Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-09-10
WINNY.

said? First visit to OntarioP Well.
you're heartily welcome to Indian
Creek. Take q chair on the piazza
till dinners ready--wo dine early in
these new world parts.
Fine farm? Well. yes; Indian Creek
Is nice place, il do own it. All as
far rs you can grassland, corn
fields, woods and crceks-all belong
to it. Stock, too-they call it the best
stocked farm in Ontario, | believe, and
/ Care shy they're right. All mine;
and yet came to Canada twelve wears
ago. without even the traditional half
crown IN my trousers pocket You
look surprised. Would you like to
hear the story? There's good half
hour to dinner time yet. and it's a
story | never tire of telling, somehow.
began life as the son of village
carpenter in the south of England.
You know that class pretty well, |
dare say, and what gulf was fixed
between me and the vicar of the par
Ish. And yet-and yct-from the
time she was years old and II, and
she fell down i'll the dusty road out
side the carpenters shop, and cried.
anil picked her up, and smoothed the
little crumplcd pinafore, and kissed
the dust out OF her golden curls, | low
ed but one girl in the world, and that
was the Wears daughter, Winny
Brauscome.
Madness, you'll say. Well, perhaps
SO. and yet man is but a man, and
woman 4 woman; and love comes,
whatever ono may do. There's no
class distinction recognized by child
hood, and we were playmates and
friends Till she wentto boarding school.
III Miss Winny had had Il mother no
doubt things would have boon very diff
fcrent; but we are alike in never hay
ing known Il woman's care, and the
old vicar was blind to everything but
his theological trcatiscs.
But when She came back from her
London boarding school, beautiful
young lady, all smiles and laccs and
little l0ycly ways--then | knew. Ihad
tired 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? had just enough
education to make every other lad in
the village hato me; and beside the
men OF her world suppose cut rath-
or an astonishing figure. Yet the love
Cf her was so beyond all else in me.
that m~d, hopeless rs felt it, had
10 power over myself; and the first
m | caught Ter alone in the woods
she avoided me, | saw. and [ had to
watch Tor cha eel told her the
wholc story, and waited for her au-
swrr. Shc grew Scarlet--a rush OF
Co,Or that dyed her sweet face-then
draiaiy wnitr.
ID OK, she said. and she was trem-
biu% from mead 10 loot, you know it
can never never nc; you know Won are
wrpH- 'Nca to dream OF such a thing.
) M ,iri1 would think il an Insult
k.rvN lpu SETTER; Uut if my father heard
u. f4> &C would = you had abused
his Kindness to Won; he would never
forgive YOU. Forget your madness"
And She ran from me.
let her 90. had seen the blush
AMI the lrcmor. AMI guessed that if
had brcn Mr.. Lotus, the young
squire. instead IT Dick Haw!ry, the
carpcutrg', ~pl. h Z answer might have
been different a ,reat resolve sprang
up in my soul. AMI took solemn
vow in those june woods That very
night sold tnr Of SHOP (my father
was ,'ell ASA had taken 10 tho bust
ness, au W III the money | bought IN
outfit ana started straight for Canada.
1t was ir.'ttY tough work at first. but
! worked IKE @ailey-slavc- starved
and pinch"d and saved, and never spent
n penny on myself except for the books.
sat up half TIA" nj Int " read and
study. Wei, IN HIS country tho man
who works an DOESN'T drink is sure to
get on; and | had mighty purpose
in my head. By-and-bv bought some
land dirt cheap, AMI sold it for three
time, what | gave for it--thcn began
10 make money fast. ! should call my
luck woudcr.u il | believed in luck.
and didn't prefer to think was help
cd by power far ADLER than my own.
Al last, ten years 10 the very day after
i set foot on Canadian soil, | bought
Indian Creek farm, and began to build
this house. All tho neighbors thought
my good fortune had turned my brain,
for fitted up and furnished it for q
lady. down to little rocking-chair by
my study-tab,c, and tiny work basket
with tiny gold thimbo in it. And
when all WAS finished took the first
ship for Liverpool
Ten years builds city over here IL
doesn't make much change in a Dew
shire village The very gates were
still half-olf their hinges, as left them
only the people were little older and
trille more stupid. aud there was a
new vicar, Old Mr.. Branscome had
been dead six months--died very poor,
they told me; there was nothing left
for Miss Winny. My heart gave one
great leap when | heard that. And
Miss Winny? Oh, she had gone gov
erucssing with some people who were
Just off To Canada, and the ship sailed
tomorrow from Liverpool.
The Liverpool express never seemed
to crawl so slowly before. got there
to find every berth taken on board the
Antarctic, and the captain raging at
the n0n-appearauce of two of the crew.
Without seconds pause | offered for
one of the vacant PLACES. | was a
strong as horse. and active enough,
aud, though the captain eyed me rath.
er askance,-I had been to a West-end
tailor on my way through London, -
he was too glad TO get me to ask any
questions, So | sailed on the ship with
my girl little rs she knew it. l saw
her the first day or two, looking Sc
pale and Thin that she was like the
ghost of her old self, and yet sweetel
TO my eyes than ever before. The
children she had charge of were trou
blesome little creatures. who worriec
and badgercd her till longed to cuf
them we'll But there was gentlenes!
and patience about her quite new L
my ideas of Miss Winny, and | only
loved her the more for it. After tn,
second day out tho wind freshened
aud saw no more of her.
We had an awful passage. II wa!
late in Novembcr-an early Winter
and the cold WAS intense. 1t blew on,
continuous gale. aud some of our ma
1hincry was broken--the screw dam
agcd-and we could not keep on
course. As we drew near the othe
side OF the Atlantic we got moro an,
more out OF our bearings, and at las
the fogs told uS we were somewher
oil the banks of Newfoundland, bu
where no one was quite sure. 1t seem
Cd 10 me it had all happened before, o
[ had read it, or dreamed it. AT a.
events, it was hardly surprise to m
when. ON the tenth night. just afte
midnight. the awful crash and shoe
.uoS d ace-a sensation which no on
who has not felt il can imagine in tn
least-ani we knew that the Antareti