Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1885-07-18
A LOVERS GALE.

"Just look and listen, girls What q
windstorm for the last Of Nav. Per-
haps we had better not go, and Yrs
Runkel turned away from the window
and paused in the process of drawing on
her gloves.
'th, mother" demonstrated Belle.
"You don't mean to say that you'd be
willing 10 miss seeing the procession for
fear OF having your hair blown about a
bit! She isn't at all patriotic, is she,
Miss Myers
Little Miss Myers" looked up and her
lips moved, but no words came. How
ever, nobody noticed the dressmaker's
unusually pale face and evident agita-
ton, and Goodbye, Miss Myers" the
three called out gaily five minutes later
a. they started of for the Haines build.
ing, on Broadway, where window had
been reserved for them.
Goodbye" 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 mind that was not so
much absorbed in her work rs in the as
sociatious and recollections this solemn
holiday never failed to awaken.
Panoramawise there passed before her
mental vision the old homestead in the
south, the honored father taking up
arms to defend his all, the sanity
mother committing her child to God's
keeping, when, home and husband both
snatehed from her by wars cruel red
hands, she sank beneath the blow.
Then came the image of the handsome.
happy hearted young northerner, Henry
Dean, who twenty years ago had been
visiting at the 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 spark of rebel
lion had fared up into the
fierce blaze of civil war, and her father
had enrolled himself among the forces
sent TO resist those other forces with
her lover in the ranks-then she
smothered every lingering hope of q
possible union, and set herself the task
OF forgetting. b. she never could for
get and soon CAV 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 many thousands
of his country men, Agnes loved TO
think of him as lying in a soldiers grave
IN a sunny cemetery, where birds came
10 sing and mate in the springtime, and
beside which mother often sat.
No one knew her story; that Is, moth
ing bagond these bare facts in that sadly
familiar tale of the Impeachment and
scattering of families following in the
footsteps of the war. Everybody was
kind 10 the quiet, demure little dress
maker, and although light-hearted girls
like Belle an Helen Runkel sometimes
rallied her for refusing the offers they
were sure her fair face and amiable dis
position must have brought her, Agnes
knew there was no malice in the words,
only thoughtlessness, and soon forgot
the sting OF them.
On the 30th Of May, then, the past
twenty years back was being revived in
her memory with more than usual dis.
tinctness. Outside the unreasonable
wind moaned drearily around the cor
ner, now and then banging a shutter
and always whirling ahead of 1t little
clouds of dust But the sun shone
brightly and the sidewalks were filed
with holiday throngs on their way TO
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 treadle, and the work glided
steadily out from under the needle, and
all the while the worker was silently re-
calling that last day with him in the
sunny south, that walk home from the
neighbors, that promise to see hi n
again on the morrow-a promise never
kept, for sumter came between.
"Ah-h. What was that Miss Ny.
ers gave little scream as she sprang
up from the chair She had quite for
gotten the present, and thought for an
instant that she actually heard the ring
Of the guns that had separated her from
her love. But ii was only the ringing
OF the telephone call over her head.
81 suppose | ought 10 answer It."
She decided then, and taking down the
ear piece she put her mouth 10 the
transmitter and called Hello,
In spite of her recent solemn thoughts,
indeed, in view of them, Miss Myers
could not forbear smiling as she spoke
the homely word; with no one present
and visible 10 whom it could be ad-
dressed il seemed like mockery to her
self She had only used the new in
yentiou once or twice before, and when
presently the sound of martial music
came to her family but measurably clear
through the phone she stood listening
a. II entranced.
Some window must be open where
the parade is passing she reflected.
Perhaps II Is at the Haines and they
want 10 send a message TO me.
AT this moment Hello was called
out at the other end of the line. IL was
mans voice, and remembering how
she had heard the girls respond, Miss
Myers answered again, 'Hellol who are
are you
Henry Dean. Is that you, Aunt
janet I'm down at the depot; start for
Baltimore in ten minutes, and thought
I'D say how do you do and good bye. ;
Have found another elew. PRAY Heaven
Il may lead 10 something. Have YOU
any messages for the Carfolsf'
There was pause, while Miss Myers
stood there at the instrument, clutching
the ear piece as il il had been a rope
that was TO save her from drowning
Nv a sunrsue effort of Wili sba hsd %