The Iola register., 1882-10-06

again while God lets us live, my girl, :"
he said. earnestly.
The new home in the West! How can
1 make you who are natives understand
the aliens heart? How can L make you
realize the faint homesickness that Will
come, even amid the fairest scenes and
in the most attractive land? The new
may be score of times more lovely,
and you may know that it is much the
best for your interests, but it lacks that
indefinable something which the old
held, and it will lack it forevermore!
You may fancy you have outgrown and
forgotten it, perhaps; but sometime it
will start suddenly to life, and mock
your fancied dream of content with its
old, vanished sweetness, and the bleak
est and most commonplace spot, seen
through the lens of years and love,
will be touched with an indescribable
glory It's the old clinging love for one s
native land which all feel more or less.
The pleasant rolling prairies of the
new farm contrasted sharply with the
little wooded, sand-girdled homestead
in the East. 1t was a score of times
more fertile, and twice a score of times
more profitable, but, alas! the sea never
came tumbling to its edge. nor never a
ledge of rock and pine lifted its dun
green summit against the blue of its
bending skies. But it was very pleas
ant, nevertheless, and the Andersons
knew they had gained by coming. and
resolved to be content-all but Ralph;
he grew more and more restless all the
long summer through, and longed more
and more for the sea as the DAYS of ab-
sence increased, and not even the
charms of his beautiful young cousin
could make him forget it for day.
Tom Arnold had, indeed, grown rich
in the West. He owned large stock
farm, but he lived less than two miles
out of Rockford, in beautiful cottage
mansion, built on fine elevation over
looking the pleasant waters of Rock
River and the pretty, picturesque city.
Long, sloping offsets of velvety sward
swept in slow curves to the river and
the road. a few trees and shrubs care
fully disposed, and a narrow line of
gay-colored flowers edging the entire
length of the first offset, gave an air of
elegance and brightness to the whole.
Altogether, it was as lovely place as
you could ask for, and Tom was not to
blame for feeling just the least bit in
the world proud of it. But his special
pride was his daughter Blanche. Stop
a moment while describe her to you
as she was the first summer that we
made her acquaintance.
You are to remember that she is but
fourteen-still a child, but easy and
graceful as woman. Slender, tall and
fair might describe her, but 1 wish to
be a little more explicit. First, then,
she had rare, clear, gray eyes, full of
shifting lights and shadows, fringed
with heavy dark brown lashes, which
had trick of dropping suddenly and
yelling the light or shadows in her eyes.
Her brown hair, soft and family waved,
fell over her shoulders in luxurious
abundance, and set off the clear, creamy
whiteness of her complexion charming
ly. Sometimes exercise or excitement
brought faint tinge of pale rose to her
cheek, but ordinarily the vivid crimson
in her lips was the only color in her face.
Tom Arnold's assertion that she
"managed both the house and himself"
was strictly correct. Indeed, it would
be very hard to live in the house with
Miss Blanche and not be managed by
her. The girl was born diplomat, and
it seemed rather mistake that she had
not been born to royalty, where her tai
ents might have made her famous. Yet
she never gave loud orders, or issued
any particular commands, or seemed to
rule, but everybody about the house.
from its master (by courtesy down to
Billy Doane, the chore boy, knew that
she did.
think there are some persons, both
men and women, who have the power of
casting glamour over the eyes of 9TH
ers. and then of leading them whittier
soever they will, without any apparent
effort. Beauty is powerful ally, but
it is not an indispensable one. There is
subtle power of fascination more mighty
than the handsomest face, but when
both are united in the same person, es-
pecially if it happens to be woman,
the spell is complete. Isay especially
woman" because everybody knows
the "superior" weakness of men, and
the ease with which a beautiful or po-
lite woman can hoodwink them, when
she really sets herself to the task.
All through the summer and autumn
the Ahdersons entertained faint hopes
of hearing in some way from their lest
Viola. The little hair trunk, studded
with brass nails, with the solitary M. on
the lid, was put carefully away up
stairs, and more than once had Myra
Anderson knelt down before it, and
lifted the dainty little dresses-so like
the bright little creature who had worn
them-and pressed the senseless things
to her heart and her lips. in wild
passion of sobs and tears.
But the soft haze of autumn faded
from the faintly-rounded hills and the
silvery river, anG winter came-cold,
cruel and stern-and no word from
Gordon had yet come. There had,
then, nothing ever been heard from her,
or he would have written. and the spark |
of hope burned lower and lower as the
days went by, and they came after a
while to speak of her in the tender,
awed way we speak of the dead.
And so the days came and went; and |
by-and-by frightened and heightened,
and the river slipped off its silver chain,
and the prairies grew family green in |