Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1868-01-29


were like brother and sister-and she kissed
him, and then away she went to set the ta-
bic, and the nice hot things smoked on the
cloth as white as snow? and how Charley
enjoyed them But once, in the midst of all,
L felt frightened feeling come over me,
and L knowed L turned pale, for Drusilla
said, hat Is the matter, Aunt Fairfax?'
L said nothing, but it was this, kind O.
like the ghost of step, going champ,
champ, over the frozen snow; kind O. like
the ghost of voice, saying, Let me lie on
the floor before your fire, and give me any
kind ola crust" kind O. like seeing one
that had mother, dropping down on the
wintery road freezing and starving to death
there. That was what it was. but put it
away and only then thought of Charlie.
We drew up together by the fire when
tea was done, and he told us things about
the war [ d never heard before How the
soldiers suffered, and what weary marches
and short rations they sometimes had.
And he told me how his life had been set
at the risk of his own life fellow soldier
had saved him, and carried him away, fight
ing his path back to camp.
Il never have seen you but for him,
says my Charlie. And if there sa man on
earth [ love, it is Rob Hadway-the dear
est, best fellow We've shared each others
r;tions, aud drank from the same cantecn
many time; and if ever had a brother
couldn' think more of him. y
why don't you bring him home to see
your mother, Charlie ?" said L Why, L
love him too. and anything [ could do for
him. for the man who saved my boys life,
couldn't be enough. Send for him, Char
lie. But Charlie sho7k his head, and COW
cred his face with his hands.
Mother, said he, 81 don know wheth-
er Rob Hallway is alive or dead to-day.
While | was still in the ranks he was taken
to live in, mother. I'd give my right hand
find no trace of him. And he has a mother,
too she lives at Greenbank-poor old lady
My dear, good, noble Rob, the preserver OF
my life y AID [ saw Charlie nearly crying
Not to let us see the tears, he got up and
went to the mantle-piece. [ did not look
around until [ heard cry.
Great heavens! what is this p And
turned, and Charles had the tobacco pouch
the man had dIopped, in his hand.
w here did this come from, said he Il
feel as though | had seen a ghost. | gave
this to Rob Hallway the day he saved me.
We soldiers did not have much to give,y you
while he lived How die it come here,
mother?"
| fell back in my chair, white and cold,
and said [, IA wandering tramp lettit here
never Rob, my dear; never your Rob. he
must have been an imposter. | wouldn'
have turned away any person really IN want.
Oh, no, no, no, no ; it Is another pouch,
child not that, or he stole it. 4 tall fellow,
wounded, he said, and going to his mother
at Greenbank Not your Rob.
And Charlie stood staring at me with
clenched hands and said he, 1T was my
Rob, it was my dear old Rob who saved my
life, and you have driven him out on such a
night as this, mother Ny mother, to use
Rob so -
Curse me, Charlie, SAID I. Course me,
if you like; I'm afraid God will Three
times he asked only for crust ard place
to lie, and | drove him away |, land he
is lying on the road now. Oh! if L had
known"
And Charlie caught up his hat. ''I'll
find him he's live, said he 'tOh, Rob-
my dear dear friend.
And then--I never saw the girl in such a
hurry-down went Drusilla on her knees,
as if she were saying her prayers, and says
she, THANK God, dared to do it. :" And
saws she to me, 20, aunt I've been trem
blirg with fright, not knowing what you d
say to me- / could not see him so faint and
hungry and wounded, turned away, and L
put him in the spare chamber over the par
lor, and L have been so frightened all the
while"
''Lord bless you, Drusilla said Charlie,
and Amen, says [. And she getting boil |
der, went on: And | took him up hot
short cake and apple sauce and tea, says
she, ''and | took him a candle, and hot
brick for his feet, and | told him to eat,and
go to bed in the best chamber, Aunt Far
fax, with the white counter-pane
After this, Charlie not being ungrateful,
nor poor either, helped Rob into business;
And he got over his wounds at last, and
grew as handsome as picture, and to-day |
a week is going to marry Drusilia.
ed give you anything I have, said |;
"and | won't refuse you even Drusilla,
when he asked me, telling me he had loved
her ever since she was so kind to him on the |
night I've told you of,
And Charlie Is to stand up with him, and |
[ am to give Drusilla away, and Rob sister;
from Greenbank, is to be bride s maid, and
| have guess that some day Charlie VIII
bring her home to me, in Drusilla's place.
don't drive beggars from the door now,
as | used to, and no doubt L m imposed up
on but this is what [ say: Better to be
imposed upon always, than to be cruel to one
who is really in need of YOUR help
And I've read my Bible better Of late, |
and | know who it is that says, 'Even as ye |
have done it unto the least of these, ye have
done it unto me.
A Young American lady, Miss Beckwith, |