Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1878-06-13

Hia RaNaxA

August weather-there was no air stIrr-
ing from one arid noon until the next.
and the insects hlssed maliciOusly all
day long in the parcned grasses. Per
haps that was the reason that Bertrode
was blue. tT-f .-f
Perhaps il was that as she walked
Growers Tract day by day, and saw
the summers limited completion in the
red apples burning among the gray
green boughs, the hay-ields at afser-
math. the purple tasseled corn and
yellow wheat, that she felt her life to
be aimless. She had let the summer
come and wane across her passive ex.
istence. The previous winter she had
said: IL feel ice-bound now. When
summer comes l will shake off this in.
ertia and redeem to-day
Yet the summer was rapidly passing
and she was still in dream. The hour
never seemed TO come which called her
to exertion. Well, Loves young
dream" comes but once; it Was all
we'll, perhaps.
Growers Tract and her farmhouse
life WAS not as dali as she had expect
ed it would be when she returned from
her mountain tour year before only
at times the outdoor sounds and the
leisurely growing works Of nature op'
pressed her. In the winter she had
been gay, looking at the sunset across
the snow, watching the chick-a-dees,
and searching the woods for purple
mererion. In the spring the long walks
to the post-office had been full Of joy
full fancies and golden realities; she
loved the sweet country sights and
scenes more than ever before IN heI
life. .".+'
But in August something seemed te
Cypress her. The sky burned too blue
the woods were too calmly content il
their greenaess, the days closed tot
beautifully in their ripe splendor, ~
she walked the Tract At sunset, CON
ing from the post-offce-coming 81
ways empty-handed. Yes. somethin.
was wrong, and when she realized !
fully, she said:
II am idle-I am stepped in idle
ness. l have been doing nothing for
wear. Now will have come work, ant
Dick may go to the post-ottice, l carr
TOO much for those letters" "tgo
Whatever those letters might be
there came no more Of them. A Ger
tain CAV tourist drifting about th
world, forgot TO write them at Last
perhaps Bertrode was pretty, but on
travelling everywhere meets many pref
ty faces. -J IEh@ I'o9.,.. ivy
Bertrode's cheek grew thin An
white. Her mother saw that she strue
gled TO reprsss growing irritablenes'
But she worked on Increasingly at ht
new employment Of teaching the di'
trict school Of Growers Tract. ST
devoted herself 70 her children. The
parents said they had never befo
learned 90 fast. Bertrode smiled fsin
ly al their prsise. One day comiI
home from school through the wood
she flung herself down among the ferI
and dry grasses.
"It is dust and ashes ]" she cried
The sky CLEANED blue through gre'
boughs overhead, and . bird sal
cl,eerily in q neighboring bush. s.
- Law there until she felt the dew fallio
y As she rose up something rustled
her side. She looked down; gre
1 rattlesnske was slipping through I
= grass, going from her, apparently U
aware Of her presence. Faecinat<
e im,novab.e vet full of horror. she sto
= . and watched the creature. For q
y u ment it glided speedily on, its coo'
SO direct, its appearascs 20 subtle q
{. deadly, that she felt speli-boaad -
regarded it. Suddenly. With thl
Of horror she ssw the reptiles aim