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THE PITTSBUEG DISPATCH, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1892.
A LEMON TREE.
WBITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH BY "QUID A.
"But put it out of your bead, out of your
head, little onel" he said. "Even if the
boy should keep of the same mind, never
would Lillo consent"
"Cecco -will keep in the Bsme mind," said
Lizina, with the serene, undonbting cer
tainty of childhood, and she broke off a lit
tle twig of the lemon tree with a bud upon
it and three leaves, and gave it to Ceeco
that evening in the dusk as they tat again
upon the river wall.
It was all she had to give, except her lit
tle waking heart. The next day he went
away along the dusty high-road in his
father's cart to begin his new life. He
sobbed as if his heart would break, and
lastened in his shirt was the lemon shoot.
"To break off a uud. Oh, Lizina," cried
her father in reproof and reproach. A
bud meant a frnit, and a fruit meant a half
penny, perhaps a penny.
"It is only one," said the child, "and I
have nothing else."
Lizina did not speak of him, nor did she
seem to fret in any way. Her blithe voice
rang in clrar carol over the green river
wa'er as she at on the wall whilst her
father worked below, and she ate her dry
Dread wittt healtny ana nappy appetite.
"She is only a baby. She has forgotten
the boy already," thought tier father, half
disappointed, half-relieved, whilst he broke
up the earth about the roots of the lemon
trees, and counted the little pointed fruits
coming out on it, green as malachite, and
promising a fair crop.
No letters could arrive to stimulate her
memory, for Cecco could scarcely scrawl
his name, and Lizina could not read her A,
B, C Absence to the poor is a complete
rupture, an absolute blank, over which the
intelligence can throw no bridge.
Frincuello worked early and late, worked
like a willm; mule, and lost no chance of
doing anvthing, however hard, which could
bring in a centime, and he was so tired
when night lcll that he could do little ex
cept an allow his bread soup and fling him
self don n on his bed of dry leavesthrust
into an old sack. So that as long as Lizina's
voice as heard in song, and her little bare
feet ran busily to and lro, he noticed noth
ing else, and was content, believing all was
with her.
The winter which followed on Cecco's
departure to his military service was of un
usual rigour for the "vale of Arno; the
waters ere stormy and dark and the fields
were frozen and broun, and snow lay on
the long lines of the mountains from their
summit to their base. But the lemon tree
flourished before its narrow window, and
Lizina was well and gay in the cold little
brick-floored, plaster-walled, unceiled gar
ret; and her father asked nothing more of
Fate, and went out to hU work in the bitter
coldness and darkness of the morning dawns
with an empty stomach, but a warm heart,
leaving her sleeping, easily and dreamless
ly, curled up like a little dormouse in her
corner of the room.
The winter passed and the spring came,
making all the orchard lauds once more be
come seas of white flowers, and setting the
chaffinencs and linnets and nightingales to
work at their nests anioncst" the lovely
labyrinth ot bursting blossoms; and one
sunlit afternoon toward the close of April,
the village priest, coming alons the road bv
the nyer, saw Fringuello, who was back
ing his sand-cart into the bed of the now
shallow stream, and beckoned to him. The
priest had an open letter in his hand, and
his plump, smooth, olive face was sad.
"Dano," he said gravely, "I have some
terrible news in this paper. Lille's sou
Cecco is dead. I have to go and tell the
f.uuily. The authorities have written to
me."
He stopped suddenly, surprised by the
effect which the news had on his hearer.
"Saints protect us, how vou look!" he
cried. "One would think you were the lad'
father!"
"Is it sure? Is it true?" stammered
Fringuello.
"Aye, aye, it is true and sure enough.
The authorities write to toe," answered the
vicar with some pride. "Poor ladl Poor,
good, pretty ladl They sent him to the
Harenna marshes, and the ague and fever
got on him, and he died in the fort a week
ago. And only to think that this time last
year he was bringing me armsful of bloom
ing cherry boughs for the altar at Easter
Day. And now dead and buried! Good
lack! Far away from all his friends, poor
ladl The decrees of heaven are inscrutable,
but it is, of course, lor the best."
He crossed himself and went on his way.
Fringuello doffed his cap mechanically,
and crossed himself also, and rested against
the shaft of his cart with his face leaning
on his hands. His hope was struck down
into nothingness; the future no longer had
a smile. Though he had told himself and
them that children were fickle and unstable,
and that nothing was less likely than that
the lad wonld come back in the same mind.
he had nevertheless clnng to and cherished
the idea of such a fate lor his little
daughter with a tenacity of which he had
been unconscious until his air castle was
scattered to the winds by the words of the
riest. The boy was dead; and never would
iziua go to dwell in peace and plenty at
the old farm house by the great pine.
"It was too good to be. Patience," he
said to himself with a groan as he lifted his
head and bade the mule between the shafts
move onward. His job had to be done; his
load had to be carried; he had no leisure to
Bit down alone with his regret. "And it is
worse for Lillo than it is lor me," he said
to himself, with an unselfish thought for
the lad's lather.- He looked up at the little
window of his own attic, which he could
see afar ofi; the lemon tree was visible, and
besides it the little brown head of Lizina as
she sat sewing.
"Perhaps she will not care; I hope she
will not care," he thought.
He longed to go and tell her himself lest
she should hear it from some gossip, but
he could not leave his work. Yet, he could
not bear the child to learn it first Irom tho
careless chattering of neighboring gossips.
When he had discharged the load he
carried he fastened the mule to a post by
the water side, and said to a fellow carter:
"Will you watch him a moment whilst I
run home?" and, on the man's assenting, he
flew with lightning speed along the road
and up the staircase of his house. Lizina
dropped lifr sewing in amazement as he
burst into the room and stood on the thresh
old with a look which frightened her.
She ran to him quickly.
"Babbol Babbo! What is the matter?"
she cried to him.
Then, before he conld answer, she said
timidly, under her breath, "Is anything
wrong with Cecco?"
Then Fringuello turned his head away
and wept aloud.
He had hoped the child had forgotten.
He knew now that she had remembered
only too well. All thronch the vear which
had gone by since the departure of the
youth she had been as happy as a field
mouse undisturbed in the wheat." The grain
was not ripe yet for her, but she was sure
that it would be, and that her harvest would
be plenteous. She had always been sure,
quite sure, that Cecco would come back;and
now, in an instant, she understood that ha
was dead.
Lizina said little then or at any time; but
the little gay life of her changed, grew dull ,
seemed to shrink into itself and wither up
as a flower will when a worm is at its root.
She had been so sure that Cecco would re
turn. "She is so young; soon it will not matter
to her," her father told himself; but the
months went by and the seasons, and she
did not recover her bloom, her mirth, her
elasticitv; her small face was always grave
and pale!, She went about her work iu the
same way, and was docile, and industrious
and uncomplaining, but something was
wrong with her. She did not laugh, she
did not sing, she seldom even spoke unless
she was spoken to first. He tried to per
suade himself that there was no change in
her; but he knew that he tried to feed him
self on falsehood. He might as well hive
thought his lemon tree unaltered it he had
found it withered up by fire.
Once she said to him: "Could one walk
there ?" '
"Where, dear ? Where ?
"Where they have put Cecco,'' she ans
wered, knowing nothing of distance or
measurements or the meaning of travel and
change of place. She had never been far
ther than across the ferry to the'other bank
nf th river.
He threw up his hands in despair.
"Lord! my treasure! why it is miles and
miles and miles awayl I don't know
rightly even where somewhere the sun
goes down." -
And her idea of walking thither seemed
to him so stupifylng, so amazing, so incred
ible, that he stared at her timorously, afraid
that her brain was going wrong. He had
never gone anywhere in all his life.
"Ask how one can get there," she per
sisted,' and wound her arm about his throat,
and laid her cheek against his in her old
caressing way.
"lou are mad, little one; quite maai
said Fringuello, aghast and affrighted;
and he begged the priest to come and see
her.
The priest did come, but said sorrowfully
to him: "Were I you I would take her
down to one of the hospitals in the town:
she is ill."
He did so. He had been in town but a
few times in his whole life; she never. It
was now wintry weather; the roads were
wet, tne winds were com; tnecnuacougnea
as she walked, and shivered in her scanty
and too tbin clothes. The wise men at the
hospital looked at her hastily among a
crowd ot sick people, and said some unin
telligible words, and scrawled something
on a piece of paper a medicine, as it proved
which cost to buy more than a day of a
sand carter's wages.
"Has she really any illness?" he asked,
with wild imploring eyes, of the chemist
who made up the medicine.
Uh, no; a mere nothing, said the man
in answer; but thought as he spoke: "The
doctors might spare the poor devil's money.
When the blood is all water like that there
is nothing to be done, the life just goes out
like a wind-blown candle. Oet her good
wine, butcher's meat, plenty of nourishing
food," he added, reflecting that while there
is voutn there is nope.
The father groaned aloud as he laid down
the coins which were the price of the medi
cine. Wine! Heat! Nourishment! They
might as well have bidden him feed her on
powdered pearls and melted gold. They
got home that day footsore and wet through;
he made a little fire of boughs and vine
branches, and for the first time, ever since
it had been planted, be forgot to look at the
lemon tree.
"You are not ill, my Lizinina?" he said
eagerly; "the chemist told me it was noth
ing." "Oh, no, it is nothing," said the child,
and she spoke cheerfully, and tried to con
trol the cough which shook her from head
to foot.
Tears rolled down her father's cheeks and
fell onto the smoldering heather which he
had set alight Wine! Meat I Nounsh
mpent! the three vain words rang through
his bead all night Tney might as well
have bade him set her on a golden throne,
and call the stars down from their spheres
to circle round her.
"My poor Itttle baby!" he thought;
"never did she have a finger ache', or a win
ter chill, or an hour's discomfort, or a mo
ment's pain in mind or body until now."
"Oh, my prettv, what should we do, you
and I, in a strange place!" moaned Fringu
ello, weeping with lear at the thought of
change and with grief at the worn, fevered
face lifted up to his. "Never have I stirred
from here since I was born, nor you. To
move to and lro that is for well-to-do
folks, not for us; and when yon are so ill,
xny poor little one, that yon can scarcely
stand on your feet, if you were to die on
the way" ,
"I shall not die on.the way," said the
child firmly.
"But I know nought of the way," he
cried, wildly and plteouslv. "Never was I
in one of those strings of fire-led wagons,
nor was ever any one of my people that
ever I heard tell of; how should we ever
get there, you and I? I know not even
rightly what place it is."
"I know," said Lizina, and she took a
crumbled scrap of paper out of the breast of
her worn and frayed cotton frock. It bore
the "name of the seashore town where Cecco
had died. She had got the priest to write
it down for her. "If we show this all along
as we go people will put us ricbt until we
reach the place," she said, with that quiet
persistency which was so new in her.
Lizina, in the double cruelty of her
childhood and of her ill health, was merci
less to her father, and to the tree which had
been her companion so long. She was
possessed by the egotism of sorrow. She
was a little thing, now enfeebled and broken
by long nights without sleep and long days
without food, and her heart was set on this
one idea, which she did not reveal that
she would die down tnere and then they
would put her in the same ground with him.
This was her idea.
In the night she got up noiselessly,
whilst her father was for awhile sunk in the
deep sleep which comes after hard manual
toil, and came up to the lemon tree and
leaned her cheek against its earthen vase.
"I am sorrr to send you away, deary," she
said to it; "but there is no other way to go
to him."
Her father hid his face in his hands; he
felt helpless before her stronger will. She
would force him to do what she desired; he
knew and he trembled, for he had neither
knowledge nor means to make such a journey
as this would be, to the marsh lands in the
west, where Cecco lay.
"And the tree, the tree," he muttered.
He had seen the tree so long by that little
square window; it was part ot his life and
hers.
The thought'of its sale terrified him ai if
he were going to sell some human friend
into bondage.
"There is no other way," said Lizina,
sadly. She, too, was loath to sell the tree;
but they had nothing else to sell, and the
intense selfishness ot a fixed idea possessed
her to the exclusion of all other feeling.
Thea the cough shook her once more from
head to foot and a little froth ot blood came
to her lips.
She felt as if it must understand and must
feel wounded. Then she broke off a little
branch a small one with a few flowers on
it "That is lor him," she said to it; and
she stood there stupidly with the moon
light pouring in on her and the lemon tree
through the little square hole of the win
dow. When she got back to her bed she
was chilled to the bone, and she stuffed the
rough sacking of her coverture between her
teeth, to stop the coughing which might
wake her father. She had put the little
branches of her lemon tree into the broken
pitcher which stood by her at night to slake
ner thrist
"Sell it, Babba, quick, quick," she said
in the morning. She was afraid her strength
wonld not last for the journey, but sbe did
not say so. She tried to seem cheerful he
thought her better.
But she was so young, and had been al
ways so strong, he thought, this would pass
before long;' and she would be herself again
brisk, brown, agile, mirthful, singing at
the top of her voice as she ran through the
lines of the cherry trees. He denied him
self everything "to get her food, and left
himself scarce enough to keep the spark of
life in him. He sold even his one better
suit ot clothes and his one pair ot boots;
but sbe had no appetite, and, perceiving
his sacrifice, took it so piteously to heart
that it made her worse.
7b be continued to-morrow.
Pebfeot aotfon and perfect health result
from the use of Da Witt's Little Early Bfcers.
A perfect little pill. Very small; verysuer
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V 11 1
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PITTSBURGH AGENTS!
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ie28-M7
TO-DAY ALL N
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$k4
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PLACEl
JJ
"
T
NORTH HIGHLAND AV.
EAST END.
-
-WHERE A LIMITED NUMBER OF-
-
The
M
OS
Charming
Are B
Residence Sites in All the City
eing Offered For Sale.
LJELLA PALACE mlDraces I2 acres f nicely-rolling ground, situated fronting Highland Avenue, near Highland Park and the
...-.-.. v.v.w,, .j ..w mv j. uui, juuii n- uo .uuju uv.iuu ai a, ousi ji piuu,uj yji iiiuiim, ctuia w uc x 111UU.CI ui dl U11I-
tectural beauty. The tract is subdivided into 5 7 large, well-proportioned, evenly-graded lots, fronting on broad curbed, asphaltum paved and sewered ave
nues and streets, bounded by wide concrete sidewalks, with spaces on either side of the same for shade trees and borders of grass.
The Plan is bounded on three sides by Highland avenue, Bryant street and Callowhill street, and bisected by Elgin avenue, Euclid avenue, St. Clair
street, Mellon street, Mildred alley (36 ft. wide), Azimuth alley and Maringo alley. In addition to a choice frontage, each lot has a roomy, convenient rear
outlet. The systern of sewerage is most elaborate and complete, reaching to every lot. The grading of the grounds, as well as of the streets and alleys, evi
dences a feat of engineering skill. The curbing, paving and sidewalking are of the most durable and artistic kind.
EASY AGGESS, GRAND OUTLOOK, HEALTHFUL AIR, NO FOGS.
By a graduaHnciine an elevation is reached here above the unhealthy fogs and dampness of the lower
vallev. where the air is alwa-vQ nnrp nnrl p-vl-iilorat-inrr nnJ fmm -Ua ...:j 1 i : : !.. i
j' - j" 1 -" ""..miS, aim Hum wjiuuia. 0. wiuc ana picdbing view is ourainea
I over the richest scenery in the East Liberty district Bryant street intersects Highland avenue at the corner
o- 1.1 j a hi "."'v"s" "- uavtiacu uy uic , .LyuLiuebiic jciectnc nne, me cars marKea
'Highland Avenue being through cars, and the Bryant Street line issuing for a single fare transfer tickets
over anv of the three cable and elertrin linet sn rrmt- it ma K triif-tifullir o-,,M !,... oil .. ji.. :j
8 ' . . ' -" - ""j " .a uui.uuy jalu tuai au casi WctlUlV IdUlU
transit lines lead to and from LUELLA PLACE.
THE ST. GLAIR STREET INLET TO THE PARK.
Within a brief period St Clair street, running from North to South, and dividing the Plan near its cen
ter, will be opened and finished into the Park and extended to Penn avenue, in East Liberty. It is proposed
to make St Clair one of the finest drivewavsanrl rcir1nrv cf-f-c in n riht nnA ; ,:ii .- ..l.
u. ,, , - , r , ,1 . --....v. i.xx.v.w ... ' y-, """ " "1" 3UUU UJlIipClC Willi
I Highland avenue for the fashionable travel to and from Pittsburg's favorite resort
NEGLEYAVE., THE GREAT INTER-RIVER THOROUGHFARE.
Lies two squares west of LUELLA PLACE, and will be tapped within that distance by both Elgin avenue
and Callowhill street, adding greatly to the accessibility of the property, particularly from the North, to its at
tractiveness, and immeasurably to its future value
PRICES, TERMS, RESTRICTIONS, Etc.
A computation of the cost of the work on and under these grounds will conclusively demonstrate the
fact that the prices at which lots are quoted are notably low, as cohipared with values held on rough land in
the same vicinity or of a similar class. Everything has been done with a liberal hand to fit the grounds per
fectly for residences and to protect buyers from assessments and contingent expenses, which usually add
heavily to the first cost.
TERMS OF PAYMENT will be made to suit any reasonable demands of purchasers, and building
restrictions, such as to preserve the high character of the neighborhood, will be enforced.
STEADY ENHANCEMENT' OF VALUES IN
LUELLA PLACE
Is assured, and purchases made at the original figures, now ready for presentation, will yield undoubted
profits in resales a short time hence. No other quarter of the city is making such rapid progress in improve
ments and development, and no other quarter presents equal inducements to those in quest of homes or of
investments alone.
A neat
tendance.
office has been erected on the grounds, where representatives will be found in daily at-
FOB LITHOGRAPHED PLANS (SHOWING A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF JIIGIIL, AND PARK), PRICE-LISTS AND FURTHER PARTICULARS, APPLY TO
JOHN ITITE, Owner, "berty ave. .or to. OHAELE8 SOMERS & CO., A g-ntia. fourth ave.
TT-nTTm -.- . -T --i-,..,., . . '
3x but jjUK Afl .AJUflllTAULK TLAfl UP SEE THAT .DESIGNED BY NATURE.X- j
812541
