The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-02-17

spone. But | never liked him.
We played truant together and he got
me off the punishment, and the school
cheered him in the playground for it.
| thought they made much of it-but |
must say Lewis himself didn't; and he
behaved well in asking me home to his
mothers great house to dine and spend
Saturday afternoon with him. Mrs.
Lewis's step-father was there, and every
thing gave way to him. He pinched my
ear playfully, and tipped me when |
went off to school in the evening-load-
ed with fruit and cakes for the boys of
our form, which Mrs. Lewis packed up
with her own white hands, while her
step father stood by looking at her, and
joking very affably for so great man.
When the holidays came-being an
orphan, and my guardians being resi-
dent in Florence-Lewis persuaded his
mother to invite me for fortnight or so
to their country house. 1t was here |
saw the Lewises and their mighty
friends in all their glory. The, house
was an ancient one, which her step
father had given to Mrs. Lewis as a mar
riage present, and which he helped her
to beautify, experimenting the cultiva-
ton of the fruits and flowers, the telling
of the timber, the planting out of the
strawberries, and the repairs and adorn-
ments of the house himself. They were
picture together-when he was shut
fling about in his grey dressing-gown,
and she was in her white morning-robe,
with her abundant hair floating about
her-so long that she could throw it
round Lewis, and almost smother him
with (which made him look very
foolish, thought. She petted Lewis in
the most ridiculous style, and made him
dress like page in burlesque. To me
she was almost as afiectionate as to her
own son and when | told her how | was
left an orphan in my fourth year, and
how | had no relation in the world,
big, hot tear from her brimmed eyes fell
upon my hand, which she was holding
while she was talking to me- She said
| must let her be mother to me; and
she called up Lewis and told him, in her
serious, impetuous way, that he was to
look upon me as brother, and be al
ways kind to me.
Mrs. Lewis was an indulgent mother;
but she was strict too, as her step-father
directed her to be, and his word was, to
her, law in everything. Lewis went to
bed at nine, and so did while was at
the castle. We begged half an hours
grace sometimes; but she would never
yield-even when she was in the middle
of a song. She sang divinely, and Lewis
loved to hear his mother. Sometimes
he would keep me awake for a whole
hour after we wer in bed, listening to
Mrs. Lewis's voice in the drawingroom.
| was obliged to keep awake, being his
guest; but this shows how inconsiderate
he could be.
He had begged Mrs. Lewis to allow
him to give me one of his Shetland
ponies on my birthday and he had sur
prised me with it, with bran new saddle
and bridle-which was very good, am
quite free to own; but he might have
remembered that | liked fishing much
better than riding, and that | should
have been more pleased with hand
some rod and tackle.
One day Mrs. Lewis step-father seeing
me on the terrace alone called me to
him, and began to question me on the
life that my guardian had projected for
me. When | told him that | had not
heard from them for year, and that l
had not the least idea of their inten-
tons in regard to me, he pulled my ear,
and mMttered, " Poor lad poor lad !
this is the way the world is managed"
And so the subject dropped, and Lewis
and !, at the end Of the holidays, re-
turned to school.
Misiortunes overlook me when | was
on the point of entering at the Middle
Temple. My guardians died, and to my
horror and amazement | was informed
that their affairs were involved, to my
utter ruin. They had specialized with
my money, and out of good fortune
which my parents had left me | had
something less than three hundred
pounds left. | communicated my dis
tress to Lewis and he sympathized with
me. He would have been stone had
he done less, seeing how intimate we
had been from our early boyhood. Mrs.
Lewis had been for some time in bad
health. Her great step-father had died
overwhelmed with ruin in great law
suit and she had the castle no longer
and young Lewis could only keep one
horse now, and was obliged to give him.
self fewer airs. The wreck was more
than respectable but it was a wreck.
was among those who did not desert
them, and did not disdain to ride in the
modest brougham to which poor Mrs
Lewis was reduced, and with but one
man servant to wait at table. Lewis !
never forgot my birth. day; and Mrs. |
Lewis was good enough to insist, when
she heard of my misfortunes, that |
should let her pay my Temple fees, and
that | should accept couple of rooms
in her house, to be with Lewis. She
saw, expect, that | exercised very
salutary influence over him. How could
| look churlish and refuse-especially
when Lewis joined his entreaties to
those of his mother? 1t wanted no lit
tie moral courage, however, to keep
with the Lewises, although they loaded
me with attentions, because people
talked about them in the neighborhood;
and the tradesmen sneered and .jeered
when the plain little brougham rolled
past their doors, or and Lewis walked
home to dinner. had no other home,