Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1889-03-23 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CHAPTER VI. VIMYS.  The long evening shadows were slanting across the sward. Purple mists stole down the slopes of the trees, while squirrels sprang from branch to branch among the tall magnolias. The occa,sional droppiug of a burr was the only sound that broke the twdilit calm. Tame rabbits went leaping over the long, swaying grass, and the walnuts lying on the moils were turning to gold in the western sun as Edna wearily went down the broad, @unlighted steps. A Coroner's inquest held on her mother's remains had resulted in a verdict of death by murder. That morning the body had been attended by nearly all the people in the neighbourhood to the village cemetery. A.fter the funeral an old woman had been left with the children to remain until the next day, when they were to be sent to an orphan asylum. The mother had left no support for her family, the old borne having passed into the hands of the Episcopal minister. Some whispered that it was this loss tlett had caused the desolate widow to put an end to her own life.  The old woman who had been appointed temporary guardian of the orphans Witi now fast asleep. All the prominent men, hovyers, and authorities of the town had united their efforts to find some clue to the mammal. Chief among them VMS the Episcopal minister, whom for justice and mercy none could excel. Years before he had searched diligently for the murderer of the dead woman's husband. Since then all the people knew that he had been Christianly kind to the widow. He had lent her large sums of money, and now he offered to take the orphans and support them at his own expense, but it was deemed best to send them to the asylum. All this Edna had heard from those who came to bury her mother, and slowly it passed through her mind as she went onward across the grounds with the baby Lilian in her arms. Under a tall magnolia she paused, flashing a covey of partridges, that flew up from the thick-seeded grass. She sat down on the round granite base of an antique urn. A hopeless, unlifting wretchedness seemed to have settled for over over her beautiful face. Her small, childish hands were folded upon her little sister's baby head in a fattful rest, and her large, mournful eyes were uplifted in speechless sorrow. Each feature seemed locked in rigid hopelessness..  Others do not know,we ourselves do not know, all the latent strength, all the good or eVil, that lies hidden within us, until the crushing hand of necessity grinds it out. Then passions that have slumbered for years, like unronsed lions, spring forward, and in one short moment rend oar lives, so that centnries cannot repair the wreck. "A great purpose nerves the life it lives in, so that no personal terrors can assail, nor minor woes afflict it." A strong, brave purpose nerved Edua's soul, and to it in that hour she was consecrating her life. illowly the sun Rank, and the lake, dotted with snowy sails like "white-winged sea-birds cleaving their path through the sunlight," gleamed as does a rich, rare turquoise in an amber setting. A. quiet, holy peace rested like a good-night over the grand old place, and all Oakland lay under the everlasting smile of God. It was a peace that mocked the maddening misery in the orphan's desolate heart, cud a deep groan shook her frail form.  " Ah !sister," she murrxmred, " don't moan. God 15 80 good that He will soon take us too. Look, see the little stars. Mother used to say they were windows that the angels opened at night, so they could watch their loved ones here. I know mother is now guarding her little orphans. Sister, this morning 1 beard them say that mother killed herself. But abe did not."  She rose and slowly went down the broad walk. At the front gate she pan-ed. "Lilian, baby," she cried, "look back at our old home, the home where we were born, the borne where our father and mother lived and were murdered. We have none now-neither home, friend, father, nor mother. God help us I" The moonlight fell through the tall trees and silvered the white walls, where they gkiamed among the dark, deep shade. Lingerwistfally, Edna looked back at the beloved home, exclaiming— Oh, God I now I know how Adam and Eve felt when driven from Paradise I"  Slowly the iron gates swung to, and they were out in the wide world—waifs. (To be continued.)