The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-27

exquisite monument of its vast collection, he
remembered like the echo of a past life, Tommy
Hymny's quaint phrase, There's tother world,
ye know"
He had fingered behind the funeral train,
sending his carriage back empty, and seated
himself on a little hillock to watch the filing OF
the grave that held the two tenants, when the
odd words came back to him. The low sun
struck acros the shorn and verdant grass at his
feet, the sad, sweet odors of late autumn hlled
the soft air, and above the suggestive chamber
In that emerald turf rose, on high and simple
PEDESTAL the shape of colossal
woman, holding in her dropped hand a slight
cross that lay against her side and with the
other pointing upward while her face radiant
with trust and eXpectance, yet calm with sure
and certain hope, looked away from and over all
the graves beneath her to the far eastern hills,
as If she hailed beyond themthe advent of morn
ing, ana returned in her eyes the light of His
coming who is the Resurrection and the Life.
That exalted look of serene rapture fell like
spell on the ard and rocky heart of Joseph Gil
lett; his losses and sorrows vanished for the mo-
ment that other world drew near and enveloped
him in its glory; his flesh and spirit quailed be
fore the suggestion of that glad aspect some
old words, heard in his childhood rose up to his
confusion: 'Who shall abide the day of His
comlngE And who shall stand when He appear
ethf' And before their awful utterance his soul
shrank and dwindled as if in the very presence
of neglected and forgotten Maker asking for
the talents intr1sted to his unfaithful servant.
1t was almost as if the grave gave up the dead,
JlIS arising OIL Jne DllnueO ana DeSOtUeQ soul at
the word of the Lord; but it was a true resur-
rection, for after a long hour of deep and tortur-
ing conflict within himself he rose up, leaving
his dead behind him. with the old repentant sen
tence on his lips, though man never heard it
spoken: Father have sinned against heaven
and in Thy sight and am no more worthy to be
called thy SON."
And it happened to him, as before, that his
Father saw him great way off, and had com
passion on him.
No temptation offered him to return to his
business career mad, after this, any tempting in
it. To the last dollar his money went to pay all
that he owed, and barely sufficient to set
him free; but his creditors were merciful, and
accepted what they could get graciousy know
ing very well that this, the chief sufferer, was
not the chief sinner, who had at the first alarm
put wide seas between him and the danger of
losing the proceeds of his treason
1t was hardly grief to the widow Gillett to
hear of Joseph's losses; her maternal instinct
long ago had convinced her that he was not hap
Ply with his wife, and she knew that his money
had built up wall of separation between her
boy and herself. There was almost smile on
her sweet old face as she told Tommy when he
came lettering into the house with a basket of
apples, the story of failure and poverty that had
befallen Joseph
GOOD Jer1chol you don't say it9 Why, 1
thought he rollin' in gold, Mis- Gillet. Well,
well! It's the root of all evil sartin-leastways
the love ont is. have sorter noticed, though
that folks don't seem to think So Ant it on
sartin stuff!
Riches take ern wings a-and fy,
Time sha-all soon this airth remove.
That's So and mabby It's for the best; most
things is. / haven't never he'd no trouble with
it, praise be to thanks! Ills kinder perilous
stuff, now ant it!
What sinners valoo resign
Not to say Josephs one O the sinners; but
mabbe he'll come into the kingdom now, seem
he's stripped an wounded like the prodigy.
Hearken We lively and attend ye vain ones;
Pause in your mirth, adversely consider;
Learn from friends pen, sentimental painful,
Death-bed reflections
The quaint old hymn delivered in Tommy's
most cracked and wandering quaver, sinking
into minor growl at the end, was almost too
much for the widows gravity; she turned sud
denly into the door, and Tommy mumbled as he
went: "Tan't quite my death-bed nuther; but
hymns an psalms don't fit as close as a new
boot alters; there hez to be a margin"
This year there would indeed be ThanksgiV
ing at the Gillett farm, for Joseph had resolved
to come home and live with his mother. In his
prosperity he had given her the farm for her
own, and added to the deed twenty thousand
dollars, which was far more than she needed in
her simple life, so that now it had accumulated
considerably, and she had enough to keep her
boy, as She called him, in comfort
This time Cornela did not run away; she
thought of herself as an old woman; now that
twenty long years stood between her and the
girl of eighteen who had believed Joe Gillett
loved her as she loved him; and her color did not
fade or her heart falter as she held out her hand
to welcome her old FRIEND as soon as his moth
er's silent, fearful greeting was over.
Joseph could not believe his eyes. He was
gray, haggard, bent, showing to the full his
forty five years; but not line of silver streaked
Cornelia's abundant dark hair; her eyes were
sweet and serene, her broad forehead calm and
noble steady rose of hea' III glowed on her
cheek, and the firm full lips were crimson os the
roses bud She had been lovely girl; she was
now a superb and serious woman-one of those
who give ineXpreSSihle sense of comfort and
cheer wherever they are met and can make even
poor and dreary house into real home by
their presence. For long and weary time Joe
Gillett had not tasted peaceful happiness. Now,
as he sat by the cracking fire, with his mother
beside him and Cornelia at the table sewing. Just
across the hearth, he seemed to himself to have
been mad fool for the last twenty years, and
his heart swelled in thankfulness. He could not
even smile without half-sigh, when old Tommy
stumbled into the kitchen after tea to welcome
him home.
"Well, we'll, WE'LL here ye be Joseph! jest as
large as life, an twice material. I'm main
tickled to see ye. guess bel
"'Whcn sot out for glory
LET the world behind
That's so. Now, Mis- Gillett, you'll hev sech
another Thanksgivin' day, won't yeY Vittles of
the best pies an things of the reel old fashioned
stripe, Joseph. see EN- last night asettin' on
the butt'ry shelf in rows, an that there turkey
! O Deacon Hillss raisn is Jest as fat an white
as & chestnut worm; an 1 picked the cranbries
myself down in tn old tamarack swamp; that's
the carnal an airthly part ont; the speritooars
better: here ye be agin, tn only son, an she
wilder.
'Hallyooyer! It's doner
believe in the Son,
| An TO glory will go, will 60 will CO.
An to glory will CO.
YES marcys better'n sacrifice an burnt of
FERNS. Yer boys got to the old pecooliar place
where he was fetched up, and you've ben an
killed the fatted calf-thet is to say, the turkey
| Iva