Gilpin observer., 1915-05-27

both pity and regard. But Jasper never
thought about them in the light of
sweethearts. 1t may be that some
where, at the back of his brain, the
memory of a northern girl was stir
ring.
So the years passed. The seventies
passed, the eighties, too; the nine
ties came and were half gone. Jasper
was a man of fifty years; prosper
Gus Southerner who had so complete
ly identified himself with his adopted
state that the past lad ceased to trou-
BILE him. 1t was about the time of the
Spanish war that Colonel Mobray de-
termined to go on tour through New
England. to investigate the cotton sit
uation. He asked Jasper to accom-
pany him. They started in May.
~.
Pleasanton had sent many man
to the war, and the dead had not
been forgotten. The Soldiers monu-
ment, in the heart of the town, attest
ed to Pleasanton's gratitude toward
her dead.
Upon Memorial day the veterans
AS the leader of the company passed
the cottage of Jane Welsh they no
ticed the familiar figure of the sweet
faced, middle-aged spinster, as she sat
knitting beneath a giant oak in her
garden. Instinctively their hands
went up to their caps; they remem-
bered the pathetic story of her lover,
who had been declared among the
missing after the battle of Chancel-
| lorsville.
Miss Marsh had spent all her time
| under the oak, Pleasanton declared.
| Every sunny day she could be seen
there, knitting for the poor, embroid-
ering the delicate work which
| brought her meager income. She
never spoke of Jasper; why should
one speak of anything SO intimate? No
one would understand.
Only few of his former compan-
ions knew that Jasper had been dis
covered in Confederate uniform. or
his treachery they said nothing. That
was one of the many secrets of the
war that lie buried in veterans
hearts.
Once said Colonel Mobray, the
sight of that uniform would have
called out every angry impulse in
me. And that fiag'-he barred his
head-"I would have given my life
to capture it. Now-all honor to it,"
The wounds of thirty years before
were closed The colonel watched
the marching veterans with deep emo
tion. At his side stood Jasper, watch
ing, with puzzled expression.
| Something was stirring in his heart,
some faint remembrance infinitely
weak and futile. He saw the flag and
sobbed. The mature man wept like
a child as he followed the veterans in
their march
Then all at once his eyes fell upon
little, middle-aged woman beneath
an oak tree. She had risen to her
feet as the flag was borne by, and
she was looking intently upon the
marching men. Ever since the Memo
rial-day parades began Jane Marsh
had cherished an intimate and secret
hope that in some way her lover would
come back to her among the march
ing men. 1t was hard to believe that
he was dead.
Then her eyes fell upon Colonel Mo
bray and the man at his side. And
Jasper. seeing the woman at the
gate, looked more intently. and sud
denly memory vibrated again in the
sealed cells where it had so long
been hidden.
Everything came back to him: the
hiding of the flag, the fight with the
spy; the blow upon the head, and the
capture by the Federals when he hac
donned Confederate uniform.
And, before that, Jane Marsh, ant
her last words to him, thirty years be
fore:
IF you return alive, dear, you will
find me waiting for you here, under
this tree
They knew each other, and with a
wild cry Jasper Wells broke from the
colonel's side and ran to the woman
at the gate, and clasped her in his
arms.
And in that embrace the flight Of
years was forgotten, and they only
knew that their love had survived
through all the changes that these
years had brought.