Middletown transcript., 1893-09-02
"oh. if the eyes amt very sore when

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WheL such a blessing h IS fallen on me
I'll lay. still, but If forget it, or you
or Ole minute this night, I'll be s
ashamed of myself that it'll wake m
right upl"
Then the doctor bound up his eyes
and the poor boy said "Thank God
two or three times. and they could Sc
the tears running down his cheeks fron
under the cloth. Lordl 1t was just a
pitifuf as a broken-wing birdt
How about the girl? Well; it wa
n all right for Abe-and all wrong fo
E he-all wrong for Ephe. But tha
is all past and gone-past and gone
Folks come for miles and miles to SCI
cross-eyed Abe with his eyes as straigh
as looms leg DIR. Brainard was ;
great man forever after in those parts
Every where else, too, by what
heard.
When the doctor and the Squire
come to go, Abe spoke up, blindfolded
as he was. and says he:
"Doc, how much do you charge a
feller for savin' his life-making man
out of a poor wreck-doin' what he
thought never could be done but by
dyin' and gold to kingdom comep'
"Oh," says Doc Brainard, says he,
'sthat amt what we look at as pay
practi.e-you didn't call me in--I
came of myself, as though it was what
we call clinic. If all goes well, and
you happen to have q barrel of apples
to spare, you just send them up to
Squire Caton's house in Chicago and
LII call over and help eat 'em."
What did Abe say to that? Why,
sir, he never said word-but they do
say the tears started out again--out
from under the bandage and down his
cheeks. But then Abe be had FIVE
year old pet mare he'd raised from a
colt-pretty as picture, kind as y
kitten, and fast as split lightning-and
next time Doc came down Abe he just
slipped out to the barn and brought the
mare round and bitched her to the gate
post and when Doc came to be going,
says Abe:
"Don't forget your nag, Doctor! she's
hitched at the gate."
Well, sir, even then Abe had the
hardest kind of time to get Doc
Brainard to take that mare: and when
he did ride off leadin' her it wasn't
half an hour before, back she came,
lickety-split. Doc said she broke away
from him and put for home, but !
always suspected he didn't have no use
for boss he couldn't sell nor hire out,
and couldn't afford to keep in the
village-that was what Chicago was
then. But come along toward fall
Abe he took her right up to town, and
then the DOCTORS practice had growed
SO much that he was pretty glad to
have her-and Abe was glad to have
him have her, seeing all that had come
to him through havin' eyes like other
folks-that's s the school ma 'am, | mean.
How did the school ma'am take it?
Well, it was this way. After the cut
tin Abe didn't show up for few days,
till the Inflammation got down and
he'd mad some practice handlin' his
eyes, SO to speak. He just kept him
self, enjoying himself. He'd go round
1oin' the chores, singing so you could |
hear him mile. He was always great |
singing, Abe was, though ashamed to |
20 to singin' school with the rest. Then
when the poor boy began to feel like
,ther folks, he went right over to
where schoolma'am happened to be
,oardin' round and walked right up to
Ter and took her by both hands and
ooked her straight in the face and
aid;
''Do you know me?"
Well, she kind of smiled and blIshed,
nd then the corners of her, mouth
'ulled down and she pulled one hand
way, and-if you'll believe me-that
ras the third time that girl cried that
eason, to my certain knowledge-aEd
II for nolhin' either timel
What did she say? Why, she just
aid she'd have to begin all over again
D get acquainted with Abe. But
,phe's nose was out of joint, and
,phe knowed it as we'll as anybody,
,phe did. 1t was Abe's eyes TO Erhe's
ose.
Married? Oh, yes, of course; and
we'd on the farm as long as the old
plks lived, and afterward, too; Ephe
aging right along like the old fool he
lwaps had been. That feller didn't
ave as much sense as a last years
ird n, st.
Alive yet? Abe? Well, no. Might
ave been if it hadn't been for Shiloh.
When the war broke out, A be thought
ed ought to GO. old as he was, 20 he
,ent into the Sixth. Maybe you've
zen bot k written about the Captain
Company X of the Sixth. 1t was
company X be went into-bim and
,phe. And he was killed at Shiloh
lst as it always seems to harpen. He
OF killed and his worthless brother
anne home. Folks thought Ephe
'ould have liked to marry the widow,
ut Lord! She never had no such an
1eal Such bait as he was compared
D his brother. She never chirked up,
0 speak of, and now she's dead, too.
,phe he just 'oodles round taking care
the children-kind of a he dry
urse; that's about all he ever was
ood for, anyhow.
My name? o, my names Ephraim
-Ephe they call me, for short, Ephe
lodge. Abe was my brother.