The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-11-24
prosperous planter, and his revenge
would be complete. l


would be complete.
W.
A woman never can keep secret, and |
Fred Breese ought TO have known it !;
but it had 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. Hep
worth, who for the first time was pass
ing the summer months as well as those
of winter in the South, walked more
rapidly than usual from the village post
office, and upon entering the house Went
straight to her room in apparent agi-
tation. Half an hour later she joined
Miss Middleton on the piazza, and pres
emily said, Ruth, L want to tell you
story"
"Pfay do" answered the younger
gentle woman, CT haven't had a story
all to myself since was a child"
But mine is sad story, and there are
other reasons why you may not like it,
or me for telling it. We shall see, how.
ever"
"There was young man once, as
grand man as God ever made. He
loved a woman who was worthy of him,
and who loved him in return but in a
fit of unreasonable anger, one day, she
sent him away discarded. The young
woman was very poor, although she had
been rich, and her necessities were sore.
The man knew her needs and took great
pains to provide for them in such q way
that she should never know or suspect
whence the help came. He threw in her
way the only profitable work she knew
how to do. But this was not all, nor
half. When he parted with the woman
he loved, he forever surrendered all idea
of renewing the engagement. He was
Convinced that ne was unfit to make such
woman happy, and, like the hero he
was, he sacrificed his own life to hers.
There was a way in which he could re-
store the woman's fortune but it in
volved long years of toll and privation
and suffering. To accomplish it he must
give his time and his means, and risk his
life itself in climate which Mt certain
seasons is dangerously unwholesome.
Mrs. Hepworth was looking over, not
ut, Miss Middleton, rs she told the sto-
ry, but she felt that the black eyes, full
of tears, were gazing steadily at her.
Nevertheless, the great soul of the
man bravely breasted the difficulties snd
the dangers of his task. 1t was his
plan to work out the terrible problem
under an assumed name, and then, with
out her knowledge, to convey the re-
deemed estate to the woman, record the
deed. and disappear forever from her
world, poor, friendless, and a wanderer.
"Year after year he toiled and suf-
fered. He lived meagerly and worked
Increasingly. He was sick many times,
and alone always, with neither man nor
woman to give him greeting, and no
companions but the negro laborers he
employed.
FINALLY, his work was done. The
estate was restored to its former fruit
fulness. The rice fields were repaired
and leased for torn of years at rental
which would place the woman he loved
not only beyond want, but in weil-nigh
affiuent circumstances. The deed to
her was made and recorded. Tie agent
was instructed 20 give copy of it to
the woman, but to conceal the giver's
real name always, and the man sailed
to day for China. The agent was a
woman-the sister of the hero-nnd af-
ter the manner of woman she failed to
keep the secret Of his heroism."
Mrs. Hepworth left the piazza and re-
tired to her room. Ruth sat still for
half an hour, ana then went to her
friend
evil the agent help the unworthy
% valiant
lessly as the man has pursued his" she
asked.
"What is the purpose?"
"To spend every cent Of the income
from the estate in search for the
hero to bring him back, and show
him that he had tanned the wild beast"
" IL would be useless. He he's bid
din his sister good-by, and, upon sail
ing, changed his name again, that
search might be vain, and the gift eff
fective."
The next day came another letter for
Mrs. Hepworth. This time it was from
physician, and it said
"Your brother is very i'll with country
fever, from which he cannot recover.
The fever came upon him two days ago,
as he was upon the point of leaving
Middleton Hall, and his strength is so
reduced by overwork that the best rem
edies l can apply have no effect. If
you wish to see him alive, you must
come to Middleton Hall at once"
VI.
A fortnight later Fred. Breese, pale
and thin, but free from fever, sat with
two gentlewomen IN the piazza at Mid
dletsn Hall. For some reason which
the doctor could never guess, his reme-
dies had begun to do their proper work
on the veyy day oD which the younger
of the two women, the black-eyed one.
mad suggested that the sick man should
get well in time to keep Thanksgiving
with her on the Last Thursday IN No
vember.
This year Ruth says she has some
thing to be thankful for T; and as she says
it she broDds over tbs quaint old carven
cradle, where Master Frederick Middle
ton Breess is learning, by experiment,
that the bend of his elbow is an effect
i've barrier to the swallowing of his fist.