The Sins of the Father

ss, her strength tireless. She not only kept the baby and the little mother happy, she watched the lawn and the flowers. The men did no mor

ncy. No orders were ever given to her. They were unnecessary. She kn

hat fixed her place in the

nia. The doctor looked at the little red fever-scorched face and parc

orton. All I can do is to give

in her voic

im. He can't die if

turned to

ou tru

, strong, faithful, care

gree,

better," he answered

ace. Her meals were served in the room and she never left it until he relieved her the next day. The tireless, greenish eyes watched the cradle with death-like stillness and her keen young ears bent low to catch

he doctor smiled, patted h

se, little girl. Yo

e, the baby reached up his hand, caught

l-e

the room and out on the lawn to have her cry alone.

follows the storm. The thieves and vultures had winged their way to more congenial climes. They dared not face the investigatio

more to be filled. And shivering in his room alone, shunne

e old granite pile. Cheer after cheer rent the air, echoed and re-echoed through the vaulted arches of the hall. Men overturned their desks and chairs as they rushed pellmell to seize his hand. They lifted him on their shoulders and carried him in procession around the A

lips as he ascended the dais, gazed over the cheering House, and rapped sharply for order, sounded the death knell t

emen, is the impeachment and removal from of

he chair rapped for order. He had as well tried to call a cyclone to order by hammering at it with

building the old commonwealth. It was ten minutes before order could be restored. And then with merciless precision the Speaker put in motion the

icer, the Governor looked in vain for a friendly face among his accusers. Now that he was down, even the dogs in his own party whom he had reared an

uld fall, he knew to whom he would appeal that it might be tempered with mercy. The men of hi

ith his merciless pen from the day he had entered office, but it would be easier than an a

ad sworn to defend was drawn by the Speaker of the House, and it was a terrible document. It would not only depr

oomed culprit. Each day he sat in his place beside his counsel in the thronged Senate Chamber and heard his judges vote with practical unanimity "Guilty" on a new count in the

orehead. His final penalty should be the loss of citizenship. It was more than the Governor could be

ade no effort to conceal the contempt in

generous man. I appeal to your generosity. I've made mistakes in my administration. But I ask you to remember that few men in my place co

rget of your merciless ridicule, wit and invective for two years. It was more t

t people of the South, a man whose fiery speeches in the Secession Convention helped to plunge this state into civil war-how you could basely betray

dim as he edged toward the

t's too hard to brand me a criminal by depriving me of my citizenship and the right to vote, and hurl me from the highest office within the gift of a great people a nameless thing, a man without a country! Come, sir, even if all yo

aused, and then conti

politics. They simply love me. This final ignominy you would heap on my head may be just from you

you would crush my spirit is too cruel! Can you afford an act of such wanton cruelty in the hour of your triumph? A

any word from the man he hated could ever stir him.

sides to this question, major, as there are two sides to all questions. I might say to you that when I saw the frightful blunder I had made in helping to plunge our country into a fatal war, I tried to make good my m

e to set these negroes up

hand and spoke wit

uld plead with you that in every act of my ill-fated administration I was honestly, in the fear of God, trying to m

the plow first," wa

ose farms and their sons and daughte

uestion, Governor, w

f your heart to-day let me suggest that you deal charitably with one wh

or my mistakes? I stand alone before you, my bitterest and most powerful enemy, because I believe in the strength and nobilit

He was surprised and shocked to find the man he had so long ridicu

ation he had never dreamed it

ssible. But I am to-day a judge who must make his decision, remembering that the lives and liberties of all the people are in his keeping when he pronounces the sentence of law. A judge has no right to spare a man who has taken human life because he is sorry for the prisoner. I have no right, as a leader, to suspend this penalty on you. Your act in destroying the civil law, arresting men without warrant and holding them by military force without bail or date of trial, wa

of my citizenship?" h

it is done no Governor will ever

the Governor laid his t

s absolutely fin

," was the

room and his eyes were fixed on space as he pushed his way thro

ake his motion for a vote on the last count in the bill dep

of the floor of the Senate Chamber expected a fierce speech of impassioned eloquence from

l, and the brown eyes of the tall orator had a suspicious look of moisture in their depths as they rested on the forlorn figure of the little S

there was no demonstration. As the Lieutenant-Governor ascended the dais and took the oath of office, the Sc

t splendor of early spring. The first flowers were blooming in the hedges by the walk and birds were chirping, chattering and singing from every tree and shrub. A squirrel started across the path in fr

as deepl

aimed. "Who knows? A politician, a trimmer and a time-server-yes, so

own closet that grinned at him some