Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-07-22

4 nnmE nDluA lIol1-hI
,hs craze. Let the msn do bis worst, you
still have fTIonds, my dear"
So spoke this kind and benevolent man.
T am sure thss his deeds would have
nroyed as good as his words had they
been called for.
We told no one in the town, otherwise
am sure there would have been . great
storm Of indignation against Mathew, and
perhaps we did wrong 70 keep the thing .
secret. But my mother was q Londoner
,na did not like to have her affairs made
more tbsn oonld bs helped the subject Of
scandal and village gossip.
II WA now already the middlsof Decem-
her: we should, therefore, be Turned out
into the street in winter. IA LOT our
slender stock of money, that was reduced
10 a few guinees. Yet was l not greatly
cast down, because, whatever else might
happen, the time was come when l might
exnscs an answer. In eighteen months,
or even less, a ship might sail to India n
return to port. d,
Rslph's letter would set all right. l
know not, now, what 1 expected, l lived
in a kind of FOOLS paradise, Ralpa was
nv hope, my anchor. | looked not Tor
money bat for protection; he would be q
shield. When the fugieman came to the
cottage we would fall to cengratuiatlng
ourselves ur ION the flight CT time which
brought my letter the nearer. He even
made notches on a long pole for the days
which might yet remain. Yet, oh, what
a slender reed was this on which / leaned!
For NY letter to him might have miscsr-
ried. Who is TO insure the safety OF q
letter for so many thousand miles? Or
his reply might be lost on board the ship. A
letter is q small thing aud EASILY lost. Or
he might be up the country with some ma
tive prince; or he might be fighting; or he
might be too much occupied to write. A
slender reed OF hope indeed. Yet l bad
faith. Call il not a fools paradise; twas
the paradise of love.
Then came the day, the last day, when
the money must be paid or we lose our
house. That day / can never forget. IL
was the 22d of December. The mummeis,
I know, were getting ready for the next
evening. In the night we were awakened
by the waits singing before our house:
God rest you, merry gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
and I, who ought to have taken the words
for an extortation to lift my heart to
heaven, lifted it only as high Amy
lover. To be sure, he was always q good
deal nearer heaven than his unworthy sweet
heart.
In the night there was snow, and when
the sun rose the garden was beautiful, and
the leafsss trees had every little twig
painted white; a clear bright day, such as
seldom comes to this country of rain and
wind in the month Of December. Ii one
mas to be thrust into the street, one would
wish for a day of sunshine. Is it not q
monstrous thing that this justice should be
possible? Will there ever come o time
when Justice and equity will be admins
tered, like fresh air and spring water, for
nothing?
So certain was Mathew of his prey that
be sent the crisr round at 8 o'clock in the
morning to announce the sale for noon.
And directly after IL o'clock he came him
self, with the attorney and a man to con-
duet the auction or sale of the house.
We put together, in order to carry with
Us, our wearing apparel. Mathew was for
preventing us from taking aoyth'ng-even,
| believe, the clothes we stood in-out of
the house. Even the family Bible must
stay, and the very account books; but he
was rebuked by bis lawyer, who informed
him that the mortgage included only the
tenement or the building, but not its con-
tents. We should keep cur beds then.
But where to bestow them? Whittier to
70? My heart began to sink. lcould have
sat down and cried, had that been of any
avail, and if my mother had not set a het-
ter example and kept so brave a face.
''The daughter OF a substantial London
merchant, my dear" she said, must not
show signs OF distress before such cattle"
sine meant the attorney and his honest
client. SECT your things together, and we
will see where we caa tiud a shelter. My
poor old man shall not feel the pinch Of
cold and hunger, though we work our fingers
10 the bone" Her lip trembled as she
spoke.
Meantime my father was giving a hearty
welcome to the astonished attorney, whom
he considered as a visitor.
"Iu this poor house, sir" he said, with
q lofty sir, though we have the conven-
fences which wealth can bestow, We have
not the splendor. ] trust, cir, that you
may give me the pleasure ola visit at my
town house, where, l believe, her ladyship
will show you rooms worthy Of any noble
mans house, not to speak Of q plain city
knight, like your humble servant"
The attorney regarded him with wonder,
but answered not. l believed he under
stood by this one speech bow impossible it
was that this poor man could have bcr-
rowed his clients money.
At stroke of noon the sale was TO COM
mence, But as yet there were no buyers.
No one was here to bid except Mathew
himaelf, who was impatient to begin.
1t wanted five minutes Of noon when
Dir. Carnaby appeared, bearing his geld
headed stick, and preceded by the fugle-
man with his pike, to show that the visit
was official. He was followed by a dozen
or so of the tOwnsmen, now aware thai
something out of the common was about
to happen.
"Gs on with the sale," cried Mathew,
im~patisntly; sit is 12 o'clock"
Stop said his worship. Sir" he ad-
dressed the lawyer, "you will first satisfy
ME by what right you enter a private
house, and by what authority you are SELL
ing it.n