The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1882-01-25
COMING BACK.

10 see the stitches in the shop-work
over which she had toiled from day
break till now, four o'clock in TIE
afternoon.
From the street. far below her, q
voice had only that moment SCARED
upward. calling Sirawberr eos
sirawberr-ees ripe. red straWberr-
ees
And. as Il by magic, hcrthoughts
turning backward. bad carried her
10 DeDdcnc. the home of her youth.
and TO certain lovely jane day in
her sixteenth year. when she bad
stood i1 the strawberry pasture on
the Blessing Farm. viih her rel hoT-
rics perlaming ail ihe sir, and sand
the ", ris that severed hcr ilio from
that u Maurice Blessing. and made
her lie what 10 was on this day, al
most hopeless and o ceaseless sirug-
gie lor bread won at the needles
point. -
How it all rose up before herl
The green pastures sloping upward
10 the darker green woods, whose
tops scented % touch tAe deep blue
sky. siop.nr downward 20 the gray
stone wall with the cold spring
leaping ont through a 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 cream-colored house
lifting its piazzed front at the ex-
,reme end, Just where the shaded
lane began, and led from the Bless
ing Farm out into the village 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 garret,
while in the black trunk yonder, the
book which was to have made her
fortune, refused by one publisher af-
ter another, was lying, till she could
find courage to thrust i into the
fire"
Scarcely two years :" she sighed,
rocking herself to and fro. And
Maurice has sold his farm and gone
to Colorado and / am here, lonely,
disappointed, old before nay time
Oh, if l could only live that day
over again, and be as wise rs 1 am
now For now l know that l love
him-now. when it Is forever toe
late -
Sickening with a sort Of caien-
ture among those hot city streets
for one glimpse of her early home
Hester Nav rose and went to the
desk where her warldly wealth was
stored.
By the closest economy, she bad
managed 10 iay aside o iew dollars
ior the gloomy purpose of paying
the expense of her own sicknes.
and death, when The time should
come for her to Die among stun
gers.
From ihis sacred horde -hco0uat
rl ort e sum sufficient 90 take h,l
o. Dcpleae.
"a will STAY only enc day, sh,
Thought ~and wiz work all tlohard
cr after 1 reiuu to maze up thi-
sum aeain- bui see Depiene. noR
that Il is mir'v on my mind. ] must
And viii take one more LOOK NJ
the delr old farm before it j. IN tht
hands of strangers, and 20 altered
thai shall not know il.
TEE next day saw her on hei
way.
rhc two years Of her absence had
been years OF change 50 thc ilil,
country village.
A railway whisked across the hii
road from Terrington. Once sh,
would have made the journey in Z
yellow 'stage" drawn by four hors
Is, with John Colney, the crosses
and most disagreeable Of earthly
stage drivers, on the box.
The village, too, was smarteneC
and freshened up-new houses, new
fences, a new iron fence around th,
small, oval park that graced ia,
centre of the town new names
above the gilded fronts of the shops
n new set of giggling misses, on theil
way 70 tha new brown-stone acade.
my, which stood where she had ono,
thought it an honor to attend thC
district school, in n plain. one-story
structure of faded brick.
No doubt all these alterations
were for the better but they mad,
her heart ache with a sense OF los
unspeakahle.
And she turned into the shaded
lane that led only to the blessing
Farm. dreading 10 see the old hom,
desecrated by the strangers hand.
No, there il steod as she had al
WAYS known it-the very picture 0
home comfort, the eenterof all thos,
modest iuxuries that O well-to.d,
farmer, Of all other men, most easii,
commands.
But although the dear old hoIs'
was unchanged, It's inmates wer'
new and strange to her. 4 stout
middle-aced man, in q white sum
mer suit. with broad-brimmed ha
and cigar, sat on the steps Of the pi
azza, reading a newspaper. \ fash
ionably-dressed lady. some yeni
his Junior, swgng in a hammock
upon the lawn, lost il novel.
Several children. in broad-brim
hats and brown Holland blouses
were making the lives OF two nurses
burden 10 them, further down th,
lawn. among the elm trees, where I
swing had hung from time imme
mortal.
City was stamped Oh ever facf
and figure that she saw.
Had Maurice sold his place K
some rich merchant, who wouio
.oyer-oraament and disdcnre il II
the modern villa style.
If one could only live their ike:
ovcr after they grow older and are
taught ay experience what is Best
for them" iaoaght Hester IN Isl
sadness orce more.
She would have gone up 70 ths
house and asked leave 10 rest ard