Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-12-09
MISS EULALIs's ELM-TREE.

1t was q magnificent work OF Nature
Miss EuIalIe's elm-tree so tall and grace
full, overhanging the street with its green
banner, lending charming shade TO her
little paTlor, which gave it the air of dim,
cool recess IN the woods on a summer
day. Miss Eulalie loved it, and, except
for her gay young ward, it would seem
that she had little else to love. Her grand
father had planted it; it was sort OF
heirloom. She had passed her youth be-
meath It's 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 i'll its shad-
ows. II gave her both pain and pleasure
pleasure, because 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
estraDged him was still as great mystery
to her as in those early days of her be-
reavement, when sorrow and suspense hal
been her daily companions, rising up and
sitting down with her. Perhaps some
fairer woman had enslaved him, per-
haps he had never really loved her
at all, and she experienced a
pang of mortified pride when she re-
iectei 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 fall
ing, like her own hopes and illusions it
was poem to her and yet, after all, it
was only Miss Eulalie's elm tree by per
mission. The home of her ancestors had
(, gg,Lz j., L. 1
turned to it by happy chance, not as its
owner. Mrs. Vaughn the purchaser. had
a daughter to be educated, and Miss Eulalie
had taken the situation. When Mrs.
Vaughn died abe devised that Miss Eulalie
should make home with Isabel, be moth
er, sister and teacher, all in one, to that
hayward 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
1t was home-her old home, where she
had dreamed dreams. When she walked
at twilight beneath the old elm its leaves
seemed to whisper, "Just here he kissed
you first, and Here you said good by. y
No wonder she liked the old tree
Dangerous thing" said Captain Valen-
tine, tapping its trunk with his cane as he
walked by hollow-hearted as a tilt,
Miss Ealalie,"
on are mistaken, " she reioined sit
is as sound as a nut.
" But it must come down." he added, as
if his word were law.
Nsrer, while I live, Captain Valentine >
" You forget that am a man of prop
erty that l pay more taxes than any one
in Litteiord that can buy every tree in
the place, and cut it down, if | choose"
Then it is only from pure good. nature
that you beg my consent to cut down this
exquisite tree Do you know, / have loved
it from child /; my grandfather planted
tt
Il know that Miss Isabel owns thc
whole estate, and know that this bone o.
contention. this tree, obstructs the view
from my windows, Miss Eulalie, which i:
more 70 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 for.
lorn and shabby. Miss Eulalie looked at
the imposing structure, at the psrterres OF
brilliant flowers, at the fountain tossing its
jsts into the sunlight, the velvet terraces
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 out tie
servants to speak with Why had he
never married? In the humility of her
heart Miss Eulalie never dreamed that il
was because she would not marry him.
That had happened so many years ago, be-
fore he and Arson Andrews had sailed to.
gether in the Water Witch. How angry
he had been then How jealous of An.
son How bitterly he had sworn that the
day should come when she would give her
hearts blood to recall the words-wheu
she should regret her folly in dust and
ashes But of course he had forgotten ali
that-the rawlings OF an untamed nature
He had been oaly second mate then. with
little or nothing ahead in the world to-day
he was Captain Valentine, with the world
at his feet-the richest man in town, per
hsps,
q" You might have been mistress up there
Mics Eulalie," he had reminded her ont
day, pausing at her gateway after the hous;
was done. " But you took your choice
you took your choice, and" laughing-
81 they tell us that beggars shouldn't b,
choosers.'
From the very first Captain Valentine
had raised hue and cry about Miss Eula
lies elm.tree it almost seemed as if b,
had selected the site to tease her, as if hl
wished to strip her of everything sh,
loved, since she declined to love himself
" have bought the most expensive spot il
town" he said, "and spared no money, il
order that l m ght open my eyes every