The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-05-08
TOO LATE"
Moaned the Photograph, the Boy
and the Man.

ana the Man.
Perhaps ii was the rain that had been
d~ribbhng and pattcring on the old tin
roof all the morning, or may be it was
that desire which comes into the hearts
of every one, just once in so often; to
turn things over, look into the old
drawers, pore over old papers, tear up
ancient correspondence and reread old
letters. or perchance the rain may have
caused the desire inst as the rain in those
old days, twenty odd years ago, used
to make the StorerOom in the attic
the p~leasanteSt room in the whole
house. | don't pretend to know what
did cause it, all | know is that on this
particular day, somewhere between
two clock and four in the afternoon.
to b. accurate, he did take down from
the regions of eternal dust on top of
bis dcsk-just beyond the reach of the
office boys UPSTREAM old tin box,
dcntri, battered and worn square
where it should not have been 50. and
bu!gpl on. where it should have been
square. llkr some men we meet in this
world Of di>appointments and contra
dirtlou>. Furthermore, | know that
then and there, in spite of the neat,
white paper which had beenput on the
desk that very day, he did take out of
th same box and Strew over the sur
face Of his desk in hnplcss confusion
NOR things | am sure than he ever got
into it in the first place unless he used
miraculous powers, or unless, more
Improbable still, like Topsy ''they
growrI' during their confinement.
1lry were the treasured accumIla-
tons Of years. There was a fishing
reel, a book Of trout dies, with here and
there Il sturdy and substantial bass fly,
with it, strong hook, heavy snood and
gaudy wings, some fish line, a package
OF letters, dim and yellow with age,
tied up with a blue ribbon, some re-
ceiptcd biIls-remlnlscences of college
dayS-tWo or three unfinished diaries
other call0w reminders-a transla-
ton Of Sallust, suitable for surrepti-
tious classroom use. and two photo
graphs.
1t was these that made our investi-
gator pauSe-these two old-fashioned
photographs of woman and a boy
ana changed the look of idle interest
and curiosity upon his face to n more
akin to sadness. They We're very old
style--these two-and small. Age had
co]nred them yellow and drab and the
faces had lost their sharpness of out
line, which was not in the least soft
encd by the alteration. One photo
graph represented a boy inquisitive as
an Interrogation point, restless as the
wind, talkative when others wanted
him to be still, and silent as the tomb
when called upon to talk. In fact he
vas a boy of ten-an average boy of
en-and who doesn't know what that
IMPLIES? The other was the portrait
# a woman, whose sweetness the
photographer was unable to disguise,
photograph he ever so lndustriously.
Ter face was careworn and sad as
nost mothers faces are apt to be when
heir boys are fatherless. On her
forehead there were faint lines
vhlch age had not brought thither I'M
ided, and around her tender face s
here was a frame of snOw-white hair |
oiled back of the neck in a knot
'hich a goddess might have envied- '
Or this patient, tender, widowed '
had been a famous belle in her
outh, and the fresh beauty of her
arly days had been followed by tho
0 less radiant charms of her maturity.
They were mother and son, these b
yo-that is, they had been years ago >
hen he was still n boy, but for the n
asst score of years or more all that had a
,mained of her were a picture or two, d
hat-box in the attic containing a "
loth-eaten bonnet, black with crepe Il
I'd white with dust-the last she had il
'cr worn-a little mound in the fam a
lot in the cemetery under the
adow of the tall marble shaft be- W
'ath which she peacefully rests, and a fc
or so with her name half indelibly CT
therein, so careless is Old HI
me and cruel too in his th%oughtless o,
facement. of
it was easier to take these 60
ngs out of the box than to put them
ok again on this drowsy, rainy after We
on, because as She young man pa
ned backward on his chair resting
back of his head on a very square DO
ce Of board and halt closing his M
"a In liatan IN tha DittAr,nattar. drtz. w