The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-26

under her thumb, and who, in addition was doomed to ruin sooner or later through that same husbands stubborn ness and freehandedness.
 The miller repudiated their criticisms and made injurious reflections on their freely rendered advice. He went his own way, and one part of that way was to go to law frequently, despite his hatred of lawyers. As a result of his frequent lawsuits he gradually gained the conviction that one lawyer in par ticular had been made with the devils most complete art-Mr. Wakem, the leading lawyer of St. Ogg's, who had the fortune or misfortune to repre- sent the miller's opponents as a rule, and, equally as rule to win the case.
 Tulliver lost no opportunity to call the lawyer "scoundrel" and other names wherever he could find listeners in town. His son Tom inherited his fath- CTS hatred: an inheritance that proved extremely embarra ssing when Tom and Wakem's son Philip happened to be sent to the same private tutor.
 Philip was humpbacked, as the result of a fall in childhood His deformity made him painfully sensitive, and though he tried his best to make friends with Tom. that clumsy, non sensitive. buoyantly healthy young desperado made him vince. Poor Tom was forced in sheer self defense to boast to Philip about his physical prow ess, for the lawyers crippled son stood head and shoulders above him in the knowledge of everything else.
 There came a day when Tom hurt himself in one of his adventures, and Maggie was sent to visit him for a few days. Philip saw the dark eyed little girl and felt drawn toward her as he had not felt toward anybody in all his lonely young life. Maggie responded This melanch oly boys face, with the soft, waving brown hair framing It. seemed to her like the faces of heroes in her beloved books.
 When the time came for Maggie's de- parture, Philip said to her:
 I'm very fond of you, Maggie. I shall never forget you, and when I'm very unhappy I shall always think of you and wish I had a sister with dark eyes. just like yours"
 Maggie had never heard her eyes praised before. Why I think you're fonder of me than Tom is," said she, rather sorrowfully. Should you like like me to kiss you as I do Tom?'
 She put her arm around his neck and kissed him quite earnestly.
 So the last two years of childhood passed, till Tom was Is, watching the down on his lip with eager impatience, and Maggie, though only 13, was as tall as Tom, with her heavy hair coil ed in a beautiful mass on her proud young head. And then they went forth together into a new life of sorrow, never more to see the sunshine un- dimmed by remembered cares. They entered the thorny wilderness and the golden gates of their chilhood closed behind them forever.
 MT. Tulliver had lost his greatest lawsuit. Wakem had won 1t. Dorlcote Mill and the farm were swept away. and the naughty, stubborn miller was ruined.
 Tulliver, riding h ome after his world had crashed about his ears, suddenly pitched from his horse in an apoplectic fit and was borne home insensible.
 Paralyzed and only half conscious. he lay for two months while his lands and goods were sold to satisfy the creditors, at which sale sisters Glegg, Pullet and Deane and their husbands assisted with moral reflections, impressive advice and stern reproof for Sister Tulliver's fool ishness in wanting some of her most prized possessions bid in. The house was stripped quite bare when Tulliver recovered his wits, to learn that Wakem was the owner of the mill and was willing to employ him to manage it.
 There followed days of violent strug- gle in the miller's mind There were times when he felt that 1t was quite too hard for human nature to bend his neck to that hated yoke. But he was weakened by his illness, and the love for the old place, where Tullivers had lived for long generations, overcame him. The mill where he had been born was as much a part of him as his limbs. He could not leave 1t.
 There came, too. the thought that by pinching as no Tulliver ever pinched before he might save enough out of his poor salary to pay off some of his many remaining debts which had not been satisfied by the sale. This pros pect decided the proud man, to whom the thought of being defaulting debt or was a shameful crime. He accept ed Wekem's offer of thirty shillfngs a week.
 On the night that he made his decis- ion he called to Tom to bring the great family Bible, which was almost the only possession that the sale had left in the household.
 Write, Tom" said he Write as your father, Edward Tulliver, took ser vice under John Wakem, the man as bad helped to ruin him, because l want ed to die in the old place, where l was horn and my father was born. And then write as I don't forgive Wakem for. all that; and for all I'll serve him honest. I wish evil may befall him. Write that. And now write as you'll remember what Wakem's done to your father, and you'll make. him and his feel it if ever the day comes. And sign your name. n,
 "Oh. no. father dear father!' said Maggie. sinking down by his side. It's wicked to curse and bear malice. You sh ouldn't make Tom write that
 Be quiet, Maggie said Tom, T shall write it!''
 To save something toward paying his creditors became the one object of Tulli- yer's life now. He became meta morphosed into the keenest grudger or morsels Mrs. Tulliver could not econo- mize enough in their food and firing to satisfy the once open-handed man, and he would eat nothing but what was of the coarsest quality.
 Tom, though depressed and strongly repelled by his fathers sullenness and the dreariness of the home. entered thor ouehly into his fathers feelings about re- paving the creditors. He had obtained employment with the big St. Ogg's firm of Guest & Co.,, of which his uncle Deane was a member and he brought his say ings home regularly to be put In the little tin box, where the shillings mount ed up with such pitiful slowness to pay debt of half thousand pounds.
 The new life was terrible to Maggie Maggie with her strange dreams, with her hunger for love. Her father no longer stroked her hair as he used to do when she sat down in her low stool beside him at night, though he was more dependent ox. l,ar than ever Tom. weary and full