Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-08-20
WINNY.

said? First visit to Ontario? Well,
you're heartily welcome to Indian
Greek. Take a chair on the piazza
till dinners ready-we dine early IN
these new-world parts.
Fine farna2 Well, yes; Indian Greek
is a nice place, If | do own it. All as
far as you can see-grass-land, corn
fields, woods and creeks-all belong
to it. Stock, too-they call it the best
stocked farm in Ontario, l believe,
and | dare say they're right. All
mine aHd yet came to Canada twelve
years ago. without even the traditional
half~crown in my trouser pocket.
You look surprised. Would you like
TO hear the story? There's a good
half hour to dinner time yet, and it's
a story never tire of telling, some>
how.
[ began life as the son of a village
carpenter IN the south of England.
You know that class pretty well, [
dare say, al d what gulf was fixed
between me and the vicar of the par
ish And yet-and yet-from the
time she was z years old and [ II,
and she fell down IN the dusty road
outside the carpenters shop, and cried,
and [ picked her up, and smoothed
the little crumpled pinafore and kiss
ed the dust out of her golden curls, I
loved but one girl IN the world, and
that was the wears daughter, Winny
BranscOme.
Madness, you'll say. Well, perhaps
SO, and yet man is but a man, and
woman a woman; and love comes,
whatever one may do. There's no
class distinction recognized by child
hood, and we were playmates and
friends till she went 30 boarding
school. If Miss Winny had had a
mother, nosdoubt things would have
been very different; but we were alike
in never having known woman's
care, and the old vicar was blind to
ever thiAe but his theological treat
ise
But when she came back from her
London boarding school, beautiful
young lady, all smiles and laces and
little lovely ways-then [ knew. I
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 do2 [ had just
enough education to make every lad
in the place hate me; and beside the
men of her world | suppose cut an
astonishing figure Yet the love of
her was so beyond all else in me, that
mad, hopeless as I felt it, | had 40
power over myself; and the first time
I caught her alone in the woods she
avoided me, [ saw, and [ had to watch
for a chance-I told her the whole
story, and waited for an answer. She
grew scarlet-a rush of color that
dyed her fair sweet face-thcn deathly
white.
Dick" she SAID, and she was
trembling from head to foot, "you
know you are wrong even to dream of
such thing. Some girls would think
it an INSULT know you better; but
if my father heard of this he would
say you had abused his kindness to
you; he would never forgive you.
Forget your madness" And she ran
from me.
I let her go. l had seen the blush
and the tremor, and [ guessed that if
/ had been Mr.. Lotus. the young
squire, instead of Dick Hawtry, the
carpenters son, her answer might
have been different. A great resolve
sprang up IN my soul, and took a
solemn vow in those June woods.
That very night I sold the old shop
(my father was dead and had taken
to the business). and with the money
I bought an outfit, and started straight
for Canada. Il was pretty tough work
at first, but I worked like a galley
slave-starved and pinched and saw
ed, and never spent a penny on my
self but for the books.
I sat up half the night TO read and
study. Well, in this country the man
who works and doesn't drink is sure
to get on; and bad a mighty purpose
in my head. By~and-by | bought
some land dirt cheap, and sold it fol
three times what gave for it-then
began to make money fast. should
call my luck wonderful if l believed
in luck, and didn't prefer to think
was helped by power far ADLER than
my own. At last, ten years to the
very day after set foot on Canadian