Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-07-03
A LOVERS GALE.

".Iust lock and listen, girls What
wind storm for the last Of May !!
Perhapswe had better not go, and Mrs.
RInkel turned away from the window
and paused in the process of drawing
on her gloves.
con, mother" demonstrated Belle.
You don't mean to say that you'd
be willing TO miss seeing the process
sion for fear of having your hair
blown about bit! She isn't ut all
patriotic, is she, Miss Myers2"
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 Good by, Miss
Myers, y tho three called out gally five
minutes later rs they started oil for
the Haines Building, on Broadway,
where a window had been reserved
for them.
Good by" 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
very grave face and amind that was
not SO much absorbed in her work as
in tho associations and recoilections
this solemn holiday never failed to
awaken.
Panoramawise then passed before
her mental vision the old home.
stead in the south, the honored father
taking up arms to defend hls'all, the
sanity mother committing her child
to God's keeping, when, home and
husband both snatched from her by
wars cruel red hands. she sank be-
meath the blow. Then came the image
of the handsome, happy hearted
young Northerner, Henry Dean, who
twenty years ago had been visiting at
tho 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 sparks of rebellion had llared up
into the fierce blaze of civil war, and
her father had enrolled himself among
the forces sent 10 resist those other
forces with her lover in the ranks
then she smothered every lingering
hope of possible union, and set her
SELF to the task of forgetting. Butshc
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 SO bravely met by
so maay thousands of his country
men, Agnes loved to think of hun as
lying i'll a soldiers grave in some
sunny cemetery, where birds came to
sing ana mate in the springtime, and
beside which a mother often sat.
No one knew her story; that is,
nothing beyond these bare facts in
that sadly familiar tale of the i'm
poverishment and scattering of fam
lies following in the footsteps of the
war. Everybody was kind to the
quiet demure little dresSmaker, 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 dlspo-
sitlon must have brought her. Agnes
knew there was no malice IN the
words, only thoughtlesspess, and soon
forgot the sting of them.
Ca the $0th of May, then, the past
twenty years back was beng revived
in her memory with more than usual
dIstinctneSS. Outside the uureasou
able wind moaned drearily around the
corner, now and then banging shut
ter and always whirling ahead Of it
little clouds of dust. Bat the sun
shone brightly and the sidewalks
were filled with holiday throngs on
their way te 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 threadle, and the work
glided steadily out from under the
needles, ana all the while the worker
was silently recalling that last day
with him in the sunny south, that
walk home from the neighbours, that
promise to see him again on the NOR.
row-a promise never kept, for Suns
ter came between.
"Ahl What was thatsn Miss
Myers gave little scream rs she
sprang up from the chair. She bad
quite forgotten the present, and
thought ioran instant that she actual,
ly heard the firing of the guns that
had separated her from her love. But
it was only the ringing of the tele>
phone call over her head.
II suppose ought to answer it. I"
She decided then, and taking down
the ear piece she put her mouth to the
transmitter and called "HelloI"
In spite of her recent solemn
Thoughts, indeed, in view of them. Miss
Myers coald not forbear smiling as
she spoke the homely word; with no
one present or visible to when it
could be addressed it seemed like
mockery of herself. she had only
used the new invention once or twice