Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-02-24
FOLD IN THE SHADOWS.
BY JAMEs FRANKLIN FITS.

NY dead had been buried two hours
I had returned home. The servants
respectfully awaited my orders. told
them to open the shutters and draw
Back the curtain; they did so, and
Gods sweet sunshine came again into
She desolate house. Surely, it was bet
Ger so; when the heart is darkened with
the unutterable woe of bereavement,
let Nature console us if she can
Within fifteen years three darling
children had at long intervals been
carried fl ON this house to the cemetery.
This day my husband had joined them.
Kind friends had come back with me
to my dwelling, offering to stay and
comfort my crushed spirit. I sent them
away. preferring to be alone with my
thoughts. Luxury and comfort were
Ground me, wealth was at my COM
.nand; but my heart was heavy with it's
losses and wished to bear in solitude its
aches
There was another reason why I
wanted to be alone. How it is with
other widowed hearts, know not but I,
IN that hour felt an overpowering desire
30 commune with myself about him who
had gone.
Had loved him? All, yes; no need
TO ask myself that question. He was
my first, my only love.
Had he been kind-had our married
Fife leen happy? Yes-always, yes.
He had surrounded me with his de-
@otions, he had given me riches, posi-
tion, beautiful home, and after our
children were taken, he had given me
2redoubed affection. How, then, could
L regard his memory with anything but
;the highest honor?
Because knew that he had locked q
secret from me in his heart, and had
carried it to the grave. because the
conviction that something was kept
back from me, haunted my walk
aug hours and troubled my dreams
while he lived; and now that the turf
was being placed upon his grave, the
knocking thought rose up before me,
and would not down.
Never was it named between us; for
how could bring SO indefinite an &C.
cusation against him? So for fifteen
years 1 had labored, and labored in vain
SO discover the truth. But the secret I
could never grasp, though the evidences
that he had one were plain enough. A
great change came upon him with his
marriage. He was often distracted; [
often found him looking intently at my
face, he was strangely forgetful, espe-
ciall,v as to things that had happened
Before we were welded. Sometimes, in
she early months OF our union, he
would surprise me by protesting igno-
rance as to important affairs Of people
with whom he had been very intimate !;
AMI once, in particular, became
gre5ly vexed at his forgetfulness. 1t
was in one of those moments Of endear-
ment that make married people lovers
again, that l put my arm around his
neck and said:
"Now show me, Charles, that your
memory is not SO poor as you pretend.
Tell me what time of day il was that
you kissed me good-by when you went
TO Europe, the year before We were
anarried?"
He hesitated, and then replied
"Why, about midnight, of course.
The time was, in fact, at noon. How
could he forget such things?
I have spoken of his conduct that
led me to think that he had secret
Such things cannot be concealed from
loving wife; they will tell their story
of concealment Had any further evil
dence been needed, Ihis death bed would
have supplied it. A fatality of sudden
and unexpected death, had been told,
was one of the peculiarities of the fam
lily from which he sprung; his own
children had dropped away with APP
palling swiftness; when he came to die
it was within the hour after he had
walked in at the door, His tongue was
tied in those last dreadful moments !;
suone hut I knew how be struggled to