The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-04

In play as they loltered nome from SCHOOL; the
days were so long that the COWS would not come
up the pasture until nearly o'clock.
Willie trudged across lots to supper. Mrs.
HARRISON met him at the north side of the house.
having her garden knife and rake In her hands.
She put them on the stepless frontdoor sill,
which had never been and never would be
pressed by the foot of arriving guest. This
stone sill was high enough for a seat, and she
sat down, fitting her sun bonnet back, and
smiling at Willie He was Toured FROM head to
foot. Little of his boysh beauty except its
clear innocence remained to him. His nose was
large for his head, and on his head the auburn
curls were shorn to thin crisping layer.
Ills young sister was putting supper on the
table in the dining room. his brother was listing
with another boy on the railroad. and up the
cow-lane came his father with the slow step and
somewhat of the ponderous white presence of
the walking statue in Don Giovanni
But, closest knit of all this family, mother and
son talked together in silence some birds in the
mulberry-tree over their heads making the only
calling and replying that could be heard. Before
Willie reached her, he held up his hands and
signed in the deaf mute language.
The preacher has come back"
Mrs. HARRISON raised her hands and darted her
fingers into various shapes, saying thereby,
did you see him?'
NO" Willie replied as swiftly. II only saw
his coffin in the wagon, and Nancy Ellen sitting
beside it. She had to bring him the whole
twenty miles from where he died, in wagon"
Because it wasn't on railroadp
Willie nodded.
His mother wove on: poor Nancy Ellen! Her
father wouldn't let her have the preacher for so
long and turned her off when she did marry
old man Martin saying he told her preacher as
old as himself wasn't any match for her. Did
you see her father2 How did he actr
He got into the wagon by the driver" said
Wilie's fingers.
well. that was something for him."
And they drove to his place"
II suppose he'll let her come back and live at
home now"
II wish you had seen Nancy Ellen"
I'm going to see her after the milking is
done"
Seen her by the preacher" insisted Wille's
passes. ''She looked like captive coming in
chains to Rome"
Eyes, I'll be bound she did. Every jolt of
that twenty miles is stamped in her mind"
II WISH flashed Willie, II knew what the
preacher sung to himself all along the road"
what notion! You'll have to fix it up in
poetry now, won't you"
Willie shook his head many times, and red
dened "You said the preached used to sing
home from meeting in the dark"
Eyes he did" affirmed Mrs. HARRISON. 'And
Nancy Ellen used to listen for him to go by
their place."
Their talk paused, and Willie looked up at
the birds in the mulberry. Having afterward
caught his mothers eye, he wove out slowly:
When in the tree above his head
The sap goes tngling through the bark
She will remember it dead,
And hear him singing in the dark.
"Oh, Willie is that the first verse or the last?
Have you written it downs"
Willie smiled shyly, putting his head down to-
wards one shoulder without making any reply.
His mother urged him with eager fingers:
Print it in some place when you get it done.
Nancy Ellen would be pleased"
Il am not an obituary poet" waved Willie
"But that's so good" Mrs HARRISON moved
har1 line 70 AID aiy,1%
ever going to publish anything you write2 I've
heard of people getting money for it."
Willie uttered gentle sneer. He laughed at
his mother IN way that always made her laugh
with him.
But if you would let your father fix up your
writings" she continued, repeating an old plea,
land send them to some publishing house,
know they would put them in book for you. =
The gate, weighted by stone, slammed to be-
hind his father coming to the evening meal But
before his mother rose, Willie found time to
make dance before her eyes the characters indi
eating this promise:
''Some day I'll get on my bicycle and ride and
ride until l come to publisher. If you miss
me, you'll know where I've gone. You can just
say to yourself, He's off having his poems pub
lished.' Wait till then, mother; that will be
soon enough"
You'll never do it," said his mother, having
no idea how near the time was.
She gave her family their supper and helped
to milk the cows. The cows were fragrant of
pasture grass and of fern along the fence cor
ners She thought of Wilie's stanza when the
milk first sang in the pail, and kept repeating it
until the rising froth drowned all sounds of the
flashing streams quite at her pals brim.
When the house was tidy and full of twilight
stiffness, Mrs. HARRISON put on clean apron
and took her sun bonnet to make her call of
coincidence. It is likely they would want watch
ers at Martins, and she ready to do any
thing. She had helped bear the burden of life
and death so long in Fairfield that illness, new
baby or the mysterious breathess presence in
any house peremptory invitation to her.
The boys were playing hide and-seek around
the warehouse, and as she crossed the open lot
she saw the usual line of wise men sitting on
the edge of the platform with their legs across
the rail- as if they had all agreed to make an
offering of their feet to the juggernaut of the
next passing train.
Willie darted like a bat or night bird on his
bicycle far up and far down the smooth wagon
road. Now he took turn, and came spinning
among the boys, scattering them before him,
and escaping as often as they chased him. In
one of these excursions he crossed his mothers
way. The lamps were just lighted in the sta
tion and they poured full over his laughing face.
Besides, the last red streaks and high sunset
lights were not gone out of the sky, and these
would have given her more than the silhouette
of Willie. She lifted up her hands and spelled,
''are you starting out to hunt publisher nowl"
And Willie laughed and nodded, and made her
sign of good-by.
The pleasant STIFFNESS or the evening fell
around her like blessing as she went on. Fire
flies were filling one field, as if conhagration
under that particular ground sent up endless
streams of sparks. She smelled the budding
elders, and was reminded of the tile-like bits in
her past fitted oddly together
Martin lived but few steps beyond the vii
lage She had been talking mere moment
with Nancy Ellen, and had not yet entered the
room where the preacher lay, when some other
neighbor came in with excitement, and said
loud, over the whispered talk of the mourning
house, that something was wrong down at the
depot
THAT express has run into something again.
proclaimed the neighbor, 'and looks by the way
folks rum as if it wasn't cow this time Enough
cows and pigs has been killed by that railroad"
II haven't seen the express" said Mrs. Harbi-
son, feeling her head full of wheels 1T was
all quiet when was there minute ago"
THE express has stopped. Good reason !
There's something on the track, tell ye," said
the neighbor.