Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1907-11-15
THE FLOWER OF
REMEMBRANCE

Il tell you what, Miss Ellern, that
there smelly old tree must be cut down,
its flowers pison the air, and its roots
pison the ground The old gardener
who spoke was surprised at the fervor
with which the woman he called Miss
Etlern pleaded for the life of the elder
tree IF [ don't cut it down." he per-
sisted, "all your rose bushes will 60.
home like this lot here.'
Ellen looked at this lot here,' and
thought that in their going home" they
looked as disreputabie as any all-night-
out straggler; their pink and buff flow
ers drooped as IN shame from the shriv-
eled, leatiess branches. But though she
signed tor her roses, she said firmly, Il
need not plant any more tea roses here,
and [ can't have the elder cut down,
Tim
Whatever makes you set such store
on it. miss?'
Gentle mockery shone from Ellen's eyes
as she answered. perhaps it is because
its old name is the same as mine A
man once said:
'Impe on an ellerne and if thine apple be
sWete.
Mochel merveile me thynketh,'
which means, Tim, that if you graft APP
pies onto an elder tree. it would be mar
velous to find them sweet"
L should think so. indeed scoffed
Tim. Excuse me. miss, that furrin gent.
may be friend of yourn, but he amt no
gardener. You would think that any one
but born fool would know that you can
only graft like with like, and apples
and elders don't belong to the same fam
lily, not by long chalk. But you need
not be scared that [ will touch the old
tree. | have always heard that a soft
heart and soft yead go in pairs, but
Lor' bless you, Miss Ellern, [ would
spare the life of the biggest earth rob
bling plant in the garden, if so be as
'twould be your wish.'
THANK you, Tim, you always give me
food for thought, or is it thought for
food 2"
AS the old man went off chuckling
Ellen pondered for a moment as to
whether it were he or she to whom he
imputed the soft heart and the soft
''yead" Then she gazed up at the white
cluster above her and felt again what she
could not and would not have told to the
gardener. The flowers that some people
find rank in scent were honey sweet to
her. As in the old fairy tale, each was
veritable Glover of remembrance" For
the elder tree was to her the symbol of
youth and hot, glorious summer. AS she
gazed the garden wall seemed to melt
away. Once more she was scrambllng
along the steep bank of a hedge with a
bov companion; she felt the heat of the
sun blazing down on her head. while her
hat filled with brier roses hung upon her
arm. Again they stayed to rest under
the shade of an elder tree. While she
famed herself with dock leaf, he pulled
out his knife and fashioned whistle out
of an elder branch. How plainly she
could see him before her; a tuft of his
hair sticking up straight through the
rent between the brim and the crown OF
his hat; and how clever they had both
thought his performance when the whis-
tie being finished he had made up tune
all on three notes. He had given the
whistle to her. and she had lost it with
cut regret. though there came g. time
when she would have treasured it. The
tune remained hers forever. Later still
came a time when she was in hot rebel
lion against fate, and then that simple
time sounded in her ears with maddening
iteration But, being more sensitive than
sentimental, that phase had passed, and
now boy. tuneful piping and elder tree
made one delightful picture to be seen
at WILL
That same afternoon Ellen was playing
on the piano. when a visitor was shown
in. 1t was the boy companion home from
India. now grown into a very lean and
somewhat learned judge. Ellen duly
asked after his wife, and his child, her
adopted but as yet unseen pepheW; then
said, "Should you have known me again
if VIC had met as strangers ?"
"Well, I cannot tell; you have altered
a lot" .,
Il should have known you anywhere"
said Ellen. half turning to the piano
again, and playing softly with one hand
What is that tuner" -.
Does it not remind you of anythngF
she asked.
"Whv. of course, it is the call the goat
herds pipe up in the hills
Ellen shook her head. ct is the tune
composed by you long years ago on an
elder wood whistle"
Pardon me. I have never made up
time in nv life. You must be thinking
Of another fellow"
Ellen smiled; then for the first time
she noticed that his head was bare where
the upright tuft of hair used to grow :;
..yes if must have been another fellow"
she asserted. ''but come down the garden
add see old Tim; he at any rate has not
altered"
4 don't think you are changed as much
nc 7 did at first; your eyes stu laugh
like thev used to, though now 1 can't
guess the joke" .,
Tim tells me I have a soft 'yead ;"
said Ellen hastily.
u should have that brute of a tree
nm > said the Judge, looking at its dying
companions. ,+, of
shade without ii. ,,
yes. but not sum mean its blossoms IN
stepped in boiling water IS gooo Ior 'he
Well; if that is all the good OF 1t, 1t
i not of much use to" then ne stopped
IN confusion as he looked at Ellen's face'
,thicb was almost as sunburnt as his
- Io,ob reaSIlred him. w no