The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-29

far overtopped all the otner stones III those consecrated grounds. A man to whose memory it had been erected did not lie under its shining white shaft. He was buried in a farfamed field of the dead where the nations most honored sons lay at rest.
 They looked at the marble shaft with its head lifted high against the golden light. The name it bore was of one who belonged to the world and to his- tory. He seemed far away in some lofty region from which he sent no in- dividual appeal to their hearts. They could talk in the shadow of that pile of marble. Besides the graves of the village dead whereon the glory of the world never shone they must stand in awed and loving silence.
 Alan Goldwin looked from the cold white marble to the girl at his side. What vivid gleam of light she was among the graves.
 My quest among the graves has a sad object be said. My father is buried somewhere, I know not where, in an unknown grave. He used to live here when he was youth. He went to Southern State and when the war began he enlisted in Lees army"
 He was killed in battle?"
 NO, not in battle. He lies in what the world might called dishonored grave but it is not dishonored, for it covers as noble a heart as ever beat. He was shot by order of his command ing officer, but I know he was never guilty of any wrong"
 She looked up at him with eyes shin ing with tears.
 T am sure of that" she said.
 He turned insistent eyes toward her and his voice was low and tense with feeling.
 "Yoy know why tell you this?" Yes, she knew. It was like that frank honor that looked out from his eyes to tell her whatever there might be in his history that would seem cloudedl
 "The camp was attacked immediate ly after and 1t was all the living could oo to save themselves The dead were left to bury their dead" They stood for long time in silence with their eyes fixed on the marble shaft that bore the name great before the world. But they did not see the monument or the name. They only saw a lonely grave somewhere with no shaft to mark it's place and no name to show whose loved one had been glorified with the chrism of death. Alone in her room that afternoon Elsie remembered what day it was for her
 My birthday" she said. T am 20 | and the war has been over 20 years. Today I was to know the story of the unnamed grave"
 She opened her trunk and took from 1t silver casket. which she unlocked with a gold key. In it was a folded manuscript that she held a moment reverently in her hands. Her mothers hands were the last to touch it. and when she put it away in the casket to be read on that twentieth birthday. At | last she opened it and read: When my child Is 20 I want her to | know the sad story of Alan Goldwin. I am writing it down that she may read it for herself should I not be here to tell 1t.
 q suppose a girl never knows why she prefers one man to another; that | Is, if she really loves him. Almost 1 anyone might say that Alan was finer than Will Melwood and better adapted to win the admiration and confidence of a girl. But admiration and confi dence. important as they are are not exactly love. Alan remained my friend. but soon after my marriage he went South and a few years later I heard that he was married. When the war began our people were about equally divided in senti- ment between North and South. Will joined the Union Army In a skirmish one day he was taken prisoner and l confined in a tent to await transporta- | tion to Libby prison next day. As night fell a sense of loneliness envel- oped him in darkness. He had ex| pected to be killed in battle and was prepared to die for his flag is a sol dieris duty. A dash on to the field. a hand to-hand struggle. a deadly ball or a thrust of a sword, sudden dark ness-that was a soldiers death.
 Through an opening in the tent he looked out into the moonlit night. Against the whiteness he could see dark form passing to and fro in front of his tent. In his isolation there was companionship even in the measured tread and dark shadow of the sentinel whose duty 1t was to see that he did not escape from his prison.
 Suddenly the door opened and the sentinel stood before the prisoner, who turned toward him, wondering why he had come. Was he to start tonight on that long journey to the tomb?
 "'Win Melwood, don't you know meY
 "'Alan Goldwin!
 For a moment they stood silent with clasped hands. Then Alan unwrapped a parcel he carried under his arm and displayed a ragged, discolored suit of brown clothes.
 "Tt makes no difference what kind of clothes you wear so they cover up your colors Our uniform is more dis tinguished for ununiformity now than anything else
 "'What are you going to do with meT
 "T am going to save you for-her.'
 IaA ba tn tie pathway through a clump of trees
 "'Go down this way and you are safe
 q" But you-what will happen to youT
 Nothing. Remember only that you are going to her.
 He turned back and Will went down the path and was picked up the next morning by a detachment of his own regiment and taken by circuit ous route unknown to him back to the camp from which he had escaped The Confederates. outnumbered, retreated, leaving a dead man lying near the tent where Will had been confined the night before. Bending over him Will recog- nized the face of Alan Goldwin
 "'We have killed my best friend.'
 NO, you nebber,' said a negro, who came up from the little belt of trees. evidently a camp follower of neutral sentiments wuz hyeah wen he wuz shut by his own kunners order 'kaze he helped a pris'n ter 'scape.'
 "Wnl got permission to send his dead friend to his old home and. on his grave the bost beautiful lilies and