Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1896-11-12
THE LIGHT-KEEPER.
ny CLYDE FORD.

There is lighthouse with mnges be-
mind 1t at the point where the river
spreads into Mud lake as it bears down
from the 500. William Smith, "Old
Billy smith," as he is better known
around the lakes, is and has been the
iight-keeper for many years. People
say 1t was soon after the war that he
received his appointment, and he must
have been fully S5 years old then. He
is bent old man now, with long white
hair. Lighthouse keeping is lonely
life, but perhaps lonelier for young
man than for an old man like Billy,
who can look back over 60 years at least.
Billy does, not call himself lonely,
though he is shut away from the world
by the wilds of the island behind him
and the stretches of Mud lake and the
river before him. He tends his lights
and his ranges and looks after his cow
and garden. He has doubtless grown
accustomed 20 solitude in the years in
which he has tended the lighthouse at
the point, and would feel confused and
disturbed by the hustle Of life. even in
such place as the 500, even as Byron's
Prisoner of Chillon, who grew ac-
qualnted with the spiders and watched
the mice in their moonlight play, who
even made friends with his chains, re-
gained his freedom with q sigh.
But the time was when there was
not so much difference between the
world Of men and the world Of this one
lonely man, when the house of fthe light
house keeper Of the point was as full
Of life and happiness as river homes on
other shores of the same waters. That
was before Billy's wife died. When
Billy came to the lonely home on the
river he brought a young wife with him.
Nobody but a wife would follow man
Into the lonesomeness Of q lighthouse,
and nobody but wife could cheer the
lonesomeness away from lighthouse
until 1t became the whole world 10 a
man.
One summer day boy came to the
lighthouse keepers home, and the
world was cheerier than ever then. But
though one would think that happiness,
II 1t stayed anywhere, ought to cling to
d solitary home on Sugar island, 1t did
not stay. Dilly's wife died when they
had been married five years, and the boy
and Billy were left-the boy with life
too young to feel his loss much; Billy
with life UP to that time too happy to
recover from 1t. He lost his smile, but
learned to love his solitude near her
grave. eiei@ie i ~
Billy did not think very profoundly Of
things-life on the river does not en-
courage deep thinlsing-but where phi
losophy was at fault, his fatherly heart
came In, and he figured out when the
hoy--Joe, he called him-was about
eight years old, that he ought not to
grow up in the lighthouse. SO Billy got
q keeper further down the lake to tend
his lights a night or twoand he went up
to the 500. When he came back he nm
nounced to Joe that he had found a
home for him and q chance to go to
school. Joe cried; the little fellow did
not think Of school or the town, but
only of leaving his father. And Billy
cried, too, when he was away from Joe,
busted with the lighthouse or garden.
But he did not quail, and Joe was sent
to the 500, and he went ON with his life
alone. In those days, or better said,
years, Billy was lonesome, homesick
with consuming eagerness to lnow und
see what his boy was doing In his new
home. But the years wore on and the
longing in his heart g. wv to content IT.
self with occasional visits to Joe, and
frequent letters from him.
Ten years had gone by since that day
when the last Joy had left the keepers
heart, and it had changed Joe greatly.
Though he knew that his father kept
the lighthouse at the point, he regarded
him more us some friendly old gentle
man who took a kindly interest in him
than as his father, and felt himself
completely at home in his new sur
roundings He regarded the people
where he lived MS his parents, and with
them his real home. don't know that
Billy ever told him that he paid 5000 q
year, almost all he saved from his
meager salary as keeper, to keep him
IN his foster home.
Joe was ready to graduate from the
high school. It had been In Billy's stip-
ulations with the family that his boy
should, be kept in school, and if am
bition ever came to Billy's soul it took
shape in the one desire of seeing Joe
finish a school course. Finally the year
came. Time passes even in lighthouse
Keepers life, though 1t may bring but
few changes. In Billy's life. however,
yoes graduation was great event. Q