Litchfield enquirer., 1881-04-07
WHOLE NO. 2861

his head. He gives them lively lead for half an hour, and then, jus. as he is twisting him. self round the trunk of tree that seems to spring out of a stone by the rivers edge, Dick Ainslie suddenly appears and tails himi
 He is an old dog otter, sorely hunted and savage, and he turns and rends the hand that has checked his career. f-'
 ''Bitten you in the thumb, has he, Dick ?" | Miss Ffolett says, eagerly corning forward; ''let me bind it upl Oh! is it nothingP I'm so glad; was afraid he had hurt you"
 'Will you have his skinn as foot t-warmer, | Miss Ffolett?" AInslie asks. Do You ! will, won't your" and he swings the otter, | who is dead now, round him, and clears cir cle as he speaks.
 Young Ainslie will jump into the river | and get bitten by hunted beasts once too of- ten, 1.-two or three of young Ainslie's friends say to one another, as they jog home after the otter hunt is over. There's something queer in his family. His grandfather hanged him. self after the best year he ever Lad on the land" >-.......! .t
 Hanged himself in the home orchard, didut he? 1 don't know that I've heard rightly tell, but they say the Ainslies in n'every other generation come to bad end. 7"
 Dicks end will bc to marry Miss Jamie Welbyn, and that won't be SC bad for him." they laugh, and while they are settling his fate | l orchard alone.
 There's the spot" he says to himself. | ''TheY cut the tree down, and dug up the mold around in, but there's the spot where poor old grandad did for himself. That was dark nights work. I wonder dear little Jamie can think of me, and be willing to come to place with the stain of self.drawn blood on it." Before he gees to bed this night Dick makes his mother very happy.
 ''I shall settle it with Jamie At Miss FfOlett'a ball to morrow night, mother. he says.
 "And get married before harvest, Dick" she says earnestly. r''Lor what help Jamie will be to me at that time.''
 It is a very brilliant affair, this birthday bali of Belle Ffoletts. In the first glow of her happiness, her engagement openly ac. ! nowledged and approved of by the heads of both houses, the girl feels as If she could not do enough to make her fellow creatures glad and happy too
 Another young engaged couplear are here also, aud on these Belle Ffoiett's interest is soon concentrated. Richard Ainslie and Jamie Welbyn 'have made it up between them- selves, and blushing Jamie is hardly second to Miss Ffolett this night i2 the intensity of her satisfaction at having won the love she prizes.
 You must be married the same day am the third of August" Miss Ffoett says to Dick in the pauses of the Quadrille she is danc- ing with him; ''andI shall ask Jamie to &C., cept her wedding dress from me, and it shall be made by my own dress maker. What pretty wife you'll have, Dick-the very pret- test girl about here; won't you be proud of her ?"
 Dick looks little wildly at her, but says nothing, and Belle goes on:
 Lord Charles thinks the colt perfection. We're going to call him Golden Pippin, after your famous apples, and hope to be often down here in the hunting season after I'm married, and then you'll see him."
 Golden Pippin! It is not an suspicious name to mention to an Ainslie, for it was on O. of their famous golden pippin trees that the grandfather of this present man hanged himself But Bella has either never heard of this fact or it has entirely escaped her memO- Try.
 ''Now, look here !" says Miss Ff0lett; eff Jamie and your mother agree to it. will you be married when Lord Charles aud are Dick ?" "Yes, Miss Ffolett as well then as any time, he say. hopelessly, and she looks at him in surprise, and asks
 ''1s it too long of date? It's only two months from to-day, you know-the third of August. 1 shall go and tell Jamie it is fix ed."
 Presently the two brides-eect are holding sweet converse to gether in corner of the room.
 | ALc yOu very IOuu OI ulill l1 Dcic iS dSh- ing. "pm sure you are, and he and you will be such dear, nice happy couple; I shall like to feel that two other people are just as happy as ourselves down here the day Lord Charles and are married. It will be another bond between us. I look upon the brown colt as one already"
 The next morning Richard Ainslie receives a check from Lord Charles Collingford for the brown colt, which is about three times as | ha hou md ho hou been persuaded to name price. He does not say anything to his mother about it, but takes it into the home orchard and tears it into lit- tie bits as he stands meditatlvely under @ tree.
 Then he goes about his daily work. The wedding day is definitely fixed for the third of August, and preparations for the reception of the young wife at the Little Firs, farmhouse proceed apace under old Mrs. Ainslie's able management. Jamie will find everything in the most perfect order, and the admirable manner in which she has been brought up justlties Mrs. Ainslies most sanguine antici- patiOns of happiness resulting from the match.
 But Dick does not seem to be happy. The third of August is golden Summer day, and numbers of people from the adjacent villages are assembled about the entrance to the churchyard to see the two weddings about which SO much talk has been made. Miss Ffolett's long train of friends have arrived, and now Miss Ffolett, leaning on her fathers arln, walks up the little pathway through the church yard, and looks round eagerly for the other bridal party. As she advances to the altar-raiings, and the service which is to unite her to Lord Charles Collingiord begins, the l Welbyns bring their daughter in. and two or three scouts are sent off to see what makes Richard Ainslie a laggard in love this morn- ing. .-....- His mother is waiting for him in the old parlor, looking happier than she has looked since her husbands death. Her plain colored silk dress and bonnet suit her well; Miss Ffolett has chosen them as well as Janie's dress.
 Where can Dick bel The friendly messen- gers come in breathlessly from the church where his bride is awaiting him. And there l is search made, gleefuiiy. enough at first. anxiousy after few minutes.
 Then they find him.
 There in the home orchard, near to that same spot where her husbands father had died by his own hand, the poor mother sees Dick, her son, lying in his wedding clothes. senselsss, cold, dead. ,ss sa3.0 H sfi
 They hnd no marks of violence about him his face IS peaceful enough, poor fellow, now: and the doctor who is hastily called in declares it to be 'theart disease,'' and no word is said to bereft mother and the poor little girl who loved him 80 well of the fatally condemning little bottle which they find empty in a tuft of grass close by.
 ''lt is 50 sad" Lady Charles Collingford says when she is down for the hunting season the year ot her marriage. as she rides Golden Pippin surpassingly we'll after her fatler's hounds over the Little Firs Farm: '.he was such nice young fellow, such a friend of mine, and so happy in the prospect of being poor .Janies husband; It almost makes me shudder to pass by this apple-orchard now af- ter such tragedy"
 So he lives for six months at least in her memory.-AH The Year Round ..