The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-06-14
AMONG THE HILLS.

mans novel and looked al tho PARKWAY
hills.
Rosa loved the hills as she loved God
and thought of them as she did of heaven.
She had heard that God was great and
strong and sheltering. So, she know, were
the hills. And heayenf That was far
very far away, and 1t was hard to reaoh.
But, oh, 1t was SO beautiful And the
more she dreamed of 1t the more she came
to believe that heaven was somewhere
among those hills.
Rosa was the ash mans daughter. She
lived with the ash man and his wife and
their many weakened, brown children in
the basement of gray house of San Fran
Disco The poor little room In the base-
ment had nothing right in it, 1t, too,
was dull and gray, like the house aud the
street, and when the cold fog rolled into
the crowded room, as it always did In the
evening, 1t settled about the faces and
forms Of the children and made them look
pale and wraithlike.
"Evsrmorel Evermore' Rosa had
heard the word at Sunday school and it
haunted her. She asked the good sister
what 1t meant, and she had smiled kindly
and said 1t meant always eternally."
Rosa looked at the sister thoughtfully,
with her big, solemn eyes ave have ever.
more babies at our house" she said.
And so 1t was. When Rosa, the little
elder sister, had taught the last thin,
brown baby little patois and encouraged
it to take few steps, another waling
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 aohed
from the burden of carrying them to soothe
their cries, and her head ached woefully.
Rosa was dwarfiike girl with a well
developed head, pale, olive skin and big
brown eyes that would not permit you to
forget her. There was q haunting EARNEST
ness, wistful questioning in them, that
you recalled sometimes in gay crowds
where tho hungry orbs were out Of place.
They followed and troubled you as does
the gaze of dog that has lost its owner.
There was an animals pain In them and
q human unrest, They reminded you Of
the eyes Of a woman which you can never
forget, one who had looked upon the woes
and mockeres of life until she prayed to
die 1t was with such prayer in her eyes
that Rosa Giovanni looked at tho faraway
hills. The two smallest brown babies were
asleep. The others were playing in IN.
other 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
ncighbor, told her 1t WAS there the flowers
grew, the dewy. delicate flowers which
she had seen countryman Of hers selling
at the place where many streets crossedi
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 momentl
To press her hot forehead against their
cool softness and SO forget that it ached 60
terribly. The half closed eyes opened
wide. They stared in wild way at the
hills A resolve was being horn---a re.
solve that sprang from her ignorance and
pain. She would 80 TO the hills. They
were not very far. Some one had said they
were far away, but they had como closer
TO her, They seemed to be opening their
soft, green rims to her Sho would CO.
She would come back again to the brown
babies, hut she must seek that GOODNESS
and rest and the flowers.
She ran up the narrow street and among
the cars and wagons at the crowded cross,
ing Nobody noticed the ragged little fig.
ure for the haunting eyes did not seek
their faces and challenge their curiosity.
Those strange oyos looked past tho hurry.
ing people to the strip of yclrety green be.
You'd the roofs. She sped along the street,
stopping not for questions She could not