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SAILOR JACK'S REFORMATION.
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their greeting and one growled out some words to the effect that it was a pretty time for him to be getting around now, when everything was over.
It was true, then, he thought, that Agnes was dead. And his brutality had killed her ! He was a beast — a veritable beast, he said to himself again and again. He had wrecked he: life and now she was gone from him, forever. He was excited, and as he neared the house he broke into a run, for it was evident that it was still occupied. Arriving at the house breathless, he paused at the window. He peered in.
"Agnes !" he cried, and then he fell back as one stunned.
What he saw within unnerved him more than had the vision on the ship out under the southern cross. Was it for this that he had returned? To find his wife as he had left her, not alone, but with another in his place? He had hoped to hear a satisfactory explanation of the other occasion, for never once since the night of the vision had he ever thought Agnes guilty of wrong. But now, as she sat, he could see her clear profile and smiling eyes looking clown at the man kneeling at her feet. He felt like a wild beast brought to bay.
"He shall not have her — she is mine — mine !" he cried, running to the door of the cottage. He flung it open and' rushed in.
"You scoundrel !" he cried, to the man who, springing quickly to his feet, stood facing him.
Agnes was not looking at Lieutenant Landers at all, but at a morsel of humanity wrapped in blankets lying in her lap. A basket of provisions from the barracks stood by, heaped with groceries. Captain Mary was coming in from the kitchen with a bowl of steaming broth. Lieutenant Landers, kneeling before the babe had just been
"YOU SCOUNDREL !" HE CRIED, TO THE MAN FACING HIM.
remarking how much the boy looked like Jack.
At the sudden intrusion and the sound of a familiar voice, Agnes, with a glad cry, half arose to her feet, holding the little one towards her husband.
Poor Jack stood for a moment like a statue. Then he looked from one to the other, and at last caught sight of the baby.
"Agnes! Is it mine, Agnes? Is it mine?" he cried.
"He's ours, Jack, ours — our little son !"
The baby was in his arms now, and as he clasped the little bundle to his heart those who watched saw his face illumined with a new light. Perhaps it was the awakening of his soul.
"Can you ever forgive me, Agnes?" he asked in a husky voice as he knelt before her. "I didn't know — I didn't understand," he pleaded, brokenly. "I have been a brute — nothing but a beast " ,
"In the picture I told you of," interrupted Agnes, "even the beasts yield to the influence of a little child."
"Hallelujah!" exclaimed Captain Mary.
"Amen," echoed Lieutenant Landers.
Sailor Jack's reformation had been accomplished.