Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1880-08-21
COMING RACK.

ia COMING RACK.
Up in city garrett, on hot June day,
q weary woman leaned back in her chair,
and pressed her fingers against the eyes
that refused longer to see the stitches in
ft10 onOp- work over which she had tOiled
iron 4ay-break till now, O'clock in the
afternoon.
From the street far below her, voice
had only at that moment scared upward,
calling, "Strawbe Tees! Strawberries
Ripe, red strawberr-eesp'
And, as If by magic, her thoughts turn
ing backward had carried her to Deep
dene, the home Of her youth, and to a
certain lovely June day in her 10Th year.
when she had stood in the strawberry
pasture on the Blessing Farm, with the
red berries pertaining all the air, and
said the words which severed her fate
from that of Maurice Blessing, and
made her life what it was on this day,
almost hopeless, and ceaseless strug-
gle for bread, won at the needles point.
uHOw it all rose up before herl The
green pasture slOping upward to the
darker green woods, whose tops seemed
to touch, the deep blne sky, sloping to
the gray stone wall, with the cool spring
leaping out through wooden trough,
among its lower stones.
And below the wall, 'the thirty acre
moving" spread out like an immense
emerald velvet carpet, with the two
story -cOl0red house lifting its pi-
azzaed front at the extreme end, Just
where the shaded lane began, that led
from the Blessing farm out into the vii
lage road.
She, the poor orphan girl, had been
offered this comfortable home; and she
had refused it-fOr what? For dream
of fame, which had left her tOiling in
this hot garnet, while in the black trunk
yOnder the which was to have made her
fortune, refused by one publisher after
another, was lying, till she could find
courage to thrust it into the fire. W
Scarcely two years. she sighed, rock
ing herself to and fro. "And Maurice
has sold the old farm and gone to Color
ado: and am here, lonely, disappointed,
old before my time. Oh, if could only
live that day over again, and be as wise
as am now! For now / know / love
him-now, when it is forever too later
SickeniDg, with sort of calenture
among those hot city streets, for one
glimpse of her early home, Hester May
rose, and went the desk where her
worldly wealth was stored.
By the closest economy, she had man
aged to lay aside a few dollars, for
the gloomy purpose of paying the expen
SeS of her own sickness and death, when
the time should come for her to die
among strangers.
From this sacred hoard she counted
out a sufficient sum to take her to Deep.
dene. s ia
Il will stay only one day." she thought.
~And will work all the harder after
my return to make up this sum again.
But see Deepdene, no that is fairly in
my mind, mustl And 1 will take one
more look at the dear old farm before it
Is in the hands of strangers, and so al
tered that shall not know it" -'5sL
The next day saw her on her way.
The years of her absence had been
years of change to the little country vii
lage. -
A railway whisked her across the
hill-rOad from TOrringtOn. Once she
Would have made the journey in yell
low "stage" drawn by four horses, with
John COlney, crOSseSt and most disagree
able of earthly stage-drivers, on the box.
The village, too, was smartened and
freshed .up-new houses, new fences,
a new iron fence around the small oval
park that graced the center of the town
new names against the gilded fronts of
the shops; new set of giggling misses,
on their way to the new brown stone
academy, which stood where she had
once thought it an honor to attend the
, district school, in plain, One-stOry
Structure of faded brick. ~
No doubt all these alterations were
for the better; but they made her heart
ache with sence of loss unspeakable.
And she turned into the shaded lane
that led only to the Blessing Farm,
dreading to see the old home desecrated
by the strangers hand.
No; there it stood as she had always
known 1.-THE very picture of home COM
fort, the center of all those modest lux
uries that a. well-tO-dO farmer, of all
But, although the dear old house was
unchanged, its inmates were new and
strange to her. A stout, middle-aged
man, i'm white summer suit. with a
broad brimmed hat, had cigar, sat on
paper. A Observation-Disclosures lady
SOmC yCoIC JunAO1, OW uliS III ndul-
mock upon the lawn lost in novel.
Several children, in brOad-brimmed
hats and brown Holland blOuses, were
making the lives of the two nurses a
burden to them, further down the lawn
! among the elm trees, where a swing had
hung from time immemolial. g -
'City" was stamped on every face and
and figure that she saw. ~ b.
Had Maurice sold the place to- some
retired merchant, who would Over-Orna-
mentf and dis6gure it in the modern
villa style?
sIf one could but live their lives ovel
after they grow older, and are taught
by experience what is best for themp
thought Hester in her sadness, once
more. ~ t r
She would have gone up to the house
and asked leave to rest and look around
II it had remained in the care Of ole
Father Williams and his wife, the ten
nants of the upper farm.
But she could not face these prosper.
Gus, happy "city people," who would
look at her with their coldly-curious
eyes, and wonder, almost audibly
what she could want" even if they
did not absolutely mistake her for
tramp"
Il wish could have gone through the
strawberry pasture once more" she
thought, as she turned back toward the
roiIxuou ofafion fsroI -