Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1886-08-26
Tn Rhetta's Garden.
RY MARY l.. Il. BRANCH.

there than anywhere eiS'', hhu S'V''
bursting pinkS made the air spicy while
other peoples were only in bud. There
were dafrodlis in the grassy border, aud
blue bells, and blue spider -]ilies. There
were two rose bushes, one cinnamon
and one damask, while double sweet
gillynowers sowel themselves and
came up every year along with miGnon ..
cite and chrysanthemnmS. 1t was n
sweet, fragrant, old-fashioned little
garden, which Rhetta's mother had
tended aud taken pleasure in, and now
it was Rhetta'S. There she worked all
her spare half hours, sowing and wa
tering, wedding and transrlanting, 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
he so content all alone out in hei posy
bed =
But Rhetta was not SO often alone OF
late, since they had taken boarder.
Ralph Calender found that ths 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 a.
way all the weeds, diYided the white
peony roots and reset them, and dug
more thoroughly than Rhetta ever
could around The dear old rose-bushes.
Oyer their work they fell talking, as
young people will, and already Rhetta's
father began to watch them little
anxiously above his spectacles as he sat
on :he porch. while one of the neigh
bors had remarked privately to Aunt
Dorcas that it was pity young Callen-
der was not man of fortune as well as
of family.
In truth, riches had taken unto them
selves wings and flown away from the
Callender's 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 little time to get used to it, and
to find out which way to turn. Mean
while he had drlfted to this suburban
town, and waiting TO find a situation
as clerk or accountant, did copying to
support himself and boarded at Rhet-
ta's.
1t was the day they had been trans.
planting touch -me-nots, and Ralph had
thrown himself down under the plum
tree for respite, while Rhetta pulled
the faded blossoms from a primrose.
He might haye been misanthropic e.
nough at that moment if he had chosen
for the last line of copying lay upon his
table finished, with not so much as
hint of an order for any more. Worse
than that, 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 Instructive
ly little ring that hid ia 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 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 hot-beds,
and gardens laid out on terraces
Like Colonel Poiter's p laughed
Rhetta, blushing oyer her trowel.
'Oh have you ever seen his place. Mr..
Calender !? It's over on the west
side.'
Il think | haye passed it," answered
the young man, indifferently. big
tree, three terraces, ribbon beds, and a
peacock, on the lawn /; is that the
place p
Yes isn't it splendid = exclaimed
Rhetta. 4 always 60 that way when |
take walk by myself and oh how l
do long sometimes for things 1 see the
gardener throwing away-slips and
cuttings and roots that he thins out.
Perfectly lovely things y
why don't you ask him for them p
ASK him = and Rhetta caught her
breath at the very idea of her doing os
audacious thing. why, l wouldn't