Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1871-10-12
Robert Maxwell's Temptation.
BY E, BRANDE,

RoBERr Maxwell letdown the bars
for the tired oxen, with which he had
been plowing all day, to go through tn
!. them, and seek on the cool hillsides,
their nights pasturage. They turn
their heads and looked at him with
their great mournful eyes, as If ex,
pecting a word, for they were used
to his Voice, the slow, patient crea-
lures, and liked it, as such dumb
brutes always do the voice of a kind
master. But tonight he had no
voice for any Of them. He put up
the bars again when they had gone
through, and leaned heavily against
them. A May sunset was flushing
earth and sky; the new springing
grass looked fresh and green a
light, feathery LEAKAGE was on all the
trees, and few of them, pear and
cherry trees, had put on white bios, !,
SONS. The western sky was piled
high with crimson clouds, with, close
to the horizon, bar Of gold. A
reflected brightness flushed the east
with a soft. roseate hue, which spread
up to the zenith. All was still as the
new birth of a. new world. A sense
of wonderful beauty and mystery
thrilled through Ro bert Maxwell's
.uneducated perceptions. he had no
words for such scene, no clearly
defined thoughts about it even; but
it moistened his eyes, and quickened
his pulses, and seemed to food his
life with a rush of dreams and long
ings. How beautiful the world was !
There were some men he had heard,
who painted such scenes as these
others who wrote poetry about them
Others who set them to music, like
the song of birds, or the soft plash of
waves [; what was his part Of all this
plowing to-day-planting tomorrow
Was that all life held for him? There
must be otheruse, some other meaning,
if he could only grasp it. If he had no
part or lot in all this beauty, why
did it move him so? Just then he
heard the sound of horses feet, and
looked in the distance whence it
came. Nu
Maud Du Pays was sweeping down
the hill, with gay gallant beside
her. How like part of the sunset
beauty she looked, with its rose upon
her cheek, its radiance in her eyes
and hair, her long blue habit fallen
low, and swinging to the motion OF
her milk-white pony, her white
plume streaming back on the wind,
her little hands, with the dainty
gauntlets on them-so much youth,
and grace and beauty. And the
/" city chap" as Robert Maxwell
called him, by her side, did not mar
the picture. A handsome cavalier
ish looking man, there was no deny
ing that he showed well beside Maud !;
but what was he here so much for?
They swept by: Maud's low, silvery
laugh tinkling a response to some
thing her companion was saying !;
and a little cloud, which the hoofs of
the horses beat up behind them, fill
ed Roberts eyes, and choked his
throat, and added bitterness to his
mood. He glanced down to his
hard, horny hands, his coarse, toll
stained clothes. How well he would
look at Maud Du Pays side? And
yetihe had loved her in vague sort
of way, whose meaning he had just
begun to find out, ever since he could
remember. Life would nothave such
SAVIOR, he thought, without her. And
yetlshe would be untitled for a far
mer's wife, and that was just what he
was3a farmer. Then the question
came again which had haunted him
,before0couldl he be nothing else !?
Did He doom him? Did God ask
him always te. go in and out these old
ways, plow and plant, and make hay,
and reap grain, all summer, and go
back, and forth between the home
stead and the wood lot, all winter
Some one could be found to do as
well for them, and he-he believed
he had enough in him to go away and
make a career which Maud would not