Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-04-09
PAGE FIVE

: failing her after the long years set
ting the little type faces. She came
/ down one step and peered closer in
to his face.
"Herbert!" she said thickly.
Something in her face, ner voice,
her manner of repeating his name, did
. the business. His wandering thoughts
came back. He recognized her i'll
that moment and he recognized HIM
self and he looked down at himself
and out around the yard rs though as
toniShed to find himself there.
81 come out to see you, Mary he
said. IT'S long. long time since
we had Il talk"
He sat down opposite her precisely
as he had seated himself one sum-
mer's day in the year before. And
the past al rose up AGAIN before both
of them.
"Wherc have you been AL ;iiia time.
Herbert" she asked in voice mel
low with sympathy.
"Somcwhere. out thcre!" he
said thickly with a wave Of his fray
ed arm to the west. "There'S been
so many places. can't remember
them all. just sort O wandered a
round, Mary, lookin' for happiness.
Don't press me about it. It's you
want to hear about"
And she told him. She told him
about the home on Pleasant Street
and its ending; about Jacks worries
and struggles and heart hopes and
/ tisappontments. She told him too,
about Jacks passing and the years
/ she had spent since in the Telegraph
! office. She told him about each boy
and where he was and what h1 mad
/ become and how well he was doing.
And through it all, something of his
own old personality coming back
through the hazes of an abused mind
and memory, he sat there and never
interrupted When she was finished
with the story down in the present, it
was a different Herbert than the one
. who had left our office who said:
"And amt it terrible lonesome for
vo". livin' out here alone in this Cobb
Hill house now that Dexter's gone
and old Mrs. Morrow is dead?"
Old Aunt Mary shut her lips tight
ly to keep back the emotion. But the
tear, would not stay leashed.
"YeS," she said huakily, "but love
ii. lived here as a girl and dream
ed dreams Of the future here and left
the old russell apple tree that now is
only lightning blasted stump down
in the orchard here, to go to Paris
and take up my life-work there. 1t
was here that | buried mother 1t
was here that | came with Jack and
our family of six little boys. Life
was full of many beautiful things
then. And the place still stands for
them now. Jacks coffin was carried
out this door. One by one watched
the boys go away to college and later
out of my life through this chip-clut-
tered yard and down the road and a
round the bend where the sumachs
hid them.
"No, II .t... H.
it would
else now ' t'.' '-'
are all T. f.
but they'r -H.
The old man rubbed his race and
seemed startled to find the stubble
upon it. He made as though to say
something and then checked himself.
For with her eyes fixed on the peace
full scene in the valley below them
Mary was going on:
"The place is filled with ghosts,
Herbert, but l am not afraid of the
ghosts. There is the ghost of the
little girl who played around here
and down under the old russell apple
tree and the stone wall and the fence
by the woods that have all been cut
away. There is the ghost of my mo-
Their that comes to me in the evenings
and sits with me by the open window
when the moon is high and the frogs
are peeping. Then there are other
little ghosts-boys that once called
me mother and that l worked for and
gave my life for-and who are some
where out in the world now doing the
worlds work. And yet see these
little ghosts again often, Herbert,
toddling through the rooms, playing
about the old toy-scarred furniture
it may sound Gerry to you, but
many is the door that I open to feel
the presence therein of those who
have gone far off. And--I am not
afraid"
Herbert was now quite himself
again. But he was broken-down old
man.
MARY" he said in his queer
cracked voice, II loved you once, did
MT l? You know that"
eyes, Herbert dear, I believe you
did"
81 wish it was so that we could
we could-spend our last few years
together"
She covered her care-lined features
with her gnarled red hands for the
moment. She lifted them again with