The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1874-03-06

don't know why IL should have c0me iuS
then I; but il did. That was The way tn,
Almighty had fixed it, | suppose. And i
was down At the pond near where YOU
told me you live. There's where he Wa
drowned.
well, sir, is seems strange, now, u
look back ON 'cm all,-those twenty-on,
years. III you haven't any children you
can't tell what IL Is. But | say 10 you, sir
when the child has once come. you aim
the same man, any more; you're thai
child, then, rs much as anything else. II
he dies.-you don't exactly die, | know
that but IL amt much better. Well,
saw that boy growing up from the little
bit of a thing he was AT first, all the way
till he was a nan, piece by piece, chang
ing from a boy into a young man, so that
YOU couldn't tell hardly where left of
and the other joined on and then, all al
once he goes of, brave and happy rs ever,
and that's the end of it. just "A little
pleasure party of three or four OF his
friends and himself going of to battle
and he got drowned.
:" was twenty-one myself, when | got
engaged TO be married. just his age,
wasn't married for several years nj
ter that, though. And then il was
a good while before we had the baby.
Wen, | suppose you may say all my
life, until he was born, was a sort OF
leading up TO that. And now it seems
a good many years TO have lived. before
had a son. Ididn't use 10 think so. | don't
think, any way. | ever thought OF it at all,
while he was alive. But things change,
il seems. now, rs if all those years had
been wasted. Why. they only led up to
his being born. and now he's dead,
but il does Ue good. after all, TO look
back on my life. and see how | lived IL up
to then all for him, without hardly know
ing it: and then. after he came. how
lived for him %purposely, every day, and
didn't often have my thoughts of him.
We was pretty careful of him always.
We never had but him. He was a good
boy. from the start-only just wild enough
to show he had a spirit. But we was all
the tenderer with him. Folks say a child
is toe good to live. sometimes. | don't
believe it. though. | don't see why he
couldn't have lived now, If he hadn't hap
pened to have got drowned. You see.
he did live t%wenty-one years. So that
wasn't the reason. But, even il | wasn't
particularly afraid of his dying. i. was Just
the same as if | had been. as far as taking
care Of him goes. He wa a good learner.
and we sent him TO school straight along;
only | had to look out he didn't work too
hard. | don't know what he'd have been.
If he'd lived. He was too full of real go.
to keep on farmin'. He'd have done il. il
I'd : III so. But what | wanted. was TO
make money enough to let him go his own
way. Somehow. money seemed TO come
easier in those days, when we wanted il
for his bringing-up: though, of course,
hal Lnl a. - too PM fl.ne ttFaL -.
fore the war.
"He wen TO the war, too. | don't sup
pose il was any harder for us. than il was
for lots of folks at the same time: but |
tell you it was a terrible burden. There
be was gone three full years, aud only once
he came back on a furlough: and all
that time not a thing his mother could
10 for him, except knit stockings and
hem shirts, and once or twice she man
lged to get a box of good things for
him. Now when | think OF il. there
been plenty of times that didn't see
him AT ali-whole winters when he was off
% school and academy, and | never saw
him n then those three years at the
war. Fully quarter OF his life | didn't
him, counting in odd days. | guess.
Aud suppose I'd ought 10 have got used
IL. But it ha'n't made any difference;
miss him just the same. | pretty nea
PAVE him up, that while he was at the war.
And il does seem strange he shouldn't
nave got hurt all the while. He was i'm a
rood many battles, too, and down in those
places where they had the fever so bad
md yet he come home all right. Maybe that
what made it all the harder, when
something did happen afterward.
MY wife, she says perhaps il was wrong
have been ) o rcjoiced over his coming safe
nome; that we didn'tthink enough of what
others had suffered that had lost their chill
lren | n the war. Perhaps it was a Judgment
us; don't pretendto say it want. What
do know is, 1t was harder than ever to lose
him. when we'd just got him back. Some
how it's strange he should have died just
hat way. 1t was a beautiful day you
wouldn't have expected anything so sad
going to happen. The grass was as
green, and the sky shon' blue as ever any
other summer day; but he got his death
Df il. for all that. Sometimes | see ii all
before me just that way as if had been
here when 1t happened; though I've new
ar been to the pond since. Don't think |
EVER shall 90. But | see him a-goin' into
the bright. calm water. tall and slim
he had a good broad chest and a
'NVut bhth-It~N IL ihil VI lht anu iuil
A. he could be; and then | remember
how he looked when they brought him
Nobody could tell just how it
happened. The boys was so frightened,
they couldn't tell It straight. Well. |
don't wonder. Who could tell how such
A thing happened? It's no use; it would
Mt make 1t any better; he couldn't have
come alive again.
Yes. IL was a great help, as ] was say
Ing, to have him on the farm that one
year. lie was a good hand. That's what
] was thinking Of when | began talking to
you about it, just now. Most likely | shall
to get a hired man, next spring. |
,oos thinking of having another horse
Robins pretty stiff. | need a new one,
bad. But | guess | shall have to
put the money into a hired hand. Go
long. Robin; seems to me you're awful
dull Tonight -Atianfic for March,