Show the old settler omy my dear san Jua ners it was in ia march 44 that our son soil mark paid us his last visit i I 1 he appeared to be as healthy and I 1 vigorous as a man of thirty could I 1 I 1 g expect to be but he had been re ejected by the governments military doctors and he ie admitted he j had an ailment which gave him i great concern yet he had halcome come a 1 long way to see us and he left I 1 the dark c colors clors lors out of the t he picture I 1 he painted for us telling of the 1 wonderful oregon country his prospects there his wife and little littie girls say dad he said theres a fine old man up in that country who has read some of your stories I 1 and he wanted to send you a token of his appreciation and from his wonderful flower garden he gave me the roots of some unusual iris plants I 1 have them here in a sack and he says that when you see th them em bloom you can guess how much he likes your stories we set the sack for the time being in a cornier corder and when marks short visit was over I 1 buried inured myself again in my seminary work and forgot it in latter april we got a ang distance telephone call and it took us scurrying over many miles of country to marks bedside and in early may lay we answered another call for a last look at his face before the casket basket lid was closed over him 1 distressed and sorrowing sor rowin g we wet had to return as soon as p possible isible for the seminary graduation exercises and in the rush of so many things all at once the iris roots were left there ini in the corner before we got down to our normal pace again we answered a call to go as missionaries among the navajos cavajos Nava jos and departed for a place in new mexico when at length with regrets and self accusation we took the roots which mark had brought all the way from oregon and put them in the ground it was more as a gesture of respect to a beloved memory than f r any hope that the roots would ever grow after being left so long in the corner when may of 45 arrived we remembered our sad pilgrimage age of a year before and took a guilty look at the place where we w had planted the neglected most of them had died yet three had sent up feeble blades and were making a brave fight for continued on editorial page the old settler continued from page 1 life we cleared cleara d the weeds and mulched tb tha ground around them in indulging dulIng copes hopes and heartthrobs heart throbs in ex excess cess of their real worth but we went away again to the reservation arld arid when we returned in the fall they were hidden over with weeds and gave little promise of ever blooming in early may of 46 we remembered the date again and looked at the struggling plants we wanted them to live and soothe our guilty conscience we cared for and nourished them burthey but they seemed hurt beyond recovery and it was only because of tender memories that we did not dig them up and put something else in their place the anniversary of that may date in the year 47 found us bending over the iris plants again from the gloomy death struggle of three years they had harked back to the life enji beauty of their old od home garden in oregon and were towering up with a rich profusion of bloom unlike any we had seen before they were wonders of beauty beancy even if they should be stripped of the tender memories we wa had clustered around them As a token of the old gardeners appreciation n they were a most extravagant ext ex t but to us they were somehow the echo of a familiar voice a last visit and a game smile to hide the sadness of a final farewell As we looked at the blooms we thought only of mark of his widowed wife and ahrea little girls and of a bright and wonderful world where that which may seem to be dead is clothed with the glory of I 1 life i fe eternal ALBERT R LYMAN |