Roxy Hastings — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

ROXY HASTINGS, 15 motion next year, and, at any rate, you are not going to sell newspapers.” | “If it is really so distasteful to you and your mother, Laura, I won’t do that, of course, but I must do some- thing.” “Do nothing, father, more than you have been accus- tomed to,” said the widow. ‘‘Read the papers; read your ‘books; smoke your pipe; take your nap and be comfort- able. You are too old to work.” “ And it is for us to bear the burden and heat of the day, now,” added Laura, patting him on the shoulder. The major, as the old gentleman had been called for forty years, having once held that militia rank, did not reply to these persuasions, but the next day he was missing early from home, to which he did not return until late in the afternoon, when he came back much fatigued, and on being questioned as to where he had been, he would only reply, with a smile, that he had been “looking around.” A second and third day he was absent in like manner, and after being long importuned to tell his secret, he said: “You know that I was a printer when I was quite a young man. I have not forgotten my trade. I am employed at the Herald office setting type, and you’ll see at the end of the week that I have earned something.” He seemed much pleased, and his daughter did not fur- ther dissuade him, except by exacting from him a promise that he would not go out on rainy days, or when he felt — unwell. That evening Charley Lee returned home the very pic-. ture of woe, and the effect upon the little familv was as if a storm-cloud had suddenly descended from the sky and enveloped the house in its murky folds. A reflected gloom gathered upon every face. “What is the matter, Charles?” asked the frightened mother. ed “Discharged !” said the young man, dropping into a chair, and turning his face away from his questioners. It was some minutes before he could say more, or before any had the heart to question him further. But his mother asked at last, with a choking voice and impeded utterance : “Hor what cause, Charles?” “T took another hundred dollar counterfeit bill yester- day, in some scoundrel’s deposits, and the bank has to lose it. We did not find it out till to-day, but this is the second time, you know, that I have done it.” | = comicboo cS (ele)