Rose of Old Harpeth

ent to the Lord and no special glorification to yourself. He instuted your first one Himself, and I see no h

that as the Lord has granted her her fourscore years by reason of great strength, she oughtn't to remind Him that He has forgotten her by having an eighty-second birthday. Everybody in Sweetbriar has been looking forward to it

left out in the making up of a woman's mind, one way or another. Can't you kinder pervail with your Aunt Viney some? I've got a real hanker

"Sister Viney has consented in her mind about the party, all along of a verse I was just now a-reading to her in our morning lesson. Saint Luke says: 'It is meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive again,' and at the same minute the recollection of how sick Mr. Mark has been hit us both. 'There now,' she says, 'you folks can jest go on with that party to-day for the benefit of our young brother Everett's coming to so good after all his suff

Rucker, and then we will begin right away to

when I told him he couldn't come, 'cause they wasn't a-going to be no party on account of worrying the Lord about forgetting Aunt Viney, and I was jest a-going to knock him into stuffings, 'cause they can't nobody say 'shoo' at the Bible or Aunt Viney neither, to me, when there Aunt Viney called for us to go tell everybody that the party wa

Amanda, with real relief at this deliverance of young Tobe, who was her e

o slow with you," and presenting his sturdy little shoulder to Miss Amanda on one side and drawi

s to pester with the affairs of Sweetbriar to the extent Stonie and the sisters, Rose Mary, too, are a-giving Him the credit of doing looks like we might be a-getting more'n our share of His attentions. I reckon by the time He gets all the women a

Biddies, Mr. Alloway?" asked Everett, as he stood in the

f all the wild young asses a-galloping over the world and would throw 'em in His own time. Well, I hear you're a-going to get a soch

with a delightful laugh. "Here's a pan of delicacies for the hens, and this bucket is for you

or posts. Uncle Tucker was himself tall, but slightly bent, lean and brown, with great, gray, mystic eyes that peered out from under bushy white brows. Long gray locks curled around his ears and a r

reckon you can't get on to your rock-picking in the fields now, but you really hadn't ought

?" asked Everett as he looked keenly at Uncle Tucker, while he lit his

oo busy to notice him much 'cept to ask him in to dinner. He couldn't seem to manage his chicken dumplings for feeding his eyes with Rose Mary, and he didn't have time to give up much information about sech little things as oil-we

les. Everett was tall, broad and muscular, but thin almost to gauntness, and his face habitually wore the expression of deep weariness. His eyes were red-brown and disillusioned, except when they joined with his well-cut mouth in a smile that brought an almost boyish beauty back over

ed Uncle Tucker, again bringing him back to the subject in hand. "D

Maybe Rose Mary knows. Women generally carry a reticule around with 'em jest to poke

out the grease cans, with the evident intention of puttin

. In fact, I had tried to come to look over the fields just to kill time when I nearly killed myself and fell down upon you. Do you suppose he could have sent the pro

as the necks of even private liquor bottles. Gid's not to say a teetotaler, but he had to climb into the bandwagon skiff or sink outen sight. He's got to tie down his seat in the state house with a white ribbon, and he's got no

wheel, in Stonewall Jackson's young voice, which held in it quite a trace of Miss Lavinia's decisive tone of command. Stonie stood in the barn door, poised for instant return along the path of duty to the front walk,

l fall down." And as he raced up the path Everett followed almost as rapidly, urged on by the vision of Rose Mary droo

s she lowered herself and a great bunch of budding honeysuckle down into Everett's upstret

from letting that s

told you about it at the time, Tucker," said Miss Lavinia with a stern glan

da about the readjustment of the fragrant vine that trailed across the end of the porch over her window and on out to a trellis in the side yard.

It comes plumb from the roots, and I don't want to have to look at a wild-growin

nswered Miss Amanda in her sweet little quaver that sounded li

l be a-wanting mine, and I'll have to cut 'em out and give 'em to you, I s

n a meditative tone of voice. "And that would be the thing about my getting the new teeth. Don't either of you need 'em, and it would be selfish of me

manda propitiatingly. "I've been a-bending ov

Mary, who had given the armful of vine to Everett to hold while Uncle Tucker tied

most sixty years now. Mr. Lovell brought it by to Ma one spring as he hauled his summer groceries over the Ridge to Warren County. By such care it's never died down yet, and I have made it

. Mr. Lovell came into the fold with that very first night's preaching, and we all were rejoiced. Don't you remember he brought you that Maiden Blush rose-bush over there at the same time he brought this vine to Ma? And one bloom came out on the

his spade and looked away across the garden wall, where the little yard of graves was hid in the shadow of tall pine trees, and his big eyes grew very tender. Miss Lavinia fingered a shoot of the vine that had fallen across her

rate glance toward the barn, his deserted haven, Uncle Tucker fell to with his spade, while Everett obtained a fork from the tool house and put himself under command. Rose Mary was sharply recalled and sent into t

ia from her rocker. "They are Rose Mary's I planted the identical day she was born, a

close vicinity, "it don't do to pay too much attention to women's bleeding-hearts; let alone, they'll tie 'em up in their own courage and go on

kled nose appeared just above the top plank, only slightly in advance of that of small Peggy's. "Mis' Poteet'

s to wait until it's wanted. Didn't neither one of you all get here on anybody's birthday but your own." Uncle Tucke

command from the rocker post of observation. "You know Ma didn't ever let that bush be touched after

as he turned his attention to the rose-bushes at which his apprentice had been pegging away. "At weddings and bornings a

e was about to be exhausted, that a summons from Rose Mary c

all Jennie with long and infinite patience. Miss Lavinia's commendations threw both donor and constructor into an agony of bashfulness from which Pete took refuge in Rose Mary's skirts and Jennie behind her mother's chair. But at this juncture the arrival on the scene of action of young Bob Nickols with a whole two-horse wagon-load of pine cones, which the old lady doted on for the freshing up of the tiny fires always kept

hickory-nut countenance and a luscious peach of a heart, and, though of bachelor condition, he at all times displayed sympathetic and intuitive domestic inclinations. He kept the Sweetbriar store and was thus in position to know of the small economies practised by the two old ladies in the matter of personal necessities. For the months past they had not bought the quantity of lubricating remedies that he considered sufficient and this had been his tactful way of supplying enough to last for some time to come. And from over the pile of gifts heaped a

or Sister Viney's birthday," exclaimed Uncle Tucker, as amid genero

pearance through the front door, impelled by the motive power of Mr. Mark Everett's elegantly white-flannel-tr

afternoon refreshment, having been succeeded by the imported custom of tea and scones or an elaborate menu of reception indigestibles, but in the Valley nothing had ever threatened the supremacy of the frozen cream and white-frosted confection. The men all sat on the end of the long

d. "It reminds me of 'the snow, the snow what falls from Heaven to earth below,' and keeps a-falling." Mr. Rucker was a poet at heart

now. Lands alive, the sun has set and we all know Miss Viney oughter be in the house. Shoo, everybody go home to save your manners!" And with hearty laughs and further good-by congratulations the happy little company of farmer folk scattered to their own roof trees

un with the mounting of the chickens to their roosts. Miss Lavinia sat with her hands folded in her lap over a collection of the smaller gifts of the afternoon and her eyes looked far away cross the Ridge, di

sed up a new crop outen their seed for me. This rheumatism buckeye here is the present of the great grandson of my first beau, and this afternoon I have looked into the kind eyes of some of my friends dead and gone many a day, and have seen smiles come to life that have been buried fifty years. I'm a-feeling thankf

that Rose Mary came out of the house, which was dark and sleep-quiet,

ide him and leaned her dark head back against one of

king up at him with reflected stars in her lon

ary; "yes, it was a nice party. I seriously doubt if anywhere on any of the known continents there could have been one just like it pulle

en them and the direct rays. They are strangely like flowers, too, with their quaint fragrance. Aunt Viney is my tall purple flag, but Aunt Amandy is my bed of white cinnamon pinks. I-I want to ke

nted," said Everett in a guardedly comforting voice. "And what are Mr.

nd train up just like him," answered Rose Mary with a quick laugh. "You're my new-fashioned crimson-rambler from out over the

at her. "And you, Rose Mary, are the bloom of every rose-bush that I ever saw

are blooming on lovely tall stems, where they have planted themselves deep in home places and are drinking the Master's love and courage from both sun and ra