Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-08-18

De lelt just as my mOtner pau last ar
ranged 1t.
"Ohl how I had cheered myself with
picture of that waiting tea table!
But didn't drop down into my accus.
toned place, for even the table had
been moved into the little, overcrowded
kitchen, and the robust woman who
did her best to serve me could not un-
derstand my simple language, but she
did comprehend my sorrow and weari.
ness and bitter disappointment, and
after L had taken glass of milk she
allowed me to go right up to my own
airy chamber, where everything was
sacredly familiar. How deliciously soft
and clean the bed seemed, and cried
myself to sleep like tired, home sick
baby.
'The first thing heard in the morn
ing was, not the chirping of the robins,
as in the olden time, but the loud
bawling of that steer calf under my
window. 1 covered my head with the
bedclothes, and was the poor, weak
baby over again. When awoke later
in the day good Dr. 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 l
wasn't hungry, and longed to ask what
had become of Martha.
81 soon found out. Her father was
going to Holyoke the very next day to
hear her valedictory, and he took me
along with him. 1t was long drive,
but we took it slow and easy, and /
had my fill of fresh air, and recovered
my appetite. We were little late to
the exhibition, and found the chapel
already crowded, but the good doctor
finally succeeded in getting a seat
well up in front, and there, right be.
fore us, was Amherst jim, Just as slim
and white as ever. He fingered his
watch chain and petted his mustache
and made Lis 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 to speak
her piece. Now he was full-hedged
physician, and DR.. Miller's partner.
We had long time to wait. The
essays We're lengthy and learned, and
Martha's was the very last. The other
graduates wore white, but she was all
in black, with Grape collar. 1 looked
questioningly into her fathers face.
He put his arm around me, and whis-
pered: She wears mourning for your
mother-and for you.
''For my mother and for me-oh!
the pain of itl 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 Mar.
tina was holding mo as handy as she
is holding that blessed baby now, and
l was just as quiet and submissive.
81 don't know much of anything
but submission for long time after
that. didn't know 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 I
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, / reached it
feebly toward Martha's, and she took
it firmly, just as she did when 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's 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.
"Martha's children are my children;
her grandchildren are all mine, too,
and poor Jim never had any. I have
outlived him by quarter of a CEN
tury, and I'm good for twenty-five
years more, but want you young
sters distinctly to understand this is
my last war story positively the last. ="
Two chubby arms were woYnd
around grandpa's neck, and a reprov-
ing little kiss was dropped upon the
veterans forehead. Little Matte we'll
remembered that he had said those
very words, positively the last" on
his very last birthday, and so her
grateful caress must needs be little
reproving, for had he not often coun-
seled her, "Tell the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the TRUTH" and
did not grandma sometimes say, "Con-
sistency is a jewell"
Possibly the tender rebuke was
quite lost upon grandpa, but the
others all appreciated it, and truly, a
little child shall lead them.-Mrs. H.
Mackin, in New York Ledger.
Patents in China.