The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22

pears to lose It's substance as soon as we actually grapple with it. No lady
 of your house has ever done more
 heroic thing than you are doing today. and if the Pyncheons had all acted as
 nobly l doubt if the course of old Wiz
 aru Maule would have had much weight
 with Providence against them. Let me
 be your first customer. What do you
 charge for half a dozen of those bis
 cuits?'
 Let me be a lady a moment longer"
 said Hepzibah. she put the biscuit into
 his hand and refused compensation. Hep
 zibahs next customer was a half-clad
 little urchin. with big round eyes who
 wanted a Jim Crow made of ginger
 bread, which he had espied in the win
 dow. The boy handed her a cent and the
 old woman dropped 1t Into the till. It
 was donel The sordd stain of that copper
 con could never be washed away from
 the palm of her hand. No lady now, but simply Hepzibah Pyncheon, a forlorn old maid and keeper of a 'cent shop Hepzibah somewhow got through the awful day, making mistakes in change, refusing to take money when the cus- toner looked poor, and so managing things that the till was almost as empty at night as 1t had been in the morning. l Toward noon she had seen a portly, el- I derly gentleman come slowly along the
 
 tree known as the Pyncheon Elm, to
 gaze with especial interest at the dilap- ! dated and rusty-yisaged House of the Seven Gables. It was her cousin, Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon, man whom the old
 maid feared above all other men and would have hated had her simple heart
 been capable of hatred. She believed with all her soul that her brother was inno- cent Of his unces death and that Judge Pyncheon had woven around him the net that dragged him to his conviction. When Hepzibah saw the judge she re- treated to the oak parlor and muttered to herself: Take 1t as you like, cousin. Jaf- | frey-take it as you like. You have seen i my shop. Well, is not Pyncheon house mine as long as I live?'
 | AS she olanced up at the portrait of the l old colonel she said decidedly, as if daring contradiction: That is the very man. | Let Jaffrey Pyncheon smile as he will, | there is that look beneath. Put on him a sl1ull-cap and band and black cloak. d l Bible in one hand and a sword in the | other-then let Jaffrey smile as he might | nobody would doubt it was the colonel come again.
 Now and then in the course of tho generations there came hard headed, l prosperous Pyncheon who achieved the social and political prominence that ac- l corded with the familys great preten- | sions to "gentlity"-but they all had the blood -gurgle in their throats Judge Pyn- | cheon was one of these. He lived In | great country house out of town, had | been in Congress, on the bench, Mayor and what not, and his fortune was large and growing. All the world was ready 1 to give him a character for uprghtness, | but Hepzibah saw through him and feared l him.
 l When the day was over the forlorn woman sat in the oak parlor looking at a map on the wall and dreamed. Cannot forlorn old maid dream dreams | as well as any other person? The map | was a chart of "The Pyncheon Posses sions," 'to the eastward, which meant | in Maine. It a grant of land big as an English county or German prin- 1 cipality. The family had spent money and broken their hearts for two cen l turies trying to establish their claims to ! 1t. The curse of old Mathew Maule, , the Wizard, had begun it's first work on this possession for when the colonel | came to assert his rights to the territory 1 it was found that one important docu- | ment was missing It had remained miss 1 Ing ever since Yet the Pyncheons dreamed and hoped and went to law about | it now and then just the same. | Next morning omnibus came to a | standstill under the ancient elm. Hepzi- bah's heart gave a great throb. Was she to meet him now? But instead of the expected brother, coming back like ghost from his thirty years imprison- ment, there tripped out of the omnibus
 the cheeriest rosiest, sunniest maiden in the world She came. all youthful beauty and sunshine, straight up to the door of the gloomy and accursed House of the Seven Gables, and the gloom and mush- ness and mold of the centuries seemed to take fright and flee before the vision. "Bless me- it's Phoebe!" exclaimed Miss Iily1 to come down upon one without warning. We'll she shall have a nights lodging, of course. and then she must go back home There is a look of her father about ! her. too"
 This bright vision. descending from the omnibus like a goddess from the machine, was indeed a Pyncheon. Her father, a | cousin of Hepzibah, after marrying d 1 woman of no family, had died poor and | obscure as became him, in a country vi- | lage sufficiently removed from his aris- ] tocratic relations. His widow had takeD | another husband. and Phoebe announced | to Hepzbah that she had come to make | her home at the House of the Seven i Gables.
 i The old maid greeted the girl kindly. 1 Her heart warmed to the bright young 1 thing. But the next morning she said: l Cousin Phoebe, I really cant see my way clear to keeping you here" l Dear cousin returned GnOeDe, l can ! not tell how 1t is, but I really believe we | may suit each other better than you 1 think
 | You are a nice girl" returned Hepz- l bah: "I see that plainly, and it no ques- | ton of that which makes me hesitate. But | this house of mine is but melancholy place I myself am old and dismal. 1 cannot make your life pleasant. It is | a wretched thought that you should fling away vour life in a place like this And | furthermore. I cannot even give you | bread to eat'
 "Oh I intend to earn my living" re- | piled the cheerful Phoebe, rnabashed. | And there is the garden to take care of | that delightful old garden-and then [ | can help you in many ways. l was not brought up a Pyncheon, you know. l can | do lots of things"
 l The lonely old woman in her heart | longed to have this bit of brightness l and life with her. but she had thought: ] Perhaps her presence will disturb Cliff l ford" and now she said: Phoebe. 1t Is
 not for me to who shall or who shall