Year: 1871

Was it respect for muscle, or was il
the influence of Small? At any rate
the concentrate extract of the resent
ment of Pete Jones and his clique wa:
now ready to empty itself upon the
head of HartsooF. And Ralph found
| himself in his dire extremity without
even the support of Bud, whose good
resolutions seemed TO give way all al
once. There have been many men oi
culture and more favorable surround
ings who have thrown themselves
| away with less provOcatiOn. AS il
was, Bud quit school. avoided Ralph,
| and seemed more than ever under the
influence of DIR. Small, besides becOm-
ing the intimate of Walter Johnson,
SmalPs student and Mrs. Matilda
Whites son. They made a strange
pair-Bud with his firm jaw and 81
lent cautious manner, and Walter
Johpston with his weak chin. his nice
cravat ties, and general dandy appear
ance.


TO be thus deserted in his darkest
hour by his only friend was the bitter
ist ingredient in Ralph's cup. In vain
he sought an interview. Bud always
eluded him. While by all the faces
about him Ralph learned that the
storm was getting nearer and nearer
to himself. 1t might delay; if it had
beer; Pete Jones alone, it might blow
over. But Ralph felt sure that the re-
lentless hand OF DR.. Small was pres
ent in his troubles. And he had only
to look into Small's eye to know how
ineXtinguishable was a malignity
that burned so steadily and so quietly.


But there is no cup of uLmiXed Bit
terness. With an innocent man there
is no night so dark that some star does
not shine. Beside his religious faith
Ralph had one strong sheet-anchOr.-
On his return from Lewisburg on
Monday Bud had handed him note,
written on common blue foolscap, in
round, old-fashioned hand. 1t ran:


"Dear Sir: Anybody who can do so
good thing as you did for our Shocky,
can not be bad. [ hope you will for
give me. All the appearances in the
world, and all that anybody says, can
not make Inc think you anything else
but good man. | hope God will re-
ward you. You must not answer this,
and you hadn't better see me again, or
think any more of what you spoke
about the other night l shall be a
slave for three years more, and then |
must work for my mother and ShOckY;
but 1 felt so bad TO think that | had
spoken so hard to you, that / could
not help writing this, Respectfully,


"HANNAH THOMSON.
"To Mr.. r. HARTSOoK, ESQ"


Ralph read it over and over. What
else he did with it / shall not tell
You want to know if he kissed it, and
put it in his bosom. Many a man Us
intelligent and manly as Hartsook has
done quite as foolish q thing as that.
You have been a little silly perhaps
if it is silly-and you have acted in a
sentimental sort of way over such
things. But it would never do for me
to tell you what Ralph did. Whether
he put the letter in his bosom or not,
he put the words in his heart, and,
metaphorically speaking, he shook
that little blue billet, written on coarse
fools-cap paper-he shook that little
letter, full of confidence, in the face
and eyes of all the calamities that
haunted him. If Hannah believed in
him, the whole world might distrust
him. When Hannah was in one scale
and the whole world in the other of
what account was the whole world I?
Justice may be blind, but all the pic
lures of blind cupids in the world can
not make Love blind. And it was
well that Ralph weighed things in
this way. For the time was come in
which he needed all the courage the
blue billet could give him.


ITO BE CoNTINUED.)