Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1900-05-31

|
life yet. Be brave! !"
And on the very next day he ac
cepted the clerkship at the Wildwood
mills, and entered at once upon hi
duties. For a time he found it dull
hard work but gradually his healtl
improved, ard the vigor of you'll
came back to him, and under simpl,
living his muscles strengthened, anC
his whole frame came into the perfec
tune of manly beauty and elasticity
And now his duties became light anC
cheering, and he sang and whistlec
at his work
The overseer at the mills was Mr.
Grayson, and with him Paul found
his home.
Mr.. Grayson's daughter, Della, was
beautiful, light-hearted, true spirit
ed girl of nineteen. She was one OF
those blonde beauties whose whole
presence was sunshine, and her mer-
ry laugh rippled like the music Of
dancing waters in the pebbly brook
let. The student of human nature
who heard that laugh would unhesi-
tatingly declare that only heart Of
native purity and gentleness could
underlie it.
At first Della Grayson, when she
saw that Paul Renford was weak and
detected, sought to cheer and enter
tain him. She had heard the story
of his great loss and she pitied him.
She played for him upon the harp and
piano, and she sang to him and talked
with him. But by and by when he
had grown strong and vigorous, and
when his innate manhood had man
ifested itself, she grew shy and tao
turn and sought to avoid him.
And then for the first time in his
life Paul knew what true love was.
For the first time he experienced that
sense Of devotion which leads the
heart to offer itself upon the altar of
faith in the woman loved. He asked
Mr.. Grayson if he might seek his
daughters love. The overseer did
not object.
And Della Had Paul been so well
versed in reading the human heart in
its native truth as he was in translating
the siren song of fattery, he might
have known that the love fthe beau
tiful girl was all his own.
So, when Paul Renfold had been
a year at Wildwood, Della became his
and he was happy-happier, far than
he had ever been. And he was adj
vanced in the mills from a clerkship
to a responsible agency, and thus he
had frequent occasion to visit the city,
but there was nothing in its din and
glare attractive to him, and he always
came home with deeper and more
abiding love for his own fond hearth
stone at Wildwood.
During the first year Of Paul's mar
riage a branch railroad was opened to
Wildwood and thus they were within
an hour of the city and the mill
property was greatly enhanced in val
ue.
"Ah," said the young man one day,
as he stood upon the piazza Of his cot
tage, and looked off upon the rolling
landscape of hill and dale that
stretched away beyond the river, "If
I only owned that sweep of land =
at is certainly fine prospect,
said his Uncle Betterman, who had
come up to pay him a visit.
AYE, and how it must increase in
value now that the railroad has opened
this way"
At this juncture Della came out
and called them to tea. She took
Uncle Anson by the arm and told him
he was her prisoner. And be bent
down and kissed her, and said it
would be blessed imprisonment.
Don't you find it SO, Paul p
at is heaven where she is !" was
raul answer.
And upon that she left Uncle An
son and threw her arms about her
husbands neck.
Dear Paul, you are great bless
ing to me J"
Shortly afterward the old merchant
said to his nephew.
"Paul, do you ever find yourself
longing for the old life in the city?"
Does the saved mariner look back
with longing upon the fearful storm
he has escaped and willingly return
to storm and wreck ?"
81 think not, my boy"
"And can a man, in his full sense