The tribune. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1875-07-14

ready to offer himself again any day
ready to be father to her boy, and a
good husband to her. He's better of
than be. His mothers father left him
all he had. He's crazy as Job-crazy, 1
call it. Plenty of pretty gals, and
healthy, smart widows, and he sees no
one but that pale, slim little thing that &
just gone out into the mud; and She
why, of course, she's lost her senses, OF
she'd have him. Works like slave to
keep herself and child, lives in a rickety
shanty waiting and waiting for a drowned
man to come back again. Why, every
one knows Charlie Lester was drowned
in the Sphyn1. There wasn't a soul
saved, not one. 1t was in the papers.
Now, the bottle WAS found with letter
in it, writ by some one before the ship
sunk. And she's waitin' for him yet ~
Crazy on that point" said the post
master. "Well, poor soul, she'd only
been married n week when the Sphyn1
sailed; that makes difference"
ooh, yes," said the farmer.
Then their parcels being ready, they
went out to their wagons, and Mr.. Fair
John having stared into the rainy night
awhile put up his shutters and went to
bed. Meanwhile the woman plodded on
through the mud. Walking off her
disappointment" she said to herself. It
was one she should have been used to,
and now the absurdity of it seemed to
strike her for the first time in all these
years.
"They laugh at me-" she muttered to
herself. "I know they laugh at me.
Perhaps am mad; but they don't know
what love is. Charlie wouldn't have
Iaft 10 hat H.
would have given me some sign; and,
yet-yet, if he were alive, it Would be-
stranger still. No, no; they are right
1 am wrong. He must be dead"
And as though the news had just been
whispered to her, she clasped her hands
to her forehead, gave q cry, and sank
down on her knees in the road.
She knelt there few moments and
then arose. In this interval the wind
had blown the clouds from the sky, and
the moonlight lay white upon the path
and Lit her on her way to her poor home.
There at the door sat man, q strong,
determined looking fellow, who arose as
she approached and held out his hand.
"Here you come" he said, "tired to
death, worn out, still on that fruitless
errand. Jessie Lester, can't you give
up this nonsense and think of the living
little. Think of me, Jessie, for just
half an hour"
81 do think Of you," she said. 81
am very sorry you should be 80 good to
me when must seem 80 bad to you"
Then she sat down ON the porch and
took her little hood off, and leaned her
head wearily against the wall of the
house; and the man arose and crossed
over and sat down beside her.
"Give it softer resting place, Jessie, "
he said, "here on my heart"
She looked out into the night, not at
him. as she spoke:
"Job," she said, "I begin to think
you are right, that he went down in the
Sphyn1 with the rest ten years ago. But
what good would I do you2 What do
you want to marry me for 7"
The man drew closer still as he an
swered:
"Before you were married to Charles
Lester I loved you. While you were n
married woman loved you. All these
ten years since that vessel went down
I've loved you. A man must have the
woman he loves if he gives his soul for
her"
"What a horrible thought" said she.
His soul"
81 should have said his life," said
Job. 81 don't want to shock you. But
you don't know what it would be to me
to have you. And then I'd do every
thing for your boy"
eyes," she answered, "I know you
would"
There was a pause. Then she gave
him her hand.
% "Job," she said very softly, "I shall
pretend nothing don't feel, but know
I've been crazy all this time, and if you
want me you may havo me. It's very
good of you to love me so."
And thus it seems to have ended, that
ten years watching and waiting, and
there was triumph in Jobs eyes as he
turned away and left her with his first
kiss upon her brow. But at the end of
the green lane he paused and looked
back.
81 told her the TRUTH" he said,
"when said that when a man loved a
woman as love her, he must have her,
if the price were his soul ITSELF
And then he drew from his breast d
letter with a great red seal upon it,
looked at it for q moment, and hid it
away again.
Marriedg Yes, they were to be
married. Every one at McKibben's g
Corners knew that now. Jessie Lester
went no more to the post-office for her
long-expected letter. Job was furnish.
ing his house-hal furnished it, for on
the morrow the wedding was to take
place. And it was night again. A
month from that night, when she had
come for the last time, as every one
thought, through rain and mud, to make
her sadly foolish query, she was sensible
at last-very sensible. She had chosen
the substance instead of the shadow.
And now, as we said, it was night, and
a Mettar ona than the other-latar too