Sarah Returns Home to Her Father

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And make laundry day easier with two in one washer dryer combo innovation that completes laundry in about ninety minutes Shop topop brand appliances now at the Home Depot. offer about june seventeenth to julyih US NNC Store online for details. My name's Otis Gray you're listening to sleepy podcast where I read old books to help you get to sleep And this is a midwek short story for you It's a night story is u from an author that we know and love Hello, Montgomery O if that is unfamiliar at all at the moment And of Green gables, of course, I've read a lot of Ell. Montgomery in the show before This is a brand new story a short story collection that I think you're really going to like Before we get to the bedtime reading, I just want to profoundly thank all of our patrons on patreon. com, which is a site where you can pledge a couple bucks for an ad free version of sleepy and be a part of making this show So If you're a patron, I cannot thank you enough. You really are the reason that this show keeps going. So thank you. And if you've never heard this before Um Patrons of Sleepy donate small amounts a dollar, two dollars, five dollars a month in exchange for cool perks two dollars gets you access to the Ad free version of the show. five dollars gets you access to our poetry feed. All kinds of episodes you've never heard before. Um, but even a dollar means so much to me. And uh, Even a dollar, any amount I'll read your name on the credits of our next Sunday show after you do So if you would like to join the many sleepy listeners who are a part of making the show You can do that by going to patreon. com slash sleepy radio Thank you And as always, the music you're hearing is by my good friend James Ludkowski And the cover of for Sleepy is by Gracie Canan. Tonight. This was such a sweet. sweet story to read just I really A little story that melts your heart Really, really beautiful. All of Ellen Montgomery's writing is so scenic and u Yeah, atmospheric, I guess U Most of it taking place in Northeastern Canada and this is One of the short stories in the Chronicles of Avonley Um And I never read this one before. But I just love all the vignettes And I love how after reading a lot of Ella Montgomery You kind of piece them all together into one world And Yeah, there's this just gorgeous Universe been created U, Anne of Green Gables being the most famous of them. but u It just feel so inhabited. by real people experiencing real Friendship and heartbreak and love and all these things and It's just gorgeous. I love reading Montgomery And this story is a really wonderful one about Dad and his daughter So I hope you like going to sleep to it S name Without further ado This is a short story Old manan Shaw's girl by L.M Montgomery And now is the time for you The fluff of your pillow. justust a't like it Feel yourself melt into your bed. V real comfortable. Close your ey And let me read to you. Old man Shaw's girl after tomorrow tomorrow, said old Manshaw rubbing his long, slender hands together Gleefully I have to keep saying it over and over. so as to really believe it It seems far too good to be true. that I'm to have blossom again. and everything is ready Yes, I think everything is ready exxcept a bit of cooking And won't this orchard be a surprise to her I'm just going to bring her out here as soon as I can Never saying a word I'll fet her through the spruce lane. and when we come to the end of the path I'll step back, casual light and let her go out from under the trees alone Never suspecting It'll be worth ten times the trouble to see her big brown eyes Op wide and hear her say Oh, daddy Why Daddy He rubbed his hands again and laughed softly to himself. He was a tall, bent old man whose hair was snow white whose face was fresh and rosy. His eyes were a boy's eyes Lge, blue and merry and his mouth. and never got over a youthful trick of smiling. at any provocation and ofimes at no provocation at all. T be sure. White sands people would not have given you the most favorable opinion in the world of O Mansshaw First and foremost They would have told you that he was shiftless. And I'd let his bit of farm run out while he pottered with flowers and bugs, or rambled aimlessly about in the woods or read books along the shore Perhaps it was true. But the old farm yielded him a living And further than that Old manan Shaw I have no ambition He was his blight Pilgrim on a pathway climbing to the west He had learned the rare secret They must take happiness when you find it. that there is no use in marking the place and coming back to a at a more convenient season because It will not be there that And it is very easy to be happy if you know. as oldld Man Shaw most thoroughly knew. How to find pleasure in littleittle things Enjoyed life You'd always enjoyed life. and helped others to enjoy. Consequently His life was a success. whatever white sands people might think of it What if he had not improved his farm There are some people to whom life will never be anything more than a kitchen garden. And there are others Tom it will always be a royal palace domes and minaretes of rainbow fancy the orchard of which He was so proud was as yet little more than a substance of things hoped for a flourishing plantation of young trees which would amount to something later on Old M Shaw's house was on the crest of a bare sunny hill. with a few staunch old furs. Bruce is behind The only trees that could resist the full sweep of the winds bitterly up from the sea at times Fit trees would never grow neare it And this had been a great grief to Sarah Oh Daddy If we could just have an orar Kib and want to say wissfully when other farmhouses and white sand were smothered whitely in apple bloom And once she had gone away and her father had nothing to look forward to save her return. He was determined She should find an orurn When she came back over the southward Hm. warmly sheltered by spruce woods and sloping to the sunshine was a little feel So fertile that all the slack management of a lifetime and not availed to Ehausta Here Old Man Shaw set out his orchar. and saw it flourish Wing and tending it until he came to know each tree as a child and loved it His neighbors laughed at him and so that the fruit of an orchard so far away from the house would all be stolen But as yeah There was no frit And when the time came for bearing There would be enough and despair Blossom and we'll get all he want. And the boys can have the rest if they wantem worsen They want a good conscience. said that unworldly, unbus likeke old manhaw On his way back home from his darling orchard You found a rare fern in the woods and dug it up for Sarah She had loved Ferns You plananted it the shady sheltered side of the house and then sat down on the old bench by the garden gate to read her last letter. The letter, that was only a note because she was coming home soon He knew every word of it by heart that did not spoil the pleasure of rereading it every half hour Old man Shaw and not married until late in late And. So white sand's people said selected a wife with his usual judgment which being interpreted. Mant no judgment at all Owise, They would never have married Sarah Glover A mere slip of a girl brrown eyes like a frightened wood creatures and the delicate Fleeting blloom of a spring mayflower The last woman in the world for a farmer's wife No strength or get up about her Neither could white sandsfolk understand what on eararth Sarah Glover had married him for. Well, the full crop was the only one. That never fail Old manan Shaw He was old man Shaw even then although he was only forty and his girl bride had troubled themselves not at all about White Sand's opinions They had one year. Perfect happiness. which is always worth living for Even if the rest of life be a dreary pilgrimage And then old M Shaw found himself alone again except for little blossom She was christened Sarah after her dead mother But she was always blossomed to her father the precious little blossom, whose plucking had cost the mother her light Sarah Gloververss people especially a wealthy aunt in Montreal. had wanted to take the child. But old Manshaw grew almost fierce over the suggestion He would give his baby to no one A woman was hired to look after the house But it was the father who cared for the baby in the manaine He was as tender and faithful as a woman Sarah never missed a mother's care And she grew up into a creature of life and light and beauty cononstant delight to aller She had a way of embroidering life with stars She was dowered with all the charming characteristics of both parents with a resilient vitality and activity which had pertained to neither of them When she was ten years old, She pack all hirelings off and kept the house for her father for six delightful years. yearsars in which they were father and daughter Brother and sister and Chnms Sarah never went to school But her father sought to her education a fashion of his own when their work was done They lived in the woods and fields And in the little garden they' made on the sheltered side of the house or on the shore where sunshine and storm were to them equally lovely and beloved Never was comradeship more perfect or more wholly satisfactory. just wrapped up in each other. said White Sandansfok half enviously disisapprovingly When Sarah was sixteen, Mrs. Ader The wealthy own Acent Pounce down on white sands in a glamour of fashion and culture and outer worldliness She bombarded old Man Shaw with such arguments that he had to scum It was a shame that a girl like Sarah should grow up in a place like Whiteand withith no advantages. And no education said Mrs. Adair, scornfully notot understanding that wisdom and knowledge do entirely different things At least let me give my dear sister's child what I would have given my own daughter if I had had one pleaded tearfully Let me take her with me and send her to a good school for a few years. then. if she wishes She may come back to you Courts Privately Mrs. Aair did not for a moment believe that Sarah would want to come back to White Sands and her queer old father A three years of life. She would give her Old Man Shaw yielded. influence thereto, not at all by Ms. Adair's readily flowing tears Gry by his conviction that justice to Sarah de Mandeda Sarah herself did not want to go. protested and pleaded But her father having become convinced that it was best for her to go was inexorable. Everything even her own feelings must give way to that But she was to come back to him without l or hindrance when her schooling was done It was only on having this most clearly understood that Sarah would consent to go at all Her last words called back to her father There her tears. As she and her aunt drove down the lane were I'll go back, Daddy In three years, I'll be back Cry But just look forward to that Yeah had looked forward to it through the three long, lonely years that followed and all of which he never saw his darling Half a continent was between them And Mrs. A Dare and vetoed vacation visits under some speciious pretense But every week brought its letter from Sarah Old man Shaw had every one of them tied up with one of her old blue hair ribbons in her mother's little rosewood work box in the parlor He spent every Sunday afternoon. for you reading them with her photographed before him He lived alone reffusing to be pastd with kind help But he kept the house in beautiful order Better housekeeper than farmer. So white sandspeople He would have nothing altered. When Sarah came back Sheoo was not to be hurt by changes and never occurred to him But she might be changed herself And now those three interminable years were gone. And Sarah was coming home She wrote him nothing of her aunt's pleadings and reproaches and ready futile tears She wrote only that she would graduate in June. and start for home a week later Thenceforth, Old man Shaw went about in a state of beatitude making ready for her homecing As he sat on the bench in the sunshine blue sea sparkling and crinkling down at the foot of a green slope He reflected with satisfaction that all was in perfect order There was nothing left to do Save count the hours until that beautiful, longed for day after tomorrow He gave himself over to a reverie as sweet as a daydream in a haunted valley The red roses were out in bloom Sarah had always loved those red roses They were as vivid as herself with all her own fullness of light. Enjoy a living And besides these, A miracle had happened in Old Manshaw's garden In one corner was a rose bush which had never bloomed despite all the coping they had given her The sulky rose busush Sarah had been wanting to call it Heo The summer had flung the hoorded sweetness of years into plentiful white blossoms like shallow ivory cups with a haunting, spicy fragrance It was an honor of Sarah's homecoming It's old man job like to fancy All things Even the salky rose bush. knew she was coming back And we're making glad because of it. He was gloating over Sarah's lighter When Mrs. Peter blew it came She told him had run out to see how he was getting on And if you wanted anything seen to for Sarah Cane No, man' Thank you now Everything is attended to I couldn't let anyone else prepare for blossom Oly to think, ma' She'll be home the day after tomorrow I'm just filled to clear through body, soul, and spirit But joy to think of having my little blossom at home again Mrs. Bluitt smiled sourly When Mrs. Bluitt smiled They foretokened trouble and wise people had learned have sudden business elsewhere before the smile could be translated to words But old man Chaw had never learned to be wise where Mrs. Bluittt was concerned although she had been his nearest neighbor for years and had pestered his life out with advice. in neighborly turns. Mrs. Blleuitt was one with whom life had gone awry The effect on her was to render happiness to other people, a personal insult. She resented Old Man Shaw's beaming delight in his daughter's return And she considered it her duty to rub the bloom off straight away Do you think Sarah' be contented in white sands now She asked Old Manshaw looked slightly bewildered Of course she'll be contented He said slowly isn' into her home And ain't I here? Blitt smiled again double distilled contempt for such simplicity It's a good thing. You're so sure of it, I suppose If it was my daughter That was coming back to White sand After three years of fashionable life among rich, stylish folks And that's Swell score I wouldn't have a minute's peieace of mind I know perfectly well That she looked down and everything here I'd be discontented and miserable Your daughter, my, said Old Manshaw with more sarcasm than he had supposed he had possessed Lasam all Mrs. Blitt shrugged her sharp shoulders Maybe not It is to be hoped for For both your psyes, I'm sure But I'd be worried Iftw was me. S has been living among fine folks. and having a gay exciting time. And it stands to reason she'll think White sand' fearful, lonesome, and dull Look at Loretta Bradley She was up in Boston for just a month last winter And she's never been able to endure white sand sins Beretta Bradley and Sarah Shaw two different people. So Sarah's father. tryrying to smile And your house too pursued Mr. Blet ruthlessly It's such a queer Little older place What el doesse she think of it? after her aunt I've heard her tell Miss Adair lives in a perfect palace I'll just warn you kindly that Sar will probably look down on you And you might as well be prepared for it course I suppose she kind of thinks she has to come back Seeing she promised you so solemn, if you what But I'm certain she doesn't want to And I don't blame her either Even Mrs. Blueet had to stop for breath. and old Man Shaw found his opportunity He had listened dazed and shrinking as if she were dealing him physical blows But now a swift change swept over him His blue eyes flashed ominously Straight into Ms. Bluitt's straggling Farity grreay orbs If you're said to say Martha Bluitt you can go. You said passionately I'm not going to listen to another such word Take yourself out of my sigh and your malicious tongue out of my hearing Mrs. Bluittt went Too dumbfounded by such an unheard of burst and mild old man shw to say a word of defense or attack Once she had gone Old man, Sha The fire all faded from his eyes sank back on his bench His delight was dead His heart was full of pain and bitterness Martha Bluer was a warped and ill natured woman But he feared there was altogether too much truth in what she said Why had I never thought of it before? Of course, white sands would seem dull and lonely to blossom. Of course, the little grey house where she was born would seem a poor abode after the splendourors of her aunt's home Old manan Sha through his garden did everything with new eyes. pooor and simple everything was How sagging and weatherbe in the old house. He went in and upstairs to Sarah's room It was neat and clean just as she had left three years ago but it was small and dark The ceiling was discolored The furniture old fashioned and shabby. She would think it a mean, poor place Even the orchard over the hill brought him no comfort now blossom would not care for orchards She would be ashamed of her stupid old father in the Barren farm She would hate white sand and chaf at the dull existence and look down on everything that went to make up his an uneventful life Old manan Shaw was unhappy enough that night. to have satisfied even Mrs. Bloan. H you know He saw himself as he thought white sand folks must see him Poor Syphless. Fool this old man Is it only one thing in the world worthwhile his little girl and the not been of enough account to keep her Oh blossom, bllossom, he said And when he spoke her name, it sounded as if he spoke the name of one dead. after a little The worst stang passed away He refused to believe long that bllossom would be ashamed of him He knew she would not Three years cannot so alter her loyal nature No. Ten times three years But she would be changed you would have grown away from him in those three busy brilliant years H companionship could no longer satisfy her. How simple and childish he had been to expect it She would be sweet and kind Bossom could never be anything else She would not show open discontent or dissatisfaction. She would not be like Loreta Bradley. But it would be there And he would divine it. And it would break as he Bue it was right. when he had given Blossom up He should not have made a half hearted thing of his sacrifice He should not have bound her to come back to him He walked about in his little garden until late at night U the start with the sea crooning and calling him down the slope when he finally went to bed. He did not sleep But lay until morning Te your wet eyes. and despair in his heart All the forenoon He went about his usual daily work Absolently Frequently He fell into long reveries standing motionless wherever he happened to be and looking dullly before him Only once did he show any animation when he saw Mrs. Bluitt coming up the lane He darted into the house loock the door and listen to her knocking in grim silence After she had gone He went out. and found a plate of fresh donoughnut. covered with a napkin placed on the bench the door Mrs. Blue it meant to indicate thus that she bore him no malice for her curt dismissal the day before Possibly her conscience gave her some twinges also. but her donoughnuts could not minister to the mind she had disceased Old man Shaw took them up cararry them to the pig pan and fed them to the pigs. It was the first spiteful thing he had done in his life And he felt the most immoral satisfaction in it in mid afternoon He went out to the garden findinding the new loneliness of the little house unbearable The old bench was warm in the sunshine Old man Sha downown with a long side and dropped his white head wearily on his breast He had decided what he must do He would tell Blossom that she might go back to R. and never mind about him He would do very well by himself And he does not blame her in the least He was still sitting broodingly there When a girl came up the lane She was tall and straight and walked with a kind of uplift in her motion As if it would be rather easy Fly the knot She was dark with a rich, dusky sort of darkness. suggestive of the bloom on purple plums or the glow of deep red apples among bronze leaves. Her big brown eyes lingered on everything in sight And little gurgles of sound now again came through her parted lips as if inarticulate joy where thus expressing its own att the Garden gate She saw the bent figure of the old bench. And the next minute She was flying along the roosewalk Daddy, she gone Doty Old Man Shaw stood up in hasty bewilderment. Then a pair of girlish arms were about his neck and a pair of warm red lips were on his. Girlish eyes full of love We're looking up into his and a never forgotten voice Tingling with laughter and tears blended into one delicious court was crying Oh, daddy Is it really you? Oh, I can't tell you how good it is to see you again Old man Shaw held her tightly in a silence of amazement and joy too deep for wonder Why? This was his blossom The very blossom who had gone away three years ago Why This was his blossom The very blossom who had gone away three years ago A little taller a little more womanly But his own dear blossom And no stranger There was a new heaven and a new earth for him in the realization. Oh baby blossom, he murmured Baby blossom Sarah rubbs her cheek against the fated Coatsley Daddy, darling This moment makes up for everything, doesn't it Where did you come from? he asked his senses beginning to struggle out of their bewilderment of surprise I didn't expect you until tomorrow You didn't have to walk from that station, did you and yourre old daddy. There to welcome you Sarla swung herself back by the tips of her fingers and danced around him in the childish fashion of long ago I found I can make an earlier connection with the CPA yesterday and get to the island last night I was in such a fever to get home that I jumped at the chance Of course I walked from the station It's only two miles and every step was a benediction My trunks are over there We'll go after them tomorrow, Daddy just now I want to go straight to every one of the dear old nooks and spots at once You must get something to eat first, he urged fondly And there ain't much in the house. I'm afraid I was going to bake tomorrow morning But I guess I can forge you out something, Darling He was sorely repenting having given Mrs. Bluitt doughnuts to the pigs. But Sarah brushed all such considerations aside with a wave of her hand I don't want anything to eat just now. By and by we'll have a snack just as we used to get up for ourselves whenever we fell hungry Don't you remember how scandaliz white Sand folks used to be at our irregular hours I'm hungry So longer. for a glimpse of all those old rooms and places Come There are four hours yet before sunset And I want to gram into them all I've missed out on these three years Let us begin right here with the garden Oh Daddy By what witchcraft have you coaxed this sulky rose busush into bloom No witchcraft at all It just bloomed because you were coming home, baby said her father They had a glorious afternoon event those two children. They explored the garden. and then the house Sarah danced through every room and then up to her own holding fast to her father's hands So It's lovely to see my little room again, Daddy I'm sure all my old hopes and dreams are waiting here for me She ran to the window. Threw it open. leaning out Daddy There's no view in the world so beautiful. Is that curve of sea between the headlands I've looked at magnificent scenery And then I'd shut my eyes Cjure up that picture Oh listen to the wind keening in the trees how I've longed for that music He took her to the orchurn and followed out his crafty plan of surprise perfectly She rewarded him by doing exactly what he had dreamed of her doing clapping her hand and crying now Oh daddy My daddy They finished up with the shore And then had sunset came back and sat down on the old garden bench Before them a sea of splendor. Burning like a great jewel. stretch to the gateways of the West. The long headllands on either side were darkly purple And the sun left behind him a vast cloudless arc of fiery daffodil and elucif rose back over the orar. Cool green sky Weimered a crystal planet and the night poured over them clear wine of dew from our airy chalice The spruces were rejoicing in the wind And even the battered furs were singing of the sea Old memories trooped into their hearts like shining spirits Baby blossom said oldld manan Shaw, falteringly You are quite sure you'll be contented here There with a vague sweep of his hand towards horizons that shut out a world far removed from white sand There's pleasure and excitement and all that Won' you miss her Won't you get tired of your old father? and white sand Sarah patted his hand gently. The world out there is a good place, she said thoughtfully I've had three splendid years And I hope they'll enrich my whole life There are wonderful things out there to see and learn Fine noble people to meet beautiful deeds to admire Bye She wound her arm about his neck and laid her cheek against his There is no daddy. And old Man Shaw looked silently at the sunset or rather through the sunset dist still grander and more radiant splends beyond of which the thing seen were only the pale reflections Now worthy of attention from those who had the gift of further sight Thank you for listening to Sleepy