The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1904-08-19
I he Man Who Saved Brown.

49,
his garden. A fine garden it was, its soil
a sandy loan that gave promise of fruit
fulness. Orchard trees blossomed around
him. birds fitted through the air with
wisps Of straw i'll heir beaks, intent upon
home building. The very atmosphere
had the invigorating breath of spring.
The old man dropped the seeds with a
liberal hand in the turrow he had opened
Then he walked backward, treading it
down as he drew the moist earth over it
with hoe. There was subducd JOY in
his kind face, zest in every movement,
the JOY of willing labor performed in a
glad faith of the next harvest.
A voice called sharply from the house:
Daniel, Daniel Holman, conc right
here
"Ycs, mother"
He gathered up his tools and the tin
bucket that held the seeds and plodded
towards the house, 9lancing wistfully
back in the direction of the vegetable
patch In the doorway his wife awaited
him, the ftown that had craven deeplines
on her forehead drawing her face into I'M
lovely lines. She had on her best black
cashmere dress and her bonnet and was
drawing on Il pair of long wristed black
tafieta gloves.
Daniel Holman, what YOU bin dom
now: Amt You IA pretty sight to- go and
see dyin' man.
He looked guilty down upon his mud
died shoes and the earth stains en- his
garments. "Why you see, mother" he
meekly replied, You wasn't quite ready,
and I've been so late getting in those
peas, and the shower last night made the
ground just nice and moist. guess a
little brushing II make ME pass muster"
He wiped his feet on grassplot back
of the house. then came up to the steps.
From shelf on the back porch he took
down a backing brush and did his best to
restore the polish to his muddied boots,
following the process with violent
brushing of his shabby best clothes.
Hurriedly scrubhing his face and hands
at the kitchen sink, he went in to eclipse
himself in the big roller towel that hung
beside it, emerging rosy of countenance
and serene of mind.
"Ilere am, spck and span and hand
some as the day you married me, mother"
IL, f. Al,
answering smile.
you've never made anything of your
SELF and you never will, Daniel Holman.
The idea of your joking and planting
garden seeds when your old friend and
comradc, Eben Miller, lies dying. A hero
like him, too
Had she been looking at him, Mrs.
Holman might have seen culver of pain
that shot for an instant over his plaid face;
but she Strengthened her bonnet before
the little glass on the kitchen, wall then
passed out into the sunshine, herself wait
ing to lock the door and to hide the key
under the doormat outside.
AS they passed along the village street,
lined with tall trees just coming into leaf,
the sunshine, fltering through the halG
clad branches, made dancing fretwork
on road and sidewalk. Early as it was
in the forenoon, other friends and neigh
bors were out, clad in their best Sabbath
clothing, silent and dccorous and grave
of face, all going in one direction-toward
Ebcn Miller's house, for word had been
sent around the night before that the old
soldier, measuring the little space of life
still left to him, as brave man may, had
expressed the wish that all who had
loved and honored him during his lifetime
should gather at his home for last fare
we'll
Ever since the day when young Eben
Miller had come staggering into camp at
Fort Honclson, bearing in his arms the
inSensible form of his Colonel, shot
through the thigh, lie had been the hero
ofhs native northern town. The Colonel
had been retired because of permanent
disability. but Eben, serving till the war
WAS over, had on his return been met at
tie train by band of music and flying
colors to take his life long place among
the most distinguished men ofthe commu-
nifty. Colonel Brown had succeeded to the
estate and interests Of his father, the old
Judge, one of the richest and most in
tluentia men of the country, and Eben,
who before the war had been accounted
a Young man oiless than average promise,
helped along by the Colonel's backing
and borne aloft on the flood of popular
favor, had built up prosperous mercan.
tile business, and became known as one
of the solid men of the place, serving a
couple OF terms as president of the town
council. Living as he had i'll cloud of
glory, it had beeu reckoned as not least
among his virtues that he had always