| Show T tto f feEO at 10 able aie 1 the th old oid mans face was wreathed to in smiles when they found him they told me in the dining car afla of a train on the louisville nashville road that in VW them smoking car was vms an old colored man who was going bouab to see his old plantation home again before death claimed him by and by I 1 went ant in to hato caTe talK he ads wrinkled and evidently used wonder that his friends in kentucky should have let him set out on such a long journey he replied I ivy just help deir selves sah I 1 tole de 1 I wa was s bound to cum an dey jes had to let me and how long since you left the old old plantation s V I 1 in wan wah times sall sab I 1 dun 3 went right off wid some yankee an dava dats de last 1 I eber did see eee of mars folks folka ize gwine down to em there is it jest a beetle ways out oS aselma 0 selma elma dey tell fell me d da a am great changes bout selma but I 1 reckon I 1 kin walk right down do da road an find de plant ashun in d de e night bress de bawd sah but I 1 doan dean reckon I 1 could hev closed my eyes in death if dey let me cum dars bars bin sich a longin to see deole de ole place placa agin agia dat I 1 stand it three or four of us chipped in to get his bis meals and make him comfortable but we saw that the journey was tell telling in g on his hia strength on the morn ing of the darwe day we were to reach selma pama IV I 1 could see that ae wis was wink weak anamier and nervous tot m he sald said iza self ds X r hadt abdie night dat I 1 was walkin long de road an met a funeral an when I 1 axed who was gwine to be buried a white man spoke up and said yon ton my soul if dat faint mars old job who gunned off boorin de wah I 1 heah boy let me tole you eo co methin yo has cum too late to see ole mars davs dats him in de coffin an he was a axin bout yo jea es de day beff he died I 1 told him that dreams did not signify and after a bit had him quite chirped up I 1 got him some tob tobacco co for his pipe saw that he had breakfast and as I 1 left him he smiled all over with happiness as he be said only two hours ma mo to belmal ize dun got derel dere 1 thirty minutes later the conductor beckoned to three or four of us to come into the smoker the old man sit sat in iii his chair leaning against the side of 04 the car and seemed to be sleep aag 49 hes been dead ten minutes qui quietly ek observed the conductor and he died as peacefully as aa a child falling asleep so he had there was waa a smile on hi his s old black face a smile of antie ipa tion and the pipe had not fallen from his fingers death had come like a oft and bleeck mantle and its iti t bonc 10 to T painless detroit iret |
