The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-06-05
Grandfather,s Courtship.

You might tell them about the time
you tainted dead away" suggested grand
ma.
Yielding to the clamorous entrcaties of
more than dozen voices. the veteran
slowly proceeded; you see, I was just
out or Andersonville. and little shaky
even on an ordinary occasion. and this
was most extraordinary occasion, be-
Ing the day your grandma graduated at
Holyoke.
II first enlisted for three months. full OF
fight and sure of victory. and looked SO
fine and tall in my blue uniform. thought
I'd go and say good-by u DIR. Miller s
| daughter. l was only a common farmer,
and she had another beau. a student OF
Amherst. but ! remem berel once a a
party, when She had 10 chose part
ner, she selected me instead of Jim; so
thought I'd go and tell her was of for
Dixie in the morning.
| Martha went with me out to the gate.
I reached out my big, sun-burned hand,
and she took IL in both her own and held
1t quite bit, and she sad: Bonnie. I'm
sorry you're going to the war; you're too
young man. and too good a man TO stand
UP and be shot at Then Jim appeared
on the scene. and went away half ours
ing my honest hand for being SO big and
|
lily, with a great flashing diamond on the
smallest of his slender fingers.
Talk about standing up as a target for
bullets; that's nothing-no:hing at all
compared with lying down to starve in a
foul prison.
And when would have prayed for an
ending of my misery, how well l remem-
bered that Martha had said 1 was too
young to die, and the way she had held
my hand still thrilled me, and kept me
alive and out of the clutch of old Giant
Despair. and 1 said over and over 10 my
! self a thousand times. with grim determ-
| ination. what DR.. Miller had so often re-
| peated: While there is life there is
hope and at last I was exchanged and
discharged. Oh. how happy l was to be
! set free!
when at last the stage set me down
in the familiar village postoffce l was
so weary and wasted no one seemed TO
recognize me. but looked at me in a pity
ing way 1 could not understand, and 50
I did not speak to any one, but stag
gered down the hill to the old farmhouse,
trying in vain TO scent the supper or the
Glove pinks. l did not know my precious
| mother had been dead almost year. but
when 1 reached the gate felt the change.
| 1t hung by one hinge, and swayed and
creaked with a dismal sound that seemed
TO me likes the grooming of a ghost. Ii
weakened me SO that 1 had to rest a while
| before going down the long walk still lined
by my mothers flower beds; but oh, how
neglected they looked!
That was too good house to be long
unoccupied, and DR.. Miller had rented IL
TO a needy family of foreigners, requesting
that my room should be left just as my
mother had last arranged it,
oh! how I had cheered myself with
a picture of that waiting tea table. Bu-
I didn't drop down into my accustomed
place, for even the table had been moved
into the little. overcrowded kitchen, ana
the robust woman who did her best 10
serve me could not understand my simple
language, but she did comprehend my sor-
row and WEAKNESS and bitter d;sappoint-
ment, and after 1 had taken q glass of
milk she allowed me 10 go right up to my
own airy chamber, where everything was
sacredly familiar. How delicously soft
and clean the bed seemed, and / cried
myself to sleep like a tired. homesick
baby.
THE first thing I heard in the morning
was, not the chipping of the robins, as in
the olden time, but the loud Bowling of
that steer calf under my window. l COW
cred my head with the bed-clothes and
was the poor, weak baby over again.
When l awoke later in the day good DIR,
Miller was sitting by my bedside. He
helped me dress, and took me home to
breakfast, where the talking, as well as
the cooking, was all United States, but
somehow 1 wasn't hungry, and longed to
ask what had become of Martha.
Il soon found out Her father vas go
ing to Holyoke the very next day to hear
her valedictory, and he took me along
with him. II was long drive, but we
took it slow and easy. and 1 had my fill
of fresh air. and recovered my appetite.
We were a little late to the exhibition
but the good doctor finally succeeding in
getting a seat we'll up in front, and there
right before us, was Amherst Jim, just
as slim and white as ever. He fingered
his watch chain and petted his mustache
and made his diamond glisten, and de-
voured the platform with his eyes, just
as he used to in the old red school-house
when Martha was going 10 speak her
piece. Now he was a full-fedged physi-
clan, and DR.. Miller's partner We had
long time TO wait. The essays were
lengthy and learned and Martha's was
the very last. The other graduates wore
white. but she was all in black. with
Grape collar. looked questloningly into
her fathers face. She wears mourning
for your mother-and for YOU
For my mother and fer mech, the
pain of it! oh. the JOY of it! and whether
it was the pain or the joy, or the crowded
room, or the way Jim looked at Martha,
I cannot tell. but somehow everything
slipped away into nothingness.
when ! came back to consciousness the
folks were all gone, all but DR.. Miller
and his daughter, and Martha was hold
ing me as handy as she is holding that
blessed baby now. and l was just as quiet
and submissive.
Il don't know much OF anything but
submission for a long time after that. 7
didn't know I was helpless IN bad in the
Miller mansion. with Jim for night wa-ch.
mixing the medicine TO suit himself. and
always telling Martha that I was slowly
improving, and / could not see the noise
less hand that was stretching a pontuon
bridge over the last river, but when my
hand was wet with the cola surf, reach
ed it feebly toward Msrtha's and sne
took il firmly, just as she did when I
was going away to the war. and she said
Bonnie, oh, Bonnie, you are too young
90 die: II you only viii live, my mother
shall be your mother. and she lsid her
warm cheek down on that cold hand and
it thrilled me back to life again. and the .
good old doctor whispered, While there's I.
life. there's hope and after that he was
the night watch. and Martha was the Gay
watch, and Jim dropped out, AID Marthas ,
mother vas my mother.
-Martha's children are my children: her +
grandchildren are all mine too. and poor .
Jim never had any. I have 0utlived aim