The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-12-10


PENsIvE AND SAD" MADE so BY THAT"DREAM
OF DREAMS"
| 'To what uses shall we put
The wild weed flower that simply blows;
And is there any mortal shut
Within the bosom of the rose ?'
ClovernOok graveyard is a small en-
closure near the road, shaded by tall To-
Gusts and wild cherry trees. 1t has an
air of abandonment and neglect, but
Nature has taken it kindly to her breast.
The graves are overgrown with ivy and
| long grass, and blackberry vines twist
about the mossy headstOnes. The tall
est monument is in memory of John
Lewis, a native of Denmark. His farm
adjoined that of the Carys, and his
widow became the second wife of Rob-
ert Cary, the first Mrs. Cary having
died when Alice was about fourteen
years old. She-Mrs. Lewis-sold a
greater part of her farm to a gentleman
from the East. This was Mr. Charles
Cheney, brother to the silk manufac-
turer of that name. He had previously
been engaged in business in Providence,
Rhode Island, but an unfortunate spec
ulatiOn had swept away his property,
and it was by the aid of his brother that
he was enabled to buy the farm near
Clovernook. He purposed here to en-
gage in the culture of the mulberry tree
and feed silkworms. He was accom-
panied by his wife, who was an invalid,
and did not long survive her removal to
the West.
THE OUTLINE OF A LOVE STORY.
Alice Cary was a shy, awkward school
girl when she first met Mr.. Cheney, and
had never before seen any person so re-
fined, so gentlemanly and well-bred.
He was greatly superior to the people
among whom he took up his residence;
not that his mental endOwments were
very great or better, perhaps, than those
of some of his neighbors, but his had
been brought out by education, and
found expression in graceful manners
and polished phrases, while theirs were
imbedded in the clownish fetters from
which their position and circumstances
in life had in no way tended to free
them. Chiefly through his instrument
tality, in the course of a few years the
neighborhoOd of Clovernook was
changed from a thinly-inhabited and
! ill-cultivated district to one abounding
with vineyards and orchards, and dotted
with public edifices and private resi-
dences, surrounded by green lawns,
fringed with clipt hedges.
AS years passed on, the shy, rustic
schoolgirl grew to womanhOOd, and the
proud and cultured neighbor of whom
she had stood in such awe, learning of
her thirst for knowledge, lent her books
| from his library and encouraged her eff
forts to self-imprOvement. Their ap-
probation of the same authors formed a
bond of kindred tastes between them,
and was the beginning of a more inti
mate acquaintance, an interchange of
thought and feeling. For him it was
| intellectual mpanionship, and the
charm of contact with fresh, growing
mind, filled with beautiful thought and
earnest aspirations. For her it was ed
ueation of mind and heart, the revela-
tiOn of a new life, the "opening of a
sealed fountain in her bosom." What
wonder if he who was her ideal realized,
the highest type of manhood she had
ever known, should win her heart? He
did win it, and in the highest sense of
the phrase, she never loved another.
In every case of heart-history there is
much that is sacred to those immedi-
ately concerned, and should never pass
! beyond them into the cold and curious
world.
| 1t all happened many years ago, and
the particulars of the story are known
to few. Suffice it to say that this was
the first and only love of Alice Cary's
! life, and it ended there. Mr.. Cheney
went East and married, and she read the
announcement in newspaper. Later
she left ClOveTnOok, around which clung
so many bitter-sweet memories, and
went to New York, where she made her
home during the remainder Of her life,
and gathered around her a circle of ap-
preciative friends, many of them gifted
and great. Though many priced her
worth and sought her hand, she never
forgot the lOve-dream of her early wom-
anhood. Around it clustered all the
bright and tender associations of youth;
and as she receded from it and her hair
grew gray, it gathered a pathos from
| the years and graves between.n
| Her life, though blessed with the COM
! panionship of noble minds and loving
hearts, had one sense weary and incom-
! plete, for she missed the cTOwning bless
ing of wOmanhood, the love that would
have been at once her inspiration and
reward, and have satisfied the lOngings
of her nature as no personal achieve
ment or fame could have done.
| But perhaps she was kept from the
| fullness of happiness that she might
| help others. We know
"They best can serve their gods,
Their errands run,
Who call no love their own
Under the sum-"
| She has ministered to many sad and
discouraged hearts, softening and bright
ening the surroundings of hard, homely
lives, and bringing to problems of doubt
and despair the lessons of faith and cheer
which she distilled from the "long, dull
anguish of patience" She won for her.
self place in the hearts of her readers,
and gained their personal affection as a
greater writer which less sympathy
could not have done. Her name is a
household word in many homes in this
| Western land, and the memory of her
brave and patient life "smells sweet and
blossoms in the dust. Cincinnati Cor
reSpOndence NJ Y Post.
Substantial old farmers vie with