The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1875-01-29
THE REWARD OF KINDNESS.

Mrs. Gorham put down letter she
had been reading, and looking around
the table at her blooming daughters
and two tall, handsome sons, she said,
in doleiul tone:
Your Aunt Ssbina is coming to
London, and has invited herself here
without ceremony"
&" When ?" asked Arabella, with an
intonation of intense disgust.
''She will reach here this afternoon.
WILDER, you will have to meet her"
"Sorry, ma, but have promised to
drive Miss Caldwell to the park. Fred
can CO."
Sc Certainly, I will 60" Fred said grave
Iy, though there was a hot flush on his
forehead. ''I am very fond of aunt. 5"
Nonsense % said his mother, " you
have not seen her for fourteen years. I
never went near the detestable old farm
after your father died"
Nevertheless, I have a vivid recol-
lection of Aunt Sabina's kindness when
we were there.
"Dear me, Fred" drawIed LuciIla,
" don't be sentimental, 1 wish the old
thing would stay at home. I can't
imagine what she is coming here for II
"She is our fathers sister," said
Fred, "and I cannot find anything sur
prising IN her looking for welcome
amongst her Brothers children"
Mrs. Gorham shrugged her shoulders.
If she had spoken her thoughts it
would have been" Fred is so odd.
Just like his father" But she only
said may depend upon you, then,
to meet your aunt, Fred. I will see
about her room"
It was a source of great satisfaction
to Mrs. Gorham that her children were
all like herself "true Greers, every
one of them, except Fred" she would
say, conRratUlating herself that the
plebeian Gorham blood was not trans
mitted to her elder son, WILDER, or any
of three the girls.
That Greer pride meant intense self
ishness, that Greer beauty was of cold,
hard type, that Greer disposition was
tyrannicaI and narrow-minded, did not
trouble Mrs. Gorham. That the son
who was all Gorham was proud to the
core with the true pride that knows no
false shame, that he was noble in dispo-
sition, handsome in a frank, manly
type, generous and self sacrificing, she
could not appreciate. His hands and
feet were not so small as darling VIII
ber's, he had no fashionable affections,
and no Greer look. So his mother
thought him rough and coarse, and his
sisters declared that he had no style at
all, But Out.ide of home, where great
shows of wealth were made by many
private economies, Fred was more ap-
preciated.
When he became a man and knew
that his fathers estate, though suffi-
cient to give them every comfort, was
not large enough for the extravaganza
his neither indulged in, he fitted him.
self for business and took a position In
a counting-house, thus becoming self
supporting, though his mother declared
that no Greer had ever been in trade.
That the money she lived on was made
in soap boiling the fashionable lady
sgnored entirely. Daring WILDER had
tudied law, but his first client had not
yet appeared, and Mrs. Gorham sup
ported him, trusting his Vaccinations
would touch the heart of some
monsyed belle. Miss Caldwell was the
present hope. She was her own mis-
tress, an orphan heiress, and very hand
some. That she was proud and rather
cold In manner was only an additional
charm to Mrs. Gorham, Lucilla, Ara
bella and Oorinne, who were enthnsias-
tic in their admiration of Cordelia
Caldwell's queenly manner.
Nobody suspected that Fred, blunt
and straightforward Fred, hid one
secret in his heart, confessed to no
living being. And that secret was a
love, pure and true, for OOrdelia Oald
well-a love that would shut itself
closely away from any suspicion OF
fortune hunting only dropped
and mouTned, thinking Of the heiress.
At four o'clock Fred was at the sta
tion with carriage waiting for Aunt
Sabina.
What little, old fashined figure she
was, In her quaint black silk bonnet and
large figured shawl. Bat Fred knew
her kindly old face at q glance, though
he had not seen it since he was twelve
years of age.
You are aunt" he said, going
quickly TO meet her.
She looked at the handsome face, and
caught quick, gssping breath.
g You must be one of Johns boys,
she said. '' How like you are to your
father"
'' am Fred" he answered.
Dear heart ! How you've grown !
Is your ma here
"She is waiting for you ct home"