Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1880-06-17
WHY | LOVE THE TWILIGHT.
By RUTHELLA SCHULTZ.

IL was the hight OF southern May
day skies that first dawned upon my
vision; and just as it faded into twi-
light my young mother said, with
paling lips-'She is my May flower
call her May and never spoke
again.
My father died when l was but
five years old-lived> just long enough
to impress his own image on my
young heart, and then left me to the
care of my good guardian, his broth
err.
So it was Uncle Guy Stoepel who
took me on his knee as the twilight
of my seventeenth birthday began to
deepen, and said-'TelI me, my little
May flower, how much longer will
you bloom for your old uncle in the
quiet old grove? Not another sew.
enteen years, dare say
'Oh! yes / said, throwing my
arms around his neck. Forever and
forever!'
well, well, wen see. fancy not,
though. We start for the North
next week, certain. Can you be
ready by Tuesday? Well, well, you
shall have all You want. Run away,
now, and see how Aphrodite gets
along with your dresses.
So away ! ran, and Aphrodite,
whose dark face was as rough as her
classical name, promised all possible
speed. And on the following Tues.
day, Uncle Guy and / were on our
way to Southridge, a broad strip of
cultivated table.land lying within
twenty miles of the metropolis. TAX
ing its name from steep declivity,
or precipitous ridge, with which 1t
terminated on the south.
There lived my Uncle Isaac and
Aunt Rebecca; and there, from
childhood up, as often as the May
fields had grown green under the
blue May skies, l had migrated with
the birds from my far Southern
home.
There were two others, also rela.
tives of Uncle Isaac, who, like my
self, spent their summers at the old
Dutch farmhouse on the Ridge.
These were Lu. Williams and Har.
vey Knight; the former a cousin Of
mine, and about my own age; tie
latter a nephew of Aunt Rebecca,
and about FIVE years our senior.
Each September we parted with the
confident expectation of meeting
again when May returned to unite
us and, through the remainder Of
the year, Harvey, at school in New
York, Lu., at her home in the mid.
West, and /, in the distant South,
sustained desultory correspondence,
the burden of which fell, fear, on
poor Harvey, for he had always been
our hero--Lu's and NINE
On the evening of our arrival at
Southridge, Uncle Isaac and Uncle
Guy smoked the pipe OF peace while
they waged the war of words, Aunt
Rebecca was experimenting kitchen
matters; and l, though travel
weary, was not sorry when Clinton
Bickersteth's hearty greeting fol.
lowed wrap at the open door.
Just before taking leave, he said,
as if cssually-'Harvey is coming
soon, l hear
Yes | replied, ssnd Lu., too
Il suppose so.'
He said it with such quite indif.
fenence. that it cost me something
of an effort to say pleasantly-sYou
and Lu. parted good friends, / sup
poser
4 don't know anything to the
contrary, be replied, taxing his bat,
and, Immediately alter, his depar-
ture.
The next morning, after &c ing
Uncle Guy en- route for New York,
i spent in the kitched and dairy
with Aunt Rebeoca and in the
afternoon / walked down TO the
Ridge with Gin.
sLu. and Harvey are coming to.
morrow said, as he left me al the
door.
Are they p
He said it carelessly, swaying TO
and fro the Sharon-tree beside the
gate.