The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-09-11
TIE POT.POCRRI.

fot all tue happiness OIL coming years,
greet the man: but OH my boz, guod-hyer'
-Hafy Athqt dc Fere, IN ScFibner'S W0nthty.
TIE POT.POURRI.
ir was Just after the roses had done
blowing. They were all sitting by
twilight in the yellow drawing-room-
somehow it always seemed twilight
longer there when it was dark every.
where else-and Rosamond got up and
stirred her pOt-pOurri in the old claret-
colored Chelsea jar between the
windows; and such sweet, faint odor
of rose-leaves stole through the room
that the old people felt rs if they were
young and the time was June again.
Il is too powerful" said Miss
dillingham;, waving her big peacock
feather fan.
TOO powerful?' said Mrs. Penn,
putting away the silver curl that the
neighboring fan brushed into her still
soft brown eyes. Not for me.
Nothing is SO pleasant to me as the
pot-pourri, and in the old jar. too. 1t
is not the rose, but it is the memory of
the rose. 1t brings back all my youth
And although age lis pleasant enough
rs 1t comes to me, yet youth was SO
very sweet-so very sweet, my dear;"
and the silver voice paused, while a
slender hand went searching through
the purple gloom for another old hand,
and found 1.-THE hand of the speaker
husband. i" People think it so sad to
grow old, she said. " But every year
has been to me like another step on an
upward path to paradise. Ones wings
are growing all the way. And one has
SO much to remember, to look back on
when one pauses, to see in new lights.
DO you suppose that either of us would
change places with Rosamond and
Beltran there, who have life before
them?''
Not l." said the voice that re
sponded.
- Not that you would not be glad to
live your seventy summers over again,
Paul?"
81 am sure of them now," at any
rate said the husband. ~ have
them. Nothing can take them away
from u.s."
And we ask nothing MORE" she
said. ethan to be laid in the same
grave when the long night comes"
land the endless morning." he
murmured.
"And even that endless morning can
hardly be brighter than some of the
mornings of our youth-than the morn
ing when we first made the pot-pourri,
Paul. You remember that morning,
Paul?'
''Do you remember it, Aunt Persis?''
asked Rosamond.
.'Shall l ever forget it?'' she said,
with low sweet laugh. "Why, when
l am dead, remembrance of that morn
ing will bloom out of my grave like a
flower! And yet it was much such a
morning as any days last month-only
so glorious, so gilded, SO full of sun
shine! But what a gray and lowering,
showering dawn ii had! If we had
never had that little quarrel, Paul. All!
was so sad when Iparted the curtains
that daybreak. l thought l was done
with life-and it was a pity-I SO
Young"
Here Rosamond pinched Beltran's
arm.
$50 young. And might have been
so blessed" said her old aunt Persis.
elf gave, that morning, just the swift
est glance across that garden to Paul :
window, and saw that he sat there over
his book, he could not tell. And then
l dressed me; and l thought of some
young girl being dressed for her grave.
And then pinned up my white frock
a Ia laceuse. you call it now, Rosa
mcnd-and went down to the rose
garden to pick the flowers with the
dew on them for the pot-pourri that
grandmamma had hidden me never to
forget in the time of roses.''
1T was the time of roses,
We plucked them as we WENT"
sang Beltran, half under his breath.
"And plucked them till the basket
on my arm was heaped. The rose
garden was just as it is to-day, on a
terrace higher than the rest of the gar
den. And when l turned about l saw
Paul had come down, and was walking
in the poplar alley of his grandfather s
behind him, and his mead fallen on his
breast. All, how beautiful he was! So
tall, SO dark, so like fallen star. And
l loved him so; and we had quarreled.
had been miserable just forty-eight
hours. 1t seemed to me that had
never been happy. lhad lost my youth;
was old; had come into the shadow.
There was another young GIRL" she
said, after moments pause, as if even
the sorrows of youth had their sweet
ness that it was good now to remember,
"that Paups grandfather had chosen
for him to marry. l may speak about
it now, suppose; she long since ceased
TO care; she was, she is, my dearest
friend, and Paul has always loved her
as a brother. She has had many suit
ors since; with one of them she plighted
faith, and so she has kept her tryst with
death. But IL thought that because
l adOred Paul, all the world was at his
feet; and when his grandfather said
this other was 10 be his choice. with
her great fortune at command, and l
remembered that had only this old
house and its belongings for my own
fortune, why, then looked well after
my lover. Yes, he was my lover. !
had felt sure of that, although he had
never said so, never exactly said so in
words; but we do not always need
words. And now, all at once, all in a
twinkling, as if the sun had gone out al
noon. he was the lover of another girl.
And l could not have believed or
dreamed that the fortune would have
made any difference with Paul, or the
grandfather's wish, or heavens thun-
der-bOlts even, before saw it for NV.
self. l saw it myself. saw him 90
and turn the music as she played upon
the harp, and bend over it with the
color on his cheek, and an angry fire in
his eye when the eye fell askance on me.
saw him lift her from her saddle at her
gate, just down the street, and 20 in
with her, and stay till, an hour after.
ward, groom came and led the horses
OF. l saw him lettering with her in
the lane, but they did not know l saw
and l heard his miserable old grand
father come hobbling up our steps
rubbing his hard hands. and talking t<
my father OF Paars lucky hit. And 81