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Yes, she would go to her father. She would trouble himself about me. I do not want him queenly courtesy and impenetrable reservei of - -- - 1:1 1 J it..--X..-.L 1. -r _V.* T a.* » her manner. Not once did she betray how the covert stings of her visitor s words iv ounded her He mentions this friend inadvertently in his room and down again in a minute with a pair of talk witli Melicent: calls his name Ishmael and saddle-bags upon his arm. He mounted his struggle with this bodily weakness and this bit- to speak of what I did that night. speaks of his pet bird, Milly. These two names horse and rode off, and the stable-man said he terer heart-pain and overcome them. Sheealled “ He said he couldn't help doin' as you wanted. — _ , . at once catch Melicent’s attention. This recluse was going on a’lectioneering trip in the country for food. When it was brought, she ate with an You come to him that night like a sperit. He sore heart; and none would have guesse , calls his favorite bird “Milly ” (her old name) with two of his friends. The man told the girl eagerness born of her determination to get well, tried to talk about how von looked, and he fell the proud calmness of her eye and vou e w t and himself Ishmael—Ishmael, the son of Ha- about the difficulty, and said Mr. Avery shot the As she finished, Flora took the plate, saying: to tremblin'. He told me he was afeard he spoke she bowed adieu to the chagrined ant angrv gar—Ishmael, the outcast! That name would be Colonel—what’s-his-name—in a quarrel about “That soup’s nice, I know. It’s bird soup, to you in some amazin’way, for he was dazed- lady, how bitter were the tears she wept w en appropriate for Neil to assume. She questions politics.” Miss Melicent—de plumpest little partridges; like, and took you for a ghost—the ghost of that she was alone. . . , Manch (the name given the boy in mockery by “I say politics!” smiled the honorable lady and who does you think brought'em ? Why, dat one that he loved so—that’s dead, you know. On the night of the second day utter lier in er- those who said he was the son of a Comanche mildly, shrugging her fat shoulders. little bushy-headed fisherman’s boy you bought Might've been he was feverish and not in his view with Manch, Melicent sat in the dimlj- scalp-lmnter), but the boy is on his guard and “You think that wasn’t what it was about?” de rocks and glass things from. And he wouldn't right mind.” lighted parlor of the railroad depot, waiting o skillfully avoids giving any information that queried the other, craning her bony neck to- take a cent of pay. He’s been here several times "How is he now?” asked Melicent, hurrying take her place in the cars of the eastern train, may lead to a clue of the whereabouts of his wards her vis-ft-ins, and taking the snuff-brush ’quirin after you. He's crippled liisself some- away from a subject that it agitated her to think It was a dark, misty night. There were but tevv friend. Melicent’s heart goes out to this little out of her ugly mouth for a fresh “dip” into the how and walks on a crutch. He looks bad, I about. persons in the room, and Melicent thought neglected waif shrewd and prematurely suspi- black bottle she held. tell yon. I thought he mont be liongry and give “He says he’s no worse, and he tries' to be silently and bitterly of the contrast between her cions, yet loyal-hearted and manly. Her kind- “Oh! 7 don't pretend to know. I’m down on him some vittles, but he wouldn’t eat a moufful. cheerful-like. He made me spell my lesson to going away from her “Western home and her ness at last wins his confidence find he tells her scandal, Mrs. Simpson, as you’re aware. It’s He looks mighty down-hearted, and he wanted him. and he sent funny messages to his birds, coming to it. a few short weeks ago. I hen, it Ishmael’s story: how he walked into granny's something I never deal in—never. But people to see you anyhow, but I told him that wouldn’t I carried him his squirrel, and he made him a was a bright day in summer, and she was a room one rainy midnight and startled her into are not all like me, and they will talk, Mrs. Simp- begin to do: the doctor done said you had infor- little bed in the corner. He give me this money happy bride. She had leaned on the arm and thinking his pale face was that of a ghost; how son, they icill—and one can't stop their mouths mation in your head.” to take back to you. They didn’t find it, some- looked in the loving face of her husband. I hen, he had stayed there for months, keeping close nor one’s own ears, can they?” “If he comes again. Flora, bring him up to liow, when they searched him. ;e me,—do you hear?” “It is not mine, you remem' and teaching him how to make baskets and mats “Of course not," responded the clergyman’s see : and fish-nets, until they find the house is widow, with a pious sigh. “So they say it “Yes, Miss Melicent,—but — but I doesn’t watched and beg him to go away. He replies wasn’t politics as them two quarreled about?” know what a lady like you can want to see the that he is tired of dodging and tramping. He “That’s the talk, you know. They say the likes of h ini for.” ‘That concerns only me,” said Melicent. “You have simply to do what I have told you.” At this moment the doctor was announced, and coming in, was greatly surprised to see how suddenly the disease had quit its hold and what going to see my father. I will try to get him to a crowd of admiring friends had made her com ing an ovation, and met her with welcome and congratulation. Now. she was going alone in the darkness and gloom of the night, with a heavier gloom of memory and foreboding upon her heart—bereft of her husband’s confidence remember. I bought the curiosities of him." “But what good can money do him in there? And they say he’ll never get out—never; and that after the trial they will put him in a dun- geon, where it is dark and cold, and let nobody and protection—pointed at by the finger of cal- in to see him.” urnny, with none to say “God speed” or lay a “He may get clear,” said Melicent. “I am friendly hand in hers, save the little forlorn has come back here to die and be buried by political difference was only a blind—a make-be- her—the friend he loved so well. But one night lief to save a certain person’s name, and that when “granny” had abused that one who was there were other grounds ” dead and had worried Ishmael “ mightily,” he “ What do they say they were?” wrapped his blanket around him and went off J “Oh ! don’t ask me. They’re too dreadful— suddenly the disease had quit its hold and what going to see my father. I will try to get him to creature at her side, in the darkness and rain, and the child had fol- [ the tales that are singing everywhere about that a rapid improvement a few hours had wrought do something for Ishmael. This money may Manch was there. He had come through mud lowed him and induced him to take shelter in a | poor woman there,—about her doings that night in his patient. help me to employ a good lawyer to take charge and rain and darkness to say good-bye. He had deserted fisherman’s hut on the bayou. He had of the ball—her pretending to be sick and com- “All you need now is to take care of yourself of his case.” removed the old coat that had been thrown heart to go no farther and he had lived there ing home, leaving her husband and the Stanley and keep quiet.” * Mrfnch looked down thoughtfully, and seemed around him, and stood timidly at the door, but ever since with no companion but his birds and girls behind, and then mounting her horse and squirrels, and never seeing any human being riding off in the woods and God knows where— as i but the boy who sold his baskets, his mats and only coming back at daybreak. That’s not half He looked at her quickly. 0 „ his fish for him and who “came round-about they say; indeed, it’s too dreadful to repeat!” derstood her motive. He knew what small, tell Ishmael something, but somehow I didn’t; him the shawl she had worn over her cloak, ways and dropped in kind o’ accidental like” to “My gracious!” ejaculated the relict, raising < keen torture it was in the power of women to I thought I’d tell you about it first.” She put a little purse of money, changed into avoid the suspicion of those who watched the her bony hands and speaking in a tone of in- inflict. ■ “What is it?” small bills, into his hand. movements of all who visited or lived at old Ha- tense satisfaction. “Why, the poor thing’s “Very well,” he said, smiling. “That is best, “ You know how I hurt myself?” “Don’t put that into your‘bank,’Manch; it’s gar’s house. ruined herself—and so proud and high-headed if you can really keep the women away.” “The boy said you fell out of a tree when you to be used up before I see you again. You will Melicent is at once sure that this lonely re- as she was.” cluse is Neil Griffin. She is much moved by “Well, her pride will have a fall nd keep quiet. Jlanch looked down thoughtfully, and seemed around him, and stood timidly at tne aoor, out “And see no company, doctor; lay that down to wish to say something that he yet hesitated to she saw him and drew him to a place near the s a stringent injunction, please.” * speak about. warm stove. She wiped the rain from his face He looked at her quicklv. He thought he un- “I went to the jail this mornin’, intendin'to with her handkerchief, and wrapped around asn’t bird’s-nests I was after,—you bet. I went to the old block house, you know, to fix it up for Ishmael’s hiding place. I was making the ladder, and had my want some clothes, you know, and Ishmael will need little things to make him more comfort able.” The engine gave its short, preliminary whistle, and Melicent took her seat in the car, still keep- Hardlv had he gone before the Hon. Mrs. were hunting bird’s-nests.” She has Bradwell cijled in upon her mission to heap “I told him that; but it w thisartless account of his sad, haunted life. She ruined her husband, too. The General thinks coals of fire on Melicent’s conscience and see cannot resist the impulse to see him—to rouse the affair with Colonel Archer has lost Avery how she bore it, that she might form her opin- him from his apathetic indifference and urge his election. Everybody knows he provoked ion of her guilt or innocence accordingly—a . „ „ . _ him to leave this place where he is in imminent the quarrel. The witnesses say he was so in- mode of trial that would remind one of the old- poles and pieces ready to nail, when the old ing Manch at her side. She clung to his little danger. She does not believe he will recognize suiting the Colonel had to retort, and then Avery , time test of witchcraft—namely, to throw the hatchet broke off at the helve, and I hadn’t any- brown hand, as if it was all that was left her of his little Milly in the tall, queenly and richly- called on him to arm himself, jerked out his re- suspected witch into the water, when, if she thing to nail with. I happened to recollect how truth or affection on earth. When the final sig- dressed woman. She visits him at last in his volver and fired at Archer’s heart. What saved drowned, she was innocent; if she floated, she ! once, when I climbed into the block-house, I nal was given and the train began to move, she little hut completely hid behind the moss cur- him was an opera-glass he had in his breast- was a witch and must be burned. j saw some pieces of old iron lying up there. So drew him to her and kissed him, whispering: tains of a live oak on the bayou’s bank. Believ- ! pocket. That turned the shot and it went into Melicent declined to see her visitor. i I climbed up ‘Gallows Oak’ and got on one of. “Good-bye. Take care of Ishmael.” ing her dead, he does not recognize her but she his right arm. The Colonel fired in the air, and “Dr. McPhail has just forbidden me to see the limbs that’s grown out close to the block- With that kiss thrilling him as though a god- knows him at once, though he is thin and pale was very quiet and calm all the time. Avery companj 7 ,” she said to Mrs , Simpson. house door. I thought I could swing myself in; dess had bent down and touched him with her and his large, sad eyes have an occasional scared, j was very violent. The General thinks he has “ She says she saw the doctor and he told her but the limb broke off right at the fork, and lips, the child was left standing under the car- startled look. She finds that he shrinks from injured his popularity, and that he’d better have to-go on; 'and besides, she has something to down I went and put mv knee out of place, shed, in the dull light of the lamps, looking after change and clings to his wish to stay and die stayed and cleared up things to his constituents , communicate to you. Things has happened While I was crawlin’ and limpin’ about, tryin' to and wondering if he should ever see her again- here, but after a time her resi lost Milly exerts its influence i to go away. He is taken sick, however, and leased on bond.” j “I want no one to break anything cannot get away. In the meantime, she finds “It’s a monstrous pity! Such a fine, rising know all that has occurred since I was taken first it was a snake or a snake-shed, so I poked “She kissed me,” he muttered to himself, ish to stay and die stayed and cleared up tilings to nis constituents communicate to you. Things has happened '' nne i was crawnn and iimpin aDout, tryin to and wondering n lie snouid ever see uer again— resemblance to liis here, instead of going off into the country as that ought to be broke to you, my poor dear, walk, I happened to notice a queer-looking bun- the beautiful, pale lady, whom he worshipped as ace and he promises soon as he had given himself up and been re- and Mrs. Bradwell thought ” Ale half droppin’ out of a hollow there was in the embodiment of all he had ever dreamed of sick, however, and leased on bond.” j “I want no one to break anything to me. I the tree where the limb broke off. I thought at sweetness, kindness and grace, neantime, she finds “It’s a monstrous pity! Such a fine, rising know all that has occurred since I was taken first it was a snake or a snake-shed, so I poked “She kissed me,” he muttered to himself, that Colonel Archer has set a plan on foot that young man as the Mayor was always called.” ! sick. I do not wish to be spoken to about it. , at it, and down it tumbled; and I picked it up looking down at his bare feet and ragged knees. [id to Ishmael’s discovery. She “Yes; a rising, money-making man—if he’d I will not see Mrs. Bradwell or any one else, ex- and saw ’twas a strip of snake-skin wrapped She kissed me—and she such a lady, with a bids fair to lead to Ishmael’s discovery suggests to Manch a plan for hiding him more only have married here, where he made his cept one person that I have told the servant securely by taking him in a skiff down the bayou money, instead of going off after a strange about.” and up the river to the old block-house, which woman. I’m not speaking for my own daughter And so Mrs. Avery balked the curiosity of her is reputed to be haunted and forms a safe retreat, at all. It’s a blessing now that that never took former “dear friends;” and in revenge, they But Manch gets hurt and her plan cannot be place. But there are other girls around here if fell upon her reputation and attacked it with so carried into effect. At the last moment she Arabella couldn’t love him. I say—I mean peo- much vigor and such fertility of invention as hears the details of Colonel Archer’s plot. It is pie will say—this is a judgment on him for not soofi to reduce it to tatters. Those who had to induce Gabriel Griffin to betray his brother marrying in his own State, like that Goliah in the been in raptures over “that sweet creature, the by means of the artful representations and fasci- Bible that took the strange woman Delilah, and , Mayor’s wife,” were first to declare they had nating powers of a French fortune-teller. Meli- she cut his head oft’,—which the Mayor had bet- always seen there was something wrong about cent has but a’few moments in which to act. She ter take warning by.” her, and that the sweet, stately way some folks , to take it, but her hand dropped, and she shud- say that husband of hers went off and left her seeks the fortune-teller but finds Colonel Archer | “Yes—yes,’’assented the widow, whose knowl- raved about had always struck them as insinua- dered and grew suddenly chill. She signed to sick without tellin’ her good-bye, and was mighty there. She writes a note of warning to Gabriel 1 edge of the Bible enabled her to know that it ting boldness. j Manch to unfold it, and he proceeded to unroll mad with her about going off that night—and Griffin, but with slender chance that he may get "’as Sampson and not Goliah who had gone after That afternoon while Mrs. Simpson, with her ' the strip of dressed rattlesnake skin, upon which she was tryin’ to help poor Ishmael. He ain’t it, as he lias been induced to leave his mother’s the strange woman, and it was his hair and not prayer-book held piously before her, was regal- : "’as visible a fragment of a vest-pocket. Inside good enough for her to break her heart about. t she ing herself on a pickle and a ham sandwich she was the remains of a yellow silk handkerchief, I bound I’ll never throw up my hat and hooray round a old silk handkerclier and a rusty knife. The handkercher was matted and stained, and the stain looked like blood.” Melicent started. “Blood!” she muttered. “A rattlesnake’s skin!” “Here it is. I brought it with me to show to you.” He took the dark, scaly-looking roll from his pocket, and held it out to Melicent. She essayed mouth soft and sweet like a wild pink ! And she tied her handkercher round my head to keep the wet of my hat offen my hair! Oh! she’s kind and sweet—that lady is! I wish I could do something grand to please her. If I was only a man, I’d—I'd fight for her,—I would !” He stopped and looked down musingly as he traced invisible marble-rings with his bare toe. “She looked mighty sorrowful-like,” he said. She’s down-hearted about something. They house and lodges she does not know where. She his head that Delilah had cut off. But writes to Manch to put Ishmael on his guard. ! would have almost suffered her own head to be had stowed away at dinner in the pocket of her matted together with rrvi i 1 A • A. V , X* 1. .. 1.1 1 1..1 j.1 • i 1 1 • 1 ,1 it i . dark substance that Then she can do no more, and in an agony of ■ cut off before she would have contradicted this rusty bombazine dress, the cook’s rosy, good- looked like blood, and wrapped in this was a He clap suspense is forced to attend a ball with her hus- | rich lady. humored face was thrust in at the door and her \ clasp knife with the large blade open and crusted phatically band and some young ladies whom she chape- The Hon. Mrs. Bradwell looked at her heavy voice was heard exclaiming: with black rust. In a corner of the handker- trudged h _ . exclaiming rons. Colonel Archer comes in late with the I gold watch ayd rose slowly, shaking out tht; “Well, thin! here’s that- mite of a boy agan, glitter of triumph in his eyes. She waltzes with folds ol her black silk. uffd’aotliiffS’SS’Ul do Trim at ad, at all, but I must him that she may know the worst, and in the dance he bends close and whispers: “Eureka! the murderer is found ! He is safe as a poisoned rat in a hole—ill in his cabin and I have the war rant for his arrest in my pocket. I shall serve it in two hours.” “She sleeps a long time,” she said, glancing bring this trumpery bit of a nosegay up to the at the bed where Melicent lay with closed eyes, madam. ” “The doctor said she had been asleep an hour ! As she spoke, she flourished a little bunch of when I came. He says the fever has nearly i wild flowers mixedwith wood mosses and scented cooled off and she will wake in her right mind, by a spray of yellow jessamine. Flora caught it I thought I’d stay awhile and see how she would and jerked it around in her fingers with great rip my for him any more,—nary time.” lapped the battered hat in question em- upon his head as he spoke, and dged home through the rain and mud, still chief, the initials “H. B.” were worked in black leaning a little upon the crutch, for his sprained ortk, ifzid is, the UuvMle of lb* ksife tbo .w.il,, kaco ,v (t .-s ma intirely -well. AsA i.t- this Time initials were neatly cut. Melicent was whirling across the darkened coun- At sight of these things, Melicent grew' so try, with the landscape of hills and rivers, of faint she had nearly swooned. Her mind flashed fields and forests, flying past her like the pano- back over the gulf of years, and she seemed to ramie scenes of a fever dream; leaving far behind see before her the body of the murdered miner the home and husband in which she had lately as she had seen it lying, stiff and gory, on the been so blessed,—home and husband hers no bench in “ Cheap John’s ” store. Was this the longer, but on which, she felt remorsefully, that Melicent resolves to make one attempt to save he and how she’d take it. It’ll have to be broke contempt, him. She leaves the ball-room on the plea of 1 to her, you know.” | “A pretty thing to send to a lady dat has illness; she goes home and unobserved finds her “ Yes, it’ll have to be broke to her. Hadn’t you j gardens of fine flowers, let alone de grand bou- way to the stable, where she puts a bridle and I better break it to her yourself, Mrs. Bradwell? quets in de vases down-stairs her friends done —’—■ - 1 1 ' 1 1 11T OT -- She’ll feel it more, coming from •a lady of your j sent her.” high standing and great respectability 7 .” I “Give them to me,” said Melicent, her eye “Well, I can do it, I suppose,” replied the lighting with pleasure. “ And go down directly 7 , pompous matron, resignedly 7 . “I’m used to | Flora, and bring the child to me. Mrs. Simp- having such delicate matters put upon me. I’ll ! son will go down-stairs with y r ou. I want to see j call in as I come back; she will be awake by that the boy alone. Wouldn’t you like a glass of to clear her brain. Was the fever returning? against the gray tree rejoicing at his escape, she | time.” wine and some sweet biscuits in the dining-room, Was ihis one of the wild delusions of delirium? hears the tramp of horses’ feet and Colonel 1 When the door had closed behind the scandal- Mrs. Simpson?” j No, her brow was cool. The musty, mouldy ; tation. ' There seems to be an innate desire to Archer rides up leading Monsoon by the bridle, hating dame, Melicent turned her head, opened , The individual addressed swallowed the last package before her was a reality. A terrible sus- appear to be what we are not. Without regard Ishmael has been captured and sent to jail, and ' ber large eyes and looked fixedly into the hun- of the ham sandwich as she rose, smirking her picion seized upon her mind. It was the mur- to sex, education, or previous condition in life, upbraids her ; g r y» hawk-like visage of the parson’s relict. ! thanks; but Melicent saw the gleam of cunning derer of the miner—the murderer of Col. ‘ ' ' ‘‘ man’s saddle on her ow 7 n horse, Monsoon. She then rides off at midnight to Ishmael’s cabin. She finds him partly recovered, and succeeds in infusing into him a portion of her own life and energy and prevailing upon him to save himself by 7 flight. When he disappears and she leans knife that had struck that cruel, coward blow?— this, and not the silver-mounted Spanish blade? This knife, with the familiar initials upon it— did she not recognize it at once? And that hand kerchief with the black stains upon it, and the letters in the corner—were they not letters her own hand had worked? She passed her hand across her forehead, as if she had thrown the shadow of her own fate. (TO BE CONTINUED.) [For The Sunny South.] AFFECTATION. BY KOSA V. RALSTON. Probably no weakness is more nearly possessed by 7 every member of the human family than affec- lie brings her back her horse. He for what he calls her treachery and* deception. “ Why—so y r ou are awake ! How do you feel, She pays no heed to his reproaches; her heart is my poor dear? Better, I can see—thanks to a full of bitterer things. He calls Ishmael her merciful Providence,” said the fawning Simpson, “lover,” and she repels the insult with a quiet ; coming up to the bed and stretching out her scorn that sets him right about her at last, claw-like hand. She rides home alone; encounters her husband; has a stormy 7 interview with him, in which she entreats him not to condemn her yet though cir cumstances are so strong against her. She Melicent put her aside with a little quietly repellant gesture. “How long have I been ill?” she asked. Archer's this falsity almost universally prevails. I say malice in her small gray eye, and she felt sure father—who had concealed these things; she had falsity, for what can it be but acting a falsehood that the relict of parson Simpson would take an felt an instant conviction of this. The stains of instead of speaking one? which is equally crirn- early opportunity of relieving her mind to the blood, the knife, the fact of the things being hid inal and far more loathsome — for it not only Hon. Mrs. Bradwell respecting the fact of Mrs. in the hollow 7 of the very tree under which the serves to convey a wrong impression, but adds Avery’s refusing to see respectable ladies, while murder was committed—more than all, the strip the folly of pretense. It is really pitiful to see she held private interviews w'ith low 7 fisherboys of serpent-skin vest, such as she well remem- the numbers of persons who are assuming this who brought her flowers and secret messages. : bered the miner to have worn—all these eorrob- subtile cloak as a means of palming off a false Melicent felt sure of this, and smiled to her- orated the instinctive impression that had fast- appearance on others—a cloak which may appear kneels at his feet, protesting that she can give j that’s up his love, his protection, but she begs him to | “I “Oh! not long; a little touch of the fever— : se ]f Die bitter smile of one in whom the sense ened upon her when she listened to Manch’s natural and becoming by frequent wear, but begs him to “ I have^been delirious, and I want to know look softened as the tap of Manch’s crutch package had come to be hid in the hollow of the trate, and which invariably excites contempt spare her his esteem. His reply 7 is, “Account how long !” demanded Melicent w 7 itli decision. sounded in the passage outside. When the door tree. The murderer had hastily wrapped the and disgust. for your conduct to night. ’ This she cannot do “ Three days, replied the woman, taken aback opened and closed behind him, slje stretched bloody tell-tales (the knife that had done the Like the young Spartan that Plutarch tells of, unless she explains all and breaks the binding by her manner, promise she has made to her father. She asks, “Has anything come for me during that time,— him to give her time. He regards this as a sub- ! any letters or other communications ?” terfuge, and they part in alienation. She writes j Mrs. Simpson hesitated, but said at last there that same night to her father, telling him all that i were tw 7 o letters and a sealed telegram that came has occurred, informing him for the first time of this morning. Neil Griffin’s being still alive and of the misfor- i “Bring me the telegram, if you please.” tunes in which she is involved by her effort to “Really, now, my 7 dear Mrs. Avery, the doctor save him. She entreats to be released from her promise and permitted to explain all to Mr. Avery before she -quits his roof forever. She out her hand to him, exclaiming: deed and the handkerchief that had wiped its how many are not carrying concealed beneath “How glad I am to see you, Manch ! Come to j 8tai , ns hi f bands) in a fragment^ of the their clothes a fox which gnaws at their vitals said- “Never mind now what the doctor said; you can tell me that some other time. Bring me the finishes this letter at sunrise, sends it to be telegram at once, if you please.” mailed, and then her over-wrought nerves and There was no disobeying the imperious com- over-tasked frame give way and she sinks on her mand of voice and eye. The woman brought bed in the stupor of fever. Hours afterwards, her maid finds her lying there tinconscious. the envelope at once and put it into Melicent’s hand. She tore it open with trembling haste. There w 7 ere but two lines in answer to her letter, but they were full of import to Melicent. “-Vo; not one icord, as you value more than life! hen Melicent recovered consciousness, she Remember your promise. Come to me at once." found herself in bed with the room darkened Melicent dropped the slip, of paper from her an ( exce P, or a 1I . lu ’ I “' lr "oices in the hand. She had lost her last hope of being able mihiliitMi srrninpn tnnp t int ttillc nf , * . * , x 0 CHAPTER XIII. She drew him close to her and passed her fin gers tenderly 7 over his forehead and through his curly hair. “My poor boy,” she said, “how thin you are. You have suffered. I am very 7 sorry.” “It don’t matter much about me,” he replied. “I’ll soon be all right; but ” His lip quivered and he looked down. Meli cent knew he was thinking of Ishmael. “Have you seen him?” she asked. He nodded assent. “I saw him this mornin’. You see I’d gone there twice before, but they wouldn’t let me in. So I struck a bargain with the jailor, and I done yard jobs for him, and got him to let me in for my pay 7 .” “He was glad to see you, I am sure.” “He was glad and sorry 7 both. He put his snake-skin vest he had just ripped from the and preys upon their hearts? Affectation natu- body 7 , and cut to pieces to get the gold and dia- rally proceeds from an ill conscience and cor- monds that were quilted in it. He had then rupt heart; for when the one is right and the hurriedly thrust the bundle into the safe hiding other free, there is no necessity for pretension, place offered by the small opening into the hoi- However loth I am to confess it, women are low 7 trunk that had caught his ey 7 e, half con- more addicted to this fictitious garb than men. cealed as it was in the fork of the tree. There, And why is it ? Why can’t our girls and women protected from rain and damp by the dry hiding be content to appear just as they are ? Why resort hole and the impervious scaly wrapper, the to extraneous aids to make them winning and bloody evidences of crime had remained ever attractive.” Natural beauty and attractions are since, and were now almost as fresh as when put “artful most when not affecting art.” there. Melicent stared at them mutely, her fac- An affectation of modesty creates suspicion; ulties frozen by the horror of the new suspicion of beauty, ridicule; of friendship, distrust; and that forced itself upon her. Manch saw she shuddered and turned pale. that an affectation of pride excites contempt. Fashion and the present perverted state of , “I’ll put these musty, queer-looking things society have so biased the really noble and unas- out of your sight,” said he. “They’ve made suming natures of our girls, that it has become you sick.” ' ! extremely rare to find one upon whose tastes and No—let me have them, Manch,” she found sentiments the popular follies have not left their hands on my shoulders in his kind, cheerful strength to say 7 . “Roll them up in that clean subdued, strained tone thattellsof cautiousness, to exculpate herself in the eyes'of the man she way; but I see him change color and his eyes napkin-there, and put them in the small drawer A contused feelmg about the head, a heaviness loved. If she could not reveal’everything to drop, and I knowed he was hurt for me to see of that bureau; here is the key. “Tell me, <V * t l m 'i 1 “ ie ® rs f return of sense, him, she could not explain the reason of her him there, in that place where they put rogues , Manch, did you show these things to any one, ___ a 'e^been ill. she thought; and the next strange conduct. And she could reveal nothing and blackguards and throat-cutters him that's i or speak ot having found them?” taint. As a flower which, taken from its ow 7 n earth and transplanted in a foreign soil, never attains its natural growth and be.iUty 7 ; so they 7 are never develojied into true womanhood. Let them be content with a modicum of grace and moment the recollection of the trying scenes in the face of her father’s solemn protest and her tender-hearted and gentle as a girl-child. It “Not to a living soul-only you. I thought beauty, and never assume what does not belon throughwhich she had lately passed broke upon own promise. Again there went through her went through me like a knife to see him si. ting I’d sh — „„„ j„ vmloc . B ^ ...., show them to Isnmael, but something seemed to them,.if they would be truly lovely. her. She closed her eyes and lay still, endeav- with a pang of coiTviction the feeling that there there so patient and sorrowful, like a dumb ere” to hold me back from speakin’ about ’em until onng to collect energy 7 to take up the burden of must be some more powerful motive than was tur that knows it’s innocent, 'nut can t help your I’d told you. Do y 7 ou think they’ve got anything Early Education. —Experience has demon- 11 a a 8! un ; . immediately apparent for her father's determi- mistreatin' it. I wanted to be as big as the giant to do with the man that w 7 as killed under that strated that of any number of children of equal As she lay thus, the murmuring voices reached nation to conceal the secret of their changed in mv book, jest to knock the heads offen all the tree once—the one they say poor Ishmael killed ?” intellectual power, those who receive no partic- her eardistmctly 7 . She recognized the accents identities at all hazards. Was it possible there powerful chaps that does wrong and cruel things “I cannot say. I will look into it better and ular care in childhood, and who do not learn to ot the Hon. Mrs. Bradwell speaking in the half- could be any stain of shame or crime upon that to the poor and weak.” think it over after awhile. I cannot think now; re ad and write until the constitution begins to supercilious, half-condescending tones she used earlier life of his prior to that mysterious advent “It is dieadful for him to be there,” said Meli- my head is all confused. I must try to rest. I be consolidated, but who enjoy the benefit of a . .. . . . - i.... prior to that mys in addressmg an inferior. a t Bear’s Bend—a stain which he feared the rev- . . '°, u sa ' . e £../l 7 ^ 1 ^ oes . no * know elation of his changed name might cause to be she is sick—went oft that morning without see- traced and brought to light ? But in spite of ing her at all. ell. I must say that is queer; the shadow that had lately fallen upon her half- If we could will go, as soon as I can, to my father. I will physical education, beat those who commence show these things to him, and will get him to earlier and read numerous books when young, see what can be done to defend Ishmael. I will The mind ought never to be cultivated at the see you again. You must come every day to see expense of the body; and physical education me while 1 stay, and meet me at the depot when ought to precede that of the intellect, and then cent. “It is a miserable place, make him more comfortable !” “It’s not that; he’s used to poor fare and a _ _ „ r hard pallet. It’s the shame of bein’there, you and it is much to be regretted, for it will con- worshipping estimate of her father, she found it know, and the horror of dyin’ in that way,— „ . __ ra r firm all the dreadful tales that are afloat.” impossible'to connect any idea of crime with swung up for all the town to stare at. I know I go. Let me see vour faithful little face the last proceed simultaneously with it, without culti- “I had it from her own maid, ma’am,” said him—the noble-browed, stately old man, with he’s bound to think of that, though he won’t let thing.” vating one faculty to the neglect of others, for the snuffy voice of Mrs. Simpson, a clergyman’s his stern eye and voice that could soften so ten- on so, and says it don’t matter how we go out of The next morning Melicent rose and dressed health is the base'and instruction the ornament widow in reduced circumstances, who went out derlvforher. Yes, she would go to him at once— the world; we are soon forgot, and the dirt lies herself, and pale and taint, but resolute, took of education. as nurse “in the first families only.” “ The girl as S oon as she could leave her°bed; she resolved as light on the poor man’s box as on the great steps preliminary to her departure from her hus- 77 *** ’ , . • . run in to tell her mistress about the fight between upon that. She could not stay here—here where one’s fine coffin. But I’m f irgettin’ what he band's house. She dismissed Mrs. Simpson It should be the earnest desire ol every ynnst- Mr. Avery and that Colonel, and she found Mrs. her presence brought Avery lying on the floor in a faint.” she had no right t0 s “What caused her to faint? It must be she had driven Mr. Avery , had heard about the fight.” injured perhaps ruined his prospects; she could into trouble, and begged me to find out from well, which was forced upon her by that lady’s The girl said there hadn’t a soul been to her do Neil no good bv staving and perhaps her you, and see if there was anything he could say irrepressible desire for information, Melicent -chamber. Mr. Averv eame into tb p Imnec cia" ^ i_ • i. 5* u * ~ : Am-Mv nf nse to von.” h^ttied her cnriositv. reiected her hypocritical They who have much good in them may have to—anybody that might be of use to you.” baffled her curiosity, rejected her hypocritical ^?ch^amiss. We should be most i bed-chamber. ;ur. Avery came into the house father might “help him if'she could see him and to—10—am uuuj mat migm ucm ^ wn. .‘'•j “V rp „j v mention the <*ood J looking like a thunder-cloud, and run up to his i persuade him to do so. “No, there is nothing, tell him. He need not , pity, and defied her insinuated insults by the read} to mention tne 0 detinct print