Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1885-05-15

sing up and down az if seeking the
speediest destruction possible.
"The little boat looks so small from
here, said Rita. II seems as Il they
cannot possibly live on the waves. And
yet when am in one il seems quite
8 large affair. / should feel very sorry
for steamer so unfortunate as to run
against It.
There il q cOnceit IN the mind Of
man by reason of which he has q ten
dency to think his own position larger
than any other. IL il q way kind Nature
has Of keeping US from feeling uncom-
fortably cramped in small places.
81 never feel the real meaning of time
until / come here, said Paul, az they
walked from the wharf into the city.
Ito have stood still even for a quarter
of century makes city seem to the
progressive eye as If it must have be-
longed to the most remote ages. Poor
Alexandria She could not believe that
the dynasty of conservatism was dead,
and the strong waves of radicalism were
dashing down to sweep it into the past,
and she was lost for her blind clinging
to dead faith. Slain, like Dido. for
her constancy.
They were passing the old Marshall
house.
81 went in once, said Rita, s'and
stood where Ellsworth was killed."
s'How did you feel2'
"That is the worst of it. / did not
feel at all. / had expected to thrill
There is shoeshop down below, and q
man was pegging shoes and whistling
the 'Gobble Song In yard opposite,
q woman in ragged dress hung clothes
on line, and sang I'm called little But
tercup, stopping between the bars to
scold dirty faced child that was cling.
ing to her. / came away
The calm of a whole century of quiet
Sundays seemed to have fallen upon the
old church. The organ voluntary foated
out upon the solemn stiffness with much
the same effect as might have been pro-
duced by the presence Of nineteenth
century lady of fashion in buried city.
Then the music and the voices died
away, floating away off into an empyreaD
dream, and Rita saw only the past
There was a girl in the seat In front of
her-a pretty maiden, with red gold hair
shot through with silver arrow. Rita
guOuAnb 6nC AAANGk 0C q GOnuOCubl0t 4AACA0
OF gentle Nellie Custis, and she longed
to ask her what happy secrets Nellie had
intrusted to her care. And while she
was specializing upon the feasibility Of
tempting the maiden to this breech of
confidence, the benediction was pro-
nounccd and Rita came out OF her reverie
of the past to realize that pretty Nellie
was dead and turned to DUST ages ago,
and the spacious old pew opposite was
vacant for all time, and the organ was
droning out a farewell to the old days.
.My friends have not come" she said.
looking around the church.
4 am sorry you are disappointed, he
said, craitily concealing his real senti-
ments.
They went out into the churchyard
and stood by a century-old grave, on the
tombstone of which was inscribed the
solemn warning:
All you that cum my grave to see,
Prepare yourselves to follow me;
Repent and turn TO God in time,
You may be taken in your prime.
cit would have been more generous if
he had put the warning on a budapest
some distance off, so that we might not
have cum his grave to see, thereby
avoiding the possible unpleasant contin-
gency, said Paul.
But Rita was looking with solemn eyes
and serious face at the old time grave.
1T makes me sad to stand by an old
grave like this. 1t is so strange to think
that these people all these lying around
us here-were living once. They walked
about the streets, and went in and out,
aud loved aud hated, and enjoyed and
suffered. They lived whole great
worlds of their own, and now even their
names are lost, but for the record on
these stones" She looked beyond the
narrow mound with frightened eyes.
''Oh, it terriies me so to think that they
lived all this bright, joyful, happy life.
and now they are nothing
The people had left the churchyard.
It was very still. It seemed to Rita
that the world had gone back to that
dead time when all the people lying
there young. And Paul was speaking
softly across the century-o,d grave, and
she heard him dimly from somewhere in
the duskiness of the past:
They lived, loved, and were happy.
After all, that is best. Is it not best,
Rita9n
She seemed struggling up from wave
of darkness that had closed about her.
Il was as If she had been entombed with
the dead ages. She reached out de-
spairingly from q mighty depth that
seemed about to fold her in forever. And
Paul caught her hand in his firm clasp,
and all the ghosts of the past floated
away, and she was only little modern
maiden. blushing, and drawing her hand
swiftly away from too ardent clasp.
But Paul had read the meaning of that
vivid crimson on her check, and was
The City of Washington sounded its
warning note, and Paul and Rita left the
churchyard. And soon they were NOV
ing swiftly from the city of the past.
with its quiet streets and forgotten am
billions, to the city Of the present, whose
streets can never grow silent, whose
hopes can never fade away, whose peo-
pie can never die. Mary Terrence, IN
tke CuTTsut