The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-06-06

youth at least he'd been hers, There Z
wasn't the smallest danger that LIBBY
would threaten Toms interests by mar l
rying ~ :,
"No, you may never marry, Libby"
sighed her sister "but IL love Anson,
and oh love little Tom, too my little
motherless Tom cannot rob him OF
his pstrimony, and cannot live without
Anson, How can wrong Tom to pleas
ure myseltp WHAT will he have to go
out into this cold hard world with il
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 1t would make me
to see them enriched at his expense to
rec him earning his bread 10y 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" " g.,
perhaps they would share with
Tom"
"Ah, it wouldn't be quitesafe 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
ungenerous first you see.
"You have Anson to think OF, Hitty,
In this affair, as vel as Tom. If you
don't love Tom better"
al don't don't; but the will has
lnade it impossible for me to marry AM
son with clear conscience-t0 marty
him and be happy, II he were sure OF
earning n fortune, with which we could
make amends TO little Tom, it would be
different. But cannot count upon
such an improbable contingency. AS
you say Tom will have his head and
hands to push his way, but the best head
and the busiest hands { 0 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, IL should have TO answer TOR
IL it would be my guilt
Nonsense, Hitty your conscience Is
too tender, Marry Anson and trust to
fate, that's my advice. Supposing you
refuse, and he marries somebody else,
and--little Tom does not live 10 grow
up| .,
" But you will have wrODged Anson." "
"Not il he--if he marries another"
Many would perhaps approve hitty
Thorne's conduct at this crisia, more
would condemn but she walked accord
, ing to her light in those cruel days 1t
was no easy task she had set herself
She was to receiye no need for her sac
f rifce except seifapprovaI- nothing but
reproaches. Gould she hava Seeh al
: that would happen, she might have
spared herself this cruelty. And how
J. much can happen in this time! nov
much to make our wibtBt toreIhought
! assume the aspect 0f impToVIdencea
}. Pruerty changes hands, values shrink
h children grow ny with wills OF thel
! own. people die and make room t0rremot
h heirs, or they Outliye the sharp edge o
/ sorrow and anger, ami learn u bear IN
h burden OF their mistakes Miss liltt
o had faded in the meantime, VIII a nHo
m S.arle were his years like garlands. IN
W fortune OF which her mot 'mPoSsinie
children might have robbed httle loL
IN had dwindled 10 the mersst pittanc
es through the knavery OF the man to whos
I'd wisdom it was entrusted, while Anso
in Searle had Unexpectedly stepped int
cy possession of the Searle estate, with II
We old stone mansion, its orchards ard ou'
sh living meadow. lands, and the neon
that had been rolling up since the Searl,
,m first set toot upon Plymouth Roc
he Twenty years before there had been
ng shadow Of such possibility, no drea
il of it in ADsons mind or anothers iV
) healthy lives had barred the way again
esq him. but death had effected 3 breach
her Whatamist4ke Hitty Thorne made
go, neople had commented these half d0z
ers wears. She might have been mistress
md Searle Hill il she'd had nina TO RI
de- marrying poor man. Folks get. In
, it come up once in this world sometime
md with the usual charity commentat
the bestow upon the motives OF others. !
ter body had knswn thetrue cause oi HIT
)h, refusal tn marry Searle, II had been
ad- town talk, to he sure--a riddle Whlch
ave one had solved. She had not even Q
fded her reasons 10 her lover.
,rts would override them, Dhe feared, We
uld call them absurd, and only make
the task more difficult, and perhaps grow
the hate little Tom-- and some time /
ling might need hisgeod will; who could
the Anson Ssarle had not borne his dismi
,pty with the fortitude Of an early mar
ave hut he had sworn never 10 ask her tN
wed 10 marry him, and he had kept his W
.ely. But perhaps after his anger cooled,
.bey he watched her saddening year by
rest some surmi.e that her behavior had
but been dictated by caprice or any petty
the tive grew upon him, and Obliged hlI
ring. render her the tardy justice
,om, ppreciatiou. And pretty re-
the Tom had made her-specula
win. with his employers money,
had threatening the family pride
, die disgrace. Unless FIVE thousand do
little were forthcoming. there was only a
mess niyht between HIM and ruin. And
and was only twenty-five ihey uus1
,eless him. Miss Hitty was one TO stan
come her gun; where tnefe WAS VIII 'hei
tive. a way, and she followed the only wa
,ther. knew. If Mr.. Sssrle, fumbling
love for the reasons of Hitty's conduc
myth. ward himself, had at length stun
other upon the clew--having an init
and knowledge o: her fathers will aires
when and il be had not been quite /
re-. enough to forgive her for preie
" the Toms welfare to his own, he must
q, the found grim satisfaction, in the turn
-: and fats had ordered, in seeing the y
with. property shrinking day by day, IN
thing was hardly enough to butter their
o pooI till it wa. plain that Hittys sse se
,ed TO had been tor nsupht. But when u't
horne sacrifice prove futile? Though II )
is un. its direct purpose, dees 1t not en'.. u.
/, him. oul not only of the one WHO sAcf
lawyer but oil all Dehoiueio ,,u