The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-01-05

i couldn't marry till En- was 16 OF
I'd lose all the sheep her father left
me. And he talked about Jacob work
ing seven years and seven years again
for his wife, and of course he meant
me-" said Tant Sannie pompously.
But he won't get me so easily as he
thinks. He'll have to ask more than
once"
"Oh!" said Trana, who was lump
ish girl and not much given to talking,
but presently she added "Aunt, why
does the Englishman always knock
against person when he passes
them?"
That's because you are always in
the way" said Tant' Sannie.
But, aunt" said Trana presently, 81
think he is very ugly"
"Phugh" said Tant' Sannie. cts
only because We're not accustomed to
such noses in this country. In his coun-
try, he says, all the people have such
noses, and the redder your nose is the
higher you are. He's of the family Of
the Queen Victoria, yous know said
Tant' Sannie, Weakening up with her
subject, "and he doesn't think any
thing Of governors and church elders
and such people. They are nothing to
him. When his aunt with the dropsy
dies, he'll have money enough to buy
all the farms in this district!''
"Oh!' said Trana. That certainly
made difference.
"Yes," said Tant' Sannie, land he's
only Al, though you'd take him to be
GO, and he told me last night the real
reason of his badness
Tant' Sannie then proceeded to relate
how, at IS years Of age, Bonaparte
had courted fair young lady; how
deadly rival, Jealous of his verdant
locks, his golden flowing hair, had,
with a damnable and insinuating de-
ception, made him a present of pot
of pomatum; how, applying it in the
evening, on rising in the morning he
found his pillow strewn with the gold
en- locks and, looking into the glass,
beheld the shining and smooth expanse
which henceforth he must bear. The
few remaining hairs were turned to
silvery whiteness, and the young lady
married his rival.
"And," said Tant' Sannie solemnly,
"if it had not been for the grace of
God and reading Of the Psalms, he
says, he would have killed himself. He
says he could kill himself quite easily
If he wants to marry woman and she
won't"
"a lie wereld," said Trana, and then
they went to sleep.
Every one was lost in sleep soon, but
from the window of the cabin the
light streamed forth. 1t came from q
dung fire over which Waldo sat brood
ing. Hour after hour he sat there now
and again throwing fresh lump Of
fuel on to the fire, which burned up
bravely and then sank into a great bed
of red Goals, which reflected them
selves in the boys eyes as he sat there
brooding. brooding, brooding. At last,
when the fire was blazing at its bright
est, he rose suddenly and walked slow
ly to beam from which an OK "riem"
hung. Locsening it, he ran q moose in
one end and then doubled it round his
arm.
mine, mine! have a right" he
muttered, and then something louder,
'If fall and am killed. so much the
betterv
He opened the door and went out
into the starlight
He walked with his eyes bent upon
the ground, but overhead it was one
OF those brilliant southern nights when
every space so small that Your hand
might cover it shows 80 cold white
points, and the Milky Way is a belt of
sharp frosted silver. He passed the
door where Bonaparte lay dreaming
OF Trana and her wealth, and he
mounted the ladder steps From those
he clambered With some difficulty on
to the roof of the house. 1t was of old
rotton thatch with ridge of white
plaster, ana it crumbled away under
his feet at every step He trod as heay-
lily as he could. So much the better if
he fell.
He knelt down when he got to the
far gable and began to fasten his
"riem' to the crumbling bricks. Be-
low was the little window of the loft,
With one end of the ''riem'' tied round
the gable, the other end round his
waist, how easy to slide down to it,
and to open it through one Of the
broken paies and to go in, and to fill
his arms with books, and to Chamber
up again. They had burned one book.
He would have 20. Every mans hand
was against his. His should be against
every mans. No one would help him.
He would help himself.
He lifted the black, damp hair from
his knit forehead and looked round to
cool his hot face. Then he saw what a
regal night it was. He knelt silently
and looked up. A thousand eyes were
looking down at him, bright and so
cold. There was laughing irony in
them.
$50 hot, so bitter, SO angry! Poor
little mortal!'
He was ashamed. He folded his
rms an1 cat on fl1a ri,l,rn op +1,, ,o.A