The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1891-09-24
THE W0MAN'S ROSE

have an old brown carved box; the
lid is broken and tied with a string. In
it | keep little squares of paper. with
hair inside. and a little which hung over
my brothers bed when we were chill
dren, and other things as small have
i'm il a rose. Other women also have such
boxes where they keep such trifies, but
no one has my rose.
When my eye is dim, and my heart
grows faint, and my faith in woman
fiickers, and her present is an agony to
me, and her future a despair, the scent
Of that dead rose, withered for twelve
years, comes back to me. know there
will be spring, as surely as the birds
know it when they see above the snow
two tiny,,quivering green leaves Spring
cannot fail us.
There were other flowers in the box
once: a bunch of white acacia flowers,
gathered by the strong hand of a fnan.
as we passed down a village street on q
sultry afternoon, when it had rained.
and the drops fell on us from the leaves
of the acacia trees The flowers were
damp; they made mildew marks on the
paper ! folded them in After many
years | threw them away. There is
nothing OF them left in the box now but
a faint smell Of dried acacia. that recalls
that sultry summer afternoon; bnt the
rose is in the box still
Ii is many years ago now; I was girl
of fifteen, and went to visit in small.
up country town. 1t was Young in those
days, and two days journey from the
nearest village. the population consisted
mainly Of men. A few were married
and had their wives and children. but
most were single. There was only one
young girl there when came. She was
about seventeen. fair and rather fully
feshed: she had large. dreamy blue eyes
and wavy light hair; full. rather heavy
lips. until she smiled, and then her face
broke into dimples and all her white
teeth shoue.
The hotel keeper may have had q
daughter, and the farmer In the out
skirts had two. but we never saw them.
She reigned alone. All the men wor-
SHIPPED her She was the only woman
they had to think of. They talked of
her on the ''stoop," at the market, at
the hotel; they watched for her at street
corners; they hated the man she bowed
TO or walked with down they street
They brought flowers TO the front door;
they offered her their horses; they begged
her to marry them when they dared
Partly there was something soble and
heroic in this devotion of men 10 the
best woman they knew; partly there
was something natural in il, that these
men, shut OFF from the world, should
pour at the feet of one woman the wor.
ship that otherwise would have been
given TO twenty; and partly there was
something mean in their envy Of one
another. If she had raised her little fin
ger, suppose, she might have married
any one out Of twenty Of them
Then ! came. | do not think was
prettier. do not think I was SO pretty
as she was. was certainly not so hand
some. But | was vital. and was new,
and she was old They all forsook her
and followed me. They worshiped me.
1t was TO my door that the flowers came;
it was | had twenty horses offered me
when ! could only ride one; il was for
me they waited at street corners; il was
what said and did that they talked Of
Partly liked it. ! had lived alone all
my life; no one ever told me that I
was beautiful and woman. believed
them; l did not know it Was simply q
fashion which one man had set and the |
rest followed unreasoningly liked |
them TO ask me to marry them. and to |
say no. | despised them The mother |
heart had not swelled in me yet. I did |
not know all men were my children. as
the large woman knows when her heart |
is grown was too small to he tender. |
| liked my power. was like a child /
with a new whip. which il goes about |
cracking everywhere, not caring against |
what could not wind it up and put it |
away. Men were curious creatures who |
liked me, could never tell why.
Only one thing took from my pleasure;
l could not bear that they had deserted |
her for me. | liked her great, dreamy
blue eyes, | liked her slow walk and |
drawl When I saw her sitting among
men she seemed TO me much too good to /
be among them. would have given all |
their compliments If she would once
E Hhildran ON fop |