Monroe City Democrat., 1918-08-30
Winter.Killing
of the Hedge
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BY JANE OSBORNE
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Shit, 1918, by the Mcclure Newspa
per Syndicate.)

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copyright, 1918, by the Mcclure Newspa-
per Syndicate)
Forty years from now the old resi-
dents of ROsevale will still be alluding,
no doubt, to "the year the hedges win
ter-killed." Perhaps by that time
there will be little uncertainty in
the minds of some as to just which
Good Friday 1t was that the United
States "got into the war" and Just how
long that war lasted. They will have
forgotten that old Peter Conkling-
Rosevale's milliOnaire-didn't SUBJ
scribe a cent to the Liberty loan and
that Judge Robert Pritchard subscrib-
ed ten thousand, and that somebody's
neighbor probably poisoned some
body's cat and that the doctors widow
-had set her cap most openly for said
Peter Conklin. All these things will
have been forgotten forty years from
now, but not the winter-killing of the
hedge. That is the sort of landmark
an the flight of time that we somehow
always remember even when we for
get affairs of larger or more personal
Interest. ut was the coldest winter
on record" some octogenarians will
say, "and 1 remember how the hedge
twelve feet high that had been growing
ten or a dozen years between Judge
Pr1tchard's place and the old Marden
place was winter-killed, roots and
branches"
That this particular luxurious
growth of privet had been entirely
Olighted as the effect Of the unwonted
cold weather last winter neither Judge
Pritchard nor Hester Marden realized
till weeks after the usual time for its
buds to be bursting under the warmth
of April sunshine. And it was after
other Rosevalians, whose less luxuri-
ous hedges had also been blighted,
had come to the realization that the
only thing to do to save what life
might remain in the roots of their
hedges was to amputate all the dead
branches above, that Hester on her
side of the thick network of dead
twigs and branches and Judge Robert
.Pritchard, hidden on his side, realized
one warm spring evening that the old
hedge would have to go. The hedge
had been planted on the Marden side
of the dividing line, so 1t was obvious
Iy up to Hester to have it cut down, al
though its branches had long since
spread many feet over into the Pritch-
lard domain. Hester hesitated several
days after she had purchased the last
pair of hedge-clips in the Rosevale
hardware store before giving her order
to the gardener-by-the.day to begin the
amputatiOn. 1t seemed like desecra-
zion to her; she could not make it seem
other than unloyal and traitOrous to
the memory of poor old Aunt Bethiah.
Still Aunt Bethiah would not have
wanted to let the hedge remain as it
was. Hester was sure of it. She
planned an overnight trip to the large
nearby city for the days when the cut
ting down operation was to take place
and after having cast a contrite look
at the old painting of Aunt Bethiah
that still hung over the marble mantel-
piece in the old front parlor," made
up her mind to give the order.
There would have to be a first time
IN that unhedged garden, Hester as
sured herself. Even Aunt Bethiah
could not object to her thirty-year-old
niece going into her own garden under
the circumstances. So as soon as she
had eaten her solitary dinner on the
day she returned from the city she
left the table and descended into the
old garden. The sun was still warm
and golden and the wood thrushes
somewhere in the Pritchard shrubbery
were just beginning their long evening
song. Hester tried not to see the
change till she was actually in the
garden. Then strange sense of free
dom and emancipation came over her.
Already the plants and growing things
In her garden had profited by the in
crease of air and sunshine that the ,
passing of the hedge had allowed. The
columbines and tulips were out earlier
than usual and ii seemed to Hester as
If their colOrs were deeper and gayer
than In the old days when they were
hedged in by the twelve-foot privet.
And 1t was as If a new world had !
been opened and discovered to her
when she first permitted her eyes to
wander beyond the line where the /
privet had once been placed, over there
In the fairy land of light green leaves
and foliage where the wood thrushes
sang. She had not seen that realm for !
ten years, not since the day the high !
board fence was taken down, and in |
of that she was hurried !
away by Aunt Bethiah to be gone until !
the newly planted privet should have !