The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-11-25

the side of the wagon, and laid there
and sobbed like child. When pres
emily he was started to hear his wife
singing. and she was singing this:
II have a Father in the Promised
Land.
My God calls me, must 20
To meet Him in the Promised Land. -
My grandfather jumped ND startled
and asked her, polly, where did you
learn that. never heard you sing
that before" And she said, "When l
was a little girl my father pitched his
tent on a village green beside a
church, or chapel. and on the Sabbath
day saw the people going into the
church. They would not let me 20 in,
for was only Gypsy girl, but I
sat on the doorstep and I heard them
sing that song"
Can you tell me just what it was
that brought that song back to her
in her dying moment? Would you
say it was freak of memory, or only
conscience? l should say that it
was the Holy Spirit. For I think that
God in His infinite goodness looked
down into that Gypsy wagon and saw
my grandmother dying in her super
stition and ignol ance, and I believe
that He sent that chorus back to her
SO that by the means Of it she could
climb out Of her ignorance and out of
her superstition into the Glory Land.
For Christ said, "When the Comfort
er is come He will bring back to
your remembrance all things"
The next morning my father and
his little sister were walking hand in
hand up the lane, for those little
Things were inseparable, when sud-
denly my father heard his name call
ed, Rodney, Rodney" and he turned
round and saw his eldest sister stand
ing in ker night robe on the top step
1T the wagon, for bed could not hold
her that morning, and as she waved
her handkerchief she shouted, "Rod-
ney, your mother is dead!" My faith
er threw himself on the ground and
scbbed with his boyish heart, Rodney,
you will never b. like other boys any
more, for you have no mother"
When the undertaken came to pre-
pare the body for the casket he said
that she was Gypsy, she must be
buried at midnight; they could not
have the hearse On account of the dis
ease, 60 the undertaken promised to
get them an old farmers cart. There
was some trouble about buying her
in the cemetery for fear that some of
the parishioners would object to a
Gypsy being buried in their midst, but
eventually the authorities gave their
permission that she could be buried
in corner of the church yard where
the sexton threw his rubbish, and all
That was left Of my grandmother the
next night was placed in an old farm
er's mart and carried to the cemetery,
as the old church steeple struck
twelve. My grandfather followed the
casket as the only mourner, and she
was buried with the light of an old
lantern, and when he came back to
the camp in the early hours Of the
morning, he sat by the fire and cried
and wondered what was going to be-
come of his five motherless children.
My grandmother's death was the
beginning of change in the Gypsy
home. My grandfather tried not to
{ swear, and tried not to drink, 80 that
I he might not break the promise made
to his wife, but he knew no power
save his own will to help him, and
when temptations came he often
broke his promise. For several weeks
they travelled In circle around the
church cemetery, keeping a few miles
I distant. bat not going too far away