The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-12-29
IN THE PINE WOODS.
Tho Touching Story Told Over q Litti,
Child's Grave.

Tno TOucnfng story TOLD over Little
Child's Grave.
The house seemed to contain but two
rooms besides the loft The one in
which / sat was meagerly furnished
but scrupulously neat and clean.
A bedstead stood in one corner COW
cred with white spread, two big,
puffy, sleepy-looking pillows at the
head.
In another corner a small table held
q wash basin and ever. Above it hung
o square mirror with numerous knots
and blemishes upon its face. The floor
was well scrubbed and bare, except for
a strip of gay rag carpet which was
spread beside the bed. A few stout
splint-bottomed hickory chairs COM
pleted the substantial furniture of the
room.
Here and there upon the rude walls
hung bright-hued calendar or adver-
Using card.
A little three-cornered shelf in one
corner held the only piece of bric-a-
brac. 1t was little brown jug with a
small, red baby shoe upturned over it's
mouth. By the time had finished my
survey, the men came in and soon the
frugal meal was ready. We partool1 of
it with relish, and, after the scant sup
ply of dishes had been washed and put
away, our hostess and wandered out
into the dusk, while she talked and
showed me, as best she could in the fast
fading light, her little stock of flowers
and garden truck" IN which she
seemed to feel great pride.
BY and by we came upon a little
green mound in a thicket of pine trees,
1t looked pathetic in its loneliness. A
rude wooden cross, all overgrown with
tender green vines, marked it's head.
This is the baby's grave" she said,
softly, as she lifted a struggling runner
and twined it about the cross. "It'n
be six month $ come Sunday, sence we
put her aw ay down here, but somehow
l jes' can't git used ter not havin' her
round"
Her lips trembled and she put up her
hand to her throat as if to hold back
the great lump that had risen there
and was choki.g her.
She was sech a purity little un, an
we wuz jes' plum bound up in her.
What allied her? Wall, if We don't mind,
mum, I'll jes' tell We how it wuz 1t
makes me feel kind NV easier, some
how. ter talk about it now and agin.
Sometimes" her voice quivered pite-
ously, II jes' git so full an so choked
up, seems like es If I'd jest run over
or die. He can't bear ter speak NV her,
nohow.
I'VE see, we hadn't been a livin' here
long when she come; an rar' blessin'
she wuz to us. The house never seemed
80 lonesome-like arter that, an when
things didn't go right, an times wuz
hard, somehow, it wuz allus so much
easier ter git along arter we he'd the
little un ter keep us heartened. Wall,
one day in the fall, he went over ter
B. ter sell the cotton crap. 1t wuz
purity good year an he got a good
price for it.
"Ef he jes hadn't "a bought that ar
whisky! We lowed ter build some
onter the house an buy big doll fer
the baby that year. But the hankerin'
wuz so strong in him that he jes got
his jug full afore he started for home.
THE baby heerd him a-comin'
through the woods an toddled off ter
meet him, while l stood in the door
thar an watched her He wuz rar'
fond o. The youngster, and when she
put up her little hans he jes' sot down
the jug an TUX ter tossin' her up in the
air. | seen his hold want steady, and
/ hollered, but it wuz too late. She
fell, an laid thar SO still an white an
dead like that knowed, afore got to
her, that she wuz hurt bad. He seemed
all kind o. stunned like for a mint, an
then he picked her up an carried her
in. with an awful skeered white look
on his face. He never spoke word,
but jes' laid her on the bed an went
off fer the doctor.
''She never did come to no more
She jes' laid thar all night an moaned
an moaned an didn't know nothin' a
tall. Onct she said: Pap! Papl' so pitt
full, an that wuz all Ne tramped up
an down all night outside the door
Every onct in awhile he'd come in an
look at her, an seen his face wuz all
drawed up an big drops o. sweat
a-standin' all o~ his for'erd, an he
never spoke a w0s, l.
when sun-up come she got cold an
still, an never moved no more Then
I knowed she wuz gone.
I'VE dug the grave out here whar
she used ter play so much, maxim sand
plea an sech, an we put her in it while
the pine needles an the chinkapins
wuz a fallin', an the rain a drippin'
kind o soft like all around
An that iug-he hain't never teched
it sence. TUX it an sot it thar on the
shelf, Jest ter kind o mind him like,
an put the little shoes she wuz allus
so proud on along side NV it. The first
time he seen it thar, he picked up one
o the little shoes an turned it upside
down over the mouth, 'thout ever say
in so much as a word.
He never seemed ter take no more
notice NV it arter that; but sometimes
in the dead O. night when he thinks
I'm sound asleep, the hankerin' gifts
strong in him, an he creeps out o bed.
so easy like, an goes over ter whar the
Jug is But law, he can't lift that lit