Year: 1871

i


In the year 1851, a young man,


then living q few miles from this


city, went into the Missouri State


Guard as a soldier. At Springfield.


and on the re organization Of this


branch of the army, he took service


as a Confederate. Afterwards he


joined a company in Col. Up. Hays
regiment and participated in the


battle of Lone Jack.


Before leaving home, however, his
mother gave him an old fashioned
gold ring, which had a heart upon it,
and the letters ar. S." engraved up
on this heart. She placed it on her
sons hand with wish, or, rather, a
prayer, that he might 60 through the
war safely, and get safely back to his
home again.


1t is not known that either the
ring or the prayer acted as a charm,


put the young man went unharmed


through many bloody fights, being


nit In but one of them, the wound
then proving to be only mere


scratch.


In 1864, the young man was very
sick of a fever at Clarksville. Texas.
During the delirium attendant upon
1t, and while he was tossing to and
fro, the ring slipped from mis- finger
and was lost. The closest search
failed to find it, and it was given up
for good. There waited upon the
young man, however, very pretty
and amiable girl, who seemed to be
sorry when he got well enough to re-
join lis command. When he left he
laughingly told her that if she would
find his ring, and be lived, he wonld
come back and marry her. If this
promise was made with any degree
of sincerity, it was soon forgotten in
the excitement and care ola soldiers
life, and only at rare intervals, per
haps, did he recall the sickroom and
the ministering angel.


When the war was over, the Young
man returned to his fathers farm in
jackson County and went to work in
good earnest. Two years ago his
mother died, and once more the loss
Of the ring came back to him with
redOubled sorrow. He determined
to write to the lady who had nursed
him, and 70 inquire of her whether
she was married or not, and Wheth-
er she had ever seen or heard any
thing of the present his mother had
made him.


The letter was written in August.
1859, and in March, 1870, what was
his surprise to receive an answer =
from the identical girl he had left in
1864, and to whom he had made a
light promise of marriage. She was
still single, she said, and waiting for
him. And what was stranger still.
only five days before she wrote she
had found the lost ring. The man
ner Of finding it was as follows: The
father of the young lady had deter
mined to make some repairs in his
house, which repairs necessitated
the taking up of the floor of the
room in which the soldier had been
sick. After doing this, and while
digging away some rubbish beneath,
the workmen came upon the ring.
1t had slipped through a crack in the
floor, and had been lying there safe
and sound, for nearly five long years.
The lady took possession Of 1t at
once, and wrote Immediately to its
owner, as we have stated oboYe, Per-
haps she looked upon its recovery "a
an omen, and perhaps it was. Atsnv
rate it was little romantic with ali
its attending circumstances.


The correspondence thus COM
menced, or rather renewed, was con-
tinned with an eYer-increasing ardor
on the part of the gentleman, until
IN the end he made new and an i'm
petuous offer ofmarriage. Without
that the story would be incomplete
Last week, with money in his poek-
ct, good home in jackson County
and a great happiness in his heart
this young soldier-aow somewhat
older and more settled and sedate-
started for Clsrksville, Texas, the
home OF his betrothed.-Kansqs Citv
Mo. Times.