San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-03-09

But don't know--I don't know"
He relapsed into silence again, and
there was only the dull fretting of the
waters about the pier beneath us to dis
turb the dull Stiffness until, after several
minutes he resumed-rapidly, now, and
with apparent anxiety to have done with
the subject:
"She bore with it month after month,
as patiently as a nun, but she couldn't
stand it always, of course, and SO she
told me, at last, not in anger, or blunt
", but firmly, and yet sadly, l thought,
that the time had come for us to part.
1t would have choked me to speak, even
| if speaking could have done any good,
Which it couldn't; so simply took her
hand for moment--it trembled, calm
us she was-and bowling, went away"
| He paused once more, and was on
the point of rising, supposing he had
said all he desired to say, but he motion-
ed me to remain, and went on talking.
"After that, I lay sick a long time-eight
weeks, they told me-with some infer
nal sort Of fever, and the money l had
saved went to the DOCTORS rI pulled
through, of course. tMenl have died
from time to time, and worms have eat
en- them, but not for love- ! don't
know how it was, but when l got up
again, my brain seemed to be kind of
incsherent-'pied,' you might say
and / couldn't get steady work, land fin
ally they began to whisper, around
about sendingb me to 7,Jacksonville-r
that's where the crazy asylum is, you
know. Then braced up, and the first
dark night, l jumped the town without
saying q word to any body, and since since
then well, you know the rest, or good
deal of it. But you didn't knpw-you
would never have guessed if l hadn't
told you-that it was too much happi-
ness made me what 1 amP''i4 haa y9o' =
With this last paradox, he turned par
TALLY aside, and noticed that he was
fulnblihg About his clothes as if in
search of something tobacco, pre-
sumed. Presently, he drew out from
some inscrutable 7hiding-place an
old creased and rumpled leather pocket
book, and took. from it a faded sprig Of
cedar, and handing it to me, said, with
that CLASSY, cynical smile l had seen so
often: "There's rosemary, that's for re-
membrance.1 Pray you, love, remem-
her," Then he told me Isabel had
given it to him once, standing by the
gate, and that he had carried it through
all the long years as memento of her.
When 1 reached it back to him, he put
it away again in the wrinkled old pock-
et-book as tenderly as if it had been a
tress of hair from the head of dead
baby, and then, '''I Wonder if she ever
thinks Of meP" he said, quite seriously,
and we walked leisurely up the long
street together, neither Of us speaking a
word more until we came to the corner
where we had to separate, and there we
merely said "good-night," and parted.
I did not see him again for some time,
and when, at length, he made me an
other visit, in the afternoon of a mellow
October day, he informed me that he
was about to leave the town. s.Our
planet is dropping into its annual shad-
ow," he said, with mock gravity, sand
l must HE me away to fresh fields and
pastures new. L want to commune with
Nature, you understand; to touch the
earth, like Anteus; to eat haws and
smell the fall wheat; to mingle with the
quails, and blue-jays, and woodpeckers,
and all that sort of thing. Be good to
yourself, Cap. Don't work too hard,
and beware of the enemy which men put
in their mouths to steal away their
brains. By-by.'' And before 1 had
time to answer, he was out of my sight
and shuffling down the stairs, leaving
me in mood that was nearer sadness
than would have cared to confess, and
which, L fear, gave downcast tinge to
the CoWmonwealth's editorials for sew
eral mornings afterward. .r.!
He returned in about two weeks,
strange to say, and he solemnly asserted
that he had only been ''looking for
homestead" He was jaded, foot sore,,
and as usual, little shabber than usual
as to clothing. He had read he said, in
some real-estate papersof locality, out
in primeval Kansas where corn grew
wild, and livestock waxed fat on the