Page:Tom Beauling (1901).pdf/209

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out now, and laid it beside the letters. It was greatly faded with the years.

"Poor mama!" he said, "I wonder if he will be punished for all the troubles he has brought on you and met I suppose not; it isn't the way of the world. Do you know what I promised to say to him, though! I'm to say—if ever I find him—'One old man was made happy by your sin.' That's the good that you and I have done in the world, mama. One old man was glad we existed. I wish we could talk it all over with him. He was so wise and gentle and just. We are in awful trouble, mama. 'Ohé, mama! Ohé, mama!'"

Beauling addressed the tall, smoothfaced young man in the picture.

"If ever I find you," he said, "I'll first tell you about the old man you made happy, and then I think I'll tear your head off your shoulders."

He turned to the letters. At first he could see his name on the envelope, and the names of the various places to which they had been sent. The contents of