THE MORTGAGE 
 FORECLOSED
 
 THE 
 
 MORTGAGE FORECLOSED 
 
 A STORY OF THE FARM 
 
 BY 
 
 E. H. THAYER 
 
 CHICAGO 
 HOMEWOOD PUBLISHING COMPANY
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1892. 
 BY BELFORD-CLARKE CO. 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 COPYRIGHT. 1893. 
 BY W. B. CONK.EY COMPANY.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE ARRIVAL, ........ 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FARMERS' WIVES BUYING GOODS, - . - - 20 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 LEARNING SOMETHING VERY FAST, .... 27 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE WAT TO KEEP BOYS AND GIRLS AT THE FARM. 37 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE FARMER His WIFE His DAUGHTER AND His SON, 45 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 LOVERS' TALK, 53 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE MORTGAGE ON THE FARM AND HOW IT GOT THERE. 61 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HOW TO GET HID OF THE MoilTGACK ON THK FAHM, - 74 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER, 85 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 WHY SHE REFUSED TO MARRY MAJOR HOLBROOK, - 90 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 LOVERS ON THE LAKE, ----- 101 
 
 v 
 
 2133195
 
 VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 ON THE OCEAN DANGEROUS RESEMBLANCE, - 108 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 THE SHIPWRECK, 116 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 POISONED, - 122 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 THE WILL, is A FORGERY, - 129 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 THB DECEPTION, 138 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 Is AN UNKNOWN LAND, 144 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 THE WILL IN COURT, 153 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE EVIDENCE, AND THE JUDGE'S ADVICE TO THE 
 
 FARMERS, 160 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 THE THRILLING STORY TOLD BY MRS. WINTERS, - 174 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 GROUNDWIG'S INFAMOUS DEMAND, - - - - 183 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 PERJURY EXPOSED, - 192 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 FREE WOOL THE VERDICT, 205 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 A GHOST'S DISPATCH TO A DEAD WOMAN, 217 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 MANNING ENCOUNTERS GROUNDWIG, .... 224
 
 CONTEXTS. Vli 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 GOD'S GIFT OF DREAMS, 230 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 I FORGOT ! I FORGOT ! 236 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 Is IT CHARLES MAXXIXG OR HARRY WINTERS ? - - 242 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 SHALL, THE IMPOSTER SUCCEED ? 250 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 CLEAR THE TRACK TO BRADFORD JUNCTION. - - 256 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 THE RACE AND THE RESCUE, 264 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 A RETROSPECT A MARRIAGE THE WHITE LIGHT, 273
 
 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ARRIVAL. 
 
 " Lightning expresses, even if they are on branch 
 roads, don't stop long at small places. So you will 
 have to hurry up a little, my good woman. There 
 now, step lively, my little man. No one to meet you? 
 Well you will have no trouble in finding your friends, 
 if you have any here, because you can peep in every 
 door-way in the village in half an hour. All aboard." 
 Thojugh there was no person in sight to go aboard, 
 the cull was made just the same, from force of habit. 
 Off the train moved, and in a moment it rounded the 
 curve, and was out of sight. 
 
 Something had so disturbed the lady as to cause 
 her to weep. It may have been the .conductor's 
 reference to friends that came not, or it may have 
 been the sudden realization of the fact that she and 
 her little boy were among strangers. The village 
 \vu.s quiet and still, as if the houses were tenantless 
 and the former occupants had gone to church or to a 
 merry-making in the beautiful grove near by. The 
 country store was open and the stranger, holding her 
 boy tightly by the hand, walked in. The proprietor, 
 finding she did not wish to purchase any goods, invited
 
 10 THE MORTGAGE FOBECLOSED. 
 
 her to a seat. She appeared bewildered, despondent 
 and somewhat dazed, and was evidently wrapped 
 up in thoughts she could not drive from her, even 
 had she so desired. The bright-eyed, curly-haired, 
 fair-cheeked, little fellow by her side sought to cheer 
 and comfort her by soothing words, tenderly and 
 sweetly spoken, and she soon roused from her seem- 
 ing lethargy, and embracing her boy lovingly and 
 endearingly, assured him that now, and at last, she 
 was weeping for joy! They Avere the tears of peace, 
 contentment and self-satisfaction. The tears of sor- 
 row had given way to the tears of joy. Flowing 
 almost together and at the self -same moment from 
 the self-same fountain yet between them was a 
 gulf as wide as that which separates time from eter- 
 nity. 
 
 The lady assured the store-keeper that she was a 
 stranger in the village, that, in fact, she was a stranger 
 in the State, and had neither friend nor relative, as 
 far as she knew, in all the great, grand West. She 
 and her boy would like to remain a few days, if she 
 could find a home with some of the good people of the 
 village. The man called in his wife, and telling her 
 what the lady wished, the pleasant and cheerful little 
 woman soon arranged that the new comers should 
 occupy the spare room over the store and take their 
 meals at the store-keeper's table. 
 
 Less than forty houses constituted the village, and 
 yet had the strange lady searched the broad West 
 throughout, she would nowhere have found a place 
 better suited to her loneliness and friendlessness. She 
 had traveled more than a thousand miles, that she
 
 THE ARRIVAL. 11 
 
 and her boy might not be separated by the strong 
 arm of the law. Her guiding star had directed her 
 to this beautiful valley, and, for the first time for 
 weeks, she began to realize there was still much in 
 life to live for. 
 
 The following morning she looked about the vil- 
 lage, and was charmed with the beauty of the sur- 
 rounding scenery. She admired its loveliness, and 
 was delighted with the pretty, little crooked stream 
 which ran along the valley, as if playing hide-and- 
 seek with the adjacent, grassy bluffs, then, losing 
 itself in the friendly groves, to reappear on the dis- 
 tant prairie, where, like a silvery serpent, it wriggled 
 and twisted itself along until lost in the far-away 
 lake. 
 
 Every day the stranger and her boy could be seen 
 taking long walks in the country. With each pass- 
 ing hour she seemed more and more delighted with 
 all she saw. She would stop at the farm houses to 
 rest, and she never left without having made a friend. 
 All the villagers came to know her, but none of them 
 knew her history or cared to know it. They only 
 knew that a woman of her intelligence and refine- 
 ment, brought up in an Eastern home, amid wealth 
 and affluence, must have a history of absorbing in- 
 terest, or why should she leave home and kindred to 
 dwell among strangers? But no one sought to share 
 with her that secret. There was no village gossip to 
 shun, no mutual friend into whose ears she might 
 tell her story, if story she had to tell, nor did she 
 want such a friend to listen and perhaps to betray 
 but all were friends now, all were neighbors, and all
 
 12 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 delighted in making her contented and happy a 
 condition in life the kind-hearted and generous- 
 natured farm people knew so well the value of. 
 
 Mrs. Winters might have told a story of thrilling 
 interest, and yet her past life was like ^the placid 
 waters of yonder stream, while the life she had yet 
 to experience was like the seething, boiling cauldron 
 in the turbulent river when at flood height, and after 
 a night of tempest. 
 
 But just now she is exceedingly happy. Her mind 
 was made up that her home should be in this beauti- 
 ful valley. Here she would live and here she would 
 die. In her walks she had often stopped at a farm 
 house where it seemed difficult for the hard-working 
 owner to make both ends meet at the end of the year. 
 He had quite a large family to provide for, but the 
 number of mouths to feed could not have contributed 
 to his unfortunate circumstances had there not been 
 a controlling cause elsewhere. The several members 
 of the family were industrious workers, toiling from 
 early morn until late at night. She had heard the 
 farmer express a desire to sell his place. She thought 
 to introduce the subject of buying and ascertain the 
 cause of his ill luck, and if the circumstances were 
 not too discouraging, she would purchase the farm. 
 
 " Farmer Chase/' said Mrs. Winters, one evening 
 as the sturdy old yeoman came in from his work, " I 
 have often heard you say you would like to sell your 
 farm. I want to buy some such a place as this, but 
 before I talk of buying I want to know why you wish 
 to sell." 
 
 " I will tell you candidly. I have had so much bad
 
 THE ARRIVAL. 13 
 
 luck in the past eight or ten years that I have been 
 compelled to run in debt, mortgage my farm, and I 
 see no other way than to consent to its foreclosure, 
 let the holder of the mortgage have the farm, and I 
 will pick up the little I may be able to save, take my 
 family and start for the far West, where I can enter a 
 homestead and begin life again way down at the 
 bottom." 
 
 " Farmer Chase, you say you have had bad luck. 
 In what way has such luck manifested itself? You 
 have a nice farm, the crops look well, the yield bids 
 fair to be large, you and your boys do all the farm 
 work, pray tell me about your bad luck your crops 
 have not failed have they ? " 
 
 " Xo. I have been very fortunate in raising good 
 crops every season, my land is exceedingly fertile and 
 yields most bountifully, but the price of farm prod- 
 uce has been so low right along, year after year, that 
 really the profit has not been sufficient for me to buy 
 those necessaries of life which we must have to exist 
 even half-way comfortably." 
 
 " Then it is not the farm that is to blame for your 
 ill luck, but something else that happens after you 
 and your family and the farm have all done their 
 duty. Have you any idea why the price of farm prod- 
 uce is not sufficient to support your hard-working 
 family?" 
 
 " Xo, I have not," continued Farmer Chase; "some 
 six 3 r ears ago I put a mortgage of five hundred dollars 
 on my farm. I have paid the interest everyyear,but 
 I have been compelled to increase the amount of the 
 mortgage until at the present time is is nine hundred
 
 H THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 and fifty dollars. I have been running behind about 
 one hundred and fifty dollars each year, and I see no 
 way of even starting again on a farm unless I can sell 
 my property for enough more than the mortgage to 
 enable me to buy an emigrant's outfit and sufficient 
 supplies to last my family until we can get settled 
 again. You know when a farm is mortgaged within 
 a few hundred dollars of its selling value, it is diffi- 
 cult to realize any more than the amount of the 
 mortgage. A foreclosure usually wipes out the farmer's 
 entire possessions, and I know of scores of cases where 
 farmers who have spent a quarter of a century in hard 
 work on the farm were compelled to part with all 
 they had and go out into the world, wife, children 
 and all, homeless and penniless. This may be my 
 fate." 
 
 " Farmer Chase, something is wrong, radically 
 wrong somewhere, when in a rich and fertile farming 
 country like this, where the crops never fail and the 
 yield is ever bountiful, that men and their families 
 must, after years of incessant toil, give up the fruits of 
 their hard labor and move outside of civilization and 
 begin life over again. It is not the soil you say that 
 is to blame for this thing, nor is it the lack of proper 
 management of the farm, nor is it because willing 
 hands do not toil and dig the livelong day through, 
 and ofttimes far into the night. Farmer Chase, I 
 know the cause as well as I know the leaves on yonder 
 oak. I know that the farmers of this great West, like 
 the operatives in the Xew England factories, are being 
 robbed of their earnings by the unjust tariff laws of 
 the land. But I will not discuss the cause of your
 
 THE ARRIVAL. 15 
 
 ill luck just now. I like your farm. I know it will 
 suit me. I have a little income from other sources 
 and will not be dependent entirely on the profits of 
 the farm for a livelihood. Your price is reasonable, 
 and you can make me the deed, and if you desire to 
 give possession at once I will take your crops at a fair 
 valuation.' 5 
 
 The bargain being closed, Farmer Chase gathered 
 around him those members of his family too young to 
 go into the world by themselves and earn a living, 
 and at once made preparations for seeking a new 
 home. They visited the little church-yard and bade 
 a long farewell to the loved ones sleeping there; 
 they took a last look at the little church where the 
 babea had been christened and baptized; one fond 
 gaze at the red school-house, a tearful adieu to the 
 old homestead, then embracing the grown-up children 
 who would stay and struggle on to make a living, hop- 
 ing to pull through, and a cordial handshake with the 
 neighbors, a trembling good-bye to all, and Farmer 
 Chase, at the age of three-score years, started his little 
 emigrant train on a journey of seven hundred miles, 
 to make himself a new home in a new land. Some of 
 the neighbors who went a piece with the old man, to 
 encourage and cheer him, said it was a generous 
 country that would donate to unfortunate farmers 
 land for a homestead. 
 
 V generous government indeed," remarked Mrs. 
 Winters, "to enact unjust and oppressive laws that 
 make it impossible for the average farmer to earn a 
 living on the farm. Laws that force him to mortgage 
 his home to obtain the means to support his family,
 
 16 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 and when sold out on the mortgage, and turned adrift, 
 offer him a quarter section of land in the wilderness 
 almost a thousand miles away! " 
 
 This remark was not directed to any one, and no one 
 replied. The old farmers looked at each other in 
 amazement. Here was a woman talking, and it looked 
 as though she knew what she was talking about. 
 Some of her listeners were but other Farmer Chases. 
 They wanted to hear more on a subject which came 
 so near their own homes, and they had not long to 
 wait. 
 
 "Why not," continued Mrs. Winters, " take off 
 that part of the tax on 'the necessaries of life, which 
 goes as donations into the pockets of the wealthy man- 
 ufacturer, and, by so doing, permit the farmer to spend 
 his old age where he has earned the moral right to 
 spend it, on the homestead God made for him, under 
 the roof where he had raised his family, instead of rob- 
 bing him of his earnings by an unjust tariff on every- 
 thing he buys? Why drain his brow of the sweat 
 which comes from honest toil and then send him 
 adrift to pick up a stray piece of land outside the 
 borders of civilization where he has the choice of 
 working himself to death or starving to death? 
 
 " It may be generous on the part of the govern- 
 ment to so donate its farms, but it would be far more 
 just were it to repeal some of the laws which are driv- 
 ing those farmers to accept of its bounty. It would 
 only require a reduction of about one-half the tax on 
 the necessaries with the tariff on raw material abol- 
 ished, to enable nearly every farmer in the land, whose 
 home is mortgaged, to look ahead to the time when
 
 THE ARRIVAL. 17 
 
 he would be out of debt, with the prospect of accumu- 
 lating a competence for his family in case of his 
 death, or laying by something for himself in his old 
 age." 
 
 A bad feature in connection with Farmer Chase's 
 forced removal, was the fact that he was leaving 
 behind two sons and one daughter, all of whom were 
 married and all struggling to keep their heads above 
 water, and the old farmer could not see why his fate 
 might not be theirs in a few seasons more. If things 
 did not improve, if farm produce brought no better 
 prices, and if the necessaries of life kept up, they, 
 too, would be compelled to submit to foreclosure of 
 the mortgages on their farms and make new homes 
 in the new West. While there were many farmers in 
 that neighborhood comfortably fixed and well to do, 
 yet to many others the outlook was gloomy in the 
 extreme, not only for the time being but for the 
 future. So when any person came among them, 
 even though a woman, and gave sensible reasons with 
 the proof, for so much ill luck and bad fortune, all 
 were ready to listen, though many were slow to be- 
 lieve and act. 
 
 Mrs. Winters bought that particular farm, not 
 only for a home, but its seclusion suited her feelings, 
 and it afforded her a hiding place, as she often times 
 termed it, from a mysterious somebody, whose com- 
 ing she thought improbable and yet constantly 
 dreaded; and the location was in the very midst of 
 the clear people for whose welfare, as a class, sha had 
 determined to devote her life's work. 
 
 She was, however, unused to a farm. Since her
 
 18 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 school days she had busied herself, as a labor of love, 
 in looking after the comfort and happiness of factory 
 operatives, and, thus engaged, she had familiarized 
 herself with many of the labor problems, some of 
 which she had solved and settled in her own mind 
 and to her own satisfaction. She was a firm believer 
 in the theory that a high tariff for the purposes of 
 protection, not only did not benefit labor but was a 
 positive injury to it. She had studied the subject 
 in all the phases it presented itself, and the more 
 she studied and investigated the practical applica- 
 tion of it as exhibited in the industries specially 
 protected by the tariff, the more firmly impressed 
 was she that labor, on the farm or in the factory, in 
 the shop or mill or mines, had nothing to gain by a 
 high tariff, but everything to lose. 
 
 The correctness of these sentiments and these doc- 
 trines was so firmly imbedded in her mind, that, when 
 compelled on a moment's warning to snatch her child 
 from sudden danger and flee from her home and the 
 graves of her kindred, it did not take her long, after 
 reaching her new home, to realize that the huge indus- 
 trial interests of the great agricultural regions of the 
 West were fettered and shackled by the -same gall- 
 ing chains that the tariff was forging in the East. 
 She made up her mind that, though woman she was, 
 she had a mission to perform among the farmers, and 
 perform it she would, no matter how great the sac- 
 rifice. 
 
 The farm Mrs. Winters purchased was on a side 
 hill, with the buildings very near the brow. From 
 the house to the river, which meandered in plain
 
 THE ARRIVAL. 19 
 
 sight, was a gentle slope. Had the place been 
 selected for its picturesqueness and beautiful natural 
 scenery, it would have been all that a devoted ad- 
 mirer of nature could have desired. The highway 
 ran about a hundred rods from the house, and be- 
 tween the house and the road was a wide lane, on each 
 side of which was a row of thrifty maple trees. The 
 river was not a large one, though it was dignified 
 with a large name. But it was a beautiful stream, 
 and when not disturbed by the spring and fall 
 freshets, was as placid and smooth as crystal. The 
 eye seemed never to weary in gazing upon the scarcely 
 perceptible current, as it moved so gently and so 
 noiselessly along, while its banks, lined with luxuri- 
 ant grasses, reflected beneath the waters, apparently 
 resting against the shadows of the clouds, made a 
 picture of exceeding loveliness. A short distance on 
 the prairie was quite a large body of water, which was 
 known as the lake. On the sides of the lake was a 
 slope or beach, formed by the' sand washed from the 
 water's bed by the wind of summer and ice of winter. 
 Nestled so gracefully in the lap of the prairie, the 
 lake seemed to be only a temporary visitor, and one 
 might easily imagine that, when completely rested, it 
 would start off for other climes where it might refresh 
 other prairies and gladden other hearts.
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 FARMERS' WIVES BUY GOODS, AXD TVHY THEY 
 DIDN'T BUY ALL THEY XEEDED. 
 
 The nearest neighbor Mrs. Winters had, lived a 
 mile distant. He was a well-to-do farmer, who had 
 served his country in the Civil War, and at its close 
 married the girl of his boyhood's choice and moved 
 from his Eastern home into the settlement. His 
 farm was a large one for that section of the West, 
 and having brought considerable money with him, he 
 accumulated more each year, until he was consid- 
 ered one of the most forehanded men in the county. 
 He had been fortunate in his investments and lucky 
 in his speculations, and indeed everything he touched 
 seemed to turn to gold. He interested himself in 
 everything that was going on around him, and took 
 the laboring oar in pushing neighborhood improve- 
 ments. He contributed quite largely toward build- 
 ing the only church in the settlement, he subscribed 
 generously toward the preacher's salary, and he vol- 
 untarily added quite a sum to his own taxes, to make 
 larger and more comfortable the contemplated new 
 school-house. He exhibited much taste in the con- 
 struction of the buildings on his farm, and was con- 
 stantly suggesting to the neighbors how easily and 
 cheaply certain improvements could be made in and 
 about their homes. His wife was a lady of culture 
 and refinement, taking pride in assisting her hus- 
 
 20
 
 FARMERS' WTYES BUT GOODS. 21 
 
 band in carrying out his plans, and encouraging the 
 neighbors to do numerous little things which served 
 to make home pleasanter and more attractive to its 
 inmates. A little, curly-headed, golden-haired girl, 
 with the blackest of black eyes, and the reddest of red 
 cheeks, and the prettiest little mouth one would 
 care to see, who was now fairly in the fourth sum- 
 mer of her little life, made up the balance of Major 
 Stephen Holbrookes family. 
 
 It did not take long for the two families to be- 
 come quite intimately acquainted. Their children, 
 Henry and Mary, often played together, and the two 
 women frequently met at each other's houses, and 
 oftentimes planned many a pleasant surprise for 
 those neighbors whose circumstances in life were not 
 the most prosperous. 
 
 When Mary was ten years old, her mother died. 
 Left at this early age without a mother's tender care, 
 she naturally looked to Mrs. Winters as the person 
 she had the right to love as a mother, and Mrs. Winters 
 returned that love in the most generous manner. 
 
 Mrs. Winters never grew weary in her efforts to 
 help lighten the burdens of her neighbors. The more 
 she went among them and familiarized herself with 
 their manner of getting along, the more she was con- 
 firmed in the opinion that the difficulty in the way of 
 their prosperity was not the fault of the farmer or his 
 family. 
 
 She saw that the farmer worked long hours, and 
 all the members of his family who were large enough 
 to count as help, performed their share of the drudg- 
 ery. The husband followed the plow from sun-
 
 22 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 rise, through all the long day, to sunset, and the wife 
 would be up and at work with the break of morning, 
 and toil through all the hours, almost without a mo- 
 ment's rest, until bedtime. The children had they 1 
 tasks to do, which kept them busy until the hours of 
 school, and upon their return in the evening they 
 would take up the unfinished work of the morning, 
 and never complete it, until they were children no 
 longer. The same drudgery, over and over, day after 
 day, the same routine of work, the only variation or 
 change was simply from one hard task to a harder 
 one. 
 
 Mrs. "Winters pitied these families. She felt that 
 the farmer and his family earned rest, recreation and 
 luxuries, which some one else was enjoying. She 
 knew that half this labor on the farm went to main- 
 tain the nation's policy of a high protected tariff. 
 To use the fruits of the farmer's toil for such a pur- 
 pose was extortion, made in the name of law, and not 
 made because the necessities of the government re- 
 quired it. She had resolved she would do her part 
 in opening the eyes of the farmers and the members 
 of their families to the great outrage the tariff was 
 inflicting upon them. So she set to work to convince 
 them that the remedy was in their own hands, and 
 that they were themselves to blame if they did hot 
 apply it and become free men and free women. 
 
 One morning, late in the fall, several neighbors were 
 going to town to purchase family supplies, more 
 particularly clothing for winter wear, and Mrs. 
 Winters, desiring to make a few purchases, joined 
 the party. They found the stores largely stocked
 
 FARMERS' WIVES BUY GOODS. 23 
 
 with goods, so much so that they expressed surprise 
 at the merchant's affording to buy so heavily, because 
 they knew trade was dull and but few goods were 
 being sold. 
 
 One of the ladies, Mrs. Wilber, desired to purchase 
 three cloaks, one for herself and one for each of her 
 two daughters. The price of each cloak was nine 
 dollars. This price admitted of her buying but two 
 garments, remarking, as she paid the money, that one 
 of the daughters would have to wait another year 
 for a cloak. She bought thirty-six yards of carpet 
 for thirty dollars, and she paid sixteen dollars for 
 woolen dress goods. Twelve dollars was spent for 
 hosiery and underwear. The entire bill came to 
 seventy-six dollars. There were quite a number of 
 articles of real necessity Mrs. Wilber needed for 
 herself and family, and she did not know how they 
 could get along without them. She had bought a 
 third less carpeting than the rooms required, she 
 was compelled to get along with two cloaks when 
 three were just as essential as two, and she had pur- 
 chased less than one-half the underwear she had ex- 
 pected to. She sat down on a bench, half sick and 
 completely discouraged. Things she had promised 
 the children, and things that were necessary to make 
 them fairly comfortable during the winter, she could 
 not buy, because of the high prices she paid for the 
 goods she did buy, and which she must have, and 
 for the purchase of which she had been saving money 
 the whole year long. 
 
 Mrs. Wilber, sat there sad and in tears. Mrs. 
 Winters went to her, and readily divining the cause
 
 24 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 of the tears, sought to comfort her. She tokl her 
 that another year things might come round all right, 
 so that by practicing self-denial a few more months, 
 she could make the purchases she and her family so 
 much needed. 
 
 "There is not the least bit of comfort or conso- 
 lation," remarked Mrs. "Wilber, " in your words. It 
 is the same thing, over and over, each year. I am 
 forced to scrimp and manage and economize and 
 work and save all the year through, expecting to 
 make my children more comfortable and supply 
 them with the wearing apparel they actually need 
 and should have. I encourage them to stay with me 
 on the farm, by promising them that things will be 
 better another year, and that we have passed through 
 the worst. Nor do I know who is to blame. The 
 crops are excellent every year. Our granaries and 
 barns are full. Our stock always do well and are as 
 fat as anybody's, and sell as well as any of our neigh- 
 bor's. But the prices keep low, and the things we 
 have to sell bring such a slight advance on the cost 
 of producing them, that there is very little left with 
 which to buy necessaries for the family. The Lord 
 is certainly good to us. Yet I see no silver lining to 
 the cloud that constantly hovers over my head. I 
 thought this year, when the crops yielded so bounti- 
 fully, that I could certainly buy those articles my 
 children so much needed and which they had gone 
 without until to go without longer means shame and 
 suffering for them and for me. I find I can not do 
 it. I tell you, Mrs. Winters, I am discouraged. I 
 am willing to work like a slave to wear my finger
 
 FARMERS' WIVES BUY GOODS. 25 
 
 ends to the bone to welcome sunken cheeks and 
 pale lips and fevered brow to make any sacrifice 
 that will secure for me and mine these necessaries 
 that we so much need. I see no prospect, even in the 
 future, for better things. The farm is mortgaged, 
 and no matter what comforts the family must be 
 deprived of, the interest must be paid, and one of 
 these days I can plainly see the home must be sold 
 to pay off the mortgage." 
 
 "Mrs. Wilber, I feel for you, and I pity you from 
 the bottom of my heart/' replied Mrs. Winters, "and 
 while you look about you in vain to find where the 
 blame lies, let me tell you that you yourself are 
 partly to blame for " 
 
 " I partly to blame for my children being illy clad 
 and illy fed, Mrs. Winters! I to blame for the sac- 
 rifices we all make that we may live comfortably! I 
 who toil more hours than a slave toils for his master! I 
 who every day deny myself things which are neces- 
 sary to my health and comfort, I who " 
 
 " Now, wait a moment, Mrs. Wilber, and hear me 
 through. I am sorry I have wounded your feelings, 
 but it is only in wounds sometimes that the remedy 
 can be applied. You have now reached that point in 
 making self-denials that you ought to be willing to 
 listen. Will you hear me?" 
 
 "I know you are a sensible woman, Mrs. Winters, 
 and that you have gone through lots of trouble, and 
 I have no doubt your experience will be of great 
 benefit to me, and I assure you I will not only listen 
 to what you have to say, but if you can point out 
 where I have been guilty of negligence, or where I
 
 26 Till ED. 
 
 have made mistakes, I will be ever ready to admit 
 my faults and do better as I learn how to do bet- 
 ter." 
 
 "Mrs. Wilber, you have nothing to grieve at or 
 lament over. You have been a noble and true wife 
 and a most devoted mother. When I said you were 
 partly to blame for the trouble which seems to over- 
 whelm you, I meant you had not used the influence 
 you possess to remote the cause of your trouble." 
 
 Mrs. Wilber was perplexed. She did not take 
 kindly to the idea that she was in any manner to 
 blame for the ill luck which befell her family. Nor 
 could she understand wherein she could wield .an 
 influence that could help to rid her of the trouble 
 she had complained of. So she made bold to ask 
 Mrs. Winters to explain her meaning.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LEARNING SOMETHING VERT FAST. 
 
 " You speak, Mrs. Winters, of my influence," said 
 Mrs. Wilber, "I did not suppose I had any influence 
 except such as grows out of the drudgery in ijiy 
 kitchen. Pray tell me in what way a poor, weak 
 woman like me has auy other influence with whom 
 and how can I use it?" 
 
 "\ will tell you," replied Mrs. Winters, "and I 
 want you to mark well what I tell you. You have 
 just purchased a bill of goods. You are sorely dis- 
 appointed at the prices, and at your inability to buy 
 more for your money, and you feel the worse because 
 you know you can not treat all the members of your 
 family alike. You have bought two cloaks, and you 
 needed three as much as you did two. You paid 
 eighteen dollars for the two. Now, Mrs. Wilber, 
 the tax levied by the government on those two cloaks 
 amounts to ten dollars and eighty cents. The tax on 
 the carpet you bought is fifteen dollars, on the dress 
 goods six dollars and seventy-two cents, and on the 
 underwear, five dollars and forty cents, making 
 a total tax on your purchases of thirty-seven dollars 
 and ninety-two cents. The greater portion of this 
 tax you have just paid is for the purpose of protect- 
 ing the manufacturers of those goods against the 
 manufacturers of other countries. If you were per- 
 mitted to buy those goods wherever you wanted to, 
 
 27
 
 28 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 you would save three dollars on each cloak, twenty- 
 five cents on each yard of carpet and thirty cents on 
 each dollar's worth of dress goods and underwear you 
 use." 
 
 "I do not understand you/' remarked Mrs. Wil- 
 ber. " Is not this a free country, and have I not 
 the right to go where I please and spend my own 
 money ? " 
 
 " Yes, you have," said Mrs. Winters. "You buy of 
 the country merchant. He is not permitted to go out- 
 side the United States and buy the goods he sells 
 you without paying a large tax on the things he buys, 
 and this tax he must charge to his customers." 
 
 "Even admitting that, how do you make out," said 
 Mrs. Wilber, "that if I could buy where I wanted 
 to, I could save three dollars on a cloak and twenty- 
 five cents on each yard of carpet, and yet pay that 
 tax?" 
 
 " This is the way it is done, "answered Mrs. Win- 
 ters. "The amount you would then save does not 
 go to the government,, but to the wealthy manufact- 
 urers who make the goods you have just bought. 
 They have persuaded the law-makers that they 
 could not operate their factories if the people of the 
 United States were not compelled to buy of them, 
 and in order that they should so buy, a tax is put so 
 high on goods made in foreign countries, that you 
 and everybody else in the United States must pay for 
 the American-made goods you buy, the selling price 
 of Europe with an average tariff of some forty-seven 
 per cent, added. In other words the tax on that 
 cloak is five dollars and forty cents two dollars and
 
 LEARNING SOMETHING VERY FAST. 29 
 
 forty cents, if it is of foreign make, goes to the gov- 
 ernment to help pay the current expenses, and three 
 dollars goes to the American manufacturer Or in 
 other words if the tax on the cloak was only a gov- 
 ernment tax for the use of the government, you 
 would save three dollars. That three dollars is your 
 gift outright to protect a man in a business that he 
 insists will not be profitable unless you give him that 
 three dollars, and you are compelled to pay very 
 nearly a like proportion to him or somebody else on 
 nearly everything you buy." 
 
 " Don't the manufacturers of the goods I have 
 bought make them as cheap as any other country 
 
 can 
 
 " KJ! Not in every instance. Other countries, as 
 a rule, pay no tax on raw material, which is the most 
 expensive item in the cost of the goods. To illus- 
 trate: Were the tax taken off wool and the tax on 
 woolen goods reduced one-half, you could have 
 bought the goods for which you paid seventy-six dol- 
 lars for about fifty dollars, and still contribute some 
 fifteen dollars outright to the manufacturer for his 
 protection. Such contributions would enable him 
 to make his business so profitable and his sales so 
 extensive that he could pay the highest wages to his 
 workmen and receive an income from his capital of 
 ten times the per cent, your husband receives on his 
 investment. 
 
 "This reduction of the tax on those few articles 
 you have purchased would give you twenty-six dol- 
 lars more to spend, enabling you to buy the other 
 cloak your daughter so badly needs, and instead of
 
 30 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 going home to explain to the other members of your 
 family the reason you could not bring them the 
 things they so much wanted and expected, you could 
 make their hearts rejoice when you untied the bun- 
 dles and laid before them the goods so necessary to 
 their comfort and pleasure. 
 
 " Such a reduction of the tax and the admission of 
 wool free, would have permitted the manufacturer 
 to sell to one family one other cloak, fifteen yards 
 more of carpet and sixteen or eighteen dollars worth 
 more of woolen goods and underwear. It is more 
 than probable there are one hundred such customers 
 situated as you are, to one who can buy what they 
 want, so instead of there being an over production of 
 such goods, and the discharging of hands for want 
 of employment, there would be a demand at home 
 and abroad for all the goods made and steady work 
 for all who wished to work. Instead of so many 
 woolen mills going into bankruptcy, they would be 
 running full time and giving employment to thou- 
 sands of operatives that are now idle, and making a 
 better home market for farm produce." 
 
 " All you say looks reasonable," said Mrs. "Wilber, 
 "and I believe every word of it. I would be awful 
 dull if I couldn't see that such a tax is unjust and 
 unnecessary, and that it is no better than robbery to 
 take what belongs to my family and what we 
 together have earned, and give it to some rich man- 
 ufacturer. Now that is wicked. The greater part 
 of what the government demands it don't need, and 
 if it did it don't get it. I can't see anyreason why 
 the manufacturer couldn't get along just as well
 
 LF.A1IN" VERY FAST. 31 
 
 with the tax largely reduced. He could if he had to. 
 I suppose he wouldn't accumulate a big fortune 
 quite so rapidly. But for that reason ought my fam- 
 ily to 'go without the necessaries and comforts of 
 life? But pray tell me how I can help to change 
 such a wicked law. I don't know one of the men 
 who make the laws, and if I did I wouldn't dare to 
 go to him and tell him I thought the law was the 
 outrage on the farmers you prove it to be." 
 
 "I am coming to that pretty soon/' replied Mrs. 
 Winters, "but before I do, there are some other 
 points I desire to present to you, and as I have no 
 doubt the shopping experience to-day of the other 
 ladies is similar to yours, I will wait until we are 
 ready to ride-home, and then I will answer your ques- 
 tions and explain other matters connected with your 
 purchases." 
 
 It did not take Mrs. Winters long to ascertain that 
 not one of the three ladies making up the party 
 was satisfied with the purchases they had made. The 
 story of each was Mrs. Wilber's story over again. 
 When Mrs. Winters told them it was the high tariff 
 or tax which prevented their buying the goods they 
 needed and expected to buy with the money they 
 had, they were eager to listen. 
 
 "I tell you, ladies, you wives of farmers," Mrs. 
 Winters proceeded, "it is this high tariff you hear 
 so much about, and which you take so little interest 
 in, because you think you can't understand it, that 
 is preventing you from clothing your family com- 
 fortably and supplying them with the necessaries of 
 life. I need only refer to your own experience of
 
 32 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 to-day to illustrate the truth of this statement. Not 
 an article have you bought but the tax was from 
 forty to seventy per cent., and at least one hundred 
 dollars of the three hundred you have spent goes as 
 a gift outright into the pockets of the wealthy man- 
 ufacturers, while only a small portion goes into the 
 treasury of the government." 
 
 " But my dear Mrs. Winters, " interposed Mrs. 
 Tyler, " is not this tax necessary to permit the man- 
 ufacturers to pay fair wages to their employes, and 
 must not the laborer have living wages to enable him 
 to buy what the farmer has to sell? Had we farmers* 
 wives not better pay this tax than not have a home 
 market for farm produce?" 
 
 "I admit/' responded Mrs. Winters, "that is the 
 argument constantly dinned into the farmers' ears 
 by the manufacturers, but it has no weight at all 
 when put along side of cold facts. A few days since 
 Gregory & Jones, the proprietors of an extensive 
 cloak and shawl factory, went into bankruptcy, 
 throwing eight hundred men and women out of em- 
 ployment. Why was it? For the very reason Mrs. 
 Wilber was compelled to get along with two cloaks 
 for her family when she ought to have had three. 
 She could not buy the three because they were taxed 
 beyond her means in order to protect the manufact- 
 urer, who in turn failed because he could not sell 
 the goods be manufactured. It didn't seem to be 
 protection he needed, but customers, and he was pro- 
 tected so much and there was so much of a tax on 
 everything that entered into the make up of his 
 goods, that even all the protection he received only
 
 LEARXIXG SOMETHING VERY FAST. 33 
 
 resulted in his asking so much for his goods that the 
 masses of the people could not buy them. Gregory 
 & Jones were protected into bankruptcy. Protection, 
 it will be seen, prevents other countries from bring- 
 ing those goods here, and it also prevents the home 
 manufacturer from making goods that everybody 
 could buy. If protection shuts up the woolen mills 
 whereby an hundred thousand operatives are forced 
 into idleness, how does such protection help the 
 farmer to sell his produce? Could these woolen fac- 
 tories have the privilege of buying the raw material 
 they use wherever it is the cheapest, they could 
 sell their goods as cheap as any other country, and 
 they could sell so cheap that they would supply other 
 countries with woolen goods instead of having other 
 countries supply this, as they do every year with 
 millions of dollars' worth. 
 
 "Gregory & Jones would no doubt have sold annu- 
 ally half a million dollars' worth more of cloaks and 
 shawls, could the price have been thirty per cent, 
 less, which they could have done with the tax 
 removed from wool, and thus not only have prevented 
 their failure, but they would have done a profitable 
 business, and the eight hundred employes would 
 have been kept at work. The retail merchant would 
 not have his shelves loaded with unsold goods, and 
 best of all, the people for whom such goods are man- 
 ufactured could have bought them. 
 
 "Every neighborhood has scores of families situ- 
 ated as you ladies are as regards making such pur- 
 s. Multiply your number by such thousands, 
 and the manufacturer will be'Mi to realize that there
 
 34 THE MORTGAGE FOEECLOSED. 
 
 is more profit in taking the tax off his raw material 
 and making his goods so cheap as to bring them 
 within the reach of the great majority of people, 
 than in any benefit he can derive from a high pro- 
 tective tariff. 
 
 "Now, ladies, believe me. I have investigated 
 this matter with the greatest possible desire to get 
 at the facts. While I know there are many intricate 
 questions connected with the operation of the tariff, 
 which are difficult to understand, and concerning 
 which people may honestly differ; yet there is no 
 denying the truth, which stands out boldly and runs 
 through the entire schedule of articles whose price 
 is increased by the tariff, that the farmers are being 
 taxed to death for the benefit of a few individuals, 
 without, in any shape or manner, directly or indi- 
 rectly, receiving the least benefit to themselves. 
 
 " The farmers pay two or three cents tax on every 
 pound of sugar they buy. There is a tax on nearly 
 everything not raised on the farm that goes into the 
 pantry or on the dinner table. A tax on medicines, 
 drugs, dye stuffs, spices, paints, glass and oil. Tax 
 on brooms, brushes, thread, parasols, furs, school 
 books, paper, pens and newspapers. Tax on cloth- 
 ing, bedding, blankets, shawls, cloaks, wraps, under- 
 wear, cotton cloth and table linen. Tax on tin 
 plate, which is a special burden on the farmer, 
 because there are so many articles about the farm 
 that tin is used for. The tin pans for milk and 
 cream, tin cups and tin cans for canning the vast 
 soil products, such as potatoes, tomatoes, beans, 
 milk, meats and fruits of all kinds. And there is 
 not a pound of tin mined in America. Every agri-
 
 LEARNING SOMETHING VERY FAST. 35 
 
 cultural implement, from the hoe to the threshing 
 machine, is taxed. If the object of the present tar- 
 iff system were to oppress the farmer, there is no way 
 to improve it. It is absolutely perfect. 
 
 "Farmers 7 wives, let me say to you that it is this 
 tax for protection of the manufacturer which is 
 undermining your health and keeping you doing a 
 slave's work. It is this tax which makes your daugh- 
 ters dissatisfied with farm life and is driving your 
 sons to the cities and towns. It is this tax which 
 has put the mortgage on your farm, and unless the 
 change comes which is contemplated by the friends 
 of tariff reform, the tax will compel the sale of the 
 farm and turn its occupants, homeless and houseless, 
 in their old age, out into the world to commence life 
 v.new. Hardly a grievance the farmer can complain 
 of but the cause may be traced to the tariff. Hardly 
 a wish ungratified but the tariff is to blame. 
 
 "The farmer's family is entitled to something 
 
 more than a bare living. They can not be -content 
 
 with simply keeping out of debt. If there is no 
 
 mortgage on the farm, that is no reason why they 
 
 should be willing to contribute a portion of their 
 
 to make the rich man richer. There are 
 
 manifold. comforts, conveniences and luxuries which 
 
 would enjoy and could have were the principles 
 
 of tariff reform to prevail. His children could be 
 
 better educated. His daughters may desire to 
 
 dress a little better than they are in the habit of 
 
 doing, and they should be permitted to do so. The 
 
 are enthled to frequent holidays and a liberal 
 
 amount of spending money, and they should have 
 
 both. The farmer and his wife should be relieved of
 
 36 THE MORTGAGE FOHFCLOSED. 
 
 the drudgery now so common, and more frequent 
 visits with relatives and friends should be exchanged. 
 The truth is, the tariff deprives the average farmer 
 and his family of fully one -half the comforts and 
 pleasures of life which they ought to enjoy." 
 
 "Pray tell us, Mrs. Winters," said Mrs. Tyler, who 
 had grown quite interested, " what we can do to get 
 rid of this horrid tax?" 
 
 "Do? You can do everything," said Mrs. Winters. 
 " Mrs. Wilber has asked me the same question, and 
 it is time farmers' wives everywhere were interesting 
 themselves in the question and the answer. I will 
 tell you. Go home and quietly and calmly talk this 
 matter over with your husband and your grown-up 
 boys. Keep before them constantly the fact that the 
 tariff is a tax which is robbing them of a greater por- 
 tion of the profits of the farm. Tell them it is a 
 mill-stone around their necks, making their lives 
 miserable, and that it will drag them from bad to 
 worse, unless they exert themselves to. throw it off. 
 Bid them, as they love their families and would see 
 them lifted out of the perpetual gloom which sur- 
 rounds the home and the farm, to vote for men for 
 office who favor tariff reform. If their party does 
 not pronounce for the reform, tell them they have 
 clung to their party long enough. Tell them the 
 question is no longer ' shall the party win, 'but 'shall 
 the farm prosper.' Convince them, as you easily 
 can, that the party which stands for a high protective 
 tariff must go or the farm must go! 
 
 "It rests with yon, wives, mothers and daughters, 
 in a measure, to decide which shall stay and which 
 shall go."
 
 CHAPTEB TV. 
 
 THE WAY TO KEEP COYS AXD GIRLS OX THE FARM 
 
 Henry Winters was eight years old when he began 
 going to school at the country school-house, located 
 about a mile from his home. He was quick and 
 eager to learn, and he had no difficulty in keeping at 
 the head of his class. There was, however, no one 
 pupil any more a favorite with the teacher or with 
 schoolmates, than another. A country school-house 
 filled with farmers' children is an excellent place to 
 find absolute equality. No one scholar is better than 
 another. Not a shade of aristocracy is there. The 
 books and slate and writing material of each pupiL 
 are alike. The little tin pails and willow baskets, 
 uhich contain the dinner, are similar. \And in a 
 much more marked degree than in the city the intel- 
 lects are alike. Xone are dull. All are bright. 
 There may be more awkwardness in the school-room 
 in the country than in the town, but it is the awk- 
 wardness of nature, and it has much to do with defin- 
 ing the line between the children brought up on the 
 farm and those brought up in the city. 
 
 It is not claimed that this particular school was 
 made up of children absolutely good. There were 
 bad boys there boys who were mischievous, boys 
 who were vicious, and boys who were ungovernable. 
 There were girls with fiery tempers, ugly dispositions 
 and evil natures. It may be that it takes such chil- 
 "37
 
 38 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 dren to rob the school-room of the dull and prosy 
 monotony which makes sluggards and idlers. If 
 directed in the proper channel, and taken in hand 
 at the right time,, and not allowed too much freedom 
 or too wide a scope in which to expand, the bad crop- 
 ping out in a school-room of bright, active, zealous, 
 earnest little children may be turned to excellent 
 purposes. 
 
 At this school Henry Winters and Mary Holbrook 
 received their early book education. There was 
 nothing peculiar about these children. Their youth- 
 ful lives were the lives of the vast concourse of 
 such children who preceded them in the school- 
 room. It happened that in their early youth they 
 became fond of each other. Together they walked 
 hand in hand to and from their studies. They had 
 their little quarrels, but they were brief ones. They 
 had their days and weeks of separation, and they 
 were sad ones. And even in early childhood when 
 chasing butterflies and gathering wild flowers, and 
 long before either knew the meaning of love, they 
 were lovers devoted, constant and true. The love 
 of little children! When in all the long life is love 
 purer, nobler or dearer? 
 
 As a rule on the farm, too much work is required 
 of children during school-days. Parents do not 
 make allowance for the exhaustive nature of the 
 tasks put upon their boys and girls in the school- 
 room. Keeping still is tiresome, learning lessons is 
 tedious, and being as good as the teacher requires is 
 wearisome. In the morning before starting for 
 school the children's task should be light and easy,
 
 BOYS AND GIRLS ON THE FARM. 39 
 
 and as little of it as possible less of it than is cus- 
 tomary. Upon their return in the afternoon, 
 instead of being put to doing chores about the house 
 and kept busy until supper time, they should have 
 their hours of rest and recreation, and within certain 
 prescribed rules allowed to go and come at will. 
 
 Much of the dissatisfaction with the farm and farm 
 life commences in early childhood, and comes from 
 the drudgery imposed upon the children. This 
 drudgery grows with their growth, and dislike for the 
 farm increases with their years, and hence it has 
 come almost to be the rule and not the exception, 
 that boys and girls brought up on the farm, particu- 
 larly the boys, insist on leaving home as soon as they 
 become of age, and going to the city or town to 
 live. 
 
 In the majority of cases parents mean well, and 
 they would do differently if their circumstances 
 would permit. They claim, and oftentimes justly, 
 that the children must work between school hours 
 and during vacation, in order that the family may 
 make the two ends meet. That claim is most 
 always a valid one, which fact being admitted, there 
 is something wrong somewhere to account for such a 
 condition. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
 bread " was spoken of man, not of woman or chil- 
 dren. If the cause of this toil and drudgery by the 
 young members of the household is traced to dire 
 necessity, then there is something out of gear some- 
 where, which requires the attention of somebody. If 
 farm life is so irksome, so exacting and so obnoxious 
 as to drive the rising generation into the cities, then
 
 40 THE MOKIGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 it behooves good men everywhere to find the remedy 
 and if possible apply it. The evil is surely becoming 
 a serious one, and every year is growing, and already 
 stands in the way of that honest and economical 
 management of the affairs of both state and nation, 
 which the people have the right to expect, if the 
 rulers are to be men of strong hands, healthy brains, 
 stout hearts and noble manhood. 
 
 A majority of the men who make the laws and 
 execute them should come from the farm, the work- 
 shop and the ranks of the day laborer. Physical 
 development is as essential as mental, in honest 
 rulers. It takes muscle as well as brain to make the 
 laws the best adapted to the welfare of a muscular 
 and brainy race. 
 
 The farm is the nation's hope and strength and 
 its grandest bulwark. If the .farm decays, liberty and 
 law must become part and parcel of the ruins. 
 Instead of oppressing the farmer the law should 
 bolster him up. Does it? Does it not rather bind 
 and fetter him and hold him in the coils, oppress 
 and strangle him, singling him out as a class to be 
 plucked and squeezed for another's benefit and 
 another's gain, until his fertile acres stand only for 
 the debt he owes! Is not the tax his country puts 
 on everything he buys worse than shackles on his 
 limbs, requiring him to not only toil himself all the 
 hours of the long day and to the verge of exhaustion, 
 but must compel him to require his wife to keep 
 even step with him, and his children with hardened 
 hands and moist brows to follow closely after? 
 
 It must not be understood that the toil and
 
 BOYS AND GIRLS ON THE FARM. 41 
 
 drudgery and persistent effort to escape the pangs of 
 poverty, are universal on the farm. By no means. 
 But there are enough of all these to cause alarm and 
 insist on a remedy. The rising generation must see 
 a prospect of the tax for protection abolished, or it is 
 only a question of time when the farms will become 
 great landed estates, owned by the few and rented 
 to the present owners. 
 
 In order that the boy should be persuaded to 
 remain on the farm, his work must be easier than 
 his parents have experienced, lie must become 
 satisfied that the tendency of public sentiment 
 favors the removal of so much of the tax as goes into 
 the pockets of the owners of the protected indus- 
 tries, or otherwise farm life will be distasteful to 
 him and lead the next generation to take up its 
 abode in the cities as, to a great extent, the present 
 one is doing. The farmer's son can not help seeing 
 that so much of the tax as is levied for protection 
 about equals the amount the farm runs behind each 
 year, and he is not to blame for engaging in some 
 other business, if this system of plucking is to con- 
 tinue. If the boys are expected to stay on the farm, 
 their fathers must unite and secure the repeal of 
 the obnoxious and unjust features of the tariff 
 laws. If the nation would have a stalwart race 
 of sturdy men to till the soil men who own the 
 land they cultivate and the homes in which they 
 live then must Congress remove a large share of the 
 tax on the necessaries of life and on the implements 
 of the farm. If the laws can not help the farmer in 
 his efforts to feed the world, they should not put
 
 42 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 obstacles in the way of his making a decent livi 
 for himself. The law must deal fairly and justly 
 with him and not rob him to enrich his neighbor. 
 With the competition the farmer must encounter, 
 he is more in need of protection than the industries 
 which are protected. He does not, however, plead 
 for protection, he simply asks that he shall not be 
 required to take the little profits which arise from 
 the sale of farm products and hand them to the 
 wealthy manufacturer. When law ceases to prott.ct 
 the manufacturer, it will cease to rob the farmer. 
 When law ceases to rob the farmer, he will not orjy 
 thrive and prosper, but he will do so without making 
 slaves of his family, and when his family cease to De 
 slaves, his sons and daughters as a rule will stay on 
 the farm. Not all of them, and always, because 
 there are railroads to build and operate, there are 
 universities needing practical presidents and profess- 
 ors, there are ships to build and great mercantile 
 interests to be looked after, and as the farm has 
 furnished such men heretofore, it will keep on doiug 
 so hereafter, unless long-continued, unjust taxation 
 shall result in laying waste the farm, and blot it oat 
 from the list of American industries. 
 
 At the age of fifteen, Mary Holbrook was sent to 
 a young ladies' seminary in an Eastern town. She 
 had been a diligent student in the country school, 
 and found it an easy task to keep pace with her 
 class in the seminary. From the grand old school 
 of nature she had graduated with high honors, and 
 the lessons learned in the groves and fields served 
 her well with her new-found companions. She
 
 BOYS AND GIRLS ON THE FARM. 43 
 
 quickly became a favorite with . all. An interesting 
 and fascinating conversationalist, always having at 
 her command a fund of practical information, which 
 she knew how to use to the best advantage, she drew 
 around her a circle of admiring friends. 
 
 Mary Holbrook was now what the world would 
 term a beautiful woman. Her manners were pleas- 
 ing and, in fact, charming. She dressed with 
 becoming taste, and though the only child of a 
 wealthy father, she made no display of riches, but 
 prided herself on being a farmer's daughter, fond of 
 the farmer's life. 
 
 Henry Winters, having finished the usual branches 
 taught in the public school, and having spent one 
 year attending the high -school at the county seat, 
 entered the State Agricultural College for a three 
 years' course. His experience there was not differ- 
 ent from that of most students in his class. He was 
 quick and keen and apt to learn, and he was ambi- 
 tious to stand well to the front in all his recitations. 
 He was devoted to politics, and took great interest in 
 works and studies on political economy. As the 
 tariff question was one of absorbing importance, he 
 became a close observer of its effects on capital and 
 labor, and particularly its bearing on the industries 
 connected with the farm. He had imbibed many 
 valuable ideas upon the subject from his mother, 
 whose discussions he had often listened to with inter- 
 est and profit; so that now, when he found himself 
 face to face with learned professors, who had made 
 the great question a life study, he had an excellent 
 opportunity to compare his mother's practical know!-
 
 44 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 edge of the subject with the more learned views a? 
 the college tutors. He was gratified to know that 
 he would not have to unlearn what he had been 
 taught, because he found his teachings were in har- 
 mony with the sentiments of the best scholars and 
 ablest writers in the land.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE FARMER HIS "\VIFE HIS DAUGHTER HIS SON". 
 
 Mrs. Winters constantly busied herself going about 
 doing good. Where there were sufferers from any 
 cause, in the neighborhood, she was found alleviat- 
 ing their troubles,, pouring the oil of consolation into 
 their wounds and ministering to their wants. The 
 poor were never turned away empty from her door. 
 The sick found in her an intelligent, willing and 
 faithful nurse and friend. She comforted the dying 
 with words of solace and hope, and from her lips 
 they were consoled with the precious truths of the 
 religion of Christ. Neither expecting nor desiring 
 reward for her labors, she did what she could to make 
 the world around her better for her living in it. 
 
 The neighbors came to her for counsel and advice. 
 She consented to be the custodian of their savings, 
 which they laid by to use on their shopping expedi- 
 tions to to\vn. Al most the whole neighborhood loved 
 and respected her. Very many of the improvements 
 in and about the farm houses were made at her sug- 
 gestion, and numerous little things were done, now 
 ,and then, here and there, at her own expense. Many 
 things which seemed essential to the comfort and 
 convenience of the women and children of the house- 
 hold were not done, because of the lack of means to 
 do with. While there were many pleasing excep- 
 tions to the general rule, yet by far the greater num- 
 
 45
 
 46 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 ber had to scrimp and manage and economize in ever} 
 way possible to keep reasonably comfortable and not 
 make an exhibition of their real needs. There was 
 not a day in the year but it would come to Mrs. Win- 
 ters' notice that it was the tariff operating in oneway 
 or another that was making the burdens of these 
 good people so hard to bear. The earnings which 
 should have been applied to, improvements on the 
 farm, to repairing the dwelling-house, outbuildings 
 and fences, and to procuring winter clothing for 
 wife and children, and laying in a supply of table 
 necessaries, went into the pockets of the wealthy 
 manufacturer. But the people were being educated. 
 The subject was discussed at the sessions of their 
 alliances and granges. They read all that came in 
 their way. Anything having a bearing on the effect 
 of the tariff on the farm was of the greatest interest 
 to them. The question was discussed around the 
 fireside and at the family meal. Mothers talked the 
 matter over with their daughters and fathers hurried 
 up the day's task to go over the topic with their sons. 
 
 One afternoon there came to the village a family 
 of English people, attracted there by the pleasing 
 scenery, the bracing, health-giving air and the beauti- 
 ful lake. Listening one day to a group of men and 
 women in earnest discussion of the tariff, the English- 
 man ventured to answer a question which he was 
 familiar with. 
 
 "This business suit I have on/' he remarked, 
 " cost me in Liverpool thirteen dollars. Am I not 
 right," turning to a merchant who was present, "when 
 I say that you could not afford to sell such a suit 
 for less than twenty dollars?"
 
 THE FARMER. 4? 
 
 "You are right," said the merchant. "Such a 
 suit would readily sell here for twenty dollars." 
 
 The Englishman then directing his remarks to a 
 farmer who had been asking questions with the view 
 of being informed of the effect the tariff had on 
 the price of clothing, said: "You see your ques- 
 tions are answered. If you buy a suit like this in 
 your country you will pay forty per cent, more for 
 it than you would if you bought it in my country. 
 There is no high protective tariff in England. There 
 is in America. If it is not your tariff which makes 
 this difference, pray what is it?" 
 
 "When we were in Xew York" continued the 
 Englishman, "my wife bought several articles of 
 wearing apparel and she can tell you ladies how the 
 prices compare with those in London." 
 
 " I bought a bill of underwear," said the English 
 lady, "for which I paid eleven dollars, and I had the 
 same kind of goods in my trunk that I bought in 
 England that I paid only six dollars for. I priced 
 many other things, and I found that dress goods cost 
 fully forty per cent, more in Xew York than in 
 London, and blankets, carpets and woolen goods 
 generally were double the London price. I don't 
 know anything about why it is so, but I know the 
 fact to be so." 
 
 "Everybody who has anything to do with farm 
 life," broke in Mrs. Winters, "as well as the working 
 people generally, are beginning to learn the reason 
 of this difference in prices. We are all rapidly 
 learning the fact that it is the unjust and unfair 
 tariff that is responsible, a tariff which benefits
 
 48 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 only those persons who are manufacturing those 
 goods in this country. That tax we have to pay does 
 not help labor to employment nor to pay. It is 
 simply protection to capital, and it not only does not 
 benefit labor, but persistently robs the farmer of a 
 large share of the net earnings of the farm." 
 
 "For one I am not only tired and sick of this tax/' 
 said the farmer's daughter, "but I am completely 
 discouraged and disgusted at the way it uses us girls; 
 and I don't see even a faint glimmer of light or hope 
 of better things for the people on the farm, except 
 through the success of tariff reform which is now so 
 much discussed. I used to be tired and g'.ek of the 
 tariff question, and I thought it was ione of my 
 business that it was something young ladies ought 
 not to meddle with, and that it was a difficult ques- 
 tion to understand. I have gotten bravely over that 
 notion. There is no subject that has so much music 
 in it, to my ears, as tariff reform. I find I am 
 directly interested in the success of the reform. It 
 stands between me and a score of comforts ard 
 pleasures, which by right I am entitled to, but whir h 
 it deprives me of. I know that to be true; and I 
 tell you now I am for the reform. I want better 
 clothes and more of them, and I know I can't have 
 them and the high tariff, too. The tariff has had 
 its turn long enough. It has made me wear a calico 
 dress two seasons, in order that I might contribute 
 the price of one dress to protection. I have lived on 
 the most common fare, because the money, that ought 
 to have been spent for more palatable food, must be 
 paid to some person who was ^ngaged in i.
 
 THE FARMER. 49 
 
 that wasn't profitable, and the tariff compelled me 
 to donate to him the greater part of my savings, so 
 as to make it profitable. What nonsense! That is, 
 it would be nonsense, if it wasn't so cruel. But I 
 have had enough of it. Last fall I sang high protective 
 songs. I shall sing no more of that kind. I am 
 getting my eyes open, and I believe the farmers are 
 doing the same thing, and that they are going to 
 bring about tariff reform, and, though only a farmer's 
 daughter, I propose to help them do it. Boys, do 
 you understand what that means? I am not the 
 only '-! in this neighborhood that talks this way, 
 either. Wo are all determined to do what we can to 
 prevent our share of the earnings of the farm being 
 handed over to some manufacturer, who thinks he 
 can't do business without everybody, who buys the 
 kind of goods he makes, donating him something. 
 I notice that nobody gives the farmer anything. If 
 his business don't pay, he must not only grin and 
 bear it, but more than likely he will have to put a 
 mortgage on the farm to obtain money to make his 
 contribution to the thing called Protection. The 
 farmer that will hurrah for his party if that party is 
 not outspoken for tariff reform, has not yet been 
 ground down into the dust deep enough, and his wife 
 and children have not yet worked the ends of their 
 fingers clean off. But before he takes the step which 
 shall help to lengthen the life of the present tariff 
 another span, let him talk the matter over with his 
 wife and daughters and sons, and see what they 
 think about it. Thank heaven, my father has come 
 to his senses, and so have my brothers." 
 
 4
 
 50 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 "Just my notion of it, too. I used to think the 
 dryest subject a person could discuss was tariff and 
 tariff reform/' observed* the farmer's wife. ""When 
 Mrs. "Winters first commenced talking about it, I 
 thought it was a queer thing for a woman to do. But 
 when she explained so clearly how the tariff was 
 keeping our noses on the grindstone by making, us 
 pay from one-third to one-half njore for everything 
 we bought, and that our hard earnings, instead of 
 being used to make the family comfortable were 
 forced from us and given to people who were already 
 rich, and they gave us nothing in return, I began to 
 get mad. For a while I was reconciled to it because 
 they said the tariff was for the protection of labor, 
 and tha+ it gave the farmer a home market for what 
 he had to sell, and that he couldn't sell his surplus 
 unless labor was protected. I have examined these 
 reasons for a high tariff and I am convinced they do 
 not amount to a hill of beans. It is protection for 
 capital and not for labor. Only those who can get 
 along without it are benefited, while the farmers and 
 laboring men, the operatives in the mills and the 
 mines are taxed to death to make those rich people 
 richer. The fact is I don't know of a more fascinat- 
 ing subject for even v/omen to discuss than this tariff 
 reform. The only earthly hope the farmer as a class 
 now has to get out of debt, clear the farm of its 
 mortgage, clothe the family comfortably and make 
 home cheerful and its inmates contented, is to bring 
 about tariff reform. I can not vote, but my sons can, 
 and they have a good deal of confidence in their 
 mother's judgment in such matters. I am glad to
 
 THE FARMER. 51 
 
 see the men aroused and outspoken in favor of this 
 reform, and I feel that a concert of action which will 
 unite the farm influence will insure its success." 
 
 " That is the right kind of talk, wife," said Farmer 
 Johnson, proudly, "and I guess the whole neighbor- 
 hood snci the farmers generally are of the same opin- 
 ion, and 1 know they are waking up to the necessity 
 f f making tariff reform the leading issues in the elec- 
 tions. For a long time I didn't care whether the 
 tariff was high or low, I didn't see how it effected me 
 one way or tho other. I have gotten my eyes open, 
 and if I don't do my part toward lowering the taxes, 
 then I will have no right to grumble at hard times or 
 lament being in debt, and I will have no right to 
 enter : protest against my earnings being taken out 
 of rny pockets and donated by the government to the 
 rich nabob on the hill. If I am willing they should 
 my money, I ought not to complain if they take 
 it." 
 
 Then came the son's turn to say something, and, 
 if possible, he was more pronounced in opposition to 
 high tariff than either the others who had spoken. 
 This thing had been in his way all his life long, and 
 he was tired of it. As a lad and as a grown-up boy 
 he had worked on the farm diligently and faithfully. 
 He didn't know what laziness or idleness was. He 
 had lately been looking into this tariff question, and 
 he was satisfied that unless there was a radical change 
 .0 unfair manner of levying taxes on the farmer, 
 there were no better times in store for him, and he 
 would go to town and try some other avocation. He 
 had studied both sidesof the question. He had listened
 
 52 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 to several practical discussions of the subject by able 
 men on both sides. He must confess he had been 
 charmed with the theory of the protectionists, whose 
 pictures of high wages, home markets and home com- 
 forts, had, for a time, made him a friend of the high 
 tariff. But the more he reflected and the more he 
 listened to the plain, practical talk of Major Hoi- 
 brook, Mrs. Winters and others, the better he became 
 satisfied he was influenced by love of the party his 
 father had been so many years identified with, rather 
 than by his own convictions. He had been talking 
 the matter over with his father, and they were both 
 convinced that the only hope for the farmer, as a 
 class, was th'e success of tariff reform. He believed 
 in it, and he was as ready to shout for party as ever 
 before, but the party he shouted for must have em- 
 blazoned on its banner, "Tariff Keform." 
 
 That evening Mrs. Winters went home, pleased be- 
 yond measure at the evidences of the growing senti- 
 ment in the neighborhood upon the question of tariff 
 reduction. She believed she had been an humble 
 instrument in the hands of Providence in interesting 
 the wives, sons and daughters of the farmers in a 
 subject that at first glance had nothing to charm or 
 fascinate women or young people. 
 
 The veil had been lifted. Beneath it was a flood 
 of loveliness. The seed had been planted in rich 
 ground. It bade fair to yield a grand harvest of 
 mortgages satisfied, debts paid, profitable crops mar- 
 keted, labor liberally rewarded, cheerful homes, 
 happy wives and contented children. Not the millen- 
 nium, but equal and exact justice to all men.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LOVERS' TALK. 
 
 Henry and Mary spent their first summer vacation at 
 their homes near the country village. They were both 
 or that age when love of romance overshadows all 
 else in life. The practical and the real will come 
 soon enough, but they do not obtrude themselves on 
 young hearts when all the surroundings are bright 
 and joyous. These young people lived in dreams 
 aud in castles in the air, and they hoped that if the 
 realities of life were to run counter to their dreams, 
 and their airy castles, they might never awake. Not 
 a ripple broke the harmony of their young lives and 
 not a zephyr ruffled the smoothness of their young 
 loves. 
 
 Much of the time was given to sailing on the little 
 lake. They called it sailing, but their homely craft 
 had neither sail nor mast on which to fix a sail, or 
 to put a rudder. It was a frail thing, which at 
 odd times Henry had managed to put together, 
 something after the nature of a raft, with a rough 
 box-like structure built much as children build play 
 houses. This served for protection from sun and 
 wind and rain, and as it was the only craft that 
 floated on those waters, it had the right to go any- 
 whpre and everywhere, and no one cared to object or 
 protest against it. In order to direct the course of 
 the craft and control it, a skulling oar was fitted in 
 
 63
 
 54 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 the end of what might be termed the prow, and thus 
 easily and readily was Henry able to manage the 
 little float. 
 
 So, drifting and floating in whichever direction the 
 winds blew, they had naught to do except to tell the 
 story of their love, and over and over again they told 
 it, and it neither grew monotonous nor did they 
 grow weary in telling it. Leisurely and unconcern- 
 edly they drifted on, floating gently and quietly, with 
 now and then a slight breath of wind from the bluffs 
 to break the smoothness of the placid waters, and 
 they wished they could float all the years away, and 
 at will land on a shore where love reigned supreme 
 and always. 
 
 " Harry, if you love me, tell me so." 
 
 "Did you say 'if,' Mary? In the vocabulary of 
 love there is and can be no 'if.' The little word has 
 never yet come betwixt your love and mine. It 
 must not now. *'If ' chases love away. 'Ifs ' flour- 
 ish where there is the least love. They drive the 
 schoolboy to despair, and make him hate his books, 
 his teacher and himself, and yet ' ifs ' are the rounds 
 in the ladder of fame which enable the student to 
 climb to the top. In that blissful realm where love 
 is the queen, there can be no 'ifs/ because love 
 would die were an * if ' admitted there. There never 
 yet was heart large enough for love and an ' if ' to 
 dwell together. I know there is not an ' if ' in *my 
 part of my being when love for you is my theme/' 
 
 " There now, Harry, I like to hear you talk that 
 way. That is music to my ears. It is real poetry- 
 the poetry born of love. But why don't you keep on 
 telling me you love me ? "
 
 LOVERS' TALK. 55 
 
 " Why, Mary, only yesterday I told you a hun- 
 dred times I love you." 
 
 11 True, true, I remember now you did, and to-day 
 I want you to tell me so a thousand times. I live 
 only in your love, and that withdrawn for a day, or 
 lessened by so much as the breath of air which stirs 
 so lightly yonder purple leaf, and I care not to live. 
 Tell me you love me. Tell me not in words. They 
 deceive. Tell me with your eyes. Tell me with 
 your cheeks glowing with the flame that comes from 
 swift-flowing blood through veins that ought to 
 know no other duty save to bear the messages of love 
 from your heart to mine, tell me through silent lips 
 of the height, the depth and the duration of your 
 love, put the story into big volumes, and be ages tell- 
 ing it, that I may know I am truly loved." 
 
 ' ' Mary, since early childhood I have told you the 
 story of my love, and it has been the story of my life. 
 As life grows apace, my story grows, too, and whether 
 I tell it with eyes or lips, with heart or soul, it shall 
 be the love you ask of me. If it shall take me ages 
 to tell it, then let me live those ages in your love, and 
 the story tells itself. To live and to love are one. 
 May heaven never unloose the cord that binds our 
 hearts together/' 
 
 Thus these lovers talked. The great big world and 
 all therein was nothing to them. Love was every- 
 thing. 
 
 Did heaven hear that prayer? 
 
 The summer vacation ended, Henry resumed his 
 studies at the college. His class would graduate in 
 the spring. The fall months pass rapidly, and win-
 
 56 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 ter finds him busily engaged in preparing the paper 
 he is to read at commencement. The professors ex- 
 pect much of him. He has been a diligent and tire- 
 less student, and his heart is in his work. His theme 
 is one of great interest throughout the land, and par- 
 ticularly to the farmers. Brought up on a farm him- 
 self, and at home and in the college a close student 
 of the effect the tariff has upon agriculture, he ap- 
 proaches his subject of " Tariff Reform not Free 
 Trade" with his whole soul full of well-matured 
 thoughts. 
 
 Henry was favored with an intelligent audience, 
 mostly farmers. He commenced by telling his hear- 
 ers that "tariff for protection was a crime which dif- 
 fered from highway robbery only in the fact that the 
 tariff was legal robbery, while robbery by the high- 
 wayman was illegal." This introductory sentence, 
 so complete, so unqualified and so far-reaching in its 
 application, spoken so earnestly and eloquently, at 
 once drew to the speaker the undivided attention of 
 the entire audience. When he added that "the 
 farmer, as a class, was robbed deliberately, systemat- 
 ically and ceaselessly, to make another man's business 
 profitable, and that this was done without a murmur 
 or complaint on the part of the farmer, and was really 
 done by his permission and consent, and was sub- 
 mitted to because a former generation had favored it 
 for the laudable purpose of raising money to carry 
 on the War of the Rebellion," those horny-handed, 
 bronzed-face farmers looked at each other as though 
 they were realizing the force and meaning of a great 
 truth which they had often heard, but never before 
 had it been so vividly impressed upon them.
 
 LOVERS' TALK. 57 
 
 ." The farmer," the speaker continued, " was con- 
 stantly being deceived by the cry that a reduction of 
 the tariff meant free trade and free trade meant a 
 direct tax on all the property the farmer possessed, 
 so that there would be added to his local and State 
 taxes a Federal tax far greater than all his other 
 taxes. This cry was simply a scare. No one pro- 
 posed free trade. 
 
 After taxing luxuries all they would admit of, if 
 desirable to also tax necessaries, the farmer would 
 not object. The government obtains its revenue for 
 current expenses from a tax on tobacco, alcohol and 
 a duty or tax on the articles brought here from for- 
 eign countries. The tax on those foreign articles is 
 intended to be so adjusted as to realize whatever 
 amount the government requires in addition to the 
 amount derived from the tax on tobacco and alcohol. 
 As this amount is several hundred millions of dollars, 
 the manufacturer may enjoy a certain degree of pro- 
 tection, but it should come to him not as the object 
 of the tariff, but as the consequence of a tariff for 
 revenue. This large amount required by the govern-; 
 ment must always be an unsurmountable obstacle to 
 the establishment of free trade. In the adjustment 
 of the tariff for revenue, however, the burthens 
 should be borne equally on all interests and all indus- 
 tries and not as now, piled almost wholly upon 
 the shoulders of the farmers and the day laborers. 
 In fighting shy of the myth of free trade, be careful 
 you do not bankrupt yourselves on the rocks of Pro- 
 tection. 
 
 After f^q expenses of the government are pro-
 
 58 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 vided for, any additional sum derived from the tariff 
 creates a surplus which ought to be left in the pock- 
 ets of the people rather than put in the vaults of the 
 treasury. But the tariff by no means stops with 
 surplus. Then comes Protection, which is simply 
 forcing one man to donate something to another 
 man who claims he could not carry on his business 
 without such contributions. The speaker had 
 noticed, however, that the recipients of those dona- 
 tions grew richer each year, while the men anl 
 women who did the work were forced to be content 
 with wages which, after deducting living expenst3s, 
 left little or nothing for a rainy day. 
 
 "Tariff reform is the panacea for this gigantic 
 wrong. Tariff reform comes straight home to the 
 pockets of every farmer in the land, reducing his 
 family expenses, increasing the purchasing power of 
 his surplus produce, so that, instead of farming at a 
 loss and running behind each year, he will be enabled 
 to get out of debt, supply his family with the neces- 
 saries and comforts of life, and lay by a competence 
 for his old age. 
 
 " It is not free trade that will do this. It is fair, 
 just and equitable trade that will do it. This fair 
 trade will come when the farmers are ready to demand 
 it. No greater truth was ever dinned into the 
 farmers' ears than the declaration that the farmers 
 themselves are to blame for the unprofitable condi- 
 tion of fanning. Nor can you farmers of the great 
 West, farmers of the East and farmers of the South 
 retrieve your losses and restore your lands to the 
 old-time value and profitableness, without a concert
 
 LOVERS' TALK. 59 
 
 of action and union of voU-.s. The lands don't need 
 fe v tilizcrs, they are rich enough. It is the farmers 
 that need nerve and pluck and courage to break 
 away from an organization, political or otherwise, 
 that refuses to declare its detestation of a tariff for 
 protection. 
 
 " Don't be deceived by the hue and cry of free 
 trade. It is not free trade to so reduce the tax on 
 woolen goods and raw wool that a farmer can buy a 
 coat for fifteen dollars, for which he now pays twen- 
 ty-five dollars, and still allow twenty-five per cent, 
 for the manufacturer's protection. Free trade would 
 give him that coat for ten dollars! 
 
 "Farmers, if yon pay six hundred dollars a year 
 for food and clothing for your family, one hundred 
 and fifty dollars of that sum is tax unadulterated. 
 cold, brutal tax, of which amount it may be that 
 twenty dollars goes to the government, the balance is 
 Protection pure and simple. If you vote with a 
 party that proposes to reduce that tax one-half and 
 that party gets into power and makes that reduction, 
 you are benefited to the extent, at least, of one-half 
 of that tax, and free trade is still so far distant that 
 unless you want to be scared you will not even experi- 
 ence the sensation of a quickened pulse. 
 
 " TarilJ reform proposes to blot out so much of 
 this tax as i : set apart for protection. When blotted 
 out, new life and vigor will be given to every industry 
 in the land, furnishing employment to the idle million 
 and insuring a market, home and abroad, for all the 
 products of American industries and all the surplus 
 products of American farms."
 
 60 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 There was more of this essay than a mere roll of 
 manuscript tied with blue ribbon. There was food 
 in it for sober reflection. There were truths in it 
 which came home to every farmer who heard them, 
 and they bore good fruit and an abundant harvest.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE MORTGAGE ON" THE FARM AXD HOW IT GOT 
 THERE. 
 
 One afternoon in July, Farmer Xagle was taking 
 his noon rest, feeding his pigs, when Major Holbrook 
 came along, and after passing the time of day, they 
 sat down in the shade of the barn, and resumed a 
 conversation at a point where they had been inter- 
 rupted a few days before. 
 
 " You say, Neighbor Xagle, that the mortgage on 
 your farm is eight hundred dollars, drawing eight per 
 cent, interest ? " 
 
 "Yes sir." 
 
 " How long has the mortgage been running ?" 
 
 " I will tell you. Ten years ago I found I was 
 behind at the store, and I knew Mr. Sample could 
 not carry me any longer, so I put a mortgage of three 
 hundred dollars on the farm and paid all my debts. 
 My crops were good each year, but what I had to sell 
 brought way-down prices, so three years afterward I 
 found I was not paying expenses, and I increased the 
 amount of the mortgage to five hundred dollars. The 
 next year I had to buy a reaping machine, a corn cul- 
 tivator and a wagon, for which I went in debt. The 
 price of farm produce kept low. The price of neces- 
 saries which I could not get along without, kept up. 
 I could not bring things together and make them 
 covne out even, and I was compelled, two years after- 
 
 61
 
 62 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 wards, to increase the mortgage to eight hundred dol- 
 lars." 
 
 " You'havc kept the interest paid, I suppose." 
 " I did up to the last year, though at times it has 
 been a mighty tight pull to do it. I had to save in 
 every way possible, and so did my wife and children, 
 and so we all do now, but I am ashamed to confess it, 
 the past year's interest has not been paid and 
 between you and me, Major, I don't know where I 
 am to get the money to pay with." 
 
 " Are you being pushed for the interest? '' 
 " Yes, you know those Eastern money loaners are 
 very particular about the interest. They must have 
 the interest to loan to some other needy farmer." 
 
 "But, Neighbor Nagle, how are you going to get 
 out of your trouble? If you can't pay the interest 
 you certainly can't pay any portion of the principle. 
 It looks to me yon are very much like a man in the 
 mire if you stand still you sink deeper and if you 
 try to extricate yourself down you go." 
 
 " That is just the way I feel about it. Had I been 
 making mistakes or bad debts, or if I was lazy and in- 
 dolent and wouldn't work, or was a spendthrift, or if I 
 had an extravagant family, or if things about the farm 
 went wrong and I was to blame, then I might turn 
 over a new leaf, correct my mistakes and make a 
 struggle to get out of debt. But I don't know how 
 I can change my management of the farm for the 
 better. My land is well tilled. I raise big crops. 
 I have considerable surplus every year to sell. I buy 
 only such things as the family must have and can not 
 get along without and really I do not see wherein I
 
 THE MORTGAGE AND HOW IT GOT THERE. 63 
 
 can do different!}' from what I have done and am 
 doing. What encouragement, then, have I to push 
 ahead and wear my life out and have my family do 
 so too, when our reward will simply be a greater 
 debt, and the certainty of the mortgage being fore- 
 -ed and my home taken from me? " 
 
 " Your case, Fanner Xagle, is a common one, but 
 none the less painful for that. I know of a large 
 number of farmers in this neighborhood with just 
 such mortgages hanging over their heads. No doubt 
 they feel as you do discouraged, discontented and 
 artened. But let me tell you, neighbor, that 
 while the outlook is dark and gloomy, the outcome 
 may not be as bad as you picture, if you and the 
 farmers generally have the courage to apply the 
 remedy they have at hand." 
 
 "Courage! Why, Major, I have the courage to 
 
 faoe a tiger in the jungle or a band of robbers on the 
 
 prairie, or any other danger, if I thought a victory 
 
 would help me get out of debt and keep my farm. 
 
 do you mean by courage?" 
 
 "I mean, my friend, that you must dare to do just 
 what you have expressed a willingness to do. Rob- 
 bers have been stealing your substance for years. 
 They have come upon your premises when you were 
 awake and when you were asleep. They have robbed 
 you in a hundred different ways and they have robbed 
 member of your family. They have taken from 
 you your hard earnings and turned round and loaned 
 you the very earning* thoy forced from you; and that 
 sliQfnld be no risk of their not getting their pay 
 th 'v have required you to give them a mortgage on
 
 64 THE MORTGAGE FOKECLOSED. 
 
 your farm. You have not only never raised a hand 
 to resist the robbery, but you have permitted it and 
 consented to it, and now beckon the robbers to come 
 on and finish their work by taking your farm." 
 
 "You mean, I suppose, it is the tariff which has 
 brought upon me this debt and this mortgage. Pray 
 tell me how you connect my misfortunes with the 
 operation of the tariff?" 
 
 " That is just what I want to do, I want to convince 
 you of that fact, and I think I can make it so plain 
 you will admit it. I have a few questions to ask you, 
 and I know you will cheerfully answer them. How 
 much of a family have you?" 
 
 " My wife and five children three boys and two 
 girls." 
 
 " How much money do you pay for things that 
 you do not raise on the farm? " 
 
 " I can answer that question quite correctly, 
 because I kept a book account of my expenses. I 
 find I spent last year six hundred and thirty dollars." 
 
 " Will you allow me to look at the items?" 
 
 " Oh, yes." 
 
 " While you are helping the boys hitch up and 
 starting them into the corn field, I will look over 
 these items and figure the amount of tax you pay on 
 the gross sum." 
 
 The Major looked over the list carefully. The 
 expense account was a""fair average of like families. 
 Upon Mr. Nagle's return the figures were shown him 
 and he saw the tax he had paid in the way of tariff 
 was one hundred and fifty-seven dollars an average 
 of twenty-five per cent.
 
 MORTGAGE Atft) HOW IT GOT THERE. 65 
 
 "This tax," replied Mr. Nagle, " is levied in a 
 way that will make my share of the expenses of run- 
 ning the government fall as lightly on me as possible, 
 is it not?" 
 
 " That can not be, because only a small part of it 
 goes to the government, at the outside not more than 
 ten per cent." 
 
 "And what do you say is done with the balance? " 
 
 " It goes into the pockets of the rich manufacturers. 
 It is not your contribution to the government, it is 
 your contribution to protection. You pay it because 
 it is the law, and not one cent of benefit comes to you 
 in any way, shape or manner." 
 
 "Does not the same tariff protect my surplus 
 crops?" 
 
 "Pray, Neighbor Nagle, tell me what crop you 
 raise that England, or Germany, or France, or any 
 foreign country sends here and sells and competes 
 with you. Protection, you know, is to prevent for- 
 eign competition. Do those countries, or either of 
 them, send wheat or flour or pork here and fix the 
 market price of such produce?" 
 
 "No, by no means." 
 
 " Then can a tariff of twenty cents per bushel on 
 wheat, twenty per cent, on flour, ten cents per bushel 
 on cdrn, oats and barley, and one cent per pound on 
 pork and beef, be any protection to the farmer?" 
 
 "For the life of me, now that you call my atten- 
 tion to it, I do not see how it can. Nor can I see 
 any earthly object in putting such a tariff on farm 
 produce. Do you know why it has been done?" 
 
 " I think it has been done on purpose to reconcile
 
 C6 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 us farmers to being robbed every day of our lives by 
 the tariff that is fixed on everything we buy. It is 
 done to deceive and cheat us. We are led to believe 
 by solemn law that our farm produce is protected, 
 and that it is necessary for us to have such protec- 
 tion in order to sell our produce at a profit, when, if 
 we were protected, one dollar on a bushel of corn, we 
 could not sell it for one cent a bushel more, for the 
 simple reason AVC have no foreign competition in our 
 home market, and the price of our produce is fixed 
 in a foreign market. " 
 
 " But, Major, is not this protective tariff on the 
 products of the manufacturers necessary to enable 
 the manufacturer to pay living .wages to his opera- 
 tives? And are not we farmers thus enabled to sell 
 our surplus produce to those operatives? In a word, 
 does not a protective tariff make a home market for 
 farm produce ?" 
 
 "No. It really circumscribes and reduces the 
 scope of that market, because that very tariff makes 
 it impossible to employ as much labor as might be 
 done were the restrictions the tariff puts on trade 
 removed wholly or even in part. Then the price we 
 receive for our produce at home is fixed in Liver- 
 pool or London, and we must compete with all for- 
 eign countries that grow farm produce, no matter by 
 ho^ cheap labor, and no matter where they sell it. 
 This would not be so bad if we could go into those 
 countries that compete with us and buy our clothing 
 and other family supplies without paying a protect- 
 ive tariff on them. This we can't do."
 
 THE MORTGAGE AND HOW IT GOT THERE. 61 
 
 "Xow right here, Major. I wish you would tell 
 me how fixing the price of our produce in London, 
 and prohibiting or restricting our buying goods iu 
 that city, really does affect the farmer." 
 
 "I think I can make that clear to you, and I am 
 glad you have suggested it. How much wheat do 
 you expect to market this season?" 
 
 " About five hundred bushels." 
 
 " You haul your wheat to Bradford Junction, I 
 presume?" 
 
 "I do." 
 
 " What price will you get, and what do you pro- 
 pose to do with the proceeds?" 
 
 " Sixty cents per bushel, and I have determined 
 to use this year's crop to purchase articles of cloth- 
 ing which my family has been in need of, more or 
 less, for two or three years." 
 
 "JSTow, Mr. Nagle, instead of selling your wheat 
 at Bradford Junction, imagine that you take it to 
 London. Perhaps the price there is 81.20 per bushel. 
 If so, you will find that the charges, transportation, 
 elevator, middlemen, etc., are sixty cents per bushel. 
 So you realize the same sum for your wheat in London 
 that you would at Bradford. You propose, instead 
 of taking the 8300 home with you, to make your 
 purchases in London. You buy the following bill 
 of goods:
 
 68 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 80 yards carpet at 40 cents per yard $ 32 00 
 
 3 woolen shawls at $6 each 18 00 
 
 600 pounds granulated sugar at 3%c. 17 50 
 
 Drugs and spices 9 50 
 
 Hardware, cutlery and glassware 6 00 
 
 6 pair woolen blankets at $1.50 per pair 9 00 
 
 4 overcoats, cassimere 30 00 
 
 4 suits of clothes at $8 per suit 82 00 
 
 Woolen underwear for male and female 25 00 
 
 Table linen and toweling 15 00 
 
 60 yards dress goods, worsted 35 00 
 
 Gloves, handkerchiefs and hosiery 20 00 
 
 Cotton cloth for bedding and clothing 8 00 
 
 Books and writing material 5 00 
 
 Hats, caps, trimmings, ties and buttons 18 00 
 
 Freight to Bradford Junction 20 00 
 
 Total $300 
 
 Upon reaching home you take the bill of items to 
 
 a Bradford merchant, and ask him what he can dt*i 
 
 plicate it for. His figures will not vary much from 
 
 the following: 
 
 80 yards carpet at 80c $ 64 00 
 
 3 woolen shawls 30 00 
 
 500 pounds granulated sugar at 6c 30 00 
 
 Drugs and spices 13 50 
 
 Hardware, cutlery and glassware 10 00 
 
 6 pairs woolen blankets at $2.50 15 00 
 
 4 overcoats 49 50 
 
 4suitsof clothes 52 80 
 
 Woolen underwear 41 25 
 
 Table linen and toweling 21 75 
 
 60 yards dress goods, worsted 49 00 
 
 Gloves, handkerchiefs and hosiery 29 00 
 
 Cotton cloth for bedding or clothing 11 12 
 
 Hats, Caps and trimmings 23 40 
 
 Books and stationery 6 25 
 
 Total 144967
 
 THE MORTGAGE AND HOW IT GOT THERE. 69 
 
 There you have it in a nutshell. Your $300 derived 
 fVom the sale of 500 bushels of wheat will buy in 
 London what you have to pay $446.57 for at Bradford 
 Junction. A difference of $146.57 in favor of the 
 prices you paid in London, but not in your favor, for 
 when the railroad delivers your goods it will present 
 you a bill for back charges amounting to $146.57, 
 which charges are the custom house tax you must 
 pay and which brings the cost of your goods the 
 same as though you had purchased them at 
 Bradford Junction. Which fact also disproves 
 the theory that the tax on foreign goods is paid 
 by the manufacturer. Now, no matter how much 
 or how little of this 8146.57 goes into the Federal 
 Treasury, the entire amount is levied for the 
 purpose of protecting, directly or indirectly, those 
 American industries engaged in manufacturing the 
 kind of goods you bought. It is, in fact, your con- 
 tribution to protection. You sell your wheat where 
 everybody who cultivates the soil is your competitor, 
 and you buy your necessaries where there is no com- 
 petition. You sell your wheat in the cheapest market 
 in the world and you buy your family supplies in the 
 dearest. 
 
 If protection was not the American system, your 
 wheat would be worth, at Bradford Junction, 89 
 cents per bushel, instead of 60 cts. that is, that would 
 be its purchasing power, and you know of no other 
 vi,lue your wheat, or corn, or pork, or cattle possesses, 
 except what they would buy for the use and comfort of 
 your family. Admit the tariff has nothing to do with 
 fixing the market price of your produce, it certainly
 
 70 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 has enough to do with fixing the price of things you 
 buy with the proceeds of the farm, to put an eight- 
 hundred-dollar mortgage on your home and keep 
 you and your family busy denying themselves the 
 necessaries of life in order that the manufacturer, 
 who lives in that magnificent palace on the hill, may 
 build a similar structure at some fashionable watering 
 place." 
 
 "I admit, Major, you have made some mighty 
 strong points against the present tariff, and I must 
 confess, I see in a clear light a branch of this subject 
 which I have always found difficulty in understand- 
 ing. Looking at the tariff disconnected from every- 
 thing else, it looks as though it was designed to rob 
 us farmers of our earnings and finally of our homes. 
 But the entire subject of producing and consuming 
 must be treated as a whole, and, so treating it, I 
 ask again: Does not the tariff enable manufacturers 
 to compete with the cheap labor of foreign countries, 
 and pay such wages to operatives as will enable them 
 to buy our produce?" 
 
 " No. It really works just the other way, as I can 
 easily satisfy you. The tariff so limits, retards and 
 restricts the business of manufacturers that the oper- 
 atives are not only paid less wages, but quite a pro- 
 portion of them work only a part of the time, and a 
 vast army of willing hands are idle because there is no 
 work for them to do. What the farmer wants is to 
 have the greatest possible number of laborers con- 
 stantly employed and well paid. It is the growing 
 reduction of wages that prevents labor from being 
 liberal patrons of the farm. The number of idle men
 
 THE MORTGAGE AND HOW IT GOT THERE. 71 
 
 appear to be on the increase, and certainly wages are 
 no higher now than ten years ago. High tariff is the 
 link in the chain of industry connecting low wages 
 for labor with low prices for farm produce. So far 
 as it does that it weakens the whole chain, has no 
 business there, and ought to be removed. We all 
 know the interests of the farmer and labor are ident- 
 ical. They must stand shoulder to shoulder, and 
 move hand in hand. If an average of three oper- 
 atives could be added to each work-shop in the land, 
 employment would be given to every person who 
 wanted work. If the people outside the farm were 
 made so prosperous that they could increase their 
 annual purchases of breadstuffs and meat, an aver- 
 age of barely five dollars each, the farmer would have 
 a home market, in addition to what he now has, for 
 more produce than this country ever sold in one year 
 to all foreign lands. The market for the products 
 of this increased labor must be found abroad. It can 
 be found by abolishing the tax on raw material and 
 inaugurating a general interchange of commodities 
 with all the world." 
 
 "Such a statement, Major, really startles me. 
 Can it be true ? If so, the need is not so much more 
 mouths to consume farm produce, and the building 
 up of a bigger home market as far as numbers are 
 concerned, as the steady employment of all who 
 desire to work with fair wages, thus enabling the 
 masses to live better and more comfortably by buying 
 more food and raiment. The farmer, you think, is 
 more interested and has more at stake in labor pros- 
 pering than has any other class of people."
 
 72 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 " Just so, every word of it. There can be no seri- 
 ous disturbance in finance but the farmer is injured 
 by it. Every strike or lock-out reduces the demand 
 for farm produce. Every failure of any indus- 
 try, or a partial suspension of work which throws 
 operatives out of employment, reduces the demand 
 for farm produce. The lowering of wages reduces 
 the demand for farm produce. The idle million of 
 strong and willing hands reduces the demand for 
 farm produce. Anything which tends to depress 
 business and hinder the prosperity of the country 
 reduces the demand for farm produce. The farmer 
 must have thrift and prosperity all around him, 
 everywhere, in the work-shop, factory, mine and 
 counting-room, in order to thrive and prosper him- 
 self. Any other class of producers except the farmer 
 can limit and control the extent of its products in 
 accordance with the demand and the ability of con- 
 sumers to buy/' 
 
 " Do you assert, Major Holbrook, that the thrift 
 and prosperity so desirable would be assured the 
 farmer by the success of tariff reform ?" 
 
 " I do not assert that it will prove the great cure- 
 all for every disease which effects the body politic. 
 I do insist, however, that the chief cause of the 
 depression in agriculture is the protective tariff. 
 Remove the cause of the depression and the depres- 
 sion can not continue." 
 
 "Will you explain more fully," asked Farmer 
 Nagle, " how the work-shops of this country, whieis 
 I have read number nearly one-third of a million, 
 could find a market for their products were they to
 
 THE MORTGAGE AND HOW IT GOT THERE. 73 
 
 arid what would be equal to three operatives to the 
 working force of each ? " 
 
 " I believe that with raw material," replied Major 
 Holbrook, "such as iron and copper ore, sugar, lum- 
 ber, wool and coal, admitted free, and half the tariff 
 on necessaries removed, this country could make and 
 sell enough goods to the people of Great Britain, 
 Central and South America and Mexico, to employ, 
 in the making of them, every idle man in the United 
 States, and pay them good living wages. This trade 
 o/ itself would make a better and bigger home mar- 
 ket for farm produce, in addition to what we now 
 possess, than could be secured from all the skilled 
 industries in the land if engaged in manufacturing 
 goods only for the home market." 
 
 " I can not help admitting," added Farmer Nagle, 
 "that there is a good deal of sound reasoning in such 
 statements. I have no desire to contradict them. 
 Cn the contrary, I am inclined to believe them. But 
 please tell me how the tariff stands in the way of our 
 now building up such a trade with those countries ?" 
 
 "I see there is an idle team in the corn-field wait- 
 ing for you, Mr. Nagle, and I will not detain you 
 longer," said the Major, "when you can find a little 
 leisure, come round to my house and we will take up 
 this subject with that question."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HOW TO GET RID OF THE MORTGAGE OK THE FARM. 
 
 "Well, Farmer Nagle, I hardly expected to see 
 you this evening, and yet I am glad you have come. 
 Take a seat." 
 
 " Thank you, Major, I have come because I am 
 beginning to think this tariff has everything to do 
 with successful farming, and I propose to find out 
 how it does it." 
 
 "You have hit the nail square on the head, Farmer 
 Nagle. The tariff does prevent successful farm- 
 ing, and I will tell you how. But first let me 
 answer the question you asked me to-day noon. 
 'How does the tariff prevent the United States 
 building up a large trade with foreign countries?' 
 In the first place, if the fetters put on the manufact- 
 ures of this country and the Chinese-wall policy 
 pursued by this government toward other nations 
 were removed, we would not only drive England and 
 France, to a certain extent, out of the markets of Cen- 
 tral and South America and Mexico, but we would 
 sell goods wherever on the face of the earth goods 
 were bought. 
 
 " I wish you would explain, Major, what you mean 
 by removing the 'fetters " 
 
 " I mean, to take the tariff off of every kind of raw 
 material which enters largely into the product of 
 any American industry, and thu's enable that indus- 
 
 74
 
 HOW TO GET RID OF THE MORTGAGE. 75 
 
 try to manufacture better goods cheaper than they 
 can be manufactured anywhere else on the round 
 globe. Reduce the tax on necessaries at least one- 
 half, and encourage the building of American ships 
 by abolishing the tariff on everything that enters 
 into the construction of a vessel. Load American 
 ships with the products of American farms and Amer- 
 ican factories, and sail those ships into every harbor 
 where there is a civilized community with money 
 or raw material or other valuable commodities to 
 exchange for our products. Make it an object 
 for the world to buy American-made goods and 
 the products of American soil, by buying from the 
 world the things the world has to sell and the things 
 America wants. Tear down all the barriers that fet- 
 ter and handicap trade and traffic, and build up a 
 commerce between America and the balance of the 
 world which shall put this land in business communi- 
 cation with every community that wants to buy any- 
 thing or wants to sell anything. There is no danger 
 of the world getting the better of America. With 
 trade unrestricted to the extent suggested, America 
 can, if it becomes a strife between nations, both 
 feed and clothe the world. That most dismal of all 
 cries that ever pierced an American ear, and espe- 
 cially the ear of the farmer, and that most senseless 
 cry, the cry of overproduction, would find noplace 
 in business circles, but the wares that America made 
 and the surplus product the American farmer grew, 
 would find a market, at a fair profit, either in Amer- 
 ica or' beyond the sea. Then, with gambling in farm 
 produce stopped, Chicago and New York, might
 
 76 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 have something to say about fixing the price. There 
 would be no excuse for hostile foreign tariffs which 
 work such serious injury to the American farmer. 
 Those countries which exclude our pork products 
 and tax our breadstuffs would fall in with this liberal 
 policy, and again invite us to feed their people." 
 
 " Would not this country then," replied Farmer 
 Nagle, " to all intents and purposes have free trade? " 
 
 " No, my dear sir, it would not be free trade, but 
 it would be fair, just and honorable trade, in which 
 the United States has nothing to lose but everything 
 to gain. There would still be sufficient tax on foreign 
 goods, added to the internal revenue, to meet the 
 expenses of the government and give to home indus- 
 tries enough protection to not only make those indus- 
 tries profitable, but to insure to labor good wages and 
 steady employment. 1 ' 
 
 " If this country/' continued Major Holbrook, 
 " expects to sell its products to other nations, it must 
 buy goods which other nations sell. This is fair 
 trade. If you take your produce to Bradford Junc- 
 tion and get the money for it of a merchant who runs 
 a store and sells goods as cheap as any one else and 
 you take that money and go to Wilton Station and 
 buy your family supplies, that is unfair trade. Per- 
 sisted in for a considerable length of time the Brad- 
 ford merchant would refuse to buy your wheat and 
 pork, because his profit in a deal with you comes 
 from the goods he sells-your at her than from the prod- 
 uce he buys of you. So with our breadstuff and 
 meat sold in England or South America or any other 
 foreign country. If the shipper persists in demand-
 
 HOW TO GET RID OF THE MORTGAGE. 77 
 
 ing gold and silver, and refuses to take in exchange 
 for that produce such articles as those countries grow 
 or mine or manufacture and such as we need andean 
 buy cheaper than at home, we can not expect those 
 countries to buy our products." 
 
 "Have you in your mind, Major, any article of 
 raw material brought from abroad, admitted free, 
 which our factories use to advantage?" 
 
 " Yes, there is raw silk. While many other indus- 
 tries, particularly woolen mills, are languishing, the 
 silk mills are prospering and the operatives are paid 
 high wages. A few years ago raw hides were put on 
 the free list, since Avhich time we have increased 
 our sales of boots and shoes to foreign countries from 
 less than half a million dollars annually to more than 
 ten million dollars, and we bring those hides in large 
 quantities from foreign countries and send back 
 millions of pounds of sole leather, employing, in tan- 
 ning, thousands of hands. Before hides were put on 
 the free list, this country sold no leather to any 
 foreign country." 
 
 "Is there not a tariff on boots and shoes? " 
 
 " Yes, and it operates precisely as the tariff on 
 wheat, flour and pork does. Except a few fancy arti- 
 cles purchased by those nabobs you have made so rich 
 by pouring your earnings into their pockets, there 
 are comparatively few boots and shoes imported." 
 
 " Are you clear in your mind, Major, that with 
 European countries manufacturing such immense 
 quantities of goods, the United States, even with free, 
 raw material, and the tariff largely reduced on neces- 
 saries, could compete with them?"
 
 78 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 " There can be no doubt of it," said Major Hoi- 
 brook. " Though hampered and fettered by an ill- 
 begotten and ill-fitting tariff, we have already gone 
 into the midst of that competition and sold our wares. 
 This country sold to England alone, in one year, 
 more than twenty-five million dollars' worth of manu- 
 factured goods, not counting flour or soil products. 
 We bring raw sugar from abroad, and sell six or seven 
 million dollars' worth of refined sugar in the English 
 market. We sell iron and steel machinery to Eng- 
 land, and also clocks, watches, organs, pianos and 
 other musical instruments. Make raw material free, 
 and this country would surprise itself at the extent 
 of the trade it would speedily build up in foreign 
 markets." 
 
 "I see, Neighbor Holbrook, the force of your 
 reasoning, and I must say I feel like assenting to 
 many of your conclusions. I like the idea of 
 fair trade, and there is something massive in the 
 thought that it is possible for this country to do the 
 lion's share of feeding and clothing mankind. I can 
 but admit that the present policy is a supremely 
 selfish one, and this country must be the loser all 
 the time by continuing it. I confess it looks plaus- 
 iblfe that abolishing the tax on raw materials, and 
 reducing the tariff largely on such other articles 
 grown or prepared abroad as are essential for our 
 manufacturers to use, to put them on an equal foot- 
 ing with the industries of other countries, and with 
 the American brain behind the machinery and in the 
 counting room, will enable America to make as cheap 
 and as good goods as can be made else where; and then
 
 HOW TO GET RID OF THE MORTGAGE. 79 
 
 with free ships and unrestricted commerce, with the 
 same industrious soliciting of trade and the same 
 liberal methods of credit and interest practiced by 
 England and France, I see no reason why those goods 
 can not be sold wherever a civilized flag floats." 
 
 "Bravo, bravo, Mr. Nagle. You are becoming as 
 enthusiastic upon this subject as I am. I like the 
 way you grasp the situation. You don't seem to be 
 afraid to admit that you know more to-day than you did 
 yesterday. Great reforms must have defenders pull- 
 ing in front and pushing behind, and to be a reformer, 
 one must forget something that is old and learn 
 something that is new. You have done it, and I 
 welcome you, with outstretched arms, into the grow- 
 ing ranks of the advocates of tariff reform." 
 
 " Thank 3-011, Major, for the compliment." 
 
 " Now, Neighbor Nagle, with this reform a possible 
 success, what effect do you think it would have on 
 the price of farm produce ?" 
 
 "I believe it would, directly or indirectly, raise 
 prices so there would once again be a satisfactory 
 profit in growing grain and meat. It would give 
 employment to the idle million and insure good 
 wages to labor. It would give the farmer all there 
 possibly can be in a home market, and all he could 
 expect from a foreign market. It would reduce the 
 price of the necessaries he must have for family use, 
 and it would take the farm out of the rut that is 
 each year being worn deeper and deeper, and give 
 to the farmer a new lease of a new life, and to his 
 family that peace, happiness and contentment they 
 have been so largely deprived of the past two 
 decades."
 
 80 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 "I am pleased my friend to hear you talk thin. 
 We will now come back to that mortgage which is 
 eating up your substance and which threatens to turn 
 you and your family out of doors." 
 
 " True, true, in my exuberance of joy over the pros- 
 pects of good times, which might come by the bringing 
 about a reform in the tariff, I forgot I was in the 
 mire and beyond help from any such reform. I see 
 no hope or help for me or mine." 
 
 " I am not so sure of that/' replied Major Holbrook, 
 "as I have said it depends upon your own courage, 
 whether you sink or come up on dry land. I have not, 
 however, done with that mortgage. How much is 
 your farm worth ?" 
 
 "Ten years ago it was worth four thousand dol- 
 lars, but it would not sell now for much more tliHn 
 half that sum." 
 
 "What has caused this great reduction in its 
 value?" 
 
 "That is a difficult question to answer. I real.y 
 can not tell. The farm yielded this very year tlie 
 biggest crops I ever had, so the cause can not be m 
 the soil wearing out." 
 
 "Has not the earning power of the farm hud 
 nearly everything to do with it?" asked the Major. 
 " That is, if the farm had returned to you and your 
 family a good living, and you had not been com- 
 pelled to mortgage it to obtain money which it 
 ought to have earned for you, would its value now 
 not be fully what it was ten years ago?" 
 
 "I have no doubt of it." 
 
 " Do you know, Mr. Nagle, that the profits from
 
 HOW TO GET BID OF THE MORTGAGE. 81 
 
 farming are less than from any other business.? The 
 gain on capital invested in farms is two per cent., 
 the gain on mortgages is eight per cent., and the 
 gain on manufactories, which are protected by your 
 earnings, is forty per cent. The very condition of 
 things which makes farm property return only two 
 per cent, to the owner makes manufactories return 
 forty per cent, to their owners. See how it operates 
 in your own case. The tax which has been levied on 
 you in the name of tariff has each year been about one 
 hundred and fifty-seven dollars. Of this amount, 
 say fifteen dollars and seventy cents goes into the 
 Federal treasury, as your share of the expense of 
 running the government. The balance of one hun- 
 dred and forty-one dollars and thirty cents goes into 
 the pockets of manufacturers, for their protection, 
 which fancied protection really hampers and handi- 
 caps them, and prevents any efforts on their part to 
 compete with the manufactories of other countries." 
 
 " Strange I have not seen all this before, Major! " 
 
 " Now, then, with the tariff reform established as 
 the policy of this country, you would have that one 
 hundred and forty-one dollars and thirty cents to 
 pay each year on your mortgage, instead of paying 
 it for protection that does not protect." 
 
 " I see. I see. How the scales are dropping from 
 my eyes! " 
 
 " And I trust, Farmer Xagle, you also see that the 
 amount you have every year donated to wealthy man- 
 ufacturers is just about the amount you have been 
 running behind each year." 
 
 " Yes, I see that, too." 
 6
 
 82 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 " Now then, with this amount saved every year, 
 to apply on the mortgage, and the price of your prod- 
 uce increased to the extent you have every reason 
 to believe that general prosperity, as the result of 
 tariff reform, would bring about, how long would it 
 take you to get out of debt and fling that mortgage 
 into the fire?" 
 
 " Five crops would do it sure, Major, and give my 
 family a better living than ever before, with less 
 slave-work for every member of my household/' 
 
 "Have you the courage, Mr. Nagle, to do your 
 part in bringing about this" tariff reform? In your 
 individual case, its success will lift you out of the 
 mire, because the holder of the mortgage will not 
 be anxious for his money, knowing that his security 
 would be abundant, insuring the prompt payment of 
 the interest, and some day, after tariff reform shall 
 have been established, you will have to thrust the 
 principal upon him, because loaning money to farm- 
 ers will then, in a great measure, become a lost art/' 
 
 "Yes, I see I am personally interested in more 
 ways than one, in this grand reform, and I dare do 
 anything that is honorable and manly to help bring 
 it about/' 
 
 "Then vote for men for Congress, and other 
 officers, who favor a reduction of the tariff. If 
 the party with which you are identified don't 
 pronounce for the reform, let your party do with- 
 out you until the reform wins the day, and when 
 that is done, and you care to go back to your 
 party, go back. But until the party which de- 
 clares for this reform, is victorious, your place is
 
 TO GET KID OF THE MORTGAGE. 
 
 with that part) 7 . If you have greater love for your 
 party than the success of an issue that will put you 
 on your feet, and clear you of debt, you can keep on 
 trying to extricate yourself from the mire, and see 
 where you will be when you can struggle no more." 
 
 " You have said enough, Major Holbrook, I see 
 my duty clearly. I would be false to myself, and 
 place in jeopardy for all time the happiness and wel- 
 fare of my family, should I fail to cut away from the 
 party which favors a high-protective tariff. There 
 is but one place for me to go, and that is into the 
 ranks of that party which stands pledged to support 
 a reduction of the tariff on the necessaries of life, 
 and the complete abolition of the tax on raw mate- 
 rial. I am right glad I have had this conversation 
 with you, Major Holbrook. You have furnished me 
 food for thought, and I propose to discuss the sub- 
 ject with my neighbors at every opportunity I get." 
 
 "When you do talk this matter over with them," 
 added Major Holbrook, "impress upon them the 
 great truth that the tendency of the times is toward 
 the cheapening of everything consumed by man- 
 kind. In the race for low prices for things the 
 world eats, the farmer will be left way behind, unless 
 he uses all the political power he possesses, to cast 
 aside those artificial barriers which stand between the 
 prices he gets for the things he sells, and the prices 
 he pays for the things he buys. The world will keep 
 insisting on having bread and meat low. The farm- 
 ers will drop out of the race, and become mere serfs, 
 unless they insist on having clothing, agricultural 
 implements, lumber and all the necessaries of life
 
 84: THE MORTGAOE FORECLOSED. 
 
 they do not themselves produce, correspondingly 
 low. They can survive the contest which seems to 
 be closing in upon them, by contending for the com- 
 plete abolition of so much of the tariff, as is levied 
 exclusively for protection. Good-bye."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER. 
 
 One day the news spread rapidly through the 
 neighborhood that Major Hoi brook was seriously ill. 
 A malarial fever was having its run with a constant 
 uncertainty as to the sick man's recovery. Mrs. 
 Winters was a frequent visitor at the Major's house, 
 n>aking herself so useful in the sick room, relieving 
 Mary and the nurse of a part of their cares and 
 duties, that they beseeched her to make her home for 
 a time with them, so that she might, with less incon- 
 venience to herself, render the assistance she prof- 
 fered. Seeing that Mary was worn out and likely to 
 break down, Mrs. Winters consented, and was placed 
 in charge of the house. 
 
 A male nurse was needed, and inquiries for one 
 were made at the county seat. In time a strong, 
 stout, middle-aged, gentlemanly-appealing stranger 
 applied for the place. His interview was with Mrs. 
 Winters. She employed him and installed him in 
 his work. 
 
 There was a mysterious something about this man 
 and his habits which Mary oftentimes found herself 
 trying to fathom, and the most singular thing was 
 the mystery seemed to involve Mrs. Winters with it. 
 Why or how no one that noticed it could tell. Mary 
 threw it off with the thought that at the worst it was 
 only a shadow of suspicion. Mrs. Winter's early 
 
 85
 
 86 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 history was a blank as far as the people in the neigh- 
 borhood knew anything of it. While she had lived 
 since coming there the life of a Christian woman, and 
 while her character was pure and spotless, yet the 
 closest observers had, from time to time, noticed a 
 strangeness in her actions which created a feeling 
 that something was wrong. Men unknown in the 
 community had been seen loitering after night in 
 the shadow of the trees that grew near her house. 
 They came, no one knew from where, and they went 
 no one knew whither. She was never known to 
 mention the name of husband. If he were dead 
 she never told it. If he were living she never men- 
 tioned it. Yet she had a son she idolized. Why 
 silently feed the mysterious with mystery? 
 
 The stranger faithfully applied himself to the work 
 assigned him. He gradually won the respect, and, it 
 may be, the confidence of the sick man. He studied 
 to please Major Holbrook. He labored to make his 
 services indispensable. There was, however, a cool- 
 ness between him and Mrs. Winters which others 
 could not help noticing. Why was the man nurse, 
 who was oiily a temporary employe of the house- 
 hold, and a stranger, too, and who when his services 
 were no longer required would go as he had come, a 
 stranger, worthy of even being shunned by Mrs. Win- 
 ters? 
 
 The man soon became a necessity at Major Hoi- 
 brook's bedside. Xo nurse ever more faithful served 
 the sick, than did that stranger serve Major Hol- 
 brook. He was ever on the alert to make himself 
 useful, and he succeeded in so ingratiating himself
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER. 87 
 
 into the affections of Mary and the physician, and 
 the nurse, by little acts of kindness to all of them, 
 and by his constant devotion to the failing invalid, 
 that all were ready to trust him and put the utmost 
 confidence in his honor and integrity. To all these 
 marks of respect shown the stranger, Mrs. "Winters 
 demurred by looks and signs, which seemed to be 
 never understood, but she communicated her thoughts 
 to no living person. She evidently wanted to warn 
 the family of something connected with the stranger's 
 presence, but her lips were sealed. She was the 
 woman of mysteries. 
 
 One morning, after a restless night, the sick man 
 called Mrs. Winters to his bedside. He told her 
 he believed he had but a few hours to live. He as- 
 sured her he was prepared to die, but he was in doubt 
 as to a future world. " Where could heaven be/' had 
 been the subject of his thoughts for weeks. Could 
 Mrs. Winters, whom he always found so sensible and 
 wise in worldly matters, give him some reasonable 
 theory as to where God might put the souls of men, 
 when life on eartlrwas ended? then he would die full 
 of faith in the power of the Almighty to redeem the 
 promises made by Christ. 
 
 Mrs. Winters stood aghast. She was astonished 
 that a man of Major Holbrookes intelligence and 
 information, whose life was spotless and blameless, 
 whose mature years had been spent in doing good to 
 his fellow-man, who, though making no outward pro- 
 fession of religion, was known to be a Christian, should, 
 on the verge of the grave, harbor a doubt as to the 
 existence of a future state.
 
 88 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 The good lady controlled her feelings the best she 
 could. She understood the situation at once. Major 
 Holbrook had not seen heaven, had never seen any 
 one who had, and now he was in doubt whether there 
 was a heaven or not. 
 
 "Major Holbrook," replied Mrs. Winters, "it is 
 these kinds of doubt by men of practical good sense, 
 on their death-bed, that are wearing upon the Christi- 
 anity of the Bible, as the constant dripping wears the 
 stone. You ask me if I can tell you where heaven 
 is ? I know not, nor do I care, nor should you. 
 The Divinity that could stud the heavens with worlds 
 upon worlds, may, for aught I know, have provided 
 a home as large as this earth for each immortal soul. 
 Puny man in the hands of Deity is but as one drop 
 of water in a million oceans. It is no more effort for 
 the Almighty to prepare a heaven for your soul, 
 Major Holbrook, than for Him to make a grain of 
 sand or a breath of air. When God shall take your 
 spirit from its frail tenement, He will not leave it to 
 wander aimlessly about in space through all eternity, 
 but He will go with it and show it the way to its new 
 home. With such a guide you can have no fear but 
 the heaven will be found. As you have ev.er believed 
 in God's promises, have faith now that He will fulfill 
 them." 
 
 The dying man gave the Christian woman a look 
 of satisfaction as if to acknowledge the justness of 
 her mild reproof, and to accept her words of hope 
 and comfort. His lips parted as if he would say 
 something more. That the end was nigh was evi- 
 dent. The household were quickly summoned, but
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER. 89 
 
 no word did he utter. Mary, weeping as one whose 
 cup of sorrow was full, held one of her father's hands. 
 Mrs. Winters, calm and almost stoical, held the 
 other, and the stranger bathed the dying man's tem- 
 ples. A sigh, a groan, a fluttering heart, and all was 
 over.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 WHY SHE REFUSED TO MARRY MAJOR HOLBROOK. 
 
 In a drawer where Major Holbrook had kept his 
 private papers there was found, after his death, the 
 following letter written by Mrs. Winters: 
 
 TO MY DEAR FRIEND STEPHEN HOLBROOK: 
 
 Yesterday I told you I would give you my reasons in writ- 
 ing, for refusing your offer of marriage. I now fulfill that 
 promise. 
 
 I was an only child. I was born in a New England factory 
 town, in the year 18 . My father was the senior member of 
 the firm of Winters & Groundwig, who owned and operated a 
 large woolen mill, and were considered quite wealthy. I was 
 given as good an education as the seminaries of those days 
 furnished young ladies. At the age of nineteen I graduated, 
 not at the head of my class, but with my mind well stored with 
 book lore. On my return from school, I~took a great interest 
 in the welfare of the operatives in the mill, and was constantly 
 busy in various ways trying to improve their condition. Silas 
 Groundwig was the city partner, and received and sold the 
 goods manufactured at the mill. He visited the factory three 
 or four times a year, and each visit he sought to make his 
 coming and his stay as agreeable to me as possible. It did not 
 take me long to perceive that his politeness grew out of some- 
 thing more than friendship, so I can hardly say I was surprised 
 when he asked my hand in marriage. While I had no particu- 
 lar reason to dislike him, I did not entertain that love for him 
 that I felt I should to warrant me in accepting his offer. I 
 lost no time in telling him so, and with real sadness and sorrow 
 1 acquainted him with the state of my feelings toward him. 
 and we parted. 
 
 90
 
 WHY SHE REFUSED TO MARRY. 91 
 
 A few months afterwards I heard mutterings among the 
 operatives about pay-day having passed without their wages 
 being handed them. At this time my mother died, and after 
 the funeral, upon visiting the factory, I learned that matters 
 were in a worse condition than ever. I asked my father to 
 take me into his confidence and tell me all, and he then in- 
 formed me that his partner had invested the money of the firm 
 In schemes that proved worthless, and that the factory would 
 have to be sold to satisfy the mortgage which had been placed 
 upon it. T saw that such a proceeding would leave the 
 operatives men, women and children without money, with- 
 out food, and with scant raiment, and, in many instances, with- 
 out shelter. I knew that Mr. Groundwig was a man of many 
 resources, and I was not long in reaching his office, and impor- 
 tuning him to come to the aid of the penniless operatives. lie 
 did not appear a hard-hearted man. He was a business man 
 in ever}- sense; of the word. The world might have called him 
 cold, and it may be the world was right, but I thought I 
 detected in him a warm, sympathetic heart. So, when he 
 referred to the love he once had for me, and assured me it had 
 grown stronger with time, and when he again asked me for 
 my hand, and gently intimated that we could together do for 
 the operatives what I had implored him to do alone, I yielded, 
 not for love, but for humanity, not because of any affection I 
 had for him, but that almost a whole village full of people I 
 loved, and I loved them the more because they were poor and 
 needy, might not be turned out into the world friendless and 
 homeless. 
 
 We were married. The factory hands were paid all that 
 was coming to them. They never knew that the one they 
 loved so much, made the greatest sacrifice a woman can make 
 for their sake. I did not know myself, then, how great the 
 sacrifice was. How bitterly I have learned it all since. A few 
 mouths after the marriage my father died. I think he believed 
 to the hour of his death that I had married a man I" did not 
 love to save my father from bankruptcy. My great sacrifice 
 bore bitterer fruit than that. 
 
 A boy babe was born to gladden my heart. My whole soul
 
 92 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 was wrapped up In the child. There was no one else for me 
 to love. There was none other to love me. The father of my 
 darling boy had continued his speculations and lost all he pos- 
 sessed, and, on the day my child was born, my husband came 
 to my bed chamber and demanded I should sign a paper trans- 
 ferring to him all the property my father had left me at his 
 death. I refused, and the man who had the right to call me 
 by the holy name of wife, in that hour, if in no other, when 
 angels should guard the mother's couch, struck me a savage 
 blow, and then passed beyond my threshold, out into the 
 world, no longer my husband, except in name. If he could 
 have then gone to his grave instead of afterwards returning to 
 my presence, much of the sorrow I have borne, and many of 
 the tears I have shed, would have been spared me. 
 
 For seven years he remained away. I heard of him from 
 time to time as an adventurer seeking a-livelihood by dishonest 
 means. One day he returned to my home. He claimed my 
 boy my darling boy. His boy. Though the father had never 
 seen the child, though he had aimed a blow at the mother on 
 purpose to kill the babe, though he had abandoned his family 
 and left the mother alone to care for the child, yet the lawyer 
 told me there was danger that the law might take my boy 
 understand, my boy and give him to his unnatural father. 
 
 I waited no longer; hastily packing a few clothes in a bundle 
 that I could carry in my hand, writing a note to my lawyer, 
 instructing him to collect my rents and remit the proceeds as 
 I should afterwards direct, and giving him permission to rent 
 my home, I clasped my boy by the hand, and I remember to 
 this moment with what thrilling fervor he returned that grasp, 
 and out into the darkness and the storm we went together 
 my boy and I. Cared I not where I went, nor how fearfully 
 the storm raged, how vivid the lightning, how swollen the 
 streams, how dangerous the bridges, for the danger ahead, no 
 matter what it might be, even if unto death, if death would 
 come to both alike, was sunshine and depthless joy to the 
 immeasurable horror of the danger which lurked behind. 
 
 I was by no means poor. I had on my person quite a sum 
 of money. But money then was dangerous. It might lure
 
 WHY SHE REFUSED TO MARRY. 93 
 
 me into the very jaws I was fleeing from. To board the mid- 
 night train simply meant that on the morrow the telegraph 
 and the law would stay my journey. To procure a convey- 
 ance and ride across the country to a railroad station where 
 none knew me, or my boy, or my story, would only put pur- 
 suers on my track. I need not relate that night's experience. 
 I refer to it now with dread and horror. I found kind friends 
 who aided me and my boy to flee. 
 
 One afternoon we reached the village of Bradford, then a 
 quiet, secluded little settlement in the great teeming West, 
 where I felt my boy was safe. I changed my name to Matilda 
 Winters. It was my grandmother's name. I need not excuse 
 that act. Before my God I feel I was justified in doing any- 
 thing not criminal, that would prevent being robbed of my 
 boy. 
 
 My life here is familiar to you and the good people of this 
 neighborhood. I have sought to do good to my fellow-men 
 and fellow-women, and trust that when I am dead some one 
 will have cause to say that the world is a little better for Aunt 
 Matilda's having lived in it. 
 
 I had not been living among my good neighbors many 
 months before I discovered that the farmers were not prosper- 
 ing as they ought, that instead of laying up money for their 
 old age and for their children, many of them were running in 
 debt and mortgaging their homes. I found the farmers we r e 
 anything but drones, they were always at work, their wives 
 did their share of the drudgery, and the children were not idle. 
 The land was rich and yielded bountiful crops. The stock 
 thrived and ready sales were found for the surplus. Why 
 should not the farmer prosper? Other industries were in a 
 flourishing condition. The farmers alon- -.obtained 
 
 less profits from their investments, not counting the additional 
 labor they performed, than were realized in manufacturing, 
 mining and transportation business. Why was this? 
 
 My investigations led me to the conviction that the cause 
 was the unequal and unjust taxation imposed on the farmers 
 by the tariff laws. Providing myself with facts and figures I 
 sought to open the eyes of the farmers to the robbery of which
 
 y4 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 they were the especial victims. In this good work you have 
 ably assisted me, and in their name I thank you. This com- 
 munity knows the nature of the work we both have done. I 
 believe we have sown good seed. I believe the farmers in 
 this and adjoining neighborhoods, are beginning to see that 
 high tariff is robbery, not robbing all occupations alike, but 
 selecting the farmers from among the great industries of the 
 laud, and relieving them of the greater share of their earnings, 
 and putting the proceeds into the pockets of those who oper- 
 ate the other industries. "We have time and again proven to 
 the farmer that he is being taxed into bankruptcy and taxed into 
 the grave. Every drop of sweat that trickles down his cheeks 
 stands for a contribution, larger or smaller, to the owners of 
 industries who claim they can not prosper without such con- 
 tributions. No one contributes anything to the support of the 
 farmer, but he contributes nearly one-half the amount he 
 spends for the necessaries of life, to make richer the rich. 
 He will not always submit to this great injustice, he will 
 not always be willing to increase the weight of his own 
 burdens, simply because he has not the courage to break away 
 from his party and vote for men to make the laws who favor 
 tariff reduction. He is fast coming to the conclusion, with 
 his own experience to convince him, that a high tariff for pro- 
 tection is merely a legal excuse for plundering him of the 
 greater part of the income of the farm. His relief will come 
 when he dare say he is ready for it. The remedy for all the 
 grievances growing out of the tariff for protection, is in his 
 own hands. I believe he is about ready to apply it. 
 
 But, my dear friend, I have digressed, and I return to my 
 story. Four years passed and I was beginning to make myself 
 believe that my hiding-place would never be discovered by the 
 father of my boy. It was not to be so. 
 
 One evening, just at dusk, my darling Henry came running 
 into the house, all out of breath, and when he could speak, 
 he told of meeting a stranger who had asked several ques- 
 tions about his mother, and had bade him run home and say 
 that Silas Groundwig, an acquaintance of years ago, would 
 call at once to see me. Ere the boy had finished his message,
 
 WHY SHE REFUSED TO MARRY. 95 
 
 the man came. I remembered too well that name. It was my 
 husband, the father of my boy. My heart ceased to throb. 
 At least I thought it did. When the hot blood ought to have 
 coursed through my veins with lightning speed, it failed to 
 do its work, and I stood before the man transfixed with horror, 
 speechless, but fortunately I did not lose my consciousness. 
 
 " Well, Madame, this is a rather cold reception to extend to 
 your husband after the long chase you have given him." 
 
 His voice brought me to myself. In a moment I gathered 
 strength, not the puny strength of a weak woman, but the 
 strength of a giant. The blow he gave me years before on 
 that bed of pain, seemed to be inflicted again, and again it 
 stung me to the heart. I looked about me and saw we were 
 alone. I was so thankful my boy had returned to his play. 
 Cooly and calmly as I write these words, I gazed on that man. 
 I saw he was a wreck, and that kind of a wreck which is all 
 danger. I looked him straight in the eye. There was no 
 hope there. His lips were firmly closed though livid with an 
 ashen line, I saw the color come and go in his face, as if his 
 brain was busy with the past, With the utmost deliberation, 
 and with a boldness that chilled me through, I replied: 
 
 "Sit down, sir." 
 
 " No, I prefer to stand." 
 
 " As you please," I answered. 
 
 " Susan Groundwig! " 
 
 At the mention of that name I started as though he had 
 struck me and my boy another blow. I was subdued in a 
 I. I became weak and meek as a little child. All my 
 great courage had gone from me. I was helpless and power- 
 less. I felt I was again at that man's mercy. A dread of a 
 terrible something about to happen unnerved me, and I waited 
 with breathless anxiety the next step in the drama. Was it to 
 end with a tragedy?" 
 
 "Susan Groundwig," and again I started at the sound of 
 that name, "you do not answer. Do you not know your 
 name? You may forget it, but you can not forget you are my 
 wife." 
 
 "Silas Groundwig," at last I found strength and courage
 
 96 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 to say, "you have no right, sir. to call me by that name. 
 When a husband strikes his wife and her unborn babe a bl./w 
 with intent to kill both, he has no right, God given or mun- 
 given, to ever again come into that mother's presence and 
 pollute the air she breathes with a word from his lips. To 
 save my child from your merciless clutches, I fled from my 
 home. To all I held dear on earth, my boy and I bade an 
 eternal farewell. Mother's grave, father's memory, the home 
 of my childhood, all, everything, I fled from, to escape your 
 threat to carry off my child. At last you have found me. 
 And now, Silas Groundwig, what is it you wish? " 
 
 For more than a minute, which seemed an hour, he stood 
 before me and answered not a word. He was pale and wlr're 
 and still as a dead man right from the grave. Finally t'je 
 painful stillness was broken by Groundwig exclaiming: 
 
 "Susan Groundwig, the business which brought me hare 
 can be easily arranged if you wish it; and long before the 
 clock strikes ten I can be on my way out of your presence - 
 as my presence seems so hateful to you never again to return. 
 It is for you to say not for me; or before the clock shall 
 strike again, I can signal my comrades, who are hard by to 
 seize your boy and take him forever from your sight." 
 
 "O! my God, help me," I cried, and would have fallen 10 
 the floor had not my darling boy that moment opened the 
 door and entered the room. In as unconcerned a manner as 
 possible I bade him go to his chamber and retire as it was his 
 bed-time. He saw his mother was in trouble and he hesitated. 
 A pleasant look reasured him and he passed out of the room 
 and up the stairs. O! if he could only have fled. If he could 
 only have seen the danger and gone out into the world, in any 
 direction, anywhere, I would rather have felt that he was a 
 wanderer, homeless and motherless, and that I could have 
 searched for him with the hope that at some time in the future 
 I would find him, than that he should fall into that man's 
 power. This thought caused me to realize my situation, and I 
 found myself trying to comprehend the meaning of the words 
 he had uttered. He will depart never to return and it is ror 
 me to say whether he shall or not? What can he mean? So 
 meditating I found strength to say:
 
 WHY SHE REFUSED TO MARRY. 97 
 
 " Silas Ground wig; what is it you seek? " 
 
 "Madame, I want nothing but what you can comply with. 
 I am poor; I am an outcast in the world. I have been driven 
 to desperate deeds to make the world give me a living. I am 
 at the mercy of worse outlaws than myself. They have come 
 hither at my bidding to obtain money. You shrink back. 
 But money will satisfy them, and money will satisfy me; you 
 have money here in this house. I know what you brought 
 with you. I know what your agent has sent you as the pro- 
 ceeds of the sale of your father's property. I know of your 
 dealings with your neighbors, and I want and must have five 
 thousand dollars! I do not care to argue the matter. I see 
 by the horror pictured on your face that you are shocked at 
 my proposition, and hence you understand it. So be it; you 
 are a truthful woman; you will not deny having that amount 
 of money, because you dare not lie. It will count nothing for 
 you to claim that a portion of the money in your possession 
 is the savings of your neighbors, who have left it in your care 
 for safe keeping. It will avail nothing to plead that you can 
 not give me other people's money, but will give me your own. 
 It is useless to say that to comply with -my request you make 
 yourself and your boy beggars, and, in the opinion of your 
 neighbors, yourself a thief. I care nothing for such pleas. 
 Neither do my comrades outside; whose mutterings you can 
 hear this moment. There is no tit le to lose. I must signal 
 them to come in for money or your boy. They have been 
 promised one or the other." 
 
 "\Vhcre now was my God that He didn't strike that wretch 
 dead as lie stood there, with such words on his lips? I am to 
 rob myself, rob my boy, rob my friends and go forth on the 
 morrow a beggar and a thief, and for what? Heavens! to save 
 my child! Can I longer hesitate? Money, honor, reputation 
 everything I have in the world must gp if my boy would 
 stay. My head grew dizzy. The room was whirling round. 
 I felt I must not lose my consciousness, or my boy was lost. 
 I involuntarily led the way to my bedroom. Ho followed me. 
 I took from its hiding-place a key. I unlocked my writing 
 desk. I touched a secret spring in a drawer. I pointed to 
 
 7
 
 98 THE MOETGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 the exposed money. Not a word is said . He seizes the roll 
 of bank bills, gives me a demoniac look, which came to me 
 afterward in my dreams time and time again, and then he 
 passed through the open door and out into the darkness of the 
 night, leaving me in the darkness of despair, in woe and 
 gloom unfathomable. 
 
 I must have swooned, because I knew nothing more until I 
 was aroused by my boy frantically calling upon me to speak 
 to him, and in the next breath telling me, in the most excited 
 manner, that we were robbed! 
 
 Robbed? By whom? Robbed! Was there not in this one 
 word the way to escape from the charge of stealing the hard 
 earnings of my neighbors the savings they had so confidently 
 entrusted to my keeping, having faith in my honesty and in- 
 tegrity? "Why not go out into the neighborhood and proclaim 
 that burglars had broken into my house and robbed me of my 
 treasure? No! My treasure was left me. My boy stood 
 before me. The money was gone, but, God be thanked, my 
 treasure was clinging to his mother's neck. 
 
 Why not tell my neighbors that their money and mine was 
 stolen, and I was a beggar? No! I could not tell that 
 story, because it was not true. I had invited that man into 
 my room. I had opened the secret drawer. I had pointed 
 out the money. I had motioned him to take it and flee. That 
 was not robbery; that was O, heavens! what was it? What 
 crime had been committed, and who committed it? Was I a 
 criminal for consenting that my husband should carry away 
 other people's money? Why was I not the criminal? I held 
 the money as a sacred trust for others. I had violated that 
 trust by permitting another to take that money. Why did I 
 violate that trust? Ah, I see. Now comes my better angel to 
 again sit in judgment on my conduct. I gave the wealth of 
 others and all I had of my own that my boy might be spared 
 me that he might not be stolen from me. Was that a sin 
 known to God? Was that a crime known to men? Will that 
 angel condemn me? 
 
 But hold! Go not from me, blessed comforter; you have 
 helped me for my sake, now help ine for others' sake. I know
 
 WHY SHE REFUSED TO MARRY. 99 
 
 I am innocent of any crime. How shall T impress that inno- 
 cence upon those who trusted me -with tlirir treasure? How 
 can they be made to believe that I gave their money to save 
 my child? And even were they to believe my story, would 
 they justify me in sacrificing their savings for such an object? 
 It was my child not theirs. I do them wrong. Some of 
 them are mothers, and all of them have hearts. They have 
 trusted me, lo! these many years. They will not forsake me 
 now! God be thanked that I know they will not. 
 
 Still how can I tell my neighbors all the circumstances 
 which led up to the loss of the money. While I have never 
 said I had no husband, yet my silence at times must have led 
 my friends to think my husband was dead. To now con- 
 fess he lived and hud threatened to steal my boy, required 
 more nerve and more courage than I possessed. I began to 
 reproach my heavenly Father for forsaking me in my sorest 
 need. Had He not promised to relieve "the fatherless and 
 widow ? " I forget. I am not a widow. My by is not fath- 
 erless. But worse a thousand fold worse am land my boy. 
 What can I do ? What is it my duty to do ? If I could only 
 see my duty as God sees it, I would do it, let results be 
 what they may. There comes my boy from school now. I 
 must dry these tears. There must be no tears for my loved 
 boy to kiss away from his mother's cheeks. He seems excited 
 and is out of breath. He sees me through the window. He 
 is waving a letter. Another moment and he bounds into the 
 room, and throwing a sealed envelope in my lap, fairly shouts 
 to me to open it and read the letter quick, because the post- 
 master says he has just received a dispatch, asking him to 
 deliver the letter to meat once and have me telegraph an 
 answer. There comes the postmaster up the lane now. Open 
 it, mother ; read it, read it quick. I looked at the boy in 
 amazement. A dispatch. A letter. An answer must be 
 telegraphed quick. What does it mean? More trouble? Is 
 not my cup full? Is there room in this fast-throbbing heart 
 for more sorrow? Can there be any more tears in these weary 
 eyes? Mechanically I tear open the envelope. The letter is 
 from my New England home. I care not for the date. ' ' Dear
 
 100 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 madam" a're idle words. A piece of paper drops upon the floor. 
 My boy picks it up and holds it before me as I read: 
 
 Enclosed you will find a draft on the Bank of Commerce, city cif 
 New York, for the sum of three thousand dollars, payable [my 
 eyes fail me. I can read no further. There is plenty of room now 
 for tears. The mist grows thicker. The postmaster begs pardon 
 for obtruding upon my privacy at such a time, but says it is impor- 
 tant that he telegraph my answer at once. I hand him the letter 
 and ask him to finish reading it. He reads:] to 3'our order. In re- 
 organizing the Nanticoke Woolen Mill Company there is a scramble 
 going on for shares. In searching for the several shareholders it 
 has been discovered that the assignment by your father of the forty 
 shares owned by him to your former husband, is not only irregularly 
 entered on the transfer books, but is a forgery. The company at 
 once repaid the dividends, amounting to three thousand dollars, 
 and that amount T herewith remit you by enclosed draft. To enable 
 the friends of your lamented father to obtain, a majority of the 
 shares in order to control the property and take it from those who 
 are trying to depreciate its value by bad management, so they can 
 buy the stock for much less than its real value, I can sell the forty 
 shares which were your father's, and which are now yours, for five 
 thousand dollars. As the election of directors will be held on the 
 21st instant a speedy answer, and by telegraph, is necessary. I 
 advise you to sell, Truly yours, 
 
 SAMUEL EDMONSON. 
 
 It required but a moment for me to conclude what I would 
 do. Mr. Edmonson had proved himself honest and faithful to 
 my interests. I could trust him now. My answer went quick. 
 "I accept" In a few days another draft came, and my faith ? n 
 that divinity which doeth all things well was restored, ar-d 
 from the most miserable of beings I became the happiest. 
 
 Thus you see, my kind friend, that the answer I gave you 
 when you asked my hand in marriage, the answer you thought 
 so cruel and heartless, was the only one I could give you. I 
 know the courts are open for me to apply for a severance of 
 the marriage bonds. Cut I can never consent to do an act that 
 will serve to withdraw from me, in the least degree, the good 
 opinion and warm regard of my neighbors. Your friend, 
 
 MATILDA WINTERS.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 LOVERS ON THE LAKE KIDNAPED. 
 
 What more charming or fascinating time and place 
 for lovers than an evening on such acraft, on so beau- 
 tiful a lake. The month of August has fairly entered 
 on its second week. The slowly lengthening twilight 
 brings with it myriads of 'objects to see and hear. 
 The long shadows of bluff and trees, which have 
 darkened the water in big spots, seem to have spread 
 until they cover all the lake, and it is all shadows 
 now or no shadows, just as fancy pictures. The 
 fields are full of flowers, and the forests are full of 
 birds. The katy-did is whistling its monotonous 
 Dotes, closing with a low trill attempting the difficult 
 frat of singing in a whisper, and perched on distant 
 f*nce-posts the mated quails, claiming the weather 
 prophet's skill, are announcing the prospect of "more 
 wet." The prairie chicken drums and drums, and 
 fancies the noise a song, while the cooing doves, 
 visiting in pairs, make most plaintive wailings, as 
 though mourning and loving were to them the same. 
 The owl, awakening from his all-day sleep, stretches 
 out his neck from beneath his wings and hoots a 
 warning to his prey. The golden-rod, the wild sun- 
 flower, the broad expanse of pr.urie blossoms fresli 
 from their sun-bath?, nod in the gentlest of gentle 
 breezes, and open their invisible mouths toca f ch the 
 dews of the night. The beautiful daisy and the pretty 
 
 101
 
 102 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 morning glory have gone to sleep until the rising sun 
 shall bid them awake. The whippoorwill sits on the 
 dead branch of an old oak near the water's edge, and 
 tells all the world within hearing that he is a whip- 
 poorwill and must be listened to. The blue bird and 
 the wren hop from limb to limb, twitter and chatter, 
 and go to sleep chattering. The cows, with quick- 
 ened pace, move in single file along the narrow path 
 by the side of the bluff, chewing their cud, looking 
 so demurely out of their great, brown eyes, bowing 
 familiai'ly to every bush and shrub, hastening to 
 reach home before night-fall. On the brow of yon- 
 der bluff, where the rays of the sun are lingering and 
 departing, it is said an Indian maiden threw 
 herself into the waters below rather than wed against 
 her will. 
 
 The sky, too, is full of the glory of the Lord, and 
 lovers are both deaf and blind if they find no time 
 for silent admiration of such grandeur. Yonder, 
 almost in the zenith, is Jupiter, shining so brightly 
 and looking so proud because he is the king of the 
 heavens even for a brief hour, and over in the eastern 
 sky is Cassiopeia, queen of matchless beauty, and as 
 if admiring the milky way the beautiful Cygnus with 
 outstretched wings looks every inch a swan, and now 
 the great, round, red moon breaks the horizon and 
 climbs majestically up the clear sky, and the big, 
 bright stars and the dim little ones, all hide their 
 heads, and even Jupiter himself fades away, and the 
 shadows come again and cover the borders of the 
 lake with phantoms of various shapes affording the 
 imagination an easy opportunity to fancy any image
 
 LOVERS OX THE LAKE. 103 
 
 the brain can design or desire. Light breezes sigh 
 mournfully through the trees, and joining high up 
 above the waters of the lake, the winds that swept 
 from the distant prairie, seem like dismal murmur- 
 ings and harsh mutterings coming from human 
 voices among the clouds; or it may be these strange, 
 weird noises are voices of spirits from the tombs of 
 the mound-builders holding converse with the spirits 
 from the graves of the long-buried Indians. These 
 mysterious noises come with the darkness, and go only 
 with the light of the morning. 
 
 The moon is now well on its journey across the 
 sky^ The fields and river and lake and farm houses 
 are as plainly visible as at noonday. The symmetri- 
 cal stacks of grain stand out boldly as if saying " we 
 are the staff of life for man and beast." The hay has 
 been harvested and the long racks mean that well-fed 
 cattle shall reward the husbandman for his labor. 
 The fields and meadows have been shorn of their 
 wealth of food, except the broad acres of Indian corn 
 whose luxuriant growth makes the farmer smile as he 
 dreams of fat herds and a fat purse. That snapping, 
 crackling, rustling noise which is the only sound that 
 breaks upon the stillness of the night, is the growing 
 corn. It is pushing, driving and crowding itself out 
 of the silken tassel into the ear, returning to the 
 ploughman sixty and even ninety fold of increase, 
 the reward promised him for his labor and his faith. 
 
 The lights in the farm houses have long since been 
 extinguished. The stillness of the night becomes 
 oppressive. Strange that 'the bosom of the lake 
 should be undisturbed by even a ripple, while high
 
 104 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 up in the sky the elements should be at war. The 
 herdman's dog gives out an occasional bark to let 
 his master know he is an honest dog. Now and then 
 a dismal howl, though in perfect concert, comes from 
 a pack of wolves that have ventured from their den 
 to seek plunder for themselves and sucklings. Save 
 these infrequent disturbers of nature's stillness, and 
 the ever present commingling of those supernal 
 voices in the upper air, all over the broad surface of 
 the lake, and all over the fields and through the for- 
 ests, as far as eye can see or ear can hear, there 
 reigns the quiet of the churchyard at the midnight 
 hour. 
 
 Some people would think it was no time nor place 
 for youth and maiden of flesh and blood to talk of 
 love. But lovers are on the lake Henry and Mary 
 are there and they have been telling over and over 
 again the story of their love. Of all this chapter 
 recounts, not a thing have they seen or heard. Mary 
 has appeared unusually melancholy, perhaps because 
 this was their first meeting on the lake since her 
 father's death. As if to change the subject of her 
 thoughts, Henry had taken from a small plush box, 
 which he carried in his hand, a mass of trinkets 
 and a bundle of letters, and was telling the lovely 
 creature that wrote them the contents of each, that 
 she might have another test of his love. This pleas- 
 ing task finished, the trinkets and letters Avere 
 replaced in the bundle, and Mary, taking a piece of 
 blue ribbon from her hair, tied the package securely 
 and returned it to her lover, who carefully deposited 
 it in the box. Then, aware of the lateness of the
 
 EIDXAPED. 105 
 
 hour, Henry fitted an oar between the skulling pins 
 and quickly skulled the boat to its usual landing 
 place. 
 
 Arm in arm they wend their way slowly to Mary's 
 home. The good-byes are said, but leave-taking seems 
 to be fraught with feelings of sadness on the part of 
 both. 
 
 Can it be the weird and ghostly night on the lake 
 has made their hearts heavy and cast a gloom over a 
 farewell which is only for a day? Or did they each 
 s*e, and dare not tell the other of what they saw, the 
 shadows of men who thought themselves hidden 
 behind the shade trees that lined the lane? Did the 
 presence of those men in such hiding places, at such 
 a time, betoken harm to the lovers? If either 
 thought so neither betrayed the thought by word or 
 look. A pressure of the hand, a loving kiss, a trem- 
 bling "good night," and the lovers parted, not for a 
 day as each fondly believed, but for years. Years 
 full of sorrow and sadness years full of gloom and 
 death. 
 
 Mary lingered on the threshold of the door and by 
 the light of the bright moon saw her lover disappear 
 into the little grove which grew between the two 
 farms. It was only a few rods then to his home, and 
 he surely must reach it in safety. Why not? Noth- 
 ing yet had harmed him and why should she think 
 there was danger in his pathway now? Striving hard 
 to throw off a nervousness which seemed to press 
 upon her heart, she shut the door and retired to her 
 akamber. 
 
 Henry had gone but a short distance in the grove
 
 106 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 when two stout men bounded from behind the trees, 
 and, quicker than it takes the pen to tell it, they 
 grappled with him, forced a gag into his mouth, 
 pinioned his arms behind him, and then noiselessly 
 hurried him through the grove, past his home where 
 he could see the light in the window, then across the 
 fields to the road where a wagon and two horses were 
 in waiting. Henry was made to take a seat in the 
 vehicle, and one of the kidnapers sat by his side, 
 and the other caught up the reins and drove slowly 
 towards the east. He was informed if he kept quiet 
 and made no efforts to escape, nor sought in any way 
 to give an alarm, and would promise not to attempt 
 to communicate with any person, the gag would be 
 removed and his arms unpinioned. Believing his 
 only hope for escape was by obtaining as much free- 
 dom as possible, Henry made the promise. He was 
 told he would not be harmed if he was submissive 
 and went quietly with them wherever they desired, 
 but at the first attempt to break away or to cry out 
 for help, or by look or sign to attract the attention 
 of any person they should meet on the road, or in 
 cars or on boats, he would be shot, let the conse- 
 quences to them be what they might. They would 
 take all the risks. 
 
 Henry realized that he was in the hands of des- 
 perate outlaws. Why he was in their hands and 
 what was to be done with him was a mystery so cun- 
 ningly planned that not a thread was exposed that 
 would aid him in unraveling it. Perhaps they had 
 mistaken him for another, and when the mistake 
 was discovered, they would let him go. To all his 
 inquiries his keepers gruffly refuged to answer a
 
 KIDNAPED. 107 
 
 word. So Henry concluded it would be wise to 
 acquiesce in their wishes and make no outcry. 
 
 After a day and night's ride, a halt was made in a 
 dense forest, and Henry was led to a large dugout in 
 the side of a hill, and compelled to take up his 
 abode there. From time to time he overheard 
 enough of the conversation which passed between 
 two of the men to learn that it was the desire of the 
 third, who seldom showed himself, to keep the 
 young man a prisoner until the accomplishment of 
 a certain purpose, but what that purpose was-Henry 
 could not obtain the least intimation. One day the 
 third man brought a sum of money, which he 
 divided between the two jailers. Hardly had the 
 man disappeared, before his two associates were 
 planning how to get rid of their charge without 
 the knowledge of their companion. It was finally 
 agreed they would take him to New York and 
 ship him as a deckhand on some vessel bound for a 
 distant foreign shore. They would thus get rid of 
 their prisoner without further trouble to them, and, 
 as far as concealing him from his pursuers was con- 
 cerned, their plan was a better one than to keep 
 guard over him in the cave; and they could not see 
 why the purpose of his imprisonment might not be 
 just as well attained. 
 
 To suggest was to act. In another hour the team 
 was ready, and the three started on their journey. 
 Reaching a lake port, they embarked on board a 
 sailing vessel loaded with grain. The lake trip con- 
 sumed several days, and then a night's ride and part 
 of the next day on the cars, brought the party to the 
 city of New York.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ON THE OCEAN DANGEROUS RESEMBLANCE. 
 
 The same afternoon the party reached New York, 
 Henry was conveyed on board a vessel about to sail 
 for the East Indies. For several days he had been 
 in a dazed condition, as though partially under the 
 influence of opiates. His ambition had deserted 
 him. He took everything as a matter of course, and 
 did not care whether the outcome was life or death. 
 He was content with all his surroundings, and did not 
 possess the courage to protest against anything his 
 jailers did. So when he was placed in charge of the 
 steward of the vessel, he felt as though he was going 
 on a pleasure voyage, and his kidnapers were doing 
 him a kind service by giving him an opportunity to 
 travel and see the world. 
 
 On the morrow all was changed. The vessel was 
 far out at sea. Henry awoke as if from a long sleep. 
 He began to recall the scenes and events which led 
 up to his being put on board ship. All his keen 
 senses had returned. The steward noticed his dis- 
 turbed look, and asked him if he could serve him in 
 any way. From the steward he learned that the 
 master of the vessel was informed by the men who 
 accompanied Henry on board, that he was wild and 
 ungovernable, having a disposition to commit crime, 
 and to keep him from evil company that was leading 
 him to the gallows, his parents had deemed it best to 
 send him on a long sea voyage. 
 
 108
 
 OX THE OCEAN. 109 
 
 The mystery grew. He could not even conjure up 
 a suspicion that would help him solve it. The more 
 he pondered over the strange and bold proceedings, 
 ; or the mystery. Could he only have writ- 
 ten a line to his mother or to Mary, he would have 
 : more reconciled to the long journey before him. 
 The assault, the capture and the flight had been 
 done so noiselessly, and the wicked scheme had been 
 carried out so adroitly, that the neighborhood would 
 never know, except as he should live to return and 
 tell the story, who had done it. He knew the whole 
 region would be aroused and search made for him, 
 that the time would come when he would be 
 given up as dead, and the two beings on all the earth 
 he loved the best and most might themselves go 
 down to their graves weepiiigand mourning because 
 he returned no more to his home. 
 
 Such reflections nrust be abandoned. The right to 
 hope for freedom was at least left him. Resisting 
 the rush of gloomy forebodings, which were tugging 
 at his brain, he determined to brood no more over 
 the great outr 
 
 On his first appearance among his ship-mates 
 Henry attracted the attention of all the officers of the 
 vessel. Instead of being sullenly disposed or ill-tem- 
 pered or ill-natured, as those who were knowing of 
 the alleged reasons for his being put on board ship 
 expected, they found him courteous, pleasant and 
 agreeable. He soon became the favorite of all on 
 board not only of the officers and the few passengers, 
 but of the crew. The Captain at once conceived a 
 liking for the lad, and one day, calling him into his
 
 110 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 office, asked him if he would like to keep the ship's 
 records. It did not take him long to make up his 
 mind to accept the offer, adding that he was pre- 
 pared to make himself useful in any place he might 
 be put. 
 
 His work was light, but it was labor requiring care 
 and thoughtfulness, and close attention, and so well 
 did he look after the duties assigned him that the 
 Captain became much attached to him. So that 
 long before the voyage ended, the Captain had not 
 only heard the young man's story, but believed it, 
 and while he had especial instructions not to permit 
 Henry to return with him, but to send him far into 
 the interior of the India country, he had long since 
 come to the conclusion not only to take him back, 
 but to leave no stone unturned to discover the villians 
 that had done the kidnaping, and learn the cause of 
 the outrage. At the first port reached, Henry mailed 
 letters to his mother and Mary, giving a full account 
 of all that had happened to him. Theletters were never 
 received. It may be that the gold slipped into the 
 hand of one of the sailors, by one of the kidnapers, 
 as the vessel was unfurling its sails in the harbor of 
 New York, had much to do with those letters going 
 astray, or not going at all. 
 
 While in Calcutta familiarizing himself with the 
 sights in that wonderful city, he is hailed by an 
 American and asked how it happened he had returned 
 so soon from Darjeeling. The lad could not conceal 
 his surprise at being approached by a stranger, and 
 promptly replied that he had never been in the city 
 mentioned, and was not aware that he had ever met
 
 ON THE OCEAH. Ill 
 
 the stranger before. "What, is not your name 
 Charles Manning, and was you not my messmate on 
 the voyage here, and did I not leave you a week since 
 at Darjeeling, and did you not make an engagement 
 to meet me here next Monday? Why so silent? "What 
 does it mean? Explain, my dear sir. It is not possi- 
 ble for me to he mistaken." 
 
 "I assure you," replied Henry, having in mind 
 his strange adventure in America, "I never saw you 
 before in my life. Months ago I sailed from New 
 York on the good vessel, ' Lucky Star/ Captain Bod- 
 fish, Master, and I landed here only yesterday. Am 
 I to infer this is a case of mistaken identity, or to 
 what am I to attribute this mauner of accosting me 
 by an entire stranger?" 
 
 The stranger did not seem unfriendly. Henry, 
 apparently in doubt, was at a loss to understand how 
 such a blunder could have been made. The stranger 
 had evidently been associated with a person who 
 closely resembled Plenry Winters. It was with reluc- 
 tance that he admitted he was mistaken. But upon 
 being assured by Henry that he would remain ofl 
 board the Lucky Star for several weeks, the stranger 
 asked the privilege of bringing his. messmate with 
 him to the vessel, and let the two who looked so 
 much alike meet face to face. 
 
 In a few days the meeting took place. Captain 
 Bod fish declared the faces, general appearance and 
 movements of the young men were strikingly alike. 
 He had never seen two persons who so closely 
 resembled each other. The size, weight, build, com- 
 plexion, color of hair, voice, walk, manner, and, in
 
 112 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 fact, all that was characteristic in men, were alike fn 
 both. Both were born in New England, neither 
 knew anything of a father, and only Henry knew 
 anything of a mother. But they at once took a lik- 
 ing for each other, and during the remainder of the 
 time the Luck)' Star was in port, they were insepar- 
 able. Captain Bodfish consented that the new-found 
 acquaintance might sail with him on his home-bound 
 trip, and the Captain gave both light employment. 
 There was but little work to do, which gave the 
 young men ample time to read such books as were 
 contained in the vessel's library, and learn the his- 
 tory of each other's lives. Together they read the 
 same stories and discussed the writings of the same 
 authors. They talked of the land which gave them 
 birth, and, in fact, they were lost unless in each 
 other's company. But Henry was the most com- 
 municative. He had a story of love to tell, and in 
 Charles Manning an eager listener was found. Hs 
 heart was free. He had been a wanderer, and not H 
 lover. But when the tales of love, as experienced >y 
 Henry, were told, Charles became a lover, too. Every 
 word about love that fell from Henry's lips was treas- 
 ured up as a priceless gem. Every imaginable question 
 was asked of matters that would give Henry an excuse 
 to talk of his home, his mother, his Mary and the 
 people of the neighborhood. All the incidents, triv- 
 ial or otherwise, of which he had been a party, and 
 especially those that Mary was knowing to, were dis- 
 cussed over and over again. The walks in the wood?, 
 the boat rides on the lake, the remarkable sunsets, 
 the school days and boyhood pranks, the full story of
 
 ON THE OCEAN. 113 
 
 the scenes and events which led up to their plighted 
 troth; the spot was described where Cupid met them 
 and hurled the darts which pierced both their hearts, 
 and all the tales of love were not only told twice over, 
 but as Henry never tired of telling them again and 
 again, so Charles never tired of being a most atten- 
 tive listener. All the neighborhood gossip of years 
 was run over by Henry, and the charming valley was 
 so eloquently and minutely portrayed, and the names 
 of the people of the settlement the men, women 
 and children so often mentioned, and scenes of any 
 moment or interest in which they participated, so 
 frequently described, that Charles became as familiar 
 with everything that had happened in the village 
 from the day Henry and his mother alighted from 
 the cars, to the time when the lad disappeared, as 
 was Henry himself. 
 
 From time to time the gifts which Mary had made 
 to her lover, were brought out from their sacred and 
 secret hiding place and the giver idolized. Each 
 little trinket and each gem or jewel had a history, 
 and Henry never tired of telling every incident, no 
 matter how trivial, connected with the gift. There 
 were many amusing stories to tell and many hair- 
 breadth escapes to describe. That chain was made 
 of the down of the ducks that Mary raised and the 
 little circle of faded hair was found in Henry's hand 
 after he had risked his life to save Mary from drown- 
 ing. There were pretty little charms to show and 
 grow eloquent over in describing and explaining the 
 circumstances connected with their giving, and there 
 were rings and pins and photographs of Henry's
 
 114 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 mother and several of the neighbors, and when the 
 intimacy had ripened into devotion akin to love, 
 Henry brought out a bundle of letters, tied with 
 what was once a piece of ribbon, blue at that, or at 
 least it had been blue at one time, but constant 
 handling had faded it to a dingy white and only 
 shreds and ravelings were left, and these required a 
 stretch of the imagination to detect a trace of ribbon. 
 The letters were Mary's and the ribbon had been tied 
 around them by Mary on the evening of Henry's dis- 
 appearance. So the ribbon had a history. And each 
 letter had a history, and, one by one, the history of 
 each was given. This letter was the first one she 
 wrote. It was an innocent school-girl epistle to a 
 boy and not to a boy-lover. The next was written 
 two or three years later, showing that the child was 
 not a very faithful correspondent, which could hardly 
 have been expected, because, during those years, the 
 little people met about every day. The other letters 
 were taken, one by one, from the little bundle, and 
 the date each was written afforded Henry an ex- 
 cellent opportunity to go over again the lives of the 
 lovers and give more in detail the events in the 
 lovers' lives. The letters were not read. They were 
 too sacred even for the ear of a friend as true and 
 devoted as Charles Manning. 
 
 The college life experienced by Henry was often 
 the subject of conversation. Charles was deeply 
 interested in the studies which Henry had engaged 
 in, and was delighted while listening to anything 
 pertaining to either the text books in use or the 
 routine of college life. He was fascinated with the
 
 ON HE OCEAN. US 
 
 essay Henry had read at his graduation. Time and 
 time again Henry had recited it at Charles' request. 
 The tariff question was frequently discussed, and 
 Charles was constantly seeking information upon 
 that topic, and would frequently turn the conversa- 
 tion in that direction, even when conversing with 
 the Captain or other officers of the vessel. 
 
 That Charles Manning was keen, bright, intelli- 
 gent and intently apt, was apparent to all who were 
 intimate with him. He possessed a remarkable 
 memory, and he stored his mind with every event 
 Henry had recounted. Not satisfied with relying on 
 his memory he kept a diary and at night all the con- 
 versation and incidents of the day were recorded. 
 Nothing was overlooked. So the time came when 
 Charles knew as much of the lives of Henry and 
 Mary as they did themselves.
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 THE SHIPWRECK. 
 
 "A little more of a breeze to-day," said Captain 
 Bodfish, one morning after his vessel had been b<3 
 calmed for nearly a week. " The air gives signs of 
 a coming storm, and when it does come may the 
 good Lord keep and preserve us." Even as the 
 Captain spoke a trace of a dark cloud was dimiy 
 visible way to the west. To the Captain's experi- 
 enced eye the little tufts of uncarded wool so slowjy 
 moving along in the direction of the vessel, so ne-t/.r 
 the blue sky and yet so close to the green ocean, 
 meant that the calm had ended and the storm ws 
 beginning. The rapidly given orders of the Captain 
 were quickly obeyed and the gallant crew made ?11 
 the preparations possible for the good ship to receive 
 the gale and ride through it. The winds came as 
 though they had used the days of calm to gather 
 force from all the ocean and all the sky, and in their 
 madness they seemed to see on all that broad expanse 
 of surging waves but one frail ship to wrestle with, 
 and that one they wrecked as though it had been 
 made of paper and manned by little children. Eve/y 
 mast and spar and every stitch of canvas and every 
 soul on board, save five, were swept into the sea. 
 The life boats were torn to pieces as if made of cloth. 
 When the storm ceased and the sun appeared, all 
 that was left of the Lucky Star was a hull, dis- 
 
 116
 
 THE SHIPWRECK. 117 
 
 nwntled, dismasted, rudderless and water soaked. 
 The Captain and the two clerks, Henry and Charles, 
 hnd lashed themselves to a capstan which protruded 
 a few inches above the shattered deck, and when the 
 storm was over they were still lashed there and still 
 living. Two deck hands had tied themselves to one 
 of! the ponderous anchors which hung over the ship's 
 side, and they, too, were also saved five souls in all 
 five human beings on a wreck, and, as far as they 
 b-iew, without food or water, or even hope of rescue 
 f.'om a grave in the sea; and, in fact, with nothing 
 tut life left them. What was that worth! 
 
 On being released, after the storm had somewhat 
 coated, the men counseled together as to what, was best 
 to be done. It was evident that the hull would go 
 I/O pieces should there come another storm or should 
 Jie wind continue to blow for any great length of 
 lime, as it was blowing then. Even while the con- 
 \ersation was going on, the ship swayed to and fro as 
 i- making a desperate effort to keep its place on the 
 v-ater. Suddenly it broke apart and all that was left 
 cf the ship went down beneath the waves, except a 
 portion of the prow, to which the shipwrecked band 
 clung as their last hope of rescue. 
 
 When the hull parted, boxes, barrels, packages of 
 various sorts and pieces of the wreck, came to the 
 surface, and, as they floated by, the men boldly risked 
 their lives to secure some of the debris. Providence 
 helped them, and before nightfall they had stored on 
 their frail craft two barrels of water, a tierce of rice 
 and a cask of brandy. The prow they were on was a 
 compartment by itself, and again, providentially, the
 
 118 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 severed end was not stove in or seriously damaged, 
 and to all appearances it was water-tight and might 
 float until a storm should wreck it. 
 
 There was no fire nor any way to provide one. 
 The rice, soaked in water, was their food. The water 
 was used sparingly. The brandy was dealt out as 
 medicine. For days and nights the craft floated. If 
 always in the same direction the Captain knew that 
 land must before long come in sight. One evening, 
 when darkness had fully come, alight was seen in the 
 east, and all the night long the now emaciated and well 
 nigh exhausted wreckers took turns watching it, as 
 though it was a friend they did not want to lose sight 
 of. With the early rays of the sun the light, which 
 they believed must be on land, flickered and disap- 
 peared, and all that day only the ocean and the sky 
 were visible. At nightfall the light came again, 
 brighter than before and apparently nearer, and 
 then they knew they were approaching land and they 
 rightly conjectured that the light was from a burning 
 volcano. Even the expectation of landing on a coast 
 where only a volcano welcomed them, was exhilarat- 
 ing and exciting. Another day, and land was plainly 
 in sight. Onward the strange craft drifted, nearer 
 and nearer to the rocky cliffs, and now came the 
 danger long feared that the boat would be destroyed 
 by contact with the inhospitable rocks, which every- 
 where lined the coast. There was no staying the 
 progress of the wreck, even had they desired to, and 
 there was no way of guiding it between the breaks 
 that here and there separated the ragged cliffs. They 
 were now at the mercy of the rocks as well as the
 
 THE SHIPWRECK. 119 
 
 waves, and nothing could be done to avert the fate 
 which seemed in store for them. Instead, however, 
 of floating directly upon the rocks, as was expected, 
 there came a wind from beyond the cliffs and urged 
 the craft along the shore and away from the rocks, 
 until rounding a point, the cliffs abruptly ended, 
 and then the breeze from the sea drove the boat 
 ashore and beached it where the water was but a few 
 feet deep. 
 
 The little band was rescued. They were rescued 
 from the dangers of the deep, but who among them 
 knew but there might be greater perils to encounter 
 on the land than they had escaped from on the sea. 
 Thanking God for their deliverance from death by 
 drowning, they again consulted as to their future 
 movements. Around them they saw evidences of 
 the region being inhabited, but whether by civilized 
 people or savages, by friends or foes, was a subject 
 of the gravest apprehension. 
 
 The following morning they set out on a tour 
 inland. Before starting on their uncertain journey 
 xhey gathered withes, which they broke from stunted 
 trees and bushes, and twisting them into a rope, 
 made fast their boat to the trunk of an old tree. 
 They took with them what was left of the cask of 
 brandy, and a supply of rice which they carried in a 
 basket made of leaves, and almost gleefully they 
 turned their backs upon the ocean. Their progress 
 was slow because they were weak, and their limbs, 
 from long inaction, refused to do the work expected 
 of them. Before nightfall they not only became 
 satisfied they were in the neighborhood of a habita-
 
 120 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 tion, but they had observed various evidences of civ- 
 ilization. Trees cut smooth and clean, as with a 
 sharp instrument, were lying on the ground. A trail 
 was struck during the afternoon, and this trail was 
 fresh, and made by camels, and that the camels were 
 being led was evident from the tops of the bushes 
 being eaten off only near the trail. 
 
 In the morning, after a night's sleep on the 
 ground, the little band resumed their line of march. 
 Hardly were they under way when a human being 
 appeared in their path, and, with outstretched arms, 
 disputed their right to advance. Soon other natives 
 came to their companion's assistance, and a con- 
 ference was held by the semi-dusky inhabitants of 
 the new-found land. One of their number stepped 
 a few feet in front of the group and motioned the 
 castaways to approach. The meeting was a friendly 
 one, evinced by the natives falling upon the ground 
 and bowing their heads in the dust. After the story 
 of the shipwreck had been told by signs, the leader, 
 partly by signs and partly by very bad, broken 
 English, gave the new-comers to understand that 
 yonder, some miles distant, was a large village to 
 which they would be welcome. The Americans were 
 at once mounted upon camels, and the caravan 
 moved quite rapidly towards the designated village, 
 reaching there early in the afternoon. 
 
 Truly a strange and marvelous combination of 
 fortunate circumstances. In the wilds of an un- 
 known continent, this shipwrecked crew find a race 
 of beings, who, while they are not savages, are 
 not civilized, but are superior in intelligence, in
 
 THE SHIPWRECK. 121 
 
 manners and customs, to the Indian or the African. 
 The little raiment that clothes them is of European 
 make, indicating they are in communication with 
 European merchants and European civilization. It 
 is ascertained that some leagues distant is a great 
 river, that a trading point has been established there, 
 and once a year a ship from a distant foreign land 
 comes there and exchanges its wares for the goods 
 the natives have to sell. There are a number of 
 villages tributary to this trading and shipping station, 
 \id while the inhabitants spend their time chiefly 
 i>i indolence and idleness, they all manage to accumu- 
 late something to exchange for the merchandise 
 i\e ship brings. 
 
 The Americans embrace the first opportunity 
 to, join a caravan that is on its way to the trading 
 point. Reaching there they find a large village 
 whose inhabitants have nothing to do except as 
 the caravans arrive to receive the articles which 
 ai^e brought to exchange for the ship's goods. This 
 point has an ocean front of fully one mile, bound on 
 both sides by high cliffs, as though once the bed of 
 a mighty river. This plateau or table land extends 
 back for hundreds of miles, and on either side are 
 dense forests and vast jungles. Ivory, the skins 
 of wild animals, spices, medicinal roots and herbs, 
 diamonds and other precious stones, and the finest 
 sponges, are the chief articles of export. These 
 are exchanged for wearing apparel, canned meats 
 and vegetables, cheap notions and trinkets.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 POISONED. 
 
 The Americans made themselves quite useful to 
 the natives while waiting the arrival of the ship. 
 They planned a system of water supply, by which 
 water was brought into the village from a lake beyond 
 the cliff. The water for ages had been brought in 
 rude buckets, but the inhabitants joined in with zest 
 to dig the trenches, remove the pulp from the logs 
 which were used for water pipes, and in an intelligent 
 manner carried-out the plans which Captain Bodfish 
 designed. 
 
 Henry and Charles were not as inseparable as for- 
 merly. While by no means unfriendly they were less 
 in each other's company. Henry spent much of his 
 time with the natives, and with one or more of them 
 would freqMently make long journeys into the edges 
 of the jungle. The natives took a greater liking to 
 him than to either of the others. He alone was shown 
 where the diamonds could be found, and, under a 
 pledge of secrecy as to the locality, was permitted to 
 search for them. He secured many valuable ones 
 which he intended, at the proper time, to divide 
 with his comrades. Charles interested himself in 
 the herbs and roots the natives were gathering, mak- 
 ing constant inquiries as to the use and power and 
 effect of those that were considered the most valuable. 
 He watched the natives dive in the deep water for the 
 
 132 ,
 
 POISONED. 123 
 
 sjyonge, and be became familiar with the process 
 of cleaning and curing tbem for market. He was 
 ever on the alert to learn something that he might 
 turn to advantage afterwards. He often helped the 
 natives distil the herbs, and prepare the drugs for 
 packing. lie was the first to learn to converse with 
 the inhabitants, though this knowledge was more a 
 matter of signs than words. In this great wilderness 
 aiid waste and among these strange people, as on the 
 Lucky Star, Charles Manning was an apt scholar, 
 quick to grasp the thing that engaged his attention, 
 and whatever he learned or sought to learn was to aid 
 him in carrying out the chief object and purpose of 
 his life. But who beside himself knew aught of 
 what that object and purpose was? 
 
 The time was near at hand when the expected ves- 
 sel might heave in sight. The Americans were full 
 of glee over the promised event. When the rejoic- 
 ing was at its height, and they were congratulating 
 each other- over the prospect of once again joining 
 their kindred and friends at their dear old homes, 
 Henry was taken sick. "With each passing hour he 
 grew worse. All the knowledge of disease and its 
 cure possessed by the natives the young man had the 
 benefit of. Charles was by his side constantly, and 
 he claimed the privilege of taking the sole care of 
 his friend, and he nursed him and watched over him 
 with all the tenderness of mother or sister. 
 
 One other attendant almost forced herself on the 
 sick youth. She was a young maiden, a brunette of 
 wondrous beauty. She claimed to be the great phy- 
 sician's daughter, and from her father she had
 
 124- THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 learned the cure of diseases peculiar to the climate 
 and the people, and she knew the uses of the herbs 
 that grew on the hill-side. She had a complete 
 knowledge of the effects on the system of the various 
 poisonous roots which the natives gathered for market. 
 She knew the antidote to each, and where to find 
 it, and how to administer it in case oJ peril. What 
 interest, if any, more than womanly affection for 
 one in distress, this maiden may have had in Henry 
 was known only to herself, and possibly to Henry 
 himself. Be that as it may, the lad continued to 
 grow worse. The herbs that were so marvelous in 
 their cures failed to bring relief. The ship came in. 
 Henry was bolstered up on his cot, and through the 
 open door saw the ship at anchor only a few rods 
 distant. His heart was now beating strong and fast. 
 The blood filled his veins almost to bursting. The 
 thought of again seeing his mother and the other 
 loved one so dear to his heart possessed all his feel- 
 ings, was the full measure of all his hopes, and filled 
 to the brim his cup of happiness. For the moment 
 he forgot he was sick. Forgot that even then there 
 might be far less distance between him and his God, 
 than between him and his betrothed. 
 
 The ship had sailed from a port in Holland. The 
 captain cheerfully consented to take the Americans 
 on board, and, if opportunity offered, transfer them 
 both to a ship bound for an American port. The 
 ship's physician at once went ashore and visited the 
 sick youth, that he might minister to his needs, and 
 assist in conveying him on board the vessel. He 
 found Henry sinking rapidly and unconscious. The
 
 POISONED. 125 
 
 reaction had set in and he had not vitality enough to 
 resist it. The physician endeavored to rally him 
 with stimulants but was unsuccessful. Even while 
 the last boat was preparing to make the last trip to 
 the ship the Doctor pronounced Henry Winters dead. 
 Living when all hope had gone and only the sea. and 
 sky and the remnant of a dismasted bark to lean on. 
 Dead when hope had returned and a ship, with sails 
 and masts and rudder and men to man it, was ready 
 to take him to his home! 
 
 It was then that Captain Bodfish rose to the full 
 stature of a noble manhood, and knowing what he 
 had to contend with, and looking the doctor, who 
 still had hold of Henry's hand, square in the eye, 
 thus addressed him: "Doctor, as God lives, that 
 body must go on that ship." 
 
 The doctor comprehended the full meaning of thai 
 command. It was made by one used to having his 
 orders obeyed. The Captain turned his head and 
 gazed devoutly upon the beautiful face of the lad 
 who seemed to be calmly sleeping. The physician 
 was in deep study and evidently a great conflict was 
 going on in his mind. Charles, kneeling by the 
 side of the cot, had bowed his head as if overcome 
 with anguish. Several natives, who had been in- 
 timate with Henry, stood in the background, eager 
 witnesses of the sad scene. The doctor,* letting go 
 the dead boy's lian ]. :md returning Captain Bodfish's 
 piercing gaze, at last replied in almost unintelligible 
 English "Sire, that can never be!" 
 
 Captain Bodfish knew too well what that meant, 
 lie had made too many ocean voyages and understood
 
 126 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 too well the superstition of sailors as regards a dead 
 body on ship board, to make any -further appeal. 
 Helpless and powerless, he was compelled to submit. 
 
 Hastily the arrangements were made for the burial 
 of poor Henry's body by the natives. Several of the 
 more intelligent among them imposed oaths upon 
 themselves that they would give the dead a Christian 
 burial and mark the spot with a fitting memoriHl 
 stone. 
 
 Then came the speedy preparations for the de- 
 parture of the Captain and Charles. The two deck 
 hands had already gone aboard. Tears trickled down 
 the honest face of the kind-hearted Captain as he 
 took a last look of his young friend, while Charles 
 could find only sobs to tell the extent of his sorrow. 
 The little boat was ready to leave. A hasty farewell 
 was said to the groups of natives standing by, 
 the boat was pushed from the shore, strong arms 
 speedily rowed to the ship's side, the anchor was 
 hauled in, the sails unfurled, and the Sober Fritz 
 went out to sea. 
 
 The living were gone. Now to care for the dead. 
 That same young maiden, so fair and lovely, had 
 gone unbidden into the little cabin where Henry's 
 body was lying, and was now, in a nervous and 
 exciting manner, pouring a liquid into his mouth and 
 nostrils. Others came in quietly and softly and 
 looked on as if understanding the grave nature of 
 the proceeding, and anxiously awaited the result. 
 The girl never took her eyes off the marble face 
 before her. She expected the life to return, and she 
 was not disappointed, for in a short time Henry
 
 POISONED. 12* 
 
 opened his eyes, gazed languidly about the room, and, 
 as if exhausted by the effort, fell asleep and slept 
 all the night through. 
 
 On awakening, he was told of the departure of the 
 ship, with his companions on board, of his supposed 
 death, the surmise he had been poisoned and the 
 result of the application of the antidote. He was 
 told that Captain Bodfish plead for the body to 
 be taken on shipboard, and how painful it was 
 for the physician to refuse. All, everything, 
 showing the love and devotion of his companions, 
 was told him, and he listened and wondered 
 what it could all mean. During the day strength- 
 ening drinks were administered to him, and on the 
 morrow he arose from his cot seemingly strong and 
 fully recovered from his illness. 
 
 The mysteries that now overwhelmed the poor lad 
 nearly drove him distracted. He had been poisoned. 
 By whom? He was told that when life was thought 
 extinct, the physician's daughter had detected the 
 evidence of poison, and the changing hue upon the 
 face had revealed the nature of the drug he had 
 taken, and enabled the maiden to obtain the anti- 
 dote that restored him to consciousness. Who could 
 have perpetrated this great crime? 
 
 The locket containing Mary's picture and a lock of 
 her hair had been removed from about his neck. Who 
 did that? Perhaps it was Captain Bodfish or Charles, 
 who would restore the precious gifts to his affianced, 
 with the story of his death in a strange land and his 
 burial by a strange people; or it might be the girl who 
 had saved his life had removed it and hidden or de-
 
 128 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 stroyed it. Could it be that this girl had administered 
 the poison when the ship hove in sight, and, with her 
 knowledge of the drug, kept him as one dead until 
 the ship had sailed and then applied the antidote that 
 brought his life back to him? That could not be, 
 because even while his companions were taking ala*t 
 look of his face, the girl who made one of the group 
 around his cot, suddenly rushed from the room and 
 fled like a deer to the mountains, nor did she return 
 until the last boat had been pushed from shore. On 
 the mountain side she had gathered the life-restoring 
 herb, had steeped it in boiling water, and not a 
 moment too soon had poured the potion down his 
 throat. Had she given the poison, would she not 
 had the antidote ready at the exact time to apply it? 
 No, it could not be the girl who sought his life only 
 to save it. Who was it?
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE WILL IS A FOKGERT. 
 
 The "Sober Fritz" was at once gotten under sail 
 and by nightfall she was far out to sea. Captain 
 Bodfish could not conceal his feelings. The tears 
 came freely without bidding. He felt he had not only 
 lost a dear friend, but all the circumstances connected 
 with his death were sad in the extreme. Could he 
 even have brought the body on board the ship and 
 given it a burial beneath the waves, he would have 
 been the better reconciled to the fateful events 
 which had occurred. 
 
 Charles gave vent to his feelings by loud expressions 
 of sorrow. He had no tears to shed, though he often 
 wished that tears would flow, but he had plenty of 
 words of love and affection for his dead friend, and 
 he never tired of speaking of his merits and extolling 
 his good qualities. 
 
 At the first port made by the " Sober Fritz " an 
 American ship was taking on coal, and the Ameri- 
 cans found no difficulty in engaging passage for Bos- 
 ton. The voyage was finished in three months, and 
 Captain Bodfish and Charles, having feelingly parted 
 with their two companions, went to the nearest tele- 
 graph office, where the Captain notified the New 
 York owners of the "Lucky Star" of her loss, of the 
 Captain's arrival in Boston and his need of funds. 
 
 On ship board the Captain and Charles had jointly 
 129
 
 130 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 prepared a full statement of the voyage made t>y 
 Henry to India, of the ' 'Lucky Star" sailing for home, 
 of the shipwreck, and the events which preceded 
 Henry's death. This letter was full of sympathy 
 for the sorrow-stricken mother and heart-broken 
 Mary, and, being sealed and directed to Mrs. Win- 
 ters, was deposited in the post-office by Captain Bod- 
 fish. A few moments after he had gone out of the 
 building, Charles asked that the letter, minutely 
 describing it, might be returned to him, he claiming 
 to be the writer, as he wished to enclose a draft, which, 
 in the hurry of mailing, he had overlooked. Obtain 
 ing the letter he never remailed it. The same daj , 
 the money arriving, Charles was loaned a sum sufn*. 
 cient for his present purposes, which he promised to 
 return in a few days, and the two bidding each other 
 farewell, the Captain went at once to New York and 
 Charles boarded a train for his home in a New Eng 
 land city. 
 
 There seemed to be a deal of mystery about the 
 young man, even though now mingling with the peo 
 pie he had been brought up among. He held f requerrt 
 interviews with a woman always dressed in black , 
 and who never failed to have a heavy black veil drawn 
 over her face. She may have been young or she may 
 have been middle-aged. She may have been beauti 
 ful or ugly. Possibly Charles knew. No one els>; 
 could, unless it were the woman herself. She came 
 mysteriously and she went mysteriously. No one 
 except Charles seemed to care who she was, what she 
 was, or whither she went. 
 
 Charles at once obtained a position where he ooukl
 
 THE WILL IS A FORGERY. 131 
 
 learn telegraphing and railway station business. In 
 his conversations with Henry on shipboard, Charles 
 had heard his companion speak of his knowledge 
 of telegraphing. What Henry knew Charles never 
 tired until he learned the same. In connection 
 with his duties in the telegraph office, Charles be- 
 came a diligent student of political economy, and 
 especially of tariff reform. 
 
 For several weeks the woman in black was missed. 
 Upon her return, she and Charles held several long 
 and earnest interviews, and, seemingly, as if in some 
 manner connected with these meetings, Charles one 
 day sent the following telegraph dispatch : 
 
 HALIFAX, June , 188-. 
 
 MRS. MATILDA WINTERS: I have just landed here. Will 
 start at once for home. May reach you by Thursday. Was 
 kidnaped, taken to Calcutta ; on the voyage home was ship- 
 wrecked, detained on an unknown land for nearly two years. 
 Will tell you all when I see you. Love to Mary. Hope you 
 are both well. HENRY WINTERS. 
 
 When the messenger brought the dispatch, Mrs. 
 Winters was lying on her couch sick almost unto 
 death. She was surrounded with loving friends, who 
 sought to prove their devotion by little acts of kind- 
 ness, but neither kith nor kin were there to comfort 
 her. Yet Mary Holbrook had been to her Mother 
 Winters all that child could be. Their tears had 
 mingled together; for the return of the same lost 
 loved one they prayed together; their hopes were cen- 
 tered on the same object of affection, and the heart 
 of one knew no pain the other did not experience, 
 except the mysterious secret about Major Hoi-
 
 132 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 brook's will, which the sick woman, for some strange 
 reason, refused to divulge. 
 
 Mary read the message first. The trials and sor- 
 rows she had experienced nerved her for any event, 
 no matter what it might be. For a moment she 
 was overcome by the glad news. Her thoughts 
 went out to Mrs. Winters, for she feared the effect 
 of such joyful tidings on Henry's mother. With 
 head bowed upon the poor, sick woman's breast, 
 and with arms tenderly entwined around her neck, 
 Mary told her adopted mother of the expected arri- 
 val of her son. 
 
 Mrs. Winters listened unmoved, then turned her 
 head toward the wall, as if she would be alone with 
 her thoughts. An hour passed. Then, arousing 
 herself and beckoning Mary to come to her bedside, 
 she simply said she prayed to live long enough to 
 take her dear boy by the hand, place it in Mary's, 
 bless her children and commend her spirit to the 
 God that gave it. 
 
 Was her prayer answered? 
 
 Several days and nights passed, and the hour 
 of Henry's expected arrival was near at hand. 
 A kind neighbor had offered to meet Henry with a 
 carriage and bring him to his home. 
 
 During the day, Mrs. Winters appeared to sleep. 
 Her eyes were closed, and she breathed naturally. 
 Suddenly she raised herself up in bed and looked 
 eagerly about the room. She was not excited, but 
 calm and self-composed. Lifting her hand and 
 pointing her long, bony fingers toward the open win- 
 dow, through which the setting sun shone bright and
 
 THE WILL IS A FORGERY. 133 
 
 clear, she exclaimed, in a voice loud and distinct for 
 one so near the grave: " See there! Look yonder! 
 What a beautiful white light! How brilliant it is! 
 How grand! Watch its golden rays spreading out 
 on all sides and in every direction. Nearer and 
 nearer it comes, wider and wider its pathway 
 is extended, and brighter and brighter grows its 
 glittering rays, and now it seems to cover the land 
 with new life, new joys, new hopes, new aspirations, 
 surely promising a new, a better and a brighter 
 future. So I interpret the meaning of the blessed 
 sight I see. Oh, that I might live to enjoy the real- 
 ization of this wondrous revelation, which I know I 
 alone am permitted to behold. I feel it means the 
 speedy coming of the better times and happier days 
 so long looked for and so long hoped for by the noble 
 farmers of our blessed country. But my strength 
 is failing, my work is finished, and I know I am 
 soon to go to meet my dear Savior." 
 
 By this time the bedside was surrounded with lov- 
 ing neighbors, and standing by the head of the dying 
 woman and holding her hand was the faithful 
 Mary Holbrook. Bending tenderly over her, Mary 
 asked if she would like to tell them more about 
 what she had been dreaming. 
 
 In a weaker voice, but still sweet and cheerful as 
 a child at play, she answered: " I've not been 
 dreaming, have I? No, no, it could not be a dream. 
 It did not seem like a dream. It was too real for a 
 dream. I was awake, wide awake, and I saw my 
 darling Mary as I see her now, and I saw that flood 
 of light with my open eyes. Listen and I will tell
 
 134 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 you more. I see it now. What a change it makes 
 in all it beams upon, and it seems to beam on all 
 this broad continent. It scatters penury and want 
 and haggard faces and tattered rags to the winds 
 of heaven, and in its wake and in their places it 
 leaves plenty and good cheer and smiles and whole 
 garments. The ricketty old farm house, so long 
 going to decay and ready to fall to the ground, is 
 changed to a home of comfort and cheerfulness, and 
 the inmates look upon the transformation with 
 happy smiles and words of joy and thanksgiving. 
 The mother in the doorway stands transfixed with 
 wonder and delight, and she looks heavenward, as if 
 to thank her God for what she sees, but her lips 
 fail to tell the joy she experiences. The pale, 
 shrunken, shriveled and hollow cheeks have their 
 fullness and color returned, the once sunken eyes 
 with returning lustre beam out full and bright and 
 clear from their prison cells; the blood no longer 
 lazily courses her veins, but to her the white light 
 brings new life and new hopes ; in a word, a new 
 world opens to her vision, she feels the shackles 
 unloosed from her limbs, and she is free and no 
 longer a slave restored to that standing in the 
 realm of noble womanhood, from which, for a gen- 
 eration, she had been driven by the greed, avarice 
 and covetousness of her countrymen. 
 
 " The growing corn takes on a brighter and 
 richer color, the fields of half-ripened grain, which 
 the eye beholds as far as the eye can see, promise a 
 yield of wealth that for the first time in years will 
 return a liberal profit to the husbandman; the green
 
 THE WILL IS A FORGERY. 135 
 
 meadows give out a newer and fresher verdure, the 
 cattle in the pastures are sleeker and fatter; and the 
 bronzed and stout-limbed farmer who stood silently 
 viewing his acres and his herds, cheerlessly and 
 despondently contemplating the long-continued low 
 prices of farm produce, seeing, sooner or later, 
 beggary and ruin staring him and his family in 
 their faces; pondering over the growing mortgage 
 on all his possessions, with growing doubt and 
 uncertainty of its ever being paid; as he feels the 
 bright rays of the rapidly moving light illuminate 
 his whole being, he sees the clouds which had dark- 
 ened a long life of patient toil and ceaseless care, 
 disappear in the distance, and he beholds the home 
 of his youth and old age, the home of his blessed 
 wife and loving children, free of debt, his family in 
 the enjoyment of the fruits of his and their labor, 
 and peace and love and plenty and all the desires of 
 his heart poured in upon him. Glorious revelation! 
 May the law-makers of the land make it, as they can, 
 a grand realization." 
 
 Matilda Winters spoke as one inspired. Her eyes 
 sparkled, but not unnaturally; her cheeks were flush 
 and radiant, as if with joy; her voice had grown 
 stronger as she proceeded with the word picture of 
 her revelation, and her whole soul seemed clothed 
 with that wisdom which might come from on high. 
 y?emingly in possession of all her senses, she gazed 
 upon the weeping group around her as if she would 
 lull more of her wondrous vision, and give more of 
 )j*r interpretation of it. 
 
 The silence was broken by the sound of the rattling
 
 136 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 wheels of a carriage approaching the house. The ex- 
 pected one has come. The little group around the bed- 
 side retire, all save the weeping girl, who has clasped 
 her hand in that of the dying woman, and the attend- 
 ing physician. The door opens, a young man bounds 
 noiselessly in, rushes to the bedside, kisses the pale 
 cheek of the emaciated woman who lies there so quiet, 
 so weak, so calm, then affectionately embraces the 
 trembling girl, who stands motionless and white as a 
 statue of the purest parean marble, and implants a 
 kiss upon her lips, which salutation she feelingly and 
 lovingly returns. 
 
 The sick woman gazed first upon the young man 
 then upon the young girl, and, without moving 
 a muscle or uttering a word, closed her eyes. The 
 sobbing girl appealed to the dying woman to speak 
 to her, and beseechingly implored her to " give your 
 children your Henry, your Mary your blessing. Oh 
 sainted mother, the angels ask this of you. Do not, 
 oh! do not, I beg of you, do not withhold it!" There 
 was a motion of the lips, a pressure of the hand, an 
 effort to speak, a smile it might be perhaps it was 
 and Mary Holbrook believed the blessing she craved 
 was mentally bestowed upon her and her lover. 
 
 The physician, noticing the change coming over 
 the sick woman's countenance, stepped to the door 
 and bade the waiting attendants come in. Perceiv- 
 ing that she was making an effort as if to speak, 
 one of the group leaned over the bed, and asked 
 her if she wished to say something about the will. 
 She smiled as if pleased that her desire was under- 
 stood. Then, turning her face toward the win-
 
 THE WILL IS A FORGEBY. 137 
 
 dow through which the last rays of the setting sun were 
 dimly flickering, speaking in a low voice, yet distinct 
 and clear, so that, with the silence that the presence 
 of death invokes, to make her words audible and 
 readily understood, she exclaimed, slowly, as though 
 weighing the meaning of each word and syllable, 
 
 ' ' The will is a for ger y not my s " 
 
 The eyes closed, the lips parted, but only to make 
 room for a sweet smile, joined by a soft, mellosv 
 light that encircled the brow, lingering there a mo- 
 ment, then it flitted and fluttered as if it were the 
 reflection of the soul struggling to be free, and life 
 and light and sun disappeared together!
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE DECEPTION. 
 
 When Charles Manning went out from the scene of 
 death he realized that his first bold deception, extra- 
 ordinary as it was, had been successful. He at once 
 took possession of Mrs. Winter's farm, and as there 
 were none to deny his claim as the legal heir to the 
 estate, he was secure in its occupancy. To enable 
 him to maintain his deception, he had provided him- 
 self with every conceivable weapon. In the keeping 
 of a shrewd, cunning man, he could ask for noth- 
 ing more than he had at his command. He was 
 in possession of a fund of information that would 
 enable him to meet and repel any suspicion that 
 Mary Holbrook or any of her neighbors might enter- 
 tain as to his identity. 
 
 He started out with the knowledge that through 
 deception he possessed Mary Holbrookes love love 
 that was as pure and guileless as innocence itself. 
 While it was really love for another, it rested with 
 him to be able to so personate that other throughout 
 the twelve months custom had fixed should elapse 
 between a death in the family and a marriage, as to 
 never give cause for the shadow of suspicion of the 
 deception. 
 
 Charles Manning had made himself believe he was 
 not committing a crime in the desperate game he was 
 playing. He did not even think it a game. He had 
 
 m
 
 THE DECEPTION. 139 
 
 imbued his conscience with such plausible arguments, 
 in defense of his intentions, that it became seared 
 and callous as far as any susceptibility to a moral 
 impression was concerned, and he had only to consult 
 with that inward monitor to find a counselor that 
 would second any scheme he might undertake. 
 
 His soliloquies were ingenious, and to his conscience 
 they wore convincing. If Mary Ilolbrook believed 
 he was her lover, if heaven had fashioned two men 
 so much alike that a maiden of ordinary intelli- 
 gence, who had given her heart to one, after years of 
 intimacy and devotion, should continue that love to 
 the other, and, after a long period of similar intimacy 
 v ith that other, fail to detect a shadow of decep- 
 t ; on, he could not see wherein any wrong existed. 
 >Ie had so perverted his conscience that it concealed 
 from him the evil which was in his heart when 
 Henry Winters first told the story of his love 
 for Mary Ilolbrook; that it concealed from him the 
 <rnl that was intensified and developed into an un- 
 pardonable crime when he gave the draught to his 
 companion with the intention of preventing him 
 from again enjoying Mary Holbrookes love; that it 
 concealed from him the infamy which made up the 
 desperate scheme he had planned to secure the love 
 of one that believed she was loving another. 
 
 Charles Manning may have conscientiously believed 
 if Mary Holbrook never learned of the deception 
 practiced upon her there was no wrong done. This 
 thing of conscience either takes to curious fits and 
 startling turns, at times, or else some other force 
 crowds it out of its place. Charles Manning had
 
 140 THE MOKTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 made himself believe that his conscience approved of 
 every scheme he devised to cheat and deceive Mary 
 Holbrook. Yet there must have been times in his 
 career when his conscience, notwithstanding the 
 surroundings, told him that he was a criminal of the 
 deepest dye. 
 
 Charles Manning spent the most of his time in the 
 company of Mary Holbrook. The two farms were 
 managed by hired help, which gave the owners 
 plenty of time for reading together, strolling in the 
 woods and fields, rowing on the lake, and love making. 
 
 Not wishing to be idle, and learning of the con- 
 templated resignation of the telegraph operator at 
 the station, Charles made application for the 
 place. The company, upon being satisfied of his 
 efficiency, was glad to accept the services of so pop- 
 ular and intelligent a young man as Henry Winters 
 for by that name he must now be known had 
 proven himself to be. As the duties only required a 
 portion of his time he was enabled without neglect- 
 ing anything expected of him, to give the two farms 
 his general attention. 
 
 Mary Holbrook had no cause to find fault with the 
 fervency and ardor of the love which Henry Winters 
 embraced every opportunity to convince her he pos- 
 sessed for her. He was in fact the most devoted of 
 wooers. She failed to see that his rough experience 
 and strange adventures among the people of that hid- 
 den continent had lessened his admiration for her, or 
 had benumbed his feelings toward her, or had made 
 him any less the ardent lover. It might be, she 
 thought at times that he was not so enraptured with
 
 THE DECEPTION. 141 
 
 her personal charms as before that strange sea voyage, 
 or at least he was not as loud and earnest in his 
 expressions of love as on the night when he bade her 
 what proved to be a long, long adieu. Still she ex- 
 perienced the perfection of bliss in listening to the 
 oft-repeated stories of his sufferings on the wreck at 
 sea, and the dangers he encountered in his travels 
 among the people of that strange land. He knew 
 just how much color to give to his adventures to inter- 
 est and fascinate his fair listener, and she in turn 
 would hang on his lips, breathless and silent, as if 
 the magic spell would be broken were she to utter a 
 single word. She never tired of being an enthusias- 
 tic listener. Often she would beg him to tell the story 
 over again that she might pity him while at least he 
 
 elling it. Thus he wove around his victim a net 
 with strands of steel, and if she ever breaks through 
 them and becomes free, heaven and angels must help 
 her do it. 
 
 Young Winters labored to make himself popular 
 with the farmers far and near. He made them fre- 
 quent visits, happening in on them at meal times, or 
 belated, staying with them over night. His hobby 
 was the tariff, and nothing pleased him so much as 
 to sit around the cheerful fire of a winter's evening 
 and discuss that subject. He had a familiar way of 
 getting at the tax on the things the farmers bought. 
 
 ould ask his listeners to name an article in sight 
 that the farmer did not pay a tax on. From the 
 family Bible on the center table down to the prinu-r 
 the creeping babe was busily tearing in pieces, a tax 
 was levied on. The salt and the salt cellar, the
 
 142 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 knife and fork, the spoons, the crockery, the tabe 
 cloth, the rug before the fire and the carpet on tL<3 
 floor, the chairs and the cradle, the lumber the houp 
 was built of, the nails, the paint, the doors, the lock a 
 and the keys, the sugar and the sugar bowl, the tin 
 pans, the stoves, the blankets on the beds, the bed- 
 steads and every article of clothing on both male and 
 female, yea, nearly everything the farmer did not 
 raise, but which he bought, was taxed from twenty to 
 eighty-five per cent. Go out doors, the same endless 
 system of taxation is visible. There was not a tool 
 or a farming implement, from the hoe leaning 
 against the garden fence to the threshing machine in 
 the yard, but was taxed, and a tax that on tlm; 
 articles out of four was forced out of the farmer'^ 
 pocket, not to help pay the expenses of running tLj 
 government, but to be put into another man's purst, 
 that he might carry on a business which he claimed 
 would not be profitable without this contribution 
 from the farmers. 
 
 He loved to talk with the people about his travete 
 and adventures and was constantly introducing sub- 
 jects that would afford him an opportunity to show 
 them how familiar he was with their habits, and 
 little incidents in their lives, which had been forgot- 
 ten save as he revived the recollection of them. He 
 delighted in these reminiscences and in refreshing 
 the memories of the neighbors, so that had there 
 been in all that region any one who suspected he was 
 not Henry Winters, whole communities would have 
 risen up to prove his identity. 
 
 No wonder poor Mary Holbrook was completely
 
 THE DECEPTION. 143 
 
 blinded. It was an unequal contest from the begin- 
 ning. The praise of her lover was on every lip. 
 That kind of praise which so often makes maidens 
 love, even against their will makes them love when 
 they should hate. There were times, though, when 
 a mysterious something would be tugging at her 
 heart-strings, as if to warn her of danger. But she 
 was too devoted to her lover to heed the warning. 
 Often she would fancy there were voices whispering 
 something about lovers that were false, and lovers 
 made mad by love, but she never thought the voices 
 were for her to heed. 
 
 " Henry," she said one evening, when passing the 
 little churchyard, and noticing the shadow of the frail 
 steeple lengthening out clear to the graves of the 
 loved ones, " I see the grass is growing in that little 
 path to your mother's grave. It certainly can not 
 be that the memory of your sainted mother is being 
 forgotten, and that you have any less tears to shed 
 now over her grave than when she was first laid there." 
 
 Mary did not utter this mild rebuke because she 
 doubted Henry's reverence for his mother's memory, 
 and yet so sudden was the question asked, and so 
 unexpected, that it startled him into a fright, and in 
 spite of his great will power, he turned pale, and 
 beads of sweat trickled down his face. Mary noticed 
 his excited condition and attributed it to his feelings, 
 which she had unintentionally wounded by the cruel 
 insinuation. Before he could regain his composure 
 sufficiently to reply, Mary, in a tender and sympa- 
 thetic manner, apologized for her thoughtlessness, 
 and when her great black eyes met his, she implored 
 his forgiveness.
 
 CHAPTER XVII, 
 
 IN AN" UNKNOWN LAND. 
 
 Henry Winters, though alone and in an unknown 
 land, was not the lad to give up in despair. Manly 
 courage was one of his marked characteristics. 
 Through all the hardships of the shipwreck and 
 amid all the perils encountered since reaching the 
 shore, he had borne himself as a true hero. Alone 
 now, left alone by those who thought him dead, and 
 knowing his death would be reported to his mother 
 and to Mary Holbrook, he grieved only for them. He 
 felt they would be mourning his death, and he pitied 
 them. For himself, now that he was restored to 
 health, he no longer had a thought or a wish. 
 Twelve months would soon roll around, and the ship 
 would come again and he would be homeward bound. 
 His heart leaped with joy at the thought of the sur- 
 prise in store for those loved ones who for a full vew 
 would mourn his death. 
 
 But how should he occupy his time during the 
 months of waiting? He was in nowise inclined to 
 seek pleasure in the lives the natives lived, nor did 
 the dusky maiden, who had rescued him from the 
 grave, have any charms for him. He was grateful 
 for the inestimable service she had done him, but 
 the debt ended with his gratitude. He had only the 
 love of a son for his mother, and the love of a lover 
 for Mary Holbrook. 
 
 144
 
 IX AN UNKNOWN LAND. 145 
 
 He soon learned what he might well have feared, 
 that his life was still in danger. One day there came 
 from beyond the mountains the proud chieftain of a 
 mighty people. The great physician's daughter was 
 that chieftain's promised wife. But when he sought 
 her hand and asked her to redeem her pledge by 
 wedding him, she hesitated. The chieftain at once 
 connected Henry with the refusal of his affianced to 
 wed him. Though wrongfully accused, the penalty 
 was the same. He was in the way. He must be 
 removed. But mortals can not go so far from the 
 eye of omnipotence but they may be made to feel 
 that even a great chieftain may propose while God 
 disposes. 
 
 One night, soon after the arrival of this chieftain, 
 two natives entered the apartment in which Henry 
 was sleeping, and bade him rise and follow them. It 
 was instinct to obey. Out into the wilderness they 
 went, and, before they saw the morning's sun, they 
 had left many leagues between them and the chief- 
 tain's decree. 
 
 The following day they reached the banks of a 
 river, and at once proceeded to construct a raft for a 
 voyage down the stream. With an axe and saw they 
 felled several trees, and with long roots pulled from 
 the ground, which answered for ropes, and with the 
 bark stripped from the trees, they soon had the ma- 
 terial for a float, and by another day they were ready 
 to embark. The stream abounded in fish, and birds 
 fairly filled the air. Delicious eggs lined the river 
 banks, and the bread-bush was laden with a sub- 
 stance very much resembling finely ground flour. In 
 fact, the adventurers lived on the fat of the land. 
 10
 
 146 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 The current of the river ran quite swiftly, perhaps 
 five miles an hour. The stream was on an average a 
 full mile in width, and it kept close to high cliffs on 
 one side, while on the other was a vast expanse of 
 tableland several feet above the surface of the water 
 and stretching out to the very horizon with not a tree 
 or bush or rock in sight. This boundless area of land 
 may at one time have been the bed of the river, or 
 perhaps the seat of an empire, and the ages my 
 have laid waste its cities and covered the ruins with 
 imperishable dust. 
 
 For more than a thousand miles did these wander- 
 ers drift on the bosom of that beautiful stream 
 without seeing a human face or a human habitation. 
 This monotony was not to continue always, for OLe 
 afternoon they discovered a large boat tied to a stake 
 driven on the bank of the river, and hardly had they 
 gotten over their surprise at this discovery, when a 
 dozen savages plunged into the water and swam 
 rapidly toward the raft; knowing the rude structure 
 would sink should the savages seek to climb aboard, 
 it was headed toward the shore to await their com- 
 ing. The meeting instead of being unfriendly was 
 quite cordial and it was not long before all were on 
 friendly terms. Much to Henry's astonishment he 
 learned that while the new comers appeared to be 
 savages, they were quite civilized and were savage 
 only in lack of dress and the surplus of glittering 
 ornaments which covered their limbs. 
 
 A rest of a day or two and Henry and his two 
 trusty friends resumed their journey. Ruins and 
 desolate and abandoned villages, which had bec-n
 
 IN A3f UXKN'OWN* LAND. 147 
 
 plainly visible for hundreds of miles, gave way to 
 new buildings and new improvements, denoting the 
 approach of a modern civilization. Amid the ruins of 
 ancient palaces and grand cathedrals were palaces and 
 cathedrals of modern architecture, in strange contrast 
 with the decay from which they seemed to have 
 arisen. 
 
 The appearance of the country indicated that a 
 new race had come to reclaim the land and restore 
 the order of things before the decay. These improve- 
 ments became more marked and more modern as the 
 adventurers approached the sea. 
 
 Before another moon they found themselves in the 
 midst of an advanced civilization. Agriculture and 
 manufactures were prospering together, and were 
 moving hand in hand with mining and mechanic 
 arts. The farms were well cultivated and the tillers 
 of the soil were satisfied and prosperous. Their 
 improvements were substantial and commodious. 
 They worked ten or eight hours a day just as they 
 chose. Their wives and children were happy and 
 healthy. Their crops were bountiful, and for the 
 surplus they found a ready market at a fair profit. 
 Countless industries were in operation the year round 
 and employes seldom complained of the wages paid 
 them. As a general thing they owned their homes 
 and were out of debt or possessed the means to pluco 
 themselves out of debt. Holidays were numerous 
 and strikes were unknown. Everybody, save the 
 drones, the criminals and the indolent, were pros- 
 pering. Everything of merit was flourishing. The 
 very rich and the very poor, were few in number.
 
 148 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 The middle-class predominated and controlled the 
 government. One word expressed it all. That was 
 contentment. 
 
 Henry visited several cities and mingled with the 
 people. The same thrifty condition prevailed in 
 them all. He was constantly impressed with the 
 fact that the multitude were busy. No complaining 
 of hard times. No fears of a financial crisis. Fraud- 
 ulent assignment for the benefit of preferred credit- 
 ors was almost unheard of. But few mortgages to 
 foreclose. No receivers appointed to manage bank- 
 rupt corporations. Just enough poor-houses and 
 paupers and jails to show that human nature was the 
 same the world over. 
 
 Each person pursued his line of business with a cer- 
 tainty of receiving fair and just compensation for the 
 work done, with the assurance that his earnings 
 would go into his own pockets and not be used by 
 the government to protect infant industries. 
 
 The exchange of products between the several 
 countries, was conducted on an extensive scale. The 
 breadstuff, meats, oil, fruit, clothing and coal of one 
 nation found a ready market in another, and was 
 exchanged for gold, silver, silks, wool, iron and iron 
 ore, cotton, sugar, and various kinds of raw ma- 
 terial. The revenues of the governments were 
 derived from a tax on imports, and this tax was fixed 
 each year by a board of revenue adjusters. There 
 was no surplus stored away in the vaults of the treas- 
 ury, to make men dishonest, and only enough tax 
 was gathered to pay current expenses. Such a tariff 
 was popular with the masses, and while there was
 
 IX AX UXKXOWN LAND. 149 
 
 occasionally a manufacturer who thought he could 
 pay his employes better wages were he protected 
 against the cheaper labor of some of the other coun- 
 tries he had to compete with, yet when he consid- 
 ered that the theory of protection, if generally 
 adopted, would so affect his interests in other direc- 
 tions, that wages would be loAver and his profits 
 smaller, he would not insist on being protected. He 
 prospered without protection, and his employes pros- 
 pered with him. 
 
 The tax or tariff laws were the simplest part of the 
 machinery of the government. Nothing was covered 
 up, or concealed from the tax-payer. If he bought 
 a coat made outside the realm, he knew that a cer- 
 tain part of the purchase price, and just how much, 
 was tariff, and how much was for the coat, and he 
 knew that the tariff he paid went into the people's 
 treasury, instead of into the pockets of his neighbor, 
 to recompense him for a fancied loss he might sus- 
 tain by carrying on his business. Each tub stood on 
 its own bottom. There was no favoritism, no class 
 legislation, no special privileges; but equal and ex- 
 act justice for all. 
 
 Henry was puzzled over what caused the decay and 
 desolation in the vast country through \vhich he had 
 journeyed, and what condition of things led civiliza- 
 tion tore-occupy ruins that might become ruins again 
 under like circumstances. By the aid of his com- 
 panions, who could talk the language, though in a 
 broken manner, he learned from the wise men that 
 the country, for thousands of miles, had once been the 
 richest food-producing soil known to mankind; that
 
 150 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 for hundreds of years it was cultivated by serfs, who, 
 iii time, earned their freedom, became owners of the 
 lands, and were admitted to equal citizenship with 
 their former employers; that the surplus grain and 
 meat were transported to distant countries and sold 
 at a fair profit; that, generally, the expenses of the 
 government were met by a tax on the articles brought 
 from foreign lands; that capital engaged in manu- 
 facturing industries was protected against outside 
 competition which employed cheap labor, that the 
 operatives might receive liberal wages; that this tax 
 operated most unjustly on the farmer, by cutting off 
 his foreign market, because the tariff prevented his 
 exchanging the products of the farm for the products 
 of the foreign loom and workshops; that the farmer 
 was compelled to compete with the cheap labor of 
 other countries, which the manufacturer was pro- 
 tected against, and forced to buy the necessaries of 
 life where they commanded the highest price. 
 
 The young men left the farm and went into 
 business in the city. The price obtained for farm 
 produce fell below the cost of production. The farm 
 was mortgaged to raise money for living expenses. 
 Needed improvements were neglected because of the 
 lack of means to make them. The farm-house and 
 out-buildings commenced to decay. 
 
 It did not require much longer than a century of 
 such a system of raising revenue and protecting cap- 
 ital, to drive the farmer from the farm, lay waste his 
 improvements, and make his land a desolation, with 
 penury, want and starvation going along with him. 
 Then the rich man's mansion went to decay; the
 
 IX AX UNKNOWN' LAND. 151 
 
 palace of royalty crumbled to dust; temples, cathe- 
 drals, fortifications, public buildings, became piles of 
 ruins, and for a thousand years that vast empire 
 knew not the footstep of a human being, save when 
 savage hordes, pursued by other bands of barbarians, 
 took refuge there. Some of those savans insist that 
 the vast empire was made desolate because the 
 Almighty would not permit a race of people to enjoy 
 His bounty whose law-givers did such a wicked and 
 unjust thing as to force one man to contribute a por- 
 tion of his earnings for another man's benefit. 
 
 "When the desolation was complete and every ves- 
 tige of man's injustice to man had been buried 
 beyond resurrection, there came a race of men from 
 the far east and took up their abode amid that 
 desolation. The natural harbors along the sea coast 
 first attracted attention. Then the rich soil which 
 explorations convinced them existed for more than 
 two thousand miles inland, so impressed them with 
 the vast wealth which lay beneath the sod, that they 
 founded a colony which developed into the empire, 
 now the pride of the east. 
 
 The thrift and industry of the people may be traced 
 direct to a system of government which considers one 
 man just as good as another and no better. The 
 laws oppress no one. They bear equally on all. The 
 burdens which a people must shoulder when they 
 come out from the darkness of barbarism into the 
 glare of civilization, fall on all alike. 
 
 Thus discoursed the wise men of that strange 
 land. 
 
 When his curiosity had been sufficiently satisfied,
 
 152 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 Henry embarked on a sailing vessel destined for a 
 distant port, where, after being detained a few weeks, 
 he took passage on a ship bound for Glasgow, Scot- 
 land. This was a long voyage and made longer by 
 the ship making several stops to take on merchandise 
 and passengers. At one of the ports several Ameri- 
 cans came on board whose presence served to shorten 
 and enliven what was promising to be a long, tedious 
 and monotonous journey. Landing in due time at 
 Glasgow, the American passengers went by rail, at 
 once, to Liverpool and thence by the steamer, City of 
 Rome, to New Yorkt
 
 * 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE WILL IX COURT. 
 
 Court in a country town differs in many respects 
 from court in a large city. Three terms a year 
 give just enough novelty to court proceedings to 
 make the people look forward with much interest to 
 the day when court will convene. But now unusual 
 excitement prevails over a case of more than ordi- 
 nttry importance. The day is fixed for the cause to 
 be heard. At an early hour the multitude gather at 
 the county seat, from all portions of the county. It 
 does not take long to fill the court-house to over- 
 flowing with an eager, anxious, earnest crowd of men 
 aud women, most of whom are farmers, their wives 
 and grown-up sons and daughters. They mingle 
 together in groups and discuss the merits of the case 
 to be tried. It is evident that the sympathy is one- 
 sided and that the mass of spectators are of one 
 mind, perhaps for the reason that it is human 
 nature to take sides with the cause of the weak, the 
 helpless and the presumably innocent. 
 
 What is known far and near as the great will case 
 of Silas Groundwig vs. the Estate of Stephen Hoi- 
 brook is set for hearing. Distinguished lawyers 
 from the city have been employed by each side. The 
 judge takes his place on the bench, the clerk slips 
 into his chair in front of the judge's desk, the per- 
 sons summoned to serve as jurors are called, and the 
 
 Ml
 
 154 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 long and tedious labor of securing a jury who knows 
 little or nothing about the case is at last completed, 
 the jurors are sworn to render a true verdict, ac- 
 cording to the law and the evidence given them in 
 court, and the case is ready for the first witness. 
 
 By the time this interesting point has been reached, 
 the day is spent. The lawyers have exhausted them- 
 selves in their efforts to preserve and promote the 
 legal rights of their clients. The men presented for 
 jurymen have been catechised as to their knowledge 
 of the case, and as to the extent of their bias, if 
 any, for or against either party. It has been quite 
 difficult to obtain a jury composed entirely of citi- 
 zens who have not formed an opinion as to the valid- 
 ity of the will, nor heard the merits of the case dis- 
 cussed. The jury, as finally selected, are mostly 
 farmers, men of intelligence, possessing an ordinary 
 amount of good sense, and who are known to be 
 fair-minded and honest. The populace have confi- 
 dence in the jury, and believe that justice will be 
 done, and their idea of justice in this case is a ver- 
 dict in accordance with the drift of public senti- 
 ment. 
 
 Upon the adjournment of court the people return 
 to their homes, coming again early in the morning, 
 eager for the case to begin and end. The case has 
 been commenced by Mr. Silas Groundwig, the person 
 named in the will as principal legatee, to recover from 
 Mary Holbrook, the daughter of the person making 
 the will, the rents and profits coming into her pos- 
 session by reason of her claiming to be the sole heir 
 at law of her father's estate, there being no will in
 
 THE WILL IX COURT. 155 
 
 existence, as Miss Ilolbrook had every reason to 
 believe. 
 
 The attorney for the plaintiff Ground wig, opened 
 the case to the court and jury in an off-hand, careless, 
 conversational style, as though the fact of the will 
 giving his client the greater part of Major Holbrook's 
 fortune was a matter of very little concern to any one 
 except Mr. Groundwig, and while, under the circum- 
 s f .ances, there might be some of the gentlemen of the 
 jury who would sympathize with Miss Holbrook, 
 a id deeply regret that her honored and respected 
 father had not deemed it advisable to leave all his 
 v^alth to her, yet, on the other hand, those same 
 .inrors must not forget that it was truly a heroic act 
 D">ble and self-sacrificing and worthy a brave and 
 j^llant soldier, to be so just and so generous as to 
 remember in his will, in such a liberal manner, a 
 comrade who had faced death to save the testator's 
 1 TC. Undoubtedly the Major had his own notions 
 aoout bestowing his fortune upon a young girl, even 
 though that girl was the fruit of his own loins, and 
 r>o doubt, as he had averred in his will, it were better 
 that she should learn to earn her own living and 
 thus be able the better to enjoy such comforts and 
 pleasures as she should secure by lier own efforts. 
 Mary Holbrook had not been left penniless. Far 
 from it. A home with neat and rare furnishings was 
 hers to enjoy and hers to dispose of as she might 
 desire. Silas Groundwig had led a checkered life. 
 Crippled on the battle-field, denied a pension because 
 he was unable to procure evidence that his disability 
 was caused while engaged in the military service, he
 
 156 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 had continued to struggle on bravely and manfully 
 against the vicissitudes of ill fortune, until, in a provi- 
 dential manner, he was directed to the home of his 
 old army comrade, whom he found an invalid, and by 
 whose side he remained, ministering to his wants, 
 until the eyes of the noble-hearted Major were closed 
 in death. 
 
 " I now offer in evidence," continued the attorney, 
 "of the validity of Mr. Groundwig's claim to the 
 late Major Holbrook's estate, the will signed by 
 Stephen Holbrook in the presence of two witnesses, 
 who signed their names as such witnesses in 
 the testator's presence and at his request, in ac- 
 cordance with the requirement of law. As you 
 will see, the will has been properly probated, has 
 the seal of the clerk of the probate court affixed 
 thereto, and his certificate attached, to the effect that 
 the attesting witnesses, James Martin and Matilda 
 Winters appeared before him, legal notice having 
 been given of the time of proving said will, and 
 made oath that they did so sign said will as such wit- 
 nesses." 
 
 The attorney took his seat, apparently quite 
 exhausted with the effort he had made. He wiped 
 the perspiration from his brow, and looked around 
 to see what effect his opening of the case had upon 
 the audience. The lawyers who appeared for Miss 
 Holbrook consulted together for several minutes. 
 The spectators looked dumbf bunded. Though for 
 months they had known all these things, though they 
 knew such a will was claimed to exist, and that it 
 appeared to be witnessed by Mrs. Winters, yet for the
 
 THE WILL IN COURT. 157 
 
 first time they began to realize what it all meant, and 
 what the possible consequences might be, and how 
 much pretty Mary Holbrook, who, white as a sheet, 
 sat by the side of her lawyers and her lover, hud at 
 stake in the legal battle now fairly under way. 
 
 The elder and most scholarly-appearing attorney 
 for Miss Holbrook, the defendant, slowly rises to his 
 feet and addresses the court. Perfect stillness reigns 
 throughout the room. The lawyer, in a low but 
 quite musical voice, without any desire to engage the 
 attention of any one except the court and jury, 
 remarks that the case is a most singular one, and 
 will be found full of startling incidents. He is ready 
 to admit that the plaintiff, Mr. Groundwig, has been 
 quite lucky to be remembered so generously by Major 
 Holbrook, but he thinks before the case shall end 
 Mr. Groundwig will learn, and so will the public at 
 large, that Major Holbrook was not the ungrateful 
 parent the making of such a will would prove him to 
 be. "While there are many mysterious, strange and 
 thrilling events connected with the alleged execution 
 of this will, lie expects to prove to the entire satisfac- 
 tion of court and jury, that they are part and parcel of 
 a deep and atrocious plot yea, afoul and fiendish 
 conspiracy to cheat, defraud and swindle the young, 
 it and vivacious Mary Ilolbrook out of the fort- 
 une left by her father, and designed for his child and 
 for her only, upon the event of his death. Major Ilol- 
 brook loved his daughter as he loved his life. Her 
 mother dying when Mary was a mere child, the 
 r had becom* lely devoted to her welfare 
 
 and happiness, uud he had been heard to say u
 
 158 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 hundred times that the only pleasure he had in maa 
 ing money was that his daughter might enjoy it, ai <i 
 he might feel that when the time came that he couM 
 no longer care for her she would in nowise be depend- 
 ent on her own labor for means of support. After 
 the war, Major Holbrook came west and brought 
 with him the savings a generous country had dealt 
 out to him for services rendered, and while he culti- 
 vated the soil and gathered his harvests, he was forf 
 unate in his investments and successful in certain 
 speculations, so that before he reached middle ago 
 he had accumulated a large fortune. Major HolbrooK 
 died. A motherless child was his only heir. There 
 was no other living relative to claim the smallest shai-e 
 of the estate. Stephen Holbrook LEFT NO WILL. 
 
 " If the court please, and gentlemen of tl,a 
 jury," proceeded the lawyer, " I repeat it, and aui 
 ready to repeat it again and again, Major Holbrock 
 LEFT KO WILL. He hud frequently discussed tL,j 
 subject with his lawyer, and, upon being informed 
 that his daughter would inherit, under the law, all 
 his possessions, the same as she might under his willj 
 he concluded a will was not necessary. The docu- 
 ment, if the court please, and gentlemen of the 
 jury, now submitted to this honorable court, and 
 claimed by Ground wig to be the last will and testa- 
 ment of Major Holbrook, is a base and wicked forg- 
 ery. The plot is a deeply laid one. The conspirators 
 have done their work well. With the most consum- 
 mate skill, with ingenuity worthy the best brain o ' 
 the land, with the most wonderful ability to conce:<. 
 facts and events, the plotters have so complete! > 
 drafted, perfected and executed this Document, thott;
 
 THE WILL IX COURT. 159 
 
 not until the attorneys were far along in this investi- 
 gation did they become satisfied that the document 
 was a forgery. Xot only is the late Major Holbrookes 
 property at stake, but his reputation for integrity, 
 for truth and for honor, are in the scales. For him 
 to disown the child he loved and adored, and to be- 
 queath to her only a small homestead and the few 
 things belonging to it, and give to an old army com- 
 rade, if old army comrade he was, because he had 
 simply performed an act that all brave soldiers claim 
 the right to perform without the hope or expectation 
 of compensation, the great bulk of his large estate, 
 was an act that would stamp Major Holbrook as a 
 villain whose memory deserved universal execration. 
 Major Holbrook was no villain. The evidence will 
 prove he was an honest man." 
 
 While by no means intended, yet Lawyer Hale's 
 remarks produced a profound sensation throughout 
 the court-room, and for a moment or two a buzz 
 went round the audience as though every one was 
 expressing an opinion upon its merits. 
 
 " The document offered in evidence/' said the 
 court, "as the last will and testament of Major 
 Holbrook, seems to have been properly proven, and is 
 in conformity with the statutes of the State in such 
 case made and provided. Before proceeding with 
 the testimony, the court will pass upon the motion 
 to exclude this document because it has been pre- 
 pared by a typewriting machine and hence is not a 
 compliance with the law which provides that wills 
 ' must be in writing.' The court is clearly of the 
 opinion that to all intents and purposes the will is 
 'in writing.' The motion is overruled."
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE EVIDENCE AXD THE JUDGE'S ADVICE TO TBB 
 FARMERS. 
 
 Exceptions were taken to the ruling, and Mr, 
 Hale called William Bush as the first witness. Mr. 
 Bush was sworn, and took a seat in the witness box, 
 and responding to the usual questions answered that 
 he was forty-two years of age and had resided in the 
 county fifteen years. 
 
 Ques. Did you ever know James Martin who^e 
 name is signed to this alleged will? 
 
 Ans. I did. 
 
 Ques. How long did you know him? 
 
 Ans. Only a few days. 
 
 Ques. Were you intimate with him? 
 
 Ans. Quite so, for the short time I knew him. 
 
 Ques. Where is he now? 
 
 Ans. Dead. 
 
 Ques. When did he die? 
 
 Ans. August 14, 1882. 
 
 Quick as thought, and entirely out of order, and 
 for the first time approaching anything of the 
 sensational, Mr. Hale sprang to his feet and fairly 
 screamed: "Gentlemen of the jury, that will is dated 
 October 15th, 1882, two full months after James 
 Martin died!" 
 
 Upon this startling declaration, confusion took 
 possession of the audience and the jury, and did not 
 
 160
 
 THE EVIDENCE AKD THE JUDGED ADVICE. 161 
 
 miss ihe judge. It -was an exciting scene, in which 
 everybody took part. The bailiff rapped on his desk 
 and commanded silence, and when order was restored, 
 Mr. Hale announced, with an air of victory, to the 
 opposite counsel, that they might take the witness. 
 
 Ques. By Mr. Newcomb, one of the attorneys for 
 Groundwig. Mr. Bush, how do you fix the date of 
 Mr. Martin's death as having occurred at the time 
 you state? 
 
 Ans. I keep a diary and find it so recorded there. 
 My diary never lies. Besides, Martin was boarding 
 with me and in my employ, and the diary shows the 
 day he came as well as the day he died. 
 
 Ques. Was he a stranger in your neighborhood? 
 
 Ans. He was. 
 
 Ques. How long had he boarded and worked for 
 you? 
 
 Ans. Ten days. 
 
 Ques. May you not, Mr. Bush, unintentionally 
 and innocently, have made a wrong entry in your 
 diary as to time? 
 
 Ans. I told you, sir, my diary never lies. James 
 Martin died on August 14, 18b2. I saw him in his 
 coffin. I saw him in his grave. 
 
 Mr. Hale. That is all. You can step aside. 
 
 " The Rev. John Norton may be sworn/' said Mr. 
 Hale. 
 
 Ques. Are you the pastor of the First Lutheran 
 Church, of Bradford? 
 1 am. 
 
 Ques. What was the date of the organization of 
 that society? 
 
 U
 
 162 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 Ans. January 10, 1883. 
 
 Ques. Was there any such society in existence on 
 the 15th day of October, the date of the alleged 
 will? 
 
 Ans. There was not. 
 
 As the will bequeathed three thousand dollars to 
 the First Lutheran Church of Bradford, and as 
 there was no such society in existence at the date of 
 the will, the inference wo aid seem to be that the 
 will must have been framed after the society was 
 organized, which was after Major Holbrook's death. 
 
 The witness was not cross-examined. 
 
 "If the court please/' said Mr. Hale, "we now 
 introduce a certified copy of the letters patent issued 
 for an improved method of forming the letters used 
 by the type-writer. This certificate is signed by the 
 commissioner of patents, and has attached the patent 
 office seal." 
 
 The plaintiff's attorneys object to the introduction 
 of the certificate, for the reason that the commis- 
 sioner of patents should be brought into court, where 
 he could be cross-examined. The court ruled that 
 the certificate was the best possible evidence to prove 
 when the patent was issued, and the nature of the 
 improvement patented. 
 
 "It will be seen by this certificate," continued 
 Mr. Hale, " that the patent was issued eight months 
 after the alleged will was type-written, and that the 
 improvement patented was the style of letter used 
 in copying the will." 
 
 The counsel for Groundwig looked upon this evi- 
 dence as quite damaging to their case. The certifi-
 
 THE EVIDENCE AND THE JUDGE'S ADVICE. lG3 
 
 cate may have been a surprise to them, or it may not. 
 Their client was in no wise disturbed, and this fact 
 gave the counsel some encouragement. Groundwig 
 was certainly being pushed to the wall, and though a 
 man of almost infinite resources, they were rapidly 
 being exhausted. 
 
 " I now propose," said Mr. Hale, " if your honor 
 please, to offer in evidence the dying declarations of 
 Matilda Winters. I hold in my hand the depositions 
 of four reputable persons who were present, and 
 heard all she said in her dying hour." 
 
 This proposition was strenuously opposed by Mr. 
 Groundwig's lawyers, and the motion was argued at 
 length by the attorneys on both sides. The point 
 made in opposition to admitting the declarations, 
 was that on her death-bed her mind wandered and 
 she was out of her head, imagining she saw a great, 
 white light which she fancied represented the coming 
 of those better times which the farmers in her 
 neighborhood had long looked for and had long been 
 promised, and this white light she characterized as 
 the success of tariff reform. With her mind in this 
 condition, and when she was unable to understand 
 the meaning of questions put to her, and when she 
 was running on at random, using meaningless phrases, 
 she was asked what about the will. Without com- 
 prehending the full meaning of the question or the 
 bearing her answer might have on the rights of Mr. 
 Groundwig, she replied what no doubt in her lucid 
 hours she had made herself believe was true " it is 
 a forgery." 
 
 The counsel contended that her declarations were
 
 164 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 simply the ravings of a person in delirium; that s're 
 was wild and flighty, seeing things wholly imaginary 
 and entirely unnatural. She Avas in such a state wf 
 mental weakness that what she said ought not to 
 weigh a feather in determining the equities in this 
 case; that the woman was a fanatic upon the subject 
 of tariff reform, and possessing but the one idea, 
 she had harped upon it until her mind was so warped 
 that before she was confined to her bed in her last 
 illness, she would not have been a good witness in 
 open court, even under oath. To admit as evidence, 
 for this jury to consider, declarations of that womtrn 
 when in such a delirious condition that she did not 
 recognize her own son who had been absent on/y 
 about two years, was giving so wide a scope to tl.i 
 law governing the admission of death-bed declar^ 
 ations, as to make the rule a farce. 
 
 The judge, in deciding the motion, remarked that 
 he had been acquainted with Matilda Winters for 
 number of years; that he knew her to be a woman of 
 superior intelligence, highly educated, and possessed 
 of a large fund of good common sense. She had 
 given the tariff question a great deal of study and 
 research, and her views upon the subject had the 
 merit of being sensible ones, and she embraced every 
 opportunity to discuss the subject with the farmers, 
 and impress upon their minds the fact that they were 
 being robbed of their hard earnings by the unfair 
 system of government taxation. In these -opinions 
 she was sincere and aggressive. 
 
 "I am not ashamed to admit," continued the 
 judge, " that her arguments were what first led me
 
 THE EVIDENCE AND THE JUDGE'S ADVICE. 165 
 
 to the conviction that the present tariff is unjust, 
 unfair and unequal in its operation; and that it has 
 selected the farmer from all the other industries of 
 the land as the especial object of its oppression and 
 injustice. Why the farmers do not heed such teach- 
 ings, is beyond my comprehension. During the 
 twenty years I have been on the bench I have asso- 
 ciated almost entirely with farmers. I know some- 
 thing of their struggles, their sacrifices, their toils 
 and their earnings. I have seen the raw prairies of 
 this entire section of the State converted into culti- 
 vated farms by the brawny arms and copious sweat- 
 drops of the sturdy farmer. I have seen the farmer, 
 8*< a class, realize less from his investment and his 
 l^bor than was absolutely necessary to support, in a 
 comfortable manner, himself and family. I have 
 8i>en the price of his produce reduced from year to 
 . year, until it is questionable whether his land might 
 not better lay idle than be exhausted in growing crops. 
 1 have seen the insidious mortgage worm itself almost 
 imperceptibly into the homestead, and year after 
 ytar demand, in the way of interest, a large share of 
 the farmer's net earnings. I have seen the wife and 
 little ones deprived the comforts of life, that there 
 should be no default in the payment of that interest. 
 I have seen the interest-account grow bigger and 
 bigger year by year, by reason of low prices for farm 
 produce, or high prices for raiment and such neces- 
 saries of life as were not produced on the farm, until 
 tl'e amount of the mortgage was increased from time 
 to time to save the farm from being sold at sheriff's
 
 166 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 "I have given the cause of all these conditions the 
 most careful and the most searching study, and I say 
 now to the jurors who are hearing this case all of 
 whom, with one or two exceptions, are farmers and 
 to this court-room full of spectators most of whom 
 earn their bread by holding the plow that I can 
 trace the cause of the farmer's adversity and his ill 
 fortune, the cause of his debts, the cause of the mort- 
 gage on the farm, the cause of low prices for his 
 produce, and its low purchasing power the cause of 
 his sons leaving home and living in the cities and 
 towns, the cause of the hollow cheeks, thin lips and 
 pale face of the wife of his youth, the cause of so 
 faint a prospect in the future for a better condition 
 of all these things, seven times out of nine, directly 
 to the operation of the tariff laws of this country." 
 
 The judge had grown quite eloquent as he pro- 
 ceeded with his remarks. The court-room was so 
 silent and quiet that only the breathing of the audi- 
 ence broke the stillness. Every eye was turned upon 
 the speaker. Even the lawyers were eager listeners, 
 and some of them were getting information of the 
 gravest importance from an oracle that had proven 
 its right to speak from authority. 
 
 But the judge had not finished: "Let me say to 
 the farmers who hear me, and I wish I could be 
 heard by every farmer in the district, that this is not 
 a party question. When you are being robbed of not 
 only your earnings, but your farms, it is not the 
 part of wisdom or good sense or justice to your fami- 
 lies, to say that if you resist the robbers and disarm 
 them, you weaken your party! "What does party care
 
 THE EVIDENCE AND THE JUDGE'S ADVICE. 167 
 
 for you when it grinds you to the earth and takes 
 from you, in the name of law, the fruits of your 
 labor? I am astonished every day of my life that the 
 farmers do not see the iniquity of this tax, which, in 
 law, is called a tariff, and unite as one man to reduce 
 it to such a basis that only enough money shall be 
 derived from it, in connection with the internal 
 revenue, to pay the expenses of the government. For 
 the law to lay its strong arm on you and take from 
 you, or from anybody else, a dollar more than such ex- 
 penses, no matter what the pretext may be, is robbery, 
 pure and simple. Doing it in the name of law does 
 not make it any the less robbery. 
 
 " I do not hold a term of court, and I am hearing 
 cases at least nine months in the year, but decrees 
 are entered on my docket for the foreclosure of 
 mortgages on forty or fifty farms, not one out of ten 
 of which in my opinion would have been sold by the 
 sheriff, were it not for the high protective tariff were 
 it not for the farmer being compelled to take a part 
 of his earnings out of his pocket and put them 
 in the pocket of some person who had no moral 
 right to them. 
 
 " Almost invariably these farms are owned by hard- 
 working, industrious men, who have toiled from early 
 manhood to middle-age, perseveringly and persistently 
 to make a home for themselves in their declining 
 years, and to help the boys start farms of their own, 
 only in the end to run against a foreclosure of 
 mortgage, a sale by the sheriff, and when most 
 entitled to rest and a home, earned over and over 
 again, compelled to tro further west and rtart life 
 anew,
 
 168 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 "Do you farmers receive an}" protection from the 
 tariff? It is simply impossible that you should, 
 because the foreigner does not come here and sell his 
 wheat, corn, pork and cattle, in competition Avith 
 you and you are told that the tariff on manufactured 
 goods is for the express purpose of preventing the 
 foreigner from coming to this country and selling his 
 goods, because were it not for the tariff he could 
 sell them to you cheaper than the home manu- 
 facturer can. Thus you are bled at every turn 
 you make and in every vein and every artery. You 
 have to compete with all the world in selling your 
 produce, and then you are not only prohibited from 
 going where you can buy the necessaries of life the 
 cheapest, but you are compelled to pay a tax on nearly 
 CA-ery article you do buy, and the greater part of that 
 tax goes to protect some capitalist who makes the 
 government believe he could not prosper in his busi- 
 ness unless you donated some of your earnings to him. 
 The worst of it is the farmers seem to like it. 
 At any rate you look on quite unconcernedly and 
 refuse to protest against such injustice, because to 
 do so might hurt your party. 
 
 "Go home farmers, andaskyonr wives and children 
 if they would not prefer more of the necessaries and 
 luxuries and comforts of life than the success of 
 your party? Ask them if they can discoA r er any- 
 thing to rejoice over in the f hip,hip, hurrah* of a suc- 
 cessful party, when they know such cheers are the 
 forerunners of the dismal shout of 'going, going, gone' 
 of the county sheriff ? 
 
 "Upon this all-absorbing subject of tariff reform
 
 THE EVIDENCE AND THE JUDGE'S ADVICE. 169 
 
 Matilda Winters may have been an enthusiast. She 
 was not a fanatic. In her life she spoke the words 
 of wisdom, and dying she spoke the words of 
 prophecy. I do not understand it was a vision Mrs. 
 'Winters saw on her death-bed. She was not relating 
 to the sobbing mourners an idle dream ; nor was she 
 delirious ; nor was she insensible to everything that 
 was going on around her. I 'am impressed with the 
 idea that in those dying moments there was clearly 
 rovealed to her a picture of the farmer's condition 
 when tariff reform shall have done its glorious work. 
 Knowing her end was near, she summed up and 
 graphically described the scenes she believed would 
 follow the resurrection of that crowning principle of 
 free government, that one man should not be taxed 
 for another man's benefit. 
 
 " The second point made by counsel for Ground wig 
 ib that Mrs. Winters could not have been in her right 
 mind at the moment she declared the will a forgery, 
 because she at once added, ' not my s ,' meaning 
 'not my signature' or 'not my son.' She could 
 have meant either. If she meant it was not her sig- 
 nature, it is claimed, she could not have been in her 
 right mind, because it is in evidence that she had 
 frequently declared it was her signature, and in fact 
 the counsel for Miss Holbrook admit it is her signa- 
 ture. So she must have referred to the young man 
 who had suddenly appeared upon the scene and 
 addressed the dying woman as mother. It is in evi- 
 dence that she had grasped his hand in tender and 
 motherly recognition, but when uttering her dying 
 words she unloosed her hold and turned her eyes
 
 170 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 from him saying, ' not my s / meaning 'he is not 
 my son/ It is claimed the woman could not have 
 been conscious and in her right mind if unable to 
 recognize her son, who had been spirited away under 
 the most mysterious circumstances, and who had just 
 returned after an absence of only about two years. 
 It is contended that failure to recognize her son, or 
 rather the declaration that he was not her son, is con- 
 clusive evidence that her mind was not in that state 
 of positive clearness that would justify the court in 
 ruling that her declaration as to the will being ' a 
 forgery/ made in the same breath, was permissible 
 as evidence. 
 
 " The court admits, with counsel, that the point 
 made has an important bearing on the admissibility 
 of her dying declaration touching the will, because 
 if her inability to recognize her son came from loss 
 of memory, and consequent loss of mental power, 
 then her statement that the will is a forgery must 
 have been made under a similar condition of mind, 
 and hence would not be admissible. 
 
 " It must be remembered that her son had hurried 
 into her presence from a long journey by sea and 
 land that he might be permitted to gaze upon his 
 mother's face for one moment before the vital spark 
 ha'd fled. His clothes were dusty, his face unshaven, 
 his hair disheveled; he had been shipwrecked in mid- 
 ocean, exposed for months, on water and on shore, 
 to the hot rays of a tropical sun and the burning 
 breezes of tropical winds. Others shrank back at 
 his coming, and for several moments those who had 
 known him well failed to recognize him. His
 
 THE EVIDENCE AND THE JUDGE'S ADVICE. 17! 
 
 mother, who had been advised of his coming, ex- 
 pected to see the boy as he was when she saw him last, 
 in the flush of health, fair-faced and comely, his 
 personal appearance unchanged; and so painfully 
 disappointed was the poor woman at the change 
 exposure had wrought that she naturally gave utter- 
 ance to the belief that it was not her son. 
 
 " In that declaration there was a use of memory 
 which is the best evidence of a sound mind. She 
 could not so quickly compare the appearance of the 
 young man at her bedside with the boy stolen from 
 his home some two years before without the exercise 
 of her mental faculties. Tinder such circumstances, 
 the fact that she did not recognize her son is, in the 
 opinion of the court, better evidence of the unim- 
 paired condition of her mind than if she had recog- 
 nized him. The court would sooner believe the 
 impossible alternative that it was not her son than 
 to think that the failure to recognize him was evi- 
 dence that her mind was impaired. 
 
 " Whether on her death-bed, weak and emaciated, 
 with failing heart and feeble pulse, with strength 
 enough remaining to tell the friends around her 
 couch of the great blessings enshrined within the 
 tariff reform, and referring to that reform as a great 
 white light whose coming would bring prosperity and 
 happiness to the tillers of the soil and to all the land; 
 or whether in the enjoyment of robust health, telling 
 her neighbors those plain, blunt truths about the 
 curse of the tariff; the court believes she was in 
 her right mind and that the declarations made by 
 her on her death-bed, in regard to the alleged will,
 
 172 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 are admissible as evidence and entitled to the same 
 weight by the jury as though she were present and 
 testifying under oath. 
 
 "I hold in my hand," continued the court, "a 
 roll of hermetically sealed manuscript, said to have 
 been written by Mrs. Winters a few hours before her 
 death, and found on her person after her decease; 
 accompanying it is a sealed envelope addressed 
 to the judge of the court of this district. On the 
 outside of the roll are the written words, 'these 
 seals to be broken and this manuscript to be read in 
 open court on the trial of the will case of Ground- 
 wig vs. Holbrook/ I know of no more proper time 
 than now, to open the letter and read its contents: 
 
 " To THE HONORABLE JUDGE OF COURT. 
 
 "My Dear Sir: The roll of manuscript is the story of my 
 life, briefly told. It has been prepared at times when failing 
 health admonished me I had not long to live, and it has been 
 completed since my physician has told me I shall not see 
 another sun set. As I can not live to attend the trial of the 
 will case, and as my lips are sealed even were I to attend, I ask 
 in justice to my reputation and my honor that the narrative I 
 have prepared be read in court and admitted as the evidence 
 I could give were I relieved of the binding obligations of the 
 oath I have taken. I swore not to speak while living. I pray 
 God to give me strength to speak while dying. 
 
 "MATILDA WINTERS. 
 
 "I do not care to hear counsel upon the subject 
 now. The court is aware that many objections could 
 be urged against reading the paper in court, unless, 
 upon examination, it was found to be such a docu- 
 ment as was admissible under the rule laid down in 
 relation to dying declarations. The court will read
 
 THE EVIDENCE AND THE JUDGE'S ADVICE. 178 
 
 the manuscript, and decide upon its admissibility at 
 the opening of the morning session/' 
 
 The judge took the roll to his room. He read it 
 through with absorbing interest, and laid it carefully 
 away. But not carefully enough. For hardly had 
 the learned judge retired for the night when the 
 document was mysteriously conveyed to a newspaper 
 office near by, quickly parceled out in "takes" to a 
 dozen compositors, put into type, and before daylight 
 returned to the receptacle from which it was taken. 
 As will be seen by the reader, Mrs. Winter's state- 
 ment threw a flood of light on the mysteries which 
 had enshrouded and embittered her life.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE THBILLINQ STOBY TOLD BY MRS. WIXTEES. 
 
 "To-night, if heaven gives me strength, I propose 
 to prepare a statement of all the incidents and events 
 connecting me in any way with signing the docu- 
 ment which purports to be the will of Stephen Hoi- 
 brook. I know I have not long to live, and I write 
 almost in the presence of my Maker, and I feel that 
 what I say should have the same weight in court 
 that my evidence would have if I were present and 
 sworn to tell only the truth. 
 
 "When Major Holbrook was taken sick, hisphy?i- 
 cian thought he could not recover, but by skilled 
 nursing and tender care his life might be prolonged 
 for some weeks. His daughter plead with me to 
 come to her home and assist her in ministering to the 
 wants of the sick man. I felt it my duty to go. 
 Would the rest of my life have been different had I 
 not gone? Heaven only knows. 
 
 "I had hardly settled down in my new home when 
 the events happened which I am now about to relate 
 events which have filled my cup of sorrow to the 
 brim, and events which are hastening me to my 
 grave. 
 
 "One morning there was a rap at the door. I 
 opened it, and without an invitation on my part, in 
 walked a strange man, whom I did not remember to 
 have seen before. A coarse, heavy black beard covered 
 
 274
 
 STORY TOLD Bi MRS. \VIXT1 175 
 
 almost his entire face, leaving only his dark eyes in 
 sight. He looked nervously about the room, stroked 
 his beard as if to be sure that it was still there, and 
 whispered: ^. 
 
 " ' Susan Groundwig, don't you know me?' Though 
 only a whisper, it was enough. Human disguises 
 could not change that voice. Involuntarily I started 
 up as if to give an alarm. He caught me by the wrist 
 and exclaimed in a whisper which sounded like a 
 voice from the cave of demons: 
 
 " 'Don't scream, or call a servant, or arouse any 
 one about the house. I see you know who I am. 
 But give an alarm, even make a motion to call for 
 help, and I will tell a tale of your dishonor and the 
 birth of an illegitimate son, that will drive you from 
 Major Holbrook's house and make you a hateful hag, 
 now and forever, in the sight of his daughter, and 
 make your son but don't try to speak. Don't think 
 that people will not believe me. The bad spoken of 
 another always finds listeners and never lacks believers. 
 I have not forgotten to bring the proof. These papers 
 tell it all. You want to say they are forged. But 
 what matters that? They appear all right and that 
 is enough. I shall not use them now. I may later 
 on. What I want now is for you to obtain me a 
 situation as watcher or nurse for Major Holbrook 
 during his sickness. I know you will conceal from 
 everybody my name and my relationship to you. A 
 place in Major Holbrook's employ I must have. That 
 obtained, as it will be, and you prove treacherous to 
 me in the slightest manner, or even intimate a sus- 
 picion that I am not what I shall claim to Major
 
 176 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 Holbrook to be, I will give your history yes, tlrts 
 forged history, not only to him, but I will tell it to his 
 daughter and to this entire neighborhood. Do we 
 understand each other?' 
 
 "During the time that Silas Groundwig was pour- 
 ing his cruel words into myeas, I was almost stupe- 
 fied with terror, and it may be with shame. Shocked 
 beyond words can tell at his wicked and false insinua- 
 tions, I saw there was but one way now to act, and 
 that was to promise to comply with his request and 
 trust that Providence might rescue me from the ter- 
 rible spell that man seemed to have over me. I gave 
 the promise. I could not do otherwise. I was nt 
 his mercy. Not because I was guilty, but because I 
 was a woman, because I loved my son so passionately 
 and because there was no sacrifice too great for me 
 to make for his happiness and that of Mary Hoi- 
 brook. 
 
 "Silas Groundwig was taken into Major Holbrook's 
 employ. With all the stains upon his name he had 
 never changed it. I had changed mine. Was I the 
 greater criminal? 
 
 " Groundwig at once made himself busy and useful 
 by the bedside of the sick man. He was strong ard 
 muscular, and could so easily lift the Major from 
 the bed, and was so ready to anticipate his every 
 want and minister to them, that I was in mortal 
 dread of his planning some great crime, and that the 
 fast failing invalid was to be the victim. I dared 
 not make known my suspicions. To do so would 
 throw me into his clutches, and three hearts might 
 ache and starve for the want of love, and three lives
 
 StOBY TOLD BY MRS. WIXTEBS. 177 
 
 might be sacrificed. When my fears were the most 
 aroused, just at the time when I had determined to 
 call the village pastor to advise me, Major Holbrook 
 died. He died a natural death. I was so afraid 
 there was a tragedy near at hand. If one was con- 
 templated greater than the terrible crime that was 
 afterward committed, then did a kind Providence 
 stay the hand that would have perpetrated it. 
 
 " My friends all know the strange and mysterious 
 events that followed a few weeks after Major Hoi- 
 brook's death. They know my boy was stolen from 
 me and sent a long voyage to distant foreign shores, 
 but they know nothing of who did this great crime 
 and the motive for doing it. I will undertake to 
 tell the thrilling story, though I may not live to 
 finish it: 
 
 "The funeral ceremony over, Silas Ground wig took 
 his departure without seeking an interview with me. 
 For that kindness I was exceedingly glad. Would 
 he return? Why should he return? Was there any- 
 thing more he could return for? And yet, why 
 should he not come back and complete the work he 
 had in view. He had evidently been baffled in carry- 
 ing out the scheme that prompted him to seek em- 
 ployment with Major Holbrook. My womanly fears 
 led me to believe that his work with me was not yet 
 finished. I thought I imagined the worst that could 
 befall me, and yet, of all the cruel things I conjured 
 in my mind that he might attempt, I fell so far short 
 of what did happen that I pictured him a saint 
 while the crime he committed would put to shame 
 the deeds of devils thrice damned. 
 
 12
 
 178 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 " The time came for Henry to graduate. Mary, 
 whose eyes were always full of tears, concluded not 
 to attend the commencement exercises. I wonder if 
 she had fears that the essay would not be equal to 
 her anticipations, for I know she expected her lover 
 would earn the highest honors. I went, and if ever 
 mother was proud of her son I was proud of mine. 
 How my heart thrilled with delight and gratification 
 to hear him advocate and defend the principles I had 
 instilled into his youthful mind. His tutors had 
 taught him the art of embellishing and beautifying 
 the homely truths he had learned at the farmer's 
 hearthstone. His subject was one which was com- 
 manding the attention of the nation; and when I 
 heard that great audience of intelligent farmers, who 
 had assembled there from all parts of the State, ap- 
 plaud the sentiments my boy uttered, I thanked 
 heaven I had lived to see the day when the men that 
 tilled the soil showed so much interest in the subject 
 of tariff reform. 
 
 " Henry returned home with me. It is a great sat- 
 isfaction now for me to know that the few weeks he 
 remained with me and Mary were the happiest and 
 gladdest days of all our lives. There was too much 
 of heaven in them to last long. It did not take the 
 destroyer" long to break in upon our pleasures and 
 turn all to grief and sadness and tears. 
 
 " Silas Groundwig came. I knew he would. I 
 knew too well when my son returned no more to his 
 home that the hand of that monster was again laid 
 upon my heart. From the moment of Henry's dis- 
 appearancel connected Groundwig with the cause. So
 
 STORY TOLD BY MRS, WINTERS. 179 
 
 when the creature came, he came uot unexpected. I 
 half welcomed him, because I knew he could give me 
 tidings of my boy. Tidings that the wolf gives of 
 the lamb! 
 
 "One day I awoke, horrified at a dreadful dream that 
 was almost too real to be a dream. But my dream 
 was bliss compared to the wakening, for there, seated 
 in a chair by my side was Grounclwig. I sat motion- 
 less, and even fearless, awaiting the coming of the 
 bolt. It came. Not quick, as from the darkest, 
 blackest, fiercest cloud, but slowly, nicasuredly, with 
 unerring aim, to torture and to kill. It came from 
 a foul fiend incarnate, and ere it had done its des- 
 perate work, the bolt pierced my heart and burned 
 my soul to ashes. Yet, there was enough of life left 
 me to speak. He could tell me of my boy. That, 
 knowledge was life. 
 
 " ' Silas Ground wig, what have you done with my 
 boy?' 
 
 "How I shuddered and trembled at the sound of my 
 voice. What a question to ask such a monster, and 
 yet, only such a monster could answer it. I used no 
 epithet. I did not call upon the God of Justice to 
 strike the creature dead. I made-no woman's plea, 
 no mother's entreaty, no beseeching prayer, but I sat 
 there like a prisoner in the dock, waiting to know 
 my fate. 
 
 "Groundwig had not spoken a word, nor did his pale, 
 ashen lips part even the width of a whisper, but from 
 an inside pocket of his threadbare coat he drew 
 forth a folded sheet of paper, and, handing it to me, 
 motioned me to read it. How I composed myself
 
 180 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 sufficiently to unfold that sheet, and howl found 
 strength to read it, I never could understand. It is 
 all a blank now. I know I read the letter. I hare 
 it before me: 
 
 "MY DEAR MOTHER: I am a prisoner in a cave. I am 
 tortured almost to the death. My jailers are desperate aud 
 
 [Here a word is obliterated]. My tormentors threaten 
 
 to kill me by inches. I have been permitted to write one let 
 ter giving you the particulars of my being kidnaped, but I 
 fear it never reached you. I feel I am held here for a ransom. 
 I am permitted to send you these few words, and no more. 
 My God, must I die here ? 
 
 "Your affectionate son, 
 
 " HENRY WINTERS. 
 
 " I must have fainted with the reading of the letter, 
 because when consciousness returned I found myself 
 lying on the lounge and Groundwig bathing my tei/i- 
 ples with cold water. Heaven permitted him to do 
 that act, and heaven compelled me to submit. My 
 confused mind seemed to be struggling between indig- 
 nation and contempt for the creature before me, and 
 loving pity and tender compassion for my tortured 
 son. I need not say which prevailed. The hopeful 
 thought that I might again buy my son's freedom 
 came quickly to my mind. The well-stocked farm 
 was mine and was soon to be my boy's. I had money 
 in the bank. ' All, all was now the merest dross in 
 my sight, and Groundwig could have it all, and I 
 even began to look upon him as a mild-mannered, 
 well-disposed, honest gentleman, who would oblig- 
 ingly take all my earthly goods and in return bring 
 back my son. Thus encouraged, I almost gleefully 
 asked him what price he had fixed for my boy's raw- 
 som.
 
 STORY TOLD BY MRS. WINTERS. 181 
 
 " ' Madam/ he answered, ' I am glad to know you 
 aie such a matter-of-fact woman, and that you so 
 sensibly come right down to business. Your son is 
 my prisoner, but he is not mine alone. I am still at 
 the mercy of others, I have some heart and a little 
 manhood left. They have none of either. They want 
 gold, and have been promised it. I want gold, and 
 am playing a desperate game to get it. You can help 
 me to carry out my plans, obtain the gold and regain 
 ymr son/ 
 
 "'I understand you/ I said, interrupting him, 
 ' uid am willing to accede to your wishes. The 
 r*>ady money I have I can arrange to hand you in a 
 ctay or two. This farm I can sell for a good round 
 sum at any time, and for cash. I will proceed this 
 day and make the sale. You come at this hour day 
 atter to-morrow, or a later day if you require more 
 time, bring with you my son, and the money I have 
 on hand and the proceeds from the sale of the farm 
 shall be paid you. I will give no alarm. I will make 
 no human being my confidant. I will not seek your 
 arrest. I will put no detective on your track. The 
 object of your coming here shall be known to none 
 other than Henry and myself. When you shall 
 return and be ready to depart I will not watch your 
 going, nor seek in any manner to give you trouble, 
 but will wish you a speedy and pleasant meeting with 
 your comrades, only asking that our parting shall be 
 forever and ever. What I promise, you have the 
 pledge made on an honest woman's honor, shall be 
 religiously fulfilled/ 
 
 " ' Mrs. Groundwig/ he replied, 'you do not quite
 
 182 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 understand me. I do not want your gold, I want 
 your name.' 
 
 "Good heavens! What could he mean ? don't 
 want my gold, but wants my name my name! What 
 can he wan-t of my name ? How can my name release 
 my imprisoned boy?"
 
 'CHAPTER XXI. 
 GROUXDWIG'S INFAMOUS DEMAND. 
 
 " ' Mrs. Ground svig, you seem surprised. I do not 
 wonder at it. But it is time this almost tragic inter- 
 view was brought to a close. I will explain my 
 meaning so clearly that you will not fail to understand 
 it. Madam, this document which I hold in my 
 hand, and now exhibit to you, is the last will and 
 testament of Major Holbrook. Don't start. If you 
 scream no ofle will hear you, and if any one did, it 
 might be all the worse for you. I say that, to all in- 
 teats and purposes, as far as you and I are concerned, 
 this document is Holbrookes will. No matter if you 
 ai-e prepared to say that you know he never made 
 one. What you know does not count now. This is 
 a good enough will for my purpose. Will you read 
 it? No. Then I will tell you that it bequeaths to 
 me, the preserver of his life on the battle-field, and 
 his faithful friend who ministered to his wants during 
 his last sickness, all the property he owned at his 
 death, except the homestead which he bequeaths to 
 his daughter Mary, and a few bequests he makes to 
 certain religious institutions.' 
 
 " My blood was boiling hot. I could hear no more. 
 Enraged almost beyond reason, I bade the monster 
 leave my house. ' Liar, villain, scoundrel/ I ex- 
 claimed, thrusting my clenched fist into his very 
 face, 'your infamous claim surpasses human in- 
 
 183
 
 184 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 genuity. Are you a fiend from hell that yon can 
 do this thing? Can't the Almighty prevent an 
 imp of darkness from visiting this earth, assum- 
 ing the shape of man, and, unmolested, perpetrate 
 the crime you contemplate? Go, Silas Groundwig, 
 begone, and never again befoul the air I breathe with 
 your hateful presence/ 
 
 "No sooner had I given utterance to the thoughts 
 that were driving me mad, than a glance at the letter I 
 still held in my hand brought me to a realizing sense of 
 my utter helplessness to rescue my son otherwise than 
 through the intervention of the fiend that stood before 
 me. In his hands was the fate of my boy. Ground - 
 wig comprehended the full meaning of this fact far 
 better than I did. He made no attempt to inter- 
 rupt me. He listened to my fierce tirade as though 
 he expected it, and it moved him no more than if he 
 were stone and I a child. Perceiving I had finished 
 because I had exhausted my strength in hurling 
 upon him my string of epithets, and yet without 
 noticing anything I had said, he continued: 
 
 " ' Susan Groundwig, you come far short of under- 
 standing the object of my visit here. Do you think 
 I came to tell you of my good fortune, expecting you 
 would congratulate me upon such good luck? I 
 have told you this is Major Holbrook's will. So it 
 is, but it lacks one essential feature to make it legal, 
 and that is another signature. You will see Major 
 Holbrook's name there in its proper place; you have 
 seen him write his name often and no doubt you rec- 
 ognize the signature as genuine. No matter whether 
 you do or not, you see there is but one attesting wit-
 
 GROUNDWIG'S INFAMOUS DEMAND. 185 
 
 ness. The law requires two. Major Holbrook died 
 before the second witness could be summoned. You 
 were present during his last sickness. The whole 
 neighborhood knows that fact. What more appro- 
 priate- than that you should be the other witness? 
 Don't wring your hands, and pray do save your tears. 
 Business now, not sentiment. Put your name on 
 this paper" as a witness, then, on the day fixed for 
 probating the will, go with my attorney to the pro- 
 bate clerk and make oath that you signed your name 
 in Major Holbrook's presence, at his request and in 
 the presence of the gentleman whose name you see 
 there as one of the witnesses. Sign this oath, pledg- 
 ing yourself never to appear in court to contradict 
 the evidence you give before the clerk, and swear 
 you will never, to your dying day, divulge to your son, 
 to Mary Holbrook, or to any other living person any 
 01 the circumstances connected with your name 
 appearing as a witness to Holbrook's signature, and 
 all these things done, your son shall be restored to 
 you. What is your answer?' 
 
 "Groundwighad talked fast. Hardly sixty seconds 
 had he required to tell me in words that were'burned 
 through my heart, the part I was to take in this 
 infamous plot. It seemed an age. The heated iron 
 entered my soul and I suffered all the pangs and 
 pains- of, death by the most cruel torture for crimes I 
 made myself believe I was about to commit. Asked 
 to be a willing party to robbing Mary Holbrook of 
 the fortune her father had left her ! I, who had 
 been a mother to her, who had taught her the pre- 
 cepts of truth, integrity and honesty, to do an act
 
 186 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 that would give the lie to all my teachings, and she, 
 too, to be the victim and I to draw the knife and 
 strike the blow ! Mary Holbrook, by the perfidy and 
 treachery of her dearest friond, to be made worse 
 than a beggar ! No never ! Forgive me heaven, 
 forgive me Mary, for harboring a thought so wicked 
 and so infamous for even a second of time. 
 
 "But hold ! What do I see in the other balance! 
 My darling boy tortured to the death, Mary Hoi- 
 brook broken-hearted and in her grave. And I their 
 murderer ! For myself I care nothing. I am but as 
 a slender reed that any wind may bend and break. 
 But there are two lives in my keeping. By the sacri- 
 fice of my good name they are saved. Is it not writ- 
 ten that evil may be done that good may come ? In 
 consideration of the evil I do, I have the satisfaction 
 of seeing two persons made happy two beings who 
 are everything in the world to me. I refuse to do 
 the evil, and death or a worse fate befalls the one, and 
 he blood of my blood and life of my life, while the 
 happiness of the other, who is bound to me by ties 
 that need only the marriage vow to claim of me a 
 mother's love, will be forever destroyed. It is 
 another's gold and my honor on one side and human 
 lives on the other. If it were only gold, I know that 
 she who would be robbed would submit without a 
 murmur. But where in the bowels of the earth can 
 there be found gold enough to pay for my dishonor, 
 my disgrace, my infamy ! Why not call Mary here 
 and tell her all. Tell her that the price of her 
 lover's ransom is her fortune. I know she would not 
 hesitate to give it. Were she here now and were to
 
 GROUND WIG'S INFAMOUS DEMAND. 187 
 
 hear all I have heard, I know she would throw her 
 arms around Groundwig's neck and beg him take 
 her lands, her cattle, her bonds, her all, only restore 
 to her her lover. Why should I not make this 
 proposition to him? I see he is getting impatient. 
 
 " ' Mr. Ground wig, I told you I would make myself 
 a beggar, and consent that my son should be penni- 
 less, if you would restore him to me. My possessions 
 are not enough to satisfy your boundless avarice, and 
 you demand that Mary Holbrook's fortune shall be 
 yours. Is there can there be no alternative? My 
 son possesses an active brain, and he is industrious. 
 He has an excellent business education. He expects 
 to marry Mary Holbrook. With her property and 
 mine which will then be his he will engage in 
 business with every prospect of success. I know he 
 will be willing to settle on you a liberal income for 
 life, and you may name the amount and I will have 
 Mary sign the agreement, I will sign it, and you can 
 release him from his confinement upon his signing it. 
 What say you to this proposition my dear, good 
 friend?' 
 
 "'Woman!' he replied, 'are you crazy? Don't 
 you know that such an agreement could be repu- 
 diated at any time, and would not be worth the ink 
 it was written with? Mrs. Ground wig, I took you 
 for more of a business woman. But I have no time 
 to dilly-dally with you. Will you or will you not 
 sign that paper and take that oath?* 
 
 "'Silas Groundwig,' I made bold to reply, 'I 
 thought you had a speck of humanity left in your 
 breast. I was mistaken. I see you have not the
 
 188 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 smallest particle. You want everything or nothing. 
 I now propose that you allow me to call Mary Hoi- 
 brook, and I know, when I tell her all and show her 
 my dear boy's letter, she will gladly convey to you in 
 legal form all the property you claim is bequeathed 
 you in Major Holbrook's will. That is all you could 
 get were I to sign my name to that paper, and were 
 the document really the will you represent it to.be. 
 I will go and ' 
 
 "The brute stopped me, and raised his arm as if to 
 strike me. I did not flinch a step. We stood there 
 face to face. I saw he was immovable. I felt he 
 would not yield an iota from the demand he made of 
 me. I was prepared for what followed. 
 
 " ' Mrs. Groundwig, will this palaver never cease ? 
 Your last proposition is the least business-like of all. 
 I mean business. You mean nonsense. You know 
 that any release Mary Holbrook could make of her 
 property would, under the circumstances, be of 
 no more value to me than though it were written 
 with a pen dipped in water. The last will and test- 
 ament, however, of my long-time friend, who owed his 
 life to me, duly probated, will give me the undis- 
 puted title to all the property bequeathed me, and 
 with your name as a witness, and your sworn promise 
 not to appear in court in ease the will is contested, I 
 shall have little or no trouble in establishing its gen- 
 uineness. But, woman, I am arguing when I 
 should be dictating. I must have your name on 
 that paper instantly, or I will leave you, and as my 
 presence js so hateful to you, I will leave you for- 
 ever, and Henry Winters, whom I hate as bad as you 
 hate me, shall be tortured to death before the sun
 
 GROUND WIG'S INFAMOUS DEMAND. 189 
 
 sets to-morrow night. This is plain talk, and I trust 
 you understand it.' 
 
 "Horrified almost beyond endurance at his merciless 
 threat, still I was almost glad he had not permitted 
 me to drag in another to relieve me in part of the dis- 
 grace and infamy he proposed I should consent to. I 
 began to feel that I alone should accept this sacrifice, 
 and trust to heaven to prevent the consummation of 
 the outrage upon the innocent victim. Alone I must 
 shoulder the unequal burden. If it shall make me 
 deformed in body, as I know it will in mind, and 
 if at last it obstructs my passing the pearly gates, 
 I will ask to lay the burden at my Savior's feet, 
 and tell Him all my story, and I have no fear but He 
 will find a place for me, for may He not say in 
 heaven as He said on earth, ' her sins are forgiven, 
 for she loved much/ 
 
 "How these thoughts rushed through my brain. I 
 felt my very soul was on fire. But there stood Ground- 
 wig. He was waiting my reply. Yonder stood my 
 boy. I saw him, bound hands and feet, and I saw 
 the blood oozing out from beneath the galling chains. 
 His sunken eyes and hollow cheeks told the rest of 
 the story of the torture. His chained hands were 
 outstretched towards me. He, too, was waiting my 
 reply. God in heaven, can I resist that imploring 
 look! My son, my son, I cried in agony of despair, 
 I give my soul to save your life, and seizing the paper 
 and pen, and where he directed, I wrote, Matilda 
 Winters. I signed the oath, kissed the Bible and 
 was alone with my sin. Picking up the crumpled 
 letter, all stained with tears, and placing it in my 
 bosom, I sought my chamber and needed rest.
 
 190 THE MORTGAGE FOKECLOSED. 
 
 "For a month I lay sick with a raging fever. Most 
 of the time I was delirious, and they said I talked of 
 a will, of my darling boy, of Groundwig and of some 
 great crime I had committed. These things were 
 all mysteries to my attendants, for at that time no 
 public mention had been made of the will. 
 
 " One day when I felt quite strong, I called Mary to 
 my bedside and asked her if there were any tidings 
 from my son. Between her kisses and her sobs she 
 told me that not one word had been heard from him 
 since his disappearance. 'If you are strong enough/ 
 Mary continued, 'to read a letter which a strange 
 man is now bringing in a letter which he has 
 brought every day since you were sick, and which he 
 refuses to put in any other hands than yours per- 
 haps something may be learned of the lost one/ 
 I nodded my head. The strange man was invited in, 
 and he handed me the letter. Mary opened it and I 
 read it: 
 
 "MADAM: Circumstances which I had no hand in shaping 
 prevent my restoring your boy to you as I promised. I 
 pledge you the .word of a villain a pledge which only a 
 villain can keep that your son shall be well treated and well 
 cared for, and not until he is restored to you will I claim any 
 right to the property concerning which I interviewed you. 
 
 "The letter bore no signature. It was not neces- 
 sary. I knew too well who sent it. 
 
 "Eighteen months have passed since I read that 
 letter. During all these months hot a word from 
 my boy. Not a word even from Groundwig. How 
 singular that I wanted to again see that villain and 
 really longed to receive another letter from him. He 
 neither came nor wrote. I have now given up &JI
 
 GROUXDWIG'S IXFAMOUS DEMAND. 191 
 
 hopes of ever again seeing my noble boy. I have 
 been growing weaker day by day, and feel my life will 
 not much longer be spared me. Yesterday I was 
 asked by the probate judge about the will. He 
 said he had just been elected to the office, and that, 
 in looking over a mass of papers, he had discovered 
 what purported to be the last will and testament of 
 Stephen Holbrook. It had been properly proven, and, 
 in the absence of any evidence to the contrary it 
 must be taken for what it purported to be. He 
 asked me a great many questions about the will, but 
 I shook my head to all of them. There was my 
 oath! My lips were sealed. But I had never gone 
 to the judge's office and sworn that I signed the 
 paper in the presence of Major Holbrook and at his 
 request. Yet the will showed that I had done so. I 
 did not dare to charge that some one had falsely 
 represented me. I dared not say anything. When 
 the judge had gone, Mary came in. She put her 
 arms around my neck and asked me Mary Holbrook 
 asked me if that was her father's will and if I had 
 signed it as a witness, and if I knew that her father 
 had willed the most of his property to a stranger? 
 She did not chide me. She did not appear angry 
 with me. She simply wanted to know if that was 
 her father's will. I could only answer, ' to-night I 
 am weak, Mary, and more of a child than you are. 
 I do not understand your question now. It is getting 
 dark, and I am so weary and must rest. Come to 
 me, Mary, in the morning when I shall awake and I 
 will talk with you about your father. I will tell 
 
 you ' " 
 
 And here Matilda Winters' story ended.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 PERJURY EXPOSED. 
 
 At an early hour the court-room was crowded with 
 interested spectators, and long before the time lor 
 court to convene the deputies had been compelled 
 to refuse admission to scores of strangers who bvd 
 come a longdistance to attend the trial. The interest 
 in the proceedings was on the increase. The morn- 
 ing paper contained Aunt Matilda's story, and the 
 whole town was in the highest state of excitement. 
 Not a person acquainted with that lady but believed 
 every word was true. It had cleared up many mys- 
 terious circumstances which the villagers at Bradford 
 Junction had from time to time discussed, but 
 only to be puzzled and suspicious. Now all WPS 
 explained. No longer mystery, no longer doubta, 
 no longer misgivings, but the character of Matilda 
 Winters shone out pure and spotless as the fleecy 
 clouds which accompany the setting sun. 
 
 The judge took his seat. " Sheriff, open court." 
 That officer cried out in a sharp, shrill voice, " ye, 
 ye, O ye, this honorable court is now convened 
 pursuant to adjournment." The clerk called tbe 
 roll of jurors and found they were all present, and the 
 Judge proceeded to announce his decision on the 
 motion to admit the narrative of Matilda Winters as 
 evidence. The opinion was brief and to the effect 
 that while the court felt the statement carried witfi 
 
 192
 
 PERJUKY EXPOSED. 193 
 
 it all the sanctity of an oath, because it was prepared 
 at a time when the writer believed she had not long 
 to live, and, in fact, did not live but a few hours 
 after the narrative was finished, yet it was not her 
 dying declaration made on her death-bed. Motion to 
 admit must be overruled. The defense will proceed 
 with their testimony/* 
 
 "If the court please," said Mr. Hale, "we rest 
 the case of Miss Holbrook." 
 
 It was clearly manifest that the sympathy of the 
 audience was with the lady, and during the few 
 moments' recess which was given the attorneys for 
 Groundwig to arrange their evidence, everybody 
 discussed the merits of the evidence so far introduced. 
 The spectators believed the testimony proved con- 
 clusively that the will was a forgery. One of the 
 \vitnesses to Major Holbrook's alleged signature was 
 proven to have died before the paper was signed. 
 Was not that evidence alone sufficient to annul the 
 
 It was proven that at the time the alleged will was 
 written by a typewriting machine and up to the time 
 of Major Holbrook's death, there had been no such 
 letter used in typewriters, and hence it was impossible 
 for Major Holbrook to have signed his name to a 
 document containing that style of letter. 
 
 It was proven that at the time of Major Holbrook's 
 death there was no such church society as the one 
 to which the sum of three thousand dollars was 
 bequeathed, and hence Major Holbrook could not 
 have caused such a bequest to be inserted in his will. 
 And Matilda Winters, whose name was affixed as a 
 
 13
 
 194 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 witness to Major Holbrook's signature, had declared 
 on her death-bed that the will was a forgery. Not 
 that her signature was a forgery, but her dying 
 declarations went to prove that the signature of 
 Major Holbrook was a forgery. Yet there was the 
 question to consider as to how much weight would be 
 given by the jury to a death-bed statement made 
 under such circumstances. The jury was the judge 
 of the weight to be given such testimony, and they 
 might discard it entirely. 
 
 Did not this evidence make out a plot and a con- 
 spiracy, of the most wicked nature, to rob Mary 
 Holbrook of the bulk of her possessions, and was not 
 the will shown to be a base forgery? Then there 
 was the startling narrative told by Mrs. Winters. 
 That explained every thing and proved every thing. 
 But, alas, it was not evidence. The jury had not 
 been allowed to separate, and notwithstanding the 
 court prohibited the bailiff from furnishing the jury 
 with newspapers, yet every body hoped that in some 
 manner one single copy of that paper might acci- 
 dentally find its way into the jury room. 
 
 In the midst of the discussion, the recess ended, 
 quietness reigned, and Groundwig's side of the case 
 was commenced. It was fortunate for him that the 
 crowd believed his crimes would be unearthed and 
 that he would fail in his deep-laid plot. There was 
 an undercurrent getting under rapid headway that 
 boded no good to the miscreant. His life was in the 
 keeping of the jury. To win his case was to lose his 
 life. To lose his case, then let Ground wig have a 
 care. Yet the fellow seemed conscious of his iirno-
 
 PERJURY EXPOSED. 195 
 
 cence and confident that his case was just and that 
 he would win it. 
 
 The first witness called was Stephen D. Hickman, 
 who, upon being sworn, stated he was a copyist and 
 had been engaged in that business for many years; 
 that when residing in Hartford, Connecticut, he was 
 called upon by a gentleman who gave his name as 
 Stephen Holbrook, to make a copy of a document 
 which he said was his will. The gentleman was very 
 anxious the copy should be exceedingly plain and 
 legible, so that it could be read by persons unaccus- 
 tomed to reading writing. "I had just commenced to 
 use a typewriting machine," the witness stated, "and 
 I proposed to copy his paper with the machine, show- 
 ing him samples of the work. He seemed very much 
 pleased and employed me to make the copy." 
 
 Ques. Do you recognize this document as your 
 work? 
 
 A /is. I do. 
 
 "Take the witness, Mr. Hale," was the quick re- 
 sponse of Groundwig's attorney. 
 
 J//\ Hale: How long were you copying the will? 
 
 Ans. Off and on two or three days. It was new 
 work and I made errors, which I corrected by re- 
 writing until I had a copy that was perfect. 
 
 Ques. Where do you live now? 
 
 Ans. In the town of Menton, in this State. 
 
 Ques. How long have you lived there? 
 <r. Some three years. 
 
 Ques. Who pays your expenses here? 
 'S. Mr. round wig. 
 
 Ques. Who asked you to come here as a witness?
 
 196 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 Ans. Mr. Groundwig. 
 
 Ques. How did he ascertain that you wrote that 
 document? 
 
 Ans. I do not know. 
 
 Ques. Ever have any other dealings with Mr. 
 Groundwig? 
 
 Ans. 'No, sir. 
 
 Ques. How long have you known him? 
 
 Ans. Four or five years. 
 
 Ques. Seen him frequently? 
 
 Ans. Five or six times. 
 
 Ques. The first time you saw him, I suppose, was 
 when he asked you to copy the will ? 
 
 Ans. JTes, sir! 
 
 "Hold, there, stop!" fairly yelled one of the op- 
 posing counsel. I object to that question as leading, 
 and I object to the answer. The witness does not 
 understand it. They have led him on in this smooth 
 way until his answers have been made mechanically, 
 and he has answered unconscious of wh~at he has been 
 saying. It is a trick of counsel. I ask the court to 
 strike out the answer. Such practice is infamous/' 
 
 But the mischief had been done. No matter 
 whether strictly in accordance with the rules of 
 evidence or not, to strike out, wouldn't mend the 
 matter; to insist that the witness did not understand 
 the question, counted nothing. The witness had 
 admitted that Silas Grouudwig was the man who 
 had represented himself to be Stephen Holbrook. 
 The court ruled the question was leading, and 
 hence, an improper one, and instructed the jury 
 that the answer was not to be considered as testi- 
 mony.
 
 PERJURY EXPOSED, 197 
 
 " We are through with the witness," remarked 
 Mr. Hale. 
 
 Groundwig's counsel was in an awkward dilemma. 
 To ask the witness to explain his answer was dan- 
 gerous. To dismiss him without questioning him 
 further was admitting that he was not worthy of be- 
 lief. The counsel did the only safe thing he could, 
 and that was to excuse the witness " for the present," 
 trusting that a part of the blow might be warded off 
 by the ruling of the court. 
 
 "James Martin will please step forward and be 
 sworn," was the startling announcement by Ground- 
 wig's attorney. The judge, jurors and audience could 
 not conceal their surprise and astonishment. The 
 counsel for Miss Holbrook appeared agitated and 
 tvoubled, but were soon put to their ease by a brief 
 conference with a stranger, who, from time to time, 
 had consulted with them. Some said he was a cele- 
 brated detective who had been employed to unveil 
 the conspiracy if there were a conspiracy. 
 
 The person answering to the name of James Martin 
 came forward and took his place on the witness stand. 
 All eyes were upon him. He stood the stare without 
 moving a muscle. He looked like a bundle of nerves, 
 turned, twisted and shaped into the form of a man. 
 
 Ques. What is your name? 
 
 Ans. James Martin. 
 
 Ques. Is that your signature (showing the witness 
 the alleged will). 
 
 Ans. It is. 
 
 Ques. Under what circumstances did you sign 
 that paper?
 
 198 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 Ans. One day I was going past Major Holbrookes 
 residence when Mr. Groundwig called me in, and the 
 Major, who was lying sick on a bed, asked me to sign 
 my name as a witness to his signature, telling me the 
 paper showed me was his will. 
 
 Ques. Any other person there besides Major Hol- 
 orook, Mr. Groundwig, and yourself? 
 
 Ans. Yes, sir, an elderly lady, who Major Holbrook 
 addressed as Mrs. Winters, who, also, at the request 
 of the Major, signed her name directly under mine, 
 and two gentlemen, whose names I do not know. 
 
 Ques. Did you know a person in that neighbor- 
 hood by the name of "William Bush? 
 
 Ans. I never did. 
 
 Ques. Did you ever board with a person by the 
 name of William Bush? 
 
 Ans. No, sir. 
 
 Ques. Did you ever work for a person by the name 
 of William Bush? 
 
 Ans. No, sir. 
 
 Ques. Are you alive? 
 
 Ans. I think I am, sir. 
 
 Ques. Were you ever dead? 
 
 Ans. Not that I am aware of. 
 
 Ques. Were you ever put in a coffin and buried ? 
 
 Ans. Not to my knowledge. 
 
 Groundwig's Attorney: That is all. Take the wit- 
 ness. 
 
 Mr. Hale: Where were you born? 
 
 Ans. In New York State, sir. 
 
 Ques. When did you come West? 
 
 Ans. Six years ago.
 
 PERJURY EXPOSED. 199 
 
 Ques. Where do you live now? 
 
 Ans. On a farm, about twenty miles from Brad- 
 ford. 
 
 Ques. Had you frequently passed Major Holbrookes 
 house? 
 
 Ans. Very seldom. 
 
 Ques. Mr. Groundwig asked you to come in, did 
 he? 
 
 Ans. Yes, sir. 
 
 Ques. Had you met him before? 
 
 A ns. I did not quite catch on to your question. 
 
 QKCS. I ask you if you had ever met Mr. Ground- 
 wig before that time he called you into Major Hoi- 
 brook's house? 
 
 Ans. I had not. 
 
 Ques. You were a stranger, passing by, Ground- 
 wig saw you, called you in, asked you to sign your 
 name, and without any hesitation you did so? 
 
 .1 'is. Yes, sir. 
 
 Ques. The gentlemen you met there did not sign 
 their names, did they? 
 
 Ans. Not while I was there. 
 
 Ques. Were they asked to sign? 
 
 Ans. Not that I know of. 
 
 Ques. Were you ever at Holbrook'e house after 
 that time? 
 
 Ans. No, sir. 
 
 Ques. Do you own a farm? 
 
 Ans. No, sir. 
 
 Ques. You work out by the month or year, do 
 you? 
 
 Ans. Yes, sir.
 
 200 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 Ques. Did you ever work for Samuel Turner? 
 
 Ans. Yes, sir, several months. 
 
 Ques. Did you ever work for Peter Livingstone? 
 
 Ans. What? 
 
 Ques. I asked you if you ever worked for Peter 
 Livingstone? 
 
 Ans. I think I did for a few weeks. 
 
 Ques. Have any trouble with him ? 
 
 Ans. Well, nothing much. 
 
 Ques. Were you indicted for forging his name to 
 a note and obtaining five hundred dollars? 
 
 Ans. Yes, sir. But I was tried and acquitted. 
 
 Ques. On what grounds were you acquitted? 
 
 Ans. I swore that 1 I I 
 
 Ques. Well, sir, speak quick. 
 
 Ans. I swore I I I could not write nor read I 
 But 
 
 The audience could not wait for the sentence to 
 be finished. The ludicrousness of the situation was 
 keenly appreciated by all. One general burst o 
 laughter, ending in a derisive wail in concert, par 
 ticipated in by everybody except the dignified court, 
 the witness, Groundwig and his attorneys, provoked 
 the judge to order the room cleared, but he at once 
 relented and revoked the order, much to the grati- 
 fication of the spectators. 
 
 Judge: Proceed, Mr. Hale, with the cross-exam- 
 ination. 
 
 Ques. You can now complete your answer; when 
 the audience so boisterously interrupted you, you 
 were saying "but " 
 
 Ans. I commenced to say that I have since that 
 time learned to write my name.
 
 PERJURY EXPOSED. 201 
 
 The audience began to think they had halloed 
 before they were out of the woods. 
 
 Ques. How long after you were charged with 
 forging the name of Mr. Livingstone did you learn to 
 write? 
 
 Ans. About six months. 
 
 Ques. Did you learn to write any more than your 
 own name? 
 
 Ans. That was all. 
 
 Ques. How long after your acquittal of the crime 
 of forgery before you went to living where you now 
 do? 
 
 Ans. About two months. 
 
 Ques. And you say you had resided there only ten 
 days when you were asked to sign your name to 
 Major Holbrookes will? 
 
 Ans. I don't know. 
 
 Ques. Don't know what? 
 
 Ans. I don't know. 
 
 Groundwitfs attorney: The witness is under the 
 protection of the court, and I ask your honor to pro- 
 tect him from the insulting questions of the gentle- 
 man who has the honor of Major Holbrook in 
 charge. 
 
 Mr. Hale: Your attempt, sir, at sarcasm will fall 
 still-born in this court-house. 
 
 Judge. Proceed with the cross-examination. 
 
 Ques. Under what name were you indicted for 
 forgery ? 
 
 Ans. William Wallace. 
 
 Ques. You say you learned to write only your 
 name was the name you learned to write James 
 Martin or William Wallace?
 
 f 
 202 THE HOETGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 Ans. I don't remember. 
 
 Ques. What, after reaching the age of forty years 
 you learned to write your name and don't know what 
 name you learned to write? 
 
 Ans. Well, sir; I learned to write both names. 
 
 Ques. After your acquittal why did you so sud- 
 denly change your name? 
 
 Ans. I don't know. 
 
 Ques. Did you write this letter? (Showing the 
 witness a half sheet of foolscap covered witli writing.) 
 
 Ans. I don't remember. 
 
 Ques. Now Mr. James Martin or Mr. William 
 Wallace, or whatever your name may be, is it not a 
 fact that you can read and write, and that you com- 
 mitted perjury when you swore in the forgery case 
 that you could not write your name? 
 
 Ans. Yes, I did learn to read and write when a 
 boy, but I have roughed it so much and got out of 
 practice of writing that at the time Livingstone's 
 name was forged I could not write. 
 
 Ques. I propose now to compare your handwriting 
 with the signature on that alleged will. Take this 
 pen and write your name on that piece of paper. 
 
 The witness was now so agitated that the lookers- 
 on pitied him, and they wished the cruel torture would 
 end. But Mr. Hale did not propose to lose any van- 
 tage ground. When the witness trembled so he 
 could not write, and became so agitated he could 
 not speak, Mr Hale, in a pleasing, reassuring manner, 
 asked him why the request to sign his name so 
 unnerved him. 
 The witness sat stiff as a stick, pale as the newly
 
 PERJURY EXPOSED. 203 
 
 whitewashed ceiling over his head, and not a syllable 
 passed his lips. 
 
 Mr. Hale rose to his feet, stepped to within a few 
 inches of the witness-stand, and in a louder voice than 
 the attorney had any time employed, and looking 
 the witness straight in the eye, said to him: 
 
 " Sir, does not your agitation come from the knowl- 
 edge you have been swearing to a pack of lies, and the 
 fear that the strong arm of the law will be laid upon 
 you, and cast you in prison ? Sir! tell the court and 
 jury, before God strikes you dead, how much Ground- 
 wig paid you for this perjury." 
 
 Never was witness more ready to answer a question 
 than was this one now. Hardly had Mr. Hale time 
 to finish the sentence when the answer came : 
 
 "He agreed to pay me " 
 
 "Stop, hold there, not another word, witness! You 
 need not answer that question," yelled Mr. Waddel 
 of the opposing counsel. "The court should not permit 
 a witness to criminate himself without explaining 
 to him his legal rights. I ask your honor to instruct 
 the witness that he need not answer the question." 
 
 The court so instructed him. 
 
 "I withdraw the question," said Mr. Hale. But 
 enough of the truth had been told to destroy the 
 credibility of the witness. It was evident to every 
 one who had heard the testimony that the man was 
 a tool of Groundwig's, and for pay had committed 
 perjury, and that Ground wig had made the mistake 
 of affixing to the will the name of a person who had 
 died a few days before the death of Major Hoi- 
 brook, thus corroborating that part of Mrs. Winters'
 
 204 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 statement which fixed the time Groundwig prepared 
 the will as several months after the Major's death. 
 
 Grotmdwig's cunning was manifest in the provis- 
 ion of the will bequeathing a large sum to the pop- 
 ular Lutheran Church. This bequest made many 
 advocates of the validity of the will. Witnesses were 
 called, who proved that while there was no such 
 church at the time of Holbrook's death, such an 
 organization was talked of, and at the time of the 
 trial was the most prosperous church in that part of 
 the country. No doubt the church was being built 
 when Ground wig framed the will, but he made the 
 mistake of not ascertaining whether such an associa- 
 tion was organized at the time of Holbrook's death. 
 
 No further evidence was introduced. The lawyers 
 made their arguments long, learned and able pleas 
 on both sides. The judge read his charge to the 
 jury, reviewing the testimony on both sides, the 
 jury retired in custody of a bailiff and the court was 
 adjourned until the next morning.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 FREE WOOL, THE VEKDICT. 
 
 In the reading-room of one of the hotels at the 
 county seat, quite a group of people had assembled to 
 discuss the will trial and the news of the day. The 
 judge came in and began perusing the evening paper. 
 Having finished reading, a farmer, who had been a 
 witness on the trial, asked him if he meant to be 
 understood in his remarks upon the tariff to say that 
 the farmers received no protection on any of their 
 crops. 
 
 "That is what I said no real protection/' replied 
 the judge. 
 
 "lam satisfied that is so," said the farmer, "as 
 to the principal products, except wool; you will ad- 
 mit, of course, that wool is protected, but I presume 
 you will urge that what is claimed as protection is 
 more imaginary than real. It seems to me, though, 
 if the protection were withdrawn, wool could not be 
 grown in this country in competition-with Australia, 
 Spain and the Central and South American States. 
 I am not making this point for the purpose of enter- 
 ing into an argument with you, Judge, because in 
 the main I think your talk to the jury on the tariff 
 was first-rate law, but to obtain information for my- 
 self and others." 
 
 ''I appreciate your motive, Farmer Lake," re- 
 sponded the Judge, "and I will answer your ques- 
 
 205
 
 206 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 tion in the same candid manner. I believe if wool 
 were put on the free list, the result would be an in- 
 crease of the American product, bringing as good a 
 price as now, if not better, and a reduction in the 
 price of home-manufactured woolen goods, without 
 decreasing the wages of operatives, and really increas- 
 ing the profits to the manufacturer. My belief, how- 
 ever, is of no more consequence than that of any 
 other man, unless I can maintain it by good and suf- 
 ficient reasons." 
 
 By this time the entire group became attentive 
 listeners, and when the Judge stopped, as though 
 for an answer from his questioner, whether he would 
 give those reasons, several bystanders replied they 
 would like to hear him on that subject. 
 
 "You all know/' the Judge proceeded, "the 
 American woolen mills, as an industry, have had 
 and are having a greater struggle for existence than 
 any other large manufacturing interest in the coun- 
 try. The opinion is quite general among the owners 
 of those factories that this struggle conies in a great 
 measure from the high tax on foreign wool. There 
 <are many grades of wool not raised in this country 
 and can not be, for reasons which I need not stop to 
 enumerate, which enter into the manufacture of car- 
 pets, blankets, cloths and dress goods generally. That 
 wool is admitted free into other countries extensively 
 engaged in manufacturing woolen goods, which 
 enables them to sell their product in most of the 
 markets of the world cheaper than the United States 
 can. In fact, large quantities of those goods are sold 
 in this country, notwithstanding the high tariff on
 
 FREE WOOL, THE VERDICT. 207 
 
 them. Were those grades of wool admitted free, there 
 would be a far greater amount of woolen goods man- 
 ufactured, which would require the use of more, 
 rather than less, American wool, insuring better prices 
 to the flockmasters. It is certainly the best thing for 
 labor to bring those grades of wool here in the raw 
 state, than in manufactured goods, and it is better for 
 the American farmer that those countries should raise 
 wool for export than wheat and cattle. This coun- 
 try, with free wool, could go into all the markets of 
 the world, where not prohibited, with the better class 
 of woolen goods, which is the kind it is in the habit 
 of making, and sell them in competition with any 
 foreign manufacturer. Of course I mean if we were 
 permitted to take in pay the commodities other 
 countries have to dispose of. Then the frequent 
 bankruptcy of woolen factories would end, the 
 manufacturing of woolen goods would revive, the 
 numerous silent mills would be set to work, and em- 
 ployment furnished to thousands of idle men and 
 women, at good wages, enlarging the ability of these 
 armies of operatives to buy bread and meat." 
 
 "Even if admitting/' aspectator remarked, "wool 
 free should not result as beneficial to the woolen 
 industry as the owners of those factories think, 
 would not the reduction in the cost of woolen goods 
 be worth millions of dollars to the farmers and 
 laborers?" 
 
 "There can be no doubt of it," said the Judge. 
 " The woolen blanket and the sack of flour go hand- 
 in-hand. Tax flour for the benefit of the farmer as 
 the blanket is taxed for the alleged benefit of the
 
 208 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 wool-grower, and the people would rise in rebellion. 
 Yet there is more justice in making the consumer pay 
 a tax on flour than on blankets, because the farmers" 
 number nearly one-half the population, while the 
 wool-growers who make raising sheep a business, and 
 who are the only persons claimed to be benefited by 
 the tax on wool, number less than an hundred 
 thousand. The tariff on wool if it really benefits any 
 one benefits about one person in six hundred of 
 population, and the other five hundred and ninety- 
 nine contribute a portion of their earnings to enable 
 the other one to raise wool profitably. The govern- 
 ment don't require the people to contribute anything 
 to the farmer to make his crops profitable, and yet he 
 has to compete with the cheapest labor that toils on 
 the earth. What justice is there in making wool the 
 exception?" 
 
 " Don't j'ou think the cheap labor of other 
 countries will prevent America from selling woolen 
 goods and many other manufacturered products in 
 the markets of the old world? " asked Farmer Lake. 
 
 "I do not," was the Judge's reply, "the biggest 
 bugbear ever invented is that of the inability of 
 America to compete with the cheap labor of Europe. 
 The farmer is doing it every year. He is compelled 
 to do it to a disadvantage by reason of the unjust 
 tariff laws, which require him to spend his money 
 where the things he buys are the dearest. But when 
 it comes to the labor employed in manufactures, 
 there is not so much difference in wages, when 
 results are considered, as you may think. The ques- 
 tion of wages is not so much the amount paid as the
 
 FREE WOOL, THE VERDICT. 209 
 
 amount earned. If the German, the Frenchman, the 
 Italian, earn one-half what the American earns, 
 and the former are paid one-half as much as the lat- 
 ter, then there is little or no difference in the price 
 of labor. If the goods of American make are more 
 serviceable than the foreign manufacture, and only 
 the question of labor in the way, then may this 
 country be able to sell woolen goods in competition 
 \vith any and every foreign country. It is not the very 
 cheap labor of such countries as India, China, Japan 
 aad Mexico, that our manufacturers have to compete 
 with, it is chiefly the labor of England, Germany and 
 France, which, when its relative earning power is 
 considered, is as well paid as in the United States. 
 
 "I think it folly for a great nation like this, with 
 irs immense resources, having the best improved ma- 
 chinery in the world, possessing the -most enter- 
 prising people on the earth, talking about its 
 inability to sell goods alongside of any other coun- 
 try, because of the difference in the cost of labor. 
 As a proposition by itself whatever difference there 
 possibly might be between the earning value of 
 labor in America and its earning value in Europe 
 and the Central and South American States, is 
 more than equalized by the admission into this 
 country of free raw material. That change alone in 
 the tariff laws would stimulate the various manufac- 
 turing industries of the country, and as the price of 
 labor is fixed by the supply and demand, labor would 
 quickly catch its advantage and hold it indefinitely. 
 A surplus of manufactured goods and a surplus of 
 farm products, means a surplus of labor, and a sur- 
 
 14
 
 210 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 plus of labor means cheap labor. Labor, no matter 
 whether employed in the factory, the mine, the mill, 
 the shop, or on the farm, is alike interested in a 
 market for all each other produce . The protective 
 tariff prevents it finding those markets, and 
 hence creates a surplus of manufactured goods, 
 which is termed overproduction, and the result must 
 be either low wages or less days for the employment 
 of labor. 
 
 " Under a protective tariff, seconded by labor-saving 
 machinery, America has developed a manufacturing 
 capacity double the wants of the people. Protection 
 has protected the infant industries until they have 
 grown to be giants, and now, instead of trying to put 
 the giants in beds made for infants, give them room 
 commensurate with their size. Give them the broad 
 world to roam in. Overproduction is a misnomer as 
 long as there are enough consumers of these goods 
 to keep these industries running full time. What 
 matters it that only a portion of those consumers are 
 in America? "Why prevent the remainder from being 
 supplied by putting shackles on trade and commerce? 
 Don't we all know by this time that the tariff not 
 only restricts trade, but retards and prohibits it? 
 Hence comes the surplus of labor, with its attendant 
 evils, shut-outs, idleness and low wages. If the 
 farmer and the laborer were permitted to have one 
 prayer granted, that would bring to them the greatest 
 possible blessings, they would not pray for better 
 prices for farm produce, nor for higher wages for 
 labor, but that heaven might save them from a high 
 protective tariff. Then the other blessings would 
 come as a natural consequence."
 
 REE WOOL, THE VERDICT. 211 
 
 " Would you also favor admitting iron ore, copper, 
 steel and coal, tin plate, salt, sugar and lumber, 
 free?" asked a bystander. 
 
 " Yes/' answered the Judge; "there are portions 
 of this country where there are large manufacturing 
 interests that can procure iron, steel and coal cheaper 
 from abroad than at home, and they are languishing 
 and threatened with bankruptcy because of the tariff 
 on those articles. I would not fetter one part of the 
 land to benefit another part. With the tariff removed 
 from those materials the possibilities of this country 
 in manufacturing products that wool, iron, steel, cop- 
 per and lumber enter largely into, would be almost 
 marvellous. This country would not fear the rivalry 
 of Great Britain or France, but would sell such goods 
 throughout the world, and, instead of closing long- 
 established manufactures, all of them would be kept 
 in motion, giving employment to more men at good 
 wages and full time." 
 
 " I really like such broad views," said Farmer Lake, 
 "as you advance, because they fit without a flaw the 
 vast agricultural interests of our country, as well as 
 its great manufacturing industries, and they keep in 
 the foreground the importance of furnishing labor, 
 constant employment and good pay. You certainly 
 then must stand by the ' home market.'" 
 
 " Most certainly," remarked the Judge, "I stand 
 by not only the 'home market* but the foreign 
 market as well. Protection permits of but the one 
 market. I would abolish protection that both mar- 
 kets might be stimulated. The surplus farm pro- 
 duce is increasing more rapidly than the consumers.
 
 212 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 This comes from the large emigration of foreigners, 
 who engage in farming, and the wealthy syndicates 
 that cultivate vast tracts of land and raise immense 
 herds of cattle. A market for this increasing sur- 
 plus must be found abroad or the prices will rule so 
 low that the farmer will be unable to earn his living, 
 and, in time, his farm will not be good security for 
 even the taxes levied on it. Make an increased 
 demand at home for farm products by repealing aU 
 laws which prevent the manufacturers from going 
 into the markets of the world with their goods, and 
 the number of home consumers of bread and meat 
 would be largely increased. The new markets opened 
 for manufactured goods will mean new markets for 
 the farmers' product, for the ships that carry the 
 products of American factories to every civilized 
 land, will find it to their interest to carry to the 
 same markets the products of the American farm. 
 There are but few of those markets of the old world 
 but will buy meat and bread of this country if they 
 can pay for them in the articles they have to sell. 
 There is almost an endless line of goods other coun- 
 tries have to dispose of, which this country uses and 
 does not produce, or if it does produce them it 
 could more profitably produce something else, that 
 they will exchange for food and raiment. Insist up- 
 on demanding for the products of the American 
 loom and farm only gold and silver, and those 
 countries simply can not pay in that way even if ever 
 eo much inclined to. Nor are they compelled to, 
 because other nations will exchange products for 
 products. When this country is prepared to ex-
 
 FREE WOOL, THE VERDICT. 213 
 
 change our wares for theirs, then we can strike a 
 trade with them. This is a great world. I some- 
 times think we underestimate the number of people 
 in it and the vastuess of their wants, and our 
 ability to satisfy those wants when a fair interchange 
 of commodities is permitted. To hem ourselves in 
 and rely on a home market for what we grow and 
 what we make, is the most narrow-minded policy 
 that can be conceived. Given almost a limitless area 
 of territory, with natural resources embracing most 
 of the elements of wealth essential to a nation's pros- 
 perity, with established industries capable of manu- 
 facturing double the product there is a home demand 
 for, with enough lands under cultivation to produce 
 treble the quantity of food required for home con- 
 sumption, we submit to legislation that prohibits 
 our finding markets beyond our borders for the sur- 
 plus products of factory and farm, just because we 
 are wedded to the phantom theory of an exclusive 
 home market." 
 
 " I have heard it stated, Judge, that a large pro- 
 portion of the articles sold by the United States to 
 foreign countries are unprotected products. Do you 
 know how this is?" asked Lawyer Hale. 
 
 " That is an important feature of this subject," 
 said the Judge. ' ' I understand that five-sixths of 
 our exports are made by the unprotected producers. 
 This fact proves that protection is not necessary to 
 enable us to place our products in foreign markets." 
 
 "Judge, do you advise the farmers to organize a 
 political party made up of themselves alone, to help 
 bring about this change in tariff legislation?" asked 
 Farmer Lake.
 
 214 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 " By no means," responded the Judge, "there are 
 parties enough now. Another party would only en- 
 danger the success of the reform. The farmers should 
 attend the caucuses of the party which is pledged to 
 tariff reform, and vote solid for men who are known 
 to favor the reform. No matter what the office 
 may be, local, state or national, vote for men who are 
 for a reduction of the tariff. Create a public senti- 
 ment in favor of this reform in every township, and 
 to do this, vote for the candidates that stand for put- 
 ting raw material on the free list and reducing the 
 tariff on necessaries to a revenue basis and abolishing 
 protection for the purpose of protection. If the man 
 who thus favors the farmer's interest is not put on 
 the ticket you have been in the habit of voting, and 
 his opponent is an advocate of tariff reform, you 
 are as much bound to vote against the man nomi- 
 nated by your party, as you are bound to provide 
 for the support of your wife and children." Let this 
 rule apply particularly to the election of Congress- 
 men and to members of the State legislatures which 
 elect the United States Senators. 
 
 "I have listened to your remarks with a good deal 
 of satisfaction," said the farmer. " I firmly believe 
 that it is not protection that labor should look 
 to for steady work and good wages, but rather to 
 good markets, home and foreign, for both manufac- 
 tured goods and the surplus product of the soil, and 
 to have them, protection must be gotten out of the 
 way/ It is apparent to my mind that you suggest 
 the only manner tariff can benefit labor, and that is, 
 to have just as little tariff as is needed for revenue.
 
 FREE WOOL, THE VERDICT. 215 
 
 It should be taken off of raw material, and most of 
 the necessaries of life, and all restrictions on Ameri- 
 can commerce should be removed. This I under- 
 stand to be tariff reform. Such a reform I favor. 
 The success of such a reform will, I believe, restore 
 the farm to the profitable business it was years ago, 
 will enable the farmer to speedily rid himself of the 
 mortgage nightmare, and will bring about the farm 
 all the comforts which make people contented in 
 their homes." 
 
 " Truer words were never uttered," proceeded the 
 Judge. " You have stated the whole case. Free raw 
 material, and the adjustment of the tariff laws on 
 business and economic principles will give the manu- 
 facturers all they can do to supply the demand for 
 their goods, home and abroad. Then labor will have 
 steady employment and good wages. Wherever the 
 manufacturer goes with his surplus, the farmer will 
 go with his. This disposition of the surplus must 
 raise the price of farm produce. Then, without pro- 
 tection, the manufacturer prospers, the laborer pros- 
 pers, and the farmer prospers. This is what tariff 
 reform will do." 
 
 On the morrow, on the convening of court, the 
 jury were escorted to their seats by the sheriff, and 
 the crowd of spectators eagerly sought to read the 
 verdict in the jurors' faces. A painful silence pos- 
 sessed the vast audience. It was known late at night 
 that a verdict had not been agreed upon. The con- 
 test in the jury-room had excited the people to a high 
 pitch of anxiety, and while to the spectators the case 
 appeared to have but one side, yet the long time
 
 ^16 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 the jury were deliberating had created a feeling of 
 doubt just sufficient to make the audience eager to 
 know the verdict. 
 
 The Clerk. " Gentlemen of the jury, have you 
 agreed upon a verdict ?" 
 
 Foreman. " We have" (handing a paper to the 
 clerk). 
 
 Clerk (reading the paper). " We, the jury, find 
 that the document purporting to be the last will and 
 testament of Stephen Holbrook is a forgery." 
 
 The audience ached to testify in cheers and other 
 demonstrations of applause its approval of the ver- 
 dict, but the previous warning of the court, and the 
 threat of the sheriff to arrest the first person that 
 violated the order, kept the assemblage from giving 
 vent to their pent-up feelings. The court-room was 
 quickly emptied, and once outside the building the 
 crowd went wild with enthusiasm. In the excitement 
 Groundwig had disappeared, and Martin and Hick- 
 man were never more heard of in that part of the 
 West. Fortunate for them they had anticipated the 
 anger of the populace by hurrying out of town,
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 A GHOST'S DISPATCH SENT TO A DEAD WOMAN. 
 
 The excitement over the will case soon died away. 
 Months passed rapidly. No matter how black a 
 heart the personator of Henry Winters may have had, 
 he seemed to possess the power to bestow upon Mary 
 Holbrook love as sincere as that which springs from 
 a heart that never knew ought but innocence. 
 
 Winters continued to faithfully serve his employers, 
 but no sooner was he off duty than he sought the 
 company of Mary Holbrook. Hours were daily spent 
 in talking over the events of their childhood, and 
 hardly an incident, no matter how trivial, could be re- 
 ferred to by Mary, but the impostor was able to take 
 the subject from her lips and complete it. Some- 
 times when his thoughts were fixed on other scenes 
 and other events, which Mary knew nothing of, she 
 would gently chide him for his indifference to her 
 prattle, and then he would recover himself only to 
 wonder whether there was any suspicion lurking in 
 her heart of his deception. 
 
 "Do you remember that beautiful summer evening, 
 Henry, when we were enjoying one of those delightful 
 sails on the lake, and when we saw the sun accom- 
 panied in its setting by that brillant light, and encir- 
 cled by a sky of such radiant splendor ? How I did 
 laugh when you said the sun went down into the 
 water to kiss its shadow because it had nothing else 
 
 217
 
 218 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 to kiss. Do you forget it? You know you said you had 
 rather be a boy than the sun, because you had some- 
 thing better to kiss than shadows. What a magnifi- 
 cent sunset that was ! Henry, what can you be 
 thinking of, you don't seem to care to be reminded 
 now of those happy, thrice happy hours. Why ? I 
 know I do you wrong, Henry, to talk so. I know I 
 am over-exacting. But I should die were I to think, 
 that, recalling those scenes, when we we-re so happy 
 together, was painful to you, or that you had lost 
 interest in them. They are among the happiest 
 hours of my life. Were they not yours, dearest 
 Henry?" 
 
 " Yes, yes, love, but do not think because I do not 
 on the instant grow enthusiastic over your pleasing 
 reference to them, that I have lost any interest in them 
 They were my happy hours too, and memory is busy 
 filling my brain with the recollection of hundreds of 
 other like scenes, or like incidents. Prattle on, my 
 love, and I will never tire of listening." 
 
 "Now, that is charming, Henry. I like to hear 
 you talk that way. What a merry evening that was! 
 I can't drive it from me, even if I cared to. Do you 
 remember, Henry, when you said the shadows chasing 
 each other across the meadows, through the pastures, 
 and skipping over the fields of grain, were fairies 
 bringing flour to make the wheat; and I told you the 
 fairies got the flour from the great white clouds that 
 were floating over our heads? Didn't we both laugh 
 at the silly things we both said? Somehow or other, 
 my heart is not as light now as it was then. The 
 recollection of those innocent fancies brings no such
 
 THE GHOST'S DISPATCH. 219 
 
 thrill of joy to my heart as they did then. Why is 
 it Henry?" 
 
 " Oh, you are getting serious, now Your cheerful 
 disposition can not brook seriousness, and there is no 
 serious side to beautiful sunsets and charming fairy 
 tales. There is really no place for despondency in 
 your heart, Mary, so away with it, and tell me more 
 about those shadows and those fairies." 
 
 "Oh, yes, there were other shadows that came and 
 went. I am so glad you remember them now. It 
 was those fields of grain, growing just where we see 
 them growing now, that you said reminded you of 
 the voyage of life; that the shadows were couriers 
 which came in advance to tell the golden plants to 
 prepare for the rain, and that the black clouds and 
 the wind and the storm, with the sunshine, all 
 helped to mature the yellow grain. That was real 
 poetry; and how it used to gladden my heart to listen 
 so such sweet melody from your lips. I wonder why 
 my Henry, whose soul was once so full of such 
 delicious music, now sees so little sentiment in the 
 shadows, and so little grandeur in the setting sun, 
 and so little beauty in the broad fields of waving 
 grain; do the c x ares of business so weigh upon my 
 lover that he wearies in telling his love, and desires 
 no longer to gaze inside the books that nature opens 
 to his view all around him ? Is he tired of the poetry 
 of love?" 
 
 Henry listened to the merry prattle of the innocent 
 girl and wondered if it meant anything more than 
 mere prattle. Taking Mary's hands in his and throw- 
 ing all the kindly feeling that was possible in, his 
 nature into his words, he replied:
 
 220 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 " Mary, you forget I am older now, and wiser, I 
 hope, and more of the matter-of-fact man than I was 
 then." 
 
 " No, no," answered back the girl, " I do not for- 
 get it. It is all true; nor do I forget that the poetry 
 born of love never dies and never loses its magic 
 power, even when repeated over and over again. I 
 have read somewhere, or at sometime I have dreamed 
 it, that love never grows old, that it is changeless 
 and never ends, that it came into the world with the 
 first created life, and will leave the world with the 
 last. It came when God came; it will go when God 
 goes. All else may change. The ocean may take 
 the place of the dry land, the mountains may glide 
 away and sit at the bottom of the seas, but love 
 lives forever. Though love has had a language of 
 its own since the morning stars sang together, yet 
 the things unsaid of love are more than the things 
 said. Do not say then, Henry, that your love grows 
 old as you grow older in years. When old age shall 
 come upon us both, and we shall have quite reached 
 the bottom of the hill, when we let go our hands to 
 clasp them again on the other shore, if our lives are 
 holy-" 
 
 " Mary, Mary, for heaven's sake, say vio more now. 
 I am faint and sick and weary, and " 
 
 "0, Henry, have I again wounded your feelings? 
 How cruel I am! Forgive me, do forgive me, and I 
 will be more careful in the future. Alas, does my 
 childish prattle about love so distress my darling? I 
 fear you have something on your mind, Henry, that 
 is worrying you. Will you not let your Mary share 
 with you your burthens, whatever they may be ?"
 
 THE GHOST'S DISPATCH. 221 
 
 "I have no cares, Mary; no troubles, no sorrows 
 when you are by my side. When you spoke of holy 
 love and clasping hands in the world beyond, the 
 image of my sainted mother rose before me like a 
 living being, my feelings overcame me, my head 
 whirled, and I knew not what I said. I am myself 
 now, and can listen to your innocent chidings all the 
 day, and bless you for reminding me that I must not 
 cease for one moment to tell you of my love." 
 
 "No, Henry; I am not so exacting as that; yet I 
 live only in your love. Withdraw but a glimmer of 
 it and I die." 
 
 The lovers separated. The one to enter upon a 
 career of intrigue, plotting and villiany of the 
 deepest dye; the other to retire to her room and 
 wrestle with her heart to keep it from doubting her 
 lover's love. 
 
 The next morning Henry had answered a call for 
 information from the superintendent of the road, 
 when the wires bore a message which so startled him 
 that he shook as with the ague, and the blood rushed 
 to his head as though the fever and the chill came 
 together. The name of the person addressed was 
 Matilda Winters. Matilda Winters ! Wlio above 
 the earth could be sending a dispatch to her? She 
 had been dead nearly a year. What could it mean? 
 Henry had no time to soliloquize. The message came 
 quick and fast, quicker and faster, it seemed to him, 
 than any dispatch that ever before came over the 
 wires. So quick and so fast that his pen could not 
 keep pace with the click of the instrument, and had 
 the click come ever so slow it would have made no
 
 222 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 difference; he could not have put the message on 
 paper had his life been at stake. The pen dropped 
 from his hands, his whole frame trembled from head 
 to foot, the room suddenly darkened, and he reeled 
 and fell like a drunken man/ The dizziness lasted 
 but a moment. The fall aroused him to a conscious- 
 ness of the situation. He realized that he must act, 
 and act quickly. He had heard enough of the message 
 to understand that he alone of all the world must 
 hear it, and that all his hopes of the future depended 
 on his keeping it from the knowledge of any other 
 human being. Rising to his feet he made a super- 
 human effort to throw off the fearful incubus which 
 had borne him to the floor, and, grasping the key of 
 the instrument, he asked that the message be repeated. 
 The words commence to come, 0, too slowly now, for 
 it seemed minutes between each syllable; but he 
 listened to each click, click, click, as they came, one 
 after the other, like a battalion of fiends passing 
 before his eyes, each fiend screaming as if to let all 
 the world know that this man's crime should be 
 known to all the world. 
 
 Not a word was put on paper. It was a ghost's dis- 
 patch sent to a dead woman. It ought never to have 
 been sent. It ought never to have been received. Thus 
 he mused, but only for a moment. In his breast the 
 terrible message was locked up as in an iron chest 
 and the chest at the bottom of the sea. " Saved 
 again, as by a miracle! What a commotion in my 
 brain! What a tumult in my heart! A message 
 from Henry Winters! God in heaven, what can it 
 mean? The Henry Winters I left lifeless on that
 
 THE GHOST*S DISPATCH. 223 
 
 unknown shore? He alive! He to sail this day 
 from Liverpool for New York? He coming to his 
 old home, and he to bask again in the light of Mary 
 Holbrook's love? She to be his bride? No, no; it 
 can not, it must not be. No mortal now must come 
 between me and her I love. Henry Winters' plans 
 must be thwarted. . He must be prevented from 
 coming to Bradford Junction or communicating 
 with Mary Holbrook until I shall have made her my 
 wife. That accomplished, and the arrangements I 
 have been making to live in a foreign land carried out, 
 I will run all risk of even his discovering us." 
 
 The impostor sat down,buried his head in his hands, 
 and cooly contemplated a plan to prevent the pro- 
 posed visit of the real Henry Winters to his old home. 
 His thoughts flew thick and fast. Anything, every- 
 thing, no matter what, must be done to stay that 
 fellow's coming. Desperate means should be em- 
 ployed if necessary. Even his rival's death was dis- 
 cussed with his conscience, and it was convinced the 
 crime ought to be committed rather than the impostor 
 should fail in his scheme to marry Mary Holbrook.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 MANNING ENCOUNTERS GROUNDWIG. 
 
 It was a lucky circumstance which placed the 
 impostor in charge of the telegraph, or else that 
 message would have been in Mary's hands and he 
 would have been an outlaw against whose life every 
 man's hand might be raised. How wisely providence 
 plans, thought the impostor, and how strangely the 
 things He proposes comes about. Again his tele- 
 graph service came to his aid. Without sharing his 
 plans with others and knowing that he could use the 
 wires with the utmost secrecy, he sent the following 
 dispatch: 
 
 To MRS. CAROLINE CARTER, HOLMSTEAD, CONN.: 
 
 I am in trouble. You alone can help me out. Leave on 
 first train. Do not fail. Wire me when you will start. 
 
 HENRY. 
 
 It was two weeks to the time fixed for the wed- 
 ding. In ten days at the outside, Henry Winters 
 would be in New York, and in three days more he 
 could reach his home. To detain him in that city 
 and prevent his leaving until the marriage should 
 have been solemnized was the first plot to con- 
 sider. If, upon the discussion of that scheme with 
 the adviser he had summoned, it should be considered 
 impracticable, then he would take the chance and 
 run the risk of arousing Mary's suspicions, by 
 undertaking to persuade her to fix an earlier day 
 for the marriage. 
 
 m
 
 3IAXXIXQ ENCOUNTERS GROUNDWIG. 225 
 
 The idea of living in a foreign land had been dis- 
 cussed, and as Mary had no kindred to hold her to 
 her old home, she consented to that plan and became 
 earnestly in favor of it. It had already been given 
 out that the bridal tour would be across the ocean, 
 but it was thought best not to acquaint the neighbor- 
 hood of the fact that the leave-talking after the wed- 
 ding might be a final one. 
 
 Thus far and thus successfully had the plans of 
 Henry Winters advanced when the awful message 
 came from the supposed dead to the known dead. 
 
 In good time the Mrs. Carter arrived. She was 
 the woman in black,, She had been instructed by 
 telegraph to repair to a secluded spot in the adjacent 
 forest, where she was at once joined by the impostor. 
 They met inside a rude cabin, built by a woodsman 
 for shelter iu the winter, and hardly had the two per- 
 sons recognized each other, than Henry whispered in 
 a tremulous voice that would at such a time and 
 place have frightened into hysterics any other woman 
 save such as she : 
 
 " Mother, where is Groundwig ?" 
 
 At the mention of this name, the woman started as 
 if to dodge a blow aimed at her head, and, shaking 
 like an aspen leaf, and with a voice unlike that of a 
 human being, and uncontrollable as it was unnatural, 
 she answered : 
 
 "Why do you ask that question of me ? " 
 
 " Because I want to use him, I want to use him 
 bad, I want to use him quick and I know that you 
 not only know where he is, but that where you go he 
 goes, and where he goes you go. Tell me quick ; is 
 
 15
 
 226 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 he not near here ? I did not telegraph you to bring 
 him with you, because a woman of your quick brain 
 oftener does the right thing without the telling than 
 by the telling." 
 
 " I can tell you he is not with me, and, further- 
 more, I do not knew where he is. Can I not bring 
 some one else to assist you?" 
 
 " Mother, I know you speak falsely. This is no 
 time to trifle with me. The minutes passing so rap- 
 idly may be fatal ones, and you know what it means 
 if my plans miscarry. I tell you, woman, it is a des- 
 perate scheme I must have executed, and it will take 
 a desperate man to do it. Do you know of another 
 creature living that can fill the place of Silas Ground- 
 wig when there is something unusually damnable to 
 be accomplished ? " 
 
 " I do not understand you, Charles Manning, if 
 you" 
 
 " Hush, woman! For heaven's sake, do not speak 
 that name here. The leaves are listening; the very 
 air is full of ears, and that name pronounced outside 
 these woods and all is lost. Tell me, and tell me 
 quick, where is Ground wig?" 
 
 " Before I answer that question, you tell me what 
 this wicked scheme is, that only he can do." 
 
 " Mrs. Carter, you are mad to keep me here in 
 waiting, even for only a moment. You will ruin all 
 by your foolish curiosity. Know then that I want 
 him to go to New York, and I want you to take a 
 message to him, instructing him how to carry out 
 the scheme I have planned." 
 
 " Tell me what that scheme is and I will take yoiu
 
 MANNING ENCOUNTERS GROUNDWIG. 22? 
 
 message to him," and had she been made of iron she 
 could not have bore herself more coldly or answered 
 more unconcernedly. 
 
 "Will you pledge sternal secrecy?" 
 
 " Yes, yes, I like that. Secrets I can keep. No 
 trouble for me to do so. Who on the face of the 
 earth am I to share the secret with except with you 
 and Groundwig? I swear now and eternally." 
 
 " Then hear me, Henry Winters is not dead. 
 do not start nor interrupt me. Enough for you to 
 know he has sent a message here that three days ago 
 he would sail from Liverpool for New York. In six 
 days he will land in that city. You see precious 
 time has already been lost. In two hours the east- 
 bound limited express is due here. I will signal it 
 and you must get aboard and make all speed to 
 deliver Groundwig my letter." 
 
 " But Groundwig is not East, he is West." 
 
 " West ! What great crime is he planning in the 
 West? No matter. I don't care. In three hours 
 the mail train goes west. Be ready to take that. 
 How far west is he? How long will it take you to 
 reach him? Woman, I must know that. Speak, I 
 beseech you, speak quick, don't waste another pre- 
 cious moment trembling as though the night air was 
 chilly when the heat is really oppressive." 
 
 The woman was now so agitated that it was with 
 difficulty she could utter a word. For the first time 
 she threw aside her veil and with a wild, demoniac 
 look, exclaimed: 
 
 "Groundwig is this moment at the house of 
 Mary "
 
 228 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 The impostor did not wait for the sentence to be 
 completed. He knew too well what Groundwig's 
 presence at Mary Holbrook's meant. The girl had 
 crossed his path and he had sworn to be revenged. 
 With steps fleeter than the deer the impostor 
 bounded through the forest and was not many min- 
 utes reaching the house. It was past the hour of 
 midnight. Not a light to be seen anywhere. All 
 was still as silence itself. The door opened with the 
 turn of the knob, and as it opened a man sought 
 to rush out. The impostor quickly grappled him 
 and held him as in a vise. He knew well who his 
 prisoner was, and calling him by name, demanded 
 to know the purpose of his visit. Not waiting for an 
 answer, but with one hand grasping the fellow by 
 the throat, with the other he struck a match and lit 
 a lamp he saw standing on the table. A glance 
 revealed the whole situation. 
 
 Mary Holbrook lay prostrate on the floor, sense- 
 less, and apparently inanimate, perhaps dead, killed 
 by the villain, who, by another turn of the hand, 
 could be sent to make his peace with heaven. The 
 turn was not made. One miscreant had further use 
 for the other. Flinging him to the floor, and telling 
 him if he moved a finger he would choke him to the 
 death, he bent over the girl, and, satisfied she was 
 alive, lifted her in his arms and laid her upon the 
 lounge. He then noticed a pen in her hand. He 
 knew what that meant. Silas Ground wig was up to 
 his old tricks. There was not a moment to lose. 
 The fellow was in the act of rising. Grappling him 
 again, Charles demanded the paper he had forced
 
 MANNING ENCOUNTERS GROUNDWIG. 229 
 
 Mary Holbrook to sign. Denial was useless. Yet 
 the denial was made, and Charles, forcibly thrusting 
 his hand into the fellow's pocket, pulled out what 
 appeared to be a legal document. Before he could 
 open it to ascertain how wicked the plot the fellow- 
 was engaged in this time, Groundwig spitting out 
 the words, with a hissing lisp, whispered in a voice 
 which sounded as though it came from the throat 
 of a fiend from the regions below, bade the young 
 man, " put back that paper and let me go, or I will 
 tell Mary Holbrook you are Charles Manning and not 
 Henry Winters!" Without a word in reply Charles 
 handed him back the paper, and Silas Groundwig 
 went out into the night and disappeared in the forest.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 HOW GOOD GOD IS TO FILL OUR BITTEREST CUPS 
 WITH DREAMS. 
 
 At the moment of Groundwig's escape Mary 
 awoke, and, seeing her lover bending over her, she 
 threw her arms about his neck exclaiming in the 
 most agonizing manner: " Thank God, it was only a 
 dream! " 
 
 "But, Mary, dear, it was not a dream. It was real 
 that" 
 
 "Not a dream? Not a dream, did you say? "What! 
 that you are not Henry Winters, not my Henry, my 
 love, my life! Not a dream! You say it was not a 
 dream? explain, explain before I go mad, raving, 
 stark mad." 
 
 " Calm yourself, my love, you are excited now, and 
 no wonder. Yes, I see you have dreamed many horrid 
 dreams and imagined all sorts of dreadful things, 
 but it was no dream that a villain entered your house 
 and threatened your life unless you signed a paper he 
 thrust in your face that was real, that was- no dream 
 for I saw the monster put the paper in his pocket, 
 but he fled before I could grapple with him and take 
 it from him." 
 
 " Yes, yes; it all comes to me now. I remember 
 so distinctly. His voice sounded so like that awful 
 Ground wig. His finger marks must be on my throat 
 for he choked me until I could not breathe, and said 
 
 330
 
 GOD'S GIFT OF DREAMS. 231 
 
 he would kill me unless I signed his paper. No, he 
 didn't tell me what it was, and 0, 1 was too frightened 
 to read it when he told me to. He put a pistol to my 
 head, and with a horrid oath said he would kill me 
 unless I signed my name. I took the pen and wrote, 
 and then I must have swooned, for I remember noth- 
 ing more until I awoke and found you bending over 
 me. 0, horror! that was all real, and real as it was, 
 it was a merry frolic, yes, a merry frolic, compared 
 to the dreadful dream I did dream afterward. A great 
 monster stood over me. I thought it was Ground- 
 wig. His big, black, glaring eyes pierced through 
 my very heart, and I dreamed he was killing me when 
 you came and caught him by the throat, and then, 
 through his clenched teeth, he hissed in a whisper, 
 ' I will tell Mary Holbrook you are Charles Man- 
 ning and not Henry Winters/ and then I awoke. 
 How good God is to fill our bitterest cups with 
 dreams." 
 
 Charles taking Mary's hands in his, looked straight 
 into her eyes as if to closely study her thoughts, and 
 failing to detect the least suspicion in her mind that 
 it was not a dream, implored her to compose herself 
 and let such a frightful fancy pass forever from her 
 thoughts. " It was but a dream " he said, "a horrid 
 and a strange dream ; its strangeness makes it the 
 more a dream ; and were every other dream that 
 every mortal ever dreamt to come true, and were 
 every dream that every mortal should dream here- 
 after to come true, the one my Mary dreamt never 
 could. Let heaven be praised." 
 
 "Amen," responded the timid girl, who had been
 
 232 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 devouring each word as it fell from Charles Man- 
 ning's lips, as though her lover were a saint or fiend 
 and she knew not which. Then the old aunt, who 
 had been aroused from her slumbers by the unusual 
 tumult, came, and Charles, placing Mary in her care, 
 kissed the pale cheek of the still frightened girl and 
 bidding her good-night went out into the darkness, 
 where he met, as he knew he would, both the woman 
 in black and Silas Groundwig. 
 
 Fox a moment neither spoke. Charles broke the 
 silence by demanding of Groundwig the paper he 
 had forced Mary Holbrook to sign. Groundwig did 
 not possess the power to resist the demand, but 
 plead the privilege of burning the paper. Manning 
 consented. The document was produced, Charles 
 examined the signature, saw it was in the trembling 
 hand of Mary Holbrook, then lighting a match, set 
 the paper on fire and watched it burn until only a 
 little spot of black ashes and Silas Ground wig's black 
 heart knew the paper's contents. 
 
 "Silas Groundwig! " The name was barely whis- 
 pered Charles Manning whispered it but it was 
 one of those whispers that devils might envy the art 
 to utter. ' ' You are in my power; you know it better 
 than I do. I propose now to have a little plain talk 
 with you. You sent me adrift when I was a mere lad, 
 because I was born out of wedlock. This is the first 
 time for many years that I have met you and that 
 woman together. Your wife, Henry Winters' mother, 
 is dead. Your husband, the lying Hickman, who 
 perjured his soul in the will case, has fled from justice 
 and will never return, and besides, your marriage with
 
 GOD'S GIFT OF DREAMS. 233 
 
 him was illegal because he had another wife at the 
 time you married him. I am a justice of the peace. 
 I want you to join hands. Don't hesitate. Don't 
 protest. There is no legal impediment in the way 
 of your marriage. I see you understand me. So, 
 joining hands, by virtue of the authority vested in' 
 me by the laws of this State I pronounce you man 
 and wife. This act removes from me all taint of 
 illegitimacy. I can now hold up my head and say to 
 the world, lama man. Do not go, Silas Ground wig, 
 I have more business with you. You have heard the 
 story of my meeting Henry Winters. Don't start. You 
 need not be afraid of him just yet. You have also 
 learned how I became madly, passionately, insanely 
 in love with Mary Holbrook. Henry Winters has 
 only himself to blame for it. He told to me the story 
 of his love, not only once, but a hundred times, and, 
 as he dwelt upon her charms, her loveliness of person, 
 her beauty of character, it was my fate to love. I 
 could not resist that fate. I swore to marry her. That 
 I might do so I have sacrified my honor and whatever 
 good name I may have ever had, and all the hope I 
 ever possessed of life beyond the grave. But my love 
 is sincere and pure as mortal ever had for woman. I 
 can not make myself believe otherwise. I have told 
 you before that Henry Winters was dead, and you 
 have rejoiced over it because your life was in his 
 hands should he ever return. Now, Silas Groundwig, 
 let me tell you that Henry Winters lives, and, well 
 don't interrupt me, and pray don't faint, fainting is 
 woman's privilege when shocked, not that of a strong 
 man; hear me through he will land in New York in
 
 234 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 less than a week, and will be here in three days aftei- 
 ward. This vast continent is not big enough for 
 both you and he to live on together. He will hunt you 
 down as the son hunts tfre assassin of his mother. 
 You and I both have a like interest in preventing him 
 from leaving New York. Ah, I see you comprehend 
 the drift of my remarks. It is well. I see you are 
 willing to undertake the jcb, and your fruitful mind 
 already has a plan for its a '.complishment. But there 
 must be no tragedy unless the drama will not satisfy 
 the audience. You understand me ? You are to 
 proceed at once to New York and detain Winters 
 there until after the marriage. The time fixed for 
 that is only ten days distant. 
 
 "Mary and I have the sale of our property nearly 
 completed. Immediately upon our marriage we shall 
 make a foreign tour, and in some great city be lost 
 forever, as far as Henry Winters will ever know. I 
 shall be in charge of the telegraph, and you can send 
 your messages to me, and I will risk all publicity. 
 My dispatches will be sent you at the old place, and 
 in the old cipher.. . You do your part faithfully, 
 which I know you will, as your life depends upon it; 
 and to prove to you that I am your friend, and wish 
 you no ill, I will deposit three thousand dollars to 
 your credit in the Highland Bank, and mail the cer- 
 tificate to your address. Or, if you succeed in the 
 plan you have for keeping Winters in New York 
 until after the wedding, you can return here, and 
 I will pay you the money in person. You know you 
 can trust me. With that sum you and she can go into 
 some mining camp beyond the Eocky mountains,
 
 235 
 
 and, safe from discovery, you can both spend the rest 
 of your days in atoning for your sins." 
 
 Groundwig could not conceal the emotion of his 
 feelings during the time G'harles was giving him these 
 instructions. He was overcome with the startling 
 intelligence so unexpectedly imparted to him. He 
 was ready for the encounter. He had so great a per- 
 sonal interest in its success that Charles had no fears 
 but the outcome would be all that both could desire.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 I FORGOT. I FORGOT. 
 
 Never was disguise more complete. An associate 
 of a lifetime would not know Silas Groundwig as he 
 sat in the office of the steamship company awaiting 
 the arrival of the City of Home. Two trusty villains 
 were with him. Will they succeed in their hellish 
 scheme? Groundwig is long-headed, adroit and 
 cunning. His plans are not matured. He must act 
 on circumstances as they present themselves, and there 
 is no danger, but he will act quickly and resort to any 
 means to accomplish his purpose. The tugs are 
 coming to the dock with the steamer's passengers. 
 Henry Winters is one of the first to land. He hur- 
 riedly calls a cab, gives directions about his baggage, 
 has a moment's conversation with the cabman about 
 a matter which must be private, for he asks his ques- 
 tions in a whisper, is driven to thepostoffice, inquires 
 at the general delivery for letters, there are none, he 
 turns pale, looks anxiously about as if to find some- 
 body who will make an explanation, almost totters 
 to the cab, is driven to a jewelry store on Broadway, 
 alights, goes in, and, after a brief conversation with 
 the proprietor, unlocks a hand-bag which he had all 
 along grasped tightly, and exposes to view a rich col- 
 lection of precious stones, which he desires to dispose 
 of. Groundwig is near by, sees the display, steps 
 out upon the walk, calls a policeman, has a few 
 
 236
 
 I FOKGOT. I FORGOT. 237 
 
 words with him in a low voice, nods his head toward 
 Henry inside the store, the officer enters, and, putting 
 his hand 011 Henry's shoulder, makes him his pris- 
 oner. 
 
 The valuables are taken possession of by the officer, 
 and Henry is marched to the station house, and the 
 next morning is brought before a magistrate for 
 examination. Ground v/ig and- his assistant villains 
 having bet'ii held in custody as witnesses, appear and 
 testify against the young man. Groundwig giving 
 the assumed name of Robert Newcomb, swore that 
 lie took passage on the City of Rome, from Liver- 
 pool to Xew York, on its last trip, and when some 
 two days out from the American shore his state-room 
 was entered and the diamonds and other precious 
 stones which the prisoner had offered for sale yester- 
 day were stolen; that the prisoner was a passenger 
 on the same trip and knew the witness had the dia- 
 monds in his possession; that upon discovering his 
 loss he suspected the prisoner, _b,ut was unable to 
 obtain proof that would warrant his arrest; that he 
 continued to watch the suspected party and called 
 the ship's detective to his assistance; that the two 
 followed the prisoner from the steamship to the post- 
 office, and then to the jeweler's, where the property 
 was taken out of a satchel by the prisoner and was 
 being disposed of to the jeweler when the arrest was 
 made. 
 
 "' .Mr. Newcomb, do you recognize this property as 
 :me that \vas stolen from you on board the City 
 of Rome: Jstrate. 
 
 " I do, your honor/' answered Mr. Newcomb.
 
 238 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 The detective was sworn and corroborated New- 
 comb's evidence in every particular. The jeweler 
 testified to the property exposed in court as the same 
 offered to him for sale by the prisoner. The officer 
 swore he arrested the prisoner while in the very act of 
 selling the goods. 
 
 "This seems to be a very clear case," said the Magis- 
 trate. "Prisoner stand up. What is your name?' 
 
 "Henry Winters, if your honor, please," was the 
 answer given in such a pleasant voice and with such 
 a mannerly bow, that the magistrate, the officers and 
 spectators began to look upon the culprit in the dock 
 with more interest than they usually take in such 
 cases. 
 
 "Prisoner, have you any witnesses?" asked the 
 Magistrate. 
 
 The prisoner, embarrassed and confused, replied: 
 " None, your honor, but I would like to be sworn 
 and tell my story." 
 
 The magistrate swore the prisoner, and he com- 
 menced by reciting the story of his being kidnapped, 
 shipped on the Lucky Star for India, of the start 
 home, of the shipwreck, landing on the shores of an 
 unknown continent, of his sickness and apparent 
 death, of his restoration to life, of his travels in that 
 vast country, of his search for precious stones and his 
 good luck, of his taking passage on the City of Rome, 
 of his landing in New York on yesterday, his attempt 
 to dispose of some of the stones for ready money, and 
 an unqualified denial that the property belonged to 
 Newcomb. 
 
 The magistrate heard the story through. He had
 
 1 FOKGOT. I FORGOT. 239 
 
 been a magistrate in a big city too long to be influ- 
 enced by such a narrative. He had heard them be- 
 fore. Turning to the prisoner he remarked, " Young 
 man, your story is altogether too fishy. It won't wash. 
 You are given to romancing. When you get out of 
 this scrape, I advise you to turn an honest man, quit 
 stealing, and go to writing novels. With such a 
 remarkable imagination and with the skill you pos- 
 sess to tell a story so well, you can make more money 
 with your pen than with your burglar tools. The 
 officer will take you back to jail to await the action of 
 the grand jury. If you have friends who will aid you, 
 the bail bond will be put at three thousand dollars." 
 
 "Those diamonds, if your honor please, are worth 
 more than that sum. Are they not good security for 
 my appearance, when wanted ? " asked the prisoner. 
 
 " Young man, are you crazy? Are not those dia- 
 monds the property of Mr. Xewcomb, and not yours?" 
 responded the justice. 
 
 " I forgot, I forgot," said the prisoner. 
 
 And the officer marched Henry Winters to jail. 
 
 It was no time now to moralize on the wickedness 
 of men. It was no time to conjecture why neither his 
 mother nor Mary had written him, as he had re- 
 quested in his cable dispatch. Things were too 
 serious, and the present required the perfect control 
 and command of all his faculties. Somebody was 
 plotting, and he was the victim. It might be the 
 continuation of the old conspiracy, or this one might 
 stand alone by itself. No matter. Something mart 
 be done, and done quickly. How and what was the 
 puzzling question. His first thought was to send for
 
 240 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 some person who knew him. He ran over in his own 
 mind who of his acquaintances might be in New 
 York. He could not call to mind a single person in 
 that great city that knew him or he knew. But 
 stay. There is Captain Bodfish, of the ill-fated 
 "Lucky Star." He lived in New York. He might 
 be in the city now. He could corroborate a good 
 part of the story he had told the magistrate. How 
 to find him was the question. He asked the guard 
 if he knew Captain Bodfish. No, he did not know 
 him, but if Henry wanted him to come to the jail, 
 and would give the street and number where he re- 
 sided, or did business, he should be sent for at once. 
 Henry knew neither. Look in the directory. Yes, 
 the name of Bodfish is there, and so are several of 
 the same name, and which is the one Heary wants? 
 That information he can not give. Will tfce jailer 
 send a messenger among the shipping and find out 
 who owned the " Lucky Star " that was wrecked on 
 a foreign coast some two years since? ' ' If the owner's 
 name is ascertained, ask him for the address of the 
 Captain Bodfish who was the master of that ship when 
 it was wrecked. If he can be found, bring him to the 
 jail, and he will soon clear me of this great crime." 
 Henry's wishes were gratified. A messenger was sent 
 as directed. It was not many hours before Captain 
 Bodfish, who, as luck would have it, had just returned 
 from" a sea voyage, was admitted to the jail, and 
 Henry was taken from his cell into the Captain's 
 presence. Henry was overjoyed to see his old friend, 
 and rushing up to him in the most cordial manner, 
 sought to grasp him by the hand, but the Captain
 
 I FORGOT. I FORGOT. 241 
 
 turned aside, and coldly refused to accept the prof- 
 fered recognition. Henry was dumbfounded. His 
 feelings were hurt to the quick. "What! my old 
 comrade in danger and distress, in suffering and dis- 
 aster on sea and land, refuse a friendly shake of the 
 hand, when God knows if ever man wanted a friend in 
 need, I want one now !" 
 
 " Charles Manning," replied the Captain, " I wish 
 to have nothing to do with you. You deceived me 
 once. You gave me your sacred word when we parted 
 in Boston, that would I loan you money to reach 
 your friends, you would return it to me in a week. 
 From that day to this, I never heard a word from 
 / you. I do not know what crime you are charged 
 with, but I warrant you it is stealing, because the 
 mate of the Sober Fritz told me he suspected you of 
 pilfering from him while on board that ship. It is 
 enough for me to know that a man who was my 
 messmate in encountering the dangers and hardships 
 of a fearful shipwreck, violated his word of honor and 
 refused to redeem a pledge to repay the small amount 
 of money I loaned him. I supect you, too, of a great 
 crime, but as it is only suspicion, I will not name it. 
 You must seek other assistance to aid you, for I will 
 not give you even enough to pay fora night's lodging, 
 though I judge that paying for your lodging is the 
 least of your trouble to-night. Good-bye, Charles 
 Manning." 
 
 "Captain Bodfish, hold a moment, for heaven's 
 sake, don't turn away without a chance for me to say 
 a word. I am not Charles Manning, I am Henry 
 Winters!" 
 
 16
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 IS IT CHARLES MAXXIKG OR HENRY WINTERS ? 
 
 Captain Bodfish had great difficulty in controlling 
 his feelings. First came the belief that he was being 
 imposed upon in the most wicked manner. Then 
 suddenly would flash into his mind the question, 
 " Suppose he is really Henry Winters?" But the 
 scene in the cabin on that far-away shore came quick 
 with its answer : " Henry AVinters is dead." So 
 firmly believing, the Captain replied : 
 
 "Go on, sir, with your bare-faced deception and 
 your base and wicked falsehoods as long as you please, 
 but you must talk to others, not to me. I will not 
 listen. You have deceived me once, I tell you. You 
 will never deceive me again. Blackhearted impos- 
 tor ! Expect to soften my heart by representing 
 yourself to be another and he one of the noblest and 
 purest young men that ever lived. Charles Manning, 
 you and I left the dead body of Henry Winters on 
 that distant shore. When I sailed on the Sober 
 Fritz you sailed with me. Together we left the dead 
 with his God. Were you not completely lost to 
 every feeling that makes a friend respect the mem- 
 ory of his dead comrade and messmate, you would 
 sooner call upon these walls to fall and crush your 
 life out of you, than to claim for some vile purpose 
 to be that saint in heaven." 
 
 " Captain Bodfish, as God is my judge, and as I 
 
 242
 
 CHAELES MANNING OK HENRY WINTERS? ^43 
 
 expect to answer some day to Him for every act of 
 my life, I swear to you, and if I swear falsely, I call 
 upon that God to strike me dead here at your feet, 
 that I am Henry Winters." 
 
 " Charles Manning, I " 
 
 " Don't, I beg of you, call me by that name again. 
 Turn away if you will, leave me here to the fate that 
 is so mysteriously enveloping me, but don't tell me I 
 am an impostor. I say to you, Captain Bod fish, I 
 am the man that was left for dead in that cabin by 
 the sea. I was poisoned, but by whom I do not know. 
 I was restored to life by the physician's daughter, 
 who gave me the antidote, and would you but listen 
 I would tell you all about my travels before the 
 Sober Fritz came the following year and rescued you 
 and Charles Manning." 
 
 " I do not wish to hear you. Don't I know that 
 you and Henry Winters were inseparable, and don't 
 I know that you can tell his story as well as he could 
 tell it himself were he to be raised from the dead ? 
 You have the same smooth tongue that captivated 
 the crew on the Sober Fritz, but you must not 
 expect to again charm me with your cunning palaver. 
 IS'MU- that you talk of poisoning, let me tell you that 
 on several occasions I have caught myself suspecting 
 you of poisoning young Winters, and I am now more 
 than half inclined to the opinion that the diamonds 
 and other jewels he had laid away so carefully to 
 bring home to his mother and his affianced, were 
 stolen from him by you, and you have just now 
 summoned up courage enough to offer them for sale." 
 " Captain Bodfish, a thought strikes me. .Now do
 
 244 THE MOKTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 listen for one moment to what I have to say. You 
 think Henry Winter's jewels were stolen from him 
 by Charles Manning. In that suspicion you do 
 Charles a great wrong. I know nothing about the 
 evidence you may have to base the suspicion that he 
 poisoned Henry Winters, but " 
 
 "No more, I will not listen longer to such trash," 
 said Captain Bodfish. 
 
 "Captain Bodfish, one question before you go. 
 Do you remember one day examining those rough 
 diamonds and admiring two of them that were so 
 much alike no one could tell the difference ? " asked 
 Henry Winters. 
 
 "I do," the Captain answered. 
 
 " May Task another question ?" asked Henry Win- 
 tors, and the young man looked piteouslyand implor- 
 ingly into the Captain's face. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Did Henry Winters insist on your accepting one 
 of those stones as a gift from him ? " 
 
 " He did," answered Captain Bodfish. 
 
 " Can I ask still another question? " inquired Win- 
 ters. 
 
 "Yes, yes; go on; what more?" 
 
 "After Henry insisted for some time that you 
 should accept one of the stones, and you persisted in 
 refusing it, did you finally consent to take it?" 
 
 " I did, and have it now in its rough state," said 
 Captain Bodfish, "in my necktie, and I presume 
 you have its mate, which would only be additional 
 evidence that you stole Henry Winters' diamonds, 
 and as far as the conversation had at that time is
 
 CHARLES MANNING OR HEXRY WINTERS ? 245 
 
 concerned, what could be more natural than for 
 Henry Winters to tell it all to you?" 
 
 Winters was now evidently nonplussed. Every 
 point he could make was being turned against him, 
 and he was almost in despair. Kallying once again 
 to the encounter with his old messmate and friend, 
 he found courage to ask: 
 
 "Do you remember the remark you made when 
 you took the gift ? " 
 
 11 1 do; it is as fresh in my mind as though the 
 occurrence were but yesterday, and I am act ashamed 
 to repeat it to you. Charles Manning, I said " 
 
 "Stop, Captain Bodfish," cried Winters, "stop, I 
 did not ask you what you said." 
 
 " Go on, young man. I rather like your style of 
 questioning. Again I say, I will listen," responded 
 Captain Bodfish. 
 
 "Was there any other person present who heard 
 what you said? "asked Winters. 
 
 " No, we were in the wilderness, several miles 
 from the village, and we were alone all that day." 
 
 " Could Charles Manning have heard that re- 
 mark?" 
 
 Looking confused and seemingly more interested 
 in the conversation than Henry himself, he said, 
 " It was impossible." 
 
 Young Winters rose from his chair, stepped close 
 to the captain, and, looking him straight in the eye, 
 exclaimed: 
 
 " I will tell you what that remark was. You said, 
 ' Look out for yourself, Henry, or that Indian maiden 
 will steal your heart, and Charles Manning will cut 
 your throat and steal your diamonds/ }i
 
 246 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 Captain Bodfish stood there immovable as a statue. 
 His face grew pale, then the rush of blood made his 
 cheeks flush and crimson. He was in deep thought, 
 revolving in his mind whether there was any possible 
 way that Charles Manning could have known what 
 was said at that time by him to Henry Winters. The 
 Captain had himself admitted it was impossible. 
 Though a lingering doubt perplexed him and blinded 
 him for a moment, as to the course he ought to pur- 
 sue, he reached for Henry's hand, shook it cordially, 
 and, almost sobbing, remarked: 
 
 "Young man, whether you are Henry Winters or 
 Charles Manning, by -the love I bear Henry Winters, 
 be he dead, or be you him, I will befriend you now 
 to the extent of my power." 
 
 The Captain learned that the grand jury was in 
 session, and that Henry's case had already been con- 
 sidered in that peculiar American star chamber, 
 where men are convicted first and tried afterward, 
 and a true bill found against Henry for stealing, in 
 the night time, property valued at seven thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 A lawyer was employed to defend Winters. At 
 the trial, which came off immediately, the same pos- 
 itive evidence was introduced as was given before the 
 magistrate, and the jury retired, and in less than ten 
 minutes brought in a verdict of guilty, and the judge 
 sentenced the prisoner to a term of five years in the 
 penitentiary at Sing Sing. Henry had caused dis- 
 patches to be sent to his mother and two or three 
 prominent neighbors at Bradford Junction, asking 
 them to come immediately to his assistance, and as no
 
 CHARLES MANNING OR HENRY WINTERS ? 247 
 
 answers were received, both lawyer and Captain had 
 their faith in the young man's innocence somewhat 
 weakened. The lawyer, however, proposed to unearth 
 what he was beginning to believe was a conspiracy, let 
 the cost be what it might. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the circumstances of guilt, 
 Captain Bod fish was sorely perplexed and troubled. 
 If this young man is really Henry Winters he is in- 
 nocent. There could be no question in the Captain's 
 mind upon the soundness of this conclusion. If he 
 were Charles Manning, then, no doubt, he was justly 
 convicted. The Captain, as he reflected upon the 
 circumstances referred to by his questioner, became 
 more and more convinced that he was no imposter, 
 but was Henry Winters. 
 
 Running over in his mind how best to unravel this 
 mystery, the Captain was interrupted by a boisterous 
 tap on his office door. He invited the visitor to 
 walk in. It proved to be a policeman who solicited 
 an interview upon the subject that was uppermost in 
 the Captain's thoughts. Bidding him proceed, the 
 officer without ceremony began at once to impart the 
 following important information to his host : " You 
 appeared in court to-day us the friend of a prisoner 
 charged with stealing diamonds and other precious 
 stones. I was present at the trial and heard all the 
 evidence. The faces of the two witnesses who testified 
 against the young man seemed familiar to me. When 
 they retired from the court-room I followed them. 
 One bought a ticket for a western town. I did not 
 dare to detain him because in his disguise I was 
 afraid he was not my man. His pal, who represented
 
 248 THE MOKTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 himself to be the Steamer's detective, I arrested as 
 soon as the train started, and, upon removing his dis- 
 guise, I recognized him as a successful confidence 
 man, whom I had seen on the streets nearly every 
 day for months, and hence he could not have been on 
 the steamer City of Rome on its last trip to New York, 
 as that arrived on Monday of this week. I searched 
 him, and found upon his person what I should think 
 was the greater part of the property which your 
 friend was charged with stealing. When I made my 
 report to the captain at the police station, I learned 
 that Lawyer Fielding had been informed by your 
 friend that there were three passengers on board the 
 steamer, who had traveled with him from Glasgow 
 to Liverpool, that two of them resided in this city, 
 that they had been found and had visited the prisoner 
 in his cell; had recognized him as their traveling 
 companion, and would testify that while in Glasgow 
 the prisoner had exhibited to them the identical 
 diamonds he was charged with stealing, and had asked 
 their advice as to whether London or New York 
 would be the best place to dispose of them. 
 
 The Captain listened with the most eager atten- 
 tion. He was now aroused and in earnest. There 
 was no longer any doubt of Henry Winter's iden- 
 tity. Calling a cab, the Captain was driven to the 
 lawyer's office. A hasty conference was held. It 
 was resolved to make application to the governor for 
 a pardon for young Winters, and to this end the con- 
 fidence man who had signified his willingness to 
 make a clean breast of the whole transaction as far 
 as he knew the facts, and the two fellow-travelers,
 
 CHARLES MANNING OR HENRY WINTERS? 249 
 
 both of whom were reputable citizens residing in the 
 city, were taken before the executive who heard the 
 proof of the young man's innocence, and after care- 
 fully examining the record of the case, and sending 
 for the district attorney, who had appeared in the 
 trial for the State, promised to decide on the applica- 
 tion on the morrow. The evidence was so clear that 
 Henry had been made the victim of a conspiracy to 
 rob him, that the governor did not hesitate to grant 
 the pardon. 
 
 Captain Bodfish, overcome with joy, rushed to the 
 jail and thrusting the pardon in Henry's face, threw 
 his arms round his neck, and wept like a child. 
 
 The jewels found on the confidence man were 
 ordered restored to Henry. These, with the excep- 
 tion of two or three of the choicest ones, he disposed 
 of for cash, and first sending two messages, one to 
 his mother and another to Mary, announcing his 
 intention to leave New York that night for Bradford 
 Junction, he purchased a ticket, bade the Captain a 
 most affectionate good-bye, and was once again home- 
 ward bound.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 SHALL THE IMPOSTOR SUCCEED? 
 
 On the afternoon of the second day after leaving 
 New York, Henry reached the junction where he was 
 to change cars for Bradford. Much to his disappoint- 
 ment, he found the train he should take was four 
 hours late, so he seated himself in the depot to pass 
 away the time as best he might. The newsboys were 
 crying the morning papers, published in a neighbor- 
 ing city, and he bought one. Running over its col- 
 umns to find something of interest, his eye was 
 attracted to the headlines, "Romantic marriage." 
 A glance at the text of the article and instantly 
 his mind grasped the extraordinary intelligence 
 that at six o'clock, near the village of Bradford 
 Junction, Henry Winters would wed Mary Holbrook! 
 For a moment the buildings, the cars, the people 
 passed before his vision in a circle and like light- 
 ning. He may have swooned. It was but for a 
 moment. The bystanders opened the windows, un- 
 loosed his garments, and he immediately recovered 
 his consciousness. Upon reviving, it took him but a 
 second to comprehend the entire situation. It passed 
 before him like a swiftly moving panorama, and he 
 recognized all the characters. In the foreground 
 was Charles Manning, a hideous impostor, who had 
 made use of the story of Henry's life and Henry's 
 love, and with Mary's picture and Mary's letters, 
 
 250
 
 SHALL THE IMPOSTOR SUCCEED ? 251 
 
 which lie had stolen, encouraged by the terrible sim- 
 ilarity of likeness of the two men, had played a 
 game so damnable as to make angels weep, and 
 had won. Great God! had won! Won his Mary! 
 He cared not to look again to see the other parties 
 to this terrible picture. He knew the next to.appear 
 would be Mary Holbrook. And he knew she was 
 innocent. In his whole soul there was not a breath 
 of censure against that pure creature. Though she 
 might keep step in the shadow of a demon, she was 
 spotless. But ring down the curtain. Moments 
 may be ages if not now turned to proper account. 
 His first impulse was to telegraph telegraph to his 
 mother, to Mary, to his neighbors, to anybody, every- 
 body he ever knew, and tell them all to stop the mar- 
 riage ceremony. But he remembered that not a dis- 
 patch or letter lie had sent to his home had been 
 answered. The villain was intercepting letters and 
 messages, and it were folly to expect to accomplish 
 anything by the telegraph. He asked for assistance. 
 Half a dozen bystanders responded. They see he is 
 in dr. p rouble. "One of you go for the superintend- 
 ent of the west division of this road and bring him 
 here go quick, quick, quick. I have not strength 
 this moment to walk. I will be strong soon." In a 
 few moments Colonel Mason, the superintendent, 
 came in. Henry feels that everything now depends 
 upon his ability to compose himself and explain the 
 situation. Railroads don't listen to mad men. With 
 the newspaper in his hand, he cooly commences to 
 read the article to the astonished superintendent. It 
 is full of the strangest romance, for it relates in
 
 252 THE MORTGAGE 
 
 detail the kidnapping, the voyage to India, the ship- 
 wreck, the return, the marriage to take place on the 
 lawn at the bride's home, that invitations had been 
 given out to several hundred peoplp and that the 
 afternoon that afternoon would be a gay holiday 
 for the farmers for miles around. The reading fin- 
 ished, the superintendent looked at Henry in bewil- 
 dered amazement and awaited an explanation. "Mr. 
 Superintendent, may God strike me dead if I don't 
 tell the truth. I am Henry Winters, and a villain 
 that poisoned me, arid thought he had murdered me, 
 is the man that is to marry my Mary at six o'clock! 
 Merciful heavens! it is now three o'clock, and Henry 
 Winters is to marry Mary Holbrook at six o'clock, and 
 Henry Winters himself is 115 miles away! Mr. 
 Mason, I must have a locomotive to take me to 
 Bradford Junction before six o'clock, and here is the 
 money to pay for it. Take from that roll of bills 
 whatever amount you think right." The spectators 
 shouted approval of this demand. The excitement 
 was at a fever pitch. Not the least of the excited 
 ones was Colonel Mason himself. He quickly deter- 
 mined that he would comply with the young man's 
 request for a special, and, giving an order to one 
 of his assistants, he~ declared* he would put Henry 
 Winters into Bradford station before six o'clock, 
 come what might, and let the consequences be what 
 they would. All his orders were quickly responded 
 to. He would have the locomotive ready first and 
 immediately, and trust to luck to get his orders from 
 headquarters before starting. The track was ordered 
 cleared of all trains; the locomotive came puffing up
 
 SHALL THE IMPOSTOR SUCCEED ? 253 
 
 in excellent trim, with plenty of water, plenty of 
 fuel and ready for the race. Henry climbed into the 
 cab and sat down on the engineer's seat, and the 
 superintendent, who proposed to make one of the 
 party, took a seat in front of the fireman. Just then 
 the train-dispatcher came forward with the order 
 from the general office, and the superintendent giving 
 the signal, at three-thirty, the locomotive responded 
 to the open throttle, and fairly trembled and shook 
 its great, big, ironsides as it gave a lunge ahead, and, 
 amid the deafening cheers of the crowd, it got right 
 down to work that made the engineer proud of his 
 noble steed. 
 
 The mile posts were passed as though they were 
 telegraph poles. Screeching like mad through the 
 villages, fairly leaping over switches, shaking, roar- 
 ing, puffing, whirling over bridges, through fields 
 and forests, faster and faster, a steady, sturdy hand 
 at the lever, stout and sinewy arms at the furnace, 
 watchful eyes gazing eagerly beyond the smoke- 
 stack and scanning the track to see if all were clear ; 
 the x faithful, obedient and trusty locomotive bent 
 down to its duty and performed it as though it were 
 a living, breathing being and comprehended fully 
 the responsibility entrusted to it. 
 
 J f cnry spoke not a word. His whole being kept pace 
 with the engine in its nervous tremor and apparent 
 agitation. In fact, no one uttered a syllable except 
 the superintendent, who, with his watch in his hand, 
 at intervals called out the time, the speed and the dis- 
 tance run. Fifteen miles, twenty minutes ! Twen- 
 ty-live miles, thirty minutes ! Forty-five miles,
 
 254 THE MOKTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 forty-eight minutes ! Sixty miles, sixty-one minutes! 
 The superintendent was now as excited as the engine 
 itself. Henry sat there as though carved out of 
 stone. The engineer and fireman were as happy as 
 though they owned the road. Fifty-five miles more 
 and eighty-nine minutes to make it in. The track 
 passed the Holbrook farm within sixty rods of the 
 house. So there would be no delay in getting from 
 the station to the lawn, where the marriage ceremony 
 was to take place. 
 
 Seventy miles in seventy-two minutes ! Losing a 
 little, 'Mr. Fireman, can't you throw in an extra lump 
 or two of those choice pieces there at your feet? 
 Saving them for the last ? Save nothing. Crowd in 
 all the fuel she will take. Open the throttle a little 
 wider, if possible, Mr. Engineer. Can't do it ? No 
 matter, she is behaving beautifully. What a splen- 
 did creature ! Now she just flies. The last five 
 miles was made in four minutes. Ninety miles in 
 a few seconds less than ninety minutes. Twenty-five 
 miles more and a full hour to do it in. That is a 
 splendid margin to go on. Will make it in time with 
 half an hour to spare. Don't move a finger there 
 to reduce her speed, Mr. Engineer. Let her do all she 
 can. Take no risks. Better have the time to spare 
 at the end of the run than on the road. A mile a 
 minute is now her pace, and she is buckling down to 
 that speed with ease. Heavens, don't she round that 
 curve handsomely ! 
 
 The engineer sees something ahead that alarms 
 him. Is it a puff of smoke ? He stretches his neck 
 out of the cab window as far as possible, strains his
 
 255 
 
 eyes, hastily draws back, clutches the lever with both 
 hands, ready to close the throttle on a moment's 
 warning. Another second and the steam is shut off, 
 the engine reversed, the brakes applied, the noble 
 steed lothfully lessens its speed, and, turning an 
 abrupt curve, comes to a dead stop within three or 
 four feet of a bridge whose timbers are smoking from 
 an explosion of gunpowder, which some miscreant 
 had applied, no doubt, in order to prevent the engine 
 from reaching Bradford Junction.
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 CLEAR THE TRACK TO BRADFORD JUNCTION ! 
 
 No sooner had Groundwig departed on his mission 
 of crime than Manning set himself to prosecuting 
 plans for his marriage and bridal tour with renewed 
 activity. His first thought was to persuade Mary to 
 name an earlier day for the nuptials, and to this end 
 to assign as a reason a dispatch from some foreign 
 mercantile house, offering him a splendid position 
 with a. large salary, provided he could report for duty 
 at a certain day, naming a time that would require 
 his departure within three or four days.. He con- 
 cluded he could not give Mary such a reason for con- 
 senting to change the day fixed for the wedding 
 without danger of exciting her suspicions that all was 
 not right, so he would trust Groundwig. 
 
 Mary and several of her intimate friends suggested 
 that the wedding should be at 6 o'clock in the after- 
 noon, that it should be made a gala day as far as 
 possible, and that the invitations should be general 
 and the ceremony public. It was arranged that 
 the beautiful lawn in front of the house should be 
 the place, and the Episcopal clergyman, in charge of 
 the church at the county seat, should be invited to 
 solemnize the marriage. 
 
 Mary and her assistants at once began making 
 preparations for the great event. The wedding 
 trousseau was selected, and nimble fingers fashioned 
 
 255
 
 CLEAR THE TRACK! 257 
 
 and fitted the bride's gown. It was white silk, with- 
 out trimmings or decorations or ornaments of any 
 kind. Arrayed in white, she was her prettiest, and 
 in white she looked the more the bride. 
 
 The day arrived. It was one of the loveliest days 
 in June. In and around the Holbrook homestead, 
 from early morn, all was confusion, and everybody 
 about the premises was on the stir, ciowding and 
 pushing and trying to help do something. Mary had 
 retired to her chamber, and, assisted by her dressing 
 maid, proceeded to arrange her toilet. This pleasing 
 and exciting task completed, and the compliments of 
 the bride's maids lavishly bestowed upon her,she asked 
 to be left alone until time to proceed to the altar. 
 
 During the days the prospective bride and her 
 friends had been making these preparations, Manning 
 had by no means been idle. With him they were 
 days of excitement, fear, doubt and rejoicing, and 
 almost the last moments were moments of inexpress- 
 ible anxiety, overwhelming him with apprehensions 
 of the greatest possible evil. 
 
 He first learned of Henry's arrival in New York by 
 the receipt, as operator, of the two messages Henry 
 had sent his mother and Mary. These dispatches 
 were quickly destroyed. Then Groundwig had con- 
 veyed to him the glad tidings of Henry's conviction 
 of grand larceny and the five years' sentence to hard 
 labor in the penitentiary. Such glorious news almost 
 made his heart burst with joy. Five years assured 
 him in which to bask in Mary Holbrook's love with- 
 out fear or danger of his great crime being discov- 
 ered. Groundwig would no doubt hasten back to 
 
 17
 
 258 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 receive in person the promised reward. The money 
 would be ready for him, and never would money be 
 more cheerfully paid to him who earned it. 
 
 Things were surely running smoothly now, thought 
 Charles Manning. Had he the arranging of them, 
 they could not have been more to his liking. The 
 morning came. With the going down of the sun all 
 his plans would be consummated. His successor had 
 been named to take charge of the telegraph office, 
 and his employers were complimenting Manning on so 
 closely attending to business as to insist on remaining 
 at his post until the afternoon of his wedding. 
 Charles Manning knew too well the importance of 
 controlling the wires until the last moment. He did 
 not intend to let go any of his resources until they 
 were all exhausted or until there could be no occasion 
 for using them. 
 
 Eunning over in his mind, in a half-dreaming man- 
 ner, the thrilling events of the past year, he was 
 aroused by the click, click, click, of the instrument 
 before him. The name of Silas Groundwig comes 
 clicking over the wires. The operator starts as though 
 shot. What person in New York is telegraphing 
 Groundwig? Even the message itself does not answer 
 the question. Nor does Manning care who the 
 sender is. The dispatch itself is of the most startling 
 character. It comes like the lightning from a cloud- 
 less sky. It may be the climax of the whole revolting 
 scheme. Not a word of it is put on paper. But 
 every syllable is burned into Manning's very soul: 
 
 Governor pardoned that fellow on the tenth, and he went 
 
 West o the express the same night. 
 
 YANKEE TIM.
 
 CLEAR THE TRACK ! 
 
 Manning's brain worked fast and keen. A hasty 
 glance at the time table, a quick scanning of the 
 column of figures, and it was clear to see that unless 
 something happened or was made to happen, and that, 
 too, at once, Winters would reach Bradford Junction 
 a full hour before the time fixed for the marriage 
 ceremony to take place. 
 
 Xow, then, where was Groundwig? His services were 
 needed now, as they were never needed before. The 
 morning express was due in a few minutes. Ground- 
 must be on that. In another minute the train 
 pulled in and pulled out, and Groundwig was the only 
 passenger that alighted. A whispered conference 
 held between the two, and while talking, Man- 
 ning's quick ear caught enough of a dispatch that 
 was going over the wires to make him yell with de- 
 light. " Groundwig!" exultingly exclaimed Manning, 
 "God in heaven approves my acts. The next west- 
 bound train has met with an accident, and will be at 
 least four hours late. That train is the one Winters 
 must connect with at White Creek Junction. I shall 
 be married and on the south-bound train, and fifty 
 miles away before he can reach this station. Who 
 says now that fortune don't favor the brave, no mat- 
 ter what they do, if their conscience approves their 
 act- 
 
 "Grouudwig, I have won on every side. Mary Hoi- 
 brook once my wife I will be to her such a devoted, 
 loving, faithful husband she shall never have cause 
 to think she has been deceived. I will be her 
 slave. Yea, I will die for her. If necessary, I will die 
 to keep her from marrying another. But enough of
 
 260 THE MOETQAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 this. Meet me here in an hour and I will have the 
 money for you that I promised. There comes the pur- 
 chaser of my farm for the deed; he brings the pur- 
 chase price with him. Go now, and come at the 
 hour named." 
 
 The trade was completed, the money paid, and 
 Manning, jumping into his buggy, drove to the Hoi- 
 brook place, where he met Mary who appeared some- 
 what depressed, but in the excitement he paid lit- 
 tle attention to it, and telling her the sale of his farm 
 had been consummated, that all the preparations 
 were made for the bridal tour, that the south-bound 
 train was reported on time, he hurried back to meet 
 his engagement with Ground wig. 
 
 The new operator was now in charge of the station. 
 Groundwig, disguised and hideous was there impa- 
 tient and nervous. Manning came in hurried and 
 excited. He handed his faithful accomplice a roll 
 of bank bills in full satisfaction of all services ren- 
 dered; and as he turned to leave, the operator re- 
 marked as though telling an item of ordinary news 
 that the road was just ordered clear of all trains for 
 a special. 
 
 Manning, excitedly and confusedly. "How far is 
 the line to be cleared." 
 
 Operator. "To this station/' 
 Manning. "A freight or passenger?" 
 Operator. "Neither. A locomotive and tender." 
 Manning. "When does it start?" 
 Operator. "This moment three-thirty." 
 Not another word was said. Groundwig had been 
 an attentive listener to every word. He understood
 
 CLEAR THE TRACK! 261 
 
 well what it all meant. More villainy for him. 
 More labor of love to appease his own hate. Both 
 men stepped out upon the platform. "Clear the 
 track to Bradford Junction" rung in Manning's ears 
 like a funeral dirge at a wedding. The most omi- 
 nous words of all that had passed over the wires since 
 this bold conspiracy was set on foot. A special for 
 Henry Winters, and at that moment it must be 
 whirling westward at its greatest possible speed. At 
 this last hour should he, Charles Manning, be foiled 
 and cheated of the hand of her he loved better than 
 life? Never! There is still one more chance. Now 
 then, for the most desperate means to meet the most 
 desperate case. 
 
 "Groundwig, for God's sake get your brains to 
 working quick quicker than ever before! That is 
 Henry Winters' special. Yes, I know you know it, 
 and I know you know already what I am going to 
 propose. That special will make a mile a minute. 
 In the store-room you will find a saw, an auger and a 
 hatchet. Put them in one of those bags. I will 
 hand you a package of giant powder. Number 4 
 has orders to run to Bingham, twelve miles, and 
 side-truck for special that's her whistle, quick now, 
 not a second to spare ; go to Hilton Run, a mile this 
 side of Bingham you know the bridge at th6 end of 
 that sharp curve, the freight will be slowing up there, 
 so you will have no trouble in getting off, bore a hole 
 jump aboard blow the bridge to" and the train 
 and Groundwig were on their way to Bingham. 
 
 ofroundwig was faithful to the last. He did his 
 work well. He had a full hour in which to do his
 
 262 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 job. He first cttt the wires in two different places. 
 The bridge was on the bottom, quite a high elevation 
 of land on one side, and thick woods on the other, so 
 there was no danger of being discovered in his 
 nefarious work. He would not be interrupted by 
 trains, for none could move in either direction until 
 the special had passed. When all was ready he set 
 fire to the fuse, and almost before the smoke had 
 cleared away the locomotive rounded the curve, 
 slowed up, and stopped within a few feet of the 
 wrecked bridge. The miscreant who had done the 
 deed was seen to plunge into the forest and disappear. 
 The engine was run back to the station, the alarm 
 given, and, under the lead of the superintendent, a 
 posse well armed, and several men mounted on 
 horseback, started in pursuit of the would-be mur- 
 derer. The chase was a short one. The desperado 
 was soon surrounded, and, as he drew a revolver to 
 intimidate his pursuers and resist arrest, half a dozen 
 guns were leveled at his head, and Silas Groundwig, 
 with all his deep, black crimes on his soul, gave up 
 the ghost. 
 
 The moment Groundwig had boarded the train, 
 Manning felt that the last obstacle in the pathway to 
 the hand of his betrothed had been overcome. He 
 feft he could trust Groundwig to do that work, and 
 do it effectually. From his standpoint he had fought 
 against fearful odds, had contended against a bat- 
 tallion of fates, and at last was victorious. 
 
 All day long startling incidents had followed one 
 after the other with painful rapidity, and now was 
 gome the trying event of all. He at once arranged
 
 CLEAR THE TRACK ! 263 
 
 his toilet with excellent taste and the utmost care, 
 and when completed to his pleasure, he looked every 
 inch the happiest of bridegrooms. His wonderful 
 will-power had enabled him to conceal all outward 
 evidence of his excessive nervous excitement, which 
 would have exhausted that power, and prostrated even 
 a stronger man, had not the prize been the hand of 
 a Mary Holbrook.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE RACE AND THE RESCUE. 
 
 Hardly had the engine commenced to slacken its 
 speed, as it approached the smoking bridge, when 
 Henry leaped to the ground, and in a moment was 
 examining the extent of the damage. He saw the 
 stringers were so weakened that it would be impos- 
 sible to run the engine over. Quickly comprehend- 
 ing what must be done, Henry started on a rapid run 
 for a farm-house on a hill, about one hundred rods 
 distant. It took him but a few moments to reach it. 
 In the yard he met the owner of the farm. The two 
 recognized each other at once. tf God in Israel ! 
 Holy Moses, Henry Winters, what on earth are you 
 doing here?" was the familiar and astonished saluta- 
 tion. "Are you mad? Fleeing from a bride that 
 only wants wings to be an angel. Henry Winters, in 
 the name of " 
 
 " Stop, for heaven's sake, stop and hear me," said 
 Henry. "I want a horse; the fleetest one in your 
 stable. I want it quick. Not a second to lose. The 
 man who is now leading Mary Holbrook to the altar 
 is a villain and a black-hearted scoundrel. He is not 
 Henry Winters. I must get there before the cer- 
 emony or " 
 
 By this time Farmer Dickson was dancing all over 
 the yard. He was too excited to be of any help. 
 " JJallo there, Hank, go and bring out the little gray 
 
 264
 
 THE RACE AND THE RESCUE. 265 
 
 Sam, for the love of all the saints, put a saddle 
 Jane, Wife, Molly, come out here and help, quick, 
 quick; 'taint Henry Winters that's being ; good 
 Lord, I forgot, every blessed one of them have gone 
 to the wedding. Take any horse you want. They 
 are all good ones; hitch up " But Henry was not 
 listening; he had heard very little the old gentle 
 man said; he had rushed into the stable, put a saddle 
 and bridle on the only horse there, and was just 
 mounting when Farmer Dickson yelled out, "Give 
 him the reins; let him have his own way; he is the 
 fastest horse in the county. Don't be afraid to let 
 him jump. Nervy Jim never yet lost a race, and by 
 the eternal heavens he won't lose this one stars and 
 snakes see him go" and before the honest old farmer 
 had finished his exciting instructions to the rider, 
 Nervy Jim was a mile away, leaping astonishingly 
 long strides, gathering himself at each jump as 
 though his limbs were steel springs and plunging 
 ahead like the swift wind, the noble brute seeming 
 to understand that it was no common race he was 
 making that day. 
 
 Nervy Jim doubled himself right down to work. 
 His big nostrils were extended wide and broad, his 
 beautiful neck was stretched straight out from his 
 lithe body, as if he expected to win the race by pass- 
 ing under the wire only a hand's breadth ahead of 
 time; his mane and tail stood out full length with the 
 wind, and ere half the distance was made, the white 
 foam completely encircled his black body. It was 
 ten miles rifle from Farmer Dickson's house. When 
 the bold rider mounted his steed he had twenty-six
 
 266 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 minutes to make the distance. The best he expected 
 to do was to reach the scene of the festivities before 
 the ceremony was finished. Nervy Jim needed no 
 urging. He was doing his best, and Henry felt that 
 was enough, if no mishaps overtook him. Farm 
 houses were passed, but they were deserted. One 
 little village was reached, and not a soul was seen. 
 Everybody was at the wedding, except the bride- 
 groom. On yonder rise, in plain sight, was the 
 school-house, and a little farther on was the church 
 building, but the daring rider saw neither; his eyea 
 were strained to catch the first sight of scenes beyond. 
 The horse and rider may safely be left to proceed 
 alone to the Holbrook farm. The reader can reach 
 there first, and just in time to note the completion of 
 the out door arrangements for the wedding festivi- 
 ties. The trees which line the lawn are festooned 
 with wreaths of prairie flowers, fruit blossoms and 
 gaily-colored ribbons. Two parallel banks of flow- 
 ers, a few feet apart, and running the ontiro length 
 of the lawn, mark the boundaries of the green aisle 
 along which the bride must pass to reach the altar. 
 The altar is a raised platform, over which, and high 
 enough for a person to stand upright, is a covering 
 made of branches of trees and w T reaths of evergreens, 
 and the sides are bedeeked with flowers, surrounded 
 with a dense thicket of hot-house plants. On either 
 side the aisle rough seats have been placed, and these 
 are now occupied by the guests, who have come from 
 far and near to witness the marriage ceremony and 
 participate in the wedding festival. It is a gay 
 throng,^- a merry, laughing, chatting gathering of 
 hard-working, industrious people.
 
 THE RACE AXD THE RESCUE. 267 
 
 Inside the house there seems but little stir for such 
 an hour. There is a quietness unnatural, more like 
 preparations for a funeral, than a marriage. Better 
 a funeral now than a wedding. The bride's maids have 
 been ready for half an hour. They, too, partake 
 somewhat of the sombre surroundings. They know 
 not why. There is a mysterious something constantly 
 suggesting anything but gayety and cheerfulness. 
 The laughter and merriment of the guests without 
 sound harshly upon the ears of the maids, and yet 
 when could laughter and merriment be more appro- 
 priate than now ? The more intimate friends, who 
 have assisted in the preparations for the ceremony and 
 the wedding feast, notice the gloom which possesses 
 everything and everybody, and they feei it should be 
 removed if possible. But who can do it ? None know 
 how it came, from whence it came, or why it came. 
 Will the light come at last ? Will the dark veil be 
 lifted, that the sunshine which is hidden behind it 
 may be revealed ? Can Mary Ilolbrook do it ? No. 
 She is shackled with ropes of steel and powerless as 
 an infant. She is disturbed and distressed, but she 
 attributes it to the excitement of the important event 
 she is soon to be a party to. On bended knees she 
 asks for divine assistance. If the dead are permitted 
 to look down upon the scenes of this earth, and c;in 
 influence human conduct, she asks her mother, her 
 father, and Henry's mother, to guide and direct her 
 steps. With faith in the Divinity, trusting the spirits 
 of the dead will point out the right way, if so be she 
 is tempted to take the wrong one, she prepares to 
 complete her toilet and calls her maid from the 
 adjoining room.
 
 268 THE MORTGAGE FOKECLOSED. 
 
 Do not make such haste, sweet Mary -Holbroou. 
 Those orange blossoms well become that fair bro\(,. 
 But they need re-arranging. They conceal tow 
 much of that beautiful forehead. Perhaps it were 
 well its whiteness should be shaded by the tinge of 
 yellow that clings so closely to both forehead and 
 blossoms. That is a pretty veil so snowy white, so 
 rich, so rare. It may be admired even though the 
 wedding guests are waiting. That pretty rosebud 
 well becomes its place so near the heart. Now 
 all is ready. Keady? Why this agitation? Why 
 that flushed cheek? A moment since it was pale and 
 white as the spotless gown that robes the fairest of 
 maidens. It must be the fresh air that the gentle 
 breeze has stirred up without. Don't seek to hide 
 those blushes, Mary Holbrook, they become you as 
 virtue becomes an angel. God's pure air is a great 
 physician, it may strengthen you now when you need 
 strength the most. 
 
 As Mary steps upon the greensward and comes in 
 plain view of the multitude of friends who have come 
 to make merry at her wedding, a murmur of delight 
 reaches her ears. They are captivated by her beauty . 
 always beautiful, but now more beautiful than ever, 
 Alone she walks up the green aisle, the handiwork 
 of nature and loving hands. Her path is bedecked 
 with the flowers of early summer. Following a short 
 distance come the maids, who, with bowed heads, keep 
 even pace with the prospective bride. Go slow, Mary 
 Holbrook, you follow no one; for some wise purpose 
 you lead; lead ever so slowly, and even then you may 
 lead too fast. There are times when it were better
 
 THE RACK AND THE RESCUE. 269 
 
 for a bride to be late at the altar than precisely 
 on time. There are marriage festivals when the 
 happiness of a lifetime may be wrapped up in delay. 
 Go a little slower now, dear girl, perhaps the mist 
 yo:i see through that thin veil may be lifted, and float 
 v forever, if your slow footsteps move slower still. 
 It may be that your heavy heart, heavy when, if ever 
 in life, it should be light, and heavy from no revealed 
 <\ may be relieved of its burden, if you should 
 stop and rest even for a moment; moments now are 
 more precious' than jewels. You are in the hands of 
 Divinity. His holy angels should direct you wisely. 
 That faltering step, that surfeit of low spirits, that 
 depressed condition of body and soul are God's sig- 
 nals telling you that he has not forsaken the innocent 
 and pure. Yonder the bridegroom cometh. Take 
 his outstretched hand. There may be strength there 
 for both. The holy man of God breaks the silence: 
 
 ' Dearly beloved, \ve arc gathered together here in 
 the sight of God, and in the face of this company, 
 to join together this man and this woman in holy 
 matrimony." 
 
 "A littl<> too rapid, reverend sir, is your utterance 
 of these solemn words." It seemed as though a mes- 
 senger, invisible, whispered those words in the aged 
 preacher's ears. For he continued more slowly and 
 more solemnly with the beautiful service: 
 
 "Into this holy estate these two persons present 
 come now to be joined. If any man can show just 
 cause why they may not lawfully be joined together, 
 let him now speak or else hereafter forever hold his 
 peace."
 
 270 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 With this last word came a rumbling sound from 
 a distance, and so strange was it and so sudden did 
 it break upon the ears of the multitude, that all were 
 disturbed for a moment, and all became earnestly 
 interested in knowing the cause. The minister's 
 hand trembled and his book came near falling to the 
 ground. What was it? The sound came nearer and 
 nearer. It was evidently the clatter of horses' hools 
 on the hard prairie road, caused by some tardy farmer 
 hastening to the wedding feast. The holy man con- 
 tinued : 
 
 "I require and charge you both, as ye will answer 
 at the dreadful day of judgment when the secrets of 
 all hearts shall be disclosed, that if either of ye know 
 of any impediment why ye may not be lawfully 
 joined together in matrimony, ye do now confess it." 
 
 These words caused the expected bridegroom to 
 rock to and fro like a reed in the gale. His face 
 turned white as the bridal veil that almost touched 
 his pallid cheeks. Only nerves of iron kept him on 
 his feet. The clattering hoofs on one side, the mean- 
 ing of which he could not fail to understand, and 
 the solemn warning of the preacher on the other, 
 filled his soul with the utmost terror. 
 
 " Henry, wilt thou have this woman to be thy 
 wedded wife, to live together after God's ordinance 
 in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou love her, 
 comfort her, honor and keep her in sickness and in 
 health; and, forsaking all others, keep " and 
 then the subdued confusion became intensely oppress- 
 ive. The people were on their feet, and every eye 
 was turned in the direction of the rapidly nearing
 
 THE RACE AND THE RESCUE. 271 
 
 horse and rider. The noble animal w*,. ou the 
 swiftest gallop, the rider was waving his <*rms in 
 the air and urging the horse to increased speed. The 
 preacher raised his eyes from the book stopped read- 
 ing looked perplexed and annoyed at the apparent 
 discourteous interruption, and was about to proceed 
 with the ceremony, when the tumult became so 
 uproarious and the excitement so intense, bordering 
 on an uncontrollable panic, that he closed the book 
 and gave his support to the bride, just in time to pre- 
 vent her falling. 
 
 There was no time to ask questions or answer 
 them. That rider on that steed, and those out- 
 stretched arms what could it all mean? There was 
 even no time to think what it meant. The clat- 
 tering hoofs on the hard ground sounded to the 
 astonished ears of the assemblage as though a caval- 
 cade of untamed steeds were racing for life. The 
 rider caught sight of the stars and stripes floating in 
 the breeze, and now his voice could be heard was he 
 cheering the flag, or was he mad? The excited spec- 
 tators instinctively divided and made a passage for 
 horse and stranger. The rider draws tight the reins; 
 the faithful animal, white with foam, stops at the 
 bidding. The horseman leaps from the saddle, rushes 
 through the bank of flowers, hurries along the path 
 where a few moments before the prospective bride 
 had walked, and, loudly exclaiming, "I forbid the 
 bans, I am Henry Winters, that man is an impostor! " 
 reached the improvised altar just in time to receive 
 in his arms the fainting form of Mury Ilolbrook. 
 
 The confusion now was more intense than ever.
 
 272 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 A few persons nearest the altar had heard the words of 
 the stranger, and quickly comprehending the mean- 
 ing, explanations were made for all to hear, and what 
 bade fair to be a serious panic, gave way to the 
 most unbounded enthusiasm. The crowd gave cheer 
 after cheer, hats were thrown in the air, handker- 
 chiefs waved, and amid these demonstrations of 
 rejoicing, Mary Holbrook, restored to consciousness, 
 was assisted into the house, and Charles Manning, 
 taking advantage of the noisy evidence of his rival's 
 popularity, walked out of the crowd, hastened to the 
 stable near by, saddled and bridled a horse, mounted 
 him and rode swiftly in the direction of the setting 
 sun. Reaching a neighboring town, he disposed of his 
 horse and a few personal effects, and, joined by the 
 woman in black, the two, mother and son, sought to 
 hide themselves in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains. 
 They subsequently laid claim, through an attorney, 
 to the money found on Groundwig's person, but as it 
 was proven to be the proceeds of the fraudulent sale 
 of the Winters' homestead, the money was ordered 
 restored to the purchaser.
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 A RETROSPECT A MARRIAGE THE WHITE LIGHT. 
 
 " If we only knew how to live as well as we know 
 how to love, we would live and love forever, do you 
 not think so, Henry?" was Mary Holbrook's inquiry 
 of her lover, a few weeks after the scenes occurred 
 which are recorded in the previous chapter. There 
 was no verbal answer. None was needed or expected. 
 Perfect bliss once more took possession of their 
 hearts, and not even a flickering spark that could be 
 fanned into a doubt came to disturb their happiness. 
 
 Weeks passed in telling the story of each other's 
 lives, during the separation. Both were eloquent 
 listeners and both were eloquent talkers, and both 
 had volumes to tell and volumes to listen to. 
 
 Henry, upon visiting his mother's grave, found that 
 loving hands had kept the mound green and the sum- 
 mer flowers in bloom. With his head bowed upon the 
 little white monument, Henry stood there alone, 
 except as the spirit of a sainted mother may impress 
 its presence on a loving son and wept. Memory 
 was busy. The past came plodding slowly along, 
 loaded with a mother's prayers and tears, with a 
 mother's hopes and fears, but revealing neither sii.ni 
 of distrust nor a whisper of losing faith in God, n<-r 
 want of confidence in the honor and integrity of her 
 son. No rebuke, no < <> blame, but a pure 
 
 and holy trust in heaven's justness and mercy hal- 
 18 278
 
 274: THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 lowed the noble woman's memory. Henry felt that 
 in no act of his was laid the seeds of remorse, nor 
 cause for a single wound to have ever made his 
 mother's heart bleed, nor a single pang of ingrati- 
 tude to have made her shed a tear. 
 
 The son read and re-read the thrilling narrative 
 his mother had written, and he saw that where there 
 might have been a spot or a blemish on her character, 
 her story had removed every stain and destroyed' 
 every taint. Her life had been pure and noble and : 
 brave. A monster in law the husband and the^ 
 father seeking a revenge he had no cause to seek,, 
 had followed her through all her life of womanhood: 
 to her death-bed, and even there had planned for his: 
 vengeance to follow her into the very presence of her- 
 Maker. Justice, with its avenging arm, came quickly 
 and thwarted the miscreant's plans, exposed all his; 
 infamies, and gave him a few clods of clay t^ cover- 
 his crimes and keep them from smelling to* heaven.. 
 The other the treacherous imposter aiad cunning; 
 knave went, none knew or cared whither; perhaps, , 
 in some mountain gulch he may bs cursing his con- 
 science for leading him to barter his soul for a' 
 life of infamy. He learned too late that conscience* 
 is one's own self, and caa neither be created with 
 good nor charged with evil, except as that good or 
 evil comes from the .heart. 
 
 Henry pondered with the deepest interest over the 
 picture portrayed so vividly by his dying mother. He 
 did not believe it overdrawn, or the colors unnatural. 
 Call it revelation. Call it supernatural. It was no 
 dream. It was not entirely the offspring of the
 
 A RETROSPECT A MARRIAGE. 275 
 
 imagination. It was no delusion. It \vas an impres- 
 sion forced on Mrs. Winters' mind, when virtually in 
 the presence of her Creator, that all she pictured was 
 in store for the farmers and laboring men whenever 
 they should unite in favor of tariff reform. 
 
 One evening after things had become somewhat, 
 settled on the Winters' farm, three or four neighbors 
 .called to discuss with Mr. Winters a few points con- 
 nected with the operation of the tariff. 
 
 "Do you think," remarked Mr. Scott, "that the 
 cause of the abandonment of so many farms; in the 
 Eastern and Middle Stales is due to the tariff?" 
 
 " Xo doubt of it, to a certain extent, directly or 
 indirectly," replied Mr. Winters. " But what an 
 unanswerable argument are those desolate fields, and 
 ancestral buildings going to decay, to the claim that 
 protection insures a home market for home produce! 
 The greatest desolation is almost within shouting 
 distance of the greatest manufacturing centers. The 
 smoke from many a tall factory chimney casts tor- 
 tuous shadows on farms and houses gone to waste, 
 not because the soil was exhausted or the State depop- 
 ulated, but because the farmers could not grow food 
 in competition with the cheap labor of Europe and 
 '>mit to the price of that food being 
 fixed in Liverpool, and at the same time be com- 
 pelled to buy the necessaries of life at home at the 
 high price fixed by protection. 
 
 " The desolation and decay so rapidly increasing 
 in the funning regions of the East, stands, in a meas- 
 ure, as the handiwork of protection. Like causes 
 produce like effects. If the farmers of the West per-
 
 276 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 mit their fears to be quieted b^the promise that dot- 
 ting the prairies with factories, and bringing a home 
 market to the door of the producer, will increase the 
 price of farm produce, or increase its purchasing 
 power, they can not shut their eyes to the fact that, 
 under the same condition of things, there is now 
 going on in one portion of this country a general 
 abandonment of cultivated farms and a general decay 
 of farm buildings/' 
 
 " Still, I do not know/' remarked Farmer Lake, 
 " except in the extent of the waste, that the aban- 
 donment of Eastern farms is any worse than burn- 
 ing corn in the West having reference to the fact 
 that when corn is used for fuel, the farmer must sell 
 it at less than the cost of production." 
 
 " The result in time," replied Mr. Scott, " will be 
 the same, unless a remedy is found, not because corn 
 is being used for fuel, but because corn, which ranks 
 second in value of any crop grown, has no adequate 
 market." 
 
 " The only remedy, then, is to find a market, is it 
 not?" asked Mr. Winters. "There is but one other 
 remedy suggested, and that is for the farmers to 
 agree to raise less corn and less pork, and that remedy 
 every farmer will plainly see is impracticable. It is 
 the remedy offered in the interest of protection, and 
 is a delusion and a snare." 
 
 "But where and how will you find a market?' 
 
 " I will tell you what I think about it," replied 
 Mr. Winters. " In the first place, I don't believe 
 that over-production is the cause of the low price 
 of corn. Corn is the cheapest and healthiest food
 
 A RETROSPECT A MARRIAGE. 277 
 
 the soil produces. Its value as an article of food 
 is comparatively unknown outside of America. 
 Were the restrictions put on trade by the tariff 
 removed, corn and corn meal would be shipped wher- 
 ever people could be found who eat wholesome food, 
 and who are civilized enough to offer something they 
 make or grow or find in the ground or the sea in 
 exchange for food. 
 
 "When the manufacturer leans on his own 
 resources, as he will in $ great measure when the 
 protective features of the tariff are withdrawn, and 
 no longer becomes the object of government charity, 
 he will grow rich by selling his wares in all the mar- 
 kets of the world, and the ship that carries his 
 goods will make up a part of its cargo with Ameri- 
 can corn. 
 
 "For the farmers to admit as correct the theory of 
 the agricultural department at Washington, that the 
 low price of corn is due to overproduction, and to 
 act on (hat theory, and undertake to restrict the 
 bushels to be raised each year to a certain fixed num- 
 ber, would only add to the depression everywhere 
 prevailing in the farm industry, and result disas- 
 trously to every interest depending largely on the 
 food supply. 
 
 "The growth of wheat in this country has quite 
 reached the limit. The world's increase will be largely 
 !a, where labor is cheaper than in any other por- 
 tion of the globe. But corn on this continent has no 
 limit in sight. Nor has America any serious com- 
 petitor in growing corn. Put corn, and the meat 
 corn produces, within reach of the people who want
 
 278 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 such food and are able to buy it, and the ca- 
 pacity of this country to supply the demand will be 
 tested to the uttermost, and the nation that furnishes 
 the product will have much to say about fixing the 
 price. Iso farmer should be discouraged at corn 
 being used for fuel as long as the odious tariff system 
 prevents his exchanging that corn throughout the world 
 for such commodities of use and value as the world may 
 have to give in exchange for it. Modify that system 
 to the extent it stands for protection, and the deca- 
 dence in growing corn, now threatened, will cease, 
 and the one grain crop which America can control 
 will again become king. The fittest will survive. If 
 the fittest be the high tariff, the high tariff will live. 
 If it be corn, the corn will continue to be the great 
 crop of the West. Whichever it shall be it is for the 
 farmers and wage-earners to determine." 
 
 "Sound to the very core/' remarked Farmer Lake, 
 " and I am satisfied the farmers are aroused to 
 the necessity of pulling together and testing the 
 remedy offered by tariff reform, for the decline of 
 agriculture. Only last evening the president of our 
 alliance announced himself a tariff reformer. He 
 was cheered to the echo. He has all along been a 
 protectionist, and the applause indicated that the 
 alliance was composed almost entirely of tariff 
 reformers, although the political parties are about 
 equally represented. Our president in announcing 
 his conversion said he had been studying the condi- 
 tions which made it possible for these vast trusts, 
 syndicates, combinations and monopolies to increase 
 60 rapidly and succeed so prosperously, and he found
 
 A RETROSPECT A MARRIAGE. 279 
 
 that almost invariably the combination was formed 
 on some business or industry that was highly pro- 
 tected, and the first thing it did after dividing its 
 watered stock among its members, was to raise the 
 price of the goods dealt in by the trust, and as the 
 farmers and laborers are the largest consumers of 
 necessaries, they have to stand the larger share of the 
 raise. The tariff answers the purpose of capital, 
 thus making the government a partner in all these 
 trusts, and a party to robbing its own people. 
 
 " During the evening a resolution was introduced, 
 suggesting that the alliance and farmers' clubs join 
 in a fight on the twine combination, and the presi- 
 dent moved there be added the three thousand other 
 articles on which there was a tax, and make the fight 
 on all of them, and not select twine as the special 
 object of our warfare, just because we were able to see 
 that the high price of twine, made possible only be- 
 cause the tariff prevented the manufacturer from 
 procuring cheap raw material from abroad, increased 
 the cost of harvesting grain. There are hundreds of 
 articles, he said, that much more need looking after 
 by the farmers, and much more affect the cost of 
 harvesting, than binding twine. Strike at all of 
 them, and spare none " 
 
 Once again the Holbrook mansion is the scene of 
 preparations for a wed dine:. The change is marked 
 and pleasing. To-day Mary Holbrook is her real, 
 lovely self again. No tears, no sad thoughts, no 
 despondency, but all is the cheerfulness which so well
 
 280 THE MORTGAGE FORECLOSED. 
 
 becomes the maiden on her bridal day. The same 
 maids attend her. They are full of animation and 
 glee. No muffled tread about the house. All are as 
 merry as light hearts can make merriment. 
 
 On the lawn the former order of things is being 
 restored. Flowers, garlands, festoons and wreaths 
 are replaced so as to give the same appearance as on 
 that day the fatal mistake came so nearly being made. 
 It is a gala day, too, for the entire neighborhood, far 
 and near. From every direction the invited guests 
 are coming, laughing, chatting, frolicking and 
 even boisterous in their merriment. The large lawn 
 is being taxed to the uttermost to accommodate the 
 happy throng. Captain Bodfish has come from his 
 Eastern home and is made a hero. The part he 
 played in the strange eventful scenes detailed in these 
 chapters is known to everybody on the ground, and 
 he is showered with compliments and blessings. 
 
 Just as the bride and groom elect are passing out 
 the door- way, the shrill whistle of a locomotive breaks 
 in on the stillness, and soon the iron horse, gayly 
 trimmed with flowers and smilax and golden rod 
 and an hundred flags floating in the breeze, appears 
 in sight, sweeping along with a mile-a-minute speed, 
 and comes to a stop within a few rods of the crowd 
 of enthusiastic spectators. Three men alight find 
 move quickly toward the scene of the festivities. 
 Though their coming is a surprise to Henry, he at 
 once recognizes them as the division superintendent 
 and engineer and fireman who played such an 
 important part in foiling the scheme of the bold 
 imposter. As Henry steps forward, meeting them
 
 A RETROSPECT A MARRIAGE. 281 
 
 with a most cordial welcome, the assembled crowd 
 comprehend who the new comers are, and the welkin 
 rings again and again with cheer upon cheer for the 
 railroad visitors, not forgetting a tiger for the noble 
 engine. In another moment clattering hoofs attract 
 the attention of the throng, and the well-known 
 form of Nervy Jim, ridden by Farmer Dickson, 
 comes in sight, and is halted in the very midst of the 
 crowd, where he is received with enthusiastic delight. 
 This time the marriage ceremony is finished, and 
 the holy man of God pronounces Henry Winters 
 and Mary Holbrook man and wife. 
 
 The Winters' farm continues to be a popular resort 
 for the farmers of the neighborhood. They congre- 
 gate there to discuss the great question of tariff 
 reform the question which they believe involves the 
 fate of the farming industry of the land. They realize 
 the fact that the way out of the depression which is so 
 imperiously invading their homes and so surely 
 entwining them in its coils, is to place tariff reform 
 above party, and keep it there until all that the 
 friends of the reform claim for it becomes firmly 
 established as the American policy. 
 
 The party in power, ever claiming it can nnd 
 will reform the tariff, while this chapter is being 
 written, meets the demands of the farmers for lower 
 taxes on the things they buy, with a bill for an addi- 
 tional tariff on certain farm produce, but adds an 
 increased tax of one hundred per cent, on woolen 
 and linen goods, and tin plate. The first part of
 
 28/5 THE MORTGAGE FOllECLOSED. 
 
 tho proposition is a gratuitous insult to every farmer 
 in the land; because not one of them but knows that 
 no amount of tariff on breadstuffs and meat could 
 increase the price a single cent, for the reason that 
 foreign countries do not bring those articles here and 
 offer them for sale. The other branch of the proposi- 
 tion actually doubles the price the farmers must pay 
 for many of the most common necessaries of life 
 And this is called reforming the tariff, in the interest 
 of the farmer, by the friends of tariff reform ! 
 There is, and there can be. judging by what has been 
 done, and what is now proposed by the party in 
 power, but one way to bring about this reform, and 
 that is to retire that party and put in their places 
 men pledged to vote for tariff reform. 
 
 The white light Mrs. Winters saw on her death-bed, 
 the son believes, is lying dormant in the ballot-box, 
 awaiting the time when the farmer and the wage- 
 earner shall go forward in their strength and deposit 
 their votes for men who favor tariff reform, to come 
 forth and cover the land with the grandeur and glory 
 so vividly pictured by the dying woman. 
 
 The fate of the farmer is in his own hands. It 
 rests with him to say whether his star of destiny 
 shall lead him from the abandoned farm and desolate 
 home, into new and untried avocations, where cease- 
 less toil awaits him, or whether it shall shine upon 
 an industry that insures a profitable return on the 
 money and toil invested, with the comforts and pleas- 
 ures, the hopes and ambitions, he and his desire, sure 
 of realization.
 
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 ................................... 
 
 i tho Hearth ................................ Charles I 
 
 irae of Philip Giithrie, The .......................... Lulu RaRcdald 
 
 .................................... John 
 
 .......................... A Conac ttoyle 
 
 nil* ........................................... 
 
 ntul Ditties ............................... Rurtyard Klf.linR 
 
 rg layer ................................... James Fen (more Cooper 
 
 ....... .......................... Madeline Vinton Uahlgren 
 
 104. Dodo ..................................................... K. F. Beoaon
 
 106. Dog Crusoe and His Master R. M. Bahnntyni 
 
 107. DOR of Flanders, A Ouida 
 
 108. Dolly Dialogues Anthony Hope 
 
 110. JT>ora Deane Mary J. Holmes 
 
 112. L ream Life (Ik Marvel) Donald G. Mitchell 
 
 114. jX-ummond's Addresses Henry Drummond 
 
 115. 1 >uchess (The Duchess) Mrs. Hungerford 
 
 116. Elizabeth and Her German Garden 
 
 118. Emerson's Essays Ralph Waldo Emerson 
 
 119. Emerson's Poems Ealph Waldo Emerson 
 
 I'M. English Woman's Love Letters, An 
 
 121. English Orphans Mary Jane Holmes 
 
 122. Essays of Elia Charles Lamb 
 
 123. Esther Waters George Moore 
 
 125. Ethics of the Dust John Euskin 
 
 127. Evangel ine Henry \\. Longfellow 
 
 128. Evil Eye, The Theophila Gauthier 
 
 131. Fatal Love Ramiriz Arias 
 
 182. Fairyland of Science Arabella Buckley 
 
 134. Favorite Poems Elmo 
 
 185. Flower Fables Louisa M. Alcott 
 
 137. Fifteen Decisive Battles Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy 
 
 139. First Violin Jessie Fothergili 
 
 140. Forging the Fetters Mrs. Alexander 
 
 141. Frankenstein Mary Shelley 
 
 143. Garden of Verses, Child's Robert Louis Stevenson 
 
 145. Gold Dust Charlotte M. Yonge 
 
 147. Grandfather's Chair Nathaniel Hawthorne 
 
 148. Green Dragon, At the Beatrice Harraden 
 
 161. Gul liver's Travels Dean Swift 
 
 163. Heir of Linne Kobert Buchanan 
 
 158. Her Shattered Idol. Belle V. Logan 
 
 169. Heroes and Hero Worship Thomas Curly le 
 
 161. Hiawatha Henry W. Lonpfellow 
 
 162 Holmes' Poems Oliver Wendell Holmes 
 
 163. Homestead on the Hillside Mary .lane Holmes 
 
 165. House of Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne 
 
 167. House of the Wolf Stanley J. Weyman 
 
 169. How It Came About Maja Spencer 
 
 171. Hvpatia Charles Kingsley 
 
 173. Ideala Sarah Grand 
 
 174. Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow Jerome K. Jerome 
 
 176. Idylls of the Kinf? Alfred Tennyson 
 
 177. Imitation of Christ Thomas a Kempis 
 
 178. In Chase of Crime Du Boisgobey 
 
 179. In Memoriam Alfred Tennyson 
 
 180. In the Rockies W. II. G. Kingston 
 
 181. Inez Augusta J. EVHUS 
 
 182. Ishmael, or, In the Depths Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth 
 
 183. Ivanhoe Sir Walter Scott 
 
 184. John Halifax Miss Mulock 
 
 185. Kept for the Master's Use Frances Ridley Havergal 
 
 186. Kidnapped Robert Louis Stevenson 
 
 191. King of the Golden River John Ruskiu 
 
 192. Knickerbocker's History of New York Washington Irving 
 
 194. L'Americane Jules Claretie 
 
 196. Laddie and Miss Toosev's Mission Author of Zos 
 
 198. ,ady Grace Mrs. Henry Wood 
 
 199. Lady of the Lake Sir Walter Scott 
 
 201. Lalla Rookh Thomas Moore 
 
 202. Lamplighter Maria S. Cummins 
 
 203. Last Days of Pompeii C. Bulwer-Lytton 
 
 204. Last of the Mohicans J. Fenimore Cooper 
 
 205. La Veuve , Octave Feuil let 
 
 207. JLet Us Follow Him Henry Sienkiewicz 
 
 208. Lena Rivers Mary Jane Holmes 
 
 209. Light of Asia Edwin Arnold
 
 210. Light That Failed Kudyard Kipling 
 
 212. Little Queen of Tragedy, A Laura B. Marsh 
 
 214. Lime Kiln Club M. Quad 
 
 216 Little Lame Prince Miss Mulock 
 
 216. Locksley Hall and Other Poems Alfred Tennyson 
 
 219. Longfellow's Poems Henry W. Longfellow 
 
 223. Lorna Doone R. D. Blnckmore 
 
 224. Love and Tears Areeme Honsaaye 
 
 225. Loyalty of Lanpstreth, The John B. V. Gilliat 
 
 226. Love Letters of a Worldly Woaan Mrs. W. K. Clifford 
 
 227. Lucy's Wonderful Globe Charlotte M. Yonge 
 
 229. Lowell's Poems James Russell Lowell 
 
 231. Luclle Owen Meredith 
 
 234. Madame Sans-Gene Victorien Sardou 
 
 286. Maggie Mi 1 ler Mary Jane Holmes 
 
 236. Marble Fuun Nathaniel Hawthorne 
 
 237. Maid. Wife or Widow Mrs. Alexander 
 
 239. Makers of Venice Mrs. Oliphant 
 
 241. Man from Wall Street St. George Rathbon* 
 
 243. Man in Black Stanley J. Weyman 
 
 244. Marmion Sir Walter Scott 
 
 245. Micah Clarke A. Conan Doyle 
 
 248. Meadowbrook Mary Jane Holmes 
 
 249. Miss Milne and I Iota 
 
 250. Modern Quixote, A 8. 0. McCay 
 
 251. Moes-Side Marion Harland 
 
 252. Mosses from an Old Manse Nathaniel Hawthorne 
 
 253. Mortgage Foreclosed, Tho E. H. Thayer 
 
 254. Mother's Cook Book Harland 
 
 256. Macaria Aujrusta J. Evans 
 
 256. Minister's Wooing Harriet Beecher Stows 
 
 257. Mrc Caudle's Curtain Lectures. Douglas Jerrold 
 
 Lady's Money Wilkie Oollina 
 
 259. Mysterious Juror Du Boisgobey 
 
 261. Nameless Love Charles Loruon 
 
 tural Law in the Spiritual World Henry Drummond 
 
 265. Not Like Other Girls Rosa N. Carey 
 
 266. Now or Never Oliver Optio 
 
 inroon, The Miss M. E. Braddon 
 
 James Steel 
 
 ' . The Theo. Baughman 
 
 ::-8 Darwin 
 
 HVJ. l';ist and Present Thomas Carlyle 
 
 273. Paradise Lost John Milton 
 
 276. Pathfinder J. Fenimore Cooper 
 
 279. Paul and Vli -inia Saint Pierre 
 
 r,orge W. Peck 
 
 rfumeof the Violet, The Frank H. Howe 
 
 283. Peter Simple Cnj>t. Marryat 
 
 284. Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan 
 
 286. Pioneers J. Fenimore Cooper 
 
 286. Plain Tales from the Hills Uii.lyard Kipling 
 
 287. Pli'Mun-s of Life Sir John Lubbock 
 
 288. Poe's Poems K.lgnr Allan Poe 
 
 2H9. PO.-'H TiiU- Edgar Allan Poe 
 
 290. Pi,. 
 
 291. Prisoners nnd ' Hour) -Si-fun Merriman 
 
 292. Pride an-1 Jane Austen 
 
 293. Prim a Donna i.- I he .IcKnnna 
 
 294. Prince c.i i Rev. J. H. Ingraham 
 
 295. pr i Alfred Tennyson 
 
 296 Poor and : . .Oliver Optio 
 
 ifessor at the Breakfast Table Oliver Wendell Holme* 
 
 .irit. The J. Fenimore Cooper 
 
 George. William OurtU 
 
 the Air ..John Ruskin 
 
 L> and liis Frii-ud* Lr. John Browa
 
 805. Representative Men. .Ralph Waldo Emerson 
 
 807. Revenge of Circe Alexina Lorqugen 
 
 80a Eeveries of a Bachelor (Ik Marvel) Donald G. Mitchell 
 
 809. Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 
 
 812. Rifle Rangers Capt. Mayne Reid 
 
 818. Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Edward Fitzgerald 
 
 814. Rosamond Mary J. Holmes 
 
 815. Royal Robber, A Herbert Rau 
 
 822. Scalp Hunters Capt. Mayne Reid 
 
 826. Sis to Sixteen Mrs. Juliana II. Ewing 
 
 327. Samantha at Saratoga Joeiah Allen's Wife 
 
 328. Sartor Resartus Thomas Carlyle 
 
 829. Scarlet Letter, The Nathaniel Hawthorne 
 
 830. Self Raised, or, From the Depths Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth 
 
 831. Seneca's Morals Sir Roger L' Estrange 
 
 832. Sesame and Lilies John Ruskin 
 
 333. Shadow of a Sin Bertha M. Clay 
 
 834. She's All the World to Me Hall Caine 
 
 335. Ships That Pass in the Night Beatrice Harraden 
 
 836. Sign of the Four A. Conan Doyle 
 
 887. 8 ingle Heart and Double Face Charles Reade 
 
 338. Singularly Deluded Sarah Grand 
 
 389. Six Gray Powders, The Mrs. Henry Wood 
 
 840. Sketch Book. The Washington Irving 
 
 841. Snow Image, The Nathaniel Huwthorne 
 
 842. Squire's Darling Bertha M. Clay 
 
 843. Stickit Minister, The S. R. Crockett 
 
 344 . Stories from the French Guy de Maupassant and others 
 
 845. Story of an African Farm (Ralph Iron) Olive Schreiner 
 
 846. Strange Case of Henry Toplass John W. Postgate 
 
 847. Stronger than Death Emile Richabonrg 
 
 848. Study in Scarlet A. Conan Doyle 
 
 849. Swiss Family Robinson J. D. and J. R. Wyss 
 
 350. Tales from Shakespeare Charles and Mary Lamb 
 
 851. Tales from the Odyssey Walter C. Perry 
 
 352. Tales from Tennyson G. O. Allen 
 
 853. Tanglewood Tales Nathaniel Hawthorne 
 
 854. Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 
 
 355. Thelma Mario CorelH 
 
 356. Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll 
 
 357. Tom Brown at Oxford Thomas Hughes 
 
 858. Tom Brown's School Days Thomas Hughes 
 
 359. Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson 
 
 360. True and Beautiful John Rustkin 
 
 861. Try Again Oliver Optic 
 
 862. Tempest and Sunshine Mary Jnne Holmes 
 
 864. Twice Told Tales Nathaniel Hawthorne 
 
 365. Under the Maples Walter N. Ilinmau 
 
 866. Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 
 
 367. Vnshti and Esther Author of Belle's Letters 
 
 368. Vicar of Wakefield Oliver Goldsmith 
 
 3G9. Voyage of the Sunbeam Lady Brassey 
 
 870. Water Babies Charles Kingsley 
 
 371. Wedded and Parted Bertha M. Clay 
 
 372. What Will the World Say? Mary Jane Holmes 
 
 878. What Would You Do, Love? Mary Jane Holmes 
 
 874. Whittier's Poems John Greenleaf Whittier 
 
 875. White Company, The A. Conan Doyle 
 
 876. Wicked Girl, A Mary Cecil Hay 
 
 877. Wide, Wide World Susan Warner 
 
 878. Williams Brothers Adrian Percy 
 
 879. Window in Thrums J. M. Barrie 
 
 880. Wit, Hurnor and Pathos Eli Perkins 
 
 881. Wonder Book, The Nathaniel Hawthorn* 
 
 382. Yellow Aster, The Iota 
 
 888. Youngest Soldier of the Grand Army Dn Boisgobey 
 
 891, Zoe Author of Laddie
 
 COMPLETE LIST Of THE 
 POETIC AND PROSE WORKS 
 
 ... OF ... 
 
 ELLA WHEELER WILCOX 
 
 POEMS OF POWER. 
 
 PRESENTATION EDITION 12mo, cloth $1.00 
 
 NEW GIFT EDITION white veilum. gold top 1 50 
 
 POEMS OF PASSION. 
 
 PRESENTATION EDITION 12mo, cloth $1.00 
 
 NEW GIFT EDITION white vellum, gold tor 
 
 ILLUSTRATED EDITION gilt top, 12mo, cloth 
 
 ILLUSTRATED EDITION gilt top, 12mo, white vellum, 
 "Only a woman of genius could produce such a remark- 
 able work." Illustrated L.ondon i\ 
 
 POEMS OF PLEASURE. 
 
 PRESENTATION EDITION 12mo. cloth $1.00 
 
 . GIFT EDITION white vellum, gold top 1.00 
 
 These poems make life dotfbly sweet and cheerful. 
 "Mrs. Wilcox is an artist with a touch that reminds one of 
 Lord Byron's impassionate strains." /'arts Res. 
 
 MAURINE. 
 
 PRESENTATION EDITION 12mo. cloth $1.00 
 
 GIFT EDITION white vellum, gold top 1.5O 
 
 NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITI i loth 
 
 NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITI . 2.00 
 
 Beautiful thoughts and healthy inspiration in every . 
 "Maurine is an ideal poem about a perfect woman." The 
 South. 
 
 KINGDOM OF LOVE AND OTHER POEMS. 
 
 PRESENTATION EDITION -I2mo, cloth 
 
 NEW GIFT EDITION white vellum, s 1.5O 
 
 A choice collection of recitations, specially compiled for 
 readers and impersonators. 
 
 "Her name is a household word. II '.i-s in 
 
 depicting human emotions: and i 
 
 all passions love, she wields tin. . . ! it SV*- 
 
 uraay Record.
 
 WORKS Of ELLA WHEELER WILCOX Continued. 
 
 THREE WOMEN. 
 
 PRESENTATION" EDITION 12mo, cloth $1.00 
 
 NEW GIFT EDITION white vellum, gold top 1.50 
 
 Her latest and greatest poem. This marvelous narrative of 
 thrilling interest depicts the lives of three good and beautiful 
 women in every phase of weakness, passion, pride, It/t-e, sympathy, 
 and tenderness. 
 
 AN ERRING WOMAN'S LOVE. 
 
 PRESENTATION EDITION 12mo, cloth 81.00 
 
 NEW GIFT EDITION white vellum 1.50 
 
 "Power and pathos characterize this magnificent poem. 
 
 A deep understanding of life and an intense sympathy are 
 
 beautifully expressed." Tribune. 
 
 EVERY-DAY THOUGHTS IN PROSE AND VERSE. 
 
 Her largest, latest and greatest work. 
 
 PRESENTATION EDITION 12mo, cloth, gold top $1.50 
 
 NEW GIFT EDITION white vellum, gold top 2.00 
 
 MEN, WOMEN AND EMOTIONS. 
 
 (Prose.) 12mo, heavy enameled paper cover $0.50 
 
 English cloth 1.00 
 
 A skillful analysis of social habits, customs, and follies. 
 "Her fame has reached all parts of the world, and her 
 popularity seems to grow with each succeeding year." Amer- 
 ican Newsman. 
 
 AN AMBITIOUS MAN. 
 
 (Prose.) Silk cloth, 12mo $1.00 
 
 "Vivid realism stands forth from every page of this fas- 
 cinating book." Every Da, 
 
 THE BEAUTIFUL LAND OF NOD. 
 
 (Poems, songs, and stories.) With over sixty original 
 
 illustrations. Silk cloth $1.00 
 
 The delight of the nursery. A charming mother's book. 
 "The foremost baby's book of the world." *\'ew Orleans 
 Picayune, 
 
 PRESENTATION SETS. 
 
 Poems of Passion. Maurine, Poems of Pleasure. King- 
 dom of Love, and Poems of Power are supplied in 
 sets of 8, 4, or 5 titles, in cloth, or white vellum bind- 
 ings, as may be desired, in neat boxes, without extra 
 charge. 
 
 ELLA WHEELER WILCOX is pre-eminently America's leading 
 emotional poet and writer on every-day topics. 
 
 FOR SALE BY ALL BOOKSELLERS
 
 A 000 1 27 998 3