The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-08-20
ge daehta Daily aa1ednaau gorme aunust 20

nnu mgrf%1u ana ne had married her for
nothing else, as we'd been afraid he had.
Of course the poor woman never heard
| the talk
The years passed and the poor soul lived
| alone with old Maum Carline.
She got out her mothers black clothes
that she wore as widow and put them on;
she had no money to buy new ones.
All that had gone with the senior. And
the black veil got rusty and almost red at
last, and she who wore it grew thinner and
thinner. We only saw her at church, when
she sat with her veil over her face And
they said she earned her bread by taking
in sewing. Ladies used to carry it to her
themselves after dark and fetch it, and
never tell their best friends about it, for
they felt for lady who had suffered so
much, and when southern folks do feel
friendship they show It,
So it went on for ten years-ten long
years-until one day neighbor, who want
ed more land, went over to the widow to
ask her if she could spare some of hers.
She didn't work it, and the smoke house
lay in a heap just as it had tumbled down
years before.
He talked a good while before he could
81 am poor now" she said, ''and l am
getting on, and l have no children"
And he named a price that was liberal
Pm bound to say, and put it in an enve-
lope, and laid it at her elbow, and she did
not count it until he was gone, if ever she
counted it at all
You see, he was g gentleman and she
was lady, and both felt confidence in
each other, and the next day, when he sent
men to carry off the old smoke house, he
told them to do it as quietly as they could.
and have no shouting and laughing.
THE lady bought it of might be re-
minded of what was going on if there was
too much noise made, boys" he said.
Folks respect each ether in Virginia.
Well, the boys did as he said They car
ried away the roof and the old posts, and
the window sashes, and they were lifting
of the boards when they all stopped l
saw them from my porch. Their master
saw them; everybody saw them.
They stopped and stood still. There was
not a sound. And then they turned and
came marching softly up TO their masters
house, hats off.
We call all black men boys down there
Some of these men had gray heads; not
one of them but could remember ten years
back-the night of the great storm I've
told you of-when the senior disappeared
One or two Of them used to belong to
Col Garden in slavery times, and the old
est of these-it was old Pete-stepped for
ward with his hat in his hand and said:
MARS Brown, what we gwine to do'
We've found Miss Abbie's husband out
dar"
''What do you mean, Pate?'' cries Brown,
turning white.
He's dar, sure huff, lynn dead, and as
nat raj as if he died yesterday" said Pete.
Its dredful strange, Mars Brown, but
dar he is"
And there be was. Nobody who was in
those parts that day ever forgot it.
The boards had burned and moldered
away until they had turned to charcoal
and he was packed in it.
The professors said that was why it was
he had not changed any to speak of
It was plain TO everybody now that he
had got to the smoke house just as the rain
began to pour, and had gone in for shelter.
He was there when the building was
struck. And about his waist was the belt,
with all the money safe in it, and over his
heart locket with his wifes hair in it.
Ny mother went up to tell her, and what
she said when she heard it was:
Thank God. We can lie together now,
my true love and l. and thank God, too,
that everybody knows, as well as l have
known all along, that what has been
thought and said of him-oh have known
it very well-did him injustice"
think she was happier after that, and
yonder, near the church there, we laid her
beside him only a year ago-Mary Kyle
Dallas in Fireside Companion