The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-20
eth be right on your way.
lse. / hope it amt nothin'

| nam took vacations save tha two ministers,
| and they enjoyed their = easures sadly.
even laboriously, visiting their own and
| their wives relations. In stinct made the
| professor withhold the real reason of her
| hurry, viz, that she was going from the
| convention to the seashore.
Sometimes gineral declines tn worst
thing as can git hold of ye." Mr.. John had
at brief intervals darted behind the monu-
ment and set up a great clatter with his
hammer and chise- He was again seized
at this moment with fit of activity, and
the professor had chance to note that the
front of the monument held the names of
Levi Gore and his wife. Now, there was
my uncle Hennery. the one / was named
fur" he resumed, on his return he was,
to be sure. eighty-nine, but terrible smart,
ans one winter he went into decline an in
never was reconciled to the way old DR.
Rigdon treated him. He alus said father
did, If he'd been doctored with roots he'd
lived to be a hundred. But l dunno.
Sometimes ] think it amt so nice to live
to be, as you may say, ALTERED Old. Now.
old Peleg Newly you're. settin' on, he lost
his hearin', an then his sight an afore
he died he didn't know anythin. They
had to watch him like you would two
months baby. But his third wife took on
fur him awful. She was a Gibbs, an aunt
to Alvira; perhaps you remember IL was
her father, Ozias Gibbs, twas killed IN
the wreck there was just above here, just
after you went off to college. He was all
strung up and down the track, so they had
to collect him in bushel basket"
And what. may l ask, are you dong 10
the little professor, in the next lull Of the
pertinacious hammer.
Mr.. Johns shaven face worked cur1ousiy
and painfully. I'm a-cuttin' Alvira Gibbs
name" he replied, defantly after minute
1T was what she wanted, and it don't make
no manner O. difference what anybody else
wants, here It's goin' to be. 1 wish you
come and look
What the little professor saw was the
Sacred to the memory of Alvira Gibbs.
born 1855, died 1895. Greater love hath no
man than this that man lay down MS
life for his friends.
You have done the work WELL" she said,
warmly; 1T looks better than the lettering
on the front side.'
afore; but la! I've undertook no end of
things never done, an didn't know beans
about; an l don't mind sayin' to you as 1
never see no woman as to my mind come
up to A1vira. She want for such as me;
but that don't make no difference. She
want for what she got, neither. She never
get nothin'. And she laid down her life "
Il wish you'd tell me about her." said
the little professor, forgetful that the direct
method was not usually the most prolific OF
in school; l liked her very much"
,iEyerybody did. It was her way; Dumb
Things liked her, and as for looks-welli
Drudgin' fur Levi Gore couldn't make her
humbly, and that's sayin' a good deal"
There was a long silence. which the pro-
TOOK possession of Mr.. Johns heart, which,
unlike his outside, was not withered. He
remembered the professor had displayed
partl~llty for him in the old days, when she
mad rushed over home for the skeleton, Mr..
Peters, to assist him up the hill of knOwl-
edge. A strange sense of intimacy came
upon him which, curiously enough was
deepened by the fact that long stretch
OF years and Ignorance lay between him and
the great rebellion. He came and sat be-
side her on the fiat tombstone I'D like we
TO know about her." he resumed softly. II
don't believe any one knows just what l
NOW. AIVifa Lev
ought to a married std of Lddy,
the younger sister; Liddy was different.
Sbe wanted her own way, and didn't
care how she got it, and she was deter
mined to have Levi. Well, sir. spite of his
;S,hilly-shally ways, she got him. He was
ike all his tribe. always a-puttin off things,
an he hung around too sheepish and too
slow to speak; an one day he drove to town
with a new horse his brother Simeon had
got in a trade of old Elder Simons, the
Free-will preacher at Smyrna Center, an
1t rained, an who should he come on but
home, tho it took him straight out of his
way fur the GibbSeS they lived on the mile
strip, as you remember, an the Cores had
gone out on the road to Smyrna Green.
Mebbe you remember Liddy's big green eyes
an the way she had of maxim herself a
whole hornets nes' when she didn't have
her way, an how at school she forever
a-Wfltln notes a-clearin, up misunder-
standin' with somebody? Well the rain
come down hckity pelt,. and there they was
down, an the horse havin' things pretty
much its own way, an probably Liddy was
a-makfn up her mind, when Levi he sees
seemed lined with boys a-grinnin' the tops
of their heads off, for you know no matter
anything to be seen there's always boys to
gather themselves together, just as flies
will find molasses. 1t took a little while
for him to make out what was a-goin' on.
an then he found out he was a-goin round
an round a old circus ring there is down in
the holler an all grass-grown ten years
or more. Old Squire Bingham happened
along an got the horse off; it was really an
old show horse, an took to that ring like
a sinner to sin, an old squire he laughed
little at EN-, and Joked Levi about bein'
so took up with his sweetheart he didn't
know what he was about. What Liddy said
or did after she an Levi only knows; any
how, when they got home she gave out they
was engaged, an they was married that
fall and Levi went right to the Gibbs farm
Green for a time to her aunts; but the aunt
died, an then Alvira she had to go home,
an then old man Elnathan Gibbs he died,
and the property want divided; but Alvira
she lived right along with her sister an
mother, an old Mis- Gibbs was a terrible
sstent to wait on till she died; an there was
babies, one year, an butteretO churn, an
cheese to make, an help half the time not
to be got for love money; an naturally
as water goin' down hill Alvira got to be
the under dog. Levi he drove to town every
day in gold watch chain an nice top
buggy, an Liddy she had to be favored as
tn mother Of family, an somebody had to
into months an years, an Alvira stayed
home closer am closer, till, L YUM, if you
went there she didn't even come into the
parlOr. Liddy'S children didn't live after
the first son, an in 80 she had q run of
fever an died 1t was in the fall of the
year, an the winds enough to cut ye in
two, an Levi he took cold at the funeral
an he died, but not afore he'd given orders
fur this mOnimint. Well, when things come
to be looked over, it turned out there
was a mOggidge on everything. Levi havin'
been anxious to make sight of money sud-
din,' had invested in Western lands an sill
yer mines an / dunno what ALL an spite
o. all her hard work. an what her father
left her, it come on Alvira that she hadn't
Il place to lay her head When she sensed
as how she'd signed away all she had in the
world, been beguiled into it by her love fur
Levi Gore an by his INSCRIPTIONS tongue,
she jes' fel in her tracks, an my sister,
Mis- Fitch, an me, we took her home with
us. OF course, the neighbors talked. Some
said 1t served her right fur trustn' a
brother-in-law, an some said she'd "a
ought to "a married. there bein' plenty as
would "a had her; an some said they didn't
feel called on to do fur her, an so kinder
countenance such doin's as Levi Cores.
But, praise glory! she never needed to
trouble any on 'em. Her precious nephew
went over to live with his pas brother
Simeon, an she died to our hourse jes' after
Christmas. / set up with her good deal,
an l was with her that afternoon, my sis
ter havin' gone over to Durham Falls to see
after some mill propty her husband owned
mornin', or Mis- Fitch she wouldn't "a
gone. The change come on suddin', jes' as
it clouds up in summer, an almost afOre /
SenSed it she was gOin'. L lived for 'em.