Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1876-12-01

must do something, was the thought of one
moment there was nothing she could do,
was that of the next. She threw herself on
her bed at last and slept. She had nothing
to be thankful for she had said, and she
thought so still.
The next day camo letter from lady in
the North, whose name she had never
heard before. The lady apologlzed 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 Information
she wished, &C., &C., &c. The gist of the
letter was that the lady writing it had two
daughters whose health suffered somewhat
from the severity of the northern winter,
and she wished Miss Middleton would tell
her If there was any young lady of thor
ough refinement and culture who would
take charge of the girls as boarders and
pupils in private house at the South.
Somehow the description the lady gave OF
the kind of person with whom she desired
to place her daughter fitted Miss Middleton
herself with remarkable precision and after
Il letter or two had passed each way it was
decided that Mrs. Hepworth's daughters
should become Miss Middleton's pupils at
once, and that their mother should join
them a little Later in the season as Miss
Middleton's boarder.
The girls were presently installed as pu-
pills in the little cottage. They cried lit
Ito between whiles, OF course, but there
was so much TO see, so many places to vis-
it in the neighborhood, and $50 very, very
much to write about to mamma, that they
were obliged 10 grow cheerful merely be-
cause there was no time for anything else.
1t was so constant a wonder 10 them 10
gather flowers in midwinter, and to walk
in the green woods in January, that the
South seemed Il very fairy land TO the
youthful maidens. Then, too, they did
wha! everybody else did who came in con-
tact with Miss Middleton. They fell in
love with her in word, and she, in spite
OF the heat lightning in her nature, which
flashed up above the horizon in her eyes
every nioment-or, perhaps, because Of it
loved everything that she happened not to
hate, and finding nothing to hate in her pu-
pills, she became n sort of tigerish young
mother to them presently, brooding over
them as a black cloud broods over a Young
thunderstorm.
Then Mrs. Hepworth came, and she play
ed 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
Wnnl1 lnyn iha ~ hnle lao
pet 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 treason to her soul.
There is never any way OF guessing what
calm, gray-eyed, semi -phlegmatic man
will do when his placid nature is violently
disturbed from without. The vengeance
of such men is not the sudden striking of
the thunderbolt, but the slow, patient, tire
less, inexorable' 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 carried fixed purpose in his mind,
which such a man as he would patiently
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 bis nature, or the terrible
patience with which such man could
work year aller year toward an end upon
which he had firmly fixed his soul. Sho
knew that he would never come a-wooing
again, and that he had deliberately accept
ed as final her decision that they were not
suited to each other.
"IIe might have conquered me, II he had
chosen" she said 10 herself one day, "and
we should have suited each other then. But
what man can live in peace with an un-
tanned tiger ! should like 10 knowP He
tried to make pet of the wild beast, when
he should have subdued il first and londed
it aflerward."
Fred Breese rode 10 the railroad and took
the first train for Charleston. Thence he
went by rail to the.ancient village of Poe
otaligo, where, buying a horse, he mount
ed and rode.to Middleton Hall, score of
miles away toward The sea. Taking me-
gro with him he rode all over the decayed
plantation, and found ii, like all its fellows
round about, so badly out of repair that,
without a vast expenditure of capital and
labor, in the rebuilding of dikes, aud the
reopening OF drains, 1t was practically
worthless. Repaired, he knew It would
make its owner rich, AS lis late owner had
been. But how could Fred Breese hope TO
repair it, even for the sake OF wrecking his
10 nj 10
expend, and much was needed here; but
he had great patience, an indomitable will,
and life upon which he placed little val
ue, aud 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 afler day through
the winter, while his evenings were passed
in planning the new bitches and dams and
floodgates, he succeeded in getting the up
per pond in order, and one large rice field
ready at the planting season. While his
crop OF rice was growing he labored dill
gently upon the next field, grubbing up
cane and bushes with his own hands, and
when the returns for his crop came in he
invested every ceLt OF the proceeds in fur
ther 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 10 sell his library, and with
the money thus secured added hundred
acres 10 the area Of tillable land. Year af-
ter year he worked on, each day bringing
him nearer to the completion of his task.