The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1900-05-24

After awhile the drum-beats broke into
the stiffness Of Miss James musing. The
| soldiers were coming back. One after
another went to stay; but they were not
forgotten. Comrades we're loyal, and the
younger generations were not ungrate1ui;
and Memorial day was the link that
bound them into one common, loving
brotherhood.
Then after the soldiers came other peo-
ple by twos and threes. Some tarried
to rest a few moments on Miss James
porch, and to crave drink of the famous
well. They told of the thrilling address,
Of the pathetic dirges and of the pro-
fusion of floral tributes; and when they
were gone on, their listener felt still less
at ease in her mind. At last little jim
came by. and she beckOned him in and re-
galed him with another lunch.
"Oh! ii was just lovely he said. 'Such
lots Of flags and flowers. Oh, my! And
a lady give me tin can for my own self,
and l filled it with wafer and put my
flowers in it, so now they Will keep a
week, mebbe. I'll never forget it of you
giving me them snowballs and all.'
There, there! that's all right. I'm glad
Il
to-morrer. Like enough I'll want you all
day for chores around"
After he was gone the house seemed
still more lonely. Even Rover, friend and
protector though he was, failed TO serve
in place Of human cOmpaniOnship. His
mistress gave him a generous dinner. She
fed the little clamOrous chickens and gave
the canary some fresh water. She finish
cd her sewing, and tried in vain to take
a nap, and then she wandered from room
to room, but everything was in order and
the house was, oh! how still and empty;
for the people who used to talk and laugh
in it, and tread its floors and pass in and
out and up and down, now had their
abode in narrow, doorless houses, and had
no more n part or lot in anything which
is done under the sun.
At last the restless. lonely woman ex-
claimed: I'll just do it, anyhow
Il do believe there's a few white lay
locks yet on the trees on the north. side
Of the house; and l remember mother al
ways set sech store by laylOcks; and 10
think she amt had one put over her all
these years. All, welLa-day! I've said
before now that it was all of piece with
the heather Chinee custom of putting rice
and fruit on the graves; but there. nebbe
I've been the heather after ALL"
A little later Miss Jane, leaving Rover
TO keep watch and ward, started with her
flowers on her mile walk to the silent city.
She found many visitors still there, and
her steps We're often arrested by the eX-
Quisite beauty Of some floral design. 1t
seemed that scarcely a mound had been
forgotten; some had only a small token,
but even that was in remembrance"
Here and there the fiuttering of tiny flag
showed where the heroes of battle slept,
and on such mounds the blossoms lay i'll
sweet profusi0n.
At last she reached her own plot. Six
graves were in it, where lay her nearest
Of En--grandmOther, father and mother,
brothers aud sister. She went to the
fountain for water, arranged her bowls
and cups, and then. with trembling hands.
divided her flowers; some of them for all,
but for the mother, latest buried and most
dearly loved, the fair white llacs and the
heart'sease. One rose, her only one,
pale pink beauty, she placed above the lit
tie sisterNthe precious sister with laugh
ing eyes and face like a flower, who, as
the marble record shows, Departed this
life. aged fifteen years.
Long the desolate woman sat there af-
ter her task was done, feeling somehow a
little nearer to her lost ones, rs if she had
done them still another service after all
these long years, and as if the tie be-
tween them had been somehow newly
strengthened. Then she thought of the
future, of her loneliness and need, and
then of little Jim of his friendleSsnesS
and loyalty to his dead mother, of his pa
tience over the task she had given him,
and his tears, and then :he desire and
resolve to blend their .Lture lives and for
tunes took form in her mind. So, COM
forted and with new hope and courage,
she went home in the twilight, and the
petals Of the flowers freshened as the
dew fell on them, and, seeing their beau
ty, the angels, who came down to watch
the graves at night, smiled tenderly.