The Widow In Her Cabin, Part Vi
“Harlot! How dare you betray my dear son!
Now bearing a damned vagrant’s little one!”
But Joanne cocked her head, looked quite confused,
“But father wherever did you hear such news?!”
And then affected to look rather stunned.
“The evidence is clear,”he said pointing,
to where her stomach was round with swelling.
Joanne just laughed, and said, “Oh dear, father,
don’t you know this is the work of Gunther?
When in winter through here he was passing?”
Now John cocked his head, was at loss for words,
scoffed, “Do not lie! That’s blatantly absurd!”
But Joanne said, “No, ‘twas I got it wrong,
I thought him dead, I thought it for so long,
but it was the call of his country he heard.
“He was up north, that he told me himself,
said it was rough there, I wouldn’t do well,
but just recently he was reassigned
to Ohio to patrol frontier lines,
these were the words dear Gunther did tell.
“We just had one night, for he had to march,
and he left me with a piece of his heart.”
But John still scowled when he heard her tale,
aaid, “He would visit his mother without fail,
yet you say without a word he did part?”
She frowned and said, “He had scant liberty,
and you know how much Gunther does love me.
He had to chose how to spend his hours,
to tarry on he had not the power.
It was not his desire to hurt thee.”
But still in his eyes some doubt did remain,
at this point a thought came to Joanne’s brain,
she said, “Now father, I know how it looks,
and in your place, I think I might be shook,
even could see how it might cause you pain.
“To be a preacher, yet have it appear,
that your daughter-in-law was in arrears,
that she might bear child of some drifter,
enough to leave any good man disturbed,
‘How could you ever preach to them?’, you fear.
“But I assure you, that is not the case,
a grandchild soon will come to this place,
and hopefully when Gunther next returns,
he’ll visit you both, oh how he must yearn,
and our child will brighten up his face.”
She left it at that, the old man did stop,
and thought of her words, thought of them a lot,
to act on his thoughts meant giving up hope,
that was something with which he couldn’t cop,
so with a sigh, she saw his shoulders drop.
“Take heart, father, you’ll have a grandchild,”
She said, smiling, “In just a short while.”
John seemed to accept this with a short nod,
And without a word, away he did trod,
To tired to face up to his trials.
CONCLUDES IN PART VII.
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