The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-05-29

/ last moments Of the famous man, for he
was beloved by all and all were bound
TO him By bonds Of patriotic gratitude,
since he had been so brave a soldier up
on the battlefields of his country. But
the soldier did not heed their words OF
sympathy; the voice of fame, which, In
the past, had stirred fever in his blood
and fallen most pleasantly upon his
ears, awakened no emotion in his bo-
SON now. The soldier thought only of
Nellie, and he awaited her coming.
An old comrade came and pressed his
hand, and talked of the times when they
went to the wars together; and the old
comrade told of this battle and OF that,
and how such a victory was won and
such a city taken. But the soldiers
ears heard no sound of battle now, and
his yes could see no fash Of saber or
smoke of war.
SO the people came and spoke words
of veneration and love aud hope, and so
with quiet fortitude, and with a hungry
heart, the soldier waited for Nellie, his
little girl.
She came across the broad tempestu-
Gus a The gulls flew far out from
land and told the winds, and the winds
flew farther still and said to the ship
Speed on, o ship! speed on in thy
swift straight course, for you are bear
ing a treasure to a fathers heart"
Then the ship leant forward in her
pathway, and the wave were very still,
and the winds kept whispering Speed
on, o ship" till at last the ship was
come to port, and the little girl was
clasped in the soldiers arms.
Then for a season the soldier seemed
quite himself again, and people said
He will live" and they prayed that he
might. But their hopes and prayers
were vain. Deaths seal was on the
soldier, and there was 40 release.
The last days of the soldiers life
were the most beautiful of all-but
what a mockery of ambition and fame
and all the grand, pr~etentious things Of
life they were! They were the triumph
of a human heart, and what is better or
purer or sweeter than that?
No thought of the hundred battle
fields upon which his valor had shown
conspicuous came to the soldier now
nor the echo of his eternal fame-nor
even yet the m of a sorrowing
people. Nellie was by his side, and his
hungry, fainting heart fed on her dear
love and his soul went back to the years
long agone.
Away beyond the western horizon up
on the prairie stands a little home over
which the vines trail. All about it is
the tall, waving grass, and over yonder
is a swale with q legion of chattering
b~lackbirds perched on its swaying reeds
and rushes. Bright wild flowers bloom
ON every side, the quail Whistles on the
pasture fence, and from his home in
the chimney corner the cricket tries to
chirrup an echo to the lonely birds call.
In this prairie home we see a man hold
ing on his knee a little girl, who is tell
ing him of her play as he smooths her
fair curls or strokes her tiny velvet
hands; or perhaps she is singing him
one of her baby songs, or asking him
strange questions 81 the great wide
world that is so new to her: or perhaps
ne binds the wild flowers she has
brought into . little nosegay for her
new gingham dress, or-but we see it
all, and so, too, does the soldier, and so
does Nellie, and they hear the black
birds twitter and the quails shrill call
and the crickets faint echo, and all
about them is the sweet, subtle, holy
fragrance of memory.
And so at last, when Death came and
the soldier fell asleep forever, Nellie, his
little girl, was holding his hands and
whispering to him OF those days. Hers
were the last words he heard, and by
the smile that rested on his face when
he was dead you might have thought
tLs soldier was dreaming of a time when
Nellie prattled on his knee and babe
him weave the wild flowers in her curls.