Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-02-06
LEFTY COLES.
Edmund w. Gosse.


are YOU. Lefty Coles?6 II will not an
swer him!' declares Miss Coles, with a
petulant shake as she goes carefully
on pressing the cool dark mold about
the roots of a rose she has just repotted.
HE knows the way to the rose garden,
/ dare say"
days out Of each week does Tony Tad
lock find his way at s?me hour or 9th
er to the gardens at ROsemead.
LEFTY Coles! Lefty Coles! Where
are you Lefty Coles?"
This time the happy young voice is
nearer; its owner has stopped at the
low hedge, and after leisurely survey
ing the sunlit garden, espied Lefty
dainty poised among her favorities, a
half mutinous, half mischievous look
on her dark brilliant face.
''Ah, there you are in a perfect
extravaganza of roses-blush, crimson,
yellow, white-yourself the fairest."
Don't be ridiculous, Tony laughs
Mss Coles, But she adores her roses,
and is not offended at a very trite COM
pliment, since Tony gets it off. care
they not lovely?" she continues, pick
ing a withered leaf from the flower just
ported.
"Only see how well my Lefty Coles
is doing" he says, clearing the little
gate with a bound, and coming to her
with bunch of her lovely, fragrant
namesakes in his hand. Il transplant
ed them from Rosemead, you remem-
Der. They take very kindly to their
new soil, eh, Lefty Coles? What
glorious rose it is, with its passionate
crimson heart! Somehow, | fancy if
that rose could feel, it would suffer far
more terribly than your Nephitos or
Perie DIES Jardins, with their pale
petals
ooh, don'tr' cries Lefty Coles, with
a SILVER, in spite of the June sunshine
that is rollicking about her in a way to
set cold at defiance; then she adds, with
self-directed disgust, ''What nonsense!
was about to get superstitious, " and
goes on pottering among her roses.
His laughing eyes follow her grace
full movements for moment. They
are nice eyes, those of Tony Tadlock's,
soft and gray, and overbrimming with
happiness this sweet June morning.
Now l wonder if you can keep Sc
cret, Lefty Coles, a secret L have cCme
all the way from Cupid's towers to tell
you. | am to be married married,
Lefty Coles, and | want my congratu-
lations first from your lips"
MARRIED." They are brave eyes
when Lefty Coles expected him to ride
over from Cupid's towers through the
beautiful golden fields with different
story for her ears.
There is a moment of silence after
that word, but during that moment so
much has died out of her life that it
seems to her a small century has passed
and she wonders that Tony has not
tired of standing there waiting for her to
speak. But a moment is soon over,
the dead soon buried, and drawing off
the big dogskin gloves in which she al
ways gardens, she lays both hands
frankly in his and speaks the words he
is waiting to hear. Memory is strong
within her just now, cruelty strong:
1t recalls the long sweet days that are
past, when such shadowy, transparent
excuses have brought Tony to Rose
mead; a brace of birds, a lucky MINI
rod has brought down, a string of shin
Izaac Walton's Jealous disciple, rare
cutting from the rose. houses at Cupid s
towers, over the setting out of which
their hands had often met, for of course
Tony must assist, or how was he tc
know if her work was well done?
Though, for the matter of that, it is an
open question whether or not he can
tell the difference between a cabbage
rose and tea rose, and he has been
detected in sneaking preference
for the old York and Lancaster over all
the later varieties that have been propa-
gated.
How or when this easy friendship
which has characterized their relations
since childhood has grown into some
thing warmer with Lefty Coles the girl
herself does not know; but there it is
staring her boldly in the face and
sending a sickening sense of pain
through every fiber, while Tony, all
unconscious of the feeling he has
awakened, presses on about his love.
''She is beautiful. Lefty Coles, this
dainty Perle dies Jardins of mine, so
beautiful! And Cupid's towers is but
a dreary place to which to bring her.
You will come to see her often, will
you not? You will brighten up the
dull old life for her as neither mother
nor | can do? You will be sister to
her. Lefty Coles?"
So Lefty Coles promised; so Lefty
Coles sees him ride away on Gray
Eagle, the noble animal that has
brought him to her so often while she
stands idly at the garden gate, the
cluster of Lefty Coles roses burning in
her hands. And she wonders, wonders,
wonders, in a dull, benumbed way, if
it is true, if these crimson-heated flow
ers would suffer more than the golden
Perle des Jardins yonder; if this fair
young love of Tony's could ever feel
this fierce gnawing pain, if she should
lose Tony, that she, Lefty Coles, is
feeling now.
All, very fair, very young. is Tony's
love, Lefty Coles thinks, when she
makes the miserable little first call on
the bride that is expected of her. AND
frail! The girls heart aches within
her at the sight of the delicate creature
and by-and-by the old crones begin tc
shake their heads, and talk about ode
clines," and to ask each other if Vests
Tadlock's family is consumptiye. Il
begins to be so evident that she is slip
DING out of life, away from Tony.