Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-09-19
DADDY"
WRITTEN IXCLusIVILY FOR I'm EVENING
STAR.

1NowN AND COUNTRY sEEAKD 10 JOIN
= hands over the little gate where the busy
city sounds wore met by pastoral silence.
Inside the neat old-fashioned picket fence
were antique garden dowers-prin row Of
oranse-eolorod marigelds gay phlox in tall
array, morning glories trained. upon white
twine into circular canopies. coxcombs prseping
themselves in the sun, sweet peass atilt like
bright-winged Birds about to fiy; balsam
apples, too with their frail satiny flower fruit
and poppics striving 10 outshine their sister
hollyhocka
In the rear there we're straight lines II corn
and beans psass and prosaic potatoes, whose
only extravagance was the tiny white and yell
low blossom. half hidden In dark green leaves
Here and there q sunfower raised his brazen
shield above the vegetables. a. II to protect
from the toe shifting rays of Sol.
1t was nothing but q country garden, kept
with infinite care; but il was in the center Of .
city where land was valued as gold Many .
merchant upon change remarked in passing,
That old fellow has fortune buried under
his turnip patch" And indeed several am
bilious dealers in real estate had made over
tures, which we're promptly spurned by the
owner of the garden. His tall, angular figure
could be seen in the early morning as he
patiently worked with hoe OF trowel and late
at night he piled the sprinkling can. His
elo'S,ng was sPotss' as hi: saSS.n was with
| and ironed the long linen ulster which be
wore in his jaunts about town. His cuffs were
snowy as the white. silken holiyhocks. although
the linen was coarse, and his boots shons like
the oblong purple gourds hanging upon the
| lux " aho the door of tia littla
| home.
Mandy, these here larkspurs o yourn amt
dom very WELL Do you reckon better give
EN- some more o that rich dirt FROM outen the
alley?"
Mandy came to the door with q dish towel
over her arm, spare girl OF fourteen, with
great expectant eyes.
MANDY, that there man what YES here yes
| well 1t don't matter how many dollars foot
only I'm glad the land is gainin' in value
| against the time Danl comes an I kin give
i'm his own. You an DAHL hope you an
Danl II tax likin' to one another, and then
mebbe you kin build big elegant house on
part o the land with what the rest Of it brings,
| and ride in kerridges and have good close"
faint pink drifted into Mandy's checks, but
she only smiled, for it was . subject upon
| which the old man loved to dwell.
| She had heard about DAM ever since she
could remember and he had grown to be part
! OF the romance of youth.
| '.Danl' was her ideal knight without fear
and without reproach."
He had gone away somewhere-shs never
knew just where--long before her advent
Daddy never liked to talk about his going,
but about his coming he would wander on for
hours
Indeed,it was the whole sum Of the old mans
ife-this hoping and planning FOR his sons re-
turn.
Mandy was a meek child, and when shefound
her old friend reluctant TO talk upon any sub
ject she ceased from questioning.
Then, toe, Daddy could be very deaf when he
Mandy was ignorant Of even her own ante
| cedenta
Daddy either thought Il of no importance or
wished that she should not know.
| Daddy won't you get some meat today"
the girl asked. as the old man drew on his linen
ulster preparatory to his daily trip down into
| the city.
mo, no, Mandy! Can't afford il. Wait till
Danl comes and we'll have meat every day
| mebbe twice.
well, it does seem too bad" Mandy solilo-
quized, when this place is worth Just thou
| sands and thousands, for Daddy to pretty near
| starvs himself-but then he's waiting till DanI
comes, and dreamy look came into her
eyes
One day when things were going on in their
usual prosaic way-''Danr' came.
Mandys knight did not appear accoutered
In steel mail, upon a steed Of milky whiteness.
Perhaps her mild fancy had scarcely pic
tured him thus.
There was no uunsnal stir even au,one the
yellow butterflies which frequented the garden.
born apparently Of the sun-toned squash-vine
| blossom.
Daddy thought it was another real estate
| dealer after his place when the stranger came
| up the little hard earth path to the front door.
Perhaps it was the suddennsss of it. or per-
haps, after all, there few ideals that can en-
| dure the perfection of fulfllment. Daddy's
greeting to his prodigal son seemed con-
! strained.
The fine raimcnt, the fashionable cane, the
tall, shining hat, the glisten of diamonds here
and there-these did not belong to the DAMP
| for whose coming Daddy HAD waited, in whose
cause he had endured privation and toll.
Mandy never knew how 1t all came about,
but their old life ended that day.
The only knowledge Of the affair which A.
tered Into her CONSCIOUSNESS was the fact that
she and Daddy must part
She had no, dreamed Of such possibility
As we'll anticipate that the world would end
any day when the sun sank behind the tall
spire of st. Martha's
Before Daddy gave his property over to
"Danfs management he insisted that Mandy
should have. for her own, little garden spot
just outside the city limits, since the old place
must go for building lots. Here, with the
compani0nship Of an old woman who had been
nelgnborly in former days, Mandy lived very
much as Of old, save that Daddy was Sone aud
tilat tuc rOniance TOT winch ner me nao formed
itself was no longer possible.
And Daddy:
A silver haired old man. bearing the disni6ed
title OF father" occupied place in the ele-
CANT household OF Mr.. d. Irving Cutter, the
.ich banker.
Clad in broadcloth Of faulilcss cut. Daddy
occupied his corner in silence fearing to take
part IN conversation where his grammar would
have been regarded askance, even II his old
fashioned ideas passed muster.
A shadow Of former generation, Daddy
seemed an unreaiity to himself.
In his luxuriously appointed room, whose
only comfort to him lay in tho flowers woven
into the velvet OF the carpet. and the glimpse,
through the French plate window of the spire
OF st. Martha's darkIy etched against the sky,
the old mall would sit for hours breeding, per-
haps. upon the mystery OF hopes, whose ripe
fruit was bitterness.
Genuine happiness seemed his only when
visiting Mandy little home.
He would eagerly don the blue jeans which
hung ever ready behind the kitchen door, and
going out into the garden, 80 like the old one,
no seemed to find an affectionate welcome in
the round eyes OF the peoples; in the steadfast
blue OF the hrkspur fancied, perhaps, sym
Dol OF lasting friendship; in the time-bound
four o clocks saw, IL may be, howery smile Of
his own slavery, and possibly-who knows
memories of AN early love awakened when be
tenderly touched the clustering heart SENSE n
Or it may have been the vegetables that spoke
to him in a hOEaely language OF their own.
Whatever sentiment stirred him, the old man
seene1 naDny in this htrle gn rt3an