Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-03-01

AAo
 simple, plain, gray thing flat the bees love
 and that the cottagers cherish, and that kee,,s
 the moth from the honespun linen. and that
 goes with the dead to their graves
 It has many virtues and infinite sweet
 ness, but it does not know it or think c:' it:
 and If the village girls ever tell it so. it fam
 cles they only praise it out of kindness, as
 they put its slender, fragrant spears away in
 their warm bosoms. Bebee was like her law
 ender, and now that this beautiful Purple
 Emperor butterfly came from the golden sun
 beams to find pleasure for a second in her freshness, she was only very grateful, as the
 lavender bush was to the village girls.
 Il Will give you your breakfast said
 Bebee, flushing rosily with pleasure and put ting away the ivy coils that he might enter
 Il have very little, you know," she added, wistfully. Only goats milk and bread; but II that will do-and there is some honey-and if you would eat salad I would cut one fresh"
 He did enter, and glanced round him with q curious pity and wonder both in one.
 It was such q little, small, square place: and its floor was of beaten clay; and it's un- ceiled roof he could have touched; and it's ab- solute poverty was so plain-and yet the child looked so happy in it, and was so like flower, and was so dainty and fresh, and even 50 full of grace
 She stood and looked at him with frank and grateful eyes; she could hardly believe that he was here; he, the stranger of Rubes' land, in her own little rush covered home.
 But she was not embarrassed by it; she was glad and proud.
 There ls a dignity of peasants as well as of kings-the dignity that comes from all ab- sence of effort, all freedom from pretense. hQ6 D,,1 cI. h. IL this; she had the absolute simplicity of child hood with her skill
 Some women have it still when they are four score
 She could have looked at him forever, she was so happy; sine cared nothing now for those dazzling dahlias-he had left them; he was actually here-here in her own little. dear homo, with the cocks looking in at the and the sweet peas nodding at the lattice, and the starling crying ''Bonjour! Bonjour!"
 "You are tired, I am sure you must be tired" she said, pulling her little bed for ward for him to sit on, for there were only two wooden stools in the hut, and no chair at all.
 Then she took his sketching easel and brushes from his hand, and would have kneeled and taken the dust off his boots if he would have let her; and went hither and thither gladly and lightly, bringing him a wooden bowl of milk and the rest of the slender fare, and cutting as quick as thought fresh crosses and lettuce from her garden, and bringing him, as the crown of all, Father Francis honeycomb on wine leaves, with some pretty sprays of box and mignonette about it-doing all this with swift. sweet grace that robbed the labor of all look of servitudc, and looking at him ever and n rIr T H. words, II cannot do much, but what I do, I do witAen my heart"
 There was something ill the sight of her going and coming in those simple household errands, across the sunlit floor, that moved him as some mountain air sung on an alp by a girl driving her cows to pasture may move } listener who indifferent has heard the swell of the organ of La Hague, or the recitative of great singer in San Carlo.
 The gray lavender blowing at the house door has its charm for those who are tired of the camellias that float ill the porcelain bowls of midnight suppers
 This man was not good. He was idlo and vain, and amorous and cold, and had been spoiled by the world in which he had passed lis days; but he had tho temper of an artist: 10 had something, too, of poets fancy; he vas vaguely touched and won by this simple | ON1A AooiASA with some look that ill all it's simplicity had 1 ! divine gleam in it that made him half ashamed
 He had known women by the thousand | good women and bad; women whom ho had | te2lt Ill with and women who had dealt ill i With him; but this he had not known-this l rank, fearless, tender, gay, grave, innocent, l ndustrlous little life, helping itself, feeding | tself, defending itself, working for itself and or others, and vaguely seeking all the while ome unseen light, some unknown god, with : blind faith so infinitely ignorant and vet so pathetic.
 All tho people are going on a pilgrimage,n he explained to him when he asked her why Ter village was so silent this bright morning. They arc gono to pray for a fine harvest, nd then each one prays for some other little hing that she wants herself as well-it costs even francs apiece. They take their food with them; they go and laugh and eat in he fields. I think it is nonsense One can ay ones prayers just as well here. Mere Arebs thinks so too, but then she says, If I 10 not go, it will look ill., people will say m lrrelGious; and as we make SO much by our, God will think it odd for mo to be bsent; and, besides, it is only seven francs here and back; and if it does please heaven, hat is cheaR you know. Ono will get it over nd over again in paradise Thatis what Mere Arebs says. But, for me, I think it is non ense It cannot please God to go by train nd eat galette and waste a whole day in get ing dusty.
 When give the Virgin my cactus flower do give up thing love- and let it wither n her altar instead of pleasing mo in bloom ere all the week, and then, of course, she ses that have done it out of gratitude. But hat is different; that I am sorry to do, and ct am glad to do it out of love- Do you not now?'
 Yes, know very we'll. But is the Virgin Il that you love like this?"
 No; there is the garden, and there is An is dead, know. But think that 'e should love the dead all the better, not the sss, because they cannot speak or say that hey are angry; and perhaps one pains them cry much when one neglects them, and if hey arc ever so sad, they cannot rise and re- uke one-that is why would rather forget ae flowers for the church than would the overs for bis grave, because God can punish le, of course, if he likes, but Antoine never an-any more-now."
 You are logical in your sentiment, my ear" said Flamen, who was more moved aan he cared to feel. "The union is a rare ne in your sex. Who taught you to reasong"
 No one. And I do not know what to be ,gical means Is it that vou lauoh at ,,,or,