Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-10-16

gether."
IT cannot believe it. My heart tells
me that I shall never see you again."
she sorrowfully replied.
His words of hope and comfort were
of no avail, and with her heart crush
ed with haunting forebodings the last
sad words of farewell we're spoken,
vows of eternal fidelity exchanged,
and he was gone.
None but I knew of the nights OF
grief she passed in secret. How IN
utter hopelessness she would moan,
ooh, my heart is broken!" I often
wished that I might lose my bright
ness SO that I could not reflect her
sad. sweet face and remind her of her
trouble,
SO often I have heard old people
say to the young: "Now is your hap
DIV time. You will never be as free
from trouble as you now are" What
a mistake! Youth has it's troubles,
and they fall SO heavily. Ripened
years and their attendant experien-
| ces teach the lesson of resignation.
Youth struggles to escape the learn
ing.
I hoped SO earnestly that Gladys
might again be the happy girl of yore
and that even the memory of her
grief might be effaced by the joyful
return of her soldier lover.
Now and then cheering letters
would come, and for a long time she
seemed more like her old happy self.
Oh, that I could blot from my mem
DRY that awful day when the news of
a terrible battle reached us, and we
read the anne of our noblest men
among the killed and wounded. The
words spoken by Gladys, SO sadly
prophetic on hat day of farewell,
were realized. She would
again see her lover in the world.
True she might look upon his earthly
body, but his soul and heart phghted
to her she must not know again until
in "the life to GOMEZ"
They brought his poor wounded
body home wrapped in the colors
which he had so bravely defended,
and in the village churchyard where
he and Gladys had SO often strolled
on the peaceful Sabbath they buried
him. After the first great wave of
anguish had swept over her she seem
ed greatly changed. The radiance
was gone forever from her face, but
in it's place was an expression of gen
tie resignation.
The thought Of a day to come when
she and her lover would be reunited
in that happy land where death, that
cruel separator of loving hearts, has
no power to enter was a sweet and
comforting one. 1t was this belief
that made her life worth the living
and heaven a more tangible, realistic
thing than her former visionary idea
of the hereafter.
Sorrow did not make Gladys selfish.
Her time was spent in devotion to
others. How many weary, sick and
poverty stricken people were helped
by her gentle words of encourage
ment, tender sympathy and substan-
tial aid none will ever know but God.
Often when weary with her labors Of
the day I would see her reading and
musing over an old letter. I noticed
that there were curious reddish stains
upon the paper. Then I knew that
Gladys was living over in
the happy and the sad times before
this unfinished letter had reached her
in the unexpected, sad way. They
1oI ro-,,l - 90 H. l0-0-. e L.. Jo-I
lover, and these last penciled words
were words Of undying affection for
her.
OF later years I saw Gladys but
rarely, for I had been removed to an
attic chamber, where, for want of
communication with the present and
its happenings, [ was left to ponder
on the past. At last a day came
when I was rudely awakened from
my reverie, and I gradually realized
that I was TO leave the old home for
ever.
Then [ was carried down stairs into
the hall I remembered having passed
through when [ was brought into the
house years before, a handsome new
mirror then ornamental. AS the
men were taking me out of the door
I again saw my Gladys, and I rejoiced
greatly, for I had feared was never
to see lei again. In that feeting
glimpse Of her I saw that her beauti-
ful tender eyes were still the same,
but the dusky tresses I remembered
20 --1I1 4I--o Y.-z IL
whitened them with a touch Of his