Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-12-12
SUSIE.
In death she touched the dead and
impaired life


acre" looks over the fence. sees this
Inscription and wonders what it means
, There are but two who know. Susie
In heaven and l on earth-I, who keeI
the grave green and train the flowers
growing over il; /. the dead she touch
ed and to whom she impaired life.
When I asked OF the Others of our
family that might place headstone
| over Susies grave they assented, know
| ing the influence she had had over me
When they saw the inscription l had
placed on ii they wondered. No one
asked Inc what it meant, leaving it for
| me to tell. But / never told.
AS boy l was Wild and untamable
| from the day when Susie. two years
my senior. took me by the hand and
led me TO school. l had brothers and
other sisters. but none of them would
mother trust me with save Susie-Su-
sic. all gentleness and amiability. When
/ was in Il fit of passion and the others
| only goaded me by their disappearing
words Susie would put her arms about
Use her never to he bad again. Had l
been left solely to her influence I might
have passed the dangerous age in safe
ty. But this could not be. My father
was a stern man and believed that to
humor me would ruin me. He little
knew that to punish me would ruin
me. His influence upon me was di-
rectly contrary to that of Susie. When
l was fourteen he thrashed me unmer
cifully, and / ran away.
This was the last j saw of my fam
lily for years. They changed their resi-
dence several times from one town to
another, while all towns were my resi-
dencc. There was in me certain rest
lessness that prevented my working
at any one thing for long. l was made
for adventure. If when i ran away
from home / had been old enough l
would have enlisted for q soldier, and
in that field l might have found some
thing congenial. But by the time l
had come to the enlistment age l was
not fitted for anything honest. and
"
For Il year / piled my vocation with
out being caught. l shall never be
caught now. for / shall never commit
another burglary.
The end of my hazardous and dishon-
est work came i'll this wise: One night
I entered a house standing by itself. SO
that l was in no danger from neigh
bors. / noticed on the doorknob some
white flowers. What they meant 1 did
not know. / had never seen anything
but Grape used To mark the presence OF
the dead 1t was summer. when flow
ers are abundant. and 1 supposed these
had been thrown over the doorknob as
the most convenient place Ito hang
them. Having gained an entrance. /
went through the hall TO the kitchen,
then into the dining room, where
looked into the sideboard, hoping to
find the silver. Not finding any. went
into the parlor.
There was a light. turned low. in the
hall on the ground floor. and 1 worked
by this alone. carrying my dark lam
tern under my shirt. Turning out the
hall light, i crept upstairs. to find an
other light in the hall above This. aft
er determining the position of the doors.
turned out also. then entered rear
bedroom. Finding nothing of value
there. ] passed through an open door
to an adjoining room. in which there
was not a ray of light. Walking very
slowly. with my hands before me for
protection. / came in the center of the
room against what j thought to be a
table. Feeling my way around ii,
that it was too narrow for
a table, being only about two feet wide.
though 1t was more than five feet long. |
Besides, II was much deeper than the |
body of any ordinary table even with a |
drawer in IL. and underneath there |
were but two supports. one at each |
end. Puzzled 10 know what IL was, |
drew my dark lantern.
l started back in horror. The light |
fell on an oval space filed with glass, |
which was the ashen face |
OF a corpse. But my horror was turn |
ed 10 that which was ten thousand times /
more than horror at recognizing the |
of my sister Susie.
How i got out of the house without |
waking the family / do not know. L
only remember that / found myself I'm
tnt TIC OH
verge of insanity. Nor do / remember
how j passed the time between my
exit and the next afternoon, when /
suddenly awoke as from a trance and
found myself in front of the house 1
had intended TO rob. A hearse was
before the door
Entering the house. 1 met one OF my
brothers in the hall. and with him
went TO my mother. My coming was a
ray of light in the darkness of death
Father. mother. brothers. sisters. gath
cred round me as IL l had come back
from the dead. From the day of my
departure till my return not one word
had they heard from or Of me. 1 was
70 them simply the Maynard boy who
had now doubtless outgrown his way
wardness and would henceforth be q
good son and brother.