Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1882-11-02
Miss Eulalie's Elm Tree.

1t was magnificent work of nature,
Miss Eulalie's elm tree; so tall and
graceful, oyerhanging the street with
its green banner, lending a charming
shadeto her little parlor, which gave
it the air of dim, cool recess in the
woods on summers day. Miss Eula-
lie loved it, and, except for her gay
young ward, it would seem as if she
had little else to love. Her grand
father had planted it; it was a sort of
heirloom. She had passed her youth
beneath its boughs; her name was
carved on its stem. She never looked
at the tree without thinking Of the
one who had carved it there Of the
still, moonlight nights they had spent
together in it's shadow. It gave her
both pain and pleasure-pleasure, be-
cause it reminded her that he had
loved her once; pain, that he loved
her no longer. She could not guess
why he had never returned to her /;
what had estranged him was still as
great a mystery to her as in those early
days of her bereavement when sorrow
and suspense had been her daily COM
panions, rising up and sitting down
with her. Perhaps some fairer woman
had enslaved him, perhaps he had
never really loved her at all, and she
experienced a pang of mortified
pride when she reflected that she had
possibly been vain enough to make the
mistake. Year by year she watched
the tender green of the elm thicken
into dark masses of leaves year by
year she watched them fading and
falling, ike her own hopes and illu-
sions it was poem to her and yet,
after all, it was only Miss Eulalie's elm
tree by permission. The home Of her
ancestors had fallen into other hands !;
she had only returned to it by a happy
chance, not as its owner. Mrs. Vaughn.
the purchaser, had a daughter to be
educated, and Miss Eulalie had taken
che situation. When Mrs. Vaughn
died she devised that Miss Eulalie
should make a home with Isabel. be
mother, sister and teacher, all in one,
to that wayward young person till
she should marry-in short, stand in
the gap. Miss Eulalie had been used
to standing in gaps all her life; this
was nothing new. And it was home
her old home where she had dreamed
dreams. When she walked at twilight
beneath the old elm it's leaves seemed
TO whisper, Just here he kissed you
first" and Here yon said goodbye
No wonder she loved the old treel
Dangerous thing" said Captain
Valentine, tapping its trunk with his
cane as he walked by; hollow-hearted
as a jilt, Miss Eulalie."
"You are mistaken" she rejoined /:
"it is as sound as nut"
"But it must come down." he added,
as if his word were law.
"Never, while live, Captain Valen-
tine.'
"You forget that I am man Of
property; that pay more taxes than
any one in Littleford; that ! can buy
every tree in the place and cut it
down, if I choose"
Then it is only from pure good ma
ture that you beg my consent to cut
down this beautiful tree? Do you
know I have loved it from child; my
grandfather planted it,
II know that Miss Isabel owns the
whole estate, and I know that this
bone Of contention, this tree, obstructs
the views from my windows, Miss
Eulalie, which is more to the point
that its boughs leap into the air SO
high and spread their branches so
wide that it blots out the view of the
sea, the open sea-" and he passed on
up the long green lawn to his new
home, with its marble steps and broad
balconies, which made its humble
neighbor seem forlorn and shabby.
Miss Eulalie looked at the imposing
structure, at the parterres Of brilliant
flowers, at the fountain tossing it's
head into the sunlight, the velvet ter
races and lawn, and smiled. Why had
Captain Valentine chosen to build his
palace so near her home? Why had
he built at all, at his time of life, with
no family to inherit and no wife to do
its honors? How lonely he must be,
she thought, in the spacious mansion,
with nobody but the servants to speak