Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-08-01

meut She had no sympathy with hi!
self imposed mission, you may be sure
though now she goes back in her mem
DRY to the earlier days OF her married
life, when she tried hard, poor soul
to tread the same path tLRt father was
treadirg. so as TO be by his side al
every turn of the rOad.
81 am sure" Chcrc Ivory's tone was
! somewhat dry and satiricaD that ia
theirs road had many turns, Waitstill
! He was a schoolmaster in Saco, you
know, when l was born, but he SCOT
turned from teaching to preaching. and
/ here my mother followed with entire
I sympathy, for she was i-.scnsely, de
youtIy religious. / said there was lit
I tie change In her, but there is one new
symptom. She has ceased TO refer to
/ her conversion to Cochranism as a
blessed experience. Her memory of
those first days seems to have faded.
AS to her sisters death and all the cir
cumstances of her bringing Rodman
home, her mind is a blank. Her ex-
pectation of fathers return. on the
other hand, is much more intense than
ever"
"She must have loved your father
dearly. Ivory, and TO lose him in this
terrible way is much worse than death.
Uncle Bart says he had great gift of
lanGuagew
Yes, and it was that, in my mind,
that led him astray. / fear that the
spirit of God was never so strong in
father as the desire to influence peo-
pie by his oratory. That was what
drew him to preaching in the first
place. and when he found in Jacob
COchrane a man who could move al
audience to frenzy, lift them out Of
the body and do with their spirits as
he willed he acknowledged him as
master. Whether his gospel was a
pure and undefiled religion 1 doubt,
but he certainly was a master of mes
meric control. My mother was be-
guiled, entranced, even bewitched at
first I doubt not, for she translated
all that Cochrane said into her own
speech and regarded him as the proph-
ct of a new era. But Cochrane'S last
revelations differed from the first and
We're of the earth, earthly. My moth
er's pure soul must have revOlted, but
she was not strong enough to drag IA
Their from his allegiance. Mother was
of better family than father, but they
We're both well educated and had the
best schooling to be had in their day.
So far as 1 can judge. mother always
had more balance than father and
much better judgment-yet look at her |
now
Then you think it was your fathers |
that really caused her |
mind to waver?" asked Waitstill.
Il do, indeed. 1 don't know what |
happened between them in the way of
religious differences nor how much I'M
happiness these may have caused. 1
remember she had an illness when we
first came here to live and 1 was
little chap of three or four, but that
was caused by the loss of child, a
girl. who lived only few weeks. She
recovered perfectly, and her head was
as clear as mine for a year or two
after father went away. AS his letters
grew less frequent, as news of him
ceased to come, she became
more and more silent and retired more
into herself. She never
went anywhere nor entertained visi-
orS because she did not wish to hear
he gossip and speculation that were
going on in the village. Some of it
vas very hard for n wife to bear, and
she resented it Indignantly, yet never
'eceived a word from father with
which to refute it. At this time, as
nearly as 1 can judge, she was a
ecluse and subject to periods of pro-
ound melancholy, but nothing worse.
Then she took that winter journey to
IT. Il lNAI .
he boy. and, fastened by exposure
nd chill and grief, l suppose, her
mind gave way-that's ALL" And Ivory
ighed drearily as he stretched him. t
elf on the greensward and looked off e
oward the snowclad New Hampshire a
ills. I've meant to write the story V
f the 'Cochrane craze some time or T
uch part of it as has to do with my v
amily history, and you shall read it If t
GU like l
Il should like very much TO read your
ccount. Aunt Abby's version, for in
lance. is so different from Uncle
.arts that one can scarcely find the
ruth between the two, and fathers
ears no relation to that of any of the
Tiers
Some of us see facts and others see
isions,' replied Ivory, land these diff
erences of opinion crop up in the viii
lge every day when anything note
-orthy is discussed. l came upon n
notation in my reading last evening i,
rat described it, One said it thunder l
/: another that an angel spake.''
DO you feel as if your father was
cad. Ivory?" E
Il can only hope so. That thought d
rings sadness with it, as one remem- t.
ars his disappointment and failure,
at il he is alive he is traitor" I
There was a long pause. and they
,uld see in the distance Humphrey
arker with his clarionet and Pliny A
-uterhouse with his bass viol driving O.
} to the churchyard fence to hitch
eir horses The sun was dipping low K
Id red behind the Town House hill on
e other side of the river.
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