The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-08-14
heart, and companion to make the time pass


away.
The spring came, and in the battle of Fair
Oaks my husband was taken prisoner. They
shut him up in that fearful prison in Rich
mond, and murdered him by inches. Long,
long months rolled away. My boy grew till he
could run about the house and play with Car
10 in the yard; and every day he seemed to
grow more and more like his father as he was
when he went away, with his fresh round
cheeks red with bloom, and his merry blue
eye and ringing laugh.
Last October they brought my husband
home. Oh, what pitiful semblance of the
man who waved his gilded cap to me from the
road as | stood in the porch that September
morning so long ago! They left him alone in
the parlor to wait for me, for l had tainted at
sight of him from the window-my darling
Frank-this skeleton with shrunken limbs and
ghastly, fallen cheeks and dull eyesl Could it
be he? Only when entered the parlor where
he sat, and beheld the clustering black hair
that shaded his white forehead could see
aught Of the man had married in that May
night when the odor of the apple-blooms was
on the air. He looked at me so pitifully, and
raised his wan handsfas If to embrace me. /
few to his breast, and kissed his colorless lips
with despair in my heart, for knew he had
"come home to die"
as this my husband?" l murmured, in a
tone of awe, as looked upon the strange,
strange face idaQ14
'T6is is what they have left you of him.
said he, smiling family and hid my face in
his bosom.
"Where is my boy ?" he whispered, smooth
ingmy hair with his bony hand. T4c8
| went for little Frank, and held him up
while his father wrapped him in his arms. The
little fellow looked into the white and bearded
face with straight, earnest gaze, and then
his eyes filed with tears and his lips quiver-
ed but it was with pity, not with childish fear,
for he put up his little hand to his fathers
mouth caressingly, and said, "papa sick p
Next day the doctor came. He sat an hour
with Frank; prescribed cheerfulness, quiet and
generous food; instructed me in the duties of
my new Office as nurse, for / would have no
other; pressed Franks hand cordially, and left
the room. l followed him to the door.
"How long can he live ?r | asked
The doctor shook his head.
"All will depend on the care you take of
him, Mrs. Moreton. With such care as know
you will give him, he mag survive month, or
even two. But | could not promise him week
of life. He has had hard time. Damn the
villains They'd be torn to pieces like carrion
If had my way with emp 'ee
When 1 went back to Frank he asked me
what the doctor said. a4a lsl1ursl
s. "Don't conceal anything from me, dear wife, i,
!. he said. "There is no need. have been on
familiar terms with death for many months.
am ready to CO." 81 4st9l f-tN
Then I told him, and he smiled. There was
a peculiar light in his eyes as he turned them
on me, and said, af
'Mary, shall live till spring. a44 8..tia
1t was October then. So many months of
life yet? 1t seemed like priceless boom
Nearly half year to live? Oh what a world
of love should be crowded into that time And
believed him, too.
don't know why but did.
The winter rolled by slowly, and he did not
die. Sometimes would feel wild hope that
he might recover, and he wonld see it shining
in my eyes and he would smile and shake his
head in answer to the unspoken thought
In the spring" he said, very often, "in the
spring L shall die" aa sgA Aaiaigal
The spring came too soon The robins be-
gan to sing in the sunshine-the starting came
to his old nest in the apple-tree by the WE'LL
Sometimes Frank would bid me open the win
dow, SO that he could hear the plaintive note
of the sparrows under the caves. Wrapped
in heavy shawls, and sitting in his great arm
chair he would gaze out the window with his
dreamy blue eyes till he seemed to forget that
was there.
@They are getting ready,n he would murmur
l shall hear from them soon."
Thought he was talking to the angels.
"What do youse out there, Captain Frank ?'
asked Doctor Thomas, one such day, as he en-
tered the room. of
IL am looking southward!" whispered
Frank. "There viii be grand news from the
front very soon. That is what l am waiting
for"