Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-05-23

| It was several udyS ldleF LHaI young l confederate cavalry officer rode up to 1 this house and swung from his horse l with a shout. The negroes came grin l ming around him to relieve him of his
 horse and to appropriate his good hu- 1 mored jests at their expense. From the house Master Willie ran out with rush, and Rowena and her mother came in a more dignifed fashion to the porch to welcome him, the former blushing very 1 prettily. With the household in gen. eral sunny Dick Harville, lieutenant of scouts in Melville's rangers, was de-
 cided favorite; with Miss Rowena he was
 much more than that.
 Robert Shively, watching her from the
 rear, feared that it was all up with the hopes that had grown so rapidly in lis heart during the past week. This dash ing young lieutenant of scouts had pre-
 empted the claim he wanted to take up.
 Harville recognized in the other
 more than possible rival, but he met
 him cordially, except for the swift chal-
 lenge of his eyes.
 "Glad to know you, MT. Shively. see
 by your limp you've got furlough." The confederate was referring to his
 wound. May I ask what regiment you
 belong
 Ninth Illinois infantry" replied Shively, with prompt hostility. Harville did not wink an eyelash at this astonishing information. "Oh.
 see. Got your furlough, suppose, in that little tussle we had with you down by the Walker mill last week?" Tha Tnddnd uoc haodipor for the hills when Miss Moseby's kind-
 ness captured me" he explained.
 T reckon you're not pining any about
 being prisoner, are you" suggested the 1 confederate lieutenant
 s'I'n1 trying to bear up under it,'' i agreed the other.
 k Well. there are worse prisons, and you are likely to help fill one of them if yous tell every gray uniform you see that you belong to the what-d'ye-cal lem Illinois infantry" Harville told ! him, carelessly.
 That afternoon the four young peo- ! pie went out after oceans Since liar i vile was to leave that evening, the Yank thought it only fair to draw Willie away from them in order to give the lieutenant a chance to see her alone. Willie and he
 picked for an hour or more, then drifted
 back toward where they had left the others.
 The young northerner was some yards in advance, and as he picked his way l through the brush he saw something that l brought him to an abrupt halt! Harville, held Rowena in his arms and was kiss l ing her. The girls charming face was
 upturned to his in rapture of love. Shively turned and made a pretense l of calling Willie, so as to apprise them of his approach.
 l When they broke out of the thicket l upon the lovers Rowena's S long eyelashes
 were cast shyly down over her happy black eyes, but Lieut. Harville smiled | boldly across at the union private in a
 bpyish triumph which had wiped out
 his dislike: He left that evening, an ac-
 cepted lover, and an hour later Shively
 said his good-byes and slipped away into | the night. His heart wound was not by any means l incurable, and some years later Shive- l ly married a young woman from his own i town He moved to another state, and
 made reputation as an able and com I petent lawyer that soon became more than local. Political preferment came 1 to him. He was successively congress
 man, governor United States senator and member of the presidents cabinet. l His head grew gray with years and care, l and except for very rarely no thought ! of Rowena Moseby ever came to his
 mind. He knew that she had married a l Col Harville, and he had no doubt that l it was the lieutenant of that name whom he had known.
 l Forty years after the war had closed ! his memory was jolted into recollection. l Tn newspaper he came across a state
 ment that Mrs. Rowena Harville was an l applicant for the place of postmistress
 of the town of Moseby, and that her ap- I plication was backed by nearly every l body in the town. The item went on to
 say that her husband was now an in- l valid and that, having lost their prop
 erty, she was now his sole support.
 That afternoon Robert Shively called 1 on the president, and told as much of l the story as he could. Mrs Harville I was democrat, but he asked for the ap- l pointment which she wanted That l day he had the pleasure of writing Mrs. l Harville that her appointment as post l mistress of the town of Moseby had been sent to the senate for confirmation.
 There was rejoicing in the home of one l pair of old lovers in Arkansas that
 afternoon, for they drifted from poverty
 to comparative afluence by a good deed
 of one of them which, after 40 years, had
 come back with interest accrued.
 DEATH PROPHECY FULFILLED