Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1875-10-08
gflfrtfn stury.
EDWARD BROWN. STOkER.

'.In the midst of life we are in death :"
Those words sounded So quiet and sol
emn that Mary and | stopped short
close to the old fashioned lych gate at
the little village churchyard: and
then. as if we moved and thought to-
gether. we went in softly tn the fune-
raj, and stood at little distance, me
with MY hat off and Mary with her
head bent down. till the service was
over. There it Is all again rs I'm tell
ing il to you. come back rs fresh and
clear as if WAS looking at il now: a
pretty little old-flshionel church,
with stone wall round the yard,
where the graves lay pretty thick and
close. but all looking green and flow
cry and old. great clump of the big
gcst and oldest ycw trees | ever saw,
and tall thick hedge separating the
churchyard from the clergyman 5
house. The sun was shining brightly,
turning the licheu-covered roofs OF the
church and the yicaragc into gold ;
from the trees close by came the faint
twittering of birds. and away past the
village houses bathel In the bright
afternoon sunshine there were the
fields Of crimson clover. and the banks
full of golden broom and gorse. Over
all was a sense Of such peace and ST.
lencc that it seemed rs ii there was
nothing terrible. only quiet sadness
in the funeral. with its few mourners
standing by the open grave, and the
gray-haired clergyman standing by;
and last of all, when Mary and | went
up and looked into the grave, and read
on the coflin-plate, Aged y" one
couldn't help feeling that the poor
soul had only gone to sleep tired with
Il long life.
1t was my fancy perhaps, but as We
strolled round that churchyard. and
read tombstone here and board
there. it seemed US if no sooner had
the parson gone in TO take off his sur
plice. and the mourners left the church
yard, than the whole place woke up
again into busy life. \ chatfinch
came and jerked out its bit of a song
in one of the ycws, the Guinea fowls in
a farm close by set up their loud cry
ing, the geese shrieked on the green,
and creaking, and rattling, and bump
ing, there came along high-filled
wagon of the sweetest hay that ever
was caught in loose handfuls by the
boughs of the trees, and then fell soft
ly back into the road.
We were very quiet, Mary and |, as
We strolled out of the churchyard,
down one of the lanes, and then cross
ing stile, we went through couple
of fields, and sat down on another
stile, with the high hedge on either
side of rs. and the meadow, that they
were begiming to NOW ut the other
end, one glorious bed of flowers and
soft feathery grass.
'Polly," | says at last breaking the
silence, ''ain't this heavenly"
"And you feel BETTER" she says,
laying her hand on mine.
'.Better." | SAYS, taking long
draught of the soft sweet-scented air,
and filling my chest-"5etter, old girl.
| feel as if | was growing backwards
into boy"
And You fifty last week. she says.
yes" | says, smiling, .'and you
forty-seven next week" And then
we sat thinking for a bit.
''Polly," | says at last, as | sat there
drinking in that soft breeze, and feel
ing it give me strength, ''it's worth
being i'll only to feel rs do now"
For you see Id been very bad, else
| dare say I'm not the man to go hang
ing about churchyards and watching
funerals; I'm a stoker, and my work
lies in steamers trading to the East.
I'd come home from my last voyage
bad with fever, caught out in one of
those nasty hot bad-smelling ports
been carried home to die, dis my mates
thought; and it was being like this,
and getting better, that had set me
thinking SO seriously, and made me
so quiet; not that | was ever a noisy
sort of a man, as any one who knows
me will say. And now after getting
better, the doctor had said | must go
into the country to get strong; so as
there was no more voyageing till | was