Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/226

 LIBRA, THE SCALES

HERE was once a poor crippled man who lived in a little hut with an only son. The son was good and industrious and by constant work kept a shelter over his father's head. But one day the faithful son was brought home dead—struck down in the prime of health and youth, and then the cripple was told that he must leave his home, since there was no one to pay the rent.

It was with a heavy heart that the poor man set forth, hobbling wearily along the high road on a pair of rough crutches, his few possessions tied up in a small bundle on his back. 209