The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-08-21

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blooming apple trees the night before
his regiment went away, and asked if
she would wait until he came back, and
after his death it was whispered about
that he had been kind o. shinin' up to
Jane Sewall," and the postmaster was
sure she had wrote to her." but the
modesty of the New England village
would have been shocked if she had
presumed to openly mourn for him.
And so the sorrow that flowed from
Calista's wound, leaving it sweet and
ready for healing, had cankered in
James heart, and formed a crust that
few broke through.
She and Calista lived comfortably on
the old place with little money and
Calista's pension; and though their lives
might not lie il tho sunshine, and the
light was subdued, it was tender, not
gloomy, and the only real shadow that
darkened the path was the dread that
sometimes thrust itself forward that
one might be left alone.
The fatal Tuesday, as Miss Jane
would have expressed it, came and
found Miss Jane frying so many dough-
nuts that Calista said, laughingly, she
must be expecting boy, after all; but
they were both surprised when the min
lister stopped at the door with boy in
his wagon.
81 said girl" said Miss Jane, en-
phatically, meeting the minister on the
| doorstep.
II know you did, Miss Sewall, I
know you DID," said the good man,
"but now I'll tell you just how it is.
This hoy has brought dog with him.
Miss James face was gorgon-like in
its stoniness-' 'and nobody wants him.
He brought the dog aboard the boat in
that pasteboard box, and there he's
kept him till somebody caught him put
ting in part of his luncheon for the lit
tie creature to eat. He cut holes in the
box so the dog could breathe, and told
him to keep still, and the knowing lit
tie thing hasn't made sound since
they started last night. The boy said
he was afraid to leave him for fear he
would be abused or lost.'
MIR. Chandler paused, and looked at
Miss James face. He read nothing
there.
81 can't say 1 blame you, though,
for not wanting boS," he continued,
land I'll see if we can't stow him away
somewhere with ours"
Miss Jane caught a glimpse of
Calista's face. "You pig, Jane Sewall,
now kick over the whole trough be-
cause you can't have everything your
way said she to herself, and Stop"
said she to the minister; s'bring him
in.
II hope you'll never regret it," said
the minister, shaking hands when he
went away.
81 hope sha'n't," responded Miss
Jane, in tone that said II know |
SHALL" but Mr.. Chandler was used to a
lack of faith. and he rode away, leaving
the boy, with the box under his arm,
standing on the broad, flat door-stone,
in the morning sunshine.
Miss Jane said she "never did see
such fool for boy that seemed 10
have w.t. too, as the days wore away;
and he asked her ''what held UP the
stone wall' that fenced the pasture
across the road, or wondered that rasp-
berries grew on bushes, or puzzled at
the connection between the hen or the
nest and the egg found in there after
ward. Miss Jane was, as she said,
really 'nonplussed at such ignorance.
The dog, Snap, proved to be harm
less little ragged-haired thing, who paid
great respect to the enormous yellow
and-white cat Sarah, and notified her
mistress by catching the rats the lazy
Sarah had allowed to gambol about
the barn almost under her nose
Quite friendship grew between
Calsta and Jack, for he loved to listen
to her stories of the war, though he
never hesitated to tell her when he
thought she left the straight highway of
fact and strayed into the fields of mag
nation.
After awhile they found, in addition
to Snap, he had brought with him an
old tageolet, on which he played, if not
scientifically, at least in way pleasing
to these lonely women.
"Pinafore' was new, but, fortunate
ly, the bands still play marching
Through Georgia and "Annie Laurie"
and Jack ratified them of, while Ca
lista hummed, in soft little voice, an
accompaniment half measure ahead
or behind, as it happened. Miss Jane
paid little heed, apparently, to she boy,
but it was not Calista who crept up
stairs to look at him as he lay asleep,
and murmured: eff he had lived" and
then blushed holly alone in the dark at
what seemed, to her rigid creed, al
most sin for the unwed to think of
wifehood or motherhood, even though
it might never be.
The second week of Jacks stay was
extremely sultry, and one night, in
terrible shower, Calista was taken with
one of the attacks of illness that had
hung about her ever since her Southern
campaign.
As Miss Jane hurriedly prepared the
medicine she kept at hand, Jacks face
looked in at the door.
Sick, hain't she?" he whispered.
"Ohr'
The house shook as a peal of thun-
der, like the boom of guns, cracked
about it, and Miss Jane cried out, for
the bottle fell from her hand and shat
tered on the floor.
"Hain't We got no more?" asked
Jack. II can go to the 'potecary's or
to the doctors. know where the doc
tor lives"
Miss Jane didn't answer.
1t would be dire cruelty to send that
morsel of humanity out in such storm,
but Calista-
Before she could collect her thoughts
the rain beat heavily in at the open
door, and Jack was gone.
She sprang cut to call after him to
go by the road and not by the stepping
stones; but the wind rushed round the
house and carried her words away. and
Jack, with Snap at his heels, had been
swallowed up by the night Jack had
been in Stoneham long enough to know
that it was q half mile to DR.. McIntyre's
by the road, while the path that led on |
the stepping-stones across Mad Brook |
was only half as far.
Wen go over the steppin' stones,
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