Show after forty years BY TALMAGE copyright 1301 b dally story pub co there died not long ago in a tain home tor soldiers a certain man who shall here be nameless he died in his bed at night with none watch ing beside him he left no word he did not struggle so nearly did the death calm resting upon him resemble the slumber of alte that one ot his corn rades a jest upon his lips shook him by the shoulder in the morning and then the word went forth that another worn and weary one had passed through the valley 0 the shadow with out suffering and silently the prayer went up 0 lord will that as he was taken so also may it be with us they burled him with military hon or and then wrote to his mother an bouncing noun cing briefly the facts they gave no details and presently a letter writ ten by the faltering hand of age was received tell me please it said how my boy died and let me know what be longings he had the answer was necessarily short there was so little to tell H had been buried in his only suit of clothes there was a sum of money amounting to thirty six dollars in a ali box be neath his bunk in his valise were two shirts a suit of underwear two pairs of socks and one brown cotton glove nothing more the official making the inventory contemplated the glove somewhat cu piously when he came to it and scratched his head with the blunt end ot his pencil on glove he said halt aloud evidently a s wonder how it happened he continued to wonder tor several days then the matter was explained to him A woman leading by the hand a child app earea in the commandants office seeking information regarding the departed soldier she as not a relative neither was she a friend at least she had not been a friend she had known him in his youth she had been him march away to the war she had not seen him since the official questioned her guarded ly and learned largely by inference from her replies that the soldier bad been her lover but tuat ills idea of loyalty had not been her idea of loy alty they had lived in the borderland between the north and the south her father and her brother and another man had gone out to battle tor the south while this man had remained faithful to the old flag she had given him to dundei stand plainly that he must choose between the flag and her and he had chosen prompt ness the man had returned from the war and she had married him he was sadly crippled and her pity sent out to him masquerading as love that was years ago her life had not been evidently a woman s glove an unhappy one she said although the drawn face the lack luster eyes the stooping shoulders and the dragging footsteps told a story of toil beyond her and of devotion forced beyond t ie of her spirit her husband was dead he had been burled but tareo days ago her only eon also was dead and her son s wife and she were not in sympathy the child she held by the hand was her grandchild her one comfort she had come to se the soldier who had been faithful to the flag of ahe had known where he was throughout all the years she had saved a little mou ey enough if eked out by a small pen slon to carry two people of sixty to tue end of their lives would the of be so kind as to call the soldier at the official his throat vigor bously and scowled he aiwas scowled when he had a painful daty to perform and this woman with the love ot forty years ago intact in her bosom was eo pitiful a spectacle under the circum stances that his courage was hardly equal to telling the truth but he was not a man to shirk a duty my dear madam he said I 1 re gret to inform you that your friend is dead she seemed not to understand at arst but gradually the import of the statement was borne in upon her and she moaned hopelessly trembling as the leaf of autumn trembles in the north wind the official said nothing more he was waiting for her to speak did did he leave anything any thing marked for sarah 7 she asked at last not anything replied the official and then as gently as he might he recounted the circumstances attending the soldier s death he went alone whispered the woman alone 0 god but you say he left a gloved was au a brown glove such as women used to weara the official nodded I 1 have the mate to the glove she announced calmly the look of aearl ness and despair coming again to her face it is bloodstained and falling apart but I 1 have preserved it because something here placing her hand upon her breast told me that the other would be found some time and I 1 would know the truth and I 1 know the truth now she raised her eyes and for an in stant her lips moved silently my husband brought it with him when he returned wounded from abhi loh A union soldier whose name he would never tell me had stood between him and death there fighting hard against his own people that the reb el s wife might not be deprived of bea husband the gloves were mine he reached out from the ranks and pulled them out of my hand the day he went away to join grant s army and I 1 struck him in the face when he did it one of them he used to stanch the flow of blood from my husband s wound and then stuffed it into the pocket of my husband s coat where I 1 found it the other he kept forty years she quite broke down at this june ture and the official essayed to corn fort ber his mother still lives he said and anything marked tor sarah nailed the place it you wish you may take his things to her she readily accepted the commission but of the meeting between the two women only themselves know |