The Bad Lands cow boy. [volume] (Little Missouri, Dakota [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-1886, 1886-08-19


And day grows into even, -
Weary and worn out she goes to rest;
And almost longs for heaven.
&: g. Lasilla E.sAllen ~ Good Housekeeping.
IN RHEIsTA'S GARDEN.
It was only q little spot south of the
house, but violets blossomed sooner
than anywhere else, and great bursting
pinks 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
are two rose-bushes, one cinnamon and
one damask, while double sweet gilly
flowers sowed themselves and came up
every year along with mignonette and
chrysanthemums. It was a sweet,
fragrant, old-fashioned little garden,
which Rhetta's mother had tended and
taken pleasure in, and now 1t was
sRhetta's. There she worked all her
spare half hours, sowing and watering,
wedding and transplanting, till her
little hands, were brown, and her cheeks
like her own cinnamon roses. Aunt
Dorcas, in the kitchen, used to wonder
= S.'''how on airth that child could be SO
content all alone out in her posy bed!''
But Rhetta was not so often alone of
late, since they had taken a boarder:
Ralph Calender found that the pleas
ATTEST path to the house lay through
the little fower-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 Il 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
their work they fell talking, as young
people will, and already Rhetta's father
had begun to watch them little anx-
iously above his spectacles as he sat on
( the porch, while one of the neighbors
4 had remarked privately to Aunt Dor
cas- that 1t was q pity young Calender
i was not q man of fortune as well as of
family. & I. n
In truth riches had taken unto them
selves wings and flown away from the
Callenders a year before, so that Ralph.
instead Of becoming junior partner in
an old and prosperous business, saw
nothing before him but what his two
hands could earn, and being totally un-
prepared for such a prospect, he had
4 to take a little time to get used to 1t,
and to find out which way to turn.
Meanwhile he had drifted to this
suburban town, and while waiting to
find situation as clerk or accountant,
did. copying to support himself, and
4 boarded at Rhetta's. B. !. 81
3& It was the day they had been trans
planting touch-me-n ots, and Ralph had
I. thrown himself down under the plum
tree for a respite, while RhettaS pulled
4 the faded blossoms from q primrose.
He might have been misanthropic
enough at that moment If he had chos-
en-, for the last line Of copying lay
Z upon his table finished. with not SO
much as y hint for an order for any
more. Worse than that q 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. Ks 81
His glance followed her as she bent
over her plants, her garden bonnet
+ dropping back from her bright brown
] hair, and his finger soul ht instinctively
a little ring that hid in his vest pocket.
The old Calender pride had come to
/. this, that he only waited for the barest
I chance Of being able to- earn living
I before he offered heart and hand to
pretty little Rhetta Wood, w hose bonny
4 lace was all her sdowry.
But he could not help letting love
color his words a. little when he said,
presently, to- Rhstta, as he d tehed
I her, hen / make my fortune You
shall have greenhouses and hotbeds,
4 and gardens laid out on terraces. ''53
Like Colonel Porter Pr laughed
Rhetta, blushing over her trowel.
Obi haze yen ever seen his place, Mr..
Calender I'll over on the West
Side. s33g9
Il think 4 have passed ii, q answered
the young man indiferently. Big
\ trees, three terraces. ribbon beds, and
8 peacock on the lawn; Ii that the
/ placer 3$}i
81; isn't Il splendid Il exclaimed
\ Rhetta. 4 always go that way when
4 i take walk ny myself; and OIL how
81 do long sometimes tor things I see
the gardener throwing aWayslips and
cuttings and roots that he Trims out!
Perfectly lovely things!
ny don you ask him for themr,''
Ash ;himP re- and Rhetta caught her
/ breath at the very idea Of doing "a
audacious thing a nv i wouldn't
Z dare. y,
Don't you know thsmp the family,
Il mean. 81 ss
d; how could Ip Rose Porter and
went TO the same school, and when
she rides BY and sees me she bows and
smiles, but TINT isn't being acquainted.
3 She ID as beautiful as q princess. IT il
\ time for her to be nt home now she
has been Ia Washington all the
/ spring. = \
Ralph Calender made NO answer.
l He was busy weaving nstrue love knot
4 Of grass blades, md wh6n 1t was done
! he gave u to Rhetts She blushed
again over u. .and went ON talking
about aowers. 4;