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10
THE COURIER.
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A SPRING MORNING.
On the road that leads from the vil
lage as one goes along the ridge one may
notice about midway of the ridge and on
the left aide a scraggly old apple tree
with uncommonly pink blossoms. The
lane turns off by that apple tree. At
the end of the lane is one of the smallest
cottages ever built. All over the front
door honeysuckle and wisteria vine
grow, and in the little front yard
are holly hocks bending their tall stalks
and syringa and lilac bu6b.es that over
shadow the eaves of the house. The
grass grows its finest, thickest and
greenest there, and in the shady corners
under the rose bushes and willow trees.
the violets bloom late in the spring.
Down behind the cottage stretch
meadows, cool and green, a wheatfield, a
bit of stately and shadowy pineland and
winding far down below, a clear silvery
river. On the right side a fragrant,
pink and white apple orchard slopes
down the hill and a clump of cherry
and plumb trees gleams snowy white
from the foot.
Aunt Letty loved to Bit on the little
back porch of the cottage and look
across the river to the low hills beyond
but little Susan liked better to play in
the apple orchard on the soft blue grass
which grew so close to t le great dark
trunks of the trees.
One morning Aunt Letty finished
wiping the last dish, hung up the white
dish towel, untied her largo checked
apron and stepped to the door. She
shaded her eyes from the bright sun
and drew a long breath of the fragrant
cool air.
"SuBan,"sbe called shrilly, "Susan!"
A thin little girl about nine yeareold
came running down the narrow path
from the orchard. She carried a ragged
doll by the feet. Her sunbonnet was
hanging on her back and her brown hair
was mussed into tiny waves and curls
about her head. Aunt Letty pursed her
lips. Aunt Letty had thin lipa. Her
nose was thin too and sharp at the end.
Her shiny black hair was smoothed
straight back into a little knot. It was
black and shiny. She held herself
very straight and stiff and her thin
figure looked taller than it was.
"Come in now," she Baid" to Susan.
-How you've mussed youreelf. Seems
like I can't keep your aprons clean
and your hair combed."
Susan walked soberly into the house
"and sat down in a chair by the window,
letting her doll fall on the floor.
' "Can I go out in a minute again," she
asked.
"No,"' her aunt answered. "I want you
to take this jelly and doughnuts down
to ol' Mis' Spencer. Sho's ailin' agin, 1
hear."
" She came up to Susan with a comb
'and began to comb her hair.
Susan drew her mouth into a little
round pucker and winked very fast and
hard. Aunt Letty brushed the tangled
brown mass of curls vigorously ana then
combed through the snarls with a smart
'hand as Susan winced and flinched un
der the strokes.
She braidea the little girl's hair with
quick, jerky pulls and tied each stiff
braid with a stout black thread, then
she reached up to the corner of the
looking glass and took down Susan's
"yellow hair ribbons, her second best
one's.
Susan sat still on the high, stiff
backed chair, tapping the thick toes of
her shoes together while Aunt Letty
rubbed her face with a soapy cloth and
buttoned -a clean red and whits apron
around her neck. "Say to Mis' Spencer
that 1 hope she's better an' will she
accept these things. Don't waste time
now, (handing Susan the basket) an'
come home after Mis' Spencei takes the
things.
The little girl clumped noisily across
the bare kitchen floor in her heavy shoes
"The Prince of Geoigia" is the open
ing article of the July Harper's. It is,
of course, idle to conjecture how effect
ive Mr. Ralph's early newspaper train
ing has been as a factor in his literary
success. Mr. Smaller, it 6ecmE, is in-
itself, and it is sufficient here to note
how forcibly some of Mr. Smalley's
thoughts in modern journalism are Il
lustrated by the peculiarly human and
realistic qualities of Mr. Ralph's story.
The sharp and quick insight of charac-
FIRST OF AERONAUT&
I fx
JCLIAS RALPH
clined to find some truth in the historic
remark of M. Theirs, who once observ
ed that journalism was a very good pro
fession if you cot out of it soon enough.
It would bo interesting to have Mr.
Ralph's own views; in the meantime,
however, his work must speak for
ter, the keenness of wide awake obser
vation, and the tendency to write natur
ally and concisely merits which Mr.
Ralph undoubtedly possesses can rea
sonably be set down as products of
habits necessarily cultivated by thought
ful workers iu the newspaper profession.
and trudged away down the little path
through the orchard. "Pick a bokay
o' apple blossoms as jou go through,
Susan,' Aunt Letty called. "Mis' Spen
cer's didn't bloom this year." She
shaded her eyes with her thin hand and
watched the little red and white figure
and the bright blue sun Donnot disap
pear in the apple blossoms. Then she
walked down the path to a syringa bush
which grew in the center between four
white bee hives, and broke off a branch.
She brushed the droning bees from the
star-like flowers and turned back to the
house. She put the syringa in a broken
white dish on the kitchen table with
some honeysuckle which she had picked
from the trellis outside and then sat
down by the open window where a lilac
bush bent under the weight of its pur
ple blossoms. She smoot'ied her hair
back with her hand and then began to
overcast a long seam in a pie:e of white
cloth.
Outside in the brightness of the warm
sun tne air was heavy with the perfume
of spring Sowers. The robins and wrens
sang and quarrelled among themselves,
for they were nesting. The bee3 buzzed
and dron3d busily about the flowers and
in the distance the clear whistle of some
farm boy could be heard above the rum
ble of a wagon.
Hakriet Cooke.
So Wonder lt' a L'raie.
The silver question, as it is under
stood In some parts of Kentucky, ia
graphically Illustrated by a letter
which one of the statesmen at the cap
itol received from a correspondent In
that state. It appears from this epis
tolary evidence that a controversy was
being waged between a sound-money
man and a silver champion. The gold
man thought he had the best of the
argument He asked his adversary why
he thought that the free coinage of sil
ver would make times better. .
"Simply because it would put mora
money in circulation," said the white
metal crank.
"But how will it put more money in
circulation? " demanded the gold man.
"How?" asked the sll vrr man, with a
smile of contempt at his opponent
"How? Why, you blamed fool, if you
can take one gold dollar to the treas
ury and get sixteen dollars for it, won't
'that increase the circulation?" Pitta
barf Dlspatcb
The German Emperor' ;iillrtre.
How the German emperor will bring
up his only daughter is no subject
of wonderment to the Berliners. They
know that, princess as she is, she will
be taught to be a good housewife, to
sew, to cook perhaps, and to order din
ner certainly. For the sovereign's ideal
woman is a strictly domestic person,
as his ideal man is a stout soldier. His
little boys haven't much fun in their
daily lives. Concerning these lives the
Sketch says: In the Spartun upbring
ing of his children the kaistr rivals his
ancestor, Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia.
According to Klausmann's "Leben in
Deutschen Kaiserkaus," the life of the
royal children of Berlin Is not sweet
ened by hours of inactivity. In their
years of infancy the kaiserin ministers
to almost all their wants, spends a
good part of the day with them and
enters into all their amusements, When
the princes arrive at the age of 9 things
are all changed and it is all work.
They are then allowed about an hour
and half out of their waking hours to
themselves; all the rest of their day
is spent In study and physical training.
Even in holiday time their tutors ac
company them to superintend their
studies. Philadelphia Ledger
Manchard Sailed In Air Before BaIloM
Were Made.
Eighty-five years ago there died in
Paris, Blanchard, the first man to gain
celebrity as a balloonist, says the New
York Mail and Express. He was born
in 1738 and before the balloon was in
vented he had navigated the air in an
atmospheric machine of his own inven
tion, which was propelled with oars
and which attained a height above
ground of about eighty feet. Blanch
ard made his first ascent in a balloon
at Paris, March 2, 1784. On January 7,
1785, he crossed the English channel
in a balloon, accompanied by Dr. Jef
fries. Under the circumstances it was
a feat of great daring. The aeronauts
the trip ended cast away everything
but the basket under the balloon, and
were about to cut it away when they
were carried over the town of Calais
and finally dropped in a forest The
officials of Calais gave Blanchard a
dinner, presented to him papers of citi
zenship in a gold box, gave him $1,200
for his balloon and a pension of $125
yearly. The king of France also pen
sioned him. Blanchard boasted that
he had risen 13,000 feet higher than
any aeronaut of his time. He made
sixty ascensions, the last one causing
his death. His wife continued the
business after him and was killed by a
fall from a balloon in 1819. Albert of
Saxony, a Dominican monk, Is credited
with having formed the first correct
Idea of building balloons early in the
fourteenth century, but his ideas never
took practical shape. While the scien
tists were working ou the question in
1783 the brothers MontgolflVr, paper
Kiakers, near Lyons, made and sent up
the first balloon on June 5. This bal
loon was made of linen, was 315 feet in
circumference and rose 1,600 feet It
was filled with heated air. About three
months later Prof. Charles sent up his
balloon, called a "Charllere." It trav
eled some miles from the starting and
fell in a village. The peasants re
garded it as a living monster, and fell
upon it with pitchforks and flails and
tore it to pieces, to the loss and disgust
of its owner.
The first living things to leave the
earth in a balloon were a sheep, a hen
and a duck. They landed safely ana
the sheep was found grazing. The first
ascent in a hydrogen balloon was made
by Prof. Charles In Paris, Dec 1, 1783.
She Wanted to Know, HowaTar.
Amusing Journal' "Now, dear, 1
have one favor to asJfc of you."
"It is granted."
"Then please don't tell me that you
have never loved before, that you
never dreamed that you could love,
that I'm the only girl you have been
engaged to, that "
He (interrupting) "I won't"
She (anxiously)- -"But you bava
never been engaged before, have you,
dear?"
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