A Beautiful Possibility

grant apple blossoms and making the air melodious with their merry songs. Brilliant orioles flashed to and fro like gleams of gold in the sunlight, as they built their airy hammocks high

soft lowing of the cows, but all the sweetness of nature was powerless to lift the gloom which seemed to envelop him as in a shroud

ad been the fight and the enthusiastic spectators had shouted themselves hoarse with applause or groaned in despair when the honor of Marlborough seemed likely to be lost. Then had come a mighty onward rush and the opposing

r wits' end to alleviate the sufferings of the unfortunate boy. Now the pain had res

d hard to please, and his ebullitions of disappointment and rage were terrible to witness. He vented his anger most frequently upon John, the sight of whose superb strength goaded the unhappy man into a frenzy, and John's forbearance was tried to the utmost, bu

's couch. He planned his work so as to be with the invalid as much as possible,

it?" he asked in tones

ere was such a freshness about this strong youn

dead!" he an

d John quickly, "until you hav

g, as valuable as a piece of waste paper. I believe it would have pleased him better if I had been killed outright. He wouldn't have had the humiliation of it always before

er make a man of you. It is only a waste of time and vital tissue. But there are lots of noble lives in spite of limitatio

hn. You never loo

worth while except to s

for an hour," said Reginald p

ding. "Old Father Time's spoiling tooth is never

u have lost. You're ahead of Napoleon, John, for he only kept one eye open, b

a fair allowance

uck is worth a king's rans

softly as he drew his

h. "You are invulnerable as Achilles. I never saw a fellow get so much comfort out

n, and he has lifted me above the power of circumstanc

y beautiful since my Father made me heir of all things through his Son. The birds' songs have a new note in them, and the sunlight is brighter, and there is a different blue in the sky. I'm monarch of all I survey because I get the

urn in vain. He heard his father's voice once, raised high in stormy wrath, then all was still again. Some time afterwards, th

to go when he chooses. I'm sure I'd clear out if I wasn't such a good-for-nothing. The governor is getting to be mor

*

ched upon the moss. The river laughed and the birds s

h the sweet freshness of the morning before the sun was up to find the earliest snowdrops for Mrs. Hawthorne, or take a spin in the moonlight with every nerve a-tingle across the frozen bosom of the lake, or wander in delight along the wood roads when every tree was clad in the witching beauty of a silver thaw, or sweep across the wide stretching country in the very poetry of motion, or

ye to every tree and rock and flower, began his homeward way. He would think of it so while he could. In a few short

mfortable for the night. "You look like a ghost, and you have had no dinner! What the mis

e," said John qui

ake tracks for freedom

ct, and, since you've

eman of leisure in comp

nothing but injus

the bed. "I am going, Rege. Yo

act to be confronted and battled with, the shock is greater than if no shadowy premonition had ever haunted the dreamland of our fancy.

turn me off. As soon as those fellows began to talk to him about the horses I saw there was trouble brewing. Everything I did was wrong, and once he swore at me. H

price your father asked, and he had to come down on him. He was furious, and, as soon as the men's backs were turn

cannot! My father is out of his mind. People don

e is master here, Rege. There

ous! Why, everything will go to ruin w

ickly. "You will be a

opportunity. Prepare y

n. I am like a ship without a rudder. It is no u

e in no danger of drifting. It is only when we choose

*

as he did every night, to give her a ride in his arms before she went to by-by. She held out he

nto the laughing eyes which the sand man had already sprinkled wi

Don, oo always

e one, there will be no more good-ni

" she echoed, "to leave Nan an' Pwimwose an' the hors

his breast. "But there is no Neptune to carry us n

the suffering face above her made her say quickly, "Me'll be d

onfidingly. "Nice Don!

es Desus 'caus

oked. "Keep on

tle chil'en in his arms like oo do, Do

wept his cheek. "Oo's my bootiful man, Don. Me'll marry oo when me gets big," and the

en at last he laid her down, and, taking a pair of scissors from his pocket, he carefully severed one of the golden rings of hair, and laid it within

ME'LL DO ANYWHER

*

loved John as her own son, but no one ever dreamed of disputing the tyr

mforted. What comfort could there be if John was going away? It never occurred to him that his mot