Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1869-11-16

Not if he likes you; and you might
go further and fare worse"
"Well, I mast sayr' Becky exclaim-
ed, with laugh "you'd like to see
me stuck in that hollow, out of y0m
waym
dts a good farm, I've heard" said
the other.
Eyes, and covered with as much as it
will bear?"
Here the girls were called away to
the dance. Jacob slowly walked up
the dewy meadow, the sounds of fid-
ding, singing, and laughter growing
fainter behind him. e.My jouney!" he
repeated to himself, "my journey! why
shouldn't l start on it now? Start off,
and never come back?"
1t was very little thing, after all,
which annoyed him, but the mention of
it always touched sore nerve of his
nature. A dozen years before, when a
boy at school, he had made tempor-
AIRY friendship with another boy of his
age, and had one day said to the latter,
in the warmth of his first generous con-
fidence: "When | am a little older, |
shall make a great journey, and come
back rich, and buy Whitney's place p
Now, Whitney's place, with its stately
old brick mansion, its avenues Of silver
frs, and its two hundred acres Of clean
warm-laying land, was the finest, the
most aristocratic property in all the
neighborhood, and the boy-friend could
not resist the temptation of repeating
Jacobs grand design, for the endless
amusement of the school. The betray-
al hurt Jacob more than the ridicule.-
| 1t left a wound that never ceased to
rankle, yet with the inconceivable per-
versity of unthinking natures, precisely
this joke, Gas the people supposed it to
be- had been perpetuated, until Jake
Flint's Journey" was a synonym for
any absurd or eXtravagant expectation.
Perhaps no one imagined how much
pain he was keeping alive; for almost
any man than Jacob would have joined
in the laugh against him and thus good
naturedly buried the joke in time
"He's used to that" the people said, like
Becky Morton, and they really suPpOs-
ed there was nothing unkind in the re-
mark.
After Jacob had passed the thicketS
and entered the lonely hollow in which
his fathers house lay, his pace became
slower and slower. He looked at the
shabby old building just touched by the
moonlight, behind the swinging shad-
ows, of the weeping willow, stopped
looked again, and finally seated himself
on a stump beside the path.
If / knew what to do?" he said to
himself, rocking backwards and for
wards with his hands clasped over his
knees" If | knew what to dol"
The spiritual tension of the evening
reached its climax; he could bear no
more. With a strong bodily shudder
his tears burst forth, and the passion of
his weeping filled him from head to
foot. How long he wept he knew not !;
it seemed as if the hot fountains would
never run dry. Suddenly and starting
ly hand fell upon his shoulder.
Boy, what does this mean?"
1t was his father who stood before
him.
Jacob looked up, like some shy ami
nal brought to bay, full Of feeling
mixed of tierceness and terror; but he
said nothing.
His father seated himself on one of
the roots of the old stump, laid one
hand on Jacobs knee, and said, with
an unusual gentleness of manner, I'D
like to know what troubles YOU 50
much?'
After pause, Jacob suddenly broke
forth with: Is there any reason why
| should tell you? Do you care any
more than the rest of 'em :"
- didn't know as you wanted me to
care for you particularly" said the faith
er almost deprecatingly. II always
thought You had friends Of your own
age"
"Frends? Devils :" exclaimed Ja-
cob. 40, what havh | done-what is
there so dreadful about me, that [ should
always be laughed at, and desplsed and
trampled upon? You are a great deal
older than | am, father: what do you
see in me? Tell me what it is, and
how to get over it!'
The eyes of the two men met. Jacob
saw his fathers face grow pale in the
moonlight, while he pressed his hand
involuntarily upon his heart, as if strug-
Cling with some physical pain. At last
he spoke, but his words were strange
and incoherent
= / couldn't Sleep" he said: a got
up again, and came out o doors. The
white OK had broken down the fence at
the corner and would soon have been
in the cornfeld. Thought it was that,
maybe, but still your-your mother
would come into my head l was COM
ING down the edge of the wood when !
saw you, and | don't know why it was
that you seemed so different, all at
once"
Here he paused, and was silent for q
moment. Then he said in a grave
commanding tone: "Just let me know
the whole story. | have that much
right yet"
Jacob related the history of the eve
ming, somewhat awkwardly and con
fusedly it is true; but his fathers brief
pointed questions kept him to the mar
rative, and forced him to explain the
full significance of the expressions he
repeated. At the mention of Whitney,
place, singular expression of malice
touched the old mans face
ado you love Becky Morton?" he
asked bluntly.
:" | don't know" Jacob stammered
q think not; because when l seem t,
like her most, | feel afraid of her.
"Its lucky you're not sure of itr
exclaimed the old man with energy
because you should never have her"
mo" said Jacob, with a mournful ac
: quiescence, 81 can never have her, o.
: any other one."
} "But you shall! and will when
help you. It's true I've not seemed tx
D care much about you, and | suppos
!. you're free to think as you like; bu
this l say: I'll not stand by and se
5 you spit upon. Covered with as mucl
e as it'll bearr That's a piece o lucl
v anyhow. If we're poor, your wifi
must take your poverty with you, o
e she don't come into nay doors. But
first of all, you must make your joul
4 neyw
my journey repeated Jacob.
Weren't you thinking of it thi
= night, before you took your seat o
that stump? A little more, and YOU
8 have gone clean off, | reckon"
Jacob was silent, and hung his heaC
b "Never mind I've no right to thin
d hard of it. In week We'll have fiji
ished our haying, and then it's for
e night to wheat; but, for that matte
Harry and | can manage the wheat b
. ourselves YOu may take q pnont1