The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1888-05-31
PLAIN DRALRR.
EVERYTHING IN TIE LINE OF
JOB WORK. IT.
Biu. Heads, Cards, Posters, Cir.
culars.
Satlstactlea 10 neatness, Pipnptnsss ind
Pdcs Guaranteed.
&r0IVD US A TRIAL BEFORE ORDER.
ING EISEWHEREEA
where for weeks she had moaned and
tossed in pain and muttered in delirium.


She looked moment at the PLEASANT faced.
white haired lady who sat at work in low
chair: at q tall dark man with an
empty sleeve, who stood by the lady's
side; her gaze wandered over the appoint
ments of the room, and then the eyes
closed again. and she sank into a restful
sleep. The lady, who had watched her in
silence. rose and bent over her a moment,
and then, crossing TO her son, said: The
danger is over: she will recover. When
she wakes again she will be conscious. l
truly hope that as all our inquiries have
failed to discover any friend who was in
terested in her or waiting her coming, so
no unpleasant results or serious shock
may follow when she learns Of her long
sickness and detention. Kate did get
well, but her recovery was very slow.
When good Mrs Gardiner, with kindly in
tonation and many motherly caress.
told her how she came to be among
strangers, the tears that flowed were tears
Of gratitude and thankfulncss. The kind
ness and devotion shown to her, q
stranger, touched her deeply. and won up
on her loving nature. She grew accus-
toned to the coming and going Of Alex
as his mother called him, simply as if he
were yet boy, and received with glad
humility the kindncsses that were showered
on her. Little by little she told the story Of
her life, her love and pilgrimage. The at
mosphere about her seemed SO restful; she
felt such strange content in her helpless
ness and dependence that she began to ask
herself If she were too content; if she had
grown disloyal to the dead. 1t was one of
the things that troubled her, that the past
really seemed dead now; not forgotten, but
dead and buried as it should have been
long ago. She had tried to embaim her
dead and keep Ii with her as a living thing.
Now it was buried. Often she tried to
renew her grasp upon the old, but it eluded
her. 1t seemed impossible, in this new at
mosphere, to rehabilifate that old life.
Perhaps, she thought, when ! go away, the
old feeling will return. But did she wish
it to return, Was it not better buried,
since il was dead! Often she questioned
herself in this wise after one of the
Coloncl's daily visits, visits she had grown
to look for and expect. There was a
| mighty magnetism about the man. He was
so courteous. so unobtrusivc. He seemed
to divine her wishes and ministered as
thoughtfully as gently to her wants. One
day he had dropped a bouquet of her fayorite
roses on the coverlid OF the bed. = How
did he know the flowers she best loved."
But this was the South; this man was
one of his murderers Nay, shc
had been unjust; wrong he may
have been. but never wicked. So she vexcd
| herself with question and answer as she
| strovc to reconcile the past and present Of
her life. Strange, that we will not be con-
tent to follow nature without this attempt
| at reconciling the differences Of her dis
pensations. With her slow conyalescence
| came the month of May. She was able to
rise now and to walk a little. and passed
/ Of hn 1Nin ant ir4p
cool shady veranda, upon which her win
dows opened. There, among the climbing
| roses, the color came back to hor cheeks
and the brightness to her eyes. She began
| to talk of the time of her return to the
North, From the edge of the yefanda the
large garden stretched away. as yet unex-
plorcd for her, save only when she had taken
brief tour among the flowers leaning
on the Colonel's arm. do you know what
| day this is.'' said the Colonel one day,
| when Kate was beginning TO feel that no
excuse was left her for the incidence of
invalidism 1T is the thirtieth, isn't it,"
she said. A flush came to her face. ltwas
Memorial Day. and she had forgotten. The
grave in the village graveyard in the North
rose up before her; land T." she thought,
sit in the house of the enemy Yet she
felt the thought was foolish; there was no
| enemy. ''Come with me- said the Colonel,
presently, "you have never been to the end
| of the laurel walk, and l have some thing
| there to show you. There was q certain
seriousness in his manner, and he was un-
usually silent as they waiipd slowly down
| between the laurels They paused at
| the end of the walk. where was an
open space bordered aboAt with low shrubs.
| In the center of this inclosure two graves
| lay close together, the narrow path that led
between alone dividing them She looked
at them in surprise, and then glanced qnes-
tioningly at her companion.
"You WONDER he said, "what these
graves are and why l brought you here.
| Sit down moment on this bench and l
! will tell you. l had brother, an only
brother, who fell at my side at Petersburg.
There was no time to halt or help, for we
were driven back by an impetuous rush Of
/ the soldiers of the Union. At night We
sought him, / and a faithful negro servant.
When we found him he was dead, and by
his side, hand clasped in hand, was fair
haired soldier of the North. What passed
/ between them none may know, but
they went out into new life smiling, and,
hand in hand, as little children
might wander into the strange world of the
meadow, beyond the pasture bars. And
we brought them here and laid them side
| by side, the unknown stranger and the
loved son; the boy in blue and the boy in
| gray. Never an anniversary Of their death
day has passed but we have covered the