The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-23

nary mixture of the utterly commonplace and of true genius.
 WI HEN old MT. Earnshaw, tht A/ masetr of Wuthering Heights
 W in Yorkshire, brought home g little black, scrowling child that he had picked up in the streets of Liverpool he was received with anything but welcome, His son Hndley, though a boy of A. walled aloud when he found that his father had broken a promised fiddle in carrying the waif. Catherine, years old, spat at the mumbling, snarling child because MT Earnshaw had lost whip that he was to have brought her. Both refused to have the creature in their rooms or anywhere near them. When MT. Earnshaw awoke in the morning he found it lying before his chamber door, where it had crept in the night.
 In his stupid, obstinate way the kind- hearted man adopted the wrong course to establish the founding. He boxed his children's ears for their inhumanity, and tried to make up for it by treating the stranger with far more consideration than he would have shown ordinarily.
 He christened the child Heathcliff, after A son who had died in childhood. IL was all the name he ever got, serving him for both Christian and surname. Hlndley hated him more and more as the months went by. He beat him and tortured him traa+ment which Heathclff bore sullenly, patiently, without whimpering or shea- ding tear. This endurance made olo Earnshaw furious when he discovered HIS son prosecuting the fatherless clilo' fle nunished his son savagely and peHeNeo all that Heathcliff told him.
 So from the beginning Heathchn pred iu-feeling in the house. He was Keen enough, with all his apparent lnsehsiDli- ity. to know that he would De peileNeu against Hindley; and he took advantage of this fact to force the son of the house to give up to him horses and other possessions that he happened to fancy'
 Soon Hindley grew to regard his father ae an onnressor rather than a friend. The waif had made division between him and his sister also; for Catherine, who had begun by hating the black visaged inter- 1oner as much as the rest did, grew strangely fond of the frowning' rough lad.
 A wild. wicked slip she grew up-al- ways in mischief, always teasing some body, and none the better for losing her mother before she was S. But she had the bonniest eyes, the sweetest smile and the lightest foot; and if she made folk cry. she would cry herself till they tor- got their own grief in trying to comfort her. Reckless of all control, she took the part of Heathcliff against Hindley till that young man disliked her as much as he hated his rival.
 She was thrown altogether into depend ence on Heathcliff's society some years after her mothers death, when MT. Earn shaw's constant disagreements with his son caused him to send the lad away to college. He was not seen at home again for some years-not, indeed, till MT. Earnshaw died and he succeeded to the estate. Then he returned, bringing wife with him.
 He promptly relegated Heathcliff to the company of the servants, made him labor with the farm lads and withdrew from him the instruction that the curate had been giving the children. At first he bore his degradation pretty well, be- cause Catherine taught him what she learned and played or worked with hin in the fields. But that did not suit Hind. ley, who was determined to make g boor of Heathclff and teach him that ht was not one of the family.
 Chance favored him and he was quick to take advantage of it. Catherine and Heathcliff rambled off one day and look cd into the windows of Trushcross Grange, some miles away to see as Catherine expressed it, If the Linton children passed their Sunday evenings shivering in dark corners while theil elders sat eating and drinking, laugh. ing and talking" The two were so in. dignant when they saw Edgar and Cath. erine Linton in the beautiful carpeted room, all ablaze with candles, that they made noises to frighten them. Ther they started to run, but the terrified chii dren inside had loosed the bulldog ano he got Catherine by the ankle
 Instead of crying out, She gssped: "Run Heathcliff, run! The bulldog holds mel, Heathcliff snatched a stone and tried tt beat the dog off. Then servants came ur and released the girl When the Liaton, discovered who it was they took Gather inc into the house and ordered the ser wants to thrust Heathcliff out that theil children might not hear the curses tha he uttered at all concerned in the harm that had come to his playmate.
 He hid himself in the shrubbery ant watched through the window while the, bathed Catherines foot and brought hel cakes and negus and playthings. Ant when he turned away, lonely enough, hi. last glimpse of her was that of laugh ing, merry little girl who had apparent. forgotten him entirely.
 The Lintons insisted on keeping Gather inc for almost two months till her fool was quite healed. When she returned. in