LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2663, 19 October 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

DIOS : A RAILWAY COSTDUOTOR’S STORY.

( Continued .)

'lt was a long time af.re I ever said anything more to her about it In fact, I don t knew as I ever would ’a’ said anythl; g about It ag-lu, if tho ba Ui’t V glya me a chance bo. X used to go up there juat tho same, and go ridin’ wish her, end all that —and we used to talk just tho oamo, only about that. ]But one night, I was aittin’ alone out on the to arch, where ;I*d bean smokin’ with the old Jaan, and the first thing I knaw she come »ud kteeled right down afora me, and put Doth hir hands into mine, and she says—- “ George. I never answered that question you asked mo so long ago. You haven’t forgot it, have ycu ? iva been thlnkin’ it all over, ever ’since, and I know now that I've loved you all tho time. I don’t quite Bao how It ia that you should love me ; but £ know you do, or you wouldn’t say so, and ao Ive oomo to say yes ’ Well, stranger, tniy ba yon know a little how it la yourself about such times. But anyhow, right there, on that old porch, begun a little heaven below for me and Dick, and It haint lat np yet, and wo’-, e soon some pretty rough times tso niace thru.

‘ Tho chi suon gave bis consent, for I waa gatli.i’ on fir-e—jeefcen 1 was good for about 4en thousand them times—and we never set mo time to bo married. But along In the winter I had a bard ran o’ luok. First I went on a no' o for a feller, and he broke, aud I hr.d to make it up. It waa for somethin’ ove* six thousand, and It run mo pretty ofooe to make tho raise. That was when I sell Kit. lord, but I did hate to see her go. But the money had to come Then, after that, one finnday night, when I was np to see Dick, the stable got afire, and burned np pretty much all I had left. Then In the Bpring the vfar broke oat, and I always was ei-blo-in.’ round, talkin'juat what I thought, no matter who heard, till finally it got too Lot to held me iu that region any longer, and eo I a Id out most o’ what I’d got left, and skipp'd out between two days, and got off to the norlh I didn't get a chance to Bco Dick sforo I lift Of course we all expected the thing ’d be all over la a few months anyhow, ond then I thonght. Dick and mo’d be all right again, So I come np here to Jackson, and pretty soon enlisted in the Michigan Cavalry, and went south again. For about a year we was with Halleok over on tho Mississippi, but oftsr a while I got transferred to Burnside’s division, when he was over in Fast Tenne-see after the Kebs, and went with him up to Knoxville, and you ate when I got there I was on my old stampin' ground, lord, I never thonght it’d coma back to the old town that kind o’ way. Weil, of course, I waa all the time thin kin’ about Dick, aud when I got bxokto the villo I was going to go light to work to hunt her up. Bat yon see old Longstieot got after ca—got in below us. you know, and shut - ff our grub, and It took about as good as we’d got in tha shop to hold things level for a while. Fretty soon we got a wh*ck at blm down at Fort Sanders, aud we just everlastingly o’eined him out. That let up tho alego, and wa back into Knoxville, and a part of u“ bjya was det»i ! ed to guard the «lty, vV hile the siege was gein' on things Sand bqoTj runniu’ pretty loose all over town, aud they looked kind o’ rough; so, along aoout the middle of January I waa put In ohsrgo of a squad o’ men and teams to tidy np the city. All this time I hadn’t heard a word from Tick gr knowed a thing of her. You see, here It wai more’n two years and a half since I’d seen her. But bless your soul, stranger, don’t you think I was afraid she bad gone fcaik on me—not mach ! * wtli, one day 1 was out with my men olosrin’ up, ond I rode into a back yard—l was on horseback—where there was a big pile o’ chips, kind o' all scattered round. I got off my horse, and went to the back door and knocked. A woman came to see who was there, and I told her that if she didn’t take care o’ them chips I should have to, and If she’d got a rake I'd help her get ’em Into shape; aud we talked away there awfaiD. The door swung open a little more, and I saw th< re was another woman in the room. I saw her dress right through tha crack between tha door and the frao.e. I didn’t thick much of It In particular, though I a’lus did somehow feel a little bind o’ red ia the face and sink hearted like when I’d a*o a woman that I couldn’t got a fair enough a'ght as to tell what she looked like, especially if she was about Dick’s alas. While me and tho old woman was talkin’ 6 there, this other woman somehow edged out little by little, till the first I kno Wed 1 iooked up, and as sure as shooting, stranger, there stood Dick! She was a little taller than when I saw her last, and looked p'-Io and tirad and anxious like, just as though she waa a-watohin’ and a-watohin’ for somoth’n’ to come and waa all tuckered on is waitin’ for it.

‘I tell you, it was about as much as I wanted to do to stand still for about a minute. I knowed her as soon as I got my eye on her, but she didn’t know me, for aura. You see, I’d changed since she saw me last. I’d been drlnkin’ right along, and was red in the face, and had a full beard. I always eh wed, as I am now, In the old days -so it wa’n’t no wonder she didn’t know mo. But 1 just stopped short on my raoket with the old woman, and looked Dick fight square in the eye. I couldn’t stand it tao longer, and I just says ‘Dick I’ and then There It is again, stranger! Yon flee, when a fellow la talkin’ about such things as these, there aint no words good enough to toll all you mean. For, you see, that little old time cut on the porch begun right over again, jaat as though It had never stopped, and throe years seemed like no time at all. She’d been in the city all through the siege, but somehow I'd missed her till then. But after that, of coarse, we was happier than ever. Her father had lost all his property, pretty near. His niggei s had all run off, and the old man wa> in a bad fir. Dick to’d me that after I skipped off north her father said she should never marry that Yankee scoundrel; but that didn't make no difference. You see she’s quiet enough, Dick is, but she’s got a will of her own. But 1 wa’n’t in no hurry about gettln’ married. Yon see, I’d been drlnkin’ right along all this time. 1 used to gamble, too, for all that was out. One day—it was the 19th o’ May—l’d been playin’ draw poker all day long, and it seemed that day as though Uia more I drank the better luck 1 had. .Tost about dark 1 got orders to rig up a train o’ waggons and go down the country, .■across the river, for forage, that night, fio I got cut, and was just about ready to start when one o' the boys come to mo and says, ‘George, do you calo’lats to ever cage that canary o’ your’n up there on the hill J If you do yon’d better be about it, for I heard to-day that the old man was in town, and that ha tllows to run her off to-nght!’ It boats everything, stranger, how some such things as that 'll brace a folhr up when he’s ful', I was as sober as I tn now inside o’ two minutes. I turned ’rourd to the feller that told mo, and says 1, * Cha-ley, you tako this train down the river, and get the boys to loadin’ and I'll bo there some time in the night, to come back with you.’ Well, I rode ride off to the house where Dick was stayin', hitched my home, and went in. As good fuck wou'd have it, the old man wasn’t about, and Dick come runnin’ to mo as pale as a shoot, and tremblin’ like a leaf, and told me that it was true, he father was goin’ to run her off. bays I, 1 Dick, look hers. Do you want to marry mo, just as I am, and to-iigbi ?’ And she just come up and put her arms around my nock, and hid her face ou my shoulder, and says, ‘George, I’ll marry y u any time, and the sooner the bettor, f „>r I can’t be parted from you again, ’ Bays 1, ‘That’n all right, little girl! Just you put on your sun-bonnet, eo as the folks ■won’t th'nk nothin’ about it if they do see you, and go down to head-quarters, end I’ll go and get the chaplain.’ * Well, au soon as wo got the thing fixed up, and took her down to the hotel—they’d jn.t pot a little house started there —and I give the landlord a hundred dollars ; told iiku that was my wife, and that he must keep her till I come back, for I’d got to go. ntd there might te some trouble; but if there war ho must see her through. Then I went with Dick to her room, took off her eun-bocnot, kissed the tears out of hor eyes, and than mounted my horse, and struck out. The old man come down alter I was gone, but ho found out It was all over, and no u;o raisin’ a row, so he just made the best of it, and gave Dick his blessiu’ like a sensible old davy as ho was, Dick and I staid at the hotel for a couple o’ weeks or so, and thoo wo wont to koepin’ house. Yon boo, the ohunees was that wo should have to stay bare we was for a good while, anyhow, and

Dick wanted to keep house, eo I let her. I waa pretty flush for awhile after my ran o' !a’t on poker, and I made the moat o' what I got on that haul ‘ But you sea I kep’ on drinkln’ pretty steady a l l the while Th-.t nig-t when Dick and I waa married, an i I Jwent rldln’ off alone down tho river there, X got to thtnkin' over this drlnkin’ business, and about concluded I’d quit; but when I get back, of course the boys made me sat’em up for the weddin', and that get me started again, and when a feller gets started once, strange-,- yon see it’s pretty hard to stop. But everything went on smooth as a dollar for about three months, and Dlok grew better and better every day, and we was as happy as the day was long—all only my drinkin*. But one day, along in August, it was all-killin' hot, and I got to goia’, and waa fall afore I know it, and tho boys took mo home at night drunk. Oh, my Rod, stranger! it don’s aa-.ui as though it could bo true, but it is ; I was just beastly drank—mad drunk. I yelled, aud cursed, and tore ’round gsn’ally. But D.'ck just got the boys off that had brought me home aa quick aa she could, and then Vue ’got my feet Into hot water, and bathed my head, and bound it up with oold cloths, aa tender as though I’d been a baby. After a while she got me quiet, and I went to sleep, and slept like a log till morning. * When I woke up about four o’clock, I was lyin’ on the front side o’ bed, with my face to the back There waa a lamp burnin’, and soon as ever I opoued my eyes, I saw Dick lyin’ there lookin’ right at me, and she says, ” George, do you want anything ?’ just aa though 1 waa tho weakest and aickeat man In tho world, and she waa just dyin’ with pi y for me. My head felt as though it was about aa big aa tho moon, and so I told her I’d like a drink o’ water bat that I’d get np nad get it. But afo-e I could atlr, she bounced out over the foot o’ tho bad, and had It for me. It was the first time Dick had over seen me drunk, or anything but juat aa kind and gentle as I know how to bo ; but. she never laid across word to me. She never cried aud took on, tho way some women does ; but was juat as kind and lovin’ to me aa though 1 waa the beat man In the whole busin aa. Oh, I tell you, Dick’s a woman, she is 1 Bat, stranger, you can’t have much notion o’ how I felt about that time. You see if a woman soar s ’round, and cries, and snuffles, and calls in the preacher to pray with you, and talks to the neighbor* about auoh things, why, then, It kind o’ gives a feller some excuse for goin’ to the devil; but to have her do aa Blok did—never say one word o’ blame—why, then, you see, it don’t give a feller anything to go, and it juat out mo up worse’n anything ever I struck afore in my life. [To be continued.)