Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1892-08-11

- III III Will Idso away tht iiitic wi |
you,n Mr.. Kramer replied: ~ don't
mind telling you how l won my wife.
But l have got boy almost as old as
you are, so you see the events lrefer to
Happened quite while ago"
1t would have scarcely surprised us
more il the town pump had suddenly
commenced a narrative.
81 was born in the little village we
passed through, back yondcr, and so was
Fanny Davis. We went to school to-
gether; sat in the same seat in church;
rode in the same hay-wagon; skated on
the same ice-ponds; went TO the same
husking- bees; but we didn't love each
other much for all that.
81 could not understand or take joke, |
and, as Fanny often made me a
target for her fun, the natural conse-
quence was, we were generally at swords |
points.
81 was one of the first country boys
who enlisted. There wasn't more awk
wark boy in the regiment.
"I'll skip the history of the war, and
only say after more than three long
years spent in marching and counter
marching from battlefield to battlefield,
came back to the village down there,
different man from the one who went
away.
Such time as they made over the
little fragment of our regiment, when we
came home all ragged and weary and
worn. Everybody turned out. The
folks got up big reception down In the
old church.
''They gave us more good things than
than we could eat in month, and made
speeches that were a good deal more
fiowery than our path had been.
All the old neighbors and friends
crowded around us, and had all could
do, for a while, shaking hands. had
often dreamed of this homecoming down
under those southern stars, and thought
of the old familiar faces that would
brighten when they saw me, and the
friends whose hands would like to take
first; but in all my dreams l had never
thought of Fanny.
"By-and-by there was little pause.
looked up, and there, not more than three
yards off, with checks like roses and eyes
like stars, she stood, looking at me with
such look as never thought she could
have for any one, much less for me.
at was so unexpected my heart stood
still for moment. She came forward and
seized hold of both my hands and said,
in a choked voice:
''Sam, you are a brave man. / am not
worthy to unite your shoe; but / want to
take your hand and tell you how / honor
you, and how sorry am for all the I'M
kind things have done and said in days
gone by
"You see the war had educated her
some, too.
II seemed suddenly to be lifted into a
: delicious and rarifed atmosphere, i'm
II prcgnated with divine radiance that IL
IS lumibed everything around me. All the
long years of the war rolled like flash
/ ing panorama before my brain. Common
II place actions that l had before counted
: only as my duty, grew strangely heroic. l
IS was proud of the bars on my shoulders.
y felt every inch a hero. And yet 1t
;. seemed as if would rather see her tear
y filled eyes look at me in that way than to
e have all the honors the world could af-
ford.
lie 'That night, when l went to bed,
Ie dreamed of the lights, the music, the
If flowers, the speeches, but at last every
Is thing melted into two soft, sweet, tear
So filed eyes, with luminous soul behind
them, which said over and over, You
q are hero, you are hero
l. ''When woke the world was all right
r side up. The war was gone forever, and
d had slipped back into my old place as
5, easily as if had never left it. Outwardly
d everything was the same; but inwardly,
d what change there was!
lr 'Of course | went to see Fan y. No
le distance would have been too great, no
lie storm too severe, to hinder me. And
many a time when have walked a mile
s. and more, just to touch her little soft
4 hand, or look into her eyes, would think
II of the times upon times had gone almost
d az far the other way, so that should not
see her.
10 Il followed Fanny like shadow.
Is asked her to marry me over and over
again. From taciturn man / grew to
ID be great talker. She must have in
spired me, think, for when / was with
l. her, something within me would speak
ID by the hour with an eloquence and force
x that would have been incapable of in
ordinary moments Oh, the plans made
J" The pictures l drew of the beautiful
&c future we might have!
he " At first she always said No to my
question; not harshly or with ridicule,
s. but just a little soft No. don't love
j. you,' that seemed as if il was so frail and
Or so slight that could overcome it if
70 only persevered. Sometimes, too, she'd
ly look up to me, when l was pleading.
TX with sudden, shy glance that seemed 9
reflection of the one that had electrified
C. me that night in the old church.
&c $50 things went on for over a year
g Everybody in the village got to know OF
p our affair, if it could be called by that
to name, and some said | was a fool tC
of think for moment that Fanny Davi:
I'd would have me; and some said she was {
I'd fool not to take me, if she could get me.
Finally, we had what thought was thu
lie very last quarrel we should ever have
ch Fanny, worn out by my persistency, haC
h angrily told me never to speak to her o.
love again; never even to come where
II, she was. Then, for the first time,
Id think l gave up all hope. ! avoided
Fanny as she wished me to for a long
time, but couldn't stop thinking o.
IS, her, for all that.
Zone day was walking up the street
ed thinking for the hundredth time of on
ed last interview, and trying to be a maj
RS again without her. reasoned 1t all out
on that Fanny ana were not suited to eacl
a other; that even if she would marry me
nd we should live a cat-and-dog life; TO
ny she had quick temper, was obliged Il
acknowledge. and | had an obstinate