San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-09-16
THE WAY.

Folks would surely think she was crazy.
She stopped at the stone wall 10 rest, and
looked back timorously at the old familiar
scene.
Far behind her stretched the meadow,
symphony of olive and green in the late fall.
Here and there by sunken bowlder stood
soldiery golden rod, or berry bushes clothed.
now in scarlet and gold. At intervals in the
long slope stood solitary trees, where hutter-
ing, brittle leaves fell in the gentle chill ar
In summer time she remembered well the
hay makers rested in the shade, and the jug
with ginger water she made for the men was
kept there to be cool
She seemed, as she sat there, to remember
everything. The house was all right, she
was sure of that; the key was under the kltch-
en- door mat, the fire was out III the stove,
and the cat locked in the barn.
She held her work hardened hand to her
side, painting a little, for it was good bit OF
awalk across the meadow, and she was ~
wears old on her last birthday. The COWS
feeding looked homelike and pleasant.
"Good-by, critters" she said, aloud;
"meny's the time I've druv ye home an
MIXED We, an allus let We eat by the way,
nor never hurried We as the boys done"
With farewell glance she went on again,
smoothing as she walked the scattered locks
of gray hair falling under the pumpkin
hood, and keeping her scant black gown out
of the reach of briers Across another field,
then on through leafy lane where the wood
was hauled in winter, then out through
gap in stump fence, with its great branch
ing arms like petrified octopus, to the dusty
high road.
Not soul in sight In the coming twilight.
John, the children, and the scolding wife
who made her SO unhappy would not be home
for an hour yet, for East Mills was long
drive.
Down the steep hill went the brave little
figure, followed by an odd shadow of itself in
the waning light, and by tiny stones that
rolled so swiftly they passed her often and
made her look behind with start'to see if
pursuer were coming.
"Thevd put ME in the asylum, sure" she
muttered wildly as she trudged along.
At the foot of the hill she sat down upon an
old log and waited for the train.
Across the road, guarded by e big sign,
"Iook out for the engine" ran two parallel
iron rails, that were to be her road when the
big monster should come painting around the
curve
"A
whistle and she hurried to the track, waving
her shawl to signal.
This. in the conductors vernacMar, was a
cross roads station, where he was used 10
watch for people waving articles frantically
the train stopped, and this passenger was
helped aboard He noticed she was bright
eyed old lady, very neat and precise.
''How fur?" he asked.
"Bostinn
"Git there in the mornin'," he said kindly,
waiting for the money, as she opened queer
little reticule, where, under her knitting,
wrapped in a clean cotton handkerchief, was
her purse with her savings of long years-the
" little sums Sam had sent her when he first
began to prosper in the west, and some money
she had earned herself by knitting and berry
picking.
At a cross roads, as they went swiftly on,
she saw the old sorrel horse, the rafting
wagon and John with his family driving
homeward. She drew back with little cry,
fearing he might see her and stop the train,
but they went on so fast that could not be,
and the old horse logged into the woods, and
John never thought his old Aunt Hannah,
his charge for twenty long years, was run
ming away
At Boston kindly conductor bought her
through ticket for Denver.
"Its long journey for an old lady like
YOU he said.
= t'But I'm peart for my age" she said anx,
fously: 81 never he'd days sickness since J!
was gall
'GeIn3 all the way alOueH
- with Providence" she answered brightly,
alert and eager to help herself but silent and
thoughtful as the train took~her into strange
landscapes where the miles went 50 swiftly it
seemed like the past years of her life as she
looked back on them.
THY work is marvellous" she murmurel
often, sitting with her hands folded, and few
idle days had there been in her world where
she had sat and rested so long.
In the day coach the people were kind and
generous, sharing their baskets with her and
seeing she changed cars right and her carpet
bag was safe. She was like any one of the
h. dear old graHdmas in eastern homes, or to
grizzled, men and weary women, like the
i memory Of a dead mother as faint and far
away as the scent of wild roses in hillside
country ground She tended babies for tired
women and talked to the men of farming and
crops, or told the children Bible stories; but
never a word she said of herself, not one.
On again. guided by kindly hands through
the great bewildering city by the lake. anC
now through yet stranger land Tired anC
worn by nights in the uncomfortable seats
her brave spirit began to fail a little AS tn,
wide, level plains, lonely and drear, dawnec
on her sight she sighed often.
"Its dre'ful big wurld," she said to
gray bearded old farmer near her; $50 big
feel e'enmost lost in it, but" hopefully
"across them deserts like this long ago Prov
idence sent a star to guide them wise mel
of the east an haint't Lost my faith