Year: 1873

ways with the same affection and considera-
ton as if he had been their own son. Even
when children of their own grouped around
their hearth, enlivening their home with the
echo of merry laughter and bounding feet,
they made no difference between them and
the orphan boy they had taken into their
keeping; and Claude repaid them with warm
est love and gratitude, clinging especially to
Lucy with tenderness strengthened by time,
and fostered by her motherly care. "Aunt
Lucy" as he continued to call her, was, in his
eyes, the most loveable and perfect of human
beings.


Contact with the miniature world of school,
and cheerful intercourse with companions Of
his own age, had removed, by degrees, the
inclination to melancholy which had always
characterized Claude. His natural timidity
and reserve passed away; and though ever
gentle, refined and sensitive, in an unusual
degree, he grew up brighter, braver and more
careless than in his. nervous, delicate child
hood he had ever seemed likely to do.


Mrs. Carrolrs former pride of heart was
quite subdued, and all the gentle and wo-
manly instincts of her nature came out in full
force making her old age season of quiet
and serene content and gratitude for the
blessings which surrounded her. She devo-
ted herself to Lucy's children, who delighted
to minister to her comfort, and thought grand
mamma one Of the most entertaining people
in the world, as she always had fund Of
stories at her command, when it was their
pleasure to demand them from her.


Of the Leroys, man and wife, nothing more
was ever heard nor does it concern any one
connected with this story to know what had
become of two individuals so unworthy of re.
gard, and so associated in their recollection
with the most fateful and gloomy period Of
their lives.


Mossgrove has never been repaired. A
portion of the building that still remained
after the fire, was pulled down with view to
rebuilding it in more modern style, but its
purchaser, an eccentric and wealthy individ-
ual, changed his mind when this much had
been done, countermanded his original orders
and went off to travel in the East. After.
ward the place was again advertised for sale,
but no one ever purchased it. And so it re-
mains to this day, uninhabited, and presenting
scene of desolation well.be6tting its past
melancholy associations, and the dark deeds
to which it stood witness. Its gloomy woods
are denser and more gloomy than ever, and
the sunshine penetrates more rarely than of
old their rustling foliage, and casts no friend
ly CLEAN on the sullen river winding beneath
their shade. Fences and outbuildings are
falling to decay, and briars choke up the
paths and twine in thorny profusion about the
dilapidated porch, which, with broken wall,
is almost all that remains of the dwelling
house, about whose crumbling props the ivy,
that friend in adversely, still clings. The
hooting of the owls, the chirp Of the crickets
and the evening concerts Of the frogs, are the
only sounds that disturb the silence which
reigns over the domain; the geam of the
ire-hies, as they fit at dusk among the trees,
the only lights that are ever kindled in its
shades; and over the deserted place, the very
name of which has become an unfamiliar and
almost forgotten sound, hangs mantle, which
will probably never be lifted, Of darkness,
mystery and gloom.


THE END