Iron County register., 1885-12-03
CHAPTER xxvI-cosrrsux,.

When again the daylight came, two
oead bodies were lying in the best room
OF the cottage on the mountain side:
one upon the bed, with white count
erpane drawn about it, and one in the
little cot, clothed in white robe OF
some soft stuff once worn by the living,
but which had lain unused in the bu-
reau drawers for years. and which the
mother hands had fashioned into a
shroud during the hours which had in
teryened- Very peaceful was the look
on either face as they lay there. All
traces of suffering and care had fled.
and IN their place was a look of rest
and perfect peace. At least so thought
the weary, loving woman, who, bend
ing down to kiss each in turn, felt
strangely comforted, although her heart
seemed breaking.
When daylight had fully come she
went out and fed the animals and
fowls. and MIXED the cows, leaving the
dead where they lay, and as her own
hands had cared for them She felt
compelled to do this, partly out of SYM
pathy with the dumb brutes who must
suffer without human care, but more
from q feeling that John would have
her do it For had she not always cared
for the animals when he chanced to he
away and there was no one else to at
tend to themp And now that he was
absent never to return, she did not feel
that it made any difference; he would
still want her to care for them. When
this was done she returned to the house.
made cup of tea and forced herself to
eat little, for her work was not yet
finished, and she must have siren 9th.
Then she went about putting the
house in order, and in taking down
the clothes which her husband had ON
when he came home wet and dying,
Lucy's letter fell out and she picked it
up and read it, and reading, under
stood all, or thought she did.
1t was the knowledge that their chill
dren were to be driven out as they
themselves had so often been that had
killed John; that and some trouble
about their own home. She did not
know what this trouble was, but find
ing the deed in his pocket she knew
that the place had not been sold, and
putting that knowledge with the words
muttered by her husband in his deliri-
um, she guessed that some one laid claim
to the cottage in which she watched
her dead. But nothing now had power
to add to her sufferings. Her cup was
already full and could contain no more;
SO these added wrongs, whatever they
might prove to be, could not make her
sorrows greater.
She put the letter in the bureau
drawer where all letters from the chill
dren were kept, finished tidying up the
house, kissed again the cold faces of
her dead and went out. carefully clos
ing and fastening the door behind her,
and going to the stable, saddled horse
and prepared to ride in search of help.
1t was still raining, but in a mild kind
of way, as if each particular drop half
repented of having decided to fall upon
the already water-soaked earth. The
guilies upon the mountain side had been
widened and deepened, and new ones
had been cut through the cultivated
ground below. The grape-vines were
half denuded of their foliage, and what
remained hung liStleSs, as if drowned
in the flood. The rose leaves lay scat
tered beneath their draggled bushes,
the fruit trees dropped their slender
twigs, and all nature seemed as if it
had surfeit of weeping. The waters
filed the ravine below. and overflow
ing, had covered the stubble-field and
extended half way to the cottage A
few turkeys and chickens. weary with
their long confinement. were strolling
about in disconsolate kind of manner,
and with a look that seemed to say that
they were tired of life and ready to be
eaten if any body could get up an ap-
petite in such aboninable weather.
Leading the animal she had chosen
to ride to block near the kitchen door,
she mounted him and rode away. At
the main road she turned to the right,
knowing that it would be folly to at
tempt to ford the ravine, and having
decided to go further up the mountain
and try to reach the cottage OF some
people living on the other side of the
divide, reasoning that the higher up she
went the less would be the volume of
water in the ravines. She found the
road almost impossible in places, and
once was nearly carried away by the
force of stream which she was COM
PEELED to cross, but finally succeeded
without injury to herself or horse in
reaching the shanty of settler, and
told the object of her coming. She
wanted help to bury her dead, and she
wanted some one to go to the nearest
post-office and mail a letter to Erastus
and Lucy, and another to Jennie and
her husband.
These letters she had written during
the night after Johnny died. sitting in
the room where her dead lay. They
were brief, for no words came to her in
which to tell of her sorrow, or her aw-
full loneliness; but in few sentences
she had told what had occurred.
She found heartfelt sympathy and
ready help in those of whom she had
come to seek it. They would have had
her remain there while they, with
other nei ghbors, cared for the dead;
but she would not listen. So long as
anything remained to be done for her
loved ones she would help do it. She
could not leave them even to the care
of those who had known and respected
them while living. and. despite all they
could say, rode back alone, while the
neighbor went to secure other assist
ance. and his SON prepared to make an
attempt to reach some point from which
to mail the letters.
Wnen she reached the cottage on her
return she put her horse in the stable,
unsaddled him and fed both him and
his mate, and then went into the house.
A few moments later several neighbors,
both men and women, came and re-
manned until the next day. when the
bodies of her husband and child were
placed in vehicles in which they were
to be conveyed to the little burying
ground on the other side of the mount
ain
The gray-haired minister who had
married Lucy and Erastus two
years before, again came to the