Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1863-11-12
from him. he was strictly lust, and some

one accord seemed to warm towards his son
young Harry Graymarsh, genial, good ma
tured fellow, Just come to mans estate, and
handsome enough to turn the heads Of all the
Young girls in NJ He was as Caleb hoped
he might be, his mothers image. He had
her blue eyes and fair hair her gentle smile
and impulsive heat. Old Caleb had merely
education enough to enable him to read and
write and cypher in an imperfect manner;
but his son had been taught as well and as
thoroughly as any lad throughout the land.
The grim factor looked what he was, work
ing man risen to prosperous circumstances
and wearing good clothes; but the son might
| have been of royal blood for anything you
| could have guessed to the contrary.
Once home from college young Harry Gray
marsh was often at the factory, passing, with
kindly laugh, along the ranks of grim work
, men who toned in the lower part of the build
! ing, or pausing to chat with some blushing
| GIRL who moved with light step and graceful
| arms bare to the dimpled elbow amongst the
whirring wheels and spindles upon the upper
| floor. Even the bent old men and the pale
factory children had a word for him, and
many a comfortable blanket and warm shawl
found its way at Christmas to the dwelling of
some old workwoman, dreadful bad with
the rheumatic" at the bidding of g young
Master Harry"
There came at last amongst the forces in
the women's room one, who to the rapturous
eyes. of Harry Graymarsh, was wonder
fully beautiful An Italian sort Of face, with
liquid black eyes, and hair so dark that there
really was purple gloss upon it in the sun
shine. 1t was the face which first attracted
the fathers son, but it was the soul that rivet-
ed the chain which beauty first twined around
his heart.
She was not ignorant, and though she was
poor there was an innate refinement in every
movement And so, by slow degrees, from
casual interchange of words, and long sum-
mer evening rambles in the green woods and
before long he had told her how beautiful she
seemed to him, and how tenderly he loved
her. and the girl, by bushes, and silence,
rather than words, had revealed the secret of
her own heart to him.
And then, one glorious day, when the sun
was setting and great docks Of birds were
flying homeWards across the cloudless sky
when the distant mountains were all aflame
and every quivering leaf upon the tree tops
a shimmerng point of gold, Harry Graymarsh
and Alice Lee were betrothed to each other;
and so perfectly did she love and trust his
love for her, that she never thought "He is
rich and | am poor" but only "He loves me-"
w HcInci Ill InOS6 summer fanlDleS, Harry
Graymarsh ever thought of his father, | do
not know He had never been thwartcd by
him in all his life, and perhaps he could not
imagine that the rod of paternal authority
should be first welded in matter of so much
import; besides, what was there in modest,
beautiful Alice Lee to awaken ones aversion.
Certain it is that when one evening" sitting
on the bank beside the river, with his arm
around the waist of his bctrothed, Harry lift
ed up his eyes and saw his father standing
behind him, he felt bashful and confused but
not alarmed.
The old man vanished as softly as he had
appeared, and poor Alice did not even see
him, buta storm was brewing, and it broke
over Harry Graymarshs head that very eve
ming.
''Do you know you are the son of the
richest man in the place ?" said Graymarsh,
standing crimson with rage before his son;
''that you might marry an heiress if you
liked? and here | find you making love to a
girl in my own factory, and you say you
mean to marry her-you actually say that to
my face"
Il repeat it," replied Harry, "we are be-
trothed."
There were hot words between father and
son after that; taunts and reproaches, the first
that had ever passed their lips, and the sun
went down upon their wrath. They parted
for the night in their anger, and neither
| slept 1t is an awful thing when those who
love first quarrel, and wounds are made which
| are harder to heal from the memory of pact
| tenderness. Old Graymarsh had been in his
| own way tender father, and Harry always
dutltui son. a stern parent and bad child
could have been reconcilcd more easily.
Since affluencc had given him the opportu-
nifty To no III nj h,I Col
| touches of the govt, and one of them twinged
| and tweaked him the next morning. There
fore he sent grudging message to Harry, tel
ling him that he must go in his place to the
factory that morning. and received an angry
but obedient answer. Then, before Harry
was off, a servant left the house with note
for Alice Lee, bidding her not to 90 to work
that day, but present herself before him in
an hours time. She must be got rid of, he
thought. He would bride her to 90 to some
distant place. This common factory girl
could not wed his Harry But when She
stood before him in her modest beauty, it was
very hard for him to speak to her as he had
intended. This was no coarse creature, am
bilious of wealth and setting snares for the
rich mans son; something of the soul of Har-
rvs dead mother shone upon the old man
| from her earnest eyes, and he felt somewhat
| SOIIcucu
| They were together in a little room, the
window of which looked upon the factory
| she was standing near the easement with her
eyes upon the dark pile; he seated at the ia
bic triting with some papers and wondering
| how to begin. In the silence, the whirr
whirr of the machinery came plainly to their
| ears and Caleb thought the noise was strange
| " loud and distinct. He remembered that
| impression long after and wondered that it
| did not trouble him more at that moment
As it was, he only thought" what shall say;
why does that girl in her shabby dress look
so much like lady that am afraid of in
sulting her by words that seemed so easy to
say awhile ago."
Softened though Caleb was, he was still
made up too firmly to change it now He
ed his throat and began
Miss Alice Lee, have something to say
to you. l shall make you angry suppose,
but l can't help it. You'll please attend to
to me-"
She did not look at him. but stood staring,
| in an awful manner, from the window
Il am speaking to YOU. Do you hear me ~
| the old man repeated; but before the words
had left his lips, Alice had turned and caught
| him by the arm, and then with an awful roar,
like the voice of some fiend, an explosion oc-
| Cured which shook the house, a chorus of
wailing screams and then terrible silence.
There were great black torrents of smoke
| pouring through the windows of the factory
and then the wall toward the side where
most OF the great engines were, bulged, and
| tottered and fell, and the roof caved in, and
| IL how, IL.