Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1902-12-19
WHITE AzALEAs.
- HELEN nIIewonrn wnIan1

years old this fall, I've got enough olast
and there amt a chick nor a child to leave
il to, and that hill--Bell, It's no use, thats
all
The place ains good for raisin much5 junt
pines and berry brambles and them there
white azalies but when it comes my turn
70 die | want 'em to leave me there See
that place where the trees grow thick an
it's dark an cool and still? That's iti
That's where I'm going to lie
Your wife, she fancied thatg Peculiar,
amt it2 Women folks like light most al.
ways, light and sunny parts, though once
knowed q girl-but that was 20 years ago.
Buy half my hill you sayg No, Stree, you
can't have half an inch.
Mebby you city folks can't understand.
but III tell you what, there's things up here
that money couldn't touch, and that there
spot is one Of 'em. Confound it, man, III
tell you whyl
You see twas more than 90 year ago that
1 come here to see friend o. mine, named
Ephraim Jones You knew Eph. Jones
Well, that's odd, amt itg He an / was
chums. This place was nightly lively then
Those cabins there was full of folks. an
men was takin' fortunes out O. quartz most
every day.
The school house stood up yonder. near
my bill, an the teachers name-well, that
don't matter, anyhow. / couldn't say what
she was like; couldn't tell blind man what
a lily was. Your cities never grow that
kind, no more than they do sugar pines OF
fhododendron flowers.
Well, we were-friends We used to 60
for white azalies, she an /, up on my hill
when school was through It WASH my hill
then, not till long after, when she'd gone
away, and yet we called it "ours."
We used to sit there where the trees grow
thick an plan out what the years would
bring. Wed sit there till the shadows came
an shut the world away, an then were glad,
for all the night an all the stars seemed
made for just us twol The wood-owls uested
in those trees, an when I'd say loved some
one, they'd always ask me, "Who?"
And so the summer slipped along an time
come for me to go. 1 was to fix little
home, an when next the white azalies
bloomed to go back again for her.
Well, first she wrote me regular every
week, and then her letters got to soundin'
queer, like one who laughs an wants to cry.
an then-well. then they stopped Those
were busy times with us, but | wrote by
every stage
One evenin'-'twas along in May, an ]
was potterin' round at dusk a-doin' up the
ehores-I saw man come down the trail,
The man was Ephraim Jones' He never
said a word--just reached out an took my
hand an wrung it hard, an kind o choked.
By and by he said:
Look here, old man, it takes an awful
blast you know, to shatter out that hard
gray rock so you can get gold. Well, the
good Lord blasts lis hard sometimes
haps to find our gold'
Then he told me how her father'd got in
debt an gone away, an left her mother
sick an them two little sisters on her hands.
with nothing but the money from her
school; how she had tried to keep it from
me all those weeks, and then-a man had
come, judge from heaven knows where, an
old enough to-
Say, stranger, be this sun too hot? You
look so kind O. faint an fuddled out Per
haps you'd rather have me stop my yarn
Go on? Well, there amt much more to tell
The judge he come a-eourtin her, but
she said always, NO" He told her how
he'd take them all, an make her mother
well, an send the girls away to school, an
do a heap o things
Then winter come, an they hadn't even
wood, nor clothes, nor things to eat The
mother blamed her some an cried; the lit
tie girls both teased and coaxed, an the
judge-come every day And so the win.
ter turned to early spring but things were
MT better much.
One evenin Ephraim came across our hill
an found her up there, where the trees grow
thick. The leaves were comm on the white
azale plants, an her hands were full of ten
der little shoots.
Go, take him these, she said, "and say
when they bloom III be his bride Nh
mother and the children need me most: my
duty is to theml"
Well, the judge, he married her an took
'em all away. And l? I've got them little
dry shoots yet,-sn' shall have always, too!
Ephraim went down to see 'em once-he
knew the judge, you know. They were livin'
in a splendid house, with carriages an
everything The judge was doin' all he
could, but money can't buy lovel She
seemed so kind O sweet an still, like lily
that's been picked an taken from the sun.
There was a baby, too, "a puny mite-her
baby-an' she called him--Joel guess the
judge he didn't know what for, but it was
mel
What is it, stranger? Be you i'll? Per
'haps the airs too light up here, an youI
heart amt over strong.
Well, to go an, he died, did little Joe
an he sent Ephraim word. The white
azalies was in bloom, an l got most hun
dred sprays, an Eph he took EN- down
The little chap had lots O flowers, all
boughten ones, you know; but mine the
mother took-an' held EN- close-an' cried
(Confound this smokel It's gettin in your
eyes?l
Well after that they went away. some
where in foreign parts, aud that was-ff-
teen year ago. The judge, if he's alvin
now, must be as Did as-youl
The pines keep singin' on our bill. an
everything grows just the same as when we
two was young, an some day
Say, you've seen quicksilver in with qold
The part that isn't used rolls down the
sluice in little shiny balls, but when they
meet they form a whole so well that nobody
can tell just which Is which The gold
divides It mebbyi by an BY, but each takes
somewhat Of the others part an holds il
till they meet again, to give it back with its
own self besides. Well, hearts is just like
that.
You see, / couldn't sell the plaes.-it's
"oursl" In this world she's the judges
wife but in the next-she's minel
Why, man, for Gods sake, what's gone
wrougs She's whats She's what, you saw
The indges Your wifel Consumption
MANI Deag Heaven, be more kind!
Say. mister, that clay hill is-yours I'm
goin m gon' away. You'll pay me- No.
You've paid a thousand times You've
brought her back-to die. You tell her this:
a queer old chap, rough as the gray rock
peepin' through the hill, says the owls have
always nested where the trees grow thick