Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1894-02-18
White Rose.


1 have an old brown, carved box; tile
lid is broken and tied with string, In
it / keep little squares of paper, with
hair inside aud 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, but no one has my rose.
When my eye Is dimmed and my heart
grows faint, and my faith in woman
ilickers, and her presence is an agony to
me, aud her future despair, the scent
Of that dead rose, withered for twelve
years, comes back To me. ! know there
will be spring az surely rs The birds
know il when they see above the snow
two tiny, .quiyering green leaves. Spring
cannot fail us
raero were other flowers in the box
once--a bunch OF white ncnce flowers,
gathered 10y the strong hands OF n man
as we passed down village street on a
sultry afternoon, when II had rnincd.
and the drops fell ON Us from the
leaves Of the ucacin trees The flowers
We're damp, they made mllpw marks IN
the paper ! folded them in After many
Sn0rs | threw them away. There Is
nothing of them left; but the rose is in
the box stu.
~
q girl Of 10, and | went TO visit in a
small up country town. II was Young
in those days, and two days journey
from the nearest village. the population
consisted mainly of men. 4 few were
married aud had their wives and child
rem, but most We're single. There was
only one young girl there when / came.
She was about II. fair and rather fully
heshed. SHE had large. dreamy blue
eyes ana wayy light hair, full, rather
heavy lips. until she smiled, then her face
broke info dimplcs and all her white
teeth elone, The hotel keeper may
have And daughter, and the farmer In
| the outskirts had two. but We never saw
| them, She rCigued alone. All the mon
| Wnrshlpped her She was the only
woman tlcy had 10 think Of, They
| talked Of her on the stoop. at the mar
ket, at the hotel; they watched for hor
| az the street corners; they hated the man
| she bowed to or walked with down the
| street. They brought flowers to the front
| door, they offered her thcr horses. they
! begged her TO marry them when they
/ dared, Partly there was sometime
noble and heroic ia this devotion Of Hen
| 10 tue best woman they knew; partly.
| there was something natural In Il. that
| these men, shut OF from the world
/ should pour at the feet of one woman
| the worship tnat otherwise would have
! been given TO Twenty, and narflv there
I
Then | came, l do not think 1 was
J nretticr. l do not think l was so pretfv
J rs she was. | was certainly NOT as
/ handsome. But | was vital, and I was
! new, and she was old--they an forsool,
her and followed me. They worshippeI
me. II was to my door that the lowers
came, and Il was had twenty horses Of
! fcred me when ] could only ride one. II
| was for me they waited at street CORNERS
] It was what | said and dil that tbey
| talked Of Partly l liked It.. had lived
alone all my life; no one had eyer tolj
mo l was beautiful aud a woman
believed them. ] did not know h was
simply fashion which one man had M
nud the rest followed unreasoninrlv I
liked Thorn 10 ask me to marry them. and
to say No. desplsed them. mo
mother heart had not swcied In me vel.
l did not know all men were NV nhiidren
as the large woman knows whom nor ha,r'
Is grown. | was like a child with no,,.
whip IL goes about cracking eyprvwhern
not caring against what Only an. hin,
took from my p.cnsute--I could no, ba9r
that they had deserted her for M i
liked her great. dreamy blne ewes. /
hked her slow walk and iraNl: whom I
saw her sitting among mon she seemed
70 me neeA 700 Eo'l 70 be among them.
| would haye given all their ronlti,,,e,,4
ii She would once have sri "a nj ,,s,
she smiled ut them. with an bor ~
breaking into radinnre, with nor diuolos
and flashing teeth. But knew a nevos
could be; that she WISHED | vrns A., 4.
that she wished ! never had eon,. =, Nv, KY
village. She did NOT know when ~ wen,
out riding, and a man who Ind alw1ys
ridden beside her came to ride hai;Ss
Inc, that l sent him AVN IL, sle
when man thought to Min nv f SvSs
By ridiculing her slow draw bef5ys ~, ~, :
turned to him 50 aercely that he never lev
knew that at the hotel men Nj ny sne
YET as 20 which was the pFeifier . sba - .
! and had asked each man who ea my H. DF
and that the one who stakod ny ny 80 Nv. w
She aud | never spoke 10 es.i, =, \ n
u We met b the village W. h,n.,I - ~ /;
PASSED on When we ebeok bapi ~, vs a ~ 4
80 silently and did no, look A. NJ. W Is. Niil
But l thought she felt nv ,,,, 49,. Vi ,eF.
raom just as I felt hers. 'Vsnoe IN
AZ last the time for ny eo,,,.
was to leave the next Az 'sS came. |