McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1883-12-06
A PARKWAY MELODY.

A PARKWAY MELODY.
The clothes-line was wound secured,
around the trunks of four gnarled
crooked old apple-trees which stoot
promiscuously about the yard back o
the cottage. 1t was tree blossomins
time, but these were too aged and sap
less to blossom freely, and there wa!
only white bough here and ther,
shaking itself triumphantly from
amongst the rest, which had only theil
new green leaves. There was branch
occasionally which had not even these
but pierced the tender green and the
fossy white in hard gray nakedness
All over the yard the grass! was young
and green and short, and had not yel
gotten any feather, heads. Once in 8
while there was dandelion set closely
down amongst it.
The cottage was low, of dark. red
color, with white facings around the
windows, which had no blinds, only
green paper curtains.
The back door was in the center OF
the house, and opened directly into the
green yard, with hardly pretense of q
step, only fiat oval stone before it.
Through this door, stepping cautious
1y on the stone, came presently two tall
lank women in chocolate-cOloredc calico
gowns, with basket of clothes be.
tween them. They set the basket I'M
derneath the line on the grass, with a
little clothes-pin bag beside it, and then
proceeded methodically to hang out
the clothes. Everything of kind went
together, and the best things on the
outside line, which could be seen from
the street in front of the cottage.
The two women were curiOusly
alike. They were about the same
height, and moved in the same way.
Even their faces wore so similar in
feature and expression that it might
have been difficult matter to distin-
guish between them. All the differ
ence, and that woula have been scarce
ly apparent to an ordinary observer,
was difference of degree, if it might
be so expressed. In one face the fea-
lures were both holder and sharper in
outline, the eyes were a trif1e larger
and brighter, and the whole expression
more animated and decided than in the
other.
One woman's scanty drab hair was q
shade darker than the others, and the
negative fairness of complexion, which
generally accompanies drab hair, was
in one relieved by slight tinge of warm
red on the cheeks.
This slightly intensified woman had
been commonly considered the moro a.
tractive of the two, although in reality
there was very little to choose between
the personal appearance of these twin
sisters, Priscilla and Mary Brown. They
moved about the clothes line, pinning
the sweet linen on securely, their
thick, white stockinged ankles showing
beneath their limp calicoes as they
stepped, and their large. feet in cloth
slippers flattening down the short green
grass. Their sleeves were rolled up,
displaying their long. thin muscular
arms, which were sharply pointed at
the elbows. @H
They were homely women; they were
fifty and over now, but they never
could have been pretty in their teens,
their features were too irredeemably
irregular for that. No youthful fresh
ness of complexion or expression could
ever have possibly done away with the
impression that they gave. Their
plainness had probably only been en-
HANGED by the contrast, and these women
to people generally seemed better look
ing than when they were young. There
was an honesty and patience in both
faces that showed all the palmer for
their homeliness.
One, the sister with the darker hair,
moved little quicker than the other,
and lifted the wet clothes from the bas-
kets to the line more frequently. She
was the first to speak, too, after they
had been hanging out the clothes for
some little time in silence. She stopped
as she did so, with wet pillow-case in
her hand, and looked up refectively at
the Towering apple boughs overhead,
and the blue sky showing between,
while the sweet spring wind rutiied her
scanty hair a little.
81 wonder, Mary" said she, ''if it
mornin' like this, say. Don't you be-
lieve there's apple branches a-hangin'
over them walls made out of precious |
stones, like these, only there amt any
dead limbs among 'em, an they're all
covered thick with flowers? An |
>. onder If it would seem such an awful |
,g to go from this air into the air !;
of the New Jerusalem" just then q
Robin hidden somewhere in the trees
began to sing. 81 s'pose," she went
on, ..that there's angels instead of rob- /