Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-05-10
BERRYVALE ANCHORAGE,
BY DUANE MORLEY.

Not always was il an anchorage, nor
was it always called Berryvale. When
father bought the old place and moved
upon it, repairing the old roomy house,
reconstruetins the shapeless, untidy
garden, trimming up the shrubbery
and the trees of the orchard, tearing
out the old rail fences and substitut-
ing new post and board ones in their
stead, then it was that the place was
given the name Berryvale The wild
strawberry fiourished in every fence
correr. and scattered about amongst
the hazel brush of the wood lot were
blackberry vines in profusion, TO say
nothing of the wild sweet plums, which
grew on the moister lands along the
swnle.
One day at the dinner table, though
I was a mere child, | recollect it well,
after saying grace over the meat,
father exclaimed; "Ive found a name
for it"
Father was always finding names for
things, and when mother asked what
it was he had found q name for, he re-
Piled:
"Berryvale. This place is 10 be
called Berryvale. One cannot step
without treading on vines: it is the
natural home of the berry, and Berry.
vale it must be called"
The old place was in a narrow valley,
sheltered by the hills from the cold
north winds, and by belt of timber
from the east winds, which, in less
sheltered localities, sometimes blighted
the apple crop. Many tired mother
and complaining children have rested
from long drive. and been regaled In
the broad front room of the dear old
bouse with a cup of tea, and a dish OF
berries swimming in sweet, rich cream
and plentifully y sugared. Mothers was
no balf-hospitality, nor did her neigh
bors abuse their privilege. Soon after
We were settled there father gathered
us children about him one evening, at
one side of the large table where
mother sat knitting or sewing, and told
us his ideas of home. Said he, at is
about the only place on earth where
you can come anywhere near doing as
you please"
OF course, you cannot quite come tO
the mark of perfect freedom even here
because you must be guided by older
and better judgment than your own;
and, too, there are other rights to con.
slider"
Then he went on to tell us what a
haven home was; what place of quiet
anchorage; how safe from the storms
of busy adventurous life. l was al.
ways impressionable, his words fairly
burned into me, aud doubtless had
their full effect in ever keeping me
7pon the dear old place.
We were not many; there was Nellie
my eldest sister, Jennie next to her,
and little Rnth, small of her age, but
my senior by three years. l was the
only son.
My sisters grew up into womanhOod
and l to manhood; fathers locks be
came white, mothers face furrowed,
and still the years did not stop. 1t if
the delight of remorseless. Time tC
take the velvet cheek and make il
hard and rough, and the smooth white
brow and with his ploughshare drive
into 1t, deep furrow and crease.
Sister Nellie married a well to do
merchant, Mr.. Sutton, of the firm OF
Sutton and Crsddock, doing business in
large town twelve miles away; whilst
Jennie married a machinist connected
with the railroad shop at ID. But little
Ruth was an old piece of timber, IN.
chosen for many years: and if the
school teacher had not boarded at our
house one winter, and had not enlisted
her services in the school exhibition al
the close of the term, / suspect that
she, like myself, would have always re.
mained simple.
Sister Ruth was quiet creature, and
Ben Russell, the teacher, a lively, en-
terprising fellow, whom every body
liked, besides he was money-makinQ
and money saving. An epidemic
swept the poor fellow off the fifth year
of his welded life, and little Ruth, a
childless widow, came back to Berry
vale to live.
Then the little place was q garden,
the low swale. land reclaimed from its
wild state into beautiful mead ow, and
the upland, loose and loamy, we're ex.
ceedingly fruitful. The old wild her
ries had given place to improved culti
waited ones, and our greatest hsrvests
were from the vines. Through all the
years, from the time when father first
named 1t, it vas his ambition to make
the place worthy of its title. When he
had fairly succeeded. and when the
railroads had brought market almost
to his very door, he rigged up a nice
market wagon, and had painted
Berry Fiuit Farm" upon it in
letters of red and gold. Eventually
father grew feeble, and the care of the
place fell altogether upon myself, with
what Ruth could do in the busy berry
picking season. About that time we
met our first misfortune.
Ruth was despoiled of her money,
nearly three thousand dollars, by an
) absconding loan broker, In whose
hands it had been left to complete an
investment. So Ruth WAS left penni-
less, but believing that she never
was to be left homeless, she
bore her loss phiIosophically. Then,
In the order of our simple chronicling,
our dear mothers health failed her,
and after few weeks illness she passed
away; and within a year our father
| followed her, Father had made nc
will, but from what he had at different
times said to us, we thought that he
wanted his property equally divided
among his four children. When a
reasonable time had passed after his
death. l proposed to my three sisters
to take the necessary legal steps to-
wards settlement of the estate and the
division of the property. We were all
together at the time l spoke Of it, al
the o d place and in the broad front
room. Nellie's immediate inquiry
was:
"Do you mean, brother, that we
shall divide it by acres; so many acres
TO you, 80 many to Jennie and SO on?'
"Why no; Nell, I answered, SCI