The Newtown bee., 1906-11-23
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THE HOME CIRCLE.
 ROBINS ROAD. WRITTEN BY REUBEN HAzEN SMITH
ROBINS ROAD.

CHAPrzR I.
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 On the south side of an east and west New England road stood the simple parsonage of the ancient Puri: the eye measured . short stretch of level field. NorthWard. the hill rose ip . daisy meadow. To the west fell away the slight declivity by which the four corners of Arlington were reached, for tho patDonage perched on the sum- nit of the little hill like . white winged dove, breeding its spiritual and heCkoning 1t to higher levels. SouthWard, by decent descent, the hill bathed its feet in . pond, ,fshed In for bullheadse Ut tho proper season and slated over when Jack Frost cov- cred its surface with . glorious glare. of hill and intervale! The monot0nist of tno plains may grudge thy broken, toilsome hills, but who, bathing his spirits In thy exhaustless variety and learning endurance from thy difdcul- ties, would exchange permanently for the shining sands of the Florida pc ninsuls, the feCund fertility of the wide prairies or the semi-trOpic tribute of an oasis of the Pacific coast?
 To this parsonage, in the midst of the 18th century, came the Rev Rich- ard South, his young wife and their con Robin, then their only living child. The fint- born, named for his father, had laid desOlate tho love that well nigh worshiped him and cast halo about his future by joining the angel pestorate. Stern Calvinist that he Was, with . belief in foreordination that rivaled the Moslem's fatality, Rev Richard we'll nigh succumbed before. this wreck of his hope and ambition, due, @ he felt fully assured, to medical inCapacity and had himself not long recovered from 8 serious illness that taxed the strength and patience of both hls young wife and his own mother. The Godward view of Calvanism, however, that our Father is
 roo WISE TO MAXI NIsTAKEs AND TOO
 KIND TO DO AU0HT EXCEPT FROM Y MOTIVES or TEE T1NDERBeT LOVE, had rallied the Rev Richards fainting faith and his evxhgelistic nature saw In Amington . field where angels might rejoice over lost souls brought home to the Fathers love, for grateful service. ]
 This mating of Rev and Mrs South, whether or no of heavenly origin, united tho distinct strains of the mother land, Saxon and Norman.
 He Was Saxon to the core; loyal as life to ffieDdship; jealous as death of even susptcton Of affection for his wife; tmprovtdent, but generous to, faulti life; easily doWned by opposition, if breathing unpOpularity; as hot of temper a . dOg-day afternoon, but as quickly repentant as the cool relief that follows its thunder storm; walk. ing % much with hiS head in the clouds Q to tread upon the gentle ten. drills of sentative souls about his path and likewise % beentminded that, going to the pasture, one afternoon. to bring home the horse, that his wife might accompany him on pastoral calls, she was convulsed to see him coming home driving the COW kept in
 The wi{e, poor soul, marrying this Saxon because 1t was her fathers wish, whose every wish had been law, was as surely Norman. No less loyal, even though the ideals of her soul had failed of their highest and best, she made duty her evening star and duty the star of her morning hours. Where he Was 1mpfovident, she was carefully economical, endowed with that rare g1ft of seasoning the most meager dish with sauce of grateful appetite, adorn. ing the poorest materials with 8 charm and bearing that queen might envy and entering the most motley assem- nly Tisn sr1ce that Mon and aS. warned ned husband in her tastes, her duty made her mother from conviction, though many . heavy burden was borne with tears and midnight agony. Like her Norman fOrbearS, she came of line intellectual by inheritance; with a strong bias to the priestly office, but, as indomitable of will, with equal re. spect for truth and love of home, as her preacher husband, she bent before tho blast of his temper only to cherish . grudge which whispered it's weakness in the ear of sympathy. Ills hot on- and undignitied retreat left her outwardly forgiving, but inwardly Hers was the practical eye that saw the neighboring landscape below the clouds and calculated when the -four barrel would be empty and the molasses jug need re-flling. A sensitive spirit has nerves too keenly alive to be long absent from the living present. If he could eat with 8 knife lnd see no breach of etiquette, the finest of gold lined silver was none too good for her love of the exquisite, the the refined.
 Rev Richard had made an excel lent farmer and she have adorned the luxury of a merchant prince. Alas, that Cupid shoots his darts so widely 1t random! Thank Heaven for duty that holds to the letter where love has lost it's grip, as the peaks of torrid cline retain the pure, bright snows of winter, while heat and drouth parch the lower levelsi
 And what of Baby Robin? Flaxen- haired Robin, with straight locks of tow? The fathers earlier idolatry at | the shrine of his first.bOrn and name. l1ke had robbed him, unc0nsciously to | he father, of his place in succession, # that indehnable but winsome warmth of love that is like the grate-