The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-05-22
HENRY |. BIOSSAT, Business Manager.

year by year. It has painted upon it
sweet home-scenes, and green droop.
ing willows, alas, dot it here and there.
Four boys play around grandma's
chair, who would believe it? and one
smiles at her from Beyond. The
green willows have begun to dot the
scroll.
The new home is just as dear as the
old one was. The bees hum, the doves
coo, the meadows are green; the wood
side resounds with the tinkling bell;
the great trees are full of birds; all
manner of birds and flowers are nod
ding and blushing on tree and shrub,
and the air is full of sweet sounds of
unwritten music. Grandma looks pale
and sad. The great West has opened,
and far away, thousands and thousands
of miles, it seems to her, the voice of
Ambition calls to vigorous manhood to
leave wife and child and come out to
Fortune and pioneer Fame. The plans
are all made. The boys have their
small duties laid out; they are made to
understand that if father goes away he
will come again with hands full of
gold-pieces-and gold piece is some
thing rare and charming in child's
eyes.
The last kiss has been given, the last
goodbye waved, but the last tear has
by no means been shed by those who
watch the numbering stage bear away
their best beloved to far away and I'M
tried wilds.
Months have passed. The postman,
so seldom seen in the old times, SO COM
mon now-has brought loving letters
full of hope. am sure they were full
of hope. never read word of them,
but old and faded out, they still lie in
grandma's stand drawer within reach
of her hands.
So seldom do we realize that the
hands that strangers folded and laid
away out of sight will never more
clasp ours, and the lips that strangers
kissed not in dying will touch ours in
love no more. So seldom do we realize
this that there is no unexpected foot
fall audible to our dreaming ears even,
that does not bring before us our lost
one whose grave is in foreign soil, and
causes us to start awake with disbelief
of his death.
| know a mother of strong sons and
matronly daughters. whose one son
did not come back from the war, and
whose sepulcher no man knows. TO
this day she springs up from sleep in
the dead of night if q strange football
nears the house.
Father, George has come" she
whispers, huskily.
Something of this feeling, fancy,
chung to grandma, and clings still,
though she has pressed down other
lids, and knows the truth.
But grandma, in spite of her age, in
spite of her hard years of labor and
sickness, in spite of children and
grandchildren, is romantic. There is
no question about it.
Do you know what I am going to say
next? All! yes. You are waiting for
me to tell of the letter in the strange
handwriting that the postman
brought. 1t told of short illness in a
new country, thinly settled; of death,
with but one friend near; of a grave
in rough cemetery wherein hardly
any yet slept. The date-three weeks
back!
Three weeks! And we have
laughed and smiled and joked and
worked every day. and nothing told
me l was being hopelessly bereft Of
my dearest and truest. What was
doing three weeks ago to-day9 God
help me! but it was the busiest day OF
all, and my heart never told me that
my love lay dying. The boys will
never realize that their father is never
to come home to them as other boys
fathers do"
The following Sabbath, the minister
prayed for the bereaved ones and said
some comforting words. There were
no dry eyes as the old-fashioned choir
sang:
why do we mourn departing friendsr'
and the big bass-viol prolonged the
mournful strains of China" until nc
further dirge was needed.
Around another home the birds sang,
the breezes played, but the times were
more recent. The loom had long been
silent in the farmhouse. Little grand.
mas no longer sang my Little Her.
rim as they sprinkled the linen,
tripping among the rows. The naples
are larger and older. The blue fax.
flower is no longer seen.
1t is still country afternoon. In
grandma's new home are gathered
friends of other days; relatives; the
minister who said the words of com.
fort years ago; the son grown to man
hood, looking SO like his father.
What occasion is this?
The son, unwilling that his fathers
bones should rest so far from friends
and kin, has tenderly and reverently
sought them out and brought them
back Slowly up the aisle of the old
church in the waning afternoon, went