Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-10-11
By his old trienGs bedside.

1t was after the funeral, when each one
took up the thread of his life as usual, that
society began to realize that il owed some
thing to Mr.. Rockahy. A man Of IS sud
denIr deprived Of the prop of a lifetime is
apt to neet some neIghbOrlv kindness, and
he was no exception. HIS sister. nearly as
old as himself, was installed a. his house
keeper. Every oun Of his children were
with their mother in the invisible world.
The sister wasn't particularly promising as
q companion, for she was a. deaf as a
carven image, and of gloomy and taciturn
disposition, but she made a home Tor the
old man and kept HIM from utter loneli-
ness.
Or course there were surmiscs as TO
whether he wculd marry again They are
unavoidable no matter what age has been
reached by the bereaved man or woman.
Mr.. Rockabys uelghborS soon saw that
widowerhood fell heavily upon him. He
was described as all broke up by his loss
So different from the common order OF
widO"ers was he that Pennington began to
take pride in the depth and hopeIessness of
his grief, He was unmistakaby inconsol-
went no place save to the cemetery. There
he was seen so often that his friends began
To think his mind a little shattered.
AT the end of four mouths Mrs Marvin,
whose sitting room window overlooked the
graveyard, told her neighbors not to worry
over Ii jah Rockaby. Dear ule, Suz,"
she said, Il know what widowers air. The
ones that visit their wives graves oftenest
are soonest married. I've watched Rockaby
pretty close, and / must say that he d does
take his loss 70 heart drea1fully. Sits out
there by that grave hours at "A time on nice
days I've even seen him stunl there a
long while under an umbrella WHEN It was
raining. And as to howers, / guess no daal
woman ever had more OF 'em than Ellen
Rockaby, poor thing. He always was fond
of her, even when she was livin. But he II
get over it one o these days, as they all do,
and next thing you know well hear of him
being married to some girl in her teens, like
as not.n
But time went on, AMI Mrs. Marvins pre-
diction was not verified Mr. Rcckaby did
not seem in the least disposed toward matri-
mony, and ne visited MS wiIes grave oftener
than ever. Neither the drizzlv DAYS of
autumn nor the bitter winds of winter pre-
vented him from making at least two trips
day to that sad shrine.
He di not do this to attract attention it
seemed, as his choice Of hours was not good
for that purpose. He was often at the GENE
terry before day break in mid. winter and the
darkness of evening again found him there,
Jimmy Seers, who drove milk wagon
into town, brought the startling report one
morning that he believed old man Rock.
ably night in the graveyard
81 seed a-scrapn the snow ofYn his
wiie'' grave as | come by afore IL was light.
got out and climb the fence to make sure
Of IT, SO there's no mistake"
This story frightened the Pennington peo-
pie They were not used to such Oyerpow-
sring and protracted mourning 1t was un.
reasonable, indicated lunacy, and was, be-
sides, bad precedent 10 have established
The male citizens disapproytI of it
strongly Any Of them might become
widowers, and If mourning as profound as
Rockaby's were expected Of them they
would find themselves in an embarrassing
position, They talked ii over Ia DR.. Splint's
drug store and decide that it was time to
take Rockaby in hand.
Two Of them called on the old man the
following evening, wearing their Sunday