The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-10-25
DRIVEN AWAY.
by JAMES FRANKLIN Fits.
-Andrs'o Lang

am sitting IN my grandmother God
frey's rocker at the window of the cas-
room looking out upon the family bury.
ing-ground at the foot of the hill, the
Westinghouse on It's summit, and the
Merrimac, which winds round it, in tn,
distance. Here, fifty years ago, she used
to sit with her knitting in the after.
moons.
She dearly loved to talk, and, as
was her fayorite, many of her quaint OBJ
seTvations were addressed to me. One Of
them now fecall, as it has certain re-
lation to the matter of this narrative.
More than once, as sat near her, have
l seen her kind brown eyes fixedly re-
gard me over her steel-bowed spectacles,
and heard her say, with perfect gravity,
''My dear, I think you'll be an old maid.
You're Robe through and through,
and most Of their womenfolks were that
kind. Indeed" she added, refectiveIy,
= came near being one myself"
The prophecy of the good old soul has
been fulfilled, but it was my choice that
made it so. When l was twenty-four,
Joshua Goss came back on a visit from the
West, whittier he had gone ten years be.
fore to seek his fortune. He was of the
pushing, thriving New England type,
already prosperous in his new home be-
yond the Mississippi, and promising to
become rich, perhaps famous.
l had correspondent with him coca
sionally since he went away. 1 had been
his favorite among the girls at school,
and was not surprised when he told me
one day that his chief object in coming
back at this time was to induce me to
cast my lot with his.
It was in this very room that he asked
me. Little Percy, only four years old
then, had come in tired from his play,
climbed into my lap, and fallen asleep.
Joshua waited for my answer seriously
and anxiously. My heart said yes, but l
looked at the child, and duty babe me
say no. 1t cost me a dreadful pain, yet
1 did not hesitate.
Very frankly l answered that this little
orphan in my lap was my charge; that
my brother Ephraim would never marry,
and that my duty forbade that l should
leave the old home. Joshua listened.
He did not demonstrate nor argue, but
l had never seen upon his face just such
an expression as it then had.
For your own sake, Patience" he
said, IN trembling voice, 81 hope you
have chosen wisely. Whether so or not,
/ know you too well to try to alter your
resolution. Good-byl"
I gave him my hand-for an instant
watched him as he slowly walked down
the road until the turn hid him from my
eyes, and then my life went on again the
same as if no interruption had occurred.
Bis lie since then has not been IN
known to me, nor to the country.
Should his true name be given here, it
would be recognized as that of one whose
voice has often been heard In the Senate
Of the United States.
When Percy was four years old and I
twenty-four, Ephraim was twenty-six,
and we three were the survivors of the
long line of Billiards., Godfreys, Robes,
Halls and what not, running back far be-
yond the War of the Revolution, who
had dwelt in this ancient homestead and
titled this rocky farm.
In the last two years death had been
busy with US. First, Grandmother God
frey, full of years and ready to depart,
was laid by her fathers, and within the
twelyemonth both our parents were
stricken down by the terrible scourge
that visited the village that summer
They were carried to one grave on the
same morning, while Percy picked clover
tops in the yard, and laughed as the long
procession moved toward the hill.
In the six or eight years following
think we were happier than ever again
while Brother Ephraim lived, for those
were the years when Percy's sweet child
ish ways and cunning prattle filed the
house with sunshine and music, and be-
fore any troublesome question as to his
future had come in to divide US.
Gods blessing and compassion, after
our sore tribulation, seemed given US IN 4
this dear child. He was not at all like |
US, either in looks or actions; he never
was. Ephraim and I were dark, almost |
sallow, Ike our father, and we had his |
slow, thoughtful speech and ways; but |
the child was ike mother, fair, blue
eyed, with all her lightness of heart and
eheeriness Of voice.
The picture that comes back to me most |
wildly from those old days is that Of |
Ephraim, stern and serious, even when a
young man, as he read the Bible aloud at |
our early bedtime in his strong, nasal
tone, and bore with a patience that he
ye::iii.;da NOT have exercised toward another
the interruption caused by Pereyy's put
ting his chubby hands upon the page.
The boy grew up bright, quick and af
fectionate, but not over studious. He
was full Of fun and spirit, and hated con-
fnement. I date the beginning of our
troubles about him from the time that q
copy Of ''Robinson Crusoe" fell into his
hands.
The book absorbed him. He was thir-
teen years old at that time, but he said to
me, with all the gravity and positiveness
Of a man, that he could never be any
thing but sailor thought little of
what he said at the time, and treated it
as a mere boyish within; but he never
changed his mind.
he was almost seventeen when he left
Us for the sea. l think of what occurred
before that day with pain and sorrow,
but it must be told. 1t was one night
after Percy had gone up to his chamber;
EphraIm had been sitting some time in
silence, and I saw there was something
on his mind. At last he spoke:
Patience, that perverse boy viii be
the reproach and disgrace Of our lives.
he is bent on going to sea"
I knew something of Ephrain's stern
viii, but I had not often seen him so
aroused. He tried in vain TO repress his
anger as he continued:
'.For a hundred years our fathers be-
fore US lived here, doing their duty in
the way that God had called them. They
titled the land, and were not ashamed of
their calling. There have been no
rovers nor vagabonds among them, SO
far as ! have heard; but here we have
an idle, shiftless fellow, too proud to
work on the farm. who must needs 20 off
and herd with profane and rum-drinking
sailors