Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-06-24

Of fate that this unfortunate lady had
spent the remainder of her days in the
shadow of a deep disgrace and bearing
the burden of heavy sorrow.
AS the days of the new year began to
lengthen in the revolving circle Aunt
Docia did not come out of the south
bedroom as frequently to look over her
patchwork by the fire. One afternoon,
when her trembling fingers had vainly
tried to lover and over" seam, she
carried away the basket, and the three
legged stool in the corner knew it no
more.
Mrs. Grant tells us that the great
general would turn his face to blank
wall of his room and look at it for
hours. Possibly he saw again the "bat-
tie above the clouds" when the fight
was on at Mission Ridge. Perhaps his
ear heard once more the awful roar ut
Cold Harbor, or he may have gazed iar
away to catch the coming Of Buell. at
Shiloh. Peace has her victories and pic.
lures as. we'll as war.
During those days Aunt Docia lay
with her face to the wall and sald
nothing, but the south bedroom may
have stretched far away to green hill.
top in the days when youth and pa
rental care made life happy holiday,
where the birds sang first in the morn.
ing and the sun shone through peaceful
afternoons, and the crickets and the
twinkling stars came out together to
make the long twilights glorious Pos
sibly she watched for the going out of
her revered father as he led the congre-
CATION to the old meeting house on Sun
day, and her ear may have heard again
the sound of his voice from the high pull
pit in prayer and benediction. All this
before the shadow came into her life.
And one night in midwinter the wind
swept over that old hilltop and dashed
against the trees that the old minister
had planted as if it would uproot them,
and their boughs bent and shrieked in
their resistance, but they did not break
only stretched their arms more pro-
tectively over the old house, and in the
morning the youngest of his daughters
lay dead under its roof-the same root
that sheltered her in the hour Of her
birth.
The burial plot of the minister's fam
lily was full almost to crowding, but
room must be made for one more, and
the doctor went with his men to see
that everything was done "decently and
in order"
AS shovelful after shovelful Of earth
was thrown up something large and
round rolled into the open space from
the adjacent grave. The doctor was on
the alert. The arm that guided the
shovel was seized as in wise.
"Mikep' The Doctors voice trembled
as did his strong hand that staid Mike Is
arm.
Mike looked up bewildered, but the
doctor was already in the open grave
beside him. STOPPING he picked up some
thing, sprang quickly up and took of
his hat, for this that he held in his
hand he knew to be the skull Of his re.
mote predecessor, the first physician o:
the township. Half an hour after ha
stood in Rev. Mr.. Bingham's presence.
"Ialk of suicide, sir! The basest libel
ever fabricated! Look here. sir A COM
minuted FRACTURED God Almighty took
this mans life, sir! He took morphine,
laudanum, as he needed, to allay pain.
This vile aspersion upon the character Of
this dead man. sir, my professional
brother, must be removed over the coffin
of his wife.
The Rev. Mr.. Bingham preached such
funeral sermon in that meeting house
the following Sunday as was never
preached before and never will be again
on earth. He held up the skull in the
pulpit and showed to his people the
comminuted fracture, indicating it with
his finger.
The older ones remembered having
heard that the doctor had fallen from
his horse, and that he suffered from
great pain in his head.
And so it came to pass that the grave
gavo up its secret, that the true history
of this mans death was read, and the
shadow which had rested so heavily
over his name and house was lifted
"after many days. Sarah de Wolf
Gamwell in Springfield Republican.