Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-04-27
CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER L
Bcbee sprang out Of bed at daybreak. She
was 10
II seemed to DO very wonderful thing to
bc as much Us that-i6-a woman quite.
A cock was Growing under her lattice I1e
said how old you arei--how old you arei--
every time he sounded his clarion.
Sho opened the lattice and wished him good
day. with laugh. II was 20 pleasant to bo
woke by him and to think that no ono In all
the world could ever call one q child any
moro.
There was kid bleating In the shed There
was thrush singing In the dusk OF tho
sycamore leaves There was O calf lowing to
its mother away there beyond the fence
There were dreamy muilled bells ringing In
the distance from many stceples and befrics
where the city was, they all said one thing:
How good 1t Is to be SO old as that-how
good, how very goodr'
Bebee was very pretty.
No one In all Brabant ever denied that To
look at her it seemed as II she had 80 lived
among the flowers that she had grown like
them, and only looked n bigger blossom
that was all
She wore two little wooden shoes and a
little cotton cap, and gray krtle--linen In
the shoes were like rose leaves, and the cap
was as whito us lily, and the gray kirtlo
was like the bark of the bough that the apple
blossom parts, and peeps out Of. to blush In
tho sun
The flowers had been the ouly godmothers
she had ever had, and fairy godinothers, too.
The marigoids aud tho sunilowers had given
her their ripe, rich gold to tint her hair, the
lupins and iriscs had lent their azure 10 her
eyes, the moss rose buds had made her pretty
mouth, the arum lilies had uncuIled their
soitncss for her skin, and the limo blossoms
had given her their frank, fresh, innocent
fragrance
Tho winds had blown, and the rains had
raincd, and tho sun had shonc on her, indeed,
and had warmed the whiteness of her limbs,
but they bad only given to her body and her
soul hardy, breeze blown freshness like that
OF field cowslip
Sho had never bcen called anything but
Bebec.
One summer day Antoine Macs--a French
subject, but Belgian by adoption and habit,
an old man who got his meagcr living by till.
ing the garden plot about his hut aud selling
flowers In the city squares-Antoine, going
Into Brussels for his days trade, had seen
gray bundle floating among the water lilies
In the bit Of water near his hut and had
hooked 1t out to land, and found year old
child in II, left to drown, no doubt, but saved
by tho lilies, and laughing glcefuIly at fate
Some lace worker, blind with tho pain of
toll, or somo peasant woman harder of heart
than tho oxen in her yoke, had left II there TO
drift away to death, not reckoning for the
inward ripple of the current or toughncss Of
the lily leaves and stems.
Old Antoine took 1t TO his wife, and the
tytf IN ..l,i Il ,,I
to keep 1t; and the two poor lonely, simple
folks grew to care for the homeless, mother.
less thing, and they and the people about all
called 1t Bebee-only Bebee.
Tho church got at 1t and added 10 It
saints name, but for ull its little world II ro-
maincd Bebee- Bebee when 1t trotted no
higher than the red carnntion heads--Bebee
when its yellow curls touched as high as the
lavender bush-Bebee on this proud day when
the thrush's song and the cocks crow found
her 10 years old
Old Antoines hut stood In little patch Of
garden ground with brier hedge all round
1t, in that byway which lies between Laeken
and Brussels, in tho heart Of 6at, green Bra.
bant, whero there are beautiful meadows
and tall, Towering hedges, and forest trees
aud fern filled bitches, and little piece of
water, deep aud cool, where the swans sail all
sway with tho wind.
Turn aside from tho highway, and there IL
lies today, and all the place brims over with
grass, and boughs, and blossoms, and flower
ing beans, and wild dog roses; and there are
q few cottages and cabins there near the
pretty water, and farther there is an old
church, sacred to ST. Guido and beyond go
the green level country and the endless wheat
fields, and tho old mills with their red sails
against the sun; and beyond all these the
pale blue. sea like horizon of the plains of
Flanders.
1t was pretty little hut, pink all over like
sea shell, In the fashion that tho Neither
landers love; and its two little square lattices
were dark with creeping plants and big rose
bushes, and its roof, so low that you could
touch it, was golden and green with all the
Gchens and stoneworts that are known on
earth.
Here Bebee grew from year to year; and
soon learned to be big enough and hardy
enough TO tie up punches of stocks and pinks
for the market, and then TO carry basket
for herself, trotting by Antoines side along
tho green roadway and into the white, wide
streets; and In the market the buyers--most
often Of all when they were young mothers
would seek out tho little golden head and
the beautiful frank blue eyes, and buy Be
bees lilies and carnations whether they
wanted them or not So that old Macs used
70 cross himself and say that, thanks to Our
Lady. trade was thriccSs stirring since the
little one had stretched out her rosy fingers
with the flowers
All the same, however stirring trade might
b. In summer, when tho long winters came
and the Montague de Ia Cour was a SHARP
slope OF ice, and the pinnacles of st Gudule
Wera all frosted WI with sun,u .,,1 49,, H.,
house flowers alone could fill the market, and
the country gardens were bitter black wind
swept desolations where the chilly roots hud
died themselves together under ground, like
homeless children In a cellar, then tue money
gained in tho time of leaf and blossom was al
needed to buy black loaf and fagot Of wood
and many day in the little pink hut Bebee
rolled herseh up in her bed like dormouse,
10 forget Ia sleep that she was supperleSs and
as cold as frozen robin.
So that when Antoine Macs grew sick and
died, more from age and weakness than any
real disease, there were ouly few silver
crowns in the brown Jug hidden IN tho thatch,
and the but itself, with its patch Of ground,
was all that he could leave TO Bebee.
Live In IL, little one, and take nobody in
1t TO worry you, and bc good 10 the bird and
the goat, and be- sure to keep the flowers
blowing" said the oil man with his last
breath; and sohbing her heart out by his bed
side, Bebee vowed 10 do his bidding
She was not quito fourteen then, and when
sho had laid her old friend TO rest In tho
rough green graveyard about ST, Guido she
was very snrrowful and loneIy-poor little
bright Bclce, who had never hardly known
worse Voc than To run the thorns of the
roses into her fingers or TO cry because
thrush was found starved to death In the
snow
Beige went home and S,i down In a corner
and thought