Orangeburg times. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1872-1875, 1873-06-12
[FoR THE ,TIMEs.]
THE GOLDEN FENCE.
"A g RT il DIS S TOR Y,
WHICH GROWN UP PEOPLE MAY
Is. READ, If THEY CHOOSE.

Ss ..si hEAD, III IHE4 CHOOSE.
On one side Of the golden fence was n
garden, on the other, wide COMMON
The children who lived on one side play
ed among roses and lilies, or kept play
houses in pretty arbors, or sailed their
little boats in the waters of n fountain;
the children who lived on the other had
hone but wild flowers, and played ut
housekeeping in hollow trees, or made
mud pies for amusement. Some of4hese
last were forced to So barefoot, got very
little to eat, and had rather a hard time !;
on the other hand, some of the children
who lived on the garden side of the fence
were kept very strictly, made to do long
tasks which gave them the headache,
obliged to walk up and down particular
paths ssfbr exercise, instead Of playing
about as they liked, and not allowed to
soil their hands or tear their silk and
velvet clothes; they never dreamed of
anything SO pleasant rs making mud-pies.
On the whole, 1 do no. know whether
the children who lived on one side had a
very much better time, asa general thing,
than those who lived on the other.
There were two children who once
played in the garden together who had
indeed the very best times. They we're
little boy and little girl named Fred
erick and Helena. They were allowed
to make mud-pies, as well as to enjoy all
the other amusements which only the
children who lived on that side could
partake of, and they were rs happy MS
they could be, for while; but when the
father of Frederick died, and his mother
moved over to the other side of the fence
to live, the poor boy was obliged to give
up all the pleasures he had been used
to. What he. minded most, was being
separated from Helena who was also
much distressed at parting from him.
For time after, they still used to meet
and play together, although they were
on different sides Of the fence. Helena
would hand flowers through the bars to
Frederick, and he would give her in re-
turn, pretty stones he had picked up in
the brook.
One day the gate of the garden fence,
which was usually kept locked, was by
some chance left open, and Helena called
to Frederick to come in and play on the
garden side; but he had not been there
many minutes, when a great rough po-
liccman came up and asked him what he
was doing there; then although he kick.
ed and struggled, and Helena cried and
begged that he might BE allowed to stay,
Frederick was picked up and put outside
again, and the gate was locked.
"Never mind, Helena" he cried, al
am going to climb over the fence and
come back to you"
"Ohl | am afraid it is too high for
you to climb" sobbed Helena; and so
indeed Frederick found it; yet ne per-
severed in the attempt for some time.
"You had better give up trying poor
child said Mt last an old woman who
vas sitting close by under little stall,
selling apples and gingerbread seven if
you could get to the top of the fence,
you could not climb over the spikes
there"
Frederick looked up and saw the long
sharp-pointed spikes shining in the sun.
"some people have climbed over tliem,-
havn't they?" said he. "Yhy should
not L"
"For every one who gets over by climb
ing, ten are lamcd for life, in making the
attempt" said the old woman. ii have
have seen one man who got hung to death
on those spikes"
as there no other way for me TO get
in?" asked Frederick.
"Some people have squeezed themselves
between the bars" the apple woman nm
swered "but to be able to do that they
must starve for n long time, and even
then few can make themselves small
enough. You might do it in time, ifyou
are willing to starve yourself"
SIS there no other pleasanter way?"
sighed Frederick.