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Copyrighted, 1887, by Cyrus H. K. Cdbtis. Yearly Subscription 50 Cent*. VOL. V, NO. 2. PHILADELPHIA, JANUARY, 1888. Mingle Copies 6 Cents. [ETorThb ladirs' iiomr Journal.] her fearful pain. And now when at last he came for her and helped her to grapes, and after din CHAPTER VI. and put bis arms around her and took her face ner wheeled her for an hour on the broad plateau, THE SPRING FARM. between his hands and looked fondly into it as he stooping over her once and caressing her white THE SCHOOL MISTRESS questioned her of her health she felt that he was hair, which he told her was very becoming, and The setting sun of a raw January afternoon was By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes. unchanged, and thanked her Father for it. He saying no more of the girl seen In church that shining into the dingy school room where Maude Author of " Tempest and Sunshine," " Lena was delighted with ever thing, and sat by her uu morning. The Alllngs had been late and the rec sat by the iron rusted box stove, with her feet on Jiivers," etc., etc. til after lunch, which was served on the piazza, tor was reading the first lesson when they came the hearth, reading a note which had been brought and asked her of her life there and the people in in, father and mother and two healthy buxom to her just before the close of school by a man Copyright, 1887, by Daniel Holmks. (All rights re- the neighborhood and finally if she knew of a girls, followed by Maude, who, in ber black dress, who had been to the Post Office in the Tillage at sesvedj. Capt. Ailing. looked taller and slimmer than he had thought the foot of tbe Lake. It was nearly four mouths "Capt. Ailing," she replied; "Why, yes. He her In the car, and prettier, too, with the bril since she first crossed the threshold of the log CHAPTER V. lives on a farm about two miles from here and liant color on her cheeks and the sparkle in the school bouse, taking In at a glance tbe whole we buy our honey from him. A very respecta- 1 eyes which met bis with such glad surprise in them dreariness of her surroundings and feeling for MISS. RAYNOR. ble man,I think,although I have no acquaintance that he fet something stir in his heart different the moment that she could not endure It. But with the family. Why do you ask?" from anything he had felt since he and Grace she was somewhat accustomed to It now, and not About a mile from Laurel Hill, a little villagein "Oh, nothing; only there was a girl on the were young. The Aliings occupied a pew in front half so much afraid of the tall girls and boys, her Richland, was an emiuence, or plateau, from the train with me who told me she was his niece," of him and on the side, so that he eould look at scholars, as she had been at first, while the latter top of which one could see for miles the rich, well were wholly devoted to her and not a little proud cultivated farms in which the town abounded, of their"young school ma'am," as they called her. the wooded hills and the deep gorges all slanting Every body was kind to ber, and she Had not down to a common centre, the pretty little lake, found "boarding round" so very dread I nl after all lying as In the bottom of a basin, with its clear forthe fatted calf was always killed for her. and waters sparkling in the sunshine. And here, just tbe best dishes brought out, while It was seldom on the top of the plateau, where the view was the that she was called upon to share ber sleeping finest, an eccentric old bachelor, Paul Raynor, room with more than one member of the family. had a few years before our story opens, built him And still there was ever present with her a long self a home after his owu pecnllar ideas of archi ing for ber mother and for Johnnie and a life tecture, but which, when finished and furnished, morecongenial to her tastes. Dreaming was out was a most delightful place, especially in the of the question now, and tbe book which was to summer wheu the flowers and shrubs, of which make her famous and buy back the old home there was a great profusion, were iu blossom, and seemed very far in the future. Just bow large the wide lawn in front of the house was like a a portion of her thoughts was given to Max Gor piece of velvet. Here for two years Paul Raynor don it was difficult to say. She bad felt a thrill had lived quite en prince, and then, sickening of joy when she saw hint in church, ami a with what be knew to be a fatal disease, be hud proud, loo, it may be, of bis notice of her, sent for bis Invalid sister Grace, who came and minutely her cousins had questioned her with •lead stayed that witli all him his to lirr^"tjw. the last, b" finding' been afterloft to he hes,was witli a request that sns 'voulW make tho CV*' s, was. A relative most likely of Miss Raynor, as the pluee was caned, ter uanie lor a portioO of whose pew he sat, they concluded, and they t the time at least. And so, though city bred and ! their cousin of the lady at the Cedars, Grace Ray city born, Grace had staid on for nearly a year, nor, who could not walk a step, but was wheeled leading a lonely life, for she knew but few of her in a chair, sometimes by a maid and sometimes neigliuorB, while her crippled condition prevented by a man. The lady par excellence of the neigh her from mingling at all iu the society she was borhood she seemed to be, and Maude found her so well fitted to adorn. As the reader will have self greatly Interested In her and in everything guessed Grace Raynor was the girl, .or rather pertaining to her. Twice she had been through woman, for she w is over thirty now, to whom the grounds, which were opcu to the public, and Max Gordon had devoted the years of his early bad seen Grace both times In the distance, once manhood, in the vain hope that sometime she sitting in her chair upon the piazza, and once would be cured and become his wife. A few days being wheeled !n the woods by her man servant before the one appointed for her bridal she had Tom. Bnt beyond this she bad not advanced, been thrown from her horse and had injured her and nothing could be farther from her thoughts spine so badly that for months she suffered such thau the idea that 6he would ever be anything to agony that her beautiful hair turned white; then the lady of the Cedars. Max Gordon's letter nud the paiuceasedsuddenly, but left her no power to beeu forwarded to her from Merrivale, but had move her lower limbs, and she had never walked created no suspicion in her mind that be and since and never would. But through all the long her friend of the train were one. She had years Max had clung to her with a devotion born thought it a little strange that be should have first of his intense love for her and later of his been in Cauandaigua the very day tbatshe arrived sense of honor which would make him loyal to there, and wished" she might have seen blm„ but her even to the grave. Kuowing how domestic the truth never dawned upon her until sometime he was in his tastes and how happy he "would be in December, when her mother wrote to her that with wife and children Grace had insisted that be had called to see them, expressing much re- he should leave her and seek some other love. wet at Maude's absence, and when told where But his answer was always the same. "No, she was and when she went, exclaiming with en Grace, I am bound to you just as strongly as if ergy, as he sprang to his feet, "Why, madam, the clergyman had made us one, and will marry your daughter was with me in the train. — a little you any day you will say the word. Your lame blue eyeu, brown haired girl in black, who said ness is nothing so long as your soul is left un she was Capt. Alling's niece." touched, and your face, too," he would some "He seemed greatly excited," Mrs. Graham times add, kissing fondly the lovely face which, wrote, "and regretted that he did not know who with each year, seemed to grow lovlier, and from you were. He got an idea somehow that your which the snowy hair did not in the least de name was Grey, and said he received your letter tract. with you asleep beside him. He is a splendid But Grace knew better than to inflict herself looking man, with the pleasantest eyes and the upon him, and held fast to her resolve, even kindest voice I ever heard or saw." while her whole being went out to him with an "Ye-cs," Maude said slowly, as she recalled intense longing for his constant love and com tbe voice which bad spoken so kindly to ber and panionship.

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