The Squire of Sandal-Side

ng and high

auty of the g

, our fearfu

ion breathing

uth, and th

tiful a

which is only gained by a free, open-air life. The hillside was just turning purple with heather bloom, and along the winding, stony road the yellow asphodels were dancing in the wind. Everywhere there was the scent of bog-myrtle and wil

back the mother's and Sophia's last advices; but gradually they became silent, and then a little mournful. "I wonder

ts are catching. I was

hy were you havi

uch a big lace collar. And, dear me! it was just such a day as this, thirty-two years ago, that your mother walked up to the shearing with me, Charlotte; and I asked her if she would be my wife, and she said she would. Thou takes after her a good deal; she had the very same bright eyes and bonny face

heard o

he eyes dim, and the heart fail. Yes, yes; Barf is as happy as a boy now, but I remember when he w

ds from their airy shelf, the tops of the trees appeared like a solid green road, on which they might drop down and walk. Stone steps in t

sical w

the patriar

pendent manner which honorable descent and absolute ownership of house and land give; and he looked every inch a gentleman, though he wore only the old dalesman's costume,-breeches of buckskin fastened at the knees with five silver buttons, home-knit stockings an

n in a shearing if thou wert absent. And a good day to thee, Charlotte. My Ducie w

s easy to see the women loved each other, though Ducie only smiled, and said, "Come in; I'm right glad to see you, Charlo

not heard from Harry lately. I think it worrits father a little,

rds, made a fine environment for so much life and color. And yet there were touches in it that resembled her, and seemed to be the protest of the present with the past,-vivid green and scarlet masses of geranium and fuchsia in the latticed wind

crossed her face. "I would not do it, Ducie, for any one," she said. "Poor herbs of grace! What sin

pulled dear, just as lasses

in the jar; some thrown under the feet, and b

wrong and sorrow. Talking of things bespeaks them. There's always them

is sad about it. They may be in families, Ducie, who can tell? And the litt

made me feel as if I'd never like to pull a posy again. You shouldn't say

squire and the statesman were sitting. Their heads were uncovered, their long clay pipes in their hands; and, with a placid complacency, they were watching the score of busy men before them. Many had come long distances to try their skill against each other;

was young we wouldn't have thought so much of two thousand, but every dalesman then knew what good shearing was. Now," and the old

Barf Latrigg the honorable name of "grandfather;" and Charlotte said, as

our Steve.-Steve, how many is thou ahead now?" The voice that asked the question, thou

ahead, gr

'm so

d.' Now then, if thou loses ground,

he was far too earnest in his work to spare a moment for a reply. By and by, the squire put down his pipe, and sat watching with his hands upon his knees. And a stray child crept up to Charlotte, and climbed upon her lap, and went to sleep there, and the wind flecke

wall, watched them wander contentedly up the fell, with their lambs trotting beside them. Grandfather and the squire had gone into the ho

had begun, flushed somewhat with his hard labor, and perhaps, also, with the hurry of his toilet; but there was no embarrassment in his manner. It had never yet entered Stephen's mind that there was any occasion for embarrassment, for the friendship between the squire's family and his own had been devoid of all sense of inequality

whose influence was still felt in the old seat. She had entirely disapproved the familiar affection with which Latrigg met her husband, and it was said the disputes wh

rry Sandal; and the girls grew up in his sight like two beautiful sisters. It was only within the past year that he had begun to understand that one was dearer to him than the other; but though none of the three was now ignorant of the fact, it was as yet tacitly ignored. The know

g of the sheep-dogs, and the bleating of the shorn sheep upon the fells, and the murmur of their quiet conversation about "the walks" Latrigg owned, and the scrambling, black-faced breed whose endurance made them s

rket, with no go-between to share my profits." And Steve put in a sensible word now and then, and passed the berry-cake and

or, leaning on the stone wall, looked down into the valley, or away off to the hills. Many things they said to each other which seemed to mean so little, but which meant so much

their air of happy confidence, awakened a vague suspicion in his heart. Perhaps Latrigg was conscious of it; for he said, as if in answer to the sq

deal different to having sons. Lasses

name. Any one not called Latrigg at

out of the old name would have a very middling kind of

eans wi

k of this or that Sandal, or when I look up at their faces as I sit smoking beside them, I'm sure I feel like their son; and I woul

; but Steve will be called Latrigg. He ha

e. Is Duci

nd he very soon went out of it. Stray souls will get into families they hav

the old man puffed, puffed, in silence a few minutes, and then turned the conversation. However, Sandal had been touched on a point where

her festival, and rather impatient for Stephen's help. Only Latrigg walked to the gate with them. He looked after Sandal and his daughter

this life will have been, but through Christ

he day had been very warm; and limpid vapors hung over the mountains, like something far finer than mist,-like air made visible,-giving them an appearance of inconceivable remoteness, full of grandeur; for there

tender father. She put Stephen out of her mind, and tried again to feel all her old interest in his plans for their amusement. Alas, alas! The first secret, especially if it be a love-secret, makes a break in that sweet, confidential intercourse between a parent and child which nothing restores. The squire hardly comprehended that there might be a secret. Charlotte was unthoughtful of wrong; but still there was a repression,

through the house, as a drop of ink spreads itself through a glass of water. It almost suited Sophia's mood, and Mrs. Sandal was not inclined to di

deed? Love-making. That

rlot

es

ephen L

es

. Opportunity is a

one would think it was matte

how any girl marries, sq

was danger at Up-Hill? You ought to have looked better after yo

words about it; and, if you don't like Stephen, send Charlotte away a bit. Hal

s he has been going, there will be little enough left for the girls; and they must marry where money

lliam. I suppose you did it to please your mother. She always did hanker after Tom, and she always did

li

ot say wrong of the dead for any thing, specially

girls, not I. Only mother was promised that Tom's son should have the f

y among blacks, or very near blacks.

ne to; sent to the very best German and French schools, and now he is at Oxford. I dare say he is

sters ha

are Piersons. My poor brother Launcie was drowned, and never had s

er heard tell

ppose that is how it comes. No Sandal was ever called such a name before, bu

I saw him once at a ball in Kend

in a ship that never came home. Mother and Launcie were in bad br

ot tell me all

that haven't a thought of the kind. We were very happy with them; I couldn't

r brother and

s been in England a good many times, but she never said she would like to come and see us, a

heard tell of such ways. It is like offering your own flesh and blood for sal

t liking England in any shape you could offer England to him. There's no back reckonings between Tom and me, and he'll be glad for Julius to come to

et a ring on their fingers, if they don't want it there. Sophia will say very soft and sweet, 'No, thank you, father;' and you'll move Scawfell and Langdale Pikes before you get

ately called "a peacocky air," saying something about "Greek meeting Greek" as he did so. Mrs. Sandal did not in the le