The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-05-23

her, and she turned from one TO an
other until she was utterly bewil-
dered and no more able to make a
choice than a child in a toyshop.
There were at least ten designs that
seemed to her indispensable to the
perpetuation of her husbands men,
ory Every one of them stirred her
to rapturous admiration and remoy-
ed farther and farther the profitable
decision for which the agent thirst
ed. The more he expatiated the
more bewildered Mrs. Smalley grew,
and finally he was obliged to take his
departure with general under
standing that the Hardridge Granite
works should have Mrs. Smalley's
order as soon as she made up her
mind which of the beautiful memo
rial designs she would choose.
The vision of that memorial stone
which, no matter how long she
considered the matter, still remain
ed a dazzling composite-occupied
thenceforth the waking and sleeping
thoughts of the lonely widow. She
had laid by 5000, to be expended for
some suitable memorial of her hus-
band. 1t was all she could afford;
but, according to the estimates Of
the Hardridge agent, it was enough
to provide not merely stone, but a
handsome small monument of pol
ished granite for the Smalley lot in
the cemetery. An inscription for
her husband was to be cut on one
face of the monument and one for
herself on the other. Everything
could be inserted in her inscription
except the date of her death, and
that would be left blank until deter
mined. In the meantime she could
contemplate with ante mortem sat-
isfaction that obituary glory which
is not often vouchsafed to the eve
of one while still in the flesh.
Mrs. Smalley determined to make
her own lot and the neglected vii
lage cemetery as whole worthy of
the choice memorial upon which she
should one day decide. 1t was a mo-
mentous day for the little town
when she came to this decision-the
beginning of better things for the
whole community. The good wom-
an began by beautifying her own
lot, and soon it blossomed like a
rose in the brush heap. She hired
man to grade and turf it. Then
she bought a sickle and kept the
lush, well watered grass cut as short
as sheep pasture in August. Later
on she set out couple of Towering
bushes and bought delicate, bloom
ing house plants in jars and kept
them standing in the midst of the
green grass.
But that was not enough. The
whole cemetery must be made to
correspond or it would be no fit
place for the contemplated memo
rial. So Mrs. Smalley conceived the
idea Of forming cemetery associa-
ton, with an annual membership
fee of 81. All who used the "village
yard," as it was called-and it was
free to all to lay away their dead
were to be asked to join. and their
united contributions would be used
every year to improve and beautify
the grounds The scheme was com
plete success, and from that day it
might be said without irreverence or
exaggeration that Mrs. Smalley, still
vigorously extant-never more so in
her ife-took up her abode in the
city of the dead. She was there
from morning till night, and even
well into the night, when the sum-
mer twilights made long working
hours for the lonely, stopping figure.
Except on washdays there was al
ways little placard on her door,
Cup to the cemetery."s People could
see the bit of white paper for long
distance up and down the street, but
they never stopped to read it when
in search of Mrs. Smalley they went
straight to the cemetery.
Mrs. Smalley was elected treas
urer and manager of the Cemetery
association. She was its one vital
executive She engaged the men to
work in the inclosure. She directed
them; she watched over them; she
paid them. Her black figure, wear
ing that old fashioned, checked sun
bonnet, became as familiar sight in
the cemetery as the big elm tree in
side the gate. And how judiciously
and economically she applied the
funds of the association! 1t seemed
as if Providence abetted her, save
occasionally, during the soft, copi-
GUS rains of early summer, when the
grass sprang up so fast that one
might almost see it growing. On one
such occasion Mrs. Smalley was
heard to say when felicitated upon
the fine weather for her grass: Tt's
Loo fine. paid $5 to have that
grass cut day before yesterday, and
now I've got to set the men at it
again"
Two years passed, and the Hard
ridge Granite works still waited for
| Mrs. Smalley's order for a monu-