Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-06-10
"Maybe so, pa" =.
"Emmy, I'm gettin' kind Of old and

have dreams-I JUS slept. But last
night L had dream. l dreamt saw
that there sultaness woman all dressed
in silks and diamonds, and that there
woman said to me, so plain heard it
fair, Not the marble and the precious
stones. but the flowers that perish,
these are most fit for human monu-
ment.' Emmy, I heard it plant"
Emmy was confused, and both sat
silent for time. The old man was
first to speak again.
EMMY" said he, ''your ma must
have Tai Mahall / loved her, and
she loved me, and she earned it,
dearie knows. We can't make it OF
diamonds, and we Amt got marble
nor any fancy stones, but we can build
Tai Mahal. Wen dig side-ditch
from the big well and get water over
to where your ma is; and we'll make
wall of these here niggerhead bould-
ers, and wen plant rosebushes at each
corner, and-Emmy, do you know what
I'm goin' to do?"
"Yes?"
"Well, now, do you know, your ma,
/ may say, never did have all the fresh
fruit she wanted to eat, never after
she come up hereto live. We used to
drive over 40 miles to Plum Creek to
get mess of wild plums, and some
years that'd be about oil the fruit we
did get, too. Last year, when we be-
gun to strike these artesians, told
your ma that before long we could
begin 10 raise fruit for ourselves as
soon as we got the hang of it, and
nothing we ever did ever pleased hor
SO much as that. And now she's Como.
But do you know what I'm going to
do? Pm goin' to keep rosebush at
each corner every summer, aud I'm
goin' to plant strawberries inside tho
wall, and I'm goin' to have o row of
blackberry bushes outside. Your ma
would like them things. 1t amt
much, but it amt easy. And this is
goin' to be your mas Tai Mahal"
'The blue and white panorama Of
the icy winter swept on in its icy same
ness, till at last spring drew on again.
The snow here and there let through
the color of the earth. The wild
geese came streaming up from the
south, and in each open water.hole the
lean and weary wild ducks paused in
their cont mental fight. The snow
quite disappeared, and q fringe Of
green appeared along the ditch banks.
r IN
echoed far on the air in the mornings,
and over the burned prairies stalked
the bent-billed yellow curlews. In
the air sounded mysteriously sweet
the mellow note of the plover, an
swered below by the twitterings of
the larks. The gurgle Of water came,
and the wind blew softer, and the
green grew higher in the land.
Sim Gage was bowed and aged
man when he went his way into the
fields this spring, but he made no
complaint, and no one heard him
openly bemoan the loss of the wife he
had loved 80 dearly and who had
stood by him so steadfastly in the fight
which had won their home. Sim
Gage hauled boulders from the fields
to the spot where Sarah Gage lay
sleeping with no monument to mark
her resting place, and here he built
with his own hands the four rude but
enduring walls, high as his waist and
laid of the heavy iron-like boulders,
which neither frost nor sun norrain nor
snow could injure.
With care and pain he did the work,
taking many days for it. Then, getting
out his team and pillow, he led from
the great pool at the artesian well a
little, slow stream of water to the
spot where he required it. When all
this was done he told Emmy that tho
time had come for her to aid him, aud
Emmy went out with the cuttings of
the rosebushes which she had OBJ
tanned, and these they planted with
care about the walls of Sim Cages Tai
Mahal.
1t was now late in May. Midsum.
mer came, and the green of the land
became yellow, pale and perishing.
L lie rains 1OIsOOh VIC icRioH, uhu pie-
ter drought claimed it for its own.
even rs the winter had done, but upon
the fiat and burning face Of tho
parched valley-land shone always a
thread Of green, and upon this thread
hung a jewel of. emerald, the miracle
of the witherel plains, all the lowers
OF which were gone
And although winter came again
and drenching spring and burning
summer, such was the care of these
two souls who framed this wonder
that the green here remained imper-
ishable aud soon was added to by
many flowers, aud fruit hing over the
wall and fell ungathered upon the
mound within.
emmy, girl, said Sim Gage one