Litchfield enquirer., 1862-06-12
left the room now Antoine could not shut out the fact that the child was passing away. He had learned to love her so !
 Dear heart,' he said once, 'what is't ails

tne lacG Cnat the cnllQ was passing away. he had learned to love her SO
 Dear heart.' he said once, what is't ails thee p @ra l Nothing, mon pere, ,-for 50 she called him. 1 The winter passed, the balmy spring air had come, and Angliee seemed to revive. In her little bamboo chair, on the porch, she swayed to and fro in the breeze, with peculiar undulatlng motion, like graceful tree. l At times something seemed to weigh upon her mind. Antoine noticed 1t, and waited. Atlength she spoke.
 Near our house. said little Anglice, 'near our house, on the island, the palm trees are wa wing under the blue sky. Oh, how beautiful I seem to lie beneath them all day long. I am very, very happy. I yearned for them until l grew sick-don't you think 50, mon pere
 sAon Dieu, yesr exclaimed Antoine, sudden ly. Let us hasten to those pleasant islands where the palms are waving, '.ii a1-r i Anglics smiled. ss g. s.7-.i.4s.f3at ss7z. .,. ~ am going there, mon pers r a l, -as se5 Ay, indeed. A week from that evening the wax candles burned at her feet and forehead, lighting her on her. jeYrneyt,~, All was over. Now was Antoineis heartemp- l ty. He had nothing to do but to lay the blight ed flower away.
 Pere Antoine made shallow grave in his garden, and heaped the fresh brown mould over his idol.
 In the genial spring evenings the priest was seen sitting by the mound, his finger closed in the unread prayer-book.
 The summer broke on that sunny land; and in the cool morning twilight, and after nightfall, Antoine fingered by the grave. He could never be with it enough. az One morning he observed delicate stem, witE two curiously shaped leaves, springing up from the centre of the mound. At first he merely no- ticed it casually but at length the plant grew so tall, and was so strangely unlike any thing he had seen before, that he examined it with care. How straight and graceful and exquisite it was! When it swung to and fro in the summer wind, in the twilight, it seemed to Antoine as if little Anglice were standing there in the garden
 The days stole by, Antoine tended the fragile shoot, wondering what sort of blossom it would unfold; white, or scarlet, or golden. One Sun face like sailor, leaned over the garden rail, and said to hime
 What fneyoung date.palm you have there, sir
 Mon Dieu ? cried Pere Antoine, and is it palm ?
 Yes, indeed r returned the man. T had no idea the tree would flourish in this climate
 Mon Dieu, was all the priest could say. If Pere Antoine loved the tree before, he wor- shipped 1t now. He watered 1t, and nurtured 1t, and could have clasped it in his arms. Here were Emile and Angice and the child all in one 1!
 Tho years flew by, and the date-p palm and the priest grew together-only one became vigorous and the other feeble. Pere Antoine had long passed the meridian of life. The tree was in its youth. It no longer stood in an isolated garden ; for homely brick and wooden houses clustered about Antoine's cottage. They looked down scowng on the humble matched roof. The city was edglng up, trying to crowd him off his land. But he clung to it, and wouldn't sell. Specula- 1 tors piled gold on his doorsteps and he laughed at them. Sometimes he was hungry, but he laughed none the less.
 ; Get thee behind ne, Satanp, said the old priests smile.
 Pere Antoine was very old now, scarcely able 1 to walk; but he could sit under the plant, ca ressing leaves of his tree, and there sat till the grimmest of speculators came to him. But even in death Pere Antoine was faithful to his trust. The owner of that land loses it, if he harm the date-tree.
 And there it stands in the narrow, dingy street, a beautiful, dreamy stranger, an exquisite for eign lady whose grace is a joy to the eye, the incense of whose breath makes the air enamour- ed. A precious boon is she to the wretched city j; and when men again walk those streets, may the hand wither that touches her urgently.
 Because it grew from the heart of little An D.