Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-03-23

traesesl, how long you suffered in hos.
pital. etc.. etc.
Poor Aunt Tilaa dropped detected
" into chair. and for the FIRST time
broke completely down. s.Tain't no
use. Miss Jane. he's done sols dat
cherry time, and tlar ain't no one 'ceps-
in Jake Hayes and Dick. and dey
lib way ober yondes at Mar~e Jim
Clark 5. and it's good ten mile from
heer, and den Mister Sharpe he fixed
dere aflidavits morn a year ago
but ! ain't gwine 70 tell dis we're TO
Bob, case he sin't peart now nor
smart now like what he wax. and
maybe | can slip OF right soon in de
mornin. and so ober to Massa jim
Then she was of before Jeanette
could reply.
II was ten minutes before she re-
turned, breathless. oh Miss Jane,
won't you come down to The cabin
quiokf Bob hess layln' on de bed 4
talkin, and ravin'. Use nearly
dead, bekase he'se mighty sick. Oh
come right now !" and she almost
dragged her companion along.
les. it was too true Bob, patient,
long suffering. hopeful Bob, was
wildly delirions. Now he was in the
camp talking with comrades, now
little lad in the cotton fields. Again
he suffered in the hospital and talked
of home and the sole oman" and
Jem. Then he would beg piteously
for bread, saying, ssnot to tell Tilda,
but he was so weak and so hungry,
and be couldn't eat corn bread no
more. !" Then his pension was thought
of, and he begged Tiiaa not to ask
him TO walk again to c..
Jeanette could not restrain her
tears and Aunt Tilda threw herself
on her knees by the bedside, in per-
feet agony Of grief. But 1t was too
late for any remedy; hunger and
poverty had done their work on an
already shattered frame, and shope
depressed" had supped the very life
blood of that faithful heart.
Toward morning he rallied some
what, and knew Aunt Tilda when she
spoke. '.Gimme ON letters, Tilda,
seems like maybe you'll get de money
after all !" and when she brought ssthe
box, so eagerly desired. it contain
ed only the envelopes of the letters
that had once been of so much value
in his eyes. Slowly he passed them
one by one through his trembling fin
gers. caressingly, one would have
thought, then laid them aside forever
ssTilda, and the voice was feeble
and broken. gimme yer hand. Use
sorry to leave ye alone, Tilda, you've
bin my life since | cum hack, and |
wanted to make you SO happy when
/ was free, sho, and you would eff we
he'd our money, but then-but then !;
@, Tilda, ole oman, I'm leavin'
yer all alone, and" And when
the morning sun opened the gates of
day the weary spirit had gone 10 rest,
and Tilda was alone.
No persuasion could induce her to
leave the old place. She was s.jes
waitin' to 60, she said. And when
one morning she was not seen about
as usual, they found her with her
head resting on ssBob's box Of let
tiers, . and a look of ineffable quiet on
her face. She. too, was at rest.
So did the country reward the
bravery of that loyal son. So there
are thousands to-day, whose lives are
even more pitifnl, waiting for the
pensions they SO justly earned.
In far off Washington clerk labels
one packet of papers Claimant dead,
not of alleged disability and il is
all over.
Only Jeannette Gordon knows OF
the sorrows the hopes and trials OF
that humble couple, who sleep so
peacefully, side by side, near the old
cabin bone.