Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1885-07-24
A LOVERS GALE.

ana paused In the process Of drawing on
her gloves.
"Oh, mother" demonstrated Belle.
You don't mean to say that you'd be
willing to miss seeing the procession foF
fear Of having your hair blown about a
bit! She isn't at all patriotic, is she,
Miss Myers!"
Little Miss Myers looked upand her
Lips moved, bat no words came. How
ever, nobody noticed the dEessmaker's
unusually pale face and evident agita-
ton, and Goodbye, Miss Myers." the
three called out gaily FIVE minutes later
as they started off for the Haines build
ing, on Broadway, where a window had
been reserved for them. :
Goodbye" responded Miss Myers,
and tried to smile as she spoke; but
when the door closed and she was alone
she bent over the machine with a very
grave face and a mind that was not so
much absorbed in her work as in the as
sociations and recollections this solemn
holiday never failed to awaken.
Panoramawlse there passed before her
mental vision the old homestead in the
south, the hoaored father taking I'M
arms to defend his all, the sanity
mother committing her child to Gods
keeping, when, home and husband both
snatehed from her by wars cruel red
hands, she sank beneath the blow.
Then came the image of the handsome,
happy hearted young northerner, Henry
Dean, who twenty years ago had, been
visiting at the next plantation and
whom the firing on Sumter had called
away from the girl he had loved the
day after he had spoken, and
she, when the spark of rebel
lion had iared up into the
fierce blaze Of civil war, and her father
had enrolled himself among the forces
sent to resist those other forces with
her lover in the ranks-then she
smothered every lingering hope Of a
possible union, and set herself the task
of forgetting. But she never could for
get and soon gave up the endeavoF, and
as the years passed by and no word
came to tell her he had escaped the fate
SO bHavely met by so many thousands
Of his country-men, Agnes loved TO
think of him as lying in a soldiers grave
IN a sunny cemetery, where birds came
to sing and mate in the springtime, and
beside which a mother often sat.
No n knew her story; that is, moth
ing beyond these bare facts in that sadly
familiar tale of the impoverishment and
scattering of families following in the
footsteps of the war. Everybody was
kind to the quiet, demure little dress
maker, and although light-hearted girls
like Belle and Helen Runkel sometimes
rallied her for refusing the offers they
were sure her fair face and amiable dis
position must have brought her, Agnes
knew there was no malice in the words,
only thoughtlessness, and DON forgot
tGE sting of them.
On the 3Oth of May, then, the past
twenty years back was being revived in
her memory with more than usual dis
tinctness. Outside the unreasonable
wind moaned drearily around the cor
ner, now and then banging a shutter
and always whirling ahead Of it little
clouds Of dust. But the sun shone
brightly and The sidewalks were filed
with holiday throngs on their way to
view the procession. The servants had
all been given leave of absence, so that
Miss Myers was alone in the house. But,
timid though she was by nature, she
was now rather inclined to take comfort
in the feeling that there was nobody by
to break in upon her thoughts.
Up and down, up and down, went her
feet on the treadle, and the work glided
steadily ont from under the needle, and
all the while the worker was silently re-
calling that last day with him in the
sunny south, that walk home from the
reighbor's, that promise to see him
again on the morrow-a promise never
kept for Sumter cam between.
"Ah-h! What was thatl" Miss Ny
eHs gave q little scream as she sprang
up from the chair. She had quite for
gotten the present, and thought for an
instant that she actually heard the firing
Of the guns that had separated her from
her love. But it was only the ringing
of the telephone call over her head.
II suppose l ought TO answer it."
She decided then, and taking down the
ear piece she put her mouth 10 the
transmitter and called "Hellon'
In spite of her recent solemn thoughts,
indeed, in view of them, Miss Myers
could not forbear smiling as she spoke
the homely word; with no ono present
and visible to whom it 'couid be adj
dressed it'seemed like mocke!y to her
self. She had only used the new in
vention, once or twice before, and when
presently the sound Of martial music
came to her family but measurably clear
through the phone she stood listening
as if entranced,
Some window must be open where
the parade is passing" she reflected.
perhaps it is at the Haines' and they
want to send a message to me-"
At this moment Hello was called
out at the other end of the line. 1t was
a mans voice, and remembering how
she had heard the girls respond, Miss
Myers answered again, "Hellol who are
are youF'
Henry Dean. Is that you, Aunt
Janes I'm down at the depot; start for
Baltimore in ten minutes, and thought
I'd say how do you do and goodbye
Have found another clew. Pray Heaven
it may lead to something. Have you
any messages for the CarrolsS"
There was a pause, while Miss Myers
stood there at the instrument, clutching
the ear piece as if it had been a rope
that was to save her from drowning.
= By a supreme effort Of will she had re-
nornrad frnnn thn chonk- thn nnnntion of