The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1896-10-17
A WEDDING DAY.
BY MARY +. EARLE.

and through the woods where brown
pine-needles carpefed it, up to the Hill
dreth garden. The crape-myrtles stoot
stiff as sentinels beside the gate, bu
the walk led up between its border,
in confident welcome to a blank oper
space, all gray and powdery, as if i
had never seen the sunlight or felt moist
ure. The girl stood breathless, gazing a
1t. The last of the spring roses scat
tered their petals IavishIy around the
beds, and added their fragrance to the
sweetness of the cape jasmine and the
tiny fluffy balls of the acacias, but the
Hildreth house was gone. The holly
hooks and the high shrubs seemed to
be lifting themselves on tiptoe to look
down at the scar where it had been
The breeze sighed little through the
great live-oak which had spent years
tn spreading wide and generous to shade
the whole south gallery, and the mock
ing birds fitted in and out of its
branches with that swift spreading of
their wings for flight which makes the
white bars in them always revelation.
After she had seen these things with
widening eyes, the girls hand went up
to her throat, and she gave little sob.
us everything to changer" she asked,
half brokenly. Something in her mood
stood between her and natural sur
prise. She felt as if she had been pre-
pared to find the place like this, but the
tears rose in her eyes as she looked, for
each familiar beauty of it was some
thing bereaved. She opened the gate
and walked between the rose bushes
toward the spot where the house had
been, but when she reached 1t she
turned away. She threaded all the
bowery paths, and each seemed to hold
something which she must turn away
from, too; but when she stood by the
acacia tree she put out her hand and
touched it timidly. Soon, as it did not
forbid her, she lifted her hand, drew
down a branch, and picked just one of
the tiny yellow tufts which breathe all
the sweetness of the sweetestdaysofl love,
held IT against her cheek for a moment,
and then, with trembling fingers, hid it
in the dark braids of her hair.
A faint "yo-heave-o," like the sailors
hauling up an anchor, was waited
through the garden, and the girl raised
her face and looked about her desoIate-
y. Far down Live Oak lane, between |
the rounded trees, she saw the Hill !
ireth house. 1t seemed to have picked |
up its doorsteps and started out across
the village; there was an excited CLEAN |
in its windows, and the sunlight, fall |
ng more freely on it's roof than it ever
had done in the garden, gave it the
ook of some tenderly shielded old per
ION that has stolen bareheaded away
rom loving children, who do not re-
member that age has its restlessness.
The girl could notice now that a way
lad been cleared for the house to travel
ackward out of the garden, leaving the
lowers courteously, as if they were a
oval presence, and she followed in its
ath through the opened panel of fence
nd on into the lane, where the blue
thinner OF the gulf ended tie vistas of [
lght on either side of the house. She
'alked eagerly, and her face dimpled
nto smiles, yet even as she smiled she |
ut her hand up to her hair, an., the
ePths OF her eyes still kept their sor-
DIV. Il dou't see how Mrs. HiIdreth {
,uid leave her flowers" she said once.
18th sigh. II
A band of creole workmen were nrv.
'g the house along on it's clumsy roll.
rs, and shouting and singing resonant G
at each slow forward lurch. Their I
'ices had the sweetness of summer a
nd and knowledge of the sea, and they q
orked at leisure and gracefully. their
ID or blue shirts shining out against '
le greenery which still chung to the 4
lldreth house, for it had not laid aside o
; vines, but was carrying their roots
unity clear of the ground in baskets.
st as another dear old fugitive might 0
4 her skirts. n
"A woman with rosy cheeks and :,
nooth brown hair was sitting by the 9
'Ddcw, and as the girl approached she !,
ached down to help her take the long -
ep from the road to the door-sill. !"
onnie cambridge" she said, 81 don'i :
ow OF anyone l would rather have -
me walking in like this to act as =,
desmaid on my wedding day." and she :,
ew her visitor into a room that was y.
'rtiingiy unchanged except for the -
Dry of flowers with which the garden
q said good-by. 1t was hard TO re- III
'mber that in the garden they had not CT
IN missed at all. yt
The girl sank into chair and looked sa a
out her YEARLY. A long string OF ~
lis eggs, creamy and softly flecked =.
ng near her on the wall. She took -,
ID OF them as she SO often had before 81.
passed them through her fingers 70
rosary. "Your wedding day % ar
, said. ar
NV
anniversary, of course, mean" is
$. Hiidreth answered, looking ont Tho
ough window that gave glimpse d;,
"a 40.