Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-05-19


He was hard man-honest, industM
Gus and just, even TO a fault, but not Z;
man to love or be loved. He may hayt
thought he loved his wife when he mar
ried her, but. anyway, what lie needed
more than lcye was help. He did not carr
much for anything but the almighty dol
lar, but it was the struggle for this SAINT
dollar that had crushed out more tender
sentiments. He was good 10 his family, a!
the word goes but / sometimes thought
! his wife could easier have endured blows
/ if only there had been a little tenderness:
or familiarity or even lukewarmness be
tween the blows.
have often wondered why she married
I him, but then we don't understand every.
/ thing in this world, and it is well we dc
! not
His Oldest son staid at home until he
was %, and suddenly announced that he
was going TO be married next Wednesday
| His father received the news with the same
| grim silence with which he accepted every.
thing, but that night he walked up and
down on the front porch until I O'Clock
and then went to bed and slept soundly
This was the first intimation that any one
had ever seen that he had some feeling
beneath the stony calmness.
Wednesday, during the wedding festivi-
ties, he plowed the north lot. Not that he
was particularly opposed to the marriage.
Lord knows what his views were on that
subiect-he never told them.
He never entered Jim's house until one
day his wife came home and said Jim s
wife had boy baby.
As usual, he said nothing, but the next
Sunday afternoon he walked down across
the wood lot through the hushed spring
air, stepping on the sweet violets, and
straight into Jim 5 house To see that little,
squirming piece of humanity.
Then the neighbors said they had found
the one redeeming trait that belongs to ev-
cry man. This trait was q love for babies.
After that he went to Jim's house every
Sunday afternoon.
This boy baby grew into a beautiful,
blue eyed lad, and then came little girl,
and it was when the girl came that the old
man threw down his arms and surrender
ed Internationally They christened her
Margaret. At II months she learned to
call him "Gampie, " and then began, with
all the graces and fiattery of "a finished
coquette TO lay siege to his heart. She call
ed together all her love words and
dainty baby caresses, and before long had
succeeded in battering down that stern old
castle, and had taken it completely into
her possession.
As he grew older. and his other son as
sumed the work ON the farm, he went to
see her every day, and she kissed and hug
ged and fiattered him until it was small
wonder he lost his heart entirely. Every
day he tramped down through the spruce
wood and across the meadow, and every
day the door flew open before his foot
touched the walk. She always looked for
him and cried, "Here comes my Gampier'
One Gay, though, when he went, the
door did not fly open. As he opened it
himself a pale little mother met him and
said: Baby has been sick all night. We
are going to send for doctor and Jim S
mother" He sat down stunned. The doc
tor came and the grandmother The doctor
said Margaret had pneumonia, and then
the fight for the wee life commenced.
"Gampie'' sat just outside her door all
day and most of the night. His wife beg
ged him to go home and sleep, but he only
shook his head. But as the dawn was
breaking down over the hill he went home
and to bed. Each night he went back and
sat quietly by the bedroom door. He had
an idea she would die in the night, and he
could not stay away when all was dark
and quiet.
On the eighth day the doctor said the
crisis was near, and all that day the old
man's face was drawn and furrowed by
agony.
At IL that night the doctor came out
with tears in his eyes and led ''Gampie"
in to see the pure little soul depart 1t
went peacefully; there was only lutter
of the waxen hands, little gasp for
breath, and baby was at rest. With white,
set face the old man walked out through
the kitchen and home through the moon
light.
The day they buried Margaret he plowed
the north lot as he did the day of the we'd
ding The neighbors said hard things of
him-said he lacked fine feeling-but did
not see it that way. All that he had loved
of little Margaret-the sweetness the
brightness-was gone. He did not worship
the little temporary home of the bright
soul that had gone, and so he did not go
to see laid away that tiny, uninhabited
temple that without the little soul was so
useless.
I went to the house one evening about
two weeks after her death. 'Gampie" was
sitting on the porch. He looked up list
lesAy and asked, us Margaret well?"
And then, before had time to answer, he
corrected himself:
"Oh, yes, know Margaret's gone, but
the boy, how is he. l don't go there any
more. 1t makes me too tired to walk, and
then l don't believe l would like to sec
the boy without Margaret. Seems like
my mind isn't very clear any more. Some
times 1 forget that Margaret's gone until
see her face in a cloud or hear her voice
saying, 'Gampie, come and see me up
here F"
One morning, soon after that, he was
too tired to rise. He lay thus for several
days, his strength gradually going from
him, until one evening, just as the sun
sank below the spruce grove, and his
family were all gathered close, he sudden
ly lifted his hands and cried, Yes, yes
little Margaret, am coming nowP' and |
passed to where beyond these voices |
there is peace" "
He had gone to Margaret Omaha
World Herald.