Year: 1868

viii never tell her so. He is going
South in a few weeks"


This was pleasant, and current OF
pleasant thoughts commenced flowing
towards castles in Spain" How they
surged back in confusion, as if some
grim monster had plugged through the
pretty stream. leaving it disjointed,
turbid and in turmoil, as l read the
following from the brother himself.


There is a darkness worse than
that from which have recovered
Friends congratulate me on my recov-
cry and my improved health, and, in
deed, am well; l know it, feel it, and
am almost defiant in my new strength.


"The misfortune was terrible one.
| look about me and see my old COM
rades wounded. Tom with an arm
gone, Joe with both legs off at the
knee, Bob blind from the effects of a
shot, and my brave old commander,
Joe Hooker, paralyzed and stricken to
the heart, and l feel about my head,
and know that was wounded too,--
that lost for a time more than arm,
and leg, and eyes, and yet | bear
now no scars. If men would only
look upon the misfortune as an
honorable wound, / could bear it, but
to call me 'crazy,'-the sore will new
er heal


"And now there is another dark
ness enfolding me-a hopeless love-
l know all that is in my way, but l
love and have long loved our young
lady friend of the mountains. |
dreamed all through my army life of
acquiring honors and then wealth,
that l might claim this beautiful girl
as wife. Could there be worse fate
than mine?


"Were itnot for the love of my peo-
ple--I have felt my sisters and my
mothers soft hands knotting and
double-knotting strong cords about my
heart-l am wicked enough now, to
fling myself from the grand old preci-
pice in the mountains or to dash over
the falls below | will not do it-you
need not fear--but then | have the in
clination, and that is bad enough.
am offered situation in Florida. l
shall go and try to do as l should do
loving but hoping not


A letter from the father of this noun
tain girl, written on the same day but
at place hundreds of miles distant,
says pleasantly:


'.All your friends have left US and
we are lonely, my daughter more SO
than myself She has told me frankly
that she loves your young friend,
whose history has been such a strange
one, as you told me. l thought at first
that this was mere sympathy for him,
but | find that it is more. have
satisfied myself that the young man
loves in return, and l propose to have
you, my good old friend, encourage the
young man in doing well that he may
win the girl


Now this was all very nice, but a
letter from this hopeless young man,
written four weeks later, bursts upon
us in this wise:


"Have just heard of your serious i'll
ness--I feel that 1 ought to abandon
everything and go to you at once. l
am doing remarkably well. After
writing you last a strange thing hap
pened me. overheard conversation
between my sisters. l made my route
east take in the Kanawha Valley. l
discovered that my love was returned.
This is all l care for. Most men in
love would desire to call the girl, wife.
I do not. 1 am happy in the con-
sciousness of being loved. / am going
to Australia on venture that will make
or ruin me-"


And all these things were buried in
this package. Can you wonder that
the dreary December day was pleasant
to me. These flashes revealed hidden
scenes in the great drama of life that
made the stage situations of the now
better understood.


So is life's story told. Not always
in plain narrative; not always in what
you see and hear, but sometimes by
the replacing of broken links or the
sudden flashing of light upon darkened
and mysterious ways.


TRADDLEs.