Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1906-06-26

MaJe. Give my lrunk 20 r. mCSIa"
Rispk., +. DELAhooA.
When the master mechanic read tina,
before the probate judge, Maize .Samp
son took a-trembling; Martie hid hei
face in her shawl. crying again. May
be glimmer Of what it meant came
for the first time in her life over her
Maybe she remembered DelarOo as he
used to sit with them under the kero
sene lamp while Maze untiringly
pounded the money question into him
smoking as he listened, and Martie
mended OH never ending trousers,
looking from Maize Sampson, heated
with monologue, to his wife, patiently
stitching-no comments, just looking
as Pierre DelarouX could look.
Strange, Neighbor thought 1t, and yet
maybe, not SO strange. 1t was all there
in the paper-the torn, worn little book
of Delaroo's life. She was the only
woman Oh earth that had ever done
him kindness.
Nobody at Medicine Bend quite un
derstood it, but nobody at Medicine
Bend quite suspected that under all the
barrenness up at Maize SIMPSONS an
ambition could have survived; yet one
had. Martie had an ambition. Way
down under her faded eyes and hel
faded dress there was an ambition, and
that for the least promising subjects In
the Rocky mountains - the brlckbats
Under the amending mending and the
poverty and the toll Martie, who never
nut her nose out of doors, who never
attended church social, never ven
tured even to free public school show.
had an ambition for the boys. She
wanted the two biggest to go to the
state university, wanted them to &C
and get an education. And they went
and Maize Sampson says them boys
ary one, has forgotten more about the
money question than he ever knew. IL
looks as II after all the brickbats might
come out; bit Of money in Martie's
hands goes so far.
There are few soldiers buried at
the Bend. Decoration day there Is an
attempt at turn out, little speech
ing and a little marching. A thin,
struggle column of the same warped,
bent old fellows in the same faded old
blue. Up the hill they go and around
to the cemetery to decorate.
When they turn at MAZE Simpsons
place-there's a gate there now-Martie
and more or less Of the boys and Maize
kind of join in along and 60 over with
them carrying basket or so OF flow
ers and q bucket of water.
The boys soon stray over to where
the crowd is, around the graves Of the
heroes, but Martie gets down by a
grave somewhat apart and prods the
drifting gravel all up loose with an
old caseknife You would think she
might be kneading bread there, the
way she sways under her sunbonnet
and gloves-for her little boiled hands
are in gloves now.
81 don't know how much good 1t
does Delaroo spiklng up his grave
once year." Neighbor always winds
up. 1T may not do him a blamed bit
Of good; don't say 1t does. But can
see them; see them from the round
house; it does me good. HIM"
"Aiaje" he will add. "Why, I've got
him over there at the house, wiping.
I'm going to put him running the sta
tionary IL old John Boxer ever dies.
When will he die? Blame IL l know.
John is pretty good man yet. !
can't kill him, can I? Well, then,
what's tho matter with you?"
"No, Maze don't talk as much as he
used to; forgetting his passes more or
less too. Getting old like some more of
us. He's kind Of quit the money ques-
ton; claims he don't understand 1t
now as well as the boys do. But he
can talk about Delaroo; he under
stands Delaroo pretty well-now"