Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1873-10-10

Sage among the mis-, since dlSngured by
modern brick and stucco many cluster of
houses on the coast, since grown into a pros
perous and fashionable watering place. then
retained Is marked a rusticity as fthey had
been couple of hundred instead of only
fifty miles from London
Conspicuous upon the sea board was Way
insdean Down, with its solitary old wind
mill and miller's cottage, and though it at
tracted occasional visitors from the neigh
boring little port and primitive health resort
OF Crewhayen the enjoyment of the view
was left in those days pretty much to Amos
Cover and his family.
Amos Cover himself? Well he had in
herited the property Of the mill from several
! generations had married the daughter of
well-to-do French skipper plying between
| Normandy port and Crewhaven had re
ceived a trining " dot with her. enough to
make pretty addition to his simple earn
ings. When after but few years of we'd
ded life, he found himself a widower. with
two little girls, one an infant. and the other
between four and five years. he thought Of
| little beyond their welfare. Untaught him
self, he desired to give his children good
education, the advantage Of which he had
seen in his wife 50 the eldest had been sent
]
some Lonely people, distant connections Of
! her mother. She had returned to the quiet
old life upon the downs about a year. when
the sorrow Of which we have had hint be
| fell the Cover household. Full of her for
! eign experience, she had come like a being
from another world upon the prosaic exist
encc Of her father and sister. The latter had
emerged into budding womanhood since
] 10 1
to all the stories and events her sister had to
relate. Jeanette was wild with the desire
to taste for herself these pleasures and Won
/ ders, and when her request that
she might be sent for awhile to Paris was
refused by the kind old man, on account of
a change in the family where Naomi had
| lived, She rebelled. The fiery spirit of the
! French blood She inherited felt itself az
| grieved. and altogether, for the last few
months, things had not been as happy as
they might have been at the old wind mill
! upon the downs.
Then, as to this Reuben Straytor ? Well.
the millcr's daughter has giyen> some account
Of his pedigree. His fathers farm stood in
the little hamlet of Navinglean, which lay
in the valley at the foot of the down. there
| fore IL is not wonderful that heand the little
Cover girls should have been playmates
from their earliest days. Is they grew up,
the separation which school time brought
about gradually increased, and when Naomi.
at the age of fourteen, went abroad for four
years. Reuben, who was good deal older.
was finishing his education at a certain
| Fluck~hire college. and came home soon after.
as his father designed, 10 drop into the farm
ne life But this did not suit the taste of
the Young fellow, who had acquired notions
of a loftier kind. With the indulgence gen
orally accorded to an only son, it was settled
that he should read for the law, and he went
to London for the purpose. He liked law.
/ however. no better than farming, and it was
whispered that he had idlcd his time, made
doubtful acquaintance. and fallen into hah-
it- Of luxury, if not dissipation. His faith
er certainly had to paya considerable amount
Of debt, and Reuben once more came back
for a time to the Old home, To give him, A.
he said, an opportunity of looking out for
something else; came back to the old home
to find his little playmates Of yore grown
into blooming girls. the elder on the verge Of
womanhood and the younger though still
almost a child in years, looking as much a
woman aS her sister.
Then ensued the dalliancc referred to, and,
according 20 her fathers account so misun-
derstood by Naomi. She, truth to say. had
not been inscnsibe to the attractions which
Reuben possessed His tall centlcmauly
figure. handsome face. and pleasant manner
contraSted strongly with the usual run OF
farmers sons But he had made no sign
which could be interpreted aS reciprocal Of
her feelings. lie really was too honorable
to contemplate matrim0ny until n course in
life had been permanently adopted. He GER
tainlv had been constantly up at the mill :.
and what more natural For having moth
ing to do AZ home he would occasionally un-
lcrtakc small affairs Of business for his faith
er with his neighhors, and the miller and
the farmer necessarily had constant dealings
together. Besides, We're not Naomi and
jeanette his Oldest iricndS2 And the for
mer mad much TO say that was worth listen
ihg to about her foreign travels. tamiimrl-
ty was TO be expected, and he went, and
came, as it seemed, under tlecircumStanee-,
in a perfectly natural and likely manner.
Suddenly jeanette disappears. She Is DO
the habit Of tripping down into CrewhaYen
upon the slightest prctext, and has become
fJndcr of SO doing of late. She differs from
her sister in disposition; Is vain. frivolous,
likes display in dress, a coquette withal, with
flashing ewes. which have an intuitIye knack
of making their meaning plain Very French
in nature. chatting more or less at the home
life. and much more since Naomi 5 return,
Vet a most loyablc little creature. and by the
same token very dear to father and sister.
So that, on an unusually stormy September
evening, by the time she should have been
seen returning bv the Crcwhayen road. and
was not 50 seen, an anxiety. rapidly growing
into dread. seized upon the hearts of the
two watchers at the mill-watchers, for Mao
mi shared in her fathers simple toll. The
work came easily. and was not new. her
tastes ever rather inclining to simple house
hold duties beftting her station than to ac-
tion in a wider sphere.
She loved the old mill and all connected
with II had understood its action from a
child knew how tn manare If. had fed it at
a rinco when tbe tinklin, of the bell HIGH
mn r,,,r tbe sbootinr lo,r told that the sl;n-
nv If Grain was runnirc short Unlike her
iIi.tsr sbc l,ve5 the coTntrv Ton Her na-
tive downs had more lastinS charm for ber
tbon onvtbino m. ravest canital in the
world lad offered Tins late ON the Sep
ten,bar evening" aforesaid Naomi i bicb m
t in the mill. and. as darkness gradually be
rins IN sbnt the storn-s,yert landscane from
. The ligbt. sbe looks ont from the window
; cyncctinS as usual to descry Jeanette's trim
little frnrc COMING alone the Crewbayer
rnoJ Which from That noint Of vantaoc lie.
befare her like \ silver cJoinq to the greer
. mantle If the downs where thew trend to-
,ra,d The So, Gnt If i now deserted-not
r q, s;rr If I;f,. pnon II Naomi pauses still
f,r ,ybcre If - s,,ne farm bnildinc- and
q, suoII ,,lanfation II l,nrot he seen and $.
/ She thinks her s,strr Is INST tbereabouts. uer
hans Xo . there has been rlentv of time
] had bd She 50 baen far her IN have now emer-
. Ell into siybt nj the G,o+ or tbe down. anl
where the ascent hecins lcoin She sean.
/ Tho ,,b;ta line from, c,,d f., crd and ,vb,l.