Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1897-06-19

~A Ihats tn last
" word," said Selma,
and to my mind, Mr.. Tolley, it's n
bit of a pity it ever went so far
Gas how?" said Bale. He was very
gloomy and quiet, and unlike himself,
and she had ceased to feel afraid of
him.
"ln this wise, Mr.. Tolley," she an
swered. II never chose your COM
pany, and never liked it. look
on what you've said to me as a
liberty. And I defy you to say I ever
showed you sign of encouragement
to it,"
"That's true enough" said Bale
gravely, and without touch of irony.
"Ill do you that much credit. You've
made it pretty clear as you disliked me
from the beginning"
"And that" the girl retorted, sis
why I look on what you've said in the
light of liberty, Mr.. Tolley."
''It won't be repeated" Bale an
swered. "Good hight!'
He fingered as if in expectation of
an answer, but the girl turned away
without word. The garden gate
clicked behind her, and Bale was left
standing in the roadway.
"Well," he said to himself, cts
what I looked for, and it fits my
merits" He pulled handful of loose
tobacco from one pocket of his jacket
and a pipe from the other. Then,
having stood for a minute or two with
out movement, he filled his pipe, lit
it, and walked away.
The girl meanwhile had reached the
cottage kitchen. She took candle
stick from the high chimneypiece, and
set it on the table with an angry
emphasis. She stirred the waning
fire with the same petulance, and,
having thrust thin silver or two of
wood between the bars, she knelt
down before the CRATE and famed the
embers with her apron. When they
blazed she drew out one of the sticks
and lit the candle. As the wick be-
gan to burn she looked up and gave a
faint cry at the sight of an unexpected
figure in the room.
"Mother!" she said, with hand
upon her heart. "How you frightened
mew
"Hast no cause to be afraid O. me,
wench, her mother answered. $50
Bales got the sack, has he?"
''Got the sack?" Selma echoed.
"No. He was never in my service. "
''He never got any wages, poor
lad!" said the old woman. "That's
another matter, however. In your
service he has been this three year. "
"Well," returned Selma, II never
had any truck with him, and I never
wanted any. And now, if that's what
he wanted to know, he knows it."
eyes," said the old woman, knitting
away with the same tranquility, "you
let him know it,"
"why, mother" cried the girl,
"what would you have me do? Did
you expect me to say Yes! to him?"
"No, my dear. 1t would ha' given
me rare sore heart to hear it. But
I've known him since the day he was
born, and I've been sorry for him
many time. He's nobody's child,
poor Bale is. He was bred on charity,
and he was made to feel it. He's gone
wrong, my dear, like good many
more, because he'd hardly ever the
chance to go right; but there was the
makin's of fine man in him. You
was quite right to say him nay, but
could wish as you'd been gentle with
him."
Selma lit a second candle and sat
down beside it with her sewing.
'His father was travelin' conjur-
Or" said the old woman, after long
pause. "I saw him once alive, and a
finer figure of man I never saw.
helped to lay him ont, poor fellow,
that same night. He broke his back
bone with cannon ball doin' some
juggler's trick with it. They said at
the time he was in liquor, and he'd no
right to do dangerous thing like
that at such time. He'd built bit
of tent across the road there on the
waste ground, and there was the wife
awaiting her confinement. The child
wasn't born half an hour when some
blunderin' idiot told her the news.
That killed the mother. Then poor
Tolley's wife took in the child and
kept it, and We all helped bit; and
he growed up to be called Tolley. And
as if he hadn't had misfortune enough
to begin life with, old Tolley must
needs go an christen the poor little
creetur' by his own name of Balaam,
as d been laughing stock for the
whole O. Castle Barfield for ears an
ears. He learned himself to read an
write without any help as iver I heerd
on. He was put to work at the pit
bank by the time he was eight 'ears
old, and he Termed himself the engine
drivin' by looking at the engine an
watchin' the chaps at work at it. Poor
Bale!'
A bright drop or two fell from the
girls eyes and glistened on the stuff
she was sewing.
In the meantime, Bale, the rejected,
had walked down into the valley, had
fingered for while at the forge gate.
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