Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-01-26
Is BLOSSOM STREET.
By NELLIs HOBART EMERY.


past, but il had failed for reasons that
the politicians knew, and now he went
about the more peaceful and less glori-
Gus occupation of dispensing postal
cards in all manner of hieroglyphics to
50 much of the general public as were
included in his morning route
A policeman sees the dark side of hu-
man nature, but the postman sees it in
friendly, neighborly sort of way.
Morning calls are necessarily somewhat
unceremoniOuS, and he cannot but know
something Of the ways of every house
hold. The grimmest of natures would !
gain certain feeling of friendlnless,
even if it were but from the habit of see !
ing every day the same familiar faces |
He was rather grave by nature, and |
had always found his own company and |
affairs sufficiently interesting to make |
those of other people entirely a second |
airy consideration, but he soon develop
ed an interest in different ways with the
various people with whom he was
brought in constant contact
There was Mrs. Moran, whose hus-
band, an Irishman of the better sort,
had gone to the far West, and whose
letters home he always read to the wife
10 whom ''writtin, was an unknown
and mysterious art There were the
patent-medicine folks at the corner,
whose correspondents seemed to have
scattered themselves to the four quarters
Of the earth, and the various .'sociable"
girls, of all degrees of rank and pretti-
ness, to whom it was another chance for
. good time to laugh and Garry on
with the young postman. Some of them
were very amusing, but they did not
call for further thought.
At Is Blossom Street, they took
, mOurnfu looking Baptist Weekly, that
always came on Friday There was
seldom a letter TO be delivered, for Dea-
con Crane and his wife were both sere
and well-dred elderly people who lived |
along in comfortable monotonv. as if !
they had got into the habit of living and !
would keep on indefinitely without
thought of change. That part of Bios |
som street was old and quiet; two great |
horse-chestnut trees ourished in |
sober, sturdy way, by the edge of the |
faded brick sidewalk before the house. |
that seemed in itself a monument of /
moderate and elderly respectability. He !
always delivered the paper at a side |
door a little back from the street, and |
this morning he went in hurriedly, for
one Of the girls had kept him until he |
was trihe late. The door was opened |
by stranger, new conner, evidently; !
pretty girl, he thought afterwards. |
though he could not recollect ANYTHING |
In particular about her except that her |
hair waved soft and naturally about her |
brows. His morning calls had made |
him most used to crimping pins, or
bangs, hastily improved for the occasion. |
She had nice, quiet little way, he |
thought and then he forgot all about |
her, until a day or two afterwards, he |
found q letter for Is Blossom among his |
multitudinous packages
lie gave it 10 her with glance al her /
face that took in, quite by accident. |
the sweet, vivid blush, and shy delight |
that glowed beneath the long, brown /
iashe>. What would the lover have I
given to see how his message was re- |
ccived,
lie smiled to himself al the pretty pie
sure. What vas her name?9 lie had I
scarcely noticed it; Miss Alice /
He could not remember the rest How /
ever, il was in a masculine hand he /
was sure of that: the next time he would /
look and see
Another came soon after, Miss Alice /
tairlie. in an ambitious and dashing
scraWl
He soon grew to know when to look I
Tor them, and amused himself by watch |
ing her quiet delight when he had one /
TO give her.
She was "a pretty little girl. with pleas
ant, household ways, and a pair of I
small practical, loving hands, that it
would ho nice for somebody to hold in
his own strong ones.
She never made talk with him. but I
she was not shy, and he could gain q /
"a smile and girlish reply whenever he I
wished it,
Her life was very quiet with the old I
people; Deacon Crane came home ut |
four Q clock precisely every afternoon, |
and smoked his pipe with unfailing |
regularity during the warm weather, |
under the wistaria vine that grew, in a |
Scraggling. awkward fashion, over the /
narrow trellis by the door. The old |
lady was seldom visible; and broad |
backed elderly spaniel completed the |
establishment, except for half grown |
kitten Witha pink ribbon round its neck, |
and the bright geraniums she watered |
and petted every day. He came to wish |
he had always something to give her: |
she was an industrious little puss, too: |
there was often work basket, with
some small trilling or other in it it, or
book lay on the bench beside the door. |
He had curiosity enough to try to see
what they were. Once it was a little /
German tale She was tranSlating, for Il |
stout little dictionary lay closed beside |
it; sometimes il was only a novel, pre-
sumedly of the proper Baptist stamp. !
He thought if he were this young girl
lover he could not be content SO fa /
away; he wondered who and what kind /
of q fellow he was
She told him the first quite uncon- |
sciously one day. the other he learned |
afterwards. ''Would he take letter
for her, if it would not be too much
troubc2' OF course, no trouble at all; /
50 he took it and read Mr.. George II
Bouton' in a round girlish hand
After few months, the letters did not
come rs often as ut first; he fancied she
wished they would She must be lonely
sometimes without them.
They came still more seldom now,
and he wondered yengefully. ''What
that rascal George was about, 10 neglect
the little Girl in Blossom street Then
there came a great gap, with no letters
at all lie was used TO watching her
by this time, 50 he saw the shade on her
face. and knew She felt it, when dav
after day brought no word or line One
rainy morning she was waiting almost
ont of sight 10y the curtains of the
aroary. clo~cd-up parlor. whoSewindovs
faced directly on the street.
lie wished She would notwatch. there.
lac glanced up with half-shake OF his
head ~ he went by. aud trampcd On
through the mud and windy rain
He knew, though h. had not seen
them. that the tears had come into her
soft dark eyes and she was CRYING softly
to herself in that drcary snuffy room
Itmade him feel miserable, and at
the same time hc was half provoked
why should she cry because he could
not bring her Wha, She wanted9 He
should ike to punch the head Of that
confounded rascal George"
There came day when he dreaded
to take what he had II give her. Ii was
package Of letters evidently sent back
To their writer.
He found her quiet aud anxious, as
usual waiting for him at the door. He
rave them to her. this time without