Page images
PDF
EPUB

ville lies, and has almost decided upon the first to the right, when she hears a sound which turns her blood to ice in her veins.

* *

*

*

*

Hardly had she placed herself in hiding, before the open space around the intersecting roads was alive with disguised horsemen. She could catch glimpses of their figures as she gazed through the clustering pines. * (From a conversation among the horsemen, she learns which road leads to Glenville.) Lily, with her revolver ready cocked in her hand, turned, and cautiously made her way to the road which had been indicated as the one which led to Glenville. Just as her horse stepped into the path, an overhanging limb caught her hat, and pulled it off, together with the hood of her waterproof, so that her hair fell down again upon her shoulders. She hardly noticed the fact in her excitement, and, if she had, could not have stopped to repair the accident. She kept her horse upon the shady side, walking upon the grass as much as possible to prevent attracting attention, watching on all sides for any scattered members of the clan. She had proceeded thus about a hundred and fifty yards, when she came to a turn in the road, and saw, sitting before her in the moonlight, one of the disguised horsemen, evidently a sentry who had been stationed there to see that no one came upon the camp unexpectedly. He was facing the other way, but just at that instant turned, and, seeing her indistinctly in the shadow, cried out at once-

"Who's there? Halt!"

They were not twenty yards apart. Young Lollard was trembling with excitement under the tightly drawn rein. Lily thought of her father half prayerfully, half fiercely, bowed close over her horse's neck, and braced herself in the saddle, with every muscle as tense as those of the tiger waiting for his leap. Almost before the words were out of the sentry's mouth, she had given Young Lollard the spur, and shot like an arrow into the bright moonlight, straight toward the black, muffled horseman.

"My God!" he cried, amazed at the sudden apparition.

She was close upon him in an instant. There was a shot; his startled horse sprang aside, and Lily, urging Young Lollard to his

utmost speed, was flying down the road toward Glenville. She heard an uproar behind-shouts, and one or two shots. On, on. she sped. She knew now every foot of the road beyond. She looked back, and saw her pursuers swarming out of the wood into the moonlight. Just then she was in a shadow. A mile, two miles, were passed. She drew in her horse to listen. There was the noise of a horse's hoofs coming down a hill she had just descended, as her gallant steed bore her, almost with undiminished stride, up the opposite slope. She laughed, even in her terrible excitement, at the very thought that any one should attempt to overtake her.

"They'll have fleet steeds that follow, quoth young Lochinvar," she hummed as she patted Young Lollard's outstretched neck. She turned when they reached the summit, her long hair streaming backward in the moonlight like a golden banner, and saw the solitary horseman on the opposite slope; then turned back, and passed over the hill.

*

The train from Venderton had reached and left Glenville. The incomers had been divided between the rival hotels, the porters had removed the luggage, and the agent was just entering his office, when a foam-flecked horse with bloody nostrils and fiery eyes, ridden by a young girl with a white, set face, and fair, flowing hair, dashed up to the station.

"Judge Denton!" the rider shrieked. The agent had but time to motion with his hand, and she had swept on toward a carriage which was being swiftly driven away from the station, and which was just visible at the turn of the village street.

"Papa, Papa!" shrieked the girlish voice as she swept on.

A frightened face glanced backward from the carriage, and in an instant Comfort Servosse was standing in the path of the rushing steed.

"Ho, Lollard!" he shouted, in a voice which rang over the sleepy town like a trumpet-note.

The amazed horse veered quickly to one side, and stopped as if stricken to stone, while Lily fell insensible into her father's arms.

When she recovered, he was bending over her with a look in his eyes which she will never forget.

Prosperity and Adversity.

The virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favor. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost has labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needleworks and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground; judge, therefore, of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. tainly, virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant where they are incensed or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

Cer

HORACE MANN.

H

ORACE MANN was born in Franklin, Mass., May 4,

1796, and he died August 2, 1859. His parents being poor, his early life was given to hard work. At the age of twenty-one he entered Brown University. Having studied law, he settled in Dedham, but soon moved to Boston.

We admire Horace Mann chiefly for the part he has taken in the educational interests of the United States. The present efficiency of the school system of Massachusetts is due almost wholly to his work. In 1837, he was chosen. secretary of the State Board of Education. He continued in this office for twelve years. In 1853, he became president of Antioch College, at Yellow Springs, Ohio. His work as a teacher closed here, but his writing will ever continue to teach and to inspire those engaged in educational matters.

His political record is important. In 1836, he was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate, where his prominence placed him at the head of the educational interests of his State.

Upon the death of John Quincy Adams, he was chosen to represent his district in Congress, a position he occupied for six years. While in Congress he took an active part in all true reform measures. His remains rest in a buryingground at Providence, R. I., and his bronze statue stands in the State House yard, Boston, opposite to that of Webster.

19

Children and Their Education.

The following we take from Horace Mann's lecture, entitled-"What God Does, and What He Leaves for Man to do, in the Work of Education." It is one of the finest productions in print, and should be read with careful thought.

The entire helplessness of children, for a long period after birth, is another circumstance not within our control, and one deserving of great moral consideration. In one respect, children may be said to possess their greatest power, at this, the feeblest period of their existence;-a power which, however paradoxical it may seem, originates in helplessness, and therefore diminishes just in proportion as they gain strength. It was most beautifully said by Dr. Thomas Brown, that after a child has grown to manhood, "he cannot, even then, by the most imperious order, which he addresses to the most obsequious slave, exercise an authority more commanding than that which, in the very first hours of his life, when a few indistinct cries and tears were his only language, he exercised irresistibly over hearts, of the very existence of which he was ignorant." It may be added that, under no terror of a despot's rage; under no bribe of honors, or of wealth; under no fear of torture, or of death, have greater struggles been made, or greater sacrifices endured, than for those helpless creatures, who, for all purposes of immediate availability, are so utterly worthless. All, unless it be the lowest savages, fly to the succor, and melt at the sufferings of infancy. God has so adapted their unconscious pleadings to our uncontrollable impulse, that they, in their weakness, have the prerogative of command, and we, in our strength, the instinct of obedience. It was the highest wisdom, then, not to intrust the fate of infancy to any volitions or notions of expediency, on our part; but, at once, by a sovereign law of the constitution, to make our knowledge and power submissive to their inarticulate commands.

In proportion as this power of helplessness wanes, the child begins to excite our interest and sympathy, by a thousand personal

« PreviousContinue »