Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1861-11-05
The ola sexton.


They have voted to pull the old church
! down %
looked up. The warm sweet breath Of
the July afternoon lost half its fragran ce,
and through the open window came, as il
were, .momentary chill. Why?
Quito the dusty street stood Nathan Bur
gloss, the Squire Of the little country VIII
tage. wiping the PRECIPITATION from his
j pleasant face, and seemingly happy all
oyer. just by him, cid Jude, the lame sex
ton, leaned against the rickety fence, tap
ping nervously the ground with his smooth
crpteh, his wrinkled face thoughtful and
! ipapiring.
What say 2"
They've voted to pull the old church
qesxns said the Squire in louder tone.
1la{d down my pen and listened
Lon know its getting old and leaky,
4n4 2esides, it isn't large enough, either !;
~ Sunday was too much. so hot AID
c1<&1ed the society have been thinking
and <ltkiBg the matter over fpra long time.
sottiis aftefnoon. we've called meeting.
and copelnde3to build anew. You wasn't
in 2''ss
Didn't know it," said the old man, mus
ingly. Didn't know it I'm getting old,
and they don't come to me as much as they
used to. / should ha' voted agin it though;
voted agin it,"
The Squire stood uneasy at his rebuke,
and set to wiping his glowing face vigorous
ly again.
"Whyp
81 couldn't do it. No, Squire Burgloss.
| couldn't do it, couldn't do it. Tha. old
church is my mother; eighty-si1 years.
| Tuesday, last week, a poor widow woman
hid herself from party Of British hounds,
under it, and there, Squire Burgloss, / was
born that woman was my mother. She
lived a week, and went where neither Brit
ish nor Tory could worry her anymore, TO
| heaven. The neighbors found and MAIN
tanned me TIL was ten years old. Then
was put in the church: swept it and beat
the drum Sunday mornings. Later. rang
the bell and built the fires. 1t has been my
home, my father, my mother. / was gicen
to it. l never knew whittier my mother
came from nobody cared, don't know
l love it. No, couldn't pull it down.
Don't co it Squire, till l am dead and gone
| was born under it, and, please God, |
want to be buried under it. too"
The Chairman of the Society's commit
tee came rumbling up the street in his easy
carriage. Nathan Burglpss jumped in with
"well, We'll see," and the two ratified
away.
The slanting sun>rays fell broad on the
| face of the cid man, half binding the little
sight That the big tears in mercy seemed to
leave him, as he hobbled this way and that,
felt for the fence here, and CROPPED his way
slowly along. Suddenly he stopped, and ]
| heard him repeating the words of the Apo
calypso: "And God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes, and there shall be no
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain for
mer things have passed away"
l was n stranger. and but a few days res
ident of Dalton. Thither, an invalid from
the hot walls of the city, had come to
snuff purer air among purer SCIENCES.
will go and see this old church, l said !;
! perchance learn more of him, its foster
] child.
i stood before the threshold OF the doomt
ed sanctuary, the old sections so-called
home. Time had warred it well his bats
| terry of winds and storms had Numbered
upon it, we'll nigh to its falling Eighty
six years since, a hunted woman crawled
beneath it. and there gave birth to him,
the life-drafted sentinel and guard of the
holy castle over him? ALI and all the
years down from thence. and their burdens
WIN Cdu kuuW tntul men tue lOuR uObT
stone shall lie dusty and neglected by the
roadside, no one shall think of the robed
infants crossing it in childhood, of the
robed maidenS crossing it for love, of the
robed dead crossing it for heaven none
shall remember the feet which have passed
over and up to the altar within; and yet
such is and has been the world. from the
green leaves of Eden until now.
The door was slightly ajar, and passed
in /; all plain, sincere, transformations. No
.'long drawn aisles" nor shadow sculp-
tured niche" no grained arch or lofty fires
coed dome, neither blind nor curtain shut
ting out the great cataracts of light pour
ing in through the tall, wide windows.
And they would pull this down, unused
slowly passing up the narrow isle M
wonder the old man loves it so well! No
wonder. being kept, he would be kept, he
would be buried here. l paused. just
down before the desk lay form bent and
cold. 1t was the sections. lie was dead
with his head lying ON the well-worn pulpit
Bible
The bell tolled, the funeral passed, and
the old maaiaid with the many dead whom
all along his life he had levelled there
Business called me suddenly away, and il
was many months before / set foot in the
village again. Then another spire told oil
a new altar there. The old church was
gone. Yet around its site ran a neat iron
railing, inclosing a simple marble slab.
"Whose is it?" inquired CT friend.
"Jude's the old church SEXTON"