The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-05-30


of his brow, while they Tared like the |
lilies of the field to have Tom envy and |
perhsps hste them, and feel bitter that |
life had been rendered so much easier for
them by injustice l'
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 less generous than your
self"
But their mother must have been
uDgenerous first. you see"
q Yon have Anson to think of, Hitty,
IN this afsir, as Weli as Tom. If you
{ don't love Tom better"
. I don't-I don't; but the will has
made it impossible for me to marry Ans
son with clear couscience-to marry
him and be happy. If he were sure of
/ earning q fortune, with which we could
make amends 70 little Tom, il would be
different. But I cannot count upon
such an improbable contingency. As
you say Tom will have his heau and
hands to push his way, but the best head
and the busiest hands 4 o not always
compel fortune and ii any harm should
come to him from want of capital, if he
should be tempted 70 sin from lack of
money, I'll should have to answer for
1t it would be my guilt"
g Nonsense, Hitty your conscience is |
too tender. Marry Arson and trust to
fate, that's my advice. SuppOsing you
refuse, and he maITies somebody else,
aDd-little Tom does not live 70 grow
uPi'
'' shall not have wronged him"
But you will have wronged Anson."
Not il he-if he marries-snother."
! 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. It
was no easy task she had set herself !
She was to receive no need for her sac
rifee except fapproval-nothiDg but
reproaches Could che have seen ali
that wOuld happen, she might have
spared heTself this cruelty. And how
much can happen in this time! how
much to mske our wisest ferethoughts
assume the aspect of improvidenees.
Property changes hands, values shrink,
/ children grow up with wills of their
/ own, people die and make room torremote
heirs, or they Outlive the sharp edge Of
sorrow and anger, snd learn to bear ths
/ burden OF their mistakes. Miss Hitty
! had faded in the meantime, while AnsOn
/ SeaTle Wore his years like gaTlGnds. The
fortune OF which her /" not impossible" "
/ children might have Tobbef little Tom
had dwindled 10 the meTest pittance
through the knaveTy Of the man to whose
] wisdom it was entrusted, while Anson
/ Searle had Unexpectedly stepped into
possession of the S9arle estate, with its
old stone mansion, It's orchards snd out-
lying meadow lands, and the income
that had been rolling up since the Searles
,,
Twenty years before there had been no
shadow of such a possibility, no dream
OF it in AnsOn's mind or snother's. Two
. healthy lives had barred the way against
him. but death had effected breach.
''What a rnist IKE Hitty Thorne made %
+ people had commented these half dozen
wears. She might have been mistress at
! SeaTle Hill ii she'd had a mind to risk
marrying poor man. Folks get their
come mp once IL this world sometimes"
with the usual charity commentators
/ bestow upon the motives Of others. No
/ body had knewn the true cause of Hitty's
refusal tn marry SeaTle. 1t had been the
| town talk, to be sure-a riddle which no
one had solved. She had not even com
fided her reasons 70 her lover. He
would override them, she feared, would
call them absurd, and only make her
.
hate little TOm-- and some time Tom
might need his good will; who could tell?
Anson Searle had not borne his dismissal
with the foItitude of an early martyr,
but he had sworn never to ask her twice
to marry him and he had kept bis word.
But perhaps after his anger cooled, and
ne watched her saddening year by year,
some suTmise that her behavior had not
been dictated by caprice or any petty InO
tive grew upon him, and obliged him 10
render her the tardy justice Of
appreciation. And 8 pretty return
Tom had male her-speculating
with bis 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 a will there was
a way, and she followed the only way she
knew. If Mr.. SesTle, fumbliDg 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 viii already
and if he had not been quite heroic
!. enough TO forgive her for PreferIiug
Tom 3 welfare to his own, be must have
found grim satisfaction. in the tuIB that
fate had ordered, 10 seeing the Thorne
: property shrinking day by day, ill there
) was hardly enough to butter their bread
till it was plain that Hitty's sacrifice
had heen foY naught. But when did ever
: sacrifice prove futile? Though it fail OF
, its direct purpose, dees il not enrich tho
soul not only of the one who sacrifices,
: but of all beholdcrs? ?
1t was near twilight of an autumn day
: that Miss Hitty put on her worn bonnet
and went slowly. with certain reluc-
] tapce. up the hill toward the Sesrle man
sion; she pulled the brszen knOcker
2 timidly, and stepped into the house that
2 might have been her own like any beggar.
] The dead SearIes looked down from the
walls of the oaken hail with cold ques-
? tionings in their pursuing eyes; In the
great drawing room the wood FIRE snap
D ped with a good viii. and glinted gsyly
2 upon bro "a and ormolu, upon the quaint
: mirrors set in garnets, upon the yellow
: ivory KEYS of the old piano. AnsOn
r S7arle rose to receive his guest with 8
stTs it-you. -Hitty? ?'' he exclaimed.
$ I" You ?''
!, g Yes. You did not expect me?''
Expect you No. Have ] had reason
to expect yen
] 3" We sometimes expect without rea
7 son. / have come expecting you to
d grant me 8 favor"
# A favor?"
e " Yes It strikes you oddly that
? should be brought 70 beg favor of you
: does it not But there is no other friend
upon whom I can make even so shadowy
a claim as upon you. Do you think
j, would ask any thing of one whom have
\ > ! -.
If tremity ?"
It 4 hope you will ash any thing of me