River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1889-08-29

a wish easily accomplished. Some lit
tie attentions to her flowers suificed 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 knew Miss Abbie.
the deeper became my interest, for, in
/ her lonely, narrow, tOilsOme 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 had
died 80 long before seemed u have
I perpetuated in her heart the youth
I that, in one sense. had died with him.
while her sorrow, instead of $50
\ lating her from the world in selfish
solitude. had but drawn her near TO
her kind; the ache of her own heart
had made it quick to vibrate to the
sorrows of all hearts. And often, as |
watched her turning away from that
/ fOwery mound. with her sweet peace
I full face. | would wonder if the living
/ man, the lover become the husband,
and wearing away in the friction of
every day life, the vail of loves fond
ideal Illusion, could have filled her
heart and remained the solace and in
/ SEPARATION that his memory was.
Some such thought rs this was pass
ing through my mind one June after
/ noon, as | watched her so cheerily busy
among the roses ana geraniums that
made her plot a mass of bloom. Pres
I entity nv attention was attracted by a
man sauntering down the narrow gravel
walk toward Us. This was in itself no
unusual sight; for though the old Gem
etery was no fashionable city of the
dead, still. many passed through it,
/ going from street to street, TO say
nothing of the many who enjoyed
strolling through its quiet, shaded
walks. But this man was so seedy and
disreputable in appearance. so clearly
a specimen OF the unwholesome genus,
tramp, that regarded him with sus-
/ piciOus clOseness.
Aimlessly he lOunged along, with
sneering glances at the monuments and
/ flowers, evidently considering them a
waste Of both money and sentiment
With a careless half-impudent look at
! Miss Abbie that might have been
wholly impudent but for my presence,
\ he was passing by, when his eye chanc-
/ ing to catch the name on the head
stone, he stopped with sudden start
I and involuntary exclamation.
Malcolm Mcknight Randall" and
a SILVER seemed to pass over him as he
| read the words.
Did you know him?" asked Miss
Abbie, looking up in surprise at his
tone and manner.
I Wei, yes, | think 1 did" and a
/ peculiar smile crossed his face; but /
didn't know before thatn-he paused
rs if to moisten his dry lips-"he was
safe under the sod"
''Yes, said Miss Abbie, with simple
/ sadness, and apparently not noticing
the flippant words. though the tone in
which they were uttered was hard and
/ forced. He was drowned in the lake
thirty years ago this summer'-and
I then followed the oft-told story of the
/ young man. full of beauty and strength
/ and promise, who had gone out that
\ PARKWAY May-day never to return alive.
and of the wave-worn body given ten
der burial here.
Il left about that time myself, and
never heard Of it, +" remarked the stran-
ger ~ handsome fellow. | believe,
some called him. he added. aud again
\ the half-mOckiug smile curIed the edge
of his unshaven lip.
Yes assented Miss Abbie. the
tears springing to her eyes, land "a
I good as he was handsome.
W ere YOU a relative OF his?'' he
asked, regarding her with curious in
i tentness.
+ Il was to have been his wife" a
faint biG-h tiuging her faded cheek.
i am 80 glad to meet some one who
knew Malcolm" she went on This
IS his picture turning the little mar
bic shield in the face Of the stone "A
+ little faded. but"
She looked up to find that the shah
I by stranger had turned and was walk
inE hastily away.
Il am afraid he could not have cared
much for him" she said. with a little
sigh; ..but then" seeming to realize
for the first time the aspect of the
man. .'Malcolm's friends were never
like that
Some hours later that same evening.
As was making my final round be-
fore the closing of the gates, en-
/ countered the same shabby. lounging
+ figure in almost the same spot
Young man. he asked me.
abruptly, as l approached to request
him to leave. do you know what hell
+ is?-
stood aghast at the question. Much
+ drink hath brought thee to the verge
/ OF dclirium tremens. was my mental
+ comment. as ] drew away from the
fumes Of his whis ky-laden breath.
Il can tell you what it is. - he con-
tiuued. without waiting for my an
swer, III Is to stand in the slime of
T the gutter. a drunkard. vagabond, u
+ homeless outcast. and see what you
might have been. honorable. honored,
crowned with the love of wife and
children. and the respect of your fell
7 lowmen. It's to long as YOU would
I for life itself for the very thing you
F once had in your grasp and threw
away; To feel that you would give your
T hearts blood To be now the man you
once might have been. but wouldn't.
That's hell, young man, and l am in
+ it,
Blear-eyed. shabby. mwholesome.
f the strength Of his emotion lent to the
/ human wreck a mOmentary dignity.
+ Il was. as though dimly glimmcring
{ through the defilement aud debase-
ment could zach .hs shadow. faint.
I elusive. but still the shadow of that
nobler manhood he might have at
I tanned To. but Of which had so failed
a profound sadness and sympathy