Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-11-19

Mark before going away had given an
order that this income should be paid
to me. So didn't suffer for funds.
Mark had been gone FIVE years. and
every year had gone to the house on
Thanksgiving morning hoping to find
him there. On the fifth anniversary
determined TO go there the evening
before Thanksgiving and sleep there.
/ lighted a fire on the hearth and sat
in my little rocker that 1 used to sit
in beside Mark before that very
hearth. I drew his own big easy chair
up beside me. And there 1 sat think
ing of him and what a happy family
we had been until had broken it up
by my folly. 1 blamed myself alone
for falling into such an open trap.
And. thinking. I cried myself to sleep.
I dreamed troubled dreams. First /
was back at the husking with Mark.
Amelia Jones was sitting near us on
the pile of unhusked corn looking at
us, and her eyes seemed like Goals of
fire. Then we were walking along
the road running past the house.
Mark was bending over me, telling me
the story he had told me years before.
And / said: This is not really Mark.
Mark went away, and have never
seen him since. And yet here he is
walking beside me-" I woke up from
this dream. my heart beating wildly.
1 didn't wish TO go to bed. feared
1 would lie awake for hours. So took
a book from a table near me and read.
But 1 fell asleep again and recon-
dreamed Mark came in and sat In
his chair beside me.
L awoke and what did I see? Why,
Mark really sitting beside me. Had
it not been for the reassuring smile
on his face / should have thought that
what saw was his ghost. I sprang
toward him, and he took me in his
arms.
"Oh, Mark" 1 cried. "Have you for
given me?"
Eyes, I have forgiven you, and 1
have things to tell you. When / came
home and found you and the children
gone. the letter pinned to the cushion,
1 saw at a glance that Amelia Jones
had come up after a long silence to
strike US. l was angry-angry with
you for falling into the trap, for not
having confidence in me. determined
to go away forever.
But pinned for my home, my wife
and my children. 1 was about to come
back when 1 was drawn into a specu-
Iation. concluded to wait for It to
make me rich before returning. It
took all I had put into 1t. / tried an
M ff11 rnQanflU I
struck what has paid me. Then I re-
solved to come back. forgive you, ask
your forgiveness and unite our fam
fly"
He went to the bureau, took the let
ter which had been for five years on
the pincushiOn and. bringing 1t back
with him. tossed it in the fame.
Burn he said, watching It as 1t
shriyeled You have made trouble
enough 1t would be well II there were
a heavenly fire in which we could burn
all past disagreements."
On. the happiness of that moment.
Though it was late. we went TO moth
er's. took the children from their beds
and put them in their cribs at our own
home
1 had thought that no Thanksgiving
dinner could be as happy as the one
Mark and l had eaten together on the
day of our wedding. But that one was
nothing to the dinner our reunited
family ate together on the day after
Mark burned the letter that had
caused our separation. But it was Il
happiness that had been sharpened by
years of pain.