Smyrna times., 1895-01-09
MELISSA.
BY JOY LIsToN KENNIARD.

BY JOY LISTON KENSIARD.
Melissa opened an old book, one day.
and this was the paragraph that met
and held her eyes The beauty. the
refinement, the truth and the poetry OF
life, all spring from one source-sim-
plicity"
At first the passage was meaningless /.
to her; but books came often in the f.
girls way, so she read it over and over.
until some Of the words began TO stand
ont with misty meaning. She knew in
an unlearned way what beauty meant:
OF its deeper sense she had no cOncep.
tion; that flower or a sunset was
purity was enough for her. As for
refinement, poetry, simplicity, their
deeper truths were as dead letters: for
poor Melissa, with her red hands and
faded gown, had only a poor excuse for
what We call education
And yet. sOmewh here from the dim
past there fitted memories to her Of a
lovely, delicate face which awakened
in her soul its higher aspirations, and
there had been implanted in her nature
by tender hand long since m0uldered
into dust d native wit and refinement.
waiting for the touch Of knowledge TO
bring II into life.
Now, with the lesson only half
learned she closed the book wta
sigh, and rising, shaded her ewes with
one toil--tainei hand a. she looked
across the clearing to the woods b,
youd.
wish dad ui come. she said thought
fully. Likes not he found some uu
ter talk 18th r.
As she gazed two figures separated
themselves from he wooded field be-
youd and approached the clear.u.
where tie Haddeu nome stood. Me
lissa watched them atteutjveIy. Won
deriug audIb}y. who dad had in tow
this time.
Even at that distance there came 10
her sudden sense oi the contrast be.
tween old man Ha1den -louchiug
along with the typical gait Of the back
woOd-man, and the quick, firm tread
Of the stranger.
Hello, Meli-- =" hailed Haddeu. as
they entered tie rude gate. Here's
man who wants supper n lodg,u
Melissa, with little nod. entered
1 the house, ana they saw her no more
until she placed the smoking meal on
/ the table and called them 10 il. There
/ was neither rapery nor silver there
indeed, cutlery of and kind was at
/ premium; bat the supper wa- palatable
and very acceptable to the hungry aud
tired traveller.
Melissa sat, silent and shy, pouring
out the black coffee, and furtively
watching the stranger while he ate; his
refined manner struck her with peculiar
force. Did be know about beauty and
refinement and simplicity? She rather
Opined that he did, once. on looking
up,she found him regarding her with
steady, curious gaze
ThOrne Holloway arose the next
morning as the first streaks of dawn
were staining the east. 1t gave prom
ise OF being "a perfect day and he CON
graduated himself on a long days
sketching
But, if the artist were abroad early
that iateful morning, some one was up
before him; some one in a faded print
gown, pouring over a battered book.
He fingered at the doorstep a mo.
ment with word about the day; the
girl attracted him by her Innocent al
though uncultiVated nature, even
while her rough speech Jared upon
him. He watched her face as he talked
seeing the CLINT of the morning upon it,
its newly risen brightness in her clear
eyes.
Ten minutes later, with his face yet
tiugllng from its contact with the cold
water OF the little mountain stream.
Holloway sat down to his breakfast OF
fried bacon and eggs with coffee that
Just matched the crisp mountain air,
aud concluded that it was primitive,
but delightful and invigoratiug, never
theless.
, Now, in that interval of ten little
minutes an odd thing had happened; a
slight thing il was. yet it changed the
whole current of Melissa Hadden ; life
When she dropped her book on the
step and FASTENED within TO prepar,
breakfast, the volume had fallen face
upward and open TO the place where
she had been reading.
Half quizzcally, Holloway picked il
up, and glanced at the paragraph
? marked. | must confess, by the con
stant friction of Melssa's fingers. HI
read it over slowly:
, The beauty, the refinement, the
truth and the poetry OF life, all spring
from one s0urCe-simplicity.
A slow, curious smile crept around
his lips as he hurriedly penclled wore
across the paragraph and laid the boos
down again.
Thorne Halloway had found many
sweet flower growing amid a mass O
ugly weeds, and they bad sppealed Il
a ,.f all H.
and beautiful. Here was 81 soul,howel
cropping among weeds of ignorance auC
vulgaritv; he saw it IN her face; ht
:; guessed it 10y the light OF her eyes; di,
:, the darkness OF that soal appeal to thu
i light in his own?
Melissa Hadden was like hundred
a of other girls who have had no educa
& tional advantages, neither better no
s worse; simply an ordinary girl with
r natural craving after better things
When she took up her book again will
a grim determination worthy of he
e cause, 10, one word written here by al
II invisible hand had solved the problem
that one word SO full of meaning ever
to Melissa, was knowledge"
'' A few weeks later, a generous pack
= age of journals and magazines f0un'
their way TO the Hadden nome, an'
their contents were literally devOure'
by Melissa.
That artist feller's bound ter pa!
his way in some fashun," commented
old man Hadden.
= What that miscellaneous handle o
journals did for Melissa Haadep i
would be hard for the cultured reade
to understand They found her, a
Thorne Holloway had, an igRorap
girl; they left her with the seeds of
new understanding Implanted in be
nature.
She read of what women in tn
world are doing, what girls no Olde
than herself had done for their Owl
advancement, and she longed to d
likewise; longed so intensely that on,
day she suddenly said to old man Had
den:
I, dad, Pm goin' ter school"