Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-01-06

embowered cottage not far from the
church. The cottage, with its atten.
dant garden, was a dainty, pretty
spot, which looked as though 9
woman's hand had planned and cared
for it. But no woman had anything
to do with the rectory. The Rev.
Mr.. Smiles only servant was dod
dering old man; the rector prepared
his own meals, except when he was
invited to tea by some old lady who
pitied his lonely, Indigestion breeding
existence.
Not that the Rev. Mr.. Smiles was q
woman hater, but Mr.. Smiles was
very high church indeed. Unfortu-
nately, st. James and the parish and
the people were very poor. The good
people liked the Rev. Mr.. Smiles and
tried to follow his suggestions upon
high church usages. But there are
people, you know, whom you couldn' t
make high church with a jackscrew.
The communicates of st. James were
mostly farmers and small tradesmen.
The rector felt that the clergy,to be
able to give their whole time and
thought to their work, should live
lives of celibacy. He had felt at times
a strong drawing toward some ecclesi-
astical order in which such VOWS would
be necessary. Then he would wear
some outward sign of his vows, and
the young women of his parish would
not fall in love with him. The rector
was young and good looking; he had
been in his present pastorate six
months, and he had already had an
experience.
The young rector lived with his
books, occasionally taking a little rec
reation in the garden. The roses dis
appeared, the leaves fell and left the
clinging vines bare, and the snow COW
cred the prim little beds in the rectory
garden. Thus year of his pastorate
closed, and the spring drew near.
The Rev. Wetherby Smiles, from
his study window, could look across
his garden plot and see the brown
earth warming in the spring sunshine
and the trees and bushes slowly burst
ing into leaf. Nature is always most
attractive in the spring, and nature in
thousand ways, with bud and leaf
and warming earth and whitehecked
sky and sweet air, wooed him from
his books.
He looked across his garden, say.
And across the garden, beyond the
low hedge, was another garden, which
in summer was full of color. He had
noticed the brilliant-hued beds the
year before, but now the only bit of
color was u pale-blue morning robe
that fitted about the inclosure.
To tell the truth, the rector had
seldom noticed that morning gown or
the little woman inside it before. But
it pleased his fancy now to look across
the hedge and watch his neighbor.
He recalled that his old major domo
had told him the cottage next the par
sonage was occupied by a widowed
lady-a lonely creature who had taken
up her abode there but shortly before
the Rev. Mr.. Smiles was settled over
st. James. He remembered the little
figure in black in one of the side pews,
pointed out to him by the clerk as
''Mrs. Scorritch," and probably had
not given her thought or glance
afterward.
However, he saw so much of the
pale-blue gown that first warm week
in spring that he looked for the little
widow in her pew the next Sabbath.
She had laid aside her weeds and was
dressed in some soft, clinging, fawn-
colored material that made her look
like very demure little moth. And
che I, al +ho SwaataCt fooa -, tho would
as least, the sweetest face in the
Rev. Wetherby Smiles world.
On Monday morning the clerical
black appeared in the rectory garden
almost as soon as the pretty morning
robe appeared over the hedge. The
demure little face dimpled and smiled
under its garden hat at the rector's
approach, and the widow nodded
brightly.
s'You are early at your gardening
this spring, Mrs. Scorritch," he said.
eyes; but it is so warm" she re-
piled, in defense. "I am expecting
my crocuses to appear any day now. :"
'sI'm afraid we shall see some frost
yet, Mrs. Scorritch, said the rector.
''Now, don't talk that way, beg!"
sried the little woman, clasping her
hands, inclosed in long wristed and
particularly well-ftting gauntlets.
Just suppose my crocuses should
come up and be frost-bitten! Oh, the
thought is too awful
81 sincerely hope you will not be
disappointed, but this climate is un-
certain.
After that the young rector often
found it quite necessary for his
health to work in his garden while the
blue gown (fitting like butterfly from
rose tree to vine and from vine to
hedgerow) was in evidence in the
neighboring yard. Really, after por-
ing over musty theological tones all
winter man must get some freshness
IN his soul and new blood in his
neart.
The gardening went on apace, and the
| sreacherOus warm weather continued.