The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-06-26
WAS 1T WASTED?
Was Paul Lyndon's Life Quite a
FailureP
[Original.l

LOriginal~l
The old brown house stood on the
of the nil a long way back from
the road and IN the middle of a Great
orchard which was just then in full
bloom. No lover of the beautiful could
have passed it by without an eNclama-
ton of delight; whether spring made
the long hill stand out like q white
cloud, summer gave it graceful green
pillows or autumn clothed it with a
wealth of brown leaves and fruit. At
times it was q picturesque place. 1t
was not a stylish one; not even neat,
A landscape gardener would have made
sad havoc with its bushes before he
would have considered it passable, but
a painter or a lover of the beautiful
would not pass it by. Its great charm
lay in its being old-fashioned; and.
perhaps, an old-fashioned person, or
one with old -fashioned tastes was re-
quired to appreciate it. The house
was a low brick structure. with long
yerandas, and the walk which led
up to it from the road was fringed
with deep grass and shaded with
thick lilac bushes. The apple trees,
grew untrlmmed, in rank p]rOfusion,
and here and there dead limbs were
visible amid green leaves, Rose bushes
grew and bloomed and wild vines
bound them together. Woodbine and
ivy covered the long front porch and
old-fashioned, single roses, such as
florists do not sell, clambcred up the
windows. Violets. white and yellow
lilies, geraniums, pinks and naStur-
tiums grew at will about the dooryard.
There was no attempt at flower culture.
The seeds were planted and left to
grow as they would, and the grass
tlourished tall and rank about the beds;
so tall, in midsummer, that the little
gardener who tended them was almost
hidden from sight as she bent to cut
her old-fashioned nooegays. Alto
gether 1t was a homely place, but such
a spot as would make one think of
home and mother, and | doubt not but
that many busy men of the world, on
their way from the city to the seaside,
paused as they passed it and gave a
moments thought to boyhood days.
1t was late in May. while the hill
wa still covered with white blossoms,
that Paul Lyndon came back to the old
home to die. He was not yet forty,
but he had wor life out, or the pleas
ure Of it. and the world had sent him
back a wreck. So he came to the old
home that he had not seen for fifteen
years, to sit on the porch in the pleas
ant spring sun, listen to the song of the
birds and enjoy the fragrance of the
apple blossoms, as he had done in his
toyhood days. His life, like many
anotber's that is never written, had
been a failure.
In spite of our tears, it is always
well when tired men and women 90
home to rest. 1t is cowardIv to cry for
death when there is work to do; but /
have never been able to grieve when
weary men and women, one after an
other, drop silently from my side and
20 to the rest beyond. Years before
had left the home and gone
,ut into the world, eager to run his
ace and win his prize. He was going
write wonderful books, or paint
wonderful pictures, and after awhile
,ome back, rich and famous. That
fifteen years before, but neither
books nor paintings had made him
either rich or famous. Still, the old
homestead was his, and the bank &C.
his father left was sufficient to
count him a wealthy man. But of his
effort nothing had come to him.
One spring day, after Paul came
Iome, the old rattletrap of a stage,
daily passed down the road at
he foot of the hill, drew up at the or
hard gate, and two people alighted
nd came up the narrow footpath to
he porch.
"Why Mr.. Lyndon" Paul heard a
roman exclaim, and looking up recog-
lied old Mrs. Tredennis, whom he
ad not met for well, nearly those
fteen years.
He knew what was coming then, or
ather, who had followed her up the
i'll path her ncice, whom he had not
let for nearly the same length of time; ]
HON he had left, a girl of sixteen, '
wing him with all the romance Of l
lrly girlhood, and whom he had de-
'utIy hoped never to see again. She
as another of his failures. They had J
one, not only through a mild firta- '
on. in those balmy days. but had ac- q
ally been engaged. That was at the a
ginning of his dream of life, just 2