The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1890-03-29

AT last he laid the pipe upon the
stand, and soon the house was dark.
x X
Gran'ma's kindly eyes were red with
weeping. She sat alone. She had
never felt so much alone before.
She arose to put the house in order.
She put out her hand to take the pipe,
the old black pipe, from the stand
where he had laid it. Then she STOP
ped and brushed her eyes, and went
about the other work. More than once
she started TO remove the pipe, but
stopped and said:
"Not yet"
Neighbors came in to cheer her up.
All shifted the pipe and made her sad.
One of them said:
"What is that l smell? ?"
Gran'm answered: at is AIfred's
pipe it is dreadful, but l can't take it
away-not now."
"Nor l wouldn't" said the woman
tenderly.
81 will after awhile" said gran'ma,
the tears coming to her eyes again.
When week had gone by the pipe
still lay upon the stand. A neighbor's
child came in.
Gran ma, why don't you throw that
nasty old pipe outdoors?'
81 can't my child"
81 can," and the child reached for
it.
Gran'ma grasped the little arm SO
suddenly, almost roughly, that the child
began to cry.
"Don't touch it-don't ever touch
it," said gran ma, with something like
severity, and then she knelt and pressed
the frightened child close to her breast
and smoothed 1t with her tender kisses.
Poor gran'ma's eyes were red most
the time now. The passing days did
not seem to take her grief away with
them. The pipe was in its now acCus-
toned place, and gran'ma cautioned
everybody not to touch it. She talked
so much about it and was so earnest in
her warnings that the people in the
neighborhood looked sorrowful and
tapped their temples with their finger
tips and shook their heads. The chill
dren went still further. They told COB
lin stories about the old black pipe, and
one of them declared that she had seen
pair of fiery eyes down in the bowl
and heard a groan.
In few weeks nobody but the post
man made calls on gran'ma. One day
at last he also ceased to come. Poor
gran'ma sat down and watched and
waited, but he passed the house ana
went upon his way. Then for hours
the dry eyed woman sat and gazed
upon the dear old pipe and felt that it
was all of life for her. Could she but
have wept !! Bu' grief had dried the
fountains of her heart.
"Why did let him 60 from me2
Why did l let him go?" she moaned.
One night she thought she heard a
tap upon the door. Her heart stool
still.
"They've brought his body home,"
she thought.
The blood rushed and bounded
through her head. She heard only its
heavy sound. She swooned and sank
from her chair.
Wnen she regained consciousness she
looked first to see that the pipe was
undisturbed, then hurried to the door.
All was dark and dreary. No one was
there. She went to bed, and nature
kindly sent her off to sleep.
Some time in the night she awoke
with great indefinatjle joy IN her heart.
What was itP a presentment of some
independing happiness2 She seemed
to breathe it from the very air. 1t
touched her senses from afar and PEN
etrated to her very soul What could
it be2 1t seemed to come with greater
force. 1t was-yes, now she knew
it was tobacco smoke. And then her
husband softly opened the chamber
door and she saw him standing there,
the old black pipe between his lips and
curls of smoke above his head.
"You did not get my telegram" he
asked when they had wept and laughed
together On each others breast.
"No. When2"
"Why, yesterday
1t was the messenger who brought
the gladstone news whom she had heard
the evening before Washington
Post.