Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-11-07
mys elf; they felt shame and a Puritan

mys Elf; they felt shame and q Puritan
shrinking from the sin.
Aurelia's mother had been q hard,
silent woman before; she grew more
hard and silent afterward. She worked
hard, and taught Aurelia to. Their
work was peculiar; they hardly knew
themselves how they happened to drift
INTO it: it had seemed to creep in with
other work, till finally it usurped it al
together. At first, after her husbands
death, Mrs. Flower had tried millinery:
she had learned the trade in her youth.
But she made no Roadway in sewing
rose-buds and dainty bows onto bon
nets; it did not suit with tragedy. The
bonnets seemed infected with her own
mood; the bows lay flat with stern re-
solve. and the rose-buds stood up
1'ercely; she did not please her Gus
tomers. even among those uncritical
country folk, and they dropped off.
She had always made root-becr, and
had quite a rcputat on in the neighbour
hood for it. How it happened she
could not tell, but she found herself
selling 1t; then she made hop yeast.
and sold that. Then she was q wom-
an OF q fertile brain, and another pro.
Ject suggested itself to her.
She and Aurclia ransacked the woods
thereabouts for medical herbs, and dis
posed OF them to druggists in Il neigh
boring town. They had a garden OF
some sorts too--the different mints.
thyme, lavender, coriandcr, rosemary,
and others. 1t was an unusual bust
ness III two women to engage in, but
it increased, and they prospered, &C.
cording to their small ideas. But Mrs,
Flower grow more n more bitter
with success. What regrets and long.
ing that her husband could have livec
5 and shared it, and been spared his tina'
j, agony, she had in her heart, nobody
but the woman, herself knew; she nevel
spoke of them. She died when Aurel' q
was twenty. and a woman far beyond
her years. She INQUIRED for her mother,
but although she never knew it, hel
f warmest love had not been called out.
It had bgcn hardly possible. Mrs
Flower had not been a lovable mother
she had rarely spoken to Aurelia bu
, with cold censnre for the last few years
People whispered that il was J happy
release for the poor girl when he
/ mother died; they had begun to thinl
e she was growing like her husband, ant
1 perhaps was not ''just right"
v Aurelia went on with the business
l with calm equanim:ty, and made eve1
I profits every year. They were small
e but more than enough for her to liv'
. on, and she paid the last dollar Of tn
mortgage which had so fretted he
l father, and owned the old house clear
G She led a peaceful, innocent lifc, witt
t her green herbs for companions; sh'
4 associated little with the people around
except in q business way. They cam
1 to see her, but she rarely entered thei
: houses. Every room in her house wa
+ festooned with herbs; she knew ever
kind that grew in the New Englan,
woods, and hunted them out IN thei
season and brought them home; sh
was 8 simple, sweet soul, with none c
the morbid melancholy Of her parent
t about her. she loved be
work, and the greenwood thing
were to her as friend,
e and the healing qualities of sarsaparill
and thoroughwort, and the sweetness
e thyme and.lavender, seemed to have Ell
tered into her nature, till she almo
$ could talk with them in that way. ST
had never thought of being unhappy,
i. but now she wondered at herself owe
this child. 1t was q darling of a chilt
as dainty and winsome q girl baby ;
Eve was. Her poor young mother ha
4 had q fondness for romantic name
= which she had bestowed, as the onl
e heritage within her power, or all hi
children. The one was Myrtilla-My
tie for short. The little thing chung
Aurelia from the first, and Aurel
# found that she had another way of To-
ing besides the way in which she love
lavender and thoroughwort. The con
fort she took with the child through tt
i next winter was unspeakable. II
herbs were banished from the soul
It room, which was turned into a nurser,
and a warm carpet was put on the to'
that the baby might not take col
She learned to cook for the baby-h'
own diet had been chiefly vegetaria'
h She became a charming nursingmothe
IS People wondered. at does beat d
"a how handy 'Relia is with shat baby,
h Mrs. Atwood told Why. T..
in Aurelia took even more comfort wi
II the little thing when Spring came, ar
she could take her out with her; the
If she bought a little straw carriage, al
the two went after herbs togethe
Home they would come in the tend
Spring twilight, the baby asleep in h
II carriage, with q great sheaf of t'owe
beside her, and Aurelia with anoth
,t oyer her shoulder.
n She felt all through that Summer
H. If she was too happy to last. Once s.
said so to one of the ncighbors. x fe
f. as if it want right for me to be so pc
he fetly happy" SAID she. III feel sor
liz DAYS as if / was walkin' an wal6in' a
If walkin' through u garden OF swet
h. smellin' herbs, an nothln' else; an
,r for Myrtle, she's a bundle Of myrtle a
" camphor out OF King Solomon's ga
h. den. I'm so afraid it can't last"
he Happiness had seemed to awake
,iS Aurclia q faint OF her fathers torcbo
t's ING melancholy. But she apparent
~. had no reason for it until early III
- Then, returning with Myrtle one mig
to- from u "trip to the woods, she found
I'd old lady seated on her doorstep, gril
ly waiting for her. She was an o
81 woman and trcmulous. but still Il
~ daunted and mistaken as to her splrc
Nv Her tall, shrunken form was load