Year: 1876




lifted from the roses and geraniums we
were weaving into the bouquet for the
mantel. "You don't really think what
you just said, that in every heart there
is fountain; some blossom in the
human wilderness of every SOUL"


He put down his paper and came
toward us. "I have not doubt Of it,
my little girl. The story was just
reading of the hardened old man who
cried because child gave him a bunch
of marigolds, corroborates my remark.
The light that is in us cannot quite be-
come darkness the hearts that might
bring forth hundred-fold for harvests
of heaven, will never become such
deserts but some good seed will take
root therein"


"I don't believe it would, though, in
Farmer Keep. You don't know HIM as
well as ] do, Uncle Charlie. He's one
of the richest men in all Meadow Brook ;
he's worth thousands and thousands.
He's q bachelor, you know, and lives in
the great red house on the road to
Woodbury., you remember. Well, he
never goes to church he never loved a
human being in his life. Now don't
think Farmer Keep-why, Grandma
Deane, how do you doa"


The lady whose entrance put this
sudden period to my cousins peroration,
came slowly toward the rocking chair.
Cora drew it out for her. She was the
oldest lady in the village. The hair
under her cap, white as hillside snow,
had imprisoned the sunshine of fourscore
and ten summers but she still retained
much of the physical stamina which,
with her active sentiment, had made her
so vigorous woman for many years.


"What's that you're saying, child,
about Farmer Keep2" said the old lady
with a pleasant smile, as she pinned her
knitting sheath to her waist.


"Why, 1 was telling Uncle Charlie
what cold, hard man he is. You've
always known hin, Grandma Deane,
and now did he ever do good thing or
ever love anybody in his ifel"


"Yes, he loved girl once, 1 think 1
remember"


"Farmer Keep loved girl once 2"
repeated Cora, with half contemptous
and wholly skeptical curl of her red
lips.


"She's forgotten" she added in an
undertone to Uncle Charlie and me, for
Grandma Deane was slightly deaf.


"No, / haven't forgotten, NEITHER"
she said, placing her hand on Cora's hair;
I" I have held Lucy Reid on my lap too
often and rocked her cradle-poor, little
motherless thing too many times to
have forgotten.


Cora's look of incredulity was giving
way to one of curiosity.


"Grandma Deane, won't you tell us
all about it Jennie and will sit down
on the stool, and 1 know by that look in
Uncle Charles eye, he wants to hear it,
too. Come, let the flowers go, Jennie ;"
and my vivacious cousin established her
self at the old lady's feet.


Grandma Deane slipped the yarn
around her little finger and commenced :
I" Let me see. It cannot be more than
forty-two or three years this summer
since Justin Keep came up to Farmer
Reid's to let himself out for the harvest
boy, through harvesting. The Reid
house stood little this side of Stony
Creek. There is nothing left of it now
except the chimney, and it looks out
gray and cold from the grass all about
it but forty years ago it was fine old
place, with ilacs, and the hop vines run
ming all around the back. Lucy was
hardly three weeks old when she lost her
mother. Her father never married again
and the child grew up there in the old
home as fair and sweet as the flowers
about her. She was turning into fifteen
when Justin came that summer. He was
a shy, stronge sort of lad, and the
neighbors said Farmer Reid would never
get the salt for his porridge out of him.
He'd been bound out until he was
eighteen to some man down in Maine,
and he hadn't relation in the world he
knew of, nor a decent suit of clothes,
when he came to Farmer Reid's house.
But for all that, Justin proved smart,
likely boy and the farmer, who some
how was never very beforehanded-I
always thought his wife's sudden death
hurt him-found that Justin was real
prize.


"At first he was gloomy and silent,
doing his work and taking little notice
of anybody. But he couldn't stand il
long before Lucy. I wouldn't like to
have the heart that that girls smile
wouldn't have thawed out. She was just
like bird around the old place, singing
from morn till night, and her blue eyes,
that were like her mothers, seemed to
be sending out one laugh and her lips
another. / never wondered her father
dotted on her as he did, and, of course,
Justin wasn't long in the house before
she tried to make friends with him.


"Poor fellow it must have seemed
very strange to him at first, for don't
believe anybody had given him kind
word until he came to Meadow Brook
But he made ladders for her Towering
vines to run on, and got shells for the
borders, and propped up the dahlias
and did thousand other things which
took them out into the garden after sup
per, and made them the best of friends


"Lucy had playful childish way
about her that made her seem muel
younger than she was then she wal
small of her age, so that at fifteen she
did not seem bit older than you are
Cora.


"Well, she rode on top of Justin's hay
cart and helped him husk corn in Jh,
barn, and pretty soon the farmer noticed
a change in Justin. He got him new
suit of clothes, and his face lost its dow
look, and after harvesting Farmer ReiC