Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1875-12-24
WHOLE NO. 542.

as pupils in the little cottage. They
cried a little between whiles, Of
course, but there was so much to see,
so many places to visit in the neigh
borhood, and ESQ very, very much'
to write about to mamma, that they
were obliged to grow cheerful merely
because there was no time for any
thing else. 1t was so constant Won
der to them to gather flowers in mid
winter, and to walk in the green
woods in January, that the South
seemed very fairy land to the youth
ful maidens. Then, too, they did
what everybody else did who came
in contact with Miss Middleton
They fell in love with her, in word,
and she, in spite of the heat light
ming in her nature, which flashed
above the horizon in her eyes every
moment-or, perhaps, of it-loved
everything that she happened not to
hate, and finding nothing to hate in
her pupils, she becamea sort of tiger
ish young mother to them presently,
broodlng over them as a black cloud
broods over a young thunderstorm.
Then Mrs. Hepworth came, and
she played rainbow to Miss Middle
tons tempest, so that tie two became
something more than the best of
friends; and Miss Middleton declared
that if she thought all Yankees were
like her new friend, she would love
the whole race-except the carpet
bagger. who, as she had heard, had
bought Middleton Hall, at the tax
sale, and was actually living in the
old mansion. Him she could never
do else than hate, without high trea-
son to her soul.
There is never any way of guessing
what a calm. gray eyed, semi-phleg-
matte man will do when his placid
nature is violently disturbed from
without. The vengeance of such
men is not the sudden striking OF a
thunderbolt, but the slow, patient,
tireless, lnexorable grinding of the
mills OF the gods. When patient
Fred Breese rode away from the little
village in which he had received the
treatment already described, he car
ried a fixed purpose in his mind,
which such man as he would pa
tiently execute, even at the expense
of years Of toll and suffering. The
young woman who had cast him off
IN a fit of passion little knew the
depths Of his nature, or the terrible
patience with which such a man
could work year after year toward an
end upon which he had firmly fixed
his soul. She knew that he would
never come a-wooing again, and that
he had deliberately accepted as final
her decision that they were not suited
to each other.
''He might have conquered me, if
he had chosen" she said to herself
one day, "and we should have suited
each other then. But what man can
live in peace with an untamed tiger,
| should like to know? He tried to
make pet of the wild beast, when
he shonld have subdued it first and
fondled it afterwards"
Fred Breese rode to the railroad
and took the first train for Charleston.
Thence he went to the ancient village
of Pocotaligo, where, buying horse,
he mounted and rode to Middleton
Hall, score of miles toward the sea.
Taking a negro with him he rode all
over the decayed plantation, and
found it, like all Its fellows round
about, so badly out of repair that
without vast expenditure Of capital
and labor, in the rebuilding OF dikes,
and the reopening of drains, it was
practically worthless. Repaired, he
knew it would make its owner rich.
as its late owner had been. But how
could Fred Breese hope to repair it,
even for the sake Of wreaking his
vengeance? He had very little capi-
tai to expend, and much was needed
here; but he had great patience, an
lndomitable will, and lite upon
which he placed little value, and
with these for his resources he bought
the place, upon Thanksgiving Day,
at the tax sale, adopting for the time
name other than his own. With
what money he could command he
hired laborers, and working with
them day after day through the win.
ter, while his evenings were passed
in planning the new bitches and dams
and fiood-gates, he succeeded in get
ting the upper pond in order, and one
large rice field ready at the planting
season. While his crop of rice was
growing he laborcd diligently upon
the next field, grabbing up cane and
bushes with his own hands, and
when the returns from his crop came
in, he invested every cent of the pro-
ceeds in further preparations. 1t
was slow work, and his living was
poor, for he grudged every penny
that did not help forward the work Of
restoration.
He even ordered his agent at the
North to sell his library, and with
the money thus secured added hun
dred acres to the acres of tillable
land. Year after year he worked on,
each day bringing him nearer to the
completion OF his task. The third
year his rice rusted, and ne was left
without funds with which to go on.
But his great patience remained, and
by dint Of enduring semi-starvation
he brought the last field under culti-
walton. He had now to reap his har-
vest, resume his name, and take his
place among the rich men of the
State as great landowner and
prosperous planter, and his revenge
would be complete.
w.
A woman never can keep secret,
and Fred Breese ought to have known
it; but it never occurred to him that
women differed in this respect from
men. He could keep silent, and he
saw no reason to suppose that any
other person could find it difficult to
do so.
One day in August, 1874, Mrs,
Hn,,.o,<l ,rL> ror h, Erc< <f.cn Vync