St. Landry democrat., 1886-01-16

Inc, and was to drive nD own team,
the colts now fully grown and hardened
to work.
He had decided upon this after con-
ferring by letter with Lucy and her par
ents.
Mr.. and Mrs. Parsons desired to give
as much as possible of the furniture
necessary to start the young folks in
housekeeping, and they could do this
to some extent out of what still re-
manned of that brought from the old
home in the foothills, and it was just
as cheap and good deal nicer, these
lovers thought, to make the journey this
way, in Their own conveyance, with
their household goods packed in the
wagon, than to first transport them flt-
teen miles to Phippsburg, ship them
by boat and cars, and then go long
distance after them at the other end OF
the route.
Besides, in thus going across the
country they would have whole week
to spend in each others company; in
which to talk of their love and lay plans
for the future.
1t would be almost as good as real
wedding tour, Lucy decided.
And so one afternoon the jewellers ON
the mountain side saw wagon drawn
by pair of bay horses, whose driver
was dust-covered young man with
sun-tanned face and sandy mustache,
wearing a wide brimmed straw hat,
coming up the by-road which ended at
their gates and knew that the bride.
groom had come to claim his bride.
The place had changed considerably
since Erastus had seen it two years be-
fore.
The addition to the shanty had been
erected, and with the little porch in
front fairly raised it to the dignity of a
cottage.
The rose bushes which Lucy and her
mother had planted had grown as all
things do grow in that climate and soil;
had clambered all over the porch and
were in full bloom, having been wa
tered and tended by loving hands.
Back of the cottage and on either
side great hollyhock bushes, with pur-
Pile and white aud yellow blossoms,
stood "thick as people in street, and
over the low windows, and reaching
clear up to the caves, Madeira vines
mingled their soft, green leaves with
those of the morning glores, that in the
early hours of the day were sprinkled
thick with beautiful, bell-shaped flowers.
In front were long beds of pinks, and
verbenas, and lark-spurs, and great Grim
son-hearted dahlias, that lifted up their
faces and bloomed and nodded in the
breeze; bent low as if to inhale the fra
GRANGE of the mignonette that looked
up from the borders of the beds in Which
they all grew
The grape-vines upon the slopin9
ground above the house had added two
years of growth to their stems; and,
although yet unable to stand erect with
out the supports to which they were
tied, their symmetrical arrangement
in rows, together with the richness O.
their foliage, formed background tina
brought out the coloring of as pretty {
picture of simple home life as one may
| hope to see in long drive in the mount
aims or foothills; and it is in the mount
aims and the foothills that beautiful
pictures are to be sought for.
Outside of the inclosure, and llttl
further up the mountain, the COW
which Lucy had driven home on tina
b1issful evening two years before, Whel
Erastus had told her of his love, wer
chewing their cuds beneath scraggy
low branched oak.
Below, brown in the October sun, la.
the stubble field from which the grail
had been harvested, and which nov
stood in rick near the shed where tn
. horses were munching at their feed.
Beyond the cottage was the youn
orchard of peach, and pear, and apple
trees. and over all the cloudless blu
sky of California.
. More than a hundred turkeys wan
dered at will through the orchard
down into the stubble- field, and far II
on the mountain side. Or they clus
tered about the shed and rick of grain
,, or came with the chickens at feedin
time to the bare bit of earth near th
, kitchen door to receive their portion {
the food thrown to them by some men
Der of the family dwelling within tn
vine-wreathed cottage.
, And here one morning a week afte
, Erastus' coming, little party, con
!, posed of neighbors and their familie:
gathered to witness the marriage of th
Young couple who had plighted the
!, faith two years before, standing IN tt
road while the COWS went lazily hon
, without them.
= 1t was not an assembly such as woul
+ have graced fashionable church in
. great city. Not one among them al
n perhaps, but would have felt i'll at ca:
: in richly furnished parlor of brown
y stone front in New York or Chicago.
e They were common country people
h husbands and wives who gained the