New-York tribune., 1881-09-11

my fingers. No had never seen it before. AS to
hazard no % eonecture to Your wardrobe v and
you will find yellow ribbon striped with
y and then you T h k Bmt nnd gone
still I knew not. Tie message Of the ribbon was
as dark to me as had been that of the flower. As |
stood. in even more hopeless bewllderment than
had stood in the garden, painfully striving to find
the moral moral Of this twce-repeated enigma, a bird.
his sleepy dawn song / listened eagerly to him.
thinking that perhaps he might give me the key to
but joy,joy at the coming of another day JOY at
being Bel ALIVE 10y at being little gaSrden; finch
morning red, nor the awakening flowers. None Of
them could help me. By;aud-by laid down the
had found it. closed the drawer got down from
the chair, shut the wardrobe, and went back to
This time was resolved that sleep should not
again overtake nor expose me to the possibility OF
saa nd aa So SVd nssas nsf
wakeful was I, that it seemed most unlikely That
seST0s Ss ssa lapse And
was Msst sound t;aa asleep .nl, again A.. ,,.u;nu
aloft for the sleepy finch score of blaekbirds
and thrushes and linnets were making their heav
emily din, and my maid was offering me my morning
tea took it drowsily, nut before had tasted it
he act of sitting up having fully aroused me-the
incidents Of the night rushed back on my mind:
bed. and running to the wardrobe opened it,
na IN %D on ha hair and %cd ont the top
There was no brown-and-yellOW ribbon there.
any of them was there sucl a ribbon nor, although
clearly recOllected having overturned and dis
such overturnng and dlsplacng. Everything lay
neat and orderly as was its won't, l was fey;
in voice, through which her astonishment at my
unwonted procedure plainly pierced, asked me
or t rSeosn% 9r the warroTs as spoe
nothing that was likely to ind l dressed in
feverish hasteI,us9ally l was of lazy habit lay
hard Tn in hal
from the time at which was called, was racing
across the sward to the bed that had held the
mystic flower. What different garden it was to
the midnight holding secrets in it's frank and
sunny breast, and sung to by what sweet and prac-
no lily in the night as | remembered, it the
very FIRST object that had struck my sight.
paratiyey faint light; but now, even with strong
daylight helping me, could md no trace of it. l
even between the Gueldres rose and mock-orange
bushes, but it was not there. There peonics-
they were trying to be mistaken for great roses
there was weigela'. delicate as appie-blossom;
there were lupins- but there was yellow lily
striped with brown
vair-peered and pushed aside leaves and blossoms,
the voice Of Alice who had come suddenly up
What are you looking forV
Nothing answered hurriedly stepping back
on to the grass again.
Have you lost a ring or glove inquired she,
looking at me with some attention, for | suppose
appeared lurricd and dsordcred.
NO, replied, have lost nothing at least -
that am likely to find
Neither flower ribbon! Must it then have
been only dream. At first rejected scornfully
this explanation Had dream such conss-
coherenco from its beginning to it's close Z In it
had been none of the strange starts and freaks that
there had been nothing d6cousu no leaps from the
probable to the entirely impossible; no metamor-
phosis OF myself into some one else; no unexplained
hpT IN frnu nlNN tn hsn
such as have abounded in every dream--evcn the
most vivid aud life, like ones-that / have ever
suspicion deepencd, changed al last INTO convic-
top, that 1T was dream had never awakened
or opened my wardrobe doors. All the time that
imagined had been 80 doing, had been in point
awkward way of lying. some uncaslness of pos
ture, had produced the phenomena that have
to no one. not even to Alice. Some strange rcluc-
tancc tied my tongue. But went heavily and Ill at
ease all through the day. 1t was never out OF my
head. ! puzzled over it's enigma from early morn
ing until night again fell, and bedtime returned.
Tired and yet excited, lay down | closed my
eyes, dreading IA repetition of the vision though,
be seen, aud yet nervously hoping for some con
tnuatlon of IT that might give me the clue to guide
Inc Inc through ITS labyrInih-thnt might give me
came l had difficulty III falling asleep at all at
first, so hopelessly alert and at work seemed my
brain but gradually lasstnde got the better of
my excitement, and i slept. But no trace of any
dream disturbed varied my deep sluinber Nor
on any OF the succeeding nights did | hear any
repetition of that strange and melancholy voice. 1t
seemed to have had leave TO speak but that once.
And az the days and hours passed by, the times
influence, invariably numhng, dcadcned the inn
preston that at first had been 80 keen After
while tried to avoid thinking OF it, rs of some
thing painful unnervng. and yet meaningless, nor
dld | mention 1t to any living sonl To relate 1t
would have seemed TO give II added Importance
And 80 n week of our placid and uniform life
slipped away The weather was cool again, and we
prayed tennis from morning To night. At first the
same sentiment which had made MS leave Dicks
chair vacant, prey ented us from supplying his place
~ the game; but as this principle could not
he carried out through life. that Whatever he had
done must hcnceforth, until his return, be left un
done, we by-and-by associated to ourselves, rs
occasion offered n neighboring curatc. or squire,
and so, all day long. the balls flew. and the grass
waxcd ever barcr badcr, and more worn, where
| our perscvcring feet continually trampled it,. But
| event of our lives. We much behind the
time and lived so decp-sunk in the country, that we
had no second post. nor would my father take any
steps to obtain one, he said that once day
quie enough to be pestcrcd with letters, and that
for his part, II 1t were a week instead, be could
| very well put up with H., But it was by the
second post that the indian letters 10 post
| town, and on the mail day 1t was an iEvarlabc
| custom that some of us should drive in 10 fetch
| them 70 send n servant for thom would have
| baked our impatcnce and would hcsidcs have
seemed dlsrespcct to them So. whether 1t shone
| or ralned, Alice and J. rs surely rs the post day
came, might be seen whipping up our old pony into
| On that day it shone; slone so strongly that
Alice, who drove, asked me for share of my large
snnshade; and beneah it we trotted along in happy
expectancy. The air blew heavily sweet from
the bean field until that day loved the smell of u
| bloSsoming bean field, and the birds sang-oh,
| how they sang
For there of them that fcisned
| TO TO sing, for each OF them him panied
70 niid out merry, crafty notes
They ne spared not their throats."
When we cheb ho o(ii fho LOT 20, yprp