Jessie Graham

d when at last Walter dared to steal a look at her, she had already divested herself of her traveling

for, spying the one which was never used, and into which even Ellen dared not climb, she unhesitating

at amused, Walter watched her p

and then she won't want to sit in it; but she's

a squeeze as Jessie gave it, escaped from her lap,

, boy, s

g faster from her, and shaking back her curls, Jessi

st boy, and I don

ter turned to look at him, and as he looked he felt the bitterness gradually giving way, for

d of what is called best society, and his manners were polished and pleasing. Still there was nothing ostentatious about him, no consciousness of superiority, and when Deacon Marshall, pointing to Wa

en we were boys together, and he

lips, but the words were not uttered, for Mr. Graham's man

d and true a man as I b

o had paid this tribute to one whom the world considered an outcast, then releasing it, he tur

sie, who, when he bade her farewell,-for he went back that night,-clung sobbing to his neck, refusing to be

d boy, and they grew to liking each other very fast during the few moments they talked together upon the platform of the Deerwood station. Numerous were the charges Mr. Graha

to say it, but as his mind went forward to t

as good and pure as beautiful, so that her future husband, shoul

and the little congeniality there had been between them. If so,

y set her heart on William Bellenger, or rather on his family; but

e felt his finger tips tingle as he recalled the only time they had met. It was on the occasion of that first visit to Boston, to which Ellen had alluded. His uncle's family were then boarding at the Tremont and William was making a constrained effort to entertain him in the public parlor, when he becam

out! the l

ank even from the thought of associating her with William Bellenger, though he did not like to have Mr. Graham speak so slightingly of him. Some

family. I did not think of the relationship. You are not like them i

estion of his companion, and as the latter sprang upon the steps of the

ink my fat

ive boy, whose handsome face looked up to him so

ink so, y

?" and Walter held fast to the arm, eve

, and the puffing of the engine increased each moment;

ked slowly back to the farm-house, his bosom swelling with resentment, and his eyes filling with te

en, as he had often done before, he began to wonder if his father ever thoug

d little Jessie, who, with flushed cheeks and angry eyes, was stamping her fat feet furi

sing forward until he caught

her hands, and when her request was refused she had flown into a most violent passion, screaming for her father to come and take her away from such dirty, ugly peopl

: "Jessie!" but a more decided stamp of the foot was her only answer, and seizing her

ie had met her master, and after a few hysterical sobs, she became as gentle as a lamb, nestling so close to Walter, who had seated

ne half hour, all traces of the storm had disappeared, and in her own way she was cultivating his acquaintance, and occasionally inflicting upon him a pang b

aughty words. Nobody bu

d that night, in the little

the word 'darn;' not because a pert

o assign, so he left the sentence

ng Walter, whose prejudices gradually gave way, and who at last admitted that

among the yellow leaves for the brown chestnuts which the hoar frost had cast from their prickly covering. She liked the country, she said, and when her grandmother wrote, as she often did, begging her to come back, if only for a week, she absolutely refused to go, bidding Walter, who was her amanuensis, say that she liked staying where she was, and never meant to live in the ci

Howland and Aunt Debby both urged upon the latter the propriety of remaining at home and knitting on the deacon's socks, just as gentle, domestic Ellen did. Jessie was not to be persuaded, and, wrapped in her warm fur cape and mittens, she went with Walter to the pond, receiving many a heavy fall upon the ice, but always saying it was no matter, particularly if

only of Walter's commendation when she returned him his cap, and she kept on her way, while Walter, with bla

one! she

spot where she had stood, Walter thought himself dying, and almost hoped he was, for the world would be very dreary with no little Jessie in it; then as he caught sight of

ult, were beginning to despair, the noble boy fell fainting in their midst, his arms clasped convulsively around Jessie, whose short black curls and dripping garments clu

them? It's Walter,-it's Walter!" he cried, as the setting sun shone o

art is beating yet, but she--" and he pointed to l

ed to cry as he looked upon the still white face and wished he had never been harsh to the little girl, or shaken her so hard on that firs

me and hurt my hand so bad," and she held up the tiny th

ispered, and when no one saw him he

e, never kissed even his blue-eyed cousin Ellen, but the first taste inspired hi

sked eagerly of the p

nd Walter hastened away to his own room, where

t some one should write to her father,-somebody who would say just what she told them to, and as Aunt Debby was

or that. Then Walter said he should never know anything, and cried so hard that I was just going to cry too, when I fell asleep and forgot it. You are rich, I know, for one of ma's rings cost five hundred dollars, and her shawl a thousand, and I want you to send me money enough for

had saved the life of the father's only child. Wild with delight Jessie listened while Aunt Debby, the only one in the secret, spelled out the wo

like father. Here it is," and thrusting the paper into his hand she crouched so near

Jessie managed to explain how she had asked h

een a little dead girl now, and the boys, next winter, would ha

s to receive his education from Mr. Graham, to whom they were already indebted. It seemed too much like charity, and that he could not endure. Still he did not say so

cept it, o

r work all my life on the old homestead than be dependent on his bounty. You may send it back to you

his neck and poured forth a torrent of entreaties which led him finally to waver, and at last to d

on the subject, assented, for he readily understood t

l then, give yourself no trouble about it, but devote all your energies to the acquirement of an education. Were my advice asked in reference to a college, I should tell you Yale, but you must do as you think

mself, but oftener a mild-faced man wearing the sad, weary look he always saw in dreams upon his father's face. The day would come, too, he said, when the honor of the Marshall na

to little Jessie, who, having never been taught to do a really useful thing until she came to Deerwood, worked perseveringly, but with small hope of success, upon a pair of socks like those which Ellen had knit for the deacon the winter before. But

if he liked it, she seized the shears, and cutting from her head the longest, handsomest curl, gave it to him with

laughingly accepted a gift which in future years w

ine of the house had gone with the stirring, active boy, who, in one corner of the noisy car, was winking hard and counting the fence posts as they ran swiftly past, to keep himself from crying. Anon this feeling left hi