The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-02-11
AMONG THE HILLS.


Rosa Giovanni sat at the door o. The
ssh mans howell and looked at the faraway
hills. IS
Rosa loved the hills o. she loved God,
and thought Of them a. she did Of heaven.
She had heard that God was great and
strong and sheltering; 90, she knew, were
the hilla And heavenP That was far,
very far, away, and 1t was hard to reach;
3 but, oh, 1t was SO beautiful And the more
she dreamed Of 1t the more she came to be.
1ieye 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 a gray house on q gray
street in the gray city Of San Francisco
The poor little room In the basement had
nothing bright In 1t. Ii, too, was duh and
gray, like the house and the street, and
when the cold fog rolled into the crowded
room, as ID always did in the evening, 1t
settled about the faces and forms Of the
children and made them look pale and
wraithlike
-.a" Evermorel Eyermorel" Rosa had
heard the word at Sunday school, and IL
haunted her. She asked the good sister
what Ii meant, and she he'd ssniled kindly
and said 1t meant "always, eternally"
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 1t to
take few steps, another wailing stranger
would demand those offices. Rosa loved
the brood Of little ones, but she tired some
times 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 dwarf1ike girl with a we'll
developed head, pale, olive skin and big
brown eyes that would not permit you to
forget her. There was haunting earnest
ness, 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 dog that had lost its owner. There
was an animals pain In them and hui
man unrest They reminded you of the.
eyes of woman whom you can never for
and mockeries of life until she prayed to
die. 1t was with such a prayer in her eyes
that Rosa Giovanni looked at the faraway
bills. Tho two smallest brown babies were
asleep The others were playing in anoth-
er 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 hillsl 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 countryman of hers selling at
the place where many streets crossed She
had caught tho 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 ter
ribly. The half closed eyes opened wide
They stared In wild way at the hills.
resolve was being born, resolve 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 CO. She /
would come back. again to the brown
babies, but 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, |
urc, for the haunting eyes did not seek |
their faces and challenge their curiosity. !,
Those strange eyes looked past the hurry
ing people to the strip of yelyety green be. |
You'd the roofs She sped along the street,
stopping not for questions. She could not
be lost Did she not know where she was
going and was 1t not to the hills, which
her eyes never left for a moment She |
but not from fear. Tho fog had
wrapped her about in its stealthy embrace,
but she thought: "The hills will take care
of me, They are warm and kind"
Her breath came shorter. She tired,
but ntt as when she left the cellar of the
gray house, for was she not coming nearer
to that wayy line of green at every stepf
Once she fell, but she drew herself up
again and walked Oh more slowly this
time. But the feverish light in her eyes
had become fierce fame Her cheeks
burned. Iho bills were coming closer.
5ho could not walk much farther. They
knew it, and they were coming to her.
II found her lying across the curb. She
was stretching ont her arms on tho side
walk and saying something like: All,
good kind hills! I've found you She
must have been there an hour or two fol
she was cold as the stnnes Of the side
walk. "
The big policeman put the stunted form
INTO tho matrOn 8 arms
Poor little lamb" she said She was
!sed to sad sights, but tears filed her eyes
as she looked at the drawn, dark features
and warped body
After they had laid her in the snowy bed
Ihe opened her wandering eyes upon rowe
If clean cots, whereon she saw the faces OF
children. She looked at the motherly face
bending above her, then through the win.
low at the sunshine falling upon a waving
inc Of green
1T was true" she said, and the worn
little face took on its last childs happi.
1855 Heaven Is here among the hills
Tho matron drew sheet over the smil.
ng face and they placed screen about the
ot.-Ada Patterson in st. Louis Republic.