The Poorhouse Waif and His Divine Teacher: A True StoryByrum, Isabel C. (Isabel Coston)
Religion
The Poorhouse Waif and His Divine Teacher: A True Story
Byrum, Isabel C. (Isabel Coston)
Christian life -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction
Leaving the highway, he passed through the open gateway, and a picture of
his uncle in the buggy with the little forlorn poorhouse waif sitting
beside him arose in his mind. Looking about, he wondered if either Mr.
Engler or the chore-boy Jim were in sight; but he was not long in
discovering that a new manager (or "steward" as he was called) by the name
of Blohm had taken Mr. Engler's place and that no one could tell him the
whereabouts of Jim. He was beginning to reah'ze that what his wife had said
concerning the changes of fifty years was true, but the greatest surprize
was before him.
The room in which he had been left by his heartless mother was still fresh
in his memory as he had left it to go to his mother's home. When a moment
later he stepped inside the up-to-date office that was in the main
building, he could scarcely believe that the apartment was the same that he
had known years before. Nothing, not even the couch upon which the
cruel-hearted woman had laid her helpless babe, was there, for all the
furniture was bright and new.
Here he met Mr. Blohm, and after introducing himself as one who had
formerly been an inmate of the home, and relating some of the Lord's
dealings with him, he told a little about his checkered experiences and
ended the story by telling of his divine commission to preach the gospel.
After all this explanation he was shown every possible favor and looked
upon as an honorable guest. In fact, he was taken by Mr. Blohm himself all
over the establishment.
A few of the inmates whom Edwin had known in his childhood were still
living, and although they were greatly changed in appearance, he recognized
them as the same persons. When he passed through the long hall, he thought
of the time that he had followed Mr. Engler on his way to meet his uncle in
the office, and he took a special look at the very spot where he was
standing when the steward gave him the order to come.
Passing outside, he was told to examine a large marble stone that had been
placed in the side of the building, and he found that all the names of the
different managers, including August Engler's, were there. In another large
building he found the bakery, and in this busy place the greater part of
the cooking was still done. As he passed through the large double doors
that divided the two apartments, everything seemed for a moment as it had
been fifty years before, for just outside he could see the spot where he
with other children had stood looking down into the bakery hoping to
receive from some one a crust of bread or a stale biscuit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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