The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1882-09-14
Bread Cast Upon the Waters.

After threescore years and ten spent
IN accumulating fame and fortune
Colonel Vining had lived ten more to see
ms tame thing of the past and his
fortune take to itself wings and fly
away. Ten years too long, said the
Wcfldly-wise but not 50 thought the
great reaper, for he often leaves his
fruit to be mellowed by the early frosts
and in those ten years the ambitious
man became even as little child. OF
the vast landed estates once his. only
enough was left to defray the expenses
of his burial. The friends who had
gathered around him in his day of
power had all gone before him to the
spirit land. The grass grew green
over the graves of two noble sons and
three lovely daughters, and the sole
scion of his race was Edward Vining
Coulac, the son of his best beloved
daughter Margaret. With her wit and
beauty she had been the pride of his
heart; but in an evil hour she had met
Henri Coulac, an unprincipled adven-
turer, and in spite of the warning of
friends and the prayers of her father she
trusted her fate to his keeping Ere
the honeymoon had waned the man she
. had sworn to honor had earned her bit
tereSt contempt: and after squandering
her property and humbling her pride.
he deserted her when her situation
would have excited the sympathy even
of a stranger. a few months after her
return to her old home a waling infant
was placed i'll her arms: she scanned
his features eagerly, then with muir
INJURED THANK God. he is all mine"
placed him in her fathers arms and
found for herself the rest of the
broken-haarted.
Deprived of fathers and mothers
love, in the midst of poverty and sor-
row, the boy yet thrOve like the mag
nolia of his own southern Swamps.
which hides with beauty and fragrance
the deadly miasmas of its birthplace.
His ambitious spirit and buOyant
temper cheered the last days of his
grandfather; when the trembling hand
was laid upon his head in dying bene-
dictiOn he felt that he was indeed
blessed, though he turned from the |
grave wanderer; for the ancestral |
home was sold by eager creditors ere
the days of mourning We're at an end |
kith or kin there was none in the |
world to whom he could turn, and as |
he sat in the Office brooding over his |
lonely condition his sad face touched |
the heart of Major Legere.
"Vining," said he, "life in this |
sleepy town of ours is rather a dull /
thing for a young fellow like. you.
How would you like to get away and |
see something of the world?
Like it," said Vining, in a tone |
meant to be cheerful, "why don't you
ask me how l would like to go to
heaven?"
81 don't wish you so well away as
that, but if you can content yourself
with shorter journey l will help you
on the way. | have business in New
York which requires personal atten-
tiOn for the coming year, and there is
no one to whom l can 50 confidently
intrust it as to you. Will you go?"
81 should like to go-if" and vi
ning's glance rested sadly upon his
rusty clothes.
"Then the matter is settled and I
expect you to leave here the first of
next week. Here is money to defray (
your present expenses, and l will give
you a letter of credit to my banker.
Take it," he continued, noticing the
doubling curve of the sensitive lips,
ats Il small part of what l shall owe
you for transacting this business. Had
your grandfather been man to boast
of his good deeds you would feel it
was your due, for he made man of
me. So count on one friend as long as
Bob Legere lives" The lawyers rug
ged face softened at the recollection
of the old days when he had cherished
a hopeless passion for the beautiful
Margaret Vining. Il
AT the appointed time the young
man, with hearty "God bless you'
from Bob Legere, was speeding north
ward. New York, with its Babel of
tongues, its rush and roar of human (
life, its squalid poverty and glittering
splendor was revelation to Vining.
accustomed as he had been to the de-
caying gentility of a southern town. ;
with its horror of modern ideas and it's :
devotion TO the traditions of a dead 1
past. ]
! At an early day Vining presented
htmself at the bankers, Mr.. McEach- /
iC's, and was admitted into his private |
fce. The low-ceiled room, with the
ht struggling family through cob