Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-02-03

81 couldn't help it," was all she said to
| the teapot. Whether she referred to the
tornado, or her kindness to the sufferers,
or the manner of frendering the kindness.
no one knows. That was all she said to
the teapot, but to her son, who sat for
while beside her, she spoke in a low tone:
''Aiarkis-dee, you could never c'nverse
with her You're better'n she is. Put
her out o. yer head. She laughed at ye"
''But she kissed me wi tears in 'er eyes
sfterward," was his answer as he turned
toward his bed on the floor.
An hour later the tea was exhausted,
but Mrs. Ruggles yet sat at her lonely ta-
BILE, as still as the sleepers around her.
The clock struck ten: she nervously drew
a soiled paper from her bosom. Eleven
she rose with hesitation and set the tai
ow candle behind the door. Then she
softly entered the bedroom and stood be-
fore the window where Alice lay. The
sky was clear again. The moon shone
on the face and form Of the sleeping girl,
making softer their graceful lines, richer
the shadows in the golden hair, tenderer
the tint of check and lip.
She stepped again into the shade and
stole to the colonels bedside. His dis
turbed mind had turned backward over
the path of lite from the sudden death es-
capped, and sleeping or waking, his men,
ory had been busy with the people and
events of sther days
! John Miller y she said, in suppressed
tone. He started. John Miller, / know
ye. Common name-I WANT sure afore
to-day. When you pulled that money out
o yer pocket | see that in yer face that
satisfied me. It's fer the good name O
the dead I've come. Elseways / neyer'd
ha' troubled ye." The astonished colonel
shifted his position painfully, prepared to
speak or to listen. s.There yer girl lies in
the light o. heaven. Mex room my boy
lies in the shadder an dark. He don't
know, an he never will. John Miller, l
married as honest and as good man as
ever you see. Folks has come to US in
sickness an trouble, an gone behind, my
back to talk. Some said done right to
take him-'twas Christian in me. Some
said.I must ha' been fool. Some said
we wa MT married a-tall, Was MT
PeablesP Did MT l know t would be flung
up in my face? Was Mt prouder'n any
on emp
moments confusion and doubling OF
senses: then as the suppressed voice went
on, the colonel remembered A dozen
years ago: before he had meddled with
taking his fathers shop: he was plaintiff:
Ruggles worked in the first room Porter's
testimony: Becky Peables the sweetheart
OF both: burglary: loss triiing: George
Ruggles for one year came back and mar
rled when released went West The old
case had scarce crossed his mind for years
~ es you sent him, an waited fer him
The day he came out / married him. We
had to dig hard. I'd do it ag'in. Now his
boys saved yer girls life to pay We fer put
tin his father in States prism. Two year
ago didn't Bill Porter sick an dyin-
hunt till he foun' me here ? Didn't he go
an swear? Done fer spite. Didn't he
sen me the affydavy?-an'I've got it safe.
Got it sworn to by him, with the justice o
the peace's name signed, an two witnissis'
an the judge 81 red seal on top o'that. Could
l go back and show that paper n tell how
t was ? Too late ! George was dead. ]
couldn't go. My folks a. most disowned
me, when l took him. said then never'd
step my foot inside their doors Them that
gives me the COZ shoulder once don't do it
no more. Come to me P-well an good.
Go to them? never.
The bewildered colonel, promising ev-
cry possible reparation, would have
thrown himself at her feet, could he have
done so, for the part he had taken in the
prosecution. But she permitted no inter-
ruption, and continued: ''He lay by the
winder where yer girl lies. The moon
come in on his bed as it does on her'n
In the night, when / see the light o. the
sky shine there where he died, feel his
sperit in the room. Moved the bed to this
enough to lie there. Butt was on his
mind. lie said, Becky, if could prove
it to you afore / died? An l say Georges
spirit sent Bill Porter here, an, sent YOU
here, an sent me into this room tonight.
Now, for the sake of him, an Markis-dee,
go back an tell the truth -
Speaking the word truth she vanish
ed across the light to her dark place of
rest.
| Next morning the colonel examined and
copied the confession while a buggy wait
ed for him at the door. Respecting the
evident wishes of Mrs. Ruggles, he went
away with no attempt to express the feel
ings that were uppermost in his heart.
She sleeps beside her husband in the or
chard. Her old Lighthouse has been replac-
ed by Il large white box, Of which her son
the marquis is proprietor. Each year adds
to his acres or his stock. An able bodied
wife, whose industry and English are equal
to his own, sits near him at the door on a
summer evening, while he smokes his pipe,
takes an oakum-headed child upon his
knee, and gazes quietly in the direction Of
the spring and across the grain-fels where
once he saw or rather heard, without wait
ing to see II forest swept down in mo-
ment lie smokes and gazes as he sees
again dazzling creature ride down the
dreary road. and wonders where on earth
that face can be, and how much it has
changed, and whether, through so many
years, any memory of Thin can lnger in
her heart. He says nothing. But he hugs
closer the oakum, headed child as he re-
members the one romance in his hard
hum-drum life fe.-Ltpptacotfs Magazine.