The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-04-10
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l DALSAA PILLOW /
Story oS the First OF &
It's Kind.

BY SUSAN COOLIDGE.

shop DOaStS l1S TOW. OIL fragrant
cushions, with their ipeyitablemotto,
"Givc Nc Of Thy Balm, o Fir Trec," !"
I am reminded Of the first pillow of
the sort l ever Saw and Of what it
meant to the girl who made it. 1
should like to tell you the little
story, simple as it is. It belongs to
the time, eight or nine years since,
before pine pillows became popular.
Perhaps Chateaubriand Dorset may
&c said, for once in her life, to have
set fashion.
Yes, that was really her name! !!
Her mother met with j. in n news
napcr and. without the least ;doa
as to whether I appertained to man
or woman, adopted it for her baby.
The many syllables fascinated her,
I suppose, and there was, besides,
that odd Joy in a piece of extraya-
gancc that costs nothing which ap-
pcals to the thrifty New England
nature and is one of its wholesome
outlets and hldulgences.
So the Methodist elder baptized
tlic child Chatesubriand Ara1nin-
tha, making very queer work of the
unfamiliar accents, and then, SO
far as practical purposes are con-
ccrncd, the name ceased to be. How
can busy household, with milk to
set and milk to skim and pans to
scald and butter to make and pigs
to feed find time for name like
that? FsBaby" the little girl was
called till she was well settled on
her feet and in the use of her little
tongue. Then she became "Brie,"
and Brie Dorset she remained to
The end. Few people rccollectcd
that she possessed any other name
unless the marriage, birth and death
pages of the family Bible happened
to be under discussion.
The Dorsets' was one of those
picturesque, lonely, outlying farms
past which people drive in the sum-
mcr saying: Glow retired! How
peaceful" but past which almost
no one drives in winter. 1t stood,
with its environment of red barns
and apple orchards, at the foot of
a low granite cliff whose top was
crowned with fir wood and two
enormous elm trees met over it's
roof and made q checker work of
light and shade on its closely blind
ell front. M
No sign of life appeared to the
city people who drew their horses
in to admire the situation except
perhaps hen scratching in the veg
etablc beds or lazy cat basking on
the doorstep, and they would drive
on unconscious that behind the
Stats of the green blinds above
pair Of eyes watched them go and d
hungry young heart contrasted their
lot with its own.
Hungry! There never was any
thing like the starvation which goes
on sometimes in those shut up farm
houses. Boys and girls feel it alike,
but the boys are less to be pitied,
for they can usually devise means
oget away.
How could Brie get away? She
was the only child. Her parents
had not married young. When she
was 10, they seemed almost elderly
people, SO badly does life on q bleak
New England farm deal with human
beings. Her mother, frail little
woman, grew year by year less fit
for hard labor. The farm was not
productive.
The fir wood on the. upper hill
was the temple where she worship
ed. There she went with her Bible
on Sunday afternoons, with her
patching and stocking mending on
other days. There she dreamed her
dreams and prayed her prayers, and
while there she was content. But
oil too soon would come the sound
Of the horn blown from below or
call from the house: "Brie, Bric,
the men are coming to supper.
Make haste!'' And she would be
forced to hurry back to the worka-
day world. When she wfls gust 20,
her father fell from his loaded hay
wagon and fractured his thigh.
There was no cure for the hurt, and
after six months Of hopeless attend
ancc he died. >Bric and her mother
were left together on the lonely
iiarm, with the added burden Of
large bill for -doctoring and medi-
clnes, which pressed like heavy
weight on their honorable hearts.
The hired man, Reuben Hall, was
well disposed and honest, but before
Alr. DorseRs death he had begun to
talk Of going to the west, and Brie
a.oreboded that he might not be will
ing to stay with them. Mrs. Dorset,
Proken down by nursing and sor-
TOW, had become an invalid, unable
to G, assist save in the lightest ways.
Ihc burden 1vas sOra fop ono mir