Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1883 — Brought Back. [ARTICLE]

Brought Back.

The New York Tribune gave last summer many instances of the effect of the pure influence of the country upon the poor little city waifs who were sent there through its agency. None of them were more touching, however, than an incident which occurred a couple of years ago. A kind old farmer who brought his butter and poultry into one of the markets of a great city was touched by the haggard, appealing face of a young woman, who sometimes bought a trifle from him. “Have you any family to support ?” he asked. “No, none; I am quite alone,” was the reply. “You look miserable. Come out with me and stay a day or two. My wife will make you welcome.” The woman, who had probably npt heard a word of genuine unselfish kindness for years, stared at him, astonished, and then half consented. When she turned away, some of his neighbors at the stalls told him £hat she was a woman of the worst character. “I can’t help that,” stoutly said the Quaker. “She is one of God’s creatures, and she is dying for something which I can give her.” He took her home, and kept her for a couple of weeks. Nothing in the wretched woman’s behavior would have betrayed her character while she was in the farm house. She was humble, submissive, anxious to help in the work of the house. She seldom spoke, but crept out constantly to sit on the grass beside a stream beyond which stretched a mountain range, looking at the trees, the open sky, the cloudy heights, with eyes full of unutterable sadness. At the end of the time she returned to the city with but few words of thanks. A week had* scarcely passed when she came again to the farm-house door, and sank down exhausted, having walked all the way in a driving storm. “For God’s sake,” she cried to the farmer’s wife, “don’t drive me away! If I can stay here, I can be a human being and not a beast! There’s something in the country that makes me feel as if, after all, I was like other women. ” The good Quakers took her in. She lived but a few months, but in, that time, through their teachings and that of the sweet splendor of Nature about her, she came closer to Him who revealed Himself long ago to the penitent Magdalene.—Youths’ Companion.