Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-04-16
! SOWING SEEDS IN DANNY
BY NELLIE L. McCLUNG
,., of .The Next Of Kin" "Thres Times and OUT etc.

and Mrs. Motherwell were In the kitchen
below reading q letter which Mr.. Moth
crwell had just brought from the post
Office. IL read az follows:
Brandon Hospital, Aug. 10.
Dear Mr.. and Mrs. Motherwell--I
know IL will be at least some slight
comfort for you TO know that the
poppies tou sent Polly reached her In
time to be the very greatest comfort
TO her. Her Joy at seeing them and
holding them in her hands would have
been your reward IL you could have
seen IL, and although she had been
delirious up to that time for several
days, the sight OF the poppies seemed
TO call her mind back. She died very
peacefully. and happily at daybreak
1ovable girl, and we had all grown
very fond of her, as I am sure you
did, too.
May God abundantly bless you, dear
Mr.. and Mrs. Motherwell, for your
kind thoughtfulness to this poor lone
ly girl. "Inasmuch as ye have done
II unto the least Of these, ye have
done II unto Me-"
Yours cordially,
(Nurse) AGNES HUNT.
by jinks."
Sam Motherwell took the letter from
his wife's hand and excitedly reod y
over to himself, going over each WORD
IL over and examined the seal; he looked
at the stamp and inside of the envel
ope, and, failing TO find any clue tc
the mystery, he calculated again:
by links! What the deuce Is thi,
about poppies? Is that them things sh,
sowed out thereY
His wife nodded.
"Well, who do you suppose sen,
them? Who would ever think Of send
ing them?"
Mrs. Motherwell made no reply.
"It's blamed nice letter, anyway
he said, looking 1t over again. II guest
Polly didn't give us a hard name to
them up there In the 'ospital, or W,
wouldn't ha' got letter like this; and
poor Polly's dead. Well, she was O
kind Of good -natured, willin' thing
too, and not too slow, either"
Mrs. Motherwell was still silent. She
had not thought that Polly would die
she had always had great faith in the
vitality of English people. "You cam
kill them" she had often said but now
Polly was dead. She was sick, then
when she went around the house 81
strangely silent and flushed. Mrs
Motherwell's memory went back with
cruel distinctness--she had said thing
n remorse that was new and terrible
and Polly had looked at her dazed an
wondering. her big eyes flushed an
pleading. Mrs. Motherwpll remembered
now that she had seen that look onr,
before. She had helped Sam kill q
lamb once. and. it came back to hel
now, how. through II all, until tn,
blow fell, the lamb had stood wonder
ing, pleading, yet unflinching, and sh'
had run sobbins away-and now Poll,
was Iead--and those big eyes she hr
so often seen fearful. yet smiling, wer,
closed and their tears forever wipe'
away.
That night she dreamed of Polly
confused, troubled dreams: now II wa
Polly's mother. who was dead; then |
was her own mother, dead thirty year
ago. Once she started violently an
sat up. Some one had been singing-th,
echo Of it was still in the room:
Over my grave keep the green
willers growing.
The yellow harvest moon flooded tn
room with its soft light. She could sc,
mantle on the silent fields. 1t was on,
of those glorious, cloudless nights. will
a hint of frost in the air that come jus
as the grain is ripening. From SOM
place down the creek dog barked
once In a while a cow bell tinkled; ;
horse stamped in the stable and thel
all was still. Numberless stars shon,
through the window. The mystery o
life ard death and growing things wa
around her. As for man his days ar
as grass as a flower Of the field 8,
he hourisheth---for IL is soon cut of ant
we fly away--fy away where ?-where
her head throbbed with the question
The eastern sky flushed red will
morning: little ripple came over tn,
grain. She watched 1t listlessly. Poll.
had died at daybreak-didn' the let
ter say? Just like that, the light ris
ing redder and redder, the stars disap
pearing. she wondered duly to herself
how often she would see the light com
ing. like this, and yet, and yet, some
time would be the last, and then what
We shall be where suns are not,
A far screner cline.
came to her memory she knew no,
whence. But she shuddered at it.
Polly's eyes, dazed, pleading like the
lambs, rose before her; or was it that
Other Face, tender, thorn crow ned,
that had been looking upon her in love
all these long years.
She spoke so kindly to Pearl when
she went into the kitchen that the lit
tie girl looked up apprehensively.