Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-12-13
ROMANCE OF A FIR PILLOW.

ROMANCE OF A FIR PILLOW.
He was bright, handsome young
fellow of perhaps tive-and-twenty, while
/, demure spinster well into the fifties,
looked quite old enough to be his moth
er.
So the gossips at the little summer
hotel where we were boarding could
really find nothing to say, though we
often had long talks together, this young
Jack Turner and myself, when we hap
pened to meet in the parlor or out on
the piazzas.
The special craze among our young
lady boarders just then W the making
of all sorts OF pretty pillows, which they
filled with plne-needles or buds of the
fragrant balsam-fir. and embroidered
with various appropriate notices, such
as, Dream of the woods" The pines
shall whisper peace" "Give me of your
balm, 0 Fir-tree," etc., etc. And as the
picking OF these pine-needles and pitchy
fir tips was rather disagreeable work
for dainty white fingers it was quite the
fashion for all the chivalric young men
in the house to volunteer their services
in this initiatory part of the work.
Moreover, there was not little rivalry
among them as to who could find the
most fragrant trees, species of the
balsam-fir denominated strawberry"
being the rarest and most in demand.
| was therefore not at all surprised
when this new acquaintance of mine,
having found out my botanic proclivi-
ties, came to me one bright morning
with an immense tow bag slung across
his shoulders and announced his inten-
ton of picking fir in some remote woods
on the other side of the mountain.
Would go with him and show him the
right kind of treeP He had brought
back whole bagful of worthless stuff
the day before, and all because he
couldn't tell spruce-tree from fir.
How could resist such a pathetic APP
especially when he could show
me in this particular piece of woods a
rare and beautiful species of orchid that
had long been trying to find?
No! | couldn't refuse. So Jack with
his bag and i with my basket started off
in high spirits that glorious summer
morning. 1t was one of those rare days
in early July when cool breath from
the mountains tempered the midsum-
mer heat and gave me an celebrating
sense of what Longfellow calls
the electric thrill. the touch
OF life that seems almost too much
The three miles walk around the mount
ain seemed as nothing, and we soon
reached our destination-the broad,
dark belt of woodland that inclosed,
like velvet girdle, the picturesque lit
tie lake at the foot of the highest peak.
Jack had proved himself most enter
tanning companion all the way. He re-
minded me of a dear young nephew |
had lost and, although week before
we had been total strangers, | was glad
to notice that he seemed to regard me
already as an old and tried friend. Up
on one subject, however, he was very
reticent When | had found for him a
clump of the genuine straw berry" trees
and jokingly asked him for which of
our pretty young ladies he was going to
pick the fir he looked up quickly, and
then, with a confused look on his frank
countenance, SAID:
30, it is for no one here; it is for some
one miles and miles away. And do you
think" he added, with an distracted
air quite foreign to his usual manner,
'.that it is really a cure for consump-
tion?n
Hardly cure" | answered. "al-
though Eve known it to give relief IN
many cases of confirmed lung trouble.
The young man sighed heavily.
"Well," he replied. after Il long silence,
81 am determined to try everything for
her."
OF course, my sympathies were i'm
mediately aroused. [ began at once to
picture to myself the pale young girl in
her far-off home fading away day by
day like some frail sweet flower
HAS she been i'll a long timer" /
ventured at last to inquire.
''For more than year." he answered
briefly, and then quickly turned the con-
versation upon some other subject Still.
| could not help noticing heavy bur-
den evidently lay upon his mind that,
try as hard as he might, he could not
entirely shake off.
Now I do not think / am over-sympa-
thetic or have more than the ordinary
amount of curiosity usually attributed