The Sentinel. [volume] (Trenton, N.J.) 1880-1882, 1881-01-15

their work upon him. Barrack life is
not all rose-color.
About a year after Mrs. Morton haG
welcomed her husband to the Hampshire
nome she had made around her, another
daughter was born to them. She was
Dorm at daybreak on a May morning,
ana the happy father, who was NOT
wanting in poetic instinct, at once gave
her the name Of Aurora.
She was a frail, delicate child, with
wondering blue eyes, and a transparent
complexion family warmed by auburn
hair, of the rich goldent tint which looked
as though a sunbeam played amongst
its silken curls. Her fragile life ap-
peared, for years, to hang upon athread,
and it was a touching sight to see the
hard old soldier of a hundred battle
fields watching the feeble gambols of his
little girl, and rocking her to sleep in his
strong arms when she tired, which was
very soon.
he could scarcely bear to be apart
from her, and carried her about at his
saddle-bow when he rode along the
Hampshire lanes. He had her beside
him playing on a carpet when he ished
for trout. He took her into the fields
where his hay was making. He went
gardening and boating on his lake with
her. He was never tired of her pretty
p~rattle, and by-and-bye they began to
romp together.
The child's limbs developed into
p%lumpness and vigor, till by the time she
was ten years old she had become q wild,
beautiful holden, full of high spirits
and w~illfulness. She could ride, she
could sing, she could dance, and was
ready for all kinds of fun and frolic.
At twelve she could have
commanded a troop of horse,
and knew more of military tactics from
the colonels talk than many a promis-
ing boy at Sandhurst. But her grand
climax was reached when Mrs. Morton,
suspecting with a woman's intuition
that they were too quiet to be up to
much good, stole in upon the pair one
afternoon and surprised the colonel on
n knee behind a screen in the library
teaching his pupil the noble art of self
defense. She had Lit out, too, so straight
from the shoulder, that his face resem-
bled the family plum-pumpling which
had been served for tifin.
That night Mrs. Morton gave her hus-
band a curtain lecture, and, after nearly
| choking him with kisses and laughter,
formally took her daughters education
| out of his hands. These good people
were all of soldierly tastes, and loved
| pluck and spirit ever in women.
Aurora vas then about the age when
a girl begins to grow shy, and clings
closer to her mother; so she became a
prim and praiseworthy little miss for
several years, making progress in femi-
! nine ethics and department in a demure,
docile way that vas quite refreshing.
The young witch had an Unborn faculty
of charming. ALI she did had a natural
grace and winsomeness. She showed
as great q taste for the accomplishments
| of young ladies as she had done for those
of a different sort. She learned to
dance, paint in water-color, to make
cheeses before illustrious visitors and to
WELD all the bright armory of youth
and loneliness as quickly and well as
she had learned to ride and handle a
hair-trigger; and though she would often
say, Mamma, I ought to have been my
brother" she was a dainty young beauty
indeed at seventeen.
She possessed especially a remarkable
talent tor singing. There was an
untaught melody in her voice which
was almost amazing in an English girl.
Her songs and her sweet, pretty whims
and ways were enough to charm the
heart of a cynic, and there was not q
manor house within twenty miles of
Freshfelds where she was not as wei
come as healthy weather.
In her own home she was light, she
was joy. She gladdened the whole house
and ruled it. She kept her fathers
accounts and her mothers keys, being
ashrewd little lady into the bargain; a
soldiers daughter, who knew the fitness
of things, also the price of them.
Her brothers and sisters had married
and gone out into the world, so that
when the colonel came home from India
they were almost strangers to him; but
Aurora had never been separated from
him a day since her birth. She knew
all the family affairs and interests and
shortcomings from day to day. She
knew of brother Toms private allow
ance from his mother to pay off his OK
ford debts, and of sister Mary's quarrel
with sister Jane, and how it had to be
kept secret from Aunt Hester for fear
she should alter the will. There was
also something about Jack, who was in
the navy, which she only knew herself +;
and, indeed, she was the most expert
enced person in the household, having
much sound counsel in her, and might
have seemed to a fanciful imagination,
oncirclpd in that sfer1inu boma-1nvp