Mower County transcript., 1908-05-27
AT TAPATRIOT'S
GRAVE
lndm0thef0 Memorial Day SpeeC
By DORA OLIPHANT COE.

~ GRANDMOTHER ADAMSON had
III reached into the depths of her
u rose-sprigged banibox, but
VA just as her fingers touched
the stiff ruc:ing in the front
of her best bonnet her attention was
arrested by ring at the front door.
AS though suddenly petrified in her
stopping position, grandmother waited
while Susan Ann, her daughter,
creaked through the passage way lead
ing from the kitchen.
At the first words Of greeting grand
mother Strengthened with snap like
jack-knife, and an angry color famed
on her cheeks.
''Why, Marthy Ellen, what lovely
roses! Did you ever see the flowers
SO handsome as they are this year?
Come right in. It's dreadful hot,
ant it? Seems like I never knowed
it, to warm up as early as it has this
season. but, then, it's been awful fine
for the flowers. Pears like the roses
and laylocks and pinies has just tried
themselves to see who could do the
most bloomin''. Now, that's pretty
idee, amt it, Mrs. Rayburn, that lay
lock wreath?' i - - s'.
Eyes; laylocks was Dicks favorite
flower, and he set this bush out his
sci, and thought I'd make q wreath
to hang on the cross on his stombstun.''
/ The expression on Grandmother
Adamson,s face would have made .
good study. From blaze of sanger
{ ,MA MlN ~k.n
horrined scorn to = stony determine
tion. .s:r-.. .ss::z4z
The development Of the converse
ton beyond the paper.coyered board
walls collected her snebulous chaotic
emotions into, a stern resolve. z@atz .ss
Susan Ann was stout, and she had
grieved all the morning over the long
walk to the graveyard. AS she sank
ponderously into chair, she la.
mented:
Il get heavier on my feet every day
1 live, and the heat to-day is just
awful on me. II mother hadn't had
her heart so set on it, I wouldn't try
to 60 to the cemetery. just know
I'll be sick" .~
Couldn't she walk up with u.s."
Mrs. Rayburn asked. well not walk
fast aa, st~~~-sks32H Hsts~sSs
"Oh, mothers as spry on her feet
as you be. I hadn't thought of her
goin' with any one else, but don't
see why she couldn't. It'd be real
: help. She amt got nothin' to carry,
for she took big basket Of flowers
up this morning, before breakfast
She's just that wrapped up in Decora-
tion day couldn't disappoint her
about goin'. She's gettin' ready now.
I'll 60 and see Il it'li Be ali right"
But grandmother, with what was al
most one movement, had stopped for
ward and slipped of her congress gait
ers, at the same time taking from IT'S
box her bonnet. She slipped hand
through the round handle Of a, little
basket and scurried down the PASSAGE
way and out through the back door.
On the step she delayed. just long
enough to put on her shoes; then, with
her best bonnet carried more careless
ly than ever before in its dozen years
! of use, she hurried out through the
back gate.
The cemetery was being made bright
| with flowers when grandmother
passed through the iron gateway, and
her face hardened as she recognized
some Of the STOPPING figures and the
graves over which they bent
At brilliantly mound she
stopped and, kneeling, said:
Il hate to do it, jeremiah. but l
know you'd want me to. i won't take
them to any one else, though, Jere.
miah, though know you'd say fur me
to, If you was here. But dearie, I've
2 keered fur these things ever sence
they was buds, jest as tender aakif
they'd ben babies, and jest SOS you
could have them to-day, and jest
cant see any one else have 'em. How
!! would you like to look over these
posies and see that laylock wreath
J. a.hangin' on old Dick Ray burns tomb,
stun? You fought. bled and died al
most 1ur nothin'. jeremiah, when that
old eopperhead gifts Jest as many low
Il ers 90 you do.''
y Grandmother had turned up the
. skirt Of her black alpaca dress and.
Y into: the receptacle thus formed, had
J, put every flower that had lain on
y. Jeremiah's grave. She carried them
!, al over to. q far corner Of the cene-
,,;.tery and buried them under q pile Of
11.sss last years leaves. = Then she went
:. back to the bare mound
81 Soon the faraway notes nf Cover