Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-07-19
An Unnamed
 Grave By MRS. GEORGE E. PICKETT
(Copyright, 1904, by Daily Story Pub. Col

THE lonely grave down in the south
 west corner was heaped over with red roses and white lilies that rose in R glowing, fragrant, rapturous mass of concentrated fire and snow.
 The girl who bent over 1t to place one last white blossom on the glorious pile seemed afar from the world by her rapt devotion to the lone grave. Her fingers hovered in tender curves over the flower through which she con- veyed her last farewell to the unknown dead as If unwilling to part from so fair blossom even in response to the call of sad and sacred duty.
 Though a rift in the parted branches of the evergreens that surrounded the grave she could see the throng of peo- pie bending over the mounds that dot ted the hillside. The hedge of green cry seemed to set her apart from them. Hers was little world wherein she and the dead man dwelt alone. She hAd never seen the soldier who had gone to rest from the battle under the green-sodded mound encircled by the arbor vitae, yet she could not remem- Der time when she had not put flow CTS each year over the unknown dead
 Through her childhood she had come with her mother, who had saved the most beautiful roses and lilies in the garden to deck that grave when flower day should come. Now she came alone, more as a memorial to her lost and gone mother than in any fancied re- membrance of the dead soldier. Ev- cry 30th of May they had thus decked his grave, though when Elsie could just remember there had been no pub lie celebration of the day.
 Ut is the day he died" said her mother once when she had gloried in the beauty of the May that was dying in supernatural light.
 "He was killed in battle?" she had asked looking back at the grave where glint of sunlight drifting through the trees fell across the rose and snow piled above it. There was an instant's pause and then the reply softly spoken:
 'Yes, the hardest battle man ever fought
 That was years ago and now the whole nation had chosen the day of this mans death as the time for re- membering with outward observance the heroic dead.
 Tn sacred memory of a soldier of the south" was the inscription on the marble slab at the head. Nothing to show to what southern hearts he had been dear in the olden days of fire ana storm, nor what had been his rank iii that devoted army that had sealed it's faith with the blood red seal "A sol dier of the south was all that she had ever known of him, and the fact tE he had been dear to her mother, a. shown by her memory of him when the day of flowers came.
 There were other soldiers of the south sleeping on that hillside at peace with the soldiers of the north who shared their spacious grounds Rose mont had been near the line in war days and they who wore the gray and they who wore the blue had come back to their home to the beat of muff1ed drums and gone to rest side by side, with never a vestige of battle rage burning in their still hearts
 Those other graves were abloom with many flowers but none were snowy with the gleam of lilies and ablaze with the crimson fire of roses as was that secluded place where the nameless headstone marked the grave of one unknown to the world
 Why is not his name there?" she ! had asked her mother on the first day she could remember in her childhood when she had stood beside the mound and put glowing red rose at it's head with little hand that was hidden by the great crimson blossom
 .'I think he would have wished it so," was the reply in a low tone that left no room for further questioning She had never heard that name, but she knew it had been graven in a ten der and sacred place in her mothers heart and the inscription on the stone was as beautiful and wonderful name to her,
 I As she went out by the pathway through the circle of green young man, meeting her, took off his hat and bowed, the sun striking gold sparkles from his hair as he bent his uncover. ed head before her. A soft color swep1 , over her face as she returned his , greeting They walked together be- tween long lines of mounds with little stones at their heads each with name that belonged to the village record. l and had distinctive place in the vii , 1age heart. Thus they went silently until they came to a monument tha : far overtopped all the other stones il those consecrated grounds. A mar to whose memory it had been erected : did not lie under its shining whit, shaft He was buried in far-famet field of the dead where the nation
 most honored sons lay at rest : They looked at the marble shaf
 with it's head lifted high against tn , golden light Tire name it bore was o
 one who belonged to the world and t $ history. He seemed far away in som , lofty region from which he sent no in I dividual appeal to their hearts The al could talk In the shadow of that pill
 of marble. Besides the graves of tn I village dead whereon the glory of tn