Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-02-09
DEATH.

Year after year went away into nothing,
with great explosions and outcries in the
citios on the plain; red revolt springing up
and being suppressed in blood battle sway
ing hither and thither; patient astronomers
in observatory towers picking out and chris
tcning new stars; plays being performed III
lighted theatres people being carried into
hospitals ON stretchers, and all the usual tur-
MOL and agitation Of mems lives in crowded
eenters Up in Wills valley only the winds
and seasons made an epoch the fish hung IN
the swift stream: the birds circled overhead;
the pine tops lustled underneath the stars;
the tall hills stood over all; and VIII went to
and fro minding his wayside inn, until the
SHOW began to thicken on his head his
heart was young and vigorous, and II ms
pulses kept sober time they still beat strong
and steady in his wrists. He carried ruddy
stain on either check, like ripe apple; he
stopped a little, but his step was still firm,
and his sinewy hands were reached out to all
men with friendly pressure. His face was
covered with those wrinkles which are got IN
open air. and which, rightly looked at, are
no more than sort Of permanent sunburn-
ing; such wrinkles heghten the stupidity of
stupid faces, but to person like VIII, with
bis clear ewes and smiling mouth only give
another charm by testifying to simple
and easy life His talk was full of wise say
ings T. had taste for other people, and
other people had a taste for him. When the
valley was full of tourists in the season, there
were merry nights i'll Wills arbor; and his
views, which seemed whimsical to his neigh
bors, were often admired by learned people
out OF town and colleges. Indeed, he had u
very noble old age, and grew daily better
known: 50 that his fame was heard of in the
cities of the plain; and young men who had
been summer travellers spoke together in
Gates of viii O the Mill and his rough phi
losophy Many and many an invitation, you
may be sure he had, but nothing could
tempt him from his upland valley. He would
shake his head and smile over his tobacco
pine with a deal of meaning. ''You come
too late he would answer. Il am dead
man now: | have lived and died already
Fifty years ago you would have brought my
heart into my mouth; and now you do nc!
even tempt me. But that is the object OF
long living, that man should cease to carr
about life And again There is only one
difference between a long life and goot
dnner that, i'll the dinner, the sweets come
last Or once more: "When / was boy
was n bit puzzled, and hardly knew whether
it was myself or the world that was curioas
and worth looking into. Now, l know it !
myself and stick 70 that
He never showed any symptoms of frailty
but kept stalwart and firm to the last; bu
they say he grew less talkative toward tin
end, and would listen to other people by tn
hour in an amused and sympathetic silence
Only, when he did speak it was moro to tls
point. and more charged with old experience
He drank bottle Of wine gladly; above all
at sunset On the hilltop or quite late at nigh
under the stars in the arbor The sight Q
something attractive and unattainable Sea
soned his enjoyment, he would say; and
protested he had lived long enough to admir-
a candle all the more when he could compar
it with a planet
one night, in his I'd year, be awoke IN be
in such uneaSiness of body and mind that
arose and dressed himself and went out
mediate in the arbor. 1t was pitch darl
without a star; the river was swollen, an
the wet woods and meadows loaded the ai
with perfume 1t had Numbered during Il
dav, and il promised more thunder Il
the morrow. \ murky, sitting nigl
for man eff a.. Whether il W,
the weather or the wakefulness,
some little touch of fever III his old limb
Wits mind was besieged by tumnltuous an
CRYING memories. His boyhood, the nigl
with the fat young man, the death OF b
adopted parents, the summer days with Ma
jory, and many Of those small circumstance
which seem uotbing to another, srd are !
the ver-e fst q mans own life 70 himself