Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1901-02-26
By j. II. CONNOLLY.

| in low, sad voice, hardly louder than a
murmur in a minor key:
You don't know now much older than
you l am, dear, both in years and in
sorrow. Maybe l do not look my age.
They say that those who don't care do
not grow old so fast as those who do,
and l guess that must be so. don't
care. l have nothing left to care for.
But [ have had my romance, and buried
it before you were put into long frocks.
1t was in Pittsburg, where l went when
L was only a slip of a girl to learn dress
making, and where lived as you know,
a good many years. Well, l was engag-
ed to be married there to 4 young man
named Grant Guthrie. He was a ma
chinist, and l can't tell you how hand
some and good he was and how dear to
me. And he loved me, too. Yes, | am
sure he did-in a mans way, though. He
was all L thought of or cared for, and,
having him, l would not have been con-
scious that 1 desired anything else. But,
besides me, he loved glory and his coun-
try, and he had ambition to make name
for himself and fortune; so nothing would
do for him but he must enlist in the ar
my and go away to Mexico"
She stopped speaking for a few min
utes. When she went on again, her voice
trembled, and a sudden flare of freight
showed that tears were standing in her
eyes. She continued:
HE was going to become a colonel, per-
haps a general. Then he would return
home a hero, marry me and go to Con-
gress and be great man. The one thing
he never thought of was that he might
not live to come back-and he never did!
He was shot down by Mexicans in one
Of the first battles, and only lived long
enough to give a comrade his dying mes
sage to me; and he is buried far away
in a land l shall never see."
Her voice broke, and she wept without
an effort at constraint. Hetty embraced
her, kissed her brow, patted her Shout
der as one sOOthes a sorrowing child, and
murmured, caressingly:
There, there, dear! Don't take on so,
don't! Maybe it is all for the best"
Yes" sobbed Mary, doubtfully; that
is what the minister says-that all is for
the best'-but l can hardly make up my
mind that he is right"
And don't you believe there will ever
tUllG d lllIAG W A4CH SOu W III NC Will LII
again?"
Not in this world, anyway; and this
is all we really know anything about"
But L think l should try to hope so,
if l were you"
so l do; 50 do. But, oh, it is so hard
to believe in the light of another world
that sends no ray into the gloom of this!
There, there! Don't let us talk any more
about my old story. Bury it in your
heart, as l do in mine; only, if you ever
recall it, let it be to warn you not to
hope for too much happiness from love.
And now, dear, tell me about yourself.
Does John love you?
"Oh, he has never said a word of love
to me. Indeed, we hardly ever spoke be-
fore to-day. I suppose that miserable
old quarrel between the CamerOns and
the Mulveils kept him from seeing me-"
but not you from seeing him."
"N-no. L looked at him sometimes;
enough to know him by sight, anyway"
Mary smiled at the naiyete of the adj
mission.
But, now that he has seen you, how
does he look at you? AS if he loved
you?"
Il little embarrassed laugh. You see, l
have no experience to judge by; but /
l think-yes."
Then l guess he does. The heart
does not need experience to read that
look. 1t is true that some men can lie
with their eyes, as others can with their
tongues, but l do not think John Cam
cron is one of that sort. No, he is of
good, honest, manly stock. And 1 can
speak impartially about that, for, you
know, my family is mixed up with both
the CameronS and the MulveilS."
But more to the Camerons. You would
take up for them first"
why. You savage little partisan.
believe you are disposed to find fault with
me for speaking well of 4 Cameron"
"Oh. no, no, indeed. 1 am for one
Cameron against the world"