Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-11-28
JOHN T~REvANloN,s s7opv

JOHN TREvAN'oN's STORY.
They haye laid him to-day in the church.
And sit BY myself in the twilight dim
Nitn thoughts going back to the earlier aav.
That phsset ~ the school or the PLAY.
over half of a%'century memory leaps.
And Drings .he young llfe into being again.
And to him l was Jack, and to me he 'v W.
Ben was
Toung Benedict Brown was a shoemsn,or,
My father, the wealthiest man in tia town
3ut boys are not sordid, and soon we wera
known "eie
AS shannon rcvanion and Pythias Brown.
The two of us went to old Morris,s school,
And We're cons1ant companions when school
But, mark you, though he was ut head of the
In fishing I always caught two to his one.
while chatting together one day when half
We talked ofthe future, and what we snor,a
When each came to manhood; I said1 would
TO double my fortune before 1 was through,
your plan; AVN
l have nothing but firm, honest purpose,
intend to read law, win a name and respect.
And De member OF Congress and Judge ere
die"
I laughed. - a very good pu,pose.n 7
said; =
"lon aim pretty high, Ben; but think, after
Vow rocky and rugged and steep is the road,
How nigh is the hill, and how far if you
lie answered :-l"Though rocky and rugged the
Its length may be Travelled by one with II
will;
And up to the House they call Beautiful,
Jack
Tho Pilgrim must climb by the Difficult
Ills words brought the story Of Bunyan to
mind,
And the blood to my cheeks by my shame
was impelled,
For / felt that the man with the muck rake
was l.,
!! While e1 he gazed at the crown by an angel
And I knew that, with honor and courage
possessed,
He would follow the earnest career he had
planned;
So 1 said: "Well, my comrade, whatever your
aim,
Count on Jack as your friend" and 1 gave
him my hand.
Ilcft him for college, and Zen went to work;
lie sat on the shoe-bench and hammered
Made enough to support him and buy a few
books;
The night gave to study, to labor the day.
.Twas but in vacations l saw him for years;
He was there, while l read at my college
afar;
7,,,t &, ,-anJ- aro - l>ooI,alo,., l,oo>,, T%oo1-
Young Benedict Brown had been called to
the bar.
/ crossed the Atlantic, and reamed foreign
( Was gone for ten years; and, returning
sought for old friends, and among them I
/ Ranking high among lawyers, my school
fellow, Ben.
Not rich, but with comforts around him, and
bleSt
With children and wife and his fellows
regard;
But he owned, as we sat after dinner and
! That the climbing of Difficult Hill had been
hard.
He gained, in the end, all he aimed at and
/ Congress, Governor, then was Chief-Justice
And as As had become, as1 wished, millionaire,
We often REQUIRED to our hopes OF the past.
Our friendship meier checked; you may Judge
what l felt
I When the telegraph flashed me a message
to come,
If I'd see my old friend ere his bright eyes
were closed, $
( And the silvery voice, thrilling thousands,
y grown dumb.
stood at his bedside: his fast glazing eye
Lit when he beheld me; though dying, ana
weak,
Ills lips moved; 1 bent to the pillow my cor
And he managed, i'll. difficult whisper, to
speak
oI go to the House they call beautiful, Jack
: 1 have one with all climbing on Difficult
HILL"
Then he smiled, and q glory came over his
And the heart of the Pilgrim forever was
still.
&. Thomas Dunn English, in N. Y. Ledger.