The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-01-30

| Rhody's thoughts, it was only that
most a pleasure in itself. And she well
coined them back joyfully, and gave
them a little tea party, to which Try
| Hodge refused TO come, and at which
| she served her ounce preserves, that
had candied, through long keeping, in
the old Lowenstahl ware that she sold
next year to a fancier for a sum suffi-
Gent to let her have that portrait
! painted-the portrait she had so long
felt the world would be poorer without.
| The artist, poor, wandering fellow
of an uncertain talent, stayed with her
/ during TIE progress of the work, and
one and another came to assist with
/ great frankness, both concerning the
/ painting and the sitter, but, on the
| whole, not with unkindness. She could
never quite understand why Try Hodge
alone looked with cruel criticism
upon that painting, making unpleasant
| remarks about the angles of the eyes,
and saying that Weather did-did, as
you may say-coarsen the color of a
mans skin To her eyes the colors
We're Will Mather's, and so were fault
less, and she had the thing sent TO
Ann at last, feeling as if she had given
her the worth of a kingdom.
And SO the years crept by Miss
Rhody. 1t did not take many to fade
her delicate tintS, to bleach her pale
hair, to leave her the wrath of herself
for thinness, to settle her in her voca-
ton as the village nurse. But she would
have tod you that she was happy.
She enjoyed her evening meeting, her
preparatory lecture, her call from the
elder, her little tea gatherings. Some
times, when she was off duty. she had
children's party in her old garden,
with real tea in as many of her egg
shell cups as remained, with tiny sand
Wlches, with honey, after which repast
there We're games and forfeits, the chill
dren adoring Miss Rhody on these oc-
casions, although when they met her in
the streets going about her business
with her basket on her arm they rec
ognized the basket with a slight sensa-
ton of awe. as the one in which she
had first brought them to their moth
erS, and were persuaded that a damp
place at the foot of the garden where
the ounce bushes grew, and that was
barred against them by a tangle of
brlerS, in some mysterious way had
to do with the filling of that basket.
But on these picknicking tea parties
Miss Rhody was as much a child her
self as any of them, except, perhaps,
little Polly Lavendar, who, after all,
was more a sprite than a child, now
whirling like a dervish. now laughing
uproariously about nothing, till she
cried, also about nothing, now mount
ing through the scuttle and walking
the ridge-pole with outstretched arms
springing from the caves into a tree
top, clutching the branches and letting |
himself down hand over foot while Miss |
Rhody shut her eyes and screamed, and |
the other children ached with desire |
to do what Polly did. And then Polly. |
at Miss Rhody's reproof, would burst |
into passionate crying and run and |
hide her face in Miss Rhody's throat |
a nd nd nd Rhndx- |
would feel her heart overflow on Polly |
and on all the rest on account of Pol /
ly'S tears and kisses. For all the chill /
dren on the shore were Miss Rhody's. 1 |
don't know what she would have done /
if there had been a Mather child, but /
for the other children there /
never was one.
dren that sometimes great spiritual re-
neWal and joy came to Miss Rhody. If
she had her superstitions, you must
pardon her; for if she thought she saw
the soul of little Mary Burns lowering
in a thin mist over the body it had
just left, you need not believe it; but it
comforted both herself and Mary's
mother. And as the breathing of old
Mr.. Brier ceased to lift his weary
breast and only moved his nerveless
lips and huttered and fluttered there till
it ceased; if Miss RhOdy saw a great
white butterfly poised in flight above
that faltering lip, so far as she was
she really did see a white
butterfly. and il meant whole gospels
to her. She had never let the children
chase the white butterflies since she
mad heard Will Mather relate some le-
gend of the east. 'They are little Chi
nese ghosts, the white butterflies" she
said to the children. "They are flying
round the world to find a way out of
t. We must not hinder Them
Miss Rhody was with Sally Lavendar
he night that little Polly died. The
child had been in a delirium, and Sally
had sat on one side of the bed holding
her, Miss Rhody on the other Hum
1hrey was pacing up and down the big
outer kitchen, like a wild animal in a
age and Polly having dropped into
| momentary sleep, Sally had just gone
@ him. 1t was just before dawn, and
| great star, like a shining tear. hung
IN the sky. Suddenly the child awoke,