The suburban citizen., 1900-01-20

nm spring, and til G
,hard-faced old gardener would go on
with his hoeing and reply: "Py'ren-
mails, Miss Sweeta.-when they come
they stay"
There was a vague spot somewhere
in her memory of day when il first
occurred to her that she, too, was
something Of ''py yrennial," " She
knew no more than these golden play
fellows how she came into the Ad-
miral's garden, and. like them, spring
after spring found her sunny head
among the returning flowers. But it
was not until she was head and shoul-
vders taller than the tarest white
Easter lily that she inquired further.
-"What isa py'rennial, Samuel? What
makes it py'renuial?"
ga py'fennial," said Samuel, con-
,vipciugly, "has characte: enough to
90 right along aud keep going right
ahead; it's got no call to be sown, or
transplanted, nor slipped--it blooms
till it dies, and next year II gets up
and blooms again.
The Admirals garden, all rOso petals
and butterfly wings, was u glowing
background for the grI-dower breath.
ing her youth fragrance out with
theirs on the summer mir. Beyond
lay some terraces, shaded by lofty
relms, and wide-built house, well
back from the road and three or four
miles from the "shire" town of the
lrather lonely county.
One stormy day when the Admiral
was smoking his pipe and raising his
eyebrows occasionally at the fire--as
ii exchanging amusing memories
Sereta followed his glance until it
lrested upon photograph that always
stood in the same place on the high
colonial mantel-an ocean liner, nose
down, under full speed - and she
spoke before her natural shyness
checked her impulse. 1T must be
like bird TO cross the sea like that
like bird crossing the open sky
-on bright August day" The Ad-
miral smiled down at her, but his face
had saddened as he touched the shore
vof reality after his voyage on that sea
of fancy where each must sail alone.
cit is better to sit in big chair aud
think about il, little friend, he re-
piled. '"These birds find darker skies
than your meadow larks, aud run
heavier risks" Then the look of
weariness came back that Sereta
dreaded, because she did not under
stand it, or how to drive it away.
After that day she never prompted
his conversation or asked the thou
sand and one eager irrelevant ques-
tions that ignorance naturally Graves
sot maturity; she learned by intuition
that questions are cruel besides she
was afraid of bringing the look that
meant something she could not un-
derstand - something to be kept
asleep if possible.
But sometimes after her lessons
were done--or when his after dinner
coffee had warmed his memories,
the Admiral would talk to her unin-
terruptedly for hours about that great
unknown place he called life, until
tlittle thrills aud shivers of excitement
Grept over her and she could not sleep
all night for remembrance aud con
lecture.
When Sereta was seventeen, an odd
aittle rose jar Of humanity-all silences
and dusky perfume, her world sudden
ly underwent a crisis. There came n
guest to the hall.
This revolutionary visitor was
man without wife, and therefore
presumably harmless and inoffensiye;
Sereta liked him almost as we'll as
Samuel after a morning spent togeth-
-er while the Admiral was busy and
depending on her to do the honors for
his guest. They were out-of-doors,
which makes all things possible TO
begin with, and the man on her hands
was old enough to appreciate her
charm and lure her simplicity by his
varied knowledge Of complexer wo-
manhood. SO she chatted and ex-
planned oil down the garden. through
the py'renniols; laughed with him
over the clumsy colts in the paddock,
showed him the view from the pas
-ture hill, brought him home by the
woods and was singing to him in the