Little Blossom.

Little Blossom.
600.6

“Oh, dear! I’se so tired and lonesome!
I wonder why mamma don’t come;
She told me to s’ut up my blue eyes,
And ‘fore I waked up she’d be home.
S’e suid s’e was going to see gamma;
S’e lives by the river so bright;

I s’pect that my mamma fell in there,
And p’r’aps s’e won’t tum home tonight.
“I dess I’m afraid to stay up here,
Wivout any fire or light,
But Dod’s lighted the lamps up in heaven,
I see ’em, all twinkling and bright.
I fink I’ll go down and meet papa,
I s’pose he has stopped at the store,
It’s a great, pitty store, full of bottles,-
Wish he wouldn’t go there any more.

“Sometimes he is sick when he comes home,
And he stumbles and falls up the stair;
And once, when he comed in the parlor,
He kicked at my poor little chair.
Amamma was all pale and frightened,
Anugged me up close to her breast,
And called me her poor little Blossom,
And-dess I’ve forgotten the rest.

“But I’member that papa was angry,
His fad was so red and so wild.
And I’member he striked at poor mamma,
And hurted poor little child.
But I love him, and dess I’ll go find him;
P’r’aps he’ll come home with me soon,
And den it won’t be dark and lonely
Waiting for mamma to come.”

Out into the night went the baby,
Her little heart beating with fright,
Till the tired feet reached the gin-palace,
All radiant with music and light.
The little hand pushed the door open,
(Though her touch was as light as a breath).
The little feet entered the portal
That leads but to ruin and death.

“Oh, papa!” she cried, as she reached him,
And her voice rippled out sweet and clear,
“I thought if I comed I could find you,
And I is so glad I is here.
The lights are so pitty, dear papa,
And I fink that the music’s so sweet;
But I dess it’s most supper-time, papa,
For Blossom wants something to eat.”

A moment the bleared eyes gazed wildly
Down into the face.sweet and fair,
And then, as the demon possessed him,
He grasped at the back of a chair.
A moment-a second-’twas over!
The work of a fiend was complete,
And the poor little innocent

Blossom Lay quivering and crushed at his feet.
Then, swift as the light, came his reason,
And showed him the deed he had done,
With a groan that the devil might pity,
He knelt by the quivering form.
He pressed the pale face to his bosom,
He lifted the fair, golden head;
A moment the baby lips trembled,
And poor little Blossom was dead.

Then in came the law so majestic,
And said with his life he must pay,-
Thatonly a fiend or a mad-man
Could murder a child in that way.
But the man who had sold him the poison
That had made him a demon of hell,
Why, he must be loved and respected,
Because he was “licensed” to sell!

He may rob you of friends and of money,
Send you to perdition and woe,
But so long as he pays for his license,
The law must protect him, you know.
God pity the women and children
Who are under the Juggernaut Rum,
And hasten the day when against it
Neither heart, voice, nor pen shall be dumb.
-Margaret J. Bidwell.