prison was another man also serving twenty years. He was an old timer,
had served several terms before and this one was a sentence he would
probably never have received had it not been for his past record.
When he learned of his fellow-prisoner's anxiety, he took all his
own earnings, twenty dollars which represented the hard toil of four
years and sent them gladly to the old mother though it meant depriving
himself of all the extra little comforts he might have purchased.
Though for later chapters I reserve the after lives of my "boys" I must
give the sequel of this story. Both men came home to us. They became
earnest Christians and have good positions to-day where they have
proved themselves absolutely worthy of our confidence. They are earning
good wages, have won the confidence of their employers and the old
mother has been well provided for.
II
"REMEMBER ME"
As a little child I spent many a happy season in the home of my dear
aunt Miss Charlesworth, the authoress of "Ministering Children." The
pretty tree-shaded garden of Nutfield Cottage was bordered on one side
by the quiet village churchyard and a little private gate opened on
the path that led through it to the garden of Nutfield Court, where
our special playmates lived. By daylight one could run blithely enough
between the old quaint head-stones, many of them moss-covered, while
other mounds were bright with masses of blossom, when the breeze was
playing in the trees, the lark was sending forth its carol of praise
from the blue sky above or the quaint old ivy-covered tower of the
church might send forth its glad peal of chimes. There was so much of
life and beauty that children could run back and forth over the grassy
path with no thought of the death that lay still and solemn beneath the
smiling flowers and whispering grasses. But it was a different thing
entirely, if one walked back after nightfall, with senses alert for
every sound and heart beating fast with unknown terrors. The rustle
of a bird in the ivy; the creaking of a dead branch; the flitting
of a bat's dark wing or the play of moonbeam and shadow were things
that made the churchyard a place to be avoided for now the memory
was vivid that this was the village of the dead. In those childish
days death held for me a great horror. The thought connected with it,
that which made me feel most desolate, was the fact that when one was
dead, laid away deep in the earth and left alone in some dark place
beneath the tree shadows; to be covered in by the snow, or swept over
by howling winds or dismal rains, the world would still go on the same
as ever. For others, bright home lights would gleam, laughter and fun,
companionship and love, life with all it means would still exist, while
the dead would lie forgotten and alone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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