Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-06-10


40 miles across from rim to rim, runs
illimitably north aud south, drained
by crooked, deep-cut thread of watec
Here and there clump of trees,
yellow-grecn against the yellow gray,
may rise deprccatingly, but they are
the trees of men, mere y tolerated by
the elements. Deep, rich grass and
were long the main products of this
great wild garden of the north. Once
the grass aud flowers for hundreds OF
miles lay spread like a royal carpet ;
but now the carpet is made of hun
dreds OF miles OF wheat, fine and hard
such as no other land produces. Meh
Of the old world and the new, from the
north, the west and the east, swept
out into this garden land that lay
ready for the plow as soon as tho In
dians were driven away from it. The
creak of the wooden.whecled carts OF
the hali.breed butialo.hunters was re-
placed 10y the clnnk of the seeder and
the rattle of the reaper.
Sim Cages house, low and clinging
hard to the earth with which il com
bated, stood far out in the middle of
this broad battle-ground, across
which one might look for more than
ten miles and see the big elevators Of
the nearest town.
There were no towns at all there
- years before, when Sim Gage first
turned up the bright black loom on
his claim. Since then he had met the
billiards. and beaten them aud had en-
dured the blazing heats Of the swift
summer seasons. The snow had not
separated his grip from the land on
which he hal laid hold, and drought
had not burned out his resolution.
His hair had thinned and grown
gray, lis face became Drowned and
scanned with the weather, and perhaps
his heart hal hardened somewha
under the steady and relentless pres
sure of his lie; but never had he
sackened his hold or dreamed of Civ
ing M the fight with this iron.bound
garden OF the wheat. He had hardly
lifted up his eyes,
At first il was bacon and bread that
Sarah Gage, his wife, had cooked;
then it was beef aud bread. 1t began
10 be beef and bread and other things
of late years, when Nnmber One wheat
had brought growing cities to the edge
OF the forgotten sea. But then Sarah
Gage diel. Poor woman! she should
have been unhappy, no doubt, during
Ia Inn u IN ~ OIL
The years broke her down, and the
winds blew away her color and comel.
ness, but neither sun nor snow could
dim her love, her cheerfulness or her
faith. She loved her home, every
inch OF il, as il grew. She loved her
husband, loved her daughter All her
dreams came true.
Six days she labored, and the seventh
was the Lords day. Twelve miles or
more across the prairie each Sunday,
although the icy poudre cut or the
sun scorched or the level ground
swan with water. Sarah Gage rode or
drove to church. Farther than that
she would 60 to nurse the sick settler in
his "shack" or care for the over
worked woman who had dropped in
the harness OF the daily life.
How beautiful and noble is such
life as that of Sarah Gage! You may
have eaten bread made of the Number
One wheat she helped to raise, and
the money you paid for il may have
helped buy the hymn book that she
loved and from which they chose the
favorite hymn TO sing above her grave;
her grave in the bottom of the forgot
ten sea.
That was in the fall. when the air
was growing sharp, although still the
midday heat famed up apaca. The
clear blue of the sky was hecked and
lined with troops of white fowl. The
stubble fields were white with the
great tlocks of the snow-geese coming
down from the north. In the morning
long squads and armies of the big
brown grouse, on rocking, rapid, inter-
mittent wing, were passing down from
the barren wastes Of snow to regions
where timber and corn-lands gave
them longer lease Of life.
Only man remained behind in this
forsaken land, 10 prove to the ele-
menis that he was master there. The
grass passed into the seer and yellow
leaf and was cut down by the frost,
,and snow blew above il to render il
forgotten.
Sim Gage went back TO the house
and sat down in the black clothing
worn alike for festival or mourning.
His face was hard and emotionless, but
his blue eyes looked out with pitt
full and heseeching gaze. Emmy com
fortel him, rs is the mission OF woman
lind, though Emmy should still have
been a girl.