The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1900-03-31

e IN. MN blowing down the
SS vow IA walk.
W IN IN "Here they are
Lyh5)W again, Samuel"
WIZ ( sho cried every
W// spring. and thu
hard-faced old gardener would go on
with his hoeing and reply: "Py'ren-
malls, Miss Sweeta,-when they come
they stay"
There was vague spot somewhere
in her memory of day when it first
occurred to her that she, too, was
something of a "py'rennial:" 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 shout
ders taller than the tallest white
Easter lily that she inquired further.
"What is PERENNIAL, Samuelp What
makes it py'rennial?"
ga py'rsnnial," said Samuel, con-
vinciugly, ''has characte: enough to
go right along and keep going right
ahead; it's got no call to be sown, or
transplanted, nor slipped-it blooms
till it dies, and next year it gets up
and blooms again."
The Admiral's garden. all rose petals
and butterfly wings, was glowing
background for the girl-fower breath
ing her youth-fragrance out with
theirs on the summer air. Beyond
lay some terraces, shaded by lofty
Gins, and a wide-built house, well
back from the road and three or four
miles from the "shire" town OF the
rather lonely county.
One stormy day when the Admiral
was smoking his pipe and raising his
eyebrows occasionally at the fire--as
il exchanging amusing memories
Sereta followed his glance until it
rested upon q photograph that always
stood in the same place on the high
colonial mantel-an ocean liner, nose
down, under full speed = and che
spoke before her natural shyness
checked her impulse. 1T must be
like q bird to cross the sea like that
like bird crossing the open sky
on o bright August day!" The Ad'
miral smiled down at her, but his face
had saddened as he touched the shore
of reality after his voyage on that sea
OF fancy where each must sail alone.
"It is better to sit in a big chair and
think about it, little FRIEND" he re-
plied. "These birds find darker skies
than your meadow larks, and ruiz
heavier risks" Then the look o
WEAKNESS came back that Seret'
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
lions that ignorance naturally crave
OF maturity; she learned by intuition
that questions are cruel; besides sh
was afraid of bringing the look tina
meant something she could not un
derstand - something to be KEEP
asleep II possible.
But sometimes after her lesson
were done-or when his after Dime
coffee had warmed his memories
the Admiral would talk to her unin
terruptedly for hours about that grea
unknown place he called life, unit
little thrills and shivers OF excitemen
crept over her and she could not slee
all night for remembrance and cor
lecture.
When Sereta was seventeen, an cd
little rose jar OF humanity-all silence
and dusky perfume, her world suddel
~ underwent crisis. There came
guest to the hall.
This revolutionary visitor was
man without wife, and therefor
presumably harmless and inoffensiv'
Sereta liked him almost as well {
Samuel after a morning spent togetl
or while the Admiral was busy on
depending on her to do the honors IL
his guest. They were out-of-doori
which makes all things possible
begin with, and the man on her hant
was old enough to appreciate n
charm and lure her simplicity by b
varied knowledge Of complexer W
manhood. So she chatted and e
plained oil down the garden, throu!
the py'rennials; laughed with hi
over the clumsy colts in the paddoc
allowed him the view from the pa
ture hill, brought him home by =
woods and was singing to him in I