The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-12-04

and 1rae5fanb ana sweet. On, InaG lay
desd with them She listened all
through my tale without a word, and
when I had finished, she threw her
arms around my neck, and sobbed and
kissed me, but she never asked a single
question, or spake of her early life
again TO me. I fancied, though, that
ever after she seemed to love roses, fer
she wore them continually In her hair,
at her throat, and IN her belt. All,
those days Why could not life have
gone on forever in that sweet compan-
ionship2
Theirs came a change. II was in the
year of the great religious revival. A
| strange, new minister then came to our
town. and with his eloquent preaching,
Wakened in the hearts of the people far
and near q sense of their sin and un-
WoFthiness. He was man of rare
ability. as we'll as of rare attractions,
| Under his influence many of our people
] gathered into the church. Among the
number was my darling. She had ever
| been of q serious turn of mind, and
now, with this jealous, ardent young
shepherd to lead her, she became at
| last one of the best beloved lambs of
his flock. All, yes Hlove took up the
glass of time and turned it in his glow
ing hands" and I came In time to dis
cover that, dearly as she loved me, there
was nearer and dearer one still.
answered "yes," when at last he
came to ask me for the hand of her
whose heart he held, bat I told him
frat her story, which he said he knew,
and loved her all the more for" Oh,
the world looked so bright TO me then
Ny darling was to marry at once, and
live with me Just the same, and was
singing a song of thanksgiving down
in my heart day and night.
AS the time drew near for the mar
riage, the minister came to me one day
and said it had been the desire of his
| life to go abroad, and now, with the
kind permission and assistance OF his
| congregation, he had decided to do so
| with his bride. 1t stan tied me to think
| must part with my darling after all,
and I said I would go too; but /
| fancied he looked displeased, and think
| ing he would doubtless prefer his rose
without a thorn, gave up my obiee-
| tions. It was hard. She had been
| mine-mine so long-and 1 must yield
her now! They would return in the
| fall, he said, and so 1 could count the
days she would be away from me.
When her tTOlSseIlE was being made
she would have nothing bat of the very
plainest, the most necessary, and would
accept no portion" from me as
weddina gift. ..-
& shall take him my dover of
roses, she would answer my remon-
| strances at her persistent refusal.
&c You found it enough VIII not he %
When she stood in her bridal robes
ready for the church, and he came for
| her that beautiful June morning, she
| put in his hand her great bunch of
white roses, saying Gas she said to me
| that moIning long ago), ''I bring them
| to you. They are my dover and he
| bent down and kissed her. Oh, that
| he had fallen dead at her feet
! They went abroad. Letters came at
| first frequent and gay with little stories
of travel and snatches of happiness run
ming through them then they came
quieter in tone-a little sad, I fancied
=" homesick for me" my glad heart
throbbed-and then they ceased TO
come at all and the fall came, and
winter, and still my darling did not
come. I did not hear. I wrote and
wrote the people shook their heads
and talked, and finally I fell i'll,
| Close to sthe valley of the shadow OF
/ death" I passed, and when wandered
back into the green pastures again,
/ there was a sad, gray haired old woman
| looking out at me from the glass.
| It was Christmas eve. sat over the
| fire, doing and dreaming always of my
| darling. I saw her, as I had seen her
| last, so bright and beautiful in her
bridal robes, and then seemed to see
| her as she came to me that sweet June
| morning long ago, in her little cotton
gown, and with the bunch of roses
trembling in her timid grasp. Then she
changed again, and lay there at my feet
a woman, wan and pale. put out both
my hands, and she did not go. whis-
pered, "Is it you, my darling 2" and
the phantom whispered back, oh so
sadly: eyes it is. come to you
once again, bnt I have not even rose
| to bring this time; my roses are all
dead l'
rubbed nv eyes, and still it did not
vanish. And it was she my own
my darling-my Rosemarie-a faded
rose, alas all pale and dropping.
Oh the wicked, cruel story learned,
| little by little. How the "doWer of
roses" had not been the fortune which
her husband had coveted and hoped to
/ win through me How her persistent
| refusals to receive a marriage portion
/ had been met with sneers and upbraid-
/ ings from him, and finally, when the
| lambs mantle had fallen from his ma
ture, revealing the wolf, how, neglected,
sick, and uncared for, in a strange land,
she had summoned strength and eour-
age at the last to leave her husband ana
come home alone, over the sea, to my
arms to die-aye, to die For, when
the roses bIOomed again, they decked
hers and her babes death robes. And
when they come again, oh, may they
blossom on my grave