Beautiful but Poor — page 129: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

a “or | 7 _ i a “se 7?" » 3 a 2 i al & e Ape aaa) Ph ae i hd = ean et. =a — = t 4 4 « - i bs a . * a “ y 120 BEAUTIFUL BUT POOR. heaven on earth for me, when its gates were wide open. ‘“No beverage but that sparkling drink, which the hand of the Father gives to man for his good, has passed my lips for these three long years—water, blessed water, has strengthened my brain and piven health to my body. ‘‘And now, confident in myself, I would go back and redeem my errors—go back to claim the hand which had long, long ago been mine but for mine own sin. Why will she not bid me come? Ihave written three times, and have told her I am free from the chains of the demon now; that I have | wealth enough to satisfy all reasonable desire, and she has only written: ‘It is not time—perhaps you do not yet know yourself.’ ‘““Ah! could she but see me in this solitude—here where I have lived alone so long—not a visitor, for I have kept my claim.and home a secret when I went to the nearest post station, and no one has ever dared to pass the chasm below, which cuts off this last habitable spot in the gorge. They have not learned my secret, or they might come, for the greed for gold makes men dare all dangers. “The sketch I sent her she received. ‘Here i is the single line she sent in answer: | ““The picture of your ‘‘Home’’ is here. God. help the lone one to keep his promises.’ ”’ And the young man wept over the letters he held in hishand. At last: he aroused himself. ‘Once more I will write to her,’’ he said; ‘‘I will tell her how, apart from all men, visited by none— for none can reach me till they know the secret of my path—I have worked and waited, waited and worked. oe Comicbook: Y