| Show the fr 0 m the BY BLANCHE GREY JORDAN copyright 1002 1902 by dally story pub cp it had been such a trying wearing day and she was so weary so unutterably tired it was a blank blank wall vall she faced and today to day her cou courage ragle would ifould not respond to her efforts the weight of her affliction was so heavy and she so longed for rost rest years of gray monotony and dependence stretching their sombre lengths before her years of dull inaction and changeless level existence her bed her invalid chair her room how her horizon had narrowed narrowed and it had appeared so broad so beautiful so glowing two hot searing scaring tears stole from between the fringes of her eyes as she thought that but for that fateful ride she should even now be realizing the most luxurious dream of her lue she should bo wandering ug through the memory mists of rich old italy ending an objective answer to those years of hard ambitious preparation which she had made she should rev el in the fact that for two years longer there would be nothing to do but to open her eyes and her heart to tho the impressions which travel would give and to store those impressions away to be metamorphosed later and touch the minds of others through her songs and stories surely if she had boom broadened by this experience the small success which had met her previous work would have been warm and triumphant and she would have gained that place in the affections of 9 a people that her ambition and her yearning love desired but it was gone now the luscious dream had fallen into aslies ashes long long years bleak colorless years and she so young her life thus nipped and marred just as it was opening into fullest rosewood rose ros hood chood the dull heaviness of it ft all oppressed her heart until the tears wore were weighted down and steeped in utter life weariness she turned her head toward the window and gazed where the pallid november sunset sank listlessly into the west slightly toward the south where the yellow hung most clear a wooded t hill arose the bluish tenderness of the haze which distance loves to fold around all objects clinging softly about its base though the trees on the summit shook back their vestments and bare barc armed and dark raised their many hands in striking sill silhouette joa as if performing their evening sacrifice I 1 only a part of this hill and that part framed on either side by buildings near at hand could be viewed from the window vin dow where she reclined but 4 there was enough to ease her eyes eye s and her mind and to emanate a mighty vibration of peace that softly gently imperceptibly began to roll as incense over that unhappy heart silently unconsciously it diffused its soothing beauty through her thoughts and charged cha changed aged their bitterness into tender melancholy gradually she felt her soul responding to the scene A deep religious exaltation awoke in her breast a strange beautiful yearning groping peace a sensation that was vas a prayer a longing that was an apocalypse and lito life was new this was the beginning of an absorbing personal love which the girl learned to feel for that bit of wooded hill it was different from the love she felt for picture or other inanimate object indeed the hill was not inanimate to her it possessed a soul a mighty soul and it stood before her hel y as some strong beautiful priest that thai y y i t i t 1 f V afi li j li 5 I 1 i V r iiii iii 4 4 1 was to ner her heart r n rt r t tove love of nature and for the spirit that quickens and is manifest in nature every morning she longed for her first glimpse of it us KS some earnest souls long for the moment mome at of secret prayer every evening she could not i i F it was a anes sage to beer permit the lights to be brought until the last vestige of color had faded away and the ifill bill had resolved ftp itself elf into shadows she learned to tb watch its varying moods and to rejoice in each oi of them ai k bon bond d of mutual understand understanding int y drew the two too together ether the girl cau caught it the t motions ons of this bit lot e natu nature e and learned to find in hem the interpret lation of her truest self sometimes some limes a trembling fine of smoke would rise from the homes be tween her and the little upland and her eyes would swell with tears of love for earths humanity sometimes a storm of wind ivind and rain would rage above its summit am she would see its firmness grow more stately and majestic as it stood in sti silent tont lent acceptation of L what god saw fit td fro s send en d sometimes through the powdered violet of twilight clouds clouda she would s see ee the evening star blaze out above its forehead and her soul would drop to its knees in intensity of worship unconsciously the noble serenity of its being grow grew I 1 nto into her own oven life and she became a blessing and an inspiration to every mend friend and acquaintance the young gravitated to her room for happy chats for she and the hill loved sunshine the old came there for peaceful tallis talks for she and the hill loved twilight gradually a broader culture spread through her circle for one lived ones highest when in the presence of these two who kept their faces so firmly turned toward the purer light of heaven onca sno grew very m 11 ani and it boemel that she must leave alve but as she lay weak and powerless a little hule neighbors boy came he pleaded and and was admitted arill and stun standing ding tim 1 idly beside the bedair lie laid a bunc hof trailing arbutus upon the pillow as he s said aid 1 I found it on ithe hill that you can see from your whitlow cinao flow re 1 I it was a messa message geto to her and she knew thail that I 1 her work was yet unfinished ud then when she grew stron stronger eri again with the pear liah tin tings of those dainty blossoms still a part of her soul with the perfume like the faintest sigh of an angel still upon her she wrote her first nature poem riot not lor for fame this time but from tho V arl I 1 I 1 1 1 nil T af J tf 4 I 1 1 I have found my work and my life is rich ana full necessity of love the mother found it and sent it away and when it met the eyes of a public they caught the refreshing pungent air of truth to nature and they caught the delicate breathing of beauty exquisite kappy happy work then lo 10 followed allowe id anda when fame came soon thereafter it was sweeter sweater to the ghil because it came as the benediction of the hill one day a sweet girl friend had acome for sympathy in a new found happiness it seemed to ennoble and sanctify her love still more to confess to this gentle priestess and to feel these poet fingers upon her hair at last she raised her er face the blushes blumes still showing t warm in the sunsets af afterglow you tire are gaining strength dear heart and some time you too will loye love but how bow gentle rand true and noble must be the diprince to do chain your heart softly came the reply 1 I thial not inot dear I 1 have found my work and any y life is rich and full her other hand dropped upon her latest book of poems that which she called the soul of a hill and as her eyes glowing with faith and peace and deep serenity turned through 1 evenings grayness toward a wooded upland lie murmured jurmu red in beautiful contentment anaf nature never did betray the heart that loved her |
