The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1877-10-25
S 200 Per Annum.


ye like best, Dolly? I've a mind to
give ye a wish; take yer time now-any-
thing"
She painted, clasping her wrinkled
hands. He ought not to have excited
her thus. Then she whispered, If
she-might cOme--fo all day! II ye'd
just look at the wee baby"
She thought he might be angry, but
he cOlOred and, for the first time in
years, kissed her awkwardly. Jacob was
| tender but not ELUSIVE. Then he went
out and shut the door. He came back
in few moments and she dared not ask
ii he had sent a messenger, but believed
he had. An hour after, while the moth
er lay behind the white curtain, the
door opened softly and there stole in a
slender woman, all in black, save for the
| baby gathered to her breast like lily.
She was sadder-faced far than Dolly, and
! she had eyes most like the father to
whom she ran-at whose feet she would
| have fallen if he had not received her in
| his arms, child and ALL Dolly parted
| thescurtains, then sank back among the
pillows. She listened 10 the low voices
and soft sObbing a long time; she grew
once or twice faint with happiness and
haltwandered in her mind, always,
! though, in a dim, beautiful shadow
lduu-d region IlnbeU by AeE liU"GIHy Atl
bright windOw-always with sweet,
solemn thought of Gods great love:
how, g like father pitieth his children
so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him."
Jacob summoned her by-and-by and
! seemed to want to make everything go
on usual-nOt like a scene of any sort.
The young woman carried the baby out
among the flowers and left 1T for Jacob
to study with a kind OF grave curiosity
while she went back to help her mother.
A great load seemed to be slipping from
her in this old atmosphere of home. 1t
was again a holy sabbath day; she had
wept for such--as left behind forever.
Then Dolly was so happy! She went
about singing Jerusalem the golden"
and murmuring, She'll never go away!
She Is here at last! Jacob can't turn
them off now "
OF the two women Dolly was the
Younger She had her lifelong walked
in the light; the other had been sha ad-
owed by blackness, and it is sin, not
time, that tells in this way. The baby
crowed and shouted at the strawberries
grandmother displayed for dinner, and
clung to its grandfather as if 1t had
planned its own siege upon his heart: so
as the hours went by Dolly was perfectly
content about its power. When all the
cheerful hustle of dinner was over, and
baby asleep along with the shut morning
glories under the friendly steeple, then
Jacob said:
"Come little Grannie Get We into
yer pulpit and preach us our Sunday
| lessOn!"
Dolly laughed softly, for she knew
what he meant. Ever since Jacob Sc
cured the old carved chair in perver-
/ =. u
| that had been invested with a kind of
sanctity. Jacob would never sit in it.
! Dolly, when alone, when in bodily suffer
ing, when in agony Of soul for her fallen
one, used to kneel there, as in an ora
! tory Again, Sunday afternoons, the
condition upon which Jacob would listen
! to Dolly's "pslams and hymns and spir-
| itual songs" was, that she sat here in
state; sweet in her holiday tidiness, and
as much of a saint in his eyes as any
ecclesiastic who in older times might
have used it.
''Come, come. Dolly Give us a text;
ye'll get no bigger congregation by
waitin'."
"Put away teasing, Jacob. Ye need
no sermon this day ye've lived it for
yourself Haven't he lifted our Janey
up with We where Gods sunshine can
and there is small need of words about il
only it'll fall back upon We in blessing
out OF the tender hand of the great For
giver; mind We that, Jacob And now,
| Janey, child, the wee baby has been
| baptized with over many tears let it
| lift up its little head with Gods other
pretty flowers; they'd never thrive un-
der no end Of rain and shadow. Yell do
no harm to note it moreover, Janey,"
! she added softly, that body forgets all
about the dirt any of 'un comes up out
of, if only after little it blossoms out
sweet to the very heart Of it. Pm feeble
now; and then a livin' up here above
the people, Pm out of sight Of things
that used to seem black to me but with
| the lilies and the steeple and seeming
higher to heaven, ] can't worry or get
afeerd. believe so much in the light
that is sown for the righteous and the
'gladness in the upright in heart'--nay,
nay, Janey, don't ye hang yer head
Pm not shutting you out from that
blessing. The Lord raiseth them that
are bowed down. And when He raiseth
ye, yen be upright, never fear"
The little old woman's breath began
to come with labor, and Jacob made her
stop talking that Janey might read 70
her instead. Their the baby awakened
and seemed to find a great deal too much
soIemnity in the air, for it laughed and
chatted and spun about with most in
sabbaticaI levitY. Jacob wondered at il,
and &" as he gszed the wonder grew :"
with wonder came admiration; with
that softness in his blue eyes. Anybody
might have seen that before many days
that tiny foot whose shoe he 50 fiercely
flung away would have trodden a little
path straight to the warmest corner of
his heart.
"Bring me the baby, Jacob" called
Dorothy, after a while. "Let it lie in
nv lap and look at the window Ye
can stay out with Jauey and see the sun
set"
So Jacob lifted the child and carried
II to her. The baby was charmed by the
soft radiance, shifting rainbOw-like over
its white dress 1t waved its small han d
hack and forth in the blue and crimson
{ ravg. and watched them wonderingly az
, thew plaved over DOrOthy's snowy locks.
Without. they heard her grooming softly
= To the child, and it, in response, cooling
] ike a dove. By and by, when the air
] crew chill, Jacob and his daughter re-
, turned to the rosm. The old head
: rested back against the carved cherubs
/ the little one lay quiet, having just dis
covered the pictured Agnus Del
, DOIIy's face could not be paler than
usual; but Jacob did not see, as always
the outward signs of the poor hutteripp
, heart. Janey bent ferward--then both
knew that the mother had gone along
the way Of peace tothe land ef everlast-
ing light"
Poverty, except where there is al
Z actual want of food and raiment- IL .