The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1893-11-08
BARWELL'S MAID.

1 used to have several customers in
Silverado. 1t is only a pleasant ride ont
from here in the beautiful summer
morning, long before the sun begins to
peep above the Sierras and when the
dawn is just beginning to break bright
and fair, as dawn never does show any
where except in this ~semitropical cline.
The road to Silverado is bordered on
both sides with long rows of pepper
trees. Now, other fellows may a a
different taste in trees, but for me there
never was anything in trees SO pretty as
a row of peppers, with branches looking
down like the eyes of a modest girl when
she sees her lover coming along the road,
and the first CLINT of day creeping
through them and making little gold
paths in them till you don't know
whether the tree itself is green or yell
low, and the morning breeZes blowing
through them till they ripple and shine
all over as if they were laughing.
There never was anything else SO like
a pretty woman with a smile on her face
as those pepper trees in the morning
Will Ll6 Wllu DioN lhS oNCL ViFLn
kind of a smile that creeps over the face
in a soft, lazy way and laughs in the
eyes and hides away in the waves of hair.
used to think that the pepper trees
were what made me like to drive my
milk wagon out to Silverado. But that
was before | had seen the little maid at
Barwelrs.
Barwell's was a boarding house. Sill
verado was a kind OF health resort, and
people used to come from the east and
go out there winters and board at Bar
wells. Maybe it did their health good,
but / don't think Barwells ever inn
proved the health of the little maid very
much. If it did, she must have been a
sight to behold before she came.
The first time | saw her she came out
with the milk can. Usually it stood on
the stoop waiting to be filed, and /
would pour in the milk and leave it
standing there for the first servant who
was up to come out and get it. But this
time it seemed to have been forgotten,
and the little maid had crept out in the
early dawn to bring it and stood shiver-
ing in the morning chill, for the dawn of
a semitropic morning near the sea is not
warm, however the mind may tend to
romance concerning its balminess. And
she was such a very little maid / could
scarcely see her on the other side of the
milk can and thought at first that the
can had just taken a notion to walk out
alone and get itself filled.
"Hello!" | said.
Eyes" she replied, quite as a matter
of course. And then | saw what a very
thin and white little maid it was.
"Where did you come FROM"
eff you please, I'm Mrs. Barwell's girl.
work for my keep" ?
Now, / did not please in the least. |
should have preferred. if she must be
anybody's girl. that it should be any one
else in the world whom / had ever seen.
And as for the keep" if there is any
proof in looks, it must have been very
small.
| CHANGED to have a big orange in my
wagon that some one on my.drive, who
had an orange orchard, had given me. |
threw it to her when had filled the can.
She caught it eagerly, and when l looked
back as ] drove off | saw her going uI
the walk with the orange pressed uI
close to her mouth. After that / never
forgot to have an orange, or a nectarine
or some apricots in my wagon when
stopped at Barwells. Sometimes the
milk can would be ON the stoop, and
would not see the little maid for seyera
days, but when | did see her again
would give her all the good things tina
had accumulated in my wagon since tn,
last time | saw her. And good thing
had a way of accommodating very rapid,
ut that time.
Once when Mrs. Barwell happened t.
be up early to get a picnic party success
fully off her hands | saw her seize tn
little maid and drag her into the kitchen
And | thought she struck her just as tn
door was closing. / grew hot all owe
and thought savagely that if Mrs. Bar
well had been a man | should have Gale
her out. As it was, / had a fancy that
would do me good to get out and assault
Mrs. Barwell's kitchen door and fin
my opinion at her gratuitously and fore
= bly,.
But neither course seemed quite fea
AOACs 1piShC0 up LILY whip LuilOusl3 oil
looked around for something TO lay
onto. AS ! could see nothing availab
for that purpose but my patient, GOO
tempered horse, who never gave me ii
slightest excuse for savagery, l put
down again with a resolution to NAL
things more even some day, though
never entered my ridiculous head in VIII.
particular way / could accomplish Il
levelng process. But the little maid g
q whole apronful of the incest peach
and nectarines and pomegranates in II
market the next morning when I stops
to deliver the milk.
So time went by until the little ma
had grown into a slipof a girl and won
have been pretty one, too, if she had n
been so thin and white as to the chez
and staring as to the eyes. She h,
beautiful eyes, but they in company wi
her other features had grown SO starv
that 1t made anybody hungry only
look at them.
Abort the S,xna that I ha,.~ ..1.