Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-05-09
GaIts ano Sketfkes.
THE GOVERNORS ST0RY.

little cabin on General Linton's farm. and
saw a hard time. Ny father had died
when was 16 years old. leaving US moth
ing but an honest reputation, and although
| was stout and healthy, my wages were
very low, and had to toll late and early
to provide the necessaries of life. But
suppose / would have been happy and
contented enough; that is. as much so as
we unsatisfied mortals usually are. if it
hadn't been for a woman. | 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 as general thing are attracted
toward the opposite sex. On the contra
nv, she was proud arrogant and oyerbear
ing, and was confident il she thought of
me at all. it was with feelings of contempt
and disdain alone.
Not on account of my personal appear
ance, it is true, for though | 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 was hand
some. But | was poor and she was
wealthy. I was General Linton's hired
hand and she was Genera. Linton's
daughter, and it was the old, old story.
IL must have been her bewildering beauty
that drew me more and more toward her.
for she was queenly looking girl. with
flashing eyes and magnificent dark brown
hair, and form tall. magnificent and
stately. But whatever it might have been
| 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. knew
might as well think Of plucking down
the moon, or the stars as to have dared to
aspire to her hand.
But il was of no avail. the more ! strug-
oled the more | became entangled. In
the morning, noon and night there was
but one face that saw, and but one voice
that heard. and that was the voice of
Helen Linton. What was worst of all to
me. in some way she discovered my secret.
How, can hardly tell. They say murder
will out, and the same can most assuredly
be said about love. | had never spoken
about it to any one, not even to my mother,
and as to Helen, Ihad scarcely ever spoken
to her on any subject. 1t is true that some
times she would give me instructions in
regard to the hower-garden. which Cen
eral Linton had selected me to manage.
having. az he said. more opinion of my
taste in such matters than any of the rest
of his workmen, but she never condo
scended further. | worshiped her like a
star from afar off, and knew the distance
between us to be as wide and rs impassa-
BILE.
One day she came into the garden when
was at work there, and, impelled by
some unknown power, as il were. | gath
cred and presented to her choice bou-
auet of flowers and whether it was from
nv 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 was presumptuous, know not,
but certain is itthat she never spoke to me
after that. She had been in the habit of
giving me a nod of recognition whenever
she met me before this, but after this she
passed me by without even a glance, dis
dain within her naughty eye, and contempt
that my life was as wretched as it could
well be. used to sit down by the fire in
our little cabin. after my hard days work
was done, and curse my wretched fate.
and call God unjust in what considered
the distinctions he made in the human
race, but little knew what the sequel
would be.
Crowds of company, gay ladies and gen.
tlemen, came every summer from the city
to spend the season at Linton Hall, and it
so happened that one summer came among
the rest young gentleman named Arthur
st. John. He was reported to be wealthy.
and handsome he certainly was, and it
was not very long before he commenced
paving DEVOTED attention to Gen. Linton
daughter; and it was easy enough to see
that she was as infatuated as he was.
They used to ride about our little cottage
on the bright summer evenings. on the
Forest road. as it was called. on their
prancing horses, he bending fondly above
her, whispering words of love and tender
ness. and she listening to him with a flush
on her cheek and smile upon her lip.
remember one evening that stood watch
ing them as they rode down from the
Wild Glen, bathed in the golden halo that
the gorgeous fires of sunset threw upon
the scene, while the summer zephyr, load
ed with the perfume of wild flowers. blew
back her massive hair from her queeuly
brow. until the scene seemed to me celes-
tial, and an inhabtant OF celestial regions.
Just then she caught sight OF me, as
looked at her almost entranced, and spoke
something in low tone to her companion.
What it was never knew. but they both
looked at me an instant. and then the air
rang with their laughter. and heard him
say something about presumption and i'm
pudence, and guessed what it was. 1t
was hard to be thus tortured simply for
no other reason than because had heart
and could not control its impulses, and
when look back on that time it seems to
me like some terrible dream.
Misfortunes, they say. never come
singly, and they always come, too, when
we least expect them. My mother sud-
denly sickened and died, and was thus
left alone wretched outcast on the earth.
As stood over her grave it seemed to me
that had buried every hope. | deter
mined to leave that spot where had seen
so much misery. | cared very little
where went Anywhere far away from
there Gen. Linton paid me what little
he owed me, and struck out for the far
west Railroads and steamboats, were
not half so numerous then as they are
now, and even if they had been was too
poor to avail myself of their advantages.
1 walEod tharafora many n WARY mile