Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-05-04
THE REWARD OF KINDNESS.

Mrs. GoRHAM put down letter she had
been reading, and, looking around the Ia
bic at her blooming daughters and two
tall, handsome sons, she said, in doleful
tone:
Your Aunt Sabina is coming to Lon
don, and has invited herself here without
ceremony"
When:" asked Arabella, with an in
tonation of intense disgust
She will reach here this afternoon.
WILDER, you will have to meet her"
Sorry, ma; out l promised to drive
Miss Caldwell to the park Fred can 60
Certainly, l will 60" Fred said,
grayely, though there was a hot flush on
his forehead. q am very fond of Aunt. /"
Nonsense!' said his mother. You
have not seen her for fourteen years.
never went near the detestable old farm
after your father died"
Nevertheless, / have a vivid recollec-
ton Of Aunt Sabinas kindness while we
were there"
Dear me, Fred" drawled Lucilla,
don't be sentimental; | wish the old
thing would stay home. l can't imagine
what she is coming here for"
She is our fathers sister, said Fred,
F." and cannot find anything surprising
in her looking for a welcome amongst her
brothers children"
Mrs. Gorham shrugged her shoulders.
II she had spoken her thoughts, it would
have been; Fred is so odd! Just like
his father" But she only said: 81 may
depend upon you, then, to meet your
aunt, Fred? will see about her room -
It was source of great satisfaction to
Mrs. Gorham that her children were all
like herself. So Greers, everyone, except
Fred, F." she would say, congratulating her
self that the plebeian blood of "Gorham
pere" was not transmitted in the features
Of her elder son, WILDER, or any of the
three girls.
That Greer pride meant intense selfish
ness, that Greer beauty was of cold,
hard type, that Greer disposition was
tyrannicaI and narrow minded, did not
trouble Mrs. GoTham. That the son, who
was : all Gorham," was proud to the core
with the pride that knows no false shame
that he was noble in disposition, hand
some in frank, manly type, generous
and self-sacriticing-she could not appre-
ciate. His hands and feet were not SO
small as darling Wilber's, he had nc
fashionable ALLEGATIONS, and no Greer
look. So his mother thought him rough
and coarse, and his sisters declared tina;
he had no style at all But outside the
home, where a great show of wealth was
made by many private economies, Fred
Was more appreciated.
When he became man, and knew that
his fathers estate, though sufficient to
give every comfort, was not large enough
for the extravaganza his mother INDUCED
in, he fitted himself for business and took
a position in a contingencies, thus be.
coming self-supporting, though his moth.
er declared that no Greer had ever been
in trade. That the money she lived Oh
was made IN boiling, the fashionable lady
ignored entirely. Darling WILDER had
studied law, but his first client had no
yet appeared, and Mrs. Gorham supported
him, trusting his destinations would touch
the heart of some moneyed belle. Mis-:
Caldwell was the present hope. She was
Aer own mistress, an orphan heiress, and
very handsome That she was cold anC
PROUD IN manner was only an additional
scharm 10 Mrs. Gorham; and Lucilla, Ar
aoella and Corinne were enthusiastic il
their admiration of q Cornelia CALDWELL:
queenly manner"
NOBODY suspected that Fred, blunt
straightforward Fred, hid one secret il
MS heart' confessed to no living being
And that secret was love, pure and true
Tor Cornelia CALDWELL love that woulf
shut itself closely away from any sus
pIcion of fortune-hunting = that onl,