The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-09-13
butt I[gERG(gJ[Foa
"a story.l

Inc the SKY IKE d Sl4IAIAASA 'AAAS . ''
if possible, crown bonfire of all the
gold of the earth, and the flush that
fell upon her yellow hair seemed to
have been held there as so much i'm
prisoned light.
She stood looking far across the
hills toward the Cuyamaca range of
the Sierras banked with snow that
in the glow looked a dead-red cooling
mass of molten metal. The country
under the touch of the annual rains
stretched away, throbblng
ocean of color, thrill and
carnival of color leaped from
crest to crest of hill like the first hints
of love-blush in a girls cheek. The
hills and valleys seemed to rise away
like deep bosom of bloom; there
seemed to be bloom almost in the per
fume of the breath of the
fields, bloom seemed to min
gle almost in the song of
birds whose plumage was tender as
bridal-bloom; the CLINT from a lake
here and there was like silver note of
the South from the string of mando-
lin. And yet it was December.
As she stood there, with her hand
still to her brow, the figure of the man
came nearer, and half audibly as if in
response to the melody of the air, a
couplet from a little spring-song rip
pied from her lips as her thoughts
went back to the dreary winters she
had lived in England near the shroud-
ed Downs of Deal.
"Old winter with face once
awrinkle," she sang
Now smiles at March playing
May"
Arthur was making no hurry;
he would stop now and
then in his leisurely homeward walk
to let the animal take another sweet
nip of alfalfa; then the little jersey
would step up smartly to his side and
rub her neck against his arm as if
she had been fawn raised by children.
That's why the little mother was
wondering: she was sure it was Ar
thur, but why was he leading cow
across the fields?
Arthur was in his shirt sleeves.
his trousers tucked in his high boots,
with PREDETERMINED hat looking the
tall, why, athletic ranchman, as much
so as If he had been in California since
childhood.
When he and his companion were
quite near the big gate, where the lit
tle mother was standing, she was the
first to speak.
''Why Arthur" shecried with a laugh
of joy mingled with some surprise,
t'where did you get that beautiful
creature 2"
II brought her to you. little girl"
he replied, looking unobseryed at her
out of the deepest depths of his
strong, rich, brown eyes. He saw the
color sweep over her face like altern-
ating shades in rhe Aurora Borealis,
in a series of emotions as changing as
blossoming octaves of color that swept
across the music of the vast landscape
before her.
ut was your birthday, dear" he
said, "and the baby is so sick, you know,
and 1 thought, as we had tried so
many things without avail that maybe
some rich Jersey milk might do her
good. So it is for you and the baby
together. You know / am famous
mixer, and / will feed her and pet her,
so be of good cheer, it will be only a
few days more and baby will be bet
ter"
The little mothers eyes were less
1ustrous for an instant for the glim-
mer, and deep blush seemed to come
to her cheeks from those depths of love
where husband and child lived as one.
Reaching her arms up to Arthur's
broad shoulders, she drew his lips
down to hers, and then she put her
arm about the neck of the little COW,
who took it kindly enough.
And the days went by and baby got
brighter and stronger each day, and
the little cow became almost part of
the home. Little mother called her
''Buttercup," and she would come
when she was called no matter where
she was in the field nor how rich the
find of grass.
arthur and the little mother had
come from England some two years
before and had settled on a ranch in
Ell Caion Valley, which seemed new
paradise with its luscious lines of or
anges thrown forward so sharply gol-
den by the rich, dark green of their
groves, with its muscat grapes and
lemons and lines, nectarines and
guayas, its loquats and apricots, Ja-
panese persimmons, prunes and olives
and the flaming Tokay,its almonds and
apples and pears. 1t was during the
days of the boom" in California, so
many years ago, when town lots doub-
led in value almost in night. And
so it was that Arthur often had some
business in the city by the ocean, some
fourteen miles away. He used to
think the sweetest moments of all, if
this were possible, We're those when
returning from town he would about
twilight get to the top of the noun
tain-spur which enclosed the valley
of sunshine. He would look straight
to the leftward where the home was
nestled in vines, and see the light, and
it always seemed TO him to be the light
of the little mothers face and the
baby's face mingled into one. Across
the darkening fields the light twinkled
more and more softly, while the un-
der-call of quail hurrying together
for the niUht came from fanOlas of