The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1905-03-04

| The old woman laid down the paper
carefully upon the table and pushed
back the cheap spectacles upon her fore
head. She looked dazed and shot Il
glance of pitiful appeal at Mrs. Hen.
dcrHon, who had run in from the room
acres the hail. to show her the sad
news. First, Mrs. Henderson had read
it TO her. and she had reached for the
paper in a daZed sort of way. as though
| unable to comprehend the due purport
of the others words. She had put on
her cracked old glasses and painfully
| spelled out the brief line pointed out to
her. 1t was laboriouS undertaking,
| for there had been but little time for
| learning. even to read nr write, in
Jane Bradey's hard and pinched life.
Finally. however. she had conquered the
| line. 1t was only n little line in agate
| type in a list of dead cablcd from Sam
| tiago:
JOHN BRADLEY. Thirty-seventh
| Infantry: yellow fever
That was all-only that one little line
but the spelling out of it swept every
CLEAN of hope from the ioylesS life of
the reader. She made no sound, and
ing. half with hope and half with fear,
an outbreak of SORROW, felt both disap-
pointed and relieved.
No outbreak! No. there WAS no out
break But that moment. if dull Mrs.
Henderson had but known it. she saw
the breaking of human heart The
old woman. bent and shrivclcd and worn
and faded ont, was us still ais II summer
| Il. n,,1,. .l,. Al l..
ton Of light in her dull gray eyes told
Of the terrible weight of ice and lead
that settled upon the poor odd crushed
heart. Presently the thin, wIinklcl farce
dropped into the tired. worn fingers. and
the tears tricklrd down on to the faded
calico gown. Mrs. Henderson gulped
Spa$mo licully.fceling in some inadequate
manner the pathctiS tragedy of the mo
mrnt. and quietly Slipped back to her
own troubles i'll No. 30.
Her going "r staying We're of small
moment to the old woman in her great
S0rpw. The overburlened old mind
held for II lifetime to SUldcn things had
been released for brief moment by the
awful catastrophe which had "vertaken
her. and this newly clarified mind was
filled with Il great panorama.
She could not realize at first the dread
full import of the brief line. Johnnie
doad-her Johnny her only boy and the
image Of her husband. dead these many
yea1>s. 1t could not be true. Johnnie
ah, how graphically the picture arose
before her of the happieSt Gays Of her
life-really her only happy days, when
little Johnnie was playing at her knee
and filling her starved heart with his
childish pratte. even while she still
toiled-but with new energy and new
hope and new courage. And she remem-
bercl how the childish prlttle had nsrv
ed her for the fearful struggle which had
followed and never since had ceased.
The awful nightmare of her husbands
death and the narrow margin by which
she saved his body frpm Il grave in the
pUtter'S field rose before her. and her
heart warmed ELS she remembered the
comfort and courage It had been to her
in those dark hours of unyirlding grind
AMI Sckcniug worry and mcrcil,%1S self
sacrifice. t~ hold the little man.child to
her bosom and feel his warm arms,
ahout her neck.
To be sure. he had not always treated
her right-,at least. 80 said all her little
world. and. perf"rS". she had been COM
PEELED to admit t" herself sometimes
that it did seem 50. He had been wild
and had fallen into hmd company and
instr;rd cf being the help she had ~,
fondly counted on, his c~cnpadee had
rrt her all her little savings. To be
sure nrighborS had told her that he WAS
a gracelcss. nr'rr-d"-wrll scamp, and