News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-09-14
The GOVERNORS STORY.
BY LOUISE HAWKS.

BY LOUISE HAWKS.
"We were very poor, said the Cover
nor, 'my mother and I. We lived in a
little cabin on General Linton's farm,
and saw hard time My father had
died when l was sixteen years old, leav-
ing us nothing but an honest reputa-
ton, and, although 1 was stout and
healthy, my wages were very low, and /
had to toll late and early to provide the
necessaries of life. But I suppose I
would have been happy and contented
enough; that is, as much as we unsatis-
fed mortals usually are, if it hadn't
been for woman. I don't know why it
was that Helen Linton made such an i'm.
preston on me, for she had by no means
those great and noble qualities by which
men, as general thing, are attracted
toward the opposite sex. On the con-
| trary, she was proud, arrogant and
| overbearing, and I was confidant if she
thought of me at all it was with feelings
of contempt and disdain 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 by 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 I
was handsome. But I was poor and
she was wealthy. I was General Lin
toms hired hand; she was General Lin
tons daughter, and it was the old, old
story. 1t must have been her bewilder-
ing beauty that drew me more and more
toward her, for she was queenly-look-
ing girl, with flashing eyes and magniti-
cent dark brown hair, and form tall
and majestic and stately. But what
ever it might have been, I am certain
of one thing, and that is, that learned
| to love her with maddening, painful,
| consuming passion that seemed about
to devour my whole being. / tried
very hard to smother it and to drive her
image from my heart. J. knew might
as well think of plucking down the
moon or the stars as to have dared to
| aspire to her hand
But it was all no avail; the more L
struggled the more became entangled.
In the morning, noon and night there
was but one face that l 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 discovered my secret. How, L can
hardly tell. They say murder will out,
and the same can most assuredly be said
about love. I had never spoken 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 sometimes she would give me in
structions in regard to the flower
garden, which General 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 condescended
further. l worshipped her like star
from afar off, and knew the distance be-
tween us to be as wide and as impas-
sable.
One day she came into the garden
when I was at work there, and, i'm
PEELED by some unknown power, as it
were, I gathered and presented to her a
choice bouquet of flowers 4; and whether
it was from my guilty looks that she
then discovered all, and determined to
check me in the beginning, or whether
she had already probed to the depths of
my heart and thought L was presump-
tuous, know not; but certain it is she
never spoke to me after that. She had
been in the habit of giving me nod of
recognition whenever she met me before
this, but after this she passed me by
without even glance disdain within
her naughty eye, and contempt upon
her scornful lip. You may know that
my life was as wretched as it could vel
be. I used to sit down by the fire il
2 our little cabin, and call God unjust il
Z what 1 considered the distinctions ht
p made in the human race, but littl,
knew then what the sequel would be.
Crowds of company, gay ladies ant
. gentlemen, came every summer from
the city to spend the season at Lintol
Hall, and it so happened that one sum
+ mer came among the rest a youns
gentleman named Arthur st. John
: He was reported to be wealthy, ant
handsome he certainly was, and it wa
not very long before he commenced pay
l ing devoted attention to General Lin
toms daughter; and it was easy enougI
to see that she was as infatuated as b
. was. They used to ride by our littl
cottage on the bright summer evenings
= on the Forest Road, as it was called, O
their prancing horses, he bending fond
Iy above her, whispering words of lov
and she listening to them with q fus
on her cheek and smile upon her liz
D remember one evening that L stoo
watching them as they rode down fror
the Wild Glen, bathed in the golde
|. halo that the gorgeous fires of sunst
threw upon the scene, while the sun
4 mer zephyr, loaded with the perfume {
r, Wild flowers, blew back her massiy
} hair from her queenly brow, until tt
i scene seemed to me celestial, and st
an inhabitant of celestial regions. Ju
= then she caught sight of me, as
k looked at her almost entranced, an
spoke something in a low tone to h'
companion. What it was Inever knew
but they both looked at me an instan
and then the air rang with their laugl
ter, and ! heard Mm say somethir
y about presumption and impudence, al
/ guessed what it was. II was hard
uSnn11Iu foP no 9th