The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-07-13
A WOMAN'S GRAVE.

grave. The tiny mound is upon the crest
of pretty knoll, overlooking the desolate,
deserted mining camp of Cold Springs,
half way between Placerville and Coloma.
The sitting sunlight trembling through the
leaves of grand old live oak falls lovingly,
tenderly upon the grave, just as it did
twenty years ago. Marvellous changes
have crept with the years over all the
surroundings. 5000 miners worked in the
flats and gulches of the little mountain
trimmed camp in those early, golden days.
No claim was allowed to be over fifteen
feet square, and even then the ravines and
hollows, the valleys and hill slopes were all
located, and there were miners to spare.
1t was one of the loveliest camps in the
foothills. There were some of the grand
est of men, the most generous, the most
heroic, in the mines in those days that the
sun shone on-men whose nobility of soul
would have stamped them heroes in any
age or cline. And one such was large,
broad shouldered man--handsome, we'll
educated, general favorite among the
fellows, and who was always known as
"Judge." There. | had almost written
his name and you would all know him,
and it is the one tender event of his life !
am telling.
If you CHANGED to be in Cold Springs on
the day June Meredith and her husband
came to town, you were doubtless standing
with the crowd by the hotel, watching the
stage as it came numbering down the
Hangtown hill. The news had flown
ahead of the stage that genuine respec-
table married woman was coming with her
husband to live at the springs. Every
claim was vacated that afterneen to see the
phenomenon-for in that little valley, with
its hundreds of men, it was indeed a
phenomenon to have real lady to come
and settle among them.
Just as the plump, pretty figure, the blue
eyes and the light brown hair emerged
from the stage, and thousand breathless
voices were whispering Chow beautiful
she gave little stifled scream and fell faint
ing in the arms of her husband. Every
body said it was the heat, the fatigue, the
excitement, which caused her swoon, and
all were too much engaged with the event
to observe the blanched face of the Judge,
who clutched the column of the porch to
keep from falling.
When few days had elapsed, and the
excitement over the new arrival had par
TALLY subsidized, it was discovered the Judge
had disappeared. No one remembered to
have seen him after the stage drove in.
Ere the swarm of busy life swept away
from the placers, and the hum of mining
and of miners voices ceased, the little
knoll overlooking the plat became dotted
with graves. Many who left home and
friends with an ardent, eager thirst for
gold, wearied and fell asleep among the
gold veins-found resting places in the
very heart of the diggngs where they
worked. And some mines in the mining
camp burial ground covered hearts that in
life were warmer and tenderer, if possible
than those of the brave, generous pioneer
covered hearts of the pioneers wives
In one of these graves. the one of whose
romance l am telling, lay June Meredith.
When the mines were worked out and
the bustling camp had become farming
village, most of the graves were removed
to filter burying place near the road
When the bodies were being removed, the
workmen early one morning found a we'll
dressed, middle aged stranger sitting on
the grave under the oak. He had been
seen to enter the village at dusk the even
ing before, and it was readily coniectured
that he had been by the grave all night.
He said few words to the man who had
charge of the work, and emphasized his
language with a handful of money, and
then he disappeared without letting any
one know who he was or whence he came
1t was scarcely necessary to say this grave
was not touched. The knoll was robbed
of all its other dead, but June Meredith
sleeps where they laid her. The date on
the marble tombstone showed that the
stranger had visited the spot ON the ami
versary night of the death of the woman
who lay slumbering there. In speaking
one with another concerning the event, it
was ascertained that the stranger or some
one resembling him had been seen in the
neighborhood during prior years, at about
the same time of year.
This is about all. The Judge" had
sudden disappearance, until the stormy,
dreary night when June Meredith died.
No matter how completely he worshipped
her, no matter how desolate was his aim
less life, his sense of honor forbade him
from so much as visiting her while she was
anothers.
But when she was dying, when all hope
of life was gone, when she lay with closed
eyes so quiet and still that she seemed to
be listening to voices from the farther
shore, the door opened softly, and the
Judge entered the room. He was pale and
haggard and care worn, and was only a
shadow of his former self; but the blue
eyes Enclosed and frightened with Joyful
recognition. In the dim shadowland of
death there was no hesitation. With eager,
outstretched arms she clasped his neck and
as his lips touched hers she murmured:
SIN Heavenr'
The next moment she was dead
Every year, on the anniversary night of
her DEATH he visits her grave.
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