Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-06-10
"Maybe so, pa"
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have dreams-I JUS slept. But last
night | had dream. | dreamt saw
that there sultaness woman all dressed
in silks and diamonds, aud that there
woman said To me, so plain heard il
fair, Not the marble and the precious
stones. but the flowers that perish,
these are most fit for human monu-
ment.' Emmy, / heard it plainr
Emmy was confused, and both sat
silent for a time. The old man was
first to speak again.
Emmy" said he, 'your ma must
have "a Tai Mahal! l 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 we'll and get water over
to where your ma is; and well make
Il wall of these here niggerhead bould.
ers, and well 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 here to live We used to
drive over 40 miles TO Plum Creek to
get mess of wild plums. and some
years that'd be about all the fruit we
did get, too. Last year, when we be-
gun To strike these artcsiaus, / told
your ma that before long we could
begin To raise fruit for ourselves IA
soon as we got the hang Of it, aud
nothing we ever did ever pleased hor
so much az that. And now she's Como.
But do you know what I'm going to
do? I'm goin' to keep rosebush Mt
each corner every summer, aud I'm
goin' to plant strawberries inside the
wall, and I'm goin' to have 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 aud weary wild ducks paused in
their cont mental fight. The snow
quite disappeared, and fringe OF
green appeared along the ditch banks
The boom Of the dancing grouse
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 Il 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 30 dearly and who had
stood by him so steadfastly in the fight
which hld won their home. Sim
Gage haulcd 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 ms his waist aud
laid of the heavy iron-like boulders,
which neither frost nor sun nor rain nor
snow could iniure.
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
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.
II was now late in May Midsum.
mer came, aud the green of the land
became yellow, pale and perishing.
The rains forsook the region, and bit
ter drought claimed it for its own,
even as the winter had done, but upon
the Hat and burning face Of tho
parched valley.land shone always a
thread Of green, and upon this thread
hung n jewel of. emerald, the miracle
of the withereI plains, all the flowers
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.