The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-03-23

anu waving MS hand TO me, he dlSap-
peared.
de came back again, with the grass
and the birds, the following spring He
had been to Galveston, he explained,
and had worked his way north through
Arkansas and the Indian Territory.
somehow the trip seemed to have dis
appointed him. He talked gloomily
about it, when | could get him to talk
OF 1t at all, and the very thought of it
appeared to cloud his spirits like the
haunting of some miserable dream.
Perhaps the trouble was deeper than
my shallow vision discerned; perhaps it
came from within, and not from with
out at all. Sometimes | thought so;
but, knowing him as l did, the absurdi-
ty OF the thing would creep in to upset
such notions. And finally, when he
came to me one night, with the old ia
mlliar quizzical expression in his coun-
tenance, and told me he wanted to talk
10 me about writing an obituary for him
when he should die, [ felt sure that he
was recovering himself and would soon
touch his natural poise again.
" | hope you appreciate the honor l
confer upon you," said he, Sin select
ing you to give me my final send-off.
It's because | like your style; and |
want you to tell justine barefooted facts
about me-'nothing extenuate, nor
aught set down in malice Don't speak
OF me as a brilliant, but cratic fell
low, for that will simply mean that l
was an awful liar. Don't say of me:
He had his faults, as who of us has
SAk because that is merely polite
way of telling that the deceased was
drunken sot. And if die of the jim
jams, as l probably shall, don't say it
was apopleXy, or paralysis, but call it
iim-jams, plain and simple; I'll feel
better shout it if You do. suppose
there are few good things you can say
of me. say 'em as kindly as possible,
please. And chuck in little Shakes
peare-if You can think Of something to
suit. OF course you can't say anything
about whert I've gone; we can't any of
us figure much on that, you know
everything's so mixed and uncertain
over there. Genesis closes, you recol-
lect, with coffin"
Having thus bespoken my services,
and indicated his preferences as to how
the delicate task should be performed,
he retired, humning to himself the
breezy chorus of an old drinking song;
and thought but little, and that only
in a ludicrous vein of his singular re-
quest, until, some days afterward, they
came and told me he was missing. No
body knew when, Or how, or why he
had departed. Evidently he had stolen
off in the night, not wishing to speak of
his plans, if he had any, for we learned
on inquiry that he had even omitted to
settle with his too-indulgent landlady.
But in his composing-stick, lying upon
his case, he had left a line of type, which
spelled these words: "Gone West, to
grow up with the country"
| never saw him any more and never
heard from him until | CHANGED one
day upon fugitive notice of his death.
He was discovered, the paper said,
frozen stiff and stark, in the February
snow and ice of Minnesota prairie
Very oddly, it was young lady who
found him-sOme accidental Isabel, per-
haps-and they took him into the near
est town on a wood-sled, the Coroner
and few others, and then, suppose,
they dug hole for him in the numb
earth and put him away.
Alas, you poor, queer, dead-and-gone
prodigal, where be your gibes now?
Was it fate, or but your own folly, that
beckoned you to an end so pitifully des-
olate? Did you meet death as you had
confronted life, with that unfinching
eye and that placid, masterful smile?
And did they find, | wonder, in some
whimsical recess of your ragged gar
ments, a poverty-stricken old leather
pocket-book and little sprig of faded
cedar?
Here I might stop, content to let 81
lence do the rest. But, recalling his
injunction to "chuck in little Shakes
peare, andremembering, also, his skep-
ticism and his waywardness, | deem it
only meet and fair to add in his behalf
that carefully charitable petition which
the great monarch of thought puts into
the Kings mouth at the death-bed OF
Beaufort:
Peace to his SOUL if Gods good pleasure be y
Henry King, IN March Scribner.