The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-11-27
&y Ed1va( Richardson

back in grove of trees 1t looked very aged and sadly
in need of paint yet about air OF comfort and
solidty.
"Vain boaster," it called to me- ait is all very we'll
to be proud of your beauty You young now; YOU
talk of the spirit of love and beauty, bu. that only
the beginning. l have had that, too, and something
still greater for have the depths of suffering and
know that the only real nobility when one has
passed through these shadows and still hold himself
erect and smiling
At this I only laughed for I knew that old houses
always grumbled.
1t was in midsummer when evening he late
in returning home. She waiting for him in the
garden. When he I read in his face that great
trouble had fallen upon them. He whispered the words
her gently and aferward she wept through that long.
miserable night week later they locked the door
and walked away, the child between them.
At the OF the hill she stopped and looked back
at me longngly; her eyes embraced in their great
love- and heard her murmur Don't forget US, dear.
dear Haven. We coming back-some day."
Then alone, utterly alone, with my blinds
closed tight, and my darkened that the walls
began mold and the smooth CLASSY floors were deep
their departure I felt that was deserted and
left the mercy of those who thought me worthy to be
bought.
Each morning bathed my gables in the early sun,
would glow with the hope that perhaps that day they
might return but the lonely shadows of the twilight
clustered about me, knew it not to be.
In my grief and loneliness believe aged more in
those few months that was empty than in the many
years spent with them At the end of three dreary
months, awakened from my ethargy by the sound
of heavy carriage rolling up to my gate The jangling
of the chains the restless prancng of the horses the
smart glitter of the carrage-all told that the
rich. They accompanied by the
heartless who had bought me, and as he unlocked
the door and showed the strangers ill., ray of appi
passed me-the hope that might pass from
his hands forever.
The two women-they mother and daughter,
learned, when I had know them-held their
dainty gowns high they stepped lightly my
dusty floors and criticized me-detai by detail
"a brick Aoor-how absurd, mama! We must have
wood floor laid here at once. And how plain the
walls are! They will have papered And all this
white woodwork is tiresome, but we can have it
stained mahogany Yes. believe we can make it pre-
sentabe by spending money. Papa do send for deco
rator at once"
Finally they took possession of me, and with them
horde of worcrnen I reverberated with ham,
merng, my walls hung with heavy dust-catching
cloths massive unsuitable furniture was crammed all
me- until felt that was myself no longer-that
another house stood in my place. When all this
DONE rang with the sound of music, of laughter of
endless frivolties. There peace quiet self
communion left me any longer. All hubbub and
careless merrment.
Thus lived for decade. There were alternate
periods of rest when the daughter and mother would
leave their tours and visits. At such times felt
almost happy again-and the old man, the husband and
father almost his way into my heart by his lonei
and honeessness. In way he represented some
thing similar to myself, for at heart he craved real
home and yet continually forced to live in what
was nothing but thin imitation. But the friendship
between grew for he did not know how to be-
gin to love and before he learned the daughter
married, and they moved away. Again found myself
alone
Years and years Of misunderstanding out into ar
eternity of dreariness An endless changing of faces
and forms, remaining with for several years.
others only few months Some of them sweet
children, particulary-a little girl with SOFT brown
hair and gentle eyes, who sat in my garden summer
afternoons reading fairy tales and naming the flowers
after her many dream friends She seemed feel my
presence in such moments, and the only happy expert
in the desert of years-and tina.
the happiness of sorrow-was when they took her
away The others calling her to follow them and
she slipped out into the garden before leaving, and laid
her head against the big door, kissing the broad panel
which the weather had bl;stered and cracked
"Good-hve old house" she said verv softlv-a whis-