The Richer, the Poorer by Dorothy West

Author:Dorothy West [West, Dorothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307754912
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 1995-01-28T13:00:00+00:00

THE MAPLE TREE

Liz Terrell and Betsy Comden were summer neighbors. Their friendly relationship did not extend into winter, except for an exchange of Christmas cards, because their common interests ended with their return to the city.

Liz and her husband, Clark, were a bright young couple, both busy with careers, she in the fashion world, he in advertising; and they and their New York circle of friends, most of them childless, as were Liz and Clark, moved under a compulsion of excitement and sophistication that was as natural to them as breathing.

Betsy and Steve were born and bred Bostonians, which is to say, they were nothing like New Yorkers. In their own group they were as popular as Liz and Clark were in theirs. They were parents of four delightful children. They had a comfortable income from Steve’s law practice, and felt no compulsion whatever to live beyond it.

Before Liz decided to buy a summer cottage, she had never heard of the little Massachusetts town that charmed her so on sight. She had made her pick from a list of likely places, choosing it for the sleepy sound of its name.

Following through, she flew down one Saturday, and looked up a real estate agent. She found what she wanted, a lovely, sprawling house, which she could take care of herself with occasional local help.

The maple tree was what really decided Liz. She did not think she had ever seen a tree with more breathtaking grace and grandeur. She said so to the agent, and he agreed, though he was sorry to have to tell her that the tree was not on her property.

Her neighbors, the Comdens, he went on to say, had made the same mistake when they bought their cottage a few years earlier. It was the tree that had made up their minds for them, too, or at least Mrs. Comden’s mind. But, fortunately, Mrs. Comden had not changed her mind when she found out that the tree was not hers, and he hoped Mrs. Terrell wouldn’t either.

The confusion, he explained, was due to the fact that the tree stood alone on a very small lot. Because the Comden place and the soon-to-be-Terrell place were much larger in area, the small lot in between the two, barren of buildings, seemed part of one or the other properties.

Many years ago, there had been a house on the lot, with a sapling growing beside its front door. When the owner died, his estate had gone to a distant cousin, who made his home in California. The tax on the tiny house on the tiny lot was so trifling that the cousin preferred to pay it rather than sell the property.

Over the years the house deteriorated, while the tree grew apace. The cousin died, but his heir, out of habit, continued to pay the tax, which grew less as the house lost more of its value.

Now the house was gone, destroyed by time and the tree. The grass had grown over its wounds.

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