The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1857-11-11

~ NeAS'o oioP', veo1ueo II CHI many di
hour in signs aud even tears. Ay, for
every drop of water it had once held,
the strong man paid in tears thousand
fold. f
Years sped on, and his father and moth
cr Of Jacques passed from he earth. The
young man had been called miser even
during their life time, but now, indeed,
he nlorited the title. Ever craving for
money, he added to his store by the
s,rictest parsimony. His clothes wore
patched by himself, again and again, till
no traces of the original stuff remained.
Generally his feet were bare, and even
when he wore any covering on them, it
consisted of old shoes which had been cast
away as worthless, and picked up by him
in his solitary wanderings through the
town. His food was Of the coarsest des-
cript;on, and taken simply TO sustain life
He no longer occupied tie dwelling in
which his early days had been spent; his
present home WAS an old and roomy
house, built with a degree Of strength
which detied any attempt at entrance,
unsanctioned by the will of its occupant
at least without degree Of force be-
ing used which must inevitably have I'D
to discovery. Here, then, dwelt Jacques
Guyot quiet alone. But far worse than
alone was he when absent from his house
for the evil repute in which he was held
was such that, as he walked, the little
children ran shouting after him, 'There
goes Guyot! See tho wretched niser
how thin he is! He grudges himself food
to made himself fat, and clothes to cover
his lean old body" Then the mischievous
urchins would cast stones at jacques, and
load him with insults, unchecked by their
parents. But even this was not the worst.
One day he met friend, or at least he
had been such in youth, and whom he
had not seen for many long year. For
the moment jacques forgot his rags and
isolation-it was SO long since kindly
wor, had been bestowed on him, and oh !!
how he yearned to win it. Eagerly he
advanced, with an indiscribable CLEAN of
Joy lighting his pinched feature but his
former comrade shrunk back, holding up
his hands as if to forbid his nearer APP
proach, saying as he did SO, Il will not
hold communion with q thing like you.-
Did you not love thy money better than
her who ought to be thy wife? But you
suffered a stranger to carry her away, and
now the accursed thing is dearer to you
than yourself, though you have neithei
child nor kin to whom to leave it. Away
touch me not.'
Another trial came still later, and it
was the hardest Of all. A portly dame
elderly. but still fresh and colnely look
ing and with a fair daughter by her side,
passed leisurely along the streets of Mar
settles. They seemed to be new arrivals;
but the elder one was evidently no stran-
ger, for she pointed out to her daughter
various changes which had been made Of
late. jacques Guyot looked earnestly at
the girl, for her features brought wildly
to his mind those of the object of his one
love dream, and as he came near, he
beard her mother Gull her Madeline
Another glance, and he rect gnised the
elder female as the Madeline of his youth.
Though SO many years had gone over his
head, his pale face was in moment
hushed. Again he forgot the curses and
the stones daily showered around him;
the vision of the bright-eyed child, with
the little treasured pitcher in her hand,
was before him, and he too was, for an
instant, young, but for how brief an in
slant. Madeline, even III her distant
home, had heard of the miser Guyot, who
heaped up wealth, though with none to
share it, and denied even the smallest aid
to the miserable, though surrounded with
gold. Even at that moment, too, she
heard the taunts of the passers-by; SO
gathering her skirts closely around her,
as though his very touch would poison,
she swept by with such look of scorn as
rooted the miser to the spot, and brought
back the sense. of his loneliness moro ter
ribly than ever.
Though no inhabitant of Marseilles ever
entered the m;ser's dwelling during his
life, vet l am able to tell how he spent
his life thel.. | know he never entered
his silent. comsortless home without feel
ing that his heart would leap with JOY to
hear friendly voice, or if he might be
permitted to clasp o child to his bosom.
| knew that III spite Of insults, reproaches
and taunts, his heart teemed with loving
kindness to his fellow-creatures; and often,
when suffering from them, he would even
smile and murmur :. this is because they