The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-12-25

gold mines ouTae1 deep under the SOU
He'd tell me about his dead mother
with tears shining bright in his eyes,
How the angels had taken her from him
and carried her up to the skies.
"she comes to me oft in the nighttime,
he whispered, '.and when at the
dawn
| reach out my arms to embrace her,
find, to my sorrow. she's gone.
'"But some time, l know, shall see her,
shall kiss again her dear face;
Shall pillow my head on her bosom, and
then l shall have to leave Grace.
You'll give her to me up in Heaven, if
horses to Heaven should go;
And you-Bob. you'll have so many that
you will not miss her, / know"
l smiled as-I said: You can have her."
/ didn't know death lurked SO near
For how could l know that an angel was
waiting cen then to appear,
And how could l know that the fever
called Yellow Jack lurked at the
gate
No tiger that's hid in the jungle had
ever so fearful a mate.
The stable boys came at the dawning,
and told me that something allied Jim.
l knew what it was just the moment that
l had set eyes upon him.
I'd seen its grim reaping at Memphis,
the year it touched me with it's wing.
When strong men and women together
fell down at the touch of the king.
For days we kept watch at his bedside,
and, God. twas a pitiful sight
He'd ride all his old races over, and oft,
in the dead of the night,
He'd start from his sleep, and he'd whis-
per--a smile on his little, thin face
1.-The flag has gone down. and we're lead
ing, we'll show them the way, won't
We Grace?"
Get out of the way once he shouted;
you're crowding too close to the rail
| can't hold the mare, and were coming
along with the speed of gale.
Your horse is dead beat, Billy Saunders;
stop whipping the brute, he can't
He would if he could, for he's willing; to
punish him now is a sim
He'd pick at the bed clothes and babble
of playmates he'd know long before !;
Then, Whispering. ask his dead mother
10 wait for him there at the door.
And from his parched lips, in the dark
ness, the ghost of a wandering prayer
Escaped. and l fancy the Master was
bending and listening there.
In the darkness and gloom of the stab,
made sweet by the smell of the hay.
The angels stood close by the bedside,
as, once, on a far-away day,
They stood in Judean stable and waited
the birth of king;
But this time their mission was different
they waited souls taking wing.
We watched there. The night before
Christmas the bells rang their mes
sage of mirth
OF peace and good will to all beings that
live on the face of the earth.
And Jim started up at their Ginning, and
reached out his thin hands. Il see
The gift of the Christ child, he shouted
they're bringing a crown here for me
I'm going! Good by Bob" he wills
pered. I'm going, and can l take
Grace?"
Yes, take her, my poor lad" l answered
my tears falling fast on his face.
God bless you old fellow" he murmurca
and then, quickly grasping my hand
He said, ITS all right here's my MUM
Der gone up at the top of the stand.
His fingers relaxed, and l, turning. just
caught his last fiuttering breath,
The low spoken sweet words my moth
err the Jockeys first greeting tc
Death.
A smile curved his lips as he lay there
| knelt for a moment in prayer;
The sound of the BELLS merry music still
rang on the startled night air
The boys came to meet me at the dawn.
ing, and told me the mare Grace was
dead;
Was well when they left her at even, and
eating. her supper, they said;
Il gave her to Jim, boys l muttered, 81
gave her to Jim ere he died.
The way may be long. He was weary
The angels wished him to ride"
f.
I've no explanations TO offer. Explaining
don't lay in my line;
The ways of the good Lord would bother
a brain that is larger than mine. o.
Each year at the coming of Christmas
l look on the lads pictured face;
Christ gave you crown for his gift, Jim
~ and for a gift gave you Grace.
Robert l.. Carey, Jr, in the Horseman
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