Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-05-29

OF shoulder were exposed. She did not seem
to be aware of her exposure, and started,
5ltshing crims Il. when Bang said:
Now, mis-, git on your forgery and sit
here while ~ for en- ambulance. Give him
sip of this times along" he continued,
handing her his cantesn that seemed full of
commissary whisky. Catching Chancellor,
as the best horse of the three, he mounted,
without waiting to change saddles, and rode
of ut gallop.
The girl, once more in her riding habit,
seated herself, and putting her arms about
the wounded man drew his head upon her
| shoulder, like little mother, all care and
tenderness. The storm had passed, the sun
came out above the mountains, warm aud
| bright, and the mocking bird, in the cedars
near, poured out its food Of Joyous melody.
Tho poor boys passion found utterance at
last, and, in words made eloquent by gasps
and causes, he told his love. She listened in
silence, responding only in tighter grasps
and sobs she could not repress.
| Her heart, in strange agony OF grief,
was communing with itself. She found in
| this sad event revelation and revolution
in one. How different was this declaration
from the one she had courted and intended
playing upon. And up through the new
found love in her heart came the cry, "You
have murdered him"
| A long silence followed, and Bob, feeling
the hot tears falling on his brow, tried to
smother down the groans the fierce pain
f-o,,, him, I,,lai nv,
preston of loving tenderness no words could
express She saw his increased paleness,
heard his shortened breathings and elaspng
| him to her she said:
''Ohl Mr.. Elleraly-Oh! Bob, don't die.
1t is killing me-
Vain appeal. Deaths higher claim was
closing in upon his heart. He gave one more
| look, shut his eyes, shudder quivered
through his frame, then all was still
| The sun gliminered brightly ON the wet
laurel leaves, the hooking bird sang in the
cedar near, and the great world rolled on in
endless life, as it ever does, regardless of the
comedies and tragedies we mortals enact
| The driver and escort Of the ambulance
hurrying down the road, heard as they turned
the bend only the low vail of broken
hearted woman. For once funeral process
sion had only its real mourners, for Bang, as
brave man as ever stood unmoved under
fire, wept as a child.
| Twenty years after, business called me to
this part of the Shenandoah valley, and I
not only breakfasted at the old stone inn,
but visited the rude burying ground TO LOOK
On Bob Ellersly's last resting place. As /
entered I saw a carriage at the old gateway
with colored driver in livery, and inside
met slender gray-haired woman coming
from the graves. l caught only glimpse
of pale, hollow-cheeked mourner, as she
passed. me.
i / found the sexton busy digging grave
for a new occupant, and asking him to show
me that of the Union officer he clambered
out and led the way. To my surprise 1 was
shown handsome monument of marble,
consisting of a PEDESTAL and broken column.
was the more amazed to find it garnshed
with rare flowers, and inscribed on the base
| read:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY
oF ROBERT ELLERsLY, U. S. A, WHO FELL
FIGHTING FOR Ills FLAG AND COUNTRY
1lrH OF AUGUST, 1862.
"Why, who erected this monument :
asked.
''Thar's WAR you git me-" responded the
sexton, ''for don't know. Itcome up from
Baltimore ready made and we was ordered
TO put it up. That's all"
well, who strewed these flowersf'
Same as afore don't know Every Deco
ration Day, as theY calls it, that female crit
ter turns up, strews an cries, an then
vamooses. An must say, cries as much
now as at frlst.n
For fear my readers will think me guilty
Of wild exaggeration let me call their at
tention to the fact that a woman will carry
a dead lover in her heart for twenty years,
when she is sure to quarrel with a live one
within six months. DoSs PIATr
NAC-O-cHeEE, o., Nav 81