Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1889-08-28
ooh, that's Miss Abbie Pennel; she's

.'Oh. that's Miss Abbie Pennel; she's
been milliner here for over thirty
years. !" z5. !.
"And what relation was she to the
young man whose grave she cares forp'
well, now,''' resting his hands on
the spade with which he had been
trimming the walks, "you look at it
one way, an she want no connection,
an another way, an she was, or pref
ty nigh it, for she and Randall was to
have been. married in week or so.
Remember himp Oh, yes. A dashin'
sort of a chap, handsome, believe
the girls called him. Some sed he
might hev been stiddier, but don't
know; at any rate he was perfection to
Abbie Pencils eyes. This WASH
much more'n a village then, and it
made quite stir. I tell you, when one
day he turned up. missing. He was
owing a good many, an there was
them that thought at first he'd skipped
out; but about a month after, his body
washed ashore, and then folks re-
membered that boat disappeared the
day he did. So we concluded he'd
gone out fishing, and been upset some
way. Well. no! What with being
knocked about in the water, there
wasn't any looks to speak of left, but
we knew it was him from the height
an the clothes he wore, besides, you
know he was all the man that was
missin'.
but tell you, Miss Abbie took it
hard. though she said she couldn't be
thankful enough that his body was
found. She bought this lot, and had
him buried, an then, if you'll believe
me. as fast as she could earn the money
maxim dresses an trimmin' bunnits,
she paid up all his debts, forced the
money onto old people if they didn't
want to take it. An in these thirty
years. unless she's been sick, theirs
been hardly day that she hasn't Wis.
tied his grave. Some folks thinks she's
a little shattered, but I guess it's only
her coming here, and because she
never took no notion to marrying any
body else. 'Tany rate, she's as kind
hearted a little woman as ever
breathed, an does a sight of good
among the poor an sick"
This homely story of her hearts 70.
nance increased my desire to know
more of this faithful mourner. 1t was
wish easily accomplished. Some lit.
tie attentions to her flowers suffced to
win her friendship, and her confidence
on that theme OF which she never
wearied-the goodness and gifts of the
young man who had been dead so
long, that save for her loving mention,
his very name would have been we'll
nigh forgotten.
And the better I knew Miss Abbie,
the deeper became my interest, for, il
her lonely, narrow, toilsofne life, this
brief bloom of love had left a glory
whose brightness had never faded, a
music whose sweet cadence fingered
still. Over her work she hummed the
old songs she had sung with her lover
through the daily fret and care, the
memory of the happy hours when he
had been by her side stole like a sooth,
ing charm. The young lover who ha6
died so long before seemed to have
perpetuated in her heart the youth
that, in one sense, had died with him,
while her sorrow, instead of iso
lating her from the world in selfish
solitude. had but drawn her near to
her kind; the achs of her own hear
had made it quick to vibrate to the
sorrows of all hearts. And often, as
watched her turning away from tina
| fowery mound, with her sweet peace
full face. would wonder if the Twins
man, the lover Become the husband
and wearing away in the friction q
| every day life, the vail of loves foni
ideal illusion, could have filled he1
| heart, and remained the solace and in
SEPARATION that his memory was.
Some such thought as this was pass
ing through my mind one June after
noon, as I watched her so cheerily busy
among the roses and geraniums tina
made her plot a mass of bloom. Pres
! entity my attention was attracted by g
man sauntering down the narrow grave
walk toward US. This was in itself I
unusual sight; for though the old eem
etery was no fashionable city of tn,
dead, still, many passed through it
going from street to street, to say
nothing of the many who enjoyed
| strolling through it's quiet, shaded
| walks. But this man was so seedy ant
;disreputable in appearance, so clearly
"a specimen of the unwholesome genus
tramp, that regarded him with sus
picious closeness.
Aimlessly he lounged along, will
'sneering chances at the monuments ant
| flowers, evidently considering them
| waste of both money and sentiment
With a careless half-impudent look a
| Miss Abbie that might have BEEF
wholly impudent but for my presence
he Was passing by, when his eye chanc
| ing to catch the name on the head