Year: 1872

BY AUGUSTA LARNED.


THE operation of foddering stock in
December, when the wind is due east and
you are facing it, and the ground has been
trOdden into slush which petrifes your
feet, is not eXhiarating. Gilbert was
cold, and, if not exactly out of temper,
tired and depressed. He was in that
cheerful state of mind where he knew
nobody cared for him and that he cared
for nobody. He was half glad that he
did not care for anybody, but there was
sore place in his bosom because nobody
cared for him. His selfcongratulations
arose from the fact that If he had happen
cd to care for anybody in particular
Eunice Mahew, for instance, he knew as
well as he wished to know that she never
coAld have cared for him consequently
he was not like burnt child who breads
the fire, but like one who has seen the
danger and avoided anything more serious
than a singeing. Gilbert's thoughts were
little confused, and the consciousness
that he had acted with unusual discretion
made him crOsser than there was any need
of being. The chill atmosphere had
quality irritating to the temper of man
and beast. The cattle were restless they
pushed with their horns and gathered in
uncomfortable sbivering huddles. There
was storm brewing. The sky was of a
dull gray, and little spits of snow now
and then floated downward.


When the foddering was over and the
cattle stalled for the night, Gilbert went
into the barn. There was a half hour of
daylight still left to him, and the barn was
a tavorite place with Gilbert, even in cold
weather, when the wind came grooming
through the cracks, and knot-holes, and
drearily rustled the dry shocks of corn
still unhusked, or snow shifted through
the siding, and lay in white patches on
the hay. Certainly it was not Il cheerful
resort, with its great spaces that in these
short winter days so quickly filled with
mystery and shadow, and no sound but
the hens stepping about, or the squeak ofa
mouse. But the young man liked it. He
often sat on a three-egged milking stool
in one fthe empty horse stalls, and re-
flected cheerfully on the fact that nobody
cared a copper for him. There wasn't the
remotest chance of her ever caring for
him; and here the abstraction took the
form of a young woman, not very tall,
with pleasant face little tanned, mis-
chievous, laughing eyes, good little
nose that apparently wanted to turn up,
but did not commit any such impropriety,
and silky hair that quirked and curled in
distracting and altogether ineXplicable
manner. This somebody, whose name
was Eunice Mahew, was foreordained and
predestined, so Gilbert reasoned, to fall in
love with Milton Spencer the teacher of
the village high school, He was young
man fresh from college, and manly fel
low, too, in spite of few airs and graces,
He evidently liked Eunice. Gilbert
thought the situation over calmly and dis
passionately, with no personal interest of
course, but strange to say, although he
Judged fairly enough of Millions merits
and saw how great were his chances of
success, he heartily wished the young
pedagogue in Guinea.


Although Gilbert scorned foppery, he
had recently procured small looking
glass, which he hung against beam in
the stall, and there spent odd moments in
arranging his neck-tie and studying di-
verse modes of masculine hair-dressing
If there was sensible, sound young man
in the whole neighborhood it was Gilbert
Freeman, Left an orphan at an early age,
he had struggled hard over keeping to the
purpose of making the most of himself
and improving his opportunities. He
read the best books which came in his
way, and had never been known to spend
time on anything trashy or sentimental.
He was not an imaginative young man.
There was locked box or bin, where the
spare harness was kept, and there, strange
TO say, Gilbert had of late deposited two
or three small volumes which looked sus,
piciously like poetry.


These works were placed beside Ma,
caulay's History Of England, and Gibbons
Rome, but, strange to say, when Gilbert
in his spare moments took out one OF
these ponderous tones, which he had
once so eagerly devoured, the words
swan before his eyes, or faded entirely
out of view, and he put the book back
with feeling of WEAKNESS, and took
from its place little blue and gold
volume, sne ,kingly conscious that the
poet who sings of love, and perpetual
youth, OF stars, and flowers, and streams
alone has the right of thiNgs. For 4
young man who cared for nobody, this
suddenly acquired taste for poetry die
look rather strange; but still as he sa
there on his milking stool, with the
shadows creeping into the old barn, ht
was so glad on account of the disengaget
state of his affections, that, strong fellow
as he was, he actually covered is face
with his hands, and the color burned il
his rlwn cheeks and wOmanish tear
sprang to his eyes at the thought of an im
possible bliss. He was in a very peculia


state of mind for a young man who knew