Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-11-01

Lott1e did not reply, but looked IL
such CONSERVATION from the rose bush te
himself that the doctor could not bu
| smile.
"You would like to hear the story
Well, it never came from my lips before
little miss, but will give it to you. YoI
see, had been a medical student under
old DR.. West, and when he died I got my
diploma and stuck my single out here
Soon after that I got acquainted with a;
trim a built girl as you often see, and
after while, somehow or other, we be
came engaged. 1 was young and my way
to make, and We resolved to wait two
years before settling down. Over back OF
the hill, yonder, lived a girl named Nancy
Brown, pretty, pale creature, who seemed
just ready to go of to the angels. I was
called 10 attend her, ard I wanted to do
my best. [ knew they could never pay
me cent, and perhaps for that reason
went q little oftener than I was justified
Nancy had one precious thing, her rose
bush; small then, but giving promise of
| great things. It did seem as if everybody
| begrudged it to her, for half the town, in
one way or another, sought to make it
worth her while to give 1t up.
perhaps tho motives were good. But
though Nancy was in comparative power
ty, no gold was yellow enough to buy her
one treasure. Well, her frag1lity proved
not to be incipient consumption, after all,
and time went on until within twenty four
hours of my Wedding day, and that morn
| ing was in my Office here on the watch
for my sweetheart, who soon all smiles
and bushes, with the consciousness that
it was the last time as q maiden, came
tripping down the street. [ went out to
meet her. This bush, not half as large as
it is now, stood here in the window.
"'Oh, said my bride that was to be,
in pretty rapture, Nancy has sold you
her rose! Did you cross it root and
branch with silver coin?"
"'Not I. Nancy gave it to me of her
own sweet WILL
"a jealous flush came over my girls
proud face.
81 thought" she said, 'that your visits
| there were more frequent than her illness
called for. You love her, and if you are
fair to her, you are false to me-"
II made q sharp reply. She had
charged me with double dealing. We
were both terribly angry. The next
morning we were TO have been married
That was fifteen years ago and we have
never spoken since. Nancy was going
away to fulfill promise made 10 child
hood, and she gave me her rose because
I had saved her life for her lover. Per
haps I had; but she had unknowingly
ruined mine. kept the bush, and it has
biossomed every month with all its
might. More than one young mother
has begged of me some dainty buds to
clasp in her dead baby's hand, and many
a bride has pleaded with sweet lips, for
isst a few blossoms 10 gem her hair. 1
have denied them all, and have never cut
one of the flowers until it withered from
the stem. 1t was not for Nancy's sake,
either, but somehow for the life that was
to have blessed mine"
"But you do not love your sweetheart
MUCH" ventured Lottie, winking off the
salt drops that had collected on her long
lashes.
"Not love her!" roared the doctor.
"Zoonds, can chit like you undertake to
guage the depths of a mans soulf"
"If you had you would have acted
differently" bravely asserted this small
couRcil of one, sitting in Judgment with
her head resting on her hands. "Acted
differently" Numbered the doctor, "pray
MISC w lSOOL1Iy NO" suOuiQ nave hCG6U
"You would have said to your sweet
heart, L do not love Nancy, but do love
her rose. She is going away and gave it
to me in gratitude. But give the rose
and myself and all that have to you be-
cause l love you better than ali the world
Then, don't you see that every thing would
have been smooth, and you wo1ld have
been all these years full of joy?"
POUNDS! SO | shOuldr' exclaimed the
excited doctor, rising to his feet. "John,
come in here" he called. "Help me to wrap
up this rose tree. There, pnt it On this
hand sled and draw it home for this
young lady and set it in the house And,
you, you, little miss, present it, with my
compliments and best wishes, to Miss
Henrietta Henshaw. Good heavens, what
a foolP' said the doctor, striking his bald
head with vigorous thump, when left
alone.
Lottie did as she was hidden, giving
Aunt Retta such galvanic shock as to
paralyzs her; but the good lady came to
enough to glance furtlvely down the
street to see really that the ''impertinent
white thing" was no longer staring at her
from the doctors bay window. She had
bay window, too, looking southwark, and
into it contrived to roll the great box,
with its wealth of white blossoms.
The doctor, looking steathily out from
his dismantIed corner, drew his own con-
illusions.
"'Ahem?' said Miss Hetta. Chow long
would IL take to work that nonsence you
were talking about?"
ST could get it done by night" gasped
Lottie, all of the delicious tremble.
''Well, child, did not mean to be cross
Take this, and do as you please with
it,"
Lottie's hand closed quickly over the
gold coin; she did not need a tenth of it.
and she worked the whole afternoon to
the detriment Of her blue eyes and the
loss of her supper, till on garnet ribbon
broad satin stitch of gold, ornamented
with tiny forget-me-nots, lettered out the
81. B. NJ, which stood not for Her Brit
tanic Majesty, but some one every bit as
regal-Henry B. Manners, otherwise
Harry.
She ran down to the hall which was
flooded with light, and had just secured
tbs hat band in his hat, when the parior,
doors were thrown open, and there stood
Aunt Hetta, blushing through the frosts
of forty winters, with great masses of
white massed in her hair and clustered on
her bosom. DR.. Beach, pompous AND
p0Ttly, was at her side.
Here, little miss" he shouted, 'you
and that rascal run for the the parson."
The willy physician had armed himself
with a ring and strip of paper signed
by the town clerk, and before one could
say Jack Robinson, the knot was tieo
that transferred Miss Henrietta Hens
haw into Mrs. DR.. Beach.
Lottie was so bewildered that she