The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1896-07-24

80. Sly WAeOner any benefit came
70 them Individually from suchakind-
ness or not.
ana SO she hushed the child to
with the old nursery ballad
Thy mothers a lady
Thy sire's a lori.
q thing. which, under the present
aspect OF circumstances seemed very
probable indeed, both to her. and to
me young lad who sat beside her
drinking in the song with greedy
ears as he sp%eculated about the
future OF the sleeping babe.
CHAPTER X.
II mad Deer market day at Tres
ton In the fair English county Of
aampshlre-market day-and fair
Jay as we'll; a period of the wear
which was looked forward to by the
common people" for every eleven
months out of the twelve, and date
from the next eleven months as we'll.
And now at FIVE O'clock on that
sunny November afternoon, the
grounds where the fair had been
held were almost deserted, and
groups Of farmers jogging home on
thelr trusy cobs, or driving their
families in neat ..taxed CARTS
might have been cen filling the road
that led toward the next hamlet of
Whitley, past the ale and farm house
combined, that was we'll known
throughout the neighborhood as the
Blackmoor farm.
And though on this November
evening the weather was by no
means bleak, there we're plenty of
revelers from the fair, who were
willing to turn in at the Blackmoor
farm and try the ales for which the
place was so famous, before going
on to their own homes. Foremost
i'll the room and most eager and
genial in p%ersuading his guests of the
minute to make themselves comfort
able. was mine host of the Black
moor Farm-John Huskinson by
name. 1t was his boast that he had
lived on the old place, IMAM and
boy for fifty-eight years.
Yet, il you had looked at his hale,
ruddy face, slightly grizzled hair
and sparkling black eyes, you would
have been very slow in ascribing to
him the II years which he carried
off so we'll. Every one loved him,
every one was kind to him, because
he, in his turn. loved and was kind
TO all. His household, besides the
necessary servants, consisted OF him
self, a niece OF Is and a nephew Of
81; the n the daughter of a dead
sister. the other the son OF a dead
brother. and both adopted, sheltered
! and educated by him.
The n was a fair, golden-haired
girl, with a smile like a sunbeam,
and a heart open to every appeal
from poverty. unhappiness and mis-
cry. The other a dark-eyed, sullen-
broweu youth, who, morose toward
his uncle and every other living
being who had the slightest claim
upon his civility, vas yet the humble
slave and servant of his cousin.
Lily, who, though aware of his at
tachment to herself, yet shrunk from
him with evident horror, and would
never, if she could help it, listen to
a word Of the suit which he pressed
upon her notice awkwardly from
time to time.
Honest John Huskinson, having
faith in every one as in himself,
would gladly have seen the two
united and sharing the old place to-
gether after he was gone. It was
the only point on which he and Lily
Graham had eve disagreed. But on
this she was immovable. And so
matters stood on this day Of which
we write.
The evening passed on, the
customers grew fewer and fewer,
and more confined to the precincts
of the immediate village; then, at
II p. m. the doors were shut on
every one and the landlord ordered
his own supper, and began to pre-
pare for bed. Neither his nephew
nor his niece were present at that
last meal. Lilly sen3 an excuse.
She had a headache, and could not
come down from her own room.
Stephen pleaded another engage
ment. and went to keep it. His
uncle neither asked nor knew what
it was, nor did his nephew vouch-
safe to inform him. At y o'clock
the lights we're out, the customers
all gone, the house shut up, accord
ING to the law of English public
borcas No one came near the
premises before & the next morning.
At that time the milkwoman
knocked. The Blacknoor farm was
not, in truth, a farm. Its lands
were let out at advantageous prices