Huntsville gazette., 1889-08-31


train took her into strange landscapes
where the miles went SO swiftly it
| seemed like the past years of her life
as she looked back on them.
Thy works is marvellous" she mur-
| INJURED often, sitting with her hands
| folded. and few Idle days had there
been in her world where she had sat
and rested so long. 4
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 Of the
dear old grandmas in Eastern homes.
or, to grizzled men and weary women,
like the memory of dead mother as
faint and far away as the scent of wild
roses in a hillside country burying-
ground. She tended babies for tired
women and talked to the men of farm
ing and crops, or told the children
Bible stories; but never word she
said of herself, not one.
On again, guided by kindly hands
through the great bewildering city by
the lake, and now through yet a
stranger land. Tired and worn by
nights in the uncomfortable seats, her
brave spirit began to fail little. AS
the wide, level plains, lonely and
drear, dawned on her sight she sigh ed
often.
''It's dre'ful big wurld," she said
to a gray-bearded old farmer near her;
$50 big | feel e'enmost lost in it but, y
hopefully, ''across them deserts like
this long ago Providence sent a star to
guide them wise men of the East, an
Ihain't lost my faith.
But as the day wore on, and still the
long, monotonous land showed no hui
man habitation, no oasis of green, her
eyes dimmed, something like a sob
rose under the black kerchief on the
bowed shoulders, and the spectacles
were taken off with trembling hand
and put away carefully in the worn tin
case.
''Be ye goin' fur, mother?" said the
old farmer. I
He had brought her cup of coffee
at the last station, and had pointed out
on the way things he thought might
interest her.
"To Denver"
wal. wal; you're from New En-
gland, I'll be bound?''
From Maine" she answered; and
then she grew communicative, for she
was always a chatty old lady, and she
had possessed her soul in silence so
long, and it was q relief to tell the
story of her weary years of waiting to
kindly listener.
She told him all the rela tions she
had were two grand-nephews and their
families. That twenty years ago Sam
(for she had brought them both up
when their parents died of consump-
ton, that takes so many of our folks)
went out West. He was always ad-
venturous, and for ten years she did
not hear from him; but John was diff
ferent and steady, and when he came
Of age she had given him her farm,
with the provision she should always
have home, otherwise he would have
gone away, too. Well for five years
they were happy, then John married,
and his wife had grown to think her a
burden as the years went on, and the
children when they grew big did not
care for her, she felt she had lived too
long.
Il growed so lonesome" she said,
pathetically, lit seems couldn't take
up heart to live day by day, an yit l
knowed our folks was long lived. Ten
years back, when Sam wrote he was a
doin' fair an sent me money, | begun
to think of him; fur he was allus gen
erous an kind. an the gratefulest boy,
an so began to save to go to him, fur
| knowed | could work my board fur a
good meny years to come. Fur three
year he amt hardly wrote, but / laid
that to the wild kentry he lived in. /
Ootlu " dIS dll iiJ CHo OoH SheSE Llc
none, fur when | was gal up in
Aroostuk kentry there was plenty of
both, an as fur buffalers, them horned
cattle don't skeer me none, fur I've
been used to farm allus. But the
lonesumness of these medders has
sorter upset me an made me think
every day Sam was further off than |
ever calc'lated on"
But what will you DO if Sam amt
in Denverp" asked the farmer.
Il hev put my faith in Providence, "
she answered, simply, and the stranger
could not mar that trust by any word
of warning.
He gave her his address as he got
off at the Nebraska line, and told her
to send him word if she needed help.
With a warm hand-clasp he parted
from her to join the phantoms in her
memory Of ''folks thet had bin kind to
her. God bless 'em, ''and the train went
rumbling on.
But many of the passengers had
listened to her story and were inter-