Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1886-07-22
IN RHETTA'S GARDEN.
BY MARY L. B. BRANCH.

1t was only little spot south of the
house, but violets blossomed sooner there
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 were
two rose bushes, one cinnamon and one
damask, while double sweet gillyfowers
sowed themselves and came up every
year along withmignonette and chrysan-
themums- 1t was sweet, fragrant.
old fashioned little garden, which Rhet-
ta's mother had tended and taken pleas
ere in, and now it was Rhetta's. There
she worked all her spare half hours, SOW
ing and watering, wedding and trans
planting, till her little handswere 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 bedr'
But Rhetta was not SO often alone of
late, since they had taken a boarder.
Ralph Calender found that the pleasant
est path to the house lay through the
little fower-garder, and when his jobs of
copying failed to occupy his time, what
could be more natural than to use his
leisure helping the blushing gardener9
It 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 win, and al
ready Rhetta's father began to watch
them little anxiously above his specta-
cles as he sat on the porch, while one Of
the neighbors had remarked privately to
Aunt Dorcas that it was pity young Cal
lender was not man of fortune as well
as of family.
In truth, riches had taken unto them
selves wings and flown away from the
oallenders 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 unprepared 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
waiting to find a situation as clerk or
accountant, did copying to support him
self, and boarded at Rhetta's.
It 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 primrose. He
might have been misanthrophic enough
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 an
other. 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 drop
ping back from her bright brown hair.
and his fingers sought instinctively lit
tie 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 living before be Of
fered 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 /
make my fortune, you shall have green
houses and hot-beds, and gardens laid
out on terraces. =
'Iike Colonel Porter'ssu laughed
Rhetta, blushing over her trowel. "Ohl
have you ever seen his place, Mr.. Callen-
der2 It's over on the west side.n
Il think I have passed it, answered
the young man, indifferently. big
trees, three terraces, ribbon beds, and a
peacock on the lawn; is that the place n,
eyes; isn't it splendidio exclaimed
Rhetta. Il always go that way when /
take walk by myself; and OH how /
do long sometimes for things I see the
gardener throwing away-slips and cut
tings and roots that he thins out. Per-
fectly lovely thingsl"
"Why don't you ask him for themq'
"Ask hims' and Rhetta caught her
breath at the very idea Of her doing So
audacious thing. s.Why, / wouldn t
dare.'
Don't you know them a-the family,
mean.n
No; how could n Rose Porter and
I went to the same school, and when she
rides BY and sees me she bows and smiles
but that isn't being acquainted. she is
as beautiful as a Princess. It is time for
her to be at home now; she has been IN
Washington all the spring. I
Ralph Calender made 10 answer. he