The Penn's Grove record., 1885-08-01
"rHE THREE BEARS.

at the summit OF Inc steep NIL WHICH
leads down into the sleepy little town
of Uppingham, there stands a lonely
grey house, with many old trees behind
and about 1t. A long avenue of dark
and stately pines leads up to the house.
but the great iron entrance-gates art
never thrown open to admit visitors.
Nearly every day little Freda Leslie
pauses in her walk, and says to tht
nurse-girl who attends her
"What house is that, Bridgetp"
"That there's the den, Miss Freda,'
answers Bridget.
"Who lives there2"-''The three
bears, miss"
The same bears that are in my story
book?"
ITO be sure-the very samel'
AT this point the conversation usu-
ally comes to an abrupt conclusion
and the two scamper down the hill II
the direction of home as fast as then
legs will carry them.
Were Freda Leslie Saltshlre-born.
and bred, as her informant Bridget,
she would assuredly W. have com
pleted her eight short years without
learning the sobriquet bestowed long
ago by some county wit upon the own
ers of the Den, Adam, Anthony and Ad.
rian Barre-a sobriquet justly earned
by men who hunted and fshed and shot
and rode with the zeal and dexterity
of sayages, and who as resolutely as
sayages set the laws of society and con
v~entionality at defiance. refusing any
Fr;anJobfp NTH tbair fa11n,U- mon and
living year in, year out, a selfish reck.
less existence, with aims no higher than
any four footed beast.
Saltshlre, only too DESTROYS of reveng-
ing itself on wealthy men who, instead
of taking their place in the country,
chose to lead a life so unprecedented,
was rife with extraordinary tales re-
speeding the n1endge of the Den. The
three bears were popularity supposed to
share all their meals with their horses
and dogs, and to dispense entirely with
knives and forks, preferring to teal
their meat to pieces with their fingers.
Rumor also whispered that they cast
aside all tailor made garments when
within doors. wrapping themselves in
the skins of wild animals instead, and
that their hatred of the other sex was
so deep that not even a kitchen maid
was kept to wash dishes, the entire
work of the household devolving on an
old man servant and his wife who had
lived with the Barre family for many
years. They were absurd stories fol
the most part, certainly, but still with
Just sufficient truth in them to Obtain
easy credence in a somewhat thinly
populated country district about two
hundred miles from London.
The Barre family had been noted fol
generations in Saltshire as eccentric,
and these three last representatives OF
their ace seemed in no way inclined tC
let their fame in this respect die out.
OF the brothers, Adrian, the third, was
the most companlonable. In his young
er days, when the death OF both parents
left the trio sole masters of the Den, he
had separated himself from Adam and
anthony, and travelled a good deal
abroad, returning home but at rare in
~tervals, and then only for a short time.
Eventually however this taste for row
ing died out, and he settled down al
the Den, as great a recluse as his elder
brothers; while Saltshire, getting tired
at length of their strange unsociable
ways, their determination to avoid
giving or receiving any hospitality, left
them entirely to themselves, till round
about them and their dwelling there
grew up by degrees a thorny hedge Of
mystery that, as time passed on, PEG
pie became less and less anxious to pen
citrate.
= .
"Mother," says Freda, as, with
meditatIve air, she rocks her doll back
ward and forward on her knee, 81
thought you SAID that there were nj
fairies left in the world now, and thai
zone of my fairy-tales were really quite
true2n
1t is a chill October evening. The
wind whistles a sad low wall, wreath:
of fine white mist hang p~hantom-likt
amidst the haif-clad trees, while in the
russell hedgerows every brown and vel
low twig, every red and purple berry
drips with moisture. Within the cot
tage parlor the fire blazes cheerily. Ter
minutes ago Bridget coaxed it into q
rudy flame, let down the red curtain
that drapes the one window, and lit
the lamp shaded with a pink shade, the
work of Freda's mothers nlmble fingers
Just afterwards Mrs. Leslie herself
came in, her brown ulster wet and
clinping with the fog, her hair, yellow
as Freda's own, hanging all damp and
disordered about her pretty pale face.
There vas a large rosy apple in the I'll
ster pocket for Freda, put there by tht
DOCTORS two little girls, to whom Mrs,
Leslie taught music, and there Vas {
pair of warm red knitted gloves as wei
knitted by a rich maiden lady who lived
ON the other side of Uppiugham, OF thC
Dawnton road, and to whom Mrs. Les
lie went twice a week to give a lessor
in china painting.
sit might be ones birthday" Freds
said gleefully, as she tried on the rec
gloves, and then ran into the kitchen
to exhibit her treasure to Bridget.
When she returned, appearance
warned her to be very quiet, for be