Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1901-05-23
SUE LYLE'S SORROW.

"a UE LYLE was the village her
~ NIT. For twenty years she had
~ never been outside her own gate
but twice, and those two times were
when she followed her old father and
mother to their last resting place among
their kindred dead. Once she had been
1he village belle, and no more light-heart-
ed, sunny-faced girl could have been
found in all the country side than just
pretty Sue Lyle, the Wood-carver's only
daughter.
In these bright, halycon days she had
many suitors; but Sue was no coquette,
and she smiled only on one-handsome
Luke Hamilton, the young artist. Luke
was q poor orphan boy, and had his way
30 make in the world, but Sue loved
him, and the morning before he went to
4he army he put the engagement ring
on her finger.
1t was a full year before she looked
into his dear face again, and then his
furlough lasted only three days. But
Luke was a good correspondent, and
svery week brought her a CHEEKY letter
There came time-a Saturday morn
Eng IN the month of May, 1S63-when
Susan turned away from the little coun-
sry postoffce without her accustomed let
Ter; and before the day was over she
learned that there had been a great bat
4le on the Charlottesville ground, and
that her noble lover had been left dead
apon the bloody field.
The blow almost killed her. For days
and weeks she went about the house like
one in a dream. She could not shed a
Scar, and no complaint escaped her lips,
but her heart was broken, and her pale
fnce and hollow eyes appealed most elo-
quently to the hearts of all who came
20 express their sympathy.
After the first keen edge of her sorrow
wore away, she arose from her stony
grief, put out of sight all the sweet to-
kens Of the precious dead and without
a word went back to her daily house
hold duties. But she was never the same
girl again. Her loss seemed to embitter
Aer life, to make her hard and exacting
even with those she best loved, and after
a while her young friends, hurt by her
Indifference, ceased their efforts to keep
a hold on her heart. She never went
outside of the gate, not even to church,
and after her parents died, weeks and
weeks would pass without her even ex-
changing words with a single soul, except
abe grocer's boy who came every Satur-
day morning to deliver her weeks supply
Of groceries. Sometimes the neighbor
women would run in with their knitting
and budget Of news, and sit an hour or
80 with the poor lone woman, but the
welcome they received was not cordial
enough to invite a speedy return.
So the years rolled away, and Susan
lyle drifted further and further away
2rom human love and sympathy, and
the villagers, when they spoke of her
at ALL sighed over the wreck of a life
which had once been so full Of fragrance
and beauty. Though the little cottage
was kept as neat and trim as hands
could make it, and the fence around the
Dot in the best OF repair, the severe plain
ness of the home, outside and in, was so
marked as to be positively painful.
From the morning when with aching
heart the disappointed woman had
Booked her piano and banished from her
sight all the pretty adornments which had
given such bewitching charm and grace
TO the home, it had been her studied care
To see that not q trace Of beauty should
sYer creep in to brighten the gloom she
considered so fitting to her shattered life.e
There was one thing, howeyer-the
rose bush which Luke had brought her
from the Sunny South-that she had not
the heart to Danish from her sight. He
had been at great pains to procure it,
and had carried it all the way home in
SSs pocket. Then, too, it was his hands
&ast had planted it, and she could not
pluck it up by the roots, although it
grisved her to the heart to see it grow
EaS so strong and thrifty, right at her |
very door, while poor Luke was lying in
IA unknown grave, with not even rose
Ansh to mark where he was buried. She |
had promised him that he should have |
4ae very first rose that bloomed. But |