Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-01-17

denly betrayed her deep emotion he might,
| by a kind word, have opened the flood
| gates of her emotion, but he was blind to
| every thing, and burned with mad rage at
the wrong she had done his boy Harry.
| The wrong done his boy Harry! Aye,
| there was the rub. 1t was but natural that
| she should cleave to her own kin and be
| true to the associations of her childhood
nay, the Captain could even forgive her
treason to the Union; for women, he argued,
are emotional creatures, and I" always side
with the under-dog in the fght''-but that
she should turn from him and his to the pro-
lection of AlphonSe LecroiX was an outrage
beyond his powers of silent endurance.
Alphonse Lecroixl He detcsted this AL
phOnSe LecroiX with an aversion which
knew no bounds of reason; not that he had,
when he came to analyse the situation, any
just grounds for such strong antipathy
against the young man, but he blindly based
his contempt for him on general principles.
Alphonse Lecroix, who was stirring such
a torrent of luminosity in the Captains
heart, was a young French Canadian, re-
siding in a ncighboring village across the
river, possessed of q small fortune which
he had inherited from penurious father.
Fortune had been fairly generous to him,
and nature had been more than prodigal in
her favors. His was the ideal of a school
Slll " pc VI DcduIl-DldCh. curry
hair; large, luminous dark eyes; regular
features; teeth, which Duchess might have
envied; soft, musical voice; ten
der, sympathetic manner with women,
and u 1.-the, active figure, whose
every movement was grace itself.
Then, his doting father had given him 4
college education, and, though his accom-
plishments were of the veriest veneer, he
had acquired the art of making the most of
the little he had learned-surely not such
an Objectionable parsonage after all. But
his volatile manner clashed with Daniel
Winthrop's staid views of life, and in the
best of times, when Lecroix had been adj
mittcd at the Orchard House as a frequent
guest, he had set HIM down as frivolous
jackanapeS;n but when the young man let
slip indiscreet expressions of sympathy for
the Seceeders and evinccd 4 too warm APP
probation of Miss Frobisham's society, his
wrath knew no bounds, and he had ordered
his women-friends to close the door on 1.-The
internal young copperhead."
! Therefore, when from his retreat in the
| pilot-house he saw the Frenchman drive to
| his door and bear away the young lady, he
| might be forgiven the storm of impreca-
lions which rose to his lips. One thing COM
| forted him: neither his wife nor daughter
| appeared on the threshold to bid God-speed
to the departing guest
| And Harry was coming home that night,
| too. How could he meet his boy with this
tale of sorrow2 He would rather face the
worst storm that ever ragged on Lake Michi-
| gan than tell the poor lad that the girl he
| loved had been false to him.
| Nevertheless, in the gloam of the evening
| he went forth to meet his boy, intercepting
him in the big meadow, where years ago he
| had taught him to fly his kite and shoot
reed birds AS the buggy approached, he
| stopped the driver and said
''Get down, Harry, and walk with me
| to the house. l have something to say to
| you"
Well might the father be proud of such a
son-tall, erect, the picture of animal
| strength, with Il frank expression in his
| handsome face which would be his passport
wherever he went. Harry Winthrop was as
! fine young fellow as you would meet with
in long days march. But the old man
only noticed the pallor in his boys face and
| shrank from the blow he was about to in
! tilct.
| For a time they walked arm in arm in
silence. The Captain found it so hard to
| speak.
Harry, boy" at last he gasped, 81 have
bad news for you-kate Frobisham-you'n
| bear it like man-she has"
| Eyes, know, dear old dad, she has gone
home"
| but do you know with whom she has
gone!'the Captain asked, in surprised anx-
| iety.
| YES, she wrote and told me she was 60
| ing with LecroiX. 1t seems as if she had
given me UP, doesn't it, dad.''
"And you, my boy" the old man said,
| with lips tremulous with emotion, shave
YOU the courage to show the girl that
you"
thrust in her to the last. Why, of course
have Do not love her. dadln