Hillsboro People

y. "This day you shall go to salt the sheep in the Miller lot," he announ

ther, r

eated the minister dryly,

heart inclines me to too great softness to our son." To his wife he cried out a moment later, "Oh, that some instance of the wrath of Je

hen he looked up he was for a moment so taken by surprise that he was transfigured. The valley at his feet shimmered like an opal through the slender white pillars of the trees. The wood wa

gether, his arm crooked over his eyes. He sank forward, still covering his eyes, into a great bed of fern, jus

er the leaf-mold. They had almost passed the motionless, prostrate figure

hat the other horseman cried out alarmed, "It ees a man crazed! Ride on,

'tis the minister his son. I know you by the look of your fathe

ied Nathaniel. "I will never wake a

The poor lad is crazed

position, and at the sight of the ashen face and white, turned-back eyeballs he sat down hastily, drawing the young head upo

on him. "I suppose it is the convicti

led into a thousand lines of mirth. He began to laugh as though he would never s

re you

h-who would not-that such a witless baby should talk of

am-I am so wholly forward the wonder is the devil does not take me at once. I live only in what my father calls the lust of the eye. I-I would rather look at a haw-tree in bloom than meditate on the Almighty!" He brought out this awful

the old man gave an exclam

d you learn that there are painters in the w

t down on cloth or paper with brushes and colors all the fair and comely things he saw. And he showed a piece of paper with on it painted the row of willows along our brook. I sat in the chimney-corner and no one heeded me. I saw-oh, then I knew! I have no paint, but ever since I have made pictures with burnt sticks on birchbark-though my father says that of all the evil ways of e

" asked the old man. "

ye

ld. For some time the two were silent, the sun shining down warmly on them through the faint, vaporous green of the tiny leaves. The old horse

s gentle laughter. "Young Everett, of all the people you have seen, is the

m horrified. "Why, no!

k your God less m

u mean it is not true?" He leaned close in an agony of

hell but in our own hearts when we do evil; and we can escape a way out of that by repenting and doing good. There is no devil but our evil desires, and God gives to every man strength to fight with those. The

Everett's eyes. In all the after crises of

ollery again. "And now wait." He put hand to mout

old man turned to Nathaniel, "Is this

" cried N

is young Master Everett, whom you have bewitched with your paint-pots. He would fain be

ly at Nathaniel. "Eh, s

w aught of

s ignorance and looked

m a crayon and a bit of white bark and see can he make my

s awakened by a loud shout from LeMaury. The Frenchman had sprung upon Nathaniel and was kissing his cheek

ran toward the old man, h

he mean?" h

to daub paint when there are swords to be carried-well, well," he pulled himself pa

How can I arrange not to los

, pronounced as it was in French, the boy fell back in

self up to the saddle, groaning, "Oh, damn that

enemy of God-the cho

that in polite an

rett-I go back to France now soon. I lie next Friday night at Woodburn. If you come

o Nathaniel. The boy came timorously. "You have heard lies about me, Everett. Be man enough to trust

, "but when you come to die? Why, even my father trembles

death when one h

d after him, bringing out the awful words with an e

who does." He put his horse into a trot and left Nathaniel under the birc