Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1878 — Mamma’s Grave. [ARTICLE]

Mamma’s Grave.

A boy, uot over eleven years old, whose pinched face betrayed hunger, and whose clothing could scarcely be called by the name, dropped into a carpenter snop on Grand River avenue the other day, and after much hesitation explained to the foreman: “We want to get a grave-board for nia. She died last winter, and the f raves are so thick that we can’t hardly nd here no more. We went up last Sunday, and we come awful neameU finding it. We thought we’d git a grave-board, so we wouldn’t lose the grave. When we thought we’d lost it Jack he cried, and Bud she cried, and mv chin trembled so I could hardly talk!” 5 “Where is your father?” asked the car pent**. * r “Oh, he’s home, but he never goes up there with us, apd we shan’t tell -him about the board. I guess he hated ma, for he wasn’t home when she died, affd li(; wouldn't buy no coffin nor nothing. S<nuetimes, when weiajre sittiu' on the dodr-Ltep talking about her, lind Jack and Bud are crpn’, and I’m rememberin’, how she kissed us *ll afore she died, he says we'd better quit that or we’ll ,get what’s bad for us. „ But we

sleep up stairs, and we talk and cry in the dark all we want to. How tnach will the board beP” The carpenter selected something fit for the purpose, and asked: “ Who will put it up at tho grave?” “ We’li take it' up on our cart,” replied the boy, “ ana I guess the graveyard man will help us put it up.’” “You want the name painted on. don’t you?” “Yes, sir, we want the board white, and then we want you to paint on that that she was our nia, and that she was iorty-one years old, and that she,died the second of November, and that she’s gone to Heaven, and that she was one of the best mothers ever was, and that we are going to be good all our lives and go up where she is when we die. How much will it all cost, sir?” “ How much have you got?” “ Well,” said the boy, as lie brought out a little calico bag and emptied its contents on the liencli, “ Bud drawed the baby for the woman next door and earned twenty edits; Jack, he weeded in the garden and earned forty cents, and lie found live more in the road; I run of errands and made kites and fixed a iioy’s cart and helped carry some apples inte a store, and I earned sixty-five cents. Ail that makes a hundred and thirty cents, sir, and pa don’t know we’ve got it, ’cause we kept it hid in the ground, under a stone. The carpenter meant to be liberal, but he said: “ A grave-board will cost at least three dollars.” The lad looked from his little store of metals to the carpenter and back, realized how many weary weeks had passed since the first penny was earned and saved, and suddenly wailed out: “ Then we can’t never, never buy one, and mother’s grave will get lost.” But he left the shop with tears of gladness in his eyes, and when he returned, yesterday, little Bud and Jack were with him, and they had a cart. There was not only a head-board, but one for the foot of the grave as well, and painter jutd carpenter had done their work with full hearts and done it well. “ Ain’t it awful nice—nicer than rich folks have!’’ whispered the children, as the boards were being placed on the cart; “ wpn’t the grave look nice, though, and won’t ma be awful glad!” Ere this the mother’s grave has been marked, and, when night comes the t hree motherless ones will cuddle close together and whisper their gratitude that it cannot be lost to them even in the storms and drifts of- winter. — Detroit Free Press.