Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-10-19


cruel mouth. As he stepped on to
the curb he noticed the woman stand
ing there with her basket of country
plants, looking vaguely about her,
and tanning herself wearily with the
black shawl.
He had q quick sense of the pic
turesque, this smooth -shaven old gen.
tleman, and he was one of the few
who looked second time. His eyes
softened little, too. 1t was as if a
breath of clover fields and orchards
had been waited to him by that bit of
black shawl in the cotton-gloved hand.
Some one in passing had broken off
spray from one of the plants, and it
lay willing on the hot curbstone. The
gentleman stopped, picked it up and
carried it into his Office in the great
stone building on the corner. When
he was seated at his desk it was still
in his hand. He looked at it curious
ly. It had large, oval, dull green
leaves, delicately serrated; pungent,
wholesome odor rose from it, prevail
ing over the other odors in the room
-odors Of Russia leather, of tobacco
and of the street.
The gentleman inhaled its fragrance
long and deeply.
"What is it?" he asked himself. 81
seem to remember-ah, yes! I have
it. 1t is is-rosemary! Yes. That's
what it is Rosemary"
The steely eyes soflened still more,
and fixed themselves like those of one
hypnotized. The full, proud mouth
grew tender.
"There was clump of rosemary
in mothers garden" 80 ran his
thoughts, "and near it was great
mat of cloye-pinks. They bloomed in
June. l can smell them now. There
was huge bush of southernwood
there, too, and some tawny lilies, and
spiderwort, and monk and
striped grass. Strange how the old
names come back to me! The lilac
bushes in the corner were like trees
to me III those days. l used to sit
under them and play at matching
blades of grass with sister Mary, and
wonder why her hands were so white,
and why mother never let her work
hard. l know now. She faded away
and died, and there was only me left.
l remember those Sundays in sum-
mer when was not allowed to play or
run about. How long they were and
how, hot! Like today, but with such
a difference! Mother always had
spray of rosemary and a
pink folded in her handkerchief when
We started for the meeting house, and
some caraway-seed in her pocket,
which she gave me now and then dur
ing the service when she saw 1 was
almost asleep. taste them now, and
smell the rosemary and the pinks, and
the pine odors coming in at the open
window, and the varnish on the pews,
all mingled together. And I hear the
creaking of the women's fans, and the
horses whinnying under the shed be-
hind the meeting house, and the min
ister's droning voice-how it oil comes
back to me!
"And Abby-Abby Grover = her
folks pew was across from ours, and
I used to try my best to make her
laugh in meeting, but I don't think I
ever succeeded. She was a nice girl,
Abby was. Not pretty, but with some
thing about her that was better
than beauty. And her eyes and
hair were really lovely, I remember.
abby generally wore sprig of
rosemary pinned to her dress when I
went over to see her Sunday nights in
summer. That was after we grew up.
We used to sit on the orchard wall
and talk until the whippoorwills began
crying, and Abby's mother would
come to the door and say the dew was
falling and she guessed we better
come in.
81 fancy I did most of the talking,
though, for Abby was one of your si-
lent, deep sort. 1 told her all my
plans for getting away from the farm
and making my fortune in the city.
And she would listen patiently, though
I must have been terrible bore, and
look at me with her nice, clear eyes,
and say, How ambitious you are,
joey? Joey! Fancy anyone calling
me Joey now!
"And how proud she was of me
when began to get on in the world
and she helped me, too, Abby did
She lent me her little savings from
school teaching, and later on when
the farm came to her, she raised
money on that to start me in business.
Is there anything woman will not do
for the man she loves?"
At this point the color deepened on
the old gentleman's forehead, and a
deep breath like sigh expanded his
glistening shirt front.
''Of course paid her back every
dollar with interest,"" went on his
thoughts, ''and meant to keep my
promise OF marriage, too, 1t was
Abby herself WHO broke the engage
ment, when she found out tLat loved
another girl better. 1t was the right