The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-07-24

shake a stick at. And you amt N,
heir, neither-if he'd enything TO heir
| which hain't for there's my boy Reub
ing. that run away to sea when he was
| shaver. haven't never heerd tell O.
him since but it's likely he'll come tx
light when there's anything to be made
by it."
Thus day by day spun out the sum Of
| fifteen years, in which Della had beer
Aunt Hitty's slave, and Aunt Hitty was
pear ninety, IS Paul had predicted. wher
a rumor reached Highgate that Delia's
old lover was going TO be married. He
| the gOSsips said, and Aunt HittY caught
the tune and played variations upon it,
con Gn1Ore.
| 't I 'spose he thought it want no good
waiting for me to drop off. Jest shows
twas your prospects he hankered after,
and not you, Della. I 'spose she's got
| dimples, and crimps her hair, like as
not, and's got cheek worth kissing.
You're growing kinder saller, Della.
Your fathers complect aIlus had q
/ dried-apple look You favor that side
| of the house. She plays on the pianny,
they say, Speed the PIow, and them
| tunes that Paul will take to naturally.
| When old batcheldOrs marry a little
| chit like she is, they mostly acts as if
she was made of chiny, and nothing's
! too good for 'em. Lor sakes, Della,
who's that man coming across the yard
| Where's my saults? What a start he
gave me, to be sure I thought it was
! Reubing's father, and him in his grave
| these thirty years, and we never getting
on together anything to speak of !"
But it was only Reuben himself, fol-
lowed by his wife.
After this Della might have been free
to go back to her old home AMI Paul /;
unly he did not need her any longer.
He had found another sweetheart, she
kept repeating to herself, hugging her
griefs closer day by day, till it seemed
to her as if, all at once, she had become
something superfuous on the face of
the earth. In the meantime, hints of
the wedding preparations reached High
gate Gaily. One could almost catch
the odor of brides cake and the rustic
of wedding garments.
It's we'll for him." Aunt Hitty was
fond of assuring her-''it's we'll for him
that he give over waiting for an old
love in dead mems shoes, seeing that
Reubing has come to fill them hisself.
However, could you hev afforded veil,
OC411g dltAl d1A L11C lA4L6o
It was June, and the world was at its
bravest, with blossoming and bird song.
Della, with the heart of twenty still
fiuttering and aching under her old
womanish gray boddice, allowed her
self to remember the red roses that
nodded in at the windows of the sleep
ing-room at Carruthers Farm, and made
the June air as sweet as love itself al
lowed herself to recall youth and all its
lost possibilities, to yearn wildly for
the sight of her one lover, before he
should belong to another-jusb for one
glimpse of the comely, sunburned face
that had been her lOde-star.
Chance threw fulfIment in her way.
Aunt Hitty had heard of the new doc
tor over at Hampton. whose touch was
healing. Somebody must fetch him.
Della volunteered, and took the alter
noon stage, that set her down at the
crossroads leading into the village. No
body remarked the dusty little body, in
her old poke bonnet, pausing TO look
with misty eyes over the low stone wall
at the smart new church and the moss
grown graveyard at " the children Just
let loose from school, playing catch"
on the green, although the clouds were
gathering for a shower, and careful
housewives were closing their scuttle
windows and hurrying the weeks wash
on the lines. Delia's thoughts were not
in the clouds she did not even observe
that the sun had gone behind them.
She walked on toward the Carruthers
Farm, thinking to reach it by dusk,
to linger near till the lamps were
lighted and to steal the one thing
she coveted-the sight of her low
er's face. As she walked, the wind be-
gan to freshen, the darkness to deepen;
| the rain fell fast and blinded her. She
stepped beneath an elm-tree for shelter,
| Just under the OUtermost bOugh of a
| widespreading tree, like a tower of
| leaves, with birds twittering among its
| branches. She stood there, looking
out at the storm in all its angry magnif-
| cence, when suddenly the thunder
seemed to shake the planet assunder,
| only Della did not see the blue bolt
| that split the elm tree in all IFS green
strength and left it blackened ruin.
Somebody, looking out of the window
/ of the farmhouse near, saw 1t and shud-
| dered.
! g Sorry luck, Tom, said he. "The
| lightning has blasted my elm tree p
"The duce - cried Tom, going to the
| door to look out 50 It might have
/ EEEuCk nGdTeE Will LlOEO AldLAA4s LACAC ?
a plenty of elms in the world"
{" But no elm like that one, Tom.
! That trees been like friend to me. ]
| stuck it into the ground when it was
| nothing but a feeble twig, when was
angry with Della for going to Aunt Hit
tv; and when it began TO grow [ felt as
/ If miracle had been performed, Tom
as if it meant to tell me, In every
green leaf and shoot, that Della loved
| me, in spite of all. I'd sooner the
| lightning had hit anywhere instead"
/ elf you'd been bred a sailor" said
Tom. smiling at his brother s sentiment,
- You'd have forgotten Della in dozen
sveethearts before this. Halloa !" as
another flash corruscated across the
heavens, &" somebody hsd taken shelter
under your elm, Paul, as I'm sinner.
There's heap on the ground yonde1
that looks nightly like a woman
Come, I'm bound on a voyage of dis
covery I" and he rushed toward the
spot, followed by the doubting Paul.
To be sure, they found Della pros
trate and brought her IN called up tht
serving-Wom and the nearest neigh
bors, and fetched the doctor that Aunt
Hitty had sent for. And when Deili
opened her eyes, after long persuasion
having been only stunned, she saw th'
old familiar room, the ehintz-cOveFeC
lounge, with its wilderness Of palmi
and peacocks, and, dearer yet, the fonC
anxious eyes of Paul watching besid
her.
"You know that Aunt Hitty need
me-" she murmured, taking up tls
thread of fifteen years ago. And th
twins are getting old enough-to he'll
, your mother ;-and-oh but yO1
are going to be married, Paul?" comm