Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-06-15

fell, but he rose again. After Ions
weeks he came forth from the hospital
a MANNED man. the deep lines in his
face telling the story of his great suffer
ingS. His right arm was gone and he
could no longer lead in battle
Since leaving home Lem had heard
nothing from the Dagleys, and he
supposed Laura had long since married
and gone away, so he resolved to go
back. Accordingly he boarded steam
boat and went TO st. Louis. He stopped
in that city, and after dressing himself
in better clothing went to a hotel. He
was about to enter the office to Sc
cure a room when he saw a man and
woman aight from a carriage and pass
into the building. He stopped, dumb
with surprise and pain. The woman
was Laura, and the man was the same
he had seen with her that night in
Judge Dagley's parlor. He watched
them as they passed into the house, and
he saw her turn her eyes upon him.
Yet she showed no surpriSe-not even
a sign of recognition. When they had
disappeared he turned away, all the
old suffering strong upon him, and for
an hour he walked the streets.
Can she have forgotten me so soon?"
he unused bitterly. Am I so soon ban
ished entirely from her memory? Ave,
yes, yes. And yet I once thought wo-
men never forgot"
After a while he turned to the hotel
IL 1C>11
register. There the last on the page.
he saw this u. P. Thomson and
wife" Wife! That was Laura. He
knew the worst now. She was another
mans wife.
Lem went out and walked straight
to the steamboat landing. He found a
vessel just ready to start up the Mis-
souri,, and he took passage for home.
She was gone away now and he could
go back and take up his old life and
duties without the fear of meeting her
A few days later people passing along
the road noted signs of life about the
old mill. The long closed doors We're
open and a sad One-armed man moved
about, making little repairs and put
became known that Lem Beckett had
returned and within a week the old
mill was running and the customers
were coming and going Is Of old
Its like old times" the people some
times remarked, ''to see the old mill
running again. l.4.Fr
But it was far from the old times
to Lem. Then he was strong and hap
py, looking forward to a bright future.
Now he was a tired and disappointed
man. the future he had cherished lying
wrecked at his feet.
The people found Lem accommodate
ing and generous as of old, but he was
no more the iovial, social man they had
known in the years past. He was
taciturn in the extreme, conversing
with no one save when necessity COM
PEELED him. He saw nothing of the
Dagleys, and he asked no one ques-
tons concerning them, and, as il hap
pened, no one mentioned them in his
nnnnnnnnnnai fl -: fl ;. fl >. fl fl
presence. Perhaps the people suspect
ed that he would not be pleased to
have the name mentioned within his
hearing
Thus several days passed, Lem never
going away from the mill, except at
night, when he walked down the road
by Judge Dagley's house. On these
night rambles he took care that no
one should see him going and coming
in the darkness like a ghost. He found
a melancholy pleasure perhaps in look
ing at the old house where he had found
his greatest happiness in the days gone
by,
/ One night he made his usual walk,
and stood at Judge Dagiey's gate look
ing over into the lawn, when there
suddenly g1ided into the path from
lamong the evergreenS aa apparitiSn
that stilled the beating of his hetrt
and caused a sensation 'Gf GOODNESS tc
steal over him. What he saw was q
woman dressed in white slowly gOins
toward the house. There was but lit
tie light and he ccsild T9ut dimly make
out her form, but he saw enough tc
know whose form, whose movement
it was. He could not, even under the
circumstances be mistaken in laura
1t was she, he knew, but not as she
was when he saw her last He saw
sorrow, trouble, disappointment, writ
ten in her movement.
| He watched until he saw her enter
the house; then he tlrnd away, feeling
such a sensation as he had never eX
peEienced in all his lif. He did MOI
, believe in anything supernatural, yet
he was almost forced to admit that he
had seen a spirit It could not be
laura in the flesh that haa passed
before his eyes that night BUT two OF
three weeks had elapsed since he saw
her. in St Louis, cosy and happy, and
tse great a change could not hsgve come
over her so soon.
| He walked back to the mill and
STOOD quietly On the platform in front
Of the great doors too deeply eaagrossed
III thought to notice the flight of time
AT last he arose with a Shiver, passed
iIto the mill and lay down on his bed
Tie next morning he was found there
burning with fever and deliriOus. A
doctor was summoned, and when he
came he shook his head gravely pro
noz1ncing LENS recovery doubtful.
THE trouble is more of the min6
than the body" he said. Medicine
can do little good
| Lem talked continually in an EncO
heret way, and though the doctor held
his ear close to the unconscious nan's