The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1860-07-18
gflftteo Talf.
THE LAKE. At YSSBROOEE.

= 1b5SUktVOEhAIs
NM Y parents we've kept by the times
s0IS in India: l was put to school at
Harrow. At sixteen / spent my holt
DAYS at Yssbrooke. Yssbrooke belonged
to my mothers brother; at least he oc-.
cupied it, and his executors at bis death
disposed of it. There was story about
a trust, but that is neither here nor there
My vacations were, in Aost cases, passed
there. 1t was a dull, odd, proftless sort
of place, with gables of any age, that
never seemed to grow older; large, I'M
thinued woods, and farmyards that never
appeared either to thrive or to fall into
decay; cattle grazing with hopeless as
pect on cold-looking pasture land, and
thin crops OF grain, which would have
driven farmer of these go-ahead times
to suicide or the bottle. Tho whole es-
Enlistment seemed but an abortive dis
play of prosperity, which left its cold
shade upon every person and thing
brought within its compass; not that we
were any of US habitually miserable, that
l remember. The society at Yssbrooke
was undoubtedly of a grave kind, but 1
do not think that it was distasteful to me
on that account. | carried with me such
school boy elasticity as WAS consistent
with my temperament. 1t WAS not much,
perhaps, FOR was ordinarily dreamy
hoy, and may have been more i'll my
uuc!e's domain tkan would most Of my
school-fellows; but, on the whole, 1 was
happy there. For was it not home to
me, and at home who is not happy? Ny
uncle had a daughter. She was some
six years my senior; wh!c circumstance,
combined with certain native SUPERIOR
ty which made me feel mrso5t imreasur-
ably her inferior, prabaoy checked my de
velopment of an attachment that J lave
since thought was waiting to break on, on
my side. Tall, lithsome, with earnest
hazel eyes, and soft silken browa hair.
she could not have been more fascinating
had she been an angel of beauty.
One could never look in her face with
out seeming to read the depth and fer
vor of her simple heart. A winning
though retiring caEdor pervadod her
whole person. Quiet aud subdued in
manner, she was perfectly open and frank
in all she said and did. She inspired con-
fidonce with the first glance of her eye,
and alas, as l have reason to know, she
Welded it but too readily and fearlessly
when it was sought by others. We'll, |
was not myself in love with her. In her
eyes was but as boy. "Cecil, remem-
ber," she would say to me, ''that you are
baby, you goose;' and I never had the
hardihood to dispute that truth, nor could
l make up my mind to be offended at its
snuneiation. For she Was so taking
the tones of her voice were so soft and
true, and her hair--weli / may be excus-
ed for referring to it again, for have l
not small piece of it before me now?
But there was another reason for my
not presum;ng rpon hopes, against which
my youth was itself sufficient impedi-
ment.
Edith Gersom, as years drew on, yield
ed her heart to some one else. l say, as
wears drew on-because when the affair
commenced never knew. I have sort
of idea that the fact rather crept upon me
than that it was communicated to me as
an actual occurrence that had taken place.
I know that disliked the favored party
even at the time when he could have been
no more than a pretender. Not that l
had any other ground for my antipathy
than the instinct which is more or less in
herent in the rest of mankind. Eldred
THAT was his nance was, to lock at, tall,
dark, handsome, and unobjectionablo,and
withal studiously civil to me. Edith,
tso, tried to interest my sympathies in
his favor.
"Cecil, he is so clever and" she would
say, sand he does so desire to be great.
Oh! cousin, if you could learn from
hint!
Thank God, I never did. The only
deed for which he rendered himself fam