Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1901-02-21
How Bess and Brandy Saved the Fruit

Q ''C -
knee. tailor fashion. "If the water
only didn't roll SO awful fast We could
most ride a canoe in it, eh, Teddy ?"
Teddy was not at all handsome,
His hair was red and his nose turned
up, and he was much freckled. But
there was a great deal of sympathy in
his greenish eyes as he looked up at
his sister.
"You do miss Canada and the lake
and boating and everything, don't ye,
Bess?" he said 81 was such little
feller when the folks came west, an |
can't remember much about it. But,
gee it must Nv been jolly fun swim
min in real big lake. An pa said
he would take US all back when the
fruit trees bore.
"Yes," said Bess, staring thought
fully at the yellow, rolling water.
But it seems an awful long time to
wait, somehow. Last year it was
frost, and year before worms, and
year before that the blight, and it
does seem as tho pa would lose most
everything he had before the ranch
paid. And to think, one good bearing
would make us rich Rich, Ted Just
think !"
Teddy crawled up to the top of the
bank cf earth and looked far down
the valley. He saw long rows of
trees, hardly twice as tall as himself,
and he was only lO-year-old boy.
But the slender little branches of the
trees were covered thicklY with little
green punches, and these punches
meant thousands Of bushels of luscious
fruit.
Bess could remember when she first
saw the trees. They were then only
long lines of little bare sticks in the
sandy and dry-looking earth, and she
could remember how her mother broke
down and cried because she was home
sick for the big shady trees and green
grass and bushes at "home."
Idaho did not seem like home. They
lived there SIX years, and the sixth
year was the bearing year" for West
ern fruit ranches. But, as Bess said,
the frost and the worms and the
blight had kept the fruit back, and
three years longer they had waited.
And the father had grown to look old
and anxious and the little mother
more and more wistful. And they
now watched the green promise of
fruit with anxious eyes. Would any
thing happen this year? Or would
the rich promise at last not disappoint
them?
The new ditch helped nightly
this wear" said Bess. "The trees
never bore SO heavily. And all the
fruit is Ierfect-the prunes and peach
es and cherries and everything. Oh,
Teddy, believe we will really see
Canada next year !"
She sprung to her feet and threw
her arms around the neck of a little
broncho that had been nosing at the
back of her head while she talked to
Teddy. She kissed the horses shag-
gy head and hugged him lovingly.
Then she put her foot in the stirrup
and swung herself lightly into the
saddle.
Home, Teddy - she cried. Catch
Soda !"
Soda, another sturdy little broneho,
capered gleefully around her mate,
Brandy, a few moments, then permit
ted Teddy to mount, and soon the
lively little hoofs were beating quick
rat-tat-tat down the alkali path to-
ward the ranch home, far down the
valley. The sun was bright and the
sky cloudless, as it had been for all
the long summer months. The clouds
would sail towards the mountain tops,
but there they would stop and dis
solve over the peaks, where the snow
cleaned white almost till fall. And
no rain fell in the valley. The aka
Ii dust lay thick in the alfalfa, the
rich grass that grew SO strangely green
out of the hard, dry earth, and the
dust lay thick in the trees and on the
prickly cacti and gray sagebrush that
grew on the lonely foothills.
Father will irrigate tomorrow, l
reckon" said Bess, as the bronchos
loped along side by side. The ground
is awfully dry and cracking badly"
81 dunno-it's gettin' perty late, "
replied Teddy. 81 heard pa talkin,
to the foreman, and they wuz sayiu'
that there wuz signs of frost: The
fruit is ripenin' bully, but there may