The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1879-02-27
When Elihu Came Home.

~ ~ ptS,eAh A.iA NhNN' VIVA
these words "When Elihu comes
home" And though she was nineteen
years old at the time write, it SCENE
to her on that burning July day, as she
sat in her bedroom and looked out upon
the moonlit fields that she had been hy
ing one or two centuries in this world,
at least, and all the time dreaming gol-
den dreams Of Elihu only to find them
shivered into atoms at last
For Flihu had come. And the time
and manner of his coming were so I'M
looked for and so unexpected to her as
well as every one else, that no wonder
the girl sat there in the moonlit, saying
to herself
"He is here. | need never wait nor
watch for him again. In the next
chamber to mine he is sleeping-that is
if he can sleep. Poor Elihu."
The earliest stories she could remem-
Der had been told her 10y her mother,
about cousin Elihu" and the enormous
fortune he had made "down South, at a
time when fortunes could yet be made
in that unhappy land She had heard
fabulous tales of the palace in which he
lived, of the negro slaves who flew to do
his bidding, Of the beautiful carriages
and horses that bore him place to place,
and of the jewels, the silks, satins and
velvets that fortunate woman would pos
sess who would one day become Ehhus
wife.
Other girls had heard these stories
also, and the belle of the school at
Holmesdane often said that, when she
was sixteen, she should Ego a-traveling,"
and find her way "down South" and
"set her cap" for Elihu Holmes. That
the result would follow for which she
looked, no girl among them doubted, for
even ''the masters" stern face softened
and smiled upon Rosanna Meadows,
when she shook back her golden hair
and lifted her large blue eyes, with q
blush, to his.
Poor Rosanna! Sara leaned her
cheek on her hand, and looked over the
hilltop toward the village graveyard,
where the village beauty was now lying,
with her blue eyes closed, her golden
ringlets smoothed back from her white
brow, and her hands clasped in an un-
earthly quiet on her breast. Elihu had
never known how her girlish fancy went
out toward him. And now Elihu had
come home
AS Sara Holmes grew up, and devel-
oped from the tall, angular girl into the
queenly and self-possesed young woman,
the thought would sometimes occur to
her, as she stood before the mirror
braiding her dark hair. off he should
come back, would he think me pretty,
now that Rosanna is gomez The broad
low brow, the oval face and dimpled
chin answeren her; the healthfl color,
the deep, dark eyes, the sudden, bright,
bewildering look, said, Eyes" for hers
was now a higher beauty than Rosanna's
pink and white loneliness had ever been,
and the treasures Of her mind heart
might we'll have won an older and wiser
man to love her, before Elihu came home
And now she drew long breath, and
set herself to recall all the incidents Of
that sudden and startling return.
Tea was over-the milk was strained
-and they were all sitting on the front
piazza, under the shade of the naples
and the locusts, while her father read
bits from the weekly village paper aloud.
Her step another was knitting; her sister
Grace was lining hat, and her brother
Ben was whiting out toy boat from
bit of wood, while she, Sara, sat beside
him and held his tools as he needed
them, and lost herself in a reverie about
her hero in the South.
A carriage drove up the village road
and halted at their gate The driver
descended from his seat and beckoned to
her father, who hurried down to the
gate to meet him. After talking some
time together, a small trunk was lifted
down and left beside the gate. Then
the carriage door was opened and tall
figure descended, and directly after, Ben,
who had followed his father, in fit of
boyish curiosity, gailoped back with dis
tended eyes, whispering loudly:
"Mother-girlsl Cousin Eihu has
come! And he lost every cent of his
property down South / heard the
driver tell father So And they sent
him of up here because they thought he
was going to BE- sick; and there he is,
YOU see, leaning On father and the driver,
g..