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4 (1010) t fi k $
Family F
WHICH OMR WAS BRAVE.
A ibcuy and a girl and their big dog, Prince.
Started to Auntie's one day;
They had not gone far, when close by the fence
They spied a cow in the way.
Said the girl to the boy, "Come, let's run back,
I'm afraid in the road to stay."
But the boy said, "No, I'll give her a whack.
And then she will run away."
So on they went with quickened pace,
And seemed so happy and gay;
When the cow raised her head and looked them in
the face;
Oh my! how they ran away.
The boy went over the high wire fence,
The girl went under, and they
Lieft still in the road the 'big dog Prince,
With his tail just wagging away.
With big solemn eyes that blinked in the sun.
He watched them as if he would say:
When my two brave friends have had a good run,
I hope we can go on our way.
Hugo, Okla. ?Mrs. C. C. Anderson.
HOW THE STRIKE ENDED.
Paxton stared unseedngly at the wintry pano
ramu that rushed past the train windows, his
thin, serious face set in harsh lines, for he was
thinking vindictively of the business that
awaited him at Paxtonville, where eight hundred
obstreperous laborers had savagely arrayed
themselves against his authority.
Some of them had given him cause to avail
himself of legal measurers, and he intended to
punish them to the fullest extent of the law,
which would mean untold hardships for their
families during their prison detention.
Paxton had no thought to spare for the Indigent
families, however, for he concerned
himself absorbingly with his own personal
losses and the protracted anxiety that the
strikers had caused him.
Suddenly his grim thoughts swerved from
his own troubles as his glance fell upon a
queerly-dressed girl of fourteen or thereabouts
who entered the coach half carrying a little boy
whose wasted, crooked frame was unable to
support its own weight even with the help of
the crutches with which he tried to make his
way.
His face was ghastly pale and thin, and bore
the gaunt impress of suffering; yet it held a
strange, inexplicable radiance that seemed to
emanate from some hidden spring of joy.
They took seats directly in front of Paxton,
and now and then fragments of their conversation
drifted back to him, by which he learned
that they were on their way to visit their
father.
A rarely good lather he must be to inspire
such worshipful adoration as that which the
little cripple revealed, thought Paxton.
He thought, also, of what lay before the little
boy with his warped, pain-racked body and
his all-too-apparent poverty, and contrasted
his lot with that of his own favored, indulged
physically perfect boy, with a resultant pity
Lhflt. wrtnld havp Mstnniahorl hia anllpn pmnlnv.
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os; for to them he was not a normal human being,
but a vast relentless, grinding force that
transmuted their dull toil to gold.
At Paxtonville the two young travelers made
ready to leave the train, brimming with timid
eagerness that showed unfamiliarity with
travel.
RESfeYTEHIAN 6 T $ A ? 6 6
leadings
Paxton leaned over and touched the crooked
shoulders, saying:
"You liad better let me help you a bit."
Then he stopped, and lifted the wasted form
in his arms, and carried it carefully to the little
platform of the station.
"If you please, sir," said the girl a little
anxiously, "would you tell us the nearest way
to Miners' Row.
"Oh, you mean the mine settlement?" said
Paxton. "To what particular part do you wish
to go?"
"To the cabin that Mr. Knowlton lives in,"
was the answer. "Mr. Ben Knowlton. He's
our father, au' we've come to stay with him for
a spell."
At that instant the millionaire's thoughts
Hashed back to a turbulent scene in which a
grhn-faced, determined miner had defied his
employer and his money openly, in consequence
of which Paxton had instantly made a
charge of lawlessness against him, which resulted
in his arrest and banishment to a Philadelphia
prison to wait his trial.
The man was Ben Knowlton, one of the acknowledged
leaders of the labor agitation,
which had disclosed Paxton's vast coaling industry
to the extent of an enormous loss of
profits. Paxton intended to "make an example"
of Knowlton as a warning to his associates.
"Why, I'm very sorry," said he in a low
voice, "but your father is not here at present.
The company sent him away. He didn't send
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As he spoke the light died out of the boy's
wraith-like face, and a look of unspeakable
weariness settled there. "Oh, Betty, what'11
we dot" he asked plaintively.
"We'll go right to pa's shack an' stay there
till he gets back," said the girl bravely. She
turned a grave, anxious face to Paxton.
"Could 1 find out just when pa'11 be back?"
she asked.
"I will try to do it for you," he answered,
turning away hurriedly. But the girl followed
him to the far end of the platform, quite out of
her little brother's hearing, where she laid a
timid hand on Paxton's sleeve.
"Ben don't know how bad off he is," she
whispered. "Pa don't know neither, 'cause
he ain't seen Ben since he got out of the hospital.
The doctors said he wouldn't never get
well."
Her voice broke off in a dry sob, which she
instantly smothered. "He may go jest any
day, an' that's why I'm so anxious to git him
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iu wiierc pa is. audi lviary was awiui gooa
to him, but she ain't like pa, you know. I
want Ben to be with pa when it happens."
"I understand," said Paxton, after a difficult
moment, during which the memory of his
darkest hour rushed back to him, when sudden
death had threatened the life that he
loved above all things on earth. Perhaps
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way.
"You take Ben into the waiting room, where
he won't be cold, while I try to find out about
your father."
He hurried away down the blackened slope
of the hill that led to his coaling yards, where
men in brass-buttoned coats sauntered in readiness
to suppress the threatened outbreak of
the fuming laborers.
He entered the yards alone, contrary to
tJ T t September 4, 1912
cautionary habit, and went straight toward a B
gang of sullen-faced men who stood ready to
break into open riot at the slightest provocation.
He felt the tenseness of the situation
keenly, and braced his tingling nerves to meet
the ordeal.
"Men," said he, "Ben Kinowlton's young
daughter is down at the station with her little
crippled brother, whom she brought here to
die?with his father. The boy is all but gone
now, but I'm ready to try to get Knowlton released
in time, if possible. What 1 want you to
do is to see that the children don't find out
about Knowlton in the meantime. And will
one of you please go down to the station and
take charge of the children?"
There was no immediate answer. Among
that vagrant horde were men whose hatred of
Paxton and his millions amounted to a mania,
men of elemental passions grown savage thru'
Old World oppressions and New World misapprehension,
who would gladly have killed
Paxton and trampled his soft-clothed body underfoot,
had they not feared the far-reaching
arm of Ajmerican law.
The unexpected demonstration of human
goodness in a man whom they believed to be
without a single saving virtue struck violent
astonishment to their inflamed minds.
iou mean you re gom to let ruiowlton go
free?" blurted out a brutal young Slav.
"As soon as possible. I shall take tjie first
train to Philadelphia. And meanwhile please
see that the children are well cared for, will
you?"
"You needn't worry yourself about that,"
was the non-committal answer.
"Thank you," said Paxton, courteously.
Then he hurried away.
He was gone longer than he had expected,
for he encountered several unlooked-for obstacles
in the way of Knowlton's immediate
release; but in the end he and Knowlton returned
to Paxtonville toward noon of the third
day, having previously advised Betty Knowlton
by telegraph of the time of her father's
arrival.
The mine owner went directly to his coaling
yards, where he at once became conscious 01
a vast change, for the place resounded with
cheerful labor. The long-unused engines hissed
on their tracks, and the creak of the hawsers
mingled with the continuous rattle of coal that
slid from the overloaded chutes. Order prevailed
everywhere.
A few of the busy laborers gave him a word
of greeting as he passed them; others merely
glanced from their work in a cursory way
that bespoke a friendly consciousness of his
presence.
"The Lord only knows what happened,'
said the superintendent, in answer to Paxton's
eager question. "All yesterday something was
brewing, and there was a great deal of talk
among the leaders, especially at night, when
they gathered in the neighborhood of Knowlton's
cabin. This morning every man of them
reported for work promptly at seven, as peaceful
and cheerful as you please. Blovitski, the
troublesome Slav, said the fuss was all over
and things would run all O. K. hereafter. I
believe he meant it, too, though I can't imagine
what brought about the great change."
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instant what had wrought the change that all
his wealth and power and authority had failed
to effect.
One little deed of human kindness had set
to rights the dislocated machinery to those rebellious,
vindictive hearts that had plotted all