conferred be was the passion of the moment was too strong foi him but sometimes ins mere were in intensity passions and his passions while they lasted of madness he was a because he had some taste that way hut chiefly because he regular work of any sort he had no real love for hia art and not the least touch of poetic feeling he knew an oak from a tree and the sort of touch that should be in the foliage of each a yellow was to him a yellow and ho mix the colors enough which made up its hue his education had been by no means neglected but it had been of a strange sort every thing he had learned was as it were for immediate am of a superficial but character the of a would have shaken their heads at what richard did know almost as severely ns at his lack of knowledge he had read a good deal of all kinds of including much be play a little on the piano and speak french with an excellent accent in a word he had learned every thing that had pleased him aa well as a little latin and some which had not he in the bone knew english history far better than most young but the sight of or had never made bis heart with an idea by a single beat associations had no charm for him this mighty oak for example under the shadow of which he and which he had transferred so to his t has no longer any interest for him he has done it and its use and are therefore departed in his eyes he quite that it is called the s in token probably of some of wild ducks effected by from its cover tliat this tree is of years old � the oldest in ail the chase he has read the talking oat for indeed he can quote by the yard and in and it would have been natural enough one would think in such a time and place that some thoughts of what this venerable monarch of the forest must have witnessed would come into bis mind the same moonlight that now shines down between its knotted ru ed branches must have doubtless lit on many a of lovers for it was ever a favorite for in years the young perhaps may here when was an have given double to himself and to the girl who to her love maiden and gallant many a time have foi their political differences beneath this oak as yet a tree not ed to nay perhaps even those of york and may here have been for in one red rose of a blush bluff harry had hunted beneath its once wide spreading arms and certainly the martyr king had done so with a score of generations of men of all sorts dead and gone god alone knows whither though no more the sounded nor the bow was heard there was surely an echo of their music in the young painter s ear ko there was none heard are sweet bnt those was a line had read perhaps but certainly had not understood he heard the bare branch and sway above his head as the wind slowly took it he heard the night jar as it flew by on silent wing and now and then he heard or thought he heard the of the voices of his fellow a great way off which was his only touch of fancy they were all silent and in close hiding it is not to be supposed however hat his mind was fixed upon the matter in which he was engaged so that other subjects were thereby excluded fi om it the of night was not a matter that interested him either in principle or practice he would just as soon that the keeper had not reminded him of his offer to share his watch � the whim that had once seized him to do so had died away hut having is company he was not oi once promised h break his word the young mar neither with the p the s thoughts were busy then st nor the present but with his future the path of did not lie straight before richard as it does before most men of his age and in fact it came so to speak abruptly to a termination exactly where he stood in such a case the choice of the boundless and is only limited by the and circumstances as matters were ha had scarcely to live on � not nearly enough to do so as his tastes and habits suggested and yet by one bold stroke with luck to back it he might not one day that have had small charm for him but at once and for his hfe long bo rich and prosperous he could not be said to have expectations bnt his ion was not without certain extreme brilliancy of which might almost for their it was from a dream of future greatness or what seemed to him as such wherein he saw himself wealthy and i surrounded with luxury and witli the of every pleasure that he was suddenly and awakened by a trifling incident � the snapping of a dead in the hard by in an instant of thought was swept aside and the young fellow was all ear and eye the wind had dropped for some time and the silence was intense that solemn hush seemed to the forest which some poet has attributed to the of spiritual life as the of the were for the of occupations until the mortal should pass by nothing or if so it was motion without sound as when the full owl softly through the midnight air above him hot a dead leaf fell and where the leaves had fallen there they lay was it then that a broke 