The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-05-01
AN EASTER LILY.

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 as though Yer
mont were Verona, and the parties in
question Montagues and Capulets in
stead of Smiths and Browns.
Such q 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
sions and counter-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 a 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
"-oung Tom" of the Hollow at coun-
W fair; words ensued, and the result
of the 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 tan,ille, continued it after his
decease. His children were too young
to reason about the matter, his wife, a
mild, tenacious woman, saw no occa-
sion for interference. "lt wasn't none
of her affair, but Mr.. Greer had q
strong feeling about it, and she guessed
things might as well stay as they were.
Quarreling was wrOng-she knew that
well enough-but 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 a IS 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
Toni 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
neighborhood allowed, as well-ap-
pearing and good-hearted a women 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 slip of daugh.
ter, and girls-such girls as Azalea
Greer, at least-do not count for much.
This odd name of Azalea was q first
and last effort of fancy on the part OF
her mother, who imagined q resem-
blance between the rose fairness of her
baby and the delicate pink-w hite bios
SONS just then abloom in the thickets
which bordered the home-meadow. II
was with some misgivings that she
suggested the name, but to her surprise
her husband granted it without obiec.
ton. "It didn't matter what q 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 Azales
grew up alone and companionless in
the big farmhouse.
She was a pretty creature, gentle
and slender, with q shy woodland
grace not unlike that of her namesake.
and the romantic name suited her bet
ter than such titles usually do theil
wearers. Like theirs the pure pale
pink which tinged her cheeks, and thu
soft clear white into which it melted
while the singularly fresh red of hel
mouth supplied that point of brighter
color which gives to tho wild azalea it.
unexpected viVidness. 1t was q facs
over whose combinations of tint an art
Isl would have raved. But there wert
no artists at the Hollow, and none il
the little church at Hollow End, where
Azalea sat on Sundays by her mother.
side. in q square, old-fashioned new
The Greers of the Hollow were EMS
cOpalians, tho Summit Greers r;c;i
Calvinists-another point of diveroencs
between the families.
Philip. Greer was two years olde,
than his unknown second cousin a,
the Hollow. Nosireer before him had
reached q college education, moi
would he, in all probability, had hi
father lived to direct the matter. II
pe taken out of the rut of family trs
oitions and jealousies was in ever,
way advantageous 70 him. Contac
With the world libsralissd and wideaed