The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-11-06
SELECT STORY.
A LOVERS GALE.

Perhaps we had better not co. and
Mrs. Runkel turned away from the
window and paused in the process of
drawing on her gloves.
80. mother" demonstrated Belle,
~ on don't mean TO say that you'd be
willing to miss seeing the procession
for fear of having your hair blown
aoout bit. She isn't at all patriotic,
is she, Miss Myers Z"
"Little Miss Myers" looked up and
her lips moved, but no words came.
However, nobody noticed the dress
makers unusually pale face and evi-
dent agitation. and goodbye, Miss
Myers" the three call ed out gayly five
minutes later as they started off for
the Haines building, on Broadway,
where window had been reser vcd
for them.
"Good-bye,' responded Miss Myers,
and tried to smile as she spoke; Dut
when the door closed and she was
alone she bent over the machine with
a very grave face and mind that was
not 80 much absorbed in her work as
in the associations and recollections
this solemn holiday never failed to
awaken.
Panoramawise there passed before
her mental vision the old homestead ia
the South, the honored father taking
up arms to defend his all, the sanity
mother committing her child into
Gods keeping, when, home and hus-
band both snatched 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 spo-
ken, and she, when the spark of re-
bellion had harcd 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
ltver in the ranks-then had she
smo,hered every lingering hope of a
possible reunion, and set herself the
task of forgetting. But she never
could forget, and soon gave up the
endeavor, and as the years passed by,
and no word came to tell her he had
escaped the fate bravely met by so
many thousands of his countrymen,
Agnes loved to think of him as lying
in a soldiers grave in some sunny
cem't terry, where birds came to sing
and mate in the springtime and beside
which mother often sat-
No che knew h,r story; that is,
knew nothing beyond those bare facts
in that sadly familiar ia of the i'm
poverishment and scattering of fami-
lies following in the footsteps of the
war; Everybody was kind to the
quiet, demure little dressmaker, and al
though light-hearted girls like Belle
and Helen Runkel sometimes rallied
her for refusing the offers they were
sure her fair face and amiable disposi-
tion must have brought her, Agnes
knew there was no malice in the
words, only thoughtlessness, and boon
lc'SOt tne sung OF tnem.
On this 3Oth of May, then. the past
of twenty years back was being re-
vived in her memory with more than
usual distinctness. Outside the I'M
seasonable wind moancd drearily
around the corner, now and then bang
ing shutter, and always whirling
ahead of it little clouds of dust. But
the sun shone brightly and the side
walks were filled with holiday throngs
on their way TO view the procession.
The servants had dll been given leave
of absence, so that Miss Myers was
aloue 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 upon the treadle, and the
work glided steadily out from under
the needle, and all the while the work
er was silently recalling that last day
with him in the sunny South, that walk
home from the neighbor's, that promise
to see him again on the morrow-a
promise never kept, for Sumter came
between
"Ah-l What was that 2" Miss
Myers gave a little scream a. she
sprang up from her char. She had
quite forgotten the present, and thought
for an instant Il at she had actually
heard the firing of the guus that had
her from her love. But il
was only the ringing of the telephone
call over her head.
II suppose / ought to answer it,
she decided then, and taking down the
ear piece she put her mouth TO the
and cried Hello"
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 one
present and visible to whom it could
be addressed it seemed like mockery
of herself She had only used the
new invention once or twice before,
and when presently the sound of mar
tial 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 message TO me"
At this moment "Hello" was called
out at the other end of the Sine. 1t
was a mans voice, and remembering
how she had heard the girls responds
Miss Myers answered again, "Hello !
who are you!'
"Henry Dean. Is that you Aunt
Janul I'm down at the depot; start
for Baltimore in ten minutes, and
thought I'd say, 'how do you do and
good bye Have found another clue.
Pray heaven it may lead to something.
Have you any messages for the
Carols ?"
There was 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-
covered from the shock the mention of
that name had given her, and now her
brain was reeling with doubt, uncer-