The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1885-03-18
FACE TO FACE.
A Fact Related in Seven Well
Told Fables.
by n. f. FRANCILLoN,
AUTHOR or "a GnEAT HEIRRss," "QuIrs
Ar LAST" "A REAL QUEEN" RAMS
DIVE" ETC, ETC.
FABLE THE sEooND.-CoSrrNuEp.

FABLE THE SECOND CONTINUED.
He'll come and stay with us at Millport
for year, and take a holiday of his
own; and when the years out and he
is broken bit out of his own ways,
he'll stay on another. and another, and
another, for as long as he's spared.
He'll always be Blackthorn, of Legs
Croft, you see; the land will always be
his, whether he lives there or no, only
the trouble will be off his hands. Do
you see? He'll lose neither the land
nor you. So the long and the short of
it is, I'm off tomorrow 10 Manchester
to buy you plain gold ring. Wen be
married here, and then start for Mill
port, all three, as soon as Prestons'
send down their man TO see to the farm,
and I've put him in the way. Darling,
we will all be so happy there, as happy
as the days are long.
And so she knew, or thought, rs well
as he. But she had grown so happy
already during her season OF troth-
plight that she would willingly have
heightened it out without limit; and,
now that marriage was brought face
TO face with her as fact, the very idea
Of any greater happiness than the pres
ent assumed a sort of awe. One can
but be happy-how can any change
make us moNp
But all he had urged. with the sort of
eloquence that has nothing to do with
words, was not TO be denied. And then
he had so plainly been thinking, if of
her own wishes first, still, Of her father
next; he was royalty generous, how
could she even seem TO be less, without
shamep
Stephen" she said, looking up into
his face, whatever you wish, | wish
too. II trying will do it, you shall be
the happiest man in the world"
"Darlingl You'll make me that with
out trying" said he. "Give me your
finger, please. No; not that, the fourth,
of the lett hand. Where's my measur-
ing tape? Oh, here" ss r. -s
The surveyor got to work, and meas
ured that vast estate which lies be-
tween the knuckles and the first Joint
of the fourth finger of the left hand of
a girl.
The morning after this happy even
ing, Farmer Marrish, though It was but
eight o'clock, had gone over well-nigh
every inch of every field, had seen
every man and woman at his and her
task, and had done a good deal of hard
head-work besides. For he was one of
those farmers, rare and often misunder-
stood folk in those simple times, who
put brains into the soil. He never did
a single thing without knowing the rea-
son why; and 50 (though this does not
by any means follow he prospered
while others failed. So one can only
judge that the brains he used were eX-
cellent brains. Returning TO the house,
a square, squat, stone building, without
a green leaf about it to break its stare,
and standing between a straw-yard and
a garden without blossom, he cooked
for himself, in a saucepan, about a pint
of exceedingly thin Cruel, and ate it,
from the same vessel, with an iron
spoon. The meal was cheap, il not sat
isfying; but then there was the gratif-
cation Of feeling, with every mouthful,
that 1t might have been beef or bacon,
so taat, not being either, at every
m0uthful something was saved, and
therefore something gained. There was
nobody TO wait upon him, for Farmer
Marrish kept no more hands about
house or land than were needful for
profitable work. and what profit could
there be in keeping cook or
parlor-maid when he had hands
OF his own, and only his own
mouth TO feedp He had breakfasted on
that thin cruel, getting thinner and
thinaer, every day since he was one and
twenty, and, though 1t made the body
lank, II made the pocket swell. He
dined mostly on bread and cheese, or
cold bacon, that wanted no cooking at
all, except on Sunday, when he made
potatoes and the weeks odds and ends
into hot stew, TO avoid waste; and he
supped on Cruel again, with single
tumbler OF rum. He did keep ale for
his men, because in those days to work
on water was a thing undreamed Of;
but even those ready and uncritical
omuibibanfa. who held az A oeneral rule