The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1878-05-25

Mr, 1h0rne Shuff1ed OH the mortal coil
and this unjust will came to light, anc
Searle himself was at that time only s
young lawyer wrestling with circum
stances, with no great amount of funds
at his command.
''And nothing for little Tom but thi:
paitry Sl00." groaned Hitty, when the
will had been read and the estate ad
ministered.
"Of course | shall never marry" sale
Liddy, who was plain and old-lookine
for her years, and whose one lover hao
Tilted her years ago, when the bloom oil
youth, at least, had been hers. There
would threaten Toms interests by mar
rying.
"No, you may never marry, Liddy,''
sighed her sister; "but IL love Arson
and oh! | love little Tom too-my little
motherless Tom! / cannot rob him oil
his patrimony, and cannot live without
Arson. How can | wrong Tom to pleas
ure myself? What will he have to go
out in this hard world with, if-if-"
Hush, you silly girl; you will have
his head and hands, like other men; and
then-you may never have any chill
dren to stand in his way"
But how unhappy it would make me
to see them enrich 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 Tommy envy and
perhaps hate them, and feel bitter that
life had been rendered so much easier
for them by injustice!
"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 Chi
dren of being less generous than your
self"
But their mother must have been
ungenerous first, you see."
"You have Arson to think of, Kitty
in. this affair, as well as Tom. If you
don't love Tom better"
Il don't-I don't; but the will has
made it impossible for me to marry Arson
with a clear conscience-to marry him
and be happy. If he were sure of earn
ing fortune, with which we could make
amends to little Tom, it would be differ.
ent. 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 do not always compel fortune
and, if any harm should come to him
from want of capital, if he should be
tempted to sin from lack of money, /
| should have to answer for it; it would
be my guilt
Nonsense, Hitty; your conscience is
too tender. Marry Arson and trust tc
fate; that's my advice. Surprising you
refuse, and he marries somebody else, and
little Tom doesn't live to grow uop'
& / shall not have wronged him."
g But you will have wronged Arson
=" Not if he-if he marries-another. y
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. il
was no easy task she had set herself
She was to receive 40 need for her sac
rifice, except self-approval-nothing but
reproaches. Could she have seen all
that would happen, she might have
spared herself this cruelty. And how
much can happen in this time! how
AAuNi1 W ludhC Jul w IoCSb
assume the aspect of appropriateness
Property changes hands, values shrink
children grow up with wills of their own
people die and make room for remote
heirs, or they outlive the sharp edge OF
sorrow and anger, and learn to bear the
/ burden of their mistakes Miss Hitty
had faded in the mean time, while Arson
Searle wore his years like garlands
The fortune of which her " not impos
sible T" children might have robbed little
Tom had dwindled to the merest pittance
through the knavery of the man to whose
wisdom it had been intrusted, while
Arson Searle had Unexpectedly stepped
into the possession of the Searle estate
with It's old stone mansion, its orchard:
and outlying meadow-lands, and the in
come that had been rolling up since the
Searles first set foot upon Plymouth
Rock. Twenty years before there haC
been no shadow of such possibility, nc
dream of it in Anson's mind or another S
Two healthy lives had barred the way
against him, but death had effected {
breach.
"What mistake Kitty Tbornt
made" people had commented these hal
dozen years. "She might have beer
mistress at Searle Hill if she'd had &
mind to risk marrying a poor man
Folks get their come up once in thi:
world sometimes" with the usual charity
commentators bestow upon the motives
of others. Nobody had known the true
cause of Hitty's refusal to marry Searle
1t had been the town talk, to be sure
riddle which no one had solved She haC
nor even confided her reasons to hel
lover. he would over-rule them, she
feared, would call them absurd, ard only
make her task more difficult, and per
haps grow to hate little Tom-and some
time Tom might need his good will, who
could tell? Arson Searle had not borne
his dismissal with the fortitude of al
early martyr, but he had sworn he woufc
never ask her twice to marry him, and he
had kept his word. But, perhaps, after
his anger cooled, and he watched hel
saddening year by year, some surmise
that her behavior had not been dictated
by caprice or any petty motive grew
upon him, and obliged him to render hel
the tardy justice of appreciation. Anc
a pretty return Tom had made her
specializing with his employers money
and threatening the family pride Will
disgrace. Unless $4,000 were forthcom
ing, there was only fortnight between
him and ruin. And Tom was only
twenty-five. They must save him
Miss Hitty was only to stand by he
guns; where there was will there was
way, and she followed the only way sh,
knew If Mr.. Searle, fumbling abou
for the reasons of Hitty's conduc