Litchfield enquirer., 1873-04-17

'tBut, don't I tell you I was after . sqslrrel " said Tony; 'sand don't you this was the very chap that ate our nuts nuts ID the Summer.- knew him by the curl of his tail"
 .'In the next, proceeded the young lady, calmly. ''you must have been shockingiy rude to strange gentleman, Dy your own account.
 ssAnnt Lney, I didn't say he was gen. tieman, cried Tony. ''He works for his
 living. Girls never will understand things."
 'Very stupid of them, certainly" said Aunt Lucy. ''Then you think if were to soil my hands with anything but flow CTS. I shouldn't be lady. eh? They are very sweet. Tony"
 This was about violets, but the girl looked up as she said it, and Mir. Noel Caperne drew back suddenly, and went away down the path with noiseless foot steps. He went to his room in the queer old inn by the river. and looked at the knapsack, which lay ready for him. but he did not take it up. He threw open the easement instead, and leaned out over the river, where it ran, dark and sullen, under stone arches, and the distant rush of mill wheel reached him. But these things were only palpable to him vaguely. What he really saw with his discerning minds eye was the picture of girllsh face bent over bunch of violets and as this rose before him, Mir. Caperne brought his eyebrows together, and said, impa- tiantly, "Where have seen it before ?''
 The mill-wheel sang on it's monotone. aud the woods began to have a suspicion of green about them still, the strange gentleman stayed on at the clumsy old inn by the river. People talked about him which was not of the least con. sequence i; the landlord took credit to himself that the old inn was better worth staying at, after ell, than your modern stucco and gingerbread inventions, where men are treated more like. like. saeks
 :ones to break; and the land be Tn love, because he was always moon ing about by the water-side, in Corven wood. He was doing some bit of paint ing, too, she thought; but what it was she could not get at to see, for he always locked it up when he went for these ram Dies. At any rate, the longer he stayed the better for them, since his purse was open, and he never asked questions about the items of his bills. only looking at the amo4nt. and paying it, as a gentleman should do.
 Mir. Caperne knew nothing of all this criticism if he had known it. it would not have affected him in the smallest degree. When he came in one evening and found his hostess bustling about his room in all nat agony of putting things to rights Fhtch belongs te the nature of orderly housewives, he took no further notice of ler movements than -by holding the door spen with silent patience until it pleased Der to take the hint and go. That was what she complained of. He never spoke Q her; never asked any questions like ,ther strangers would never even gave Ter any opening to enlighten him respect ng the neighborhood,a as she fiattered her. elf she could have done. He simply dis missed her with silent poiteness, when he had only been anxious to put his room nto something like decent order, and soodness knows 1t was a disheartening ask ennngh. z---z.-z
 FidgetT' said MT. Caperne, briefly, as ie looked round and proceeded to undo ler work. Then he went to a draw and ook out the bit of picture upon which he had surmised him to be occupied.
 MT. Caperne worked at the picture for m hour diligently; the rush of the mill Vheal tell uPon his ear like an aecompani- lent which custom or association had made pleasant to him. When he stopped Q examine his progress, the corners of lis mouth turned down with an expres- lon which was not SO much annoyance as The girlish face was there. ,ent over the bunch of violets, a perfect likeness Tn feature and coloring; but that 'ne expression which had so struck and launted him, the artist could not paint. Whereas in his own mind this expression vas dimly associated with wrong and sui ering, while he had looked from time to ime into the girls face all idea of such words left hin, ,and he could see there only what was fresh and sweet and beautiful.
 $ was beautiful face. Examining it he wondered whether the landlady. if she sad chanced to stumble upon the paint. ng in her prying visits, would have rec 'gnized the subject of it,-the fairy for whom he staid in the clumsy inn and launted the Corven woods.
 The red mounted into his cheeks at this bought. No, it was not for her sake but or the acquisition of beautiful picture. Ind he then looked out upon the mill, md thought that the whirling steps were ike men who splash forever in the waters # their own little round, and never look ,eyond it. or write their mark upon the world outside.
 To-day MT. Capefne had been disap- 'ointed. Corven Wood was as bright as yer, the river like silver sheet in the March sun, and the birds had sung his welcome as usual, but there was no fairy. 1e began to wonder if it were yet too late. How could he possibly finish his pictue vithout another look at the original? And hen there was the chance that they might neet, = accidentally, of course, and the possibility that she would. look up and ave him . bow in passing; for Master Tony had found out his rescuer, and dart d upon him with glee, and q uoiser intro luetl0n to Aunt Lucy. It was incumbent lpon the artist to lose no chance of mak- ng his work as he could. By this time le had crossed the bridge, and was en- ering the little footpath that led to the jorven Wood. And the landlady, shad- ng her eyes from the western light, peer
 d after him, and said, ''There he goes gvin; I've half mind to follow and see what is in the wood"
 But MT. Caperne was unconcious of lis danger; unconcious that crisis of his ife.was at hand, that he was not to re- urn this night nor the next, for many nights, some of them long and weary nough, to the inn by the river.
 Aforementioned afterwards that some sud- len presentiment quickened at once his 'ulses and his step as he drew near the pot where the path fell steeply down to he river; and mental speech of his own, made some days before, came across his 'rain like fash of fatal meaning.
 seThe lad is always climbing" he had aid to himself, as he watched the little lgure swinging like & monkey from branch Q branch. shouldn't wonder if I have Q fish him out some day yet"
 And so he had. Almost as soon as the plash and cry reached him, Mir. Caperne Fas in the water, seeing, as he sprang, the ed cap dangling in its mocking vividness rom bramble above him. It was com- 'aratively easy to lift the drenched boy
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