Charles City intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa) 1864-1866, 1865-09-07
Moral Gale.
CONSTANCE.

We were sitting on the North
steps, one morning late in June. !
was shelling peas for dinner, my niece
had been out in the garden with her
flower basket and was tying the bright
spoil into bouquets. There were fra
grant honey-suckles, pearly candy
tuft, marvellous carnations and pico-
tees, while over and through all float
ed "pure, passionate aromas of the
rose." There were the Queen of the
Prairie, the snowy Baltimore Belle,
Royal George the Fourths, and lavish
hearted Provence roses neither were
the old favorites forgotten, for she
had cut whole branches Of the sweet
breathing damask and eglantine tiny
button" roses, buds from the Scotch
rose-tree, and no end of half blown
multihoras from the front porch.
She was happy creature, with a
heart full of good and gentle impuls-
es, gay and lively to be sure, but like
the lady Geraldine,
" She had grace in being gay which even mournfa
fouk approved"
She was seventeen at the time am
writing of. Perhaps you would not
have called her beautiful, but the light
in her clear eyes was better than beau
ty, and when with their ever-varying
phases you joined an expressive little
mouth, a grace of manner and pecu-
liar delicacy of thought and speech,
you would have said, sheis lovely y
had been at brother Johns ever
since Rachel died, and that was when
Constance was year old. Fred was
three years older. didn't expect to
stay more than a year or two, but
John insisted upon it, and really
could not leave the children. We
three were the only ones at home
when Fred was at college, and SO we
lived very quietly in the pleasant
farm house.
"There, auntie Bell will these do ?"
said Contie, holding up for my inspec-
tion the pyramid she was finishing off
with feathery asparagus.
"Will they do? | have these fat
ones for the parlor, my Parian vases
for the sitting-room, and this floral
model of Cheops for the dining table"
Without waiting for my approval,
she carried them away, returned, and
began repeating fragment from the
"Vision Of Sir Launfal
And what is so rare as day in Junes
Then, il ever, come perfect days;
Then heaven tries the earth il it be in tune,
And over it softly the warm ear lays;
Whether we LOOK, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur and see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And cropping blindly above ii for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers
"Isn't it grand? Isn't it SO good
that,
NO price is set on the lavish summer;
June may be had by the rarest comer +"
Her quotations came to a close
when she discovered Fred in the gar.
den, and she called ont
"What does your excellency vote
for, in the way of dessert!"
"Steam pudding, with plenty OF
fruit"
"Steam pudding I" What a Doc
tor you will make, Fred, with steam
puddings in the summer time Try
again ~
"Lets hate eapple dumplings."
"They would be minus the apples
today, imagine. L intend to make
q blanc mango"
Shouldn't wonder if Hunt came t.
taste it, Contie, SO do your best
| Who was Hunt" did you ask?
have reason to believe that his lega
name was Raymond Huntington, bu
time, instead of adding to its dignity
i. had cut it down to that above men
toned, or, on rare occasions, it wa:
heightened out to Ray Hunt. He wa'
an old friend Of Fred's, and daily ex
pected on a visit to our place /; ano
true to the prediction, he arrived tina
very day, walking out from the vlllag'
which he had reached the day before.
And now began series of rides
and walks, boating and fishing excur
sions, and every other means Of enjoy
ment that the country affords in mid
summer. Hunt was pleasant, genia
young man, and entered so hearth.
|, into everything about him that Johl
, was quite charmed. He couldn't see
dear stupid man that he is, that if hi
daughter had been less of fairy,
might have made difference 70
what did this gay, laughing strange
do but "fall In love" with Constance