Year: 1877

carried under that old straw hat J!


All, but did. Many a time I had
seen Jacob working afield with shadow
on his face that was not made by the
brim of that old straw hat.


He was revolving bitter things now, l
knew, as he stood there spectator OF
the revelry.


Little Mattie," said be presently,
you've as good right to be there as
the rest of them, my wee woman"


I laughed. I did not want to be there,
and I had no desire to represent com
mercial interests. But Jacob was grasp
ing my arm with an almost painful grip.
"By heavens !" he said, his gray eye
lighting up with a strange fire, 81
thought 80. There's Stephen Risdale
yonder the villain that robbed me-the
villain that got my land in his grip, with
his mortgages and his trust-deeds, and
satan knows what. He's there with the
best of 'em-the man that got fore
closure on me, and left me to scrape and
screw with the fag end Of all my acres.
and to grind living out of the rocks !!
A gentleman is he, with diamond stud
and gold chain bought with the money
for which I've been bond-slave for life.
But I'll have it out of himp AS Jacob
uttered these words he lifted his hand
and struck sharply the broad window
sill. My heart gave great throb. l
thought that every one in the great
assembly must stop and stare at us. But
the music sounded loudly, the dancing
went on, aud no one seemed to heed us.
AS we went down the steps saw Gig
ger Jim," the village idiot, grimacing
and gesticulating and mimicking the
dancing, with a group of village folk
nodding and applauding and urging him
on, and I was glad that no one had heard
Jake's words.


Jacob had been reputed little wild !;
a good many wise old folk had shook
their heads when we came together. 1t
was said he had run through with all his
thrifty fathers money, had been wasteful
and speculative and dissipated, and had
none of the thrifty qualities and fore
handedness deemed 20 essential among
the orderly farming people of Laurel
neighborhood. Some said would surely
repent if I married him. Had the time
for repentance come now?


Well, we had not been prosperous this
year, and Jacobs farming had been
marred by drought and blight.


Well do / remember the aspect OF that
bighted corn field, from which we had
expected so much. It reminded me of
troop of weather-beaten soldiers that I
saw once returning home in the latter
days of the war, jaded, dispirited, and
with ragged banners trailing in the dust.
No music, no cheers OF welcoming
voices, no hats off, to welcome their re-
turn. So. wearily, with detected heads
and thin long leaves untitled, our corn
field trailed on the hillside.


Something of this decentralization had
perhaps entered into our households
sort of nameless shadow, bleak and
blighting something, against which no
energy and no activity could avail. We
were young, you see, and had, as it were,
Just commenced life, and it was hard to
know that things were going wrong with
us from the beginning.


But Jake was still hero in my eyes,
and loved him well, and it was to lure
him little from the impalpable gloom
that was settling about us that pro-
posed this evening stroll.


1t was late when we returned, but
Jacob seemed in no wise inclined to re-
tire. He walked about, restless and
reticent. The place seemed too small for
him his tall figure seemed to contract
it's limited space, as he moved to and fro,
till it was almost relief to see him step
from the doorway and silently stride
down the road. It was no new thing for
him to walk off the "blues in that
way; and I never intruded upon these
moods, when he appeared to mentally
set me aside as one who could not share
in the thoughts that we're urging him.
Generally he came back out OF these
morose fits more loving and kinder than
ever, and this was joy enough.


But tonight I was restless too. I
wandered down to the gate and watched
his tall figure as, with deep shadow
stalking after it in the moonlight, it dis
appeared down the turn of the road. I
fell into reverie standing there-a
reverie of know not how long duration.
was reused from it by the appearance
on tile road of Jigger Jim's distorted
figure. We were very good friends,
Jigger Jim and myself, and he had once
signifed his nigh appreciation of our
friendship by presenting me with a huge
brass button. His glee, when pinned
this on nv dress like brooch, was in
describable. This time he stopped in
the road and doffed his cap-a courtesy
only extended to certain dignitaries of
the village on rare occasions. Jigger
understood manners" but deemed
them too good for ordinary use. He
was in high spirits, apparently; laughed
his strange cultural laugh, pointed to
the moon sparkling above us, then to
his breast, and was hugely pleased when
indicated that the diamonds he had
seen down at the ball were like that.
Then, elevating his claw-like fingers, he
gave a great leap, as if to grasp the
serene planet, and pointing to my shawl
and drapery, left me to infer that he
would like to see me bedizened with
something as lustrous as the moon and
the diamonds. Smiling as the harmless
fellow went his way, I bethought me
that it was late. and began to wonder
why Jacob did not come back.


1 concluded, after while, that I
would stroll down the road and meet
hint was so solitary at the house, and
the night was so alluring. After you
passed certain turn of the road you
came almost in sight of the sea shore.
People said this was a bleak and solitary