110 



THE AMERICAN BKE-KEEPER. 



April 



him in. Fcr er, moiher aud obild came 

 close to hiiu ii'id gazed at the pouderuus 

 hamrcer wj.n vouderiiig eyes. You 

 would have i.-gued th, t the sight of the 

 child would have softeued the cuuvict'.s 

 heart aud brought tears to his eye^, bu^j 

 it did not. Ir brought a feeling of ujad- 

 ness, of desperation, of *reuzy. To save 

 a wonjan froui a brutal beating at tljo 

 bands of a drunken, \vorthle.-s thing nur 

 fit to be classed with men he had struck 

 a blow. 



A jury had called it murder iu the 

 second degree, and he \vas here in pris 

 on on a sentence almo.st never eudnr^. 

 Be had been wronged, and the kuowi 

 edge of it fired his heart aud broug.ic 

 the long expected outbreak. "With a sud 

 deu cry which startled every one in the 

 noisy shop Big Tom made a spring for- 

 ward, seized the child in his arms, aud 

 there was a shout of defiance on his lips 

 as he held her at arm's length a; I 

 glared about him. The mother of \\vd 

 child gasped for breath and staggered 

 back to the wall aud sank down. Th3 

 father stood staring, as if struck dumb, 

 but presently held out his bauds iu si- 

 lent supplication. Big Tom gjowerod 

 Hud muttered iu reply. He was a con- 

 vict, a childless father. He was dead 

 to his child — she was dead to him. He 

 could not make another father's heart 

 ache and throb aud grieve as his did, 

 but he would secure revenge. 



After mutteriug he was silent. No 

 one cried out. Guards and convicts were 

 seemingly stupefied. There was the hum 

 of machinery, but not of voices. Con- 

 victs turued from forge and anvil and 

 bench aud lathe and held their brearb. 

 The two shop guards leaned forward i;i 



their chairs and looked and looked, but 

 they did not move or cry out. 



"What will he do with the child?" 

 The two men work;ug at the trip 

 hammer with Big Tom had falleu back. 

 He had control of the mach neiy which 

 worked it. The answer to t'le question 

 could be read iu his eyes. Men bad 

 wronged him under cover of the law. 

 He had beeu deprived of liberty, de- 

 graded and disgraced. Death were more 

 merciful than such a sentence as his, 

 and in dying he would secure reveuc:;e 

 A piece of irou had been left uuder The 

 hammer. There was heard the sound of 

 crash ! crash! crash 1 as the mass of iron 



rose and fell at regular intervals — that 

 Bounded above the monotonous hum of 

 the machinery. 



"He will thrust her under the ham- 

 tnerl" 



So thought each guard and each con- 

 vict — so thought the father, whose feet 

 seemed chained to the floor and whose 

 face was whiter than the dead. One of 

 the guards could have touched a button 

 and signaled the engineer to shut off 

 steam, but he did not move a hand. 

 Either guard had a fair mark to shoot 

 at, but their pistols were not lifted. Up 

 and down — up and down went the ham- 

 mer, but suddenly the belt was thrown 

 over on the loose pulley and the mass 

 rested on the anvil. It seemed to those 

 who looked as if they had been looking 

 through a mist — such a mist as rises 

 from earth of a summer morning. It 

 seemed to them that this mist thinned 

 out — cleared away before the influence 

 of a rising sun, and by and by they saw 

 the child nestling on Big Tom's hairy 

 breast, one baud smoothing his cheek, 

 and seeming to come from a long dis- 

 tance off they heard her childish voice 

 saying : 



"No, you wouldn't hurt Nellie — you 

 wouldn't hurt Nellie! What makes you 

 cry? Have you got a little girl too? 

 Won't they let you go home to see your 

 little girl?" 



And the couvicts advanced step by 

 step, and the guards crept forward, and 

 lol Big Tom's tears were falling as he 

 bugged the child more tightly and kiss- 

 ed her fair hair and rosy cheek. There 

 ■was silence yet — silence as he walked 

 to and fro aud wept and sobbed and 

 lifted the child till she could clasp her 

 tiny arms about his neck and rest her 

 cheek agaiust his. Not a whisper among 

 the convicts — not a move from father or 

 mother or the guards. By and by Big 

 Tom placed the child in its father's 

 arms, wiped the tears from his eyes on 

 the sleeve of his striped jacket, aud 

 with a "God bless the little darling!" 

 and a "Thank ye, sir!" he returned to 

 his work, aud the hammer was lifted 

 and held in waiting for the hot iron to 

 be placed on the anvil beneath. 



The guards motioned for the other 

 convicts to go back to their benches and 

 forges, and a minute later the visitors 

 bad gone and work was in full blast. 

 The long expected outbraak l"*^ oama 



