Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1908-11-05
Copyright, by shortstory Pub. Coz

blood and inexperience ridiculing halt.
ing footsteps and wisdom. " e.
He recalled how they had gathered
around at the midnight hour, raised
their glasses high in the air and had
drunk to him. And now he was to
drink to them-drink of the old wine,
which they had sealed with solemn
rites-to take from the glass deli
cious quaff and a sad memory as he
toasted their names one by one.
He recalled them all, the whole 3S,
beginning with active young man
hood and ending with decrepit old
age, as one by one in the different Pc
RODS of their lives they had passed
away. For five years, he remembered;
they had remained intact Then the
first man died. There was a vacant
chair at their next anniversary dinner,
and name was toasted in silence
Another lapse of time, then a sec
ond went, then third. One had mys-
teriously disappeared, one had been
murdered, two were drowned, three
killed on the railroad, and one had
cheated the aims of the club by TAX
ing his own life. And then came the
war of the rebellion. They were q
when the great struggle began, but
four years later, when it ended, only
10 men answered to their names at
the following anniversary dinner, and
the memory of the others was toasted
in silence.
The roll of the living grew smaller
and that of the dead larger as year
after year the survivors met From
young men they had slipped into mid
die life and from middle life they had
become old. And now he was the
Last Man. The honor was "
He stopped. The clock had begun
to strike IL. The hour for dissolv-
ing the Last Mans club had arrived.
He listened reverently until the last
lingering echo died out. Then he
broke the seal Of the bottle With
trembling hand he raised the glass to
the tapering neck and inclined the
bottle so that the crimson liquid bub.
bled out He set the bottle on the
table, held the glass up to the light
and looked at it. Then he glanced
down the length of the table until his
eyes rested on vacant chair. For a
second he remained silent. A flush
mantled his wrinkled cheeks. A light
kindled his eyes. His bent form
Strengthened up. He brought the glass
down to the level of his lips, raised
it again and inclined it toward the
chair upon which his eyes were fas-
| tened. rE 5@3 .EE
Then, in a voice trembling with
emotion, he called aloud the first
mans name. 1t was the voice of
friendship ringing out across nearly
three generations of time-the voice
of the Last Man toasting the first. K
The second mans name was called
out in the same quavering voice, the
glass inclined toward another va
cant chair, then the third and fourth.
Then two little spots glowed out on
the old mans cheeks as he drank.
His eyes snapped and sparkled under
his bushy white broWs. He be-
came joyous, careless. He cackIed and
chuckled in mirth as he called his old
comrades by name. More than once
he made reference to some joke that
had been buried and forgotten in the
dim past.
The glass was emptied and filed
again and again. The names were
called out, Incidents were delved into
from the forgotten past, and the old
man conversed with the imaginary
pictures Of the men whose memory
he was keeping alive.
He stopped and strained his eyes.
"Why-why, there's Joe. Poor old
Joe. See, Joe, I'm toastin' your
mem'ry. Your mem'ry. Joe. I'm
mem'ry. Your mem'ry, Joe. I'm
the ss
And there's Dick! Dick who was
killed at Gettysburg. Killed with his
hands on the colors. But I'd know you
anywheres. Know you even If you
didn't have Your uniform on. Here's
to you, ydck here's to- ST
He stopped and began to sing q
song in low, cracked voice It was
strange old song, one musty with
the flavor OF olden days, with queer
i rhymings and funny sayings. The
old mans voice rose higher, his eyes
\ sparkled brighter. his cheeks grew
more flushed. Suddenly his Voice be
i came husky, rose to 9 screech. broke
to q whisper, and stopped.
x The bottle was more than half emp