The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-04-26
HUNGRY FOR
THE HILLS
BY SALLY cowLAM

The lady of the house stood looking at
the woman outside. but did not offer to I'M
hook the screen, so the woman outside
pulled gently at it by way of suggestion.
81 amt a regular agent" she pleaded
in reply to the accusing glance OF the
other; I'm just sellin' it fur accommoda-
ton. I'd like you 20 look at 1t; it's real
handsome"
But the lady of the house merely turned
polite attention to the monstrous red plush
photograph album and cast about for an
inoffensive means of dismissal.
There's Deweys picture on the outside.
and it's made SOS it'll stand on the table;
that there drawer underneath's fur trinkets
and knickknacks It'll hold fifty pictures.
and it's only Sc
1T is a beautiful album" said the lady
of the house. but am moving in short
time and don't want to have any more to
pack than
do you mean you're movin' clear
away?'
Yes"
"Ain't you glad?'
Eyes; I'm not fond of the place."
"Nur me. Air you goin' north?''
eyes"
How fur? AS fur as Kentucky? 1 amt
curious, but come from Kentucky
what part of Kentucky?"
shelby county,
"And 1 came from Indiana-Jefferson
county"
The two women stood looking into each
others eyes.
Come in," said the lady. unlocking the
door.
AS she caught up the busting cloth from
the easiest chair she. fguratively, stood
tiptoe on the edge of Jefferson county peer
ing across the river and over the Ken
lucky hills into Shelby.
Are you homesick?" she said.
"Aint your" queried the other.
How can you ask?' said the lady. 81
know what Kentucky is and you know
Indiana; should We be human and not
homesick?"
II wonder If you feel like do about it?
1 wonder il you.ever just ache fur the sight
of hill or think about pretty, green grass
till you most crave il like cow! Or If
you get plumb crazy and mad and vicious
fur big tree with shade under it. God
God! 1 wonder if you feel like 1 dc
about it!'
Il feel it ALL" said the lady, "for my
hills are as high as yours-my Hoosier
hills; my bluegrass is just as sweet, even
though yours is Kentucky bluegrass; and
my trees-my trees"
She forgot the woman.
- An old town lay, still as a picture, IL
|, its quiet valley; an old town where nothing
ever changed, where great trees met above
the streets to whisper the gossip of the
generations, where children played in the
same old yards in which their mothers and
grandmothers had played. Old stores did
business in the old, old way; year after
| year the sun looked down, and
no new building arose to obstruct his
vision, nor cast an unfamiliar shadow. Al
| the foot of the hills the streets gradually
Invested themselves of their bordering
houses, leaping abruptly to the slope. ant
| winding away out of sight into the mystery
of the wooded heights.
I'm this here place. even the sun looks
brassy-gives you a eternal squint-it and
the tears; and the moonlight. too-you kir
read writin' by it! 'Taint soft and pretty
| like"
'Our moonlight" said the lady tenderly
And the spirit of the place was one o.
romance and poetry; there was that In tn,
| air, in the sunshine. in the moonshine
that cast a SPELL Life was dream. ant
the river flowed silently. and the watchfu
hills stood hand In hand to guard lest tn,
| charm be broken.