consternation that pervaded the features of Rich, when, upon

" he g

ervently the hand that was timidly extended

Morton in his own, while the tears ran down his

eceive me, who never cleaned out the president's barn, m

e top of the bellows, and made an awful s

your scruples, old

g

'm so glad

didn't come for anything else; 'kalkerlated,

who received him without any of the embarrassment th

nsequence of which he cannot entertain as he would wish the friend he loves so dearly, and whom we have all learned through him to love, even before meeting. If we have

all we have lost by our own industry, we c

till this horse is shod, as the owner is waiting, and there is a new

[Pg 115] Richardson required no further help. Rich flung off his leather apron, washed himself in a bucket, and wiped the smut from Mort's

ir reverses. The girls, however, appeared chagrined and depressed, and seemed to him completely heart-broken. They were considerably older than Rich, some children having died between them. Rich, and Morton, after supper went to walk, the former observing that by reason of their limited accommodations there was no opportunity for conv

what has surprised me more than an

g

le you found me in when

en, after having met with so great and sudden a reverse, would have becom

s not assumed for t

ould not deceive me

parents compelled to renew in their old age the hardships of their youth, I should be

rime have you committed to

neck with you and Hill, I did do somewhat; but after I came home, I just fell right back into the old ruts; could not make up my mind in regard to a profession; didn't really want[Pg 117] to. I was too comfortable; but I felt mean, felt guilty. When I went to Portland, and heard you argue that case, and saw how much labor i

iculties came in consequence of his lumber and mills bei

an about the mills was out in the pouring rain watching for trouble, I was fooling-reciting a poem that I was going to deliver to a company of our young folks; and I'm ashamed to say, that what I am

es

driven into a cr

g

es

risen, the clouds had broken away overhead, and the stars came out. Every one of the men (all old river-drivers) thought the danger was over. 'Robert,' said my father, 'I think the booms will hold; the rain is over, and the river will soon fall.' The words were scarcely out of his mouth before there was a great cry from the bank above that the logs were coming. Henry said father tur

re? and how came it to break af

truck the bridge within ten feet of the house, in which the toll-keeper, his wife, and three children, one a babe in arms, were sound asleep, they supposing, as did my father, that the danger was over. Awakened by the shock, and thinking, in their fright, the house was going, they ran out on to the bridge, the mother with the babe in her arms, all in their night clothes, and were swept off, with about

king of

g of the Bo

f the family o

ridge, that was low in the water, and when they got down where the ri

g

a supposition. Will you te

you anyth

gh there was no necessity for it; when in that tremendous race at Brunswick, through gullies, thorns, coal kilns, dogs, and mires, you gave me, who had the advantage of years of training, all I could do, and distanced all the rest, that was the true nature asserting itself. I can understand why it was that, after crossing the Alps, settling down in Capua, and becoming effeminate, you lost your own self-respect, and were unhappy, and also how these feelings were all intensifi

s that,

ted for by anything you have yet told me, or that I have observed here. It seems to me that while summoning all your own resources to meet this exigency, you

t between you and me there was never a shadow or a chill. We were as completely one in sentiment and affection as that mist that's rising over the river; but after you went to hear Mr. Sewall, and wrote me about it, there seemed to be a dark shadow between us.

mean, Rich; you n

art of our place. You have seen where we live now, and I suppose you would

ou don't c

ind the anvil; and every time I go there I consider what a temptation he resisted, and feel proud of him. I don't know how others may feel, neither do I care; but I had much rather have for my father a poor man o

verlaid the steel, and bringing out the true temper. So delighted was he, that he[Pg 123] could not for

rk at the anvil and you study law a while longer, an

ure of his capacity, he is likely to make the most of himself. I've got something in view when I go back that w

ind of exercise it is. I'm su

there be some misery to that? There's a man by the name of Noble, who blows rocks on Oak St

art a hole with a churn-drill as it ought to be. I can tell you, it ta

holes for me and then I can churn; and after a while

it. It is the hardes

get sick of, or give up

, I

dealing in generalities. I demand date and place. Whe

n, you got sick of eating pork pie at Uncle Tim Longley's, and Granny

ime we were about it, for it is almost sund