The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1896-01-15

&5j &S7 summer day, the
.caG :NSS sky as blue as
W%SzZlRdESS though til Ter e
lH7MzzNTISWgS never could be
GW OOV W. another cloud in
it. came home across fields from
Nellie Hobart's wedding, when my
foot caught in the grass, where some
boys had tied it, and down / fell,
twisting my ankle aud hurting my
head so that for a while knew moth
ing.
At last / felt some one lift me off
the ground, and opened my eyes to
see that it was a great, swarthy, black
eyed girl of seventeen or so-a girl
with all her tangled curls tucked under
address which wss not ladylike, but she
had the voice and manner of a lady,
and she asked me very kindly il /
were much hurt; and, seeing that
was, picked me up in her strong arms,
and carried me through garden gate,
and into little parlor, where she
laid me on a sofa and bathed my head
with rose water, and told me to keep
up my courage for "Gideon had gone
for Doctor"
That name told me where was. 1
was under roof that 1 had never
thought would shelter me, no matter
what came to pass. I would have
risen and gone away, if could have
stirred from the odd old sofa, for this
was Gideon Leeds old homestead, and
here dwelt the children of the man
who, sixteen years before, had been
hung for the murder of my Uncle
Matthew. l was but baby when it
all happened, but could remember
how the whole village was astir in
search OF the missing man, and how q
body was found, at last, in the heart
of Alcott's woods, and how the facts
that there had been a quarrel between
Gideon Lee and Uncle Matthew, and
that Gideon Lee owed the latter
money, and how they were last seen
together quarreling in Gideon's gar
den, where a bloody handkerchief
marked NJ. G. was found soon after,
brought Gideon to the gallcws. Per-
haps hearing the story afterward from
my grandfather made me fancy 1 re.
membered it; but, at all events, the
name l had learned to hate was that
of Gideon Lee, and now it was the
child born on the day of her mothers
death, the very day on which the faith
er met his awful fate, who lifted me
from the ground, dusky Madge Lee,
who had never found''a playmate nor a
friend in the village, because of the
ban upon her fathers name, and Gid
con, the son. who had been old enough
to understand it all at the time, who
came in with old DIR. Humphries soon
after. They were not poor people.
The gray stone house was a substan-
tial one, and the farm had prospered
in Gideon's hands, and there we're
more books and pictures and tokens
of refinement within than country
homes generally boast of; but even
the farm hands spoke contemptuously
of the ''son of the man who was
hung" and the servants who were
hired by Madge Lee were not natives
OF the place.
And here was !, Matthew Grey's own
niece, lying under the roof, and like
to be there some time, for the doctor
1OIDhuo my REMOVAL
81 must go home-I must go away
from this house." l said, angrily and
feyerishly.
And Madge, looking down on me as
an Indian princess might, with her
dark eyes aglow, said, in a bitter
voice, ''Never fear, Miss Grey, we'll
not murder you," and somewhat
abashed me, naughty as 1 was. Grand.
pa was away from home, or think
even the risk of my life would not
have kept him from taking me home
aud / grew i'll and delirious, and
Madge Lee nursed me as a sister
might. and Gideon was kinder than a
brother. He found sweet flowers
dripping with dew in the woods; and
he sang, as never heard anyone sing
before, those Scottish ballads that are
lovelier than any other music ever
written to my mind, and it ended by
my loving them. So when 1 was well
enough to 60 away, took Madge's
hand in mine and said, "How shall
ever thank you for your tender care
of me?"
''And che answered: Agnes Grey,
the only gratitude I ask is belief in
us. The people down there, and she
pointed with her brown hand toward
the town, call us the children of a
murderer. We are the children of a
martyr instead. never saw my
father, but we both know that he is
innocent. Your Uncle Matthew-for.
give me, but it is the truth-was a
wild, bad fellow. He quarreled with
my father, not father with him, and
the debt was paid And for the
bloody handkerchief, he had cut his
hand and unbound and washed it and
tied it up afresh in mothers very
sight thai day. Don't be so cruel as
to doubtli, Agnes Grey"