The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-03-20
AMONG THE HILLS.

INUSu ulONthni rub Nv blO uODT W. WIG
ash mans howell and looked at the faraway
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 knew, were
the hills. And heavenP That was far,
very far, away, and 1t was hard to reach
but, oh, 1t was so beautiful And the more
she dreamed of it the more she came to bo-
lieve 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 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 like 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.
"Evermore Evermorer' Rosa had
heard the word at Sunday school, and it
haunted her. She asked the good sister
what it meant, and she had smiled kindly
and said it meant always, eternally."
Rosa looked at the sister thoughtfully,
with her big, solemn eyes. eve have ever
more 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 encouraged it 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 dwarfike girl with q we'll
developed head, pale, olive skin and big
brown eyes that would not permit you to
forget her There was a haunting earnest
ness, wstful 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 it's owner. There
was an animals pain in them and a hu-
man unrest. They reminded you of the
eyes of woman whom you can never for
get one who had looked upon the woes
and mockeries 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 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
neghbor, 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 COO
softness and so forget that it ached so ter
ribiy. The half closed eyes opened wide
They stared in wild way at the hills. A
resolve was being born, a resolve that
sprung from her ignorance and pain. Sh'
uoS, ea-ei>- i-tit-. .rI.~sr -a~,
| far. Some one had said they were fal
away, but they had come closer to her
They seemed to be opening their soft
green arms to her. She would go. Sh,
would come back again to the brown
babies, but she must seek that GOODNESS ant
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 seel
their faces and challenge their curiosity
Those strange eyes looked past the hurry
ing people to the strip of velvety green be
yond the roofs. She sped along the street
stopping not for questions. She could moi
be lost. Did she not know where she wa.
going and was 1t not to the hills, which
her eyes never left for moment? Sh,
shivered, but not from fear. The fog ha(
wrapped her about in it's stealthy embrace
but she thought: "The hills will take car,
of me. They are warm and kind"
Her breath came shorter. She was tired
but not as when she left the cellar of tn,
gray house, for was she not coming nearer
to that wavy line of green at every step
Once she fell, but she drew herself VI
again and walked on more slowly thi
time But the feverish light in her eye
had become a fierce fame. Her cheek
burned. The hills were coming closer
She could not walk much farther. The.
knew it, and they were coming to her.
'I found her lying across the curb. Sh
was stretching out her arms on the side
walk and saying something like: All
good kind hills I've found you Sh
| must nave been there an hour or TWO, 10
she was cold as the stones of the side
walk
The big policeman put tho stunted form
| into the matron's arms.
"Poor little lamb" she said. She wa
used to sad sights, but tears filed her eye
as she looked at the drawn, dark feature
and warped body
After thoy had laid her in the snowy be-
she opened her wandering eyes upon row
of clean cots, wherein she saw the faces o
children. She looked mt the motherly fac
bending above her, then through the win
dow at the sunshine falling upon waving
line of green.
"It was true" she said, and the worl
little face took on its last childs happi
ness. "Heaven is here among tho hills F"
Tho matron drew "a sheet over the smil
ing face and they placed a screen about tn
cot.-Ada Patterson in St. Louis Republic
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An Interesting Cinder.
In the repository Of the Royal artiller.
at Woolwich a large cinder is exhibited