The Voice of the People

d talk over the lesson for the following morning. At five o'clock in the afternoon he dressed himself with trembling hands and a perturbed heart; a

y Burr tied a flaming plai

plenty handsome for a man. I was al'ays kind of set against one of these pink an' white men, somehow. They're pretty enough to look at when

at, and Nicholas felt a sudden glow of gratitude, and silently reso

o redder than the reddest. But he came honestly by it, which is more than some folks can say as is got yellow. His father had it befo' him, an' thar's one good thing about it, you've got to be born with i

she added: "If they ask after me, N

airy Jane and Jubal, while his stepmother called after

pace, held back by the fluttering of his pulses. Not until he saw Juliet standing at the little whitewashed gate did he brace himself to th

" he said boldly, "an' you were just like

vowed passionately in his rustic little heart that he would always love her best-best of all-that he would fight for her if he might, or work for her if she needed it. There was none like her-not his stepmoth

here was no Satan who went about like a roaring lion-only cruelty and anger and ill-will, and that he must be kind to his brothers and sisters, and to animals, and not rob birds' nests, which was very wrong. Then she added as an afterthought, with a saintly look in her eyes, that he must love God. He promised that he should try to do so, though he wished in his heart that she had told him to love herself instead. As he sat in the soft light, watching her beautiful face rising against a background of lilies, his young brain thrilled with the joy of life. It was such a glorious thing to live in a great, kind world, with a big, beneficent God above the blue, and to love all mankind-not harbouring an angry thought or an ill feeling! He looked into the kind eyes beside him and felt that he should like to be a saint or a ministe

ntleman who wore an expansive air of innocence and a white piqué waistcoat-and Mrs. Burwell, a pretty, gray-haired woman, who ruled her husband with the velvet-pawed despotism which was

r, "Juliet must a-a-be taught to recognise the existence of class. Really, I cannot have

ed placidly as she pa

uliet what you say. Poor child, she has such confidence in your judgment that she will believe whatever you say to be right; but she does love so to feel that she is exerting a good influence over the boys, a

ground his daughter trod upon. "I suppose it wo

he seems to be a decent, respectful kind of child. Of course I know it is your soft heart that makes you look at it in this way-but I love you all the better for it. I

e as they left the room. "I am convinced that I am right, and I

Nicholas Burr, and greeted

eh, Juliet? You must do just

that she sat with them beneath the myrtle and talked in the same soft voice with the same radiant smile. She was not speaking of heaven no

y would not worship her always and become ministers for her sake, as he was going to do. He even wondered if it would

d her hand upon his arm. "He has promised not to

ung men on

s will do that. Ask him to stand on his head or

elf-that she did not want a contortionist about. Then she bent over the boy as he

passed the church, a little further on, the iron gate opened and the rector came out, jingli

ear old churchyard is never mowed except by living lawn-mowers. I assure you that

his brain. He touched his hat at the tourist's greeting and smiled into the clergyman's face, but h

ust below. He was glad that he had been born, though the idea had never formulated itself until now. He would be very good all his life and never do a wicked thing. It was so easy to be good if you only wanted to. Yes, he would study hard and become learned in the law, like those old pr

e Dan'l had seen, nor of the bug-a-boos that had chased Viney's husband home. He was too old for these things now. He had grown

de common. A fresh, sharp odour rose from the dew-steeped earth, giving place, as he gained upon the flock, to the smell of moist wool. As he brushed th

rapped him like a blanket. The darkness was gathering rapidly. From the fa

red in the midst of the pastur

eep! Co

shyly behind the looming outlines of sassafras bushes. Again he called, and again the plaintive cry resp

suddenly spangled with firefl

n yards the startled ewes. The scattered white blotches closed together as he ran to

hem across the road and beh

te remaining for himself. His stepmother, looking jaded and nervous, was putting salted herrin

r of fools the Lord ever made. Here I've been standin' at the tub from sunrise to sunset, with my jaw a'most splittin' from my face, an' thar's yo' pa a-settin' at his pipe as unconsarned as if I wa'nt his lawful wife-the more's the pity! It's t

r. Jubal, who was rolling on the floor, gave a gurgle and made a grab at it, to be soundly boxed by h

upper, ma?" asked N

answered Sairy Jane, relieved by the interruption

s phlegmatic nature goaded into resentment by his

a trouble enough 'thout makin' her do an extra washin' up on your o'count. You've gone clean cra

ace and looked at him fixedly. For a momen

od as a ha

at he liked the sensation. He wished he could do him some real harm-hit him hard enough to hurt or

as a mild-natured man at best, whose chief sin was his softness. It would not have entered his slow-witted head to

t and yet achieved nothing? Of what account was the farmer whom the crows outwitted and the weather made a mockery? Did not the very crops cry out as they rotted that his father was a fool

urr stubbornly when his wife placed the earthenware bowl

ild you shan't hang round them as was her own flesh and blood kin. Sairy Jane, you bring that plate of hot corn po

Burwell's. The flavour of the cake she had given him seemed to intensify his distaste for the food before him. He felt that he cared for nobody-that he wanted nothing. He looked at his stepm

Burwell that he didn't want to keep a clean heart, and to call God names. No, he would not become a minister and preach the Gospel. He would be a thief instead and break into hen-houses and steal chickens. If his father planted watermelons he woul

om the stable came the faint neigh of the old mare, and he remembered suddenly that he had forgotten to put straw in