The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1886-07-29
LASHED TO THE TOPMAST.

hhOAhD ~ I'LL luz MASI.
Stranger to Canada, think you said :
First visit to Ontario2 Well, you're
heartily welcome to Indian creek. Take
a chair on the piazza till dinners ready
we dine early in these New World parts.
Fine farm? Well, yes; Indian Greek
is nice place if do own it. AL as far
as you can see-grass-land, corn-felds,
woods and creeks-all belong to it.
Stock, too-they call it the best stocked
farm in Ontario, | believe, and dare saw
they're right. All mine; and yet came
to Canada twelve years ago, without the
traditional halfcrown in nv trousers
pocket You look surprised. Would
you like to hear the story b? There's a
good halfhour to dinner time vet, and it's
a story never tire of telling, somehow.
began life as the son of village car
penter 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 parish And vet
and yet-from the time she was seven
years old and | eleven, and she fell down
in the dusty road outside the carpenter
shop, and cried, and | picked her up, and
smoothed the little crumpled pinafore.
and kissed the dust out of her golden
curls, loved one girl in the wori,!. and
that was the wears daughter, Winnv
Branscome.
Madness, you'll say. Well, perhaps
so, and yet a man is but man, and a
woman but woman and love comes,
whatever one may do. There's no class
distinction recognized by childhood, and
we were playmates and friends till she
went to boarding school,
If Miss Winny had had a mother, no
doubt things. would have been very diff
ferent; but we were alike in never having
known a woman's care and the old vicar
was blind to everything but his thcologi.
cal treatises.
But when she came back from her Lon
don boarding school beautiful young
lady, all smiles and laces and lovely wavs
then | knew. l 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 do?
just had enough education to make every
other lad in the place hate me and be-
side the men Of her world, suppose
cut rather an astonishing figure Yet the
love OF her was so beyond all else in me,
that mad, hopeless as felt it, had no
power myself; and the first time caught
her alone in the woods-she avoided me,
saw, and had to watch for a chance
told her the whole story, and waited
for her answer. She grew scarlet-a rush
OF color that dyed her fair sweet face
then deathly white.
Dick" she said, and she was trem-
bling from head to foot, " you know it
can never, never be; 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-
l']et her 90. 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 solemn VOW in those June woods
That very night | sold the old shop (my
father was dead and had taken to the
business) and with the money bought
an outfit, and started straight for Canada
1t was pretty tough work ct first but
worked like lley-slave-starved, and
pinched, and saved, and never spent
penny on myself except for the books |
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
had a mighty purpose in my head. BY
and by bought some land dirt cheap
and sold it for three times what gave
for it-then | began to make money fast.
should call my luck wonderful if be-
lieved 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 Oh Canadian soil, |
bought Indian Greek farm, and began to
build this house. All my neighbors
thought my good fortune had turned my
brain, for l fitted it up and furnished it
for lady, down to a little rocking chair
by my study table, and basket with
tiny gold thimble in it. And when all
that was finished | took the first ship for
Liverpool.
Ten years builds city over here. 1t
doesn't make much change in a Devon
shire village. The very gates were still
half off their hinges, only the people
were little older and a trifle more
stupid and their was a new vicar. Old
Mr.. Branscome had been dead for six
months; died very poor, they told me !;
there was nothing left for Winny. My
heart gave one great leap when | heard
that. And Miss Winny? Oh, she had
gone governessing 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 Ant
arctic, and the captain raging at the non
appearance of two of the crew. With
out q seconds pause / offered for one of
the vacant places. l was strong as a
horse, and though the captain eyed me
rather askance-I had been to fashion.
able 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 as she knew it. saw her
the first day or two, looking 80 pale and