The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1860-04-07
From the Springfield tMass.) Republican.
a Broken Love Story.
BIZ MARY CARLTON.


lage and the little lake at the foot of the
mountain opposite. It is the most gro
tesoue mingling of the ancient and the mod
srn, the dilapidated and the repaired. the ro-
mantle and the common place, / ever knew.
Brown with the winds and rains of thirty
or forty years, full of little hooks and cor
ners and UNEMPLOYED passages, it is written
over with tales of the days that are passed.
Here maidens have been wooed and welded,
children have been born and died, hearts
have joyed and suffered, perhaps broken,
manly forms which went out In pride and
Joy and hope have been brought back silent
and cold. Sitting in my room in these cold
November nights, when the wind has come
from his retreat among the hills, and rushes
madly around the house, shaking the win
dows while feel his cold breath near me,
then shrieking and roaring like demon wild
with the sense of freedom, ! can almost
hear the steps of the departed in the lulls of
the tempest. But il is of the living we
write.
Let me introduce you to mine hostess,
Miss Graves, the mistress of this establish
ment and its appurtenances, something of a
mosaic as is the house, tall, sharp-featured,
grey-eyed, the proprietor of two faxen curIs
on either side her face, far from young, yet
by no means ashamed to be known as a
spinster. She accepts her lot without re-
pining sometimes think with gratitude,
that if she has not the love of husband and
children, she has none to find fault, and
cause care and anxiety and pain. She man
ages her large farm, giving directions to her
man -of-all work, driving bargains and cal
culating profits with more skill than many
farmers about her. often see her in the
kitchen with her hands in the snowy flour,
or skimming milk, or working her butter,
yellow as gold. But in the evening, when
work is over, she retires to her parlor, a
CHEEKY, delightful room, hung round with
paintings, nicely warmed and brilliantly
lighted, and sews, or reads, or thinks. /
wonder how often her thoughts go back to
those days when in this same room another
sat, and they dreamed and talked, as youths
and maidens will, of love.
Charles Bickford, one year older than
herself, had sympathized in her perplexity
over her first lessons, sat upon the same
low bench by the stove, plodded beside her
through the snow drifts, taken her to and
from school on his little red sled, carried
her the largest apes he could find in his
fathers we'll filed bins. spent his pocket
money at the village store in sugar hearts
and kisses, and when they had grown older
and wiser, helped her in knotty problems
and told her of his great plans for the future.
One August afternoon,-it was his eli Oh
teenth birth day, and he was full of JOY
and hope,-he overlook her as she was
walking home from the academy which
both were attending. The road for the dis
lance of half mile led through the woods,
and as she carelessly walked along, carrying
her hat in her hand, the quick blood rushed
into her face as he spoke her name:
"Kate, / have reached you at last. Why
do you walk away from me every night as
soon as school is done You used to wait
for me, and let me carry your books and
lead you by the hand, but you are as dis
tant now as if we were only the acquain
tances of few days. In six weeks go TO
college, and in these weeks I want to see
you as much as I can. You have always
rejoiced in my plans, and cannot afford to
lose you now. In six weeks good bye to
Virgil and the preceptor. Welcome the
spirit of college life. Won't it be splendid,
Kate, to be so independent, and then the
wise man you are to see me at the end of
four years! But just think of the descent
from seniority here to freshman grade there.
'FaciEe descensus est, as old Eneas found"
"But really, Charles ?''
"Charley you mean. What else have I
been all my life 90
''Well, Charley then, but you are attain
ing to such honor think a more respectful
address becomes me, and besides we are old
er than we were, and people will think it
proper for us to use less endearing terms
than we did in childhood
Nonsense, Kate, have we not loved each
other always, and don't you remember one
afternoon, when we were tired of following
the haymakers. and were resting beneath
the sweet russell tree in your fathers orch
ard. yeu promised to be my little wife !
And we said then we would never love any
one else, as we did each other, and if we
were ever so far apart, we would not forget
the promises we made that afternoon"
Hush hush % said Kate, blushing.
"You are by no means to consider yourself
bound by those childish VOWS There are
very beautiful ladies in New Haven, am
told, and I prophecy you will lose your
heart among them before the four years end"
Nov Kate, stop here, just beneath this
old tree. declare to you that if live to
be one hundred years old, shall never for
get that day with its sunshine and beauty.
From that moment TO this, ] have never
lost the echo Of those words, never shall
lose it. Boy as / am. love you, and have
loved You for years. No lady. ever so
beautiful, could be to me half what you are
and have been to me. and what I have
dreamed you would be in the years to come.
If you wish it, these little chains shall be
broken, otherwise they remain as if made
of gold. Now tell me. shall go to col
lege with this glad hope. in the light of
which ! do everything. and can endure ev-
erything or shall the past be cancelled? Il
do not beg. but you know my heart"
He had seated Kate on messy rock which