Arizona republican., 1910-05-12

back in grove of trees kooked very aged and sadly need of paint yet about twas of comfort and soldity
 "Vain boaster' 1t called tb me, 1t IS all very well to be proud of your beauty. Gou young sou talk of the spirit of love and beauty, but that ./ony the beginning I have had that too. and sonethins still greater for have the depths of suffering and know that the only real mobility vhen one has passed through these shadows still hold himself and smiling.
 At this only laughed, for 1 knew that.old houses always grunblcd.
 it was m midsummer when evening lt late in returning homo. She waking for him the garden When he came resd ,his face what great trouble had fallen upon them He whspere,i the words 70 her gently and aerward she wept through that long, miserable night week later they locked the door and walked away the child between them.
 At tn. crest of the hill she stopped and looked back at me longinsly her eyes embraced their great love. and heard her murmur. Don't forget us. dear, dear Haven We are coming back-some tday."
 Then was I alone, utterly alone with my blinds closed tight and my rooms darkened soSthat the wall. began to mold, and the smooth, glassy hoon deep with dust But this nothing to meSn my grief over their departure felt that I was Asserted and Jeff to the mercy of those who thought metworhy bought
 Each morning bathed my gables in\the early sun, would glow with the hope that perhapsshat day they might return but the lonely shadows df the twilight clustered about me, knew it not toibe.
 In my grief and loneliness believe !ased more in those few months that empty than,in the many years spent with them. At the end oftthree dreary months, awakened from my letharsy'by the sound of heavy carriage rolling up to my gate The dangling of the chains the restless prancing of the horses the glitter of the carriase-a told me that the corners were rich They accompanied by the hcartlcss who had bought me, and he unlocked the door and showed the strangers ray of happ ness passed over me-the hope that might pass from his hands forever.
 The women-they mother and daughter, I learned, when I had come to know them-held their dainty gowns high they stepped lightly my dusty floors and criticized me-detail by detail.
 /. brick hoor-how absurd mama, We must have q wood floor laid here And how plain the walls are, They will have be papered And all this white woodwork is so tiresome but we can have it stained mahosauy. Yes, believe we make it pre- scntable by spending money. Papa do send for deco rator at once
 Finally they took possession of me- and with them horde of workmen I reverberated with ham, mering my walls were hung with heavy, dust-catchins cloths: massive unsuitable furniture was cramfned all over me, until felt that myself no longer-that another hous, stood in my place. When all this was done rang with tn. sound of music of laughter of endless frivolitics 1'icrc p-ac. quiet self communion left any longer All was hubbub and careless merrimcnt.
 Thus I lived for decade. here were alternate periods of when th. daughter and mother would leave their tours ard visits At such times l felt almost happy assn-and the old man. the husband and father almost his way into my heart by his lonei- and homelesness. In way he represented some thing similar myself, for at heart he craved real home, and yet continually forced to live in what nothing but thin imitation But the friendship between us grew for he did not know how to be- gin to love and before he learned the daughter
 
 alone
 Years and years of soltude-stretching out into an eternity of dreariness An endless changing iac:s and forms some remaining with for several years others only few months Some of them were sweet children, one particularly-a little girl v-t soft brown hair and gentle eyes, who my gardei, on sn,nie- ,ft. f,,r, t.t.s after her many dream friends She seemed to feel my presence in such moments and the only happy .xpcri- in the desert of my years-and that moment was the happiness of when they took her away. The others were 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 rer which the weather had biiste-ed and cracked
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