The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1890-05-29

Alexander AertOt was indeed the true
image Of his brother; he had boon tall
and pale and delicate in his youth; but
when the war broke out, and he openly
avowed his opposition to the course OF
the South, he was obliged for his
mothers and his LIES sake to take
refuge in the mountains till he could
find way to join the army OF the
North, as he knew Hugh had done. The
outdoor life and enforced exercise re-
stored him to perfect health, and in six
months he had found the Union army,
but not Hugh; and volunteering into
the ranks, had fought we'll and bravely
till peace ca ne; then he went back to
his native place only to find his mother
dead, and his sister. the bride of day,
widowed aud alone, but bitter against
him with that intense bitterness that
only exists between those who are kim
dred, and have been dear to each other.
There too he found the report of Hugh
as 'missing;" and having no home-for
his sister had gone to her husbands
friends in Savannah-and no means to
make the plantation remunerative. he
sold it for small sum, and dividing
the proceeds with Cornelia, devoted
himself to tracing Hugh. At last, by
one of those accidents we ought to call
'providents," he discovered his BROTH
er's knapsack in the but of a poor man
not far from the battlefield, and by
dint of rewards offered learned that the
man from whom that knapsack was
taken had crept away mortally wound
ed to the shelter of few bushes during
the fight, and had been found there by
the CRACKER" who took possession Of
his arms and his accoutrements.
"But he made a grave for our poor
Hugh, Marion" Alexander said, with a
trembling voice-''a grave where deco.
rations never fail. The fellow showed
me where he buried him, between two
pine trees. On one of them climbs a
Cherokee rose that drops its thick white
!. petals on the sod, and wild blossoms
have trailed all over the mound, till it
is fair as your mothers grave to-day. l
could but think when l saw it that the
God of the brave and the loyal had not
forgotten Hugh's lonely pillow in the
Wilderness"
After leaving his brothers place OF
rest, Alexander had opened his knap-
sack and found in it Marion's letters
and her picture. AS Hugh had said, the
twin brothers were alike in every fiber,
| and Alexander's heart opened at once to
enshrine the lovely woman Hugh had
adored and left for his country.
But what had he to offer her? Before
he dared endeavor to fill his brothers
place he must have home to which he
could ask Marion; he could not honora-
| bly, ask her to share his poverty, for it
| was utter.
Before long, however, he found a
place in some of the new enterprises OF
the South; worked there as manfully as
he had fought, and just as soon as his
position was assured, and he could ask
an absence from the work, he came to
the North, and arriving at Alton on
Memorial Day, was directed where to
find Marion at her mothers grave.
Her whole heart went out to him az
soon as he spoke; for to her he was
Hugh, and no other-the aspect, the
voice, the manner, even the very
thoughts he shared with her, were all
Hugh's, and the mans nobility forbade
him to feel one jealous pang when, with
out even knowing it, over and over she
gave him his brothers name.
Nor did she delay her marriage, as he
feared might be her wish.
1--WE have been engaged so long," she
answered him, when he asked her, that
/ do not feel it is haste. Dear Sandy,
| Hurh told ma T shou1d love Won If I
knew you, better than l loved him.
Perhaps shall; yet always shall think
that Decoration Day was also Resurrec-
ton Day to me" Rose Terry Cooke, in
| Harper's Bazaar.