The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1899-08-30

VIC NNAhah othhbbhs tHtit Win hci
basket of country plants, looking vague
ly about her, and tanning herself wea-
rily with black shawl
He had quick sense Of the pictHr-
esque, this smooth shaven old gentle
man, and he was one of the few who
looked a second time. His eyes soft
ened little, too. 1t was as if breath
of clover fields and orchards had been
waited to him by that bit of black shawl
in the eOtton-gloved hand.
Some one in passing had broken off
a spray from one of the plants, and it
lay willing on the hot eurbstone. The
gentleman stopped, picked it up, and
carried il 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 il curiously.
II had large, oval, dull-green leaves,
delicately serrated; a pungent, whole
some OdOr rose from it, prevailing over
the other odors of the room-odors of
Russia leather, of tobacco, and of the
street.
The gentleman inhaled its fragrance
long and deeply.
''What is il? >" he asked himself. 'I
seem to remember-ah, yes! / have it.
Ii is-rosemary! Yes. That's what it
is. RO- emaryr'
The steely eyes softened still more,
and fixed themselves like those of one
hypnOtized. The full, proud mouth
grew tender.
'"fhere was a elump Of rosemary in
mothers garden, so ran his thoughts,
siand near it was great mat of Glove
pinks. They bloomed in June. / can
smell them now. There was huge
bush of southernwood there, too, and
some tawny lilies, and spiderwort, and
monk's-h hood and striped grass. Strange
how the old names come back to me!
The lilac bushes in the corner were like
| trees to me in those days. / 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.
/ remember those Sundays in summer,
when | was not allowed to play or run
about How long they were, and how
hot! Like to-day, but with such diff
ference! Mother always had a spray
of rosemary and a pink folded in her
handkerchief when we started for the
Westinghouse, and some earaway seed
in her pocket, which she gave me now
and then during the service when she
saw was almost asleep. / taste them
now, and smell the rosemary aud the
pinks, and the pine odors coming in st
the open window, and the varnish on
the pews all mingled together. And l
hear the ereaking of the women's fans,
and the horses whinnying under the
shed behind the meeting-house, and
the minister's droning voice-now it all
comes back to met
"And Abby Abby Grover - her
folks pew was across from ours, and /
used to try my best to make her laugh
in meeting, but | don't think / ever
succeeded. She was nice girl, Abby
was. Not pretty, but with something
about her that was better than beauty.
Aud her ayes and hair were really love
ly, remember.
ABBY generally wore a sprig of rose
mary pinned to her dress when 1 went
over to see her Sunday nights in sum-
mer. That was after we grew up. We
used to sit on the orchard wall and talk
until the wbippOorwills 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 did most of the talking,
though, for Abby was one of your ST.
lent, deep sort. told her all my plans
for getting away from the farm and
making my fortune in the city. And
she would listen patiently, though l
must have been terrible bole, and
look at me with her nice clear eyes and
say: How ambitious you are, Joeyp
Joey! Fancy any one 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-teach-
ing, and, later on, when the farm came
to her, she raised money on that to start
me in business. Is there anything a
woman will not do for the man she
loves ."
At this point the color deepened on
the old gentleman's forehead, and
deep breath like sigh expanded his
glistening shirt-front.
"0f course, | paid her back, every
dollar, with interest," went on his
thoughts, "and / meant to keep my
promise of marriage, too. II was Abby
herself who broke the engagement
when she found out that loved anoth-
er girl better. 1t was the right thing.
She did not seem to take it much to
heart, either; but she never married.
At least / never heard that she did.
1t is . years or more since / saw the
old place. There was nothing to draw
me there after the old folks died. /
wonder-I wonder what became of Alb
by Dead, probably. She would be an
old woman if she were living-not so
very old either. She was two years
younger than /, and am not yet turn
ed 65-n
A clerk came in and laid telegram
on the desk. The old man took it.
The steely look came back to his eyes.
The old woman in the black shawl
was still standing on the street corner.
She looked tired and anxious, and the
plants in the basket had wilted sadly.
( The cars looked more alike than ever,
and she did not dare to stop one. A
policeman on the corner had seowled
at her unpleasantly two or three times,
and Aunt Abby felt almost ready to
drop, what with the heat and the fa-
tigue and the dread that the policeman
might speak to her, and she be hope
lessly disgraced thereby.
Suddenly her face broke into de-