Year: 1866

masculine framed widow, whose farm Joined
his, and whose tender meroies' had proved
scruelties' to the two former spouses whom
she had buried in the old graveyard over
the hill. Therefore, great was the astonish.
ment of the quiet farming town when the
tidings circled throughout its breadth, one
hot July day, that Deacon Morris had fallen
from haymow to the floor of his great barn
broken hip, and sustained such severe
internal injuries, that old Doctor Benson
had expressed bis opinion that be could not
survive.


There was great sensation throughout
the neighborhood. Hay was left in long
swaths; horses were detached from racks
and harnessed into light buggies, for their
owners to ride over to the morris place"
and see how the deacon really was.


But the fiery July sun mounted higher
over the hayfelds, and sunk to bis bed 10
the crimson, piled west; the hot summer
night came down, so sultry to the strong and
we'll, and almost sitting the breath, grow
ing ever shorter and fainter, on the lips of
the dying man.


At sunset the family were gathered 10
the old bedroom adjoining the long, roomy
kitchen. The tall, antique clock tioked
solemnly; the great cat battered up and
down the floor, pausing before each one of
the group, as if asking the meaning Of the
strange quiet that had fallen on the house.
hold, usually busy at this hour; tame
toad hoped out from its bed under the
plantain. leaves by the well-curb at the back
door, and squatted upon the fiat stone at the
threshold, only to be stirred from its post
by the footsteps of tall, bronSed, bearded
man, who strobe hastily into the little foot
path leading around from the lane, crossed
the kitchen floor, and joined the group in
the bedroom.


At any other time Mrs Morris would
have turned paler, and pressed her hand to
her heart, as she had habit of doing
when agitated; but now she only dlew
Toms hand into hers, and whispered "Just
in time ...


And David, too-awed by the Strange
Presence whose noiseless footstep was creep.
ing over the bedroom floor toward the
dying man upon the pillows-he had no
time for CALCULATIONS of surprise and vel
come, while Sarah-good, faithful girl
scarcely stirred from her station by the bed,
where she was moistening the lips Of the
unconscious man.


Am 1 in time? Do you know me faith
cr?' asked Tom in husky voice, going
close to the bedside, tear stealing down
the cheek Drowned by the kisses Of ten
years foreign suns and winds


But no response came. The dulled ear
could not hear; the dimming eye could rot
see; the stiffeniug tongue could utter no
word. Tom stood, vainly waiting for what
did not come; and then, with choking
sensation in his throat, stepped back to his
mothers side again.


Just then old Parson Meanwell, who had
entered the bedroom half hour before,
knelt and offered prayer for the sinking
man; but, ere it was concluded, the
breath had futtered out from his pale, blue
lips. And so Deacon Morris 'died and
made no sign


The neighbors talked it over that night
about Toms return. What pity that
the two younger girls couldn't have been
there, too! But the dispatch didn't reach
them in season. 1t was singular that Tom
should have got there just in time
The funeral was large, as beitted dea-
con of the Orthodox Church. All the
deacon's good points-'the upbuilding of
Zion,' in which be had assisted-'the great
loss to his family, which could never be
repaired were dwelt upon in the lengthy
sermon and the prayer; and then they laid
him away in the grave followed beside
tiny mound raised there nearly thirty years
before, beneath which slept the first born
little Hannah, and the later one which held
the buried baby, boy, last link between the
mothers heart and Heaven


But by and by-wheu the estate came to
be settled, and it Was known how many
broad acres that grasping man had owned,
and how many thousands we're left, invested
in bauk.stocks or in mortgages on farms
wide-scattered through the country-there
we're not wanting those who said:


perhaps, after all, it was the hand of
Providence that took Deacon Morris away.
His family can have some privileges now.
Tom will stay at home, of course, and he and
David manage the farm and the girls won't
need to go away and earn their living, with
all that property left to be divided amongst
them


But it was too late. Habit becomes sec.
ond nature The seed had been sown, and
the harvest must be reaped.


Money and lands were left for the inher-
itance of Deacon Morris children, to be sure;
but it could not benefit them now as it might
have in earlier years.


Had not Tom-high- spirited, passionate,
but noble-hearted Tom-been driven from
his boyhood home by his fathers harshness
and the denial of the harmless indulgencies
and relaxations necessary to bis years, he
would not have now felt the rover's un-
quenchable craving for the ten-year-gone
life of adventure on foreign shores, to which
after few months at the old homestead, he
returned again.


Had NOT Dapid-at fourteen. high -broWed.