The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-03-07

.s t..r vas anythin' agoin' on amocg the young folks Harry vas at the head of 1t. Well, he growed up and got to readin' all kinds O books with larnia' in 'em that set his mind wanderin', and then somehow Harry was changed like and didn't care for our oid-fashioned ways he wanted to go to the big city, and at last one day he went"
 "Did he run away, uncle," asked, run away and leave you P
 "Yes, he ran away, Davy, leavin' me an mother mother who loved him and who used to pray for him every night until my heart would get to bleedin'l He ran away, Davyi He didn't come to us like the little man he used to be, but he stole away one night, it was just after har- vestin' time, and then, but he never writ to us-never writ to motherp
 The old man touched his eyes with his apron and drew hard on his pipe.
 All this was years ago. but l have not forgotten the deep impression it made en me-his sad, worn face, which seemed SO much more troubled than ever before, and the nervous twitching of his hands, all of which scarcely realized then. 1 can see it all now we two sitting there in the old doorway, the sun setting back of the hills and the long shadows streaking the road that fell away from the shop into the little valley below.
 "Don't tell me any more," l said, if it makes you feel so bad. Listen! There are the COWS over at the deacon's ]; they are coming n fer the milking"
 H. T .A ,,n~e twA kk ah1. He raked the coals at the forge and cov- cred them up for the night. l fancy that he did so that l might not discover his agitation.
 :" He never writ to us," he presently resumed, but Joe Wheeler did, and when that letter came which told us how Harry our little Harry-had been put ip ail f,r crime, it broke poor mother down. But we never knew what came of him. Thar was nothin' we could do; we were far away"
 "Oh, uncle, and you have never seen him since that timer" 1 asked, feeling a great lump in my throat.
 "Seen him, D4vy2 Seen him2 The world is wide and the years have been long, but Davy-"
 He turned away from the forge and came near to me.
 "Davy, seed face last night out on the road thar that kep' me awake till the light came in my winder this mornin'. seed face that's bin a growin' and a growth on me it t'want a ghost, Davy, but it was him, him my Harry"
 It was dusk when Jeff Uncle Stanton that evening. helped him close up the blacksmith shop and walked with him down the road to Joe Wheeler's old house, where Uncle Stanton boarded, and when l started back again tc my own humble home remember that l was so full of thought that mother, who waited anx iously, said:
 "Davy, didn't hear your happy whis- tie as you came along what makes you so late, child 2'
 How we'll remember next day with its drizzling rain and the wet leaves of the big maple tree which were tossing against my little window when l awokel l had slept very late, and while l made my hasty dressing mother called me. Dea- con Greene's rusty top buggy was stand ing at the door when went down and the good old man was telling piece of news that had aroused the Center to an excite ment which is not forgotten to this very day Uncle Stanton was dead
 "We don't know how it all was, Davy," he said, turning to me. "Most likely it was his heart that did it. You see-well, it couldn't have been an hour before can- delight when Marthy Wheeler heard a noise in Uncle Stanton's room, but afore she could get her fxin's on and get her old bones up the stairs it was all over. Uncle Stanton was on the floor, gone be yond help. The window was open and the little box he used to keep his money in was gone"
 And this is all that ever came of it. Nothing was ever discovered; nothing was learned of the thief But somehow or other when l think of that summer evening, when Uncle Stanton told me Of a face he saw, there comes over me a shudder-a suspicion Well, won't write here what think. Could it be2