St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1859-10-27

,cltC'S. "a rose, playfully tossed to-
her by Easton, as he ieft her, is pressed
against her lips, and she is looking
at valentine sent to her by Ralph
the first winter she passed in the city.
At first il is with a CAV smile that
she pcruscs il, but then her fathers
memory and Ralph's gentle tender
ness come stealing across her mini, |
and soft, sad light shines in her
eyes. When first received. in her
glad young girlhood, the lines seemed
the commonplace admiration such doc.
uments always bring but now, after
lying three years in her desk, they
come to her fraught with new mean.
ing. AS she reads the outpouring of
full heart aching with love for her, the
truth bursts upon her Then, words,
looks, actions. unheeded at the time
rise III her memory, and for the first
time Alice knew Of RaIpls love.
Happy in her husband, her home,
Alice can yet feel tender, gentle pity
for the heart that, thus made desulatc,
has silently buried its grief in its own
depths, and gone far away from the
sight of her, whom to love now would
be a crime. With a low sigh of SYM
pathy and silent tear, Alice restored
the valentine to its place and tried to
forget tho very difficult task. The
love lavished upon her day after day
by EastOn never made her think Of
any other love. With no want un-
gratiiicd, no love unfulflled, the val
cntlnc and writer were soon put aside .
into the secondary place in her heart
that Ralph had filed since she met
Easton.
Two years more and we again come
to Easton and Alice. 1t was mild |
day in June, and they were on their
way home from a watering place. The |
cars had stopped at a little village,
and Easton had gone into the station
house to get water for the boy on
Alicc's lap, their only child, who was
restless and heated with the long ride. !
The cars had started when he came |
from the station, but he Sprang upon |
the platform Of the last one he missed !
his footing, fell. There was a mo-
mcnt's delay. The train stopped. Al
ice felt a hand upon her shoulder. She
looked up, expecting to see Easton, but
n stranger stood beside her. Madam" |
he said, gently, "your husband has |
fallen | fear he is injurcd No.
and he took her by the arm, and looked
directly into her face" no you must
not faint, you are needed"
Give me the baby" said a lady
beside her, taking the young Ralph in
her arms
"Whcrc is he ?" said Alice, stand
ing up.
Take my arm" said the gentle
man ; | will take you To him."
He lay stretched upon the sofa in
the little tavera near the StatiOn-hOuSc.
Pale, insensiblc Alice sprang to
his side, calling upon him to speak to
her.
Alice" said the stranger, taking
her hand again, you must be calm"
She looked at him.
"Ralph Oh, you are a doctor, a
skillful one. Save my husband@
Alice" said Easton, wildly open
ing his eyes, Alice, where are you -
" Here, here close beside you, Eas.
ton"
Alice" the pale lips quivered,
- kiss me
She bent over him, and kissed him,
receiving, as she did SC, bis last breath.
As it had been when her father died,
so it was then. Ralph was her com
fortcr. He attended to the funeral,
and took the widow to her Aunt
Louisc.
We will pass over the bitter agony
of the young wife, whose sole joy lay !
now in her child Ralph had returned |
from Europe, and was on his way to
New York, in the train with Alice,
when cry Of horror arrested him,
and he stepped out upon the platform
Instantly, in the form borne past him,
he had recognized Easton and when
some one asked for his wife, he had |
stepped forward to find her. His deli
cate sympathy was Alice's greatest
comfort AS the first bitter agony
passed by, it was to her old friend, to
Ralph, she turned for all advice. He
was her boys physician, and her own
adopted brother again.
Alice had been a widow for three
years, when one morning she was
seated at a little table writing little
Ralph, mounted upon chair beside |
her, was tumbl;ng over her papers in
her desk, when suddenly he took up
one, saying
" The picture, see, mamma, what
pretty picture !,
Alice looked up, to see her boy
grasping the valentine, sent years be-
fore by his namesakc. With feel
ing almost of reverence, she took it
from him, and again perused the al
most forgotten lines. Again the love
in them stole upon her heart, but not
as then to be laid aside, forgotten
She was still reading them, when a
voice behind her said
alice |"
She did not turn or answer.
Alice, now, as then, my heart is
all yours. | have loved you truly for
long years Alice, will you not speak,"
Tears, gentle, happy tears they
were, rolled down the widows checks,
as she placed her hand in his, and lit
tie Ralph stole wonderingly up to
know what mamma was crying at
the picture for.'
And Ralph's constant love at last
met its reward.
No wreck is SO shocking to behold
as that of a dissolutc young man. On
the person of the debauchee or inebri-
ate, intamv is written. How nature