The Iowa transcript. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1858-1866, 1865-09-20

"My cruelty was numbering her; her
face grew deathly in its pallor, and she
pressed her hands upon her heart.
go Let the dead man lie between US,
proceeded; it is not seemly for you to be
my friend; and to me you are an ever
present accusation. We must not see each
other!
80 Luke" she cried, falling upon her
knees, imploringly: Il am bruised thing,
aweary Of the world. This silence and dark
ness are endeared to me. Do not send me
away
"'You agitate me- said; let us do our
penance, each, in loneliness. There was a
time when our SORROWS were mutual it is
past; we have only to say farewell
81 covered my face with my hands she
touched my brow with her lips, and when the
door had closed upon her sobbing, heard
her footballs making mournful music on the
stairs. They rang upon the lawn, then pat
tered down the drive, they passed desolately
out Of the gate, they were lost on the high
way, and then the world became blank again. y
"Luke," said my mother timidly. Mrs.
Clendenning-H eraine--is-dead'
II know it" said quietly.
She seemed surprised, and Intercepted
me with her eyes.
''She died at twilight yesterday" stated,
''as the first candles we're lit in the lodge and
the earliest star appeared heard her foot
steps"
AT that time she passed away" sobbed
my mother. 80, Luke! you were cruel to
the poor girl Her parting prayer was for
you. To the last you stood between Heraine
and Heaven
"At that time. mother, was sitting in my
window. Tears and thrills haunted me dur
ing the afternoon, and was frightened in
the silence and darkness. And heard Her.
aine's footsteps come up the road, pass the
lodge, ascend the stairs, cross my thresho old.
They were like echoes rather than sounds
hollow and ghostly and mingled with them
were the deeper footballs Of that other spec
ire, her husband"
could not inhabit my chamber now.
These awful sounds drove me into the open
world, where | hoped TO lose them in the
tread Of multitudes. l wandered to the old
church on the day Of the funeral and looked
upon the bier with dry and burning eyes.
The pastor read Of the holy Jerusalem, and
said that her pure feet were walking the gold
en- streets; but in the bushes Of the sobbing
heard them close beside me, and while chill
dren were strewing her grave with flowers;
they followed me over the stile. and through
the village. till gained the fields and took TO
ny heels in fright
II sought the resort of crowds and lived
among turbulcnces. In busy hours bafael
my pursuers, but in the dark midnights when
only the miserable walked, suffered the ag-
onies Of remorse and penance. The ever
flowing stream of life on London bridge be-
came my solace. My apartments are here,
and l sit continually at an open window, lean
ing far forward to catch the thunder Of the
tramp. know the footballs as Of old l
see the suicide pace to and fro to nerve her
self for the deed hear her sleek betrayer
and detect their wretched offspring, as he
first essays TO fitch handkerchief or
purse. Oh the footballs the footballs! Each
tread marks good or wicked thought. A
fiend or an angel starts beneath every heel.
They write an eternal record as they go.
Their voices forever float to witness against
or for US. We people space as we cleave it,
The ground that is dumb as we spurn it,
has memory and revenge am more
sensitive than my kind; and my pensnce to
these monitors Of my sin, is but . realza-
ton Of the terror which al must feel 1T the
accusation Of their footballs"