Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1897-05-15

face which struck some faint chord o
recognition within him. "They won
know me- he muttered to himself Il
quayering accents. Lucy herself, no
my own mother wouldn't know me a,
! look now. An. anyhow, they could
MT do nothin' to me.
The tune played was. TO him, no
Marching Through Georgia." but
"Honor gone, airs gone;
Better never have been born.'
over and over. The tattered battle flag,
carried with reverent hands above tho
heads OF the marching ranks, almost a.
the host Is carried in Old World relig-
ious professions, made his heart first
burn within him, then sicken at the
thought that his place should not have
been here among those who watched II
from afar Off.
Either with them-or them!' he
thought iercely, first CHANGING at the
ranks OF battle-scarred soldiers, then
at the tall gray shaft, which seemed a
finger to write on the skies its witness
to the glory Of the fallen members OF
the -th Pennsylvania Volunteers.
Some distraction from the thoughts
of the moment was absolutely neces-
sary. He picked up the ~10-year-old
boy, saying to his sister, "Bub here
can't see, way down on the ground, 7"
and swung him to his shoulder. The
boy smiled friendly wise into the rough
face and remarked with a wavering
sweep of his forefinger:
That's my fathers monument"
Your fathers, hey?"
Eyes. He was the bravest man in
the -th Pennsylvania. My mother
tells us sc often. He died for his coun-
try"
who was your father?" Struck
again by that dim resemblance to
someone he had known, he asked the
question. half shrinking from the re-
ply, yet never dreaming what 1t would
be.
Matthew Barlow, an my names
Matthew Barlow, but hers" indlcat-
ing the girl-"ain't. She's Dora Ma
tilda, after her aunt"
Well, and wherein lay the horror Of
1t? Had he not wished and intended
to hunt up his family and be reunited
to the children who had been babies
when he saw them last? And here he
had stumbled across them without the
least trouble. Across them-and
across his own monument
Where's your mother?" he asked in
a whisper, not daring to look behind
him.
Out working. She cleans offices,
mother does. an she couldn't afford to
take to-day off, cause it's desperate
hard to get along anyhow, she says,
"Matty!" In the girls tone of gen.
tie rebuke there was a familiar cadence
he wondered at himself for not no.
before. Rousing himself, he
said to her tentatively:
How do you know your fathers
dead? Maybe he'll come back some
day with a lot of money and make you
all rich"
Dora Matilda shook her head. He'd
said confidently. HE was reported
missing after the battle of Bull Run
and mother says she's sure he's dead.
She says, too, that she'd rather he'd
left us what he did-an example OF
being brave and willing to die for the
hundreds Of gold and sill
yer dollars"
Your mother amt married again,
Surely it was Lucy's own self in the
naughty finging back of the head and
answer which rung proudly out.
Certainly mott"
The deserter suddenly set the boy
down. Something bore too heavily on
his shoulders. 1t was that great shaft
Of stone, his monument. The band
kept on pretending to play patriotic
songs, but really beating the air with
the refrain, Honor gone, all's gone!'
Had he dreamed of something he was
20 bring to these children, by answer
the advertisement which was to
cad him, perhaps, to unlimited wealth
and comfort? What wealth, what COM
tort could replace to them-or to him
the heroic image which his return
would blot out from their young mind?
The ten years of poverty which had
been bitter to him had been sweet to
with a sweetness he could never
again. Let them work and toll
and even if they tasted the bitter
ness of starvation or death, it would
De better than anything he could give
hem, who, as the martial music kept
.'eminding him, had better never have
been born!
Sister works too,' the boy prattled
Sin a factory, and she saves money
through the year to buy flowers for
Decoration Day. Then when all the
'olks have gone away we put them on
monument"
Matt Barlow reached out his hands
.oward the bunch of limp roses and
aiding m~ignonette which the girl held,
hen as suddenly withdrew ii. Keep
he said grufHy, almost violently.
7 thought | wanted one, but | don't"
That evening, as the stars and the
,as lamps began to twinkle in unequal
'ivalry over Washington square, the
nan who had been sleeping heavily on
me of it's benches opened his eyes in
'esponse to a slight shake. Instinc-
lively he felt in his pocket for his pipe
he inquired laconically:
"Back?"
Yes said Barlow, closing his lips