News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-07-12
MY RARE ROSE.

am devoted to f1owers--fower
mania my friends call me, and, perhaps
they are right. The only extravaganza
am ever guilty of is the purchase of :
rare plant, and although l am far from
wealthy, yet my flower collection is
equal, if not superior, to that of nv
rich friends.
Madeline, that's my wife-says she
can't make creditable appearances, be.
cause, whenever she wants a new bonnet.
happen to want new plant. Women
never can reason, yoI know, and I'ye
exhausted myself in trying to explain.
that while a new lonnet lasts only q
season, plant will give you delight for
years: but all the same Madeline grum-
bles and grumbles, and comes back to
the starting point that she wants bon
net, and that three months of it would
give her more pleasure than years with
my floral pets.
1--WE no patience with you, John, "
she exclalms. Jeanne and | are obliged
to have decent clothes and bonnets. if
we expect to go into society at all. But
much you care for that. If we'd get on
our knees and dig around your hateful
plants with oar hands and-yes-water
them with our tears, you'd think it was
all right"
''But salt water wouldn't be good for
them, my dear" say in perfect good
faith, and then somehow she gets more
furious than ever
81 hope they'll all die" she cries, in
her usual impetuous manner. Eyes l
do! l hope they'll wither before your
eyes l hope something dreadful will
happen to show you what a mean, selfish
Creature you arel" and then she burst
into tears AID flung herself out of the
room.
Madeline is good woman, an excel
lent wife, but she will fly out now and
then, and call me hard names. It's pretty
hard when I'm trying to elevate her
tastes from the frivolities of dress and
fashion, which have ruined so many
noble souls, and to bring her into sym
pathy with nature.
Ny daughter Jeanne is as bad as her
mother. She is eighteen years old and
very pretty, but she can't be made to
understand that fine dresses are not
needed to set off her charms, and all she
wants of flowers is to cut them and stick
them about her dress. If it wasn't for
my plants, life would be a very hard
thing for me with those disseminated
females nagging at me.
Did tell you roses were my special
passion9 No! well, they are, and have
one-hundred and twenty five choice varie-
ties of the rose family, and for some of
them l would not take ten dollars.
Certainly not for my William Allen
Richardson, which got from New York
a year ago. The only one of the species
in the town where live, and unique of
its kind
1t IS not remarkably large or double
yellow rose like the Marechale Mel, the
ChrOmatella or the EtoiIe de Lyon, but
it is sui gs1zeTis in its intense orange hue
When it bloOmed out this spring, it re-
minded me of sunsets had watched in /
the Mediterranean and off the coast of /
Grande Isle in the Gulf of Mexico. | |
gazed at 1t IN an ecstasy of delight, and
Madeline could hardly get me to my
meals.
"Why, papa, it's grand, Jeanne cried,
clapping her hands. ''It's Just the .
shade of flower / want for my
black lace dress this evening, that I'm /
going to wear at Mrs. Hurston's party. .
Come, papa, are you not going to give ,
me a bouquet de corsage of the roseP'
Why, l would sooner have let out /
some drops of my hearts blood, and told .
her SOL Cut my beautiful William Allen .
Richardson? 1t was sacrilege even to
propose it, and l told her so pretty
plainly. She marched off in huff, and !
l was suddenly startled by a somewhat
sharp voice at my back.
''Ach, die wunderschoenen Rosen! 1t F,
is lofely"
l turned and saw t)ut, ruddy- look
ing German girl, with her broad face
wreathed with smiles as she gazed ad-
miringly at my garden.
''What do you want?' I asked.
81 come, the Frau Hyson she send me
to de laty dat wants a nsadchea, SER
want
eyes, my wife applied for one. You
will find her in the house."
ZACH, but the lofely rosenl" she ex-
claimed, enthusiastically clasping her
hands. evil the Herr not let me walk
in his garten and see them?"
I must acknowledge 1 was charmed
with the girl at once. What refinement
of tastein one so lowly born But no,
she could be no common servant, for to
them
"a primrose by the river brim
a yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more
But there was Charlottesville had told
me her name-with her soul in her light
blue eyes gazing hungrily at the flowers
Her questions were so intelligent, so
discriminating. that it pleased me to
answer them. She singled out the rarest
of my roses, and really seemed to know !
a good deal about them. But the Will |
lam Allen Richardson, which she saw
for the first time, evoked the widest en-
tbusiasm
There isn't another in the State" | !
said. You see I was inclined to be .
rather boastful about my rare rose. /
''Why, if l chose to sell those flowers, l .
could get a dollar apiece for them, they're
such peculiar color"
Her eyes opened wide and she re.
peated, each, one whole tollar," in
every variety of infection.
when you go to Mrs. Elliot" [
said, "tell her / think she'd better try
you"
Her sympathy in my favorite pursuit
had quite won me. If my wife and
daughter had only such intense apprecia-
ton of the beautiful
I've taken that German girl, John. "
Madeline said, that night.
Gu te right, my dear. She seems
quite superior kind of servant"
Don't know about that" Madeline
answered, doubtfully. "She can't cook
evidently, and her English is Just awful.
went out of the kitchen a minute, and
when l came back | found her rum
maging in the drawers of the dresser,
and pulling things about as if sh3 was
taking an inventory of them. I'll try
her for a month, but don't think she'll
suit
So Clarchen was fairly established, and
Madelines complaints of her stupidity
and wastefulness were long and deep.
'Ill ship her before the month is
out" she grumbed. "Of all idle,
good for-nothing creat1r 9, Clarchen is
the worst. She pretends not to under
stand me, but she does every word, and
she slurs over her work to get out in
the garden and potter about among
your precious flowers"
Eyes, that was true. Every day she 1
would slip in the garden and rass be.
tween the rows of flowers, carefully .
holding back her dIess 50 Us not TO {
brush against them.
Once or twice l had e mind 10 cut !
some Of my common roses and give them
to her to take home at night, but re- c
Trained from principle. / cannot bear j