Show ON M DAY H day day of flags De decoration and lowers flowers and green gruss grass covered graves decoration day the time of sobs and tears of prayers and memories and smiles decoration dayl day it cornea comes only once a year this brave holiday on the ho boundary line between may and june spring and bummer time schoola give a holiday and banks close business Is shut up and the tired workingman hangs hanga a flag out over hla his porch and rests old soldiers tottering on canes soldiers bent and walto headed waiting for the last taps to bo be sounded get out their suits ot of blue blua and gray covered with tarnished gold lace and braag buttons and hobble to the cemetery to lay a wreath on oa somo some com comrades rados last resting place it is a beautiful thing i lo 10 a think ot of a nation celebrating a day setting it apart from all others for the purpose of honoring the nations heroes I 1 was sitting bitting in a trolley car when a lady entered a woman no longer very young with a pale sorrowful face she wore expensive black and tier her two carefully gloved hands held a huge dewy mass of roses like nn an oasis in a desert they filled the dusty city air with sweetness and color in a little while a small email newsboy dragged himself up the step and presented a grimy transfer to the conductor 1 I found it he confided loudly to a man seated near the door then lie he tramped down the alaio acislo and climbed up on the bent next to the lady them flowra are swell he told her in a soft wondering tone of voice 1 I never saw any like lem em before reverently ito ho touched tho the nearest blossom with moist grimy fingers the lady moved down 0 on n the seat putting several feet of space between herself and the small intruder dont touch theral them sho she ordered crossly several blocks farther on she got out her arms full of her fragrant burdon burden with halting footsteps foo stepa steps and tear filled oyes eyes she turned in at a great marble columned cemetery gate she was taking her roses to lay on tile the grave of some loved dead one I 1 was sorry for the woman but I 1 could not help thinking of the little newsboy ile he was vory very much alive alae and a single flower would have me meant ant paradise to him I 1 know a girl who had a very dear friend a friend who meant more mora to her than I 1 could possibly put into words one day the friend died and left her plunged in grief A year after the dead girls birthday came cam around and the day before the anniversary I 1 happened to meet my friend on oil the street we wa went to tei together I 1 did not speak to the absent one but suddenly as aa we sat eat quietly gazing out of the window tho the girl began to talk margaret she ahe said bald something has been bothering me I 1 want to ask you it im doing right perhaps I 1 wont help any im not so good at advice but go on you see its this way sho told me tomorrow to la alices birthday the tha first birthday when we boon been together for ten years I 1 had earned five dollars it seemed more moro personal that way and I 1 was wan going to buy flowers for or her grave I 1 was just on my way to the florist to order them when I 1 met a woman I 1 know v a woman who used to wash for us ua margaret you should have seen her lie her eyes were large and alark und ami her cheeks were perfectly hollow I 1 askea her what acs the matter and she said elio bho was hungry hungry If she sha was starving and so were the tha three children that belonged to herl berl well I 1 told her that I 1 would find some work tor for her ter today and then I 1 gave her all the money I 1 had it was only after she bad had left me that I 1 remembered alices flowers I 1 cant get them now do you think that shell mind very much mind Ml ail I 1 groped blindly for or words mind of courso course not she would bo be glad and thankful tt it she only know knew do you think so too friends of mine ono one day this week I 1 felt rather blue and unhappy it was u dark gloomy day with a biting wind coming around tho bleak corners cornera and a heavy rain that fell to the ground a steady downpour ot of big splashing drops somehow the world inside my office seemed very lonely and gray I 1 had a hc adache my work vork had icon boon going badly and I 1 was rather discouraged when tho the mall camo came in a big package of letters lettera to bo be opened 1 I was wag not much cheered hut but my special guardian angel was waa on duty that day when I 1 cut tho the first envelope I 1 found 4 4 plain little letter written la in pencil on cheap paper by an lady old enough to be my gra dut but the words lightly written in an m old fashioned hand tell fell across my heart like a ray of golden suii sunshine shine through the grayness grayn cBS of the rain dear friend read tho the letter 1 I havo have been seeing your pieces in tho the christian herald tor for somo some time and I 1 made up my mind to ta write to you sonio some people bollomo in keeping their kind words and their flowers and their love until a person la Is dead dut but I 1 dont 1 want you to know right now that youve cheered me up lots lota of times and that I 1 like your stories anti and that I 1 like you now nosy I 1 dont want you to think that I 1 am disapproving of decoration day tho the world la Is stupid enough and mat ter of fact enough to forget easily tho heroes who llo lie in our come cemeteries tortes but wo we should consider tile the living too let iet us place roses over tho the little groebl mounds but dont lot us overlook tile the PL pleading ng child hands handa that are stretched out for their sweetness while wo we honor tho the memory of those beau beautiful ticul spirits that havo have passed from us lot us not forgot forget the living breathing souls that need our help it la Is not necessary to savo save all the lowers flowers the kind words and the kisses until lips and hearts and minds are anro cold and dead margaret E Sang r jr in tho the christian herald 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