Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-09-30
THE BLUE ROSE.

n the old sOrt-honest as the day, as
tbe sayin' is. an we'll brought up. if
he wasn't allus easy to live with-an'
mat set on the truth, an that pertick-
ler-well, if it 'adn't bin for I'm bein'
hat pertickler, you CELLS would 'ad a
red aired woman to your granny in
stead o. me.
A smile went round the tea-table;
Mrs. Minver's grandchildren nodded,
and looked at me-you know the look
when there's a story in the air and
you're expected to ask for it. But I
was too shy. 1t was my first visit TO
MYRTLE Cottage. Lottie Minver and I
we're both serving our time with Miss
Ellends Nodes ct Robes, and was
only sixteen then.
"a red-'aired woman" Mrs. Minver
went on, an that would a been a pity
On all accounts, for e was a fine man
As ever I see, an me bein' no slip of
,hit-'is sons all measured over their
ux foot-an' all bin measured too"
She sighed, and looked ont through
the open door at the narrow strip of
back garden where scarlet runners and
stocks and reluctant suufowers had
been coaxed to grow. We were having
tea in the kitchen. The table was COW
cred with brown oilcloth. The cups
we're white with mauve spots. We had
presses for tea, and wrinkles, because it
was Sunday.
"a fine man e was to be sure" she
vent on. That's is portrait as 'angs
10 the right o the parlor chimley
piece, Just over the crockery lamb yer
Aunt Eliza give me the very last fair
day afore the Lord took 'er. A fine
figure of a man he was. my dears, an
much sought after. but mighty per-
hckler. An so e married me-"
Mrs. Mlnver smoothed her black al
paca apron complacently.
"What was 1t about the red-haired
young lady?" / asked.
: "Ahl that's tale, an it Just shows
'ow careful a gell should be when she's
courtin'."
This sounded interesting.
"Do tell MS the tale, | urged.
"Ohl it's nothin' much to ell, " said
Mrs Minver, but she settled herself
against the cushions of her Windsor
chair and stroked ber left mittin with
her right hand, in a way that prom
sed.
Come. granny, tell Lily about the
blue roses"
"Old yer tongue then, till l can get
a word in hedgewaysl Blue roses in
deedl Spoilin' a story afore it's be-
gum Well, you must know, young
lady, as | was brought up in the coun-
try-a reglar Kentish apple was, my
man useter say. Our home was in
Kent, down among the cherry orch
ards, We 'ad nice little orchard our
sells, an our house it was wooden
Ouse, all built o. boards like, not bricks
like you see 'em ere. An there was
big pear tree, as went all up one!slde
of the house-one branch right and one
left-even-like, for all the world like
ladder. We useter pick the pears
outer our bedroom winder, ME and my
cousin Hetty did. Jargonels they was,
an a sight sweeter than any as goes to
market nowadays.
"Our garden it wasn't much of a one
for size, bat for flowers-therei 1t was
perfect moral-cram full it was-all
sOrts-pinks an pansies an lilies, roses,
iassermine, an sweet willies, an wall
flowers an dalIies and spring flowers,
which is my favorites outer all the
flowers"
"What are spring flowers?"
They're a reglar old-fashioned
fower-gels used allus to have 'em in
their gardens long afore you was
thought of, nor me neither. Like wall
flowers they be, summat, only pink an
yeller, an only one on a stalk, an soft
like velvet, an smelling like honey
they did. | haven't seen none o them
since | come to live in BermOndsey.
"Well, our little wooden 'ouse 1t
stood on the hill, an as you come up
whether twas by the road, as white an
windin', or whether twas by the short
er way through the medders an the
'Ouse was the white rose-tree. 1t clomb
all over the side of the 'ouse-not the
side where the pear-tree was, but the
other-there was no windows that side
the house-and the rose clomb all
along and blowl it did blow that rose
did. Pearl-white the roses was, or
what you might call blush-pink, and
hundreds of 'em. 1t was quite p c.
tor. Well, one fine summer every rose
as come on that tree wasn't white no
olush-plnk any more, but 6lue-a dark
sh blue at the edges and paler to the
mlddles. Not pretty? Well, p'raps
not; but tell you there never was such
luss made over any rose as you'd call
pretty as there was over that blue rose.
farson, he was always comm down to
see 1t, an bringn' his friends, from
London sometimes; an the gentry they
cro'e IN their carriages 10 see our blue
rose; an the tradesmen an grocers
they come in their carts from far an
near, an they sid, Well, 1t was a
novelty
An they said 1t would surely take
une prize at the hower-shOw. But it
was hetty's rose-lush. Father d give
her when first she come to live with
E She come quite little, and she
.rled at the strange place, an all she
soOk TO was the white roses. So father
9e give her the buBh-an' next year
ia'ner e dled-about cherry time it
Was.
30 when they said that about the
prize, Hetty said she didn't care about
prlzes an hower-shows an things. 1t
sS quite enough to ave such rose
uee lor 'er very own"
The next year the roses come blue
aa89'n, an everyone come more n ever
" Look, an the grocers an people with
tsrs they come from far an near, for
'ieJ sad 1t was a novelty.
+, But mother, she was rather quiet
IKE, an she didn't saw much about the
uses; an one day when she an me was
sa1H aNih up the bread-just our two
to me
,Addie,' she says (my names Ade-
'@'ued about them blue roses now. If