XIV.
SCENES FROM EVERY-DAY PRACTICE.
| “History, so warm on meaner themes, Is cold on this.”—Cowper’s Task. “Let no one say that his task is o’er, That bonds of earth are for him no more, Until by some kind or holy deed His name from forgetfulness is freed; Until by words from his lips or pen, Dying, he’s ‘missed’ from the ranks of men.” Alice Lee. |
THE BEGGAR BOY AND THE GOLDEN-HAIRED HEIRESS.—MY MIDNIGHT CALL.—THE CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN MOTHER.—“OLD SEROSITY.”—THE ILLEGITIMATE CHILD.—DEATH OF THE BEAUTIFUL.—WHO IS THE HEIR?—A TOUCHING SCENE.—FATE OF THE “BEGGAR BOY.”—THE TERRIBLE CALLER.—AN IRISH SCENE, FROM DR. DIXON’S BOOK.—BIDDY ON A RAMPAGE.—TERRY ON HIS DEATH BED.—THE STOMACH PUMP.—BIDDY WON’T, AND SHE WILL.—THE BETRAYED AND HER BETRAYER.—“IS THERE A GOD IN ISRAEL?”—THE HUSBANDLESS MOTHER.—THE CRISIS AND COURT.—ANSWER.—THERE IS A “GOD IN ISRAEL.”
Ill-clad poverty, benumbed with cold, was abroad alone, exposed to that winter’s night, as the white snow fleeced the frost-hardened ground. But never mind earth’s cold bosom. The rich man’s heart warms him, making him merry, however blows the wind or rages the storm. Shiver, shiver on, beggar poor! Starvation and sense-dulling cold alone belong to you.
Through the crunching snow-drifts trudged a weary boy, with alms-basket on his shivering arm. From his figure, he seemed not over ten years old; but his face was so wan and melancholy, that it was difficult to tell how many year-blights the beggar child had experienced. Summer clothes were still clinging to him; a tattered comforter was the only winter article he wore.
