Purple Springs

s slip one lit

r it may not

ny crimson roses, spilling their perfume on the shining road which led back to childhood. The sunshine that sifted through the white muslin curtains of the one small wi

g blue shadows over the fields, brightening the trees on the river bank, with a thin rinse of pale gold. Down in the ravine, the purple blue o

in happy excitement. Her whole being was cha

he open sky and great blue distances, and on this day of all days, she wanted to breathe deep of its golden air. Somewhere she had read about ai

March had slipped in quietly in the night, with a gentle breeze of wonderful softness, a quiet breeze, but one that knew its business, and long before day

by with no time for anything but this swift re-assurance. But Pearl knew that the wind and the sun and the crisp white snow, on

de up the two tin pails of lunch with which her young brothers would beguile the noontide hour. She put a button on Mary's spat, in response to her request of "Aw, say Pearl, you do this-I can't ea

r two-mile journey over the sunny, snowy road, Danny being the first to so emerge, for w

orgot to tell you-he wants you to talk to us about the city, a

biggest of the Watson b

said Pearl, "

the story, though,

ou thought yourself pretty smart

pened," asked Pear

-bleed wouldn't hurt him-though of course it was wrong to fight-but it w

ever pick a quarrel or hit harder than you need, that

ehind him and the stillness which comes after

, looking out of the window across the gleaming landscape, dotted in

long until they'r

t. It looks to me as if you will have a noisy house for quite a while yet, and I wouldn't begin to worry o

ed during school hours, moving about with joyous haste, yet with str

hink of all the sad things in life and you so sure that everything will happen right. It is to them that the

ht face, but she shook it off impatiently. She wished he

ng and then nosing around so happy now, for getting all about the bad times they had even as late as last evening. There's no use telling them there's c

two short rings came on the phone. Pearl's heart turned o

down the

e said, in

e had remembered what his voice was like, but she hadn't. It

eceiver so tightly her knuckle

the laugh in his voice, the bantering

" she sai

forgotten w

word

nearer, though

nute. Dr. Brander is on it, coming out from the city to operate for me in a very ser

oung lips close t

sand years!

hat long," he said,

his brows were lifted,

n-" his voice fell again until it seemed to whisper in he

m not surprised. Didn't

ld me!"

t with the gleam of angel's wings, and as she stood there leaning against the wall, her eyes dazzled with the glory of it, it seemed as if all the sweet so

fire. The cattle shook the water from their sun-dazzled eyes, and turned their heads away from it, but it climbed st

w birds played crack the whip outside the window; that the willow hedge, palpitating in the sunshine, beat time with its silvery branches to the music that li

leamed like olivines, but of course Pearl knew from the way he rubbed his head against her shoulder as she sat on the lounge beside him, and from the way he blinked at her-he knew, having no

og, only knew that Pearl was very happy over something. H

olor-the operation was over-apparently successful-and they were driving back to town. The other train might be late

, which awakened all the maternal instincts i

t-forever,"

"just till tomorrow-and it will be fine tom

lied, with her cheeks

u

own to earth, and that she was walking the streets of the new Jerusalem. She sang as she worked in the house, her sweet, ribbony

Day about" it had been until Bugsey had urged that it be changed to "week about," and the delicate matter in dispute now was as to the day on which the week expired. Danny, who had been doing the kindling,

g eyes shinin' like lamps, and the way she sings through the house, settin' the table or scourin' the milk pails or mendin' a coat for the boys-it don't seem natural. She's too happy, whatever its' about, and it makes me afraid for her

und with a dripping wet face, felt with a wildy swinging motion of his arms for the towel. When he ha

a row as well as any one. When she found out they had killed the cat they got from us, and tanned the skin to make a rim on a cap, you should have seen Pearl. She just cut loose on the two o

ork, with her floury hand

that-and both of them bigger'n her. Ain'

ave them our fine young Tom-and they promised all sorts to be good to him-and when Pearl saw his skin on their caps, and put it to them, they said they hadn't said it was a 'strain of tiger for their cats' they wanted, but a 'strand of tiger for their caps'-that's what made Pearl so mad." Mr. Donald said Pearl did quite right, and he told the Tuckers

ng

er

by P.

in good fai

d to make a ca

former owne

er. S.

oung Tom has not died in vain. Every cat has to die sometime, and if he had softened the Tucker's hearts-it is all right. Pearl said she wasn't real sure

er when she goes out into the world. That's awful talk for a girl especially. What

ng it down with his thumb. Leaning back in the chintz-covered rocking chair, he spread his feet out to the heat which came from the oven door, and repeated, "No fear of Pearlie-there a

up every half hour watching the thermometer, and it slippin' lower and lower, and the pan o' water on the woodpile gettin' its little slivers of ice around the edge, and when the thermometer went to thirty, I knew it was all up with the wheat, but do you think I could wake you-you

pipe from his mouth

a-sure now it was cold-you said

e laugh, but Mrs. Wat

ettin' and fumin', and you come down as cheerful

her's defense, "the crop was all right for feed, and we d

sh-them that don't fret over anything-and them that frets over every thing-that's me and you, Ma-and it works out fine-it runs about even. You've always been so sure that thi

tchin'," said Mrs. Watson. "You're an easy goin' man, John, bu

hen she put out the lamp, the moonlight seemed almost as clear as day. Silvery-mauve and blue it lay on the quiet, snowy fields, with a deeper color on the trees, as if they had wound yards and yards of the g

tchery, part of the overarching sky, with its wealth of glittering stars, part of the velvety night wind that caressed the trees in its gentle passing. Her young soul was in tune

im, save him from the hundred little worrying things that were sapping his energy. People did not understand that he ever got tired-he was so strong, so buoyant, so

ctor in, M

you want to know-step in here-so he won't hear us-h

the car-and soon she would be able to set bones and do common things like that. He would show her-and then they would go to New York-in two or th

praising him and wanting him-he would just be her man-and at night, when he was tired-and

ecstacy of joy swept over her-happy tears fille