Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-04-14

might be deaf at first, and after that
doubt vanished, made him sure that the
poor little fellow was not quite as bright
as other children.
But the Doctor was wise enough TO
keep te himself notion that would have
made the Sqaire furious and Mrs. Hor-
ton indignant; for, though little Alfred
did not at all fulfil his fathers idea of
what boy, and Horton boy above all,
should be, still he loved the child as we'll
as he ever lovOd anything and laid vast
plans for his future.
The Squire was ae vry rich man. In
the long interval between his first ehild's
death and Alfreds birth the passion for
money, which Marian had reused in him,
simply to obtain the price for which she
had sold herself, and which had been for
time dormant after her death and his
marriage to Miss Andrews,awoke again;
and, being shrewd man and an unScru-
pulous man, ready to take every one
elses money and keep his own, he ac-
CURED large fortune with rapidity.
his wife did not care for money. She
spent little, for her tastes were simple.
All she asked of life or God was anoth-
er child, to fill her empty arms and hun
CRY heart ;and when that came she would
not have changed her gentle, fair-haired
boy for the wealth IF Crgsus.
But his father looked forward to the
time when this boy should be a promi-
nent and wealthy man with proud exul-
ration, He himself could only be rich,
for he was "self-made," as the slang Of
progress" calls il, and his want of early
education and position stood IN the way
OF his social success; but Alfred should
have no such drawbacks. He shouldgo
to college; he should be helped by learn
ing. by travel, by money in all its po-
tent spells. He should make a name
which men should honor, and when they
asked "WhO is his father?" he should
hear the answer: esquire Horton, of
Bedford"
But the Squirs's name was doomed to
TO decorate granite pillar in Bedford
graveyard, instead of being honOred as
the father Of an author or statesman.
An apoplectic fit seized him with strin-
gent grasp when Alfred was about sew
eli years old, and just as he seemed to
rally another superyened, and after that
the fatal third, from which no man raj
lies. -----------s--
Dr.. Packard was not at all a senti-
mental man; but he took an interest in
this quaint and quiet child of Squire
Horton that he himself was astonishsd
at If he had been in the Palace of
Truth, bystanders would have learned
with surprise that he was heartily glad
of Squire Horizons death; but, being on
ly in Bedford, the least enchanted of =
places, he was able. to conceal this i'm
proper emotion under an aspect of grim
decency. Yet he was very glad, for he
fOresaw that Alfred would be a misera-
BILE creature if his father lived; his gen.
tie, frail, peculiar nature demanding
such fond patience and such careful
handling.
Doctor Packard did his best to i'm
press this upon the boys mother, and
succeeded in so far OVERRIDING the mat
ter that the frightened little woman re-
solved at once to take her boy away
from Bedford, and educate him far from
every evil influence of social life, and al
so in purer air than the lOw-lying town
could afford. She sold the old place to a
manufacturer, who had made deal of
money in the town and wanted to spend
it, and bought house up among the
hills of Northern Vermont,near the little
village of Haddon, where the air was Of
certified purity; and she had no sOicety
at all, for her house stood miles from the
church and store which formed Haddon
Center, and she educated her child her.
self.
What better could she do? In this
sweet and lonely home no visitors would
intrude. Her two elderly servants had
lived with her many years already and
were like an integral part of her life.
Della and Hiram were two capable, en-
ergetic, and excellent people, who had
settled down into life of domestic SER
vice early in youth, and had the traits
of character which make rut the eaai-
est path for some people. 1t never oe-
Cured to either of them that there was
d better thing than to do their duty and
be respected. They had a good home
for life, and their needs being few, had
laid up money in the Bedford Bank, and
continued to add to this hoard yearly.
They could either of them have retired
into private life when Squire Horton :
died; but they loved the widow and her
boy too well. They were willing to go
to Haddon, for they considered this small
" OC IISll SpCCldi anu
had conscientious feeling about it, that
was the way with that
Constant service of the antique vorf,"
to which they belonged.
In the new home Mrs. Horton not on
ly taught Alfred, but educated herself
She read history, dug at Latin, brushed
up her schoolgirl French. returned to
which she had alway liked,
and made herself an accomplished seEol-
ar, for the sake Of her boy. Moreover,
being even more anxious for his he..lth
than his scholarship, she studied all
kinds of sanitary books, and had the old
remodeled, with every i'm
in comfort and wholesome
ness the art of man could devise; so that
in the widest winters the house was
warm throughout, yet the air was pure
and the rooms cheerful, with blazing
fires in the great chimneys, flowers on
the tables, and sunshine pouring in from
broad windows, faced southwark.
Under these influences, to which was
superadded simple religious training,
Alfred Horton lost the early sickness
Of his aspect and grew up in health. Not
robust health; but the well-being that is
consistent with delicate physique and
IS full of enjoyment, though easily in
iured by untoward circumstances. But
his moral and mental nature were de-
yeloped far more peculiarly. The world
was unknown to him except in theory.
He was taught like nun in a convent,
and practical life excluded from his ex-
perience as utterly as possible. 1t was
the result of timid, loving woman's
IDEAL carried out, for once; and 4 result
in some respects worthless, in others ex-
alted and interesting-well enough as
long as he could be kept from contact