The Newport miner. [volume] (Newport, Wash.) 1899-current, 1910-01-20
WHENJ|M CAME HOME
Nv M. QUAD.

! s Good tempered He had the repu-
tation Of being truthful and honest
bnt everybody said he would ole III
tho noorhouse. At the age OF twenty
four TO the surprise Of everybody, ne
oo+ married. No young woman IN MS
locality would have looked at hlin
twice but one twenty miles away &C.
tually fell in love with ana marrleu
him A thousand different times III
ofter wears she tried to explain to her.
Golf and others how it came ABOUT
hut she never satisfied any one.
THE father of Jim's wife gave nef
thirty acres Of land with cabin on
If and the couple went there 10 exist
For the first five years Jim was ap-
,o.,od TO protested at and complained
~ FOR his laziness Then the hard
,rortinr wife realized that it was no
use and gave it up
Tim Baker, read and heard OF the
civil war when it broke out. ana ne
saw many of his neighbors enlist ana
on marching away. He had no partlc-
Mar interest in war. He was patriot,
but he didn't say much about 1t 1or
fear he would be asked to- swing MS
hat and cheer. That would have, been
| hard work for him. 1t was only when
the DAYS of the big bounty came that
he sat down under tree for serious
thought. He was thinking when a re-
cruiting officer came along and SAT
down beside him and said:
Jim, if you want to enlist ! can get
Vol s7OO bounty money. 1t looks now
as if the war would be over In thirty
DAYS, and just think Of earning all that
money in a month"
"I'll think it over" replied Jim after
a long time, and that evening his wife
noticed that he was looking very seri-
ous. When she asked If he felt i'll he
! answered:
''Num. Say, Bet, I'm thinking Of
going to war"
She smiled at the idea. and he con-
tinued:
81 allus thought it was mighty hard
work, but that feller told me today it
was dead easy. All you've got to do is
to eat and sleep and shoot rebels. You
| have niger to cook tor you and load
your gun. l believe could stand that,
and I'll get 500 for going"
Nothing more was said about the
matter that evening. Next morning
the wife started for the fields. and Jim
started for the village. She missed
him at noon when she returned to the
house. but she didn't worry. When he
came home at shutdown he tossed
big roll Of greenbacks into her lap and
said:
give enlisted for a soldier and am
going away tomorrow"
She counted the money over slowly,
laid it upon the clock shelf and re-
piled:
Jim. there's wuss husbands than
you. I'll be mighty careful Of the mon
ey, and l hope you'll come back all
right"
There was very little said next
morning when he started OF. She
went to the pillow and he to town, and
the talk was all among the neighbors.
After getting down to the front Jim
wrote home now and then, but briefly.
Sometimes he was mentioned in other
soldiers letters, but also briefly. The
wife lived on alone. She missed the
husband, and yet she didn't Some
times she wished him back, and some
times she didn't feel to care whether
he returned or not. She was in this
neutral state of mind when the war
came to q close at last The soldiers
who survived it returned home, and
one evening as she sat on her steps
with her pipe in her mouth a veteran
in uniform turned in at the gate to
say:
Mrs Baker, have you heard about
Jfm?"
mot a word"
HE didn't come back with u.s."
"No"'
Because he was killed in the very
last battle. I was right near him
when he fell. Mighty sorry to have to
tell you"
"Thankee for coming" she said.
And not dozen more words were
said. In her way the woman felt her
loss. but she shed no tears over it.
1t did not keep her from her work
next day. After two years she began
drawing widows pension, and sis
ter came to live with her. After the
sixth year she was asked to marry
again, and again she was wife. 1t
was seven years almost to day since
she had been told Of Jim's death when
she sat alone in the house one day
and stranger entered he was lame
and dusty and grizzled and asked for
cup Of water. AS he drank 1t she
looked at him more closely and then
sunk into chair and was speeches.
for a moment.
rs anything wrong?" asked the
man.
My God! But you are Jim Baker,
my husband that went to the war;
she whispered
You called me Jim Baker" said the
man after awhile.