Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-12-07
end, for these two were burned in the

end, for these two were burned in the
] flames.
Nobody paid any attention to Hilda.
martin mother was the first to be thought
OF, and Mrs. Gordon poor daughters But
they went away from the town directly ::
they could not stay in place so full of
sadness to them they joined their brother
VINO was to sail, it seemed, for Europe, so
they went with him.
But the next Sunday, Hilda was seen
coming up to the meeting house, walking
slowly, with bundle in her hand look
ing, so grandmother says. like an old
woman, changed all at once from a young
glrl. And just at that moment some of
the loungers on the steps read on the
publishing board that Martin Grant and
Hilda Hyde proposed marriage. And
Hllda looked neither one way nor the
other, but went to her old seat in the
Gordons pew, and placed her bundle at
her side; and that she did every SUNDAY
afterwards that she could 20 out. And
SO everybody understood why it was that
Christie Gordon had gone away so sud
denly, because Hilda had settled to marry
her poor lover rather than her rich one.
| asked my grandmother many ques-
tons about this Christie Gordon, whether
he ever came back, and what became of
him. She thought he did return, but
that he did not stay. Hilda did not rec
ognize him, or no one knew whom she
did recognize, or VII at she was seeing
through her large wide-open eyes.
And there was Hilda Hyde still sitting
on Sunday in the Gordons' pew, when |
returned after my three years absence in
the war; for Reuben and |, of course,
joined the army What day that was
when our little band collected to march to
the station on our way to camp We
could not find Annette to say good-by TO
us, when we went over to her aunt's
house "She says bidding good-by is too
sad said her aunt, who had tears in her
eyes.
But at the corner, just where we turned
to the station there she was, with her
hands full of yellow and white crocuses.
Il thought / would bring you some
thing" she said; and bit Of sunlight
strayed over her yellow curls, and she
tried to give us a sunny smile for the very
last | knew Reuben had been with her
all the evening before, but there was
nothing different in her parting with us
two now.
We kept together, in camp and outs
Reuben and !. | tried TO make him let
me take his place on guard and on picket
duty. | begged him, for Annette's sake.
He was hers and he must take care of
himself on her account. Once | did pre-
vail with him, and got leave to take his
post as night picket But ] had a shot
in my arm, and after that he would never
let me serve for him. But, in the field, /
could sometimes try TO shield him. Oh,
how wished had been made taller
he was so much larger than |, that he was
a fairer mark. | tried to expose myself
to be shot at for thought the chances
were we should not both be killed and !
could not bear that he should be the one.
! tried to be where the bullets were, and
get by his side; and | did get another
wound only slight one.
Then came those September days, and
Antietam. | could not keep in front OF
Reuben then, but we fell together. Twas
by his side when the shot struck him, and
then too fell
But | lived to come home,-not he.
| have not seen her yet. They say she
sits at the window looking for Reuben
STILL
And they told me the other day that
Hilda Hyde was dead. So she has done
waiting for her lover | was sorry they
opened the bundle; they might have
buried it with her. The key Of the house
he had been building was in it, which,
after.his death, his mother had always
occupied; for Hilda had staid at the
aims house ever since that night her
mother had been taken there, Her
mother died not long after that night;
and, as they said Hilda had lost her
mind, it must be the best place for her.
And there were one or two letters tied up
in the handkerchief, and a coat that per
haps he meant to be married in.
They said Hilda had lost her mind.
think only she had kept it, She was iiv-
ing on always in that evening in which
she parted from Martin, and all those six
ty years she was waiting for him. And
who knows if the time seemed long to her?
She was very sure he would come back
and to her all those years were but the
few moments since he left her sitting on
the broad stone fence that shut in the
lane.-OM and Near.