The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-30
Our Daily sbort Story

paid so little attention to it that he. was not quite sure. After he had finished he put some money into the walters hand and went out without waiting for change. He felt that he must be of and away through the soft May morning over the hill. He stop ped for moment on the platform and looked upward and onward. On the eastern plateau stood a large building white against the -dusky shadows Of | the peaks.
 What is that buildingg' he asked one of the trainmen.
 'Tt's one O them sanitar'ums that rich guys puts up to make the Lord fergit how they made their money. Lots O folks come here to git rid O consumption an things like that" Its because of the Sanitarium that the village Is here?" No; the village was here in war times. The's a graveyard over yonder 1 where some O the soldiers is buried. Maybe you'd like to walk over there and see the graves. Folks most al- ways does when they have to stop here. It's so kind O cheerin'." l williston entered the enclosure. Halfway down the center he came to stone with a name that awakened a | sudden interest in his mind. He stop ped and read the inscription carefully: l ''Williston Marr Killed at Gettysburg, July 8, 1S63" That was all. No date of birth nor place name to mark his history in any way. The sadfaced man looked down at the stone with pecu- liar interest. To be sure, no man had | a copyright on his name just because | he had been born to part of it and | received the rest from his sponsors in baptism.
 Then he fell to wondering who he l had been. and if someone who had loved him watched beside his grave and | brought flowers to lay on it on Decora- | tion Day. There was a white rose blooming beside it. Did some one | who had been dearer than life to the dead soldier keep 1t blooming by her tender carer
 l He stood by the simple headstone thinking tenderly of the love that was faithful through the years. The chill dren came and put their roses on the grave of Williston Marr. not speaking but pausiRg a momeU. as If sending a voiceless message to the sleeper under the ground.
 1 ITO whom are you giving your pretty fiowers?' he asked coming gently for ward.
 | Threy drew back shyly. and held each others hands as if for protection. We don't know" said the taller one. 1 but he was a soldier and papa says we must give him half our flowers l always"
 l Then they scampered away down the walk.
 1 williston was conscious of keen dis | appointment. The dead soldier who bore his name had no one to care for l him in his individual self. He sup posed that the white rose was only an impersonal offering, too, because he had been a soldier. not because he had been loved. A deep sense of lone- Illness swept over him for the desola- tion of the unknown soldier.
 He walked among the graves till the villagers had all gone away. As he started to follow them he saw a black robbed figure coming down the walk toward his grave" He watched the woman trailing her sombre draperies along the sward till the grave was reached. She knelt for a moment as if in prayer and then put the flowers she had brought on the grassy mound. Then she arose and put back her veil and looked at the white rosebush, touching one of the blossoms with a tender hand. Then she turned, her veil falling away from her pale. up lift l ed face.
 She looked at him with startled, wondering gaze
 Have you-come back-from the dead?"
 "I think so," he said T have been dead to all joy since I lost you"
 He stood motionless, marveling over the still joy that possessed him in silence He had dreamed of seeing her and of the wild rapture that had shaken his soul in the meeting. Now he was still as the windless day that smiled over him. She, too, spoke no word as they clasped hands besides the grave. Then he said:
 How did you come, my Lorraine why do meet you hereT
 T am a nurse in the sanitarim over there But you--T
 She looked down at the grave as if half expecting to see that it, had open ed.
 Did you think was lying there? Poor fellow, I half envied him mo- ment ago. Now I would not change places with him in the bliss of Para disc. Tell me of him and why he is here"
 ''When I first came here found this grave asked an old man who had | lived here during the war whose 1t | was and he said that some soldiers brought a dead comrade from the field of Gettysburg and buried him here. knew that you were in the Army of the Potomac because a wounded sol- dier in hospital told me of you.
 And you have cared for him all these years for love of mel?
 She looked at him with the old light