The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-19

sent me some mowers.
No said Anne, in sort of daze hold
ing the box as If 1t were some loved, live
thing. IT'S for me- 1t says Miss Anne
You're crazyr' said Gladys shortly, and
bit angrily, too for she never had heard
Anne so nonsensical. And she snatched
stared open-mouthed.
Caesars ghosty was all she said, but
she handed back the box, and made no re-
monstrance when Anne ran up the stairs
to her dark back chamber. leaving her work
in the basement suspended.
They were trembling fingers that broke
the damp, cool box, and when the last
waxed papers were folded back and Anne
gathered them up and buried her face in
them with tears that fell and sparkled.
dewlike, on their cool, sweet petals.
There was sort of choking rapture in
her heart when she read on the reverse of
Mr.. Schwartze's card, in a fine German
hand:
The limit of life is brief,
Tis the red in the red rose leaf;
It's the gold in the sunset sky,
It's the flight of a bird on high.
Yet we may fill the space
With such an infinite grace
That the red will vein all time,
The gold through the ages shine
And the birds fly swift and straight
To the lilies of Gods own gate.
She read it over and over, impressed at
first only with a sort of reverence for the
man who had learned off" and written
verse like that.
Then through her mind which unkindness
had made dull and unimaginative by long
process of hardening, there began to creep
a sense of the beauty and comfort of the
lines.
With such an infinite grace" she re-
peated to herself as she Stood a rose on
her breast, that night, ready to wait on
the ungracious circle about the dining table.
And when Mr.. Brown wrathfully ordered
his plate back to the kichen she took it
with almost smile, feeling, somehow. that
IA fhn Ifoid
there still lived within, if she were patient
ana good, something sweet and fair that
would take her, like the bird in the poem,
swift and straight to the lilies of Gods
own gate"
Even Mr.. schwartze noticed sort of
TRANSPORTATION of her sad, tired face,
though to him she never said a word of
acknowledgment or thanks.
Because of her ignorance and a certain
could only thank him for a gift so royal
by written words, slowly and carefully
wrought
Night after night, when the lights were
dim in the boarding house. Anne toiled over
her paper, and the grammar and spelling
book she had borrowed from Willie Brown
AT last the note, written and fastened to
Mr. Schwartz's pin cushion, lay waiting mis-
astonished perusal.
He read in careful, uneven letters:
Respected Frined: These lines are to
tell you how thankful am to you for the
beautiful roses and violets and Verse. You
could not know how it felt to me to get
them, for couldn't help crying, for it was
the first beautiful thing that ever happened
to me in my life that | can remember. Your
respected friend. A. MINTON."
1t was a week after that time that Willie
Brown stood on a dark landing of the stairs
waiting to make Miss Anne Jump like a
scared cat as he came toiling UP the stairs
with an armful of wood for Miss Simpkins's
open fire.
And Jump she did, in a way that sent
Master Willie off in a roar of laughter. IS
suddenly checked when he realized that
Miss Anne, having missed her footing and
Col Twin "a nd
blue about the lips, with the heavy Chunks
of wood upon her.
One great stick, humping and humping
down the stairs had brought impatient in
quirerS to their various doors, but 1t was
Mr. Schwartze who first reached the pros
trate woman lying on the landing below.
She tried to rise with his help, but could
not And then Miss Anne dared usurp
privilege belonging solely to Aunt Holmes.
the pronounced invalid she TAINTED oei'o
away. -, NJ.
Schwartze briefly. Lead the way 70 her
room, mees" and he turned authoritatively
to Gladys, who meel1ly sped upstairs and
along the hall to the narrow room
ber be U ~ said the big German, but in his
brief glance at the clean, bare room he nag I3ii
seen his dropping roses and V1oletS sun
tenderly cared for, though w1thered and
There was something very like a mist in
the honest eyes of Herr Schwartze as he
ran with all speed for the doctor Few
doors away.
Aunt Holmes irately jerked her Imposing
person from the luXuries of the slckrooni,
and tried in a measure to do Anne WORK
in the weeks that followed. Unable 10 ac-
cumplish this, even with Gladys protesting
aid. she advertised at last Tor servant,
and then for two, both of whom worked IN
dustriously filing the unpaid dependent 3
place.
quiet and alone in her cold little room. Yet
She was neither cold nor lonely. for down in
her heart burned new gladness hardly de-
fined or recognized yet filing her sontn nae.
with music, and all the space about her
with warmth and comfort.
There were fresh carnations by her bed
side always now and u meeFa eRin9 in
ouiries and good wisheS--all written in
slanting German hand.
When she could sit up she borrowed
warm wrap of Gladys and spent her time
peacefully darning and mending for the cou-
sin and aunt below; When Aunt Holmes
aged against the time it took to mend
broken ankles Anne only said, with a
strange CLEAN of gladness: THE doctor
says / can hobble downstairs in week or
And although that meant taking up the
old life speedily. the life of abuse and hard
shin there was one thought that overbal-
anced all else-the thou"ht that down in
the common ground of the sitting room she
might see the honest, friendly face that for
her held all the light in the big, gray world
II was dusk of chilly evening, and the
bOarders had not yet gathered about the
friendly fire downstairs, when Mrs
you're ever going to come down. Anne Min
ton you'd as well come now. Guess you're
as able to slave as we are. and the sittin
room lamns want lightin'."
Herr Schwartze, coming in with snow
fakes on his great coat halted at the newell
post turned. and then stepped quietly into
the fire-lighted room.
When his listening ear caught the first
sound of the slow limp at the head of the
stairs he was up the flight in three leaps
helping the slender figure down.
s'Wilkommen! WilkommenH' he said in
the hall. taking both her hands in his hear
ty grasp
"What does this mean?" Miss Anne
asked her face lighting up gladly.
THAT is welcomes" exclaimed Herr
Schwartze "Wilkommenl That is the Ger
mans welcome to his goot frfent-his
American frient."
How good you are!' said Anne. and all
the story of her gra tefulness. her new zest
in life seemed to breathe in the words.
IL never was happy before, l never had
a friend. / didn't know what Ii was to-
And then she stopped. confused, and quick
tears welfFd to her eyes
Wntt hot hoo hot hAN nal fha rTvNfa