The daily morning Alaskan., 1902-03-04
The PriSOner'S Return

she hau another ucdu, stuucut a' Amherst. but l remembered once at a party when she had to choose partner she selected me Instead Of Jim. so thought I'd go and tell her was on for Dixie In the morning. didn't stay long. for Jim was there. Martha wen, with him out to the gate. reached out my big sunburned hand. and she took It In both her own and held lt quite a bit, and she said: "Bennie. I'm sorry you're going Co the war. You're too young a man and too good a man to stand up and be shot at" Then Jim appeared on the scene. and l went away half cursing my honest hand for being so big and so brown. while Jlm's was as white as lily. with a great lashing diamond on the smallest of his slender fingers.
 Talk about standing up as a target for bullets. That's nothing. nothing at all compared with lying down to starve In a foul prison. As the days passed Into weeks. and the weeks. so long. Into months SO much longer that | lost all count. how many and many time l looked at my white. bony hands and wished they were as big and as tanned as they used to be. and when l would have prayed for an ending of my mis' cry. how well l remembered that Mar tha had said was too young to dle. and the way she had held my hand still thrilled me and kept me alive, and | said over and over to myself thou sand times. with grim determination. what Dr. Miller had so often repeated. While there Is life there Is hope" and at last was exchanged and dlscharg' ed. Oh. how happy was to be set free. A great joy buoyed me up for the long. weary journey home.
 When at last the stage set me down In the familiar village postotiice, l was so weary and wasted no one seemed to recognize me. but looked at me in a pitying way could not understand. and So did not speak to any one. but staggered down the hill to the old farmhouse. trying In vain 10 scent the supper or the clove pinks. | did not know my precious mother had been dead almost a year. but when reach cd the gate l felt the change. lt hung by one hinge and swayed and creaked with a dismal sound that seemed to me like the grooming of ghost. It weak ened me SO that 1 had to rest awhile before going down the long walk. still lined by my mothers flower beds. But. oh. how neglected they looked! As l neared the porch saw a red calf tied Co lilac bush. one that my mother had herself planted on the day she was a bride. and then 1 seemed to know that she was gone. War kills women as we'll as men. She thought her only boy was dead. and she had nothing to live for.
 That was too good house to be long unoccupied. and Dr. Miller had rented it to a needy family of foreigners, re- questing that my room should be left just as my mother had last arranged it. The woman who occupied it allow ed me to go right up to my own airy chamber. where everything was sacred ly familiar. How dellclously soft and clean the bed seemed. and | cried my self to sleep.
 The first thing heard in the morn ing was not the chlrplng of the robins. as In the olden time. but the loud bawl Ing of that steer calf under my win dow. covered my head with the bed clothes and was the poor. weak baby over again. When awoke later In the day. good pr. Miller was sitting by my bedside. He helped me dress and took me home Co breakfast. where the talk Ing as we'll as the cooking was all United States. but somehow l wasn't hungry and longed to ask what had be- come of Martha.
 I soon found out. Her father was going to Holyoke the next day to hear her valedictory. and he took me along with him. It was long drive. but we took lt slow and easy. and l had my all of fresh air and recovered my ap- petite. We were a little late to the exhibition and found the chapel al' ready crowded. but the good doctor finally succeeded In getting a seat well up in front and there. right before us. was Amherst Jim. just as slim and white as ever. He fingered his watch chain and petted his mustache and made his diamond gllsten and devour- ed the platform with his eyes. just as he used to in the old red schoolhouse when Martha was going to speak her piece. Now he was a full tiedged phy- slclan and Dr. Miller's partner. We had long time to wait. The essays were lengthy and learned. and Mar tha's was the last. The other gradu' ates wore white. but she was all In black. with a crape collar. looked Questioningly into her fathers face. He put his arm around me and whls- pered. "She wears mourning for your mother-and for you"
 For my mother and for mech. the pain Of lt. Oh. the joy of it, And. whether it was the pain or the joy or the crowded room or the way Jim look ed at Martha. cannot tell. but some how everything slipped away Into nothlngness.
 When came back 10 consciousness. the folks were an gone. all but Dr. Miller and his daughter. and Martha was holding me as handy as she Is holding that blessed baby now. and l was just as quiet and submissive.