Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1874 — In the Bottom Drawer. [ARTICLE]

In the Bottom Drawer.

Lsaw wife pull out the bottom drawer of the old family bureau this evening, and went softly out, and w a ride red up and down, until 1 knew that she had shut it up andgone. to her~sewing. some-thingS hdd- away in that drawer which the gold of kings could not buy, and yet they are relies which grieve us until" both our hearts are sore. 1 haven’t dared look at them for a year, but I remember each article. There are two worn shoes, a little chip hat with part of the brim gone, some stockings, pants, a coat, two or three spools, bits of ‘broken crockery, a whip and several toys. Wife—poor thing—goes to that drawer every day of her life and prays over it, and lets her tears fall upon the precious articles, but I dare not go! Sometimes we speak of little Jack, but not ofteu. It has been a loug time, but somehow we can't get over grieving. He was such a burst of sunshine into our lives that his going away has been like covering our every-day existence with a pall. Sometimes, when we sit alone of an evening, I writing and she sewing, a child on the street will callout as our boy used to, and we will both start up with beating hearts and a wild hope, only to find the darkness more of a burden than ever. It is so still and quiet now. I look up at tiie window where his blue eyes used to sparkle at my coming, but he is not there. I listen for his pattering feet, -his merry shout and his ringing laugh, but there isTfib! soufid. There is no one toclimb over my. knees, no one to search my pockets and tease for presents, and 1 never flnd the chairs turned over, the broom down or ropes tied to the doorknobs. 1 want somejone to tease me for my knife; to ride on my shoulder; to lose my ax; to follow me to the gate when 1 go, aud be there to meet me when I come; to call “good night" from the I little bed, now empty. And wife, she i misses him still more; here are no little feet to wash, no prayers to say; no voice teasing for luihps of sugar or sobbing with the pain of a hurt toe; and she would give her own life, almost, to awake at midnight and look across the crib and see bur boy there as he used to be. So we preserve our relics, and when we are dead we hope that-st rangers will handle them tenderly, even if they shed no tears over thehi.— M. Quad," tn Fireside Friend.