The Osceola times., 1878-06-01

youth at least had been hers. There
wasn't the smallest danger that Libby
would threaten Toms interests by mar.
rying
No, you may never marry, Libby"
sighed her sister "but IL love Anson,
and oh love little Tom, too, my little
motberless Tom ! cannot rob him OF
his patrimony, and cannot live without
Anson, How can ] wrong Tom TO pleas.
ure MYSELF WHAT will he have to 40
out into this cold hard world with it
| if"
Hush, you silly girl he will have
his head and hands like other men and
then you may never have any children
to stand in his way"
" But how unhappy il would make me
TO see them enriched at his expense To
see him earning his bread by the sweat
OF his brow, while they Jared like the
lilies Of the field TO have Tom envy and
perhaps hate them, and feel bitter that
| life had been rendered so much easier for
them by injustice y
Perhaps they would share with
Tom"
"Ah, it wouldn't be quite safe to trust
TO that pleasant perhaps"
"You ought not to suspect your chill
dren OF being lee, generous than your
self"
"But their mother must have been
ungenerous first, you see"
"You have AnsOn 10 think OF, Hitty,
in this affair, as well as Tom. If you
| don't love Tom better"
A." | DON'T don't; but the will has
made 1t impossible for me TO marry AM
son with a clear conscience-to marry
him and be hsppy. If he we're sure OF
earning fortune, with which we could
make amends to little Tom, IL would be
different. Bat | cannot count upon
such an improbable contingency. As
you say Tom will have his head and
hands to push bis way, but the best head
and the busiest hands 90 not always
compel fortune and il any harm should
come TO him from want OF capital, if he
should be tempted TO sin from lack Of
money, I--I should have TO answer for
it ; it would be my guilt"
Nonsense, nifty; your conscience is
too tender. Marry Anson and trust TO
refuse, and he marries somebody else,
and-little Tom does not live 10 grow
upW
! shall not have wronged him"
But you will have wroDged Anson."
Not il he-if lie maTries another"
Many would perhaps approve Hitty
ThOrne's conduct at this crisis, more
would condemn but she walked accord.
ing to her light in those cruel days II
was no easy task she had get herself.
She was to receive no need for her sac
riice except self approval nothing but
reprosches. Could sbe have seen all
that would happen, she might have
spared herself this cruelty. And how
much can happen in thi. time! how
| much 10 male o,r y isSss leFc thoughts
assume the aspect Of improvidenoes.
Property changes bands, values shrink,
children grow up with wills of their
own, people die and make room ior remote
heirs, or they outlive the sharp edge OF
sorrow and anger, and learn 10 bear the
burden OF their mistakes Miss Hitty
had faded in the meantime, while A nson
Searle were his years like gsrlsnds. The
fortune OF which her mot impossible ]"
children might have robbed lttle Tom
had dwindled TO the merest pittsnce
through the knavery OF the man to whose
wisdom it was entrusted, while Anson
Sesrle had UNEXPECTEDLY stepped into
possession of the 6eaTle estate, with its
old stone mansion, its orchards and out,
lying meadow lands, and the income
that had been rolling up since the Searles
first set loot upon Plymouth Rock.
Twenty years before there had been no
shadow Of such a possibility, no dream
OF it in Anson's mind or another's. Two
healthy lives bad barred the way against
him, but death had effected breach.
"Whata a mistake Hitty Thorne made 7"
people bad commented these half dozen
wears. She might have been mistress at
| Searle Hill il she'd had a mind 10 risk
marrying poor man. Folks get their
come up once in this world sometimes" +"
with the usual charity commentators
bestow UPON the motives of others, No
body had knswn the true cause II Hitty's
refusal to marry Sesrle. II had been the
town talk, TO he sure--a riddle which no
one had solved. She had not even con-
| fded her reasons 10 her lover. He
would overrule them, she feared, weuld
call them absurd, and only make her
task more difhcult, and perhaps grow 10
hate little Tom and some time Tom
might need sFeod will; who could tell?
| AnsOn Sesrle had not borne his dismissal
with the fortitude of an early martyr,
| but he had sworn never 10 ask her twice
10 marry him and he had kept bis word.
But perhaps after his anger cooled, and
he watched her saddening year by year,
some surmise that her behavior had not
been dictated by caprice or any petty mo-
tive grew upon him, and obliged him to
render her the tsrdy justice oi
appre citation. And pretty return
Tom bsd made her-speculsting
with his employers money, and
threatening the family pride with
| disgrace. Unless FIVE thousand dollars
were forthcoming, there was only fort.
night between him and ruin. And Tom
WAS only twenty-five. They must save
him Miss Hitty was one to stand by
her gun; where there was will there wa'
a way, and she followed the only way she
knew. If Mr.. Sesrle, fumbling about
TOR the reasons of Hitty's conduct to
ward himself, had at length stumbled
upon the clew--having an intimate
knowledge o. her fathers will already
and il he had not been quite heroic
enough TO forgive her for preierrins
Toms welfare to his own, be must have
found grim satisfaction, in the turn ths
fate had ordered, 10 seeing the Thorn'
property shrinking day BY day, till ther'
was hardly enough to butter their breac