The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1876-06-30
SELECT STORY.
WAITING POE AN ANSWER.
rFrom easel 5 Mseazine.l

will. You shall hear The wound has
never healed, and if 1 put my hand
above il. the place still throbs, even as
il viii beat and ache till kindly nature
SAYS to me, "SlesP, poor weary one and
rest" And then peace, ully, tTustIngiyr
and with simple hope Of forgiveness,
may | sleep that long sleep which they
say so fippantly has no waking, but
which has a waking, as every lesson
which we learn in life persists in teach
ing US.
You will smile, perhaps, when | tell
you that was once what people called
pretty-that this pale-hued face was
once plump and rosy, these sad eyes
bright, and this gray scant hair golden
brown, long, and flowing. But why
should / think you would smile? Do /
not know that you must have seen the
gay young plant putting out its tender
ieares ia =prIng, growing green and
ll lxuTiear %. foliage in summer, ripe and
lu3.;y ID Hu.Amu, and gray, bent, and
syi:a1r..i 5a lgez And should ] be pitied
h.e+a5e have b4t followed in the way
of .4,aftr ~dre.y not. IL Ia not tor
th4t i sat yoaf -vlnpathy, but for the
hEsht ;Eat l-'i pom ine young plant,
anu asarel and sca:hei 1t so that il
seer si t.z .a3nsl- that ii would die; but
li +. ~, =, i nave lived to tell you this.
10 you know That wondrous feeling
which comes II the early year, and that
strange sense Of keen delight; that eias-
tici.y Ok spirit, sA-n, fuil OF youth anu
hope, the very tears of joyous scnsibility
start tb the ewes as you wander amidst
she'trees anu fU .sers il spring? remem-
Der how / felt, ca! so we'll, even though
it is now forty years ago, and was TWEEN
ty.
Jack and were engaged. 1t was all
such simple, hom-ly affair. We had
known one another for yesrs-the chill
dren of neighboring farmers. Jack-I
still call him by the simple old pet name
of those days-Jack had been ~ay at
good school, and being bright and shrewd
and clever he bad won his way on, TAX
ing to engineering instead of his fathers
farm life, and now i; had come to this
that he had been staying At home for
month previous to going out to good
appointment in Melbourne.
That month in spring, how it passed !
We had met again and again, and in his
honest, manly way, he had asked me to
be his wife.
"You know, Grace, that / have always
loved you," he said; land now l have
hopes and prospects, it cannot be wrong
to ask you for your promise"
We were walking by the river side as
he said this, and now / can picture it all
the soft gliding water mirroring the
trees on the opposite bank, the young
green buds just breaking from their
cases, and. above all. the soft tender blue
of the spring sky-the blue, he had told
me, that was like my eyes.
"Do you want me to promise Jack?"
/ said simply, as | looked up in his
face.
mo, darling; am satisfied" he cried,
as his strong arms held ME to his board
breast, and that was all. No oaths could
have bound me more tightly to him. /
felt that was his wife when he should
come to claim me.
We were late that evening, and enter
ed the house shyly, for there had been so
much to talk ofand plan. In months
tiue Jack was 90 sail for Melbourne;
then be was to work very hard for three
years, and come and fetch me to be his
WIFE
That month glided by, and the last
day had come. 1t was, as | told you,
spring-time-joyous spring time, with
the hawthorne g snowy blossoms, the ap-
ple-trees pink and the pear-trees pearly
with their pyramids of flowers. Every
meadow passed was starred with gid
en- buttercups, and from every spray the
birds trilled or jerked forth their merry
songs of hope and love.
/ could not feel sad, even though was
going to meet Jack for the last walk be
fore he went away; but "a | said, min
gled with the feelings of ecstasy there
was a strange tearfulness of eye, and my
breath would come nj times with a sob.
He was BY the stile. waiting for me-
the sti'e Jowa BY she long mead, half
way between the Jwo frrms-and as he
took my hands in his, we neither of us
spoke, bus stood gazing away over wood
lawn and meadow, all clad in their won
drcue beauty, and listened to the birds.
Now it was .he soft tender COO of the
stuck dove from the wood, now the jerk
ed-lut twittering song of the linnets;
then, soft and mellow, from the thick
hedgerows foated towards US the futy
notes ofthe black brid, while far on high
trilled away the farks, singing one against
the other to their mates, sitting in the
tall grass of the golden meads
We could not talk, our hearts were too
iulI, IOr JatK WAS 10 De on at uaN- Dreak
the next morning. But there was no
need for words. We loved each other
in the simple nature taught way that
has been since the world began, and we
knew that every Joyous song around that
thrilled upon our ears meant love, and
even in our sorrow, we we're happy.
"Only three years. darling" Jack
whispered to me, land then"
The tears rose to my eyes as tried to
answer him, but could not speak a
word.
"And you will let me find long let
ter when get three?" he said, tender
ly.
Yes, Jack, PROMISE" | said and
then it was time to return, for the hours
had glided by, how, we could not tell.
Jack spent the evening with us at
home and then he left us hurriedly, for
our farewells had been said in the wood
and it was one hearty kiss given before
tho oId paor,la and than Oood nv