The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-09-29
CHAPTER v.

CHAPTER v.
During this period, wherein the
shadow cast by Absalom Heater
heightened and his horizon materially
: enlarged, and wherein the little Miss
Popp came without unyarrantcd as
sumption to effect the gowns and
graces of maturer maidenhood, the
chemistry that shapes and builds us
cell by cell had not lain torpid in John
Earring and his sunny fellow. Me.
thinks. two lustier playmates never
gamboled on the grass, or strained
against the leash of discipline, than
they. -Four nimbler feet than theirs
surely never dashed the purple clover
heads aside, as they went plumming in
the valley. nor eyes more bright and
eager ever peered among the fallen
leaves for winter-green, or in the
meadow grass for strawberries. Up
the little river in the wine-warm
weather the dipping willows often saw
their 1.-THE and silvery bodies part
the clear sweet water, and scarce
a grapevine in all the great. wood
that spread over the hills to the west
ward, had not some time in these fleet
years been climbed by them and rifed
of its pungent clusters. But time did
not always furnish them with sum
shine, at least the thorns were not few
on which John Earling tore his YOUTH
full spirit. That Mrs. Whitney, out Of
narrowness OF heart or from some touch
of acid in her nature, could never, save
with obvious testiness, admit a level
ground for yielding favors to the or
phan and her own less bright but pref
tier child, was in John Earnings life
an ever widening wound. For, though
a brave and self-reliant lad, and in his
later years unyielding in his honest
pride, he yet was quick to feel and
tender tempered. But few summers
had gone by ere the unfairness of her
attitude began to dawn upon him, and
as time continued he only came more
and more to feel the bitter uneven-
ness of her hand in dealing with
them. Perhaps the avenue of
mother-love through which her pref
ty offspring reached her biased her
vision naturally, and any thing in her
treatment of the orphan boy that did
not go beyond indifference, though that
to some is cruelty enough, should 60
uncensured. At any rate, John Earl.
ing early in these years began to feel
the unutterable injury that death had
done him, the measureless lack of nat
ural love, and the sure inhibition OF
such whole-hearted help as springs of
parent-feeling. The demand. too. that
springs in every nature to take some
object into the bosom to lavish love
upon, had not in John Earnings youth
its natural food, but it was there with
all its fine needs ceaselessly asking for
! the bread of life. To this end the
boys heart turned with loneliness and
hunger, and spent itself upon his care
less, buoyant, sunny-tempered fellow.
Whether or not Harry Whitney was
wholly worthy of this attachment
since necessity admits but few in-
quIries, can not easily be set down.
Perhaps the answer were quickest run
to cover by tracking the progress of
events. Clearly, however, his extrin-
sic merits were many and the graces
of his nature not to be despised. Very
frank and fair and generous he was at
all events, and as comrade well nigh
incompatible. True, he lacked little
in the finer scruples perhaps, but there
John Earring always set the limit, for
no end, however CLOSED with seeming
gain, could carry him beyond the
bounds of honesty. This was the
strongest current in John Earnings in.
clinations; the clear core of his heart,
the light, be it fortunate or unfortu-
nate, by which he saw the world, from
the thousand hideous and distorted
trails of men across the face of it,
down to his own minutest deed. Faults
he had, and some unevenness OF nat
ure, but not of honesty, unless indeed
some. seeing darkly, may consider
pure integrity Improbable and
foolish. Doubtless this virtue
was inherited, at least there
was no eXtraneous influence swaying
him. Joel Whitney's example was
purely business one, and his idea OF
honor exactly commensurate with that
elastic term. He seldom parleyed with
a question, or pulled it up to examine
its roots that he might be satisfied if it
were virtue or vice. Quite content
was he with either SO it served his pur-
pose. Business was the sea to him, into
which all streams, both small and
great, both foul and clearly, emptied.
Why should he, successful cruiser on
this feverish food, reck of the streams
that entered it? The son, too, was
very like the father. having a fine skin
and an endless fund of laughter, and.
like most very good-natured people,
was slightly indolent. Neither was the
mothers example aught that could
have swerved John Earnings inclina-
tons into the clearly channel that they
followed. The foundation of his
nature seemingly was laid in
honesty, and his being so cemented to
the rock that, though the world winds
often beat and bent him about, they
could not draw him from it. In those
early years, though Joel Whitney was
not stinting in his jovial kindness, the
sometime chilly and in the main luke
warm attitude of Mrs. Whitney OPP
pressed the boy, and filled him with
growing thirst for freedom from de-
pendence. Even while yet a child
some vague ideas touching this were
floating in his mind, and many were
the hours when others slept that saw
him sitting upon the floor within his
little room, using his only chair as a
desk, and porting over books prepared
for older heads. Many were the times,
too, that he fell asleep with his cheek