The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1886-09-07
IN RHETTA'S GARDEN.

J..
IN RHETTA'S GARDEN.
It was only little spot south Of the
house, but violets blossomed sooner
there than anywhere else, and great
bursting plnks made the air spicy while
other peoples were only in bud. There
were daffodils in the grassy border,
and blue bells, and blue spider lilies.
There were two rOse-bushes. one Gin
namon and one damask, while double
sweet gilly-1owers sowed themselves
and came up every year along with
Inignonette and chrysanthemums. 1t
was a sweet, fragrant, old-fashioned
little garden, which Rhetta's mother
had tended and taken pleasure in, and
now 1t was Rhetta's. There she
worked all her spare half-hours, sowing
:and watering, wedding and transplant-
ing, till her little hands were brown,
and her checks like hoG own cinnamon
roses. Aunt Dorcas, in the kitchen,
used to wonder show on earth that
child could be so content all alone out
in her posy bedl"
But Rhetta was not so OFTEN alone OF
2ate, since they had taken a boarder.
Ralph Calender found that the pleas.
antest path to the house lay through
the little flower.garden, and when his
jobs Of copying failed to occupy his
time, what could be more natural than
to use his leisure helping the blushing
gardener? 1t was he who carried away
;all the weeds, divided the white peony
,roOts and reset them, and dug more
thoroughly than Rhetta ever could
around the dear old rose-bushes. Over
THAR ,pnrG thou Foil tolI oo x,o,,,,,.
people will, and already Rhetta's father
began to watch them a little anxiously
above his spectacles as he sat on the
:p@rch, while one Of the neighbors had
remarked to Aunt Dorcas that it was
ii pity that young Calender was not
man Of fortune as well as Of family.
In truth, riches had taken unto them
selves wings and flown away from the
Callenders a year before, so that Ralph,
instead o. becoming junior partner in
1an old and prosperous business, saw
nothing before him but what his two
hands could earn, and beng totally un-
prepare for such prospect, he had to
y take little time to get used to it, and
@to.and out which way to turn. Mean.
while he had drifted to this suburban
town, and waiting to find situation as
clerk or accountant, did copying to
support himself, and boarded at Rhet-
ta's.
1t was the day they had been trans
planning touch-me-nOts, and Ralph had
thrown himself down under the plum
. tree for respite, while Rhetta pulled
the faded blossoms from primrose. He
might have been misanthrophic enough
at that moment If he had chosen, for
the last line Of copying lay upon his
cable finished, with not so much as
hint of an order for any more. Worse
than that, a clerks place he had been
hoping for had that very morning been
given to another. If he had got It, he
could have spoken to Rhetta at once.
His glance followed her as she bent
over her plants, her garden bonnet
dropping back from her bright brown
hair, and his fingers sought instlnc,
lively little ring that hid in his vest
pocket. The old Calender pride had
come to this, that he only waited for
the barest chance Of being able to earn
a living before he offered heart and
hand to pretty Rhetta Wood, whose
bonnie face was all her dowey.
But he could not help letting love
presently, to Rhetta, as he watched
her: "Whon make my fortune, you
shall have greenhouses and hot-beds.
and gardens laid out on terraces.N
Like Colonel Porter's?" laughed
Rhetta. blushing over her trowel. 'Ohl
have you ever seen his place, Mr.. Cal
1enderp It's over on the west slde."
II think I have passed It," answered
the young man, indifferently. ''Blg
trees, three terraces, ribbon beds, and a
peacock on the lawn: la that the