The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-26

| INTO Une ScnOOl-rOOm.
"Myl what grand lady" he cried
catching sight of the snow-white
form.
The precious fiddle lay on the
table, and he snatched it up and
filled the house with hideous sounds
as he dragged the bow wickedly
across the strings.
ooh, don't DON'T" implored Fay.
'Please, put it down, Mark"
The boy, however, aware of his
aunt's absence from the house, con-
tinued his cruel sport. He slid
around the table, allowing Fay, who
gazed in terror on the fiddle in her
tormentor's hands, to come at times
almost within reach of him, when,
with shout of joy, he would slip
like an eel from her outstretched
hands and be off again. The tears
were streaming down the girls cheeks
now, and hewas thinking he had bet
ter stop the sport, when he was
tempted to have just one other little
turn at Fay's expense. The two
children were now standing at oppo
site sides of the table. Mark looked
across at Fay, who was crying her
eyes out, and laughed little; then
he threw up his hands.
"Catchl" he cried, and tossed the
fiddle like a feather to the ceiling
He meant to grasp it as it fell of
course, letting her off with the fright,
as usual, but the jerk with which he
had sent it upward tossed it as it
came down just beyond the reach of
his outstretched hands. With a thud
that went through the girls heart
Ikea knife, it fell upon the edge of
the iron fender, and there split into
pieces, and so Mortified was the boy
at the pitiful sight, that he ran head
long from the house.
Fay gave one heart broken cry as
she flung herself upon her shattered
treasure, then lay still as death. Thus
Mrs. Lane found her when she pres
emily returned.
"Oh, my darling!" she cried, as she
lifted up the stricken child. "What
has happened"
She carried poor Fay to her own
bedroom, and then rang for Anne,
the maid She could give no expla-
nation whatever of the occurrence,
and her mistress supposed that the
child had been overtaken by sudden
illness, and had broken her violin as
she fell.
Presently, when the pale face had
been bathed in vinegar and water,
poor Fay opened her eyes. After
look round, she closed them again,
however, and seeing that she breathed
more freely, her mother suffered her
to rest.
Having dismissed the maid, Mrs.
Lane went to the schoolroom to
gather up the pieces of the violin.
AS she fitted them together on the
table, weeping bitterly over the task,
she saw something white sticking out
from one of the bigger parts of the
broken fiddle This something" she
found to be piece of folded paper.
She quickly Strengthened it, and saw
a dozen lines OF so of queer, but plain
writing on it. 1t was signed in large
letters by Mark John Lane, and was
that part of will which is called
codicil, and is an addition made to
the will itself
At this slip of paper Fay's mother
looked like woman in a dream. Why,
it left fortune to her child! There
was her name Frances (Fay) Lane as
plain as pen and ink could make it.
A sudden light rushed in upon the
harrassed mother Now she better
understood her brothers strange
actions.
ibid Fay sleep9" she wondered
She stole in and had look at her.
Yes, indeed, bless her! and the anx-
ious mother crept out again relieved.
At the door of the schoolroom she
stopped short; she held her very
breath for terror, for there, at the ia
BILE, with that precious paper in his
hands, stood Mark her nephew. His
looks frightened her; they meant mis-
chief. He had come in, she supposed
seeking his cousin, had seen the
strange paper, and realizing what
this discovery meant for himself stood
struggling with his good and bad
thoughts. The mothers heart rose
up in wild alarm. His back was
turned to her, but in the mirror she
saw the wicked looks he cast upon
the fire that cracked so temptingly
haSida him One furn Of hic hand