The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-11-04
BY EDGAR l. WAKEMAN.
Copyright. 1874.


! and fell in behind me with soldierly step,
/ on our way to the little tavern with the
I big name in historic Franklin's row.
say historic Franklin's row, for the
( very place where we were finally costly
| seated before a huge deal table beside
/ cavernous fireplace, was the kitchen of
/ the identical house in which the dissolute
! Charles, touched by the gorgeous plead
/ ings of kindly Nell Gwynne, gave to her,
/ to be instantly transferred by his favorite
| as site for pensioners hospital. King
James College and its pleasant surround
! ing meadows which Charles had just
/ purchased for his sprightly Nell at the
/ beggarly price of 1900 pounds.
The cookies Of the old pensioners heart
were soon warmed. and noticing my inter
ested looks about the dark and Anticipated
place, after deep and comforting draught
at his mug and a few sputtering whifs
at his pipe, the veteran remuneratively
began:
"Ay ay, pardner-no tense sense Mike
is gone = it's Nelrs Of 'ome: ONE o. tn
horarnge gal as made us tn ONE Ger
theer, seek az it be"
Here he pondered awhile as If fixing It
all in his memory just as legend had
brought the pretty tale down to its trem-
bling old beneflcaries
'iYe see, Nell did a 'cep o. dreaming for
'er' lordly barrymore. She dreamed this
that an 'tother rapid like. King Charles
alius 'eeded er dreams. Maybe that made
'er dream more an more. Anyow, one
night Nell dreamed. mighty 'ard. Next day
she wuz glum, like. The king shook is
head an Worried DER il. Watts hup,
Nel% ee pumped at er. rough an ready
Oh, ye wont-rniRd watts hupF she an sers
discouraged like. 'OdSo give IT a namep
says &c. So she hups an bouts Wi it."
Here the old pensioner closed his eyes
pursed up his lips and began in a hoarse
whisper of secresy which could be plainly
heard into the middle Of the street
" Methought, says Nell. rollln 'er fine
heyes up'ard, Il was-in tn fields o. Chelsy.
an slowly theer rose afore my heyes a
gorSus. pallus, wi a thousand chambers
In an out theer walked many old an
worn out -sohlter men, WI all kind o.
scars, an many manned o limb. All O.
them was aged an past SERVICE an as
they went out an come in, tn OF men all
cried oct: God bless King Charlesr'
Then l opened my heyes an wuz sore
Worritted Der my dream Hup Charles
roars: Nell Gwynne, ! wish you'd dream
dreams as didn't cost so muchp Then she
ans'er hup: Oh, .o'course, I know'd you
wouldn't do itn Wen &c say: Well, We
knew amiss that time, Nell Gwynne, fur
| will do it, Am ee rlldt'
He snorted and beamed on me in very
excess of triumph at his historical recital
and continued deprecatingly:
That's tn way tn 'ospital coined T. be.
sir an no 'tother 'Thout Nell Gwynne's
dream, right ere in this very ouse, sir
hus as made tn British hempire what It
be, wouldn't a 'ad airy place T. lay our OF
an worn-hout 'eads"
old? Why, Uncle Billy. you're not
DID, / insisted encowagingly.
He looked at me a moment commiserat-
ingly. He tugged at his pipe furiously
Then taking his wrinkled face in his two
hands and planting his elbows on the
table stolidly, he said with childish vanity
and woebegone earnestness: -.,
I'm be % year OF. this month, God
willlng"
Impossible" retorted affecting
amazement
"Nnety-two year" he repeated SOL
EMMY. Listed in tn 31st Foot. in 1919:
served over forty year; an come back t.
tn workus or that-that ere pen as amt
much better"
"Kath and kin all gone, Uncle Billy?"
"Kith an kin all gone"
No brothers, or 5isters, or friends?"
Not airy one"
mo children, or wife orr"
See ere. now, pardner-no tense sense
Mikes gone t. Brompton!-I told We they
WIZ all mustered out"
"Why, didn't you ever have a wife Uncle
Billy"
I cannot tell why I drove him so closely
on this point. Perhaps it sprang from
vaEarous human Contrariness. But I did
it with a dim sort of notion there had
been perhaps somewhere sometime lit
tie woman, proud in her way of this bat
tered old hulk in its drawer days, and that
he might have forgotten the fact. along
with other things old soldiers should often
better have remem bered
''Willum Merrill-thats my full name,
sir, an born in Bedfordshire-had a wife,
forty or fifty years ago, sir"
Forty or fifty wears agoi-here in Lon
don. Uncle Billy"
'Av, right here in Lunnon."
What became of herr"
Dead"
DO you know that?"
Does 1 know I'm lookin at your"
But how do you know that she died?''
Does l know l ave this ere rose-red
/ dec'rashun on my breastie? Does l know
/ 1 ave this ere yaller an blue dec'rashun
on my tother breastie? Does know were
/ an ow l got EN-? Does l know Wen / left
/ service on a bob Ga shilling) a day pen,
| marched more miles DER Lunnon streets
! a searchin' of 'er than l hever trod IN
/ Turkey or tn Crimea? Does l know that
nothin' on yearth'd a made me give huI
! tn searchin' an tn pension, an lay my
bones in that theer Twin greave 'cept
was coCk-sure she was dead an gone!-
/ gettn' nothin' but penny a day, fur al,
1 an 'baccy money, bunk no bigger thar
poor Mikes box { sleep on an arr a loaf
a ounce O butter, Thames skimmln's fun
soup, an bowl of yarb tea, all fur
| 'ealthy man L thrive on?-ughr' he con
clpded, with a fierce shrug of resentment
! at his environment and contempt for my
4 own ignorance of what had so long age
4 proven a bitter inallty to this old, ole
veteran who was snorting and Tuning be
/ fore me.
Z There was an easy way to dispel this out
burst of feeling, and when it had beer
utilized l led him back over the SUMMER
road of his fondness for his dead com
rade. to a glimpse of his daily life II
| Ward 10, Chelsea hospital
( / thus discovered the curious fact tina
Mike had some sixty years before. been
fival for the dead wife's hand tina
Uncle Billy had won after fierce court
ship; and that the singular human dram,
of so many years before had drawn thu
two men together afeld; had welded then
In closer friendship when the bitter day
of the pensioners life had come; an,
that here they had at last battled alon,
together, now in almost irreconcilabl
quarrels. again in tirmer and more pa
thotic friendships, until Comrade Mike
in his failing, imbecile hours, had takel