The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1886-12-17

ts possible, saved trees III DereSuarlty they
would have had if set out in an orchard
Three or four times before they finished Cy.
rus left them and returned for provisions, the
second time bringing his son Darius with
him. And at last the wilderness was cleared
and every tree remaining in the first section
had received the bud of the sweet orange
which had been the precious freight OF
Julian's moss wrapped bundle
Now" said Julian, "whie these are &C.
commodating themselves to the new circum-
stances, we will go ahead and clear out next
years extension. Idont know exactly how
long this hummock is, but in time mean to
get all the worthless growth cleared out of
SO much Of as belongs TO father, If it's ten
miles, and every tree left grated, and We'll
have every sort of orange that grows; the
hlood-rcd Maltese, the spicy little Mandarin,
and all the rest This is better than stand
ing behind counters or over desks, isn't 1t,
Dan?"
"Heap sweeter work than picking cotton
on The field, honey" said old Cy."
What day ii was to the boys and the old
servant when the whole orange forest, as far
as eye could see, burst out in flower, with
such a blossoming as would have wreathed
all the brides of the earth with snowy sprays,
and whose rich rare odors one would think
might have sailed over the seas themselves,
and penetrated foreign countries with their
sweetness.
"Now," said Julian, to his brother and con.
fdante, I'VE want to be fit for what's coming.
Don't let's waste any time. DR.. Yancy has
books enough, and he'll tell us what to read,
and well 60 and see him and begin to get an
education" And so much of their plan as
this they announced to the family
'Tm sure l don't see what you can be
thinking about" whmpered his sister
Frarnie, "when we're all but starving"
But Rachel was the only one who took
hold of the books with them, and labored
along us near them as she could follow; and
before the year was out it was surprising how
much those lads and the young girl had put
into their memories Twice a year Julian
and Dan and old Cy and Darius went off on
what their mother called their wicked and
idle shooting, tor which she didn't see why
their father was willing TO spare them old
Cy. But the father kept the secret. They
believed it would make the mother happy
enough by.and-by.
Some years later they set out early one
morning for the orange hummock, the father
having left note for the mother, saying TINT
he was going with the boys and going to
take Rachel.
Nobody enjoyed the whole enterprise more
than Rachel who was helpful little body,
and knew of countless methods of adding to
their comfort on the way. Her own comfort
was secured by the little donkey that Cy had
borrowed of DR.. Yancey and on which she
| rode.
You'll have to he lot Of use, Rachel as
soon as we get there" said Julian, land so
| has Mr.. Father"
But when she did get there, she found as
romantic little hut, made of orange bou chs,
with two rooms in it, too, that the boys had
| M ~ hn act inn hnu tlor
as one could have out of q fairy story and
long before she reached the place she could
have found the way by the odors blowing
towards her and when, all at once, the
the orange forest-not an orange grove or
plantation, but the orange forest-burst upon
her in full gorgeous fruit she could have cried
with rapture, only she knew her father liked
to have her staid and quiet But she knew
she had come to help them gather their for
tune, and all hands began at once.
"We made araft, you see, father" said
Julian, "the last time we were here, too, and
we can float it; and there is raft tied up
under the bushes there, and that will let us
into the water ways to the St. Johns five
sell our oranges well, We'll have better
equipment next year. After that, patience,
father When we've RATED down one lot
We'll come back for the next. When those
first old Spanish colonists, three hundred
years ago, brought over few orange shoots
from Seville, do you believe it ever occurred
to them that such forest as this would find
a place here ?"
1t was all as Julian said, and when they
had finished their voyaging and sold the last
orange, the boys went back with their father,
and made their mother visit. and stopped
all her reproaches by telling her their story
Shortly after that, masons and carpenters
and gardeners were at work upon the house
and the grounds; and then the boys had taken
servants and mules with them and had gone
back to the Okemolkokee hummock, and
Rachel, with her mothers consent, had gone
along, to keep the mildew off, Dan said
while they cleared out the hummock
farther along, grating new trees and tending
old ones, and read their books at night, by the
light of burning pitch-pne knots before the
little hut in the centre of their orange-trees,
that seemed to bud and bloom as iflhey knew
the work they were doing for the family
that had two such sons and such daughter
as Rachel, in it.
L. was q half-dozen years later, that met
at New Orleans a stately old gentleman, dress
ed taultlessly on his arm was q pale grace
fui lady whose face, happy and smiling
though it was, bore traces of old discomfort
and sorry. There was group of young peo-
pie in the distance, busy over trunks and bas-
kets and wraps,-Frarne and Rebecca and
little Rachel, grown as tall and handsome as
they, and their pert and pretty quadroon
waiting maid and james, who had grandly
thrown up the place, under Government,
anxiety TO keep which had once nearly worn
his life out; and the two boys, who had for
gotten there was such thing rs shot coun-
ter or an oyster-scow and Darius, grinning
like masque and old Cy, lowering round
Julian and cambridge MS if they were the chief
treasures ofthe familj, and losing them one
lost orange groves and all.
Yes" said the stately old gentleman, eyes,
we are on the way to see the boys of to Eu-
rope, to give them the advantages of the best
education. Splendid boys, sir-deserve the
best there is, and am able to give it to them,
and they shall have it,"
Gam | still in the cotton business Oh, no
the cotton business left me with the war.
am largely interested in orange growing
My boys-tine young men early turned their
attention to the wild bitter orange on my
waste lands and thanks TO them-I mean,
thanks to Julian and cambridge there-you
will hardly believe it, but receive more than
ten thousand dollars year clear profit from
my orange groves"
The steamer bore away over the old Span
ish main, to Gibraltar and Genoa two prom
ising young men, if young they might be
called, when nearly thirty. Ten years had
changed their fortune The two hum
mock still blossoms and bears, and becomes
richer income yearly, and is likely to do 80
until "lhe boys" are Old Youths Companion.