The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1876-11-24
M i ella n @ O u 8.
The White Chrysanthems.

Marian Grey's heart was full of bitter
ness. Two years ago she had gathered
these very white chrysanthems of the
first week in Nobember to lay on her moth
er's coffin. There had been plenty of the
usual funeral flowers-iaponicas, and tube
roses and white heath, and the rest; but
Marian had stolen out and gathered the
Chrysanthemums because her mother loved
them, and because they grew in the old
garden at home.
"She will not care for the Others" she
had said to herself; " she always loved oul
own flowers best, and she shall take them
with her." Marian was fourteen then
old enough to mourn for her mother pas
sionately-o enough, too, to understand
and feel deeply what her mother said to
her just at the last.
you must care for papa and the boys,
Marian. You will be mistress now, |
think, young as you are. At least you can
be, if you are so careful of papa's comfort
that he doesn't feel the need of getting any
one to keep house and l trust the boys to
you. You must be elder sister and mother,
too, and never let them miss me more than
you can help" And then Marian remem-
bered how her mothers sad eyes had
searched her face, and how she had kissed
her at the end, and said, It's hard les
son for you to learn, when you are so young ;
but you must always think of yourself last,
and by and by you will see that brings its
own exceeding great reward"
Mrs. Gray had lived several hours after
that, and had kissed Marian again, and
kissed the boys also, and blessed them, and
then gone to sleep, like child, on her
husbands shoulder, with ciiild's smile on
her lips, and a beauty as of long passed
youth, at which the children wondered, on
her face. But Marian always felt that her
true parting with her mother was in those
few moments when they were all alone,
and mamma had charged her to be her faith
er's comfort, and the boys mother
And she had tried faithfully. She look
ed back now over the two years that had
passed, and she said with the tears stream
ing down her cheeks, " Yes, mother, have
been faithful" She had left school, and
devoted herself to making her mothers
place good. She had kept the same SER
want her mother had : and the woman,
touched by the unconscious pathos of the
young girls efforts to make good that va
and ways And Marian thought she had
succeeded. She could not see that any
comfort had been lacking in her fathers
home; and as for the boys-Hal and
Geordie-they almost worshipped her.
/" But of what uss had it all been 2" she
thought bitterly for now her father was
going to bring home another vile in her
mothers stead. He had told her very ten
derby, to be sure. He said that he had felt
she was too young for so much care. She
ought to be in school, and in bringing
home to her for mother the only woman
he knew who seemed worthy to fill her own
mothers place, that he felt he was securing
as great blessing to her as to himself
and then he had said, as he kissed her
good bye
Make the house look as pretty as you
can-won't you, Marian Elizabeth loves
beauty. l don't think there are many
flowers lett except those white chrysanthe-
NUNS; but wish you'd put some of those
in her ROOM"
Marian thought she could have borne it
all, if it hadn't been for that last request.
The white flowers that she had gathered
just two years ago, for her mothers funeral,
to do duty as bridal flowers for the usurp-
er! 1t seemed to her that this was the one
drop too much. She did not consider that
her father could not have thought of this
that, indeed, he probably never knew that
she had made the wreath of them for her
mothers coffin at all. Her passionate girls
heart swelled almost to bursting with the
bitterness of the thought that she was TO
use the flowers she had always held sacred
to be her mother for this new brides pleas
ure.
90, she shall have them ALL" she cried,
passionately and much good may they
do her They are funeral flowers. 1t is a
bad omen."
Then she went out and gathered them,
every one. She made bouquets of them for
the mantel, she put knots of them in the
looping of the window curtains, and glass
full upon the bureau. Everywhere in the
new mothers room cleaned their white
ness-fit alike for bridal or for burial. In
the parlor below she would have none of
them. That was garnished with the fire.
tinted leaves she had gathered in the late
September, and with the pale bleached
ferns she had brought home in October
ferns that seem always like the ghosts of the
dead summer, holding none of its warmth
or brightness, but only hint of it's van
ished grace. Then she went into the
kitchen with the pretty little mistress-of-
the-family air which became her so we'll.
bridget" she said, Mrs. Grey will be
coming tonight. Let lis give her good
supper, she will need it after her journey
and them" she added, her native honesty
coming to the front, 81 don't want her to
think no one knew how to keep house here
until she came"
Bridget understood and smiled. There
was no danger but the coffee would he
clear that night, and the waffles light, and
the broiled chicken done to turn.
Then Marian went into the parlor, and
sat down in her mothers chair. Her eyes
filled with tears, as they had SO many times
that day She closed them. and her