Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1908-06-10
4 SAD END

15IE152S2S251S1S25S r
The train rumbIed across a long
trestIe, and the locomotive whistle
shrieked its warning for a crossing
ahead.
bright young fellow" An elderly
man, with goId-bowed spectacles, and
flowing white beard, was talking to
his companion in the seat in front.
Scattered bits of the conversation
drifted back to my ear.
''Was getting three thousand sal
airy showed me his watch
once real Geneva
imported you know four
hundred dollars > had great
luck just rolled in money,
when B was elected in
put up on the right side" Here, for a
time the talk went on in a lower
tone.
DIED in st. Louis three years
ago!''
You don't say!"
eyes, sir Didn't have a cent left
buried in the potter's field"
The train was rushing along low
stretch of country, with blue hills in
the hazy distance. The sun glittered
upon the waters of a clear-fowing
stream, flashing at intervals out OF
sight behind higher banks. A cloud
OF sooty smoke from the locomotive
swept past the car window, partially
obscuring the pleasant landscape.
But, somehow. my thoughts wan.
dered from the shifting panorama of
green fields and comfortable home
steads and blue hills to, the bright
young fellow" who was buried three
years before-a penniless stranger
in a PARKWAY western city. How did
it all come about? 1 did not even
know the boys name; but l could
see the father and mother sitting
together in the roomy, farmhouse kit
chen planning to give JOhn-we will
call him John-his chance in life.
It will require sacrifice, but what is
a little matter of self-denial and
economy when Johns whole future is
concerned-and such future, too!
Professor A. said this and that.
Mr.. B was overheard to say some
thing else. About JohnI To be sure.
To that mothers thinking, there is
no other subject really worth talking
about just now.
Then, the three-thousand-dollar po-
sition. I don't know where or what
It was. but it must have been a post
of trust and responsibility, for, in
this world. money is not given with
out receiving or expecting to receive
a fair equivalent.
I wish ycu could have seen that
mothers radiant face, when she open
ed the letter. And yet it is just the
news she had been looking for, all
along. Hasn't she said a hundred
times that John would win his
way? And then the father takes the
written sheet, his toii-hardened hands
all a-tremble with excitement, and
reads to convince himself that it is
not ell a dream. Three thousand! 1t
would be a good year, when his poor
acres would yield one-fifth that
amount How much would that be
q month? A week? A day? He
carries out each of the calculations
carefully. 1t. almost takes his breath
away But genius wins. 1t always
has, and always will. People are
commencing TO recognize Johns tai
ent, and it will go farther. John is
/ only twenty-four Time enough for
great things yet, if Gcd spares Johns
life. and the father wipes his moist
eyes. breathing a prayer that God
may Such a life is worth Sparing
for the world would miss it. There
is a strange thrill at his heart in re-
membrance that the boy-man now
Is their John" still
The day John comes home for a
flying visit. wearing the expensive
watch of foreign workmanship, marks
another landmark The hard-work
ing, clCse-saving father fairly gasps
S when john mentions the price with 6
1aunty. that-happens-every-day air
while the mother fingers the trinket
cautiously, as though expecting tC
see II vanish into thin air like the
magician's treasure. 1t cost more
than four times the yearly interes
on the mortgage, and yet that came
hard, and required a great deal o
pinching and saving to get together
But John belongs to another world
the great money-getting, money-spend
ing world-which they have heard o
and read about.
That's fine salary, john" the
farmer ventures, referring to the
young mans position.
"Oh, yes. just fair" John replies
with a depreca;ing gesture, ''but i
doesn't go 50 far as you might i'm
agine. There are ways of piecing I
out. however, so that a fellow man
ages to keep his head above water