Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-11-10

k ;. . ss 4 4 s+ A5a4 nafters sinru1tane neousIy. I knew that expression. having seen it in my mirror quite frequently of Iate
 He gave me good morning, and at the moment Miss Jones appeared.
 Come along with us" said she. we are going up to the north tree"
 "Where we were before, added Trask in explanation. "All the trees hava names. There must be several thou" sand on the place, but I have yet to find one that hasn't been chTistened. MT. Witherspoon named them."
 I responded that I had not had the pleasure of seeing that gentleman.
 'fYou probably never got him in a good light" said Trask. Otherwise he. Is too thin to be visible. He is so thin that the wind blows him around the estate. and you'll always find him on the leeward side. The windss north to- day; he'll have drifted down by the lake"
 As to the invitation to accompany them 1t naturally seemed one made to be declined, and was surprised ta dis cover that both master and pupil were sincere in their wish for my society. We walked up to the north tree almost in silence, and when we had sat down upon the ground in great comfort we fell into 8 most Respondent strain of conversation. Sad stories of the death of kings would have seemed like merry jests in the midst of our talk
 l was again strongly reminded of some one else when Miss Jones was speaking. She had ways of using words that appealed vainly to my memory again and again. But the clew was nearer to me than it had been be- fore, and presently the truth flashed up before me--the girl reminded me of my father.
 Continuing to speak when 1t seemed to be my turn, but without putting any thought into what I was saying, be- gan to arrange the evidence in my mind. I knew that Miss Jones had come out of the orchard that morning, but did that prove that she was the girl? Certainly not She was friend of the girl and had been her guest for a night. E
 She had evidently been much in my fathers company. had found her portrait in our house. She was SibyPs friend and Sibyl was the girl. My si- ren of the lake had been Sibyl-surely not Miss Jones, for she had not the throat of a singer.
 Yet even at this time 1t was no easier for me to believe that the girl was Hbyl than to accept the conclusion that my fathers ward sat before me there, on the grass. The girl. to me, remain ed distinct from both of them. her real personality hovered just beyond my mental grasp. If she were Sibyl, then some strange transformation had taken place; some image had effaced my con- fused recollection of the child, substt- tuting itself instead and in such form that I could not recognize the two as different views of the same individual
 Returning to the consideration of Trask, asked myself why he had all ways shown such feeling for the girl, why he had sent the lilies to her?
 T give him up," said I suddenly, speaking aloud, to my own surprise and confusion.
 Give whom upY demanded Trask.
 "There was some kind of a biting bug flying around" said I weakly, ''and had been trying to catch him.
 This explanation was received with credence, yet I felt the need of divert ing attention.
 "Trask," said I. we've fallen into 8 great fit of the blues for no especial reason that I can see, and you're the worst of the three. Tell me candidly what seems to you to be the matter with this world. I speak of general principles, of course and not of your private affairs"
 "The trouble with life," said he, drowning, lis that man is asked to fight battles after they are done, to wave his sword upon lost fields and beg the dead of yesterday to arise and follow him."
 'That sounds to me like some form of fatalism," said I.
 "It is general kick" growled Trask. 'T am not ambitious to give it philo- sophical title. Destiny has too much the start of man. He arrives among prearranged conditions and looks around, and To! he must cross a lake in a boat from which his great grandfather knocked out the bottom, and the oars have been made wrong by some one whom he never saw or heard of."
 :. Don't you care, if he's all right him. self.'. said a voice. "Heul get across"
 I beheld Lucy Ann, who came softly around the big bush in the shade of which Trask was sitting.
 Trasks countenance heightened re- markedly as he sprang to his feet. "I thought you couldn't come," said be- "Your aunt was very discourag- ing"
 Well, here I am," said Lucy Ann cheerfully. 'Tsn't this loyely?"
 She sat down beside Miss Jones upon the farther side from Trask and famed herself contentedly with battered palm leaf Her Quaker suit had been freshly ironed and looked quite spick and span.
 MDaarlH helnHedn n said she hreakine