The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-08-21

when such blessing has fallen on me?
I'll lay still, but if forget it or you fec
one minute this night I'll be SO ashamed
of myself that it'll wake me right upr'
Then the doctor bound up his eyes,
and the poor boy said Thank God" two
or three times, and they could see the
tears running down his cheeks from I'M
der the cloth. Lord!- It was just as
pitiful as broken wing birdl
How about the girl? Well, it was all
right for Abe-and all wrong for Ephe
all wrong for Ephe. But that's ali
past and gone-past and gone. Folks
come for miles and miles to see cross
eyed Abe with his eyes as straight as
looms leg. DIR. Brainard was a great
man forever after in those parts. Every
where else, too, by what heard.
When the doctor and the squire come
10 go, Abe spoke up, blindfolded as he
was, and says he:
''Doc, how much do you charge a
Teller for savin' his life-making man
out Of a poor wreck-doin what he
thought never could be done but by
dyin and goin to kingdom Gomez
'Oh," says Doc Brai~ird, says he, "that
amt what we look at as pay practice.
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
barrel Of apples to spare, you just send
them up to Squire Cations house in Chi
cago, and I'll 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 bahdage and down his cheeks.
But then Abe he had a 5-year-old pet
mare he'd raised from a colt-pretty as
a picture, kind as 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
hitched 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 hard
est 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 get her, and
Abe was glad to have him have her, see
ing all that had come to him through
havin eyes like other folks-that's the
schoolma am mean.
How did the schoolma'aln take it?
Well, it was this way. After the cuttin
Abe didn't show up for few days, till
the Inflammation got down and he'd
had some practice handlin his eyes, so to
speak. He just kept himself to himself,
enjoyin himself. He'd go round dom
the chores, singing SO you could hear
him a mile. He was always great on
singin, Abe was, though ashamed to go
to singin school with the rest. Then
when the poor boy began to feel like
other folks he went right over to where
the schoolma'an happened to be boardin
round and walked right up to her and
took her by both hands and looked her
straight in the face and said:
''Do you know me?"
Well, she kind of smiled and blushed,
and then the corners Of her mouth pulled
down and she pulled one hand away,
and, if you believe me, that was the
third time that girl cried that season to
my certain knowledge, and all for nothin
either time!
What did she say? Why, she just said
she'd have to begin all over again to get
acquainted with Abe. But Ephe's nose
was out of joint, and Ephe knowed it as
well as anybody, Ephe did. Itwas Abe's
eyes to Ephe's nose.
Married? Oh, yes, of course, and lived
on the farm as long as the old folks
lived, and afterward, too, Ephe staying
right along like the fool he always had
been. That Teller never did have as
much sense as last years birds nest.
Alive yet? Abe? Well, no. Might
have been if it hadn't been for Shiloh.
When the war broke out, Abe thought
he'd ought to go, old as he was, SO he
went into the Sixth. Maybe you've seen
book written about the captain of
Company z of the Sixth. It was Com
pany K he went into-him and Ephe.
And he was killed at Shiloh-just as it
always seems to happen. He got killed,
and his worthless brother come home.
Folks thought Ephe would have liked to
marry the widow, but Lord! she never
had no such an idea! Such bait as he
was compared to his brother! She never
chirked up to speak of, and now she's
dead, too, and Ephe he just toodles round
taking care of the children-kind Of a
he dry nurse. That's about all he ever
was good for anyhow.
My name2 Oh, my names Ephraim-
Ephe they call me for short, Ephe
Dodge. Abe was my brother.-Joseph
Kirkland i'll Louisville Courier-J Journal.