A COUPLE I`LL NEVER FORGET: The history of two people who had everything.

Dan and Martha were born and raised in Cypress City. They played together as children and went to the same schools. In 1914, after finishing high school, they married.

In those days, no one saw anything remarkable about either of them. Martha was pretty but not beautiful. Dan was a big, strong fellow who was attractive without being handsome. They were both poor.

The newly married couple rented an old cottage near the edge of town for $20 a month. They furnished all of its rooms with secondhand.

Little Changes. - Their cottage didn`t change all at once. Just a little at a time-a few rosebushes in the yard, a set of homemade furniture for the dining room, a new rug for the bedroom, a vegetable garden in back of the house.

From a ramshackle old place, their home became something that you would look at and say, "That's lovely." No two young people ever had more fun or worked harder than Dan and Martha. You could pass their house any evening and hear them laughing or singing. When hot weather came, they would sit on the little porch swing-on that Dan had made and Martha had painted-holding hands and acting as though they were keeping company instead of being married folk.

I suppose a lot of their happiness arose from the fact that they didn`t envy other people for the things they had. Even children-they wanted children, but none came. While still a boy, Dan had started working at Killifer`s Livery Stable, which long ago had became half livery stable and half garage. He continued to work there, and Martha got a job in an office.

It used to scare me to think what either one would do if something happened to the other. But when something really happen it was good. In 1921 a lawyer in another town wrote me that Dan had inherited a great deal of money. I asked Dan to come to my office, and I explained that he was now a wealthy man.

Dan`s Plan.-When I had finished talking he said to me, "Martha shouldn't know about it either" , "Suppose I gave you power of attorney; could you keep the money so nobody would ever know that it belonged to me?" "Let me say this. All those money you mentioned: you say they`ll bring us happiness. But we`ve got happiness already. No I don`t want the money. . I don`t mean that I want to throw it away. I know things can happen-ill health, for instance. But aside from something like that-I don't want it."

"Is that fair to Martha, Dan?" He smiled and nodded. "I´m not worried about her," he said with confidence.

A Good Life.-I arranged everything the way he wanted; then I waited for him to change his mind. But he never did. There were a couple of years when business was bad in Cypress City; nobody made much money during those years. But Dan and Martha just went on being happy.

Then came the boom. Folks in Cypress City-like folks everywhere else-had more money. Dan and Martha painted their house. They improved the plumbing, bought some electrical appliances, and Martha got some new dresses-but they did all these things with the money Dan was earning.

A Final Gift.-Then Dan died, suddenly and painlessly, of heart failure. Now the time has come to tell Martha about the money. I waited to let her recover from the shock of Dan`s death. Then I stopped at her house one day. She was on the porch. I sat down beside her and, after a few moments, told her the story. Martha looked surprised. Then I explained Dan`s reasons for not telling her.

When I finished, there was silence. And then Martha asked the question I least expected:"How soon can I have the money?" "You can have it any time," I said. "You could have had it years ago."

She said, "Years ago I had no use for it. Dan and I had everything we wanted." And then she added, softly, "Everything except one."

"Yes…?

"We didn´t have a child. Now we can have one."

"I suppose you´re wondering why-if Dan knew we could afford it-he never suggested that we adopt a baby. Well, I understand that. You see, neither of us would admit that we could possibly need or want anything more than we could get from each other."

A Daughter.-Her voice became softer, and she sat thinking about the future. "It will be a girl," she said, "because Dan wanted a daughter. I still have time to raise her to understand all the things that Dan and I understood so well."

Her expression had changed as she talked. Now her face showed complete contentment. "Even though Dan has gone," she said quietly, "he and I can never be separated. But I´ve been lonely since he went. Now I won´t ever be lonely again. What a wonderful husband! He has given me everything I wanted."

 

Adapted from a story by Octavus Roy Cohen.