Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-05-07

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look at the dear old farm before it is in
the hands Of strangers, and so altered
that l shall not know it,
The next day saw her on her way.
The five years of her absence had been
years of change in the little country vii
lage.
A railway wished her across the hill
road from Torington Once she would
have made the journey in yellow
"stage" drawn by four horses, with
John Colney, crossest and most disa-
greeable of earthly stage drivers, on the
box.
The village, too, was smartened and
freshened up-new houses, new faces, a
new iron fence around the small oval
park that graced the centre of the town;
new names above the gilded frouts Of the
shops; a new set of giggling misses, on
their way to the new brown stone acad-
envy, which stood where she had once
thought it an honor to attend the dis
trict school in plain one-story struc-
ture of faded brick.
No doubt all these alterations were for
the best but they made her heart ache
with sense Of loss irreparable.
And she turned into the shaded land
that led only to the Blessing Farm,
dreaded to see the old home desecrated
by the strangers hand.
No, there it stood, as she had always
known 1.-THE very picture Of home COM
fort, the centre of all those modest luxu-
ries that well-to-do farmer, Of all 9th
er men, may most easily command.
But, although the dear old house was
unchanged, its inmates were new and
strange to her. A stout, middle-aged
man, in a white summer suit, with a
broad-brimmed hat and a cigar, sat on
the steps of the piazza, reading a news
paper. A fashionably -dressed lady, some
years his junior, swung in hammock
upon the lawn, lost in novel.
Several children, in broad brimmed
hats and brown holland blouses, We're
making the lives Of two nurses burden
to them, further down the lawn, among
the elm trees, where swing had hung
from time immemorial.
Getty" was stamped on every face and
figure she saw.
Had Maurice sold the place to some
retired merchant, who would over-or-
nament and disfgure it in the modern
villa style9
IF people could but live their lives
over after they grow old and are taught
by experience what is best for them!'
thought Hester III her sadness, once
more.
She would have gone up to the house
and asked leave to rest and look around
if it had remained in the care Of old
Farmer William and his wife, the ten
ants of the upper farm.
But she could not face these prosper.
Gus, happy city people who would look
at her with their coldly-curious eyes,
and wonder, almost audibly, "what she
could want" even if they did not alb.
solutely mistake her for tramp"
~ wish could have gone through
the strawberry pasture once more" she
thought, as she turned back toward the
railroad station, tired, hungry and un'
refreshed.
At the foot of the lane, gentleman
in summer suit of silver-grey, stood
leaning against the bars, with hi
straw hat drawn down over his eyes 81
tar that he failed to see the stranger
silent approach.
"Will yon let me pass, if you please"
said Hester, at last, after waiting some
moments.
He wheeled around, as if she hat
struck him, and stared doubtfully int
her face.
She uttered a great cry.
"Maurice. Maurice | heard that yol
had sold the farm and gone to Colorado.
Chester. Can this be you " he an
swered.
His eyes seemed to devour her. Word
rose to his lips, and were forced bacl
again. At last he asked
as your husband here with you, Hes
ter ~
"My husband"
: "Why, yes! heard that you wer
r married after you went to the CITY,"
"You heard wrong, Maurice !! / hav'
, not been married. | have never ever
, thought of such thing"
: But why did you 90, then, Hester