The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1898-05-12

arm heavily and she uttered sharp cry
of pain. The Tree had proved false to
her-poor Miss Lyddy!
80 Miss I.yddy, it's hurt your Neil
cried, in keen distress. ''Oh, why didn't
you go in as | wanted you to? Where did
it hit you?''
Miss Lydia drew herself up stanchly.
Her face was white.
''It's nothing, Neil Prentiss. Did you
think the Tree " was goin' to half kill me?
You amt been acquainted with it fifty
yearsr'
She was faithful to the Tree.
''But it struck you, Miss Lyddy-I saw
it, insisted the boy, anxiously. "And
you cried out"
"You're thinkin of the Tree, Neil
Prentiss. | guess you'd cry out if you
was chopped DOWN. But her voice was
tremulous and the color was fading out of
her lips. She turned toward the house.
'I-guess Tll 90 n," she said, quietly.
You come and saw it up and L Ii pay you
them
But Neil fingered anxiously.
"You sure you amt hurt, sMiss Lyd-
dy! | saw it strike"-
Neil Prentiss, you go home and rest
yourself. guess you're tired
'Well, good night, Miss Lyddy."
She was going in at the low, brown
door.
"Good- night, Miss Lyddy," raising his
voice, for she had not answered.
"Good night, Neil Prentiss,'' came
back Lydia Hits firm voice to him.
Then she sank in a little limp heap on the
floor. 1t was quite dark when she opened
her eyes again.
81 guess it ain t broken" she murmur-
ed. sit don't creak, an l can move it
some, but it S gon' to lay me up
That was the worst of it-worse than
the steady, cruel pain. 1t would lay her
up. She couldn't plant the little row of
naples on Arbor Day,
''And | don't know when / can, she
mourned. Il don't know when l can!
It's gon' to lay me up So"
All night she lay awake in great pain,
but tie disappointment was bitterer than
pain. That little row of trees-how she
had been counting on it! How hard it was
going to be to give it up
Neil Prentiss lay awake, too, as long as
healthy boy could. He was troubled
about Miss Lyddy. Her plain, old fash
toned face looked out of the darkness at
him, and it looked so white!
"Im afraid it hurt her, he worried
Then he fell to thinking of the row of
stakes with the white strings on them.
They looked at him, too, out of the dark
''The idea of Miss Lyddy's planting
trees" he thought. ''It's too ridiculous
and digging the holes,"
When he went to sleep he dreamed that
be saw Miss Lyddy trying to dig big
hole to put the Tree back into. She had
her arm in a sling and was working with
her left hand, slowly, toilsomely 81 CAM
l,,l, -, Il.
saying, $50 Pm goin' to put up the Tree
''You can't make it grow, Miss Lyddy,"
he said. cts deader' door, Neil
Prentiss, you go home an rest yourselfr'
Miss Lyddy said-and then he woke up!
1t was broad daylight and the birds were
chattering outside his open window. 1t
was Arbor Day. They were going to have
a regular built jolly time at the school
house.
But Neil Prentiss got up slowly, as if
something serious was on his mind. He
was weighing Miss Lyddy-funny, quaint
Miss Lyddy-and the good time at the
school house, in the balance. Miss Lyddy
weighed more. When he went down to
breakfast his Arbor Day program was dis
tinctly mapped ont. 1t had the hay rick
in it, and little, 1.-THE, straight maple trees
"A row of them, twenty feet apart
lie went to the woods with the rest, but
he carried his trees to Miss Lyddy's in
stead of to the school house. The streat'
the girls prepared wasn't down on his
program.
1t takes a good deal of time and Of
! muscle to dig six deep holes, and it is a
little hard on the muscles. Then it re-
quires wits and more strength to set up
six little maple trees in a row. If you do
it all alone, You are liable to get little
lonesome.
Neil Prentiss worked bliskly at first.
then a little slower, but he whistled all
tue time. Toward the end the tune sound
ed slow and little like the Dead March
in SAUL but it didn't stop anyway One
little tree after another nodded at him en-
couIagingly as it got on it's feet. When
there were six trees noddng, Neil went
home to tea.
Miss Lyddy did not get up until mid
afternoon on Arbor Day. Her arm was
very painful, indeed, and she felt weak
and forlorn. What was the use of trying
to get up when she couldn' plant her row
of little trees? She had been awake near
ly ali night, and SO slept a good deal in
spite of her arm. At three o. clock she
dragged herself up and dressed painfully.
But she refused to look out of the window
at the fallen Tree and the line of white
decked little stakes. She pulled down the
curtains with her eyes shut.
Il amt goin' to look" she murmured,
mot today. It's Arbor Day, and l amt
goin' to look at anything but trees-liye
ones.'
But in the early twilight her resolution
weakened. and she went out into the tiny
front yard to look at the dead Tree. 1t lay
prone on the ground as it had fallen-ap-
peaing dumbly for her pity She went
up to it and touched its big trunk gently.
'You struck me, but l didn't lay it
up" she murmured; 81 didn't lay it up
And then through the din moist air she
caught glimpse of row of little maple
trees! She cried out in astonishment-
she could not believe it till she went up to
them and touched them, one by one She
hardly believed it then.
''One, two, three, four, five-dear land
O. mercy; there Skip she cried
And if Neil Prentiss could have seen
the joy in her pale homely face, how it
would have comforted his aching muscles
Kent Hill, Me.
MONROE. Mrs. Washington Patterson,
who was reported sick last week, remains
A.