Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1875-05-21
WHEN ELIHU CAME HOME.


WHEN ELIHU CAME HOME.
All her life long Sara Holmes had
had a romance. 1t began and ended
with these words: "When Elibu
comes home" And though she was
only nineteen years old at the time
of which I write, it seemed to her on
the evening of that bright July day.
as she sat in her bedroom and look
ed out upon the moonlight fields.
that she had been living one or two
centuries in this world, and all the
time dreaming golden dreams Of Eli
hu, only to find them shivered at the
last.
For Elihu had come. And the
time and the manner of his coming
were so unlooked-for and so unex.
pectcd to her, as we'll as to everyone
else, that the girl sat there in the
moonlight, saying to herself, "He is
here. / need never wait or watch
for him. In the next chamber to
mine he is sleeping-that is, if he
can sleep, poor Elihu!"
The earliest stories she could re-
member had been told to her by her
mother about "Cousin Elihu," and
the enormous fortune he had made
ssdown SOUTH" at a time when for
tunes could yet be made in that ul-
happy land. She had heard fabulous
tales of the palace in which he lived
of the negro slaves who flew to do
his bidding. Of the beautiful carriages
and horses that bore him from place
to place, and Of the jewels, the silks,
satins, and velvets that fortunate
woman would possess who would one
day become Elihu's bride.
Other girls had heard these stories,
also, and the belle of the school at
Holmesdale often said that when she
was sixteen, she would ego travel
ing" and find her way down south,
and "set her cap" for Elihu Holmes.
That the result would follow for
which she looked, no girl among
them all doubted, for even 1.-THE mas
ter's" stern face softened and smiled
upon Rosanna Meadows, when she
shook back her golden cu:ls and
lifted her large blue eyes, with a
blush, to his.
Poor Rosanna! Sara leaned her
cheek on her hand, and looked over
the hilltop toward the village grave
yard, where the village beauty was
now lying, with her blue eyes closed,
her golden ringlets smoothed back
from her white brow, and her hands
clasped in an unearthly quiet on her
breast. Elihu had never known how
her girlish heart went out toward
him. And now Elihu had come
home?
And Sara Holmes grew up and de-
vcloped from the tall angular girl
into the queenly and selfposscssed
young woman, the thought would
sometimes occur to her, as she stood
before the mirror braiding her dark
hair. eff he should come back,
would he think me pretty, now that
Rosanna is gomez" The broad, low
brow. the oval cheeks and dimpled
chin answered; the healthful color,
the deep, dark eyes, the sudden,
bright, bewildering smile, said eyes" "
For hers was now higher beauty
than Rosanna's pink-and-white love.
illness had ever been, and the treas.
ures of her mind and heart might
well have won an older and wiser
man to love her before Rlihu came
home.
And now she drew long breath,
and set herself to recall all the Incl
dents of that sudden and startling re-
turn.
Tea was over-the milk strained
and they were all sitting on the front
piazza, under the shade OF the maple
and locusts, while her father read
bits from the weekly paper aloud.
Her step-mother was knitting; her
sister Grace was lining a hat, and
her brother Ben was whiting out a
toy boat from a bit of wood, while
she, Sara, sat beside him and held
his tools as he needed them, and lost
herself in a reverie about our hero in
the South.
A carriage drove up the village
road and halted at their gate. The
driver descended from his seat and
beckoued her father, who hurried
down to the gate to meet him. After
talking for some time together, a
small trunk was lifted down and left
beside the gate. Then the carriage
door was opened and tall figure de
scended, and, directly after, Ben, who
had followed his father in fit Of
boyish curiosity, galloped back with
distended eyes, whispering loudly:
"Mother-girls! Cousin Elihu has
come! And he has lost every cen,
of his property down South! Iheard
the driver tell papa SO! And they
have sent him off up here, alone, be
cause they thought be was going to
be sick; and there he is you see, lean
ing on father and the driver, and he
can't but just walk. Isn't it a blessed
shame of these Southerners?"
"Mercy!" exclaimed Ben's step
mother, rising, as they all rose, when