The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-03-07

that we were going to speak of one of
those strange experiences Of her that,
for me. set her more effectually apart
from others than IN of her many and
varied gifts and graces.
All about MS lay the windfalls, piled
evenly. rich heaps of sunset color.
The better fruit cleaned through the
boughs like fairy lamps, and great
ladders leaned against these, on which
the men climbed. picking carefully.
Below them the maidservants. laugh
ing and excited at this pleasant change
Of labor. handed the baskets and filled
the gaping barrels. And up on the
ladders and through the trees and
among the tinted heaps raced and
played the children 4 the house, sniff
ing the heady flavor OF the rich fruit.
teasing the maids. cajoling the men.
staggering under the heavy baskets.
pelting each other, even. with the Grim
son and yellow globes. bringing each
specially large and perfect one to their
mother for congratulation.
She. stopping for the moment her
strange, jewelied embroid. ry. that
alone would hav marked her for an
artist of high powers. would lean over
each boy and girl. murmuring her
praise. soothing in the same breath the
unlucky ones VINO had not found the
most gorgeous fruit, warning the men
not to trouble the yet unready apples.
quoting the maids If they grew too
boist.rous, an eye and an ear for
every one and everything.
As the lowering sun struck full on
the nearest heap of red and gold. and
turned the russell fruit on the Dough
to bronze uggets wrapped in leaves
of wonderfully rough 10 10 4 sudden
thought tempted me and I spoke
quickly. glancing slyly at her calm.
contented face.
Look at that color" | said. Does
IL not cry out To you to Ice painted?
Does II not make you remember that
spring orchard of yours that every one
praised so. and from which the great
Master predicted your future? Would
you not like to escape from all his
pleasant. tiny hustle, this network OF
ceaseless demands pom your hands,
your heart, your brain. n once again
attack the real world"
h looked %curiously at me.
"A real work." she repeated.
II mean an enduring work" I ex-
claimed; "a thing from which YOU can
lift your hand some day and say:
This is done. To the best of my
power, it is finished. Let it stand. and
judge me by it,"
She nodded her head slowly. and |
saw that she was not really looking
at me, though she seemed 10 be, but
beyond me. across the splendid
orchard piles. into the sacked gold OF
the corr far afield. That's it" she
murmured, that's just what | told
her--tan enduring work And what
did she say to me? oh. | am going
again | am partly there now Don't
you see it? 1t that the Lower Orchard?
Are these the gray gables If the
FARM"
Her voice thrilled strangely and her
eyes were staring. vague; it was as
II she hung between sleep and wax
ing, | looked where she pointed, but
1t was only an enormous ledge of gray
rock, curiously slantcd, and | said so,
softly:
1T is only a rock, broken at phe
gable angle, dear"
hen she faced me. herself per-
fcctly.
"Oh. you think So" she answered
me with a smile,
The words were strange enough in
themselves, but without them her
manner would have taught me that
she was going to speak Of ran
things yet, and | was not disappointed,
1T was just such n day as this" she
l.YY., go. ~ th. .-,.11 . ia. ,nI1au
always takes me back, though never
SO strongly as now. We were in the
orchard an, my dear. YOU
will tell it wonderfully we'll when !
nave told YOU, and many will learn as
! have learned, but You can never
make them see the Dame as ! saw
her"
Then she told me the tale Of tina.
adventure, and | must try to put it,
not in her words, for at times these
were not plain, and at times they
halted entirely, m | had to guess at
what she meant, and there We're many
gaps and breaks. But the manner in
which | shall tell II to the
feeling she woke in me,
What is it tina, you are trying to
do?' her friend the great physician
asked her at last. Think carefully
n tell me in one sentence"
Il have already thought carefully"
she said, land ! can tell you. | am
trying to live my husbands life, which
! ought not to give up; my children's
life, which ! must not give up, and
my own life, which ] cannot give up"
He looked eve longer han before
at her and the late sun slipped down
the polished fittings OF his desk and
the gilded overs OF the pooh filed
shelves behind him. Longer than be-
fore he looked, and the tines dcepened
in his face n his eyes seemed to
grow deeper in his head as she looked
back at him, Al last he spoke:
MY child" he said. "if were a
poor and hungry doctor it is not to be
doubted that ! should give you some
thing in "A bottle and tell You tn come
10 me again. But ! am a wealthy ply
siclan and ! can afford to tell you the