The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1910-04-08

nearly dead with exposure and eahsas-
ton A fever came upon Mr.. Thornton
and Tor . long. long shile be sas be-
tween life and draih. but finally life
conquered and sooa he gained rapidly.
Though They had been living . aobin-
soh traAae hir u sas soon over. ~ .
passing ship found these people. and 10
their great joy. hr,agh, them back 10
Ameriea. The, landed In New York.
and no nore thankful hrsris ser esrr
found than Ia ihose people shen ihry
reached their native land after an alb
sence Of four long months. Mr.. Thorn
ton would have liked 10 10 diroetly 10
Elmwood. but waited q fr~ days 10
learn something Of the mines u he oould.
During thrse four months the girls
had given up all hopes Of their father.
a. neither he nor his ship had been heard
from sinoc they started. and everyone
supposed him 10 be dead. With their
father dead and their money gone. they
decided 10 sell Elmwood. through u
nearly broke their hearts 10 do ~, They
had rented a tenement In the city and
kept only two servants. Rosa had
large class Of music scholars, and Char
lotto worked ~ go,ernesS.
After hearing Of their misfortune,
Hannah Thornton. a grcai-auni OF the
girls, came 10 sec them. She would have
nothing 10 do with them when they lived
at Emsood. but Wl,rn they moyrd
down with common folks" a. she said,
she went 10 see thcm She had thought
Richard very cNtra'agant and tony"
and always dislikcd him. but she really
loved his beautiful children. though she
would not admit H. She was very
miserly aud disagrccable old lady. but
after being with the Thornton girls size
became less ~. She had obtained her
fortune by sixty year, of toll and by
being stingy," Barbara said.
One evening Just three months after
Elmwood had been sold the twins took
a walk up there Just Ia see II ono, more,
and with tears In their eyes they stood
by the road looking at their old home
where now strange faces looked from
the windows and strange voices we're
sounding through the grand old hall,.
just then man opened the door and
walked slowly down the steps and down
the road, saying, where arr my chill
dren, and why is Elmwood In the hands
OF strangersi" The girls, who had
stepped behind clump Of bushes 20
that the man could not see them, recog-
nized the sound of that voice and caugitt
the words. They soon were in their
fathers arms, and for many long mo-
ments neither could speak. They were
too full of joy To talk then, but led the
way 10 their little Hat and soon the four
children were with their father again.
lie told them OF the good angel that had
brought him back 10 them out of -
much danger, and they told him of their
in those long months since they |
saw him.
Aunt Hannah, much to the surprise Of |
everyone, bought Elmwood and nad II |
fitted up as OF old with the finest things |
in art and in everything, and gave It TO |
the girls as token OF friendship" she |
said.
Mr.. Thornton received a long letter |
from his business partner saying that,
at last, they had drained the mine, and
that il was now ready To yield larger
profits than ever
II has now been one year since Rich
ard Thornton sailed away from America
md we find him with Charlotte, Rosa,
he twins and Aunt Hannah living most
happily at Elmwood, and am sure that
hey all love and appreciate II more than
hey did year ago. Their experience
proves the truth of the stanza:
Every dark cloud has a lining
Like to silver, pure and white.
Every weary way a turning
That is leading us to light"