Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1919-05-16
THE SHIP THAT NEVER CAME.

Newport News, Va, May l5.- t
know my boy is coming home some
day" Clothed in these words is faith
that keeps the "home fires" burning
i'll little cottage seven miles north
of this city, where Mrs. Mary Il.
Ilollister lives alone, and waits for
her only son to come back home
from war. 1t is Faith that could
not live in heart less staunch than
hers, because her "ship" will never
come i'll from sea-
al know he'll come" she repeats
each day. "lle's all Ive got in the
world and if | didn't think he's COM
ing back to me, don't believe I'd
care to go on living any more"
Mrs. liollistcr has been Il widow
many years, and lived with her only
child, Philip Hollister, in their little
home out on the waters edge, where
the James leaps and plays and laps
the beach on its sparkling way to the
sea. She and her husband saved to-
gether and bought the little place be-
fore he died. Since that tice she rails
ed her boy, sent him to school, and
was happy. He grew into young man
hood, worked and paid Off the little
debt that accumulated OH the home.
Then war came.
The mother was silent on the sub
ject, since her forbears had been vet
Grams of Americas wars, and fight
ers' blood ran in her veins. In few
weeks, as she expected and had Sc
cretly hoped, Philip came to her and
said he was going to enlist. She was
proud of him, and sent him off to war
with her blessing
Time went on. No little blue star
ever shone more proudly than did
hers. He went to France with one of
the finest divisions, and she went OH
raising n brood of chickens, caring
for her COW, and planting little
crop of vegetables in the garden plot
behind the house. Her pay allotment
came each month to help make ends
meet, and she was ever so proud of
her soldier boy.
Names of -Thierry thrilled
the world. She read the story of the
fight. Other battles went on, wherein
American valor gained the day. She
was prouder still because she felt her
boy would be in the thickest of the
fight
No letter came from him. She read
of other battles, and saw big, gay
streaked ships come into port, bear
ing their precious burded of manned
but smiling boys from Over There.
She waited. Summer grew, and
waned, and the little cottage home
was lonesomer.
Came a messenger one day. The
messenger said her boy had died in
battle.
For days it seemed to her that
there was nothing more in life to
live for, but she went on living, in a
cort of dream. She used to take his
little toys he played with in the long
years ago, her nenghbors say, and
lay them out each day, and talk to
them as he unused to do when he was
there.
Il wonder if it's cold on No Mans
Land" she asked those who came to
see her, and nights when the rain
beat on the roof. the people say thew
saw a light in the little house long
into the night.
A few weeks later another mes
sage came. They had not found her
boy, and he was believed to be "miss-
ing" the message said. She wonder
ed If he were lying in some trench or
suffering in some dark, far off spot
where n little care might save him.
1t was then, they say, that the hope
and courage almost left her.
Weeks she waited. All joy had left
her life. One day she heard that he
was captured, and that the Red Cross
was caring for him in Germany. She
haunted the Red Cross houses, for a
word from him, but none ever came.
She took on hope, and prayed for the
war to end.
But soon her hope was shattered,
for one day, few months ago
another veteran of the Great War
came here on his way home, and said
he had been WITH Phillip w..len he fell
in battle and died.
She would not believe it. "They'ye
lied to me too much about il now"
she said. His monthly pay still came
and the War Department had NOT
changed their report that he was n
| captive in German prison CAMP.
So, as weeks went by, snc watched
and waited. hoping. praying that his
snip would come in. thousands of
veterans returned, the war at an end
Zach week big shops came home. I'M,
loading thousands of fighters who
he'd seen it all Over There.
When the first ship landed, she was
standing beside the piers, and as each
man marched out of the gates into
the street, while others chcercd and
laughed, and wept, she silently scan
ned each face, eagerly pcered into the
Khaki masses for figure whose pic
ture was in her heart. Sadly She
turned and walked away when the