The Storyteller THE MAN WHO SAVED BROWN

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 30, 27 July 1905, Page 23

The Storyteller THE MAN WHO SAVED BROWN

Daniel Holman was planting peas in his garden. A fine large village garden it was ; its soil a uark sandy loam that gave promise of fruitiulne s. Oi chard trees blossomed arouiui him 1 ; birds iiitted througn the air with wifcps of straw in their Leaks, intent upon hoinebuildmg. The very atmosphere had the invigorating breath of Spring. The old man dropped the seeds with a liberal hand in the furrow he had opened ; then walked backward, treading it down as he drew the moist earth over it with his hoe. There was a subdued ioy in his kind old face, a zest in every movement : the joy of a willing lalyor performed in a glad faith of the harvest. A called shaxoly from^the house : ' Daniel ! Daniel Ilolman ! Oome right here ! ' ' Yes, mother.' He gathered up his tools and the t n bucket that held his seeds and plodded toward the bouse, gaving wistfilly back in the direction of the -vegetable patch? In the doorway his wife awaited him, the frown that had graved deep lines on her forehead drawing her face into unlovely lines. She had on her best black cashmere drebs and her bonnet and was drawing en a pair of leng-wristed biack taffeta gloves. "Daniel Ilolman, what you been a-doing now ? Ain't you a pretty sight to go and see a dying man ? ' He looked guiltily down upon his muddied shoer> and the earth stains on his 'garments. ' Why, you see, Mother,' he said meekly, ' you wasn't quite r&ady ; and I've teen sio late getting in those peas and the shower last night made the ground just nice and moist. I guess a little brushing'll make me pass muster.' He wiped his feet on a grassulot back of the house, then came up the steps. From a shelf on the back porch he took down a blacking-brush an-d did his Dest to restore the iA)lish to his muddied boots, following the process with a violent bmshing of his shabby best clothes. I-luiriedly scrubbing his face and hand's'at tic kitchen sin\, he went in to eclipse* himself in the big rollci- to-wel that hunp;'bcMde it, emerging rosy of, countenance and serene ol mind. ' Here I am, spick and span and handsome as the day you married me, mother ' ' Upon the woman's face there was no answering smile. ' You've never mae'e anything of yourse'f, and you never will, Dai.iel Ilolman. The idea cf v our joking and planting garden sccSs when yoi.r old friend ami comrade, ELen i\!i ler, lies dying » A hero like linn, too ' ' Had she been looking at him, Mrs. Iloliran might ha\e seen a quiver of pain thot i-hol for an instant o;er rrs placid fa^e , hut she straightered her bonnc-t before the little glass on the kitchen wall, then passed out into the sunshine, horse l f waiting to I'ck the door and hide the 1-ey v inlet the doormat oiuside. As they passed along the village street, lined with tall trees just coming into leaf, the sunshine, filtering through the half-clad branches, made a dancing fretwork on road an 1 sidewalk. Early as it was in the forenoon, other friends and neighbors were out, clad in their best Srindiav clothes, silrnt and decorous ami grave of face, all going in one direction— toward E'ben Miller's house ; for word had been sent around the 'night before that the old sol her, measuring the little space of life still left him, as a brave man may, had expressed the wisih that all who had loved and honored him during his lifetime should gather at his home for a last farewell. E. er since the day when voimg Eh en Mil'er had come staggering into camp at Fort Donelson bearing, in Kis arms the insensible form of Ins Colonel, 'shot through the ohigh, he had been the hero of his native Northern town. The Colonel had been retired because of permanent disability ; but Ehen, serving until the war was over, had on hiis return been met at the train by a band of music and flying colors, to take his lifelong place among the most distinguished iren of the comnvmitv Col Frown had succeeded to the estai-es and interests of his father, the old Judge, one of the richest and most influential men in the county ; aad Eben, who before the war had been accounted a young fellow of Icps than average promise, hplred along by the foloivel's bad ing, and home aloft on the flood of popular fa^ior, 'bad built up a prosperous mercantile business and become known as one of the ' solid ' men of the place, ser' ing a couple of terms as president of the town council. Living as he had in a cloud of glory, it

had been reckoned as not least among his virtues that he had always borne his honors modestly, deprecating all references to his, gallant deed, and been fctiithful to his old friends and obscure comrades, chief among these Daniel Holman.

Strange how luok favors one and slights another, ' said Mrs. Holman, as she saw the straggling villagers focusing into a veritable procession near tne Miller house. ' Take you and Eben Miller. You started out in life together in this very town and enlisted in the same company ! '

1 Yes, we fought side by side,' assented Holman. His thoughts weic far away on a Southern battlefield. 1 i remember the day you marched away,' continued the wife, softening at the nvemory. ' Daniel, I never told you before, but I was so proud of you ! You were the handsomest man in all the company— handsomer than the Colonel. You know,' she added shyly 'I could ha\e Lad Brown.'

' I know,' he said, and for a moment age arid the jears, with all their disappointments, fell away as they 100 ed into each other's eyes. " 1' was prouder of you than he ever was of his commission,' said Holman.

1 I thought you'd come back with a general's stars,' addei tie g^-ey-haired woman, and her voice took on a bitter toie, with reminiscence. ' But see how it all turned out. Of course the Colonel had his start made for him ; 'but tihe fact that he served three months in tl.e War of the Rebellion has done a lot for him. It sent him to (Jon?re_s anld it's made him one of the first men of the SU.te. And ttben Aiiller's been a big man all Ins life, and they say his name's got into history. Whi.e you ! All you got out of that very battle was a (icsii wound in jour arm that's mado it a little stiff and given rheimatism a chance at it ; and you re-enlis-ted and fojght the whole four years and came out the same 1 igh private you went in and nobody'is cared. You wouldn't so much as as-k a ponsion ; and here you've grubbed and toiled all your life, and I've slaved and sia\ed, and our children—' ' Don't, Maria ! ' protested Daniel. '' I'll say my say,' insisted the woman. ' 'Tisn't often I speiA. Our children have never had a rightful chance. They're noloSies,' she went on drearily, 'with Vst the same miserable outlook. Amd you know as vel as I, Daniel, we'll never be able to meet the next interest on tie mortgage , and owr home—' There was no necl to sreA further. The threatened los-; cf their comfortable little home, where they had dwe't diriig all the years of their union and where t/eir (hiMren had been born and reared, was the heaviest shadow that overhung their lives. They had come up with some of their neighbors and wre n cUm'cl in the slow procession A carriage dashel up the street and a portly gentleman threw the lines to the man in lurry beside him and descended to the l^cmc-it, walking with a slight limp. Meanwhile plances were cvchan R ed. It was fitting that the village magnate should h-uior wilh his presence the deathbed of tie man who had saved his life.

At the gate Daniel Ilolman, who had been singularly reluctant to join his wife in the proposed visit held back. '

1 I think I won't go in, Maria. You tell Eben I'll come in after a while, when the people are gone You lnow it ain't as if I hadn't been going to sec him pretty mich every day since he was talven sick.' 1 Daniel Holman, yon come right along with me ! ' said his better half in a fierce whisper. The room in which Eben Miller lay was a large apartment on the fust floor. Even with the curtains drawn, the light filtered in so that the face of the vetrian, with ils lines of pain and age, was plainly visible to the friends who stood a<bout the bed or gathered about the open doors leading into adjoining rooms As they drew near they heard his voice, in the piping tones of extreme weakness, ask :

Daniel Holman ? Hasn't Dan Holman

' Where's come yet ?"

' Mere's Mr. Ilolman, father.' said his eldest d-aurh-Icr, a matronly woman of middle age. Cclonel Brown, sitting at the head of the bed moved asine to let Holman approach. His leeognition of the newcomer was not a cordial one. Like the rest of his fcMow-iownsmen, he held Daniel Holm. Tin in lio-ht esteem reading him as a man of little force of character' hirmless and well-meaning but somewhat of a failure in life. Few men are Umdl\r to failures among their kind But Eben Miller caught at Holman's hand with the Prst sign of arimation he had shown that day ?n1 conversed with him in whispers. Those who 100-ked on were surprises to see the eagerness in the sick man's face, and more surprised still to Fee Daniel Holman shake his head and frown, in sullen denial or refusal of his regie t.

1 I've just got to, Da/niel ! ' persisted Miller, raising his \oice. • I've lived with it. I can't die with it.' Holman turned abruptly away. The circle about the bed opened to let him pass, then closed again. His wife, witnessing the incident, wished she might sink thiuotugjh the floor. Obstinate and self-willea as she knew Daniel to be, how could he have the heart to refuse anything to a dying man, and with so many'people looikiing on ?

Eben Miller himself did not seem to be in the least dispirited or surprised. Always* a man of eccentric humor, a queer smile hovered around his h] sas he spoke to his daughter :

• Prop me u,p on the pillows, Jean, and give me a taste of that stuff the doctor left.'

She arranged the pillows deftly, then lifted the glass to his mouth. The strengthening draught caused the flamws of life to leap high. The odd smile glinted from his eyes, his utterance grew clearer.

' Friends, I'\e called yow here to tell you something. Away back in the '60's I got the ciedit for doing a brave deed. I never deserved it. It's true I lugged Brown into camp the day he was wounded at Fort Donelsion, but another man picled him up from where he fell in the field, under fire, and got a bullet through his arm for dovng it. He'd got him to the rear when he himself sank down, faint from loss of bload, right where I was standing. Friends, I— l've got to tell it. I wasn't running away, but that first battle made me sick— sick all o\er— and I had just dropped down and let the boys pass on, meaning to follow them as soon as I cotuld stiffen up. 'In the rush and the smoke and the bellowing of the guns, nobody liad time to look at his neighbor, and when I staggered into the camp with the Colonel, they thought I'd done the whole thing. The man whose arm was hurt kept still. Next day, when I found my name had g<n- into Ihs reports, I was for telling the truth, but he stood out against it — the man who had re-ally done it. We hadn't much time for disputing or soli Ming hairs these da\s. I— fought through — to the end — of the war— and I think my worst eremy— if I ha\ c one— can't say— l didn't— make a good fight.'

He mo\ed his Rand feebly, and apsin his daughter hastened to gire him of the strengthening draught. After a. little he went on :

' When I came back you a!l made a hero of me, and after a while I g-ot used to it and li! od it. H was fkie fun sitting on platforms at public meetings and riding in carriages with the Colonel at the 1 cad of processions. Bit the sight of—that other man — o\er!ook(M and neglected — kept me from petting too vainglorious. I tried hard— l honestly did, Colonel— to get him to shoulder the credit. At first he said he'd tal en yout girl from you, and he allowed it would be rubbing it in to lay you und-r Ihe oblig>ati' n of swni; ytv r life. He said he'd only halfsa\ed it anyl'ow, when re icached me.'

The Colonel, who held fast io Miller's hand, was looking into the face of a s-Vrn-U'Saged woman with whitening hair, calmly, thoughtfully, as a main who has teen hartpily married for thirty a ears can afford to loo 1 ; at bis old sweetheart. Mrs. Holman gazed b?ck wildeved, with something like terror gripping at her heart Across the room, out of the range of vision, a mat' stood with folded arms resting on a wi r. Sow-sash, his' eyes, unseeing, turned toward the street

Apain the tsnic was offered the riving man, hut he refused it. His voice was failing, however ; he held steadily on :

' Lately we've had it hot and heavy. He's argued ii didn't matter now for him, art! it'd he a bad example for the children, destroying their faith and upsetting tie fine example I've been to them. But I belie'e it'll teach them a lesson worth more— to know the truth Besides, it matters to me I'\e been a thief the better part of my lif" I've stolen another man's refutation, and I'm rot going to die with it on me. Colonel, Do roraM^n Day comes revt week. Promise me — you'll ha'-e him — in your carriage — Daniel Hol'nan— the mar who saved your life ' '

There was a stir in the room— a movement toward 1 the loreiv man at the window, whose bead had dron red on Hs folded arms. The Colonel rose from his: rhaT and limped across the room, but the first to rea r 'h the loinelv figure was a woman, who put her arm around his shoulders and pressed her wrinkled check wet with tears, apainst his own.

On Memorfal Day Daniel Holm an rode in the Colo rel's oarriatre. But at the tiead of the procession rod< v Eben Miller in a carria-ge with nodding plumes, and th< % kind hands of those who had forgiven and lovpd on heaj:ed h's last resting place, with flowers.—' Aye Mafc'ia.'

Woods' Great Peppermint Cure, for Coughs and Colds never fails. Is 6d.