Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-03-06


she was a poor fool of a creature who
often brought Mr. Brown his meat not
sufficiently rare, and that, in fact, she
was generally faulty and incapable, a
poor dependent upon Mrs. Holmes
bounty.
Yet with all the weight of evidence
against her, somehow the new board
er only grew the more to pity the
harassed creature, who toiled for
thankless people day after day, and
often far into the night.
Once he discovered her Quieting
Baby Blossom in his mothers absence,
and there was a light in her eyes that
glorifed them. In one glance the big
hearted fellow seemed to see revealed
the woman Miss Anne might grow to
be, given a fair share of love and kind
ness.
1t made him want to experiment.
In the morning he walked squares
out of his way to stop at florists.
Long-stemmed roses he picked out,
and bunch of sweet violets. Then
he gave directions to the florist and
wrote carefully and at some length
on a card.
When the bell tangled that cola af-
ternoon, and Miss Anne FASTENED to
answer it, she stared in blank amaze
gnent at the name on the long, neat
looking package. She had had prec-
ious little schooling had Miss Anne,
and for a moment she doubted her
ability to read plain script.
ooh, for a box from Wade's!" cried
Miss Gladys over the bannisters.
That dear Billy has sent me some
flowers"
NO. said Anne, in a sort of daze,
holding the box as if it were some
loved, live thing. "It's for me. 1t
says: Miss Anne Minton' on it.
You're crazy!" said Gladys shortly,
and a bit angrily, too, for she never
had heard Anne SO nonsensical. And
she snatched the box from Annes fin
gers. Then she stared open-mOuthed.
Caesars ghost!" was all she said,
but she handed back the box ana made
no remonstrance when Anne ran up
the stairs to her dark back chamber,
leaving her work in the basement sus-
pended.
They were trembling fingers that
broke the strings and took off the
wrappings from the damp, cool box,
and when the last waxed papers were
folded back and Anne saw the fresh
and fragrant flowers she gathered them
up and buried her face in them with
tears that fell and sparkled, dew like,
on their cool, soft petals.
There was a sort of choking rapture
in her heart when she read on the re-
verse side of Mr.. Schwartze's card, in
a fine German hand:
The limit of life is brief,
TITS the red in the red-rose leaf;
Ills the gold in the sunset sky,
IT'S the flight of a bird on high.
Yet we may fill the space
With such an infinite grace
That the red will vein all time,
The gold through the ages shine,
And the birds fly swift and straight
To the lilies of Gods own gate.
She read it over and over, impressed
at first with only sort of reverence
for the man who had Learned off, and
written a verse like that.
Then through her mind, which I'M
kindness had made dull and unimagi-
native by long process of hardening,
there began to creep a sense of the
beauty and comfort Of the lines.
with such an infinite grace she
repeated to her self, as she stood, a
rose OIL her breast, that night, ready
to wait on the ungraoious circle about
the dining table. And when Mr..
Brown wrathfully ordered his plate
back to the kitchen, she took it with
almost a smile, feeling, somehow, that
however ugly life might be on the out
side, there still lived within, if she
were patient and good, something
sweet and fair that would take her,
like the bird in the poem, swift and
straight to the lilies of Gods own
gate"
Even Mr.. Schwartze noticed a sort Of
TRANSPORTATION of her sad, tired face,
though to him she never said word
OF acknowledgment OF thanks.
Because of her ignorance and a GER
tain sense of awe toward him, she felt
she could only thank him for a gift SO
royal by written words, slowly and
carefully wrought.
Night after night, when the lights
were dim in the boarding house, Anne
toiled over her paper and the grammar
and spelling book she had borrowed
from Willie Brown.
At last the note, written and fast
ened to Mr.. Schwartze's pin cushion,
lay waiting his astonished perusal.
He read in careful, uneven letters:
Respected Friend: These lines are
to tell you how thankful | am to you
for the beautiful roses and violets and
verse. You could not know how it felt
to me to get them, for [ couldn't help
crying, for it was the first beautiful
thing that ever happened to me in my
life that [ can remember Your re-