Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-04-15
anxiously; I never he'd days sickness

'1A5AIiys dLeft duu eager 10 Qei ASTSekl,
but silent and thoughtful as the train
took her into strange landscape where
the miles where the landscape went so
swiftly it seemed like the past years OF
ner life as she looked back on them.
THY works are marvelous," she muir
muled often, sitting with her hands
folded, and few idle days had there been
in the world where she had sat and rested
so long.
In the day coach the people were kind
and generous, sharing their baskets with
her and seeing she changed cars right
and her carpetbag was safe. She was
| like any of the dear old grandmas in
Eastern homes, or to grizzsed men and
| women like the memory of our dead
mother, as faint and far away as the scent
| of wild roses in a hillside country bury
| ing ground. She tended babies for tired
women and talked to the men of farming
| and crops or told the children Bible
stories, but never word she said of her.
self, not one.
On again, guided by kindly hands
through the great bcwildering city by
the lake, and now through yet strange
land. Tired and worn by night IN the
uncomfortable seats her brave spirit be-
| gan to fall little. AS the wide, level
plains, lonely and drear, dawned on her
sight she sighed often.
ats a dre'ful big world" she said to
a gray bearded old farmer near her; $50
big feel eenmost lost in it, but" hope
fully, ''across them deserts like this long
ago Providence sent star to guide them
wis e men of the East, an I haint lost
my faith"
But as the day wore on, and still the
long, monotonous land showed no human
habitation, no oasis of green, her eyes
dimmed, something like a sob rose under
the black kerchief on the bowed should
ers, and the spectacles were taken Oft
with trembling hand and put away care
fully in the worn tin case.
''Be ye goin' fur, mother?" said the old
farmer.
He had bought her cup of coffee at
the last station, and had pointed out on
the way things he thought might interest
her.
'ETo Denver"
"Wal, wal; you're from New England,
II be bound"
''From Maine," she answered; and
then she grew communicative, for she
was always a chatty old lady, and she
had possessed her soul in silence so long,
and it was relief to tell the story of her
weary years of waiting to kindly lis
tener.
She told him all the relations she had
were two grand nephews and their fami
lies. That twenty years ago Sam Qor
she had brought them up when their
parents died of consumption, that takes
so many of our folks went out West. He
was always adventurous, and for ten
years she did not hear from him: but
John was different and steady, and when
he came of age she had given him her
farm, with the provision that she should
always have home, otherwise he would
have gone away, too. Well for years
they were happy, then John married, and
his wife had grown to think her bur-
den as the years went on, and the chill
dren when they grew big did not care for
her; she felt that she had lived too long.
~ growed so lonesome" she said
pathetically, cit seems couldn't take
up heart to live day by day, an yit l |
knowed our folks was long lived. Ten
years back, when Sam wrote he was dom
fair an sent me money. l begun to
think of him; fur he was allus generous
an kind, an the gratefulest boy, an so
I began to save to go to him, fur I |
kncwed l could work my board for
good many years to come. Fur three
years he amt hardly wrote, but I laid |
that to the wild kentry he lived IN. l
said bars and Injuns don't skeer me
none, fur when 1 was gal up in |
Aroostuk kentry there was plenty of |
both, an as fur buffalers them horned |
cattle don't skeer me none. fur I've been
used to a farm allus. But the lone
sumness of these medders has sorter up
sot me and made me think every day Sam |
was further off than l ever calculated |
on"
''But what will you do if Sam ain in
Denver?' asked the farmer.
81 hev put my faith in Providence"
she answered simply, and the stranger
could not mar that trust by any word of |
warning.
He gave her his address as he got off
at the Nebraska line, and told her to
send him word if she needed help. With
warm hand clasp he parted from her to
join the phantoms in her memory of
''folks that had been kind to her, God
bless me-" and then the train was rum
bling on.
But many of the passengers had lis
tened TO her story and were interested,