Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-12-04

eyes, r.otl CT, ho will como. OF course
NE will C~mc" And TIC girl turned her
drawn e. anxious young face toward the
cottage door, jr.trsif Ter Lind mother
could soc the action
1t is probable that thoCld wonun OWNED
the longing glance from tho change in the
girls tone, for she, too, half turned to-
ward the door
1t was TO rev thing-this waiting for
the scaTCgracc son. The girl had grown
MP to it, for she would not know her
brother should she meet him in the street.
Since light had left the old mothers eyes
she had fed her heart upon this hone.
He had left them 8 years before ina fit
of passionate resentment against his ia
ther whose only fault had hoeu too great
an indulgence for the son of his old age.
His father, having risen Ivy the force of
his own will and the capabilities Of his
own mind from the people to the church.
held, as such men do, that he had only to
give his son IA good education to insure his
career in life, 50 every thing-CvCn to the
old parsons sense of right and wrong
was sacrificed to the education of stephen
Leach at public school and university.
Here he met and selected for his friends
youths whose futures were insured, and
who were only passing through the formula
of an education so that no one could say
that they were unfit for the snug govern
ment appointment, living, or inheritance
of more substantial sort that might be
waiting for them.
Not having been university man him
self, the rector did not know that at Ok
ford or Cambridge, as in the army one
may live according to ones taste Stephen
b.,I L,,
scrupulcusly traded on his fathers igno-
rance.
At last the rCctOrS eyes were opened
and when narrow minded man seyes are
once opened he usually becomes stony at
the heart.
Stephen Leach left England, and before
he landed in America his father had de-
parted ON "a longer journey. The nc'er do
well had the good grace to send back the
little sums Of money saved Iiy his mother in
her widowhood, and gradually his letters
ceased. 1t was known that he was in
Chile, and there was war going on there,
md yet the good cid lady faith never way
cred
"Ho will come, Joyce Ho will surely
come
And tho girl would go to the window
and draw aside the curtain, looking down
the quiet country road toward the village
Yes, mother, he will come was her
usual answer, and ono day she gave Il little
exclamation Of surprise and almost of fear.
Mother, " she exclaimed, there is some
one coming along the road "
The old lady was already sitting up in
bed, staring with her sightless Orbs toward
the window
Thus they waited. The man stopped op-
posite the cottage, and the two women
heard tho latch of the gate. Then Joyce.
turning, saw her mother had tainted. But
10 was only mOmcntary By the time she
reached the bed her mother had recovered
consciousness.
Down stairs on the doorstep the girl
found n tan man Of 80 or thcreabout with
browner face han English suns could
account for 10 looked down into her
eager eyes with IA strange questioning
wonder.
cam | too lutcs" lie asked in n voice
which almost souMed to indicate hope
that it might hc So
"No, Stephen, she answered. "But
mother cannot live much longer. You are
just i'm time
The young man made n heSitating little
movement with his right hand and shuffled
uncasly "a the clean stone step. The re-
turn of this prodigal was not dramatic
success. No one seemed DESTROYS of learn
nt6orn,isa and viii ,,ho', hn hod onto,,
The o'uiet dianitv of ths ,,iri ,rho had na
moinrd bobind to do MI the work and beor
al tbe burden see,ne6 IN son, o'S Sr I,
manner I'm dsnrive him Of aDv ronance
tbat niobt baIo ottochnd itsoif r. I'm
Stenben Taacb followad siieutiv uo
was rather large for the honso and eSneoial-
lv for tbe stairs Narrower he had a cer-