The Aberdeen examiner., 1883-03-22
The Sock that Baby Wore.
BY EMMETT L. ROSS.

Drought ner husband nome.
A moment more, Che great yard gate
swung wide to John and team,
And soon his face popped in the doOr, with
happy smile agleam.
He drew his old wife to his heart his bride
of long ago,
And kissed her cheeks of cherry red, her
brow so like the snow.
Forgetting Time had left its trace and
made Its burrows there,
Nor knew that raven locks and curls had
turned to silver hair.
To him it was enough to know her heart
beat just as true
As il had done back forty years when first
they gan to woe.
his by her side,
And told her all the news in town-the
latest death and bride,
How Squire Dyke. from rheumatic" !"
How Lolly Dill had caught beau, and
very soon would we'd
How Sarah Smith and Polly Green, and
lots of other "wimmin,"
Wore flaming feathers in their hats and
piled ON ribbon 'trimmiu."
In fact, how all the girls put on their hi
fa-iu-tin ways,
And wore their dresses all hitched up
with patent straps and stays.
Aud how their precious little cheeks were
sineared with paints an dyes.
AndhOw they wore their hair all crinped,
or pulled down DER the eyes.
And how they sang their opera tunes and
banged piano keys
AS IT they owed the thing a grudge and
wanted to appease
Their wrath by pulling off ITS hair or
scratching out its eyes,
Until the fairly groaned beneath
weight of sighs.
And how the boys put on the swell, and
wore their nObby clothes,
But where they get their money from,
Old Harry only knows;
And how they stand upon the streets and
twirl their little canes
And twist the down upon their lips with
most exquisite pains.
And how they talk of bloOded-stock,
horses and dogs in turn,
And how they mix their talks with drinks,
and all take sugar in their'n.
How times were tight and money scarce,
and growing worse each day
How many merchants had "bust up
cause people would not pay.
How meat had "riz" and cotton fell
how taxes had grown bigger;
How black the white folks had all got,
-. how white had grown the nigger.
And how the State was in mess-its lit
tie credit gone,
And how its bonds were scarcely worth
the paper printed on,
How Congressman and Senators had all
learned how to steal:
How Grant had stocked the cards on us,
and claimed the right to deal
To us such hands as he could beat, no
matter how we played,
Because he held for winning card a
knave who "warnt afraid"
In all this time the good old wife kept
busy as bee,
In getting for her dear old man his meal
of toast and tea;
And as he chntted, laughed and ate, she
DIRE v beside her chair,
A basket full Of half-worn socks, and
with the tenderest care
Began the work of darning up each worn
out toe and heel,
Till John should finish out his talk and
eat his evening meal.
gave the fire poke,
While he filled up his corncob pipe and
fixed himself to smoke.
Again she took the work i'll hand and
searched the basket DER,
While he had fallen off to sleep aud now
began to snOre.
Among the pile Of socks that lay about
her here and there,
She spied tiny little one her baby used
to wear
Long years had passed since last she saw
this precious little thing:
IL had not been on haby's foot for thirty
years last spring.
But, oh. the memorys that il brought of
sadness aud of joy;
Oh, how il called up in her mind her blue
eyed baby boy
The tolls, the pains. he anxious cares that
she had round him thrown.
How her fond heart, his fathers too, had
centered all in him
How kind, how gentle th { BOY in return
TO them had been;
How proud he looked that April morn in
Eighteen-sixty-one;
They saw him with his gray suit on, with
knapsack and with gun.
They never saw him after that the day
he went away;
''As long as the country needs an arm
he said, II mean to stay"
No useless coffin held his form, his blanket
was his shrOud,
The twinkling stars watched DER his
grave from skies without cloud,
As if in joyous welcome to another spirit
born
Unto the glorious Prince of Peace, from
battles smoke and storm.
And here the mothers heart-strings loos-
ed in burst of sObs and cries
That drove the heavy slumbers from the
old mans drowsy eyes
He crossed the room to where she sat, and
knelt beside her chair,
Just lis their boy had years ago to lisp his
evening prayer.
She told him of the little sock she'd found
upon the floor,
The many memories it brought back
from the days of yore.
He said to her, dear wife, grieve not; in
yonder far off skies
There is a fountain at whose brink all
pain and sorrow dies;
And high upon pearly throne Jehovah,
King of Kings,
Dispenses to the SONS of men from out
its crystal springs
angel v Jices fill
The gIadsome air with songs of love:
Peace, troubled soul, be still.
He raised his face to gaze in hers. Her
eyes could open no more,
While to her heart she pressed the sock,
the sock that baby wore.
Next day the friends and neighbors came
nd hat
And LAID il meath the church yard mold
gave back the clay to clay.
That night the old man had a dream: he
thought the angels came
And bore his old and shattered form, up
into Gods domain.
And as they passed the golden gates. there
on the pearly floor,
He saw the sock, the little sock, the sock
that baby wore.
And just beyond, at Jecus' feet there
stood his wife an child,
And joined their songs with seraph hosts,
while God and angels smiled.
Friends, thus it is that little things make
OF life the sum,
This little sock is but type that into
Use has come;
Not that it is so much itself, but that it
bears part
In this sad story have told, this story of
the heart.
Vice President nt IL Handsome
SALARY.