The Penn's Grove record., 1904-05-27

quit lOOlIu-WlL Ver! exclaimed
Mark, angrily. mo, it's nothin' of the
kind. You know MORTAL Day, Dec'ra-
ton Day is comm along fast; and poor
old Daddy Western won't see another;
faint likely, and every year he's been
hopin' he could see a stone raised over
his boy, who died a soldier, or soon
after the war was over, from gettin'
wounde in one of the battles; Bull
Run, l think they called it. There he
comes now, out from the graveyard
with his old tOmoto can watering pot;
been in, tryin' to fix up the grave a
bit, cut grass, and water that craggy
plant he had sent on from York State
last week from the old place he used
to live in-'rosemary,' l think he called
1.-THE plant. l mean"
The boys watched the feeble old
figure. lettering along with his can
till it disappeared in the distance.
What was his SOM" asked the boy
from the East, "a general?"
NO" said Mark.
"Colonel?"
"No!'
captain. eh?"
mo, No" answered Mark. pettishly.
now you've got the whole lot in.
most, haven't you? He, Daddy West
ems son, was-was-a high private.
that's what he was" and Mark winked
to his Western chums,
High private" muttered the boy
from tho Enct NOT hale c-4.c
thinking there must be some great
honor in that title, because Mark smoke
1T so impresSively, and also that there
were lots of things he didn't know
yet; a state of mind he had seldom
been in at the East, when he used to
scorn the "wiid and woody West"
"How did Daddy happen to get out
here?" said he, at last.
why, you see, after the war. his
son was so sick from his bein' in
prison, that he and his fathe. took
a wage to California, and there.
Billy died. Daddy stayed in Frisco
a while, an then fell in with a party
goin' to Arizona, prospectin'. He came
along; struck it rich in the mines. went
back to Frisco, an brought on Billy's
body, cause he was goin' to STAY in
Arizona, and build a fine house. an
mauws-oh, what do you call it? a.
marble house for rich people who die
an don't get buried?"
"Mausoleum," limited the boy from
the East, delighted to show that he did
know something.
"Yes, that's it," said Mark. briefly
We'll, poor old Daddy's mine petered
out, went to nothin', and he never got
his house, nor the 'mauserleeyum'
neither. He's pottered around and
done odd c%arpenterin' jobs ever since.
so my father says"
Say" said the boy from the East.
IF you couldn't get the tombstone in
time, l mean, couldn't raise the money
to buy the thing in time, why, | saw
something to-day that, l bet, could be
bought cheap, and do for a kind of
mark for the grave"
"But l don't want anything that can
be bought cheap for Daddy's son's
grave" cried Mark angrily. He's no
pauper, is Daddy. if he is old and
hasn't any money"
Roland hung his head and looked so
mortified that Mark generously said.
Il didn't mean to hurt your feelin's
Roland. Come along and show us
what this is"
Roland went ahead to a snop. where
a pile of old iron was standing around.
and pointed to a square of open work
iron, which, evidently, had been used
as a gate for a fence around a grave.
There was wrought into this rusty old
thing a figure of a lob-sided ange,,
STOPPING Over something at n side.
Mark surveyed this with fine scorn.
Whats the woman dom, pumpin' %
woman? Pumping? Why, it's an
angel, putting a garland of laurel
AROUND an urn"
Looks mighty like a pump, the urn,
and the garland for the handle" an
swered Mark, contemptuously.
well. you see." said Roland. 81
thought we might paint the thing ND
with white enamel paint, and make
it look kind o. clean and new, and gild
the urn, and make some letters for
his name across it; it would do to
stand up owe the grave. Decoration
Day."
"Daddy'd better go to heaven and
leave that trained maybe of his to
shout out Billy's name whenever
strangers went through the graveyard.
so as folks will kncy whose grave it
-, stead Of leayip euch a thing as