Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1908-11-26
leaving her Tor a mnmenf

-N ~ - AO' unOer stress, we
endured those terrible weeks. as n we
had had each the strength of ten
Tom was never tired. never sleenv
never hungry; he fought death with
alternate hope and despair. AT the
end Of the sixth week the heart so
sorely taxed with fever failed. and TIC
mothers life departed.
l led Tom. unresisting. from hi.
mothers bedside; he neither smoke
nor wept, but dropped in a stupor ON
his bed. where he lay all night IN !,
sleep from which l could not rouse
MIN next day till noon, when he more.
~ looked at me without recognition.
and fell back into the same heavy
slumber. When he walked again n
was without intelligence in his ewes
FEVER burning his body, and strange
gentle words flowing from his lips as
child talking to his mother.
One midday. while Miss Droone
stood looking down upon him as he
lay in a deathlike slumber. he sud
denly opened his eyes, looked in her
race, and said: why. mother. You
are up early. I am lazy" made an
eHort to rise, smiled feebly, and fell
asleep. We thought death had come.
out he slept on for hours, and we
heid our breath in hope At dusk
ne walked again, and asked for his
mother; smiled when he saw Isabel
took broth from her hand and slept
again.
Let him think so, then; his life
hangs on the merest thread" said the
old doctor, when Isabel had told him
that Tom had mistaken her for his
mother. "All depends now on what
we can do and not undo in the next
few hours, and days"
Weeks of convslescence brought
Toms big body well forward on the
road to health, but a curious OBJ
session held his mind to the very
point where it had seemed fixed in
mis- illness; he had gone back to his
Doyhood; he still thought Isabel
Droone was his mother. He seemed
to have forgotten everything that had
taken place since his fifteenth year.
The interests of that time began to
engage his attention. He had been
very much occupied in his boyhood
in making collections of birds and
small animals.
Isabel played her part wisely. but
the strain was wearing on her more
than l could bear to see. One even
Ing after school Tom found a let
ter awaiting him from an English
geological society. asking him to go
to California to collect for them some
specimens of a certain rare species
found near Marysville. The type spe-
cimen, they wrote. had been taken
at the Suffer Buttes. Would he I'M
dertake to get them?
He will CO." said Isabel. as she
told me Of 1t, and you will have to
go with him; there is no other way.
for the doctor says we must not op-
pose him in anything now"
No need to describe our journey:
the time was filled with talk of genus
and species, with Tanias. Spermo-
philus and Pero-but not to particu-
arize-with Toms old enthusiasms
about animals as specimens. He could
hardly wait to attend properly to get
ting his camp and collecting stun,
together. after our arrival at Marys-
vile. he was so eager to be at work.
| held him in leash until we were
fully ready, and set of with the i'm
patient naturalist toward his collec-
ton grounds.
We had worked together a week in
our locust grove camp. skinning and
stufhng, labelling and listing, and Tom
was as happy as If he were indeed
only is. So absorbed was he that
1t seemed safe to leave him hours at
a time, as l now often did on searches
of rSy own.
One day after we had finished pack
ing a box of specimens and Tom had
laid out a full days work for himself.
in which I could be of no use, and at
a time when l had begun to feel Sc
cure in his condition as showing no
sign of change, l decided to spend the
day some six miles distant to take
observations on a mirage visible fire.
quently from the place where we were.
When 1 returned at dusk found Tom
asleep under a locust tree in the
yard. saw that he had finished
only about half of the work he had
planned for the day, SO that he must
have been sleeping for some hours.
AS moved about the camp fireplace
preparing to get supper, at some mad
vertent noise Of mine he turned over,
sat up slowly as If still sleepy:
Hello, old fellow" 1 called out as
houriShed frying pan, "if anybody
wants hot f1apiacks now"
But I was stopped by his look of
bewilderment. whats this? Unjust
be asleep; can't you wake me? Where
are we? What day of the month
is it?''
What could l say? There was but
one way to deal with man like Tom
Fanshawe. l told him that he had
been sick, and that things were not
all right with him when the fever left
him, that he had wanted to come out
here and that it was thought that the
change would
But what does all this mean?" in
dicating the specimens.