The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-08-21

are heartily welcome TO indian Greek.
Take chair on the piazza until din
ner's ready-we dine early in these
new-world parts.
Fine farm? Well, yes; Indian
Creek is nice place, if l do own it.
All, as FAR as you can see--grass land,
corn fields, woods and creeks-all be-
long to it. Stock, too they call it
the best stocked farm in Ontario, | be-
lieve, and dare say they're right.
All mine; and yet l came to Canada
twelve years ago without the tradi-
tional half-crown in my trousers pocket
Would you like to hear the story 7
There's a good half-hom to dinner
time yet, and it's story never tire
of telling, somehow.
| began life as the son of village
carpenter in the south of England.
You krow that class pretty well, l
dare say, and what gulf was fixed
between me and the vicar of the par.
ish. And yet-and yet--from the time
she was 7 years old and l IL, and she
fell down in the dusty road outside the
carpenters shop and cried, and Ipicked
her up and smoothed the little crumpled
pinafore, and kissed the dust out of
her golden curls. loved but one girl
in the world, and that was the wears
daughter, Winny Branscome.
Madness, you'll say. Well, perhaps
so,and vet a man is but a man, and a
woman woman; and love comes,
whatever one may do. There's nc
class distinction recognized by child
hood, and we were playmates and
friends till she went to boarding school,
If Miss Winny had had q mother, nc
doubt things would have been very diff.
ferent; but we we're alike in never hav.
ing known womans care, land the old
vicar WAS blind to everything but his
theological treatises.
But when she came back from her
London boarding school, beautiful
young lady, all smiles and laces and
little lovely ways, then | knew. l had
tried my best to study and work, and
make myself more like the men she
would meet, but what can lad in an
English village do? | just had
enough education to make every other
lad in the place hate me; and beside
the men of her world suppose cut
rather an astonishing figure. Yet the
love was SO beyond all else in me, that
mad, hopeless as felt it, l had nc
power over myself; and the first time
caught her alone in the woods-she
avoided me, l saw, and l had to watch
for chance-l told her the whole
story, and waited for her answer. She
grew scarlet-a rush of color that dyed
her fair, sweet facc-then deathly
white.
''Dick," she said, and she was trem.
bling from head to foot, "you know il
can never never be; you know you arc
wrong even to dream of such a thing
Some girls would think it an insult
know you better; but if my fathe,
heard of this, he would say you had
abused his kindness to you; he would
never forgive you. Forget your mad
ness And she ran from me.
Ilet her 60. had seen the blush
and the tremor, and l guessed that if
had been Mr.. Lotus, the young Squire
instead of Dick Hawtry, the carpen
ters son, her answer might have beer
different. A great resolve sprang uE
in my soul, and took solemn vow
in those June woods. That very nigh,
l sold the old shop (my father was
dead, and had taken to the business)
and with the money bought an outft
and started straight for Canada. /,
was pretty tough work at first, but
worked like galley slave-starved
and piEched and saved, and never
spent penny on myself except for the
books sat up half the night to read
and study. Well, in this country the
man who works and doesn't drink, is
sure 10 get on; and l had a mighty
purpose in my head. By-and by
bought some land dirt cheap, and sold
it for three times what l gave for it
then began to make money fast. ]
should call my luck wonderful if l be-
lieved in luck, and didn't prefer to
think l was helped by a power fal
ADLER than my own. At last, ten years
to the very day after l set foot on Ca
madam soil, l bought Indian Greek
farm, and began to build this house
All the neighbors thought my good
fortune had turned my brain, for fit
ted it up and furnished it for a lady
down to rocking-chair by my study
table, and a workbasket with tiny
gold .himble in it. And when all thai
was finished, took the first ship fol
Liverpool,
Ten years builds a city over here
1t doesn't make much change in Devon
shire village. The very gates wer,
still half off their hinges, as ! lef
them, only the people were a littl'
older and trifie more stupid, and ther,
was new vicar Old Mr.. Blanscom,
had been dead six months; died yer,
poor, they told me; there was nothing
left for Miss Winny. My heart CAV,
one great leap when l heard that
And Miss Winny! Oh, she had gon'
governessing with some people wh'
were just off to Canada, and the shil
sailed tomorrow for Liverpool.
The Liverpool express never SCENE,
to crawl so slow before. | got there {,
find every berth taken on board the An
tartic, and the captain raging at tn
non-appearance of two of the crew
Without a seconds pause offered fo
one of the vacant places. | wa
strong as a horse and active enough
and though the captain eyed me rathe
askance-i had been to West Ent
tailor on my way through London-h
was too glad to get me to ask an,
questions. So l sailed on the shil
with my girl, little as she knew it.
saw her the first day or two, looking
so pale and thin that she was like tn,
ghost of her old self, and yet sweete
to my eyes than ever before. TIL,
children she had charge of were trou
blesome little creatures, who worrie,
and badgered her till longed to cuf
them well. But there was a gentlenes
and patience about her quite new t,
my idea of Miss Winny, and onl,
loved her the more for it. After tn
l.. Al \