Middletown transcript., 1892-04-28
A SPRING ROMANCE.
HE yellow March sun lay power

here and there in a corner or on the
north side of the fence did the suller
drifts remain, and they were so dark
and low that they hardly appeared to
break the mellow brown of the helds.
There passed also an occasional
flock of geese, cheerful harbingers OF
spring, and the prairie-chickens had
set up their morning symphony, wide,
swelling, wonderful with its prophecy
of the new birth of grass and grain
and the springing life Of all breathing
things. The crow passed now and
then, uttering his resonant croak, but
the crane had not yet sent forth his
bugle note.
Lyman Gilman rested on his ak
! helye at the wood-pile of farmer
Bacon to listen to the music around
him. In vague way he was power
fully moved by it. He heard the
hens singing their weird, raucous,
monotonous song, and saw them bur-
rowing in the dry chip-dust near Kim.
He saw the young colts and cattle
frisking in the sunny space around
the straw.stacks, absorbed through
his bare arms and uncovered head the
heat of the sun, and felt the soft WOO
ing of the air so much that he broke
into an unwonted exclamation
"Glory! we'll be seeding by Friday,
sure"
This short and disappointing solilo-
guy was, after all, an expression of
deep emotion. To the western farmer
the very word seeding" is poem.
And these few words, coming from
Lyman Gilman, meant more and ex-
pressed more than many large and
ambitious springtime song.
But the glory of all the slumbrous
landscape, the stately beauty of the
sky with its masses Of feecy vapor,
were swept away by the sound of
girls voice humming "Come to the
Savior" while she hustled about the
kitchen pear by. The windows were
open. All! what suggestion to these
dwellers in a rigorous climate was in
the first unsealing of the windows
How sweet it was to the pale and
weary women after their long imprison-
ment
As Lyman sat down on his maple
log to hear better, plump face ap-
peared at the window, and clear
girl-voice said:
"Smell anything, Lyme ?"
He snuffed the air. Cookies. by
the great horn spoons 81" he yelled,
leaping up. "Bring me some, an see
me eat; it'll do ye good.'
"Come an get'm," laughed the
face at the window.
"Oh, it's nicer out here. Merry
Etty. What's the rush !? Bring me
ut,some, an set down on this log"
With a nod Marietta disappeared.
and soon came out with a plate of
cookies in one hand and a cup of milk
in the other.
"Poor little man, he's all tired out,
amt he ?"
Lyme, taking the cue, collapsed in
a heap, and said feebly, "Bread,
bread r.
"Won't milk an cookies do as well?"
He brushed off the log and motioned
her to sit down beside him, but she
hesitated little and colored a little
80 Lyme, s'pose somebody should
see US ?'
Let 'em. What in thunder do
we care? Sit down an gimme a
holt O. them cakes. I'm just about
done up. | couldn't a. stood it an
other minute"
She sat down beside him with a
laugh and a pretty blnsh. She was
in her apron, and the sleeves of her
dress were rolled to her elbows, dis
playing the strong, round arms.
Wholesome and sweet she looked and |
smelled, the scent of the cooking round
her. Lyman munched couple of the
cookies and gulped pint Of milk be-
fore he spoke.
Whadda we care who sees US
sittin' side b side? Amt we goin'. t.
be married soon ?"
ooh, them cookies in the oven !"
she shrieked, leaping up and running
to the house, looking back as she
reached the kitchen door, however,
and smiling with flushed face. Lyme
slapped his knee and roared with
laughter at his bold stroke.
Ho! no haar- whoop did Mt
do it slick ? Amt nothin' green in
my eye, I guess" In an intense and
pleasurable abstraction be finished the
cookies and the milk. Then he yelled:
"IIey Merry-Merry Etty!"
"Whadda ye want2" sang the girl
from the window, her face still rosy
with confusion.
"Come out here and git these
things"
The girl shook her head, with a
laugh.