Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1888 — AUNT KATE. [ARTICLE]

AUNT KATE.

Being a boy, and onlv 15, of course I could not be expected understand trouble very well. - But Aunt Kate was just the brightest, happiest little woman l ever saw beforemother died. She was a teacher, and I knew that many of the little comforts about her home came from her salary. Oh, blessed' Aunt Kate. But mother died one day. Such days and nights of sorrow as followed her death I pray heaven we may never be called tb suffer again—Aunt ' Kate and I. She kept up bravely while people came and went and tried to be sorry for her, but when they were all gone then she crept up to the room where mother lay, and I sat dumbly staring into the darkness, and she fell down on the lounge and lay there bo still I could scarcely tell which figure was furthest from life. Poor Aunt Kate! When the sad funeral was over and we sat together in the twilight, silent and still, with our' hands clasped, as thongh we fain comfort one another, a man walked in unannounced, " through the shadows, and sad down near us.

It was Mr. Avtown, from the neighboring village of Oak Station. He had often been to our house before. I knew lie came to see Aunt Kate, so I shrank away behind the window curtain, laid niv face down on my arm, and was soon, 1 suppose, fast asleep. I woke at last, with my arm aching, and heard a low sound ol voices in the room. “I can not give you up in this way, Kate,” the man was saying. “Let me, at least, share your cares and burdens until you can reasonably lay them aside.” Aunt Kate’s voice was very calm and low as she. answered him:

“No, Francis; right is right. You would naturally grow weary of responsibilities that were not your own. But my sisterls children are mine henceforth, and there are secrets in her life, transmitted now to mine, which I can not even share w ith you. Please do not make my path harder than it otherwise would be, by importunities which I can not answer.” There was silence for a time, and then the man said, bitterly: “If you loved me, Katherine, you would not talk in that way.' * not.” Aunt Kate's voice was lower, almost 'a whisper. “I am sorry to make you feel badly, but “You think I had better leave nnd you do not wish to tell me so. . It that all?" “That is all." “Kate—if you need a friend —and I can serve you—will you let me know?” “Yes.” I wondered if lie kissed her; I could not see through the gloom; but after he was gone a great sob struggled up to her lips, and again she fell down like one in a swoon. She went to work in a few days at teaching, and every hour when she was out of school she used to write and write. 1 knew her pieces sold and that she wanted more time to give to them. But the drudgery of school life held her and she could not escape from it. Slowly. slowly ilnTwas weannTgdut T waiifed to help her. I studied night and day. Lwanted her to let me leave,school and go to work, but she begged ;me so hard to stay in school, because father might come home, and he would not want to find his boy ignorant and broken dow n with work. At last I grew desperate.

I listened when a liard-faeed mail, who often came to the house, was talking with Aunt Kate, I heard about debts yet to be paid and legal trouble to lie settled. Then I made"up my mind, and the next morning, when Aunt Kate went to school, I started 08 to find Mr. Avtown. I had a long search, but I found him at last. He had moved his store to another town, thirty miles away, *and was livitfg like-a hermit, or a misanthrope, all by himself. I was glad of that. It would have been so much worse if he was married, you know; hut I walked into the store and called him by name. He did not recognize me at all, but I told him who I was, and he looked at me under his wrinkled eyebrows and said; “Did she —your aunt - send you here?” “No, sir,” I answered, promptly, “she did not knew I was coming, but sheds working too hard and I want to help her. Now, if you will take me into your store and give me $5 a week I can take care of Kittie myself and you can take care of Aunt Kate. See?” .ae laughed a little short, hard laugh and said: '“lt is not so bad, your trying to take care of yourself, boy, but your terms are

rather extravagant and I doubt if you could stay here anyway. Docs she want you to leave school?” ■ “No, sir. She wants me to finish 'my education, so when father-eomes home 1

can go to work with him.” “What!” he said,sharply. **l thought your father was dead.* “So I thought,” I answered him, “and so does nearly every one think, but I remember now that mother did not think so. She was al ways watching for .lum, and Aunt Kate knows more about it (TrnlTsbe says. I expect bo went away and left a lot of money to be paid, and thosewomen thought they could pay it, and then he would coiftfe home.” , “You have some queer notions,” Mr. A. said, and then he asked me a lot of questions about my father and grandfather, and about mother, too, and Aunt Kate, and then he went to his desk and took opt some paper, and said: “Here! take these home to your Aunt Kate. Tell her that it was her pride that keptiue from understanding lutr position all this while.; that I never intended to injure anybody, and if she wants to seejn.e she hasjyalyto write.” _ “Arid you will not give me $o a week?” Tasked, for I was awfully disappointed. He laughed again, a pleasanter laugh

this time; and saidr * r " ' • “Ask her.” So I went home and gave her the papers to read, and she cried and cried and said: “My brother—my dear brother—and all the while she was glad, she said, though she still kept crying. At last Mr. Aytown came without being sent for, and they talked a long, while. It was about some papers that had been intrusted to somebody, and father lost them and was afraid to own it. It was something about the bank where Mr. Aytown was president, and the papers were found and brought to him, and lie put thern~away and said nothing, and father went away and lived in fear, expecting a lot of trouble, and Aunt Kate kept it all to herself and wouldn’t say a word. Wasn’t she a brave little woman. And—father came home, very sad and troubled, grieved beyond all words that his home was broken up and his wife goiw*=from his sight forever. He put his hand on my head and said: “Isl have erred, my boy, I did It for your sake. I could not bear the thought that disgrace or even suspicion should rest ujion the father of my child.” I" said: “Poor father, yon have had lots of trouble, but I think we will work ‘ together after this.” ' And so there was a wedding at our house one nigkt. The parties were Air. and Mrs. Aytown, but the bride was dear Aunt Kate.

Liquor for AtVica. Am. Messenger. Mr. Joseph Thompson, the wellknown African traveler, states that the civilized people are pouring into this unhappy country incredible quantities of gin, rum and gunpowder, and affirms that the evils of rum trade are far greater than those of the slave trade ever were. -Rev. James Johnson, the 'native - pastor of the Island of Lagos, which is the key to the Yoruba country of the west coast, and has a population of 75,000, says that this country lies at the mercy of the traders of Europe, who are flooding it with drink. In South Africa the official report is that 101 natives were killed by brandy drinking in two months of ISS3. It is stated that natives of the eastern seaboard are being slowly destroyed bv the rum traffic of England. In ISO 4 Great Britain sent 662,328 gallons of spirits to Western Africa, and Germany sent 8,136,203 gallons. At the same time America sqnt 921,412 gallons. The natives w ho are in authority protest against the importation, but have no power over their people to compel them to.let drink alone. In many cases the natives themselves "have begged the English or. Colonial Gavermuent-to give, them protection in vain. Ought not all Christian nations to combine in the interest of our common humanity to prevent the wholesale destruction of a race who have less power than other races to restrain their appetites?