Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-02-18
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Miss Middleton was a sensible woman
and she saw all this. She knew when
she threw that manuscript into the fire that
II was worthless, and that writing was moi
her proper business in The world; but she
was discouraged, and fairly frightened a:
well. The family income had ceased
when Mr.. Breese went away, and the fam
ily purse was we'll nigh empty. Miss
Middleton sat by the fire until 1t died out,
thinking, but all to no purpose. She must
do something, was the thought OF one mo
ment; there was nothing that she couid
do, was that of the next. She threw her
self on her bed at last and slept. She hsd
nothing to be thankful for. she had said'
and she thought so STILL.
The next day came letter from lazy
in the North, whose name she had never
heard before. The lady apologized Tor
troubling Miss Middleton, but explained
that she had got her address through a
friend, and knowing OF no one e'se 10
whom she could apply for the information 10
she wished, &C.. &c, &c. Inc gist o, the
letter was that the lady writing 1t 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
thorough refinement and culture who
would take charge OF the girls as board
ers 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 herself with remarkable precision.
and after 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 little later in the sea
son 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 80 much to see, SO many places to Wis
il in the neighborhood and $50 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 constant wonder to them TO gath
er flowers in mdwinter, aud to walk in
the green woods in January. that the
South seemed a very fairy land TO the
youthful maidens. Then, too. they did
what 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 heatlightning in her nature, which
flashed up above the horizon in her eyes
every nIoment-or, perhaps, because OF 1t
loved everything that she happened not
to hate, and fnding-nothing to hate in
her pupils, she became sort OF tigerish
young mother to them presently, brooding
over them as black cloud broods over
a young thunderstorm.
Then Mrs Hepworth came, and she
played rainbow to Miss Middleton's tenn
pest, so that the two soon became some
thing more than the best of friends, and.
Miss Middleton declared that il 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 treason to her soul.
III.
There is never any way of guessing
what calm, gray-eycd, semi phlegnat-
ic 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, tireless, memorable 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 pur-
pose in his mind, which such man as he
would patiently execute even at the ex-
pense 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 deliberately accepted as final her de-
cision 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 in peace
with an untamed tiger, l should like to
know? He tried to make pet of the
wild beast, when he should have subdued
it frat and fondled it afterward.'
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 a horse he
mounted and rode to Middleton Han, Il
score of miles away towards the sea.
Taking negro with him he rode all over
the decayed plantation, and found it, like
its fellows round about, SO badly out of
repair that, without vast expenditure of
capital and labor, in the rebuilding
Of dikes and the opening of drains, 1t
was practically worthless Repaired he
knew it would make its owner rich, as its
late owner had been. BIT how could
Breese hope to repair it. even for the sake
of wreaking his vengeance He had very
little capital to expend. and much
was needed here; but he had great pa
thence, an indomitable will, and life 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 con-
mand he hired laborers, and working with
them day after day through the winter,
while his evenings were passed in plan
ming the new bitches and dams and food
gates. he succeeded in getting the upper
pond in order. and one large rice field