Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1921-09-15
with FLOWERS"


w was
much ambition and energy that sue
fretted over the obstacles in her pain.
Even her dear father, with his broken
leg, and broken spirit as well, was
one of her greatest trials. Each DAY
she resolved afresh that circumstah-
ces should never conquer her as they
had. conquered him.
Today she had read to him until
he had fallen asleep-his kindly race
now revealing the worry and discour-
to hide while awake.
The coy little place, just OUTSIDE
the village, was a typical New Eng
land home. Faithful care had MADE
it really attractive. The holder OF the
mortgage on the home, Lucius Cal
lous, was man who put no value on
Sam Warren's improvements, at least
rot in his talk with Sam.
Hope sat with her bare arms on
the piazza rail, gazing appreciatively
over the beautiful patchwork OF
p1owed gardens and green fields,
spread like a counterpane across the
valley.
Lucius CaIlOus had said there was
no sense in wasting the front door
yard With flower beds, so her father
had sadly consented to haze it plant
ed with beans.
But Hope had inherited some or
her mothers spirit-the brave little
mother who had broken because she
refused to bend before adversely so,
when the front-yard controversy had
ended. she had snatched q hoe, a rake,
anu her tiny pansy plants, and had
marched like a crusader of old, down
fira path and across the road to the
triangular neater-piece where the val
ley road intersected the main high
way. There she had IOOsened the
earth, taken out all the stones ana
grass roots, raked the surface smooth
and set out her sturdy seedlings in
symmetrical rows. She could see
them now, nodding to each other like
little ladies, no doubt dreaming of the
finery they soon would be wearing.
A rattle of wheels attracted her at
tention, and q light buggy drawn by
big sorrel horse came up the steep
valley road. The driver was Gallons,
and Ruth's heart hardened rs she
fearfu1Iy watched his shrewd, unsmil-
ing face.
CalIous at once backed his great
horse in wide arc, shot his hind
wheels clear to the point of the little
pansy bed, swung, with yell Of greet
ing to the sleeping man, and with
slash OF the whip went laundering
down the county road.
Did you see that, dad?" said Hope.
Did you just see what that dirty, big
brute did to my pansy bed? Oh, l
could XIII him!'
Her father had seen, with the in
tensity which a start from sound sleep
always gives. He was angry and
helpless. What more need be said?
But Hope was already stepping
carefully among the ruins, straight
ening and re-setting the plants.
She rose from the ground and walk
ing toward the house, brave smile,
not at ais forced, came to her lips.
"Never mind, daddy, / won't give
Gush 'Cakous the rating he deserves.
But just watch me; TIL SAY it with
fioWers!'"
Into the house she dashed, ard
brought out a wooden box of earth
with hundreds of little green plants.
1t was all she could carry, and she
wasted no breath in words.
Once more beside her pansy plot,
she began to separate the slender
stalks with loving, patient fingers.
"Hope, girl, you've grewed like a
weed this year. Heavens, how | wish
I could go to work and help ye go to
the college where We want so to be-"
''Now, daddy, you know it won't
hurt me or my plans to teach for a
year, first" said Hope. "And if | can't
manage it by then, just want to be
around to tell Lueius Callous to keep
his nose at home and let us plan our
own crops, too!'
The rains fell-soft, pattery rains,
and the sun shone, not ferceiy, to
shrfvel the young plantlets, but just
right to make them reach for heaven
And one day the first pansy bios
somed, and looked around and liked
its little three-cornered home, and
that night it must have whispered to
the Others for the next morning near
ly half the fat, lazy buds opened up,
and they, too, nodded and smiled and
made the world and Hope very much
happier But the best was to come.
On hazy day, after a smart little
shower, the miracle began, and on the
second and third days it developed so
that even an old dreamer like Sam
Warren could not be fooled longer.
The heater-piece was talking! Tell
ing all whom that selectman had neg
lected to tell, of Lucius CallOus' de-
destable act in trying to break the
good old New England spirit Of one