The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-11-24

income had ceased when MIR. Breese
went away, and the family purse was
we'll nigh empty. Miss Middleton sat
by the fire until it died out, thinking, |
thinking, thinking, but all to no pur-
pose. She must do something was the |
thought of one moment there was |
nothing that she could do, was that of |
the next. She had nothing to be thank
full for, she said, and she thought so still.
The next day came letter from lady
in the North, whose name she had never
heard before. The lady apologized for
troubling Miss Middleton, but explained
that she had got her address through a
friend, and knowing of no one else to
whom she could apply for the informa-
ton, she wished ETC., etc., etc. The
gist of the letter was that the lady writ
ing it had two daughters whose health
suffered somewhat from the severity OF
the Northern winter, and she wished
Miss Middleton wonld tell her if there
was any young lady OF thorough refine
ment and culture who would take charge
of the girls as boarders and pupils in a
private house at the South. Somehow
the description the lady gave of the kind
of person with whom she desired to
place her daughters fitted Miss Middle
ton herself with remarkable precision,
and after letter or two had passed each
way it was decided that Mrs. Hepworth's
daughters should become Miss Middle
tons pupils ut once, and that their
mother should join them q little later
in the season as Miss Middleton's
boarder.
The girls were presently installed as
pupils in the little cottage. They cried
little between whites, of course, but
there was SO much to see, SO many places
to visit in the neighborhood, and $50
very, very much" to write about to
mamma, that they were obliged to grow
cheerful merely because there was no
time for anything else. 1t was so con-
slant wonder to them to gather flowers
in midwinter, and to walk IL the green
woods in January, that the South seemed
a very fairy land to the youthful maid
ems. Then, too, they did what every
body else did who came in contact with
Miss Middleton. They fell in love with
her, in a word, and she, in spite of the
heat lightning in her nature, which
flashed up above the horizon in her eyes
every moment-or, perhaps, because of
it-loved everything that she happened
not to hate, and finding nothing to hate
in her pupils she became sort of tiger
ish young mother to them presently,
brooding over them IA black cloud
broods over young thunderstorm.
Then Mrs. Hepworth came, and she
played rainbow to Miss Middleton's
tempest, so that the two soon 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 arpet-baRger 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
treason to her soul.
There is no way of guessing what a
calm, gray-eyed, semi-phlegmatic man
will do when his placid nature is violent
ly disturbed from without. The ven
geance of such men is not the sudden
striking of the thunderbolt, but the
slow, patient, tireless, memorable grind
ing of the mills of the gods. When
patient Fred Ereese rode away from the
little village in which he had received
the treatment already described, he car
ried fixed purpose in his mind, which
such man as he would patiently ex-
ecute 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 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 deliber
ately 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, land we should have suited each
other then. But what man can live III
peace with an untamed tiger, l should
like TO know? He tried to make a pet
of the wild beast, when he should have
subdued it first and fondled it after
ward.
Fred Breese rode TO the railroad and
took the first train for Charleston.
Thence he went by rail to the ancient
village of Pocotaligo. where. buying
horse, he mounted and rode to Middle
ton Hall, scoTe of miles away toward
the sea. Taking 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 bikes, and the reopen
ing Of drains, it was practically worth
less. Repaired, he knew it would make
its owner rich, as its late owner had
been. But how coald Fred Breese hope
to repair it, even for the sake of wreaA-
ing his vengeance He had very little
capital to expend, and much was needed
here but he had great patience, an in
domitable will, and life upon which he
placed little value, and with these for
his resources be bought the place, upon
Thanksgiving day, as the tax sale, adopt
ing for the time name other than his
own. With what money he could CON-
mand he hired laborers, and, working
with them day after day through the
winter, while his evenings were passed
in planning the new bitches and dams
and Siood-gates, he succeeded in getting
the upper pond in order, and one LANCE