The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-12-25

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could have read her thoughts matter err" my
But it's excusable this night"
continued the clock. in softer tones The smut
.Heho! but it's the last night of the The moon on the
old year! Three hours more and we
are done with it, You and are going
to watch the old year out together Let's see! How
many years have seen come and go? FOrty-exacty
forty with this one. That's long, long time.
The rocked gently to and fro, and by and
by the clock suddenly called out:
What! Tears in your eyes. Come, now, but that's
way to end the year. We thinking of the same
thing. Yes. he was good and loving husband and I'll
say this for both Of you. that I never heard one
unpleasant word between you. is twenty since
he died could look into his face he lay on his
dying bed, and if Heaven sent its light to lead
soul across the dark valley it given to him. re-
member your tears and and sOb and you prayed
that death might come to you. WE'LL
The woman wiped her tears away, and there
feeling OF suocation as she let memory bring up the
events of other years.
-eisht-nine-tear called the clock after awhile.
"How time does fly! 1t seems scarcely month since
Twas striking the last hours of last year. Let see
Some one wept with you at that bedside. There was
son and daughter. All! now 1 recall their faces
their gentle ways-ther loving words. Two years later
there other deathbed-more walls and sobs, and
saw the pabearers they carried the daughters boy
out OF the house. 1t seemed as if the last blow must
crush you, and | well remember of saying to
myself that it wouldn't be long before You were
called to go.''
The woman held her face in her hands and sobbed.
Come! Gomez chided the clock. death is ever
busy. and it must come to each and every The
past IS past, ana we DenlnQ how happens
it that you alone tonight? Where is the of
whom spoke?'
The woman choked back her sobs and her lips moved
as if she speaking the names of her dead
For many minutes her revere unbroken, and she
heard not the tcktack cktack of the steady old clock
Mine ten ,cren!" suddenly called the clock.
''The son? All! how absentminded have become! Well
DO remember the day woman with pale face and
frightened eyes opened the door and handed you letter
which bore the insignia of death. You opened it with
trembling fingers and the next moment you like
one dead There days and days when you lowered
between life and death. and for my part gave up all
hopes. Died in foreign land-buried among strangers
over the It blow aimed at heart twice
broken
The woman covered her face and moaned in anguish,
and the clock continued:
Don't grieye so; the dead at rest forevermore
Life mistakes need to be washed with tears
but the dead have reaped their reward You are Old
and and broken but who tell what friends
the New Year may raise up for you? not tell you
to forget the past for mothers heart goes out
for her dead but the New Year may have sunshine
Come. now. / about to strike the Old Year out
and the New Year in. Let greet the New with a
smile of welcome as count-ten-eleven-tsc elre-a
happy New Year!''
The woman did not move
'Heghoh called the clock; "we have left the old
behird!''
Her hands had dropped beside her and her head had
fallen.
'Dead! licked the clock the last faint echoes of
his bell died away. "Veriy, it is so! The Old Year
viii lead her soul from earth to eternity!'-DetroH
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