Year: 1869

Comfort I'D llIe, IL was jacob llnJ.-
Why this should have been neither he
nor any one could have explained +;
but so it was. On the day that he first
went to school his shy, frightened face
marked him as fair game for the
rougher and stronger boys, and they
subjected him to all those exquisite
refnements of torture which boys
seem to get by the direct inspiration
of the devil. There was no form of
their brutal strength which he did not
experience. He was born under a
fading or falling star,-the inheritor
of some anxious or unhappy mood of
his parents, which gave its fast color
to the threads out of which his inno-
cent being was woven.


Even the good people of the neigh
borhood, never accustomed to look be-
low the external of appearance and
manner, saw in his shrinking face and
awkward motions only sign Of a
cringing, abject soul. You'll be no
more of a man than Jake Flint y was
the reproach which many farmer ad.
dressed to his dilitory boy; and thus
the parents, one and all, came to re-
peat the sins of their children.


If, therefore, at school and before
folk" Jacobs position was always un-
comfortable and depressing, it was
little more cheering at home. His pa
rents, as all the neighbors believed,
had been unhappily married, and
though his mother died in his early
childhood, his father remained a
moody, unsocial man, who rarely left
his farm, except on the 1st Of April
every year, when he went to the
country town for the purpose of pay
ing the interest upon the mortgage.
The farm lay in a hollow between two
hills, separated from the road by a
thick wood, and the chimneyS Of the
lonely old house looked in vain for a
neighbor smoke when they began to
warm of a morning.


Beyond the barn and under the
northern hill there was a log tenant
house in which dwelt a negro couple,
who, in the course of years, had be-
come fixtures on the place and almost
partners in it. Harry, the man, was
the medium by which Samuel Flint
kept up his necessary intercourse with
the world beyond the valley; he took
the horses to the blacksmiths, the
grain to the mill, the turkeys to mar
ket, and through his hands passed all
the incomings and outgoingS of the
farm, except the annual interest on
the mortgage. Sally, his wife, took
care of the household, which, indeed,
was a light and comfortable task,
since the table was well supplied for
her own sake and there was no sharp
eyes TO criticise her sweeping. dusting
and bed making. The place had a
forlorn, tumble-down aspect, quite in
keeping with its lonely situation; but
perhaps this very circumstance fat
tered the mood of its silent, melan-
choly owner and his unhappy son.


In all the neighborhood Chere was
but one person with whom Jacob felt
completely at ease-but one who ney-
er joined in the general habit of max,
ing his name the butt Of ridicule or
contempt. This was Mrs. Ann Par
don, the hearty, active wife Of Farmer
Robert Pardon, who lived nearly a
mile farther down the brook. Jacot
had Won her goodwill by some neigh.
borly service, something so trihiug
indeed. that the thought Of a favor
conferred never entered his mind
Ann Pardon saw that it did not; she
detected a streak Of most unconscious
goodness under his uncouth, embar.
rasscd ways, and she determined tc
cultivate it. No little tact was re-
quired, however, to coax the wild
( forlorn creature into so much conf
dence as she desired to establish
but tact is a native quality of the
heart no less than social requirement
and so she did the very thing neces
sary without thinking much about it


Robert Pardon discovered by anC
by that Jacob was a steady, faithful
hand in the harvest-feld, at huskine
time, or whenever any extra labor
was required, and Jacobs father made
no objection to his earning a penny
in this way; and so he fell into the
habit of spending his Saturday even
ings at the Pardon farmhouse, at frs
TO talk over matters of work, anC
finally because it had become a vel
come relief from his dreary life a
homo.


Now it happened that on Saturday
in the beginning of hay-time, the vii
lage tailor sent home by Harry a nev
suit of light summer clothes, TO
which Jacob had been measured
month before. After supper he triet
them on, the days work being over
and Sally's admiration was so lou
and emphatic that he felt himsel
growing red, even to the small of hi
back.


" Now, don't 90 for to take 'em OF
Mr.. jake" said she. 81 spec your
gwin down to Pardon's, and so yo
jist keep EN- on to show EN- all ho'
nice you KIN look" .....


The same thought had already eI
tered Jacobs mind. Poor fellow!


was the highest form of pleasur
which he had ever allowed himself t
conceive. If he had been called upo
' to pass through the village on frs


assuming the new clothes, every site


would have pricked him as if tt


needles remained in it; but quiz


walk down the Orook-side, by tt


pleasant path through the thicke


and over the fragrant meadows. Wi


a consciousness of his own neatne


and freshness at every step, and wi


kind Ann Pardon's recommendatiC


at the close, and the fattering curio


ity of the children,-the only on


who never made fun of him,-all W;
D delightful prospect. He could neve
u never forget himself as he had SEA
l. other young fellows do; but to 7


member himself agreeably was ce


tainly the next best thing.


Jacob was already a well-grov


man of twenty-three, and would ha'


made a good enough appearance b


for the stoop in his shoulders, and u