The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-24

|, pected emphasis, you haven't got to tell
 a thing
 She laughed at his vehemence. "Well,
 I mustn't stay any longer or they'll be worryin' about me. But I don't care. 1 felt as if I couldn't go home until l l saw you and how you was situated. Ain t | it pleasant here?'
 | She choled a moment and there were I tears in her eyes. I'm so glad to see | you've got such a pleasant room, and l everything so nice. I guess l can go 1 home now and die in peace. I don't feel as if l was long for this world. Some | you didn't have much; there's plenty | where I am"-she was fastening her | shawl now-''but I won't know but what l it's as pleasant to be in home where | you can be kinder independent as to be in a house where you can't.
 But there,' she added hastily, 'I ain't complaining; we're two old folks and our 1 day is over, and I s'pose we'd oughter
 make the best of it. There, I mustn't stop another minute. You are happy, ain't you, Joshua?''
 "Oh, yes, of coursev' cried the Ser geant, arousing himself; he had been thinking how pleased Josh would have been with this visit. "It was so good of you to come and see me-" "Do you know 1t seems to me you've changed good deal, Joshua; but may be it's my old eyes" She rose from the bed now and came over to the chair on which the Sergeant still sat, too bewildered to move.
 He looked up at her now as she stood over him and opened his lips as if to speak then noted the happy light in her eyes and closed them. She put out her hand and patted his shoulder softly. Goodbye, Joshua, dear" she whisperedS brokenly. Sud denly she bent over him and kissed him on the forehead. Goodbye, be a good boy" then with a gurglng, choking laugh and eyes hidden, the small plaid -shawled figure went hastily through the doorway and down the hall.
 The Sergant sat still where she had left him, his face in his hands, and be- fore his inner vision went the pano- rama of lfe's pitiable puzzles He thought of himself, young strong and brave, going forth with high purpose to fight the battles of his country and coming home physically weak kened and unfitted for the practical business of life.
 Nevertheless, he had afterward gained some things-wife and child and small success; he lifted his face from his hands and almost smiled at pleas ing memories. Then one by one his grasp had slipped from these-from
 wife and child, from success, and he ba ri nJ at Ia aSt n
 with no outlook save an unnamed
 mound in the hillside graveyard. Then there was Josh; he had died before he
 had seen his sister--how he would have liked to see her, and she The Ser
 geant saw the anxious face and heard
 the patient words: wed oughter make
 the best of it."
 He looked oyer at the creased coun-
 terpane on the bed where the 'a' -.
 tie figure had been sitting. "Yes, wed
 oughter," he said aloud gently. lnen
 the color came into his face as he re-
 mernbered-what he had forgotten for
 the moment-that he had taken Josh's
 place, had let her kiss him and go off
 with tears in her eyes and gladness
 in her heart, because she had seen Josh,
 and Josh's room was so pleasant.
 Would that silent, turfbound chamber
 where Josh now slept have pleased
 her ars well?
 The sergeant rose and went to the win
 dow.. 'She said she wasn't long for this
 world. I guess when she meets Josh in
 heaven, he'll make it all right" The
 sergeant looked long time on the pros
 pect that soon becamela a blur of green
 and white.
 As the days passed the sergeant, brood ing over the loss of his roommate, grew
 more and more dissatisfied with the