Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1897-02-26
AMONG THE HILLS.

way hills
Rosa loved the hills as she loved God,
and thought of them as she did OF
heaven. She had learned that God was
great and strong and shelterlng; so, she
knew, were the hills. And heaven
That was far, very far, away and it was
hard to reach but, oh, It was so beauti-
full. And the more she dreamed of 1t
the more she came TO believe that
heaven was somewhere among the hills.
Rosa was the ash mans daughter. She
lived with the ash man and mis- wife and
their many weakened, brown children In
the basement of "a gray house on gray
street in the gray city of San Francisco.
The poor little room in the basement
had nothing bright in it. 1t too, was
dull and gray, Ike the house and the
street. and when the cold fog rolled into
the crowded room, as it always did In the
evening, it settled about the faces and
forms of the children and made them
look pale and wraithlike.
"Evermorel Evermore" Rosa had
heard the word at Sunday school and 1t
haunted her She asked the good sister
what It meant, and she had smi. 7dly
and said It meant "always, eternally."
Rosa looked at the sister thoughtfully
with her big, solemn eyes. 1--WE have
evermore babies at our house." she said.
And so it was. When Rosa, the little
elder sister, had taught the last thin,
brown baby little patois and encour-
aged it to take few steps, another wall
ing stranger would demand those offices.
Rosa loved the brood of little ones, but
she tired sometimes of their weak cries,
and her thin arms and narrow shoulders
ached from the burden of carrying them
to soothe their cries, and her head
ached woefully.
Rosa was a dwarfike girl with we'll
developed head, pale, olive skin and big
brown eyes that would aot permit you to
forget her. There was haunting earn
estness, wistful questioning in them
that YOU recalled sometimes in gay
crowds where the hungry orbs were out
of place. They followed and troubled
you as does the gaze of a dog that has
lost its owner. There was an animals
pain in them and human unrest. They
reminded you of the eyes of woman
whom YOU can never forge, one who
had looked upon the woes and mocker-
les of life until she prayed to die 1t
was with such prayer in her eyes that
Rosa Giovanni looked at the faraway
hills. The two smallest brown babies
were asleep. The others were playing
in another room with children who were
old enough to care for them. So the
small brown hands were idle for once
They lay crossed in the lap of the
dreamer.
The great, green hillsi How fresh
and beautiful they look Had not Nina,
the neighbor, told her it was there the
flowers grew, the dewy, delicate flowers
which she had seen a countryman of
hers selling at the place where many |
streets crossed? She had caught the
breath of some of those flowers once,
and it was sweet-as sweet as heaven |
and the hills. All, to have some of
them in her lap at this moment To
press her hot forehead against their cool
softness and so forget that it ached so
terribly. The halfclose eyes opened
wide. They stared in a wild way at the
hills. H resolve was being born, a re-
solve that sprung from her ignorance
and pain. She would go to the hills.
They were not very far. Some one had
said they were far away, but they had
come closer to her. They seemed to be
opening their soft green arms to her.
She would go. She would come back
again to the brown babies, but she must
eek that GOODNESS and rest and the flow
RS
She ran up the narrow street and
.mong the cars and wagons at the
.rowded crossing. Nobody noticed the
jagged little figure, for the haunting
ives did not seek their faces and chal- (
enge their curiosity. Those strange ;
ives looked past the hurrying people to I
he strip of velvety green beyond the I
oofs. She sped along the street, stop J
ing not for questions. She could not
e lost. Did she not know where she
vas going and was it not to the hills
which her eyes never left for momentS
he shivernd but not from fear. The :
og had wrapped her about in its stealthy
mbrace. but she thought: "The hills
I'LL take care of me. They are kind and
arm" 8
uar breath came shorter She was