The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-08-28
THE FUCHSIA'S HISTORY.

Soft midsummer air CHEEKY with sun
shine and perfumed with all the scents
that it had robbed out of his nursery
garden, crept in through the monthly
roses at the porch and the half-open cot
tage door, to make itself at home in
George Swayne's room. It busted it
self there, sweeping and rustling about
as if it had as much right to the place,
and was as much the tenant of it, as the
gardener himself. It had also a sort of
feminine and wifely claim on George !;
who, having been spending half an hour
over short letter written upon q large
sheet, was invited by the midsummer
air to look after his garden. The best
efforts were being made by his gentle
friend to tear the paper from his hand.
A bee had come into the room-George
kept bees-and had been lowering about
the letter; so drunk, possibly, with
honey that he had mistaken it for a
great lily. Certainly he did at last set
tie upon it. The lily was a legal docu-
ment to this effect
"S1R: We are instructed hereby to
give you notice of the death of Mr..
Thomas Queeks, of Edmonton, the
last of the three lives for which your
lease was granted, and to inform you
that you may obtain renewal of the
same on payment of one hundred
guineas to the undersigned. We are,
sir,
"Your (here the bee sat on the obedi.
ent servants),
FLINT AND GRIDsToN.
Mr.. Swayne granted himself a rule to
consider in his own mind what the law
yers meant by thGiruncertaln phraseolo-
gy. 1t did not mean, he concluded, that
Messrs. F. and G. were willing, for one
hundred guineas, to renew the life of
Mr.. Queeks, of Edmonton but it did
mean thathe must turn out of the house
and grounds (Which had been Swayne's
Nursery Garden for three generations
past) unless he would pay large fine
for the renewal of his lease. He. was
but a young fellow of five-and-twenty !;
who, until recently, had been at work
for the support of an old father and
mother. His mother had been dead a
twelvemonth last midsummer day and
his father, who had been well while his
dame was with him, sickened after she
was gone, and died before the apple
gathering was over. The cottage and
the garden were more precious to
George as home than as place Of
business. There were thoughts of part
ing-like thoughts of another loss by
death, or of all past losses again to be
suffered freshly and together-which so
clouded the eyes of Mr.. Swayne, that
at last he could hardly tell when he
looked at the letter, whether the bee
was or was not a portion of the writing.
An old woman came, with midsum-
mer cough, sounding as hollow as an
empty coffin. She was poor old crone
who came to do for George small SER
vices as domestic for an hour or two
every day; for he lighted his own fires,
and served up to himself, in the first
style of cottage cookery, his own fat
bacon and potatoes.
81 shall be out for three hours Milly, "
said George, and he put on his best
CLOTHES and went into the sunshine. 81
can do nothing BETTER" he thought,
ethan go and see the lawyers"
They lived in the city; George lived
at the east end, in a part now covered
with very dirty streets; but then covered
with copse and field, and by Swayne' S
old-fashioned nusery-ground then
crowded with stocks and wallfowers,
lupins, sweet peas, pinks, lavender,
heartsease, boys love, old-man, and 9TH
er old-fashioned plants; for it contained
nothing so tremendous as Schizanthu-
sus, Escholzias, or Clarkia pulchellas,
which are weedy little atomies, though
they sound big enough to rival any tree
on lebanon. George was an old-fash-
ioned gardener in an old-fashioned time
for we have here to do with events
which occurred in the middle of the
reign of George the third. George, then
I mean George Swayne, not Georgius
Rex-marched off to see the lawyers.
who lived in dark court in the city
He found their clerk in the front office,
with marigold in one of his button,
holes; but there was nothing else that
looked like summer in the place. II
smelt like moldy, shut-up tool.housee
and there was parchment enough in II