Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-09-26
CHAPTER
NDER THE CHERRY TREE.

I'll
 statehood, probably as late as
 1925. there stood in what is
 now the beautiful little city of vincennes on the Wabash, the de caytnG Remnant of an old and curiously gnarled cherry tree known as the Rousaz5ion tree, Ie certsfer de Monsieur ROussilon, as the French inhabitants called fk, which as long as 1t lived bore fruit remarkable for richness of faver and peculiar dark ruby depth of color. The exn0t spot where this noble old seed1ingfrom Ia be18se France houTtshed, {7eclfned and dtna cannot be caFtaanlW pointBd out, fox in the rapid and happy growth Of Vincennes many landmarks once notable, among them le cerlsier de Monsieur Roussfllon, have been de stroyed and the spots where they stood, once familiar to, euery eye in old Vim cennes. are now lost in the pleasant confusion. of the new town.
 The old. twisted, gum embossed cherry tree survived every other dis kinguishing feature of what was once the most picturesque and romantic place in Vincennes. Just north of it stood. in the early French days, low, rambling cabin surrounded by rude verandas oyergrown with grapey1nes- This was the Roussillon place, the most pretentious home in all the Wabash country. It's owner was Gaspard Rous- sfllon, a successful trader with the In dians. He was rich, for, the time and the place, influential to a degree, a man of some education, who had brought with htm to the wilderness bundle of books and taste for read ing.
 It is not known just when Vincennes was first founded, but most historians make the probable date very early in the eighteenth century, somewhere be tween 1g1o and 1730. Tn. 1910 the Roussillon cherry tree was thought by distinguished botanical letter writer to be at least fifty years old, which would make the date of Its planting about 1760. Certainly, as shown by the time stained family records upon which this story of ours is based, it was fiourishing and wide topped tree in the early summer of IT'S, it's branches loaded to dropping with luscious fruit. So low did the dark red clusters hang at one point that a tall young girl standing on the ground easily reached the best ones and made her lips purple with their juice while she ate them.
 That was long ago, measured by what has come to pass on the gentle swell of rich country from which Vim cennes overlooks the Wabash. The new town fourishes notably and it's appearance marks the latest limit of progress. Electric cars in it's streets, If~,I14 14esS {RcS 0I7fi iFI1l hNT1 the roar of railway trains coming and going in all directions, bicycles whirl- ing hither and thither, the most fash ionable styles of equipages from brougham to pony phaeton, make the days of f1intlock guns and buckskin trousers seem ages down the past, and yet we are looking back over but a little more than 12O years to see Alice Roussillon standing under cheery tree and holding high a tempting clus- ter of fruit, while short humpbacked youth looks up with longing eyes and vainly reaches for it. The tableau is not merely rustic; it is primitive
 4JumpE' the girl is saying in French. Hump, Jean; jump highg'
 sYes, that was very long ago, in the days when women lightly bTaved what the strongest men would shrink from now
 Alice RoussfTlon was tall, 1.-the, strongly knit, with an almost perfect figure, judging by what the master sculptors carved for the form of Venus and her face was comedy and winning if not absolutely beautiful; but the time and place were vigorously indf cated by her dress, which was o1 coarse stuff and simply designed Plainly she was child of the Amer ican wilderness, daughter of old Vim cennes on the Wabash in the time thai tried mems souls.
 Hump, Jeanv' she cried, her face laughing with show of cheek dim pies. an arching of finely sketche6 brows and the twfnkling of large blue gray eyes.
 "Jump high and get them!'
 While she waved her sun Drowned hand holding the cherries aloft, the breeze blowing fresh from the south vest tossed her hair so that some loose strands shone like rimpled flames.
 The sturdy little hunchback did leaI with surprising activity, but tn, treacherous brown hand went higher so high that the combined altitude O his jump and the reach of his unnat uraIly long arms was overcome. Agail and again he sprang vainly into thu air comically, like long legged, squa bodied frog.
 And you brag of your agility ant strength, Jean," she laughingly re marked, "but you can't take cherrie when they are offered to you. What l, clumsy bungler you arep'
 q can climb and get some." he said with a hideously happy grin, and i'm mediately embraced the bole of tn tree. up which he began scrambling al most as fast as squirrel.
 When he had mounted high enougl to be extending hand for hold on crotch Alice grasped his leg near tn foot and pulled him down, despite hi rs-