The Topeka state journal., 1909-02-23
THE EVENING STORY
(Which Is for Memory, I,
(By Marion Travers.)

/ lIl0 W0SLWdIOs LI16I0 10 II1Q d COHlQG-
Itence.
/ When he had succeeded the girl was
Ito come to him for the rest of the
happy years. In his hands were two
sprigs of rosemary, one of which he
gave to the maid.
"It's for remembrance, Betty. Not
that we will either of us need it, dear,
but I shall carry it with me wherever
60
"You know you'll always be in my
| thoughts, Tom. I'll put it under my
| pillow at night that I may dream of
Iyou, and wear it next my heart in
waking hours, that every beat may be
for you. Goodby, Tom, and God bless
you, and send you back to me-" and
the maid turned her lips upward for
| her lovers kiss.
"Goodby, Betty, it won't be for long,
and then we will be together for the
rest of our lives" and he gave her one
| last caress before he turned and start
ed down the graveled path bound on
the out trail.
Betty had been motherless since her
sixth year and at the close of a win
| ter's day the soul of her father left it's
gaunt frame and she was alone.
Tom wrote a letter full of tender
| consolation, and it was on the absent
sweetheart she leaned during the days
and nights of her affliction.
Betty's father had been frugal and
shrewd, and there was enough to pro-
vide for the remainder of her days.
She had no relatives in the home of
her father, and when legal matters
were finally adjusted she left for a big
western city to live with an aunt,
while she was waiting for Tom. 1t
was then the first blow fell.
No letter came from her sweet
heart in the far west. At first she did
not worry, for he had written that he
was going on long prospecting trip
and might be weeks, even months,
from civilization.
But when spring came and in turn
a.
before the chilling blasts of autumn,
and the weeks dragged drearily by un-
til year had passed, Betty abandoned
hope.
She wrote to the authorities of the
frontier town where he usually out
fitted, but they could tell her nothing.
Tom had left in April. He had not
returned; they knew nothing of his
fate.
In the passing of the years her grief
was softened, but the agony of her
loss was there, locked with her love in
the innermost recesseS of her heart.
Suitors came, but were sent away, not
hurt, but firmly, gently denied. Her
cousins married, little ones came to
bless them and to all she was Aunt
Betty
There was another Betty now,
pretty, graceful maid of seventeen,
joying in her first glimpses of social
life, and rapturously happy because
she was just living. They were great
cronies, these two Bettys, and it was
often remarked that their resem blance
extended way and beyond the name.
Aunt Betty, why didn't you mar
ry?" asked the little Betty one after
noon, when the two were having a
long, confidential chat.
Then faded old letters were brought
out and read, the dimmed tintype of |
a country boy with a fine-featured |
face was cried over, and the withered |
sprig of rosemary lifted gently from |
tho Jewel xUhara IF had |
so many years in state.
"And the rosemary, auntie?" quer- |
led little Betty.
"Rosemary is for remembrance,
to keep 1t always, so that whenever |
we saw it the others face would ap-
pear in our dreams" said auntie.
And do you dream of him yet?"
pursued the younger.
"Bless you, Betty; I'll always dream
of him and I pray now that after |
death here 1 may see him"
"And so that's the reason you did
MT let DIR. Thornton and the others |
marry you when they asked"
Betty. how did you know?"
ION, heard mamma talking about |
it. But I won't tell. auntie," she prom
Betty; it's perfectly splendid to love
so long and so hard, when you know |
he's dead. Would he care, do you |
think, if you married some one else?"
he knew never WOulO, ana Ln6
older Betty sighed.
After that the little Betty had to go |
away to school. She was sent to a dis |
tant city to be taught all manner of |
things embraced in that word FIN
ished."
To her romantic soul came many |
experiences, many temptations to sur
render to what she thought was love,
of her emotions by Aunt Betty's 10y
atty of a score of years.
would 1 love him like that?" she
would ask herself, and always the
suitor failed in the test.
One afternoon she went to a mat
inee at a downtown theater. AS she
was leaving the playhouse she was
confronted by a stalwart man, whose
agitation was greater than her own.
Betty Randall" he all but shouted
in his excitement
"Auntie!" gasped Betty.
"Are you Betty RandaIl?' queried
just a child and Betty would have
been more than twice your age If she
was alive" and he apologized for his
rudeness as he turned to go.
It flashed over Betty in an instant.
Could it be true? She decided to risk s
"Tom," she called softly
The man wheeled at the word and I
stood staring at the girl
"Are you Tom Wilson % she asked.
and did you leave over twenty years ,
ago to go out west, and" she con- !
-inued.
Eyes, yes! Why-how-who are
you?" he demanded.
Betty Randall is my aunt" said
Betty, land she has your sprig of
rosemary"
Here's mine," he cried, and he !
plunged into his pocket and brought
sorth worn wallet. ,
That night Mr.. Wilson had a long
ak with Betty at the school. She ar
'anged to go home the next morning (