The advocate., 1894-01-17

nluggiSh - crushed under the aW1u
doom. | had no vigor-no disposition
to do things like live man. The outer
world was as distant as heaven from
the damned. Besides, my COmrade had
reason to think would write in case ]
did not hear from my wife. He was
free and could think like lice man. SO
he would not have dared to rob my
family thus. But / had unfaltering
confidence in his fidelity. Three years
of cOmradeShip in the life Of soldier
does not leave room for doubling the
man who has stood by your side in the
nerce rage o. battle. kllelC he had been
faithful to the trust had given him.
And was right. After coming out OF
prison / learned that he, also, fell by
the way and never reached home. In
a railway accident, my cOmrade, my
money and my letter were all burned
up together, and thus no news Of my
fate ever reached my people; no expla-
nation of my sudden dropping out Of
sight, except, as l will tell you pres
entity, that L, also, perished in the rail
road disaster"
"HOW did you come to be released at
last 2" asked Kate.
Il was shut up in prison, going
through the dreary, monOtOnouS daily
round of prison life, till three years ago,
shut up there like frog in a rock tor
twenty-five years; when one evening
about sun down, the warden sent for
me, and to my utter and stunning as
nfCh hr,Onnf RI / /
had been pardOned. ISpent that night
in the old prison, and lett it next morn
ing to go out into the world. For some
days | felt lonesome without those
hopeless walls about me They had be-
come part Of my life. Twas dazed and
aimleSs. The warden told me that
about the time l was sentenced, the
woman l had defended had also been
sent up for term of twenty years, pre-
Sumably for allowing herself to be
Whacked over the craZy-bOnes with
club, far she had done no other wicked
ness. She had been released at last,
and having told the true story of the
affair to some humane person, he had
taken interest enough in my case to
finally secure my pardon.
"Atter some days l began to regain
my vigor, and the old yearning for
home revived with Grazing intensity. |
sped to Wisconsin, and with beating
heart, raped at last at my fatherin-
laws door. A stranger greeted me.
He had never so much as heard of my
people, though he had lived on the
place twelve years. went to the old
burying ground and to the lot where
some of my father-in-law's folks had
been buried. No grave had been made
there since had left for the front, and
could see that no one had taken any
care OF the spot for many years.
Nobody knew me, for l had left
there, five and twenty years before,
young man; but l finally met and rec
Ognized a stopped and palsied old
wreck who had been the village post
master in those earlier days. From
him learned that my father-in-law's
family, with my wife and child, had
removed to Oregon in 1868, but that
they had afterwards left there, and, in
1873, or thereabOuts, my informant had
heard of them sOmewhere-juSt where
he could not remember if he had ever
known-in New Mexico. Nothing had
been heard of them since, that is, for
about fourteen years. Though l in
quired of many Of the old settlers, |
could learn nothing more than the old
postmaster had told me; but everybody
wanted to know all about me and my
absence. This much, !
however, did hear: That before they
moved away, all but my wife had given |
me up as having been burned up in the
same railroad accident in which my
comrade perished, for it was assumed |
that we were journeying hOmeward to-
gether, as it had been our intention to
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