River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-07-31

Henderson really died of and talk with
MIN ABOUT the sad state of poor Mr..
carriers liver for year before he died.
just go on rocking Billy and singing
hymns to him in such way that
can't hear the conversation Mr. Car
ter's liver got on my nerves alive, and
dead it does worse. But it hurts when
the doctor has to take the little. sleepy
boy out of my arms to carry him home.
though ! like it when he says under
his breath, Thank you. Molly
And as | sat and thought how near
: he and | had been to each other in all
our troubles | excused myself for run
ming to him with that letter and ! ac-
knowledged to myself that had no
right to get mad when he leased me,
for he had been kind and interested
about helping me get thin by the time
Alfred came back to see me. couldn't
tell which | was blushing all to my
self about. the luscious peach" he had
called me or the lovely lily" Alfred
had reminded me in his letter that
had been when he left me.
Why don't people realize that a sew
enteen-year-old girls heart is a sensi
tive wild flower that may be shattered
by breath? Mine shattered when
Alfred went away to find something
he could do to make a living, and
Aunt Adeline gave the hard, green
stem to Mr.. Carter when she married
me to him Poor Mr.. Carter!
No. / wasn't twenty. and this town
was full of women who were aunts
and cousins and law kin to me, and
nobody did anything for me. They
all said with sigh of relief, 1T will
be such a nice, safe thing for you,
Molly" And they really didn't mean
anything by tying up gay. dancing,
frolicking, prancing colt of girl with
terribly ponderous bride But God
didn't want to see me always trotting
along slow and tired and not caring
what happened to me, even pounds
and pounds of plumpness. so he found
use for Mr. Carter in some other place
but this world. and | feel that he is
going to see me through whatever
happens. If some of the women in
friendly | feel with God they would
put me out for contempt of court.
No, the town didn't mean anything
by Christening my spirit with Mr.. Car
ter. and they didn't consider him in
the matter at all, poor man! OF that
l feel sure. Hillsboro is like that
1t settled itself here in Tennessee
valley a few hundreds of years ago
and has been Matching and clucking
over it's own small affairs ever since
All the houses set back from the street
with their wings spread out over their
gardens. and mothers here go on hover
ing even to the third and fourth gen
GRAFTON. Lots of times young long
legged. frying size boys scramble out
Of the nests and go off to college and
decide to grow up where their crow
will be heard by the world. Alfred
was one of them.
And. too. occasionally some man
comes along from the big world and
marries plump little broiler and takes
her away with him, but mostly they
stay and go to lowering life on cor
ner of the family estate. That's what
I did
1 was a poor little lost chick with
frivolous tendencies, and they all cluck
ed me over into this empty Carter nest
which they considered we'll feathered
for me- 1t gave them all sensation
when they found out from the will just
how well it was feathered. And it gave
me one too. All that money would
make me nervous if Mr.. Carter hadn't
made DR.. John its guardian, though !
sometimes feel that the responsibility
of me makes him treat me as if he
were my stepgrandfather-in- But
all in all, though stiff in it's knees with
aristocracy, Hillsboro is lovely and low
ing, and couldn't inquisitiveness be
called just real affection with kind
Of squint in its eye?
And there / sat on my front steps,
being embraced in perfume of every
body's lilacs and peachblow and sweet
syringa and affectionate interest and
moonlight, with a letter in my hand
from the man whose two photographs
and many letters | had kept locked up
in the garrett for years. Is it any won
der | tingled when he told me that he
had never come back because he
couldn't have me and that now the
minute he landed in America he was
going to lay his heart at my feet?
added his honors to his PROSTATE heart
myself, and my own beat at the pros
pect All the eight years faded away
and / was again back in the old gar
den down at Aunt Adeline's cottage
saying goodby. folded up in his arms.
That's the way my memory put the
scene to me, but the word folded
made me remember that blue muslin
dress again. l had promised to keep
it and wear it for him when he came
back-and couldn't forget that the
blue belt was just twenty-three inches
and mine is-no, | won't write it. !
had got that dress out of the old trunk
not ten minutes after ! had read the
letter and measured it.
No. nobody would blame me for run
ming right across the garden to DR.
John with such a real trouble as that
All of a sudden / Rugged the letter
and the little book up close to my
breast and laughed until the tears ran
down my cheeks
Then before | went into the house ]
assembled my garden and had family
prayers with my flowers | do that be
cause they are all the family I've got.
and God knows that all his budding