Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-07-12
From Cassell's Magazine.
WAITING FOR An ANSWER.
BY GEO. MANvILLE FEM.

7 My story? my lifef Oh. it has been
too eventful, too simple in its incidents.
l could tell you the sorrows of others,
but my own-well, we'll as you will.
You shall hear The wound has never
heale and if put my hand above it,
beat and ache till kindly nature says to
NE, "Sleep, poor weary one, and rest"
And then peacefully, trustingly, and
With a simple hope of forgiveness, may
I sleep that long sleep which they say
so f1ippantly has no waking, but which
has a waking, as every lesson which we
learn in life persists in teaching us.
You smile, perhaps, when [ tell you
that was once what people call 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 I
think you would smile ? Do l not
know that you must nave seen the gay
young plant putting out its tender
leaves IN spring, growing green and
luxurlant of foliage in summer, ripe
and rudy in autumn, and gray, bent
and withered in age? And should be
pitied because have but followed in
the way of nature? Surely not 1t
is not for that [ ask your sympathy,
but for the blight that fell upon
the young plant, and scared and
scath ed it SO that it seemed for months
that it would die; but it lived, as I have
lived to tell you this.
Do you know that wondrous feeling
which comes in the early year, and
that strange sense of keen delight, that
elias ITCHY of spirit, when, full of youth
and hope, the very tears of joyous
sens Utility start to the eyes as you wan
der amidst the trees and flowers in
spring [ remember how I felt, oh
so well, even though it is now forty
years ago, and [ was twenty
Jack and were engaged It was all
such a simple homely affair. We had
known one another for years-the
children of neighboring farmers. Jack
i still call him by the simple old pet
name of those days-Jack had been
away at good school, and being bright
and shrewd and clever he had won his
way on, taking to engineering instead
of his fathers farm life, and now it
had come to this that be had been stay
ing at home for a 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 asked me to
be his wife.
"You know, Grace, that I have
always loved you," he said; land now I
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 how well 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 tend
er blue of the spring sky-the blue, he
had told me, that was like my eyes.
Do you want me to promise,
Jack ?" I said simply, as [ looked up in
his face.
"No, darling; I am satisfied" he
cried, as his strong arms held me to his
broad breast, ana that was all. No oaths
could have bound ne more tightly to
him. I felt that L was his wife when
he should come to claim me.
We were late that evening, and en-
tered the house shyly, for there had
been so much to talk of and plan. In
a months time Jack was to sail for Mel
bourne; then he was to work very hard
fer 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 hawthornes snowy blossoms, the
apple-trees pink and the pear-trees
pearly with their pyramids of flowers.
Every meadow [ passed was starred
with golden buttercups, and from every
spray 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 before he went away; but. as
said, mingled with the feelings oil
ecstacy there was a strange tearfulness
of eye, and my breath would come al
times with a sob.
ksHe was by the stile, waiting for me
the stile down by the long mead, half
way between the two farms-and as he
took my hands in his, we neither of III
spoke, but stood gazing away over wood
lawn and meadow, all clad in their won
drous beauty, and listened to the birds
Now it was the soft, tender coo of The
stock drove from the wood; now thu
jerked-out, twittering of the linnets
then, soft and mellow, from the thicl
hedge-rows, foated towards us TIT
fiuty notes of the blackbird, while fal
on high trilled away the larks, singing
one against the other to their mates
sitting in the tall grass of the COLDER
meads. a @ 8a sH1 81
We could not talk, our hearts were
too full, for Jack was to be off at day
break 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 know that every joyous song
around that thrilled upon our ears
meant love, and even in our sorrow
we wer e happy. $50
"Only three years, darling" Jack
Whisn cred to me. "and then"