The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-01-17

child woman, SIR"
Then he thought: "She has forgotten, %
and yet when she told him of others Of
whom he asked, who were married. he did
not bear in mind that she almost alone of
all OF them was still unwedded. 1t seemed
to him that she was more beautiful than
when she had given him her promise, and
the years had seemingly passed over her
without needing her at ALL
''She will give me some hint, )" he thought.
as he walked home, 'if so be she still cares
for me-" while the young woman medi-
tated in the quiet of her chamber: Gle is
still proud, but he is so handsome, and will
he remember"
But the days passed swiftly by, one like
the other, and three ~srs had gone when
Farmer Hustled died.
"What will you do?" Captain Foster
asked kezlah after the funeral. During
these years they had met as friends and
nelghbors meet, and so kindly circumspect
was each to the other that such became
their confirmed habit. In the disguise of
kind friendship and neighborly offices the
love that was burning within them was
concealed So he had as her next NEIGH
Dor, asked her what she would do now that
her father was dead. Even then he found
himself hoping that she would say one
word, express one desire, whereby he
might find opportunity to say what had
been in his heart to say all these years.
But she answered him with another uues-
ton: "Do you not think the farm too large
for me?"
"Will you live here?"
/ yes. shall employ my neighbor Moses
and his wife. They will live with me and
take care of the farm. They are good peo-
pie"
/ Eyes. know them. l will gladly buy
4 such of your land as you do not need, ;" and
he1e spoke of certain meadows that adj
~ aSSned his, mentioning price and deeds of
We and the like
An, but II she had said one word or
Jked with one such glance as she used to
bestow upon me, would have risked an
other modification, and told her how [
yearned for her" was Nathan's despairing
thought as he went away. And the woman
when he had gone she wept for her lost
love.
Nine years went by. Nathan's hair was
whitening little, but his form was erect
and his step vigorous. 1t had come to be
that Keziah consulted him on such bust
ness as her little farm required of her, and
she entrusted to him the investment and
care of some money she had inner
tied. Then, too, in the long winter time
she would for the sake of company spend a
week or more with Nathan and his sister at
their farm.
Sister Nancy had never asked question.
For many years she had fondly hoped that
Nathan would bring Keziah home, but as
the months passed and he did not do so,
she at last knew that it would never be.
Yet Nancy Foster saw that the happiest
moments ofthese two were when they were
near each other, and she at last surmised
that, having passed the ardor of youth,
they had by force of habit drifted into such
relationship as brought them pleasure, and
that both were unconscious that it was so.
Time flies so gently over uneventful lives
as to leave nothing for memory to grasp
whereby his passing NAV be brought to
30 haTnnna1 hot f+n,.
passed away, yet Captain Foster needed
not that Keziah was growing feeble by
rea5on of the forty years that had fed
since he had her troth; nor did she bear
in mind that this whte-h haired man, who
now was often racled with the pains of the
aged, was no longer the handsome youth
to whom she once gave her hand. As he
still had her heart, he was unchanging and
Interchangeable to her as she to him. One
day there came the inevitable. Sister
Nancy came to her brother in the night
time and awakened him.
Let us hasten" she said. "Moses has
come to say that Keziah is dying"
They went out into the night, this aged
brother and sister, and not word did either
speak till they reached Keziah's home.
The old housekeeper told them that Kezi-
ah had been ill for a day or two but not so
seriously as to give alarm till that evening,
when, after a severe spasm of pain, she be-
gan to sink.
44-"Sha knows me-" said Moses wife, "but
she will not live the night out"
Then they entered the chamber; the room
| where KeZiah had slept from childhood;
the same from whose windows she had
seen young Nathan Foster, riding up so
| handsome, forty years before on that Sun
day evening.
| The stir of their entrance aroused her
| from her lethargy, and though too weak to
move, she lifted up her eyes until they met
Nathan's.
For him her look obliterated time and
| place, and he saw her then as he had seen
her on that Sunday morning when the
| preacher diScoursed on pride. She could
not speak, but she seemed content to lie
| there, with her eyes fixed on his. The sud-
den TRANSPORTATION which sometimes pre-
| cedes dissolution brought to her face the
| look of yC:lth, though it caused Nancy and
the housewife to exchange a glance, as
| though to say: at is the end" But he
seemed not to have observed it. He stood
rigidly, his face set as in trance, for he
was not there in spirit, but back with her
two score and more years.
Her eyelids dropped, yet he did not stir,
but stood there gazing at her, but when she
at last opened her eyes and smiled, then
he "a" SSRA Setrotbed.p he said.
She heard him, for she smiled again, and
her lips moved as though to speak.
| Sister Nancy bent over her to hear the
whisper, and when she lifted her face she
said gently: 81 could not hear. | was too
late"
He stood like statue and his face was
like that of one.
"Come, BROTHER" said the sister. "Come,
Keziah is gone"
He turned upon her fierceIy. All the pas
sion of youth had leaped to his face.
Nathan, she is dead See!' said the
sister,
"Leave us. She was always my be-
trothed." The sister had never seen her
brother thus; but she was not greatly
amazed, for she read now the life history
of these two.
"Leaye them," she whispered to the wom-
an. "He is unnerved. He will be better
after a while"
They waited long in the outer room. They
had heard one sob, as of the outbreak of
long pent passion, and then, as was befit-
ting, the chamber was silent as the grave.
'iVS length they opened the door. They
found him kneeling at the bedside, his head
resting on her hand. They touched him,
but he answered not. He, too, had passed
AWAY. Y. San.
A Penny Apiece.
On table fully fifteen feet in length
lay hundred sticks of candy the full