Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1874-03-12

OF snow tney were plloteO Dy nelgnOOl
to the lonely house. They made known
their errand, and in the course of half al
hour the officers and their prisoner were
out in the storm en- route for the distan,
city of Montreal.
1t was many days before the woman saw
her son again. For four months John was
imprisoned, awaiting his trial before the
Canadian courts. Doubtless those -four
months seemed long to the solitary woman
She had not much opportunity to indulge
in melancholy fancies; she spent much
of her time in pulling brush and wood
out of the snow and breaking 1t up with
an ak, so rs to adapt it to the size of hel
stove.
The neighbors tried to be kind, and
often took commissions from her to the
store and the grist-mill in the valley
" But after ALL" said Pete Searles, one OF
Johns friends, in speaking of the matter
afterward, "what could neighbors amount
to, when the nearest of them lived mile
away, and all of them were plain to say
that they believed she was the mother of
a murderer
But the neighbors said the woman did
not seem to mind the solitude and the
rough work. Morning, noon and night
she was out in the snow or the storm at
the little hovel of barn back of the
house, taking care of two COWS and few
sheep which were hers and Johns. AT
other times travellers upon the Wilderness
road would see her gaunt, angular figure
clambering down a rocky ridge, dragging
poles to the house to be cut up for fuel.
She received two letters from John in
the course of the winter. The first told
her that he was imprisoned, and await
ing his trial in Montreal, and the next
one said that his trial had been set down
for an early day in March.
This correspondence was all the infor.
nation the mother had of her son; for the
lake was frozen during the winter so that
the boats did not run, and no news could
come from Canada by the boatmen.
When March came and passed away
without intelligence from John, it was
taken by the dwellers upon the lake shore
and along the Wilderness road as n sure
indication that he had been convicted of
the crime. A letter or newspaper an
nouncing the fact was confidently looked
for by the neighbors whenever they went
to the distant Postoffice for their weekly
mail.
AS March went out and spring days
and sunshine came, it was noticed that
the face of Johns mother looked sharp
and white, but she went about the same
daily duties as before, without seeming to
feel i'll or weak.
On plashy April day full of sunshine
she stood on the rocky ridge back of the
house, looking down upon the lake. A
few early birds had come back and were
twittering about the clearing. Although
the snow still fingered in patches upon
the highlands, the valley looked warm
below, and the first boats of the season
were dotting the wide, distant mirror of
"old Champaign" A man came slowly
up the muddy line of road, through the
gate, and around the house; then first the
woman saw him, A slight spasm passed
over her face, There was little pitiful
culver Of the muscles about the mouth
and then she walked slowly down the
ridge to where the man stood. She strug-
gled a little with herself before she
said, Well, John, | am glad to see you
back"
John tried to be cool also, but nature
was too much for him. He could not
raise his eyes to hers, and his simple
response, eyes, mother" was chokingly
uttered.
The two walked into the house together
in the old familiar way; the woman
without word began to spread the
table, and her son went out and pre-.
pared fuel, and bringing it in replen-
ished the fire. Then he sat down in his
accustomed place by the stove, with a
pleasant remark about how well the fire
burned, and how good it seemed to be
home again And the woman spoke a
few kind, motherly words.
It was the way they had always done
when John came back, but now there
was great sadness in it, for he had come
" from prison." Jupiter seemed fully to
realize the situation. He exhibited none
of that freshness which characterized the
welcome he had usually given; but when
John was seated the old dog came slowly
up to him, laid his fore paws and his head
in his masters lap, and looked sally in
his face
AS they sat downto supper, ohm began
to tell of his fare in the Jail at Montreal,
and to speak freely of his life there.
"Will you have to go back?" said his
mother, with that CULVER about the mouth
again. mo, MOTHER" said John, sit is
finished, and / am discharged"
After supper the story was told over,
how well Johns counsel had worked for
him, and how the Judge had said there
was not sufficient evidence to convict OF
so great crime.
John continued from this time on
through the spring to live at home. lie
allowed his sloop to float idly in the bay
while, as he said, he himself rested The
truth was he saw, as others did not
that his mother had carried a fearful
weight, and now, when it was lifted by his
return, that the resources Of her life were
exhausted. The change, not yet apparent
to other eyes, was clear to his vision. Sc
il is that these silent spirits read each