The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-09-15
HE NEVER CAME BACK.
By Miss Dorothy o. Graves.

by MISS Dor0GGy Us GTaFeS.
Copyright, 1921, by Wheeler
Syndicate, Inc-)
How she loves him.
And love is such a terrible thing
that kind.
She has SO much to give-the
little girl next door. I've known
little Mary since her sweet mother
gave her own life for the little one
Mary's lived ever since as my
neighbor, in the little house of her
aunts, Miss Jessamine and the bed
ridden Miss Hetty. They're gone
now and only Mary is left to tend
the sweet peas and gather the lus-
cious fruit of the garden.
Mary talks to me sometimes in
that sweet. confding way of a lone
ly girl to a man old enough to be
her granddaddy.
There's Tom. He came to Glen
arden with his folks-a headstrong,
turbulent boy, but fine. Mary and
he hitched up like an old team of
horses. Made for each other"
everybody said.
Mary had so much to give from
her hungry heart When q girls
motherless and the only child she
must pour her affection on someone
or something. She loved the aunts,
but they weren't the kind to re-
spond, so when Tom came he filled
the void in her heart
Tom and Mary went through high
school together, neck and neck. She
was practically the making of him
Even his mother said so. Always
the boyd scrap" with his teachers,
but Mary'd pull him through. 1t
was so sweet, the way she man
aged, and no one could refuse her.
She talked of him as a mother
might and the boy made good. You
see, he had that in him with his
fiery spirit
His dad painted pictures, travel
ling from town to town and hot
headed like Tom. The boy was an
artist, too, beating his dad at his
own game, and there wasn't a mus
ical instrument in the Glenarden
band that Tom couldn't manage.
All that went to gether with his
temper and his spirit, but Mary
handled him as if he were Toms
own fiddle and she master player,
Tom was a good boy, the kind
you like 10 see with a girl like
Mary. Every Saturday evening II
saw them together at the picture
show in the town hall, and many A
Sunday afternoon I've seen them in
the glen gathering wild flowers.
always chatting gaily and freely.
Then the war came.
don't fhiDl- fbo,, tzs -
love before. They were children
and loved each other as children
love. But the war changed that. !
They walked long that night in |
the garden. Their path passed my |
bedroom window and 1 could not !
go to bed lest overhear their last |
words-too sacred for alien ears. |
Neither did the aunts call her in at |
10, as usual, and I could tell bv |
Miss Jessamine's shadow on the |
curtain that she was suffering with |
the girl.
But Mary was brave Tom went !
early the next morning. He came |
and kissed her by the lilac. Even +,
my hardened old heart melted with |
that kiss. 1t was the expression of |
love and youth, of sweet maid and /
warrior lover Of all the Centuries /
without Tom Mary was lost. She:
seldom walked in the glen, but put
tered II the garden, Gha seeet pas
growing lovelier under her care
Then Miss Jessamine took gicl-
Il didn't last long. Mary took ever
bit. of care of both the aunts. hut
nothing could have pulled Miss
Jessamine through, and when she
vent there was only Mary to care