El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-07-31
A NAN,
A WOMAN
AND A CHILD.

A soft summer wind whispered
through the leaves of two sister naples
| that stood in the lawn at the end of Il
| lane bordered by rows of stately locust
| trees.
| The white blossoms hung heavy over
all the trees. and the fra grant perfume
| fell like incense. sweetening all the air.
With every ripple of breeze the blossoms
fell like snowfaiscs through the deep pur-
pie shadows in the arcade through which
the lane ran.
Back from the naples Il white farm
house stood, and all about lay the hush
of midmorn in the time when spring is
turning into summer.
Suspended between the murmuring
NAPLES a hammock swayed softly, and in
the hammock a young man and a child
lay sleeping. The arms of the child were
clasped around the neck of the young
man, and his wet cheek pressed the
cheek of the older sleeper. Stray wing locks
of his curly brown hair fell dampy
across his chubby face. Below the ham,
mock n tousled dog lay fiattened against
the ground, sleeping, too, after the morn
ing romp.
The child was "Bobs," who had been
christened Marshall Edward Alloway,
the son and heir of John Alloway, whose
broad acres reached down to the big
road where the lane and "Bobs' " world
ended. His slumber mate was "Bobs'
Man." more properly Henry Ayers Lyle,
Junior partner of the firm of Harvey,
Landes & Lyle, attorneys at law, who
was spending his vacation on the Allo-
way farm.
Stray blots of sunlight filtered through
the leaves and danced upon the green
lawn as the breeze swayed the branches
of the naples. Out by the barn the pi-
ha
Whoa, hawn' of the hired man blowing
in the sod field behind the orchard broke
the silence. Once wagon went by on
the big road, raising shower of dust
that fioated upon the air until the wag-
on had disappeared, rumbling across the
bridge where the road turned toward the
town.
Presently a snatch of song brokenly
accompanied by the clatter of tin, came
from the house. A flash of light from
bright buckets frightened the hall, and
tall girl came out on the porch.
AS she beheld the sleeping pair the
notes of the song dropped, and she came
rapidly forward across the grass, hum
ming still the air Of the hymn, and, bend
ing over the hammock, printed a kiss
upon the child's forehead. Then she
deity rugged a handkerchief to protect
the faces Of the sleepers from the sun
light and, smiling, stepped softly to the
tune she was humming and went down
the slope to the whitewashed spring
house by the great sycamore tree.
AS the summer aged "Bobs" and his
'Man" grew closer. At times they slept
entwined in each others arms on the
shady side of a haycock or on the great
mound of fragrant hay in the NOW,
where the pigeons cooed them to sleep.
AT night when "Bobs'' had said his
Now 1 lay me down to Sleep the man
and the girl sometimes sat together on
the porch. Sometimes they talked in
low tones while the breezes sang lula
bys in the naples and the stars hung
like golden russell apples in the blue
black summer sky. Sometimes they sat
silent as the fireflies danced in curtains
of soft light over the clover and the chirr
of the cricket and the song of the frog
came up to them.
During those evenings they came to
know each other closer, and she told
him of her life, how while she was away
at college her sister, the mother of
"Bobs," had died, and she had given over
all her hopes and ambitions to come