The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1891-10-07
WHEN 1 WENT HOME.
BY HOMER BAssFoRD.

Everything seemed so funny there
in that pretty little old town. 1 had
lived up in the city ten years when
| went back to the place of my
birth, to the fair and to meet all OF
the friends who had known me
since was such a wee boy that ]
did not know them. When I got
off the train the depot seemed
smaller to me than it used to seem
when my happy feet of boyhood
trod its platform $ boards, so full OF
knotholes and splits. L got onto
one of the busess that stood just a
few feet away. Was this the same
vehicle to whose rear step 1 had
hung and lodged the drivers whip?
How little and cramped, and what
noise it madcl l used to think
this bus the greatest thing l ever
saw, and as l come to look back to
it, guess that it was.
Then 1 went to the hotel and up
one fight of stairs into the Office
and signed my name, and then
looked around at the people sitting
there to see if l knew any of them.
One of the men nodded, and asked
me when L got in. 1 could not
place him at first, but when he
shook hands with me, remembered
the driver of the bus-the same old
fellow who used to whip at me from
his high seat, when l was such a
little boy, in bare feet and with care
free mind. But l was dressed up
this time, and something of that in
definable city air hung about me.
L looked at the other faces, but they
were new to me-even the hotel,
which 1 once thought incompatible
in its grandeur and elegance of ap-
pointments, had changed hands.
If ten years would do all this, what
changes might twenty effect.
Then 1 went home to that dear
place with a big yard and great,
friendly shade trees, so unlike any
thing that L had seen in these ten
years of life in the city. Not that
there arc not trees just IS big there
and yards just as spacious, but they
all lack something. At home, the
naples that line the mosscoverd
brick walk that leads up to the low,
rambling house look so friendly.
remember-it was ever so long ago
when a man came to our house
and told my mother that he was
from the nursery and would lay out
the grounds. The naples came the
nextday. They were mere switches
Ito freedom they occupied the re-
lation as to manhood. And so
we were children together. 1 was
glad to go up that walk once more,
under the sheltering shade of those
happy maples-they looked like
brothers to me, and 1 thought that
they nodded their heads as looked
up at them.
Then l went into the house.
Somehow the rooms had grown
smaller while 1 was away. The big
sitting room over whose floor have
rolled with my brother thousand
times, was so little that 1 felt cramp-
ed, and actually looked up at the
ceiling to see if there was any
danger of my head touching. OF
all things saw that day and night
all seemed unnatural except my bed,
the downy couch that had never
had a regular occupant since 1 left
the little white walled room called
my own. How / sank into the en-
braces of that feather tickl As 1
lay there, with half closed eyes just
as sleep comes creeping over you, L
felt myselfa boy again. 1t seemed
morning. A rooster crowed away
off somewhere and / heard the dis
tant below of a COW and the smoth-
cred tinkle of her bell. All was
still again, and then a katydid call
ed out in the night. Then it was