Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-03-09

liz ItnOuSIIduCe "ueu aAu0 idu 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 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,
'Tis the red in the red-rOse leaf;
lis the gold in the sunset sky,
IT'S the flight of 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 a long process of hardening,
there began to creep a sense of the
beauty and comfort - he lines.
with such an Infinite grace" she
repeated to her self, as she stood, a
rose on her breast, that night, ready
to wait on the ungracious circle about
the dining table. And when Mr..
Brown wrathfully ordered his plate
back to the kitchen, she took it with
almost smile, feeling, somehow, that
however ugly life might be on the out
side, there still lived within, if she
were patient and good, a 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.. Schwartz noticed a sort of
TRANSPORTATION Of her sad, tired face,
though to him she never said a 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 gift so
royal by written words, slowly and
carefully wrought.
Night after night, when the lights
were dim in the clearinghouse, 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 l couldn't help
crying, for it was the first beautiful
thing that ever happened to me in my
life that I can remember. Your re-
spected friend. A Minton.
1t was a week after that time that
Willie Brown stood on dark landing
Of the stairs waiting to make Miss
Anne Jump like a scared cat as she
came toiling UP the stairs with an
armful of wood for Miss Simpkins
open fire.
And jump she did, in way that sent
Master Willie off in a roar of laugh
ter, as suddenly checked when he real
lied that Miss Anne, having missed
her footing and fallen, was lying quite
motion1ess and very blue about the
lips, with the heavy chunks of wood
upon her.
One great stick, humping and
bumbing down the stairs, had brought
impatient inquirers to their various
doors, but it was Mr.. Schwartze who
first reached the PROSTATE woman ly-
ing on the landing below.
She tried to rise with his help, but
could not, and then Miss Anne
dared usurp privilege belonging
solely to Aunt Holmes, the pronounced
invalid. She tainted dead away.
It's sprain or break" said MI.
Schwartze briefly. Lead the way TO
her room, mees,' and he turned au-
thoratively to Gladys, who meekly
sped upstairs and along the hall 10
the narrow room.
Il go for the doctor while you stay
with her here" said the big German;
but III his brief glance at the clean,
bare room he had seen his dropping
roses and yioIets still tenderly cared
for, though withered and brown.
There was something very like a
mist in the honest eyes of Herr
SchwaTtze as he ran with all his speed
for the doctor a few doors away.
Aunt Holmes irately jerked her i'm
posing person from the luXuries of the
sick room and tried in a measure to do
Annes work in the weeks that fol-
lowed. Unable to accomplish this,
even with Gladys protesting aid, she
advertised at last for a servant, and
+ then for two, both Of whom worked
industriously filling the unpaid de
pendent's' place.
In the meantime Miss Anne herself
lay quiet and alone in her cold little
room Yet she was neither cold nor
lonely, for down in her heart burned
a new gladness, hardly defined or rec
ognized, yet filling her solitude with
music, and all the space about her
with warmth and comfort.
| There were fresh carnations by her
| bedside always now, and under her
| pillow a precious store of little mes