Litchfield enquirer., 1881-05-12


 only shook his head rather sadly, though his manner showed strifies more impatieoce-tha" usual had tld- him nothing asEr rbut h. d jared on a nerve that was always sensitive All lie said WAS, ''You mustn't be too hard O. James. He was never broken in toS besf c..n radicton, ans: had to pull hiin tp slial f- CT than usual before leaving LoId,i.-s Til fact was, I had been subscribing for Him r. some popular lectures. and literary institu
 with reaiing-To0ins which were open in tll evenings. l fiatered myself thai he was | os rtasliar in bis attendance when 1 founG Ou. i.y ihe :ner' St accide t. that ne had beer Sl.irkiHs the whole thing systematically. drn't fancy he was after any great harm, bn: did feel if any duty for once to speak yer, severely; and somehow I often have notion hc las borne grudge ever since Gcd knows, 1 have not deserved it. and 1 trust kindness will bring hin back ts a better ind But in the meantme. this move to the coun fry fIass tng lIiin under steady surveillance He 9clifes at it; and perhaps it's not unnatur al" e& %
 Q. course burst out indignantly, and as usual. Abraham quietly siicnced me. fc Il QlA, derstand all you would say and may somo ti,ues have Said it to myself! But now yo' know all the story of Cecilia; and for h. sslzc, if nu; for his own, meanto be,Lurfhrr' good genius, in spite of himself ," !lgU
 
 inclined to be. angry, that madea snpren: effor; to br good humored. You alwasa. were the most mulish of animals, Abrahan when n0bDiy iried to pull your head rotiut: when you liat. taken the bit in your tee hln one of yonf lIianthropicai frenzies S4 I suppose ymu n:is' go your own way thisIin's I as usual and n we can hope is that 70 won't e. ne to grief"
 It was a lov,ly uei ghbourhobd, aud ',eauti- fuI weather, and l was easily tempted to stay on for few days. so that saw something a. Abraham and hIs habits These were coz siderahly changed -froW what they used 10 be kept my room at the inn, and breakfastrd tbere. and we seldom met before Luncheon. The early part of the day he devoted to per, ink, and paper: and then we would go for d long stretch over the Downs, returning to late dinner. 'T thought all my bothers would have kept down my weight" he said, with a comIcal look of depression: 'but even that miserable consolation is denied me, and work and worry seems to agree with me-" Ii he did carry more weight than he liked, he certainly looked exceedingly well. I was pleased. too. CD see the genera! cordaIity with which he was greeted by his neighbours of all ranks. The abourers n the lan' lifted ther hats or grinned to him; .hedgers and ditchers knocked of in the middle of their work to throw up their fingers to their foreheads and wait for a kindly recognition and when we walked down the main street of the borough of HaZlehurst, he had to stand a running fire of salutations like the sous prefet iD French town. Alter all, it appeared that he might have done much worse than settle among his old friends and acquaintances.
 "Yes, it is jolly" he sad, in answer to some remark of mine, to find that my neigh bours are as cordial as ever The one thing that 1 don't think 1 could have endured, would have been the thought that any of them doubted my honesty. Then 1 do be- lieve must have turned tail and cut the placce. I've still got one or two of the old irons in the fire," he went on with a smile. ''There now," pointing to a brass plate witb his walking stick, "that door leads to ap upsFl per chamber, where we have established the office of the Hazlehurst Pprovident Society. 1 set the scheme agping myself; and now that live here, am active manager as well as joint trustee. The society numbers over five hundred members, scattered all about the sur- rounding parshes-quite big thing, you see, for little place like this. We go from the small tradespeore and respectable mechanics down to the day laborers on fifteen shilings week we have widows and single women, and all the rest of them 1 foated it off by furnishing the office, &c : but now the funds are most fourishing and it is proof the more of the confidence of my worthy neigh bours. that they leave beggared bankrupt like myself to do pretty much as he please with their property"
 "But you say You have ce-trustee to keep you straight"
 ''So have, and had almost forgotten him. We put our joint names to the cheques, and are supposed to audit the books together But entre nOUs the Rev. Augustine Prior he is rector of the parish, you know-is rather a-man of straw so far as the 'Pfovident is con cerned. A good old fellow enough, but some thing more of Sybarite than 1 was; and de- cidedly even laZier man of busines urg ed him to take once, he took it sadly against the grain but he gave me solemnly 10 under- stand that should have all the work to do; and for once to do him justice, he has been as good as his word"
 had an opportunity, by the way, of mak ing the rector's acquaintance before 1 left when he insisted upon Mir. Cox bringing his friend to dinner. ''I seldom go into society now, said Abraham, but Prior has been at the rectory for the last dozen years, and was our nearest neighbour. as well as our cler"v man. He was constantly dining at Druids' Wood in my fathers time, and now he hls .sts on repayng our former hospitality. It is the more creditable to him, that don't think he likes me much, and never was especially fond of him."
 ;. We had capital dinner at the rectory, with undeniable port and madeira. The Rev Au- gustiue, hale rubicund man of nearly sixty, was all that was civil; and yet there seemed \ touch of the subacid under his joviality, ow- ing partly perhaps to his constitutional tend ency to gout 1 might have been mistaken but fancled I could detect the reason of any repulsion that might exist between hlm and his benevolent 1arishoner Fhe rector had conscience, Sybarite as he was; and he ap- peared to feel Abraham's phianthropical ac tivity reproach to him. At least, wher my friend, as he was apt to do, turned the con versaGion to anything of the kind the subject was plainly unpalatable to his host And once the rector gave a snarl, and almost snap. when his guest made some passing al- fusion to his occupations at the office of the "Provident