The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1880-02-26
THE ESTONE-CUTTER'S STORY.

He was whistling over his work. care
less, from long custom, OF the solemn
significance of the letters he was cutting
in the white marble. The June sun was
nearly at the end Of the days journey,
sinking slowly to rest upon the bosom of
the broad Atlantic, whose waves washed
the shores of the little seaport town of
Monkton. \ stranger, handsomely
dressed in gray, with large, lustrous
brown eyes, came TO the feEce that was
around Tie yard where the stone-cutter
worked, and read the lettering, almost
completed. upon the tombstone:
HIRAM GOLDBY,
Aged 35,
LOST AT SEA, JANUARY, 1866.
Tie last six was nearly completed. a
strange pallor gathered for a moment up
on the strangers face, and then he drew
long, deep breath and said
is not ten years long time to be
cutting letters on tombstone, friend2"
'.Eh, SIR"
The stone-cutter looked, shaded his
eyes with his brown hand, as he turned
his face to the setting sun.
.'This Is 1876, lgas the grave reply.
"and Hiram Colby must have been ten
years under the waves"
"WeIl, sir, that's the question-fs be
there?"
SIS he tberal Your stone tells us he
IS, and has been for ten years"
eyes, sir, it does-so it does. And
yet she has ordered it. She came over a
week or 50 bacl, with worried look up
on her sweet face, that I have never seen
anything but patient in ten long years,
and she said to me-'you may cat
stoue, Dayy, she says, and pnt it up il
the church yard, and l don't want to see
It. I'll pay you whatever you choose to
ask, Dayy, she says; but he's not dead,
and don't want a tombstone. 'Lor,
mum;" says l, he'd a turned up all these
years if he was not dead But she shock
her pretty head, the prettiest L ever seen,
sir, and she said: '5Iy heart never told
me he was dead, Davy, and I'll never be-
Iieye it till my heart tells me so.
''His sweetheart" questioned the
stranger.
His wife, sir,-his loving, faithful
wife, tLat's had poverty, and loneliness
and misery her full share, and might ha'
bottered herself
Glow was that"
"2Ir. Miles, Sir, the richest shipovner
hercabouts, he waited patiently for seven
long years. trying to win her. Then lie
said that she WAS free even if Hiram did
come back.
"Enoch ArJen," muttered the stran-
ger.
"Whas did you say, sir.
Nothing, nothing. What answer did
she make Mr.. Miles;"
If Hiram's dead, said she, I'm lis
faithful widow while live. If Hiram 5
living, I'm his faithful wife. Maybe you
are from the city, sir, and have heard
the story Of our Pearl?"
"W' hat story is that2"
'WelI, sir, its been told many times,
more particularly in the last year, bnt
yonTe welcome to what [ know of it.
There, that is 6 done, and III leave the
Scripture text till morning. II you'll
come to the gateway and take seat on
some Of the stones III tell you, that is, if
you care to hear it.
81 do care, was the grave reply; 'I
want very much to hear the story"
"1iaybe you're some kin to the Pearl
Of 1Toul>ton-that's what they call Mrs.
Colby hereabolts. It's u matter of thir-
ty-three years back, sir, that there was
wreck of Monkton rocks, that you can
see from here, sir, now tides low. Cruel
rocks they are, and many a wreck they ye
seen, the more The pity. You see them,
sir."
Il see them"
'EWaU SIR this one wreck 4Lirtz-fhraa