New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-08-15
A PROsAIC PSALM.

cA1S deSH AAAAiSSo VI a. SCi1CiSuo l1lOII1u$S
in June stole softly over fertile fields,
whispering to the rural early riser
of glorious hay weather. Here.
and there through the green lanes
strode a laborer to his task, and
across the meadow stretches came
the lowing of kline and tinkling of
bells.
Millicent Redburn paused at the
sti1e balanced the shining miIk-pail
on her head, and stood contemplate
ing the distant mountain peaks
wrapped in misty robes ofpurple roy-
atty.
THE sun will soon dissolve it all,
she said, letting her bonnet of blue
cambria fall carelessly over the wall
into the clover, as the fose-color shot.
athWart the ill-defned crest. The
brisk breeze Whirled the mist into
fantastic shapes, swept down the
mountains, and tossed the ripening
wheat into golden and amber pillows;
then it dallied along the wall, rocked
the cradle of a family Of young orr
oles, and disturbed the equilibrium
ofthe pail on the dark tresses.
SPshaW! I'm all out of patience
thinking fit" The nimble fingers
went up to the rescue Of the pail and
the reverie was broken. Millicent
stepped over the stile with an air of
disgust, went slowly along the path
through the clover, up to the ridge
where old Daisy was waiting under
the oaks for the tardy milkmaid.
Amerry tune, cheerily whistled came
aoatingmeadoW-Ward over the wheat,
and presently glimpses of a staw hat
md cleaning scythe edged along the
hedgeroW dividing the yellow acres
from the corn beyond
'Humph!'' And the milkmaid toss
ed her head SO energetically that old
Daisy turned very inquiring eyes on
her mistress, and innocently wonder
ed what had gone wrong.
The owner of the hat and scythe
came to the stile and peeped over the
wall. Beholding a blue bonnetprone
in the clover, he looked across in
stinctively toward the ridge, and saw
the bareheaded possessor thereof,
ankle-deep in ferns, coming toward
him.
The visitor pleased him exceeding
~ and he put down the scythe with a
smile and waited for her.
It's you, is it?" she questioned,
rather ungraciously for a salutation.
Il thought you were on your way to
college, Harry Holmes. .
The handsome face Of young
Holmes flushed slightly in painful en-
barrassment but Millicent, pretend
ing not to see, busted herself in res
cuing the bonnet from the depths
where it had fallen, and adjusting it
on her head.
q will go next week. he said
quietly.
"Oh!'' The face beneath the blue
cambria now flushed in turn, but the
eyes, fixed steadily on a bit of moss
at her feet, told no tales.
q am sorry you fsel so about it,
Mile; but | believe / ought to go
back to Andover.''
And leave your parents to strug-
gle along; in solitary poverty, saving
and economizing on every hand to
pay your expenses? IF you were not
their all, and if they were notin debt,
it would be proper enough, for all I
know
ooh, yes; i'll cannot help power
ty.'
Neither can T." And she left him
abruptly. He looked after her until
she threaded the winding orchard
path and disappeared among the
trees. Then a look of pain crossed
his handsome face, and he took up
scythe mechanically. This was not
the first time that bright, industri-
GUS Milly had opposed his going back
to college on these grounds, but she
had never been SO out OF patience as
now. To be sure it was as he had
said-poverty and debt, and he the
only staff of their declining years.
He knew, too, that his mother did
not wish him to go; and, also, that
his father looked to him to free the
old home from the mortgage, but he
wanted to go to Andover.
Millicent listened in vain while clip
ping the flowers in the garden for the
dinner table for the usual merry
whistle from the clover lot below, but
the mower, with compressed lips,
walked prosaically away.
At the dinner-table that day he
swallowed great lump in his throat
and said, with an effort: Il am not
going back to Andover; there is SO
much to be done on the farm that
you can but lily spare me at best. 2
The gray-haired mother, whose
secret prayer of the summer found
an answer in Harry's words, put
down the blue china cup hastily,
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