The Blood Seedling

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Allen Golyer, a well-to-do young farmer, is a neighbor to Saul Cheney and his family. He frequently remonstrates with Cheney because Cheney's son, Gershom, is permitted to absorb the works of Swedenborg, and to fill his head with "spirit notions." Mrs. Barringer and her daughter Susie live nearby. Golyer and Susie keep company, and Golyer asks Susie to marry him just before the girl leaves for a visit with her Aunt Abigail. Susie, although she loves him, refuses him a definite answer. Bertie Leon, a traveling salesman for a ribbon firm, is in the general store where Aunt Abigail and Susie are buying silk. Leon gains an introduction to Susie. When Susie returns home, her attitude to Allen Golyer has changed. No longer does she dimple and smile when the young farmer approaches, but instead, she seems to endeavor to avoid him. Bertie Leon follows Susie to her mother's home. Colonel Blood has presented Allen Golyer with a sapling. In honor of Colonel Blood he calls the sapling "The Blood Seedling." The day comes when Susie tells Allen that she is engaged to Bertie Leon. Bertie Leon bids farewell to Susie and leaves the village. As time passes and no letters come from him, Susie believes that he is fickle. Much to the delight of her mother and Aunt Abigail, she breaks the engagement. By her woman's wiles, she again tempts Allen Golyer to her side and she tells him of the broken engagement. Then it is that Golyer proposes and is accepted by Susie. For twenty long years Allen Golyer and his wife live together in perfect happiness. On the neighboring farm Gershom Cheney achieves more than local reputation as a soothsayer. Golyer with others is invited to the Cheney home in the evening when Gershom is to hold a seance. As Allen Golyer and his wife repair to the Cheney home, Susie recalls that twenty years ago that day Allen had planted the "Blood Seedling" and that she had given him the "mitten." Gershom Cheney, in a trance, asks for pencil and paper. As he holds Allen Golyer's hand, he writes: "A spade, a man you hated, a grave beneath an apple tree." Then it is that Golyer breaks down. He says: "Twenty years ago today, I was working in the orchard. The man Leon came to me and boasted and laughed because I suffered. I killed him as I would have killed a rat. I buried him in the hole I had dug for the blood seedling. All I ask is that my wife be spared the knowledge of my crime." Allen Golyer then staggers from the Cheney home. He goes to the "Blood Seedling" and removes a knife from a cleft in the tree. At Allen's home his wife kneels in prayer before she retires. At the Cheney home Gershom again, in a trance, writes hurriedly. Those present read the paper. They rush to the Golyer farm, and there, under the "Blood Seedling," they find the lifeless body of Allen Golyer, who has taken his own life.