The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1893-07-07


that title, sure.
"The end of the war found me in
Kentucky. Some of the boys were
going to the mountains for they had
no homes to call them back they
meant to get rich quick and the gold
mining fever caught them. Why
shouldn't l 60 with them? I had no
hankering for the old life in New
England with its quiet folks and
Aupidrhm go-to-meetln' ways-not I.
sFile war had give me a taste Of ad-
venture; l wasn't long in maxim up
my fool boy mind to take my chances
with my soldier comrades; so across
the plains l come and with the rest
at Pixies Peak l busted. There was
harder times after that. / tended bar
two years in Denver, then | drove a
hack spell and after that | dealt in
Charley SIMPSONS bank !; last thing
of all, gcttin' desperate, l bought an
outfit and come up to Red H0ss noun
tain, havin' heard Casey and Three
Fingered Hoover tell of the pros
poets in this country. You see l was
too proud to go back home, bein'
broke. A good many times I'd have
g1, IN hn i,,'
mothers pies and snoozin' in her
feather beds, but | was to proud to go
back broke, so stayed right here
and done my best with the rest of
you fellows.
"The home folks kept writn the
same old kind letters of love and tell
in me over and over again about
things / had entirely forgotten. They
never scolded me for bein' so way
ward; it was always God bless you
and do your duty and just as she
had done when | was a boy in the
war, mother always put p. s., sayin'
Willie, don't forget to say your pray
ers.' | used to laugh when | read
that; the idea of Damnation Bill say
in his prayers was comical.
81 struck it rich last fall as you all
know. From bein' grubstaker one
week l was in fair way to be DO.
nanza king the next. And | was
startin' to Denver one morning to SCI
about fixing up some arrangement
with Dave Moffatts bank when along
came telegraph telling me that ia.
ther was dead and would ! come at
Oncet. .
"Thlngs have shrunk up down east
since | was a boy. | found that out
when | went home for the first time
in twenty years. The wood lots an(
home pastures amt as big as they
used to be; the lanes are only about
half as wide and they turn oftener
the houses are smaller and the front
stoops and front doors tire so low that
fellow like me, and that's 6 feet 2
can't have much satisfaction dOin
business with 'em. Only mother
hadn't cbanged-she was whitc-hair
ed and she was fatter than she usc(
to be, and sometimes Though sh,
didn't cOmplain) l notided that i
hurt her to walk much--but she wa
the same mother | had run ava,
from twenty years ago. Seemed fun
ny TO be called Willie after havin
been called the other name-you
kn0w-so long. But, bless our moth
ers' hearts! us fellows is always vii
lie to them.
II went to bed at o o'clock tina
nlght-went to bed in the same room
that was mine when l was littl,
kid. The pictures on the wall cam,
back to me. Little Samuel, Uncl
William Fosdick, that l was namct
after, the first Sunday school card
got and Flora Temple and George N
Patchen in their great trot, II go
that one myself. The bed was higl
and feathery, and the comfortabl
smclt good and old-fashioncd.
) made me sleepy and dreamy-like jus
to be there. Hadn't more than 90
1into bed before in come mother, car
ryin' a candle. Willie, says she
maybe you'll laugh at me, but In
gettin' old an childish like, maybe
and now that you've come back to m
, l want to take up with you just wher
: l left of when you-when you-wen
! away at your country's call You sc
she put Tiny running away-sh
put it tenderly To me. Willie sh
says, Il want to tuck you up in bee
Just as l used to do. Used to worr
when you first went away, because
was afraid you'd catch cold nights
you always was such hand at kicl
ing off the clothes In your sleep
, why, mother says l, i don't nee
r tuckin' up. I'm as snug and as war;
) as a meadow mouse under haystacl
+ But mother wouldn't take no for a
y answer; she just sputtTed aroun
that bed an kept tuckin' In til
, clothes, tellin' me all the time what
comfort II had always been to he
, and father (beforc he died), to fe,
= that had been a good boy and sal
, my prayers and lived by their teacl
In and never done dishonest thin,
[ or learn to lie an swear an gambl
y an race horses as other boys Of II
!. neighbors had. Yes, mother said a
0 this, and there ! lay like a great bl
t baby an let her believe 1t and h
!. hands sOrter fingered around me a