American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1878-03-02

we would have, where we would buy our
/ groceries, how the children would look
and what we would name them Ghere
were to be several of them, all girls,
and hundred other things that I'm
ashamed to think of now. But it was
all very real to me then, 1 tell you. Not
that ever spoke to Isabel-pretty name,
wasn't itP-about such matters. Oh,
no. We were very sensible pair of
lovers, can assure you, and our court
ship was painfully correct There was
none of the yon bright orb nonsense
about us. We weren't a bit spooney.
We didn't turn the light down nor hold
each others hands, nor say darling
Not any. Once, only once, put my
arm around her waist, and might have
kissed her, may be, but she looked
squarely into my face, and said, You
forget and that was all there was of it.
L used to wish, sometimes, that she
would be little more demonstrative-
one gets tired of mere words, you know,
in takes of that kind-but perhaps
perhaps it was better as it was"
He paused and pressed his hands to
his forehead, as if he feared the sweet
memory would slip away from him in
his talk; and 1 sat waiting for him to
proceed, busying myself meanwhile
with thoughts of a certain June-cheeked
Juliet to whom I had myself played
Romeo, and whose half-forgotten image
his idyl had strangely restored to me
there in the pensive starlight.
Well, he continued, directly, g we
were very happy-too happy, Cap.-too
happy. If there hadn't been quite so
much of it, it would have lasted longer,
probably. The truth is, l was so happy
that L had to do something to tone it
down-to loosen the -quoins, you might
say-and took to drinking like fish.
4 couldn't have helped it to save my
) life. Perhaps if she had acted a little
: warmer toward me, and 1 could have
caressed and kissed her-been little
, more ambrosial, you underestimate
would have made difference with me-
) But L don't KNOW 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:
6 She bore with it month after month,
as patiently as nun, but she couldn t
stand it always, of course, and SO she
told me, at last, not in anger, or blunt
ly, 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,
2 which it couldn't: so | simply took her
: hand for moment-it trembled, calm
t as she was-and bowling, went away
: He paused once more, and was on
5 the point of rising, supposing he had
: said all he desired to say, but he motion
2 ed me to remain, and went on talking.
CATER that, l lay sick long time-eight
, weeks, they told me-with some infer
nal sort of fever, and the money 1 had
5 saved went to the doctors. l pulled
through, of course. Men have died
i from time to time, and worms have eat
3 en- them, but not for love- L don't
know how it was, but when I got up
/ again, my brain seemed to be kind of
} incoherent-'p Pied you might say
and l couldn't get steady work, and fin
ally they began to whisper around
about sending me to Jacksonville
that's where the crazy asylum is, you
} know. Then braced up, and the first
dark night, l jumped the town without
saying word to any body, and since
then-well, you know the rest, or a good
t deal of it. But you didn't know-you
t would never have guessed if 1 hadn't
told you-that it was too much happi-
ness made me what 1 amp
With this last paradox, he turned par
TALLY aside, and noticed that he was
| fumbling about his clothes as if in
search of something tobacco, pre-
sumed. Presently, he drew out from
: some inscrutable hiding-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 had seen SO
often: "There's rosemary, that's for re-
membrance. Pray you, love, remem-
!, ber." Then he told me Isabel had
given tito him once. standing by the
gate, and that he had carried it through
all the long years as a memento of her.
When | reached it back to him, he put
it away again in the wrinkled old peck
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 me?'' 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 goodnight" and parted
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. sour
planet is dropping into its annual shad-
ow," he said, with mock gravity, ssand
L must HE me away to fresh fields and
pastures new. 1 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 Re oOod 70