Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1892-03-03
THE WOMAN'S ROSE.
From n. Y. World. l


"And | saw that the women also held each
others hands" -Drean,S.
n have an old brown carved box; the
lid is broken and tied with string.
La it | keep little squares of paper,
with hair inside, and little picture
which hung over my brothers. bed
when we were children, and other
things as small. | have in it rose.
Other women also have such boxes
where they keep such trif1es, 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 despair, the scent
of that dead rose, withered for II 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 canno
fail us.
There were other flowers in the box
once; bunch of white acacia flowers,
gathered by the strong hand of a man
as we passed down village street on a
sultry afternoon, when it had rained,
and the drops fell on us from the leav,
of the acacia trees. The flowers we e
damp; they made mildew marks on the
paper [ folded them in. After many
years [ threw them away. There is
nothing left of them in the box now,
but a faint smell of dried acacia, that
recalls that sultry summer afternoon !;
but the rose is in the box still.
1t is many years ago now; | was a
girl of Is, and | went to visit in small
up-country town. twas 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 of them were single. There was
only one young giri there when / came
She was about II, fair, and rather fully
fl shed; 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 a daughter, and the farmer il
the outskirts had two but we never saw
them. She reigned alone. All the mer
wOrshipped her. She was the only wo
man they had to think of. They TALKED
OF her on the ''stoop," at the market, al
the hotel; they watched for her a
street corners; they hated the man sh
bowed to or walked with down thu
street. They brought flowers to tn
front door; they offered her their horses
they begged her to marry them whe
they dared. Partly, there was some
thing noble and heroic in this devotion
of men to the best woman they knew
partly, there was something natural il
it. that these men, shut off from tn
world, should pour at the feet of on
woman the worship that otherwis
would have been given to 20; and part
Nv, there was something mean in thi
envy of one another. If she had raise
her little finger, suppose, she Nigh
have married any one out OF 70 of then
Then | came. | do not think | wa
prettier; | do not think [ was so prett
as she was. l was certainly not 8
handsome. But was vital, and l wa
new, and she was Old-they all fOrsOO
her and followed me. They worshippe
me. 1t was to my door that the flower
came; it was [ had 20 horses offered M
when l could ride only one; it was fo
me they waited at street corners; it ws
what said and l did that they Jalke
of. Partly liked it. had lived alor
all my life; no one had ever told me
was beautiful and woman. | believe
them: did not know it was simply
fashion which one man had set, and Il
rest followed unreasOningly. l like
them to asked me 10 marry them, al
to say no. l despised them. III
mother heart had not swellcd in me we
l did not know all men were my CHI
dren, as the large woman knows whit
her heart is grown. | was too small
be tender. | liked my power. l W
like child with new whip, which
goes about cracking everywhere, n
caring against what. l could not viii
it up and put it away. Men were Gu
GUS creatures, who liked me. l cou
never tell why.
Only one thing took from my pleasur
l could not bear that they had desert
her for me. l liked her great, dreau
blue eyes. L liked her slow walk a
drawl When saw her sitting amo
men, she seemed to me much too good