New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1879-07-16

Her hehd is resting on my breast
her eyes IN siumDer deep;
The same rough sea, whose breakers roar,
And madly, ferce!y lash the shore.
las lnlled my child to sleep.
AN EASTER LILY.
FEUDs are not of the Middle Ages
only. In the milder forms permitted
by modern civilization they exist all the
world over, even in our decorous New
England. Less deadly than those of
old, but hardly less implacable, they
are petted, persevered in, and handed
down to the next generation with as
much zeal and sincerity US though Yer
mont were Verona, and the parties in
question Montagaos~ and 'Capulets in
stead of Smiths and Browns.
Such feud had for over thirty years
subsisted between the Greers of the
Summit and the Greers of the Hollow,
two substantial farmsteads distant
about fifteen miles from each other.
Fifteen miles is an excellent quarreling
distance. 1t is near enough to promote
frequent collision, and quite too far to
admit of the softening Influences OF
everyday intercourse. There are YER
slOns and cOuntcr-versiOns as to the
exact cause of the original dispute.
Either side has its story, agreeing as
to general facts, but widely differing as
to the deductions involved 1t was the
gold and the silver shield over again.
So much was conceded, that the alien
alton began with two old Greers, broth
ers, long since dead, who had gone to
law about bit of medder land.''
The suit was decided, after his decease,
in favor of Sam Greer, of the Summit.
Later came quarrel between the sons
OF the old men respecting the ancestry
OF COW, avowed by one and denied
by the other to be of the true Jersey
breed. Sam Greer the younger met
"young Tom" of the Hollow at coun-
~ fair; words ensued, and the result
of the g words'' was an action for as
sault and battery. The breach widened,
as breaches will. Absolute non-inter-
course was enforced between the fami-
lies during Sam Greer's lifetime, and
respect for his wishes, combined with
esprit de .fun,iIle, continued it after hie
dccease. His children were too young
to reason about the matter, his wife, q
mild, tenacious woman, saw no Occa-
sion for interference. cit wasn't none
of her affair, but Mr.. Greer had
strong feeling about it, and she guessed
things might as we'll stay as they were.
Quarreljng was wrOng-she knew that
we'll enOugh--bnt this wasn't quarrel
ing. She never had spoken to any of
the Hollow people in her life, and she
never wanted to; they went their way,
and she would 60 hers" Having thus
disposed of the matter according 10 her
light and her conscience, Mrs. Greer
dismissed it from her mind, sent her
daughters to "seminary,'' her boy
to the School of Technology, and set
tied herself in comfort to enjoy the
privileges and immunities of widow
hood and the headship of the farm
privileges from which, she said to her.
self, she was not likely to be ousted for
some time to come, Philip, her son, be-
ing only eighteen, with his education
before him, and not the sort of fellow
who would want to settle down early
and take things out of her hands.
Meanwhile, to the Greers of the Hol.
low had also arrived those changes
which await all mortal conditions. AS
their relatives of the Summit waxed in
prosperity, they waned. Young
Tom was old Tom now, q bedridden
paralytic, with faculties overloaded
by the mists of his fearful malady. His
wife, though a good woman, as the
allowed, as well-ap-
pearing and good-hearted a woman as
could be-" had no faculty or knack of
management about her. There was no
son to step into the fathers place and
fill the breach, only a slip of q daugh-
ter, and girls--such girls as Azalea
Greer, at lelst-dO not count for much.
This odd name of Azalea was first
and last effort of fancy on the part of
her mother, who imagined resem-
blance between the rose fairness of her
baby and the delicate pink-white bios
SONS just then abloom in the thickets
which bordered the home meadow. 1t
was with some misgivings that she
suggested the name, but to her surprise
her husband granted it without objec-
ton. 1t didn't matter what girl
was Called" he declared. The first
boy, when he came, should be Tom
like his father before him, and be
fetched up to lick the Summit Greers,
or he would know the reason Why
But no boy came, and little Azalea
grew up alone and companionless in
the big farm house.
She was pretty creature, gentle
and slender, with shy woodland
grace not unlike that of her namesake,
and the romantic name suited her bet.
ter than such titles usually do their
wearers. Like theirs the pure pale
pink which tinged her cheeks, and the
soft clear white into which it melted.
while the singularly fresh red Of her
mouth supplied that point Of brighter
color which gives to tho wild azalea its
unexpected viVidnaes. Il was . face
over whose combinations of tint an art
list would have raved. But there were
no artists at the Hollow, and none in
the little church at Hollow End, where
#Azalea sat on Sundays by her mothers
side, in square, old fashioned pew.
The Greers Of the Hollow were Epis-
copalians, tho Summit Greers rigid
Calvinists another point Of divergence
between the families
Philip Greer was two years older
than his unknown second cousin At
the Hollow. No Greer before him had
reached 3 college education, nor,
would he, in all probability, had his
father lived to direct tho matter. To
be taken ont 81 the rut q family tra-
1itfnna and 3aal nnaSAa uaa In avoi.w