Wilmington daily commercial., 1876-11-07
MISCELLANEOUS.
THE WHITE CHRYsANTHEMUMS,

ness. Two years ago she had gathered
these very white chrysanthemums of the
first week in November to lay on her moth
er's coffin. There had been plenty Of the
usual funeral flowers-japonicas, 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 our
own flowers best, and she shall take them
with her," Marian was fourteen then-old
enough to mourn for her mother passion
ately-old 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, I 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 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 remembered
how her mothers sad eyes had searched
her face, and how she had kissed her at
the end, and said, sIt's hard lesson for
you to learn, when you are 80 young but
you must always think CT yourself last, and
by and by you will see that brings its own
exceeding great reward"
4 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 a child, on her hus-
bands shoulder, with child's smile on her
lips, and beauty as Of long passed youth,
| at which the children wondered, on her face.
But Marian always felt that her true par
| ting with her mother was in those few mo-
ments when they were all alone, and man.
ma had charged her to be her fathers COM
| fort, and the boys mother
And she had tried, faithfully. She looked
back now over the two years that had
passed, and she said, with the tears stream
down her cheeks, 'Yes mother,I have been
faithful! !" She had left school, and devoted
herself to making her mothers place good.
She had kept. the same servant her mother
/ had; and the woman, touched by the uncon-
/ scious pathos of the young girls efforts to
make good that vacant place, helped her
silently in thousand ways. And Msrian
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 use had it all been ~
| bu0 buOukuby lOE nOW AoE ldbu0A
was going to bring home another wife in
her mothers stead. He had told her very
tenderly, 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 left except those white chrysanthe-
NUNS but l wish you'd put some of those
/ in her room"
Marian thought she could have borne il
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 thai
she had made the wreath of them for hei
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 sa
cred to her mother for this new brides
pleasure.
go, she shall have them all" she cried
passionately; "a and much good may they dc
her They are funeral flowers. 1t is a baC
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 whitenesl
| fit alike for bridal or for burial. In the
parlor below she would have none of them
That was garnished with the fre-tinteC
leaves she had gathered in the late Sep
tember, and with the pale bleached fern
she had brought home in October-terni
that seem always like the ghosts of thu
dead summer, holding none of it's warmth
or brightness, but only hint of it's van
ished grace. Then she went into thu
kitchen with the pretty little mistress-Of
the family air which became her 80 well.
Bridget" she said, Mrs Grey will b.
coming tonight. Let US give her goot
supper, she will need it after her journey
and then, " she added, her native honest.
ceming to the front, " don't want her Il
think no one knew how to keep house her
until she come"
Bridget understood and smiled. Their
was no danger but the coffee would be clea
that night, and the waffles light, and tn
broiled chicken done to turn.
Then Marian went into the parlor, ant
sat down III ner moIner's cnalf. der eye
filed with tears, as they had so many time
that day. She closed them, and her thought
weng back to the hour when her mothe
! had bid her good bye. She thought tn
whole scene over, as she had so often, am
: seemed to hear every one of the word
afresh, in her mothers low, tender voice
And. somehow, a new sense Of her mother
meaning came to her. You must alway
think OF yourself last" her mother ha
eaid. Was she doing that now? Was sh
not thinking of herself first-of her ow
pain-of the wound to her self-love in bein
set aside where she thought she had don
so well-of having some one else neare
her father than she was-of being no long
or at the head
"No," che cried, hotly, 8" It's not thai
it's having some one else in my own moth
er's place. He had no right-no right"
). But tender, unseen presence SCENE
near her, all the while breathing gentle
n thoughts. Something told her that he
mother up in heaven would not be jealou
!. for herself and something else asked he