The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1898-08-20


should be left just as my mother had
last arranged it. .@ ..=. 5.
ooh! how had cheered myself with
a picture Of that waiting tea-tabls! but
didn't drop down into my accls-
toned place, for even the table had
been moved into the little, over
crowded kitchen, and the robust wo-
man who did her best to serve me
could not understand my simple Ian
guage, but she did comprehend my
sorrow and WEAKNESS and bitter dis
appointment, and after had taken a
glass of milk she allowed me to go
right UP to my own airy chamber,
where everything was sacredly famili-
lar. How deliciously soft and clean the
bed seemed, and I cried myself to
sleep like tired homesick baby. 8
# The first thing I heard on the
morning. was, not the chirping of the
robins, as in the olden time, but the.
loud bawling of that steer calf under
my window. I covered my head with
the bedclothes and was the poor, weak
baby over again. When I woke later
in the day, good DR.. Miller was sit
ting by my bedside. He helped me
dress, and took me home to breakfast,
where the talking, as well as the cook
Ing, was all United States; but some
now 1 wasn't hungry, and longed to
ask what had become of Martha.
L soon found out. Her father was
going to Holyoke the very next day
to hear her valedictory, and he took
me along with him. It was a. long
drive, but we took it slow and easy,
and had my fill of fresh air, and re-
covered my appetite. We were little
late to the exhibition, and we found
the chapel already crowded. but the
good doctor finally succeeded in get
ting a seat we'll up in front, and there,
right before us, was Amherst Jim, just
as slim and white as ever. He fin
gered his watch chain and petted his
mustache and made his diamond
gllsten and devoured the platform with
MS eyes, just as he used to in the old
red school house when Martha was
going to speak her piece. Now he was
tull-tedged physician, and DR.. Mil
1er'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 questioningly into her
q sIatherss sfaee.e put his arm around
me, and whispered: She wears mourn
ing for your mother-and for you
For my mother and for me-oh!
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, cannot tell, but
somehow everything slipped away into
nothingness.
When l came back to conscious
ness, the folks were all gone, all but
Dr. Miller and his daughter, and
Martha was holding me as handy as
she is holding that blessed baby now,
and was just as quiet and submis-
sive.
r didn't know much of anything
but submission for a long time after
that. I didn't know I was helpless
in bed in the Miller mansion with Jim
for night watch, mixing the medicine
to suit himself, and always telling
Martha l was slowly improving, and
l could not see the noiseless hand that
was stretching pontoon bridge over
the last river, but when my hand was
wet with the cold surf, 1 reached it
feebly toward Martha's, and she took
1t firmly just as she did when I was
going away to the war, and she said:
'Bennie, oh Bennie! you are too young
to die; if only you will live, my mother
shall be your mother and then she
laid 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 life, there's
hope and after that he was the night
watch, and Martha was the day watch,
and Jim dropped out, and Martha's
mother was my mother. 50 ,.s.
. "Martha's children are my children;
her grandchildren are all mine, too,
and poor Jim never had any. I have
foutliyed him by a quarter of a CEN
tury, and I'm good for twenty-five
years more, but want you youngsters
distinctly to understand this is my last
war story-positively the last
Two chubby arms were wound
around grandpa's neck, and reproy-
ing little kiss was dropped upon the
veterans forehead. Little Matte well
remembered that he had said those
very words, positively the last on
his very last birthday, and SO her
grateful caress must needs be a little
reproving, for had he not often coun-
seled her TELL the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth, and
did not5grandma sometimes, says. aCon-
sistency is a jewel ?''', :..
Possibly the tender rebuke was
quite lost upon grandpa, but. the Others
all appreciated it, and truly, little
child shall lead them M eW YORK
Ledger.
"A Mean Man.
She George, you ought to be.