The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1908-08-19
I::3::::||' '''''IIiI:i'''''||:::! WHEN K!
!THE CHILDRENs
. ] CAME Home. :
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under the wide, spreading boughs OF
an ancient apple-tree on the Gray
farm One felt them anachronisms
in these homely surroundings-the
did not belong" as did the bees
humming lazily over the hollyhocks
that grew in pink and white ranks
beside the Tow stone wall, and the
white hen with a belated brood of
fluffy chicks scratching in the soft
loan of the garden. Long shadows
were dropping down the hills, and
the corn, brown and dry, in a near
by field, rustled in the breeze that
crept among the stalks. Behind the
wood-shed sat the hired man, i'll at
ease in his Sunday suit, aimlessly
whiting piece of pine and furtive-
ly watching the pair under the tree
who seldom spoke, yet their eyes
met often, questioning, sad. Each
was experiencing souls agony of
regret, and words seemed scared
upon their hearts-"To late" A
hush, a stiffness unusual brooded
over the place. Three children,
round-eyed, afraid, peered between
the pickets of the yard fence. They
had come mile out of their way
from school just to go by the house
where old man Gray lay dead.
That's where he isl" whispered
one, pointing a finger. A window
was partly raised in a front room,
The curtain swaying, swaying, in the
draft. The trio passed on, glancing
fearfully behind as they crept under
fence to "cut cross lots"
Inside, the farmhouse was spick
and span; the work was all laid by.
Two neighbors - women - kindly
Bouls, sat in the decorously darkened
sitting-room; expressions appropriate
to assume in house of sorrow were
In each face. They spoke at inter-
walls, in hushed tones, as if fearful
of disturbing the quiet peace of the
sleeper in the parlor.
In her bedroom, Martha Gray sat
beside the four-poster, absently
stroking with knotted, toil-worn
hand the blue-and-white checked
rounterpane. Many thoughts and those
odd weavings of past and present hap
penings that we term fancies, most of
them irrelevant, flashed, quicksilver
wise, through her brain. A woman
Of few words, yet Abram had always
understood-and now there was no
one. Some folks live to be over
ninety-I'm just beginning my sew
enties-I wonder, now, what the text
had better be. He liked the Apocry-
pha, but it's not printed these days
In Bibles-maybe not so orthodox as
the rest" She walked to a
small square stand where, on a GRO
cheted mat, lay sheep-skin-bound
volume-handed down in the Gray
family through many generations.
She opened it at the first page. Aw-
full pictures of Moses on the Mount,
and the Deluge met her eye; turning
the yellow leaves she paused at the
book of Esdras and began to read
aloud.
"And therefore be thou not curious
how the ungodly shall be punished,
and when, but inquire how the right
eous shall be saved. This present
life is not the end where much glory
doth abide. Remember thy children
that sleep, which are departed from
the shadow of the world, and that
there is promised us an everlasting
hope, and the faces of them shall
shine above the stars. For unto you
is paradise opened and rest is al
lowed"
Yea, Abram ever loved the grand
phrasings of the Apocrypha. Her
eyes wandered to the window.
Through it she could see her two
Bons beneath the apple-tree; study
ing them with puzzled frown, she
said: THE children have all come
home" How oddly she had greeted
them, as, one by one, the stage left
them at the gate where they had
swung In childhood and later had
passed through into world beyond
her ken. 81 do not know them very
we'll" She even felt i'll at ease
with the beautiful creature-her baby
3luttering back to the old threshold
from life in gay Southern city.
Could 1t be possible she had once
been rocked to sleep in the hooded
wooden cradle, now dusty and draped
with cobwebs in a far corner of the
attic-this queenly woman in her
shimmering gowns? Why, a little
pink-sprigged calico frock. one of the
first SHORT clothes of babyhood. was
in the brass-nailed trunk near the
cradle. Could she ever have worn
that? Odd how ones mind harLs
back SO far. 1t just happened they
had not found time to come back be-
fore-Abram knew why-of course
he knew, though they had ever avoid
ed that subject. Each had dwelt upon
It silently, but each had understood