Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1880-07-31

1
ragge little girl who saw him
ventured to ask
Please, mister, what Is them
posies 2"
apple blossoms.
"Does they grow on tr ees that
has apples on %
YES"
"Oh, my! wouldn't / like TO see
em once Say, mister, would you
give me little one %
"Yes. Here child" breaking off
another little branch and giving
tito her. He watched her from
4 the car window take off her old
hat and stow away her treasure
in it, and then, clasping it close TO
her breast, set off on run down
toward the lower part of the city.
When he reached his home and
gave the branch to his wife her
faded, peevish face relaxed into a
smile that was almost sweet as she
took them.
apple blossoms - she said
"How beautiful they are? Do you
remember, Daniel. the apple bios
SONS that We gathered thirty
years ago." and in another min
ute he and she together were re-
| calling old times and associations,
| until the years that lay bt tween
their apple blossom-times : nd now
had dropped away, and the light
and glory of past days once more
shed itself upon the gray hairs of
the husband and the faded cheek
of the wife.
The ragged little girl mean
while ran on for quite little way
till she came to one of those mar
row, filthy courts crowded with
tenement houses and steaming
with horrible odors in the warm
Nav sunshine. She entered one
of these tenement houses and ran
lightly up the. vsteps to her es-
pecial domain, a little room where,
besides herself, only Biddy Ma
earthly with her husband and baby
lived. Biddy was sitting near the
window rocking the baby in her
arms when the child entered.
"Whist, Meg! The baby's
awful sick !" -.
don't he get any better, Bid
dy ~ asked Meg, creeping softly
to her side. "
mo, he don't. Oh, if l only
had him home in the green fields
of ould Ireland he'd be well en-
tirely; but how can he breathe in
this shifting room ?" n
Look here, Biddy. See what
I've got" And Meg took off her
hat and showed the precious spray
of apple blossoms. "Do you think
that came from the green fields We
spoke about 2"
Biddy gazed at it in wonder and
delight. lob, the purity things! ]"
she exclaimed. "It's just the pic
ture of those I've seen many's the
time growing in the orchards in
the ould country. LIE me take it,
| Meg" M
She held it close to her face and
| drank in the fresh, sweet perfume
eagerly. Then she put it down
| to the baby, and he feebly smiled.
See I" cried Biddy. He knows
the swate things! He'll get bet
ter now. Take it away and put
it in water, Meg, and set it where
he can see it.o
Meg ran off and coon returned
with an old blacking-bottle full
of water, into which she stuck the
precious twig. Then she sat down
to look at it and listen to Biddy's
tales of the could country" ill
night came, and she had to go to
bed, but she slept with one hand
on the bottle in which her treasure
was.
About midnight she was reused
from strange dreams of great for
ests OF beautiful posies like hers
by a shrill cry of terror and agony.
She started up calling "Biddy
Biddy! what is it?' and was an
swered by the cry, "Oh, my baby,
| my baby! My baby's dead ~ and
the low moan of anguish from the
stricken mother. She did the best
she could to comfort her, but what
could child do for a broken
heart?
The next day the body was
ready for the funeral. The moth
er sat on the floor beside the little
pine coffin In stony despair when
Meg crept softly up and laid her
cberis ed branch, now reduced to
two faded blossoms and one just
bursting pink bud, in the baby's
hand. Biddy looked up and burst
into tears. "God bless you, Meg"
she sobbed. "Shure, there's lots
of blossoms where be Is now, the
darlint, but it's l that's glad see
these purity posies 10 his little
hand. Oh, my baby! my baby!'
Mr. Edison for his mart went