The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-07-22
EVENING STORY
Winter-Killed.
BY JANE OSBORN.


winter-killed." Perhaps by that time:
the minds of some as to Just which
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 sub
scribe a cent to the Liberty Loan and
that Judge Robert Pritchard sub
scribed ten thousand, and that some
body's neighbor probably poisoned
somebody's cat and that the doctors
widow had set her cap most openly
for said Peter ConklinG. 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 in the flight of time that
we somehow always remember even
when we forget affairs of larger or
more personal interest. 1T was the
coolest winter On record" some octo-l
genarian will say, land I remember
had been growing ten or dozen years
between Judge Pritchard's place and
the old Marden place was winter
killed, roots and branches"
That this particularly luxurious
growth of privet had been entirely
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 luxur-
ious hedges had also been hlighted,
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 it was obviously
up to Hester to have it cut down, al
tho its branches had long since spread
many feet over into the Pritchard do
main Hester hesitated several days
after she had purchased the last pair
of hedge-clips in the Rosevale hard
ware store before giving her order to
the gardener-by-the- to begin the
amputation. 1t seemed like desecra-
ton to her; she could not make it
seem other than unloyal and traitorous
to the memory of poor old Aunt Be-
thiah. 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 operation was to take place and,
old oil painting of Aunt Bethiah that
still hung over the marble mantle
piece in the old front parlor," made
up her mind to give the order.
There would have to be 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 I'M
der 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 shrub
berry were just beginning their long
sweet evening song. Hester tried not
to see the change till she was actually
in the garden. Then. a strange sense
of freedom and emancipation, of lib=
GRAFTON from long captivity came over
her. Already the plants and growing
things in her garden had profited by
the increase of air and sunshine that
the passing of the hedge had allowed
The columbines and tulips were out
earlier than usual and it 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 it was as if a new world had
been opened and discovered for her
when she first permitted her eyes to
wander beyond the line where the
privet had once been placed. over
there in the fairly 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 consequence of that she was
hurried away by Aunt Bethiah to be
gone until the newly planted privet
should have taken its place. Could it
be that all these years that fairy land
OF leaves and blossoms had been there
just beyond the privet? Hester was
wondering.
And then came the voice of Judge
Pritchard, who must have been in his
garden behind one of his lilac bushes
all the time that she was inspecting
her own transformed domain.
Neither Hester nor Robert said any
thing very profound or clever or worth
remembering that evening when they
spoke n the first time in ten years.
Each had known from the time they
knew that the hedge had to go that
their speaking would be the inevitable
result. Perhaps that is why Hester
had felt so especially guilty when she
stood before old Aunt Bethiahs pic
ture few minutes before. The spell
cast by Aunt Bethiah was entirely
broken when Hester permitted her.
self to be urged across that old bar
rier on the excuse of looking at some
especially luxurious rose-colored coll
umbines that Judge Pritchard insisted
had been Migrants from her garden
and had sown- themselves a season or
so before.
Il knew they were yours he told
her. 'and that is why 1 Cherished
them so. 1 had the gardener nurse
| them like orchids" Hester was kneel-
ing over 10 touch the silky blossoms
with her fingers. II wonder how they
dared go thru the hedge?" was all she
could think of saying, and then her
eyes and those of Robert Pritchard
met and both knew, that the barrier
that had gone down with the hedge
could never be replaced
After the had seated themselves on
the rustic bench under Judge Pritch-
ards lilacs. on the excuse of hearing
the thrushes' song. Hester volunteered
the suggestion that it really seemed
only a day since the last time she had
! sat on the same bench under the lilacs.