Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-08-31

- 1890 eN ""o "a oiliS
tional fellow, given to ideals, and the only
love OF my life was not easily cast off.
"Well, the war ended, as you all have
perhaps heard ere this, although ONE of
our mossbacks here in the mountains re-
fuse to believe it. When Lee surrendered,
I was the superior officer of the handsome
first lieutenant whom | hated and enried
with equal passion. l came out Of the
army with q cruel wound in my shoulder,
and it was months before l came to this
part of the country, where l had found
and loved and won my pretty Lucy.
1.-THE old time scenes and associations,
although the war had brought many griev-
GUS changes, seemed to open my emotions
anew, and one Sundsy / decided to go to
her. l had no idea what / should say or
how ! would meet her, but there was .
despair of domestic happiness in my heart
that was Sc overpowering that l yielded
and started of. 1t was but a short jour
ney, and I thought I'd walk down the
railroad track as a nearer route to her
home. I had gone perhaps half the way
when l came to a switch on which stood q
dilapidated locomotive. An engineer and
his assistant were endeavoring to polish
VI AhoU NACClo ulu Ol1C
in their talk impelled me to stop, and I
sat down on the grassy bank as If to rest.
They were discussing the pros and cons of
matrimony.
There's no use in talking, said one,
there's mighty little sincerity in women.
That's true, reiterated the other. i
went to the war engaged to the sweetest
girl you ever clapped eyes on, but when /
came back she was married to a cowardly
cur that never saw the smoke of a musket.'
$50 l vas not the only one, I thought.
I felt again the emotions of an insulted,
rejected man. 1t was impossible then for
me to follow my plans and go on. I re-
traced my steps. boarded a train and q
month later was digging in a gold mine
In the Grand canyon of the Colorado.
II vas gradually forgetting the disap.
pointing heart affair Of my youth when,
years later, ! was in the depot at Denver
awaiting a train to take me back east and
was much surprised to find myself face to
face with Lucy's brother Jim. He was
delighted to see me, and, what was pleas
anter still, he, too, was going east after .
ten years s~ojourn in southern California.
"That night we talked over old times az
wv oAAOhCu OoI ol6uAo II lOV llCI1IO1
drift back to the exciting days Of 1864. I
thought of the dashing first lieutenant
and casually asked:
"And whatever became of Prettyboy?"
"Why, didn't you know?' he replied.
He married my sister Katherine
Observation-Disclosures / gasped.
IL never knew you had any other sister
but Lucy
"She's a half sister. My father was
married twice and Katherine always lived
with her grandparents. Say, by the way
he added, I'VE thought at one time that
you were rather smitten with Lucy
II mumbled something, I don't know
what, and left him. That night l suffered
the agonies known only to those who real
lie that a life mistake had been commit
ted and that perhaps 1t could never be set
right. When I again saw jim, I excused
my strange behavior by saying that l had
felt faint and III and gone for water.
"You can Imagine my eagerness to
reach nee more dear old Virginia. The
train seemed to crawl, and my nerves were
tighter strung as the time lessened and the
distance between Grand canyon and my
native home grew shorter. How beauti-
full the dusty old town looked as Jim and
l sprang from the train and almost ran
down the street toward his old home! As
we neared the place I was seized with q
feeling Of desolation and grief. 1t may
have been the closed shutters or the gen.
eral cherries condition of the immense
mansion that was now crumbling and fast
going to decay. Our footsteps sounded
loud and drear as we walked across the
porch and Jim opened the door. There
wal a peculiar odor, as if of medicines.
Jim did not share my forebodings, for he
tramped along the hall, shouting and
laughing and asking if the place was de-
serted. Then his mother, bent and gray
and her once beautiful face furrowed with
lines, came softly toward us. She fell into
Jim's arms, sobbing as she did SO.
"'lt was thoughtless of me to CONT
without telling you beforehand, he said.
i might have known it would upset you.
"She but sobbed the more and could
and, l following, led us to an up stairs
room and gently pushed the door ajar. A
SILVER Of awful foreboding came over me,
and just then ! heard Jim give a hoarse
cry and spring toward the bed, where he
fell upon his knees and cried for the first
time in his life.
She died but an hour ago, the moth
or said, but I heard as If in a dream.
Then, going to a table, she took up some
letters, and, trembling and sobbing, hand
cd them to me, saying as she did SO: Lucy
left these. She said there was one for you.
"My chilled, nervous fingers fumbled
awkwsrdly with the envelopes until l
found the one which bore my NAME. Has
tily and with a beating heart I tore 1t open.
There was but one sheet and on 1t but a
line or tw%o-simply: I did not forget and
have waited patiently. l love you, dear
"1t is a sad story, is 1t not?" the colonel
asked as he brushed his eyes with his
hands. Then he added: Solomon says,
with all thy getting get understanding.
/ did not understand, l did not try to.
And l lost everything that goes to make a
mans domestic happiness. "-Providenoe
Journal.
Tho Adjective.