Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-29
A LEMON TREE.
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH BY "oUIDA. I"

I
his head down very low, so that the people
should not see the tears which were running
down his cheeks
When he came back to his home he car
ried his price in his hands-30 francs, in
three paper notes He held them out to
Lizina "All is well with it; it is to stand
| in beautiful place, close to falling water,
half in shade, halt in sun, as it likes bes.
| Oh, all is well with it, dear; do not be
afraid, then his voice failed him and he
sobbei aloud.
The child took the money. She had a
| little bundle in her hand, and she had put
on the only pair of shoes she possessed.
"Cean yourself, father, and come, come
| quickly" she said in little, hard, dry,
| painting voice.
"Oh, wait, wait, my angel" he cried
piteously, through his sobs.
81 cannot watt" said the child, mot a
minute, not minute Clean yourself aud
| come"
In an hours time they were in the train.
The child did everything; found the rail-
way station, asked the way, paid their
fares, took their seats, pushing her father
hither and thither as if he were a blind
man. He was dumb with terror and re-
gret; he resisted nothing. Having sold the
tree, there seemed to him nothing lett for
him to do. Lizina obeyed him no more
she commanded.
People turned to look after this little sick
girl with death written on her face, who
spoke and moved with such teverish de-
cision, and dragged after her this thin, dumb
man, her suall, lean hand shut with
nervous force upon his own. Ali the way
she ate nothing; she only drank thirstily OF
water whenever the train stopped
The novelty and strangeness of the transit;
the crowd, and haste, and noise; the un-
familiar scenes; the pressure of unknown
people, and the stare of unknown eyes, all
of which was SO bewildering and terrible to
her father, had no effect upon her All she
thought of was to get to the place Of which
the name was written on the scrap OF paper
which she had shown at the ticket office,
and which she continued to show mutely to
anyone who spoke to her. 1t said every
thing to her; she thought it must say every
thing to everyone else.
Nothing could alarm her or even arrest
her attention. Her whole mind was set on
her goal.
''Your little maiden is very illr' said
more than one in the crowded railway
wagon, where they were iammed one onto
another thick as herrings in barrel
AYE, aye, she is very ILL.," he an
swered, stupidity; and they did not know
whether be was unfeeIing or daft. He was
the train, the choking dust, the giddy land
scape which seemed to run past him, earth
and sky together; but on Lizina they made
no impression, except that she coughed al
most necessarily. She seemed to all moth
ing and to perceive nothing. He was seized
with panics of dread lest they should be
taken in some wrong direction-even out of
the world altogether; dreaded fire, accident,
death, treachery, felt himself caught up by
strong, invisible hands, and whirled away,
the powers of heaven or hell alone knew
where. His awful fear grew on him every
greater and greater; and he would
have given his soul to be safe back on the
sand of the river at home.
But LiZina neither showed nor felt any
fear whatever. The journey took the whole |
day and part of the ensuing night; for the |
slow cheap train by which they travelled |
gave way to others, passed hours motion |
less, thrust aside and forgotten, and paused |
at every little station on the read. They |
suffered from hunger and thirst, and heat |
and drought, and fatigue and confusion, as
the poor cattle suffered in the trucks beside
them. But the child did not seem to feel |
either exhaustion, or pain, or to want any, |
thing except to be there. To be there-the |
towns, the mountains the sea, the coast,
all so strange and wonderful to untraveled |
eyes, had no wonder for her. She only
wanted to get beyond them, to where it was
that Cecco lay. Every now and then she
opened her bundle and looked at the little
twig of the lemon tree.
Alarmed at her aspect and her racking
cough, their companions shrank away from
them as far as the crowding of the wagon
allowed OF, and they were left unquestioned
and undisturbed whilst the day wore on and
the sun went down into the sea and the
evening deepened into night.
1t was dawn when they were at last told
to descend; they had reached their desti-
nation-a dull, sunbaked, feverstricken
little port, with the salt water on one side
of it and the machia and marsh on the
other
Lizina got down from the train holding
her little bundle in one hand and in the
other her tather's wrist. Their limbs were
bruised. aching, trembling, their spines felt
broken, their heads seemed like empty
bladders in which their brains went round
and round; but she did not faint or fall; she
went straight onward as though the place
was familiar to her.
There was fort of decaying yellowstone,
high walls with loopholes, mounds of sand
with sea-thistle and bryony growing in
them; before these was the blue water and
a long stone wall running lar out into the
waters to the iron rings in it. A few fisher
boats were moored by their cables The sun
was rising over the inland wilderness where
wild boar and buffalo dwelt uuder impene-
trable thickets. Lizina led her father by
the hand past the Notifications to little
desoiate church with crumbling belfry,
where she knew the burial ground must be,
There were four walls limewashed, with
black iron door, through the bars of which
the graves within and the rank grass around
them could be seen. The gate was locked;
1,,oo lo,, hafo - |
close to the desolate sand-strewn, grass
grown field of death. She motioned to her
lather to do the same. He was like poor
steer landed after a long voyage in which
he had neither eaten nor drunk, but had
been bruised, buffeted, thrown to and fro.
tormented. They waited, as she
wished, in the cool dusk of the breaking
day. The bell above in the church steeple
was tolling Tor the first mass.
In little while a sacristan came out of
the presbytery near the church and began
10 turn a great rusty key In the church
door. He saw the two sitting there by the
and, looking at them over his
shoulder, said to them: "You are strangers
what would you?'
Lizina rose and answered him: "Will
you open to me? 1 come to see my Cecco
who lies here. l have something to give
him."
The sacristan looked at her father.
'CeccO?" he repeated in doubtful tone
"a lad of Royezzano, soldier who died
lere, said Fringuello, hoarselv and faint
y, for his throat was parched and swollen,
and his head swan. "He and my child
we're playmates. Canst tell us, good man,
where his grave is made?"
The sacristan paused, standing before the
eathern curtain OF the church porch trying
% remember. Save for the soldiers and the