American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-11-09

e desperate longing for some show o
c sympathy this night of all nights-thi
: night which was so sad an anniversary. !
she had had a child of her OWN. if Their
had even been in the house a child WIFI
was nothing to her, she would hav
| chung to its simple presence with eager
ness il there had only been Il dog, TO
/ her to speak to and touch. only dog
with an honest brute love for her. sh'
would have been grateful and glad.
SO when in answer to her words he
. mother started as if from Il revcric, ant
; after looking at her and giving her a colo
reply, turned away again. the poor sac
little woman. only feeling heavier-hearted
left the room with n slower step. Blu
when she set the candle down upon tn,
table up stairs her sight was blurred a lit
tie. so that there was a yellow mist about
the flare of light.
..He did not KNOW she said, patiently
s.Men's lives are not like ours. 1t WASH
that he was selfish: Lem never was self.
ish and-and I'm glad he doesn't know
poor fellow. I'd never tell him."
4 1t was always an understood thing be-
| tween the two THAT Tabitha must retire
4 first and leave her mother to sit alone.
and it was often far into the night when
the anxious little woman, being wakeful.
| heard ''the mistress" leave her chair and
| cross the room to where her candle stood
waiting on the stand.
But. this night Tabitha. lying in the
| little chamber at the head of the staircase.
| waited tor the customary sounds in vain.
She did not hear them even at their usual
time. but it would have been Il daring
member of the household who would have
| ventured to disturb the mistress. and in
| her consciousness of this fact, Tabitha felt
it wiser to lie still and wait.
But the silence continued so long that.
after much fearful demurring. the small
| ifn Re pt IaSt of
| the bed and out of the darkness to where
| the light glimmcrcd upward upon the
stairs.
"Mother!''
The unmodulated voice answered her
at once.
s.What is it ~
Then overcome by her own temerity,
Tabitha faltered greatly in spirit.
81 was afraid mean was wondering
why you did not come up stairs. Are you
well ?''
''If had not been. should have called
YOU was the answer that come to her.
$50 back to bed Tabitha" And Tabitha
crept back silently, and entering her little
room again, closed the door softly behind
her.
One-twO.
1t was the harsh-vOiced clock upon the
stairs. All at once Tabitha was wide
awake sitting up in bed, Neutrality-suspicious.
u.
which She had listened until she fell asleep.
All of them must be asleep now-the wan
dcring. unknown guest, Hannah, her.
mother. all of rhem-fOr the house was
quite quiet now. silent with the strange,
solemn, death-like silence of slumber.
And then remembering the novel fancy
her mothers words had brought to her
mind that night, and remembering also
her unexpected breaking of before unal-
tered rules, she grew restless and anxious
again. She could not make up her mind
to lie down, so she sat up for a few min
uteS. listening again. 1t seemed to her
that she had done nothing but listen ever
since twilight, and it would not be long
before the dawning of another day.
And then (she never could make sure
how it came about. for certainly she
heard no sound that startled her; there
was no sound, indeed, but that slow,
heavy ticking of the clock) she found her
self standing on the floor i'm the middle of
the room. and in a few seconds more she
was at the stair head-going down the
stairs with wildly beating hcart-at the
threshold of the oil oak-wainscoted room.
The door was opening to her fearful hand
and she was in the room itself, peering
through the gloom to where tine last
solemn glow from the low bed of embers
cast a warmth rather than an actual light
upon the high-backed chair in which the
rigid figure sat strangely motionless, the
hard knOtted hands grasping the leathern
arms, the stern face turned toward the
fire.
''Mother!'' she cried out. Smother
mother!''
And yet, though she spoke as if to
arouse her, even before the words had left
her lips she knew full well that no earthly
voice could ever call forth an answering
echo in the dull closed ears again. She
knew her cry had reused the household.
of opening doors and hurrying feet; but
it seemed as If she had no care for their
coming-nO care for anght else on earth
but the rigid figure before which she
knelt, and about which she flung her
clinging arms with no thought of awe or
fear, but with such wall of pain and pity
as no sufferings of her own had wrung
from her from first to last.
''All alone!" she cried. ''All alone, and
| sleeping so near her! Why did YOU
send me away, mother? l would have
been content TO sit outside night after
night if you would have let me. Nay,
cannot bear this, somehow, as 1 have
borne the rest.''
She wept and kissed the cold face and
hands as if she had lost the triest heart that
ever beat i'm warm mcther-breast 1t was.
perhaps, the result of her life as well as
of her simple natur. that she should cling
so to 4 mere Semblance. She had lived
nearer her dead father, but there was not
antagOnism enough in her whole being to
rouse within her one bitter thought against
this mother who had held her ut arms
length. 1t had been love she had cher
ished for her stern task-mistress, though
love so mixed with awe !; and now the awe
of life was gone, death had no power to
chill her. and she could kneel and weep
her tender. tried hearts fill. Itwas worse
than useless to endeavor to rekindle the
spark of life again-the most ignorant OF
them knew that, even before the hurriedly
summoned physician dropped the stiff
hand and gave his verdict.
''She has been dead some time,'' he
said. ''She must have been seized while
she was reading the letter in her hand.''
Tabitha looked at the table then.
She had only noticed before that
the icy, knOtted fingers of one
hand We're closed tightly upon
a piece ofpaper as they grasped the chairs
arm; but when she took up the package
that lay near upon the table her heart
cried out aloud. At the last hour some in
comprehensive memory of the past =
perhaps a sOftened one, perhaps merely a
cold memOry-must have moved the UNI
yielding soul of even this woman, for the
letters tied together with black ribbon
were those Roger Dunn had written to
her years before, when to him she seemed
the one fair and true woman upon earth.
1t would not have been natural that
there should be so much mourning in the
household. She had only been a hard
task-mistress to most of them, and their
world would go on even more smoothly
for her absence. But Tabitha's world =
Tabitha's world was emptier, with a sad
heavy emptiness, and it had been empty
enough before. She was full of self-re-
proach and weariness she had lost some