyhtauyrillsisTeeswao always in the 1 lb. bottles. These are by far the most eronomieel, being retailed usually at $1,75, and contain eight times as much as the bottle usually sold itt 35c. We will gladly send on application a very useful leaflet on invalid and genera] dietetics, which explains why Bovril aids digestion and enables you to absorb the full nourishment from Yee Address: Bovril t. Limited. 27 St. Peter At , A/entree! •',steeped, ,and looked ,1,1 prise. I folded my arms' ah,. Jack with a, smile. "Ne, ins his look, "not alnather finished. I will never again for you, You d Black Jack threw d and came round to m v iL "Tak' oop that the "or I'll kick thee while aht." I could laughed out At last I had him; he reach. 'Jack" I .said, sort of half shiver in me "Jack, if you are man Your hands np, hold the That did it. Jack mad face, I expected it. I hit ago how I was to meet it.- with the right, I feinted with edged in, He swung his floor me, and then +! rove h straight in his teeth, with alb 'six years' training, and all, six years' persecution behind %t It was the only blow I had the thttnn to deal him. Ile dropped like a poleaxed bullock beside his own anvil, and tale blood gushed from his mouth in p,"streete The other men ran up to lass scathe- aece, and a . dozen of them surrounded me with menacing looks. But this' also I had promised myself. 'Now,Mee," X said with a sneer. • "this is my holiday, Width of you'll step out into the come -yard for a round? Come, now, you ,know me. Take that black pie away to Inc. stye; and then I'll flgbt' any six of- you, one down and the other come on." ttor, an - hep tlesepli my ed .tt tiny irH it anti ck to " •tight' e of e of I believe they thought I was mad, and so I was, in some sense. But at any rate they did not molest me, and so' I, threw my cap amongst them and. "calling them. "dirty curs," walked slowly. across the yard and out at the gate into the road. When I got into the road, I looked once at the soot where the lady stood to nave me the lily. and then turned any :face to whe hich I maiutainedl fpr hours, Inded, Pace. do not think I stopped at all until' I had zone more than thirty miles. It was then about ten o'clock at night. I botfght a loaf of bread, and went into a roadside ale -house, where I got lodgings for the night. CHAPTER. III. The ale -house where I slept stood 'on the outskirts of a pretty hamlet between Ban- bury and Pinkney. I lay late,' and the July sun was well up in. the sky before I had finished my breakfast of brown bread and milk and taken the road again. I went slowly at first, being °stiff and drowsy; but the sweet air soon ,revived me, and the thought that I was quit of my old sad life made me feel quite cheer- ful. I had alr'et dy got quite clear of the Black Country, and my road lay through green closes and wide fields of standing corn. The cottages along the highway were clean and bright, with flowers trained over their lattices, and pigeons fluttering above their thatched roofs, and in the trim gardens before them the broad -faced sunflowers and flaunting hol- lyhocks made a brave show. Better to die here of hunger, I. thought, with the scented elder flowers above and the dais}ed Tress below, than to live for a century of brutish slavery in the .,coke and sulphur of the chain sheds. Meanwhile, as I was walking, it 'voted be well to decide upon some cour.ae: and whither' should I go but to Lond,'i So turning south-east from Towcester ilalcls, I took the road to Buckinehani, (To be continued,) VOINNAAAAAANNOVVVVVIV‘. OW 1 ,ittI Child's Pryer l • ! % �Z- _'_ ' Av 4Vii•• tee7rri L'a0 for you, by touehing your hand, would be en untruth. I Pan only add, I wish the duel 'had not been postponed; -1 am a•dead shot—you would have falien, and ;hen she would have been free," As he spoke he: tented on his heel,, and in so doing etumbled and fell, discharging the rc'! elver whlts' he still held in his hand; and. in an instant the red lifeblood was fjoviing from a wound in his temple. .tell that human aid could do was done to save Dr. Ross by the surgeon, who was fortunately on the spot,• but, without "Is it death?" he whispered. "Yes," 'answered the surgeon. Tho wounded man beckoned Esmond to him. "Forget and forgive the words I have just uttered, as you wish to be forgiven," he•murmurod, with difficulty, whispering; "I have a•last prayer to make you, you will not refuse, she will not refuse, she is so kind and good. Remember, I am dying." If there is anything, Irene or I.can do for you, rest assured it will be done," an- swered Frederick Esmond, gravely. • "It is only this," murmured Victor Ross, dust is pride and mya hauteur closhumbled eath, to lhe et them rest on the face that has been my load -star through life. Plead with Irene to come and kneel beside me. It will be but a few fleeting moments; it can do her no harm, and I shall drift to the shores of that unknown sphere—in peace." turn to London, where he had Buffered so 'much, "I have closed the villa, locked your apartments and thrown the key away," he said. We will leave them to the dust of years. The world is wide; we can make for ourselves 'a beautiful home elsewhere, and commence life anew, And in that new life," he . added, "we will make a solemn compact to have no secrets from each other. All that we have undergone might have been spared if you had trust- ed me at first, Irene," • A certain court proceeding which had boon duly filed was taken quietly from the docket, therefore never came to trial, Thus, the bonds that united. Irene and Frederick Esmond, happily, were never severed. The services of Nannette +ere di,rensed with, she was pensioned and sent away, Frederick Esmond could not endure that any one should be around him who knew of that dark epoch in their lives. On piokiug up a London paper one day, they read of the marriage of Dr. Lennox and Jessie Reynolds, Marie Montalti, the Italian woman, who came again in search of Mrs. Esmond, and ran across her while travelling, mak- ing another appeal to her for money, was met by Irene's husband, who threatened lier with being summarily dealt with if she did not leave the country 'at once, which she was only too glad to do when she found out the exact situation of affairs, The Duchess of Hoath often heard from You. will do this, Irene?" said Esmond. Irene. Bright, crispy, newsy letters they Without a word she took her place he- were, but always containing this one sen- tence first and last: How happy she was in the love of .her husband and little Ruby, often declaring Frederick was more fond of her than when he was only Miss Middleton's lover. The duchess would close the letters with a smile, murmuring, "I am glad Irene is so happy. Ah well, what more content- ment has life to offer than perfect love. Without love, life is a dreary waste, a desert. With love, it is a paradise on 81 the dying man in the long rush grass, and whispered holy words to him, pray- ing that Heaven would receive him through the beautiful gates that were standing ajar. He heard, and the look of gratitude in his eyes she never forgot. His last prayer was granted; he died, looking upon the beautiful, noble face he had loved better than anything else in this norld. That very day Frederick Esmond took his wife and child travelling on the con- earth. tinent. Nothing could induce him to re- THE END. pfi, i efhind ew a a n etter. feeeetAfietezWeesekileeesetteessetAfeeetztketel CHAPTER XXXVITB--(Cont'd) Esmond hurried forward alit; held out his hand to Victor Ross. "I 'tense wronged you, Dr. Ross," he said, manfully, "and here and now I beg your Pardon most humbly, for it. Will you shake hands?" No," returned Ross, bitterly. "You and I aro hitter enemies to the death, Fred- erick Esmond. You have woe, from me the Only woman in this wide world whom I have ever loved or ever shall love. To pretend that I have a feeling of:•friendship 5 in this` o nd eld ackag sk gour Or ceraboutit CANADA SUGAR REFINING co. LIMITED. eiOyTRE,W //00 /D rilMe /DDD/O/D/D00/DD////D/DDD/D/i//D///./, e 47 r 9 n tes ///�D/DDi%D/ /257/ f://'/ " // um root cellar like this won a prize last year. THE drawing was made from a photograph of the root -cellar with which D. A. Purdy, of Lumsden, Sask., won a cash prize in last year's contest. In that last contest there were 36 prizes. • There will be three ,�%DDDDD times as many prizes (108) in the 1912 FARMERS' PRIZE CONTEST THUS you will have three times as many chances of winning a cash prize. You do not have to use any certain amount of Canada Cement to win a prize. There are absolutely no "strings" to this offer. There are twelve prizes for each Province (three of $50 ; three of $25; three of 15; and three of $10) and you compete only with other farmers in your own Prov - and not with those all over Canada. to difference whether you have ever used cement. Many of last year's winners recd it until they entered the contest, When you write for full particulars, we will n' o,• a'book, What the Farmer Can Do With Concrete," which tells everything ow about concrete. It is absolutely free, and you are under no Canada Cement or to do anything else for us.name r3 you at oaceresi on the clic book and on. n small lt, or use letter or post card. and particulars of the 1912 Prize Contest, Address Publicity Mwvutree cr CAH UA xted Herald Building, Montreal 504-554 ///1D/D/l/D,y//,/l/ rte'=�'t®r"'I1.Wi��• CONSERVING SOIL MOISTURE. The damage directly attributable to drouth represent an enormous annual loss to farmers. If we wou devote more attention to the work of conserving soil moisture' durin the spring and early summer, th summer drouths would be far les destructive to our growing crops. There are few seasons when ther is not sufficient, moisture to matur good crops if• proper methods ar einployed .in handling our .soils s that the moisture will not bo los through evaporation during the psi mary growth of the crop. The growth of crops should no be, retarded at a time when it i within our power to provide them with moisture. The average farmer begins every spring with an average supply moisture in his soil to supply t crops through a rainless seaso but on most of our farms the lac of drainage and indifference to t conservation of moisture redu the yield of crops. .After ,the soil moisture has bee allowed to evaporate we are pow erless to provide a new supply fol the crops that have been robbed Summer drouths can be avoided i no other way than by improvin the water -holding capacity of th soils and shaping the methods o tillage and cultivation so that w may prevent the loss of the mons ture with which they are saturate at the beginning of the season. On many soils underdrainage i necessary and will produce won derful changes in the character o the soil. It improves its action to ward heat, light penetration roots, and the implements used i the preparation and cultivatio and stimulates bacterial actio which we are just beginning to a predate as an important factor soil fertility. On the Farm BENEFITS OF SPRAYING. For the purpose of showing t farmer and fruit grower how might save that part of the api crop which is usually sacrificed insect and fungi, most excellent periments were made during entire season by the Kansas lege of Agriculture, the college- going into the field and persona carrying on the work of sprayir The results of the spraying w uniformly good, and the owners the sprayed orchards were rr pleased. The following splendid results this work are valuable to farm and fruit -growers in Canada well as Kansas, for they demo strate beyond a doubt the helpfu ness of spraying. Commercial results from seve widely= separated orchards, inclil ing both commereial and home type and composed of the varieties o apples recognized as standard i Kansas, carefully sprayed showec an average gain of four bushels i actual yield of merchantable fru; per tree, or 37 per cent., compare with untreated parts of the sam orchards, Not only was the actual and rela- tive amount of merchantable fruit materially increased, but the aver age percentage of number ones an number twos, which are the high priced. grades, was also increase by fifteen per cent. and 6.6 per ten respectively. The average net profit fro spraying was shown to be $1.62 per tree, or $97.20 per acre when the fruit was sold as orchard run, and to be almost doubled when proper- ly graded and. marketed. All seriously injurious insects and fungous diseases have been marked- ly reduced and most of them have been made almost negligible. Prepared lime, sulphur plus arse- nate of lead has produced the best results on apples subjected to Bor- deaux injury and nearly free from apple blotch, while Bordeaux mix- ture phis arsenate of lead gave best results on varieties attacked by ap- ple blotch. ,p ACCEPTED THE APOLOGY. An Irishman was going along th road when an angry bull rushed a him and tossed hiin over a fence A The, Irishman, recovering fro his .fall, upon looking -up, saw t bull pawing and tearing up t ground,as is thes custom tam of the an• mal when irritated, whereupon smiled at the animal' and said, it . was not for your bowing an scraping, and your humble apol gies, you brute, faix, 1"should thin that you'd thrown me over thi fence on purpose." Le for ma tion to ear oha fors mat T by 91411 say chs nor die' anx na 1y ex ext ro le' rim ep rhe neer of 1 ,vh nu; tea he. etc ib 111' Ti ut 1/ nt at al. r d ,A1 en in tiv Ip s Pa its issi tel Ur1 fF e4 1n Fa end Were Veto prow 'A.ust ent: atiol rimni YPe Pe cienl [eau se les Dun uake rolls wa stn t. ode r to n. 111'1 lti n tits The g th rs, they h eeks, our ess f he ev End re, own rock. 'with lel ithhe InIng." fr rr (Wail hen y Ce tha When 1cperie. xperie