The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-05-28

Daddy Dinkle's mind seemed falling him
a little that year. He was not always so
cheerful and hopeful as formerly. He
used to have fits of deep gloom sometimes
strange in this sunny-hearted old man.
One day he said to Theo.;
II am cross and old, Theo., and the
promised time isn't half as near at hand as
/ it used to be. ! wish Edward Wallace
would come home."
AT length the gentle old man fell sick.
He seemed to be slowly declining, and
once when Theo. sat beside him he said:
"TheodOra, daughter, think the prom
ised time isn't so far off after all. think
| shall find it where l am going. The
/ friends of my youth have all found it al
ready. We love the next world better
I than this when our dear ones die, one by
one, and we have hope of meeting them
there. 1 wish Edward Wallace would
come home.
Theo. went to Norton, one day, in the
railway train. As she returned she OBJ
served a stranger sitting directly opposite
/ her. He was looking at her with gleam-
/ ing, intense look. That was how she hap
pened to see him. He was large man,
/ with heavy. dark beard, brOnZed cheeks
and eyes. All Theodora's face turned
white. She set her teeth together, drew a
! deep, shuddering breath. and looked out
/ the window. The mans face turned pale,
/ too, pale to his very brow, and he leaned
his head suddenly forward, as if dizzy.
| He tore the back of an old letter and scrib-
/ bled a question on it. He touched TheO-
dora on the shoulder and gave it to her,
/ looking steadily at her with his bright, in
tense eyes. People thought she had
/ dropped letter and he had picked it up
I g., +ha full
/ into the eXpectant face, with its bright, in
tense eyes, and her face turned whittier than
| before. She looked full into the bright
eyes and deliberately shook her head. The
! stranger sat quietly down. The letter did
not belong to her after all.
! The train was crossing railway bridge,
/ stilted upon trestlewOrk, half diSjOinted,
hastily thrown together, and worm-eaten
in some places. 1t was q fashionable
/ American railway bridge. 1t seemed
| fearfully shaky to the stranger with
the bright eyes and brown cheeks. A
moment later every soul on that train
would have thought the same thing, if he
had any time for thought, which he
! hadn't. There was a sudden noise OF
! splintering timbers. The bridge was 60
/ ing down beneath the weight of the train.
1t was a very high bridge. There was a
deep ravine under it, full of dry, jagged
rocks and fallen trees. The train was tilt
ing over toward the side where TheO. sat.
She had time to see that much. 1t was a
nice situation. TheO. glanced wildly
around for moment. and then closed her
eyes. Something caught her in grasp
! like steel and whirled her madly around.
She thought the car was turning over.
An awful crash. which will ring forever
/ m ia of fhnSa NIrhn To
crack of doom. Wild shrieks of agony,
appalling, fearful death-groans, insane
screams OffrenZy, mingled with the Kissing
of steam, and the sound of women screech-
ing in that idiOtic way which tries mems
souls. Five persons killed outright, lit
tie child mangled out of the shape of hui
manity, three more persons fatally wound
ed and ten more or less severely injured
They were all ready for the whitewashing
committee. Oh yes, my friendsl Grand
work for the whitewashing committed
Edward Wallace had caught Theo. in his
arms just as the bridge went down. 1t was
his last act of consciousness for days. He
had hurled her away from the window,
and turned so that he was next the side
where she sat. sAn old tree stump came
humping into the window. 1t struck him
on the shoulder. As TheO. had been, it
would have struck her head. She escaped
with some broken glass cuts and black
and blue bruise on her arm. He had
saved her life. His shoulder was dislO-
Gated, rib or two broken, and he was
badly stunned and bruised about the head.
That was all.
We are nearing the end of our story.
They took the pOo". bruised creature
home to Daddy Dinkle's own house.
TheO. gave.her school in charge of some of
the older boys. She told Daddy Dinkle
that stranger had saved her life at the
risk of his own that he was sOrelv wound
ed, perhaps unto death, and she had
brought him home to be cared for. And
she grew white with watching and sOr-
row.
But one day Daddy Dinkle, through the
open door. heard voice family speaking
in the next room. He had not walked
without help for month, yet he sprang
upon his feet, quivering with excitement.
"TheO., you have lied to me; you who
never told me falsehOod before. 1t is no
stranger hear in there. 1t is my well-be-
loved son. who was dead and is alive again.
Take me to him.
And he fell upon his neck and kissed
him. and they wept together-the weak
old man and the weak young man. But
and did not leave it. A week later, when
Edward Wallace, feeble yet, and no more
than able to walk, went to his bedside to
take his blessing and bid him farewell, he
clung to the tall man and wept.
my son." he cried, ''yOu will not
leave me again! Alone in my helpless
blindness have prayed daily and nightly
that. | might not depart this life till heard
your voice. You were a spirited lad, full
of life, and wayward, sometimes, but | al
ways loved you as the apple of my eye.
Next to one other, it was the cruelest dis
appointment of my life when you went
away. Oh my son, my boy, You will
not leave again? You will stay with the
foolish old man till he dies 2"
He reached out in his blindness and
caught him, and clung to him with his
trembling hands. Theodore sat beside his
bed. She turned her head away and
wiped tear from her eyes.
Father" at length Edward Wallace
said, show can | stay? | have accom-
plished the career which was the dream of
my bOyhoOd. have sailed the seas from
Northern icebergs to the Southern Ocean.
[ have proSpected for gold in Australia,
and helped build a telegraph through a
country where the foot of civilized man
never trod before. | have climbed Mount
Blanc, and blistered my feet in the sand
under the equator. / have sailed around
the globe, and done all that hoped for in
my youth, only to find at last that Theo-
dora is more to me than anatomy and bota-
ny; more than travel and adventure more
than all the world besides. Father, | have
come five thousand miles to ask Theodore
once in her life to forgive, and she will
not. If she would bid me stay, father"
The old man CROPPED hopelessly over the
quilt with one hand.
"TheO., give me your hand. | cannot
find it myself" said the old man.
She reached out her hand, cold and
trembling, and he to it in his weak
grasp, holding it thus in one hand, and
Edwards hand in the other. He drew
them feebly together, and laid the hand of
Theo. in the hand of Edward.
MY children, il is the last wish of the
old man. Theo., my girl, shall it not be
so?"
She glanced at the face of Edward Wal
lace. He was looking at her with his
beautiful eyes, all moist and tender, offer
ing her once more. and for the last time,
his heart, begging her to take the gift
the heart of brave, strong, loving, eter-