Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-06-29
swell, Aunt Esther, what did he sayl'
WY ps. do tell us. what Id he savtu

we were louDging away the pleasant summer
afternoon.
] sec her now, though half score Of years
has the grave dust hidden that face from the
eye that loved it, as she same through the door,
with her soft, slow step, with her lilac colored
shawl, aud her Leghorn bonnet, trimmed with
white satin ribbon. Aunt Esther Lee was our
fathers only sister, and she had been a childess
widow for many years, the latter part of which
she had passed at our home.
Cousin Alice Lake was passing the vacation
with US There was not years difference in
our ages, and we had been schoolmates from
early childhood, ana ! believe sisters seldom
owe each other as VIC did
That afternoon Aunt Esther had started out
on visit TO Farmer Pixies, the rich old wdow-
er, whose great yellow brown house stood on
the turnpike, half mile from our house
Farmer Pike was a strange, hard man. You
would have felt this, with one glance at his
strong, rugged features, his iron grey hair, and
his large, muscular person, that had not bowed
itself with the weight of three score years.
lie lived, with his housekeeper and his bircd
men, in the great yellow-brown house, an hon
est industrious man, but without single at
iection or social sympathy in the world; with
a life cold, stark, and barren n desert, over
whose bosom no running spring winds its neck
lace OF jewels IN whose dry, dead heart no
sweet flower opens its lips to the sunshine
Yet Farmer Pixies life had its tragedy so l
believe all lives have it, if we could unlock the
hidden cabinets where they are laid away from
every eye but Gods.
Many years ago Farmer Pike had married
woman much younger than himseli-a woman.
with one of those gentle, shrinking, nimosl
natures, that seemed TO have few points Of
sympathy with bis coarse, rugged character
Il.tVaVnr taI. hos ,ii no.
and it is probable that the gentle wife called out
whatsoever tenderness there was in the coars-
cr soul of her husband. AT last, son was
born To them, aud the delicate mother el into
decline, aud, before her boys life had reached
It's third year, the grass had laid its green Gov
eting over the mothers head
Mrs Pike and Aunt L sther Lee were school
mates, and had always been friends so the far
Iner placed Joseph under her care, aud he CON
tinued to reside with her until my mothers
death, which occurred several years later, when
my aunt came to us, and the boy went homo to
his father.
Joseph wasIa warm hearted, butterribly self
willed boy. My aunt had more influence over
him than any other person, for she loved him
almost as though he were her own child. /
believe, too, Farmer Pike was very fond oi his
handsome boy; but he was a cold undemonstra-
tive man, and he and Joseph never got on well
together
As the boy grew older his father determined
upon making him q farmer, but Joseph active,
energetic nature revolted at this life; he was
bent upon going out into the world, aud trying
his fortune there knew the old yellow house
witnessed some terrible contests between the
fathers will and the sons determination; there
were harsh threats on one side and sullen resis
| tanco on the other, until worn out with these
things, Joseph made up his mind TO "run away
and go to sea-"
! lie did this with his usual rash impulsve-
ness; and then Farmer Pike, in his wrath, lifted
up his hand aud swore solemnly that Joseph
! should not inherit dollar OF his property, that
he would never see or speak to him again to the
day of his death. And he kept his word lie
! lived in the old yellow-b brown house, a lonely,
childless old man, broadening his acres every
year, aud broadening, too, by his cold, selfish
unproductive life, the gulf between him and the
/ kingdom of heaven.
One day in the late spring, however, an old
man and a little golden-haircd child stopped
al our house, and asked for Aunt Esther Lee.
Then, for the first time in all these years we
! heard of Joseph Pike.
Lite had been with him no "dance of roses, ="
but long, sharp struggle. lie had married
young and bis children died young, and his
wife had been laid beside them, leaving him
only the golden haired boy that stood before us
Joseph inherited the delicate constitution Of
his mother, and his health had failed under all
these trials He had wandered from place to
place in search of new strength; but he had
! failed rapidly, and at last himself gave up all
hope of recovery.
Then he wrote to my aunt, the mother of his
! boyhooj, as he called her, and bequeathed 10
! her tenderness his only child, not four years
old. And the old man who brought him to us
was one whom Joseph had once rescued from
drowning, and who remained with him, out of
gratitude, to the last hour of his life
Aunt Esther bowed her head above those
golden curIs, and said while the tears dropped
fast on the bright face that was SO like it, iath
cr s, 81 will take the child"
"Ive made up my mind said Aunt Esther,
suddenly, one day, just after. dinner; and she
folded up her knitting, and looked of moment
on the dusty road, that wound, like ad.ngy red
ribbon, through the pastures of Woodside.
"What have you made up your mind to do,
Aunty" asked Cousin Alice Like and /, sim
ultaaeousy as we looked up from the magazines
we were reading.
"That I'll take Weston Joseph's child, and
90 straight over 10 Farmer Pixies this after.
noon. He'll be- Just about over his dinner nan
whom we get there. It's very well for him to
talk he does so long as he don't see the child,
but come to that, believe twill be more than
he can bear"
We believed so too, when we saw the beau
tilu little creature waddliDg out of the front
gate by aunty's side, although, when the neigh.
bors had informed Farmer Pike that Joseph
was dead, aud that he had bequeathed his only
child 10 my aant he sternly replied Let her
keep him then. As for me, will never see
him-never have anything to do with him"
II was not 10 be wondered at that Alice and
awaited our aunt's return with eager curios-
", or that the inquiries with which my story
commences greeted her entrance She did not
reply at once, but, taking up palm leaf fan
that lay on the table, seated herself IN the arm
char, while her features worked painfully.
81 never had anything come across me So
she exclaimed, more to herself than 10 us -
And then tho tears rolled down her cheeks-
A iter while she grew calmer and told her
story to cousin Alice and me, sitting ia her
large rocking-ehair and tanning herself with
The pain leaf fan.
"You see Farmer Pike had just risen from his
afternoon nap, and was coming out the back
door as ] got round by tho meadow in front of
The house spied him, and hurried round
there rs he got up 10 the well
GLOW dive do, Farmer Pikel" said, in
free, neighborly way, as came up to him;
cant you let this child have a drink of wateri
Ile's had long walk, aud he's got pretty nigh
tuckered out"
Tho old man was completely taken absck-
/ could see that by the way ho looked at me,
and looked back at bin, as cool aud innocent
A. lamb. Then he looked at Weston, ard
saw the muscles about his tight mouth qniver a
lutte, but he didn't say word; he took up the
I'm Gun that hlOOd ON the snnnL nnd filed n frnu,