Opening a Chestnut Burr

y was decidedly on the wane, it was as yet unnipped by the frost It had a neatness and an order of its own that were quite unlike those wher

ed that the very lichens and mosses grew in the same places as

began to find more of pain than pleasure as this contrast between what

that career out in the world to which I looked forward so ardently amounted to? The present is disappointment and self-disgust, the future an

lved to leave this place with its memories that are growing into torment, but I suppose it would be the same anywhere else. I am too weak and ill to face new scenes and discomfort. A little animal enjoyment and bodily respite from pain seem about all that is left to me of existence, and I think I can find these here bett

tening he soon became aware that Miss Walton was teaching the children. "She has

rejudice he might also have noted that th

efore I get away. I had a foretaste of it this morning. 'Drawbacks of city life,' forsooth! She no doubt regards me as a result of these di

eam as that of Miss Bently chiding him affectedly for his wayward tendencies; again it was explaining that conscientiou

e stood by the fire, she did not notice its unconscious occupant. Then, seeing him, she w

gusts," they also at times announced a warm, kind heart, for

d cynicism to a kind, sisterly effort toward making him a better and therefore a happier man. It will soon come out in conversation that I have long been the same as engaged to another, and this will relieve me

rief moment in which her eyes softened from surprise into sympathy as they caught the expression of Greg

no greater catastrophe than the momentary rousing of a sleeper who would doze again. But what day can we with certainty call uneventful? and what episode trivial?

s appointed guardian, was present, as many believe is the case with every one, how truly he must have welcomed thi

m within us. It is heaven stooping to men; heaven's messengers sent to us; truth quickened in our minds by heavenly influence, even as sunlight and rain awaken into be

e transforming truth. But the divine love is ever seeking to win our attention by messengers innumerable; now by the appalling storm, again by a summer sunset; now by an awful providence, again by a great joy; at times by stern prophets and teachers, but more often by the gentle human agencies of which Annie was the type, as with pitying face she bent over

, would surely commence discoursing on moral and religious subjects if he gave her a chance; and he feared that if she did, he would say or do something very rude, and confirm the bad impression that he was sure of having already made. If he could have strolled into his club, and among groups engaged with cards, papers, and city gossip, he would have felt quite at home. Ties formed at such a place ar

t last, beyond mere passing courtesies, they had come to leave him very much alone; and in his unnatural and perverted state this was just what he most desired. His whole be

he knew, from what he had already seen of them, that they would try to do it delicately and kindly, but he felt that the most considerate efforts would be like the surgical

ning. The Divine personality, enthroned in the depths of her soul and permeating her life, loo

onally, or that she had grown sentimentally interested in his Byronic style of wretchedness. So far from it, her happy and healthful nature was repelled by his diseased and morbid one.