The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1898-05-18

an they say that when it came to nam
in the baby, although Mis- Fosdick was
dead set on calm it Charlotte PAMELA,
Sophie Ann jest stuck to it that she was
agoin' to name it Syringa May, after the
bushes that was in blossom about their
house, an call it Syringa May she did,"
When 1 decided to return to Pebbly
Center the next summer, and wrote to
Mrs. Jehoram Fennel to see if she could
board me, l was disappointed to find
that she could not. The four grand
children were now five, and the mother
of three of them was coming home to
spend the summer. After the cramped
chirography of Mrs. Fennel had ex-
planned this, she added:
1T think you could get boarded at the
Fosdick place If you want to. The baby Is
over a year old now, and they are all quite
smart there; and Mrs Fosdick said some
thing to that effect one day when she was
in here. If you would like to have me-
l will run over and see her about it,
AS a result of her intercession, L
spent my second summer in Pebbly
Center in the Fosdick home, finding it
an exceedingly pleasant place to live.
Syringa was now running all about
the place. She was very pretty, with a
delicate fairness, though she was ap-
parently perfectly strong. Her father
was a good, honest young farmer; and
if Sophie Ann, her mother, had always
been allowed to have her own way, the
result did not seem to have been unfor-
tunate. since she was as pleasant and
capable young woman as could have
been imagined.
That winter 1 went abroad and re-
manned four years. The first summer
after came back thought of my old
friends at Pebbly Center, and decided
that I would like to go among them
once more. 1 had heard nothing from
them in all this time, however; and as
I learned that Pebbly Center was now
something of a summer town, l thought
best to go, at first, directly to the hotel
which had been built there, and then,
if I wished to do so, change my stop
ping-place later.
Five years had brought many
when, after supper, walked over to the
Fosdlck farm.
I found Mrs. Fosdick Just washing
up the supper dishes in the sink in the
back kitchen. When she heard my
step on the wooden floor, she turned
around and peered at me a moment
through her glasses.
"Wall, 1 do declared" she cried. eff
it amt you. Where in the world did
you come from, an how be you? Do
come right into the house an set
down." drying her hands on her apron,
as she led the way into the sitting
room. Il don't know of anybody in
the world but what I'd sooner expected
to see than you, or that I'd ruther see,
too. Josiah'll be so glad to see you
ag'in, an surprised, too; an SOIL Sophie
Ann an Edward. You hain't seen
them, have your"
NO." 1 said; don't they live here
now?"
ooh, you don't know, do your" said
she, "bein' that you've been gone SO
long, an so far away. Mis- Jehoram
Fennel told me that you had gone to
foreign parts. Wall, we've had sore
trouble since you was here. Twas
pretty hard for US to bear it, at the
time; but we try to think that it was
all for the best. Providence a-workin'
for the good of the many through the
trouble of us few"
"Was it Syringa?" asked.
"Yes, it was Syringa. 1t happened
the next summer after you was here.
That must have been four year ago, for
Sophie Ann an Edward have been at
the home three years now. There come
the awfullest run of dipthery here that
you ever hearn of. There had been
hot spell, an then a freshet that COW
cred all the flats with water, an then
another awful hot spell. A good many
folks thought it come from that, an
a good many others said one thing,
an some another. Anyways it was the
worst time l ever see in my life, or ever
hearn tell of, sense my father used to
talk about the big erysipelas epidemic
when he was boy. Lots of folks
wouldn't leave their farms except it
was to go to the post office, or to the
store for something they'd got to have;
an even then they'd carry birthstone in
the wagon, and pot of tar to burn
| when they was goin' past house where
anyone was sick, SO as to smell the
smoke. We tried to do what we could
to help, in spite of bein' worried to
death about Syringa, only right in the
middle of it l slipped up on the back
steps, on soft soap that Josiah had
split there, and broke my right arm,
so't l want no kind of use for the next
three months.
"Wall, along in the worst of it Syrin-
ga come down with the sickness. Some
said it was the doctor brought it, COM
in to see me, an some said we hadn't
been careful enough ourselves about
goin' where there was sick; but I've al
| ways said l want goin' to look at it in