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WITCH WINNIE

WITCH WINNIE. Frontispiece.

WITCH WINNIE

(The j5toru of a "llinq's Daughter

ELIZABETH \V. CHAMPNEY

OLIPHANT ANDERSON & FERRIER

EDINBURGH

AND 24 OLD BAILEY LONDON

I 890

;.\V YORK
LouC LIBRARY

968766\

ASTOR, LENOX AND

T1LDEN FOUNDATIONS

B 1938 L

PRINTED BY

MORRISON AND GIBB, EDINBURGH
FOR

OLIPHANT ANDERSON FERRIEP

EDINBURGH AND LONDON

CO
UJ

DEDICATED TO

MY LITTLE WITCH MARIE.

WHERE she's been the sunshine lingers,
She's my witch and she's my mouse ;

She has helpful, fairy fingers,
Busy keeper of the house.

She is tricksy and she's elfish ;

Sure no plague could e'er be worse ;
She is thoughtful and unselfish,

She's my gentle angel-nurse.

All their jokes the brownies lend her,
She's a merry, mischief thing ;

But her heart is very tender
to

She's a Daughter of the King.
CO

Yes, there's something nice about her,
And I'll love her till my death ;

No, I could not do without her-
I'm her ma, Elizabeth.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

INTRODUCTION, 9

I. BOARDING-SCHOOL SCRAPES, II

II. GUINEVERE'S GOWN, 30

III. THE PRINCESS, . 50

IV. COURT LIFE, . . 63

V. LITTLE PRINCE DEL PARADISO, 79

VI. MRS. HETTERMAN THROWS LIGHT ON THE

MYSTERY, 90

VII. WINNIE'S CONFESSION, 109

VIII. THE ELDER BROTHER AND MRS. HALSEY'S

STRANGE STORY, 123

IX. THE KING'S DAUGHTERS AND THE VENETIAN

FETE, 139

X. THE LANDLORD OF RICKETT'S COURT, . . .162

XL THE GUESTS OF THE ELDER BROTHER, . 189

XII. WITH THE DYNAMITERS, 212

XIII. THE KING'S DAUGHTERS IN THE COUNTRY, . 225

XIV. OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY, .... 246
XV. THE ESTATES DEL PARADISO, ...... 302

INTRODUCTION.

IT is but just to explain that, while all of
the characters introduced in this little story
are purely imaginary, the founding of the
Home of the Elder Brother was suggested
by the w r ork of some real children, younger
than Madame's pupils, who gave a little
fair, and, helped by charitable people, in-
stituted a lovely charity, the Messiah Home
for Little Children, at 4 Rutherford Place,
New York City. This Home still opens its
doors to the children of working-women,
and is helped by different circles of King's
Daughters, some of whom have adopted
children to clothe. It is a beautiful w^ork,
founded by children for children, and it is
hoped that others all over the land will join
in it, and that the work may broaden until
no such dens as Rickett's Court will remain
in our fair city or country,

E. W. C.

WITCH WINNIE

CHAPTER I.

BOARDING-SCHOOL SCRAPES.

E never had any
until Witch Win-
nie came to room
in our corner.
We had the reputation
of being the best behaved
set at Madame's, a lit-
tle bit self-conscious too,
and proud of our pro-
priety. Perhaps this was
the reason that we were
f nicknamed the " Amen
Corner," though the girls
pretended it was because the initials of our
names, spelled downward, like an acrostic

I 2 WITCH WINNIE.

Adelaide Armstrong,

Mlly Roseveldt,

^mma Jane Anton,

TVeliie Smith

formed the word amen. But certainly the
name would not have clung to us as it did
if the other girls had not recognized its fit-
ness in our forming a sanctimonious little
clique who echoed Madame's sentiments, and
were real Pharisees in minding the rules
about study -hours, and whispering, and
having our lights out in time, and the other
lesser matters of the law which the girls in
the " Hornets' Nest," Witch Winnie's set,
disregarded with impunity.

And verily we had our reward, for Mad-
ame trusted us, and gave us the best set of
rooms in the great stone corner tower, over-
looking the park, quite away from the espial
of the corridor teacher. They had been
intended for an infirmary, but as no one was
ever sick at Madame's, she grew tired of
keeping them unoccupied, and assigned them
to us.

Sometimes the other girls annoyed us by
making calls in study-hours, and we virtu-
ously displayed a placard on our door bear-
ing the inscription, "Particularly Engaged."

BOARDING-SCHOOL SCRAPES.

It caught Witch Winnie's eye, as she strolled
along the hall, and she scribbled beneath it,

" The girls of the Amen Corner
Would have us all to know
That they're engaged, each one engaged
Particularly so."*

We hardly knew whether to be amused or
vexed at this sally of Witch Winnie's. We
acknowledged that it was bright, but we
deplored her wildness, and had no idea how
much we should love her in time to come,
After all, our reputation as model pupils had
a very slender foundation. It rested chiefly
on Emma Jane's preternatural conscientious-
ness. The night that the cadet band sere-
naded our school, some of the pupils, presum-
ably the girls in the " Hornets' Nest," threw
out bouquets to the performers. Rumor
said that when Madame heard of this she
was greatly shocked.

" I don't see how she can punish them for
it," said Adelaide ; " there's nothing in the
rules about not giving flowers to young
men. Still, it was a dreadful thing to do,
and Madame is ingenious enough to twist
the rules some way, so as to ' make the pun-

*This incident is borrowed from an actual occurrence.

14 WITCH WINNIE.

ishment fit the crime.' I am p-Jad the Amen

Corner is guiltless."

Then we marched into chapel on tiptoe
with excitement to see Madame wreak ven-
geance on the wrong-doers. Witch Winnie
sat behind me, and turning, I saw that she
looked pale, but resolute.

Madame rose in awful dignity, her wiry
curls, which Milly said reminded her of spiral
bed-springs, bristled ominously.

" Young ladies," she exclaimed, in a sharp
tone of command, <( you may all rise." We
rose.

"If you turn to the printed rules of this
institution," she continued, " you will find
under Section VII. the following paragraph
' Pupils are not allowed to disfigure the
lawn by throwing from the windows any bits
of paper, hair, apple-parings, peanut shells,
or waste material of any kind. Scrap-bas-
kets are provided for the reception of such
matter, and any pupil throwing anything
from her window upon the school grounds
will be regarded as having committed a mis-
demeanor.'

An impressive silence followed, in which
Witch Winnie gave a sigh of relief, and
whispered to Cynthia Vaughn, " We're all

BOARDING-SCHOOL SCRAPES. 15

right ; we didn't disfigure her precious lawn.
The bouquets never touched the ground. I
lowered them, with a string, in my scrap-bas-
ket (just where she says we ought to have
put them), and the drum-major took them
out and distributed them to the other boys."

" Young ladies," Madame continued, in
tones of triumph, " those of you who have
not broken this rule within the past week
may sit down."

We all sat down all but Emma Jane An-
ton, who remained in conspicuous discom-
fort. Adelaide pulled her by the basque,
" Sit down ! ' she whispered ; " Madame
doesn't mean you."

Emma Jane stood like a martyr while
Madame regarded her through her lorgnette
with astonishment depicted on every feature.

" If you committed this infringement of
the rules at any time other than last evening
you may sit down."

Emma Jane remained standing.

" Then," said Madame, drawing herself
up frigidly, " Miss Anton, you may explain:
what was it you threw out ? '

"Madame/ 3 replied Emma Jane, "the
window was open we were listening to the
music and a bat flew in ; and, Madame, he

1 6 WITCH WINNIE,

would not stay in the waste-paper basket,
and so, Madame, I threw him out."

Every one laughed ; discipline was fcj , >t-
ten for the moment, until Madame rapped
smartly on the desk and called for order.
She complimented Emma Jane highly on
her conscientiousness, but she looked pro-
voked with her all the same, \vhile V f) ;ich
Winnie, who was stuffing her handkerchief
into her mouth, nearly went into convulsions.

After the sketch which I have endeavored
to give of Witch Winnie, and the position
which she occupied at Madame's, I trust that
we, as self-respecting pupils, will not be too
severely blamed when I confess that we re-
ceived, with great disfavor, Madame's an-
nouncement that Winnie was henceforth to
room in the Amen Corner.

The bedrooms at Madame's boarding-
school were clustered in little groups around
study-parlors, five girls forming a family.
For a lono- time there had been only four in

O J

our set. Emma Jane Anton, who preferred
to room alone, had the little single bedroom ;
Adelaide and Milly were chums ; while I,
Nellie Smith, familiarly nicknamed Tib, had
luxuriated so long in the large corner cham-
ber that 1 had almost forgotten that Madame

BOARDING-SCHOOL SCRAPES. ij

told me, at the outset, that 1 must hold my-
seF in readiness to receive a room-mate at
an ,ime.

Adelaide Armstrong- was the daughter of
a railroad magnate. She had been brought
up in the West, but, though she had trav-
ele^ 1 much, and had seen a great deal of
soc" ty, her education had not been entirely
neglected. She had studied a great deal
in a desultory way, and contested the
head of the class with Emma Jane Anton,
who was a "regular dig," and had prepared
for college in the Boston public schools.

It was really surprising how Adelaide had
picked up so much. She had studied Latin
with a priest in New Mexico, and had prof-
ited by two years at a lonely post on the
confines of Canada, where her father had
been interested in the fur trade, to become
proficient in French. Strikingly handsome,
a brunette with brilliant complexion and
Andalusian eyes, energetic and spirited, she
was popular both "with her instructors and
her classmates.

Milly Roseveldt was her exact contrast -a
milky-complexioned little blonde, shy and
sweet ; she was also a trifle dull. Adelaide
translated her Latin, and worked out her prob-

1 8 WITCH WINNIE.

lems, and 1 wrote her compositions, while
Milly rewarded us w r ith largesses of love and
confectionery, for she was the most gener-
ous as well as the most affectionate of girls.
Her father, a wealthy New York banker,
placed large sums of money at her disposal,
and Milly deluged her friends with gifts of
flowers and bonbons. It seemed very nat-
ural to me that Adelaide and Milly should be
sworn friends ; but my admittance into the
sacred circle was a mystery to me, and to a
number of aspiring girls who asserted that I
was nobody in particular, and who envied
me my place in my friends' affection. My
presence in the school itself was almost as
great a wonder. My father was a Long
Island farmer. We opened our house to
city boarders during the summer, and one
season Miss Sartoris, the teacher in Art at
Madame's, boarded with us. I had taken
drawing lessons at the Academy, and Miss
Sartoris took me out sketching with her. I
worked like a beaver, and was never so
happy in my life. I delighted Miss Sartoris,
who wakened mother's ambition by telling
her that I was the most talented pupil she
had ever had. More than this : we three in-
duced good, easy-going, generous father to

BOARDING-SCHOOL SCRAPES.

let me go back to the city with Miss Sartoris
as a pupil at Madame's. My wardrobe was
meagre, but not countrified, for I possessed a
natural sense of color and a quick faculty
for imitation. I had seen plenty of city
people at Scup Haven, and my few dresses,
I fancied, would pass muster anywhere. I
was a fair scholar, and took the lead in the
studio. I was not brilliant and stylish like
Adelaide, or rich and pretty like Milly, but
they liked me, and I liked myself the better
for the consciousness that there must be
something" nice about me which attracted

them. I believe now that it was an absence
of self-consciousness and selfishness on rny
part, and my hearty admiration and devo-
tion to them. Adelaide called me, playfully,
" the great American Appreciator."

It was just before the theatricals given by
our literary society that an incident occurred
which showed me how much they really
thought of me. We three were arranging
the stage ; I was touching up the scenery,
and Miily holding the tacks for Adelaide,
who was looping the drapery, when we over-
heard the conversation of a group of girls
on the other side of the curtain.

Cynthia Vaughn was the first to speak.

20 WITCH WIA'NIE.

" I think Adelaide Armstrong is perfectly
splendid ! '

" So do I," said another ; and there was a
chorus of confused voices exclaiming 1 , " So
stylish ! " " Perfectly elegant ! " " The hand-
somest girl in school ! '

Adelaide left her work and placed her
hand on the curtain, but Milly threw her
arms impulsively around her. " Let us hear
what they will say," she whispered; "when
they are through we can pull the cord, and
all bow thanks."

By this time other voices were chanting
Milly's praises, and Adelaide turned reluc-
tantly away, remarking, " Well, if you enjoy
that sort of thing, you are welcome to it. I
should not be surprised, by the way they are
loading it on, if they knew we were here."

They did not know it, for at that instant
Cynthia Vaughn spoke up again, "I don't
see what they find to admire in that pokey
Lib Smith."

" I should think Milly would be ashamed
to be seen with her," said another ; " her
dresses always remind me of a chicken with
its head through a hole in a salt-bag."

Adelaide sprang forward with flashing
eyes to confront the speaker, but this time

BOARDING-SCHOOL SCRAPES. ? T

it was I who held her back. " Let them say
their say," I whispered, hoarsely, while Milly
cowered, trembling. " I believe her mother
makes her dresses at home," said Witch
Winnie ; " and, as she can't have Tib to
try them on, she fits them on her grand-
father."

There was a hearty laugh at this sally, and
another added: " I don't see how Adelaide
can endure her, she is so stingy. Have you
noticed that the girls place a fresh bouquet
at her plate every morning ? and I never
could find out that she ever gave either of
them so much as a single flower.'

Adelaide nearly writhed herself from my
grasp, but I held her tightly. "Milly," she
gasped, " are you a coward, to stand there
and hear our friend reviled so ? Can't you
stop them ? ' :

The blood surged into Milly's pale cheeks,
and she sprang before the curtain. " Girls, 1 '
she cried, " how can you talk so ? Nellie
Smith is our dearest friend. She is not one
bit stingy ; she gives us more than we have
ever given her. Because she does not parade
her presents on the breakfast-table is no
reason that she has not given me lots and
lots of things, and no girl can consider her-

22 WITCH WINNIE.

self my friend who talks so about our dar-
ling Tib."

Here Milly broke down in tears, and
Witch Winnie exclaimed, " Good for you,
Milly Roseveldt ; I didn't know you had so
much spunk !" But at this point we all fled
to the Amen Corner, and bolted the door,
refusing to admit Witch Winnie, who im-
pulsively shouted her apologies through the
keyhole.

" Oh, Milly ! ' 1 cried, " what made you
tell a lie for me ? I never gave you a thing."
And I might have added, "How could I,
when my allowance for spending-money is
hardly sufficient to keep me in slate-pencils ?"

But Milly stopped my mouth with kisses.
and pointed to sundry original works of art
with which I had decorated her apartment,
and declared, besides, that helping her on that
last horrid composition was a greater gift
than all the roses in Le Moult's greenhouse.

So we of the Amen Corner disliked
Witch Winnie and loved each other, all but
Emma Jane Anton. We could not be said to
exactly love her ; \ve tolerated her in our
midst, in spite of her uncongenial nature,
because we took pride in her eminent respect-
ability, and in the higher average of reputa-

BOARDING-SCHOOL SCRAPES. 23

<*j

tion for creditable scholarship and exemplary
behavior which she gave to our corner. But
love her ! We might as well have tried to
love an iceberg.

Witch Winnie arrived on Adelaide's birth-
day, and was a most unwelcome birthday
present. Emma Jane Anton had obtained
permission for us to celebrate the occasion
by sitting up an hour later that evening.
Milly had ordered a form of ice-cream
and a birthday-cake from Mazetti's, and
we had invited in a half-dozen friends
to share the treat. As a damper on this
beautiful fete, Madame had called us into
her private study that afternoon, and had
told us that she had decided to assign Witch
Winnie as my room-mate. She did not
scruple to tell us her reasons for doing so.
Winnie (according to Madame) was the
head-centre of a wild set of " ne'er-do-weels '
who roomed in the top of the house, " a per-
fect hornets' nest under the eaves," Madame
said. Madame felt that if the queen hornet
was taken away, the rest would be more
amenable to discipline, and that Winnie,
placed among such proper and well-behaved
girls as we were, would herself feel our
beneficial influence.

24 WITCH WINNIE.

" I think," said Madame, " that if you knew
Winnie's history you would understand her
better. Her parents were both very talented
and highly imaginative people. Her father
is a playwright of reputation, who married a
very lovely young actress who had sustained
the leading part in several of his plays. They
were tenderly attached to each other. Mrs.
De Witt had great dramatic talent ; she made
it the study of her life to realize his concep-
tions, and succeeded to his perfect satisfac-
tion. She said that she so lived in her part
that frequently she forgot her own person-
ality, while Mr. De Witt was always cudgeling
his brains to invent new plots, situations, and
characters for his wife. Mrs. De Witt died
when Winnie was but three years of age.
The child has lived with different relatives,
and has been spoiled and neglected by turns,
but never quite understood. I have studied
her carefully, and think I see in her a com-
bination of both parents. She has her father's
highly organized imaginative nature, but
instead of constructing plots for plays, it
develops itself in plots for scrapes. She de-
lights in dramatic situations, and is a natural
and unconscious actress. Her father hopes
that she may never adopt the stage as her

BOARDING-SCHOOL SCRAPES. 25

profession, for it w^as that life of mental and
physical strain which killed Winnie's mother.
Something remarkable in organization or in
action the girl will certainly be, and as she
takes her color, like a chameleon, from her
surroundings, or, rather, her cue from the
other actors, I have great hopes for your in-
fluence over her."

Madame's confidences made little impres-
sion upon our prejudice. We listened in
silence, and, returning to our rooms, held an
indignation meeting, in which Emma Jane
led. Adelaide, who ought to have sym-
pathized with the neglected orphan, for she
had lost her own mother when a little girl,
and who did find in this fact a bond of
fellow-feeling later on, now ignored all her
claim for pity, and chose to feel that we were
all grossly insulted. Milly pitied me the en-
forced companionship, several of us were in
tears, and in the midst of it all Witch Winnie
appeared. The clatter of voices sank to sud-
den silence, and the new - comer, looking
from face to face, instantly understood the
situation.

" If you feel half as badly as I do, girls,"
she said, with a merry laugh, " I'm sorry for
you ; I wouldn't intrude on you in this way

2 6 WITCH WINNIE.

if I could help it. Madame tells me you are
to have a spread to-night, and have invited
your particular friends. It's too bad she
wouldn't let me put off moving till to-morrow
morning. I'll tell you what I'll do I'll sit
in the recitation-room and cram for examina-
tion until the party is over Of course you
don't want me, a perfect stranger to your
friends ; it isn't to be supposed you would."

Emma Jane Anton looked relieved. "We
provided for a limited number," she explain-
ed ; "if we had known that we were to have
the honor of your company-

But Adelaide interrupted her instantly.
" Sit in that dismal recitation-room while I
am having my birthday party ! Indeed you
shall do nothing of the sort !" while Milly
came gallantly to the rescue, assuring her
that she had ordered more ice-cream than
they could possibly consume, and I did the
best I could to make Winnie believe that
she was welcome.

The girls appeared en masse as soon as the
bell struck for the close of evening study-
hour congratulations were offered to Ade-

laide, and Winnie was introduced. All made
extravagant efforts to be gay and sociable,
but there was a certain constraint, a forced

BOARDIiVG-SCHOOL SCRAPES. 2}'

quality, in it all, which had for its reason
something beyond the fact of an unwelcome
addition to the Corner : the refreshments
had not arrived. Mazetti had forgotten to
send them. There stood the study -table
neatly spread with a table-cloth borrowed
from the steward's department, and set with
saucers, spoons, and plates, all disappoint-
ingly empty.

Adelaide tried to carry off the situation as
an immense joke. Milly alternated between
hope and despair, fancying each noise of
wheels the confectioner's cart. The guests
showed their disappointment plainly, some
confessing that they had slighted the evening
prunes and rice in anticipation of this treat
And I heard Cynthia Vaughn whisper that
it was a very cheap way to give a party to
pretend that there had been a mistake. At
this juncture I suddenly noticed that Witch
Winnie had disappeared.

A few moments later a loud knocking, or
kicking, for it was evidently bestowed with
feet instead of hands, \vas heard at the door.
" Let me in, girls !' cried Witch Winnie's
voice " let me in, quick ! before Madame
catches me." We opened the door, and
Witch Winnie burst in, and sat laughing on

28 WITCH WINNIE.

the floor ; from her dress, which had been
gathered up in her hands, and had served as
a market-basket, rolled a quantity of paper
bags and parcels lemons, bottles of olives,
sugar, mixed pickles, crackers, sardines,
macaroons, nuts, raisins, candy, etc., etc.

" Help yourselves, girls," she chuckled .
" We'll have the spread, after all." I have
been around the corner and bought out Mr.
Beeny's little grocery." Then broke in a
chorus of voices

" How did you ever get out of the house ?'

"Was Cerberus asleep?' (Cerberus was
our nickname for the janitor.)

" How very sweet of you ! '

" But how extravagant ! '

" O girls! these pickled limes are too lovely
for anything.

Adelaide appeared with her ewer. " I'll
make the lemonade," she said, and began
rolling the lemons with Milly's curling-stick,
while Emma Jane Anton manipulated the
can-opener with energy and success. Each
girl flew to her room for her tooth-mug, and
we drank Witch Winnie's health in brimming
bumpers of lemonade.

" How did you ever manage it?' : Milly
asked again.

BOARDING. SCHOOL SCRAPES,

"I climbed down the fire-escape." Witch
Winnie giggled.

" But you had to drop twelve feet onto
the sidewalk !"

" What of that ? I've done it in the gym-
nasium from the trapeze many a time."

" But you never came back that w r ay ? '

"Hardly. I rang the basement bell, and
when Cerberus said he'd tell Madame, I made
him a present of three packages of cigarettes
and some Limburger cheese, and I am quite
certain that he will never say a word."

Witch Winnie's generosity and good-fel-
lowship had won the day. From that
moment we took her into our hearts.

The ice-cream which Milly had ordered
arrived the next day, but we were all too ill
to touch it ; we had feasted without restraint
on our ne\v chum's bountiful but somewhat
heterogeneous repast, and were paying the
penalty with rousing headaches, but in our
fiercest pangs we were still ready to declare
that if there ever was a trump it was Witch
Winnie.

CHAPTER II.

GUINEVERE S GOWN.

RISTOCRATIC
Adelaide was now
as deeply attached
to "that little witch"
Winnie as she had been
prejudiced against her,
and Winnie, who had
hitherto spoken of her new
friend as "that stuck-up
Armstrong girl," was now
her devoted admirer.

Although this state of
affairs was perfectly agree-
able to the Amen Corner, it was not equally
so to the Hornets, They had endured Win-
nie's removal as a piece of Madame's tyranny,
had looked upon their Queen as a martyr,
and had taken it for granted that we w r ould
make things extremely uncomfortable for
her. They perceived, with astonishment,

GUINEVERE'S GOWN.

iihat we welcomed her heartily, and when it
dawned upon them by degrees that Winnie
was herself happy in the change, that she
actually promenaded in the corridor with an
arm lovingly twined about the waist of that
odious Tib Smith, that the placard " En-
gaged " appeared as frequently on the outer
door of the Amen Corner, and that Winnie's
lessons and behavior improved so much that
she was actually becoming a favorite with
the teachers instead of their special torment
the indignation of the Hornets' Nest knew
no bounds.

It showed itself in a practical joke origi-
nated by Cynthia, which might have been
very amusing had it not been spiced with
malice. I have spoken of our literary society
and its projected entertainment. We were
to have a series of tableaux; among others,
Guinevere kneeling before an altar. Milly
had been chosen to represent Guinevere on
account of her beautiful hair, and because
she spent her Saturdays and Sundays at
home, and could have any costume arranged
for herself. What was our disappointment,
one Monday morning, to receive a note from
Milly saying that she would not be able to
take part in the entertainment, as her mother

32 WITCH WINNIE.

was going to Washington for a fortnight
and had decided that, as Milly looked pale, a
little outing would do her good. This note
was read to the literary society amid groans
from the members. " We can't give up that
tableau." " Adelaide, you take the part."
" Can't ; my hair is as black as a crow's wing.
Tib's hair is lovely when it is down. It falls
to her knees, and it has the sheen of molten
gold. Girls, you must see it," and Adelaide
proceeded to pull my braids apart ; I pro-
testing all the time that it was absurd to

have a freckled Guinevere who was as home-
ly as a hedge fence.

" Granted," replied Witch Winnie, " but
nobody is going to see your face, child ; you
pose with your back to the audience, and as
none of the girls know what regal hair you
have, it will be such fun to have them guess
who it is."

All of the other girls joined in persuading
me, excepting one of the Hornets, who lifted
her voice in favor of Cynthia Vaughn.

" But, girls, what am I to do for a cos-
tume ? "

"Why didn't Milly think to send hers
along?' said Adelaide. " We might write
her."

GUINEVERE'S GOWN. 33

No, there's no time ; she leaves this morn-

on the ' limited.'
" If you would like, I'll take the part,"
Cynthia Vaughn suggested. " I've all that
canton flannel ermine, and the ruff made
out of the old window curtains, which I

wore when I was Oueen Elizabeth."

"That ruff would be a frightful anachro-
nism," said Emma Jane Anton.

" And the ermine has served three times
already. Thank you, we'll manage some-
how," Witch Winnie asserted, confidently.

We retired to the Amen Corner to talk it
over. " If worse comes to worst," said
Witch Winnie, " I know I can make a mag-
nificent train out of the plush table-cloth
in Madame's library."

" But how will you ever get it ? '

" Emma Jane must ask her to lend it to
us ; she'll do anything for Emma Jane."

" Emma Jane declines to act in this
emergency," said Miss Anton, firmly.

"You wouldn't be so mean !"

" But I would ; Adelaide, please read Mil-
ly's letter again; I didn't half hear it."

" I must have dropped it in the Society
hall; I will get it after dinner. If she had
thought that Tib might be chosen to take
3

WITCH WINNIE.

her place, she would have done anything- for
the honor of the Amen Corner."

Here some one tapped at the door, and
announced, " A letter for Miss Armstrong."

"It's from Miliy! 'exclaimed Adelaide,
6i and it looks as if it had been opened, and
pasted up again."

" I thought Madame boasted that she
never submitted her young ladies to that
sort of espionage," said Witch Winnie.

" Girls, girls ! ' Adelaide fairly shrieked ;
"just listen to this ! Milly writes

" * I forgot to say in my last that mamma's
maid is putting the finishing touches to my
costume, and Gibson will bring it around
to-morrow. The dress (purple velvet) is
one which mamma wore last summer when
she was presented to the Queen. The lace
which trims it was made to order from a
pattern of her own selection in Brussels.
You may keep the crown, for the gems in it
are only Rhinestones. Aunt Fanny wore it
at a costume ball, and they sparkle like the
real thing. Be careful of the lace, for
mamma prizes it highly.

'Yours, Milly.

' P. S. I've coaxed papa to lend you a
silver chatelaine, old French repousse, linked
with emeralds, which he keeps in his cabinet

GUINEVERE'S GOWN. 35

of curiosities. It shows finely against the
velvet.

How we all exclaimed and chattered !
"Now what will the Hornets' Nest say to
that ? "

" Canton flannel ermine indeed ! '

" I should like to see them bring on their
old mosquito-netting ruff ! '

" Real emeralds ! A diadem flashing with
diamonds !"

" Don't tell them a word about it until
Tib dawns on them in all her glory on
Wednesday night."

It was hard to keep this resolution, but we
did. The Hornets were giggling and
whispering among themselves as we
marched in to dinner, with all the importance
given by the possession of a state secret.
The other girls relapsed into silence as we
took our seats, and watched us with strange,
significant looks.

" I've been looking up the matter in
Racinet's work on Costume," remarked Cyn-
thia Vaughn, ''and I find you were right,
Miss Anton ; ruffs did not come in until long
after Arthur's reign."

I would like to consult the book," Emma

^6 WITCH WINNIE.

Jane replied, " unless you can tell me whether
chatelaines were worn at that period."

Here a small Hornet was seized with
strangulation, and had to be vigorously
thumped upon the back by her friends.

" Oh, I think so," Cynthia replied, sweet-
ly, disregarding her friend's condition.
" V/ouldn't it be sweet to have Guinevere
wear one ? Miss Smith is so artistic, I'm sure
she could cut one out of gilt paper."

Adelaide scouted the idea. " Whatever
we get up for that costume," she said, " I am
determined shall be real, no imitation chate-
laines, or anything else."

Cynthia lifted her eyebrows. " Perhaps
you will secure one of Queen Victoria's court
robes?' she remarked, icily.

It was on Adelaide's lips to reply that we
might have a robe which had figured at a
court reception of the English Queen, but
she felt Witch Winnie's foot upon hers, and
replied that in undertaking this tableau the
Amen Corner felt confident that they could
carry it through creditably, and we therefore
begged to be excused from the dress
rehearsal that afternoon. We left the dining-
room in a body, and the Hornets laughed
aloud before we closed the door. '"They

GUINEVERE'S GOWN: 37

laugh best who laugh last/ ' said Witch Win-
nie. "Won't those girls fairly expire when
they see Tib in her grand role !"

Tuesday was a long and weary day for us.
We started at every knock, expecting a sum-
mons to the janitor's room to receive a pack-
age, but none came. We retired much dis-
appointed ; and we held a council of war
before breakfast. The Roseveidts' butler
had evidently proved false to his trust, and
the costume was waiting for us at the family
mansion on Fifth Avenue.

" I will ask Madame at breakfast to excuse
me from my morning lessons to do an impor-
tant errand," said Witch Winnie ; " I will tell
her the entire story, and I know that, rather
than disappoint us all, she will let us go to
the Roseveidts' for the things."

Madame proved to be in good-humor, and
on reading Milly's letter readily gave Win-
nie and me the desired permission, sending
for a hansom to take us to our destination.
All of the Hornets at the lower end of the
table heard this conversation, and Adelaide
thought that Cynthia Vaughn turned green
with envy. An hour later, as we came down
the front stairs to take our hansom, Cerberus
popped his head from his office to tell us

WITCH WINNIE.

that a package had just been received for
Miss Adelaide Armstrong. " Come back,
girls!' Adelaide cried excitedly ; "here is
the costume. It can be nothing else. My,
what a big bundle ! '

We carried it between us in triumph up
the staircase. The Hornets were clustered
on the very top landing ; their faces peered
over the balustrade, and as they caught sight
of our procession a peal of derisive laughter
echoed through the hall as they scuttled
away to their nest under the eaves.

" Those Hornets have certainly gone
crazy," Emma Jane remarked, practically.
She was carrying her corner of the package,
and was as interested as the rest of us in the
arrival of the costume. We entered our
study-parlor in suppressed excitement, and
impatiently cut the knots, and tore open the
wrappings, when, behold ! another package,
scrupulously tied. This paper removed re-
vealed another, then another, and another,
and the fact slowly dawned upon us that we
had been victimized. " Girls ! ' exclaimed
Witch Winnie, sitting down on the floor in
despair, " it's a wicked sell of those Hornets:
there is nothing here."

Emma Jane Anton kept on methodically

GUINE VER&S GO IVN.

removing the wrappers and folding them
neatly. " Perhaps," suggested Adelaide,
"they have merely arranged this hoax to
fool us, and the costume is still at the Rose-
veldts'."

" It's just like that Cynthia Vaughn to do
such a thing ; we'll go, all the same," Witch
Winnie replied, rising hopefully and tying
on her veil. At this juncture Emma Jane
reached a pasteboard box marked " Violet
velvet court dress." Lifting the lid discov-
ered a quantity of trash. An empty sardine-
box bore the label " Diamond Crown ; '' a
dilapidated bustle was marked " Brussels
point lace ; ' a mixed-pickle bottle was filled
with apple-parings and labeled (( Old re-
pousse chatelaine, reign of Arthur I.; the
real article ; must be returned."

A howl of mingled laughter and dismay
rose from our corner. " Cynthia Vaughn
wrote that letter which purported to be
from Milly. Well, it's a real good prac-
tical joke, anyway," said Witch Winnie ;
"better than I thought the Hornets could get
up without my help. Let us show them that
we can take a joke, and good-naturedly
acknowledge ourselves sold."

" And in the mean time what am I to do

WITCH WINNIE.

for a costume ? You know the tableaux
come off to-night."

" That puts another face on the matter."

' I suppose Cynthia would be only too glad
to take the part even now."

" After all we have said, and your name
printed on the programme- -never !' This
from Adelaide.

" I'll tell you what w r e will do," suggested
Winnie ; " the hansom is still waiting at the
door ; Tib and I will drive to a costumer's
and hire something. I found the address of
a place on the Bowery the other day and
fortunately saved it. Hold your heads up
high; we will not acknowledge ourselves
defeated yet."

As Witch Winnie and I sped out of the
quiet square and down the great teeming
thoroughfare, the Elevated trains jarring
overhead and the motley crowd surging
about us, a misgiving of conscience swept
over me. What would Madame say ? This
was not what we had obtained permission
to do. This was very different from Fifth
Avenue, and not at all a quarter of the city
in which young ladies should be wandering
without chaperons.

We were quite desperate, however, and it

GUINEVERE'S GOWN. 41

seemed too late to turn back. The hansom
stopped before a Hebrew misfit clothing
store where dress suits were announced as
on hire by the evening. Flaunting placards
above told that costumes for the theatrical

profession and for fancy balls were to be
let in the fourth story. We climbed a dirty
staircase, and after knocking by mistake at an
intelligence office for Dienst Mddchen, a hair-
dyeing and complexion-enameling rooms,
a chiropodist's, and a clairvoyant's, we found
ourselves in a room piled from floor to ceil-
ing with costumes. A fat German, who
looked as if he were some second-hand
piece of furniture, very much soiled as to
his linen, and the worse for wear as to his
physical mechanism, admitted us and did
the honors of the establishment. 1 glanced
around at the motley objects which filled
the wareroom ; gaudy spangled dresses,
with a sprinkle of saw-dust (suggestive of
the arena) clinging to the worn cotton vel-
vet, many-fuffled shockingly brief skirts of
rose-colored gauze that had spun like so
many teetotums behind flaring foot-lights,
tinfoil suits of armor that had come in all
mud-besplashed from parading the streets
at the last grand procession, the faded ban-

42 WITCH WINNIE.

ners which flapped above them so jauntily,
drooping wearily now from the rafters,
covered with dust and festooned by the
spiders. A row of dominoes dependent
from a neighboring clothes-line rustled with
an air of mystery, and a heap of masks upon
the floor seemed to leer and wink from their
eyeless windows.

''I am afraid," said Winnie, drawing near-
er the door, "that you haven't anything so
nice as I want."

" I haf effery dings, effery dings," replied
the ponderous costumer ; " you don't t'ink I
keeps dose fine procade for the costume ball
out here in te tust, ain't it ? '

" I wanted something for a school enter-
tainment," Winnie explained.

" So, so ; I haf effery clings, I tole you, for
de school. Ya, from dose Kindergarten to
dot universities. Dings for little peebles
and dings for big peebles."

11 1 should like to know what kind of big
people patronize your establishment ? '

" Sometimes dose ladies who make de
church fair. I have some angel wing for de
Christmas mystery, de mask for de Muzzer
Goose pantomine. Sometimes dose fine
ladies dey make some peesness mit me.

GUINEVERE S GOWN. 43

When de shentlemen step on dose trail or
spill coffee on dot tablier, den I buys dot
dress, and my designer she make it all new
again. I haf one ferry nice designer ; she
haf many times arrange ze historical costume
for dose grand painting what make ze
artists."

" Then I think I would like to talk with
her," said Winnie.

" Ya, ya, dat vas right. Here, Mrs. Hal-
sey, Mrs. Halsey ! Perhaps you petter go
in de sewing-room, ain't it ? '

He opened the door into a back room
where a sweet pale-faced woman sat sewing
little bells on a jester's cap.

We were struck from the outset with
Mrs. Halsey's refined appearance, and we
were not surprised when she showed, by her
complete understanding of what we required,
that she had read Tennyson and had some
idea of historical periods in costume. She
drew a purple velvet robe from a great
bundle. I exclaimed in disapproval as I
noticed a horrid crimson border.

" But this is coming off," said the little
woman, using her scissors briskly, " and in-
stead, I will stitch some gold braid applique
in a lily design. See, how do you like this

44 WITCH WINNIE.

effect?" and her deft fingers flew, coiling and
twisting the gilt braid until a really regal
combination was produced.

"Then we will have it open at the side to
show a white satin petticoat, also laced with
gold, and the sleeves can be puffed and
slashed with white satin. I arranged a cos-
tume like that for Mary Anderson."

" Is it possible that such a noted and suc-
cessful actress gets her costumes at a place
like this ?" asked Witch Winnie.

" Oh, no," replied Mrs. Halsey, with a
sigh; " when I made Miss Anderson's dresses
I was designer for Madame Celeste's estab-
lishment. I should be there now if it were
not for Jim."

She was fitting the dress to me, and as this
would take several minutes, Winnie asked,

" Who is Jim ?" '

11 Jim is my son ; he is twelve years old,
and the brightest little fellow, for his age, you
ever saw. He leads his classes at the public
school, has a record of 100 in mathematics,
for all that he has such a poor chance at pre-
paring his lessons."

" How does that happen ?" It was I who
inquired this time.

" Jim is an ambitious boy; ambitious to

GUINE VERB'S GOWN.

help me as well as to keep a place in his
class, and a milkman pays him a dollar a
week for driving* his cart over to Jersey City
to meet the milk train and fill his cans for
him every morning."

" That is very nice."

"If it did not break so cruelly into the
poor boy's hours for sleep. In order to dress
and snatch a bite before he goes down to
the stable and harnesses, he has to rise at
3 o'clock. This enables the milkman to
sleep until Jim arrives with the milk at 6
o'clock, in time to begin the morning rounds.
I make the boy take an hour's sleep after
this, but it is not enough."

" He ought to go to bed very early."

" Yes, but the lessons ; when are they to
be learned ? He shouts them out in his
sleep. ' If I gain seven hundred dollars from
a rise of 2^/2 per cent, in Pennsylvania Rail-
road stock, what was my original invest-
ment ?' He has his father's quickness for
figures. Bless his heart ! he never had any
money to invest in railroad stocks, and by
heaven's help he never will."

" I am not so sure about that," said Witch
Winnie. " How did it happen that you lost
your position at Madame Celeste's on account

46 WITCH WINNIE.

of Jim ?" She had finished the fitting and
was removing the pins from her mouth, but
Winnie drew on her gloves very slowly ; we
were both interested.

" Madame kept me for such late hours
that I did not reach home until Jim was
asleep, and at last she proposed to raise my
salary, but said that I must sleep in the
establishment, so as to be on hand to open
early in the morning. This was after Mad-
ame's very successful winter, when she bought
a house out of town, and did not find it con-
venient to come in until late in the day. I
told her that I would accept her offer if Jim
could be with me ; but there was no room
for him, and we thought it best to stick to-
gether. I get through here at 6 o'clock, and
can cook Jim's dinner. But it's hard for the
boy. If I could only afford to let him have
his entire time for his study but his dollar a
week half pays our rent."

" Wouldn't it have been better for you
both if you had remained at Madame
Celeste's, and had sent Jim to boarding-
school ? There are such nice cadet schools
up the Hudson."

A faint smile overspread the woman's face.
" Madame always insisted that her employees

GUINEVERE'S GOWN.

should dress well. I know exactly what it
cost me. It would have left just a dollar and
a half a week for Jim. Do you know of any
boarding-school that would have taken him
at those rates ?"

Winnie sorrowfully confessed that she did
not, and we reluctantly took our leave, Mrs.
Halsey promising to finish the costume im-
mediately, and to send it by Jim in ample
time for the evening's performances.

Our escapade lay heavily upon my con-
science in spite of our success in obtaining
the costume, but I felt still more troubled
for poor Mrs. Halsey and her overworked
boy. " I wonder," I said to Winnie, " if
Madame could not make him useful here at
the school, and let him work for his board,
tend furnace and run errands."

"You could not tell her about him without
confessing our lark, and don't you do that
for the world!"

"No," I promised, against my will, "of
course not, unless you consent ; the secret is
half yours, but I really think it would be the
best way."

Adelaide was greatly interested in our
report. " I am to have my violin dress for
the concert made at Madame Celeste's," she

48 WITCH WINNIE,

said, "and I mean to ask her about this Mrs.
Halsey."

Jim came with the package while w^e were
at supper, and Adelaide ran down to the
office to receive it. She told us that he was
an undersized, stoop-shouldered boy, with a
cough which she fancied he had contracted
by driving in the early morning mists. He
took off his hat like a little gentleman, how-
ever, and his finger-nails and teeth were clean.
Any clown might wear good clothes, Ade-
laide insisted, but these little details marked
the gentleman. He had at first declined
the dime which Adelaide proffered, but ac-
cepted it on her insistance that it was only
for car-fare and it was raining. He put it
away carefully in a little worn purse which
contained just one cent, at the same time
remarking, " I don't mind the rain, and I can
get Ma the quinine the doctor says she
ought to be taking."

" That's the boy for me," Witch Winnie
remarked ; " he's got clear grit, and tender-
ness for his mother besides."

And Guinevere's gown ? It was a beauty.
The golden lilies gave it a sumptuous effect,
and it fulfilled almost exactly the promises
of the forged letter ; there was even a riviere

GUINEVERE'S GOWN.

of fish-scale pearls and glass beads down
the side, which really resembled a chatelaine.
The Hornets were overcome with amaze-
ment simply dazzled and dazed. Accord-
ing to Adelaide who always resorted to
French to express her superlatives, and, when
that language proved inadequate, pieced it
out with translations of American slang or
coinage of her own they were " Complete-
ment bouleversees, stupefies y inortifiees^ et
frappde plus haute (fun- q'un -kite f %

CHAPTER TIL

THE PRINCESS.

HAT'S the dear old

lady,
In a green tabby

gown

And a great lace
cap,

With long lace ruffles
hanging down.

There she sits

In a cushioned high-back-
ed seat,

Covered over with crimson
damask.

With a footstool at her
feet.

You see what a handsome room it is,
Full of old carving and gilding ;

The house is, one may be sure,

Of the Elizabethan style of building.

Mary Howiit.

Our interest in Mrs. Halsey and her son
slumbered for a time ; not that we forgot

THE PRINCESS.

5 1

her, or gave up our determination to do some-
thing for Jim whenever the opportunity
offered. It was soon to come, but our time
and interest were filled with other things.

Just now it was a mystery and what so
dear to a girl's imagination ?

It was brought up for discussion afresh,
because Miss Prillwitz had said to Emma
Jane Anton that the diadem which I wore as
Guinevere was not a suitable one for a queen,
but a rather nondescript arrangement half-
way between that of a marquis and an earL

This assumption of authoritative knowl-
edge in regard to coronets revived an old
rumor as to the noble birth of Miss Prillwitz.

No one could tell who first circulated the
report that Miss Prillwitz was a princess. It
developed little by little, I fancy, but when it
began to be whispered we received it with-
out a shadow of doubt. Miss Prillwitz was
a prim little woman, who always came to
Madame's receptions dressed in the same
brocade dress, once gaudy with a great bou-
quet pattern, but now faded into faint pink
and primrose on a background of silvery-
green, with the same carefully cleaned
gloves and fine old fan of the period of Marie
Antoinette. She wore her perfectly white

^2 WITCH WINNIE.

hair a la Pompadour, and further increased
her diminutive height by French heels, but
in spite of these artificial contrivances she
was a tiny woman, though she had dignity
enough for a very tall one. Adelaide said
she had " the unmistakable air of a grande
dame" and that she would have suspected
her in any disguise. Milly had once spied,
half tucked in her belt and dependent from
a slender chain, a miniature, set in brilliants,
of a handsome young man in uniform, a row
of decorations on his breast, crosses and stars
hanging from strips of bright ribbon. This
was a great discovery, and Milly was sure
that the original was no less a personage
than Peter the Great. She had thought out
a thrilling romance of true love crossed by
jealousy and heartbreak, which the rest of
the girls accepted as more than probable, until
Emma Jane Anton suggested that as Peter
the Great died in 1725, it would really
make the princess much older than she
appeared, to fancy that he was the hero of
her girlhood. Emma Jane Anton always
had a disagreeable faculty of remembering
dates. The other girls were unanimous in
the opinion that she knew entirely too much,
and each one looked and longed for an

THE PRINCESS.

opportunity of publicly detecting her in a
mistake and correcting her an opportunity
which never came. Milly never made her-
self offensive by being certain of anything,
and was loved and petted accordingly. The
myth of a royal lover was a congenial one,
and gained credence, though none of us dared
to give him a name or date, at least not in
the presence of Emma Jane Anton. No one
had the temerity to question Adelaide's
infallibility in detecting a great lady at first
sight. It did not ever occur to Emma Jane

Anton to ask how many princesses she
had met, and what was the "unmistakable
air ' of distinction and nobility which
announced them like a herald's proclamation.
Perhaps this was because Adelaide herself
possessed this grand air by nature, and was
far more regal in appearance and feeling
than many a Guelph or Stuart. Witch Win-
nie, perhaps because she was the mad-cap of
the boarding-school, and was always getting
into scrapes herself, snuffed a political plot,
and suggested that the princess had been
exiled on account of deep-laid machinations
against one of the reigning families, a sup-
position which would account for her living
in exile and disguise, and even in comparative

WITCH WINNIE.

poverty. This explanation, as being the
most ingenious, and affording fascinating
scope for the imagination, was the most
popular one, and was more or less elaborated
according to the individual fancy of the
young lady. Emma. Jane Anton was obliged
to admit that she might be a princess, and
that there was no harm in calling her so
amongst ourselves. Madame had let fall
some very singular expressions when she
announced the fact that we were to have
her for our teacher in Botany. Emma Jane
had heard her, and it was she who had
reported the news to the others.

11 Girls," she said, "did you ever hear any-
thing so absurd ! We are going to recite
our Botany to the princess."

" You don't mean it ! ;

''Honest! She lives in that funny old
house across the square, that Winnie always
pretends to think is haunted. We are to
parade over there three days in the week.
Madame says it's a great opportunity,
for she is really quite eminent ; writes for
scientific journals, has traveled in all sorts
of foreign countries, and lias moved in court
circles"

" I told you so ! ' exclaimed Adelaide,

THE PRINCESS.

triumphantly. " I always said she was a
true-blue princess."

" I don't know that you have quite proved
it yet," replied Emma Jane Anton, coolly,
" but Madame did sav that we would have

an opportunity of learning much more from
her than mere botany etiquette, I presume
for she went on to hint that she had been
brought up in a different school of manners
from that of our own day and country, that
we would find her peculiar in some ways,
and that she trusted to our native courtesy
to humor her little foibles, and a hundred
more things of the same sort, winding up
with that stock expression which she always
uses when she has talked a subject to shreds
and tatters ' A word to the wise is suf-
ficient.'

" I wish I had heard her," said Witch
Winnie; " I don't consider this subject talked
to tatters, by any means. I propose that this
Botany class constitute itself a committee

of investigation to clear up the mystery in
regard to the history of the princess. We
are supposed to be devoted to the study of
nature, but I consider human nature a deal
the more interesting. It will almost pay for
having to mind one's /'s and ^'s. I wonder

56 WITCH WINNIE.

what she would say if she caught me sliding
down her palace balusters ! We'll all have to
practice curtseying one step to the side,
then two back. Oh ! I'm ever so sorry I
knocked over that stand. Was the vase a
keepsake or anything? I'll buy you an-
other. No, I can't, for I've spent all my
allowance for this month. Well, you may
have that bonbonmere of mine you liked so
much. The vase was a treasure, but no one
could be vexed with Witch Winnie, and I
forgave her, of course, and would none of
the bonbonniere.

Our first glimpse at the house in which
the princess lived was as appetizing to our
imaginations as the little lady herself. It
had been built as a church - school, and
straggled around the church, shaping itself
to the exterior angles of that edifice, and in
so doing gained a number of queerly shaped
rooms, some long and narrow, and others
with irregular corners, but all bright with
southern sunshine. The princess rented
only the upper floor and the front room in
the basement. The rest of the house had
been let to other parties, but was now
vacant. How strange and lonely it must
seem, we thought, to go up and down those

THE PRINCESS.

long staircases, and peep into the unin-
habited rooms ! Rather eerie at night. " I
wouldn't live that way for the world," shiv-
ered Milly. " I should be afraid of robbers."

" Burglars don't usually choose an unoc-
cupied house for their operations," Emma
Jane remarked, sententiously.

Later, when we were better acquainted
with the princess, Milly asked her if she was
never timid. She acknowledged that she
was, but assured us that rats were one great
comfort.

"What do you mean?" Milly asked.

" Whenevaire," said the princess (in the
quaint broken English which we always
found so fascinating, English which had only
the foreignness of pronunciation and idiom,
and which Adelaide insisted was rarely so
maltreated as to be really broken, but was
only a little dislocated) " whenevaire I hear
one cautious sawing noise which shall be as
if ze burglaire to file ze lock, I say to my-
self, 'Ah, ha ! Monsieur Rat have invited to
himself some companie in ze pantry of ze
butler/ When zere come one tappage on ze
escalier, as zo some one make haste to
depart ze house, I turn myself upon my bed
and make to myself explanation Rats !

WITCH WINNIE.

When ze footsteps mysterious steal so softly
down ze hall, and make pause justly at my
door, then I reach for ze great cane of
my fazzer, which I keep at all times by ze
canopy of my bed, and I pound on ze floor
boom, boom, Monsieur Rat scelerat, and
it is thus I make my reassurance/'

The princess received us In what had been
the basement dining-room, which she called
her laboratory. The entire south side was
one broad window of small diamond-shaped
panes. Forming a sill to this window was
a row of low, wide cases for the reception of
herbaria, and the room had a peculiar herby
smell, a mixture of sweet-fern and faint aro-
matic herbs.

The cushions which converted the tops of
these cases into seats were stuffed with
dried beech-leaves.

The princess quoted Latin to us for her
preference for the fine springy upholstery
which beech-leaves give, Silva domus, cubil-
iafrondes. (" The wood a house, the foliage
a couch.")

The other furniture in the room was a
long table placed in front of the book-case
divan, a table covered w r ith piles of MS.
books, a press for specimens, two micro-

THE PRINCESS.

scopes, and a great blue china bowl contain-
ing" pussy-willows in water our specimens
for the day's study. High book-cases, whose
contents could only be guessed at, for the
glass doors w r ere lined with curiously shirred
green silk, were ranged against the wall op-
posite, and at one end of the room stood a
monumental German stove in white porce-
lain; at the other was Miss Prillwitz's chair, a
high-backed Gothic affair, which had once
served as an episcopal sedilium, but had been
removed on the occasion of a new furnishing
of the church.

It formed a stately background for the
little figure. I often found myself making
sketches of her on the sheets of soft paper
between which we pressed our flowers, in-
stead of listening to the lecture. I liked to
imagine how she would look in a great ruff,
not of Cynthia Vaughn's mosquito net, but
of wah. p'oint de Venise.

And yet her talks were very interesting;
she was a true lover of nature, and made us
love her. She regretted that she could not
take us into the deep woods, but she opened
our eyes to the wealth of country suggest-
iveness which we could find in the city. She
introduced us personally to the scanty two

60 WITCH WINNIE.

dozen or so of trees in the little park, and
from the intimate acquaintance formed with
each of these, our appetites were whetted
for vast wildernesses of forest primeval

She opened to us the beauty which there
lies in the simple branching of the trees in
their winter nudity, the tracery of the limbs
and twigs cut clearly against a yellow sun-
set, or picked out with snow ; how the elms
gave graceful wine - glass and Greek-vase
outlines ; the snakily mottled sycamore un-
dulated its great arms like a boa-constrictor
reaching out for prey ; the birch, " the lady
of the woods," displayed her white satin
dress ; the gnarled hemlocks wrestled up-
ward, each sharp angle a defiance to the
winter storms with which they had striven
in heroic combat, the bent knees clutching
the rocks, while the aged arms writhed and
tossed in the grasp of the fiends of the air.
She showed us the beautiful parabolic curve
of the willows, a bouquet of rockets ; the mili-
tary bearing of a row of Lombardy poplars
standing, in their perfect alignment, like tall
grenadiers drawn up in a hollow square.
Before the first tender blurring of the leaf-
buds we knew our trees, and loved them for
their almost human qualities,

THE PRINCESS. 6 1

Miss Sartoris had taught me, the preced-
ing summer, to look for the decorative beauty
to be found in common roadside weeds, and
we had made sketches together of dock,
elecampane, tansy, thistles, and milkweed.
I had one rich, rare day with her in a swamp,
when I ruined a pair of stockings, and made
the discovery that a skunk-cabbage was as
beautiful in its curves as a calla. I brought
these sketches to the princess, and she con-
gratulated me on the possession of my coun-
try home w r ith its gold-mines of beauty all
around.

" You are one heiress, my dear," she said,
" to ze vast wealths which you have only to
learn how you s'all enjoy. Only t'ink of
ze sousands of poor city people who haf
never had ze felicity to see a swamp ! '

I grew to appreciate the country, and to
feel that I was richer than I had thought.

Milly found a branch of study which was
not above the measure of her intellect. She
soon mastered the long names, and learned
to think, and teachers in other departments
noted an improvement. There was need for
this, for the Hornets long kept up a tradi-
tion that at one of the history examinations
Milly had been asked, " What is the Salic

62 WITCH WINNIE.

Law ? $ ' and had replied, confidently " That
no woman or descendant of a woman, can ever
in France/'

CHAPTER IV.

COURT LIFE.

RS. GROGAN, the

baby-farmer of Ric-
kett's Court, could
hardly have been
described as a court
lady, and yet she
was a very typical
specimen of the wo-
men of this locality.
But before introduc-
ing the reader to the
society of Rickett's
Court, I must first
explain how it was
that we came to
make its acquaintance.

As the time approached for the concert of
which I have spoken, Adelaide was reminded
of her determination to have a " violin dress '

made by Madame Celeste, Adelaide played

64 WITCH WINNIE.

the violin, as we thought, divinely ; she was
at least the best performer at Madame's.
" The violin is the violet," I said, quoting
from " Charles A Chester." " You must have
a violet-colored gown."

" A very delicate shade of china crepe will
do," Adelaide replied, " made up with a
darker tint, and the sleeves must be puffed
like that dress the princess wore to the tab-
leaux."

"Adelaide, dear," murmured Milly, "you
ought to wear angel sleeves to show your
lovely arms."

"And have them flop about like a ship's
pennant in a lively breeze, during that bit
of rapid bowing ? That would be too gro-
tesque."

" Puff them to the elbow," I suggested,
tl and then have a fall of soft lace that will
float back and give the turn of your wrist as
you whip the strings/"

" See here, Adelaide," remarked Witch
Winnie, " if you want something really fine,
get that Mrs. Halsey to design it for you."

*' You don't suppose that I would hire a
dress for the concert at a costumer's ? '

" I didn't say that ; you could have it made
wherever you pleased, but get Mrs, Halsey's

COURT LIFE. 65

ideas on the subject ; they are really remark-
able."

Adelaide considered the subject and acted
upon it, but, greatly to my relief, she refused
to do so without explaining the entire affair
to Madame.

" I'll not stand in the way of your having
a nice grown,'' said Witch Winnie. " Come,

Tib, let's confess."

I was overjoyed, and Madame, though duly
shocked, was not severe, She even allowed
Witch Winnie to take Adelaide to see Mrs.
Halsey, stipulating only that she should be
chaperoned by one of the teachers. Adelaide
chose Miss Sartoris, at my suggestion, both
because we liked her, and from my feel-
ing that her artistic instinct might be of
service.

The girls were disappointed to find that
Mrs. Halsey was no longer at the costumer's.
He had " pounced" her, he said, because she
was " too much of a lady for de peesness."
Fortunately he could give the girls her
address No. i, sixth floor, Rickett's Court-
It was a very disagreeable part of town.
Miss Sartoris looked doubtful as they
approached it, and was on the point of get-
ting into the carriage again as they alighted,

66 WITCH WINNIE

but Witch Winnie had already darted through
a lonsf dark hall which led to the court in

the centre of the block, and there was noth-
ing for it but to follow.

Evil smells nearly choked them as they
ran the gauntlet of that hall, and they were
no better off on emerging upon the sloppy
court. The space overhead, between the
buildings, was laced with an intricate net-
work of clothes - lines filled with garments.
Adelaide said she realized now where all
upper New York had its laundry work done,
for this was evidently not the wash of the
court people. From their appearance it was
only fair to conjecture that they were so
busy doing other people's washing that they
never had time for their own. The dirty
water seemed to be thrown from the windows
into the court, where it stood in puddles or
feebly trickled into the sewer, from which
emanated nauseous and deadly gases. Sickly
children were dabbling in these puddles.

" It makes me think of Hood's ' Lost Heir/
said Miss Sartoris

" The court,

Where he was better off than all the other young boys,
With two bricks, an old shoe, nine oyster shells, and a
dead kitten by way of toys."

. .' -

,- : *---o ri~r v >c: ~t.

WITCH WINNIE. Page 66.

COURT LIFE,

They mounted a ricketty staircase grimed
with dirt. Smells of new degrees and
varieties of loathsomeness assaulted them at
every landing. The Italian rag-pickers in
the basement were sorting their filthy wares,
while a little girl was concocting for them
the garlic stew over a charcoal brazier. The
mingled fumes came thick from the open
door. Mrs. Grogfan on the first floor had

paused in her washing to take a pull at a
villainous pipe. She came to the door still
smoking, and carrying in her arms an
almost skeleton baby, who sucked at a dirty
rag containing a crust clipped in gin. Win-
nie obtained one glimpse of the interior of
Mrs. Grogan's domicile, and drew back quite
pale. "Adelaide," she said, "the room liter-
ally swarmed with babies; that woman can-
not have so many all of the same age," In-
quiry of Mrs. Halsey enlightened them.
Mrs. Grogan was a " baby-farmer/' and
boarded these children, making a good
income thereby, as their mothers were
servants in good families. On the next
floor a family of eight were working in a
hall-bedroom, at rolling cigars. The large
rooms were occupied by some Chinese.
Mrs. Halsey thought that they used them as

68 WITCH WINNIE.

an opium den. Past more doors, up three
more pairs of stairs, and they paused at
No. i. They knocked several times, but
they could not make themselves heard above
the buzz and whirr of a sewing-machine.
Finally Winnie opened the door, and there
sat Mrs. Halsey bent over the machine,
while the floor was piled with dainty under-
clothing neatly tucked.

She sprang up, evidently pleased to see
Winnie aofain, and motioned her callers to

the only seats which the room afforded
a chair, a trunk, and a stool.

Winnie apologized for the interruption,
and explained her errand. " But perhaps you
are too busy to design this dress," Adelaide
said ; " I see you have plenty of work."

" It will not take long to make a little
sketch," Mrs. Halsey replied, "and it will be
a real pleasure for me to do it." As her
fingers moved rapidly over the paper the
girls took an inventory of the room. A
cracked cooking - stove, and a cupboard
behind it formed of a dry-goods box, but all
the utensils were scrupulously clean. A
closet, another dry-goods case on end, with
a chintz curtain in front, concealed, as Win-
nie's prying eyes ascertained, a roll of bed-

COURT LIFE. 6q

ding", which was evidently spread on the
floor at night. Mrs. Halsey knelt before a
worn table, and this, with the sewing-
machine, completed the furnishing- of the
apartment. No, in the window there was
a row of fruit - cans containing some
geraniums. Miss Sartoris discovered them,
and Mrs. Halsey apologized for their con-
dition. "They were just in bud," she said,
" but we were without coal for several days,
and they were nipped by frost."

Poor woman ! she looked as if she had
been nipped by the frost too during that
bitter experience. She coughed, and
Adelaide remarked, " You ought to drink
cream, Mrs. Halsey; they say it is better for
a cough than cod-liver oil."

" I have plenty of milk," the little woman
replied. "The milkman for whom my Jim
\vorks lets him have the milk that he
finds left over in the cans when he washes
them out after his rounds. Sometimes
there's as much as a pint, and almost always
enough for our oatmeal."

Mrs. Halsey spoke cheerily and proudly -
as of a luxury which she owed her boy.
The design was completed, and Adelaide
was delighted.

WITCH WINNIE.

"Would you like to have me make the
costume in tissue-paper?" Mrs. Halsey
asked; " the sleeve, at least, and this drapery ;
then any seamstress can make it."

" How much will it be ? ' Adelaide asked,
doubtfully wondering if her five-dollar bill
would cover the charge.

" Do you think seventy-five cents too
much ? It would take me an afternoon."

" But you could certainly earn more than
that by your sewing."

Mrs. Halsey smiled rather bitterly.
" Would you really like to know the rates at
which I work ?" she asked.

Adelaide expressed her interest. " These
pretty Mother Hubbard night-gowns sell
well, I am sure, but I know you can't
get very much for making them, for I
bought a pair at a bargain counter for a
dollar."

"It is the bargain counter which makes
the low pay. I get a dollar and thirty cents
a dozen for making them," said Mrs. Halsey,
calmly.

"A dozen!' cried Winnie; "and how
many can you make in a day ?'

" Eight."

" Then you make "

COURT LIFE.

" Eighty-five cents a clay ; but I cannot
average that/ 1

11 Can't you do better with something

else ? '

" I have made flannel skirts tucked at
a dollar a dozen, but I can only make eight
of those in a day, so that is less I have
received a dollar and twenty cents a dozen
for making chemises, which sell at seven
dollars a dozen ; and seventy-five cents a
dozen for babies' slips, three tucks and a
hem ; forty cents a dozen for corset covers,
I have a friend who works a machine in a
ruffling factory ; she makes a hundred and
fifty yards of hemmed and tucked ruffling a
clay, for which she receives twenty-five cents.
So, you see, I am better oft than some."*

" And can you live on five dollars a
week ? '

" Six dollars, Madame ; Jim earns one dol-
lar and the milk."

" You pay for rent "

" Six dollars a month ; yes, it is hard to
earn that."

" You must be thankful that you have
only Jim to provide for."

See " Campbell's Prisoners of Poverty" for still more

harrowing statistics.

72 WITCH WINNIE.

" The Sandys, on the floor below, have six
children; five of them earn wages. I think
they earn more than their cost."

"But," said Miss Sartoris, "I thought
child labor was prohibited by law."

"Not out of school hours, or at home.
Then the parents often swear a child is
over fourteen, but small of its age, and get
it into a factory. You wouldn't blame them,
Madame, if you knew all the circumstances
I do. I keep Jim at his books, but the
study, with the night work, I'm afraid is kill-
ing him. They tempt him at the saloon, too,
to take what they call a " bracer " as he goes
out to drive the milk cart at 3 in the morn-
ing, but I get up and have tea ready for
him, so that he does not yield."

"We must go now," said Miss Sartoris,
kindly. " You will send Jim with the paper
pattern to-night ?" Adelaide slipped a dollar
into Mrs. Halsey's hand, and would take no
change. And the three went down the
stairs thoughtful and sad.

" What can we do for her ? ' Winnie
asked.

"I am sure I don't know," replied Miss
Sartoris ; " she certainly seems capable of
securing better wages."

COURT LIFE. 73

" I will speak to Madame Celeste about
her," said Adelaide; and she was as good
as her word. Winnie accompanied Adelaide
when she took the pattern to the fashionable
dress-maker. The modiste listened in rapt
attention to Adelaide's explanation of the
gown wanted. She examined the design
with interest. " It is perfectly made," she
said. " Who constructed this for you? It is
the work of an expert. Ah, Miss, if I
only had now in my establishment a de-
signer who was with me last year ! She had
such a mind for costumes de fantaisie! For
Greek costumes to be worn at the harp,
and for Directoire dresses, I miss her cruelly,
but Mademoiselle's design is so explicit that
we will have no trouble."

"Was your designer a Mrs. Halsey ? '
Winnie asked.

" The same, Miss. Do you know her ?
Can you gfive me her address ? I must try

J o

to get her back."

" I think you may be able to obtain her.
She made this pattern for me ; but you will
have to bid high, for she has her boy with
her now."

" Ah yes ! the boy ; that was the trouble
between us. Seamstresses have no business

74 WITCH WINNIE.

to be mothers. Mrs. Halsey ought to give
up the child entirely to some asylum for
adoption; he will always be a handicap to
her ; but she does not see this, and clings to
him as though she thought him her only
chance for fortune. There is a mystery in
Mrs. Halsey 's life. Her husband has deserted
her, and she lives in the vain hope that he
will come back some day and explain every-
thing. She patronized me once, long ago,
when she w r as in better circumstances. She
will not talk about her husband, and I fancy
that he is one of those defaulting cashiers

who have run away to Canada. I am willing
to take her back on the old terms, but she
must give up her boy. I have an order for a
set of costumes for one of our queens of the
opera. Mrs. Halsey is just the one to take
it in hand. Where did you say she could be
found ? '

" I think you had better communicate with
her through me," Adelaide replied ; "I am
not at liberty to give her address."

" And it is very possible," Winnie spoke
up, eagerly, for she had seen a gleam in Mad-
ame Celeste's eyes, " that her friends will
provide for the boy. In that case she will
be more independent, and perhaps will not

COURT LIFE.

be willing to return at the old salary. What
shall we say is the most that you will offer."

" Five dollars a week and her board; that
is very good pay, Miss; fifty cents more than
I paid her when she was with me."

The girls could hardlv wait to reach the

13 j

Amen Corner to talk the matter over. Milly
was all sympathy. " I will write to papa,"
she said, " and get him to send Jim to a
boarding-school. I'll send for several circu-

<_3

lars, and find out how much it costs."

As an answer from Mr. Roseveldt might
be expected the next day, we decided to
wait for it. Adelaide regretted that her

father was in Omaha, as she was sure that
he would have aided in the scheme.

Mr. Roseveldt's answer was most discour-
aging. He regarded Milly's plan as mere
sentimental nonsense, and would take no
interest in it.

''You might save something out of your
allowance, Milly," suggested the audacious
Winnie.

11 I give away three- fourths of it now,"
Milly replied, in an injured tone. " What
with the flowers I have on the organ every
day for Miss Hope, and the favors for the
gcrman, which I always furnish, and the

76 WITCH WINNIE.

bonbons I give you girls, and all my other
extras "

" But, Milly dear," I exclaimed, " w r e would
all ever so much rather you spent the candy
money for Jim than on us."

" But I want some candy for myself, and
I am not going to be so mean as to munch
it, and not pass any to the other girls."

It would have been a real deprivation
to Milly to do without her beloved can-
dy. She gloated over luscious pasty
" lumps of delight ' in the way of marsh-
mallows and chocolate creams, candied
fruits and matrons glacees, and her silver
bonbonniere was always filled with the most
expensive candied violets and rose-leaves.
Worse than this, there were certain little
cordial drops, which were a peculiar weak-
ness of Milly's ; none of us knew with what
an awful danger she was playing, or that
Milly inherited a taste for alcoholic beverages
through several generations. But Milly was
not selfish.

"Very well, girls," she said, with a sigh, " if
you will go without, 1 will, and we will form
a total abstinence candy society. I know
just how much that means for Jim, for I paid
Maillard eight dollars last month."

COURT LIFE. 77

" You are a good girl," spoke up Emma
Jane, " and if you hold to that resolution,
Milly Roseveldt, I will deal you out a cake
of maple sugar every day, from a box I've
just received from some Vermont cousins.
I was wondering what I should do with it,
for I don't care for sweets."

Milly 's face brightened ; all unconsciously
she was doingf as great a kindness to herself

o <_>

as to Jim, and the pure maple sugar was a
good substitute for the unwholesome con-
coctions of the confectioner ; it satisfied her
craving for sweets, and did not poison her
appetite.

The rest of us added our small contribu-
tions, but the aggregate only amounted to
three dollars a week, and we were unable
to learn of any boarding-school to which
Jim could be sent at those rates.

Winnie had communicated Madame Ce-
leste's offer to Mrs. Halsey. " It would be just
the thing if I were alone," she replied, "but
what would Jim do without me ?'

" Perhaps you can board him somewhere,"
Winnie suggested ; and she told of the sum
which we girls had promised.

"If I knew of any respectable place where
he would have good influences, I would

78 WITCH WIXNIE.

accept your kindness, as a loan, for a little
while," Mrs. Halsey replied, " for my first
earnings must go for clothes. I have friends
in Connecticut ; perhaps they will take Jim."

But Mrs. Halsey found that her friends
had moved West. She thanked us for our
interest, but said that there seemed nothing
better to do than to continue as they were.

"I can't bear to tell Madame Celeste that
she declines her offer," said Adelaide. " We
must find a place for that boy."

" I don't see how," replied Winnie; but she
saw, that afternoon ; it came to her all by a
sudden inspiration during our botany lesson.

CHAPTER V.

LITTLE PRINCE DEL PARADISO.

HAT day the botany
class found their teach-
er in a flutter of excite-
ment. There was a
fresh, pink glow in the
faded cheeks, and an
unusual sparkle in the
kindly eyes. She seat-
ed herself in the epis-
copal chair, lifted her
lorgnette, and began
to arrange the speci-
mens for the day's lesson, but her hand
trembled so that she could scarcely adjust
the microscope, and the papers on which her
notes were written sifted through her fingers
and were strewn in confusion on the floor.

" Are you ill, Miss Prillwitz ?" Adelaide
asked, in alarm.

' No, Miss Armstrong," replied the princess,

6 79

So WITCH WINNIE.

" it is not a painful in my system, and it is
not a sorry ; it is a pleasant. I shall expect
to myself a company, and this is to me so
seldom that I find myself cgare what you
call it? scatter? sprinkled ?-- as to my
understanding/'

We all looked our interest, and Winnie
ventured to ask " One of your relations,
Miss Prillwitz ? "

" Yes," replied the little lady ; " he is of
my own family, though to see him I have
never ze pleasure. It ees ze little Prince del
Paradiso."

We girls pinched each other under the
table, while Milly murmured, "A prince!
How perfectly lovely ! '

" Yes," replied Miss Prillwitz; " ze birth-
right to ziss little poy is one great, high,
nobilitie, la plus haute noblesse, but he know
nossing of it, nossing whateffer. He haf ze
misfortune to be exported from his home
when one leetle child ; he haf been elevated
by poor peoples to think himself also a poor.
He know nossing of ze estates what belong
his family, and better he not know until he
make surely his title, and he make to himself
some education which shall make him suit
to his position."

LITTLE PRINCE DEL PARADISO. 81

"How did you know about this little
stolen prince ? ' Emma Jane asked.

" I receive message from his older bruzzer
to take him to my house provisionellement*
till his rights and his his what you call
his sameness ? '

" You mean his identity ? '

"Yes, yes, his die entity can be justly prove."

" It seems to me," said Witch Winnie, impul-
sively, " that he can't be a very kind elder
brother to be so indifferent."

" My dear child, you make my admiration
with what celeritude you do arrive always
at exactly ze wrong conclusion. Ze prince
haf made great effort to recover his little
bruzzer, but he must guard himself from ze
false claimants, ze impostors."

"Then the little boy who is coming to
you," said Emma Jane, " may not be the
real prince, after all ? '

" That is a possible," Miss Prillwitz admit-
ted, " but it is not a probable. Somesing
assure me zat he s'all prove his nobility."

" How very interesting," said Milly. " Was
he stolen away from home by gypsies ? '

" No, my child, he was not steal. He
wandered himself away from his fazzer's
house and was lost.

82 WITCH WINNIE.

" How old is he now ?"

" Twelve year."

Witch Winnie started ; that was just
Jim Halsey's age, and what a difference
in the destiny awaiting the two boys !
One the son of a king, the other of a
criminal.

" Will you to see ze little chamber of ze
petit prince ?" asked Miss Prillwitz.

We were all overjoyed by the suggestion,
and the eager little woman led us to a
room just under the roof, with a dormer-
window looking out upon the roof of the
church.

Milly ran directly to this window, and
drawing aside the curtains looked out, but
started back again half frightened, for a
carved gargoyle under the eaves was very
near and leered at her with a malicious,
demoniacal expression. He was a grotesque
creature with bat wings, lolling tongue, and
long claws, but harmless enough, for the
doves perched on his head and preened their
iridescent plumage in the sunshine. The
church roof just here was a wilderness
of flying buttresses and pinnacles ; the
chimes were still far overhead, and rang
out, as we entered the chambers, my fa-

LITTLE PRINCE DEL PARADISO. g 1

vorite hymn " Sun of my soul, thou Saviour
dear."

I have not yet described the room itself.
We all exclaimed at its quaint beauty as we
entered.

It was papered with an old-fashioned vine
pattern, the green foliage twined about a
slender trellis, and this gave the room, which
was really quite small, the effect of an arbor
with space beyond. There was a patch of
dark green carpet with a mossy pattern
before the bed, which was very simple and
dressed in white. In the window recess was
a dry-goods box, upholstered in a fern-pat-
terned chintz of a restful green tint, and
serving, with its cushions, both as a divan
and as a chest for clothing. There \vas a
little corner wash-stand with a toilet set
decorated with water-lilies and green lily-
pads, and there was a little sliding curtain
of green China silk with a shadow-pattern
at the window, while through the uncur-
tained upper space one saw, beyond the
church roof, the trees of the park.

"O Miss Prillwitz!" I exclaimed, " it is
just Aurora Leigh's room over again. You
modeled it on Mrs. Browning's description,
did you not ?

8 4

WITCH WINNIE.

' I had a little chamber in the house,
As green as any privet-hedge a bird
Misrht choose to build in ...

the walls

Were green, the carpet was pure green;

the straight
Small bed was curtained greenly,

and the folds
Hung green about the window,

which let in
A dash of dawn dew from its greenery,

the honeysuckle.'

''I haf nefer ze pleasure to know zai
room," said Miss Prillwitz, her eyes kindling.

" How perfectly sweet !" exclaimed Ade-
laide. " It is like * a lodge in some vast
wilderness.' I didn't know that there was
a place in New York so like the country."

" Will the prince study botany with us ? '
Milly asked, as we descended the stairs.

" I fear he is not ready for ze botany.
His education haf been neglect. But you
s'all see him oftenly. I must beg you not to
tell him zat he is a prince ; zis must not
divulge to him until ze proper time."

<; And then," added Emma Jane, " it
would be cruel to excite hopes which may
be doomed to disappointment."

The princess smiled. " I do not fear zat,"

LITTLE PRINCE DEL PARADISO. 85

she said. " And now, young ladies, I must
make you my excuse, and beg Miss Arm-
strong she s'all hear ze class ze remains of
ze hour ; I must go to ze market for prepare
ze young prince his supper."

She hurried away, and we attempted to
turn our minds to our lesson. Adelaide had
just exclaimed that in botany the term hop
signified small, and dog large, but she
broke off the statement with the exclama-
tion, " And do you see, girls, what this
proves ? '

" That dog-roses are large roses," replied

Emma Jane.

11 That the Chinese laundry man around
the corner, Hop Sin, is a little sinner," said
Winnie.

" No, no, I don't mean that, but she said
that the Prince del Paradiso was related to
her ; then, of course, she must belong to the
Paradiso family as well, and what we have
so long suspected is really true. She is a
genuine princess, and probably the daughter
of a king."

" I am not so sure of that," replied Emma
Jane.

" Do you suspect Miss Prillwitz of being
an impostor?' Adelaide asked, coldly.

86 WITCH WINNIE.

" Certainly not," replied Emma Jane; " but
in many European countries every son of
a prince is called a prince, instead of the
eldest son only, as in England, and all the
sons of all the younger sons are princes, and
so on to the last descendant ; and I presume
it is so with the daughters as well ; so that
the title must often exist where there are no
estates."

" But Miss Prillwitz said that the Prince
del Paradiso was heir to immense estates,"
Milly insisted.

" But that proves nothing in her own case,"
Adelaide admitted. " Some day, perhaps
she will tell us more about herself, since she
has begun to open her heart to us."

At that moment the door-bell rang, and as
the princess kept no servant, Winnie went to
the door. She was gone a long time, and
came back looking grave and distraught-
giving an evasive answer when we asked
her who had called, I wondered at this
because, as I sat nearest the door, I had over-
heard a part of the conversation, and knew
that it referred to the little boy who was
expected. " Fie cannot come," a voice had
said ; "he has a situation where he can learn
a trade.' This was of so much interest to

LITTLE PRINCE DEL PARADISO. 87

us all that I wondered why Winnie did not
immediately report it.

As soon as we returned to the school she
obtained an interview with Madame, and
permission to see Mrs. Halsey in reference
to the Celeste situation ; Madame stipulat-
ing- that she must not ask this favor for a
long time, as she did not like to have her
pupils frequent the tenement district. I
offered to go with Winnie, and was sur-
prised that she declined my company. She
returned glowing with suppressed excite-
ment.

"Mrs. Halsey has accepted Madame
Celeste's offer," she exclaimed ; " she leaves
the court to-morrow, let us hope for good
and all. O girls, it is a horrible place! I
saw worse sights than when I was there
before."

" And Jim ? ' we asked.

" Jim is provided for. We are to pay three
dollars a week for him for the present, until
Mrs Halsey gets on her feet."

" Did she find a good place for him ? '

" An excellent place; but you must not
ask me another question, and if any
mysterious circumstances should come to
your observation within a few clays, you are

88 WITCH WINNIE.

not to say a thing, or even look surprised.
Promise, every one of you."

" A mystery ! how delightful !" exclaimed
Milly. " It's almost as good as the little
prince. You can rely on us ; we will help
you, Winnie, whatever it is, for we know it's
all right if it's your doing."

Emma Jane was not present, and I
remarked that, while the rest of us would
believe in Winnie without understanding
her, and even in spite of the most suspicious
circumstances, I was not sure that we
could trust Emma Jane so far.

" Emma Jane will see nothing to suspect,
and Milly, I know, will stand by me. It's only
you two that I am afraid of Adelaide,
because she has seen Jim ; and Tib, from
her natural smartness in smelling out a
secret."

" Whatever it is, Winnie, we believe you
could never do anything very bad," said
Adelaide.

" But I have," Winnie replied; " some-
thing just reckless. I'm in for the worst
scrape of my life, and just as I was trying
so hard to be good. I shall never be any-
thing but a malefactor, and maybe get
expelled, and throw the dear Amen Corner

LITTLE PRINCE DEL PARADISO 89

into disgrace. I'd better have staid queen
of the Hornets, for I shall be nothing
but Witch Winnie to the end of the
chapter/'

CHAPTER VI.

MRS. HETTERMAN THROWS LIGHT ON THE

MYSTERY.

RS. BETTER-

MAN came in-
to our life in
consequence of
a train of troub-
les which arose
in the board-
ing-school from
the frequent
change of the
cook. Madame
had been serv-
ed for several
years by a faith-
ful colored man,
who had suddenly taken it into his head to
go off as steward on a gentleman's yacht.
She had supplied his place by a Biddy, who

was found intoxicated on the kitchen floor.

9 o

LJCHT ON THE MYSTERY,

9 I

A woman followed who turned out to be a
thief, and we were now enduring an incompe-
tent creature who made sour bread and spoil-
ed nearly every dish which passed through
her hands. Half of the girls were suffer-
ing with dyspepsia, and all were grumbling.
The Amen Corner was especially out of
sorts. Milly, who was always fastidious, had
eaten nothing but maple-sugar for breakfast,
and had a sick headache ; Emma Jane was
snappish ; Witch Winnie had stolen a box of
crackers from the pantry, which she had
passed around. Adelaide and I had regaled
ourselves upon them, but Emma Jane had
declined on high moral grounds, and was vir-
tuously miserable. It was in this unchristian
frame of mind, or rather of stomach, that
we took our next botany lesson. We found
the princess beaming with pleasure. " My
tear young ladies," she exclaimed, "you
must felicitate me. It is all so much bet-
ter as I had hoped. Ze leetle prince has
not been so badly elevated after all. He
haf been taught to be kind and unselfish ;

zat is already ze foundation of a gentle-
man."

Miss Prillwitz had occasion to leave the
room a few minutes later. Adelaide sniffed

g2 WITCH WINNIE.

the air, and remarked, " Girls, don't you
smell something very nice ?'

" It's here on the stand in the corner," said
Witch Winnie, lifting a napkin which cov-
ered a tray, and exclaiming, " Fish balls !
Only see ! the most beautiful brown fish
balls ! "

" It's the remnants of their breakfast ; she
has forgotten to take it away," said Adelaide.
" They make me feel positively faint with
longing ; I don't believe she would mind if
we took just one."

We ate of the dainties, even Emma Jane
yielding to temptation ; they were delicious,
and, having begun, we could not stop until
they were all devoured. Then we looked
at one another in shame and dismay. "Who
will confess ? ' asked Adelaide.

" You ought to ; you put us up to it," said
Emma Jane Anton.

" Let's write a round-robin," I suggested,
11 and all sign it."

"I'll stand it," said Winnie. " I led you
into temptation."

A step was heard in the hall. Winnie
stepped forward and began to speak rap-
idly ; the rest of us looked down shame-
facedly.

LIGHT O.V THE MYSTERY. 93

" Miss Prillwitz, please forgive us ; we were
so hungry we could not stand it. If you
knew what a dreadful breakfast we had this
morning, I'm sure you would not blame
us "

But she was interrupted by a cry of dis-
may " Oh ! have you eaten them all ? I
bought them for Aunty."

Looking up, we saw a manly little boy
with an expression of distress on his frank
features.

Adelaide uttered a sharp exclamation. I
thought she said, " It's him ! ' and yet Ade-
laide seldom forgot her grammar. Winnie
drew a deep breath, and caught Adelaide by
the arm. The boy looked up from the empty
platter to the girls' faces, and his expression
changed. " Oh ! it's you," he said. " Well,
no matter, only I meant 'em for a present
for her Miss Prillwitz, you know. She's
no end good to me. Mrs. Hetterman, down
at Rickett's Court, makes 'em for regular
customers every Friday morning. They are
prime, and mother gave me a quarter for
pocket-money this month, so I got ten cents'
worth for Aunty ; she lets me call her so. I
thought she'cl like 'em, and it would patron-
ize Mrs. Hetterman, and show her I hadn't

WITCH WINNIE.

forgotten old friends, if I had moved up in
the world."

" Here's ten cents to get some more from
Mrs. Hetterman," said Adelaide, " and may-
be we can get her a wholesale order to fur-
nish our boarding - school. I'll speak to
Madame about it this very day."

" And if Madame doesn't order them, we
girls will club together and have a spread of
our own," said Winnie.

Miss Prillwitz came in at this juncture, and
explanations followed.

" If Madame is in such trouble in regards
of a cook," said Miss Prillwitz, " I vill write
her of Mrs, Hetterman, and perhaps it will
be to them both a providence. Can she
make ozzer sings as ze croquettes of cod-
fish ?"

" Oh yes, indeed," the little prince spoke
up, eagerly; " soup, and turnovers, and such
bread ! She gave me a little loaf every bak-
ing while mother had the pneumonia. Mr.
Dooley, the butcher, gave me a marrow bone
every Monday, and I always took it to Mrs.
Hetterman to make into soup. It made
mother sick to boil it in our little room, and
Mrs. Hetterman would make a kettle of
stock, and showed me how to keep it in a

LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY.

crock outside the window, so mother could
have some every day ; it was what kept
mother's strength up through it all. We
had such good neighbors at the court ! but
Mrs. Hettermaii was best of all. She has
five children of her own, too. Bill is a mes-
senger boy, and Jennie works in a feather
factory. Mary is a cripple, but she is just
lovely, and tidies the house, and takes care
of the two little ones. Mr. Hetterman was
a plasterer and got good wages, but he fell
from a scaffolding and broke his leg, and
he's at the hospital."

" And does Mrs. Hetterman support the
family on ze croquettes of codfish ?" asked
Miss Prillwitz.

" She scrubs offices, but she could get a
place as cook in a family if it wasn't for the
children." He looked longingly at Miss
Prillwitz as he spoke, but she did not seem
to notice the glance.

" Here, mongargon, run down to ze court,
and tell Mrs. Hetterman to take a basket of
her cookery to ze boarding-school. I t'ink
she will engage to herself some beesness."

The lesson proceeded, but Adelaide and
Winnie both blundered ; they were evidently
thinkino- of something" else.

G> O

96 WITCH WINNIE.

A change came over Witch Winnie ; she

lost her old reckless gayety and became
subdued and thoughtful. The Hornets

t_5

said she was studying for honors, but I

J O

knew this was not the case, for her les-
sons were not as well prepared as for-
merly. She would sit for long" periods lost
in reverie. Winnie had charge of the
money collected for Jim's board. She re-
ported, after one week, that his mother did
not need as much ; two dollars would supply
the margin between what was required and
the sum she was able to pay. None of us,
with the exception of Adelaide, knew where
Winnie had domiciled Jim, but we were con-
tent to leave the matter in her hands. A
week later Mrs. Halsey only needed one
dollar. Mrs. Hetterman was engaged as
cook for the boarding-school, and we all re-
joiced in the change. I went clown to the
kitchen to see her, one afternoon, and found
her a buxom Englishwoman who dropped
her /is, but was always neat and civil. She
was delighted when she found that I knew
the names of her children. " It was a little
boy who used to live in your court who told
me about them," I said, " and who introduced
us to your good fish balls."

LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY.

" Oh yes, Miss, I mind ; it was little Jim
'Alsey ; 'e's the prince of fine fellers, 'e is."

Jim Halsey the prince ! My head fairly
reeled, and yet this explained many things
which had seemed mysterious. Winnie's
agency in the matter was still not entirely
clear to me. I did not connect her remorse-
ful remarks about another scrape, with Jim,
and I believed that by some remarkable
coincidence he was really Miss Prillwitz's
little prince incognito. I wondered whether
Mrs. Hetterman knew anything of his real
history, but she preferred to talk at present
about her own family. She was very
happy in the prospect of introducing her
oldest daughter, Jennie, into the house as a
waitress. " It will be so much better for
Jennie," she said, "than the feather factory.
The hair there is not good for 'er lungs."

I did not understand, at first, what Mrs.
Hetterman meant by the hair, but when she
explained that it was "the hatmosphere," her
meaning dawned upon me.

" It will make it a bit lonelier for Mary and
the little ones," she admitted, "but I go
down every night, after the work's over, to
tidy them up and to see that hall's right.
The court is not a fit place for the children.

WITCH WINNIE.

If I could find decent lodgings for them,
such as Mrs. 'Alsey 'as got for her Jim ! I
think I could pay as much, if the place was
only found ; I'm 'oping something will turn
hup, Miss."

" I hope so," I replied ; and I asked Winnie
that afternoon if she thought the person who
was boarding Jim Halsey would take the
Hettermans, but she utterly discouraged the
idea.

We saw a good deal of the little prince.
Miss Prillwitz called him Giacomo, and was
deeply attached to him. He did her credit
too, for he was docile and bright. His
mother was right in saying that he inherited
his father's facility for mathematics, but with
this faculty he possessed also a love for
mechanics and for machinery of every
sort.

"He will make one good engineer some
day," said Miss Prillwitz, in speaking of him
to us.

" That is a strange career for a prince,"
said Adelaide.

" My tear, it may be many year before he
ees call to his princedom, and in ze means-
time he muss make his way. Zen, too, ze sons
of ze royal houses make such study, and it

LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY.

is one good thing for ze country whose prince
interest himself in ze science."

" I wonder how he would like to study
surveying by and by," Adelaide said. " I
know that father could employ him in the
West."

"Zat is one excellent idea," said Miss Prill-
witz. " We will see, when ze time s'all arrive."

We were all fond of the little prince.
After all, Miss Prillwitz had decided to let
him attend the botany lessons on Saturdays.
" If he s'all be one surveyor in ze West," she
said, " he s'all have opportunity to discover
ze new species of flower ; he must learn all
ze natural science."

The prince attended the public school dur-
ing the week, and held his place at the head
of his class with ease. It was not hard to do
so, now that he could sleep all night. Emma
lane, who had had her spasms of doubt in
regard to him, and had even gone so far at
first as to say that Miss Prillwitz was a crank,
and she had no faith in the boy's nobility,
had been won over by the boy himself, and
remarked one afternoon that the internal
evidence was convincing ; Giacomo was not
like common children ; he was evidently cast
in a finer mold; he would do honor to any

968766A

IOO WITCU WINNIE.

position ; birth would tell, after all. It was
all that dear Milly could do not to betray
the secret to the little prince. He was very
fond of Milly, but deferential and unpresum-
ing, as became his apparent position. " Some
day our places may be reversed You may
live in a beautiful home and have hosts of
friends," Milly said to him. "Will you
remember me then, Giacomo ? '

"How can that ever be ?" the boy asked.
" You will grow up and be a fine rich lady ;
I will be a poor young man whom you will
have quite forgotten."

"Not necessarily poor," Milly hastened to
reply. " If you go West you may, by working
hard, become rich and famous. Will you for-
get your old friends then ? '

And Jirn promised that he would never,
never forget. Then a shade came across his
face. " Maybe I will, after all," he said, " for I
have forgotten Mary Hetterman for more than
a week. I did not think I could be so mean."

Adelaide and I had a conference in regard
to the prince. It seemed that she had recog-
nized him as Jim Halsey from the first. " I
have been wondering," she said, " whether it
was not a case like that of Little Lord Fauntle-
roy, and whether Mrs. Halsey could not be

LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY.

proved to be the wife of a prince, but I see
that cannot be the explanation of the matter ;
and I have concluded that Jim is her adopted
child. She must have taken him, when she
was in better circumstances, from the people
who brought him to this country when he
was a very little fellow, and so he has no
recollection of any other home."

" She always spoke of him as her very
own," I said, " and seemed fonder of him
than a foster-mo.ther could be. It will be
very hard for her to part with him, if his
real relatives claim him."

" Not if he goes to high rank and great
estates," said Adelaide. " She probably had
no idea of his noble birth when she adopted
him ; and it just proves that bread cast upon
the waters returns, for he will probably care
for her right royally, when he comes into his
own, and she will find that adopting that
boy was the best investment she ever made
in her life."

Winnie came in while we were talking.

"Why didn't you tell us, Winnie," I asked,
" that Jim Halsey was the little prince ? '

" It did not seem necessary," Winnie re-
plied, looking unnecessarily alarmed, as it
seemed to me.

IO2 WITCH WINNIE.

" You pay his board directly to Miss Prill-
witz, I suppose ?' Adelaide said.

" No, I give it to his mother, and she sends
it by mail."

" Well, I don't see any harm in letting- Miss
Prillwitz know that we know his mother,
and are helping in his support."

" I do, and I wish you would not tell her
this," Winnie entreated.

" Just as you please," Adelaide replied,
" but I hate mysteries."

" So do I," said Winnie, with a deep sigh.

" What is the matter with you, any way,
Winnie?' Adelaide asked.

" That is my business," Winnie replied,
shortly, and left the room, banging the door
behind her.

" Winnie isn't half as jolly as she used to
be," said Milly, in an injured tone. "I al-
ways depend on her to save me when I'm
not prepared for recitation. When Profes-
sor Todd was coming down the line in the
Virgil class and was only two girls away
from me, I made the most beseeching faces
at Winnie, who sits opposite, and usually
she is so quick to take the hint, and come to
the rescue by asking Professor Todd a lot
of questions about the sites of the ancient

LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY. 103

cities, and where he thinks the Hesperides
were situated. She gets him to talking on
his pet hobbies, and he proses on like an old
dear, until the bell rings for change of class.
But this time she just stared at me in the
most wall-eyed manner, while I signaled
her in a perfect agony as he got nearer and
nearer. I tried to think of some question of
my own to ask him, and suddenly one
popped into my head which I thought was
very bright. He had just been talking about
^Eneas' shipwreck, and he referred to St.
Paul's, with a description of the ancient
vessels, and how he met the same Mediter-
ranean storms, and I plucked up courage and
said, ' Professor Todd, why is it that we
hear so much about Virginia, and in all the
pictures of the shipwreck we see her stand-
ing on the deck of the ship, and Paul rush-
ing out into the surf to rescue her ? Now r I
have read the chapter in Acts which describes
St. Paul's shipwreck, very carefully, and in
that, and in all the history of Paul, there is
not one word about Virginia.'

"You should have heard the girls shout; I
think they were just as mean as they could
be. That odious Cynthia Vaughn nearly
fell off the bench, and Professor Todd looked

IO4 WITCH WINNIE.

at me in such a despairing way, as though
he gave me up from that time forth. I just
burst into tears, and Winnie came over and
took me out of the room. She acknowl-
edged that it was all her fault, and that
she ought to have come to my rescue
sooner."

Poor Milly ! we could only comfort her
with our assurances that we loved her all
the more for her troubles.

Summer was approaching, and we were
making our plans for vacation. Milly's
mother had invited Adelaide to spend the
season with them at their cottage at Narra-

gansett Pier ; and Winnie's father had con-
sented to her spending June and July with
me on our Long Island farm. Winnie
cheered up somewhat at the prospect. " It's
the warm weather which makes me feel
muggy," she said ; " I shall feel better when
we get out of the city too. The noise and
racket distract me, and seeing so many
miserable people makes me miserable and
sick at heart."

"I don't feel so at all," I replied. " It
makes me happy to see how much good
even we can do. Mrs. Halsey would not
have obtained her situation with Madame

LIGHT ON~ THE MYSTERY.

Celeste but for us, or have been able to
place Jim with Miss Prillwitz."

Winnie winced. " Don't talk about them ;
I am sick and tired of hearing about the
little prince. Do you know, I don't believe
he is a prince at all ! '

" What Do you imagine that this story
of Miss Prillwitz's is only a fabrication ? '

" Perhaps so, or at least a hallucination on
her part ; and even if it is all true Jim may
not be the boy. I wonder what proof she
has of his identity, or whether she has writ-
ten yet to his relatives. I mean to ask her
this very day."

But Winnie did nothing of the kind, for
we were surprised on arriving at Miss Prill-
witz's to find three new children sitting in
the broad window-seats. One was a thin
girl with crutches, whom I at once guessed
must be Mary Hetterman ; two chubby,
freckle-faced little ones sat in the sunshine
looking over a picture-book together, while
Miss Prillwitz beamed upon them.

" My tears," she said, " you see I haf some
more companie. Giacomo haf brought
these small people to spend ze day."

Jim came in a little later, and introduced
his friends. He was flushed and excited,

10 6 WITCH WINNIE.

and it presently appeared that the visit was
a part of a deep-laid scheme of his own.

" I wanted you to know the Hettermans,"
he said, " because they are such nice children,
and Rickett's Court is no place for them, for
the family next door have the fever, and
Mr. Grogan has the tremens, and scares them
most to death. Mrs. Hetterman gets twenty
dollars a month as cook now, and she says
she can pay a dollar a week apiece for each
of the children if she can board them
where it is healthful and decent; and you
young ladies were so kind as to help my
mother at first, and now, as she don't need it
any longer, maybe you would help the Het-
termans, and then maybe Aunty would take
them in. Mary is very handy, for all she's a
cripple, and the babies' noise is just nothing
but a pleasure, and " here the tears stood
in his eyes, and he looked at Miss Prillwitz,
who was frozen stiff with astonishment, with
piteous appealing " and I would eat just
as little as I could."

The good woman's voice trembled, " Take
&

ze children to play in ze park," she said ; " ze
young ladies and I, we talk it some over."

Mary Hetterman tied the children's hoods
on with cheerful alacrity. She evidently

LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY.

had high hopes, while Jim threw his arms
around Miss Prillwitz " Aunty," he said,
" they deserve that you should be kind to
them more than 1 do."

" What reason is zere that I should take
them in more as all ze uzzer children in ze
court ? '

" Just as much reason as for you to take
me," replied the boy, running away.

" Bless his heart ! " said Miss Prillwitz, as he
closed the door ; " he knows not ze reason zat
draw me to him, ze cherubim. But I did
not know you to help his muzzer until now."

Adelaide explained matters, and the case
of the Hettermans was discussed, Miss
Prillwitz agreeing to take them in if we
would assist in their support. " I shall leaf
zem in my apartement for ze summer," she
said, " for it is necessaire to me zat I go ze
shore of ze sea, and I s'all take Giacomo
with me, for I cannot bear to separate myself
of him. Zis is so near to your school zat
Mrs. Hetterman can sleep her nights here.
But I have not decided to myself where I
shall repose myself for ze summer."

I spoke up quickly, referring her to Miss
Sartoris for the beauties of our part of Long
Island and for mother's low price for board.

IO8 WITCH WINNIE.

Miss Prillwitz was evidently pleasantly im-
pressed. She thought she would like to study
the seaweed of that part of the coast, and
when she heard of the lighthouse, against
which the birds of passage dashed them-
selves, and how the keeper had kept their
skins, waiting for some one to come that
way and teach him to stuff them, she was
quite decided in our favor.

I noticed that Winnie grew suddenly si-
lent. As we left the house she pinched me
softly. " You didn't mean any harm, Tib,"
she said, "but if they go, it will take every
bit of pleasure out of my summer."

CHAPTER VII.

WINNIE S CONFESSION.

(ILHELM KALB-
FLEISCH, the but-
cher's boy, was one
of the most uninteresting
specimens of humanity
that I have ever seen.
That any of us would ever
give him even a passing
glance seemed quite be-
yond the range of proba-
bility, and yet Wilhelm's
stolid, good-natured face
haunted Winnie's dreams
like a very Nemesis, and
came to acquire a new
and singular interest even
in my own mind.
We passed a little Catholic church on our
way to the boarding-school.

"We are early," said Winnie. "Let's go in."

109

HO WITCH WINNIE.

It was Lent, and the altar was .shrouded
in black, and only a few candles burning
dimly. We stood beside a carved confes-
sional. A muffled murmur came from the
interior, and the red curtains pulsated as
though in time to sobs.

" Let us go out," whispered Milly ; " I am
stifling."

She looked so white that I was really
afraid she was going to faint. " I feel bet-
ter," she gasped, when we reached the open
air.

" It was frightfully close," Winnie said,
"and the air was heavy with incense."

" It was not that," said Milly, " it was the
thought of it all ; that there was a poor
woman in that confessional telling all her
sins to a priest. I never could do it in the
world."

" It would be a comfort to me," said Winnie,
fiercely. "I only wish there was some one
with authority, to whom I could confess my
sins, that I might get rid of the responsibil-
ity of them."

' There is," I said, before I thought; " ' He
hath borne our griefs and carried our sor-

rows.'

Winnie gave me a quick look. " You

WINNIE? S CONFESSION, I i i

don't usually preach, Tib," she said, and
burst into a merry round of stones and
jokes, which convulsed the other girls, but
did not in the least deceive me. I could see
that she was troubled, and was trying to
carry it off by riding" her high horse. " Girls,"
she said, " I want you to come around to the
butcher's with me. They have such funny
little beasts in the window. I mean to get
one, and the butcher's boy, Wilhelm, is such
a princely creature- -just my beau idal I
want you to see him.",

The funny little beasts proved to be forms
of head-cheese in fancy shapes. Strange
roosters and ducks, with plumage of gayly
colored sugai icing, and animals of un-
couth forms and colors. Winnie bought a
small pig with a blue nose and green tail,
all the while bombarding the butcher's boy,
who was a particularly stupid specimen, with
keen questions and witty sallies. He was so
very obtuse that he did not even see that she
was making sport of him.

As we hurried home to make up for our
little escapade, Winnie amused us all by
asking us how we thought Wilhelm would
grace a princely station. "Just imagine, for an
instant, that he was the lost Prince Para-

I I 2 WITCH WINNIE.

disc ! What a figure he would cut in chain
armor, or in a court costume of velvet and
jewels ! Did you notice the elegance of his
manners and the brilliancy of his wit ?"

" Winnie, Winnie, have you gone wild ?"
Adelaide asked. " Why do you make such
sport of the poor fellow ? He is well enough
where he is, I am sure."

" Is he not ?" Winnie replied, a little more
soberly ; " I was only thinking what a mercy
it is that people are so well fitted for their
stations in life by nature. Now, think of Jim
as a butcher, growing up to chop sausage-
meat and skewer roasts ! '

" Jim never could be a butcher," Adelaide
replied ; " even if Miss Prillwitz's dreams do
not come true, the education she is giving
him will do no harm. He will carve a future
for himself."

We went into the house, and the subject
was dropped. The next morning a message
came from Miss Prillwitz that one of the
Hetterman children was sick. It was the
fever, contracted in their old home, and we
were told that our botany lessons must be
interrupted for the present. We heard
through Mrs. Hetterman that the child was
not very sick. It was one of the chubby lit-

WINNIE'S CONFESSION. \ \ -\

tie ones that had looked so well. She was
quarantined now in Jim's room, the green one
up under the roof, and had a trained nurse
to care for her. Mrs. Hetterman did not see
the child, but talked with her daughter Mary
in the basement every evening She thought
it was a great mercy that they had com-
pleted their moving before the child was
taken sick. This did not seem to me to be
exactly generous to Miss Prill witz, but I
could not blame the mother for the feeling,
for under the careful treatment the child
speedily weathered the storm, and came out
looking only a little paler for the confine-
ment. We were expecting a summons to
return to our lessons, when Mrs. Hetterman
told us that Jim was sick. We were not
greatly alarmed, for the little girl's illness
had been so slight that we fancied we would
see our favorite about in a fortnight.

Milly sent in baskets of white grapes and
flowers, and Adelaide carried over a beauti-
ful set of photographs of Italian architec-
ture. " It may amuse him to look them
over," she said, "audit is just possible that
his ancestral palace figures among them."

Adelaide hoped to go to Europe as soon
as she graduated. " If Jim is established in

1 1 4 WITCH WINNIE.

his rights by that time, I shall visit him," she
said, " so, you see, I am only mercenary in my
attentions to him now."

Winnie looked up indignantly, "Then
you deserve to be disappointed."

Adelaide laughed merrily. " I thought
you knew me well enough, Winnie, to tell
when I am in fun. I like Jim so much, per-
sonally, that I would do as much for him if
he had no great expectations ; but I do not
see that there is any harm in thinking of the
kindnesses which he may be able to do me."

" If you don't count too surely on them.
Miss Prillwitz has had time to notify his rela-
tives, and they do not seem to take any in-
terest in him."

It is the unexpected that always happens.
That very evening Mrs. Hetterman brought
us this note from Miss Prillwitz. She wrote
better than she spoke, for on paper there was
no opportunity for the foreign accent to
betray itself :

" MY DEAR YOUNG LADIES:

" The elder brother have arrived, and I
fear you will have no more opportunity to
see little Giacomo, for I think he will take
him away very shortly to his father's house.

" You must not be too sorry, but think what

WINNIE'S CONFESSION. 115

a so great thing this is for poor little Gia-
como, to be called so soon to his beautiful
estate ; no more poorness or trouble, in the
palace of the King. Giacomo desire me to
thank you for all you kindness to him. He
hope some time you will all come to him at
his beautiful country of everlasting spring-
time, and the elder brother invite you also.
Mrs. Halsey is here. She is much troubled.
She forget that Giacomo was not her very own,
and the pain of parting from him is great.
She can not rightly think of the good for-
tune it is to him. She wish to go with him,
but that is not possible for now. Giacomo
hope you will comfort her. He hope, too, w r e
will continue our care to the children Het-
terman. Come not to-night, dear young
ladies, to bid him farewells ; I fear you to
cry, and so to trouble his happiness.
" Your at all times loving teacher,

" CELESTINE PRILLWITZ."

" The idea of our crying, like so many
babies !" said Emma Jane Anton; "why, it's
the best thing that possibly could happen to
him, and I, for one, shall congratulate him
heartily.

" I suppose so," Milly assented, doubtfully,
" but I shall miss him awfully, he is such a
nice little fellow."

" So much the better," said Adelaide ;

I 1 6 WITCH WINNIE.

" how glad the prince must be to find that
his little brother is really presentable. As
Winnie was saying, ' Fancy his feelings if
he had found him a coarse, common crea-
ture like Wilhelm, the butcher's boy !'
And now, Winnie, what do you say to my
being too sure about visiting him some day ?
Here is the invitation from the prince him-
self. I wonder just where in Italy they

11 "
ive !

So the girls chatted all together, but Win-
nie was strangely silent.

"I ought to see Miss Prillwitz at once,"

she exclaimed, suddenly.

" It's too late, now," replied Emma Jane ;
" there ! the retiring-bell is ringing, and if
you look across the square you can see that
Miss Prillwitz's lights are all out ; besides,
she particularly requested us not to come un-
til morning."

"Then I must run over before breakfast,"
said Winnie, " for it is very important."

She set a little alarm-clock for an hour ear-
lier than our usual w T aking-time ; but she was
unable to sleep, and her restlessness kept me
awake also. She tossed from side to side,
and moaned to herself, and at last I heard
her say, " Oh ! what wouldn't I give if some

WINNIES CONFESSION.

117

one would only show me the best way out
of it."

"Winnie," I said, softly, "I am not asleep.
What is the matter ? Are you in trouble ?"
. " Yes, Tib."
" Do you need money ?"
-No."

" Are you in love ? '
"The idea! A thousand times no."
" Are you going to be expelled ? '
" Not unless I tell on myself ; perhaps not
even then. But oh, Tib, I told you I was in
for a scrape. I thought I could stick it
through, but it's worse than I thought. I
can't keep the secret ; I've got to tell."
" I would, and then you'll feel better."
" No, I will not, for telling will not
do any good. I'm not sure but it will do
harm."

"You poor child, what can it be ? '
" Just this Jim is not the prince."
" I don't see how you know that, or, if you
do, what business it is of yours."

" Because I deceived Miss Prillwitz, and
got Jim in thereby making her think he was
the boy she had heard about, while the real
boy is somewhere else. Vve got to tell her
before his friends take him away, and be-

I I 8 WITCH WINNIE.

fore that other boy disappears from view
entirely."

" That is really dreadful, but if you know
where the true prince is, it can't be quite ir-
reparable. What ever made you do such a
thing ? and how did you manage to do it ? '

" Why, you see, I hadn't any faith in this
story of a lost prince at all. I thought that
Miss Prillwitz was just a little bit of a crank,
who had been imposed on by designing peo-
ple, and I was sure, when I saw the woman
at the door who came to tell Miss Prillwitz
that her boy had a situation and could not
come, that she had been in league with the
person who had told Miss Prillwitz about
the lost prince, but had backed out of the plot
because she was afraid. Miss Prillwitz had
evidently not suspected that she knew any-
thing of the boy's supposed expectations, for
she had merely promised to take him to board,
teach, and clothe, for whatever the mother
could give her, the woman having said that
she was going into a family as German
nursery governess, and agreeing to send a
trifle toward her boy's support whenever
she received her salary. It was just the
time that Mrs. Halsey was looking for a
place for Jim. It was so easy to have him

WINNIE'S CONFESSION. \ Ig

come at the time agreed upon and
take the place of the other boy. I was
afraid, at first, that Miss Prillwitz would be
surprised by the regularity of our pay-
ments and the amount we sent, but she
didn't seem to suspect anything, and she
is so fond of him, and he deserves it all-
and everything worked so well up to the
coming of the prince."

" But, Winnie, why didn't you tell her the
whole story at first ? I think she would have
taken him, all the same, and then you would
not have got things into this awful mud-
dle."

" Indeed she would not have taken him, a
mere pauper out of the slums, unless she
had thought that he was something more.
She is a born aristocrat, and she never could
have taken Jim to her heart so if she had
not believed that he was of her own class
of her family, even. Why, even Adelaide
would never have seen half the fine quali-
ties in him which she thinks she has dis-
covered if she had not thought him a

noble ; and it has thrown a fine halo of ro-
mance over him for Milly ; and even Emma
Jane, who was hard to convince at first, is
firmly persuaded that he is made of a little

I 20 WITCH WINNIE.

finer clay than the rest of us. And you, Tib,
confess that you are disappointed yourself."

" I am bitterly disappointed," I admitted;
" but that is nothing to the extent that Miss
Prillwitz will feel it. I wouldn't be in your
shoes, Winnie, for anything 1 ."

" I know it ; I know it. I have been
wicked, but I had no idea that the family
would ever look him up. I hardly believed
the story that there had been any prince lost.
And, Tib, if there had not been, where would
have been the harm in what I did ? ' :

" It would have been wrong, all the same,
Winnie, even if it had seemed to turn out
well. Deception is always wrong, and I did
not think it of you. But there, don't sob so,
or you will make yourself sick, and you
need all your wits and strength to carry you
through the ordeal of setting things straight
to-morrow. I'll stand by you. I'll go with
you if it will be any help."

" No, you shall not ; Miss Prillwitz might
think you were implicated in the affair. The
fault was all mine, and I will not have any one
else share the blame; only be on hand at the
door, Tib, with an ambulance to carry away
the remnants, for I shall be all broken into
smithereens by the interview."

WINNIE'S CONFESSION. 121

I tried to soothe the excited girl, and
fancied that she had fallen asleep, when she
suddenly began to laugh hysterically.

" I haven't told you who the real prince
is," she said. " Aren't you curious to know ?"
" Have I ever met him ?'

II Yes, indeed ; it's Wilhelm the butcher's
boy."

" Impossible ! '

" Isn't it too absurd for anything ? That
was the situation which his mother, or foster-
mother, preferred to Miss Prillwitz's care.
What will Adelaide say now about blue
blood telling even in low circumstances ?
There is blood enough about Wilhelm if that
is all that is desired. And won't that foreign
prince be just raving when he is introduced
to his long - lost brother ! But poor Miss
Prillwitz !- -that's the worst of all. No doubt
she has been writing with pride and delight
the most glowing letters in reference to
Jim's fitness for his high position. How
chagrined and mortified the clear old lady
will be ! Tell me now, Tib, that things were
not better as I managed them."

" It does seem as if there must be a mis-
take somewhere. Still, the truth is the truth,
and I believe in telling it, even if the

122 WITCH WINNIE.

Heavens fall. This matter is all in the hands
of Providence, Winnie, and I believe you got
into trouble simply by thinking that you
knew better than Providence, and that the
world could not move on without you."

" I must say you are rather hard on me,
Tib, but perhaps you are right. Do you
suppose that if I hand the tangle I have
made right to God, he will take it from my
hands and straighten it out for me ? I should
think He would have nothing more to do
with it, or with me."

" That is not the way our mothers behave
when we get our work into a snarl."

This last remark comforted her. She laid
her head upon my shoulder and prayed :

" Dear Heavenly Father, I have clone
wrong, and everything has gone wrong.
Help me henceforth to do right, and wilt
Thou make everything turn out right. For
thy dear Son's sake, I ask it. Amen."

Then trustfully she fell asleep, her con-
science relieved of a great weight, and with
faith in a power beyond her own.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ELDER BROTHER AND MRS. HALSEY S

STRANGE STORY.

OTWITHSTAND-
ING Winnie's pro-
testations to the
contrary, I insist-
ed on going with
her the next morn-
ing when she went
to make her con-
fession.

The little alarm-
clock made its
usual racket, but
Winnie slept
peacefully, and I
was dressed be-

'/ ''// WL//L?/ II / / I I / {

1 ^W//// /,' / / fore j could make

up my mind to
waken her. But I knew how disappointed

she would be if she could not make her call

123

124 WITCH WIKNIE.

on Miss Prillwitz before breakfast, and I
wakened her with a kiss, and made her a
cup of coffee over the gas while she was
dressing. Then we put on our ulsters and
hoods, and slipped out of the house just as
the risinof-bell was rinQfinof.

o & &

We knew that Miss Prillwitz was habitu-
ally an early riser, or we would not have
planned to call at such an hour, but we were
surprised to find a cab standing before her
door.

" I wonder whether the prince and Jim are
just about to leave," Winnie exclaimed. " I
did not know that any of the ocean steamers
sailed so early in the morning. What if
they have gone and we are too late ! '

Something was the matter with the door-
bell, and just as we were 'about to knock,
the door opened and a stout gentleman
came down the steps, and drove away in
the carriage. Jim was not with him, and
Miss Prillwitz stood inside the door.

Winnie caught her arm and asked, " Was
that the prince, the elder brother ? '

" No, tear," said Miss Prillwitz, gravely.
" Why haf you come, when I write you you
must not ? '

" Oh Miss Prillwitz, it was because 1 have

MRS. IIALSEY'S STRANGE STORY. 125

something so particular, so important, to tell
you. Do not tell me that Jim has gone, and
that it is too late ! '

" No, tear, Giacomo haf not gone already.
I think ze elder brother take him very soon,
and we keep our little Giacomo not one lee-
tie longer. Go in ze park by ze bench and
I vill come and talk zare wiz you."

We wondered at her unwillingness to let
us in, but obeyed her directions, and pres-
ently she came out to us with a shawl
thrown about her and a knitted boa outside
her cap. Even then she did not sit near us,
but on a bench at a little distance, having
first noted carefully that the wind blew
from our direction toward her. All this
might have seemed strange to us had we
not been so thoroughly absorbed in what
Winnie was about to say. The poor child
blundered into her story at once, and told it
in such broken fashion that Miss Prillwitz
never could have understood it but for my
explanations. When we had finished, the
tears stood in Miss Prillwitz's eyes.

" My tear child," she said, kindly, drawing
nearer to us, "how you haf suffer! Yes,
you have done a sin, but you are sorry, and
God he forgive ze sorrowful."

126 WITCH WINNIE.

" But do you forgive me, Miss Prillwitz ? '
Winnie cried, passionately. " Can you ever
love me a^ain ? "

" Yes, my tear, I forgive you freely, and
I love you more as ever."

" And the elder brother and Jim ? Have
Jim's expectations been raised ? Will he be
greatly disappointed, and will the prince be
very angry ? '

"My tear, in all zis it is not as you have
t'inked. See, you haf not understand my
way of talk. I t'ink Giacomo will, all ze
same, pretty soon go to his Fazzer's house.
Ze elder brother is may be gone wiz him by
now. You have not, then, understand zat
dis elder brother is ze Lord Christ ? zat
ze beautiful country is Heaven ? Our little
Giacomo lie very sick. Ze doctor, whom
justly you did meet, he gif no hope. His
poor muzzer sit by him so sad, so sad, it tear
my heart. She cannot see he go to zc
palace to be one Prince del Paradiso."

We sat bolt upright, dazed and stunned
by this astounding information.

" Do you mean to say," Winnie said, slowly,
grasping her head as though laboring to con-
centrate her ideas, " that Jim is dying, and
that he is no more a prince than any of us ?

IIALSEY'S STRANGE STORY.

127

I mean that the other boy is not a real
prince, and that no child ever strayed away
from its father's house, or elder brother has
been seeking 1 for a lost one ? Oh Miss

Prillwitz, how could you make up such a
story ? '

" My tear, my tear, it is all true, and I
t'ought you to understand my leetle vay of
talk. Giacomo is a prince in disguise ; you,
my tears, are daughters of ze great King.
Zat uzzer boy, ze butcher, he also inherit ze
same heavenly palace. All ze children
what come in zis world haf wander avay
from zat home, and ze elder brother he go
up and down looking for ze lost. He gif
me commission ; he gif effery Christians
commissi :a to find zose lost prince to
teacli him and fit him for his high position.
I did not have intention to deceive you, my
tear. It was my little vay of talk."

"Oh! oh !" exclaimed Winnie, "I feel as
if my brain were turning a somersault, but
I cannot realize it. Then I did not really
deceive you, after all, Miss Prillwitz, though
I was just as wicked in intending to do so.
And Jim do not say there is no hope !"

"No, my tear. I know all ze time zis was
not ze boy I expect. But I say to myself,

I2 g WITCH WINNIE.

' How he come I know not, but he is also ze
child of ze King.' Ze elder brother want
him to be care for also. May be ze elder
brother .send him, and I take him very gladly.
And surely, I never find one child to prove
his title to be one Prince of Paradise better
as Giacomo. So gentle, so loving, so gener-
ous and soughtful. I not wonder at all ze
elder brother want him. I sank him, I sank
you, too, Winnie, I have privilege to know
one such lovely character."

Miss Prill witz looked at her watch. " I
can no longer," she said quickly, and
hurried back to her home. We crossed the
park thoughtfully and entered the school.
There was just time to tell the girls the news
before chapel. The knowledge that dear
Jim was lying at death's door overwhelmed
every other consideration, and yet we talked
over Miss Prillwitz's little allegory also.

(< We were stupid not to see through it at
first," said Adelaide. " She is just the
woman to create an ideal world for herself
and to live in it. I have no grudge against
her because we misunderstood her meaning,
and yet there certainly is something very
fine in Jim's nature."

"Now I think it all over," said Emma

MRS. HALSK VS S TRAXGE S TOR Y. \ 2 Q

Jane, "she has said nothing which was not

true,"

" I understand her letter better now," I
said. " We have all been parts of a beauti-
ful parable, and we have been as thick-
headed as the disciples were when Jesus
said, ' O fools, and slow of heart to believe.'

Milly was silently weeping. " All the

beautv of the idea doesn't change the fact
j

that Jim is dying," she said.

" I have never loved any one so since I lost
my mother and my baby brother," said
Adelaide. " I can't remember how he looked
it was ten years ago, and I have no photo-
graphs, only this cam-eo pin, which father
boueht because it reminded him of mother,

Not the face either, only the turn of the
neck. He said she had a beautiful neck
and as he came home from his business at
night he al ways saw her sitting in her little
sewing-chair by the window looking every
now and then over her shoulder for him with
her neck turned so, and her profile clear cut
against the dark of the room like the two

colors of arate in this cameo. '

It is not natural for girls to talk freely on
what stirs them most deeply, and little more
was said on the subject that morning, but

I 30 WITCH WINNIE,

we each thought a great deal, and if our
hearts could have been laid bare to each
other, we would have been startled by the
similarity of the trains of thought which this
event had roused. All through the morn-
ing's lessons our imaginations wandered to
the house across the park, and we wondered
whether all was indeed over, and dear,
cheery, helpful Jim had gone. We did not
remember that we had declared we would
gladly let him go to an earthly princedom,
and yet this was far better for him. Our
imaginations saw only the white upturned
face upon the pillow, the grief - stricken
mother, and Miss Prillwitz flitting about
drawing the sheet straight, and placing
white lilacs in his hands.

Adelaide confessed to me, long after, that
all of her worldly thoughts in reference to
visiting Jim some day came back to her in a
strange, sermonizing w r ay. She said that in
her secret heart she had rather dreaded the
visit because she knew so little of the
etiquette of foreign courts, and was afraid
she mipfht make some mistake. She had

even studied several books on the subject,
and knew the sort of costume it was neces-
sary to wear in a royal presentation, just the

MAS. IIALSEY'S STRANGE

length of the train, the degree of decolletee,
and the veil, and the feathers. The thought
came over her with creat vividness that she

had never studied the etiquette of Heaven
or attempted to provide herself with
garments fit for the presence of the King.
Mrs. Hetterman had a habit of singing
quaint old hymns. There was one which
we often heard echoing up from the base-
men t-

" At His right hand our eyes behold
The queen arrayed in purest gold;
The world admires her heavenly dress,
Her robe of joy and righteousness."

This scrap was borne in upon Adelaide's
mind now. " A robe of joy and righteous-
ness," she thought to herself ; " I wonder
how it is made ! it surely must be becoming.' 1

Then she thought again of her mingled
motives, of how glad she had been that she
had befriended Jim because she could claim
him as an acquaintance as a prince, in that
foreign country, and how she had wished
that she might entertain more traveling
members of the nobility in his country in
order to have more acquaintances at court.
" If the poor are Christ's brothers and sis-
ters," she said to herself, " I have abundant

132

WITCH WINNIE.

opportunity to make many friendships which
may be carried over into that unknown
country ; ' and a new purpose awoke in her
heart, which had for its spring not the most
unselfish motives, but a strong one, and
destined to achieve good work, and to give
place in time to higher aims.

Afternoon came, and no message had
arrived from Jim "Girls," said Adelaide,
as we sat in the Amen Corner, " if Jim dies,
I propose that we carry this sort of work on
of fitting poor children for something higher,
and broaden it, as a memorial to him. I don't
exactly see my way yet, but we can do a
good deal if we band together and try."

" Oh ! don't talk about Jim's dying/' said
Milly, " we'll do it, anyway."

" I can't see why we don't hear from
Miss Prillwitz," said Winnie, impatiently,
"It is recreation hour; let us go out into the
park, and perhaps she will see us and send
us some word."

We walked around and around the paths
which were in view from Miss Prillwitz's
windows. Presently we saw Mary Hetter-
man coming toward us with a note in her
hand.

" I know just what that note says," exclaim-

MRS. HALSEY'S STRANGE STORY. i^

V.' _J

ed Milly, sinking upon a bench. " The little
prince has gone to his estates,"

"Hush!' exclaimed Adelaide. "See! is
it a ghost ? We looked as she pointed, and
saw at Jim's window a perfect representa-
tion of Adelaide's cameo. A white face
against the dark interior. It vanished as
she spoke, leaving us all with a strange, eerie
sensation, a feeling that this was certainly an
omen of Jim's death. But our premonitions,
like so many others, did not come true. The
note was not for us. Mary Hetterman
passed us with a smile and a nod, and a
moment later Miss Prillwitz herself came
out to us.

We knew by her face that she brought
good news, but none of us spoke until she
answered our unuttered question.

" No, tears, Jim haf not gone. Ze prince
haf been here, but I sink he not take him zis
time already. The doctor sink we keep him
one leetle time longer. I cannot stay. It
is time I go give him his medicine, and let
loose ze nurse, for I care for him ze nights.
Good-bye, my tears, Ah ! I am so happy
zat ze little prince go not yet to his estates ;
so happy, and yet so sleepy also." And we
noticed for the first time the great dark rings

134 WITCH WINNIE.

which want of sleep and anxiety had drawn
around Miss Prill witz's eyes.

"Good-bye, princess," I cried; "surely no
one deserves that title more than you, for
you have proved yourself a royal daughter
of the King. We have called you so a long
time among ourselves our Princess del
Paradiso."

She smiled, waved her hand, and vanished
into the queer house which she had made a
palace.

It was some time before Adelaide could
recover from the shock of the apparition at
the window, though we assured her that it
was probably only the trained nurse; and we
afterward ascertained that it was in reality
Mrs. Halsey, who had come to the window
for a moment to greet the glad new day,
and who was now as joyful as she had been
despairing. So much tension of feeling, so
great extremes of joy and sorrow, had affected
her deeply, and she wept out her gratitude
on Miss Prillwitz's sympathizing heart. " You
have been very good to him," Mrs. Halsey
said, with emotion. " Some time, when the
past all comes back to me, as I am sure it will
some day, I may be able to return your
kindness.'

MRS. HALSEY'S STRANGE STORY.

135

Mrs. Halsey had made several mysterious
allusions to the past, and Miss Prillwitz, who
had a kindly way of gaining" the confidence of
everyone, said sweetly, "Tell me about
your early life, my tear."

" It is a strange story," Mrs. Halsey replied.
" I had a happy childhood and girlhood, and
a happy married life up to the time that my
dear parents died, and even after that, for
my husband was the best of men, and I had
a sweet little daughter. Their faces come
back to me, waking and sleeping, though I
have lost them, I sometimes fear, forever."

" Did they die ?' Miss Prillwitz asked.

" No, dear, I think not ; but now comes the
strange part of my story : I remember a
journey vaguely, and a steamer disaster, a
nisfht of horror with fire and water, and then

<T5

all is a frightful blank; a curtain of black-
ness seems to have fallen on all my past
life. I am told that I was rescued from the
burning of a Sound steamer, with my baby-
boy in my arms, and given shelter by some
kindly farmer folk. I had received an injury
a blow on the head and had brain-fever, from
which I recovered in body, but with a dis-
ordered mind, my memory shattered ; I could
remember faces, but not names. I could not

1^6 WITCH WINNIE.

tell the name of the town in which I had lived,
or my own name. I remained with the kind
people who first received me for several
months, but I did not wish to be a burden to
them, and I hoped that I might find my home.
I knew that it had been in a city, and I felt
sure that if I ever saw any of my old sur-
roundings, or old. friends I would recognize
them at once. It was thought, too, that New
York physicians might help me, so I came
to New York, and my case was advertised
in the papers. But months had passed since
the accident, and my friends either did not
see the advertisement, or did not recognize
me in the story given. The doctors at the
hospital pronounced me incurable, and I was
discharged. I wandered up and down the
streets, but although I felt sure that I had
been in New York before, I could not find
my home. I read the names on the signs,
hoping to recognize my own name, but I
never came across it. Meantime I took the
name of Halsey ; it was necessary for me to
live, and I knew that I could sew, and that
I had a faculty for designing; and seeing
Madame Celeste's advertisement for a de-
signer. I applied at once for the situation. It
seemed to me at first that I had seen Madame

MRS. HALSEY'S STRANGE STORY. 137

Celeste before, but she was repellent in man-
ner, and I did not dare question her, and
gradually that impression faded. I hired a
woman to take care of Jim, and though he
was not well cared for, he lived, and we got
on until he was large enough to play upon
the streets. Then I took him home to the
little room in Rickett's Court, and finding
that I could not be with him as much as he
needed, I gave up my place at Madame Ce-
leste's and worked at first for the costumer,
where the young ladies found me, and after-
ward tried to keep soul and body together
by taking sewing home. It was the life of
a galley-slave, but I did not care so long as
I could keep my boy at school, and with me
out of school hours. But I could not do that,
for to earn the money which was absolutely
necessary for our support Jim had to work
too, and driving the milkman's cart in the
early morning was the best we could find for
him out of school hours. He was so proud
and happy to do it, and to help earn for us
both; but, as you know, it cut into his hours
for sleep, and left him no time to study.
Oh ! I was nearly in despair, when God sent
you as angels to my help and Jim's."

" And have you never been able to guess

WITCH WINNIE.

what your old name was ? ' Miss Prill witz

asked.

" Never ; sometimes it seems to me that I
remember it in my dreams, but when I
awake it is gone ; still, I cannot help feeling
that I shall find my own again. Sometimes
there comes a great inward illumination, and
the curtain seems to be lifting. I cannot
think they have forgotten me my husband
tender and true, and my little girl with the
great questioning eyes."

Miss Prill witz did not share Mrs. Halsey's
confidence, but her sympathy was enlisted,
and she caressed and comforted Mrs. Halsey.
" It shall be as you hope, my tear ; if not
just now and here, zen surely by and by,
and zat is not very long. And meantime
you have found some friends, ze young
ladies and me, and ze Elder Brother have
found you, and we are all one family, so
you can be no longer lonely and wizout
relation, even in zis world."

CHAPTER IX.

THE KING'S DAUGHTERS AND THE VENETIAN FETE.

" O ladies, clear ladies, the next sunny day,
Please trundle your hoops just out of Broadway,
From its whirl and its bustle, its fashion and pride,
And the temples of trade which tower on each side,
To the alleys and lanes where Misfortune and Guilt
Their children have gathered, their city have built.

Then say, if you dare,

Spoiled children of fashion, you've nothing to wear !"

ILLY ROSE-
VELDT made an
important entry
in her diary a few
days after this.
She was very ex-
act about keeping
her diary, record-
ing for the most
part, however,
very trivial mat-
ters, but the day
that she wrote
" We have or-
ganized a 'King's
Daughters Ten '
was a day with a
white stone in it,

and deserved to be remembered,

139

140 WITCH WINNIE,

Jim had passed the crisis of the fever, and
recovered rapidly. Neither of the other
Hettermans was taken ill. The house was
thoroughly cleansed and disinfected, and
after a few \veeks we took up our inter-
rupted botany lessons. But Jim's illness
had made more than a transient impression,
and Adelaide's suggestion that we should
broaden and deepen our work was talked
over amongst us.

" There is a society," said Emma Jane,
" which I have heard of somewhere, which
is called * The King's Daughters.' I think
they have much the same idea that Miss
Prillwitz has expressed. It is formed of
separate links of ten members, bound to-
gether by the common purpose of doing
good. Now, I think, we might form such a
link, with Miss Prillwitz for our president.
There are five of us, but we need five more.
Whom shall w r e ask ?"

" Girls," said Winnie, " I'm afraid you
won't agree, but there is real good stuff in
those Plomets."

" The Hornets ! Oh, never S '

"What an idea !"

"Why, they hate us!"

" No, they simply think that we despise
them."

THE KING'S DAUGHTERS. 141

"Well, so we do. I am sure, the way that
Cynthia Vaughn behaves is simply despic-
able."

"Perhaps so," Winnie admitted, " but the.
other three girls are not so bad. Little
Breeze" that was our nickname for Tina
Gale--' ; is a real good-natured girl, and a per-
fect genius for getting up things. When I
roomed in the Nest she was devoted to me;
so they all were, for that matter. I could
make them do whatever I pleased, and
Rosaria Ricos, the Cuban heiress, is just as
generous as she can be. 'Trude Middleton is
a great Sunday-school worker when she is
at home, and Puss Seligman's mother has a
longer calling-list than Milly's, I do believe.
Don't you remember what a lot of tickets
she sold for the theatricals ? If we are
going to get up a charitable society we must
use some brains to make it succeed, and
those girls are a power. ,You know very
well that it is the Hornets' Nest and the
Amen Corner which support the literary
society, and when we unite on any ticket-
selling or other enterprise it is sure to suc-
ceed."

Yes," replied Emma Jane Anton, " that is
because we appeal to entirely different sets

1^2 WITCH WINNIE.

of girls- -between us we carry the entire
school."

"I will take all in," said Adelaide, " except
Cynthia. She has been too hateful to Tib
and Milly for anything- !"

" Oh, don't mind me," murmured Milly;
" I dare say she could not help laughing
when I made that mistake about Paul and
Virginia."

"I don't believe she will join us," I said,
doubtfully ; " but I am sure I would a great
deal rather have her for a friend than an
enemy."

"She will be so surprised and flattered
that she will be as sweet as jam," said Winnie,
confidently. " You have no idea what a
lofty reputation you girls have. I used to
reverence and envy you until it amounted to
positive hatred. That is what made me be-
have so badly. I knew we couldn't approach
you in good behavior, and I determined to
take the lead in something. That's just the
way with Cynthia. She imagines that you
would not touch her with a ten-foot pole, and
she wants you to think that she doesn't care,
but she does."

Milly promptly furnished the wherewithal
for a spread, and the Hornets were invited,

THE KING* S DA UGHTERS. \ 43

Adelaide said that they acted as if a sense
of gratification were struggling with a sneak-
ing consciousness of unworthiness, and it
was all that she could do not to display the
scorn which she was afraid she felt. But
Milly was as sweetly gracious as only Milly
knew how to be, and Winnie put them all at
their ease with her rollicking good-fellow-
ship. I was sure that Cynthia at first sus-
pected some trick, but even she succumbed
at last to our praise of her banjo-playing,
which was really admirable. They melted
completely with the ice-cream- -little ducks
with strawberry heads and pistache wings;
and when Winnie told them the entire story
of the little prince they were greatly inter-
ested.

" Now," said Winnie, " I have been talk-
ing with Jim, and he says that the tenement
house in which he lived swarms with chil-
dren who ought not to pass the summer
there, who will die if they do ; and what I
want to propose is, that we club together
and have some sort of entertainment, to send
them to the country, or do something else
for them."

The proposition met with favor, as did the
plan for the King's Daughters society, which

144 WTTCH WINNIE.

was organized at once, and officered as fol-
lows, the " spoils ' being- divided equally
between the Amen Corner and the Hor-
nets :

President- -Miss Prillwitz.

Vice-Presidents Adelaide Armstrong and
Gertrude Middleton.

Secretary Cynthia Vaughn.

Treasurer Emma Jane Anton.

Executive Committee The foregoing offi-
cers and the rest of the society.

" Little Breeze' then made a practical
suggestion : " You know," said she, " that
the literary society is always allowed to give
an entertainment the week before the grad-
uating exercises, to put the treasury in funds,
or, rather, to pay old debts. We have no
debts this year, and I am sure that the soci-
ety will let us have the occasion. Whatever
we ten favor is sure to be carried in the
literary society."

" That is what I said/' remarked Winnie.

" So if Miss Anton will get Madame's per-
mission for the change, I have no doubt we
can make at least three hundred dollars."

" Nonsense! we will make twice that,"
said Puss Hastings."

" But what shall we have ?"

THE KING'S DAUGHTERS. 145

" I know the sweetest thing 1 ," said Little
Breeze. " A Venetian Fete ! It is really a
fair, but the booths are all made to represent
gondolas. They are painted black, and have
their prows turned toward the centre of the
room. We can have it in the gymnasium.
The gondolas are canopied in different col-
ors and hung with bright lanterns. We must
all be dressed in Venetian costume, and have
music and some pretty dances. It will be
lovely !"

The fair was planned out : each girl had a
gondola assigned her, with permission to
work other girls in, and enthusiasm had
reached a high pitch, when the retiring-bell
clanged and the Hornets took their depart-
ure, the utmost good feeling prevailing be-
tween what had been until this evening rival
factions of the school.

After our next botany lesson we lingered
to inform Miss Prillwitz of what we had done,
and to ask her to accept the Presidency of
our ten. She listened with much interest.

11 My tears," she said, " I sink perhaps you
s'all do much good. I have justly been
sinking, sinking ; but ze need is great. I
know not how we s'all come at ze money
which we do need. 1

146 WITCH WINNIE.

Then Miss Prillwitz explained that she had
visited Rickett's Court, and had found so
many little children in those vile surroundings ;
some of them, whose mothers were servants
in families, and received good wages, were
" boarding ' with Mrs. Grogan, the baby-
farmer. She had met one such mother in
the court a waitress on Fifth Avenue,
who had three children w r ith Mrs. Grogfan.

"I pay her fifteen dollars a month," she
said ; " it is cheaper than I can board them
elsewhere, and all that I can pay ; but it
makes my heart sick to see them sleeping
and playing beside sewers and sinks, and to
have them exposed to language of infinitely
worse foulness. I know that if they do not
die in childhood, of which there is every like-
lihood, they will grow up bad ; and I don't
know which I would choose for them, I
wouldn't mind slaving for them, if there was
any hope, if I could see them in decent sur-
roundings, with some prospect of their turn-
ing out well in r the end ; but now, when I
ask myself what all my toil amounts to, it
seems to me that the best thing which could
happen to us all would be to die."

The waitress knew of other servants who
could have no home of their own for their

THE KING'S DAUGHTERS.

children, but who coulcl pay something for
their support, and whose maternal love and
feeling of independence kept them from giv-
ing their children up to institutions; who had
entrusted their little ones to bad people, who
hired them to beggars, beat and half starved
them. And now the summer was approach-
ing, and it was dreadful to think of those
closely packed tenement houses under the
stifling heat.

Miss Prillwitz said that it had seemed to
her positively wrong for her to go away to
the seashore for the summer while so many
must remain and suffer.

' I don't see that," said Adelaide, " unless
by staying you can make their condition
better."

" Perhaps I can so," replied Miss Prillwitz,
" if ze King's Daughters will help me." And
then she developed a plan of Jim's. He had
noticed the vacant floors in her house, which
had remained unlet all the winter. " If you
could rent them for the summer, Miss Prill-
witz," he had suggested, "we wouldn't need
much furniture, but could just invite a lot of
the children in and let them camp down.
The rooms are so clean, and there is such
lovely fresh air and no smells, and such beau-

148 WITCH WINNIE.

tiful bath-tubs, and the park for the little
ones to play in, and Mary Hetterman could
watch them."

" You forget," Miss Prillwitz had replied,
" zat zose children are use probably to eat
somet'ings."

No, Jim had not forgotten that, but Mrs.
Hetterman would be out of a place for the
summer vacation, and would cook for them,
and the children's mothers would pay some-
thing, and he would do the marketing.
After the public school closed the older
children could earn something, he thought.
He was all on fire with the idea, and his
enthusiasm had communicated itself to our
princess. " I haf even vent to see my land-
lord," she confessed; ''he is von very rich
man. I sought maybe he let me use ze
rooms for ze summer, since he cannot else
rent them. But no, he did not so make his
wealths. We can have them von hundred
dollar ze months ; six months, five hundred.
We cannot else. Now do you sink you
make five hundred dollar from your fair ? '

" Oh, I think so ; indeed, I am sure of it !"
Adelaide exclaimed; "dear little Jim, what
an angel he is ! We will go right to work
and see what we can do."

THE KING'S DAUGHTERS.

149

Of course the fair was a success, as fairs
go. I have since thought that a fair is a
poor way for Christian people to give money
to any charitable purpose. So much goes
astray from the goal, so much is swallowed
up in the expenses, that if people w r ould only
put their hands in their pockets and give at
the outset what they do give in the aggre-
gate, more would be realized, and much time,
vexation, and labor saved. But people do
not yet recognize this, and we knew no bet-
ter than to follow in the old way. I had
charge of the Art gondola, with Miss Sartoris
and all the Studio girls to help me. We
decided that, as it was a Venetian fete, we
would make a specialty of Italian art. Miss
Sartoris suggested etchings, and one of the
leading art dealers allowed us to make our
choice from his entire collection, giving
them to us at wholesale, as he would to any
other retail dealer, we to sell them at the
regular retail price, thereby taking no unfair
advantage over our purchasers, and yet
making a handsome profit on each etching
sold, while we ran no risk, as all unsold
stock was to be returned.

We were surprised to find how many
Venetian subjects had been etched. There

WITCH WINNIE.

were half a dozen different views of St.
Mark's Cathedral exteriors and interiors ;
San Giorgios and La Salutes ; there were
Rainy Nights in Venice, and Sunny Days in
Venice, canals and bridges, shipping and
palaces, piazzas and archways and clois-
ters.

Then we obtained a quantity of photo-
graphs of the Italian master-pieces, chiefly
from the works of Titian and the Venetian
school, though we included also the Madon-
nas of Raphael. Miss Sartoris found an
Italian curiosity-shop, which was a perfect
treasure-trove, for here we secured, on com-
mission, a quantity of Venetian glass beads,
the beautiful blossomed variety, with tiny
smelling-bottles of the same material, to-
gether with sleeve-buttons of Florentine mo-
saic, ornaments of pink Neapolitan coral,
and broken pieces of antique Roman mar-
bles, all of which we sold at immense profit.
We had not thought of having any statuary,
until Jim came to us, one afternoon, saying
that Miss Prtllwitz had told him that we in-
tended to have an Italian fete, and as sev-
eral of the families whom he wished bene-
fited were Italians, who lived in Rickett's
Court, he thought they might help us.

7 71 E KING' S DA UGHTERS. I 5 I

"What do they do?" I asked.

"The older Stavini boys peddle plaster-of-
paris images, and some of them are very
pretty. Pietro will bring you a basket of
them, I am sure, and take back all you don't
sell."

The plaster casts proved to be artistic and
new. There was a set of five singing cherubs
which we had seen on sale in the stores at
twenty-five dollars a set, which Pietro offered
us at fifty cents each, and others in like pro-
portion. We sold his entire basketful at
advanced prices, and received several orders
for duplicates.

Winnie had charge of the refreshment
department, and had a troop of the " prepara-
tories ' dressed as contadinas, who were to
serve Neapolitan ices in colored glasses.
Jim enabled her to introduce a very taking
novelty by telling her of AHncenzo Amati,
a cook in an Italian restaurant, who had three
motherless little girls who were candidates
for the summer home. Vincenzo agreed
to come and cook for us while the fair lasted,
Mrs. Hetterman kindly giving him place
in the kitchen, so that we were able to add
to our other attractions that of a real Italian
supper, served on little tables in an adjoining

I 5 2 WITCH WINNIE.

recitation-room. Vincenzo brought us sev-
eral dozen Chianti wine flasks, the empty
bottles at the restaurant having been one of
his perquisites. They were of graceful
shapes, with slender necks, and wound in
wicker, which Miss Sartoris gilded and
further ornamented with a bow of bright
satin ribbon. These flasks, empty, decorated
each of the little tables, and one was given
to each guest as a souvenir.
The menu consisted of

Riso con piselli, )

A/T 7 I (Soup).

Mmestra Zuppa, ] ^

Olives.

Bistecca (Beefsteak).

Macaroni al burro (with butter).

Macaroni a pomidoro (with potatoes).

Testa de vitello (Calf's head).

Carciofi (Artichokes).

Cavolifiori (Cauliflower).

Salami di Bologna (Bologna Sausage).

Crostata di frutti (Fruit tarts).

Formaggio (Cheese).

Adelaide was musical director, and led the
singing class in " Dolce Napoli " and other
Italian songs. The girls were dressed in
costume, and there was one fisher chorus,
which made a very effective tableau with a
background of colored sails and nets. Vin-

THE KING*b DAUGHTERS.

153

cenzo allowed his little girls to appear with
a neighbor's hand - organ, and when they
passed their tambourines they gathered a
goodly harvest of pennies.

Little Breeze arranged the tableaux and
the dances, Mrs. Halsey sending in designs
for the costumes ; and Cynthia Vaughn ran
a side show of stereopticon views, Professor
Todd kindly working the lantern.

J o

Milly had the flower gondola, or booth of
cut flowers, supplied from her father's conser-
vatory, and Miss Prillwitz contributed to this
department a quantity of little albums and
herbaria containing pressed flowers and sea-
weed from different Italian cities. Our dear
princess was present, beaming with happi-
ness, and the " ten " introduced her proud-
ly to their parents and friends. Mr. Roseveldt
seemed much interested, in an amused way,
in what we were trying to do. " Go ahead,
my dear," he said to Milly, "and if you don't
come to me to shoulder a lot of bad debts
before the summer is over, I shall be greatly
surprised, and have a far higher respect for
what little girls can do than I now possess."

" * Little girls,' indeed!" Milly repeated, with
scorn. " There are younger gentlemen, sir,
who consider us young ladies, if you do not.

154 WITCH WINNIE.

But we will compel your respect, and we
will not ask you for one penny either."
This was rather hard, for we had secretly

hoped, all along, that Milly's father would
help us, and now she had made it a point of
pride not to ask him. He behaved very well,
however, for although he bantered us cruelly
on our Utopian enterprise, he bought a but-
ton - hole bouquet of his own violets from
Milly, paying a five-dollar bill for it and
neglecting to ask for change, and then took
Miss Prill witz, Madame, Emma Jane Anton,
Miss Sartoris, and Miss Hope successively out
to supper. He purchased, too, an alabaster
model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which
Madame had contributed on condition that it
should be sold for not less than twenty dollars,
and which we had feared would not be dispos-
ed of, as we had voted that there should be no
raffling. Madame was greatly interested in
the fair ; it drew attention to her school, and
she smiled on everyone a self-constituted
reception committee. She was even gracious
to the cadet band which had serenaded the
school in the fall term. The cadets to a man
invited Milly out to dinner. She went with

each of them in succession, and as the viands
were sold a la carte, she bravely ordered the

* V

WITCH WINNIE. Page 155.

THE KING* S DA UGHTERS.

more expensive dishes over and over again,
enduring a martyrdom of dyspepsia for a
week in consequence.

Of course Jim was present, and his mother.
Adelaide was attentive to both; there seemed
to be a mutual attraction that kept them to-
gether, and whenever Adelaide left Mrs.
Halsey, and taking up her baton (Milly's
curling-stick), led her ochestra, Mrs. Halsey's
eyes followed her with a strange wistfulness.
Winnie, with her usual heedlessness, had
neglected to introduce Adelaide to Mrs.
Halsey when she called on her in the court,
and she now turned to Jim and asked her
name. It happened that Jim thought that
she referred to the pianist instead of to
Adelaide, and he replied that the young
lady in question was Miss Hope, the music-
teacher. Mrs. Halsey gave a little sigh of
disappointment, and continued her spell-
bound gaze. I was about to correct the mis-
take which I was sure Jim had made, when
it was announced that Mrs. Le Moyne, the
celebrated interpreter of Robert Browning,
would kindly recite a poem of Mrs. Brown-
ing's. Mrs. Halsey and Jim moved nearer
the rostrum, and my opportunity for ex-
planation was lost. If I had known the

WITCH WINNIE.

effect that the name of Adelaide Armstrong
would have had upon Mrs. Halsey, chains
could not have kept me in my gondola so
many invisible gates of opportunity are
closed and opened to us all along life's path-
way!

The poem recited was, most appropriately,
"The Cry of the Children." Tears welled
into the eyes of many a mother as the
practiced art of the speaker rendered most
feelingly the pathetic words

" But these others children small,

Spilt like blots about the city
Quay and street and palace wall-
Take them up into your pity !

Patient children think what pain
Makes a young child patient yonder ;

Wronged too commonly to strain
After right, or wish or wonder-

Sickly children, that whine low

To themselves and not their mothers,

From mere habit, never so-
Hoping help or care from others;

Healthy children, with those blue

English eyes, fresh from their Maker,

Fierce and ravenous, staring through
At the brown loaves of the baker.

THE A'AYG' S DA UGHTERS.

Can we smooth down the bright hair,
O my sisters, calm, unthrilled in

Our hearts' pulses ? Can we bear
The sweet looks of our own children?

O my sisters ! Children small,

Blue-eyed, wailing through the city

Our own babes cry in them all;
Let us take them into pity !"

That poem was worth a great deal to our
cause. Those of the mothers of our Ten
who were present were won to us at once.

Mrs. Middleton, our vice - president's
mother, and the wife of a clergyman, entered
into our scheme with enthusiasm, and felt
sure that her husband's church would as-
sist us.

Mrs. Seligman and Mrs. Roseveldt put
their heads together and planned to interest
their society friends. One of hers. Mrs.
Roseveldt was sure, would contribute the
coal, and another the flour, while Mrs.
Seligman would provide the blankets, and a
friend of her acquaintance would certainly
assume the butcher's bill. Madame Celeste,
the dressmaker, who was present, was about
to refurnish her parlors, and would con-
tribute curtains. Madame Celeste bought a
quantity of my photographs of old Italian

158 WITCH WINNIE,

portraits, and I have no doubt that they were
very serviceable to her in the way of sug-
gestions for aesthetic costumes.

We knew before the evening closed that
the fair must have realized more than we
had hoped, and Emma Jane, the Treasurer of
the new society, announced at our next
meeting that the fair had cleared six hun-
dred dollars. Vociferous applause followed,
and we immediately adjourned to Miss Prill-
witz's to report the unexpectedly happy result.

Our princess had talked over the scheme
with such of our mothers as were present at
the fair; and she now advised that we create
them a board of managers of the proposed
Home, to carry it on for us, as we were all
minors, and lacked the necessary experience,
we to labor for it harder than ever. This
was immediately clone, and after this, affairs
marched with great rapidity. The Home
of the Elder Brother was licensed and fitted
up for its little guests within a week. The
vacant floors in Miss Prillwitz's house were
rented- -not for the summer only, as we had
at first planned, but, to our great surprise, for
a year. An " unknown friend," who had
admired our efforts, sent in a subscription of
nine hundred dollars, thereby more than

THE KING'S DAUGHTERS.

159

doubling the amount obtained by the fair,
and guaranteeing that amount annually as
long as the Home was continued.

Mr. Roseveldt had been better than his
word, and the Home was placed on an
assured basis for a year. What it would
be after that we could not tell. It was only
permitted to see one step ahead, but that
step we could take with thankful assurance.

Madame sent over a quantity of furniture,
as she intended to refit the students' rooms
during the summer vacation. Donations of
every kind poured in, and twenty-five little
iron bedsteads were dressed in white, and
set in the sunny rooms which were to be used
as dormitories. Madame Celeste had said
that she would not require Mrs. Halsey dur-
ing the three summer months, and the little
woman offered her services for that interim
as nursery care-taker.

Another surprise came when Emma Jane
Anton announced that she had written home
and obtained permission to remain as ma-
tron. She had a talent for housekeeping, and
she gave her services freely. (< I am not
rich," she said. " I can't give money, but I
can give myself. I am not used to children ;
I don't believe they will like me, for I don't

160 WITCH WINNIE.

care for them overmuch ; but Mrs. Halsey
will mother them, and I can keep the house
sweet and clean ; I can market economically,
and keep accounts exactly, and I mean that
the princess shall not give up her visit to
Tib She must go to the country for a part
of the summer at least."

" And when she comes back," I said, " you
must take your turn, Emma Jane ; we will be
so glad to have you !"

" Oh, immensely ! I am a genial, sweet
creature, I know, an addition to society; but
I thank you, all the same, and if I feel run
down, I will come and get a sniff of sea air."

The King's Daughters' Ten held their last
meeting before the breaking up of the
school. The money gained was entrusted to
Emma Jane's care for the summer, and each
of the members bound herself to carry the
scheme with her wherever she went, to
interest others, to gather and forward funds,
and to work for the Home in every possible
way.

Then we paid our last visit, for that term,
to Miss Prillwitz, and our first to our little
guests, and returning, packed our trunks,
attended the graduating exercises of the
senior class (the Amen Corner and the

THE KING'S DA UGHTERS. \ 6 1

Hornets were all juniors and sophomores,
with the exception of Emma Jane, who
graduated), hugged and wept over each other,
and elected Winnie corresponding secretary
for the summer, and promised to write to
her every month, reporting work done for the
Home, and separated with mingled hilarity
and depression of spirits.

Mr. Roseveldt called at the Home with
Milly and Adelaide before they left town. It
was a little plan of the girls to interest him
in Jim, and it succeeded admirably. After
a number of other questions, Mr. Roseveldt
asked Jim if he could drive.

" I managed the milkman's nag," the boy
replied, " and he was an awfully hard-
mouthed, ugly brute."

" Then I fancy you will have no trouble
with Milly 's pony, which is as gentle as a
kitten," Mr. Roseveldt replied. "I want a
boy in. buttons just to sit in the rumble while
the girls drive about the country." And so
Jim was engaged to go to Narragansett Pier,
and would have a happy summer with Milly
and Adelaide.

CHAPTER X.

THE LANDLORD OF RICKETT S COURT.

" And yet it was never in my soul

To play so ill a part :
But evil is wrought by want of thought

As well as by want of heart."

Thos. Hood.

OLOMON MEY-
ER, who collect-
ed the rents at
Rickett's Court,
was looked upon
by the tenants
as the landlord,
though he dis-
tinctly disclaim-
ed that honor,
explaining that
he was only the
agent, empower-
ed merely to
receive money,

never to disburse, According to Mr. Meyer

163

LANDL ORD OF RICKE TT ' S CO UR 7\ \ ft ->

the landlord was a heartless miser, whom
he had entreated to make repairs and to
lower rents, but who always turned a deaf
ear to such appeals. If he, Solomon Meyer,
only owned Rickett's Court, there would be
no end to the reforms which his tender
heart would cause him to institute ; as it
was, there was no hope for anything of the
kind ; his orders were explicit if tenants
could not pay, they must leave.

Many of the tenants believed that Mr.
Meyer was really the owner of their build-
ing, and that the landlord whom he repre-
sented as responsible for all their discom-
fort was purely imaginary, but in this they
wronged the agent. Solomon Meyer had
no scruples against telling a lie whenever
it would serve his purpose, but here the
truth did very well. Rickett's Court had a
landlord who, although he was not the in-
human wretch which Solomon represented
him, still cared nothing for his tenants, and,
while the agent had never suggested any
reforms or repairs, might well have guessed
that they were needed. Adelaide Arm-

strong would have been shocked beyond
expression if she had known that the true
landlord of Rickett's Court was no other

164 WITCH WINNIE.

than her own father. Mr. Armstrong would
have been no less shocked if he had known
of the abuses for which he was really respon-
sible. He had never seen his own property.
It had been represented to him as a profit-
able investment, and had proved so. He
was only in New York for brief intervals
each vear, and he left the entire manage-

* o

ment of Rickett's Court to Solomon Meyer,
well pleased with the returns which he ren-
dered, and not suspecting that they were
less than the sums wrung from the tenants.

He had mentally set aside Rickett's Court
as Adelaide's property, and he used its
proceeds to defray her expenses. There
was a neat little surplus left over each
quarter-day, which he placed in the savings
bank to her credit, and with which he in-
tended to endow her on her marriage. But
of all this Adelaide of course knew nothing.
Mr. Armstrong's more important business
ventures were in western railroad specula-
tions. These absorbed his attention, and
needed the closest application of his facul-
ties. He was glad of this. The East had

grown distasteful to him since the loss of his
wife and infant son. He felt that he might
have been a different man if his wife, whom

LANDLORD OF RICKE TT^ S COURT. 165

he tenderly loved, had lived; and Adelaide
had never ceased to mourn her mother,
whom she could not remember. " What
shall I ever do," she frequently asked,
" when I finish school ? If I only had a
mother to be my companion and counselor !
but I shall be so lonelv, and so unfit to take

j *

care of myself!"

The circumstances which I relate in this
chapter because they belong- here in sequence
of time, did not come to my knowledge un-
til long: after their occurrence.

i Mr. Armstrong came on from the West

~_i. O

the evening of our fair. He was weary and
much occupied by matters of business, and
he did not attend it, much to our regret.
He lent a kindly ear to Adelaide's descrip-
tion of it, for he was fond and proud of his
beautiful daughter, and he liked to see her
a leader in everything.

He manifested apparently little interest,
however, in what she had to tell him of
Rickett's Court. "There, there, Puss !" he
said, lightly, "you must not get fanatical,
and rant. I hardly think things are as bad
down there as you make them out."

" But, papa," Adelaide interrupted, " I
went there myself. I saw it with my own

I 66 WITCH WINNIE.

eyes. It is horrible to think that human
beings should be obliged to live in such filth
and misery. I think the landlord of Rick-
ett's Court ought to be prosecuted. I wish
I knew that old Rickett ! I would give him
a piece of my mind."

" I've no doubt of it ; but spare me, Puss,
since my name is not Rickett."

He must have felt a sharp twinge of con-
science as he spoke, while his daughter's
words could not have failed to make an im-
pression on the false Rickett. He had read
in the cars a little book entitled " Uncle Tom's
Tenement," by Alice Wellington Rollins, and
Helen Campbell's "Prisoners of Poverty." He
wondered if their pictures of tenement life
were indeed true. A few days later he
listened to some remarks of Mr. Felix
Adler's on tenement reform. He knew what
Mr. Charles Pratt was doing in Brooklyn,
and his better man told him that now was
his opportunity. Why should he not put
the plumbing in his tenement in decent re-
pair ; it might not cost much more, after all,
than to bribe the inspector to report it as all
right- a proceeding which Solomon Meyer
advised. He could at least drain the sink
in the court, and do away with the unchris-

LANDLORD OF RICKETT* S COURT, 167

tian smells which now drove the chance
visitor from the vicinity. And if he should
have the rooms cleaned and whitewashed, he
might even pose before the public as a
humanitarian landlord, and so gain the co-
operation of some of the philanthropists of
the day for some other schemes which he
had in mind.

He visited the court with a plumber, and
found it in worse condition than he had
imagined. There was a leak from the sewer
in the back basement. All of the rooms
\vere foul with vermin, and rats scuttled back
into the walls through great holes. Many
of the tenants had left, for various reasons.
The opening of the Home of the Elder
Brother was in great part responsible for the
emptying of Rickett's Court, for the better
class of its tenants had embraced this
great opportunity to place their children
in good surroundings. So many children
had been transferred from Mrs. Grogan's
care to the Home by their mothers that
Mrs. Grogan, finding her occupation gone,
betook herself to petty larceny and was
arrested.

The Italian rag-pickers had taken to the
road, with a monkey and an organ as tramps

1 68 WITCH WINNIE.

for the summer, leaving their filth behind
them.

Mr, Armstrong looked into their vacated
den, and found it impossible to imagine what
it could have been when occupied.

The windows had been stoned by the
street boys until hardly a pane remained,
and the staircase had rotted so that he
thrust his foot through it. The house would
need plastering and glazing as well as re-
plumbing. It began to look like a great un-
dertaking. However, he bade the plumber
make and send him his estimates, and hurried
out of the court, not taking a full breath un-

til he was fairly on Broadway. Then he
sent a mason and a carpenter to look at the
building. " I must make some repairs," he
said to himself, " or I shall get no tenants
whatever."

He had noticed another defect : there was
but one staircase. He must add a fire-escape,
for the place was a death-trap. He had a
feeling of responsibility in regard to en-
dangering the lives of human beings by fire,
and he was trying to invent a scheme for
heating and lighting railroad cars in such a
manner as to do away with the danger of
fire in case of accident. So far, the full com-

LANDLORD OF RICKETT'S COURT. 169

pletion of the invention escaped him, but he
worked at it by night and day, not so much
because it would be an immense boon to the
age, but because he was sure that, if intro-
duced only on his own railroad, it would
boom the line above a rival route, and if
patented, would make his fortune. Solomon
Meyer, in enumerating the tenants of the
court, had mentioned a Mr. Trimble, a poor
inventor, who occupied the back attic, whom
it would be w r ell to turn out, as he had paid
no rent for some time, though he had
promised well, saying that he had just in-
vented a scheme for the safe heating of cars,
from which he hoped to realize a large sum.
Mr. Armstrong thoughtlessly displayed be-
fore his a^ent the interest which he felt.

"Bring the man to me," he exclaimed ; "if
he has really worked out the problem, it is
just what I want."

The agent at once paid a visit to the poor
inventor and possessed himself of his plans
and model, promising to do his best for him.

Mr. Armstrong saw at a glance that the in-
ventor had compassed just what had baffled
him so long.

"What will he take for this invention?'
he asked, eagerly.

I 70 IVITCH WINNIE.

" Not one cent less as five t'ousand dollar,"
replied Mr. Meyer.

"That is a good round sum," remarked
Mr. Armstrong, "but the right to it is worth
more than that to me. Arrange the papers
for me, get the gentleman to sign them, give
him this check for a thousand dollars, and
I will send him another, soon, for four
thousand."

Mr. Meyer saw his opportunity here. He
returned to Mr. Trimble, assured him that
his contrivance had been anticipated and
already patented by another man: he was
too late. The poor man's disappointment
was intense ; his head and hands trembled.

"I thank you for trying for me," he said ;
"there is nothing for me now but the river.
I have occupied this room in the hope of
paying my rent when I realized from that
invention, but I have no longer any expecta-
tions, and I had better go and drown myself."

Then for the first time Mr. Meyer realized
I hat there was another person in the room.
Jim had come down to the court to see his
old friends, and had dropped in to inquire
after Mr, Trimble's son, a merry little fellow
who had been a playmate of his in the old
days. Jim had retreated into a corner when

LANDLORD OF RICKETT'S COURT IJl

the agent called, but he now sprang forward
and threw his arms around the poor inventor's
neck.

" No, no ! " he cried ; " Mr. Meyer will beg
Mr. Rickett to let you stay until the first of
the month, and something may turn up by
that time."

Some sense of shame prompted Solomon
Meyer to yield to this request, though in his
secret heart he knew that his own plans
could be more safely carried out if his victim
did drown himself; and the sooner the better.
Then he hurried away to collect rents of the
new tenants, with the money which Mr.
Armstrong had sent Stephen Trimble burn-
ing like a coal in his pocket.

The contract for the new invention was
returned to Mr. Armstrong at the same time
with the estimates of the different mechanics
for the improvements of Rickett's Court. It
would cost three thousand dollars to put the
tenement in decent repair, and this did not
include the fire - escape. Mr. Armstrong
whistled as he added up the items. It was
really not convenient for him to place his
hand on so much ready cash ; certainly not
without using the money which he o had
placed in the savings bank to Adelaide's

1^2 WITCH WINNIE.

credit. Mr. Meyer stood cringing before
him, and Mr. Armstrong explained the situa-
tion.

The agent promptly disapproved of the
improvements. They would be a great
waste of money. No one would rent the
tenements after they were repaired, for it
would be necessary to charge a higher rent,
and tenants able to pay it, or desiring bath-
rooms and sanitary plumbing, would not
occupy such a quarter of the city.

" But suppose I do not charge any more
rent, but simply try to educate my old ten-
ants to better habits of life ? '

Mr. Meyer explained that Mr. Armstrong
could throw away his money in that way if
he wished, but that the class of tenants who
patronized Rickett's Court could not be
educated. They preferred tilth to cleanli-
ness, and, however respectable their quarters
were made, would soon convert them into
sinks again.

Mr. Armstrong reminded his agent that
his best tenants had left him, that the house
was practically deserted, and that something
must be done to attract new occupants.

Mr. Meyer assured him that applications
had already been received for the rooms in

LANDLORD OF RICKETT^S COURT.

173

their present state. A ship-load of emigrants
had just arrived : Polish Jews and exiled
Russians, who had been imprisoned as Nihi-
lists, and who had suffered such barbarities
that Rickett's Court, horrible as it was, seem-
ed positively comfortable to them."

Mr. Armstrong hesitated. He did not

like to give up his scheme of renovation ;
still, there were the papers waiting for his
signature for the transfer of the invention,

and this he had decided he must have ; it was
sure to bring in a great deal of money, and
another year he could much better afford
to make these improvements. He decided,
reluctantly, that he would put them off for
the present.

" I will have a fire-escape put up," he said
to his agent, " and we will do the rest as
soon as possible."

Solomon Meyer shrugged his shoulders.
"There is no danger of fire," he said, " and
I was about to propose that you take out a
fire insurance policy on that building ; that
cost about the same, and much more sensible."

Mr. Armstrong thought a moment. "If
the danger of fire is sufficient to warrant me
in insuring, it is also great enough to make
furnishing the fire-escape an imperative

I 74 WITCH WINNIE.

duty. I insist on your seeing that one is
adjusted immediately. You may also take
out an insurance policy for twenty thou-
sand. See if Mr. Trimble can wait for the
rest of his money until the first of the month.
(The agent's face fell.) You have given him
my check for one thousand ; he ought to be
willing to wait a few days for the rest. If
he is not satisfied, tell him to come down
and see me, and we'll come to some agree-
ment."

This was exactly what Solomon Meyer
did not wish. " I will try my best to make
him sign the papers on those terms," he said,
and carried them away to his own den,
where he forged the name of Stephen Trim-
ble to both contract and check. He found
no difficulty in cashing the check, for Mr.
Armstrong's name was well known, though
Stephen Trimble's was not.

And in the mean time the poor inventor
sat in his garret trying to think. His wife
was in the hospital, and his little son busied
himself with washing the supper dishes. It
was not a heavy task, for their supper had
consisted only of some cold griddle-cakes
which the flap-jack man had given them.
When the boy had finished his work he

LANDLORD OF RICKETT'S COURT.

crept close to his father and laid his head on
his knee.

"Why don't you light the lamp?" Mr.
Trimble asked, rousing himself.

" There isn't any oil, daddy."

" No matter. I can think better in the
dark, and you had better go to bed."

" I am going out pretty soon to help the
flap-jack man wheel his cart."

" Very well, Lovey, if he is a good man ; I
don't want you to do anything wrong."

"He's good to me, daddy."

" I'm glad of that ; you need a friend, and
you may need one more." He kissed his
little boy as he went out an unwonted ac-
tion on the father's part and waited until he
was sure that the child had left the building,
then rose, with a desperate look upon his
face, and stepped out on the landing. The
house was very full now ; people had been
coming for two days past with great bales
of foul clothing, offensive with odors of the
steerage, and had packed into the already
dirty rooms. It was an unusually warm night
for spring, and the house was unbearably
close. The tenants had resorted to the
roof, and were sitting under the stars, try-
ing 1 in vain to find fresh air, and screaming

176

WITCH WINNIE.

and scolding at one another in a Strange,
harsh language.

Stephen Trimble was about to descend
the staircase, when two men of unpleasant
aspect stopped hirn.

" You are the machinist who lives on the
top floor ? '

-Yes."

" Have you time for a little job ?"
-Plenty of time. Thank God I" he ad-
ded, mentally, "who has sent me help in
time."

' Then come down-stairs with us : we are
your neighbors, and are just under you."

" What do you want me to do ? '

" We'll show you."

The men admitted him to their room,
and carefully locked the door behind them.
One of them struck a light, and in so doing
dropped a match upon the floor. The other
sprang upon it quickly, ground it out with
his heel, and cursed him for his careless-
ness. Stephen Trimble looked about him,
and saw that one end of the room was
piled with boxes and tin cans, one of which
was open, showing a compound slightly
resembling maple sugar. A table stood
before the low window, and on it was appa-

LANDLORD OF RICKETT' S COURT.

177

ratus or machinery of some sort The first
man placed his candle on the table, and
drew up a packing-box for Mr. Trimble to
sit upon. There was no other furniture in
the room.

" You do not live here ?" said the inventor.

"No," replied the first man, who consti-
tuted himself the spokesman for both ; " it
isn't a sweet place to live in We hire it as
a workshop. You see, we are perfecting a
sort of torpedo. You've heard of the sub-
marine torpedoes that did such good service
in blowing up the Turkish ships in the Russo-
Turkish war ? "

" Oh yes," replied Stephen Trimble, much
interested. " I thought that stuff looked
like dynamite! So you are inventing a new
torpedo, which you mean to sell the Govern-
ment ? That's a good idea. They are think-
ing of increasing the navy, and it's always
better to deal with the Government than
with private individuals."

The silent man nudged his partner and
remarked, "Yes, we're agoin' to deal with
the Government. That's a good way to put
it."

The other man made an impatient gesture,
and proceeded to explain a small machine to

I 78 WITCH WINNIE.

Mr. Trimble. " You don't exactly under-
stand my friend," he said, " but no matter.
This kind of a torpedo isn't of the sub-
marine kind; we pack the explosives here,
matches here, friction paper just beside them;
but just here we are stuck, and we need you
or some other mechanic to show us how the
thing can be set off by electricity, the opera-
tor to touch a button at a distance."

Mr. Trimble bent himself to an examina-
tion of the contrivance. He asked several
questions, and as his scrutiny continued, his
expression of satisfaction changed to one of
mistrust and alarm. Suddenly he sprang
from his seat and pushed the model from
him. " That is an infernal - machine !" he
exclaimed.

" That's about the long and the short of
it," said the man, calmly.

" Then I will have nothing to do with it,"
and he turned toward the door.

" Hold on, my friend, ain't you a trifle in a
hurry ? All we want you to do is to fix that
attachment for us, and if you won't do it
some other man will, but we're willing to pay
you a hundred dollars for the job. That's a
goodish sum to pay, if the job is a little queer,
but I take it you're used to doing queer

LANDLORD OF RICKETT* S COURT. 179

things by the big checks that pass through
your hands."

" What do you mean ?' Stephen Trimble
asked, with some indignation.

" Oh ! you needn't pretend innocence and
poverty. A man doesn't scatter round
thousand-dollar checks who's as poor as you
pretend to be, or as good, either.'*

"Tell me what you mean."

" Now don't tell us you know nothing of
a check for a thousand dollars which we
happened to see in the pocket-book of the
agent of this building when he dropped in
here to collect the rent."

"I never saw a check for a thousand dol-
lars in my life."

" If you don't believe me, ask that sharp
little boy of yours. It was he who first let
me know there was a scientific man in the
building He saw me unpacking my ma-
chine. I happened to leave the door open
just a minute. I never saw such a sharp little
fellow. In he comes and says, ' My father
makes machines too. He's going to make
us awful rich some clay.'

" After that he got in the way of knock-
ing at the door and asking to see my ma-
chinery. I thought it would be a good idea

1 80 WITCH WINNIE.

to let him, for he is too little to suspect any-
thing-, and I could stuff him with the idea
that I was making a new kind of telegraph,
for I was pretty sure that he would tell it
around, and that people would believe it and
think there couldn't be anything shady in
what I was doing if I let anybody and every-
body have the freedom of the room.

" Well, the day I'm speaking of, your little
chap was sitting there turning the crank of
that machine just as cheerful as if it
wouldn't have blown him to kingdom come
if the attachment had only been on, when
in come another little feller who had been
looking for him. ' See here,' says my partner,
' there's getting to be too many children
here ; we don't keep a Sunday-school, we
don't.' They were just going to leave, when
the agferit he come in with the rent contract

for us to sign. Well, the boys lingered
round, full of curiosity, as boys are, and we
signed the paper and handed over the cash.
Mr. Meyer in stuffing it away in his pocket-
book brought to light that thousand-dollar
check I was telling you about. He fumbled
to hide it, but it dropped on the floor, and a
little gust of wind carried it over to where
the boys were. The oldest boy Jim, I think

LANDLORD OF RICKETT' S COURT. jSl

your son called him picked it up, and took
a good look at it. ' Hullo ! ' says he, 'here's
your father's name, Lovey. " Pay to the order
of Stephen Trimble one thousand dollars " ! '
The agent he just made one dive for that
check, with his fist lifted as though he were
going to strike the boy, who dropped the
check, and both the little shavers scooted,
and none too soon either, for Meyer looked
mad enough to kill the youngster, though
he tried to laugh it off, and turned the check
over and showed me that it was his fast
enough, for it was endorsed on the back,
' Pay to the order of Solomon Meyer.'

Stephen Trimble put his hand to his head
in a dazed way. " You are fooling me," he
said.

" Not we, but somebody is, if you don't
know anything about it. Well, if you are not
the bloated bondholder we took you for,
perhaps you'll consider our little offer ? "

" No, gentlemen, not to-night at least ;
give me time to think it over. One bad man
may have wronged me, but I've no call to
go against the law."

" Oh yes, take plenty of time " and they
opened the door. Some one was knocking
at Stephen Trimble's own room. It was the

1 82 WITCH WINNIE.

flap-jack man, and he had a white, scared
face

" What is the matter ? " asked the inventor.

"Lovey's been '

" Run over ? " gasped the poor father.

" No; arrested."

Stephen Trimble gave one exclamation of
horror then asked, " What's he clone ? '

"Nothing but wheeling my cart; they'd
have caught me, too, but I cut and run.
This is a pretty country where one is arrested
for trying to earn an honest living !"

This was the last straw. Stephen Trimble
had said that he had no reason to resist the
law, but he could not hold to that now.
He staggered feebly down-stairs, knocked
at the door of the dynamiters, and said.
" I've come back sooner than I thought I

would. Give me five dollars in advance, and
I'll undertake that business of yours to-mor-
row, and maybe I'll get up a little infernal-
machine for my own use at the same time,
but just now I must find my boy."

The man handed him some greasy bills.
" You look sick," he said. "You had better
2fo down to the free-lunch counter at the

saloon, and have a good square meal."

Stephen Trimble went and ate and drank

LANDL ORD OF RICKE T T ' S CO UR T. \ g 3

to excess. He did not look for his little son,
and he did not return to the dynamiters' the
next morning, for he was drunk- -and drunk
for three days thereafter. Then he sobered
down and applied himself to the task which
they had set him a task intended to bring
ruin to the class which had wronged him.

He knew the aims, now, of the men for whom
he was working, and he believed that he sym-
pathized with them. They told him how
they had borne imprisonment and torture
for no wrong in Russia, and had come to
this country expecting to find it the land of
justice and kindness, but had met only the
same tyranny of the rich over the poor- -the
rich, who cared for nothing but their own
pleasures, and ground the poor under their
chariot wheels.

As he worked he thought of his own pri-
vate wrongs, and determined that as soon as
his task was done he would seek out the
man who had defrauded him. He was sure
now that the check which the men had seen
had something to do with his invention, but
he believed that the true criminal was some
one behind Solomon Meyer, the man to
whom the agent said he had given his inven-
tion the landlord of Rickett's Court. It was

184 WITCH WINNIE.

like a man who would compel human beings
to live in such a state as this to commit such
a fraud. He would hunt him down present-
ly, and in the name of his tenants, as well as
in his own cause, wreak such revenge that
the ears of those who heard should tingle.

The landlord of Rickett's Court, all un-
conscious of the volcano upon which he was
treading, attended the closing exercises of
Madame's school, and listened with pride
to his daughter's prize essay on "The Dan-
gerous Classes."

There was a quotation from Ruskin at the
close which pricked his heart a little, and
made him regret that it was not convenient
to carry out his good intentions just at pres-
ent. How charming she looked in the
white India silk, and how well she read that
final quotation !

" If you can fix some conception of a true
human state of life to be striven for life for
all men as for yourselves if you can deter-
mine some honest and simple order of exist-
ence following those trodden ways of wis-
dom, which are pleasantness, and seeking
those quiet and withdrawal paths, which are
peace ; then, and so sanctifying wealth into
' commonwealth/ all your art, your literature,

LANDLORD OF RICKETT S COURT. 185

your daily labors, your domestic affection,
and citizen's duty, will join and increase into
one magnificent harmony. You will know,
then, how to build well enough ; you will
build with stone well, but with flesh better
temples not made with hands, but riveted
of hearts, and that kind of marble, crimson-
veined, is indeed eternal."

Mr. Armstrong entirely ruined a new pair
of kid gloves in applauding his daughter.

He consigned her to Mrs. Roseveldt for
the summer, and in reply to that lady's
urgent request that he would visit them, ex-
plained that Narragansett Pier was fraught
with so many memories that he had never
been able to revisit it. " I own a cottage a
little distance from the town," he said. " It
was there that both my children were born.
We were in the habit of occupying it every
summer, but since my wife's death I have
neither been able to bring myself to go
there, or to rent it, and it has remained
closed."

" O papa, will you not let me have it for
the summer ? ' Adelaide asked.

" Certainly, Puss, if you want to fit it up
for a studio or that sort of thing ; but it is in
a lonely wood, and you must have suitable

1 86 WITCH WINNIE.

company with you if you think of staying
there. If you manage to change the place
and infuse new life in it, I may bring myself
to look in upon you there. At all events, I
will join you at the Roseveldts' as soon as I

can ; just now important business detains

me.

The business, as we know, was the secur-
ing and putting in service of the new inven-
tion for heating and lighting cars. It was
necessary for him to go to Washington to
arrange for the patent, and it was on this
trip that a clue most unexpectedly fell into
his hands which seemed to lead to a startling

discovery a discovery which was more to
him than any fortune which the invention
could bring.

It all came about through a scrap of paper
which fell in his way as he was looking
about his hotel bedroom for a piece of wrap-
ping-paper with which to cover the model
of the machine which he was about to carry
to the Patent Office. He could find noth-
ing for this purpose but an old newspaper
which lined a bureau drawer. In this he
wrapped his machine, and took his seat in the
street-car, the package resting on his knees.
His fellow-passengers were uninteresting,

LANDLORD OF RICKETT S COURT. 187

and he fixed his gaze upon his package. A
heading to one of the shorter articles in the
old newspaper attracted his attention,

" Remarkable Case of Loss of Identity ;
the Doctors Puzzled/'

He read on aimlessly

"The physicians of Hospital have an
interesting case. One of their patients, a
lady, was injured at the burning of the
Henrietta in the Sound in October last.
This accident has resulted in a partial loss of
memory, and total confusion as to her iden-
tity. The unfortunate lady is unable to give
her own name or that of her friends. A re-
markable circumstance in the case is the fact
that, through all the horror and suffering of
the accident, which has resulted in a partial
loss of her reason, the poor lady kept her in-
fant boy safely clasped in her arms, and the
child, entirely uninjured, was rescued with
her. Any person who believes that he rec-
ognizes a lost friend in this case is re-
quested to communicate with Dr. H. C.
Carver, of the Hospital."

Mr. Armstrong read this item over and
over again. He had believed that his wife
and child were lost in the burning of this
steamer. Was it possible that they still

1 88 WITCH WINNIE.

lived ? and what had ten years of separation
done for them ?

The horse-car passed the Patent Office,
but he did not see it. He sat staring- at the
newspaper until the car brought him to
the end of the route and the conductor
touched him on the shoulder. " Pardon me,
sir; I forgot you washed to stop at the Patent
Office."

Mr. Armstrong woke from his reverie.
''No," he exclaimed, " at the railway sta-
tion. I want to catch the next train for New
York none until 4 o'clock ? Then I will go
to the Patent Office ; but, first, tell me where
I can send a telegram."

CHAPTER XT.

THE GUESTS OF THE ELDER BROTHER.

And man may work with the great God ; yea, ours
This privilege ; all others, how beyond !

* * # * * *

Effectually the planet to subdue,
And break old savagehood in claw and tusk;
To draw our fellows up as with a cord
Of love unto their high-appointed place,
Till from our state barbaric and abhorred
We do arise unto a royal race,
To be the blest companions of the Lord."

HENRY G. SUTTON.

FEW days be-
fore school
closed saw
the Home
filled for the
summer.

The gath-
ering in was
achieved
principally
by Jim, Mrs.
Hetterman,
and Vicenzo
Amati.

Vincenzo
was an Italian
of the better
sort. He had

lived in America long enough to acquire
13 189

WITCH WINNIE.

some of our ways of life. He earned a fairly
good salary as cook, and he had kept his
little family in comparative comfort in the
best apartment which Rickett's Court had to
offer, until the death of his pretty wife Gio-
vanina. Since then the three little girls had
done their best, but there was a woeful
change. They became slatternly in appear-
ance, and the two rooms grew dirty and
cheerless. Worse than this, the girls affiliated
with a lower class of their own nationality,
the children of the rag-pickers in the base-
ment, already referred to, who lived upon the
chances of garbage barrels and beggary, and
who spent much of their time in picking
over and assorting the old bones, rags,
paper, and other refuse dumped each night
upon the floor of their sleeping and living
room, as the result of their father's daily toil.
These children were sickly and miserable,
tainted morally as well as physically ; and
their parents, who were contented with their
disgusting lives, were laying up money, in
fact, for a return to Italy. But Vincenzo was
not contented that his children should live in
such fashion or have contaminating associ-
ates. He was one of the first applicants to
place his children in the Home, paying

GUESTS OF THE ELDER BROTHER. 191

cheerfully the highest sum asked for board,
it having been early decided that the rates
for each child should be proportioned to the
wages of the parent.

Then several children previously " farmed
out ' to Mrs. Grogan, whose mothers were
servants in good families, were received on
similar terms.

A German woman, a Mrs. Rumple,
brought her two children, saying that she
was going West, but, as she knew not what
fortune awaited her there, wished to place
her children in the Home until she could
send for them. She paid their board in ad r
vance for the summer, taking the money in
coin from her petticoat pocket.

" Why do you leave New York ?" asked
Emma Jane Anton.

" It ish not de guntry. De guntry ish a
very goot guntry. It ish de beeples," said
Mrs. Rumple.

" What is the matter with the people ? '
asked Emma Jane.

" I comes de seas over a pride, mit my
man Heinrich Rumple; dat is ten years aco
alreaty. Heinrich is one very goot man; he
trinks only one mug of lager every days; he
comes every Saturday home mit his moneys,

192

V/ITCH WINNIE.

and oh, mine fraulein, how he luf me !
Pretty soon py und py de peer ish not coot,
and he takes one leetle glass of schnapps in-
stead. Den de leetle babies come, one, tree,
four, six, and it cost all de time more to live,
and he pring all de time less moneys mit de
Saturdays. But he trinks all cle time more
schnapps one, two, tree, four glass de every
days, and I know not how much de Sun-
days, and I tink he not luf me now so much
as sometimes. Den de sickness comes, de
shills and de fevers, and we all de time
shake, shake, and first one little children die,
and den anudder, all but Carl and de little
Gracie ; and mine" man not haf any moneys
to py medicines, put he haf blenty to py
schnapps, and he all de time trink more as is
goot for him, and one night he comes home
and he knows not vat he does, and he
sthrikes de leetle Gracie, and she is long time
very sick. Mine soul ! I tinks she vill die,
and Heinrich Rumple clot ish my man he
puts his name mit de bledge, and says he
vill not any times trink any more, und de
Gracie gets veil, und ve are all wery happy,
but he all de same trinks again shust so pad
as ever. Py und py pretty soon I says, ' Hein-
rich Rumple, I cannot sthand dis nonsense

GUESTS OF THE ELDER BROTHER.

any more ain't it. I cannot haf dose childer
all their bones broke any more; I put dem
in one 'sylum avay from you, and I goes in
dot Western land seek my fortune.'

" And so you left your husband ? ' asked
Miss Anton.

" Ya. I left mine man," replied the wo-
man.

" And don't you suppose he will ever
reform, and send you money to come back
to him ? '

" No, I s'pose so. He said to me dat
day: ' Barbara, it is de beeples. I haf too
many friends, and I trinks mit dem all de
time, too often ; I tinks if I am in de West,
where I know nobodys, I would be a petter
husband to you alretty.' And so he goed
away mit me."

" Do you mean to say that you and your
husband are leaving- New York for the West
together ? '

" Ya. I left him, and he say, ' Barbara,
you has right ; I leaf myself, too.' But I
cannot trust him alretty mit de chillern. I
leaf dem one six month, to try what come
of it all."

''I hope your husband has indeed left his
worst self behind him," said Emma Jane ;

WITCH WINNIE.

and on suitable security being provided, the
Rumple children were admitted.

In almost all cases it was not the desper-
ately and hopelessly pauperized and vicious
who were provided for by reformatories
and the city charities whom they helped,
but the class just above them, who were
slipping over the brink, and would surely
have fallen and contributed to swell the dan-
gerous classes, if not reached by this timely
assistance.

" Prevention is better than cure," and it was
the hope of the " King's Daughters ' to res-
cue the innocent children of decent and
struggling parents before they should need
reformation.

Rosaria Ricos, the Cuban heiress, endowed
a bed to be used for some child whose par-
ents could do nothing whatever toward its
support. She wished to have more free
beds, but Miss Prillwitz showed her how
much better it was for the parents to do
something, however little it might be, for
their children, and not be pauperized by
having every feeling of independence and
ability to care for their own taken from them.
Exceptional circumstances might arise,
when a mother out of employment, could

GUESTS OF THE ELDER BROTHER. 195

wisely be helped over a great exigency,
but she advised that Miss Ricos's " Emer-
gency Bed " be given for short periods only.
It was first occupied by Lovell Trimble,
familiarly, but most inappropriately, nick-
named by the other children, Lovey Dimple.
He was a homely, unprepossessing boy, with
a pug nose and a disproportionately large
head. His father was the unsuccessful in-
ventor of Rickett's Court, with whom we
are already acquainted. He spent all his
former earnings in securing patents for va-
rious great inventions which were to make

all their fortunes. His mother had been a
shop-girl in a large dry-goods store, and had
supported the family until long-continued
standing had sent her to the hospital. Lovey
had tried to take her place in supporting his
father by wheeling " the machine ' of a hot-
flap-jack seller, while the flap-jack man de-
voted his attention to frying the cakes, flip-
ping them on to a plate, and serving them
up with a dab of butter and a lake of mo-
lasses. They did their best business winter
nights after the theatres were out -sheltered

from the snow by an awning or a conven-
ient door-way, and they knew which places
of amusement were out first, and would

196 WITCH WINNIE.

race at ambulance speed from Harrigan

and Hart's to the Bowery, to secure the cus-

j '

torn of each. Lovey liked the business, for,
besides the pay, after the day's trade was
over the flap-jack man let him eat whatever
was left, for the batter would not keep, and
he had always a few cakes to carry home
to his father of the full brain and empty
stomach.

But one night a member of the Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children,
who had had his eye on the flap-jack man as
employing too young a child for labor in-
volving so much privation, descended upon
the cart with a policeman ; and the flap-jack
man having discreetly absconded, they ar-
rested Lovey in default of his employer.
Miss Prillwitz appeared in court at Jim's
request, for in some way Jim had
heard of his friend's apprehension, and hav-
ing ascertained that Mr. Trimble had gone
upon a spree, she rashly, but not unnaturally,
decided that nothing was to be expected
from such a father, and next paid a visit to
Mrs. Trimble, at the hospital. Learning
there that there was a prospect of her cure,
she offered Lovey the hospitality of the
Emergency Bed until his mother should be

GUESTS OF THE ELDER BROTHER.

able to work once more. This case estab-
lished relations between the Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the
new Home; and a little girl who had been
forced to sell lead-pencils on the street at
night by a drunken mother, though her
father was a brakeman, who could well af-
ford to support her was committed to the
Home through the agency of the Society ;
and the father, on being notified, approved
the action, and paid her board regularly.

One desirable result of the Home was its
effect on Emma Jane's character. From be-
ing, as she had truly said of herself, an
unlovely and unloving girl who disliked
children, her nature sweetened by contact
with them ; and taking them one by one into
her heart, it broadened and softened, till an
expression which was almost madonna-like
trembled in a face which had been grim
and repellent. Lovey Dimple was the first
to scale the fortress of Emma Jane's affec-
tions. He inherited his father's aptitude for
mechanics. Among the old books and
papers contributed to the Home were,
strangely enough, some bound volumes of
the Scientific American and a few stray
Patent Office reports, and over these he

JgS WITCH WINNIE.

pored until his head seemed full of revolv-
ing cog-wheels and pulleys, and pistons, and
his heart beat like a stationary engine. He
was certain that he would be an inventor
some day, like Ericsson or Edison ; indeed,
he was an inventor already, for had he not
constructed unnumbered mill-wheels and
windmills, weathercocks and whirligigs,
besides taking to pieces the clock (which he
could not get together again), and adapting
his mother's sewing-machine to fret-saw pur-
poses ? He had studied every machine which
he had seen in the stores, from the corn-
sheller to the great patent mower, and be-
lieved that he understood the action of each.
" Patent ' was a word that stirred his soul,
though he had but a dim conception of its
meaning. It was something, his father had
said, that the Government would give him
if he invented a really useful, labor-saving
machine, one which would "supply a felt
want."

Lovey knew v/hat a felt hat was, but it
was several days before he really knew what
his father meant by a felt want. As soon
as he had grasped the idea he began in ear-
nest. "Mother Halsey," he asked, "what
part of your work bothers you most ? '

GUESTS OF THE ELDER BROTHER.

I 99

Mrs. Halsey looked hot and flustered.
Half an hour before this she had put her room
and the nursery in order, had dressed the
twenty-five children; from combing their hair
and scrubbing the little ones, and introducing
them into each separate garment, to merely
tying apron-strings and buttoning the " be-
hind buttons' of the older ones, and giving
them a final dress review before starting
them to the public school.

In view of this state of affairs, it is not to
be wondered at that Mrs. Halsey said that
dressing the children gave her more bother
than anything else. Lovey, with a pencil
and paper, sat down to invent a machine
which should do this for her. He reflected
that such a machine would be hailed with
delight in nearly every family, and if he
could manage to sell them at a dollar apiece
his fortune was assured. He took as his
models the washing - machine, a cross - cut
saw, and a com - sheller, and in a few
moments had made his drawing of a com-
bination of the three machines. The motive
power, he decided, should be furnished by
the father of the family, who could turn the
crank; and on days when this was not con-
venient the smoke from the cooking-stove

2OO

WITCH WINNIE.

could be utilized, the stove pipe being turned
so that the smoke should strike the paddles
of the main wheel, and the continuous stream
passing across the edge of the wheel and up
the chimney, he felt certain, would turn it.
Just back of the machine, and above it, there
was to be a great hopper into which the
naked children could climb by means of a
ladder, and where the clothing could be
tossed promiscuously, the machine sorting
it and robing each child properly. The cross-
cut saw near the mouth would shingle each
child's hair, and save the trouble of curling,
while the children, completely dressed, would
be poured through this spout into their
mother's arms.

GUESTS OF THE ELDER BROTHER. 2OI

Lovey exhibited this drawing to Mrs. Hal-
sey and to Miss Anton, and begged them to
show it to President Harrison and obtain a
patent for him as soon as possible ; but, some-
how, though the invention was received with
applause and approbation by the entire fam-
ily, nothing was ever done about it.

The droll conceit attracted Emma Jane to
the boy. " Perhaps some day he may be-
come an inventor of something more prac-
tical," she said, and ever after watched him
with increasing interest.

Lovey had had great trouble with his
arithmetic, and he had decided that a grand
labor-saving machine would be one which
would save a boy the trouble of studying.
He thought that it would be a good idea to
bore a hole in a boy's head when he was
asleep, introduce the end of a funnel into the
opening, and then with a coffee-mill grind
up the usual text-books and stuff his brains.
He made a drawing of this machine also,
and Merry Twinkle and he came very near
trying it practically, but they never could
quite agree as to who should be the operator
and who should be operated upon. Lovey
had another brilliant inspiration. He noticed
that his rubber ball, which had a hole in it,

2O2

WITCH WINNIE.

had a remarkable power of suction, and that
if he held the orifice to his cheek and
squeezed the ball, when he let go it would
pucker his cheek in a way to remind one
distantly of a kiss. He imagined that if the
ball were drawn out into a tube, and that
tube continued indefinitely the action would

still be the same. Here was a discovery.
How many separated friends and lovers
would be glad to patronize a kissaphone, an
instrument by which kisses could be sent
and actually felt. He imagined the estab-
lishment of offices on both sides of the
Atlantic, and the laying of a submarine
tube.

GUESTS OF THE ELDER BROTHER.

A young physician, a friend of Mrs. Rose-
veldt's, was visiting the Home just as Lovey
completed this triumph. " Another inven-
tion of Lovey Dimple's," Emma Jane explain-
ed, as the child handed her the drawing. Dr.
Curtiss came oftener than the sanitary con-
dition of the Home really demanded, and he
was well acquainted with Lovey's genius in
this direction.

" Yes, sir," promptly replied Lovey, " and
I have met a felt want now, sure," and then
he explained the kissaphone.

" Try it on me, Lovey, and let me see how
it feels," asked the doctor.

Lovey did so, and Dr. Curtiss made a wry
face. " It strikes me that is a very poor sub-
stitute for the genuine article," he said, " but
perhaps I am not qualified to judge.

"Now if you could have a nice looking
lady operator, and could attach your tubing
to the back of her head, and have her trans-
mit the kiss as the mouthpiece of the machine,
I should think your invention might be very
popular."

Lovey received this suggestion with entire
good faith. " Miss Anton, "he said, beseech-
ingly, "won't you act as mouthpiece and let
me send a kiss to Dr. Curtiss?" And he

2O4

WITCH WINNIE.

could never quite decide why Emma Jane,
who was usually so kind, declined in great
confusion to render him this trifling service.

There was another little boy in the Home
who made remarkable drawings the one
already referred to as Merry Twinkle. All
of his family, even the female portion, were
sea-faring people ; his grandfather had been
a sailor, and was now an inmate of the
Sailors' Snug Harbor. His mother some-
times took Merry to visit him when she was
back from a voyage, for she was stewardess
on an ocean steamer. His father had been
engineer on the same boat, but had been
killed by a boiler explosion, and Merry had
been boarded hitherto with Mrs. Grogan.

One evening, after a visit to his grand-
father, Merry handed Emma Jane a series of
wonderful marines.

" Grandfather sang rne a very old song
to-day," he said. " It went this way :

Two gallant ships from England sailed ;

Blow high, blow low, so sailed we :
One was the Princess Charlotte, the other Prince
of Wales,

Cruising down on the coast of Barbaree.

" This is a picture of the Princess Char-
lotte" handing Emma Jane his drawing.

GUESTS OF THE ELDER BROTHER. 205

" It is night, and the captain is pacing the
lonely deck; he has set his lantern on a small
stand, and has put his hands in his pockets
to keep them warm. The second verse goes
this way :

" Up aloft! up aloft!" our gallant captain cried ;

Blow high, blow low, so sailed we.
" Look ahead, look astern, look aweather, look alee,"

Cruising down on the coast of Barbaree.

"Oh, I've seen on ahead, and I've seen on astern,"

Blow high, blow low, so sailed we;
" And I see a ragged wind and a lofty ship at sea,"

Cruising down on the coast of Barbaree.

" Ahoy ! ship ahoy !" our gallant captain cried,

Blow high, blow low, so sailed we;
" Are you a man-of-war, or a privateer ?" says he ;

Cruising down on the coast of Barbaree.

" Oh ! I am no man-of-war or privateer," says he,

Blow high, blow low, so sailed we ;
" But I am a jolly pirate seeking for my fee,"

Cruising down on the coast of Barbaree.

" This is the picture of the pirate ship and
the fight. Captain Kidd has cut off the
head of one of the men who boarded his
ship. One of his men is firing a cannon,
the rest of his crew may be seen between-

decks.

2O6 WITCH WINNIE.

'Twas broadside to broadside, so quickly then came we ;

Blow high, blow low, so sailed we ;
Until the Princess Charlotte shot her masts into the sea,

Cruising down on the coast of Barbaree.

Then " Quarter ! oh, quarter !" the pirate captain cried;

Blow high, blow low, so sailed we ;

But the quarters that we gave them were down beneath
the sea,

Cruising down on the coast of Barbaree.

" Grandfather called it the story of Captain
Kidd, because he thought he must have been
the pirate whose ship the Princess Charlotte
sunk. Captain Kidd was taken to London
and hanged in chains, and I've made a pict-
ture of that too."

Emma Jane hardly approved of the san-
guinary spirit displayed by these drawings,
but she could not expect that the boy's ante-
cedents and surroundings would produce an
angel. She endeavored to draw his atten-
tion to gentler subjects for his pencil, recited
tender and loving ballads, and changed the
current of the boy's thought and aspiration,
realizing that here was material which, in
the fostering atmosphere of Rickett's Court,
might easily develop into an anarchist -a
menace to the state.

The Sandy girls were the last to be re-

GUESTS OF THE ELDER BROTHER.

207

ceived from the court. The father had been
a truckman, but a heavy box had fallen upon
him, and he had lived in pain and misery for
a year and had then died. Mrs. Sandy, by
making 1 men's clothing, managed to keep the
wolf from the door no, only snarling at the
door with fierce, hungry eyes. All of her
six children helped her. The oldest girl did
the ironing and finishing ; the next child,
a boy, carried the great bundles back and
forth in the intervals of his profession as a
bootblack ; the second girl did all of their
poor housework ; the twins sewed on but-
tons and pulled out basting threads, and the
youngest boy sold newspapers, while Mrs.
Sandy herself ran the sewing-machine ten
or twelve hours in the day.

When Mrs. Hetterman asked her why she
did not give up this desperate battle with
the point of the needle, and leave her vile
surroundings to take service in some good
family, she replied that she had often thought
of this, but she must keep a home, however
poor, for the children. " The two boys could
live at the Newsboys' Lodging-House, for
they earn enough to support themselves, but
what would I do with my four girls ? '

When Mrs. Hetterman assured her that

2O8 U'lTCH WINNIE.

there was a Home where thev could all be

cared for in cleanliness, health, and comfort,
and have time for study and schooling- and
industrial education, which would fit them
to earn their own living in future, and all
for a sum quite within the means of any
domestic, she brought her cramped hand
down with a heavy blow upon the sewing-
machine.

" I don't mind if I break every bone in yer
body, ye Satan's grindstone !" she said to the
machine; "it's the last time that Mary
Sandy'll grind soul and body thin at ye,
praise be to a delivering Providence !"

Mrs. Hastings, one of the managers of the
Home, had had great trouble with incompe-
tent and ungrateful servants, and she gladly
took the faithful Scotch woman into her
family.

These, then, were the guests of the Elder
Brother, for that first summer, from Rickett's
Court :

1 Jim Halsey, American.
3 Hettermans, English.

3 Amatis, Italian.

4 Babies from Mrs. Grcgan's, Irish.

2 Carl and Gracie Rumple, German.

GUESTS vl' THE ELDER BROTHER. 209

i Lovey Dimple, American.
i Merry Twinkle, American.
4 Sandy Girls, Scotch.

In all, nineteen children transplanted from
the filth and vice, hunger and ignorance, of
the court, and six more from other locali-
ties as bad, to sweet, wholesome surround-
ings. It was thought best that those children
of school age should attend a public school
to avoid " institutionizing ' them; and for
this end they wore no uniform, and mingled
freely with other well-behaved children in
the park under Mrs. Halsey's motherly super-
vision. Their birthdays were celebrated
with a little party, with cake and candles,
and everything was done to cultivate a home-
like feeling. They drew their books like
other children from the children's new free
circulating library, and were taught to
guard them carefully. They had a sewing
society in reality a sewing-class where
boys and girls were alike taught to mend
and darn, to sew on buttons, and to make but-
ton-holes all but the Sandy children, who, it
was judged, had served a long enough ap-
prenticeship in this department, and were
sent to Mrs. Hetterman to learn how to cook.

21O WITCH WINNIE.

Miss Prilhvitz was anxious that the boys
should have industrial training, and brought
the matter before the board of managers,
who entirely agreed with her, and voted
that a subscription sent them by Mr. Arm-
strong be used to secure a suitable teacher.

It was just at this time that a letter was
received from Adelaide announcing that she

had fitted up the cottage which her father
had placed at her disposal, and would like
to have Mrs. Halsey occupy it with the
youngest children for the heated term. Miss
Prilhvitz was delighted. Jim was already
at the Pier with the Rose veldts, and it
would be pleasant for his mother to be near
him, and a fine thing for the little girls and
the babies. This would leave the nursery
vacant, and it could be fitted up as a work-
shop for the boys, She had a chat with Mrs.
Halsey the day before she left, and asked
her if she knew of anyone who could teach
the boys carpentry.

" Mr. Trimble, Lovey's father, is a perfect
jack-of -ail-trades," replied Mrs. Halsey.

Miss Prill witz was doubtful. " Mr. Trim-
ble is a drunkard," she said.

"Not irreclaimable, I am sure," said Mrs.
Halsey. " He was a sober man when I

GUESTS OF THE ELDER BROTHER. 21 I

knew him. Despair alone could have driven
him to drink. I wish you would send and
ask him to call and see you."

So a letter was sent, and none too soon, for
affairs were now at their worst with Stephen
Trimble.

CHAPTER XII.

WITH THE DYNAMITERS.

" While we range with Science, glorying in the time,

City children soak and blacken soul and sense in city slime ;

Where among the glooming alleys Progress halts on pal-
sied feet,

Crime and hunger cast out maidens by the thousand on
the street;

Where the master scrimps his haggard seamstress of her
daily bread,

And a single sordid attic holds the living and the dead."

Anon.

HE anarchist
of Rickett's
Court, under
whose influ-
ence the in-
ventor had
fallen, was a
t h o roughly
bad man,
and the
writer has
no sympa-
thy to waste
upon him or
his methods,
but with his

deluded and desperate victim we should all

sympathize.

212

WITH THE DYNAMITERS, 21 3

Stephen Trimble had brooded over his
troubles and wrongs until he was half crazed,
and the men for whom he worked added
fuel to the flame.

" Why should you be so precious careful
of the rich?" his employer said. " What have
the rich ever done for you ? They've mur-
dered your wife, as I make out, insisting on
her standing all day long, when she was not
able to do so, and might have done her work
just as well sitting, They've sent your in-
nocent little boy to jail along with common
pickpockets. They've robbed you of your
money

l( Stop !" cried Stephen Trimble; " you've
said that over and over, until I believe it,
though I don't know why I should take
your word any quicker than that of any one
else. You've made much of your kindness
in telling me, though I don't see what good
it does me, unless you are willing to go into
court and testify for me as to what you've

seen, 1

The men shook their heads. " No going
into court for us ! We want to keep as far
away from the law as possible."

" Then I don't see but you are as much
against me as the rest. I've worked with

214 WITCH WINNIE,

you long enough to know what your aims
are ; your machine is now in working order,
ready to blow up the finest house, the larg-
est audience, in New York, church or arm-
ory, bank-vault or prison ; and if all you say
is true, you may blow away, for all I care,
and blow yourselves up with the rest, and
me too. If the world is the Sodom and
Gomorrah it seems to me, we have Bible
warrant for its destruction. My work for
you is done ; give me my money, and we
are through with each other."

" See here, Trimble," said the anarchist,
" we have already paid you fifteen dol-
lars, and you ought not to be too close
with us."

" You promised me a hundred ; do you
mean to say-

" Don't be so touchy ; what I mean to say
is this : We cannot help you by testifying in
court, as you suggested ; it wouldn't do you
any good if we did ; but find out the man
who has wronged you, and we will help you
to your revenge. In a few days our society
will begin its operations. We are out of
funds now, but there will be a new deal
soon. We begin with the banking-house of
Roseveldt, Gold & Co., and as soon as the

WITH THE DYNAMITERS. 215

fireworks are over we will be rich enough,
and you shall have a fair share."

Stephen Trimble sprang to his feet. " I
thought you were anarchists ! do you ac-
knowledge that you are common burglars ?"

"No, my friend, we acknowledge nothing
of the kind. Be good enough to attend to
vour own business."

"It is time that I did," replied the in-
ventor; " I have neglected it long enough."

Stephen Trimble walked out of the build-
ing, lie had three things to do- -to discover
the landlord of Rickett's Court ; to see his
wife for the last time ; and to free his little
son, whom he believed to be still in prison.

There was quite a commotion in the
court ; some men were putting up a fire-
escape. " What ever put it into Solomon
Meyer's head to do that?' he asked.

" Tain't Solomon Meyer," a workman
replied ; " it's the landlord himself. He or-
dered it done some time ago, and was mad

as a hornet because Meyer hadn't attended

i >
to it.

" See here, my friend," said Stephen
Trimble, " if you know who the landlord of
this tenement is, you will do me a favor
by directing me to him."

2 I 6 WITCH WINNIE.

" Armstrong's the man Alexander Arm-
strong, President of the R. R. Co. ;
his office is over the banking-house of
Roseveldt & Gold, No. Broadway. He
rooms there too, when he's in town back
of his office."

Stephen Trimble stood very still for a

moment. The information which he thought

<_s

would be so difficult to obtain had come to his
door. The vengeance which he had fancied

might take long days and nights of plotting,
hung now over the man who had wronged
him. He need do absolutely nothing, and
Alexander Armstrong was doomed. He must
inevitably be killed in the explosion and con-
flagration which was planned to cover the
robbery of the bank beneath him.

They had changed places, and the land-
lord of Rickett's Court was his victim. One-
third of his task was accomplished. He
walked now in the direction of the hospital,
and asked to see his wife. He hardly ex-
pected to be admitted, but he would at least
make the attempt. To his surprise he was
shown into a cheerful parlor, and Mrs. Trim-
ble was sent for. She came down, looking
pale, but happy.

(i O Stephen," she cried, " it has been so

WITfl THE DYNAMITERS. 2 I 7

lono- since I have seen you ! but never mind,

& *

I am almost well now, and we shall soon be
together again. The doctor tells me I may
leave next week. They have been so very
kind to me here, it has been like Heaven.
The rich are thoughtful and generous to pro-
vide such places for the poor. I am so grate-
ful ; and I have rested so that I shall be able
to take hold with new courage."

He listened in a stupefied way, and seeing
that he was not inclined to speak, she ran
on, "And isn't it beautiful about Lovey ? '

This stung him to speech. " Beautiful ?
To be arrested and sent to prison ?"

"Why, no, dear. Haven't you heard ? A
sweet, kind woman Miss Prillwitz called,
and told me that he is being cared for at a
little Home, for nothing, Stephen ; and they
will keep him there until we are on our feet
again. If that isn't brotherly love, I don't
know what is. It makes me believe that
there is such a thing as Christianity, after

all."

Still Stephen Trimble was silent. She
was happy, and he would not dispel her
illusion, at least not now. Evidently there
were some good people in New York, and
she had experienced their kindness. He had

2l8 WITCH WINNIE.

expected to find her suffering from neglect
and cruelty. He would not have been sur-
prised if she had died. He could hardly be-
lieve that a charity patient had received such
attention. That their little son had been
also tenderly cared for passed his belief, but
he would see for himself, and he took the
address of the Home. He bade his wife
good-bye gently. "I shall come back to
you very soon, Stephen,'' ohe said, " and
things will go better then/' He could not tell
her of his deep despair. He tried to smile,
but only succeeded in giving her a pitiful,

longing 1 look. He walked on toward the Home
& &

of the Elder Brother, sure that its name was
a he, and that he would find Lovey abused.
But he was met at the door by Mrs. Halsey,
whom he had known at Rickett's Court, who
called his little son to come down and see
his papa, and who told him of the plan
of which she had just been speaking
to Miss Prill witz. And a moment later
Lovey, well dressed, clean, fat, and jolly,
tumbled into his arms with a cry of rapture.

" Do you want to come home, Lovey ? " he
asked.

" No, daddy, I want , you to come here.
Please, Mrs. Halsey, mayn't he come ? '

WITH THE DYNAMITERS. 219

" We would like to have him very much
to teach our boys the use of tools for a few-
hours every day. It is just what I have been
telling your father."

" A week ago," said Stephen Trimble,
" your offer would have been heaven to me ;
now I am afraid it is too late."

" Don't say so," urged Mrs. Halsey; and she
called Miss Prillwitz to talk the matter over
with him. Miss Prillwitz's first argument
was to ask him to luncheon. He ate the
nourishing food the first good meal that
had passed his lips for many days and he
said, as he bade them farewell, " I will come
to you if I can, and teach your boys mechan-
ics ; if I don't come it will be because some-
thing has happened to me, and if anything
happens to me I want to ask you to lend a
helping hand to my wife and may God bless
you." A new impulse stirred within his heart,
gratitude, which he had not felt toward any
human being for years. He was softened,
and tears stood in his eyes. He could al-
most forgive the landlord of Rickett's
Court now.

An impulse to see the man, though not
with any hope of gaining anything from
the interview, came over him. It was still

22O WITCH WINNIE.

early, and he walked down Broadway to
the building designated, and looked into the
bank. How wealthy and strong it looked,
with the clerks busily at work calling off

* O

fabulous sums to one another, and hand-
ling the piles of bills and coin ! The safe-
doors stood open, and he could see the
great bolts] and bars, and complicated
combinations ; and he smiled scornfully
as he thought how easily the little machine
upon which he had been working would
open them all.

A policeman saw him staring in at the win-
dow, and asked him his business.

"I want to find Mr. Armstrong, the R. R.
president."

*' Then you must go up-stairs. There is the
door."

He walked up and saw another room, with
gentlemen sitting in easy attitudes in com-
fortable chairs. He asked a clerk for Mr.
Armstrong, and was told that he was in
Washington, on business.

" Business connected with a patent ?'

" Yes ; I believe so. What did you want
of him?"

" Nothing. Say only that Stephen Trim-
ble called."

WITH THE DYNAMITERS. 221

" What! is this Stephen Trimble ? " exclaim-
ed a hearty voice behind him ; -and, turning,
the inventor saw an earnest but kindly look-
ing man, who had just entered carrying a
hand-bag,

"That is Mr. Armstrong," said the clerk,
and Stephen Trimble stared fascinated.

" Step into my private office," said the
financier, " I am glad you have come. It is
always better to transact business at first
hand, and I was sorry you could not

come when Mr. Meyer asked you to do

>>
so.

" I do not know what you mean, sir."
" Did not Solomon Meyer tell you that I
wanted you to call, with reference to the
four thousand dollars still unpaid on our pat-
ent transaction ? '

" Solomon Meyer told me that I was too

late, and that you did not care for my inven-

j j

tion."

Mr. Armstrong sprang from his chair.
(< And he never gave you my check for a
thousand dollars ? '

" Never; though 1 heard that he had it;"
and Stephen Trimble related what the an-
archist had told him.

Mr. Armstrong unlocked a safe, and. took

222 WITCH WINNIE.

from it the contract in regard to the patent.
" Is not this your signature ? " he asked,

''No, sir : I never saw the paper.

"Then Solomon Meyer is a swindler."

" Very likely, sir."

" Go home ; say nothing, and I will have
him arrested. Stop a little money may not
come amiss to you just now. Here is fifty
dollars on our account. I will see you again
to-morrow, but I have an important appoint-
ment now."

" I don't know how to thank you, sir, or
what to say," said Stephen Trimble, utterly
confounded.

" There are no thanks due ; on the con
trary, I owe you a small matter of five thou-
sand dollars perhaps more for it seems
you have not signed this paper, and perhaps
may not be willing to sell your invention for
so small a sum."

As he spoke, the confidential clerk tapped
at the door and remarked, " Dr. Carver, sir,

of Hospital, says you telegraphed to

him from Washington to meet you here."

Instantly Stephen Trimble saw that Mr.
Armstrong had forgotten his existence ; his
entire expression changed from kindly be-
nevolence to intense eagerness and anxiety.

WITH THE DYNAMITERS. 223

'' What has he got to worry about, I won-
der ! ' thought the inventor, as he gave place
to the physician, and descended the stairs.
Force of habit led his steps toward Rickett's
Court, but he walked like a different man,
and the workman who had seen his crin-
ging, crouching manner as he slouched out of
the court that morning, did not recognize
the man who entered with buoyant, deter-
mined step. The change had begun when
he left the door of the Home of the Elder
Brother. There his faith in his kind had
been restored. Had the good fortune of the
afternoon befallen him before that expe-
rience he could not have believed it, or the
stupendous change would have driven him
insane. But it had come upon him, merci-
fully, by degrees, and he was rapturously
happy, and clearer in mind than he had been
for months. It was as if a great and crush-
ing weight had been lifted from heart and
brain. Suddenly, as he crossed the thresh-
old, he remembered the infernal-machine.
The anarchists would probably use it that
night, and Alexander Armstrong, his bene-
factor, was doomed. He wondered how he
could ever have been so mad as to aid
them, There was only one thing to be done :

22 ^ IV'ITCir WIXXIE.

he must undo his work, render the contriv-
ance harmless, and save his friend. He
knocked at the door ; there was no answer ;
the men were probably out. He tried to
open it, but it was locked. He could easily
have picked the lock, but people were com-
ing and going. The new fire-escape sug-
gested itself to his mind, and he decided to
go to his room and, as it was already dark,
descend by it to the workroom. This res-
olution was quickly accomplished. lie
lighted a candle and was just reaching tow-
ard the machine, when the door opened and
the anarchists entered.

" What are you doing ? I thought you had
finished your work," said his former employer.

" No, I have not finished," replied Stephen
Trimble, nervously taking up a tool and
beginning to remove a screw.

o o

" You are tampering with the machine ;
put it down !" and the man seized it angrily.

" Let go!" shouted Stephen Trimble, " you
touch it at your peril ; the button is under
your hand ! '

The warning came too late- -there was a
blinding flash, then a crash as though the
heavens had fallen : then blackness and si-
lence.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE KIxYG S DAUGHTERS IN THE COUNTRY.

" Her father sent her in his land to dwell,

Giving to her a work that must be done ;
And since the king loves all his people well,

Therefore she, too, cares for them, every one.
And when she stoops to lift from want and sin,
The brighter shines her royalty therein.
" She walks erect through dangers manifold,

While many sink and fail on either hand ;
She dreads not summer's heat nor winter's cold,

For both are subject to the king's command.
She need not be afraid of anything,
Because she is the daughter of a king." Anon.

G.'.

,1 once.

IILEall these
sad things
were happen-
ing- Winnie
and I were en-
joying a happy
summer at my
beloved home
in the blessed
country.

It is not to be
imagined that
Winnie drop-
ped all her
wild ways and
became a saint
She had been sobered by her sad

2/-- -
>.-

226 WITCH WINNIE,

experience in plotting and scheming for the
little prince ; but .since her full forgiveness
her elastic spirits rose to the surface, and her
cheerful disposition asserted itself in many
playful pranks and merry, tricksy ways.

We did not forget our promise to work
for the Elder Brother, but for a time we did
nothing but rest fully and completely.

She was delighted with the country. The
fresh air and free, wholesome life acted
upon her like wine. She climbed walls and
trees, leaped brooks, whistled, shouted, rode
on the hay-carts, helped in the kitchen and
in the garden, drove Dobbin about the

country roads, went berrying, and was a
prime favorite with all the boys, though I re-
gret to say that at first, perhaps on this very
account, the country girls were a little jeal-
ous and envious of her. But not a whit
cared Winnie for this. She tramped over
the fields and through marshes, with her
botanist's can swung across her shoulder by
a shawl-strap, searching for specimens. She
boated and bathed, taking like a duck to
the water, and learning to swim more
quickly than any other person I had ever
known. She loved to work in our old-
fashioned garden, pulled weeds diligently,

KING'S DAUGHTERS IN THE COUNTRY. 22 7

and seemed to love to feel the fresh earth
with her fingers. Our flowers were all such
as had grown there in my grandmother's
time. It seemed to me that she must have
modeled it on Mary Howitt's garden, for
we had the very flowers which she describes
in her poems.

" And there, before the little bench,

O'ershadowed by the bower,
Grow southernwood and lemon thyme,
Sweet-pea and gillyflower ;

" And pinks and clove carnations,

Rich-scented, side by side :
And at each end a holly-hock,
With an edge of London-pride.

"I had marigolds and columbines,
And pinks all pinks exceeding ,
I'd a noble root of love-in-a-mist,
And plenty of love-lies-bleeding."

There was a bed of herbs, too, which my
mother cherished sweet-marjoram and sum-
mer savory, sage, rue, and rosemary.

Winnie took a great interest in all of these
plants. The country girls thought it odd
that she should care for the wild plants
which were so common in our vicinity, not
knowing Winnie's enthusiasm for botany.

228 WITCH WINNIE.

and her desire to make a large collection to
show the princess. An unusually ignorant
girl met her on one of her botanizing ex-
peditions, and Winnie asked her if maiden-
hair grew in our region. " Of course it
does !" the girl replied, indignantly; " you
didn't s'pose we all wore wigs, did you ? '

It was some time before Winnie could con-
trol herself and explain that the maiden-hair
of which she was in search was a kind of
fern.

"Do you want it for a charm?' the girl
asked.

" No," replied Winnnie ; "what will it do ?''

" If you put it in your shoe and say the
right kind of a charm, you will understand
the language of the birds."

"Then I shall certainly try it," said Win-
nie, "for that would be great fun."

Another day mother brought the same
girl into the garden, where Winnie was at
work, to give her some vegetables.

"Did you try the charm ?' the girl asked.

"Yes, indeed," Winnie replied.

" And did it work ? "

" Oh, famously ! There is a wood-pecker
in the old tree just outside of my window,
and he wakes me by his drumming every

KING'S DAUGHTERS IN THE COUNTRY.

22Q

morninsf. This morning I understood for

^5 *^

the first time just what he has been saying.
It was ' Wake up, wake up ! little rascal ;
little rascal, little rascal ! '

The girl stared at Winnie in open-mouthed
astonishment. " You must be a witch," she
said.

"That's what they call me Witch Winnie.'

They were standing beside mother's bed
of herbs, and the frightened girl pulled up
a stalk of rue and held it at arm's length, as
though it were a protection. " Don't come
nigh me ! don't work any of your tricks on
me ! " she said.

Winnie explained that she was only in
sport, but the girl was only half reassured,
and still clung to the spray of rue.

Miss Prillwitz afterward explained that
rue, like vervain, was supposed to " hinder
witches of their will," probably from the
fact that it was once used in the Church of
Rome, bound in fagots, as a holy-water
sprinkler, and is spoken of in old writings
as the "Herb of Grace,"

In this way Witch Winnie's name was
revived again, and was applied to her by her
new friends, even though they did not
believe in her uncanny powers.

230 WITCH WINNIE.

The princess came to us later in the sea-
son for a visit of a month, and we came to
know her intimately and love her dearly.
She brought five of the boys from the Home
with her, for mother was pleased with the
enterprise, and father had said that he
guessed it wouldn't break him to give those
city children a taste of what the country
was like, and if we women folk could stand
them he supposed he could.

Winnie took the boys in charge and led
them off with her on her long tramps and to
row in the safe, flat-bottomed boat. They
had great sport, crabbing, bathing, swim-
ming, and fishing, and their vacation did
them a world of irood. These were the

boys for whom the princess had planned the
industrial classes, but Mr. Trimble lay at the
hospital injured, it was thought, unto death
by the explosion at Rickett's Court, and that
plan was postponed for the present.

The boys attracted much attention in the
Sabbath-school and wherever they appeared.
Many questions were asked, and Miss Prill-
witz was requested to explain the plan of
the Home, in public and in private, at the
sewing society, and at the Fourth of July
picnic.

JCTA r G'S DAUGHTERS IN THE COUNTRY. 2^1

We were not all ignorant country bump-
kins at Scup Harbor, and we were not all
poor. There were plenty of farmers, who
dressed coarsely and fared plainly, who had
bank accounts that would have bought out
many a New Yorker of fashion. They were
not selfish either. I have heard somewhere
of a stingy deacon who, on hearing of a
case of heart-rending distress, prayed for it
in this wise:

"O Lord, 'giving doth not impoverish
Thee, neither cloth withholding enrich Thee,'
but giving doth impoverish us, and with-
holding doth enrich us ; therefore do Thou
attend to this case, good Lord ; do Thou
attend to this case."

Now this story may not be exaggerated,
but I can only say that he did not live in
our section of the country. Our deacons
were soft-hearted, though horny-handed men,
and though they had the poor of their own
church and vicinity to look out for, and per-
formed that office well, they decided 'that
Scup Harbor was rich enough to extend a
helping hand to New York, since New
York was either too poor or too hard-hearted
to care for its own.

Accordingly a collection was taken up in

232

WITCH WINNIE.

church that made Miss Prillwitz's heart
sing for joy ; and the Ladies' Benevo-
lent Sewing Society voted to have a box
of clothing ready for the Home by cold
weather.

The grown people were not the only ones
interested; there were girls among us of gen-
tle manners and hearts, and who were far
better educated than Milly Roseveldt. Some
of these heard of Miss Prillwitz's eminence
as a scientist, and helped me to organize a
class for her in Natural History, and the
remainder of the summer took on an aspect
of mental improvement as well as of phy-
sical recreation. Miss Prillwitz mapped out
a course of work and reading for each of us
-co carry on after her return to the city, and
the circle arranged to meet at the homes of
the members, and read essays and discuss
different scientific subjects.

Winnie was surprised at the amount of
intelligence and information displayed, and
soon acquired a sincere respect for country
girls. It was at one of our meetings after
the princess had returned to New York that
she noticed that Ethel Stanley, the daughter
of a wealthy dairy farmer, wore a little sil-
ver cross with a purple ribbon knot,

KING'S DAUGHTERS IK THE COUNTRY.

" Has it conic here, too ?" she asked ; " are
you a King's Daughter ? '

" Oh yes," replied Ethel ; "I belong to the
Helpful Ten, and there is a Cheer-Up Ten
at the Corners What do you call your
link ? "

" The Seek-and-to-Save Ten," Winnie re-
plied ; and she explained the mission of our
Circle, and how we hoped to help the Elder
Brother in his search for the little lost princes.
Ethel was delighted. " I think we might
help you," she said; "we are Methodists, but
we don't mind working for you if you will
let us. I suppose you are all Episcopalians
in New York ?' :

" Oh dear, no ! ' exclaimed Winnie, " we
are everything ; Tib is a Congregationalist,
and Emma Jane is a Unitarian , Adelaide is
Presbyterian ; 'Trude Middleton is a Dutch
Reformer ; Rosario Ricos is Catholic ;
Puss Seligman is a Jewess ; Little Breeze
comes from Philadelphia Quaker stock,
though she is so gay you wouldn't think it :
Cynthia Vaughn is a Baptist ; Milly Rose-
veldt is the only Episcopalian ; and I'm a
heathen."

" No you are not," I protested; "you are
a follower of the Elder Brother, Winnie, and

234

WITCH IVhVNJE.

that means you are a Christian." She gave
my hand a little squeeze, and Ethel ex-
claimed, " I should think your society
would go to pieces ; I don't see how you
can work together with such different

views.'

" That depends," said Winnie, thoughtful-
ly, " whether in future we all pull in different
directions, and tear our charity to pieces be-
tween us, or whether each of us uses all her
force to bring in people from our different
church organizations to help in the work,
and make it widely and purely undenom-
inational. I mean to write a little parable
on that subject some day, for I feel full
of it."

" Do !" we all exclaimed; " write it for the
next meeting at Ethel's."

" I don't know; it would hardly be a sci-
entific essay, you know."

u I am not sure about that," replied Ethel;
" I think it might be called a scientific meth-
od of carrying on charitable enterprises.
Please write it, and I will invite our
Ten, and the Cheer-up Ten from the Cor-
ners, and the Loyal Legion, and the Mis-
sionary Society, and all the girls I know
generally."

KING'S DAUGHTERS IN THE COUNTRY. 235

The plan was carried into effect, and at
the next meeting Winnie read us this fable,
which she called

A FISH STORY."*

Once upon a time the fishes and salt-
water animals down in the bay decided to
organize a Home for Sea-urchins.

The circumstances of the remarkable agi-
tation which suddenly spread among the
peaceful denizens of the deep became known
to me by my inadvertently getting a spray of
sea-fern in one of my bathing-sandals. I sud-
denly discovered that I could understand the
voices of the little creatures that I had so
often watched from Tib's father's dory, or
sported among when I took my sea-bath. I
lay in the dory one afternoon, looking down
into the clear depth of the water, watching
the tricks and manners of a sea-anemone,
and thinking 1 how similar her behavior was to

that of a reigning belle at a popular watering-
place, when it dawned upon me that she was
the belle of the cove, surrounded by a circle
of obsequious masculine admirers, prominent
among whom were the hermit-crab, the oc-

NOTE. This allegory was first published in Good Company, of 1880.
16

236 WITCH WINNIL.

topus, the jelly-fish, the lobster, the conger-
eel, the king-iyo, and the stickleback

" Now, Winnie," I objected, "you never
saw an octopus or a king-iyo in our cove, and
you can't make me believe it !"

" My dear Tib," Winnie replied, " didn't I
tell you this was a fish story ? Pray do not
interrupt again. The animals that I have
mentioned were all aspirants to the hand
of the Sea-Anemone, and the first remarks
which I overheard and comprehended were
her confidences to her friend the Gold-Fish,
in which she intimated that she considered
the Jelly-Fish the most amiable, the Lobster
the richest, the King-iyo (a titled foreigner
from Japan) the most distingud, and the
Conger-Eel the most polite; but, after all, the
Hermit-Crab was really the best, and she
liked him more than any of the others, with
the exception of the Octopus, who was so fas-
cinatingly wicked.

The next time that I looked into the cove
was during a meeting of the managers of
the Sea-Urchins' Home.

The Sea-Anemone had just been unani-
mously elected to the presidency on account
of her popularity.

The Cuttle-Fish had been created secretary

KING'S DAUGHTERS 7A r THE COUNTRY. 237

in recognition of his remarkable facility in
throwing ink, while all official documents
were stamped by the Seal.

The Electric-Eel was made visiting phy-
sician ; and the Shark, surgeon and lecturer
on vivisection.

The Hermit-Crab, who had been detailed to
make observations on the modus in which
such societies were carried on among human
beings, made the following report :

" Miss PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-FISHES :

" Your committee have made a careful
investigation of the subject assigned them,
and aofree that while man's faculties have

not been cultivated to so high an extent as
those pertaining to fishes, he is still a moral
and intellectual animal, We believe that if
he were put in possession of the advantages
accorded to our race, and were submerged
in salt-water for several centuries, his brain
would undoubtedly become so pickled as
to reduce it in size and intensify its qual-
ity. Favorable conditions of brain-pickling
are all that is necessary, in our opinion, to
develop some of the most advanced speci-
mens of this genus into a low form of mol-
hisk.

" The opinions of the Hermit-Crab were

2-^8 WITCH WINNIE.

considered a marvel of liberality and gener-
ous thinking. Fie proceeded to explain the
society-forming instinct of the human race
as a professor of our own species might lec-
ture on the concretions of deep-sea corals,
and continued swimmingly, as fishes usually
do, until a white-whiskered Sea-Lion begged
leave to make a motion, in the language of
a motto of conduct which he had often
heard shouted to seamen by their command-
ers : ' When you are in the navy, do as the
knaves do/ ' Let us,' he added, ' act
upon this principle of conformity, by doing
amongst men as the many do, and immedi-
ately organize a fair to meet the salaries of
our officers and pay the debt on the society
buildingf.'

" ' But none of us need salaries,' objected
the Lobster, ' and we have no debt.'

" ' As to declining a salary because I do
not need it,' replied the Sea-Lion, ' I can only
say that I find no such example set by the
race whose customs we are following; and
without a debt, or at least a deficit in the ac-
counts of our treasurer, the respectability of
our society may well be questioned.'

"A committee of Codfish aristocrats was at
once authorized to secure a debt of magnif-

KING'S DAUGHTERS IN THE COUNTRY.

239

icent proportions, at whatever cost, and the
salary of each member of the society was
set according to his own estimates. Fre-

quent meetings of the managers were ap-
pointed for the purpose of drawing the sala-
ries, and as the care of the Sea-Urchins could
with the utmost ingenuity be made to take
up but a small portion of the time, each of
the managers seized upon these meetings as
opportunities to air their own particular
opinions. The Lobster, who was something
of an autocrat, and had determined from the
outset to run the concern, took the entire
business management into his own claws,
greatly incensing the ladies on the debt
committee by intimating that they knew
nothing of business, and that his office-boy,
the Craw-Fish, could have devised a debt of
far nobler proportions. The King-iyo, or three-
tailed fish of Japan, trusted that the philoso-
phy of the Orient was to have its full recog-
nition in the principles of the society, and
that the Sea-Urchins would be instructed in
Buddhism. The Octopus, who had been one
of the most desperate characters in the bay,
carried his change of heart so far as to assert
that no one could be considered as religious,
or even respectable, who had not been ex-

in rc/r

tremely \\icked. and ur^'cd thai only the

most depraved and hopeless young Sea-Ur-
chins be admitted into the Home. While the
(KM opus raved o\er essential wickedness,
ami the King-iyo ot philosophy, the Jelly-
Fish dabbled m humanitarianism, ami assert-

ed that brains \\crc not to be tolerated.

thought vv;i* to be considered a crime, ami a

*. **

heart the only organ necessary (or the spirit-

J ** - I

ual body. All books on theology and nhilos-

J r j i

(>phy should be sold tor old paper, and the
proceeds invested m charlotte vusse for
tramps ami criminals. livery measure in
the least sayonn^ ot logic or common sense
must be ycUunl.

"The Stickleback, \\ ho luxuriated in contn^-
vcrsx', and m making 1 himself gfenerall'v dis-

j ( * j

agreeable, summed up the remarks ot those
preceding htm as the merest yaporm^' of
idiocy, and denounced eyery system of be-
lief held by his fellow - managers, before

j *>

hearing it, \yith the same impartiality. An-

*7> L ^

ta^'onism, he asserted, \\ as the only rational

attitude lor any fish under all circumstances,

The Conger-Eel, managing to o-ain posses-

C> .T"^ K_> ^* I

,sion of the floor, endeavored to pour oil on
the troubled \\atcrs. lie yvas sure that if the
heterogeneous, and even antipathetic, ideas

DAUGHTERS h\ THE COUNTRY. 241

held by the different managers were only
presented in writing*, they would, properly
mingled, blend as sweetly as lemon juice
and loaf sugar in a cooling summer libation.
The Cuttle-Fish, was unanimously elected
chairman of a committee for eliciting and
reconciling the opinions of the mana-
gers in a printed constitution. He opened
the ball with a statement of his own views,
which he passed to each member in turn,
asking them to add their several criticisms
and corrections. When the paper had gone
the rounds it was read in open session by
the Hermit-Crab, who summed up everything
that had gone before, in a paper entitled
' A Historical Review of the Documents, be-
ginning with the King-iyo's criticism of Mr.
Snapping-Turtle's attack on Mr. Shrimp's
vindication of Mr. Jelly-Fish's Apology
of Mr. Conger-Eel's Deprecatory Answer to
Mr. Lobster's satire on Mr. Stickleback's Chal-
lenge to Mr. Octopus's Dogmatic Denuncia-
tion of Mr. Shark's strictures on Miss Sea-Ane-
mone's conciliatory explanation of Mr. Cuttle-
Fish's exposition of the views of the society.'
" Of course this paper satisfied no one, and
the meeting plunged at once into a whirl-
pool of ruinous discussion.

242 WITCH WINNIE.

(( The Stickleback bristled his spines and
glared angrily about him, shrieking, 'Antag-
onism ! Nihilism !'

" ' Fanaticism, Sensationalism !' yelled the
Octopus.

" ' Dogmatism ! Absolutism !' replied the
Lobster, hurling clams about him in the
belief that they were works on combative
theology.

" ' Asceticism ! Monasticism !' groaned the
Hermit-Crab, retreating into a pipe bowl and
blocking the entrance with a pearl-oyster.

" ' Humanitarianism !' warbled the Jelly-
Fish, as he choked three sea-melons and a
quart of sea-mushrooms into the mouth of a
sick Grampus.

" ' Paganism ! Barbarianism !' retorted the
King-iyo, punching the Jelly-Fish.

" ' Optimism ! Universalism !' sweetly
chanted the Conger-Eel, but as he spoke the
entire convention broke up and floated away,
leaving the little Sea-Urchins crying for their
supper, and only a debt of colossal propor-
tions to mark the site of the proposed Home."

"And how do you propose to avoid the
fate of the Fish Society ?" Ethel asked, after
the storm of applause which followed Win-
nie's paper had subsided,

DAUGHTERS 7.V THE COUNTRY.

243

" By recognizing, from the first, that we
unite only for this special purpose, and that
we all have very varied and contradictory
opinions, which we will make no attempt to
reconcile or ventilate. I think we can make
our very differences an element of strength,
if it is acknowledged from the outset that
we are to be different. As Corresponding

Secretary of our Ten I have received the

most encouraging reports from the girls.
They are all working hard for the Home,

and all working in different ways, and each

o ,

seems to think that the Home belongs to her

individually as it really does and that her
organization is responsible for its success. I
am sure that when we next meet, the girls
will accept Mrs. Middleton's proposition to
have the Home of the Elder Brother entered
as one of the Dutch Reformed charities, and
I hope that each of the other girls will take
measures to have it recognized as one of the

charities of her particular church organi-
zation. I have a letter from Little Breeze,
saying that the Friends' Meeting in Phil-
adelphia, of which her mother is a member,
propose to own a bed in the Home ; and
Puss Seliorman writes that the Hebrew

Charitable Association, of which her brother

244 WITCH WINNIE.

is Vice-President, have voted to hold them-
selves responsible for every child of their
race whom we entertain. Cynthia Vaughn
reports that the Church of burgh, Penn-
sylvania, will keep us in coal on condition
that a delegation of the children go to the
Baptist Sunday-school. Miss Prill witz has
already divided the Home into detachments,
sending the children, as far as possible, to
the churches which their mothers prefer,
and there is a strong division of Baptists."

" I think," said Ethel, " that our Methodist
Church would like to have a share in the
work. I am sure that father will be glad to
supply you with milk and butter as his own
private subscription."

The President of the Loyal Legion then
spoke up, and proposed that their organi-
zation furnish barrels and make the rounds
of the farms in procession, soliciting apples
and potatoes, which they would freight to
the Home, on condition that a Loyal Legion
Temperance Society be organized among
the children of the Elder Brother, to be
considered as a branch of the Scup Harbor
Legion.

The Cheer-up Ten from the Corners held
a brief meeting in the orchard, and returned

KING^S DAUGHTERS Itf THE COUNTRY. 245

to report that they had decided to adopt one
of our children to clothe. They desired
that the child of the poorest parents be
assigned them, and promised that if the
proper measurements were sent, they would
keep it respectably dressed in garments of
their own make.

I suggested little Georgie, a child rescued
from Mrs. Grogan, whose mother could only
furnish fifty cents a week from her scanty
earnings for his support; and our convention
broke up for that day, after partaking of
strawberries and cream, singing a good old
hymn, slightly altered for the occasion by
Winnie .

" Here we raise our Ebenezer,

Hither by God's grace we come;
And we hope, by His good pleasure,
Long we may remain a Home."

NOTE. The Messiah Home, 4 Rutherford Place, New York, a
charity founded for children by children, whose beautiful work sug-
gested to the author this simple story, has been greatly helped by
circles of the King's Daughters, several of whom have adopted chil-
dren to clothe after the manner of the Cheer-up Ten. The writer com-
mends this work to any other circles of the King's Daughters eager to
do the work of the Elder Brother,

CHAPTER XIV.

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY ,

" When smale foules maken melodie,
That sleepen alle night with open eye,
Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages."

Chaucer i Prologue to " Canterbury Tales.

\ T must not
be imagined
that our en-
tire summer
w a s giv-
en over
to works

of charity
and mercy.
There were times when we quite forgot
the Home of the Elder Brother in merry
romping and girlish enjoyment ; and one of
the pleasantest experiences of that season
was an excursion in two tin-peddler's carts,
or rather, in two carts belonging to one tin-
peddler; a pilgrimage which was undertaken

2J.6

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. 247

solely and simply as a lark, and most suc-
cessfully realized its aims.

Toward the end of June, while Miss Prill-
witz was still with us, father fell into a state
of body or mind which he called "the ma-
lary." It was the fashion for everyone in
our region to dub every disease with which
they might be afflicted, from indigestion to
inherited insanity, malaria ; and the prescrip-
tion given by our wise old physician for this
disease of many manifestations was always
the same.

"I don't know exactly what has caused
this trouble," he would say, " but I know
what w r ill cure it. You need a change. If
you've been living high, diet. If you've been
starving yourself, have Thanksgiving dinner
every day. Take a change of air and a
change of scene, a change of occupation, and,
above all, a change of habits, and somewhere
we'll hit the nail on the head that has done
the mischief."

The prescription pleased my father. He
decided that he needed a change from the
coast to the interior, and from exercise to a
sedentary life. " Instead of tramping around
this farm," he said, " I would like to be driv-
ing over the western Massachusetts hills. I

248 WITCH WINNIE.

am as sick of this eternal pound, pound of
the surf on the shore as of the sea-fog in my
throat."

"Take the horses, father," said mother,

cheerfully, " and drive through Connecticut

* &

up to your brother Asahel's farm in Hawley.
I can run this household well enough with-
out you."

"It would be a rather lonesome drive,"
father demurred, though his eyes shone with
longing.

"Zen why not to take us wiz you, Mr.
Smiss ?" asked Miss Prillwitz. "We would
each stand her share of ze expenses, and such
a tour of diligence would be most delightful."

Upon this the matter was thoroughly can-
vassed, and it was finally decided that

mother should remain at home with the five
little boys, whom Ethel Stanley and the Help-
ful Ten had agreed to amuse during 1 our ab-

o o

sence ; and that Miss Prillwitz, Miss Sar-
toris, Winnie, Mr. Stillman, and I should
accompany father. Mr. Stillman was a sum-
mer-boarder from New York, who came to
us every season to fish and hunt. Hearing
that Miss Prillwitz was fond of ornithology,
and that the lighthouse-keeper sent her dead
birds, he tried to please her by shooting

OVER THE HILLS AXD FAR AWAY. 249

others and bringing them to her, but she soon
made him understand that she preferred
studying them alive and at liberty.

"Zese poor leetle tears zat haf cast zem-
self on ze lighthouse," she explained, " zey

have not been kill for me, zev could not else,

but I wish I could hinder zem of it."

"It is not much fun to shoot birds, after
all," Mr. Stillman admitted, "only the ex-
ultation in hitting a difficult mark. I hate
to pick them up afterward."

"If it is only ze chase and ze difficulty
which make you admiration," said Miss Prill-
witz, " why do you not buy to yourself a
camera of detective for ze instantaneousness,
whereby you can photograph ze bird on his
wing ? Zey tell me it shall be much more
difficult to do zat zan to shoot him dead."

And so Mr. Stillman had sent to New
York for an amateur photographer's outfit,
and had fitted up a dark-room in the old
smoke-house, where he developed his nega-
tives. He was a man to whom almost every-
thing he tried was easy, and he tried his
hand at many things. He had traveled
much, and assured us that wherever he
went he tried to learn some new accomplish-
ment. In China he had learned the art of

2 rQ WITCH WINNIE.

making fireworks, and earlier in the season

the smoke-house had served as a chemical
laboratory for the manufacture of rockets.

Before Miss Prilhvitz had suggested amateur
photography, Mr. Stillman had amused us
by setting off fireworks on the beach at
night, but the new craze seemed destined to
supersede every other ; pyrotechnics were
neglected, and the shot-gun and rifle rusted
from lack of use.

A tin-peddler lived not far from us an en-
terprising man, the proprietor of two carts,
one of which his wife was accustomed to
conduct, following him in caravan style on
his summer journeyings ; but this season the
man was sick, his wife busied in his care, and
the great carts, piled with wares, stood wait-
ing in the sheds.

" I've a notion," said father, " to buy Eben
Ware's stock and hire one of his carts. I
can hitch my span of horses to it, and I will
make enough selling tinware, as we go, to
pay the expenses of the whole trip."

This plan did not strike me pleasantly at
first, but before I had time to object Mr.
Stillman joined in enthusiastically.

" A capital idea, Mr. Smith, but you know
our board is to be paid regularly to Mrs,

OVER THE HILLS AFD FAR AWAY. 2^1

Smith during our absence. Miss Sartoris,
Miss Prillwitz, and I all insist upon that. I
will take the peddler's horses and his second
cart, which I will load up with my photo-
graphic outfit, the ladies' baggage, camp sup-
plies, etc., and I will fill in any spare space
with fireworks, which I will offer for sale
along the route, all profits to be devoted to
the charity in which the ladies are interested.
The Fourth of July is so near that I fancy

** **

the rockets will meet with a ready sale."

All joined in the plan with zest. Our
wardrobe was reduced to a minimum, It
was discovered that the two carts were ar-
ranged to turn into ambulances for camping
at night, and would furnish comfortable
accommodation for the feminine portion of
the party, while a small tent was provided
for father and Mr. Stillman. In reality we

camped but one night, preferring to stop at
wayside inns, but it was pleasant to know
that we could do so whenever we wished.
A roll of army blankets and comfortables,
a few kitchen utensils, and some canned
o^oods were stored awav in Mr. Stillman's

C5 .,

cart, with Miss Prillwitz's botanizing equip-
ments, Miss Sartoris's sketching materials, his
own belongings, and all the fireworks which

2 = 2 WITCH WINNIE.

\J *"

he could manufacture in time; and still there
was room in the capacious interior. The
rifle was added at Winnie's urgent request,
as a defense against wild beasts, though we

<*j 5

all joined in ridiculing her fears that bears
might be found in the Massachusetts woods,
little thinking that we should have a thrill-
ing adventure with a grizzly bear. At the last
moment Mr. Stillman added another camera
and more chemicals.

''This means," he replied, in answer to our
questions, " that I have rented a tintype outfit
of a photographer over at the Corners, and
propose to add to our resources by taking
tintypes as we go. 1 '

Mr. Stillman's ready invention, so fertile in
expedients, received hearty applause, and the
gypsy caravan set out in high feather. We
took the steamboat with the carts to New
Haven, and from that point struck into the
interior by turnpikes and country roads,
father leading the way with his jingling
coach, Miss Prillwitz and Winnie perched
high beside him, and Miss Sartoris, Mr.
Stillman, and I, who called ourselves the Art
Contingent, bringing up the rear. How
beautiful the roads were, shaded by willows
or arched by elms ! Often fascinating lanes

OVER THE HILLS AXD FAR AWAY

253

led off from the highway toward comfortable
farm-houses, or grass-grown, deserted roads
mounted through shady gorges to the lonely
hills, tempting us from the beaten track.
But the highway was beautiful enough.
Sometimes it followed the curves of some
vagrant stream, or wound around gently
undulating hills. Miss Sartoris pointed out
the fact that it was most frequently a suc-
cession of curves, while French highways are
laid out as straight as the survevor can make

them, and do not compose as well in land-
scape paintings. The Connecticut roads we
found easy to travel, well kept, and for the
most part level or of easy grade. It was not
until we reached western Massachusetts that
we walked up the hills to lighten the load,
or that the driver pressed his foot hard on
the brake as the cart coasted down the steep
inclines like a tobowan.

J5 O

Winnie was delighted with a bit of gorge
road which played at hide and seek with a
wayward brook. " It seems to me," she said,
" that the wood is a matter-of-fact business
man, and the brook is his sweet but willful
little wife. See how he tries to adapt himself
to her whims and pranks, keeping as close to
her as he can, while the side which she does

254

WITCH WINXIE.

not touch is stern with rock and shadow !
And she, coquettish little thing, wanders
away from him into the deepest part of the
ravine, where he cannot follow, and hides
herself in a tangle of fern and wild-flowers,
till, just as the lonely old road, quite in despair
at having lost her, crosses the ravine on a
bridge of logs, apparently for the sole purpose
of seeking her, the merry little brook flies
under the mossy bridge and is close beside
him on the side which he thought farthest
from her."

" That is a very good parable," said father.
" You've struck the nail pretty fairly. That's
the way it has always been with my wife
and me. My daughter, too, is one of the
brook kind, but you needn't conclude that
the old road doesn't enjoy all the company
of blackberry vines and laurel and ferns
that the brook attracts to itself, and which
never would have come near the road but
for the brook. I mean you and Miss Sartoris
and the rest."

" And sometimes," Winnie added, " the
road has its grains of corn or wheat dropped
from a passing cart, you know, to give to the
sparrows, and the brook likes that ever so
much,'

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR A IV A Y. zct

\j \J

Father always called the boys from the
Home " the sparrows," and he was pleased
by this allusion to his generosity.

We found ourselves following the circus

at one stage of our journey, and we pitched
our tent and made camp not far from the
fair-grounds. We chose for our camp a site
which had once been occupied by a house
that had been burned to the ground. The

only out - building which had escaped the
conflagration was a root-house, or cellar, ex-
cavated, cave-like, in the side of a hill. It
struck Mr. Stillman as a particularly good
" dark-room," and we at once pre-empted it.
Miss Sartoris painted a sign-board for the
photographic studio, and Winnie and I ar-
ranged a bower with a flowery background
for Mr. Stillman's sitters. We had a rich
harvest that day, Winnie acting 1 as cashier,

J ' Si

and Miss Sartoris, as assistant, posing the
groups. Mr. Stillman was quite exhausted
when evening fell. He said he had never

done such a day's work in his life, and his
tintype material was nearly used up. We
were patronized not only by the country
people who came to see the show, sheepish
lovers who wished to have their portraits
taken together, and parties of merry young

256 WITCH WINNIE.

people, but also by the showmen them-
selves. The living skeleton and the fat lady,
the strong man supporting a great weight
by his teeth, the lion tamer with his pets,
and the snake charmer, were all among Mr.
Stillman's patrons. When it was under-
stood that he had an instantaneous camera
with him, the equestrienne desired him to
take a photograph of her while performing
her famous feat of riding five horses at once,
and the acrobats challenged him to catch
their rapid evolutions. He surprised them
by his remarkable success in obtaining a
perfect negative. It w^as our most success-
ful day, from a financial point of view, for
we realized over twenty dollars.

Father had a rather annoying experience
which made him desire to avoid the circus
in the future. Among the articles which
the tin-pedcller had given him was a solder-
ing furnace and irons, for mending old tin-
ware. Father made his first attempt to use
these tools on this afternoon. The door-
keeper of one of the tents brought him his
japanned tin strong-box to mend, and father
attacked the task laboriously, succeeding in
making it firm by a rather too plentiful ap-
plication of solder. He was so interested in

O VER^'HE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. 257

his task that he did not notice that an organ-
grinder, one of the followers of the circus,
had pressed quite near and was regarding
the coins, which the door-keeper had
temporarily turned into his handkerchief,
with hungry eyes. Suddenly the monkey,
which had been tied to the organ, became
loose, and springing straight to the little
furnace, seized and brandished the heated
soldering-iron. A great excitement ensued,
for no one dared to take the formidable
weapon from the mischievous creature. The
owner of the monkey seemed at his wits'
end He raged, stamped, tore his hair, com-
manded and entreated the monkey to bring
back the iron, all to no avail. The monkey,
having burned himself, finally dropped it,
but, frightened by the pain or by his master's
threats, continued his flight into the woods,
followed by the organ-grinder. When the
excitement occasioned by this event had
subsided, a still greater one ensued on
the discovery that the door-keeper's hand-
kerchief and money had disappeared. The
man angrily charged father with its theft,
but Mr. Stillman came running from his
dark-room with a negative which he had

<!^

just developed. He had been standing at

258 WITCH 'WINNIE.

the door, with his detective camera in his
hand, and, quite unintentionally, had done
real detective work, for, intending" only to
catch the monkey with the soldering-iron,
he had focused upon it at the very first, and
the unerring eye of the camera had seen and
recorded what every one else had been too
preoccupied to discover the organ-grinder
snatching the gate-keeper's money. The
negative was a sufficient witness, and the
organ-grinder was at once sought for, but
the earth seemed to have swallowed him.
The monkey was found nursing his burned
paw in a tree, but his master and the money
were not to be found There was such a
train of beggars and questionable characters
in the wake of the circus that it was decided
not to pursue our moneyed advantage by
following with them ; and the next day we
stood back from the road to let the heavy,
shambling elephants and long train of
gaudily decorated wagons pass by. Mr.
Stillman had his detective camera out, and
took some interesting views of the proces-
sion. Father had taken a dislike to the
soldering outfit, and congratulated himself

o &

that the monkey had lost the iron, but the
last in the procession, a gypsy fortune-teller,

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. 259

handed it to him, saying that it was a lode-
stone, which would bring evil fortune to the
person who possessed it, and advising him
to give it to his worst enemy. " I am a
witch," Winnie laughed, " and can reverse
all omens so we need not fear." Turning
from the highway, we now struck across the
countrv, through chestnut woods, where

j ' e

Miss Prillwitz taught us to recognize the
song of the thrush, the sweetest of New
England songsters, and cousin of the mock=

o o

ine-bird. Mr. Stillman was vexed that he

could not obtain a single photograph of a
thrush, but she is a shy bird, and keeps hid-
den in leafy thickets, and though we heard
her song frequently, we never saw her. Mr.
Stillman became very skillful in photograph-
ing other birds, even fixing the agile little
fly-catchers in their eccentric movements,
the watchful bobolink atilt on a mullein-
stalk, the swallows skimming the river's
surface, and the sagacious crows, who, hav-
ing proved that a very natural scarecrow
was harmless, were less suspicious of him.
The withered limbs on certain old apple-
trees were favorite perches for the birds, for
there was no foliage here to impede their
(light, and outlined against the sky they

260 WITCH WINNIE.

were capital targets for the camera. Mr.
Stillman secured a gentlemanly king-bird
in such a position, his white breast and black
back and tail feathers reminding Winnie of
a dandy in full evening dress.

Miss Prillwitz remarked on the brilliant
plumage of the New England birds, and
said that it \vas a mistake to imagine that

those of the South were more beautiful. She
pointed out the black and gold orioles, the
lovely bluebird, the scarlet tanagers, as
brilliant as flamingoes, the beautiful rose-
breasted grosbeaks, with a rich crimson
heart upon their breasts, and the red-winged
blackbirds, with their scarlet epaulets,
reminding one of brisk artillerymen. It
was the last of June the most perfect of all
the months -and as we rode we repeated all
of the poets' praises of the month that we
could remember. We agreed that Lowell had
sung the season best :

" The bobolink has come, and, like the soul
Of the sweet season vocal in a bird,
Gurgles in ecstasy we know not what,
Save June ! Dear June I Now God be praised
for June."

But Margaret Deland pleased us nearly as
well in her homage to the queen month :

OVER THE HILLS AXD FAR AWAY. 261

a The dark laburnum's chains of crolcl

She twists about her throat ;
Perched on her shoulder, blithe and bold,
The brown thrush sounds his note !

" And blue of the far dappled sky,

That shows at warm, still noon,
Shines in her softly smiling eye
Oh who's so sweet as June ?"

Father was not a very successful tin-ped*
dler. The thrifty New England housewives
were not pleased because he was unwilling
to exchange his wares for ra^s, after the

CD O '

manner of other itinerant venders. He was
uncertain as to the prices which he ought to
charge; asking so little for his brooms that

t> ' O

one patron purchased all his stock, at a
decided loss to himself, as he afterwards
learned, and demanding so much for nut-
meg graters that a sagacious purchaser
showed him the door with scorn. The sol-
dering outfit, too, caused him much woe. It
seemed that the original peddler was a clever
tinker; and all sorts of broken articles, from
clocks to umbrellas,were brought out for fath-
er to mend. At first father good-humoredly
tried his best, but having burned holes in his
clothing, as well as blistered his hands, and
succeeding in no instance in satisfying his

262 WITCH WINNIE.

patrons, he was tempted to throw the lit-
tle furnace away, but his sense of economy
would not allow him to do this, and he
stowed it away vindictively in the depths of
his cart.

Shortly after this we spent tw r o very inter-
esting days in visiting Mt. Holyoke and
Smith colleges. They gave both to Winnie
and me a desire for a higher education than
that which w r e were receiving at Madame's.
Miss Sartoris wandered slowly through the
Art Building of Smith, looking longingly at
its superb equipment. The college is charm-
ingly situated in the old town of Northamp-
ton. We were told that the students had
just acted a Greek play, the "Electra" of
Sophocles, very successfully, and we looked
at one another in envy as we thought how
impossible it would have been to present
such a drama at Madame's.

We passed the Holyoke range on July i.
This barrier marks as distinct a climatic
change as Cape Cod in the Atlantic cur-
rents, for, just as, south of the Cape, and
apparently threatened by her bent arm, the
Gulf Stream sweeps to the north the tropic
sea-weeds, and north of it, and gathered close
in its embrace, the Arctic mosses cling to the

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. 263

cold heart of New England ; so, south of
the Holyoke range the air may be tepid
and lifeless, while beyond it invigorating
breezes from the Northland are dancing
cheerily.

We had eaten the last native Connecticut
strawberries, but they were just in their glory
north of the barrier, and though the almanac
said July, it was June weather still.

Mount Tom and Mount Holyoke stand as
sentinels at the entrance of a lovely region,
through whose elm-covered villages we
drove at leisurely pace, resting over a Sab-
bath at old Hadley, one of the most charm-
ing places, with Its principal street a dou-
ble cloister of elms and maples, and
where a Sabbath peace and stillness brooded
even on week-days. Mr. Stillman found,
for the next few days, a ready sale for his
fireworks, exhausting his stock and adding
twenty-five dollars to the treasury. About
twelve miles north of Mount Holyoke rises
Mount Toby, a noble mountain, which as-
sumes, from certain directions, the shape of a
crouching camel. The resemblance is even
more marked than that of the Rock of Gibral-
tar to a lion. It dominates the country round
about, and from its summit nearly a score

364 WITCH WINNIE.

of nestling towns and villages are visible.
Among these Mr. Stillman sold his rockets,
and proposed that we should spend Fourth
of July night on its summit, and there watch
the little fire-fountains on the plain below.
It was an attractive plan, but Mr. Stillman
had not counted the weather into his reck-
oning. It had been a sultry day. As we
stopped at a farm-house on our way from
Sunderland to Mount Toby, the good woman
told us to look out for rain. " The crass

has been waiting two days to be cut," she
said, " but it looks kinder lowry, and the
men-folks daresn't begin haying."

There were two superb cumulus clouds in
the west, shaped like elm - trees, or wine-
glasses touching rims, and there was a blue
rain-cloud in the southeast, with fringes

trailing the landscape, and blurring it from
our view.

" The rain may not reach Mount Toby at
all," father said; "showers travel about among
those hills in a curious fashion. I have seen
it raining hard on one side of Sugar-Loaf,
while the other was dry and dusty. There is
a deserted railway station at the foot of
Toby, where we can spend the night. There
were picnic grounds laid out on the moun-

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. ' ofr?

tain at one time, but the enterprise failed,
and trains no longer stop there."

A view of the station, which we reached
early in the afternoon, confirmed father's
recommendation of it. The roof was weather
tight, and it was a roomy, comfortable build-
ing, a good refuge should a shower overtake
us. We picnicked beside a beautiful cascade,
and leaving the horses picketed beside the
carts, proceeded to climb the mountain on
foot. It was glorious with masses of white
and pink laurel, which I had never before seen
in its perfection, and Miss Prillwitz intro-
duced me to many other plants and flowers
new to me. The Amherst basket- fern, shaped
like a Corinthian capital, grew in perfection,
the Columbine blew her flame-colored trump-
ets, and the harebell rang her inaudible
chimes from mossy clefts in the gray rocks.
Miss Prillwitz said she had last picked hare-
bells in Austria.

" You know," said Miss Sartoris, " that
Mary Howitt calls the harebell

* The very flower to take
Into the heart, and make

The cherished memory of all pleasant places;
Name but the light harebell,
And straight is pictured well

Where'er of fallen state lie lonely traces.

266 WITCH WINNIE.

Old slopes of pasture ground,

Old fosse and moat and mound,
Where the mailed warrior and crusader came;

Old walls of crumbling stone

With ivy overgrown,
Rise at the mention of the harebell's name.'

Miss Prillwitz pointed out more obscure
plants, and gave us interesting bits of in-
formation in regard to them. Some had

<_>

strangely human characteristics. The cassia,
a shrinking sensitive-plant with yellow blos-
soms, was one of these, while the poison-ivy
in its unctuous growth had an evil and malig-
nant appearance which seemed to hint at its
inimical nature. She told us how to tell the
poisonous sumac from the harmless variety,
the poisonous kind being the only one that
has pendant fruit. She gave us also a little
chat about parasitic plants, suggested by a
gerardia, a little thief which draws its nutri-
ment from the roots of huckleberry.

" I did not know that plants had so little
conscience," said Winnie. "It reminds me
of a guest a Southern gentleman had, who
remained twelve years, and after the death
of the host married his widow."

" Plants seem also to be cruel," said Miss
Prillwitz. " Zere is ze apocynum, a car-

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR A IV AY. 267

nivorous plant which eat ze insect. You
should read of him by Darwin. He set a
trap for ze fly wiz some honey, and when
Mr. Fly tickle ze plant, quick he is caught,
and Mr. Apocynum he eat him, and digest
him at his leisures."

" Miss Prillwitz, you should write a book
for young people, and call it ' Near Nature's
Heart,' I suggested.

" I would so like," replied Miss Prillwitz,
" but if I waste my time to write, how should
I earn my lifes ? I have know many author,
and very few do make their wealths by by
their authority."

Miss Prillwitz brought out the last word
triumphantly, quite sure that she had achiev-
ed a success in our difficult language. I
turned aside to Mr. Stillman, that she might
not see my smile. " How interesting she
makes our climb, "I said, "and all these way-
side weeds ! ' She illustrates the landscape.'

" In my humble opinion it is Miss Sartoris
who 'illustrates the landscape,' he replied.
" See what a picture she makes reaching
after those sweet-briar blossoms ! I wish I
had not left my detective at the station."

Miss Sartoris was indeed very pretty. It
seemed to me that she grew younger and

268 WITCH WINNIE.

more bewitching with every day of our trip.
Each changing pose as she leisurely picked
the wild roses was full of grace, but I could
hardly understand why Mr. Stillman should
greatly regret not securing this particular
view, when she had figured in at least half of
the photographs which he had taken.

We reached the top of the mountain
just at sunset. The west glowed with a
yellow - green color. The strange clouds,
which had been as white as curds in the
afternoon, were now dark blue, lighted by
flashes of heat lightning. They moved for-
ward like the pillar which led the Israelites,
great billowy masses piled one on the other
and toppling at the summit, while they melted
at the base into a mist of rain. Behind them
was the background of the sunset, like a
plate of hammered gold dashed with that
sinister green. There were threatening
rumblings in the east also, and Amherst and
its college buildings were blotted out by the
rain clouds, which resembled the petals of a
fringed gentian, and seemed to be traveling
rapidly in our direction.

Father took a rapid view of the horizon.
" There will be no fireworks display for us
co-night," he said. "There are two showers

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. 269

which will meet in an hour's time, and Toby
will be just about in the centre of the fracas.
We had better hurry down the mountain if
we want to escape a wetting-."

Miss Sartoris gave a longing look at the
beautiful panorama of nestling villages,
forest and winding river (a view unsur-
passed in Massachusetts), and now glori-
fied by the magnificent cloud effects.
" Can we not rest for half an hour ? ' she
asked.

" I think not," father replied, and we reluc-
tantly retraced our steps. When half-way
down the mountain the wind, which pre-
ceded the march of the cloud battalion,
caught up with us. The chestnuts crouched
low and moaned, the poplars shivered and
shook their white palms, and the hemlocks
writhed and tossed their gaunt arms as
though in agony. Then there was a hush,
when they seemed to stand still from very fear,
and a minute later the storm burst upon us.
We were but a short distance from the station
when this occurred, and the foliage which
roofed the road was so dense that we were
not very wet when we reached our shelter.
There was an invigorating scent of ozone in
the air, and a certain exhilaration in being 1

270

WITCH WINNIE,

out in a storm, and in hearing the crash of
falling limbs far back in the woods. We
noticed the gentleness of the rain, which,
though apparently fierce, did not break a
single fragile wild-flower. Each leaf, sponged
free from dust, brightened as though freshly
varnished, and each blade of grass threaded
its necklace of crystal beads. The cascade,
swollen and turbid, roared angrily at our
side, and a shallower rivulet made the path
slippery as we hurried on; but a few moments
of laughing scramble brought us panting
into the dry station, safely housed for the
night from the storm.

Father and Mr. Stillman arranged shelter
for the horses by spreading the tent between
the two carts, and we ate our supper at what
had formerly been a refreshment counter.
Then the ticket-office was assigned to the
gentlemen as their dormitory, and ham-
mocks were hungf for the rest of us in the

ladies' waiting-room. We told g-host stories

o o

for a time by the .light of a spirit-lamp and
a few candles, but retired early, as we were
thoroughly tired from our long walk, and
were soon asleep, lulled by the monotone of
the falling rain. We were not destined,
however, to enjoy a night of undisturbed

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. 2jl

repose, for the principal adventure of our
journey occurred that night.

I do not know how long we had slept
when we were all suddenly awakened by a
startling scream.

" What is it ? Oh, what is it ?" gasped
Winnie.

" Is it a catamount ?" asked Miss Sartoris.

I thought of the railroad track, which ran
&

close beside us, and suggested that it might
be the shriek of a passing engine, when sud-
denly it came again on the side of the sta-
tion opposite to the track. Father sprang
up, exclaiming, " Something is the matter
with the horses !"

The rain was still pouring, and a dim light
from the swinging lantern illumined the
room. As father spoke, one of the windows,
which had been left open for ventilation,
was suddenly filled by an uncouth form,
which, with much scrambling and snorting,
was proceeding to force an entrance.

"It is a bear !" shrieked Winnie; and so it
was. Mr. Stillman rushed forward with his
rifle. There was a loud report, and a heavy
fall on the outside.

"Horses can scent bears at a distance,"
said father, as he took down the lantern;

2/2

WITCH WINNIE.

" but who would have thought there were
any such creatures in these woods ?"

" Perhaps it has broken away from the
circus," suggested Mr. Stillman, reloading
his rifle; for there was an ominous growling
outside. Human voices were presently heard
whose intonations were almost as harsh as
those of the brute. Father unbarred the
door, and we saw two men bending over the
wounded bear, which he now saw was muz-
zled, and the property of the men, who had
evidently heard of the old station, and
had thought to take refuge in it from the

o o

storm.

" Here's a pretty state of things!" father
exclaimed, with a whistle. " You have shot
a performing bear, Stillman, and these show-
men will probably make us pay dearly for
the mistake."

We had all been terribly frightened; but
we recovered instantly on this announce-
ment, and hurriedly dressing, we peered
out at the men as they stood about the
wounded animal and discussed the situ-
ation. One of the showmen was a foreigner,
who swore and grumbled in some strange
language, which Miss Prillwitz afterward
told us was Russian. The other was unmis-

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY.

takably a Jew, and he took a Jewish advan-
tage of the accident.

" You haf ruined our pizness dot bear he
wort one, two hundert dollar !"

" Nonsense!" replied father, as confidently
as if he were accustomed to trade in that
species of live-stock; "he's dear at fifty.
Besides, he isn't dead, nor anything like it.
Hold him with this halter, you two, and I'll
examine him. There ! I told you so; it's only
a flesh wound in the right foreleg". There
are no bones broken. He will be ready for
travel in a week. All you've got to do is to
stay here for a few days and where could
you be better off ? We leave in the morn-
ing, and no one will dispute your possession
of this house. I will leave you enough pro-
visions to keep you until you are ready for
the road again."

The men talked it over in Russian, and
seemed far from satisfied, though Mr. Still-
man offered to give them twenty dollars as
an equivalent for what they would have
gained during the next week, and father
added his remaining stock of small tinware,
which, he explained, they could easily sell
from door to door at the farm-houses and
villages in the vicinity. He was tired of his

274

WITCH WINNIE.

occupation as a tin-peddler, and glad to get
rid of the obnoxious soldering furnace, as
well as the patty-pans and muffin-rings. A
settlement was finally effected when, in ad-
dition to this, Mr. Stillman agreed to their
demand for fifty dollars cash indemnity.

There w r as no more sleep for us that night,
and it was with rueful countenances that we
discussed the adventure among ourselves.

'' To think," lamented Winnie, " that, just
as \ve were congratulating ourselves on gain-
ing so much money for the Home, we should
be obliged to pay it all out, and more besides,
to these wretched men, and all for noth-
ing too !"

" Yes," replied Mr. Stillman, "that is the
provoking part. If I had only killed the
creature we might have bear-steak for break-
fast (though it would have been pretty ex-
pensive meat), and I could have had his hide
mounted as a rug, and have exhibited it to
my friends with truthful braggadocio as one
of my hunting trophies."

I sympathized with Winnie in regard to
the depleted condition of our treasury; but
Miss Prillwitz remarked, enigmatically, that
the adventure might not prove to be such a
losing one as we imagined. We begged her

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. 275

to explain; but she bade us wait until we
were at least ten miles from our encamp-
ment.

We relinquished the station to the show-
men after a very early breakfast, and drove
away with lightened carts and subdued
spirits.

The rain had ceased, but was likelv to

begin again at any moment, for the sky was
thickly overcast, and father suggested that,
as this was a famous trout region, we might
do well to spend the morning in fishing.
This plan pleased all but Miss Prillwitz, who
whispered to father that she had particular
reasons for reaching a telegraph station as
soon as possible, and we accordingly direct-
ed our course at a rattling pace toward the
shire town of Greenfield. On the way Miss
Prillwitz confided to us her suspicions; and in
order that the reader may understand them,
I must anticipate the events which are to be
related in the next chapter, and explain that,
after the explosion at Rickett's Court, Solo-
mon Meyer and one of the anarchists had
disappeared from New York, and Mr. Arm-
strong had offered a reward for their appre-
hension.

The anarchist was known to be a Russian,

276 WITCH WIXXIE.

and though Miss Prillwitz had never seen

Solomon Meyer, she felt sure, from Lovey
Trimble's description of him, that he had de-
cided to avoid the ordinary routes of travel,
and to journey toward Canada on foot, dis-
guised as an itinerant showman. She had
more proofs of his identity than these sus-
picions. The men had conversed very freely
with each other in Russian, never dream-
ing that there was any one present who
could understand the language. The Rus-
sian had complained bitterly that this acci-
dent would delay their journey to Canada,
and the Jew had replied that it might be as
well to lie hidden until the search was over.

Arrived at Greenfield, Miss Prillwitz tele-
graphed to Mr. Armstrong, and in two hours
received the following reply : " Have the
local authorities arrest the parties and detain
them until I can reach Greenfield."

Accordingly Mr. Still man and father,
with a sheriff and a constable, drove back
toward Mount Toby in a sort of picnic
wagon. Father advised us to await him at
Deerfield, one of the most interesting
villages in the Connecticut Valley both
from its intrinsic beauty and its historic
associations. We engaged lodgings at the

OVER THE PULLS AXD FAR AWAY. 2J*J

small hotel, where we found but one other
traveler, a dejected book -agent. It was
nearly dinner-time, and the landlord looked
rather alarmed by the unexpected arrival of
so many hungry-looking guests, but he soon

J *-3 J

set before us a capital dinner of broiled
chicken, and after a little rest we took a
stroll through the beautiful old town. We

were informed that the Memorial Hall, a
museum of antique furniture, books, cos-
tumes, and other curiosities, was well worth
visiting; and so, indeed, we found it. One
object which greatly interested me was an
old spinnet, with a quaint collection of
music, both sacred and secular. Here was
a great bass-viol which formerely groaned
out an accompaniment to the male voices of
the choir as they took their part in such
strange, metrical arrangements as

" Come, my beloved, haste away,
Cut short the hours of thy delay;
Fly like a youthful hart or roe,
Over the hills where spices grow."

The Library, too, a collection of "the (lit-
erary) remains" of many celebrated doctors

J S *

of divinity, was a fascinating room, and one
in which we would have enjoyed prowling

WITCH WINNIE.

for a long time. Hawthorne has given such
an admirable description, in his " Old
Manse," of just such a library, that I cannot
forbear quoting it here.

" The old books would (for the most
part) have been worth nothing at an auction.
They possessed an interest quite apart from
their literary value ; many of them had been
transmitted down through a series of conse-
crated hands from the days of the mighty
Puritan divines. A few of the books were
Latin folios written by Catholic authors ;
others demolished papistry as with a sledge-
hammer, in plain English. A dissertation
on the book of Job, which only Job himself
could have had the patience to read, filled
at least a score of small, thick-set quartos,
at the rate of two or three volumes to a
chapter. Then there was a vast folio " Body
of Divinity." Volumes of this form dated
back two hundred years and more, and were
generally bound in black leather, exhibiting
precisely such an appearance as we should
attribute to books of enchantment. Others
equally antique were of a size proper to be
carried in the large waistcoat pockets of old
times : diminutive, but as black as their
bulkier brethren, These little old volumes

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY.

2/9

impressed me as if they had been intended
for very large ones, but had been, unfortu-
nately, blighted at an early stage of their
growth. Then there were old newspapers,
and still older almanacs, which reproduced
the epochs when they had issued from the
press with a distinctness that was altogether
unaccountable. It was as if I had found bits
of magic looking-glass among the books,
with the images of a vanished century in
them."

We lingered long in the Library, and in the
Indian Room, where stands an old door
gashed by the tomahawks of the Indians
who, with a company of French, in 1/04,
surprised Deerfield, massacred a great part
of the inhabitants, and carried a hun-
dred and twelve as prisoners to Canada.
Yellow and crumbling letters, uncertainly
spelled and quaintly phrased, hung around
the room, telling how perilous such a driv-
ing-tour as we had just taken would have
been in those pioneer days. One, dated
1756 and written to Captain John Burt in
the Crown Point Army, read as follows :

" Dear Husband.

" It is a Crasie time in
this place. There is but little Traviling by

2 So WITCH WINNIE.

the Massachusetts Fort which makes it more
difficult to send letters. Capt. Chapin and
Chidester and his Son were killed and scalpt
by the Enemy near the new foort at Hoo-
sack."

Sarah Williams, of Roxbury, in 1714
announces to her friends at Deerfield the
expected return of many of their friends
who had been carried off in different raids
11 We have had news that Unkel is Coming
with one hundred and fifty Captives."

The number dwindled, and many who
were carried away on that dreary march
through the winter snow never returned, but

among the relics preserved in the archives of
Memorial Hall is a pathetic little red shoe
which walked all the way from Hatfield to
Canada and back, on the foot of little Sally
Colman. It is hardly more than a tiny sole,
with a rag of the scarlet upper clinging to it ;
but it tells the story of the cruel march, and
the heroic efforts of the noble men who
effected the rescue of their friends, better
than many a page of print.

We were so much interested in Memorial
Hall that it was long past supper-time before
we thought of leaving. The book-agent ad-
vised us to visit the old burying-ground, and,

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. 281

after supper, offered to show us the way.
We found it grass-grown and neglected ; in
some portions, a thicket of climbing vines
and tangling briers. Indeed, the entire God's
acre was so given over to nature that the
birds built undismayed, while the squirrel
frisked impudently on the headstones, and
the woodchuck burrowed beside the tombs.
It had not been used for many years ; a
newer cemetery raised its white monuments
on the hillside, while here lichens nearly fill-
ed the carving, and the stones leaned at
tipsy angles, proving that grief for any
buried here had been long assuaged, that the
very mourners had passed away, and it was
doubtful whether a single aged man still
lingered in the town of whom it could be
said that

" These mossy marbles rest
On the lips which he has pressed

In their bloom.

And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year

On the tomb."

As Miss Sartoris remarked, the place did
not suggest sadness, but gentle retrospection,
while curiosity provoked the fancy to fill out
the histories so provokingly suggested in the

282 WITCH WIKNIE.

inscriptions. Here was buried Mrs. Williams,
whom her epitaph declares to be "the virtuous
and desirable consort of Mr. John Williams,"
and Mr. Mehuman Hinsdale, who was " twice
captivated by the barbarous salvages."

The book-agent read us another epitaph,
copied in Vernon, Vt., which suggested a
three-volume novel in the history which it
gave of early Indian times. Our imagina-
tions sank exhausted as we attempted to fol-
low the heroine through all her matrimonial
complications, I give it as it was dictated
to me :

MRS. JEMIMA TUTE,
SUCCESSIVELY RELICT OF MESSRS. WILLIAM PHIPS,

CALEB HOWE, AND AMOS TUTE.
THE TWO FIRST WERE KILLED BY THE INDIANS,

PHIPS, JULY 5, 1743; HOWE, JUNE 27, 1755.
WHEN HOWE WAS KILLED, SHE AND HER CHILDREN,
THEN SEVEN IN NUMBER, WERE CARRIED INTO CAPTIVITY.
THE OLDEST DAUGHTER WENT TO FRANCE, AND WAS
MARRIED TO A FRENCH GENTLEMAN. THE YOUNGEST WAS
TORN FROM HER BREAST, AND PERISHED WITH HUNGER.
BY THE AID OF SOME BENEVOLENT GENTLEMEN, AND HER
OWN PERSONAL HEROISM, SHE RECOVERED THE REST.
SHE DIED MARCH 7, 1805, HAVING PASSED THROUGH
MORE VICISSITUDES AND ENDURED MORE HARDSHIPS THAN
ANY OF HER CONTEMPORARIES.

" * No more can savage foe annoy,

Nor aught her widespread fame destroy

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. 28^

It was dark when \ve wandered oack to
the hotel, past the old manse built for the
Reverend John Williams by his parishioners
after his return from captivity. We were
told that some one residing- in the house of
late had occasion to move a tall piece of
furniture in one of the chambers, and dis-
covered a door. Opening this, a secret stair-
case was found leading* from the cellar to
the attic. No one living had known of its
existence, and many were the wild guesses
made as to its object.

When we returned to the hotel we found
that father and Mr. Stillman had not yet
arrived. Miss Sartoris seemed very anxious,
and feared that there might have been
trouble in arresting the tramps. Winnie
cheered us by suggesting the trout fishing,
which Mr. Stillman had reluctantly aban-
doned when we left Mt. Toby. It would be
a good night for fishing, the landlord said ;
perhaps they had remained for it, since the
distance to Toby was too long to be comfort-
ably made three times in one day. After
breakfast the next morning, as our travelers
were still absent, Miss Sartoris and I unpacked
our sketch-boxes and began to make a study

of the street from the north end, just at the

284

WITCH WINXIE.

point where the French and Indians, " swarm-
ing over the palisades on the drifted snow,
surprised and sacked the sleeping town."

Miss Prillwitz and Winnie, with their
botanists' cans, followed a little brook that
ran at the back of the hotel, and came back
laden with blue German forget-me-nots.
Father and Mr. Stillman arrived just before
dinner, Mr. Stillman carrying in one hand a
string of beautiful speckled trout, and in the
other something which looked like a buffalo-
robe. He looked very triumphant and happy,
while father followed, carrying in a rather
sheepish manner what but the old soldering
furnace ! We greeted them with so much
laughter and so many questions that it was
some time before they could give an account
of their adventures?.

Arrived at the Mount Toby railroad
station, they had found it deserted. The
men having evidently decided that it was
not safe to await the recovery of the bear,
had accordingly killed it, and secreted
it in a cave at the foot of the mountain.
The sheriff knew of this cave, and in ex-
amining it in search of the men, found the
carcass of the bear.

" And so," exclaimed Mr. Stillman, exhib-

OVER THR HILLS AND FAR AWAY. 285

iting the skin, " I secured my rug, after all,
but we concluded that the meat looked rather
tough, and we would not take it. I shall
express this skin straight to a taxidermist
that I know, and have it handsomely
mounted."

" But the men!" I asked; " you don't mean
to tell me that they escaped ? '

" No," replied father; "but if you can't
keep quiet I shall not be able to tell you how
they were caught. It was this very ill-luck-
bringing soldering outfit that did it. When
we found that they had left, I suspected
that they had taken the morning train for
Canada at the Montague station, for no trains
stopped at Toby ; and in case they had done
that, there was hardly a chance of our reach-
ing the station and ascertaining the fact in
time to telegraph and effect their arrest be-
fore they could leave the country. We
had driven from Greenfield pretty rapidly,
and our horses were tired ; then we took a
wrong turning, and got off into Leverett, or
some other unhappy wilderness ; but after
a while we found a farmer who provided us
with fresh beasts, and we reached the Monta-
gue station toward evening. It was shut up,
and the station-master had gone home, but

2 86 WITCH WINNIE.

after another half-hour we found him. Yes,
our men had bought tickets for Montreal
that morning. Then you should have seen
our hurry to telegraph ; but the station-
master advised us to keep cool, and wait a
little. 'They bought their tickets/ he said,
' but they didn't go there.' So that was a
feint, I thought, to throw us off the track.
But no ; on their way from Toby they had
decided that they would have a cup of coffee,
and they had sat dow r n behind a barn to
make it on my soldering furnace, and as
they were doubtless as tired of carrying the
old thing as I was, they left it there. The
wind blew the coals into the hay, and in a
few minutes the barn was on fire. Someone
had seen them leave the yard, and before
the train came along for which they were
waiting, they were arrested as incendiaries,
and taken to the Greenfield jail. As this
was precisely where the sheriff wished to
take them, there was nothing for him to do
but to return and notify the authorities that
the men would be wanted soon on more seri-
ous charges. And as the station-master in-
formed us that there was some good trout-
fishing nearby, we decided to spend the night
in Montague. So we let the sheriff and con-

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. 287

stable drive back to Greenfield without us,
and telegraphed Mr. Armstrong that his
birds were caught."

"If they only turn out to be his birds!'
said Winnie.

" I haf no doubtfuls of zat," said Miss
Prillwitz.

" But why did you bring back that wretched
little furnace and iron ? ' I asked.

" Why, the curious part of it is that the
farmer who drove us over this morning had
found them in the ruins of his barn, and he
brought them along, thinking that we might
like them to help in identifying the rascals.
I couldn't refuse his kindness, but I certainly
shall not carry them away from this place.
I don't believe in such nonsense, but the
gypsy's prediction has come true so far, and
they brought bad fortune to the gentlemen
to whom I presented them."

Mr. Armstrong, who had been telegraphed
for, arrived with a police officer that night ;
and Miss Prillwitz, father, and Mr. Stillman
were absent all the next morning making
depositions to aid in the identification of the
prisoners.

It was finally decided to remove them to
New York to await trial on Mr. Armstrong's

288 WITCH WINNIE.

charges. We set out that afternoon for Ash-
field, our route leading- us over beautiful hills,
and affording us views of rare loveliness.
Ashfield is a village loved by literary men .as
Deerfield is by artists. Deerfielcl nestles in a
valley, while Ashfield lies on the breezy hill-
top ; George William Curtis is the centre of
the coterie of rare minds who make Ashfield
their summer home. Mr. Curtis gives a lec-
ture here once a year for the benefit of the
Sanderson Academy. At this time every man-
ner of vehicle brings the country-people over
the winding roads, which converge in Ash-
field like the spokes of a wheel in their hub.
We were not fortunate enough to light on
this red-letter day, and we accordingly rested
over night at the long low inn, and started
early the next morning for uncle's home in
Hawley. The distance was short, as the crow
flies, but it seemed to be all up-hill. The last
mile was through one of those gorges so com-
mon in this region, where the fissure between
the hills is so narrow that the sun only looks in
for two or three hours. Slowly climbing the
long, green-vaulted stairway, the dusky tap-
estry was at length looped back for us, and
the road, emerging from the wooded ravine,
gleamed yellow-white between the grassy

OVER THE HILI.S AND FAR AWAY.

289

mounds. Crowning one of these knolls stood
a long", white farm-house, spreading- out
wing after wing in hospitable effort to shelter
the entire hill-top. Beside the road stood a
post with a letter-box affixed, for the recep-
tion of the mail left by the daily stage. We
passed a huddle of old barns and out-build-
ings, among which I recognized a carpenter's
shop, a carriage-shed, a sugar-house in con-
venient proximity to a grove of maples, a
dairy through which ran the brook, keeping
cool and solid the eighty pounds of butter
which my cousins made each week, a cider-
mill, and behind it an orchard of russet apple-
trees, and a long row of bee-hives fronting the
flower-garden.

Uncle expected us, and it was delightful
to see the meeting between the two brothers,
who had not seen each other in twelve years.
There were plenty of airy bedrooms, hung
with pure white dimity, and after our gypsy
life it seemed very pleasant to find once
more the comforts of a home. We spent
several days at the Maples, attending service
in the dear old-fashioned church with its
high, square pews.

Aunt Prue had all of our travel-soiled
clothing neatly washed, and refilled the

290

WITCH WINNIE.

emptied hampers and lunch-baskets with
abundant supplies from the products of the
farm and her own good cookery.

Uncle was a large, easy man, who dearly
loved to tell a story to match his own ample
proportions, only the twinkle in his eye re-
deeming him from the charge of deception.
Aunt Prue's rigid conscience revolted at
uncle's romances. " Asahel Smith !" she would
exclaim, "how can you lie like that ; and
you a church-member ? '

" Now, Prudence," Uncle Asahel would re-
ply, " the catechism says a lie is a story told
with intention to deceive, and when I told
these girls that I drove the oxen home with
the last load of hay so fast that I got it into
the barn before a drop of water fell, while it
was raining so hard behind me that Watch,
who was following the wagon, actually swam
all the way up from the medder when I told
'em that, I cal'late I didn't deceive 'em ; I
was only cultivating their imaginations."

Aunt Prue groaned in spirit, and began to
sing, in a high, cracked voice,

" False are the men of high degree,
The baser sort are vanity;
Weighed in the balance, both appear
Light as a puff of empty air,"

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY.

291

While at The Maples we made an excur-
sion to Cummington, formerly Bryant's
home. We sat in the library, shut in by a
thick grove, where he composed his transla-
tions of the Odyssey and Iliad, and we
played with a little pet dog of which he had
been very fond. Not far from the estate is
a fine library, Bryant's gift to the little town.
" Bryant's River " is a brawling little stream
which flows through a very picturesque
region. We amused ourselves by fancying
that we recognized spots described in sev-
eral of his poems.

There was a grand old oak upon the place
which might have inspired his lines

" This mighty oak

By whose immovable stem I stand, and seem
Almost annihilated not a prince
In all that proud Old World beyond the deep
E'er wore his crown as loftily as he
Wears the green coronal of leaves with which
Thy hand has graced him."

The scenery about Cummington and Haw-
ley tempted us to a frequent use of our
sketching-materials. Mr. Stillman, too, found
several birds new to him, and took some beau-
tiful landscape photographs. Miss Sartoris
gave him new ideas about choosing views

292

WITCH WINNIE.

where mountain and cloud, trees and reflec-
tions, composed well, and his photographs be-
came much more artistic. He began to talk

about the importance of placing his darkest
dark here, and his highest light there, of bal-
ancing a steeple in this part of his picture by
a human interest in the foreground, of mass-
ing his shadows, of angular composition, of
tone and harmony, and the rest of the cant
of the studio. Nor was it all cant ; Miss
Sartoris had taught him to see more in na-
ture than he had ever seen before, and while
his ambition had hitherto been to secure
sharp photographs of instantaneous effects
mere feats of mechanical skill his aim was
now to produce pictures satisfying to highly
cultivated tastes. He acknowledged that
all this was due to Miss Sartoris, who had
opened a new world to him, though it seem-
ed to me that he really owed quite as much
to Miss Prillwitz, but for whose influence he
would never have taken up photography.
I was a little jealous for our princess, and
felt that, though Miss Sartoris was young
and fair, and Miss Priliwitz old and wrinkled,
this was no reason why honor should not be
rendered where honor was due.
There was a pond with a bit of swamp

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. 293

land on uncle's farm, which he considered
the blot on the place, but which Miss Sartoris
declared was a real treasure-trove for a pic-
ture. One end was covered with lily-pads,
and great waxy pond-lilies were opening
their alabaster lamps here and there on the
surface, while the yellow cow-lilies dotted
the other end with their butter-pats. Cat-tails
and rushes grew in the shallower portions,
and here was to be found the rare moccasin-
flower, a pink and white orchid of exquisite
shape. Miss Sartoris painted a beautiful
picture here. She said it reminded her of
the pond which Ruskin describes with an
artist's insight and enthusiasm.

" A great painter sees beneath and behind
the brown surface what will take him a day's
work to follow ; and he follows it, cost what
it will. He sees it is not the dull, dirty,
blank thing which he supposes it to be ; it
has a hea.rt as well as ourselves, and in the
bottom of that there are the boughs of the
tall trees and their quivering leaves, and all
the hazy passages of sunshine, the blades of
the shaking grass, with all manner of hues of
variable, pleasant light out of the sky ; and
the bottom seen in the clear little bits at the
edge, and the stones of it, and all the sky.

294 WITCH WINNIE.

For the ugly gutter that stagnates over the
drain-bars in the heart of the foul city is not
altogether base. It is at your will that you
see in that despised stream either the refuse
of the street or the image of the sky ; so
it is with many other things which we
unkindly despise."

We all regretted when our shott visit at
The Maples came to an end, but Miss Prill-
witz felt that she must be hastening back to
the Home, and we had already transgressed
the bounds which we had set to our outing.
We decided to vary our journey by return-
ing through Berkshire. We drove, the first
day, to Pittsfield, a flourishing little city, and
now for the first time we felt ourselves out
of place in the peddler's carts. Nowhere
else had we attracted any special attention.
It was a common thing for tin-peddlers to
take their feminine relatives with them on
their jaunts, and as we dressed very plainly,
and conducted ourselves with gravity, no
one gave us a second look.

At Pittsfield, however, we came in con-
tact once more with "society," and the
loungers on the hotel veranda gave us a
broadside of astonished looks as we alighted.
" It is very disagreeable to be stared at in

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY

! 95

this way," Winnie remarked to Miss Prill-
witz as we entered.

" My tear," replied the good lady, " it takes
four eyes to make a stare."

Winnie colored deeply, for she knew that if
she had been less self-conscious she would
not have felt the curious and impertinent
gaze. We left Pittsfield so early the next
morning that none of the hotel loungers \vere

^5 <-^

on the piazza to comment on our appearance.

We drove, that day, over the lovely Lenox
hills, once covered by stony pastures, dotted
here and there by lonely farm-houses, but
now a succession of beautiful parks and
aristocratic villas and mansions. Mr. Still-
man had his camera out, and photographed
a number of the handsome residences as we
passed, and one of the gay little village-carts
driven by a young woman dressed in the
height of fashion, and presided over by a
footman in livery.

"That does not seem to me a sensible way
of going into the country," said Winnie.
" I don't believe she has half the fun that we
have in this old caravan."

* A remark once made by Professor Maria Mitchell to
a student of Vassar College who had made a similar com-
plaint.

296 WITCH WIXXIR.

" Perhaps not," I replied, "but I presume
that Adelaide and Milly are driving- about in
much the same style ; and we know that
better-hearted girls never lived."

We picnicked near " Stockbridge Bowl," a
lovely lake, blue as Geneva and encircled by
beautiful hills. As father brought out the
lunch-hamper I noticed a queer expression
on his face. ''What do you suppose I have
found stowed away in the back part of the
cart ? " he asked.

" Not the soldering furnace?' we all re-
plied, in unison.

He smiled grimly, and, instead of replying,
placed it before us. " That Deerfield land-
lord must have packed it up without your
knowledge," said. Miss Sartoris. " Its reap-
pearance is becoming really amusing ; let us
make one grand final effort to get rid of it by
sinking it in the middle of the lake,"

"Will you do it?"

"Certainly."

Miss Sartoris took the furnace and ran
down to the lake, whence she presently
returned empty-handed.

" Did you drown the creature ? '

" Not exactly, but I gave an ancient fisher-
man whom I found there a quarter to com-

' THE HILLS AXD FAR A WA Y.

mit the crime for me." I told him that it
was something which we were tired of, and
never wished to see again, and he promised
me, in rather a mixed manner, that ' hu-
man hand should never find hide nor hair
of it, nor human eye set foot on it
again.'

A general laugh followed this announce-
ment. How should we know that the man's
suspicions were excited by Miss Sartoris's
anxiety to get rid of the object, and that in-
stead of sinking it in the middle of " the
Bowl ' he wrapped it carefully in brow r n
paper, and labeling it "To be kept till called
for," hid it under the bank ! " Somebody
will come for that object," he said to himself ;
" shouldn't wonder if it was wanted at court
as circumstantial evidence of somethin' or
'nother."

Another event occurred while we were
resting at " the Bowl." Miss Sartoris re-
marked that a view which she had obtained
as she returned from the lake was the most
enchanting that she had seen on the trip.
" How I wish that I had time to sketch it ! '
she said.

" I will photograph it for you," Mr. Still-
man exclaimed, with alacrity, "if you will

298 WITCH WINNIE.

kindly show me just where you would like
to have the view taken."

They walked back together, a turn in the
road hiding them from our view. We waited
for them a long time, and at length father
became impatient and drove on, leaving me
to hold Mr. Stillman's horses. When they
came back there was an expression on their
faces which told everything. I should have
known it even if Mr. Stillman had been able
to keep the words back, but he was too
happy to be silent. " You were lamenting,
this morning," he said to me as he took the

O '

reins, " that we had only two more days to
journey together."

" That is all," I replied, " unless Miss Sar-
toris and you have decided to make a longer
trip."

"Yes, "he replied, "you have guessed it
exactly : Miss Sartoris has just consented to
journey on through life with me."

I was surprised, and yet, when I came to
think of it, I saw that I ought to have sus-
pected it from the time they first met; and,
all things considered, they were admirably
suited to each other. So I could only re-
joice in their happiness, though I wondered,
a little selfishly, what Madame's would be

OTER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. 299

without Miss Sartoris, and whether I should
ever have a teacher whom I should love as
well.

When we caught up with the other cart
father asked whether he got a successful
negative.

" No," replied Mr. Stillman, " I didn't get
a very decided negative, and I confess I
didn't want one."

There was a look of blank astonishment
on all their faces, and then a peal of laughter
as his meaning dawned upon them. After
the storm of congratulations and exclama-
tions had ceased, Miss Sartoris suddenly ex-
claimed, " You left your detective camera S"

"That is so," Mr. Stillman replied, " Shall
we drive back after it ?"

" Not unless you want to catch that
shower," father remarked, pointing to a
threatening cloud.

" I'll get you ladies under shelter first, and
then I really think I must look it up," said
Mr. Stillman. But before we reached Stock-
bridge we met a coaching-party conducted
by a nattily dressed young man of slender
build, who managed his spirited four-in-hand
with considerable skill, and who reined them
in as we approached, exclaiming, " Stillman !

1QO WITCH WINNIE,

by all that's odd !" Mr. Stillman introduced
the gentleman as a Mr. Van Silver, an old
friend from, the city, and mutual explana-
tions followed. He was now on his way to
Lenox, and agreed to stop at the spot which
Mr. Stillman indicated, and if he could find
the camera express it to Mr. Stillman at
Scup Harbor.

Very little more of interest to the reader
occurred until we reached home. We fol-
lowed the Housatonic for the greater part
of our way, and when we had nearly reached
its mouth, drove across to New Haven, from
which port, having completed our round -
trip, we took the steamer for home. Father
found a letter from Mr. Armstrong in rela-
tion to the thieves taken in Montague, who
were proved to be the criminals of Rickett's
Court, whose retribution shall be related
in the next chapter. The little boys left in
mother's care had conducted themselves in
as exemplary a manner as could be expected,
there having been no cases of really bad
conduct, and only two slight accidents.

Miss Prillwitz took them under her wing
and left with them for the Home, all looking
happier, browner, and rounder for their stay
in the country. Winnie regretted that cur

OVER THE HILLS AXD FAR AWAY. -;oi

scheme for filling' the treasury of the Home

had not been a success, since the aggregate
of money made by peddling tinware and
rockets, and by taking tintypes, did not meet
the expenses of the trip. Mr. Stillman, how-
ever, insisted on presenting the institution
with a handsome check, " as an inadequate
thank-offering," so he said, for the great
blessing which had come to him in our

journeying " over the hills and far away."

Miss Sartoris left almost immediately for
her own home, and Mr. Stillman followed
her soon after. Two express packages came
to him before he left us. One was the bear-
skin, handsomely mounted, the other was
preceded by a note from his friend Mr.
Van Silver, which said that he had over-
taken a venerable fisherman walking off with
his camera, and that it required considerable
persuasion of a " sterling quality " to rescue
it from him. Mr. Stillman opened the pack-
age with grateful anticipation, and found
the soldering furnace !

CHAPTER XV.

of th

THE ESTATES DEL PARADISO*

I have been here before,

But when, or how, I cannot tell;
I know the grass beyond the door,

The sweet, keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

You have been mine before,

How long ago I may not know;

But just when, at that swallow's soar,
Your neck turned so,

Some veil did fall I knew it all of yore."

Rossetti.

E must now return

to Mr. Armstrong

& i

whom we left in
chapter XII. in
conference with
Dr. Carver over
the Doctor's ad-
vertisement of the
case of lost iden-
tity inserted i n
the daily papers
ten years before.
The physician
listened gravely
to Mr. A r m-
strong's account

wife and infant son, the wild
302

e loss

THE ESTATES DEL PAR ADI SO. 303

hopes which were now awakened, and to his
request for the address of the lady referred
to, and gave him a pitying glance as he
replied:

11 So many bereaved persons have come
to me fancying that they recognized a loved
one in that notice, only to be cruelly dis-
appointed; and Mrs. Halsey has in the past
been subjected to so many trying interviews
of this description, that I hesitate to encour-
age your visiting her, unless you have posi-
tive proof of what you hope. A photograph
would give this proof."

" And, unfortunately, I have none of Mrs.
Armstrong."

" But I had one taken of Mrs. Halsey,
which I have kept in the hope that it might
be identified some day;" and the Doctor
drew from his pocket-book a thumbed and
discolored photograph, which he placed in
Mr. Armstrong's hand.

The effect was unmistakable. The strong
man rose to his feet, staggered, and fainted,
for he had recognized his wife. The physi-
cian quickly restored him to consciousness,
and after waiting until the effect of the shocV
had partially passed away, he said :

I see that there is no danger of any mis-

304

WITCH WINNIE.

take, and that I may direct you where to
find Mrs. Halsey I beg pardon, Mrs. Arm-
strong. Her address, when I last saw her,
was No. i Rickett's Court."

"Rickett's Court!" exclaimed Mr. Arm-
strong, in horror.

11 Yes, sir ; it is not the best quarter of the
city, but many of the respectable poor live
there ; and you must remember, sir, that
your wife must necessarily have had a hard
struggle to support herself and your little
son, alone and friendless, in this great city."

Mr. Armstrong groaned aloud. Rickett's
Court had not seemed so bad to him for
other men's children and wives, but that his
child, his wife, should live in such vile sur-
roundings was. horrible. He sprang to his
feet, seized his hat, and with a hasty "I will
see you again, Doctor," hurried in the same
direction which Stephen Trimble had taken
not a half-hour before. It was only a short
distance, but it seemed miles to him. Just
as he came in sight of the building every
window in its front was illuminated with a
sudden flash, and a heavy detonation shook
the earth. Then smoke poured from the
broken panes, and the air was filled with
flying splinters and debris, while shrieks

THE ESTA TES DEL FARAD ISO.

305

from within, and shouts of " Fire ! fire ! "
from without, added to the confusion.

The smoke cleared in a moment, and peo-
ple were seen at the windows dropping*
down the fire-escape. Only a few minutes
later a fire - engine came tearing around
the corner, and the hoarse voice of a fireman
was heard dominating the tumult and giving-

v > C5 J5>

orders, but before this Alexander Arm-
strong, possessed of but one idea that his
wife and child were somewhere within had
rushed into the burning building. One

o o

glance showed him that this was hopeless.
The staircase had been torn out by the ex-
plosion, and the flames were roaring up the
space which it had occupied, as through a
chimney. He was dragged back to the
court by the fireman, who exclaimed, " Man
alive ! can't you see that the staircase has
gone, and that they are coming down the
fire-escape ? There wouldn't have been the
ghost of a chance for them but for that.
Bless the man who had it put there ! "

The words gave him a little heart, and he
stood at the foot, helping the w r omen and
catching the children handed to him, hop-
ing in vain to recognize his wife. They
stopped coming. "Are all out ?" he shouted,

o 6 WITCH WINNIE.

''There's some one in the fourth story," said
a woman, and before the fireman could lay
his hand on the fire-escape Mr. Armstrong
was half-way up. The facade still stood,
but the entire interior of the building was in
flames, and blinding smoke and scorching
sparks poured from the windows. At the
fourth story a man had staggered to the
window and lay with his arm outside, hold-
ing on to the sill, Mr. Armstrong uttered a
cry when he saw that it was a man, but, none
the less, he lifted him tenderly out, and into
the arms of the fireman following close behind
them. Then drawing his coat over his mouth
and nostrils, he entered the room. Another
man lay at a little distance, or a body that
had been a man, terribly torn and shattered
by the explosion. It was the anarchist who
had been the principal in the plot ; the other
had escaped. Mr. Armstrong descended,
looking into every apartment as he came
down to be sure no living tiling was left in-

3 o

side that furnace.

" You are a hero, sir ! will you give me

your name ? I represent " It was the

omnipresent reporter on hand for an item.
Mr. Armstrong turned from him, without re-
ply, to the man whom he had rescued, Stephen

THE ESTATES DEL PARADISO 307

Trimble, who lay with a foot torn from
the ankle, and a broken arm. A hospital
surgeon knelt at his side bandaging deftly.
A policeman had sent the call when Mr.
Armstrong started up the fire-escape, and
the ambulance, a more conclusive " Evidence
of Christianity" than that dear old Dr. Hop-
kins or any other theologian ever wrote;
nobler exponent of civilization than the fire
department even, since that is the rich man's
provision for saving his own property, while
the ambulance is the rich man's provision
for saving the poor man's life- -the am-
bulance, with surgeon on the back seat coolly
feeling for his instruments, and bare-headed

driver clanging the gong, and lashing his al-
ready galloping horses, had torn like mad
down Broadway. And as it came, aristocratic
carriages hurrying with ladies just a little late
for a grand dinner, and an expectant bride-
groom on his way to Grace Church, halted
and waited for it to pass ; express and tele-
graph agents, and rushing men of business,
gave it the right of way as it bounded on its
errand of mercy.

Alexander Armstrong spoke for a moment
with the surgeon, long enough to learn that
Stephen Trimble's injuries were probably not

308 WITCH WINNIE.

mortal, and to urge every attention possible.
Then he caught sight of Solomon Meyer
bowing and cringing at a little distance, and
he sprang upon him like a panther on his
prey. Solomon, greatly surprised, could only
imagine that the loss of the property had
driven him insane, and gasped, " Ze insurance
bolicy is all right," whereat the ex-landlord
gave his agent such a shaking that his teeth
rattled in his head, only pausing to inquire
if he kne\v anything of a tenant by the name
of Mrs. Halsey. Solomon Meyer assured,
him that Mrs. Halsey had long since quitted
the building, but this only partially reas-
sured him, for he placed very little reliance
on the man's word. His wife, almost found,
was lost to him a^ain. He could not be-

lieve that she perished in the burning build-
ing ; still, there was this horrible possibility.
There was no one to tell him that she
had just gone to Narragansett Pier at his
daughter's bidding, and was occupying the
very cottage where so many of her happier
years were passed ; and he threw himself
more unreservedly into his business projects,
not, however, forgetting the poor inventor
at the hospital, whom he visited frequently,
and cared for as tenderly as though he had

THE ESTATES DEL PARADISO. 309

been his brother. After the excitement of
the fire was over, he remembered that the
law had an account to settle with Solomon
Meyer, but he was not then to be found. His
guilty conscience had taken the alarm, and
the subtle magnetism which draws bad
people together had caused him to form a
partnership with the anarchist who had
escaped the explosion, and but for Miss
Prillwitz's timely recognition they would
have fled to Canada. Mr. Armstrong found
them, as we know, in the Greenfield jail, and
had no difficulty in identifying them, and
in having them brought to justice

As the time approached for the trial of
Solomon Meyer and the Russian anarchist;
Mr. Armstrong was troubled with the fear
that Stephen Trimble might not be able to
testify in court. He visited him frequently
at the hospital, and whenever he approached
the subject of his dealings with the anar-
chists he became excited and confused.

His little son, Lovey Dimple, was seated
beside him during one of Mr, Armstrong's
calls. He was allowed to visit his father,
and waited upon him day by day, some-
times telling him of the pleasant times he
had had at the seashore, and at others watch-

3IO WITCH WINNIE.

ing him quietly. His presence seemed to do
his father good ; and on this visit Mr. Arm-
strong was able to obtain much more infor-
mation from Stephen Trimble than upon any
previous occasion.

JL.

"You are quite sure," Mr. Armstrong
asked, ''that you never saw this check, which
someone has cashed at the bank, and which is
indorsed with your name ? '

" Never, never ! ' replied the wounded
man.

" I see it, though," Lovey Dimple spoke up,
promptly. "Jim had come down to the
court to see me, and I wanted to show him
the machine in the Rooshans' room, and we
follered him in there. Mr. Meyer dropped a
piece of paper which looked like that, and
Jim picked it up. He could tell you what
was written on it."

" I must have Jim as a link in our chain of
testimony," Mr. Armstrong replied. "Is he
at the Home of the Elder Brother ? '

" No, sir ; Jim used to be there, but he had
the luck to be adopted. He went away just
for to be a tiger for some swells, and they
liked him so much they permoted him. He's
Jim Roservelt now."

So this was the lad of whom Adelaide had

THE ESTA TES DEL PARADISO. * I I

spoken to him. Mr. Armstrong wrote to his
friend Mr. Roseveldt, requesting that Jim
should be sent to the city. His testimony at
the trial was so clear and concise, and his
entire appearance so manly, that Mr. Arm-
strong was greatly drawn to him.

" If my own boy had lived, "he said to Mr.
Roseveldt, who had come to the city with
Jim, "he would have been about the age of
this little fellow. I am about to make a
western trip of six or seven weeks, and would
like to take him with me. Should the liking
which I have taken to him grow upon
acquaintance, I beg of you to relinquish him
to me ; I need him, for I am a stricken man,
and you are a fortunate one, or I would not
ask it."

Mr. Roseveldt replied that, though he was
fond of Jim, he would willingly give him up
to Mr. Armstrong for adoption after his
return from the West, provided the boy's
mother would consent to the transfer. Singu-
larly enough, the name of that mother was
not mentioned, and Mr. Armstrong took Jim
with him to Colorado, little dreaming that
the boy was his own son.

He had said that he needed Jim ; and he
needed him in more ways than he knew. He

3 I 2 WITCH WINNIE.

had grown world-soiled, as well as world-
weary, and the companionship of a soul
white and young was destined to exert upon
him a purifying as well as rejuvenating
influence. Before the grand mountain scen-
ery Jinrs fresh enthusiasm stimulated Mr.
Armstrong's sated admiration, and the child's
naive ideas of right and wrong were a rebuke
to the man's sophistries. They journeyed
together through the wild and beautiful
canons of the Rocky Mountains, and the boy
was deeply impressed by the stupendous
cliffs rising on each side walls that were
sometimes two thousand feet in height, and
so close together that the narrow river, which
had cut its way down from the surface, some-
times filled the entire space at the bottom of
the gorge. But even here the ingenuity of
man had surmounted the barriers of nature,
and the observation-car on which they rode
dashed along upon a shelf cut in the solid
rock, with a sheer wall on one hand, and a
dizzy precipice on the other. Such a canon
was the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas ; in
one portion an iron bridge hangs suspended
from strong supports fixed in the solid walls,
and the train glides along it, swaying as in
a hammock, over the brawling river.

THE E^TA TES DEL PARADISO. 3 j <*

\j o

The climax of their tour was reached in the
Black Canon. The scenes here are awful,
even in broad daylight, for the sombre crags
tower to the height of several thousand feet.
Our travelers passed through the chasm at
night. Far overhead the stars were shining
in the little rift of sky, which was all that
they could see between the walls ; and in the
mysterious half-lights of the illumined por-
tions, and the utter blackness of the shadows,
the grotesque shapes of the crags took on
strange forms and awful suggestions. At
times it seemed as if the train was about to
dash itself against a wall of solid masonry,
which opened, as though thrown back by
genii, as they approached. At one point,
catching the moonlight, a silvery cascade
swept over the rocks like a bow of crystal ;
and at another, a mighty monument of rosy
stone, the Curricanti Needle, towered far
above the cliffs, like the sky-piercing spire of
some grand cathedral.

" The people who live here must be very
good," Jim gasped, as they emerged from the
valley of enchantment, " one is so much
nearer to God out here !"

''Nobody lives in the canon now," Mr.
Armstrong replied ; " Indians lived here not

Q i A WITCH WINNIE.

O L ~r

very long ago, They used to hold their
councils on that shelf of rock where the
pines grow, the last accessible spot on the
Curricanti pinnacle, but the settlers in the
neighborhood did not have your idea about
their being such very good men, and as the
canon was the best pathway through the
mountains for the railroad, they were driven
out."

"lam sorry for the Indians," Jim said,
simply. " If I had owned that canon I
wouldn't have liked to have given it up,
would you ?"

Mr. Amstrong evaded the question. "You
will not have so much pity for them when
you know them better," he replied. " They
are a low lot, and if they do not know
enough to improve the advantages which
they possess, it is only fair that they should
be appropriated by those who will make a
better use of them."

Jim did not quite understand what Mr.
Armstrong meant by appropriating the
Indians' advantages, but he was to learn
more in relation to that word before the
journey was over. Returning to Denver^
Mr. Armstrong took the boy with him on a
tour through some of the pueblos of New

THE ESTA TES DEL PARADISO, 3 j 5

Mexico. The word " pueblo" signifies town,
and the Pueblo Indians are those who build
houses instead of tents and wigwams, and
live from generation to generation in towns
and cities, instead of wandering about the
plains and mountains like the other tribes.
There are twenty-six of these communities
in New Mexico, and some of the cities were
old when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.

When New Mexico was ceded to the
United States by Mexico, the right of the
Pueblo Indians to their towns and to certain
tracts of land surrounding them was con-
firmed by treaty, so that these Indians are
better off in many ways than any others.
Mr. Armstrong had a special reason for visit-
ing the Pueblos. He had purchased several
large herds of cattle, and wished to rent land
of the Indians for pasturage. A man by the
name of Sanchez, who traded among the
Pueblos, could speak the language, and had
gained the confidence of the Indians, hap-
pened to be on the train, and recognizing
Mr. Armstrong as a wealthy capitalist, who
had large interests in cattle, as well as in
railroads, at once guessed pretty nearly the
nature of his errand in the Indian country.

He introduced himself, and, learning that

3 1 6 WITCH WINNIE.

Mr, Armstrong intended to visit the pueblo
of Taos, to witness the celebration of the
Festival of San Geronirno, offered his services
as interpreter and courier. These Mr. Arm-
strong was very glad to accept, for he had
heard of the man, and knew that he had con-
siderable influence among the Indians.
There was something repellent, however, in
his insinuating, cringing manner which made
one feel that here was a man who was not to
be trusted. The party was increased by an
army officer and a Catholic priest, who were
also going to Taos to witness the festival.
The pueblo lies at a distance of twenty miles
from the railroad station, but an Indian was
found waiting for Mr. Sanchez with a rough
wagon, and that gentleman invited the
others to ride w r ith him. They crossed the
Rio Grande River and drove along beside it
in a northeasterly direction, through a not
very interesting country. The coloring w r as
all yellowish brown the sandy earth, the
crisp parched grass, the distant hills, even the
water when taken from the turbid river, were
all of a like monotonous tint. Now and then
they met or passed an Indian, wrapped in a
striped blanket and mounted on a small
shaggy pony. Toward evening they came

THE ESTATES DEL PAR ADI SO.

317

in sight of the pueblo. The first view was
very picturesque. The houses of adobe, or
sun-dried brick, were built in ranges one
above the other, like a great stairway, the
roof of the low r er house serving as the door-
yard for the one above. Ladders were
placed against the walls, and up and down
these, nearly naked Indian children scram-
bled like young monkeys. They parted their
long elf-locks with their hands, and stared at
the strangers with wild, black eyes. Mr.
Sanchez conducted them to an unoccupied
house, which he said would be at their ser-
vice during the festival for quite a good
sum. There was no hotel, and this seemed
the best thing to be done. It had evidently
been suddenly cleared for the unexpected
guests, and some of the utensils and furni-
ture remained. The priest pointed out with
pleasure a gaudy print of the Virgin. There
were strings of red peppers drying on the
outer wall, and a great olha, or decorated
water-pot, within, but there was no bedding
or food. The gentlemen, however, had each
brought with them army blankets, and Mr.
Sanchez offered to act as their commissary
and skirmish for provisions. He presently
returned, followed by a woman carrying a

3 1 8 WITCH WINNIE.

bowl of stewed beef and onions, and a boy
driving a donkey, whose panniers were filled
with melons. This, with some coffee, which
the officer made over a spirit-lamp, and some
crackers contributed by Mr. Armstrong 1 ,
constituted their supper, which hunger made
palatable.

After this refreshment they mounted to
their roof and watched the preparations for
the festivities of the next day. Mr. Sanchez
pointed out the entrance to the est^lfa 1 or
underground council-chamber, into which
the young men of the tribe were disappear-
ing for the celebration of mysterious pagan
rites.

" I thought the Pueblos \vere Roman
Catholics," Mr. Armstrong remarked.

The Catholic priest shook his head sadly.
" Our converts have always remained half
pagan," he said ; " the early missionaries
were content to engraft as much Christianity
as they could on the old customs, thinking
that the better faith would gradually sup-
plant the old, but the old rites and cere-
monies have remained. Still we must hesi-
tate to say that the Fathers did wrong, since
it was the only way to win the savages to
the holy faith."

THE ESTATES DEL PARADISO.

3*9

The priest strolled away to visit the church
and to find a Mexican brother who was to
celebrate Mass on the next day. The church
was a ruinous building which stood apart
from the others. The army officer told of
the siege which it sustained during the
Mexican War, and pointed to the indenta-
tions made in its walls by cannon-balls.

The situation was such a strange one that
Jim slept but little. All night long he could
hear the dull beat of the tom-toms in the
est^ifa, and as soon as the first streak of
dawn illumined the sky the pueblo was
awake and all excitement. Indians from
neighboring towns poured in, some on foot,
and others mounted on ponies or donkeys.

In the plaza stood a great pole resem-
bling a flag-staff, but instead of a banner
there dangled from the top a live sheep
and a basket of bread and grain, with a gar-
land of fruits and vegetables. The church
bell was clanging for Mass, and Jim fol-
lowed the others. An old Mexican priest was
the celebrant, and a few young Indians in red
cotton petticoats and coarse lace overskirts
waited upon him awkwardly as altar-boys.
When the Host was elevated, an Indian at
the door beat the tom-tom, and four musket-

320

WITCH WINNIE

shots were fired. The priest then marched
down the centre of the church, followed by
the altar-boys, one of whom bore a hideous
painting, which Mr. Sanchez assured them
was painted in Spain by the great Murillo,
and might be had, through him, for a trifling
sum. The congregation joined in the pro-
cession and followed to the race-track, where
games, races, and dances were participated
in by fifty young men of Taos against
fifty from other pueblos. The sports were
witnessed by fully two thousand spectators,
who swarmed along the terraces, and formed
a packed mass of men, women, children,
horses, and donkeys around the race-track.
There was a group of visitors standing near

our travelers, who regarded the races with

intense interest. It consisted of an old man
dressed in white linen blouse and trousers,
with a red handkerchief knotted about his
gray locks, an obese and not over cleanly
old lady in full Indian toggery, and a young
girl in a pink calico dress, with a black shawl
over her head and shoulders. They watched
one of the runners with the most intense
excitement, and when he came off victor
in several of the contests, their enthusiasm
knew no bounds. " That old man is the Gov~

THE ESTATES DEL PARADISO. -321

ernor of the pueblo of -," said Mr. Sanchez.

"It is his son who has just stepped out to
lead the corn-dance. The daughter, little
Rosaria, is pretty, is she not ? ' He ap-
proached her as he spoke, with easy assur-
ance, and taking her by the chin, made some
remarks in the Pueblo language intended to
be complimentary ; but the girl twisted her-
self from his grasp with hot indignation ; and
Sanchez returned, grumbling that since she
had been to the Ramona School at Santa Fe
she was too much of a lady to speak to any-
one. Jim was standing beside her; and sure,
from her manner, that she understood Eng-
lish, he asked her to explain the corn-dance
to him. She did so, very kindly, and the
hunt - dance which followed, when the
painted clowns brought out grotesque clay
images, and after adoring them fired at them,
and shattered them in fragments, the crowd
scrambling for the pieces. The young man
who had been pointed out as the Governor's
son secured a piece, and brought it to the
girl in triumph. " That is the ear of a wolf,"
she said. " It means that he will have suc-
cess in the south ; we, who have been
taught better, do not believe these old
charms any more."

\22 WITCH WINNIE.

The last thing on the programme was
the climbing of the pole for the sheep,
which was finally won by a young brave of
Taos.

There was racing on ponies afterward by
young Indians and Mexicans, but this was
informal, and not included in the rites of
the day. The young girl looked at the races
enviously. " My brother ought to win
there," she said, " for we had the swiftest
ponies of any of the Pueblos, and ought to
have them, for our pasture lands are the
best, but we have sold nearly all our live-
stock, and the pastures are no longer of any
use to us."

Mr. Armstrong overheard this remark,
and asked Rosaria if her people would be
willing to rent their lands. She conferred
with her father in the Pueblo language,
and Mr. Sanchez immediately joined in the
conversation, talking volubly to the old man,
and translating to Mr. Armstrong. " He

o o

says you are welcome to return to his pueblo
with him," explained Mr. Sanchez, " and he
will call a council of his townspeople to
deliberate on your proposition."

There was more conversation, and it was
decided to accept the Governor's invitation,

THE ESTA TES DEL PAR AD ISO. -\2\

\j \j

Mr. Armstrong engaging Mr. Sanchez to go
with them and help him in the transaction.
This seemed to him the only thing which he
could do, since he did not understand the
language, and the Governor seemed to place
confidence in the trader. The party set out
the next morning for San , Mr.

Armstrong and Jim in Mr. Sanchez's wagon,
and the Governor and his children following
on diminutive donkeys. Several days elap-
sed before the bargain could be made. The
Indians were very suspicious of being
entrapped into some fraud, and it needed
all of Mr. Sanchez's eloquence to per-
suade them that the arrangement would
be to their advantage. Mr. Armstrong
had told Mr. Sanchez that he was will-
ing to pay fifteen hundred dollars for the
rental of the land for three years, and that
he (Sanchez) might deduct his fee for ser-
vices from this sum. " Then if I can per-
suade them to let you have the land for
twelve hundred," asked Mr. Sanchez, " I may
claim three hundred for my assistance in the
matter ? "

" That is a pretty round fee," replied Mr.
Armstrong, ''but it does not matter to me
who has the money. The land is worth fif-

WITCH WINNIE.

teen hundred dollars to me, and if you can
persuade the Indians to take less, so much
the better for you."

Jim was much interested in the negotia-
tions. He sat beside Mr. Armstrong in the
council-chamber, trying to make out from
the expressive gestures what it was that the
Indians were saying, and sometimes it seem-
ed to him that Mr. Sanchez did not translate
correctly. At such times he went out to
where Rosaria stood by the open door list-
ening, with other children. She translated
for him the treaty as Mr. Sanchez read it,
and he was astonished to find that it offered
the Indians only three hundred dollars as
rent for their land, the wily Sanchez having
reserved twelve hundred as his own share.

" But Mr. Armstrong is willing to pay your
people fifteen hundred," Jim protested to
Rosaria, and the girl slipped Into the coun-
cil-chamber just as the Governor was about
to sign the paper, and snatched it from his
hand.

" Is it true," she asked of Mr. Armstrong,
" that you are willing to pay more for our
land ? Mr. Sanchez offers us but three
hundred dollars !"

Mr. Armstrong, surprised at the man's

THE ESTATES DEL PARADISO 325

effrontery, acknowledged that he was ready
to pay more, while Sanchez, furious at
seeing his opportunity slipping from him,
poured upon Rosaria all manner of abuse,
and threatened Mr. Armstrong that unless
he held to his bargain to allow him what-
ever margin he could make he would spoil
the trade for him.

" Here's a pretty affair ! ' said Mr. Arm-
strong to Jim. " You had better have kept
quiet and let the old swindler feather his
nest. Now I fear that I shall not be able
to make any bargain with the Indians."

" But it was not right, was it," asked Jim,
" that the Indians should have so little and
Mr. Sanchez so much ? '

'The proportion does seem unfair," Mr.
Armstrong admitted to Jim; but he added, to
Sanchez, " I hold to my part of the bargain.
I will give you whatever margin you can
make between their demands and fifteen
hundred dollars."

Sanchez attempted to regain his lost ad-
vantage, but all this time Rosaria had been
talking excitedly, explaining to one after
another of the Indians, now pointing to the
figures in the treaty, now scornfully at San-
chez, arguing, entreating, scolding, and when

326 ivircn WINNIE.

the trader began his defense of her charges,
laughing him to scorn. The Governor put
an end to the altercation by tearing the
treaty in pieces and ordering two stout
Indians to lead Sanchez from the room. He
then bade Rosaria tell Mr. Armstrong that
fifteen hundred dollars was the very least
that they were willing to take for their land.
Mr. Armstrong bowed, and replied that he
would think over the matter. He expected
to have an opportunity to discuss it with his
agent, but when he left the council-chamber
he saw his wagon on the road to Sante Fe,
at a long distance from the pueblo, and was
handed the label from a peach can, on the
back of which was scribbled :

" That boy of yours is too smart to live;
the plaguey Indians have given me an hour
to leave their reservation. Manage your
own concerns without the help of

Sanchez."

The bargain \vas accordingly struck with-
out the aid of a middle-man, and Mr. Arm-
strong was conceded the right to pasture his
cattle for three years In consideration of the
sum of five hundred dollars, to be paid in
advance at the bepinninsr of each season.

THE ESTA TES DEL PARADISO. 327

Mr. Armstrong was much amused. " It has
turned out all right," he said to Jim, "but
you must acknowledge that it was really
none of your business, and I would advise
you, in future, not to meddle in matters which
do not concern you."

" I will try," Jim replied, much abashed.
"I ought to have told you instead of Rosaria,
and you would have fixed it all right," he
added, cheerfully. "I ought to have known
that you wouldn't have let the Indians be
cheated."

Mr. Armstrong felt the reproach in the
undeserved confidence. Here was a com-
panion who was a sort of embodied con-
science. It was not always profitable to have
a conscience in business, and yet there was
something satisfactory and refreshing in the
way in which this affair had terminated.
" They say ' honesty is the best policy,' he
said to himself ; " I wonder if this little fellow
would not be a Mascot to bring me good
luck. I have a notion to make him my
partner in some of my risky ventures ; Provi^
dence seems to smile upon him and his
principles ; perhaps if I make my good-fort-
une his as well, it will smile upon me."
What he said to Jim was this : " You seem

328 WITCH WINNIE.

fond of a wild western life, Jim, and of the
Indians. Our business amonof the Pueblos

is ended. We are going back to Colorado.
I have a notion to show you what the Colo-
rado Indians are like. They are Utes, and
they do not live in houses, like the Pueblos,
but rove about in a perfectly savage man-
ner; they are not peaceful and industrious,
like the Pueblos, but lazy and ugly. I do
not think that they are susceptible of civili-
zation. I would as soon think of educating
a coyote as a Ute.

"Now the Utes possess some of the best
mining lands in Colorado, but will never
develop them ; so it seems to me better that
they should be removed to the desert lands,
which are worthless for purposes of civiliza-
tion, and let the whites have their opportunity.
I have my eye on a gulch which I discovered
while hunting in the San Juan Mountains

four years ago, and which I mean to pre-empt
just as soon as we get the Utes to give up
their present reservation and pack off to
Utah. We shall go back that way, and I will
show you the spot."

Jim opened his eyes very wide. He did
not quite comprehend what Mr. Armstrong
had said. Surely he could not mean to de-

THE ESTATES DEL PARADISO. 329

fraud the Indians in any way ! He would
doubtless pay them the worth of their mine,
and if they liked the ready money better
than the trouble of mining- the silver for
themselves it would be all fair.

At Antonito Mr. Armstrong left the rail-
road, provided himself with a span of horses,
a wagon, camping outfit, and a brace of
greyhounds, and struck out through the Ute
reservation for the mountains. He told
some gentleman whom he met at Antonito
that he proposed to enjoy a little coursing
for antelope; but there was a set of survey-
ors' instruments in the wagon, which proved
that he intended to locate the mine which
he had come across during his previous visit.
His acquaintance attempted to discourage
his making the trip alone, saying that the
Utes had been restless of late, owing to a
failure in receiving their supplies from Gov-
ernment, and it was hardly safe to approach
their reservation.

"You need not be afraid of the Utes,"
another gentleman replied. " I knew their
old chief, Ouray, and was entertained once
in his house a neater farm-house than many
a white settler can show, and I was hospitably
waited upon by his wife, Chipeta, who gave

o ->Q WITCH WINNIE.

*J vy

me peaches from their own orchard, and
saleratus biscuit, and when I saw the familiar
yellow streaks in them, and tasted the old
chief's whisky, I had to confess that the Indian
was capable of civilization."

Mr. Armstrong laughed, but the first
speaker bade him be careful, for all the Utes
were not like Ouray, who had so well earned
his title of the White Man's Friend.

"Now," exclaimed Mr. Armstrong, after
he had driven out of sight of the last human
habitation " now at last we can breathe !
What do you think of it, Jim ? '

"I didn't know the world was so big," the
boy replied ; " these must be the Estates
del Paradiso which Miss Prillwitz talks
about. Why, there's room for all New
York to spread itself out, and every child to
have a yard to play in. It seems a little bit
lonely," he added, after a pause. " I should
think you would have liked to have had some
of those gentlemen go with you."

"Why, you see, Jim," Mr. Armstrong re-
plied, " I am going to hunt up that silver mine,
and I had a little rather not share the secret
with any one but you. Besides, I like the
loneliness. I grow very tired of people
sometimes, Jim, and it seems good to

THE ESTATES DEL PARAD1SO. 331

get away from them. Don't you ever
feel so ? '

" Mother did," Jim said. " She likes help-
ing at the Home very much, but she got a
little tired just before the young ladies sent
for her to go to the seashore, and she came
across one verse in the Bible which sounded
so beautiful. It was, ' Come ye yourselves
apart into a desert place and rest awhile, for
there were many coming and going, and they
had no leisure so much as to eat.'

"I didn't know they had such hurrying
times down in Galilee," Mr. Armstrong
replied, lightly. He was in good spirits, and
they drove a long distance that day, camp-
ing at night by a small stream, in which he
caught some fine trout. As Jim curled up
close to him under the army blanket, Mr.
Armstrong felt a slight tremor run through
the boy's frame.

"What is the matter? "he asked. "Are
you afraid ? We are still miles away from
the Indians."

" It isn't the Indians," Jim replied, " but it's
all so still ! I don't hear horse-cars, nor the
Elevated, nor people passing, nor nothing.
Down at the Pier it was something like this,
but there was always the sea ; and at the

WITCH WINNIE.

pueblo there were the dogs; while here it
seems as if something had stopped."

" ' All the roaring looms of time/ " Mr.
Armstrong replied, quoting from Tennyson,
"have stopped for a little while for us, my
boy, and that's the beauty of it. But the old
machines will have us in their grip again
very soon."

The next clay Mr. Armstrong enjoyed a
rabbit hunt. Jim, though he took part in
the sport, could hardly be said to enjoy it.
"It seems such a pity to kill the pretty
things !" he said. But this did not keep him
from making a hearty meal of broiled rabbit,
or from hoping that they might find antelope
before the trip was over. The loneliness

which he had felt the night before came on

again toward evening, and Jim was not sorry,
on their third day out, to see that they were
approaching a new frame house.

" An old half-breed guide used to have a
tepee here," said Mr. Armstrong; " I shall
engage his services for our trip. Fie is a
good cook, a good hunter, faithful to his
employers, and he knows every rock and
clump of sage-brush in all the region. His
only fault is that he will get drunk. He
was with me when I found the silver ore,

THE ESTA TES DEL PARADISO. -~>

and I need him to guide me to the spot
again."

As they came - nearer, Mr. Armstrong
seemed greatly surprised to see a large field
of waving corn in front of the house, while
some cows were being driven toward an
out-building by a young Indian in checked
shirt and brown overalls.

"What can have come over old Charley ! '
exclaimed Mr. Armstrong. " When I was

here before, nothing would induce him to
degrade himself by farm labor. Some boomer
must have established himself here. It's
illegal, for the land still belongs to the
Indians."

They drove up to the front door, and were
met by the same young man whom they had
seen driving the cows, but the overalls were
replaced by a faded pair of army trousers,
and a paper collar had been hastily added
to the checked shirt. He bade them enter,
in good English, and the interior of the house
was clean and inviting. The walls were
papered with newspapers, a bright patch-
work quilt was spread upon the bed, and a
pleasant-faced girl was frying ham and eggs
over the stove; while there was a shelf of
books over the table. An Indian woman

334

WITCH WINNIE.

emerged from a shadowy corner and express-
ed a welcome by pantomine.

"Is not this Charley's wife? "Mr. Arm-
strong asked, and the woman smiled and
nodded her recognition.

"Where is your husband ?" was the next
question. " Charley no good," was the wife's
frank reply ; " gone hunting with white men."

This was a disappointment that Mr. Arm-
strong had not anticipated ; he was not sure
that he could find his way to the silver mine
without Charley's help, but it was worth try-
ing. The odor of the frying ham was appe-
tizing, and the invitation to supper was
promptly accepted.

" Are you Charley's son ?" Mr. Armstrong
asked of the young man, who presently
brought in a foaming pail of milk, and
assisted his mother and sister in waiting on
their guests.

" Yes, sir," was the prompt reply, " and my
name is Charley too Charles Sumner."

Mr. Armstrong stared in astonishment.
" Where did you learn to speak English so
well ?" he asked.

" At the Indian Industrial School at Car-
lisle, Pennsylvania."

" Then you are one of Captain Pratt's boys ?"

THE ESTATES DEL PARADISO.

335

"Yes, sir," and a smile lightened the
somewhat stolid features. Mr. Armstrong
did not believe in Eastern schools for
Indians, and he asked, rather sarcastically,
" And what did you learn when you were
in the East Latin and Theology ? '

The boy shook his head. " I learned to
work on the farm," he said, " and to read
and write, and do a little arithmetic; and I
learned some carpentry enough to build
this house, and make that table, and the
cupboard and things."

" Very creditable, I am sure," Mr. Arm-
strong replied, half incredulously, " but how
did you come into the fortune necessary to
set you up in this flourishing style ? '

" I helped build the new depot at S ,

and they paid me off with the lumber that
was left, and I built the house out of that.
Then I had some money which I had put in
the savings-bank from my earnings every
vacation in the East, and I bought the cows

with that ; and then I made a churn, and
we've been making butter the way I saw
them do it in Pennsylvania, and I sell it for
a good price at the Springs."

" Well, you have more stuff in you than I
ever thought it possible for an Indian to

336 WITCH WINNIE.

have," Mr. Armstrong replied, fairly won, in
spite of himself, to admiration. " I always
supposed that those Carlisle students, as soon
as they returned to old surroundings, w r ent
back to savagery."

" It is pretty hard for us," the boy replied.
" Last year I planted about three times as
much corn as you see here. I had taken a
contract to supply the quartermaster at Fort

, and I thought I should make a good

deal of money ; but just as it was green, all
of our relations came to see us. There were
ten families. They camped there by the
creek, and they stayed until they had eaten
every roasting ear. They said they had come
to celebrate my home-coming, and father
made them welcome, and gave a dance, and
killed one of our cows for them. They would
have killed them all, but I drove them off
into the mountains, and hid them. That is
the reason I have planted so little corn here
this season. I have another field over in a
little valley in the mountains which I hope
they will not find, and I drive the cattle up
the canon every morning, for they may be
here any day."

" You poor fellow !" said Mr. Armstrong.
" I have heard the proverb, ' Save us from

THE ESTA TES DEL PARADISO. 7

n
tt

our friends !' but I never understood the full
force of it before."

After the hearty meal the little house was
put at the service of the travelers, the fam-
ily camping outside, and, much to Mr. Arm-
strong's contentment, they passed a com-
fortable and restful night. The next morn-
ing Mr. Armstrong asked Charles Sumner if
he was familiar with the mountains, and
could guide him to a certain valley, which he
indicated as having a chimney-like forma-
tion at one end.

Why, certainly," the young man replied ;
don't you remember I was with father
when he took you hunting four years ago ?
He killed an eagle that had her nest on a
ledge high up on the chimney, and I climbed
up for the young ones."

" Ah yes, I remember now, but you were
such a little fellow then that I could not
realize the change."

" I grew more at Carlisle," said the young
man, significantly, than at any other time of
my life. We all grew at Carlisle."

"Then you will take us to the chimney,"
Mr. Armstrong asked, " and cook for us
while we are out ? What will you charge ? '

" I don't think I ought to ask you any-

WITCH WINNIE.

thing, sir, for there is good pasturage there-
about, and I can drive my cows along, and
herd them there until after the visit of our

relatives. My sister is going to B with

all the green-corn that the ponies can carry,
so when they come they will find mother,
and very little else. The valley in which
my other corn is planted is in that direction,
and perhaps you will let me bring some of
it in your wagon when we come back ?"

Charles Sumner rode cheerily beside them
on a diminutive pony, driving his cows and
the pack pony, and chatting freely of many
things. Sometimes Jim sprang from his
seat to make him change places and rest
awhile. The pony had a fascination for Jim,
and he speedily learned from Charles Sum-
ner how to manage it, and to " round up '
the herd of cows and calves. The young
Indian taught him, also, how to make arrows,
and to shoot with them, to picket the
horses, and to use the lasso, to make camp
coffee, and to set up and take down the tepee,
or tent of buffalo hide, which the pack-pony
dragged between long poles.

" You would like to be a cow - boy,
wouldn't you, Jim ? ' Mr. Armstrong asked,
but Charles Sumner shook his head. " Cow-

THE ESTATES DEL PARADISO. 339

boys are no good," he said, emphatically ;
" they shoot Indians as if they were wild
beasts. Better stay in the East, where the
white people are good. I wish I could, but
the Government insists that as soon as we
are educated w^. must go back to our
reservations. I wish it would let us stay
and earn our living in the East, where it is
so much easier to stay civilized."

Jim, on the other hand, was delighted with
everything he saw. " If all the boys in
Rickett's Court could only come out here ! '
he exclaimed, " and ride, and herd cows,
and hunt, and camp out, and all the Indian
boys could only go East, and go to school,
and work at trades how nice it would be ! '

Mr. Armstrong admitted that the change
might be good for both, but while speaking
they came in sight of the chimney-shaped
pinnacle, and he hastily unpacked his
theodolite and other instruments, and
began to take angles, and to jot down
memoranda.

" This is the first time that I have ever
seen a surveyor on the Ute reservation," said
Charles Sumner, " and I think that our troub-
les will be ended sometime by that little
machine. Just as soon as the Government

340

WITCH WINNIE.

divides up our land and gives each Indian
his own share, then each good Indian will
cultivate his own farm, and will have some
heart to work. How can he now, when the
land belongs as much to every lazy Indian
in the tribe as to himself ? O sir, is it possi-
ble that the Government has sent you to
beofin this division ?"

Mr. Armstrong confessed that his obser-
vations were made only for his own amuse-
ment. He was surprised to find that the
young man had such advanced views on the
" land in severalty ' question, and he asked
whether any of the other Indians of the tribe
shared his opinions.

" There are a good many who have staked
out farms and are cultivating them, just as I
have," he replied, " but we know that we
have no right to the land, and may be turned
out any day, whenever bad white men
persuade our chiefs to give up this reserva-
tion and move away to the bad lands in the
West."

Mr. Armstrong winced a little under the
earnest, questioning look with . which Jim
regarded him. To turn his train of thought
he said, " There is the old eagle's nest on the
ledge still, Charles Sumner. Can you climb

THE ESTATES DEL PARADISO. 341

up there to-day as nimbly as you did four
years ago ?"

For answer, the young man threw himself
from his pony and began to ascend the cliff.
It \vas very steep, but he chose his way cau-
tiously, "seizing each point of vantage in
the way of a crevice or projection. He had
almost reached the nest when he paused,
looked away to the southward, and began
rapidly to descend. " There is a band of
Utes coming over the divide," he said; " I
think it would be as well for us to go a little
further up the valley." He hurriedly col-
lected his herd, and drove them before him
through a pass into a long, shady gorge.
Mr. Armstrong followed with the team.
" This is the place !" he exclaimed, excitedly,
as they entered the ravine. " It was in this
little canon that I found the silver. A vein
cropped right out to the surface, and I filled
my pockets with the ore. I set up a buffalo
skull to mark the spot. There it is at the
foot of that pine. It must have rolled down,
for I placed it higher. Hold the reins, Jim,
while I scramble up the bank and see if I see
any signs of the vein." With the agility of
a younger man, Mr. Armstrong climbed the
steep bank, and came down with his hands

342 WITCH WINNIE.

filled with crumbled ore. "It is there, fast
enough," he said, triumphantly; " if it were
not on the Indian reservation I would be the
owner of that mine now. They cannot
hold the lands long", and when they are
opened to settlement this canon shall be ours,
Jim. You say you would like to live a
western life. If your mother, of whom you
seem so fond, is of the same opinion, you
shall pre-empt a claim here, and I will take
one just beside you, and between us we will
own the mine. You don't understand it, my
boy; but I have taken a fancy to you, and I
mean to make your fortune."

" And will this ravine be my very own ?"
Jim asked- -" mother's and mine?"

" Yes, my boy; and I am curious to see
what you will make of it, and what you
will make of yourself while you are waiting
to come into your possessions. I mean to
put you in the way of getting a good prac-
tical education, which shall be of use to you
out here."

"And can I learn surveying?"

"Yes ; and mining engineering and assay-
ing and mechanics, and all that."

''That is what Lovey Dimple would like
to learn too. Can he come with me ? He'd

THE ESTATES DEL PARADISO. 343

invent a machine right off to dig the silver
just as easy."

"We will see, Jim. I would like to give
him a good turn for his father's sake ; but
don't take too many into our company, or
we shall have to water the stock too freely."

They had nearly reached the head of the
gorge, and they found that Charles Sunnier
had paused, and had corraled his cows in a
little natural amphitheatre, where they were
resting contentedly.

" I must watch them pretty sharply," the
Indian explained, " for the corn I told you
about is in the next valley, and if they should
get into that, they would be as bad as our
relations. Just walk to the top of the hill,
Mr. Armstrong, and see what a nice field of
it I have over there." Mr. Armstrong re-
turned bringing an armful of fine roasting
ears, but Charles Sumner thought it best not
to build a fire until the party of Utes had
passed, and they sat down to a cold supper
of canned baked beans. After supper Jim
had a long talk with Charles Sumner, and
ascertained that the young man had fixed
his heart upon making this particular section
his home farm as soon as the reservation
should be divided in severalty among- the

344 WITCH WINNIE.

Indians, which he hoped would happen be-
fore many years.

"Then," said Jim, "you think that the
white people will never have a chance to
come in here and take up land ?"

" Do you think they ought to be allowed
to do so, when the land is ours ? ' Charles
Sumner asked.

" No, I don't," Jim replied, promptly. " I
think it is really yours, and you ought to
keep it ; and I'll just tell you a secret about
this canon. It is worth a great deal more
than you know. There is a silver mine in it,
and I'll show you where, and you had just
better go back East and study the best way
to mine silver, and then when you get your
claim you will know how to work it. I
wish you would take me in as your partner,
for Mr. Armstrong is going to have me
taught all about mining. He thought he
might pre-empt this mine for me, but, of
course, when he sees that it really belongs to
you, he will not want to, unless, perhaps, you
would like to sell out your right in it."

Jim had spoken so rapidly that he did not
notice that Mr. Armstrong had approached,
and was listening with an astonished expres-
sion to what he was saying.

THE ESTA TES DEL PAR AD ISO. 345

" Jim, are you crazy ?" Mr. Armstrong ex-
claimed, as soon as he could recover himself.
Don't you see that you are throwing away
your chances ?"

" Oh no," Jim replied, with a smile, " I
hadn't any chance at all. You didn't know,
but it all belongs to Charles Sumner."

Their conversation was interrupted by a
whoop in the valley below. The band of
Utes had discovered the traces of their last
camp, and had followed their trail into the
canon.

" Drive over into the next ravine !" said
Charles Sumner ; " they will camp here when
they find my cows. Wait for me just below
the corn-field, and I will join you as soon as
I can. They will not hurt you if they
find you, but they will beg and steal
everything."

Mr. Armstrong hurriedly followed Charles
Sumner's advice, and was joined about mid-
night by the young Indian, who drove be-
fore him three cows, all he had been able to
rescue from a herd of twelve.

The young man wiped his brow with a
despairing gesture. "They were ugly," he
said. " Some Durango cow-boys have been
pasturing their cattle on the reservation, and

346 WITCH WINNIE.

they insisted that my cows were a part of
the herd, and that the owners were some-
where near. If they had found you, they
might have treated you roughly. I think we
had better get away while they are feasting."

It occurred to Mr. Armstrong that it
looked very much as if Charles Sumner had
saved their lives at the sacrifice of his prop-
erty, and a feeling of gratitude and liking
sprang up in his heart for the young man.

" I don't know what I shall do," the Indian
continued, dejectedly. "It doesn't seem to
be any use to try to be civilized in this
country."

" No, my poor fellow !" replied Mr Arm-
strong, "it really does not. In your place, I
think I should go back to the blanket and be
a savage with the rest. I will tell you what
to do : come East again with your mother
and sister. I will let you try farming on a
piece of land which I have taken a fancy to
in Massachusetts, where you will not have
these discouragements. When the land
question is settled, you and Jim shall come
back here and form a partnership. If it
is divided in severalty to the Utes, then I will
establish your right to the canon, and you
shall take Jim in as your partner; and if it is

THE ESTATES DEL PAR AD ISO. 347

opened to the whites for settlement, he
will take up the land and give you a share
in it."

This proposition was accepted by Charles
Sumner and his sister, the mother preferring
to remain with her husband. After estab-
lishing the young Indians in Massachusetts,
Mr. Armstrong brought Jim with him to
Narragansett Pier.

A short space must now be given to Miliy
and Adelaide, who, though mingling in
a very different class of society, had an ex-
perience that summer not unlike our own.
Mrs. Roseveldt gave a lawn-party at the
beginning of the season to organize a
tennis club. Tennis was the rage that sea-
son. Many of the cottages had tennis
courts, and the different players wished to
plan for a grand tournament at the end of
the season. A pretty uniform was designed
of white flannel, the skirt embroidered with a
deep Greek fret in gold thread, and laid in
accordion pleats. A little jacket lined with
gold-colored silk, and embroidered in the
same pattern, was to be worn over the shirt
waist, and a gold-colored sash ending in a
tassel, with a white Tarn o' Shanter, com-
pleted the costume. Milly had planned that

348 WITCH WINNIE.

Mrs. Halsey should have the making of
these costumes while at the Pier.

A fund was contributed with which to
purchase a trophy for the prize player. It
rose quickly to a hundred and fifty dollars,
and a meeting was held to decide what the
trophy should be. Most of the members
thought that a gold pin in the shape of a
racket, with a pearl ball, manufactured by
Tiffany, would be the correct thing, and this
idea would certainly have been adopted if
Milly had not turned the current by a neat
little speech.

"I am sure," she said, "that we do not
want to vulgarize our club by making it pro-
fessional, and a prize of any great money
value would certainly do this. So I move that
the prize be a simple wreath of laurel tied
with a white ribbon, on which the date of the
tournament and name of the club be printed."
The members all agreed that this would
be in better form, but asked what was to be
done with the money already contributed.
Then Milly rose to the occasion, and flung
out the banner of the Home.

" It seems as if we had no right to be romp-
ing in this delicious fresh air while poor chil-
dren are gasping in the vile smells of the city."

THE ESTATES DEL PARADISO.

349

The Fresh- Air Fund and the Working Girls'
Vacation Society were both popular charities,
and were proposed by different members as
proper recipients of our funds. Milly was
ready to agree to this, but one young man,
supposed until that day to be a mere gilded
youth, without an idea above his neckties,
.suggested that it was always pleasanter to
be the distributer of one's own benefits, and
moved that the club get up a little Fresh- Air
Fund of its own. " We might rent a cottage
down here and send for a dozen or so young
beo-o-ars, and take turns in caring for them."

o o o

A general lausfh followed this remark.

o o

"What would you do, personally, Mr. Van
Silver ? " asked one of the girls.

" I would put my coach and four-in-hand
at the service of the enterprise," he said,
" and make myself expressman and 'bus
driver. I'd take the children out to drive
every day, for one thing."

Everyone insisted that they would like to
see him do it, but he persisted until they
were convinced of his sincerity. Mr. Van
Silver's patronage had given an aristocratic
stamp to the enterprise, and some one now
proposed that they rent a cottage for the
children for the season.

35O WITCH WINNIE.

Milly then explained that Adelaide had
already fitted up her cottage for the purpose,
and was expecting an invoice of children by
the next day. Adelaide invited the party to
visit the cottage that afternoon, and the entire
club climbed to the top and interior of Mr.
Van Silver's coach ; Mr. Stacy Fitz-Sim-
mons, the whilom drum-major of the Cadet
band, blowing the coach horn for all he was
worth.

They found a park overgrown into a
forest, in the depth of which stood a
pleasant cottage, with broad verandas, which
once commanded a beautiful view of the
glistening bay, with Newport in the dis-
tance.

" I intend to have some of these trees cut
away, so as to leave a vista through to the
water," Adelaide explained.

They entered the house, and found it
renovated from the mold and decay with
which ten years had encumbered it, sweet
and fresh with new paint, and papering of
pretty design. Light and graceful ratan
furniture and chintz hangings added to the

o o

beauty of the room, simple straw mattings
cohered the floor. It was as lovely a home
as heart could wish.

THE ESTATES DEL PARADISO.

"I have done all I can afford," Adelaide
said, simply, " and if the club would like to
use this cottage for their city children it is
at their service, but first Milly wants to
entertain the younger children of the Home
of the Elder Brother here for a couple of
weeks."

" And we will each of us take his or her
turn for a week," said Mr. Van Silver; and so
the " Paradiso Seaside Home" was provided
for.

Mrs. Halsey came with the children.
From the moment that she left the station
she seemed to be in a dream.

" It all looks so familiar !" she exclaimed ;
" I am sure I have been here before ! There
is something caressing in the feeling of the
damp air, as though it kissed my cheek
like an old friend. And the scent of the
salt-water ! I remember it so well ; and
shall we hear the surf ? Oh, when was
it, where was it, that I knew it all ?'

When they drove into the grounds she
shook her head. " No, it was not this
place," she said, with a wistful look in her
eyes; " there were no trees." But at the first
glimpse of the house a trembling seized her,
and she could hardly mount the steps.

352 WITCH WIXXIE.

Within doors a puzzled expression came into
her face.

" It is familiar, yet unfamiliar," she said.
" I cannot be sure. If I could only see
some face that I had known before, then I
could tell."

" Perhaps the face will come," Adelaide
said; and it came.

A few weeks later Mr. Armstrong re-

turned with Jim from the western trip, and
came down to the Pier to make the visit
which his daughter so greatly desired. Ade-
laide had driven to the station for them in
Milly's pony carriage, Jim mounted to his
old place on the rumble, Mr. Armstrong
settled himself for the drive, and Adelaide
took the reins.

" I am going to take you around by the
cottage, papa," she said. " I want to show
you what I have done there, and how happy
the Home children are."

Mr. Armstrong drew himself up, as
though wincing from some sudden pain. (< I
did not intend to go there again, daughter,"
he said ; " I shall miss a face at the window. 53

"I know, papa the cameo; but she would
have been glad to see the cottage used as

* * *

it is."

THE ESTA TES DEL PARADISO. *> r ->

They turned into the drive, and Mr. Arm-

strong nerved himself for the siorht of his
o < >

old home. Suddenly he cried out, and
caught his daughter's arm. "Is it only
memory, or have I lost my senses ? The face
is there ! '

Adelaide laughed reassuringly. " I don't

i_> O j

wonder that it gave you a turn, papa ; it did
me, too, when I saw the same sight in Miss
Prillwitz's window last winter, but it is only
dear Mrs. Halsey looking out for us."

" Then thank God ! ' exclaimed Mr. Arm-
strong, leaping from the vehicle and hurry-
ing forward. " Do you not remember me ?
my own ! my wife ! '

His wife remembered: the veil which had
blinded her for years fell at the sight of her
husband's face.

Happily the shock had not been as sud-
den as it seemed; during the time which she
had spent in the cottage the conviction had
grown upon her that this had been her
home. She had asked Adelaide its history,
and learning that it had been built for her
mother, who had been drowned in the great
steamboat disaster, a hope had sprung up in
her heart, which she dared not express to
any one, that she had found her own again.

354

WITCH WINNIE.

Adelaide had said that she expected her
father, and Mrs. Halsey waited only to see
his face to be assured of the truth.

Adelaide's delight at finding" that Mrs.
Halsey was her lost mother, and Jim her
brother, was genuine and intense. " I knew,
all the time, that Jim was somebody's child,"
she exclaimed, incoherently. "It is all too
good to be true ! too good to be true !"

" Jim deserves a better father than he has
found," said Mr. Armstrong, " and by God's
grace he shall have a better.

" It is too bad to break up this nice little
arrangement of a summer home for the poor
children," he added, " and I will allow
the cottage to be used for this purpose
just so long as the tennis club desire to
maintain it ; but I must have my wife. Please
remember that we have been parted from
each other a very long time. I am going
West next week, and I must take her with
me; and it will not do Adelaide any harm to
have a glimpse of the great West before we
send her to school in the fall. Jim has had
as much of the West as he can stand at pres-
ent, and we will leave him in the best school
that we can find."

" But what shall we do for a housekeeper

THE ESTA TES DEL PARADISO.

355

for the cottage ? " Adelaide asked, in dismay.,
" Mrs. Trimble has just left the hospital,
fully recovered, but I have no doubt she
would prefer to run your little enterprise
rather than to return to the store ; and as I
have deprived you of your housekeeper I
don't mind paying Mrs. Trimble to supply
her place for the remainder of the summer.
It will do Mr. Trimble good, too, to complete
his convalescence here, and perhaps in the
winter they will accept the janitorship of
your tenement."

" My tenement ! ' Adelaide replied, in sur-
prise.

" Yes, I intend to give you the manage-
ment of this property, which I have always
considered your own. You have a matter of
twenty thousand dollars insurance money,
which, with the ten thousand which I have
deposited to your name in the savings bank,
you may use in erecting a model tenement
on the site of the old Rickett's Court building.

I think I shall have some more money for
you to put into the enterprise if the patent
works well. I shall give Mr. Trimble a share
in the profits of that invention over and above
the five thousand dollars already paid him,
but I think that he would like one of your

^6 WITCH WINNIE.

w \j

suites of rooms in return for acting as janitor
and agent of the building, and it will not
interfere with his teaching mechanics to the

boys at the Home."

" If you please, papa," said Adelaide, " I
like the plan of engaging Mr. Trimble as
janitor, but I would rather be my own agent
and collect the rents myself ; then I can see
just what improvements are needed, and be
sure that my tenants are all comfortable."

For the remainder of their stay in the
East the Armstrongs busied themselves
with architects' plans and specifications.
Adelaide enjoyed planning the bathrooms
and conveniences of different kinds, " And
the paving-stones must be taken up in the
court," she said, "and a nice grass-plot laid
out in their place, and we will have pretty
iron balconies before every window, and a
fire-escape."

"Yes, daughter," replied her father, " I will
make you a present of that, outside the
other matters the very best kind of fire-
escape to be found in the city; and, while we
are about it, I will send one to the Home of
the Elder Brother."

Adelaide's interest in her tenement did
not wean her away from the Home, and

THE ESTA TES D'EL PARADISO.

357

I have since observed that it is always those
who, seemingly, are already doing as much
as they can in the way of charity who are
always ready to lend a helping hand to other
enterprises, and that it is the earnest workers
of little means, as well as the wealthy philan-
thropists, who

" To the ages
Fair bequests, and costly, make."

The Armstrongs went West, and Adelaide
created an interest for the Home in her new
surroundings, while Milly kept up the en-
thusiasm of the tennis club at the Pier. That
club flourished in a manner unheard of, here-
tofore, in a place where everyone was so
busy doing nothing that even the exertion
of tennis had been voted a bore. It was not
tennis, however, that kept them together, or
gave the members their bright, jolly looks,
but the Paradiso Cottage.

" For we may find a zest

In any true employ
Which, like a whetstone in the breast,
Shall give an edge to joy."

But while we all worked in our different
ways, it was our corresponding secretary
who was the clasp to the necklace, or rather,

358 WITCH WINNIE.

the central battery which sent currents of
life pulsating through the connecting wires.
The scapegrace who plotted and schemed
mischief, she who had erstwhile reveled in
the name of " the malicious, seditious, insub-
ordinate, disreputable, skeptical Queen of
the Hornets," had become a wise and enter-
prising central manager of a helpful charity.
The summer vacation is over, and we have
all met a^ain for another winter at Madame's;

Amen Corner and Hornets all filled with a
fine enthusiasm for our work, and a deep,
true affection for one another.

The Home rests, we are told, on very slen-
der foundations. There is no financier as a
backer, no estate, no great endowment,
nothing to ensure its existence from year to
year but the hearts and hands of ten young
girls. Nothing else ? They forget that we
have behind us and with us the Elder
Brother, with all the estates del Paradiso.

" By each saving word unspoken,
By Thy will, yet poorly done,

Hear us, hear us,
Thou Almighty ! help us on."

THE END.

Oliphanf, Anderson, $ Ferrier's Publications.

Crown 8vo, with Frontispiece, beautifully bound in extra cloth, 2s. 6d.,

Adele's Love. The Story of a Faithful Little Heart. By
MAUDE M. BUTLER.

' The book possesses an interest which will make it prove attractive. '-
Brechin Advertiser.

' A pleasing little story. ' Halifax Guardian.

' The narrative is one of considerable and well-sustained interest. There
is not a dull page in the book. On the contrary, there are signs of vigour
and freshness, which shows the authoress to possess originality of resource
and powers of description of the first order. We can heartily recommend
the book to our readers, no less for its refreshing and healthy tone than for
the evidence of literary ability it displays. By this work the author will
considerably enhance the reputation she has already made in the literary
world.' Walsall Advertiser.

' A simple, artless, charming story, full of human interest.' Inverness
Courier.

' Is full of tender pathos and strong situations, and is told with a simplicity
and naturalness that makes it very interesting to the reader.' People's Friend.

' One of those excellent stories which, without any special plot, derive their
interest chiefly from the manner in which they are told. A healthy and at
the same time an interesting book; will make a very acceptable gift to young
ladies, and will be interesting reading for all.' Society Herald.

' A beautiful story delightfully told. N. E. Daily Gazette.

' A book of more than ordinary interest.' Fireside News.

' An exceedingly pretty tale.' Glasgoio Herald.

' The style is sweet, refined, and interesting.' Perthshire Advertiser.

'We can warmly commend it.' Westmoreland Gazette.

' A touching story.' Free Press.

' Written with the great charm of simplicity; a strange beauty of affection
breathes throughout the entire story.' Liverpool Post.

' The style is good, and the plot is unfolded with genuine power.' British
Weekly.

' The tale of juvenile affection and maternal constancy told in the refined
language of a cultured writer.' Evening Citizen.

' A beautiful story.' Kilmarnock Standard.

' The plot is an excellent piece of construction, and enchains the under-
standing, and as the story is delightfully unfolded, one is hardly able to rise
till the end is reached ' Reformer.

' Will be sure to be perused w T ith interest.' Stirling Observer.

' Extremely pathetic.' Academy.

' Told with touching simplicity and pathos.' Northern Daily Telegraph.

' A simple story, simply but touchingly told.' Northern Whig.

' The narrative thrills one, it is so beautifully told, and is instinct both
with impassioned and deep evangelical feeling.' Scottish S. S. Teachers'
Magazine.

' The story is pathetic and prettily told, and the interest is well sustained
to the end.' Literary World.

' Well worked out, and the character of the heroine is sweet and gentle.'
Elgin Courant.

' An interesting little story well told.' Leytonstone Express.

' Decidedly original.' Nonconformist.

'Well written and tastefully got up. People of all ages will read with
delight and profit.' Presbyterian Messenger.

Oliphant, Anderson, $ Ferrier's Publications.

Small crown 8vo, with Frontispiece, paper covers, Is. ; cloth, Is. 6d.,

Love Conquers All. By A. C. HERTFORD.

' Unimpeachable in point of moral tone.' Glasgow Herald.

'Pleasantly and simply written, may be heartily recommended.' Court
Journal.

' A pleasantly written tale.' Manchester Guardian.
' Told with delightful freshness and natural feeling.' Montrose Standard.

'A capitally told tale, in which there is graceful writing, and no little
knowledge of human nature.' Haddington Courier.

' A pretty story with a pretty moral.' Fife Herald.

' Admirable in tone and clever in execution.' Walsall Observer.

' A book of more than average ability.' Burnley Express.

' A commendable story.' Fifesliire Journal.

' Shows a very considerable insight into human nature. The story is a
thoroughly good one, and may be read with profit as well as pleasure.'
Leeds Times.

' The tone is pure and the interest well sustained.' Methodist Recorder.

'Will make an excellent gift-book.' Haicick Advertiser.

' A finely written tale, the motive of which is well indicated by the title ;
characterized by elevation of tone and feeling.' People's Friend.

' A very pleasant story, which cannot but commend itself to all classes of
readers. ' Kilmarnock Standard.

' The salient points of character are hit off with a mingled pathos and
humour which make delightful reading,' British Weekly.

' One of the most enchanting books it has been our pleasure to read for a
long time. There are delicate touches which indicate that the author is an
artist of no mean order.' Hull Daily Mail.

' Humour and pathos are admirably blended, and the book is one that will
be sure to meet with the sympathy of a large number of readers.' Devon and
Exeter Gazette.

' A pretty love story prettily written.' Whitehall Review.
' The book is bright and readable.' Kelso Chronicle.
' A fresh little story.' Literary World.
' Simple, natural, and well expressed.' Moray Express.

' "Will delight those who still find pleasure in a book where elevation of
sentiment, purity of thought, and unaffected elegance of diction are the
outstanding features. The fidelity of the sketch none who read it may gain-
say.' Orkney Herald.

Oliphant, Anderson, $ Ferrier's Publications.

Small crown 8vo, with numerous Illustrations, cloth extra, Is. 6d. ,

Johnnie ; or, Only a Life. By EOBINA F. HARDY, Author
of 'Jock Halliday,' etc.

' One of the happiest of Miss Hardy's efforts, overflowing with humour as well as

pathos, and in every line a transcript from the life. One of its most notable features

is the accuracy with which it catches the idiom of the Edinburgh poor. ' Christian Leader.

' "We have seldom read a tale of deeper and more sustained interest. 1 Brechin

Advertiser.

'A story of much pathetic interest.' Manchester Courier.
'A pathetic story.' Fife Herald.

' Tone and treatment are excellent.' Westmoreland Gazette.
' Extremely interesting.' Glasgow Herald.

'Instinct with the fine feeling which runs like a golden thread through all Miss
Hardy's works.' Free Press.

'A healthy and wholesome book.' Fifeshire Journal.
'A pleasingly conceived story.' Liverpool Post.

' The work is one that will do Miss Hardy credit, and one that will afford as much
pleasure to the reader as it certainly will do good for the district missionary work.'
Haddington Advertiser.

' Well told, and calculated to make thejreader wiser and better ; can be heartily
recommended.' Dundee Courier.

' Characterized by homeliness and pathos, and illustrates a phase of life in our social
strata which is of increasing interest to Christian workers. The volume is nicely illus-
trated by views of the Canongate, etc., and presents externally a handsome appearance.'
Aberdeen Journal.

' The story is most touchingly told in capital Scotch.' Perthshire Advertiser.
1 Simply and sweetly told.' People's Friend.

' "Well written, and is permeated with the purest and kindliest of feelings.' GrcenocTc
Telegraph.

' A well- written and pathetic little story.' Buxton Advertiser.
1 Deserves a hearty commendation.' Montrose Standard.
' A tale at once captivating and realistic.' Stirling Observer.
1 A well told tale of Scotch life.' Somerset Standard.

1 A very touching story of patient endurance amid miserable surroundings, and will
take rank among the very best works of the kind in our national literature.' Northern
Ensign.

1 Should be interesting to all mission workers.' Scottish Congregational Magazine.
' The book is one of great merit and of deep religious feeling.' Glasgovj Herald.
'A most affecting temperance story commending total abstinence.' League Journal.
' Full of pathos.' Shields Gazette.
1 Suited in every way as a gift-book.' Fife Free Press.

1 No one can read the story without receiving impulses towards what is good, and
especially towards kindness to the weak and the destitute and those who have few real
friends.' Christian News.

' A story that will enlist the sympathy of every one interested in the moral and social
improvement of the poor.' Devon Gazette.

' Miss Robina F. Hardy is an authoress by no means strange to the public, and her
reputation will by no means suffer by the telling of this simple tale, the main characters
of which are drawn from the humblest walk of life.' Moray Express.
' A pleasantly told tale.' Manchester Congregational Monthly.

' One of the most pathetic and sweetly told tales that have appeared for many a day.
Northern Whig.

' There is much in the story of human nature.' Arbroath Guide.
' Most touching and of deep pathos, besides being true to the life. ' Ballymena Observer.
1 Miss Hardy writes much, but there is no appearance of haste or loss of freshness
about this last book. It is well planned and well told.' Liverpool Mercury.
' A beautiful simple story of sin, suffering, love, and abiding peace.' Arbroath Herald.
'Distinctly better than anything else from the same pen.' Academy.
' The interest of the tale is sustained throughout.' Pen and Pencil.
'A well told tale of humble life.' Christian.

' Reveals a power of vivid realistic portraiture which cannot fail to arouse the interest
of the dullest reader ; will be appreciated by all those whose tastes have not been depraved
by unhealthy sensationalism ; free from exaggerations of all kinds.' Freeman.

Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier's Publications.

New Edition, small crown 8vo, cloth gilt, with numerous Illustrations,
price 2s. ; in cheaper bindings, Is. 6d. and Is.,

Jock Halliday, A Grassmarket Hero ; or, Sketches

of Life and Character in an Old City Parish. By ROBIN A F.
HARDY, Author of ' Nannette's New Shoes,' etc.

' The narrative is swift and flowing, lit up with flashes of humour, and also
with pathetic touches that are equally true.' Christian Leader.

' Charmingly got up. . . . Sure to have an influence for good over the many
readers which the book certainly desf-rves to have.' Daily Free Press.

'A very sweet little story. ... A simple idyl of everyday life, naturally
and pathetically told.' Scotsman.

'Fitted to do good service alike in connection with temperance and general
mission- work.' British Messenger.

' Pleasing and natural ; . . . well rewards perusal.' Inverness Courier.

'A delightful Edinburgh story.' Liverpool Mercury.

1 A good stock of healthy, mischief-making, but generous good-nature about
the lad. , . . He is the very soul of tenderness to the little blind girl.'
United Presbyterian Juvenile Missionary Magazine.

Full of lights and shadows, queer bits, laughter-forcing bits, moving bits.
. . . Difficult to lay down.' S.S. Teachers' Magazine.

' Written with much ability and feeling.' Christian World.

' A fascinating story of humble life.' Dundee Advertiser.

' A very effective story.' Haddington Courier.

' Will assuredly take its place beside the productions of the author of "Eab
and his Friends," and the tender and touching tales of Professor Wilson.'
Brechin Advertiser.

' A tender, spirited story of mission-work among the slums.' Sunday School
Chronicle.

' A capitally written sketch of Scottish city life among the humbler classes.
Christian.

' The story is an incident of city mission-work, and it is capitally told. It
is a book which should find a place in every Sunday school or temperance
library.' Southern Reporter.

'The narrative, though plain and unadorned, will be found of great interest,
especially on the part of those who appreciate Scottish life and character in its
more homely phases.' Northern Whig.

' A real story one that interests and, in many of its pages, amuses, and
therefore the moral is not obtruded on notice; but its moral is of the best. . . .
\Ve never saw a better of its kind.' Arbroath Guide.

1 Altogether, the book is one which excites the deepest interest, and conveys
a moral in every chapter.' Derry Sentinel.

' Have no hesitation in commending, not only to those who love a good and
racily-told tale, but to those who are sometimes puzzled to know what sort of
a gift-book to get for a young friend.' Newcastle Weekly Chronicle.

' A good sketch of one of those sterling characters, who, in spite of their
surroundings, develope into useful members of society, spreading wholesome
influence around them in some of the least reputable quarters of our great
cities.' Aberdeen Journal.

' The pages are full of pen portraits, which must have been drawn from
nature. Mission-work, as presented to us in this little volume, means very
much more than a good story. The Christian heart, yearning over the fallen
and lost, will find in it much to enjoy and much to learn. We could not con-
ceive of any book more suitable for a prize, or better fitted to place temperance
teaching in its proper niche. Among the illustrations are some choice bits of
Edinbiirgh scenery.' Band of Eo^e Review.

Olipharit, Anderson, 4' Ferrier's Publications.

Extra crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Frontispiece by Robert M'Gregor, E.S.A.,

price 5s.,

St. Veda's ; or, The Pearl of Orr's Haven. By ANNIE S.
SWAN.

' Unquestionably one of the most fascinating that she has yet produced. A
delightful picture of life and character. Cannot fail to add another to the
many literary laurels Miss Swan has already acquired for herself.' Hadding-
ton Courier.

' One of the most powerful of Annie Swan's works.' Fifeshire Advertiser.

' The power of the writer is clearly evidenced in the skill with which she
composes new situations and new ideas. Undoubtedly, Miss Swan possesses
considerable power in creating novel and dramatic situations, and, moreover,
in representing them both vividly and powerfully. In all her works she appears
to possess a skilful grasp and treatment of her subject, and the diction is
remarkable alike for its power and grace. Her knowledge of people and
things must be both large and comprehensive. Her sentences read both
musically and sympathetically, and they serve to bring before the mind of the
reader a living reality of the scenes and events which she attempts to
portray.' Society Herald.

' This is one of the most delightful books Annie Swan has produced.'
East Fife Record.

' A very well written and altogether charming story.' Whitehall Review.

' Smoothly and naturally told, there is not a dull chapter from beginning to
end.' Free Press.

' Miss Swan has been fortunate in finding publishers of such enterprise and
taste. The literary matter is well worthy of this beautiful garb, being
admirable alike in the tone of its teaching and in the interest of the story
which it tells.' Kilrnarnock Standard.

' A remarkably clever work. Without any undue straining after effect, the
author tells her story in such an enticing and graphic style as never to allow
the interest of the reader to flag.' Northern Whig.

' A charming story of Scottish life and character, and of absorbing interest
from first to last.' Liverpool Post.

' The authoress will never want readers while she can give them such
books as " St. Veda's." 'Quiz.

' A story by Annie S. Swan is always welcome. Her tales are all eminently
readable ; they have that racy smack of the soil which distinguishes only a
few of the best writers.' British Weekly.

' One of the most romantic stories which Miss Swan has written, and we
think, too, one of her best. She can always be pathetic, and sometimes
strikes a note of great beauty and depth. The old skipper, in particular, is
a study of a fine old fisherman that would do credit to any writer, and the
two old ladies are nearly as good.' Spectator.

Oliphant, Anderson, fy Ferrier's Publications.

Crown 8vo, cloth extra. Illustrated. Price 3s. 6d.,

Doris Cheyne, the Story of a Noble Life. By
ANNIE S. SWAN, Author of ' Aldersyde,' etc.

' The tale is written with this gifted author's now well-known delicacy
of characterization and power of pathos. It has a sound morality lying
unobtrusively beneath its interesting scheme of incidents. It will make
Miss Swan more popular among the wide circle of gentle readers to whom
her stories have brought pleasure in healthy thoughts and sympathies.'
Scotsman.

' This is a pretty and most readable story, the scene of which is laid in
the English Lake District. It is told with the simplicity and clearness
which characterize all the works from Miss Swan's pen. No one can fail to
be interested in the heroine, whose character is one of the sweetest and
most unselfish ever depicted.' Society Herald.

' When we get a volume of Annie S. Swan's into our hands we know pretty
well what to expect. Facile and graceful narrative, skilfully-drawn characters,
and a tale teaching some high moral lesson which holds the reader from
beginning to close.' Pen and Pencil.

' A faithful and touching reproduction of human character as most of us
have seen it, though the story itself is really thrilling in its details. Nature
and art have combined to produce a work which may well be placed in the
hands of any young lady.' Old ham Chronicle.

' Courage, self-denial, devotion are the virtues exhibited and held up for
imitation.' Footsteps of Truth.

' Miss Swan amply sustains her reputation in this latest product of her
fertile pen.' Glasgoiv Herald.

' The teacher of one of the largest Bible classes for young women in
Glasgow has read more than one of Miss Swan's stories to the members of
his class, with excellent results ; and Mr. Spurgeon, who looks askance on
the common run of novelists, has always a hearty word of commendation to
bestow on the stories that proceed from the pen of the authoress of
"Aldersyde." In "Doris Cheyne" she teaches important spiritual and
moral lessons in a strain so simple and persuasive, that the book is sure to
become a popular favourite.' Daily Mail.

'Quietly but charmingly written.' Methodist Times.

' A story that one glides over with the keenest pleasure, and one's
sympathies go with Doris, and the book is laid down with a sigh of regret
that such a delightful companion as Doris should only live by the vivid
genius of the gifted authoress. Miss Swan's stories are charming.'
Reformer.

'We particularly recommend to young women, as well as to other classes
of readers, the delightful story by Annie S. Swan, entitled " Doris Cheyne."'
Literary World.

' The most ambitious and the most successful book that Miss Swan has yet
written. Her characters are few in number, but they are all drawn with the
utmost care.' The Academy.

' A quiet gentle-flowing narrative of self-reliance and energy in the hour
of need ; but under its outward calm, there is a striking magnetic influence
at work.' Educational News.

' One of the very best books that have come from the pen of Annie S. Swan.'
Heknsburgh Times.

Oliphant, Anderson, $ Femer's Publications.

Grown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, price 2s. 6d.,

Hazell & Sons, Brewers, By ANNIE S. SWAN.

'"Hazell & Sons" is a tale which we commend to the attention of all who are
interested in the temperance movement. It is not a temperance story in the sense in
which that term is usually understood, and yet it is calculated to do more good than
a dozen of these thoroughgoing teetotal tales which bear on the face of them evidence
that they have been, so to speak, written to order.' Barnsley Chronicle.

'Really a capital story, and will keep the reader's interest fiom cover to cover.'
Glasgow Herald.

' The story is full of interest, and will no doubt find a ready sale amongst temperance
reformers. Every Sunday School and Band of Hope should have it on its library
shelves.' Shields Daily Gazette.

1 The book is full of good thoughts, and excellent moral teaching.' Dublin Evening
Mail.

' The climax is cleverly worked up, and the plot is developed with such skill as will
secure the reader's attention throughout.' Somerset County Gazette.

' Some critics have been bold enough to assert that in her later work she is but
repeating herself, and has done nothing to compare with, or worthy the writer of
41 Aldersyde " or "Carlowrie." With this opinion we have no sympathy. She has
contributed a wealth of healthful domestic fiction to current literature, and her
writings are just of that character that is required to act against much of what is now
put into the hands of general readers works that may be powerful and striking, but
works which altogether fail to rouse into action the best passions of the human breast.
Huntly Express.

'It is easy to see that Miss Annie S. Swan's new story, "Hazell & Sons, Brewers,"
has been written in the interests of temperance. But it is far above the ordinary
temperance tale, if only in respect that the work is itself temperate in tone. It is a
distinction among stories of the kind to be enjoyable without reference to their special
purpose. The distinction can fairly be claimed for this fresh and charming story.'
Scotsman.

'Her style is graceful and easy, and there is a natural interest in her books from the
opening to the close. The present story of " Hazell & Sons, Brewers," appears to be
written for the purpose of enforcing a moral that of temperance, and in this she
succeeds well, for the reader is never conscious that the writer is moralizing, her
dialogues and her monologues are so simple, graceful, and natural. The scene of the
story is laid in and near Burnley, and although some of the place names are altered
somewhat, a little conjecture may be indulged in as to the localities.' Burnley Gazette.

'Messrs. Oliphant's series of 2s. 6d. books have acquired a very rapid and deserved
popularity, and the latest of the issue cannot fail to enhance their reputation. The
story has a connection with Lancashire which will make it all the more interesting to
readers in these parts. ' Oldham Chronicle.

' It is one of those books that will be read with enjoyment, whether the reader agrees
with the sentiment or not. As in most of the writings of ladies, it appeals more to the
feelings than to the reason ; at the same time there are no traces of milksoppiness.'
Australian Trading World.

' Those who admire pure, natural simplicity in narrative, with dignified and chaste
writing, will not be disappointed in the perusal of this story. It is written in the
authoress's best vein ; and from first to last commands the attention and sympathy of
the reader. ' Leeds Times.

' A well-written book, interesting and useful.' Warrington Guardian.

' The tale is full of interesting situations, in which the peculiarities and intricacies
of the God of Love play a prominent part, while the dangers of a slavish devotion to
the God of Bacchus are forcibly shown up.' Whiiby Times.

' We should like our readers to take a special note of this work of Miss Swan. It is
a temperance story somewhat out of the orthodox line, that will be sure to please the
young, and will serve a useful purpose as well.' Teacher's Aid.

' To the thousands of readers who peruse everything from the pen of this gifted
authoress, the book will have as warm a welcome as anything that has gone before.'
Pen and Pencil.

1 A temperance story for a socially higher class of readers than those for whom
temperance literature is often prepared ; written in the author's clear and attractive
style.' S. S. Chronicle.

'A story of real interest, full of quiet power and tenderness.' Christian Age.

' Miss Swan writes earnestly and moderately, and brings her story to a bright con-
clusion. Literary World.

Oliphant, Anderson, $ Ferriefs Publications.

Extra crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Frontispiece, price os. ,

Sir John's Ward ; or, The Heiress of Gladdiswoode. A
Quiet Chronicle of Country Life. By JANE H. JAMIESON, Autho r
of The Laird's Secret.'

' Instinct with the fascination of romance. Miss Jamieson has a rippling
and attractive style, to which she adds a keen knowledge of homely Scottish
life, and a poetic appreciation of the beauties of her native land.' Dundee
Courier.

' A wealth of descriptive power that makes up a very pleasant story. '-
Haddington Courier.

' There are in the book many admirable delineations of types of woman-
hood, in the conception and treatment of which the author seems particularly
to excel.' Scottish Leader.

' A wholesome, breezy book, redolent of country life in the Scotch
LoM r lands.' Liverpool Post.

' Enriches the great and ever-increasing store of Scottish fiction.'' N. E.
Daily Gazette.

' Written with a simplicity and pathos altogether delightful, and the
reader only regrets it is so short.' Liverpool Mercury.

'Delightful and realistic glimpses of Scottish village life and country
society.' Liverpool Courier.

'"Sir John's Ward" introduces us to a number of pleasant people, with
whom we soon get upon such good terms that Avheu the final page is turned
we part from them with regret.' G-raphic.

' Pure as the sparkling rill of water issuing from its rocky bed in the hill-
side healthy as the breezes that blow over the mountain ranges of Caledonia
and bracing as the first clear frosts of the coming winter.' Leeds Times.

' Charming pictures both of persons and places, the originals of some of
which will not be difficult to recognise.' Northern Ensign.

' One of the healthiest stories it has been our lot to read for many a long
day.' St. Stephen's Review.

' The county families, as represented by Sir John Maitland and his wife in
Miss Jamieson's charming story, are fast dying out, and it is therefore all the
greater luxury to find them reproduced in such a delightful manner.' White-
hall Revieiv.

' A most ably written, attractive story." Perthshire Courier.

' An admirable story, well conceived in plot, and charmingly written.'-
Fife Herald.

' Most pleasing and attractive story.' Northern Whig.

' All the freshness and graphic power which distinguished the writer's first
effort. ' A cademy.

' Girls will delight in this story.' Literary World.
' The Scotch colouring is charming.' British Weekly.

OUphant, Anderson, $ Ferrier's Publications.
Crown 8vo, cloth extra. Illustrated. Price 2s. 6d.,

In Glenoran, By M. B. FIFE.

' M. B. Fife, if we may venture to infer the writers sex from certain
features of the story, especially the allusions to female attire, is a notable
addition to the long list of Scottish lady writers of fiction ; and we shall be
glad to meet her again.' Christian Leader.

4 Wholesome as well as pleasant, and deserves to be successful.' Scotsman.

4 A story of a brother's perfidy and eventual punishment, of a father's
implacability, and woman's love, told in simple language. The locale of the
story is a secluded Scotch village, and many interesting traits of Scottish
character are introduced with very good effect.' Sheffield Daily Telegraph.

4 The delineations of Highland scenery are particularly good, and a few
clever illustrations enhance the picturesque value of the brightly- written and
swift-flowing story.' Daily Mail.

4 Some of the characters are well drawn, and the illustrations, quaint
sketches of rural scenery, deserve favourable notice.' Society Herald.

4 A story of promise, and is excellent as the maiden production of a young
writer.' People's Friend.

4 Pictures the life of a small Scotch village with a skill that brings its
outward scenery and its human interests very vividly before the reader.'
Literary World.

4 This is a delightful story of rural life in a Scottish glen, told with much
naturalness of feeling and knowledge of human nature, alike in its weaker
and nobler aspects.' League Journal.

'A work of fiction, healthy, natural, and engaging, without the faults of
profundity or sensationalism.' Kilmarnock Standard.

4 The story is one which will fix itself on the memory, not only on account
of its deeply interesting incidents, but because the writer exhibits a fine
discrimination of what is best and worst in human nature. The style is pure,
fresh, and easy.' Reformer.

4 This is a homely story of the 4 ' Annie S. Swan" type, but only, to our
minds, very much superior.' Fifeshire Journal.

4 A pretty tale of Scottish village life.' Athenceum.

4 This is really a most charmingly written story of crofter life in the north
of Scotland, and will well repay perusal.' Ballymena Observer.

4 This is a capital story, well conceived in plot, and carefully carried out
in detail. The incidents are such as occur in everyday life, and this really
forms one of the charms of the volume. The actors are all well known to
us we have seen them often, and can match each of the dramatis persona
as they appear on the scene with people we have met in actual everyday life.'
Leeds Times.

4 A story full of pathos. It is an account of the love affairs of a young
Scot, and does not seem to pretend to give anything more than a simple and
natural description of his and his sweetheart's lives. The tale is rendered
very attractive by its unpretentiousness.' Dublin Evening Mail.

' It is impossible to follow without the keenest interest the wooing of
Allan Campbell and Mary Macnab ; or to forbear a feeling of pity for the
bright-eyed but unfortunate Pheniie, who deserved a better fate than that
which the author has accorded her.' Haddington Courier.

4 Miss Fife has a quick eye for what is essential whenever she attempts to
render local colour; and her affection for the place and people whom she
describes is unmistakeably of the heart, and not merely of the pen.' The
Academy.

Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferried s Publications.

Extra crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Six Original Illustrations, 5s.,

Briar and Palm : A Study of Circumstance and Influence.
By ANNIE S. SWAN, Author of ' Aldersyde,' ' Carlowrie,' ' Gates
of Eden,' etc. etc.

' Is as charming a tale as this talented writer has produced. It paints
with quiet force and occasional touches of fine pathos, the career of a young
doctor, Denis Holgate, a character in whom the author arouses a deep
interest by the skill with which she has traced his growth through work
and suffering to gentleness and nobility of nature.' Scotsman.

' Furnishes another proof that the author of " Aldersyde " and " Carlowrie"
is as much at home among English folk, both of the Southern Counties and
of Lancashire, as she is among the people of Scotland.' Liverpool Mercury.

' Some of the chapters indicate a larger outlook on life, and also a more
intense dramatic energy.' Daily Mail.

' We find Miss Swan quite as much at home in the Metropolis, and among
the people of the Lancashire seaboard, as in her native Lothians. . . . She
has evidently been working hard, and enlarging her knowledge of the
treasures of literature, as well as of places and people.' Greenock Telegraph.

' Take it all in all, the authoress shows a wonderful versatility and per-
fection in the art of telling a story pleasantly and well.' Pen and Pencil.

' A lovely tale, honestly worth its weight in gold.' Sheffield Independent.

' The book is instinct with that fine feeling and tender idealism which gives
Miss Swan's work the stamp of uniqueness.' Evening News.

' Miss Swan's versatility is truly wonderful, and in no previous instance has
it been more powerfully exhibited than in this highly interesting and dramatic
story.' Kilmarnock Standard.

'In "Briar and Palm" Miss Swan is at her best, and the characters are
so well drawn that they absolutely stand out from the page like living and
breathing realities. Taken as a whole, this is the best effort of the talented
authoress.' Leeds Times.

' The whole conception is quite novel, yet vigorously worked out, and
with a success that justifies the effort at showing how the influence of
genuine Christian love aud sympathy can soften and ultimately conquer, in a
naturally noble woman, the harsher teachings of poverty.' Haddington Courier.

' Need we say that the tale has a high moral purpose, and that it is told
with a charm of style which rivets attention from the first page to the
last.' Northern Ensign.

'Another good story from this prolific pen, depicting the life of Denis
Holgate, a young doctor. She paints some fine characters in the course of the
book, notably little Daisy Frew and her good father the curate of the little
sea- village, Crosshaven.' British Weekly.

' A story that only Miss Swan could write, and it will be read with deep in-
terest and sincere pleasure by her wide circle of admirers.' Dundee Advertiser.

' A new departure for one who has won her laurels in depicting Scottish
rural life. The work will in no way detract from the splendid reputation the
author has won.' Helens fmrgh Times.

'A powerful and well- written story, engaging the attention from its
opening sentence till its close.' Dumfries Courier.

' Told with all Miss Swan's dramatic and descriptive power, full of good
thoughts and healthful suggestions.' Arbroath Herald.

' The work gives manifest token of the growth of the young authoress alike
in its analysis of character, dramatic energy, and deftness of literary touch.'
Christian Leader.

'This is one of the brightest and most interesting stories that we have
come across for a considerable time.' Society Journal.

Oliphant, Anderson, cj- Ferrier's Publications.

REAL DETECTIVE STORIES.

New Edition, crown 8vo, paper boards, 2s.; cloth, 2s. 6d.,

CLUES: Leaves from a Chief Constable's Note-
Book. By WILLIAM HENDERSON, Chief Constable of Edinburgh,
and formerly of Leeds, Manchester, and Glasgow.

' No book sells better than the volume of short stories, or the collection of essays and
descriptive papers, and yet for years past publishers have refused to let us have them,
and have dosed us with three volumes of twaddle or unreadable polemical novels.
It is a satisfaction to find the providers of literary food are beginning ti see the error
of their ways, and to be convinced that the British public must, before anything
else, be amused. They will get plenty of amusement out of Mr. William Henderson's
"Clues," which consists of nine stories derived from a Chief Constable's note-book.
The author ought to know something of his subject, seeing he is now Chief Constable
of Edinburgh, that he occupied a similar post at Leeds, and was formerly Chief
Inspector of the Detective Department at Manchester and Glasgow. Each story is,
in the main, a reproduction of facts, and they have that reality and interest which facts
alone can give. The Chief Constable of Edinburgh has arrested our attention ; we are
unable to move on, for we have found listening to his entertaining recitals anything
but hard labour.' Punch.

' The straightforward simplicity of his narratives is no less attractive than their
subject-matter.' Academy.

'Mr. Henderson has a graphic skill in description, aud an artistic faculty for leading
up to the denouement which renders his record of diamond-cut-diamond dealings witn
light-fingered gentry irresistibly fetching.' Whitehall Revieiv.

' Each story is related in a simple, straightforward fashion that makes it much more
impressive than the most ingenious fabrication of the fictionist.' Christian Leader.

' In his clever management of many famous cases, Captain Henderson won a reputa-
tion as a detective which secured him rapid promotion, and at the same time furnished
the remarkable experiences now effectively related for the entertainment of the
public.' Nottingham Express.

'All the stories are so attractive in their style, which is eminently free from
exaggeration or egotism, and so full of interest, not only of an exciting kind, but as
regards the motives and modes of operation of the criminal classes, that not one of the
stories will be left unread.' Liverpool Post.

1 Mr. Henderson was formerly Chief Inspector of the Detective Department in
Manchester, and his book is certain to receive a warm welcome from old friends in this
city and neighbourhood.' Manchester Examiner.

' The inherent interest of the subjects and the freshness of the style will doubtless
recommend the work to a large circle of readers.' Scotsman.

' These episodes from Captain Henderson's note-book will be read with unflagging
interest.' Glasgow Herald.

' The groundwork of the exciting volume is, in fact, all true, and if, as is unquestion-
ably the case, the chapters are exciting reading, they are also wholesome, for they go
to show at a period of distrust how patiently and cleverly the detective work of our
great cities is carried on. ... He has tracked silk-stealers, lain for hours at a time
amongst cellar cobwebs for the confusion of " wine samplers," and caught red-handed a
wonderfully miscellaneous assortment of clever and unscrupulous scoundrels whose
misdeeds and tricks he here lays bare.' Daily Telegraph.

' I think the stories are excellent.' HENRY IRVING.

' The stories are most interesting, and have given me much pleasure ; they are very
suitable to me, having played " The Artful Dodger" so often.' J. L. TOOLE.

' A most interesting book. Your facts are as engrossing as many of the fictions of
detective life.' WILSON BARRETT.

Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier's Publications.

BY ANNIE S. SWAN.

In extra crown 8vo, cloth, price 5s.,

The Gates of Eden: A Story of Endeavour.

New Edition. With Portrait of the Author by FAED.

4 The subject of Miss Swan's " Gates of Eden" is one which demands, and
receives from her hand, a skilful treatment. John Bethune rears his
motherless boys in accordance with a preconceived plan. The elder is to be
a minister, the younger is to follow the plough. Circumstances seem to
favour his scheme ; for the future minister has, it appears, the advantage in
appearance, in manners, and in ability. But the real truth is different. The
depth of character and the best mental gifts really belong to the latter. How
the young man, conscious of his power, yet stedfastly walks along the
appointed path till he is free to choose, and how, once free, he enters on his
own way and overcomes all its difficulties, is very well told in these pages.
We have not often seen a better portraiture than is that of the two brothers.
Miss Swan is too skilful to make the weaker of the two a mere foil to the
stronger. He, too, with all his faults, has virtues of his own, and the reader
is glad to see them reaching their true development before the story is
finished. The episode of the recovery of Willie Lorraine, a repentant
prodigal, is full of pathos; as is also the love-story of Mary Campbell. The
"Gates of Eden" is a worthy successor to the author's " Aldersyde."'
Spectator.

4 A distinct success. . . . "We follow the career of twin brothers through
the book Sandy and Jamie Bethuue. Sandy, apparently getting all the
brains, is sent to St. Andrews to study, and his conceits and fine talk on: his
visits home are humorously described. Then we see him transformed into
the Eev. Alexander Bethune of Lochbroom. Jamie seems fit only for the
harrows and the loom at first, but Aunt Susan always sees deeper than this,
and we read with interest the story of his endeavour to rise to higher
things. His character is well drawn, the earnest, noble soul following
God's leading.' British Weekly.

4 The " Gates of Eden" is, like most of its predecessors, a homely tale of
Scottish life and manners. The homely dialect, is given with admirable
fidelity, and there is much truthful delineation of character.' Scotsman.

4 The underlying conception that of a contrast between two brothers,
the one brilliant, clever, and superficial, but needing stern discipline before
the real strength of his nature can be evoked; the other modest, unselfish,
out earnest and indomitable is strongly grasped from the first, and is
wrought out with such power and consistency as to hold the reader's
attention by a kind of spell. The book is one which everybody can read
with pleasure, and from which many will profit.' Scottish Leader.

4 One of the most dramatically rendered scenes of the book is that in
which the death of old Peter Bethune is described. If the author had never
written anything else, this part of the story would justify her claim to the
place in the front rank of our most gifted literary artists.' Northern
Ensign

' A happy note is struck at the very outset of the 4 ' Gales of Eden," and
the quality of the good beginning is maintained throughout. . . . The best
of all the stories that we have yet received from the pen of its accom-
plished authoress.' Kilmarnock Standard.

' Remarkably beautiful, noble in spirit, rich in pathos, strong in the
triumph of an earnest purposeful life.' Daily Mail.

Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier's Publications.

Now ready, crown 8vo, New Edition, price 3s. 6d. ; or in plainer binding,
without Illustrations, cloth, 2s. 6d.; paper boards, 2s.,

Bits from Blinkbonny ; or, Bell o' the Manse. A

Tale of Scottish Village Life between 1841 and 1851. By JOHN
STRATHESK. With Six Original Illustrations.

' The daily life in a thoroughly Scotch rural village is described in the most
lifelike manner, and one feels a personal certainty of being able to recognise
any of the people described if one met them. The homely but pretty illustra-
tions place the country scenery before our actual vision.' Athenaeum.

'Altogether, "Bell" is an exquisitely careful and finished study. The book
abounds in quaint touches of Scottish humour, delightful specimens of our
vernacular language, incidents and anecdotes grave and gay.' Scotsman.

'The effect is really delightful, and the blending of quiet humour and
natural pathos in the volume makes it a positive refreshment to the spirit.
. . . The account of Bell's courtship with the shamefaced bachelor, David
Tait of Blackbrae, is delicious.' Glasgow Daily Mail.

'If there are not so many characters introduced as in some of Sir Walter
Scott's works, the characters have an individuality as pronounced as any of
his, and the lights and shades of character are finished off with an equal
degree of care and truthfulness.' Huntly Express.

' Bell is the heroine of the book, and a well-drawn character she is, with her
quaint ways, her happy expedients, her clever but never shrewish tongue, her
simple yet strong fidelity to the family she served, and her wise, droll, and
pithy sayings. Dan Corbett, the one-eyed smuggler, poacher, molecatcher,
and a dozen other things, ranks next to Bell as a finished portraiture.'
Chambers's Journal.

' Piquant and charming in its very simplicity. Enlivened in almost every
page by bits of genuine Scottish humour.' Ayr Advertiser.

'The chapter treating of " Wee Nellie" comes closer home in its power of
stirring the heart than anything we have seen since the appearance of Dr.
John Brown's " Eab and his Friends." The illustrations are true works of
art. ' Brechin Advertiser.

' A story of homely Scotch life, pleasant and amusing. The dialect is well
managed and faithful without being overdone.' The Graphic.

' Scattered throughout the volume are several graphic sketches of village
characters, including Gavin Sinclair, the beadle and gravedigger, an old
worthy descended from John Brown of Priesthill, the covenanting martyr,
Dan Corbett, the village poacher, etc.' Edinburgh Courant.

'Pictures penned. . . . " Bell " is simply delightful. We defy anyone to
read it without a sense of real enjoyment.' The Literary World.

'We have never seen Scottish village life better described.' Montrose

Review.

'A finely told story, which, for interest, excels not a few of our novels. A
splendid study.' Hawick Advertiser.

' The author describes the village life of Scotland with the fidelity and grace
of Wilkie. We should have enjoyed hearing Burns read them to Tarn o'
Sbantwr over the last gill.' Sheffield Independent.

Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier's Publications.

Just published, crown 8vo, Fifth Edition, price 3s. 6d. ; or in plainer
binding, without Illustrations, 2s. 6d.; .paper boards, 2s.,

More Bits from Blinkbonny : A Tale of Scottish

Village Life between 1831 and 1841. By JOHN STRATHESK,
Author of 'Bits from Bliukbonny,' 'Little Bluebird,' 'Elder
Logan's Story about the Kirks,' aud 'Miss Graham's Protegs.'
With Six Original Illustrations.

4 Readers will only be too glad of the privilege of sitting with the Author
on Nancie's Knowe, and listening to his stories of Scottish characters and
customs of fifty years back. . . . Pawkilytold. . . . Glimpses of Scottish rural
politics, church aud school life, fairs and marriages, customs of half a century
ago that are manifestly drawn from the life.' Scotsman.

' The homely village life of Scotland depicted in the most graceful,
humorous, and skilful way. Some pretty softly-tinted drawings make the
volume still more attractive.' Literary World.

' A worthy sequel to the former " Bits from Blinkbonny ;" rare racy stuff
we have here. Never say the Scotchman has no fun in him, for a deep,
quiet, thoughtful mirth, he beats us all. We like this book, and would
aid its circulation.' Rev. C. H. SPURGEON in Sword and Trowel.

'An abundant feast of fun, suitable to all ages. It is long since we have
seen such a lifelike gallery of portraits. A sincere vein of piety runs through
the book, and aptly embodies the shrewdness and common sense which the
Scotch characterat once practical and poetic is able to carry into the
sacred regions of religion.' The County Gentleman, London.

' As a faithful representation of Scottish life and character, this book ma}'
be deservedly classed with such books as Dean Ramsay's u Reminiscences " or
George Mac'donald's " Alec Forbes," and will be read with delight by all
who appreciate humour, pathos, and fidelity of description.' Australian
Witness.

' " The Parish School," " The Gas Question," " The Tailors at Gibbiesbrae,"
are particularly good. Altogether, one of the most readable books we have
met with for many a day.' Otago Daily Times, New Zealand.

' Full of bright and truthful sketches of habits of life and modes of thought
prevalent in the Scottish Lowlands.' Chambers's Journal.

' Characteristic details, realism of touch, tender humour, and permanent
attraction. The book has our high commendation.' Nonconformist.

' Every chapter enjoyable ; the scenes of the " Wee Italian Laddie," "Adam
Rankine's dying hours," and "Jamie Murray's Wedding," may be instanced
as particularly fine.' Stationery Trades' Review.

' Very amusing, and very instructive as well.' Liverpool Courier.

' Picturesque, but faithful to nature ; and simple, but full of genuine
interest.' Northern Whig, Belfast.

' Keen and kindly observation, combined with a thorough knowledge < f
Scotch human nature, and a rare power of graphic portraiture.' Aberdeen
Free Press.

'As full of "meat" as a newly laid egg. We find on the canvas such
characters as Tibbie Murray, the honest washerwoman ; Strachan Gemmell,
the tailor; Big Murray; Mr. Torrance, the parish teacher; the whole inter-
spersed by a wealth of anecdote and happy humour.' Southern Reporter.

' Authentic touches of the true artist, poet and humourist; a perennial and
affluent humanness which looks kindly on all the world ; racy anecdotes
galore, admirable sketches, etc.' Mtihodist Recorder.

Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier's Publications.

New and Revised Edition, crown Svo, cloth extra, gilt edges, price 3s. 6d. ;

or in plainer binding, 2s. 6d.,

Gertrude Ellerslie : A Story of Two Years.
By Mrs. MELDRUM.

' Will be read with keen pleasure on account of its being so true to life.'
Christian Union.

' A well-sustained story, abounding in varied interest, and full of clear
character sketching ; . . . fascinating book.' Christian Leader.

' The book is one of unflagging interest, variety of scene, and numerous
characters.' Christian World.

' A handsome volume externally, and within most gracious. So long as
we must have fiction, we hope women like Mrs. Meldruin will employ their
pure hands and loving hearts therein. Personal interest is here illustrated
by a charming story.' Sword and Trowel.

' The story is simple, natural, realistic. The tone is thoroughly healthy,
and shuns all that is maudlin or silly. The lessons taught are unexception-
able, and those who relish a good story well told, would be delighted with
the book.' Canada Presbyterian.

' There are persons who, in their superior kind of way, dismiss a novel as
intolerable which breathes a religious spirit, and pointedly inculcates the
lessons of evangelical faith and life. It is probably useless to restate the
arguments by which a defence may be sustained of such works of fiction, but
we would ask those who hold the unfriendly attitude we have indicated, to
read with impartial mind the story before us. We shall be greatly surprised
if the generous impulses and the high-toned spirit of the tale do not impress
its readers, who cannot, at all events, fail to be profoundly interested and
stirred by its pictures of varied life. The family portraiture of the various
groups is vivid and striking. . . . The character of Gertude is very power-
fully drawn. . . . The grouping is very artistic, and the details disclose an
amount of careful observation and discriminating judgment which find
expression at once simple and forcible in this most attractive story.' Daily
Review.

' Ought to find favour with a large circle of readers. It introduces us to a
very large circle of characters., some of which are sketched with remarkable
vividness. The tale, as such, is extremely entertaining, so that the interest
never flag:*.' Christian Monthly.

' The story has strong merits. The authoress is a woman of cultivated
intellect, and endowed with strong sympathies for the poor. The plot of the
novel is not a very intricate one, it possesses, however, a healthy tone. Some
of the characters are exceedingly well drawn.' Richmond and Ripon
Chronicle.

' This is a story which will be welcomed by many, though it is written
chiefly for thoughtful girls. The characters are di*awn from the homes of
our own day. We have met them, known them, and lived among them ; but
they are on this account none the less interesting perhaps we like them the
better that the scenes through which they move are familiar, and the life
they live so like our own. The book, like all Mrs. Meldrum's books, has
been written with an aim kept steadily in view that of showing that one
may possess all the world can give, but only divine love and fulness can
satisfy a human heart. ... The book will help and cheer weary folk; it will
guide seeking ones, and counsel those who fear to ask for advice. And yet
there is nothing dull, nothing wearisome in it. The motive and execution
are both admirable.' The Outlook.

Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier's Publications.
Crown 8vo, Illustrated, price 3s. 6d.; plainer binding, 2s. 6d.; paper boards, 2s.,

At Any Cost. By EDWARD GARRETT.

' There is a peculiar originality and force in everything that proceeds from
the pen of this gifted writer ; but in the present work she reaches an unusually
high standard of excellence. . . . Edward Garrett is a great preacher, with
more sound doctrine in her novelettes than is to be found in a good many
sermons of the regulation pattern.' Gh'eenock Telegraph.

' The book contains a sketch of the career of two young lads from Shetland,
who are both launched on the world of London to make their way as best
they can. The one sets out with the fixed determination of " getting on,"
and lets no scruples of conscience or family affection stand in the way of this
determination. The other, while also bent on succeeding in life, never loses
sight of the obligations he owes to others, and keeps his heart pure, and his
hands clean amid the manifold temptations of London life. . . . The whole
book is one we would like to see in the hands of every boy and girl setting
cut in life, for there is much useful advice pleasantly and plainly given, and
the lesson of the book is so plainly brought out that he who runs may read.'
Aberdeen Journal.

'Mr. Garrett is known as a writer with a good moral purpose in anything
he undertakes, and the lesson inculcated in "At Any Cost" is a very
necessary one in this age, when men are hasting to be rich by means not
altogether scrupulous. The author traces the career of two youths who
come from the far north to push their fortunes in London, and without
bringing all kinds of misfortunes upon the head of the selfish one, he leaves
his reader in no doubt as to which is the nobler life that which places
honour first, or that which worships wealth. The story is calculated to do
good to the youth of both sexes.' Academy.

' The tale is well told the pathetic scenes being particularly well de-
scribed and cannot fail to exercise an ennobling influence on the mind.'
Perthshire Constitutional.

' From first to last the story is one of unusual interest, while its morally
bracing tone is everything we could desire.' Liverpool Mercury.

'Well written and extremely interesting, and is, in fact, a good illus-
tration of the text, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon."' Nonconformist.

'The story is altogether a very satisfactory one, and the chai'acters are well
drawn. The sincere religious tone which pervades it is of the sensible and
practical sort, which does not degenerate into mere seutimentalism. The
book belongs to a healthy class of fiction.' Scotsman.

' Its literary merits are decidedly above the average, the characters being
vividly defined and brightly portrayed. Nor is it without a welcome vein of
sharp and humorous satire.' Graphic.

' Shetland and London ! very different places, and considerably far apart ;
but of course there are many Shetlanders in the great city, whether or not
there be any Londoners in our Ultima Thule. These are the poles that are
brought together in this attractive book. . . . The whole story is well worth
reading, as it is written not only persuasively, so as to draw the ingenuous
reader on and on, but also powerfully.' S. S.S. Teacher.

' The treatment of the old bookseller, with his scepticism and pessimism,
born of disappointment and the ill-doing of others, is excellent. " At Any
Cost " is a good story in more ways than one.' Spectator.

'A story of undoubted power, and fitted to give the young reader a true
impulse toward a pure and noble life.' British Messenger.

'This handsomely bound and beautifully illustrated volume will add to
Mr. Garrett's already high reputation as a writer of fiction, which many will
consider sufficient commendation of a first-rate story.' Brechin Advertiser.

Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier's Publications.

Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d., Illustrated ; cheap edition, paper covers, Is. ;

cloth, Is. 6d.,

By Still Waters : A Story for Quiet Hours. New and

Cheaper Edition. By EDWARD GARRETT.

' We like this " Story for Quiet Hours " very much better than we have
liked any of Mr. Garrett's recent tales ; he has shaken himself free from the
leaveu of Puritanism, and is at his best always pleasant and readable, some-
times giving utterance to a really fine and graceful thought, and showing
plenty of dry humour.' The Graphic.

' We have read many books by Edward Garrett, but none that has pleased
us so well as this. It has more than pleased, it has charmed us. All through
it runs a golden thread of spiritual wisdom that makes you linger as you
read. The best character, drawn with great care, is Sarah Russell. We have
all of us, we hope, met such good, kind, wise women, who seem to be sent
into the woi'ld to put things straight and lift ever} 7 body to a higher plane of
existence.' The Nonconformist.

' It possesses merits of a very sterling order. The book is a good one in
every sense of the word. The author sets a high aim before him, and he
achieves it. In Tibbie there is a grim humour closely allied to pathos under-
lj"ing her queer epigrammatic sayings.' Morning Post.

' The beauty of the language and the profusion of fine thoughts scattered
throughout, constitute its chief charm.' Dundee Advertiser.

' The volume is interspersed with some shrewd sayings.' Daily Neivs.

' Mr. Garrett is a novelist whose books it is always a pleasure to meet. His
stories are full of quiet, penetrating observation. Few novelists photograph
characters so beautiful and subtle as Sarah Eussell's and Tibbie's, or envelope
their tale in a like bower of tender, thoughtful love.' Echo.

' Is full of good sense.' Westminster Review.

1 A natural, well-written, and deeply interesting story.' Primitive
Methodist World.

'The story is well and racily told; it is lit up with occasional gleams of
humour, and, withal, with a better light still. It is a wholesome and a help-
ful book.' Leeds Mercury.

' A fine combination of masculine vigour, spiritual insight, and racy
humour. . . . To quite an extraordinary extent the volume abounds in sayings
that are notable, both for the striking originality of their substance and their
pointed style of expression.' Christian Leader.

' We have received nothing of late better entitled to attention. ... It is
the fruit of robust, fearless thinking, and is brimful of quaint humour.'
Greenock Telegraph.

' Very well told, with much power of thought and breadth of sympathy,
which is very pleasing to meet.' Spectator.

' The characters are finely drawn. . . . Worth a legion of its contem-
poraries.' Brechin Advertiser.

' A book to be read slowly and read again.' British Messenger.

' A religious book in a good sense, and by no means bad reading from a
literary point of view.' Athenceum.

'Perfection of literary form, and vigour of thought. . . . The exposure of
smug Pharisaism is executed with trenchant force. Let us hope the book
will have the effect of lessening the number of the Pharisees. We expect it
will make some of them very angry.' Eilmarnock Standard.

Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier's Publications.

Now ready, uniform with ' BITS FROM BLINKBONNY.'

JS r ew Edition, in One Volume, cloth extra, with Six Original Illustrations,
price 3s. 6d. ; or in plainer binding, without Illustrations, price 2s. Gd ;
paper boards, 2s.,

Aldersyde : A Border Story of Seventy Years

Ago. By ANNIE S. SWAN.

The Authoress has received the following Autograph Letter from Mr.
Gladstone:

' 10 DOWNING STREET,
WHITEHALL, April 16, 1883.

DEAR MADAM, I have now read the work which you did me the houour
to present to me with a very kind inscription, and I feel obliged to add a line
to my formal acknowledgment Already sent. I think it beautiful as a work of
art, and it must be the fault of a reader if he does not profit by the perusal.
Miss Nesbit and Margrt will, 1 hope, long hold their places among the truly
living sketches of Scottish character. I remain, your very faithful and
obedieit, W. E. GLADSTONE.'

'Sir Walter Scott himself never delineated a character more true to life
than Janet Nesbit.' Stirling Observer,

' Readers who can follow Scotch idioms easily will be moved by the narra-
tive of Janet Nesbit's life. . . . incidents common enough, but eloquent of
character and well told.' Athenccum.

' Full of quiet power and pathos.' Academy.

'She has brought us into the presence of a pure and noble nature, and has
r --minded us that a life of sorrow and disappointments has its deep compensa-
tions, and its glorious meaning.' Literary World.

'If there is anything more noteworthy than another in this cleverly con-
structed story, it is the vigorous raciness with which the vernacular is
employed. ' Haddington Courier.

' A tale of deep interest; it is a work of true genius.' United Presbyterian
Magazine.

' Hurrah! our good Scotch stories, with their dear rough old. vernacular,
are not going to die out just yet, or, if at all, they are going to die hard.' S.S.
Teachers' Magazine.

' Beautifully conceived and exquisitely written.' Airdrie Advertiser.

'One of the best Scotch tales that has appeared for many years. ... A
wealth of local colouring and fineness of touch rarely to be met in these days
of painfully analytic writing.' Kilmarnock Herald.

' A book we must read through at a sitting. It lays hold of our interest in
the first page, and sustains it to the end.' Daily Eevieio.

' Deserves to occupy a prominent and permanent place among Scottish works
of imagination. . . . Not a dull page in the book ; while not a paragraph will
be skipped lest some of the finer touches should be missed.' Kelso Chronicle.

' We have not read a fresher, livelier, or more wholesomely stimulating story
for many a day.' Kilmarnock Standard.

' As a type of the sound-hearted, high-spirited Scottish gentlewoman, who
can sustain her dignity on a poor pittance, and who is tender and true without
auy pretence of high sentiment, Janet Nesbit is a tine portrait of a noble
woman.' N. B. Daily Mail.

' The central figure in the narrative is Miss Janet Nesbit, of Aldersyde,
a young gentlewoman who is early called to a life of self-sacrifice. This she
humbly accepts, working out the problem with so much sincerity and faith-
fulness that the grey morning is followed by a bright day.' Christian Leader.

Oliphant, Anderson, $ Ferrier's Publications.

Crown 4to, cloth extra, with 150 Illustrations, price 10s. 6d. ,

Edinburgh, Past and Present. By J. B. Gillies.

With Notes of the County, Historical, Descriptive, and Scientific.
By Rev. JAMES S. MILL, FLORA MASSON, and Dr. GEIKIE.

'"Edinburgh, Past and Present," by J. B. Gillies, is a handsome book
a sweet, dainty, and most pleasure-giving memorial of Edinburgh. The
letterpress is first-rate. Mr. Gillies is a skilled writer, and he knows
Edinburgh History. In this volume, in a style at once simple and graphic, he
links the past with the present; and without any parade of antiquarian lore,
lie tells all, or nearly all, that is worth repeating regarding the public and
domestic history of the capital and its famous buildings and institutions.'
The Daily Review.

'Mr. J. B. Gillies, if we mistake not, is a writer who already has attained a
large share of popularity by his descriptions of storied scenes in the Modern
Athens. Under this impression we may, perhaps, congratulate the " Benjie"
of old upon the handsome appearance of " Edinburgh, Past and Present."
Throughout the two hundred and sixty pages will be found a large number
of illustrations, very beautifully executed, and adding no inconsiderable
interest to the spirited text.' The Publishers' 1 Circular.

' The book cannot be too highly praised.' The Inverness Courier.

' Readable from end to end, and in many places extremely amusing.'
St. James's Gazette.

4 The illustrations of the book are gems of the art. No pains have been
spared to make the book complete. It is finely and spiritedly written ; it is
eloquently embellished. Every American visitor of "Old Edinboro" will
surely want this charming work.' Round Lake Journal, U.S.A.

' A better man than Mr. Giljies, the author of the letterpress, no one could
desire as a guide through Old Edinburgh, for no man knows it better.
Headers of the famous " Edinburgh Supplement" of the "Graphic" must
know his handiwork. The illustrations are the very things one would wish
for in such a book.' Aberdeen Journal.

' This is a spendidly got up book, both internally and externally. Author
and publishers, artist and engraver, printers and binder, have all combined to
make the work worthy of the subject.' Kelso Mail.

4 The vignette illustrations interspersed among the letterpress are charming.
As a drawing-room book it is highly attractive.' Spectator.

' Everything in and about the Old Town of Edinburgh is interesting, and
that interest is very much enhanced in the present work by the numerous and
well-executed woodcuts which adorn its pages. The author has earned the
thanks of his contemporaries by the able manner in which he has woven into
his work the most salient points of Edinburgh history. Its style and typo-
graphy are of that high order which we might expect from a firm of publishers
of such repute.' Western Antiquary.

4 This is an elegantly got up and altogether very interesting volume ; and
numerous as are the books about Old and New Edinburgh, there is nothing in
existence so well adapted to the requirements of the general reader. Mr.
Gillies' coadjutors, who have supplied the Historical, Descriptive, and
Scientific notes, have done their parts exceedingly well.' Aberdeen Free
Press.

4 One of those books which should be popular among the crowds who
annually flock to the Scottish metropolis. ... A book which can be taken
up at any time, and will seldom be laid down without having given the
reader some pleasure and profit. What publishers could do to make the
work attractive and successful has been done.' Glasgow Herald.

Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier's Publications.

New Edition, crown 8vo, price 3s. 6d. ; or in plainer binding,
without Illustrations, 2s. 6d.; paper boards, 2s.,

Glenairlie ; or, The Last of the Graemes. By

ROBINA F. HARDY, author of 'Jock Halliday,' etc. With Six
Original Illustrations by TOM SCOTT.

4 The tale is one of life and character in a Highland glen ; it has a rather
complicated but well-managed plot, contains some shrewd and effective
studies of different types of Scottish character, and is imbued with an
emphatic but truthful local colour. Written with considerable narrative
and descriptive power, and having an enjoyable flavour of humour, with
here and there a touch of real pathos, the book is a wholesome and readable
story.' Scotsman.

4 Brightly written, and does not flag. The author is well up in the
Scotch dialect, and gives some good portraits of Scotch character, which
tends mainly to crossgrainedness and perversity.' Literary World.

4 Done in Miss Hardy's happiest, freshest, and quaintest style, is a scene in
the Highland parish kirk of Glenairlie, on the harvest thanksgiving Sabbath.
Everything in this sketch is brought out with the hand of an artist, old Dr.
Cargill, and his sermon on Ruth ; the creaking pulpit stair, and the pagoda-
like sounding board, with a gilt pine-apple on the top ; and the square family
pews, adorned with green baize and brass nails ; and the old crones in front of
the pulpit in rusty black, and Bibles wrapped in clean white handkerchiefs, with
sprigs of thyme or southernwood; and "Betty " coming in lafeand bustling, and
provoking an angry scowl from the laird for letting the folding- leaf of the seat
fall with a crash ; and the close of the service, when there was a stir in the
elders' pew, and each seized his wooden implement for the "lifting of the
offering." The whole is admirable.' Perthshire Constitutional.

4 Eich racy Scotch humour.' Presbyterian.

' A book which contains such characters as Miss Leslie, Betty, and the
impracticable "oldest inhabitant " a persona muta only can need.no recom-
mendation.' Academy.

'The story is full of dramatic interest. Its principal events are grouped
with all the power which the gifted authoress can command. There is a
fascination in the detail, and a richness in the language, savoured with not
a few natural pictures of Scottish life and character, which compel the
reader to peruse it page by page to the end.' Kilmarnock Herald-

' There is a fine Scottish flavour in the book ; and it is made more attractive
by a set of original etchings, which help the reader to realize more vividly
the scenes depicted with so much graphic power by the story-teller.'
Christian Leader.

4 The plot is an admirable conception, and the incident is powerfully pre-
sented, while the tone of the story is healthy, as the writing is vigorous.'
Daily Review.

4 Shows keen insight into the motives and humours of ordinary human
nature, distinct literary power to sketch those motives, and the true novelist's
tact, that can draw into a complete and beautiful whole the severed and
tangled skeins of character and purpose. It is the story of homely life in a
remote parish of Scotland.' Fifeshire Journal.

4 The incidents are woven into the literary web with consummate skill.'-
Border Advertiser.

4 The sketches of character are exceedingly good, and there is a flavour of
quiet humour which is thoroughly enjoyable.' Glasgoio Herald.

4 Martha and her faithful maid are very truthfully drawn.' Athenceum.

MAY

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