The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-02-04
GIFT OF COP.


We were stopping few days in a
sleepy little village in the east. It was
ore Of those places every good thing
misses. The railroad long and confident-
ly expected. ran six miles north; they
found gas six miles south and coal twen-
~ miles east, but nothing came to them
except occasional visitors attracted by
the quiet and lovely scenery. There
was a main street. with side streets, and
a back street, well lined with dusty
dog fennel and after supper the children
PLAYED IN them and nothing molested or
made them afraid. The mothers leaned
or the neat fences and gently gossiped
while the men sat in row in front of the
one tavern and discussed everything and
most of all the dizziness of the little place.
where nobody came to live Il they could
help it, and everybody kept their homes
because there were no buyers.
The doctor. an old man. was the
scholar and the leading light. A pros
porous. contented man, apparently at
peace with himself and his neighbors.
There is one man in this town that I
envy. he said one evening. as he tilted
his chair back against the front porch
railing of the house where 1 was stay
ing. THAT is old Father Story"
II cannot see why you envy him." I
answered. as the shabby. bent old man
came down the street. He is very old.
very poor and very feeble. All those
he loved are gone before. and he will
soon follow do not think anyone could
really envy him."
You shall see.'' said the doctor. 81
will speak to him
Still able to be about, Father Story
About as well as ever" was his greet
ing.
Just waiting. doctor. just waiting, till
the heavens shall depart as scroll
rolled away and the stars fall to the
earth. III be with my own soon, God
willing
''Pshaw. Story" said the doctor. Gym
ically. Don't you know the astrono-
mers have quite proved that the stars
are so much larger than the earth that
there wouldn't be any room for them
here. What are you going to do about
it?"
The old man raised his bent form and
his eyes flashed.
II don't have to do anything about II.
The Lord says they will fall to the
sarth and He will make a place for
them to fall. l don't need to worry
about it. He never failed me yet
That is why I envy him." the doctor
said. rather sadly as the old man went
on. HE has what all my learning has
not brought me-the simple faith Of
child"
Since then / found this little poem by
an unknown author which expresses so
well what the doctor thought that l send
il in:
LIES LOSSES.
Upon the white sea sand.
There sat a pilgrim band,
Telling the losses that their lives had
known.
While eyepinp wana5 awav
From breezy cliff and bay
And the strong tides went out with
weary moan.
Che spoke with quivering lip
Of fair freighted ship.
With all his household in the deep gone
down.
But one had wilder woe,
For a fair face long ago,
Lost in the deeper depths Of great
town:
Some spoke of vanished gold,
Some of proud honors told.
Some talked of friends that were their
trust no more,
And one of a green grave.
Beside a foreign wave
That made him sit so lonely on the
shore.
But when their tales were done.
There spake among them one,
A stranger, seeming from all sorrow
free.
Sad losses we have met,
But mine is sadder yet,
For a believing heart has gone from
me-
'Alasr these pilgrims said.
For the living and the dead,
For fortunes poverty. for loves sore
cross,
For the wrecks of land and sea.
But however it came to thee
Thine. stranger, is the last and heaviest
loss