Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-08-04
A LITTLE WOMAN.

along the street, looking about her with
an ohservant air. She had on a ruffled
white apron, and q brown stuff dress,
and e her head she had thrown an
apron of blue and white check in place
of a bonnet. The apron was so large,
and the little woman so small, that,
while the chubby hand held it snugly
under her round chin, n corner trailed
on the ground behind her. The apron
also served as a shawl for a rag doll
with no features to speak of, whose
head, with a CHASTITY wound on top,
peeped out under the little mothers
arm. A great many people were COM
ing and going, but the little woman did
not notice them. She was singing to
herself and the doll:
"'T His hand that leadeth me-"
She only knew this one line, so she sang
it over and over as she went on, walking
close to the fences, and peeping into
yards where flowers were growing, and
into Easements, where she had glimpses
of tables covered with red cloths, and
shining casters towering in the middle
like revolving batteries. She was di-
rectly in the wake of a fat woman, who
turned the stream of travel one side,
and left a quiet little path for her small
follower.
Presently the little woman stopped.
She had come to a yard, filled with
trees and flowers, around an old
fashioned brick house. The flowers
were o~ld-fashioned, too, but they were
all of the sweetest, and over them the
cherry-boughs We're like one great white
hoy,0I,af Thn 1f++ln ,n,,on fo,.oA ~
hold the apron under her chin, and it
slid down to the sidewalk. She took
her doll from under her arm, and held
her close to the fence that she might
see, too, and smell the blossoms, and
hear the fine, clear piping of the bees
at work among them. There was a
wonderful birdshashing about the trees
like q great golden blossom. The bird
seemed always just about tolaunch into
a song, but was so busy he broke off at
the first syllable. A man came across the
lawn with a wheelbarrow, in which was
a green shrub. He dug a hole in the
turf, and began to plant the bush; but
he saw the eager little face, and the
dolly with her wooden brains oozing
out behind. He nodded good-naturedly.
"Where you going, sisp"
"Anywhere,' said the little woman.
"What you looking at?"
Goods flowers" was the grave an
swer.
The man laughed again, and pushed
up his hat.
"Them's the Guv'nor's lowers; want
some?:"
The little woman only nodded, but her
oxyoS orn,o1yy I n 1pro md wound Until, ~,~-Io,,
and expectancy as the man broke a
white bough from the c%herry-tree, and
a purple spike of a hyacinth. He put
them in her hand, saying: CHOW run
home, OF that there young lady will be
took up by the p'lice; looks like she'd
had a row."
The little woman had neither ewes
nor ears for anything but the flowers.
The man went back to his work, and
she went slowly on. One block, two
blocks, six blocks, then she came to a
little triangular park at the intersection
OF the streets-a very small park, with
only grass and a few trees in it, and an
iron drinking fountain for horses Just
outside the fence. Two dusty horses
were drinking from the roundir bowl,
and a dog was eagerly tapping the slen-
der stream that spilled over upon the
stones below. The little woman went
into the park, and sat down under a
tree. She was just beginning to be
afraid she was lost, but She could not
be very unhappy while she hadher flow
ers; She sat very still looking at them,
and to her great delight a brown bee
came shifting at the white cups for an
instant as he passed. Stretched on the
grass near her was a boy-a big boy;
the little woman would have called him
a man. He had red hands and a sun
burned face, and coarse, clumsy clothes.
You would not have looked twice at
him, but the little woman looked and
looked. and saw he was crying. She
looked again, and then crept q little
nearer, holding her doll very tight.
"Does you want some of Gods flow
ers?" she asked, holding the sweet
things toward him.
The boy took them eagerly-took
them all; but just as the little woman
was going to cry he gave them back
to her, so she broke off a piece of the
cherry bough and one little stemless
hyacinth, and gave them to him. The
boy had but lately come to the CITY.
He was hungry, he was friendless. he
was utterly discouraged, he had taken
the first step downward. But when he
smelC the familiar scent of cherry bios
SONS, and saw the pure, pitiful ewes of
the little woman looking at him, it
brought back the homely brown house
among the hills, and the little sisters
who believed in him and trusted him.
"I'll try one day more" he said reso-
lutely, land if l can't get work, I'll 90
home; 1 won't stay here and 90 to the
bad.''
Surely they were Goods flowers
which the little woman had given him.
She sat quietly under the tree, talkino
sometimes to her doll, and counting the
hyacinth bells over and over. She
knew now she was lost, but was not
really frightened. She felt sure some
one would come by and by and find her.
The market-house clock began to strike
twelve. With the first stroke a babel
OF sounds broke in. Steam-whistles in
' every key, bells that changed slowly.