Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1886-08-19
In RHETTA'S GARDEN.

In RHETTA'S GARDEN.
1t was only 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-bell 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. 1t was a sweet,
fragrant, old-fashioned little garden.
which Rhetta' 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 transplanting, till her
little hands were brown, and her cheeks
like her own cinnamon roses. Aunt
Dorcas, in the kitchen, used to wonder
''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 boarder.
Ralph Calender found that the pleas
ATTEST 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
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
had remarked privately to Aunt Dor
cas- that it was pity 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
Callcnders 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 prospect, he had
to take a little time to get used to it,
and to find out which way to turn.
Meanwhile he had drifted to this
suburban town, and while waiting to
find a situation as clerk or accountant,
did copying to support himself. and
boarded at Rhetta's.
1t was the day they had been trans
planting touch-me-nots, and Ralph had
thrown himself down under the plum
tree for a respite, while Rhetta pulled
the faded blossoms from a primrose.
He might have been misanthropiC
enough at that moment if he had chos-
en-, for the last line of copying lay
upon his table finished, with not sc
much as a hint for an order for any
more. Worse than that, clerk
place he had been hoping for had thai
very morning been given to another
If he bad got it, he could have spoken
to Rhetta at once.
His glance followed her as she BEN
over her plants, her garden bonnet
dropping back from her bright brown
hair, and his finger sought instinctivell
little ring that hid in his vest pocket
The old Calender pride had come Il
this, that he only waited for the bares
chance of being able to earn living
before he offered heart and hand t
pretty little Rhetta Wood. whose bonn.
face was all her dowry.
But he could not help letting love
color his words little when he said
presently, to Rhetta, as he watched
her, when l make my fortune you
shall have greenhouses and hotbeds
and gardens laid out on Terraces
Like Colonel Porter'sP" laughe,
Rhetta, blushing over her trowel
"Oh! haze you ever seen his place. Mr.
Callenderg It's over on the Yves
Side" Z
IL think have passed it," answere,
the young man indifferently. "Bi,
trees. three terraces, ribbon beds, AM
a peacock on the lawn; is that tn,
placer"
"Yes; isn't it splendid" exclaime,
Rhetta. II always go that way whel
| take walk by myself; and oh! hoy
/ do long sometimes tor things l Sc
the gardener throwing away-slips an
cuttings and roots that he thins out
Perfectly lovely things! :,
''Why don't you ask him for themP
ASK himP" and Rhetta caught he
breath at the very idea of doing 9
audacious thing. "Why L wouldn
dare" -
Don't you know themp-the family
/ mean"
mo; how could IP Rose Porter an
/ went 10 the same school, and vine
she rides by and sees me she bows an
smiles, but that isn't being acquainted
She is as beautiful as princess. III
time for her to be at home now; sh
has been in Washington all tn
spring"
Ralph Calender made no answer
He was busy weaving a true love kno
of grass blades. and when IL was don
he gave 1t to Rhetta. She blushe
again over it, and went on talkin
about flowers.