The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-07-05
From the Golden Age.l
How Alvin Came Home.
ID ArGrsrA LARNEn.

It was dreary work cutting carpet
rags night after night, with her boy
away in the army, and long lists of
killed and wounded filling the newspa-
pers. She had cut up Alvin's little coat.
1t was the first coat he ever had, and she
remembered how proud he had been
of the buttons and pockets, and 1t
went to her heart to shred il into Sits.
The room where Patience Faning sat
was very small and humble. lt was the
first room she had furnished with things
eked out and scraped together by the
hardest toll. For more than twenty
years she had lived in the old dllapidated
gray farmhouse, in a narrow round OF
duties. centeriug at the cradle of her
child, and later about the bed of her
sick husband; and yet she had tasted
keenly most Of the joys and sorrows that |
belong to woman's lot Her sphere had /
never seemed mean or inadequate TO
herself, for holding her child in her arms /
she felt that she possessed all the dig /
nifty and honor earth has to bestOw.
But the tears would drop sometimes
now, as Patience sat alone at her work, |
in the slender ray of the candle. There /
were vine shadows where the row of
potted plants had been, for it was spring, |
and the geraniums and heliotropes were l
OuL III lllt AlAAlG hOOA y 4lh DEASf anu HllG
rested in the longer twilight, and lived
over the life she had led first as wife,
then as mother afterwards as a lonely
widow with her boy at the war. Pa
thence had always lived i'm others. 1t
seemed rs though her heart had no sep
arate action of its own, and received its
pulsatiOns from the beating hearts of
those she loved.
When Washington was threatened,
and danger menaced the frontier, Alvin
had grown moody at home because she
opposed his wish to join the volunteers.
If was the dark hour of her country's
peril, and Patience had wrestled and
struggled and prayed until she gained
strength to let her boy 90 out of her
arms. She had given her eve lamb;
she sat alone.
Her farm consisted of few acres of
rather stony land that lay close to the
house where she lived. Her husband
had been a cooper, working at tubs and
barrels off and on the busy time of the
year, and Alvin had learned the trade
too; but the little shop was closed now;
and the fields We're let out on shares, and
ever since he marched away in the coat
of army blue, her boy had sent back his
pay to the widow, and her cruise and
basket were never empty. Her neigh
DOLS were very hlllAl. AUlall w hlAlllllSs
who lived on the next place, had banked
up her house in the fall, and dug and
stored her winter vegetables, and in the
spring, as soon as the ground grew mel
low, he came with his OX-team to plough
her garden. BY carpet making and odd
bits Of sewing, Patience was able to sup
ply all her slender wants. Not penny
of her boys earnings had ever been
touched. That money was sacred. Pa
thence had already spoken to EnOch
HOlbrOok about putting il out at inter-
est. In the long winter evenings, when
she only heard the slow tick of the clock
in the corner, or the sOugh of the wind
in the pine trees, her brain was busy
with plans for her boys future.
Deacon Spicer brought the paper in
every third day, after he had slowly
spelled il over for an hour or two at
home. The news had travelled two or
three hundred miles by rail and stage
before it came to her hand; but Patience
watched for it with beating heart.
The account of bloody battle generally
drove her to bed with n bad headache.
caused by the harder aching of her
mother heart. Racheps symDathies
were mainly on the mothers side; she
did not think so much of the stricken
wives or desOlate young maidens mourn
lllB over llGlI utdU. Nlle nau one of
those intense but narrow natures which
Puritanism develops, with little imagi-
nation, but strong and fervent feelings
Her mind was so deeply religious that
the whole of life was invested with 9
sort of sacred ardOr; even her JOY found
expression in some grand old cOvenan.
ters hymn, that seemed to fill the
pauses of the wind in the forest grove
near at hand.
Patience had looked forward many
times to the possible harm that might
come to Alvin. She had thought O
her loneliness that perhaps might
end only with the grave; and how il
some distant autumn day when tn,
crickets were ehirping in the stubble
she might feel glad that she had pluckeC
out her heart and given it to God, re
membering that he who would have In
life must lose ii.
But there were other DAYS when a so
Der gladness cOlOred her mood, and tn,
sublime old hymns that told of persecu
tiOn and victory over death came rolling
out on her rich voice. Then it was easy
for her to believe that Alvin would b,
spared, and she thought of his home
coming as of a second birth, when tn,
LOrd would again put him into herarm.
as free gift. With her deep heart
lhat took such eager hold of what il
loved, kindling and warming as il held
she pictured the life that they would
lead together, and slowly pieced out 8
sI9ry OF exquisite kind in that little
MnlIe-Washed room, where all his his.
soiS nad written itself. A certain mar
tio,, iieSs &c ol vision, as well as the absorb
9I3 tl1li on her love, made Patience almost
@ nIitlu 10 what nature might brino ~
h.'Ss III AiNln's, heart. The child ond
tle man We're enviouslv blant ~ H.,
thought. He might want n iS ,,-ic, III IIei
Ilmei but he was hardly rr,o,,',, !" ne soIile
Ihere would be time enough 70 Up NJ? YET
that years hence. 10 tllnk OF
Beyond the pine grove stood 81,
farmhouse, and there lived Dier 10 Aay
daughter Huldah, who had been = NY Ny.
child, but had grown into a Ia.l1iI pl'',I
young woman, with a soft voica a,l. 'el.
brown eyes, and long lashes Win i,,'
when downcast, rested upon a nearI,
cheek Some rumor about Alvin an,
Huldah had come to the ears of Pa
thence, but she blew it away like
feather floating in the air. Dier Ray
wife, she thought, was talking woman
not malicious or bad hearted, but FOOLS
about her girl; so she avoided going to til
farmhouse beyond the hill. When Mr.
Raw reached over in meeting to shak
hands, with Huldah looking down fror