The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1921-06-16
The butcher turned with sudden

| Au0 DuiIIlcE IuIuCQ Will 5ONoCH
softened look In his eyes.
| poor old SOUL" he said, "she can't
remember they are all gone. She comes
in here day after day, ordering food
I don't suppose she has ever rightly
| gotten over the shock-two sailor sons
! drowned at sea, the youngest lost In
France and the major snuffed out over
night. Folks say she just lives IN the
past, always waiting for those boys
and wondering why they don't come"
Twenty minutes later Martha Car
| ter drove the mare into the barn, quite
as ramshackle an affair as the beast
itself. When she turned her tired feet
down the path worn to the kitchen
door by the three boys, whose happy,
hungry faces she was always expect
Ing to see, her mind was pitilessly
sane.
No, they would never come back !;
they were gone, gone.
The bare, brown canes were leaf
less. But there was no surprise In
her faded eyes; she had known now
for several weeks that 1t was dead.
Jim's rose was dead; yes, and Louis
/ they were all dead. The tears streamed
unheeded down her thin, brown
cheeks; her heart was dead. too.
At last, with small trembling hand,
she dried her eyes and turned to go.
but of sudden, something caught her
attention. She stopped quietly over
the tiniest bush and the pulse in her
withered throat nuttered-for heart
breaking second stood still! Johns
rose was alive. Yes, yes, there was a
wee bud on the stem Yet, why II 1t
had not died, did 1t wait till July to
leaf QUIT There was no one to an
swer the unspoken question, but the
warm drops that sparkled on the last
little bush were tears Of gladness.
The rest of the day the widow spent
In reassuring herself Why, Of course,
her baby couldn't have left her. Be
fore her eyes flashed a picture OF the
day more than 20 years ago, when
John, yellow-headed and round as
butter ball, first wobbled on his uncer-
tain little legs. His father was hold
ing the tail of his lacy white dress,
while she on her knees waited with
outstretched arms to receive the bold
adventurer. What bravery that Jour
ney required But he had conceive
courageous steps and he was Growing
II, har r,po fri,1p,nhppf
"Oh, darling, darling" she had said,
smuggling kiss in the pink folds of
his little fat neck, May your journeys
always end In your mothers arms"
The sun sank at last, and with the
sweet, grassy-scented dusk, that sense
of waiting which for so long had per-
vaded the mothers heart deepened. |
She felt her boy coming. Before the |
dim mirror over the Kitchen sink she |
patted her soft hair. She "tidied up
her black dress and smoothed the |
creases from a fresh white apron. |
Once, even as she trimmed the lamp |
wick, she caught herself humming
bit OF gospel tune.
The stars we're shining In the deep |
sky when the kitchen door opened qui-
stly. A tall boy stood on the thresh-
old, his tanned face radiant with Joy. |
From beyond the yellow circle Of the
lamps light a little, white-haired fig
ure emerged, eager arms extended.
"Ohl Johnny boy, Johnny. l knew
you would come!"
And as he pressed his cheek against
ner tear-stained face, the boy whis-
oered:
AN journeys end In mothers arms"