The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-10-05
THE GOVERNORS STORY.

THE GOtkkNOk'S STOkf.
s'We were very poor" said the Gov
ernor. my mother and I. We lived in
q little cabin on General Unions farm,
and saw hard time. My father had
died when / was sixteen years old, leav-
ing us nothing but an honest reputation,
and, although was stout and healthy,
my wages we're very low, and I had to
toll late and early to provide the neces-
saries of life. But suppose I would
have been contented and happy enough
that is, as much as we unsatisfied mortals
usually are, if it hadn't been for q wo-
man. 1 don't know why it was that
Helen Linton made such an impression
on me, for she had by no means those
great and noble qualities by which men
~ Q general thing are attracted toward the
opposite sex. On the contrary, she was
proud, arrogant and overbearing, and l
was confident if she thought OF me at all
il was with feelings Of contempt and DIS
dain alone.
Not on account of my personal ap-
pearance, it is true, for though I was
rough and uncultivated, and my hands
were hard with excessive toll, and my
face Drowned with exposure to the sun,
still had wonderful strength and great
agility, and my hair and eyes were as
dark as midnight, and many said that
was handsome. But l was poor and
she was wealthy. was General Lin
toms hired hand and she was General
Linton's daughter, and it was. the old,
old story. 1t must have been her be-
wilderiDg beauty that drew me more and
more toward her, for she was queenly-
looking girl, with flashing eyes and mag
nifcent dark brown hair, and a form tall
and majestic and stately. But whatever
il might have been, am certain of one
thing, and that is, that learned to love
her with maddening, painful. consum-
ing passion that seemed to devour my
whole being. ! tried very hard to
smother it and to drive her image from
my heart. I knew I might as we'll think
Of plucking down the moon or the stars
rs to have dared to aspire to her hand,
But it was al. no avail the more 1
struggled the more / became entangled.
In the morning, noon and night there
was but one -rthat 1 saw, and but one
voice that heard, and that was the face
and the voice of Helen Linton. What
was worst of all, to me, in some way she
tell. They say murder will out, and the
same can most assuredly be said about
love. had never sooken about it to
any one, not even to my mother, and as
to Helen, had scarcely ever spoken to
her on any subject. 1t is true that some
times she would give me instructions in
regard to she flower garden, which Gen.
eral Linton had selected me to manage,
having, as he said, more opinion of my
taste in such matters than any of the
best of his workmen, but she never con-
descended further. l worshiped her
like star from afar of, and knew the
distance bet veen us to be as wide and as
impassable.
One day she came into the gard en-
when was at work there, and, impelled
BY some unknown power, as it were,
gathered and presented to her choice
bouquet of flowers. and whether it was
from my guilty looks that she then dis
covered all. and determined to check me
in the beginning, or whether she bad al.
ready probed TO the depths of my heart
and thought i was presumptuous,
know not; but certain it is she never
spoke to me after that. She had been in
the habit of giving me nod Of recog.
milton whenever she met me before this,
bat after this she passed me without
even glance; disdain within heI
haughty eye, and contempt upon hel
sesrnful lip. You may know that my
Hfe Vas as wretched as it could we'll be-
/ used to sit down by the fire in oul
Lille cabin. after my hard days worl
~ done, and curso my wretched fate
end call God unjust in What l considered
~ distinctions he made in the human
ne. but little knew then what thu
sequel would be.
Crowds of company, gay ladies sni
Gnnt2oUen. came every simmer from tht
~ 70 spend the season 1t Linton Hall
~ IL 20 happened that one summer
oome among the rest . young gentleman
pnnsd Arthur st. John. He was 70
pog1sd 10 Be wealthy, and handsome b.
- osrtninly We, and it vas not verJ
1ong before he commenced paying de
vnKSd attention TO General Linton'I
loaehtsr; and IL VS. easy enough to 81
1Hof - ms - inlatuatsd - be- vss
9kov uned to ride By our little cottage
- ~ knight summer svenines, a th'
49, rod. - Il was called, on thei
- horssi. - bea1in( 1oadl1
- ~. vhigporinG words Of love a.
r1aurnrnn. ~ - 611qning 20 theu
1<K = Aosh = ~ eh6ek and anih
11oo ~ ~. J rsmembeR 90 evsninl