The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-05-07
AN EASTER LILY.

ern civilization they exist all the world
over, even in decorous New England.
Such feud had for over thirty years
subsisted between the Greers ofthe Sum-
NIT and the Greers Of the Hollow, two
substantial farmsteads distant about
fifteen miles from each other. Fifteen
miles is an excellent quarreling distance.
It is near enough to promote frequent
collision, and quite too far to admit OF
the softening influences OF everyday in
tcrcourse. There are versions and coun-
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 in
yolved. It was the gold and the silver
shield over again. So much was con-
ceded, that the alienation began with
two old Greers, brothers, 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 a quarrel
between the sons of the old men respect
ing the ancestry Of a 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 Hol-
low at county fair; words ensued, and
the result of the words /" was an action
for assault and battery. The breach
widened, as breaches will. Absolute
non-intercourse was enforced between
the families during Sam Greer's lifetime,
and respect for his wishes, combined
with esprit de .fantUe, continued it after
his decease. His children were too young
& to reason about the matter; his wife, a
mild, tenacious woman, saw no occasion
for interference. "It wasn't none of her
affair, but Mr., Greer had strong feel
ing about it, and she guessed things
might as well stay as they were. Quar-
reling was wrong-she knew that well
snough-but this wasn't quarreling.
She never had spoken to any Of the Hol-
low people in her life, and she never
wanted to; they went their way, and she
went hers" Having thus disposed OF
the matter according to her light and
conscience. Mrs. Greer dismissed it from
her mind, and sent her daughters to a
seminary" her boy to the School OF
Technology, and settled herself in COM
fort to enjoy the privileges and immuni.
ties of widowhood and the headship OF
he farm-privileges from which, she
said to herself, she was not likely to be
ousted for some time to come, Philip
her son, being only eighteen, with his
education before him, and not the sor,
offellow who would want 10 settle down
early and take things out of her hands
Meanwhile, to the Greers of the Hol'
ow had also arrived those changes
which await all mortal conditions. As
their relatives of the Summit waxed ir
prosperity, they waned. Young Tom
was old Tom now, a bedridden paraly.
tic, with faculties overloaded by the
mists of his fearful malady. His wife
though good woman, as the neighbor.
hood allowed, as well-appearing anG
good-hearted a woman as could be-" haG
no faculty or knack of management
about her. There was no son to steE
into the fathers place and fill the breach
only aslip of a daughter, and girls-sucf
girls as Azalea Greer, at least-do moi
count for much. This odd name O
Azalea was first and last effort of fancy
on the part of her mother, who imagined
a resemblance between the rose fairness
of her baby and the delicate pink-whitt
blossoms Just then abloom in the
thickets which bordered the home
meadow.
She was a pretty creature, gentle anG
slender, with shy woodland grace mo-
unlike that of her namesake, and the 70
mantle name suited her better than sucl
titles usually do their wearers. Like
theirs the pure pale pink which tinged hel
cheeks, and the soft clear white int
which it melted, while the singularly
fresh req of her mouth supplied tina
point of brighter color which gives tt
the wild azalea its unexpected vivid
ness. It was face over whose com
binations of tint an artist would havt
raved.. But there was no artists at TIN
Hollow, and none in the little churcl
at Hollow End, where Azalea sat OF
Sundays by her mothers side ina squar
old-fashioned pew. The Greers of tn
Hollow were Episcopalians, the Sum
NIT Greers rigid Calvinists-anothe
point ofdivergence between the families
Philip Greer was two years older thai
his unknown second cousin at the Hol
low. No Greer before him had received
a college education, nor would he, in a!
probability, had his father lived to di
reCC CU6 IIldIteI. 4O Dt Idhe1 Out VI I'LL
rut of family traditions and jealousie
was in every way advantageous to him
Contact with the world liberalized an
widened, absence from home gave tn
natural generosity of his nature fair play
and he developed into a really fine fel
low, high-spirited, frank and popular
Of the "feud land its progress he wa
of course aware, BUTT held so little plac
in his thoughts that when, toward tn
end of his second college year. he &C
cepted the invitation ofhis chum, Rober
Ashe, for a Saturday and Sunday a
Hollow End, it never occurred to hir
that by doing so he brought himself int
the close neighborhood of the hostil
family of Greers whom his father ha
disliked so much.
"By George! this is pleasant" he ex
claimed, as they drove over from tn
three mile away railroad station
"What an air! It never seems wort
while to breathe in Boston. I coul
almost think I was smelling flowers; bu
there can't be any up yet, supposeP"
"Not hereabouts. We are very lat
with our springs" replied his riene
"But that's all stuff about Boston ali
Phil. It's first-rate air, think-just 9