The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-07-18
him, my aunt would rejoice, for l had long known that she was afraid of him.
CHAPTER III.

success, but because he would for a time be separated from us. was now twelve years old and Halle was ten. During the long time we had lived with Uncle Jasper, he had never spoken really kind word to either of us; and my poor, timid aunt, l am sure, never had cause to feel that he had treated her with the least consideration.
 No one to scold us; DO unwelcome footsteps to startle us. We sat around the log fire, studying the books that my aunt resurrected from the bottom of an old chest. One time we invited neigh. boring children and had candy pulling. Hallie was the most joyous creature in the world, I thought, and when she seized my candy and ran about the roem with it, adroitly evading my pretended efforts to catch her, thought that my happiness was complete. This happi- ness, though, could not last. The legis- lature adjourned and my uncle returned home. Parliamentary rulings had not improved his disposition. Just SO soon as he set his foot in the house, a gloom settled over everything.
 With pain noticed that aunt was daily growing weaker. "That is the way my mother began" H allie enc day said when l had spoken to her with regard to my aunts condition. "Oh, John, would it not be terrible if she were to die ?"
 He would almost kill us," replied Hallie, when we grow up, let us run away from here and be married"
 "l have often thought of that, John."
 Alter this, though we knew very little of marriage contracts, we considered our selves engaged One day we told au at. She smiled, kissed both of us, and going to little pearl-covered box she took out a ring, put it on Hallies finger and said
 There now, little lady, this is your engagement ring. You must not take it of until the day you are married, and then you must remove it and make a wish"
 And will the wish come true?" she eagerly asked.
 "Oh, yes"
 She clapped her hands and laughed. Just then uncle entered the room.
 "What means all this foolishness ?' he demanded.
 "The children are merely playing, J.sper.'
 Playing the devil. Get out of here now and find something to do"
 My aunt grew weaker and weaker, and when the spring time came-when the trees began to grow green-she was con- fined to her bed. wanted to sit by her bedside, but uncle drove me out into the field. Every morning, before going to work, l would slip in and kiss her, and one morning, seeing that she had sunk so much during the night, I begged my uncle to let me stay by her, but he drove me into the field. had not been at work many hours when l saw Hallie running toward me
 "Oa, Johnp' she almost breathlessly exclaimed when she had come within speaking distance, Aunt Eaily is dead p Sorowfully, with tears and sobs, we went to the house. Several of the near neigh bors who had come in were doing the work which none but tenderest hands should do. Uncle Jasper strolled aim lessly about the yard. Occasionally some one would approach him and ask for in- strucuons. Once he said:
 "White dress. You will find it in the bottom drawer of the bureau" The noble woman was buried in a graveyard near our farm. Uncle Jasper did not shed tear. When we returned from the burial, he busted himself with greasing harness.
 Oh, how drearily the time passed. It seemed that he delighted in putting ex- tra work on me, and Hallie, poor child, WoS $OuhPCiCd tO 0O dAi kuC uOuSGWOrk. When the time came, strange to relate, he was reelected to the legislature. wondered why people could be so blind, and l took the liberty of asking one of the neighbors, prominent voter.
 Jasper Prior ain't much of family man," said he, "but he knows how to make laws. Nobody can snuffic round | him and get him to vote their way. Look what he done about the infamous dog tax. Why, he went dswn there and knocked the thing higher than a kite. Folks don't forgit such services"
 Hallie and l, with the exception of an old negro woman, lived alone in the old house during uncle's absence, but so con- tented were we without him that we dreaded the adjournment of the legisla- tnrA