Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-04-13
IN THE MIDDLE WEST.
A Story of Life in the Great
 Mississippi Valley.
BY ALvA MILTON KERR. rCopYRIGHT, 1ss6, BY THE A. N. KELLOGG NEWSPAPER CoMPANY.l
CHAPTER I.

Our lives come to us through manya gradation of bone and blood; coarse and fine, noble and menial, brave and craven, and running back and out into fields of long-forgotten history through that narrow neck where backward gag ing eyes see the prospective dwindle to a point. Out from that vast region the red streams trickle and twine toward us, infinitely mixed, and moving to infinite results. That every mans his tory lies agalnst and is linked to thousand other histories running chain like back into oblivion, stirs the story. teller's heart indeed. But fortunately. however much the fires and forces of the past be lost or have renewal in our present, the chronicler, if he be wise, ventures not ovcr-far to rearward lest he return unto his friends with other matter than the truth. The case in hand has doubtless measureleSs train of long-foreshadowing causes, yet, by what lanes of love and light, by what paths of hate and evil. oyer what sun lit heights, or through what sunken regions, the souls we are to follow had come into our Western realm, we find but dimly indicated. Plainly the elder John Earling was of tough, honest Scotch fiber, though little blcached and softened, be it said, in the great bath of modern life. A touch perhaps of the aSperity was there, and some- thing of the robust love, and hate, and hardihood, that featured the lusty Scotts who laid their claymorcs about each others ears in the good old knightly days. Nevertheless, John Earling was sterling worthy person; morally we'll knit and in the main of even temperate life. What he would have been, removed from the gentle tinc-spirited creature who bore the yoke of life with him, is, of course, con- jectural. Certain we arc that his short | life would have been less shapely, being denied. mayhap, that rounding work of love which smooths away so many of natures angles. Whether or not the sweet laws of God had ever produced goodlier example of womanhood than | his fair Saxon wife never troubled | bluff, square-shouldered Earling That her brow was high and her eyes tender of light and very deep, he saw, but considered lightly perhaps beside the great fact that he felt her unspcakably sweet. Not so much the soft turn of check and chin, or the gentle dignity of her carriage, laid him under trib- ute, as her unfailing love and perfect purity of heart. These in Elizabeth Earling, as, indeed, in all women per- manently beloved of man, supplement- ed her fair exterior and would, with the inevitable destruction of her charm ing outward gloss. have become the sure and hallowed resting-place of his affection. It were little less than a mar vel then. considering the clean and rich soil. were the fruit of this sweet union other than of the best and finest text ure. Eight years they had lived hap oily in the old hillside house, looking out through its vines upon the Ohio rivers placid reaches, ere the little be- ing whose footsteps we are to follow into the clouds and clear weather of this great schooling-place,c came blind lv in at the doorway of the world
 Thereafter the field of life seemed very wide and green and grateful to John and Elizabeth Earling. Even We who stand afar off may well-nigh rejoice to mark the entrance of this dimplcd bit of humanity into our realm of hazard, seeing it so Tapped in love and soft con- ditions. Indeed at that doubtful date. according to the averment of old Jade Erric. who spent his days indigging about the fat acres of the estate and easing his mental garrct of ns inter- minable phlcgm, the future lord oi ? Earling farm shook his rosy fist full in the worlds cold face, being so finely l housed and fed. And old Jade { shook his grizzled head again and yet again, declaring the .hxN1. N1J " full! A perfect heap!" and other large :. apostrophes indicative of his approba.
 ton. Something touching this great
 event did old Jade growl forth good.
 humorcdly through half the summer
 when coming home to his little house
 among the meadows, he met the never
 failing and ever agreeable picture o
 Grandam Erric, with spectacles or
 forehead and pipe in mouth. awaiting
 him at the door, For John Earling
 the younger, was born among the flow
 CTS; his first greeting was with lov'
 and summer; no cold and bitter tricl
 of Fate could rifle him of that felicity
 at least, or drain his spirit wholly O
 their savor what use soevcr Fortuna 5, put him to. Up in the mild old dwel A ling among the hillside trees he Ia, blinking among his pillows, as pinl It and white as the apple blossoms tha Il nodded at the windows. Over him tn :, mothers eyes, lit with unspeakabl u gladness. kept happy vigil, and Johr $ Earling the elder, invading the youn!
 masters precincts at all seeml,
 and unseemly seasons, tossed up hi
 prospective heir with rough hilairity
 anc freed his heart of many ridcu
 lous prophecy and soft, odd-soundin
 quirk of gladness. There. too. Gran
 dam Erric often came, clad in he
 best apparel, and fairly exuding nurse
 " knowledge and odors of the pipe o also sundry other danes of high an O humble station from neighboring farm
 and the near town, called with recip
 and praise. taking in return furtiv
 inventories of the fair New Englan
 womnn and her helonoinos. under th