Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1883-02-21

With tear-ii]led eyes and voice she spoke:
My chl!d has gone to Paradise
49,. Washington Post.
AUTUMN BLOSSOMS
How was it that I came to be an oil,
bachelor? Not because of hatin.
women, | am sure, for I like them yer>
Mulch, and never could have spoken t,
one lndely or discourteously in nv life
As nearly as know, it was in this wise
Ny father died, leaving a family O
children, a wife, and an old father ant
mother, u whom only myself was able
20 earn Il shilling. He had never saved
anything. So, after the first grief, whe1
lie had calned down, and were able t.
look matters quietly in the face, there
was wretched sort Of al aspect for u.s.
Was only an accountant, and bad {
Young fellows way OF wasting my small
salary III thousand different WAYS.
had been paying attention to Elsie Hall,
wEo, young and childish as she was, had
3 way OF leading her admirers into ex-
rravss@nce. OF all the trials of that
;<vvc-to-be. forgotten time, think the
greatest was appearing to be niggardly
III those baby blue eyes. I did not
nllutl wearing plain suits, discarding kid
gives, and renouncing the opera; but
lot to lay those bouquets and books and
MUSIC. and dainty blts of jewelry and
mlllltudlnous tribes at Elsie's feet was
avery terrible ordeal. It passed though:
aud If ever man had reason to be
Thankful | had, for the acquisitive little
beauty Tilted me in month for Tom
Iandem, who was rich and lavish of
gifts, and who ran away from her after
!! marriage Of ten months.
worked night and day and managed
to kee, the wolf from the door. Some
times used to think how we'll it was for
Elsie that she had not really loved me,
tor she could have had nothing but a dis
NAL prospect Of wearing out her youth
IL creary, hopeless engagement to one
too poor to marry. That was until Tom
ran Oft. Then [ thought it would have
been even better for her to have shared
Our N,rb;e home and poor fare and the
low could have given her, than to be
,!e;':ted so. And pitied her, as if she
Il: Lot proven herself heartless. But
! lever would hear her, of course. and I
ncVur even spoke of her to my mother.
grew 10 younger all this while, and
every year seemed to add five years to
my looks. l had never been very hand.
some or very merry, and soon 1 became
conscious OF peculiar middle-a aged look
wl,lch settles down upon some people
very early.
Strangers, too, began to take me for
the head Of the family; and once in a
'.ew neighborhood, the butcher applied
to my wife, l found that he meant
ny mother, and only wondered that it
was not dear old grannie.
She was eighty, grandfather ninety,
ana they died one bright autumn day be-
fore prosperity came to us-died within
an hour OF each other-for grannie Just
sail, II think III lie down bit, now
Lenuel don't need me. I'm very
tlred.'
Then she kissed me and said, "You've
been a good boy to your grandma, Ed
ward. You'll have that to think Of"
And when l next looked at her she was
dead, with her hand upon her cheek like
i sleeping child. =.
SO two were gone, and we were sadder
than before. And then Jean, my eldest
sister, married at sixteen, a physician.
who carried her of to Hlndoostan in her
honeymoon. And we could none of us
feel the wedding happy thing:
But prosperity did come at last, Ihad
worked hard for it, and anything man
makes his sole object in this life he is
very sure to attain.
We We're comfortable--easy. All, what
word that is after years Of struggle.
At last We were rich. But by that time
l was tive'and forty large, dark,
middleaged man, with face that looked
to myself in the glass as though it were
perpetually intent on figures. The girls
were married. Dick had taken to sea.
and we saw him once year or so: and
Ashton was at home with mother and
myselt-the only really handsome mem
Der OF our family, and just two-and-
twenty. And it was on his birthday. I
remember, that the letter came. 10 me
from poor Hunter-that letter which be.
gan: "When these lines reach YOU. Ned
Sanford, I shall have my six feet on
earth - all ever owned, or would if I
had lived to be hundred"
We had been young together, though
he was really older than I, and we had
been close friends once; but rowing fit
had seized him, and we had not met for
Years. L knew he had married a young
kentish girl, and knew no more, but
now he told me she was dead, and that
his death would leave daughter, an
orphan.
"she is not quite penniless," he
wrote "for her: mother had a little in
come, which, poor as was, I was never
brute enough to meddle with, and it has
dtsceuded to her. But I have been q
rolling stone, gathering no moss all my
Life, and we have never staid long enough |
il one plac;, to make friends. Will you
be her guardian? y, It is q dying mans |
last request. ~ '';.' 49, go
And the result Of that letter, aud an
other from lawyer eWho had Annie:
Hunters little fortune in charge, was
that one soft spring day. found me ON
board a great steamer which lay at rest
after her voyage in the protecting arms
OF Liverpool, with two little hands in
mine, and pair of great brown eyes
Lifted to my face, and q sweet voice
choked with sobs, saying something of
=" poor papa, "and Of how ntleh he had
SPOKEN OF me, ana OF the lonGty-vOyage,
and the green leaves left behind; and L.
who;had gone to meets child found. a
woman, looking at heEs and feeling to-
ward her as I had never looked upon nor
Felt 10 any other.s t,9se,sssss & - 81
- Net 70 Elsie Hall: 1tYas notthe boy
Analysing my emotion, + found only
a great: longing to protect and comfort
her:---tos guard her from every pain and
III, andI said ITO myself, at.tIhiis ID as al
father must feel to a daughter; Il can baa
L parent to George Hunter's child In
very truth. p And l teokaher home to
the old house and to my old mother. n
thought only of them; somehow Inever:
;hought of Ashton. 90, - IT, r. II
Shall I ever forget how She Enlightened
The sonbre rooms! How, her sad
less wore away she sang to us ID the