Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1891-11-05

tended by the man who took the job.
II was excellent soil and they grew
rapidly. They were splashed-that Is,
bent lcngthwise along the row and pinned
to the ground, thut they might become
impenctrable when from the prostrato
branches others would shoot up. And
the feeling which began with the sug-
geston of the fence grew with its growth.
Obed talked it over at home with his
wife, and Nancy thought it over III hours
of loneliness.
Obeds wife's relations thought it an
outrage, and advised Obed to get out an
Injunction or something of the sort But
Obed had wisdom enough left to refrain
from legal proceedings. ;,
"'Twould be going from bad to wuss'
he remarked, 'and | don't see how
body'd injine lot o GROWN stun IKE
that"
Then another idea took possession of
Nancy. She seldom saw Obed now
even the children did not come to see
her. 1t was SO much farther around the
road, aud the old path was closed. Obed
had ceased to farm her portion, saying
he 'sposcd she'd want to run her place,
as shed run her fence, alone;" and she
had promptly and spiritedly replied that
she could do it well enough. So at last
she felt herself left to the mercies OF her
hired man, Ike.
"Ye're goin' to have that fence
trimmed up?" Ike qucried, one morning:
She looked out. How it had grown
Those plants had been in perfect sympa-
thy with her. They had sent out branches
| -, until tho Iinn "a
mass of thorn-covered branches. The
hedge was impenetrable.
Serves em right" she exclaimed,
under her breath They'd no business
to make sech a fuss over that cows
doin's, nor over that fence neither. No,
| amt goin' to trim it. Let it grow" she
went ON, in lower tone, "till we cant
see nothin' of nary one of us"
That was how the long line of thickly
interviewer branches came to be left to
shoot skyward untrimmed, until it lost
all likeness to the hedge she had at first
planned.
She was nervous and trembling from
an attack of neuralgia one September
morning when Ike informed her, as he
swallowed his third cup of coffee, that
the barn leaked like all git-out, an the
hay'd got wet, the cow'd got the collie
eatin apples, and Nep'd gone lame with
one of them sage thons in his foot,
t ending with the announcement, "Obed's
] We gone to the Fair, an I'm goin', too. Il
"rhey didn't use to forget to ask me
to go with 'em," Nancy murmured to her
self, as she hurried off TO the east room
which faced the hedge.
To be sure, she knew she had before
now refused to go to the Fair with them
saying she had Nep; but he was lame
and they had certainly forgotten her
/, Then there was the barn, and the cow l.
the orchard fence had been built, sh,
would not have had the collie.
Then came the thought that there use'
, to be no worry for her when Obed ha,
= charge; but he had left her alone.
- She turned to the window involuntarily
and looked over the fields us she ha,
4 done daily for years; but she could Sc
~ nothing now but tall, waving branches
4 which seemed to nod at her and say
"lou see we've done it; aren't yor
. glad?' The aspiring tree-tops had u
- last fulfilled her WISH at last she coul,
= not see even Obed's chimneys.
/. She was alone indeed-and she was in
tensely miserable.
= Ike drove off as she looked, calling ou
= to her that the COW was dead. She sa,
"a Nep limping out by the hedge, and sh
v went back to the kitchen with an achin
- heart and throbbing head.
d The day was long one. How man
It times she went to the east room to lool
L. Il Il. 1 i
!. 1t was late in the afternoon when sh,
/ aimlessly wandered there again. Hat
6 Obeds folks come home? Blue smoke
:, was curling up. But they would sta,
p late at the Fair OH Thursday bes
e day.
Bennie must be at home. She did re
II member that Ike said he had cut his foot
1t but she had not been there.
r A cloud of smoke rolled up. She picket
G up another pair of glasses and put them ol
G That was flame that shot up above tn
trees then, surely! Something wa
d wrong.
v She shook violently as she hurried
= back to the kitchen. How could she gel
there? She must go 1t was too fal
+ around. There was the old path; but
} the hedge was too thick to penetrete.
C One second she hesitated; then her ey,
= fell on the axe by the wood pile, ant
catching it up, she hurried down the ole
d path.
/" But who was that? Millie, six-year-olt
o Millie, this side of the hedge, her dres
=, torn, her face and hands scratched, an,
the tears rolling down her cheeks. Sh,
@ had pierced the hedge.
o Aunt Nancy! Aunt Nancy! TIL,
to house-atire Bonnie" was oil sh,
" could say.
ty Nancy Mott was never able to tel
Just how she did it. But she forgot rheu
y, matism and neuralgia pains. The ax
of was sharp, the place the child had in
stinctively chosen was the thinnest-
as Nancy dimly recollected that the me
ce said it would not grow SO well on the ole
IL beaten pathway-and the tough stem
ep fell before even her weak, awkwa,
strokes.
as She soon had made an opening lare
st enough to crawl through; and leadil
IL Millie by the hand, she dragged her tren
ut bling limbs to the bouse
Sheets of flame poured from the chin
nd ney, and the house was fairly envelope
in pail of smoke. In the kitchen IL
?" atmosphere was thick with smoke and ii
odor of burning wood and sweets
V. As soon rs she could see clearly 81
Il discovered Bennie upon one foot, ho
bling about, frantically pushing baC
Sc great pieces of burning SCOT which fe
II nc