?EQUEL TO 
 
 J THE 
 
 lk
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 DRAFTED IN 
 
 A SEQUEL TO 
 
 THE BREAD-WINNERS 
 
 A SOCIAL STUDY. 
 
 BY 
 
 .tx,< 
 
 FAITH TEMPLETON, cs*. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 BLISS PUBLISHING CO., 
 
 235 Greenwich St.
 
 COPYRIGHT, BY 
 
 BLISS PUBLISHING Co., 
 
 !888.
 
 PS 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 In sending the present volume forth as a Sequel to 
 " The liread Winners," we gratefully acknowledge our 
 indebtedness to the author of that book, for permis 
 sion to do so. 
 
 Some of the characters, which figure prominently in 
 those pages and in whom we became more or less 
 interested have been indentified in real life ; and the 
 vicissitudes and reverses which Time has wrought in 
 their respective fortunes, necessitates this appendix 
 to that pleasing "Social Study." 
 
 It will perhaps be found more serious than social; 
 but we believe that in view of the present world-wide 
 significance of the great questions arising among the 
 "Bread Winners" of the world, it presents a picture 
 of social life which may be studied with profit by rich 
 and poor alike. 
 
 Were the two classes as distinct in their personali 
 ty, in real life as in the picture presented by the 
 author of the " Bread Winners," and like the planets 
 and their satellites, revolving harmoniously in their 
 respective orbits, then would the eternal fitness of 
 such human systems be established. But the truth is, 
 condition in this life is changeable as the wind and 
 fortune, evanescent as the dew ; ' promotion cometh 
 
 1.21 3575
 
 neither from the East, nor from the West," vice nor 
 virtue, toil nor treasure is the inalienable inherit 
 ance of any class or family of man. 
 
 It seemed the very "irony of fate " that elevated 
 Maud Matchin in the social scale, and reduced 
 Captain Farnham The Autocrat of society, and 
 knight of her ambitious dreams to the lowly estate 
 of a bread winner. It is at this period in their respec 
 tive lives that we take up the narrative so ably and 
 auspiciously begun. And we do so with much hesita 
 tion, conscious that its manner of relation, may 
 invite invidious comparison ; but, as " truth is stranger 
 than fiction," a simple faith in its unaided power 
 to touch some responsive chord in the human heart, 
 must be our apology. 
 
 While we appreciate the genius of the writer of 
 " The Bread Winners," and recognize his intimate 
 acquaintance with the better and brighter side of life ; 
 we regret that his knowledge of that numerous class 
 the bread winners was insufficient to furnish him a 
 single worthy example, to reflect a measure of credit 
 on the time-honored decree of the Almighty : " By 
 the sweat of his face, shall man eat bread all the days 
 of his life ?" 
 
 Yet the wisdom of the mandate, needs no defence. 
 The history of the world's progress, is the unwritten 
 history of toil. Some of the names, most honored 
 among men which come down to us, like benedictions 
 from the past, grew bright, like the plow-share, in the 
 the rough school of labor. The genius which has 
 revolutionized the world and worked out progress and 
 advancement for humanity, was born of toil. The 
 masters whose names adorn the scroll of fame, were 
 not idlers, and the great Master Jhe Carpenter of 
 Galilee has left an example of patient service, and 
 humility, for all ages and all people.
 
 Individuals, bound together by the " masonry" of 
 wealth may set up barriers, and strive to widen the 
 breach between man and man : statesmen may dis 
 semble, and proud arrogance oppress : royalty may 
 toy with its costly baubles, while starving millions 
 clamor for leave to win their bread ; but He, who 
 "loves righteousness, and hates robbery," shall yet 
 establish justice on the earth. "The fatherhood 
 of God, and the brotherhood of man" shall be confessed 
 when its kingdoms and crowns shall have crumbled 
 to dust. 
 
 THE AUTHOR.
 
 201 E, Houston St, N.Y. 
 
 DRAFTED IN 
 
 A 
 
 SEQUEL TO THE BREAD WINNERS 
 
 STRANGER THAN FICTION. 
 
 MRS. CHARLES RAYMOND had waited in the library 
 at least half an hour for the appearance of her tardy 
 escort to the opera. 
 
 Now the beautiful lady who lingered before the 
 handsome mantel mirror, smiling so brightly at the 
 reflection of herself, was neither critic, nor lover of 
 divine melodies ; but she had resolved in this instance 
 at least, to make it possible to express an opinion of 
 her own. 
 
 Patti sang that night, and though all the world 
 raved of her, it had been awkward for Mrs. Raymond 
 to conceal the fact that she had never heard the prima 
 donna.
 
 10 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 She arranged and re-arranged the little clump of 
 tea-roses at her belt ; now frowning at the striking 
 clock : now smiling archly that no mood of her many 
 whimsical ones could quite make a fright of her. 
 Then with a concentrated gaze of silent, unqualified 
 admiration, she whispered to herself : " It is no 
 wonder poor Sam used to say I was the handsomest 
 woman in the world ! I wonder what he would say if 
 he could see me now !" 
 
 She shuddered as the possible truth of Botz's theory 
 suggested itself to her mind, and looked over her 
 shoulder with the air of a frightened child, as if she 
 felt the presence of an ogre staring at her from 
 behind. 
 
 " I wish my old Blue-Beard would come ?" she said 
 aloud, stamping her foot in her sudden impatience. 
 He is really aggravating ! I don't believe he cares half 
 as much for Patti as he does for his old furnace !" 
 and with a more decided frown upon her face than 
 any the mirror had yet reflected, she threw herself 
 into a luxurious seat and snatched up the evening 
 paper. Glancing over its pages with a little grimace 
 at their fancied dullness, she was caught by a society 
 column. Fortunately it contained an account of Mrs. 
 Col. Wickersham's last reception, wherein every lady's 
 toilet was faithfully and impartially described. This 
 was literature that could be appreciated. She had 
 met with some of these gorgeous and brilliant birds 
 of fashion herself, which made these details more 
 engrossing. She read on, heedless now that the clock 
 struck the half hour, and the two little figures came 
 bounding out, and made their profound obeisance, all 
 unnoticed.
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. II 
 
 The room in which the lady sat thus absorbed, 
 though heavy, and old fashioned in its appointments, 
 had withal, so much of substantial comfort and refine 
 ment as to make its occupant, with all her showy 
 beauty, seem an exotic. There were books every 
 where upon the walls, substantial in binding, and 
 priceless in worth. There were busts of ancient 
 deities ; and fine old paintings, representing Histori 
 cal scenes ; all of which were valued as imparting a 
 kind of dignity to her surroundings ; but beloved 
 friends they could never be, as they had, in the long 
 ago been to one, whose place she had usurped. It is 
 a strange history that of Maud Sleeny's (nee Mat- 
 chin's) elevation to this position. It chanced in this 
 way : while the petted wife of poor Sleeny, she had 
 faithfully occupied a seat in a fashionable church, 
 where the honest carpenter never dared to set an 
 awkward foot. No one knew her there or questioned 
 from whence she came, or whither she went. It was 
 a formal church of aesthetic religionists ; and although 
 she felt consciously improved and exalted by their 
 silent companionship, but for a trifling incident, she 
 might have continued to mingle her prayers and 
 responses with the worshipers indefinitely, with no 
 more sense of kinship with a solitary soul, than is 
 felt for the statuary in an art gallery. 
 
 Saul Matchin and family had emigrated to the far 
 West. Maud and her husband were to follow when 
 ever he could dispose of the little wooden house he 
 had built, and finish some work he was engaged 
 upon. 
 
 But it was clearly destined never to be finished by 
 his hand. He fell from the building one day, and
 
 12 DRAFTED IK, A SEQUEL 
 
 was taken up from the hard pavement below, quite 
 dead ! 
 
 The poor young wife was violent in her grief. Sam 
 had been patient with her tempers and partial even to 
 her faults. She missed his blind worship. ' No one 
 else' she thought sadly, ' would ever praise her so 
 much again ;' and she would weep afresh, consider 
 ing herself very ill used indeed, to be deprived now, 
 of his poor homage. 
 
 But when she had put on her garments of mourn 
 ing, they so became her, that it was not strange she 
 forgot her tears in satisfactory contemplation of the 
 effect. It might be termed the luxury of woe. The 
 tall, willowy figure, so nun-like in its swathings ; the 
 youthful face with its rich coloring, to which the dark 
 setting served only as a foil ; the large, lustrous eyes 
 to which it lent a mournful expression ; the folds of 
 the heavy veil, falling about her protectingly, as if she 
 still were sacred to a buried love, altogether made a 
 charming picture. 
 
 " A young widow" she reflected " is rather interest 
 ing, more so than a girl." And again the things of 
 this transitory world became engrossing. The little 
 house was still unsold, and she decided to remain in 
 it. Her father and mother had never been any par 
 ticular advantage to her had in fact, helped rather 
 to keep her down ; 'why should she go to them now ?' 
 ' No, she would just try what she could do by herself.' 
 
 So she sought, and again obtained her old place in 
 the library, and continued to make a pleasant and 
 familiar figure on the streets of Buffland. 
 
 Thus, more than a year passed. One sweet spring 
 morning, still habited in the deepest mourning, she
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 13 
 
 was returning from the early services of the afore-* 
 mentioned church. 
 
 A park bounded the opposite side of the street on 
 which her walk lay. The grass was the freshest green 
 now, and all starred with golden dandelions. She 
 decided to go through it on her homeward way. It was 
 not much farther, and the day was fine. With this 
 intent, she was crossing the street briskly, when a 
 carriage came dashing along, and by a sudden turn of 
 the mettlesome horses the black-robed figure was 
 knocked senseless on the street. 
 
 A crowd gathered ; the carriage stopped ; and a 
 middle aged, plethoric gentleman scrambled out quick 
 ly as his weight would allow, and ran to her. 
 
 Two strong men lifted and bore her to the pave 
 ment, and water was brought and dashed in her face, 
 but to all appearance life was extinct. 
 
 " She is dead ! Oh ! sir, she is killed !" shrieked a 
 frightened woman as Mr. Raymond bent anxiously 
 over her. 
 
 " My God ! she looks like it !" he replied, the veins 
 in his forehead standing out suddenly, like cords, and 
 his honest blue eyes staring wildly at the white face. 
 
 " Call a doctor ! get a doctor ! Here boy, run to 
 the corner quick !" he vociferated. 
 
 That brisk and ubiquitous professional made his 
 appearance with scarcely a moment's delay. 
 
 A brief examination, and he announced : "syncope !" 
 " there is" he continued, placing his hand on the 
 region of the heart, " an interruption of the motion 
 of this organ ; a suspension of the action of the brain, 
 and a complete loss of sensation." 
 
 " Then she has only fainted" said the plain, brusque
 
 14 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 proprietor of the handsome equipage which had 
 wrought the mischief, looking greatly relieved. 
 
 The doctor assumed an air of grave deliberation, 
 but made no direct answer. Silence often passes for 
 wisdom, and he did not commit himself further. 
 " When the lady is removed to my office," he said 
 " or some convenient place near by, I can make a 
 more thorough examination." 
 
 " My team did the business, and she shall be taken 
 to my house !" declared the stout man ; "it is only a 
 square away." 
 
 When Maud awoke to consciousness, so strange 
 were her surroundings, that she hardly knew whether 
 she were still in the body, or out of it. She tried to 
 think what had happened. She made an effort to rise, 
 and look about her, but could not. Her right arm 
 was helplessly limp. She sank back dizzy and be 
 wildered. The learned doctor bending over her, the 
 same moment discovered ' that the right arm had sus 
 tained a fracture,' and the few terse sentences he 
 dropped in a professional way, assisted her scattered 
 senses to comprehend that an accident had befallen her 
 " It was impossible, he said, " to determine at present, 
 the extent of her injuries. Those apparent were not 
 alarming : there might be internal ones yet to be 
 developed. She must remain where she was, and be 
 kept perfectly quiet. He would bandage the arm and 
 return in the evening." 
 
 To remain where she was, seemed heaven to Maud. 
 The cool, beautiful apartment afforded a conscious 
 enjoyment never in all her plebeian life experienced 
 before ; therefore she listened to this counsel of the 
 good doctor, with a face that expressed sweet resigna-
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 15 
 
 tion. In her secret soul, she hoped her wounds 
 might prove sufficiently obstinate in the healing, to 
 render her stay for some day's a necessity. Whether 
 assisted in this by the kindly doctor or not, they 
 proved equal to her most sanguine wishes ; for the 
 day's passed into weeks before he pronounced her able 
 to bear a removal to her own home. After she had 
 gone, Mr. Raymond, the plethoric widower of double 
 her years, made an important discovery. His wifeless, 
 childless home was a dreary solitude. The sun-shine 
 seemed to have gone out of it with Maud's youth and 
 beauty : leaving it duller, and darker, and lonlier than 
 ever. It is true, this sentiment was not shared by the 
 old and faithful housekeeper, who was also a staunch 
 aristocrat. She expressed herself to her subordinates 
 " as mighty glad to be rid of that beggarly thing ! 
 She wa'n't no lady, as anyone could tell by the very 
 'spression of her face ; and she wa'n't use' to anything 
 but the commonest of people an' things. And then 
 sich a curious, pryin' person as she was ! jest like 
 that class !" 
 
 But such unfavorable comments did not disturb the 
 day dreams of Mr. Charles Raymond, the wealthy 
 proprietor of an immense foundry on South Street, 
 and a citizen of great respectability. 
 
 "What objection could there be," he even began to 
 ask himself, to a marriage with her ? I am old and 
 rich ; she young and poor. My age will balance her 
 poverty, and her youth, my money." Thus he 
 pondered ; and if any 'disagreeable objections ever 
 presented themselves to his judgment, they were 
 obstinately ruled out. 
 
 She soon became the arrogant mistress of his heart
 
 l6 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 and home ; and waited on this particular night, with 
 a shade of ill nature upon her beautiful face, to be 
 taken to the opera. 
 
 She had not revelled long in pen pictures of satins 
 and laces, brocades and velvets, with which her foolish 
 heart immoderately delighted ; when, to her sudden 
 joy, her husband's decided step was heard in the 
 hall. 
 
 "The carriage will be at the door in a second !" he 
 announced briskly, in answer to her upbraiding eyes. 
 " Get ready ! It is not too late yet. A little of that 
 quality of music, ought to satisfy us." 
 
 " It may you !" she retorted, while hurrying into a 
 handsome seal-skin sacque, and placing a jaunty hat, 
 with drooping plumes, defiantly upon her superb head, 
 "but I'm fond of music." 
 
 " Of course you are !" acquiesced the good-natured 
 husband : watching with pleased eyes, the effect of the 
 new hat, and secretly amused at the profundity of the 
 pretty wife as an art critic. " And did I not appre 
 ciate the fact, when I secured the best seats ? Patti 
 must give forth her divinest strains to-night," kissing 
 the pouting lips, " or we will not encourage her again 
 by our presence !" 
 
 After a moment he added with a look of mystery, 
 as if withholding some wonderful secret : 
 
 " But I have a little news that will please you more 
 than her songs." 
 
 This at once piqued her curiousity, but the sly 
 twinkle of his eye induced her to say : 
 
 " I know you're teasing me ! just trying to make up 
 for keeping me waiting so long, you naughty boy !" 
 
 Now the broad-shouldered, heavily be-whiskered
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. I 7 
 
 man could lay slight claim to the most advanced stage 
 of boyhood, but Maud enjoyed this pleasant fiction, 
 and it sometimes served to stimulate his obesity with 
 some of the frolicsome spirit of youth ; and now he 
 caught the delicately gloved hands of the blooming 
 wife, and waltzed with her, through the wide hall, on 
 their way to the carriage. 
 
 He panted, and was quite breathless from the 
 exertion as he entered it. After she had bestowed 
 herself among the soft cushions she said, laughingly : 
 
 " Charley ! you dance, just for all the world, like a 
 big bear !" 
 
 "Why! now, that is poor encouragement for a 
 young performer," he replied, in a discontented voice. 
 
 " Encouragement !" she responded. " You never 
 need encouragement ! Here, fasten my glove !" " I 
 can't !" 
 
 He took off his own, and struggled with the refrac 
 tory buttons, until he looked apoplectic in the face. 
 
 " Dear me ! how clumsy you are !" declared the 
 lady. " Do let it alone ; you are pulling it all out of 
 shape." 
 
 They were at the Music Hall now, and the carriage 
 stopped : The frown disappeared from the lovely 
 face, which a moment later wore its most winning 
 smile, as the proud husband trudged behind it, with 
 lover-like devotion, as they were being ushered to 
 their seats. It was a brilliant and crowded house, and 
 Maud was triumphant ; conscious that she was the 
 cynosure of many eyes. 
 
 Of the evening's entertainment there is nothing to 
 record. The melting sounds of a wonderously sweet 
 human voice, rose and fell like silvery wavelets on the
 
 1 8 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 air, applauded to the echo. The delighted audience 
 dispersed, some to remember the almost seraphic 
 notes, and more to forget everything but the scene 
 and the occasion. 
 
 Of the latter number, was Mrs. Charles Raymond, 
 who at a later hour, in the privacy of her own room, 
 chatted of the event with remarkable fluency. 
 
 They sat before an open fire, enjoying a dainty 
 lunch which had been set for them. Both were in a 
 most enviable frame of mind. He had been very 
 proud of his young wife, and she perfectly satisfied 
 with the homage of admiring eyes. 
 
 " I never saw such a pretty dress as Patti wore to 
 night !" was her first profound remark, "and such a 
 train as it had ! why, it reached almost across the 
 stage ! and such diamonds ! and so many of them ! 
 I do believe she had fifty ! I wonder how I should 
 look, dressed in that style ?" 
 
 "You look better just as you are!" declared the 
 husband, with something like disapprobation in his 
 tone. " I should be sorry to see you looking quite so 
 formidable ; but she sings like a Bobolink !" 
 
 "She has an elegant voice!" responded the wife, 
 with frank enthusiasm. "Perfectly elegant!" and 
 then proceeded to enumerate the people she had 
 recognized in the crowded house, with much more 
 unimportant gossip, quite irrelevant to this narrative. 
 
 " I have something to tell you," the husband inter 
 rupted. "Something, that interests me a good deal, 
 just now." 
 
 " Something to tell me ? Have you really some 
 thing nice to tell me, Charley ?" and she sprang into 
 his lap like an eager child, and put both arms coax-
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 19 
 
 ingly around his neck " " and you have been keeping 
 it all this time ?" 
 
 " Because you did not ask for it !" 
 
 " Well, I do now, and I just guess it's new furni 
 ture :" and she looked smiling and expectant. 
 
 He smiled too, yet not so brightly. " No, you have 
 not guessed," he said, " I hardly know where to begin, 
 'tis a long story." 
 
 " A story ?" she querried, disappointedly. " I 
 thought it was something new." 
 
 "It will be new to you !" he said, looking into her 
 eyes, with a kind of tender yearning for something 
 that was not there. 
 
 "Well, begin then !' she coaxed, combing her slen 
 der fingers through his shaggy and mottled beard. 
 
 The story-teller hesitated, looking half amusedly, 
 half thoughtfully down at the eager face. Then said 
 impressively : 
 
 " Once upon a time " 
 
 Maud now settled herself to listen, with the interest 
 that a child exhibits in a fairy-tale. 
 
 She liked stories of the right sort, perhaps only 
 less than new clothes and furniture. 
 
 He repeated, " Once upon a time, there was an old 
 parson living upon a mountain, which overlooked a 
 large city. 
 
 On this mountain, he had a fine vineyard, and under 
 it, a vast mine of coal. Now the parson was both 
 very pious, and very shrewd, and while he preached 
 and prayed to save the souls of people, he trafficked 
 pretty industriously in his worldly wares, to minister 
 to their bodily needs, and I suspect, laid up consider 
 able treasure in two worlds.
 
 20 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 This good man built him a fine airy house, large 
 and strong, with a wide porch running all around it. 
 At the right, were substantial outhouses, and at the 
 left and behind it, a thrifty orchard. 
 
 Here, three noisy children romped, free as the rabbits, 
 which played hide-and seek with them. Their names 
 might have had something to do with their antics" 
 
 " What was that ?" inquired Maud. 
 
 " Fox, and the old parson used to say : ' It is 
 the little foxes that spoil the vines' , when he found 
 them, as he often did, trailing upon the ground. 
 
 Whoever gained this eyrie, took a steam car at the 
 end of a long, filthy, city street which this mountain 
 seemed to have sat down upon and shot straight 
 upward, as if starting for the moon." 
 
 " It is like an old fashioned story book !" declared 
 Maud, " I expect there was a glass house up there, 
 and a giant." 
 
 " No, nothing of that sort. It was an every-day 
 sort of a place : a pretty home, once " 
 
 "A more sympathetic listener than Maud would 
 have detected a note of tenderness in the last words : 
 but she only said by way of encouragement : 
 
 "Well!" 
 
 And he proceeded : 
 
 "The children were two sons and a daughter, and 
 there was another, an elder half-brother ; son of the 
 same mother by a former husband. Now, as the 
 young Foxes matured, and like that animal grew 
 wily with experience and age, and the poor mother 
 overweighted with care, had crept into the grave this 
 boy dropped suddenly out of that altitude, into the 
 great world below.
 
 TO " THE BRKAI) WINNERS. 21 
 
 The eldest and slyest of the Foxes the one in 
 after years dubbed ' the old Fox' remained, and does 
 to this day, foraging in his native mountains." 
 
 " Is it true !" asked Maud, disappointedly. 
 
 "Well, it is not exactly a French novel," decided 
 the story-teller, pausing reflectively, "but I will chris 
 ten it : 'An American romance, founded on fact.'" 
 
 This sounded rather taking ; a little fiction mixed 
 with facts, rendered them more palatable. 
 
 " Well !" she encouraged again. 
 
 "The sister married, and settled in an Eastern 
 City," he resumed ; " the youngest Fox, a burly 
 shock-headed pugilist " 
 
 "Why, Charley! you look just as if you knew and 
 hated him," interrupted Maud. 
 
 He smiled ; " do you know, that is a compliment to 
 my powers of description ? These characters begin 
 to be instinct with life. Well, this martial Fox he 
 married young. He married temper : married tongue. 
 
 " See" said he : " how your praise inspires me ? I drop 
 into verse the highest style of composition, quite 
 unconsciously." 
 
 "I don't like verses as well," Maud frankly confess 
 ed, lest he might proceed in that style if not promptly 
 checked. 
 
 " Take it just as you like," said the amiable man, 
 and returning to plain prose, proceeded : 
 
 " He brought his bride to his mountain home ; 
 where, independent of other society, they succeeded 
 in making it tolerably lively for each other, and I 
 suspect enjoyed a good deal of operatic music never 
 advertised on the boards. 
 
 In course of time a son and daughter were born to
 
 22 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 this fond pair, and named respectively for a king and 
 queen of Ancient History. And now, strange to 
 relate ! domestic life, however exciting, or stirring it 
 may have been, lost its interest for the lady. Society 
 attracted her, but unfortunately, society was unrespon 
 sive to her magnetic powers. 
 
 She pondered the subject ; brought in artificial 
 aids books of etiquette, and practised, when by 
 herself, pleasant intonations of voice. 
 
 'But Fox' ! Ox, she would say angrily, " 
 
 "Oh!" laughed Maud, "how do you know what 
 people do, and say, when they are alone ?" 
 
 "Guess at it!" he replied promptly; "that is, 
 reason from the premises : she has a voice like an 
 angel when in society ; which voice was never heard 
 by friend or foe in the home. Therefore, it must of 
 necessity have been acquired by private practice. Is 
 not that logical ? and I suppose she dropped the 
 initial letter of that name because the man suggests 
 that animal, rather than the other ; with his staring, 
 wide-set eyes ; broad heavy shoulders, and general 
 obstinate tough-hidedness ; and she being an ingenious 
 woman, could not fail to apply it. 
 
 I am certain too, that on these occasions of self- 
 examination, she recognized the fact, that this animal 
 had no manners ; that he was not likely to acquire 
 the high state of polish necessary to her ambitious 
 aims ; situated as he was, and surrounded by home 
 influence. Thus, foreign travel became imperative. 
 
 And they travelled : sojourned in Europe several 
 years, it was reported here ' to educate the 
 children' (?) 
 
 Then the parson died and they came back to the old
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 23 
 
 home. This was about a year ago. They brought 
 back great spoils, from those foreign parts : pictures 
 and curosities of all sorts." 
 
 " Bric-a-brac" corrected Maud. 
 
 "Well, bric-a-brac ! The house is quite a museum: 
 and they have books, in all foreign languages ! 
 
 It is wonderful what progress people make abroad. 
 
 I think we must cross the ocean, Maud !" he said, 
 looking quizzically into the now listless face. 
 
 The story was growing a little monotonous ; he 
 made an effort to rouse the flagging interest. 
 
 "I would just love to !" she said. 
 
 " I now come to the very pith and marrow of my 
 story : the denouement, we literary fellows call it : I, 
 Charles Raymond, am the elder half-brother to this 
 family of foxes and one of the heirs to this estate. It 
 was my mother's inheritance." 
 
 "Why ! you never told me you had any relations," 
 exclaimed Maud excitedly. 
 
 " Well, you see my dear ! as relatives, they are not 
 precious," confessed the husband, half sadly. "But 
 we have some interests in common : and this estate, is 
 becoming valuable. 
 
 The city that I mentioned is one of great import 
 ance as a manufacturing center, and takes rank among 
 the first in the Union, for substantial wealth and 
 prominent industries. 
 
 It is a dingy place generally in eclipse, from the 
 combined effects of smoke and fog ; and, as if to pre 
 vent the blemishing of any other part of God's fair 
 creation, 'Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther!' 
 has been spoken by the everlasting hills, which keep 
 watch and guard around it.
 
 *4 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 Now the denizens have become restless ; they want 
 to escape ; and here within easy access, lies our fine 
 elevated, rolling land." 
 
 "You said it was a mountain !" corrected Maud. 
 
 "Well it is called a Mount, and I only added a 
 syllable ; but you must not suppose it a Himalaya. It 
 is just a charming location for a suburban town ; and 
 that is what we propose to make of it." 
 
 Here, the story-teller seemed to forget his vocation, 
 and relapsed into a thoughtful silence, which Maud 
 improved by tying his mottled beard under his chin ; 
 parting his hair down the middle, and twisting his 
 frost-toutched mustache into terribly ferocious little 
 horns. 
 
 " It is a vast scheme !" he suddenly exclaimed, 
 combing his fingers absently through all this pretty 
 entanglement, "why Maud, you don't seem to realize 
 its magnitude in the least !" 
 
 "Indeed I do!" she replied, nodding complacently: 
 " I think it will be just immense!" 
 
 "We shall commence operations right away !" con 
 tinued the gentleman, half in soliloquy, a shade of 
 disappointment flitting athwart his good natured-face 
 like a shadow, chasing a sun-beam. " A good many 
 lots have been sold already and quite a colony started. 
 
 There is a good school house, and a little church ; 
 and about twenty families of the poorer sort, are now 
 located there. But we shall lay it out regularly : build 
 handsome residences, and business blocks, either for 
 sale or rent, as suits best. 
 
 There is a fine quarry on the ground, and an ex 
 cellent quality of clay for bricks. We shall put in
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 25 
 
 city water, and gas, and have our own-wood-working 
 machinery. There is a fortune in it and a huge one, 
 if it is properly managed !" he added, knitting his 
 brows, and looking straight before him. 
 
 " And we shall move there !" put in Maud, gleefully ; 
 "and you will build us a regular castle, just like some 
 of those old nabobs have in New York, that I've read 
 all about." 
 
 "What nonsense!" exclaimed the husband. "I 
 have something else to do, besides building castles 
 though this may be one in the air, possibly." 
 
 " But we shall move !" persisted Maud, who, being 
 somewhat migratory in her tastes, and habits, was 
 tiring ever so little of the old fashioned house, and its 
 familiar furnishings. 
 
 "Why no, child ! did you suppose I should give up 
 my business here ? That is the difficulty. I am 
 fastened in Buffland, and that interest needs looking 
 after. 
 
 I have objected to the man they proposed putting 
 in as general superintendent, and they have author 
 ized me to look up the right man for the place, and 
 that will be my first business !" he decided, looking 
 sharply at the handsome mantel-clock, and never 
 heeding, that its two dainty hands pointed warningly 
 to the midnight hour. 
 
 " If Burbank were disengaged," he continued with 
 unflagging interest in the prospective details of this 
 engrossing subject, "he would be first-class. Just the 
 man I should pick. But he has started in again for 
 himself : that is the trouble ; men with brains, want 
 to hew their own road. And there i s Gurnsey ! tip 
 top puts whatever he has anything to do with, right
 
 26 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 through sharp. But I couldn't trust him : looks out 
 too well for Gurnsey !" 
 
 These were dry details for Maud, who since it was 
 settled that she was not to occupy a castle, or even 
 move ; had been secretly deciding the whole story 
 disappointing and tiresome ; and just like some slow 
 old body would go on telling for the sake of being 
 listened to. 
 
 So she skipped out of the fond arms, pointed 
 reproachfully to the clock, and began making hurried 
 preparations to retire. 
 
 But her lord still sat revolving plans, long after her 
 beautiful and empty head, rested lightly on the pillow. 
 
 To find just the right man was a matter of no small 
 magnitude. At last, after a long and fruitless mental 
 search he was struck with an idea. 
 
 "There it is! clear as daylight!" he exclaimed, 
 bringing down his first upon the little table at his 
 elbow with an emphasis that shook the glasses ; 
 Farnham is the man I want ! He applied for that 
 place in the office, and I had Baker engaged, and he 
 is better suited for this : superintended any number 
 of buildings West he told me, and knows how to handle 
 and control men. 
 
 Poor Captain ! I never thought he would be one to 
 accept such a position : but life, and fortune are 
 uncertain quantities !" and with this sage reflection he 
 lay down to rest.
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 2J 
 
 II. 
 
 THE WAY OF THE WORLD. 
 
 The next morning Raymond was astir bedtimes. 
 He did not linger to unfold any plans which had been 
 maturing in his active brain since the previous even 
 ing, to the pretty priestess, presiding over the coffee 
 urn but ate and drank in a pre-occupied way, which 
 indeed, was almost habitual to him, and imprinting a 
 hasty kiss upon her cheek in passing, hurried forth. 
 
 First he visited his own office, looking after immedi 
 ate interests there. Then commenced a search for 
 one, who, but a few years before, had occupied a 
 prominent place in the business and social circles of 
 the city. 
 
 " Strange" he mused, as in his rapid walk he turned 
 down Aljonquin Avenue brilliant and stately in its 
 magnificent repose at this early hour "This used to 
 be his headpuarters ; but it has forgotten him long 
 ago, and the good Lord only knows where to find the 
 man now !" 
 
 He was crossing this to gain Henry street, when a 
 horse and light-wheeled vehicle came tearing along 
 at such a furious rate that he barely escaped being 
 run over. 
 
 The spruce gentleman holding the reins, checked 
 up the trotter sharply, and called out with a good 
 natured oath : 
 
 " it ! is that you, Raymond ? What the
 
 28 DRAFTED I\, A SEQUEL 
 
 is the matter with your legs ? I thought I should run 
 
 over you. in spite of !" and looking up, he was 
 
 glad to recognize the redoubtable Temple in fact, 
 without the aid of his eyes, he could scarcely have 
 mistaken the man from his peculiar gift of profanity. 
 
 "Why this is luck !" exclaimed Raymond warmly; 
 " I believe you are the very man I am looking for, to 
 put me on the track of another. I want to find that 
 old friend of yours, Captain Farnham, and of 
 course ' 
 
 "Of course nothing !" interrupted Temple bluntly. 
 
 "I'll be if I haven't enough to do to keep 
 
 track of myself these infernel times." 
 
 "Then you can't give me an idea !" questioned 
 Raymond, disappointedly. ' 'It is strange how we 
 drop out of this whirlpool of life, without leaving a 
 ripple on the surface to show where we have gone 
 down." 
 
 " By man," roared Temple, " I happen to 
 
 know where that chap went down : 'twas in that rail 
 road fizzle. 
 
 Get in here, and I'll tell you every-thing I know 
 about him !" 
 
 Raymond climbed up and settled the light wagon 
 seat a foot, as he deposited himself besides the other. 
 
 Temple looked around amusedly as the springs 
 clicked together : 
 
 " Old Nick himself, will refuse to take you one of 
 these days," he said "if you don't begin the anti-fat diet 
 soon." 
 
 " Perhaps I had better get out," suggested Raymond. 
 
 "No ; sit more in the middle, and I'll crowd up on 
 this side. There ! that's all right ! I'm afraid" he be-
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS.' 29 
 
 gan, speeding the horse with the faintest possible 
 touch of the whip, "that poor Farnham's gone to the 
 dogs ! 
 
 Isn't she a beauty though ? watch her stamp the 
 ground ! won't bear the whip, you see. She is all 
 spirit. High-strung as the : Easily curbed, too. 
 
 I tried to help Farnham on to his feet, but it, 
 
 he was in too deep. He was an extravagant fellow ! 
 
 Knew a sight more about spending money, than he 
 
 ever will about making it. But that was an awful 
 
 crash ? I thought the bottom was out of . I'll 
 
 touch her again ! just see her dance ! 
 
 You know I am one of the directors of the First 
 National and I tried to get him into a vacancy there, a 
 spell ago, but he was sick. I was out to his house 
 then two or three months ago, I suppose and I 
 have not seen or heard anything of him since. He 
 lived on a back street, over in that direction," indicat 
 ing with his whip, " and I dare swear, they are there 
 yet ! too poor to get away. 
 
 I don't know what he's doing, or going to do ; and 
 
 me if I think it concerns me particularly. But 
 
 he was a right good fellow ! and has got a pretty 
 
 doll of a wife ! but that mother of hers I am too 
 indignant, to think of a woman of her age and 
 pretensions, meddling with speculation. She couldn't 
 
 let well enough alone, and has lost every cent 
 
 she had in the world ; and serves her right too. 
 
 There !" he exclaimed, reining his horse suddenly, 
 " here we are ! I thought it was somewhere over in 
 here. I know the place by those green things in that 
 window, See, every old pot is decorated !"
 
 -30 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 
 
 Raymond alighted, and the springs bounded joy 
 fully into place. 
 
 " Go in, won't you ?" he urged ; but Temple pleaded 
 an engagement. He was late now : " Half an hour 
 late" he declared, drawing his watch, and with a 
 flourish of his whip, he touched both his hat and ' the 
 beauty' and sped away like the wind ; his parting nod 
 seemed to say : 
 
 " Watch her now, my boy !" 
 
 Mr. Raymond surveyed the house a moment and 
 rang the bell almost timidly. He shrank from an 
 interview which he felt must be painful. 
 
 " I knew him only in a business way," he reflected, 
 " but this is a sorry change !" 
 
 The door was opened by a young girl, a slender, 
 soft-eyed brunette. To the inquiry : " Does Captain 
 Farnham live here ?" she replied in the affirmative ; and 
 conducting him into a small parlor, where a dim fire 
 burned in the grate ; and flowers occupied the single 
 window upon the street, she retired to summon him. 
 
 He came in almost immediately. Raymond was 
 touched, even shocked by the man's altered looks. 
 His face was thin and haggard from some wasting 
 sickness ; and his forehead, once so smooth was 
 seamed with care. His handsome eyes lighted up 
 with pleasure at sight of his guest, whom he greeted 
 with a cordial shake of the hand, 
 
 " I am afraid you have been very ill," said Raymond 
 feelingly. 
 
 " It has been something phenomenal, I believe," 
 replied Farnham ; " I have never been sick in my life, 
 except from the effects of that assault : do you 
 remember it ? and the fever marshalled all its forces,
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 31 
 
 to subdue an obstinate subject. Now that I am con 
 valescing, health and strength come by slow stages." 
 
 Raymond had once been stricken down with a 
 malignant fever, and he gave something of its history : 
 This seemed a bond of sympathy between the two 
 men, and he then introduced the subject of his visit. 
 
 ' He called with a view of making a business pro 
 position, and was disappointed to find him unable to 
 entertain it.' 
 
 Farnham grasped Raymond's hand with a sudden 
 eagerness that bore straight to his heart a burden of 
 necessities, which words would have failed to convey. 
 
 There was a momentary pause, and then Raymond 
 said : 
 
 " I am distressed to find you so weak ! I have 
 thought of you often since " and paused leav 
 ing the sentence unfinished. 
 
 A faint color overspread Farnham's face, as he said : 
 " You mean since my reverses ! Ah ! yes, it has been 
 a kind of running fight since then between sickness 
 and and other difficulties, though an old soldier 
 who has seen service before, ought not to complain. 
 
 But" he added, dropping his voice almost to a 
 whisper, and fixing his unnaturally large eyes gloomily 
 on the other, " physical suffering may be endured, 
 where mental and sympathetic are almost maddening." 
 
 Raymond felt the secret remorse, which preyed upon 
 the invalids's heart, the sting which defeated ambi 
 tion leaves behind it, to rankle there, aggravating- 
 the miseries of penury ; and was silent. 
 
 Farnham continued with sudden vehemence : 
 
 ' I long to escape from these four walls ! to do 
 something, if it be ever so paltry."
 
 32 DRAFTED IX, A SKQUKI 
 
 " You are scarcely fit at present," remonstrated 
 Raymond ; " in a little time, you will not confine your 
 self to a paltry business I trust." 
 
 " I have made application by letter to several 
 houses," continued Farnham, flushing with a nervous 
 eagerness that could not be concealed, "and answered 
 no end of advertisements within the last two weeks 
 but so far, without results." 
 
 "What I want," began Raymond with a sudden 
 augmentation of interest in his theme, "is to find a 
 man of experience to act in the capacity of general 
 superintendant in the business of building, selling, 
 and renting a good, substantial class of suburban 
 residences. I thought of you as one who has had 
 some experience in a general way, in most of these 
 interests, and very much hoped to find you disen 
 gaged, and able to take hold of it. I have a share in 
 this enterprise myself, and feel that I could 
 trust your judgment and ability to manage it for me." 
 
 Farnham smiled faintly, and said : 
 
 " I fear I am not entitled to much confidence in that 
 direction, as perhaps my own broken fortunes might 
 suggest to you. But the facts are, Raymond, my 
 estate was more deeply embarrassed by the treachery 
 of Briggs than my best friends were aware. Then I 
 made a venture to retrieve the loss, and a wild, and 
 desperate venture it proved to be. Poor Mrs. Beld- 
 ing ! I feel her losses more than my own, and to a 
 . certain extent also, responsible for them ; though I 
 never advised or influenced her to invest in those 
 securities, except by example. She is with us now, 
 and completely crushed ; but Alice" he exclaimed with 
 a quick illumination of face, "bears all like an angel."
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 33 
 
 "That is everything !" Raymond assured him in 
 confidential tones. " I suffered some reverses during 
 the life of my first wife, and it almost repays one for 
 the bitter experience, to prove how true and brave a 
 woman can be." 
 
 He pronounced this little tribute with much honest 
 fervor, but glancing at the face of the listener, doubt 
 ed if he had heard him. Then he slid into ex 
 planations, and details respecting the new venture and 
 was gratified to see that he was followed closely. 
 
 'Nothing,' Farnham said eagerly, as Raymond 
 paused, 'would suit him now, like an active out-of-door 
 employment. It would be medicine to both soul and 
 body. He was willing to undertake it, if terms could 
 be fixed satisfactorily to both parties. When was it 
 proposed to begin these operations ?' 
 
 " Just as soon as you are able to go out and take 
 charge of it, if you think favorably of my proposi 
 tion" Raymond replied, smiling at the invalids' en 
 thusiasm ; " Spring will be here soon : every day now 
 is precious." 
 
 Farnham's thin face was flushed and excited. Ray 
 mond thought with a secret pang, of the men he 
 would have to deal with personally, and said : 
 
 " You are aware that my own private affairs fasten 
 me here, and that my two half brothers have the con 
 trolling interest in this business. I regret to say they 
 are not the most genial gentlemen in the world. 
 
 You will of course have a written contract, and see 
 that it leaves nothing open for future misunderstand 
 ings. They signified their intention to fix the salary 
 sufficient for personal and household expenses, and
 
 34 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 add a certain percentage of the profit of the business 
 to this, as they accrued." 
 
 Mr. Farnham expressed himself satisfied with such 
 an arrangement. ' He had no doubt if the location 
 were suitable, and the demand at all brisk, that the 
 scheme would prove eminently successful. He would 
 take the chances !' and poking the fire into blaze with 
 a sudden recklessness, he said with animation : " You 
 must see my wife before you go, and Mrs. Belding ; 
 they will be glad to meet you." 
 
 Raymond laid a detaining hand on his arm and 
 counselled : " No more excitement for you at present. 
 I will go now. I shall be most happy to meet them, 
 when I come again, which will be soon. Meantime, 
 you can talk over matters, and get them familiarized 
 with the prospect of a change of residence. Ladies 
 do not take to that readily, I believe." 
 
 He moved toward the door " no," he urged, wav 
 ing a hand backward, as he hurried forth ; " don't 
 come with me !" 
 
 But Farnham followed, loath to see the burly figure 
 depart, and stood watching wistfully, as it strolled 
 away down the street, until it had disappeared from 
 view. Turning then, he encountered the ubraiding 
 eyes of his wife. 
 
 She had come in hearing no longer the sound of 
 voices and to her surprise found the careless invalid, 
 standing in the open door. 
 
 " It is not safe to leave you by yourself a single 
 minute !" she said reproachfully ; "mamma says, ' of 
 all things, a relapse is the very worst that could 
 happen," and she hurried him into the little parlor, 
 and taking a fleecy shawl from her own shoulders,
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 35 
 
 wrapped it about him, with a most maternal expression 
 of countenance. 
 
 " Delilah cut off Samson's hair," he soliloquized, 
 droping into an arm-chair," but my Alice takes a more 
 beguiling method to reduce her giant's strength." 
 
 " Giant's strength !" apostrophized Alice. 
 
 " She wraps him in cotton wool and puts him in the 
 warmest corner : when he is finished off in this world, 
 she will be able to write a treatise on incubation." 
 
 The young wife smiled demurely, and asked with a 
 tender concern in the lovely eyes which now appealed 
 to his " where do you think you might be now, if 
 mamma and I had not watched over you ?" 
 
 " I am not prepared to answer a question so direct 
 and searching." 
 
 "And there was never such a restless patient either, 
 I believe." 
 
 "That is somewhat paradoxical," objected Farnham 
 "a restless patient ?" 
 
 " But mama says that all men are alike, when once 
 they get ill." 
 
 " Does she ?" inquired Farnham, with a quizzical 
 smile ; then she may congratulate herself that she has 
 no more of the genus homo to nurse. Tell me truly, 
 Alice ; have I not been a slightly rebellious subject 
 to her Majesty's rule ?" 
 
 " Why Arthur," replied the wife, biting her lips, and 
 looking quietly amused ; "what has put that into your 
 head ? You have suffered like one of the martyrs." 
 
 " I am relieved to know it !" declared Farnham, 
 " for I have been troubled with a suspicion that I had 
 not played the role of the ' meekest man,' and secretly 
 ranked our mother among the martyrs."
 
 36 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 "What sickly fancies !" laughed Alice. 
 
 " Don't beat around the bush, darling ! You know 
 I have been like a big fly in a bottle, striking blindly 
 about, and our dear mother hasn't been quite the 
 angel perhaps, but I forgive her !" he confessed with 
 amiable forbearance, and now dear, I have something 
 cheering to tell you all : bring her in Alice !" 
 
 Alice looked into his eyes a moment in puzzled 
 surprise. 
 
 "Quick !" he urged, "she must hear it with you: 
 it will do her good ; our Annie too." 
 
 A moment later, Mrs. Belding came in, fixing a 
 pair of curiously questioning eyes on her patient, as 
 if she apprehended some new and dreaded phase of 
 his malady. Somewhat changed in appearance from 
 what we last remember her ; a few years older ; a shade 
 paler ; a little more severe of countenance. She was 
 simply but neatly dressed, and held some trifle of 
 needlework in her hand. 
 
 "Put your sewing away mother !" premised Arthur 
 affectionately ; " I have some good news at last, and 
 I want to see your face brighten up and look as it 
 used to. "Where is 'the person of the house.' " 
 
 The little brunette, who had won this sobriquet by 
 her cheerful efficiency in household industries, appear 
 ed at this moment, and taking a low stool at his feet, 
 rested her clasped hands on his knees. 
 
 " I have a good situation offered me ; a competent 
 salary, and an interest in the business !" Said Arthur, 
 impressively. 
 
 The severity of Mrs. Belding's face relaxed visibly ; 
 and Alice was almost hysterical with joy. 
 
 " Should not the milk punch come in here ?" sug-
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 37 
 
 gested Annie, with mischief in her tones, but solicitude 
 in her face : 
 
 ' Uncle was more excited than was good for him.' 
 " I had it all mixed, when the gentleman left," she 
 explained, "for I feared you were being talked to death." 
 
 A moment after, she returned with a glass of the 
 tempting beverage, and held it to his lips until he had 
 drank it off. 
 
 " That was timely !" he confessed, beaming with 
 satisfaction. " How is it mother that a careless little 
 song bird like our Annie, comes possessed of such 
 wonderful forethought ?" 
 
 Mrs. Belding was disinclined to entertain the ques 
 tion, impatient for more of the good news. 
 
 " Who was the gentleman who called upon you, and 
 through whom this position has come ?" slic inquired 
 with animation. 
 
 " Mr. Charles Raymond : one of our most substan 
 tial business men ; a shrewd, honest, well-to-do, 
 thoroughly good fellow. He is interested with some 
 half-brothers in a tract of land lying conveniently near 
 Ironton. That, you know, is a busy, growing place ; 
 but, unfortunately, it has not the room to expand ; it 
 is blocked by high hills. These men with land and 
 money at their disposal, propose to take advantage of 
 the situation ; and build a suburban town. 
 
 It strikes me as a brilliant idea ! They will sell and 
 rent, and I am to have a general management of the 
 business. 
 
 Raymond did me a very good turn when he recom 
 mended me for the place. ' 
 
 " I should think anyone might recommend you !" 
 said Alice.
 
 38 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " That is what they should do, my dear, undoubted 
 ly," replied Farnham ; but unfortunately, not what 
 many people seem to be engaged in, in this 
 unappreciative world : recommending such deserving 
 ones to fill the best places." 
 
 " I should think not !" said Mrs. Belding, with 
 much asperity, as if personally suffering from the 
 injustice of mankind. 
 
 "We are to move next week !" announced Farnham 
 with sudden energy." 
 
 " Why, Arthur Farnham !" are you crazy ? You ! 
 scarcely out of your sick bed ; indeed we shall do no 
 such thing !" protested Mrs. Belding. 
 
 "The very thought is medicine !" he declared stoutly; 
 " how long have I been shut up in this house." 
 
 " Ten weeks !" Alice replied. 
 
 " Ten weeks !" he repeated ; " it seems a whole 
 decade ; but another one will see me out in the world ! 
 Don't compress your lips in that stern way, mother ! I 
 feel it will be the best thing for me the best for us 
 all. The land is high where we are going, and the 
 breeze from the mountains will sweep down upon us, 
 and bring health and vigor in every whiff." 
 
 Thus he descanted upon the free and happy out-of- 
 door life which he should enjoy, with the eagerness of 
 extreme youth ; while Alice plied him with questions 
 respecting their new surroundings. 
 
 " What sort of a house do you suppose we shall 
 have, Arthur ?" she asked naively. 
 
 " My love ! something seems to suggest to my fancy, 
 a little Swiss gothic !" he announced after a momen 
 tary grave deliberation." 
 
 " Of course," she returned, " I don't expect you to
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 39 
 
 tell to a certainty ; I was only thinking how nice it 
 would be if it should happen to look anything like 
 our dear old house." 
 
 Farnham glanced at the young wife, and was silent ; 
 a great wave of tenderness swept over him. 
 
 " She is homesick, and no wonder," was his thought. 
 She continued half timidly : 
 
 " And we could put down our best carpets and have 
 the piano in the parlor." 
 
 " To be sure, darling ! we can and will ! nothing 
 shall spare the best carpets, and the piano shall ha^e 
 the place of honor ; and you shall sing : Home, 
 Sweet Home to me, just as you used to, in the 
 twilight." 
 
 Tears of joy were in her eyes at the blissful picture. 
 Indeed every one of the little household grew jubilant 
 over the prospect. Even Mrs. Belding, whom trouble 
 had almost embittered ; and who seemed to take a 
 melancholy pleasure in gloomy forbodings, yielded 
 somewhat to the cheerful influences, and ' hoped the 
 sudden change might be for the better ;' and began to 
 entertain prudential plans, as to the safe removal of 
 petted flowers ; and the most tender disposal during 
 this transition state, of her long cherished canary, old 
 Jack. 
 
 " To the little niece, who had never known too 
 much of either luxury or joy, it was a brilliant bow 
 of promise spanning the whole firmament. 
 Soul ad body seemed suddenly endowed with wings. 
 Labor was a service of love ; and toil her treasure- 
 trove. The great event of moving, which usually 
 carries terror to the stoutest heart, produced an intoxi 
 cation of joy, that became a contagion in the household.
 
 40 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 In Buffland they had suffered reverses ; wounded 
 pride ; the estrangement of friends ; sickness ; 
 actual poverty. How soothing, to leave even the 
 memory of it behind ! 
 
 Each one began to make ready for the coming 
 flight, and to gather up their treasures. The hitherto 
 watchful nurses relaxed in their surveillance of the 
 invalid. He wandered from room to room, with 
 restless eyes, impatient for the process of dismantling 
 to begin. 
 
 On the fourth morning after that eventful day, Mr. 
 Raymond called again. He was pleased, to find 
 Farnham so much improved. They had a long con 
 versation together, arranging for the exodus ; and 
 maturing plans for the speedy organization of the 
 business. 
 
 It was decided that the household goods should be 
 sent on at once : Mr. Raymond, having notice that 
 a vacant house awaited their arrival. Mr. Farnham 
 and his young niece would follow, to prepare a 
 reception for the others. This was Farnham's own 
 ' device' as Alice called it. ' They were worn out 
 with nursing him, he said, and Annie a veritable 
 disciple of Mark Tapley's ' jolliest under the most 
 dismal circumstances, 'would enjoy the pandemonium." 
 
 " Heaven bless Annie !" was Mr. Raymond's ejacu- 
 latory comment, upon this meritorious trait in the 
 little niece's make-up, "and I bespeak for Mrs. 
 Raymond and myself, the pleasure of entertaining 
 your wife and mother, until you shall be in readiness 
 to receive them." 
 
 The ladies, had listened in part to these plans, and 
 were much amused : ' Arthur was certainly demented !'
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 41 
 
 they could not submit to his dictation in this, or allow 
 him any such license as he coveted. However he was 
 obstinate perverse ! sickness it was conceded, had 
 spoiled his temper ; and in the end, they were forced 
 to accept the proffered asylum. They did so with 
 many thanks, and more misgivings. A note which 
 Annie West snatched a moment to write a former 
 room mate of the Bloomingdale Seminary, describes 
 briefly, her own girlish anticipations at this period : 
 
 BUFFLAND, January loth 18 
 
 " DEAREST MAMIE 
 
 This is probably the last time you will ever receive 
 a letter from me, dated Buffland. Don't be startled, 
 and fancy another suicide is about to be added to the 
 long list of unfortunates. We are going to move ! 
 
 Uncle is recovering very rapidly now ; and has 
 accepted an excellent position at Ironton which 
 necessitates our immediate removal to that place. We 
 are all delighted with the prospect especially it 
 makes us happy to see uncle so hopeful and like his 
 old self again. 
 
 I wish you could look in upon us now. I can think 
 of nothing we so much resemble as a hill of ants that 
 has been disturbed. Each one is running in an oppo 
 site direction, with a morsel to deposit somewhere. 
 
 I have been packing my old school books this 
 morning, and it made me quite homesick for Bloom 
 ingdale and you. That is the only regret I have in 
 going I shall be farther from you. Wonder if I 
 shall ever come back again ? 
 
 I have kept up with our class, I think in Cicero 
 until now but shut the book resolutely to-day, until 
 we are all settled. All the other lessons I gave up 
 during Uncle's illness. Please tell me when you 
 write, what pages you are on, that I may try and 
 catch you again. 
 
 What do you think ? Uncle and I are to be the
 
 42 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 pioneers in this emigration. We want to spare Mrs. 
 Belding who is quite worn down and Aunt Alice 
 who is very frail ; so we are to make ready for 
 them. I anticipate it all as if it were my coming 
 out party ; and will I not make everything spick and 
 span about the new house ? Will not the world 
 look bright through my shining windows ? And the 
 carpets be laid without a crease. Will not the fire burn 
 clear and the tea-kettle sing a welcome and I 
 don my brightest plumage to receive them ? 
 
 Your own vivid fancy will no doubt, paint for you 
 the triumph of the young house-keeper, and prompt 
 you to write her a congratulatory letter in advance. 
 It is impossible to write more at present, or until we 
 are all settled. Then you shall have pages of des- 
 scription, until our new surroundings are photograph 
 ed on your heart. Until then, adieu. 
 
 Please send a letter to greet me on my arrival. 
 It will be next to the smiling face of an old friend. 
 Lovingly, 
 
 ANNIE WEST."
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS*' 43 
 
 III. 
 
 UNTRODDEN PATHS. 
 
 " Ony one hyer for Moont Henery ?" shouted a 
 voice, with a rich Hibernian brogue, startling the 
 ladies in the waiting room of the Ironton depot, one 
 soft afternoon toward the middle of January. 
 
 " Ony one hyer for Moont Henery ?" The voice 
 penetrated amongst the hurrying crowd, that swarmed 
 about the ticket office, or loitered upon the platform. 
 Many eyes were turned toward the speaker with an 
 inquiring look. 
 
 Who was there of all these well-dressed travellers, 
 awaiting this private escort ? Where indeed could 
 such a specimen of humanity hail from ? 
 
 So tattered was he, that he might have passed for 
 tramp or beggar, only he was seen to be in active 
 service. 
 
 Grape-shot and bullets, could never have wrought 
 the mischief to his faded army coat, that old Father 
 Time had accomplished. It hung about him like a 
 riddled battle flag. His hat too, had seen long ser 
 vice ; it had been a roof to his grizzled head through 
 many a wild storm, no doubt, but was a poor pro 
 tection now. 
 
 "Ony one hyer for Moont Henery?" Farnham 
 met the fantastic figure as he made this last outcry, 
 and a sudden thought flashed upon him. 
 
 "Where is Mount Henry?" he inquired, shading 

 
 44 DRAFTED IX, A SEQUEL 
 
 his eyes and looking earnestly at the strange appa 
 rition. " I am looking for some Mount hereabouts, 
 owned mostly, by some Fox brothers." 
 
 Ye're the viry mon the Koikes o' me would be 
 ofther shure !" laughed the good natured Irishman. I 
 was sint by the gintlemen Foxes, and has me orders 
 to fotch ye straight to ye're hoose, late vacated by 
 Mike McMurphy in ye're favor ; and .roight glad I am 
 to foind ye." 
 
 Farnham looked at the uncouth being, with 
 doubt and hesitation, and said in a low voice : 
 
 " I have a lady with me, and some luggage ; if you 
 will look after that, and give me some directions " 
 
 " Dirictions is it ?" interrupted the man, with another 
 burst of laughter," and shure sir ! ye'll niverbe ofther 
 foinding the way by dirictions ; upon me word ! cum 
 along wid ye noo ; and the luggage '11 be moinded 
 ofther. But the young lady " he added doubtfully, 
 as Annie West came tripping toward them bestowing 
 a most comprehensive glance upon her, in which 
 nothing from her pretty hat down to her boot tips, 
 escaped him "I'm dootin lier poowers a bit. The 
 rood, sur, ower the hills be dape wi' mud." 
 
 "Are there no conveyances to be had?" asked 
 Farnham. 
 
 The " straite cares to the oncline, sur, but it's beyint 
 that." 
 
 " Well," decided Farnham, who saw no other alter 
 native, "we will go on, until we are obliged to halt ; 
 Lead the way !" 
 
 " That's business ! laughed Doherty for that was 
 the jolly man's cognomen "and roight yonder's the 
 care that'll lond us forninst the fut o' the oncloine,
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 45 
 
 which we'd betther be ofther takin', yer honor !" 
 
 This advice was followed without further loss of 
 time. 
 
 Farnham and Annie were able to secure seats ; but 
 Doherty did not venture inside the car, but rode 
 on the platform. The street on which they had enter 
 ed, seemed an interminable one. They rode miles 
 upon miles, it appeared to Annie. Stout women with 
 immense baskets, crowded into the car, and pushed 
 and jostled each other, and were set down on the 
 way ; and in their places again came a flock of new, 
 and strange faces. How strange they all were ! and 
 then there was a general dinginess in the outlook. 
 The houses, from the plainest to the handsomest for 
 evidences of solid wealth were visible on every side 
 were begrimmed with every shade that smoke is 
 capable of imparting, until some stood frowning in 
 funeral black, past all further defamation by the 
 demon artist. 
 
 The thought that a clean white world awaited them 
 somewhere, midway between the earth and sky, was 
 comforting. Yet upon arriving at the base of a fear 
 fully overhanging mountain, she was terrified at the 
 prospect before her. 
 
 " It will not hoort ye, miss !" encouraged the kindly 
 Irishman, as Annie West, with scared face, and clinging 
 fast to Farnham's hand, entered the squalid car. It 
 was a stuffy little place, and already occupied by four 
 begrimmed miners, and a pretty school-girl, with 
 books and basket. 
 
 This young miss attracted her attention at once. 
 ' She was not afraid,' evidently; and then so bright 
 looking ; so neatly dressed ; and just about her own age.
 
 46 DRAFTED IN, A SKQUEL 
 
 'Who knows but we shall be neighbors!' she 
 thought ; and felt sure they might be excellent friends, 
 as she glanced timidly in the direction of the frank blue 
 eyes. The girl was observing her too ; so she turned 
 and looked out the window, and shuddered perceptibly 
 as she did so. 
 
 " Are you afraid ?" asked the other, who was secret 
 ly curious to know where these strangers could be 
 going on the hill. 
 
 " Oh, dear, yes !" declared Annie, "fearfully afraid: 
 I never ascended an incline before, and it seems as if 
 the car must fall backward, and we be dashed to 
 pieces !" 
 
 "Oh, there is not the slightest danger !" was the 
 calm reply of this veteran aeronaut. " I go up and 
 down every day. You see, I have to, to my school : 
 The Friends College !" 
 
 " Do you ?" asked Annie, more than ever impressed. 
 " I suppose I have finished my school-life" 
 
 The little miss looked smilingly interested now ; 
 but only said with a pout : 
 
 " Oh, dear ! I wish I had finished ; and could go 
 travelling !" 
 
 ' We are not travelling only moving, replied Annie, 
 simply. 
 
 " Not up on the hill ?" querried the other. 
 
 "Why not ?" laughed Annie. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know !" she answered slowly "only, 
 I thought one would not choose that spot, of all 
 the world. We live there, because papa has land 
 there ; and mamma had no health in the city. I am 
 sure I hope you are, it will be so nice for us if you 
 should,"
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 47 
 
 This last clause was the direct result of a most 
 searching glance, bestowed upon both Mr. Farnham 
 and Annie ; and proved it to have been thoroughly 
 satisfactory. 
 
 " Yes, we are to live there," announced Annie, 
 blushing and looking so brilliantly happy, that the pretty 
 school-girl suffered a momentary jealous pang, as she 
 thought of a certain handsome Yale College student, 
 who spent most of his vacations there. 
 
 " Do you know the Foxes ?" she immediately 
 inquired. 
 
 " I never saw them," replied Annie, " but we are 
 going to them : uncle is to be engaged with them in 
 business." 
 
 She spoke low for the car had just stopped, and 
 the people were rushing out. They followed, and as 
 they tarried a moment in the queer wooden depot 
 perched upon the brow of the mountain while 
 Farnham and Doherty were taking a survey of the 
 ' beyint,' she said : 
 
 "You will like them so much. They have lived 
 abroad a long time, and only came home since the 
 death of his father. They have just the two children, 
 Alfred and Isabella. He is twenty and is at Yale. 
 She is only fourteen, but tall as I am. I often go to 
 see her. There !" said she, stepping out upon the 
 platform, and pointing to a pretty, bright-looking, 
 home-like place just a little to the right: "there is 
 where we live ; and they are way over in that direc 
 tion. You cannot see the house, for the hill hides it. 
 They will be coming for you, I suppose ; and I must 
 hurry home. " My name," she added archly " ig 
 Minnie Bird don't you think it's horrid ?"
 
 48 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " Horrid ? no. I think it just fits you." There was 
 frank admiration in the young face ; " mine" she 
 added " is Annie West." 
 
 "Well, Annie West" said, Minnie extending her 
 hand gaily, you will see enough of Minnie Bird, if 
 you are to live on the hill ; for she is a desperate 
 romp." 
 
 " I shall not see her too often " said Annie warmly. 
 " We have always lived in the city, and it will be 
 rather lonely for us I expect, especially at first ; so 
 you will come often will you not ?" 
 
 " Indeed I will. But I shall not do all the coming !" 
 protested Minnie, and hurried away with nimble feet, 
 to tell her mother and sisters, ' that there was the 
 loveliest girl, and the most magnificent looking gentle 
 man, going to move up on the hill,' which astounding 
 news, furnished gossip, for a somewhat isolated house 
 hold, the entire evening. 
 
 Mr. Farnham stood for several minutes, gazing 
 abstractedly over the wild landscape. The snow had 
 fallen deep within these hills for it was not one, but 
 a succession of hills, far as the eye could reach and 
 now that a thaw was in active progress, uninviting 
 patches of yellow soil were exposed, of that disagree 
 able, and peculiarly tenacious kind, which so adhered 
 to the old army coat. The road, winding among 
 the hills, like some huge, slimy serpent, looked 
 altogether impassable. Contemplating the dismal 
 outlook with no small disfavor, he inquired. 
 
 " What next, my man ?" 
 
 " The hoose, yer honor, be a good pace oo'er," 
 replied Doherty, shaking his head, and looking doubt 
 fully towards the young lady of the party. It was
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 
 
 49 
 
 this stretch o' the way, I was un-aisy aboot ; an' its a 
 hape worse nor what it was when me sel' trudged 
 it befoor" 
 
 " It is abominable !" said Farnham. 
 
 " Ye'll foind miny a thing abomnible thin, I be 
 thinkin'," croaked Doherty, with a side-long look, 
 that reminded one of some tattered and bedraggled 
 bird of evil omen. " The roods," he continued with 
 a deprecatory laugh, " be too bad intirely ! It is the 
 moodiest counthry iver I see and the nastiest. The 
 maister would 't take oot a boogy or any convayance 
 whativer." 
 
 " Uncle," said Annie, coming upon the scene, smil 
 ing and happy. " I can easily walk. Don't think of 
 me." Then looking at him anxiously she inquired : 
 "are you not very tired ?" 
 
 " Not in the least," Farnham answered briskly. 
 " This jaunt is doing me good." 
 
 Doherty, who had been busy, tucking his old 
 trowsers into his boot-tops, in a prudent effort to save 
 them from deeper defilement now struck boldly out, 
 followed closely by the others. It was well he piloted 
 the way. Often by his slips and splashes, and blund 
 ering steps, they were able to avoid many a treacherous 
 pitfall. After heroic effort they gained a narrow 
 board-walk, which greatly lessened the difficulties of 
 the way, now consisting mainly in keeping one's 
 balance ; as in many places it bridged ravines, more 
 or less perilous to the unwary. 
 
 " This," called out Doherty, as they emerged upon 
 another road leading directly over a prominent hill, 
 and intersecting the first, " is Fox Avenue." 
 
 It was wider and by so much, more dismal, and
 
 JO DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 uninviting. The broad stretch of yellow clay, was 
 deep-rutted by the occasional flounderings of a few 
 heavy carts, and bespattered here and there with a 
 deposit of coarsely broken stones, evidence of some 
 kindly effort in behalf of the traveler, yet futile 
 withal as they were as carefully shunned as rocks are 
 at sea. Again they turned off from the main road, 
 and came down an almost perpendicular side of this 
 uncompromising hill, with surprising velocity. Doher- 
 ty steadied himself, when about half way down the 
 declivity, and turning to them shouted : 
 
 " Now here we be ! this is Alford Strate ; and 
 roight below is yer hoose." 
 
 Annie looked with keen interest at the small, dark, 
 forlorn tenement indicated, and her heart sank within 
 her. She glanced at her uncle, whose grave face, 
 caused her to turn her eyes quickly in another direc 
 tion, for they were filling with tears of disappointment 
 and commiseration. A baby face was pressed against 
 one of the window-panes of the cottage, and she 
 laughed at the round eyes and flattened nose, and 
 bade him ' look !' for she must do something say 
 something, to keep from crying outright. Now she 
 discovered that a pale, spare woman was holding the 
 baby, and watching them furtively from behind it. 
 
 As they entered- the tiny yard, a small artificial 
 pond, from the melting snow she appeared with it in 
 her arms, at one of the twin doors which opened side 
 by side, upon a common porch, and smiling timidly, 
 said : 
 
 " If ye'd be wantin' the keys to the other side, 
 here they be," and immediately produced them. The 
 baby fastened its wide eyes, full of wonder, upon
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 51 
 
 Annie, ; who smiled faintly into them, and then wiped 
 her own hurriedly. 
 
 ' Have you lost one ?" inquired the poor woman, 
 with maternal sympathy in her voice. 
 
 "No!" Annie replied, smiling and blushing, and 
 was following the uncle, who had disappeared within 
 the 'other side,' when the woman called out 
 hospitably : 
 
 " Come in here and warm yerselves, and dry yer 
 feet ; I've got a good fire, please God ? an' yer 
 welcome." 
 
 Annie thanked her, and passed on to inspect the 
 future home. This business did not consume much 
 time. The house was not one of the rambling sort- 
 good-naturedly guarding pleasant surprises, of un 
 suspected nooks, and convenient closets. There was 
 nothing whatever to investigate, but the narrow dark 
 hall leading nowhere, except up a steep, short flight of 
 stairs ; and three little rooms, in dismal succession 
 below and above. 
 
 It was in a vain search for more of some sort, that 
 Farnham wrenched open a door leading to a cellar, 
 and was promptly and shudderingly held back by 
 Doherty ; who exclaimed in terror : 
 
 " Doon't venture there, mon ! there will be wather 
 enough in that cellar to dhrown us booth !" 
 
 Arthur Farnham was not a profane man, but he had 
 a sudden impulse to anathematize the situation in 
 rather forcible terms. 
 
 " I have been a landlord myself," he reflected, " but 
 have never been guilty of offering anything for a 
 human habitation, quite so forlorn as this." 
 
 He looked pale and dispirited, as leaning against a
 
 52 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEI, 
 
 window seat, he told Doherty to look up one of the 
 Fox brothers and say, that he, Farnham, wished to see 
 him at once. 
 
 The man hesitated a moment and then said : 
 
 " They booth be powerful busy the day, sur ! ye see 
 it's the 'lection and I doot much, if I be able to fotch 
 them." 
 
 " Election ?" queried Farnham, " what election ?" 
 
 " Why the boorough 'lection, sur, down in the store 
 yonder," replied Doherty. " Coome this way, an' ye 
 can see where the fun's goin' on." 
 
 Farnham glanced gloomily from a window, com 
 manding a view of a small weather-stained, wooden 
 building, surmounted by a sign board, across its entire 
 front and half its own height, announcing in mam 
 moth characters : THE FOXBURG MUTUAL BENEFIT 
 ASSOCIATION'S DRY GOODS AND GROCERY STORE." 
 
 A few men were lounging upon its platform, and as 
 they continued to look, Doherty grew keenly attentive. 
 Presently, he broke into a loud laugh, which jarred 
 the little house froom floor to rafters. 
 
 "See!" he cried, "they're in the foight ! the bys 
 has got the dhrap too much ! give it to him Moike ! 
 The big felly's Moike O'Hara," he explained, an' the 
 leetle one's Treary : and see ! he's no babby." 
 
 At this moment a light wagon drove up and stopped 
 in front of the store. Some of the loungers rushed 
 forward and lifted from it, a figure so closely envelop 
 ed in wraps as to render unassisted locomotion 
 evidently impossible. 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! ha !" roared Doherty again. " If they 
 han't got ole Pat oot to help 'em the day ! Thin it's 
 a moighty close run I be thinkin,' an' they wouldn't
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 53 
 
 be bate sur, on this 'lection ef they had to dhrag the 
 bod plaze itsel' for vooters. Pat's powrfu' bad wi' 
 inflamatory " 
 
 " What is the matter with the election ?" asked 
 Farnham, smiling. " Why you see sur," replied 
 Doherty, lowering his voice, " there be at this toime, a 
 great call for improvements an' the oowners want to 
 fix the tax." 
 
 Farnham drew on his gloves ; and bidding Annie 
 wait in the next house until his return, took his way 
 down to the scene of the borough election. A few 
 rapid strides brought him to the place. The sick man 
 sat alone in the wagon. He had been carried to the 
 polls and returned here, where he was now gloomily 
 awaiting the appearance of the driver, to be conveyed 
 home. The wind blew chill, and as his restless eyes 
 encountered Farnham's the latter said compassionately: 
 
 " I fear this is a poor place for you my good man !" 
 
 " They've forgot me !" whined the invalid. 
 
 As he spoke, a well dressed, powerfully-built, sandy- 
 complexioned man, came out, and looking frowningly 
 upon the sick one, asked : 
 
 " Why do you sit here, Pat ? What has become of 
 the man who brought you ?" 
 
 " I guess he's watchin' the fight round the corner," 
 he answered despondently. 
 
 The big man strode to the end of the platform and 
 called authoritively : 
 
 " Here, Tim ! here ! what are you about there ? 
 Come and drive Pat home." And the order was 
 promptly obeyed. 
 
 Turning about as the wagon rattled away, the man 
 of authority apparently observed Farnham for the first
 
 54 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 time and bowed stiffly. He responded, announcing : 
 
 " My name is Farnham ; and I suppose my arrival 
 here is not altogether unexpected." 
 
 There was an unconscious hauteur in the tones, and 
 an indefinable air of superiority in the manners of the 
 stranger, most unpleasantly recognized by Mr. 
 Christopher Fox. 
 
 "Happy to see you, Mr. Farnham !" he exclaimed 
 shaking hands. "Business is exceedingly pressing 
 just now ; in fact so much so that it has been impos 
 sible to arrange for the comfortable reception of 
 yourself and family. That house the only vacant 
 one upon the hill was offered as a temporary asylum, 
 until a better one can be built. It will be at least 
 a shelter." 
 
 Farnham said he had examined it, and such as it 
 afforded, it could not be made to accomodate the 
 household goods he had brought, and" he added, " I 
 should be sorry to bring my wife to such a place." 
 
 " Then she is not with you ?" inquired Mr. Fox. 
 
 "No," replied Farnham, "but I have a niece, who 
 has come to take the burden of settling the house, 
 and until some place is ready for the goods, I must 
 find a boarding house, somewhere." 
 
 Mr. Fox looked thoughtful ; consulted his gold 
 repeater, but gained no solution of the problem. 
 " The fact is," he began slowly, "there is no place of 
 that kind on the hill. It happens very awkward ! Now 
 we should be most happy to entertain you both at our 
 house, until such time as you could take possession of 
 yours if that shell can ever be made habitable but 
 just now, we are filled up with company." 
 
 He blushed as he said this, and Farnham appreciat-
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 55 
 
 ing his evident embarrasment, felt resentment giving 
 place to forbearance. But the truth was, there was 
 not a guest present or prospective for the great, 
 rambling, disorderly house. This subject had already 
 been discussed there. It was upon the receipt of a 
 letter from Mr. Raymond, wherein the merits of these 
 strangers had been particularly set forth ; that Mrs. 
 Christopher had decided the question of social ethics, 
 as relating to them, with remarkable astuteness. ' She 
 was, and had always been prejudiced against people, 
 who had seen better days.' 
 
 'This was just like Raymond ! to set these beggars 
 on horse back and send them to her with a letter of 
 introduction. 
 
 He would like to select her society for her ; no 
 doubt. 
 
 " And so these people of yours, Christopher," she 
 said, mockingly, " have seen better days !" 
 
 " Which can never be laid to the charge of my 
 sweet wife !" he had retorted. 
 
 " She saw better days before she became your wife, 
 than she ever has since !" was the quick re 
 sponse. 
 
 " That is not disposing of these strangers," urged 
 Fox. " Don't your Bible say something about not 
 forgetting to entertain them ? and here is a case that 
 appeals to my hospitality, at least." He read from the 
 open letter in his hand : 
 
 " The wife is a beauty, and was an acknowledged 
 belle in society a few years ago ; very gentle and 
 accomplished." 
 
 Mrs. Christopher Fox had no answer sufficiently 
 pointed to these tantalizing words ; but shot a bitter
 
 56 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 glance at the offending man, from the depths of her 
 sharp black eyes. 
 
 " You must remember, dear," the fond husband 
 replied to the fierce eyes, " that I have never seen her." 
 
 "And I don't see what you want of them any way ; 
 and if you do want them why you can take care of 
 them ! That is all I have to say !" decided the wife, 
 and shut her lips tightiy together, as if to prevent 
 further speech. 
 
 ' That is just what I propose to do, for a few days !" 
 declared the dominant Fox. 
 
 "Then you will take them to a hotel !" shrieked the 
 lady, forgetting her sweet purpose, in her sudden 
 passion. 
 
 " Do be reasonable Em," roared the husband. "You 
 know as well as I do, that there is no such place, or 
 any other on 'the Hill' where they can be enter 
 tained." 
 
 "Entertained !" repeated the lady scornfully. 
 
 "Sheltered, then" corrected Mr. Fox. "I have 
 paid no attention to the matter," he protested " except 
 to find an empty house, and I went to look at it after 
 this letter came, and I tell you, it is a shabby thing to 
 offer anybody." 
 
 Mrs. Fox smiled unconsciously. 
 
 " You ought to see it-!" said the husband. 
 
 " I am not interested," she confessed. " But people 
 must expect to put up with inconveniences, where 
 they cannot be avoided. Did you say it was that 
 double house, and McGeary the miner lived in one 
 part ?" 
 
 "Yes, my angel !" and observing the sparkle in the 
 black eyes, he added :
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 57 
 
 " And may it content your Christian soul, to know 
 that this odious family will be sufficiently humliated." 
 
 "I have not the slightest interest in them I tell 
 you !" she said, waving her hand to dismiss the 
 subject. 
 
 " It is enough to know that my husband will exhibit 
 Ms gallantry, and hospitality too if he is able " she 
 added, with a little defiant toss of her head, which he 
 too well understood as a challenge to contest the oft 
 disputed question of supremacy in the home rule. 
 The next moment she turned to welcome Mr. Solomon 
 Fox to the breakfast table, with a smile as bright as 
 the morning ; and to devote herself with unusual 
 assiduity to the comfort of the bachelor brother. 
 
 It was perhaps the recollection of this little episode, 
 which now called up the blush, surmounting even the 
 loftiest rampart of the massive Roman-nose of Mr. 
 Christopher Fox. Perhaps too, he accepted more 
 readily Farnham's report on the condition of the 
 premises, authorizing him more freely in the matter 
 of repairs than was fully intended. He waxed gene 
 rous : " it would be but a temporary shelter, as he had 
 already said, but it must be put in repair at once. If 
 it could not hold the goods why tack on an addi 
 tion. Building was the business on hand, and if there 
 were not desirable houses to be had soon, he should 
 be disappointed." 
 
 This was not altogether satisfactory perhaps, but 
 there was no choice left but to accept the situation. 
 It was well that Alice and her proud mother, were not 
 here. He could smooth the outlook for them ; and in 
 this he was certain of Annie's hearty co-operation. 
 Soldier-like, he could bivouac anywhere with a fire
 
 58 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 and a blanket ; and she was cheerful and brave, and 
 feared no hardship. These thoughts ran hastily 
 throug his mind as he stood listening to some plans, 
 formulated by the proprietor, for the speedy occupancy 
 of the house, and as he returned to it it was with a 
 grim determination that a few day's should see the old 
 place metamorphosed. 
 
 Thus, he set himself to the task of making of this 
 most unpromising shell, a home. The little niece was 
 taken into confidence and proved herself a sterling 
 helper. Carpenters were brought in, and the music of 
 the hammer was heard in the land. Steadily the work 
 progressed day by day ; kitchen and store house arose 
 over the ruins of a filthy cistern, with its broken 
 pump, at the rear of the house : the former was 
 cleansed and the latter mended. The partition be 
 tween the dismal little front rooms disappeared ; 
 pretty paper and delicate tints of paint covered, as 
 with a mantle of charity, the begrimmed walls and 
 casements. 
 
 Annie West had never felt herself of so much real 
 use in the world as now. The kind woman next door 
 had, with much pains, provided her with a lodging 
 place and every morning, she arose from this not very 
 downy bed, at an early hour, eager for toil, and bust 
 ling with a happy ambition. Her first grand achieve 
 ment had been in reducing, from a state of bewilder 
 ing chaos, to one of restful order and beauty, the 
 prettiest chamber, for uncle and Alice. 
 
 It was high praise to behold his astonishment, at 
 the transformation. He had despaired of anything so 
 home-like, as this appeared to him and her young 
 face was flushed and radiant, as he surveyed with
 
 TO 'THE BREAD WINNERS. 59 
 
 pleased and wondering eyes, the work of her hands. 
 An artistic paper decorated ceiling and walls. Doors 
 and casements gleamed fresh from the painter's brush. 
 She in some mysterious manner, had evolved the rest ; 
 and a trained artist in such matters, could find little 
 to criticise in the effect. A soft carpet, gossamer-like 
 curtains, polished furniture, couch of snowy draperies, 
 and the many pretty appointments of modern device, 
 had combined their harmonies to change the rude 
 place into a bower of beauty. 
 
 Through a recommendation from one of the work 
 men, Mrs. Feather now alighted upon the scene. 
 
 Annie smiled, both from satisfaction and amusement, 
 at the sight of such a competent looking auxiliary ; 
 for so little did her name become her, that her stout 
 masculine person would have tipped the scales at 
 two hundred, avordupois ; and her efficiency proved 
 proportionate. Disorder scattered and fled be 
 fore her like a dense fog before the cheerful 
 sun. The tiny parlors, in their fresh dresses of 
 paper and paint, came forth from her able 
 hands, as from the touch of an enchanttess. Carpets 
 were laid ; the piano wheeled into place fine old 
 paintings, in richly carved settings, looked down from 
 the walls, in a familiar way ; handsome portiers parted 
 between the little rooms ; and dainty curtains floated 
 before the bright windows. Annie busied herself with 
 every detail of these arrangements : disposing articles 
 ot virtu, with weighty judgment, and calculating pre 
 cision, as the crowning triumph of art, while the 
 aggressive Feather, went marching on, like the spirit 
 of a great reformer. The little dining-room burst 
 forth into bloom and brilliancy, in all the glory of cut
 
 60 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 glass and shining silver, while kitchen and store-room 
 took on a severely orderly appearance, most praise 
 worthy to behold. This finished the work which 
 seemed a creation, rather than a re-construction. 
 
 Mrs. Feather turned her comfortable back regret 
 fully upon the place, which she declared, again and 
 again, to be ' as purty as a painted pictur'. Mrs. 
 McGeary the timid little neighbor and the round eyed 
 baby, obedient to an invitation from the delighted 
 young mistress, had, in silent awe, wonderingly 
 surveyed the scene and retired ; when Farnham, 
 sitting by the parlor grate, pale and furrowed of coun 
 tenance, and much demoralized in appearance from his 
 unusual contact with labor ; suffered such a heart 
 sick sigh to escape him, as caused Annie to pause 
 suddenly in her bustling steps. A snatch of song 
 was on her lips, but it ceased instantly, and hastening 
 to her uncle's side, she bent over his drooping head, 
 and said anxiously : 
 
 "Ah ! now, you are just worn out with all this 
 dreadful work. I ought to have seen it before ; but 
 now you must rest. Alice must not see you looking 
 in this way, or she will scold me." 
 
 " She will never be so ungrateful !" he replied, gaz 
 ing at the troubled face, which betrayed weariness 
 too, in the faint purple lines below the large, dark 
 eyes. But rest is not for me. / am drafted into the 
 ranks cf labor, little one," he said, smiling faintly, yet 
 looking far beyond her, as if with the half serious 
 confession, some strange, untrodden path, had sudden 
 ly opened to his prophetic vision. 
 
 " The Fox brothers are impatient that I have wasted 
 so much time here. Now I must write Alice that we
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 6 I 
 
 are ready for them ; and begin business to-morrow." 
 
 He gave the little room a critical survey, and asked 
 after a pause : 
 
 "What will she think of it, for a home, Annie ?" 
 
 " Think of it ?" questioned Annie, with a vague, 
 wondering expression in her face. "Why Uncle 
 Arthur ! don't you think it perfectly lovely ?" 
 
 For answer the grave uncle smiled : and then strok 
 ed the brown head in a compassionate way. Her 
 young life had known both poverty and toil. Per 
 haps the attenuated face, of a once loved sister, rose 
 up before him upbraidingly, for his own grew sad and 
 tender." 
 
 "You are much like your mother Annie !" he said 
 at last. 
 
 Annie smiled brightly. Her mother had been to 
 her, the one perfect being that she had known ; and 
 her memory now was like a pure white star, beckon 
 ing heavenward. A moment of silent thought, and 
 two large tears welled up in her eyes, and rolled slow 
 ly down her cheeks. 
 
 She had shared the saddest part of that poor 
 mother's life, which to remember was always to regret. 
 Cut off from kindred, by an unfortunate marriage 
 and widowed in youth, what had been left her in this 
 world, but privation and sorrow ? 
 
 "There is one thing Annie," said the uncle, sudden 
 ly changing the subject, "about which I wish to 
 caution you : don't encourage those people next door 
 to show themselves here ! It is enough to be under 
 the same roof." 
 
 " Oh !" exclaimed Annie, with a quick glance, in 
 trospective and deprecatory, " I did not think you
 
 62 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 would care if I asked Mrs. McGeary to just look at 
 our improvements. I thought it might help her, just to 
 see something pretty. She never does : and she might 
 do a great deal better with what little she has, if she 
 only knew how : you can't think" she added after a 
 short silence, " how kind she has been to me.', 
 
 " It will probably serve to make her dissatisfied, 
 rather than to cultivate her taste, as you imagine. 
 People are poor in this country because they are 
 thriftless and improvident. " It is not in their stars, 
 but in their selves that they are underlinings 1" he 
 replied. 
 
 Annie looked thoughtful, but made no answer ; he 
 continued : 
 
 " I doubt if people of ' that class' could take on a 
 very high polish, and we have been warned you know 
 about ' casting our pearls before swine !" 
 
 The girlish face grew grave and perplexed. This 
 did not accord with the poor mother's teachings. But 
 uncle, had had great advantages, and was very wise ; 
 she knew. He now wiped away the traces of tears on her 
 cheeks, kissed her, and she went back to busy herself 
 with her housewifery industries, and to ponder upon 
 a subject that perhaps had never occupied her 
 thoughts before. In her simplicity, she little dreamed 
 how mighty was the principle involved ! or what 
 gigantic evils lay at the root of all. She only felt that 
 she had been reproved by her good uncle, who ought 
 to know what was right, and yet, it seemed like 
 walking out of the sunlight into the shadow, to give 
 up this habit of hers the innocent effort to make 
 those poorer than herself, happy. It had always made 
 her heart so light when she succeeded, ever so little
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 63 
 
 that it was a positive privation now, to be denied 
 the luxury of doing good. Then she dwelt upon all 
 her sainted mother's precepts ; and wondered if the 
 " Golden Rule" meant exactly as it read ? and if the 
 ' others' referred to, meant all others, or just a few ? 
 and why the Saviour, ate and drank with publicans 
 and sinners ? and why he had particularized the 
 least of these in the tender injunction : " In-as-much 
 as ye give to the least of these a cup of cold water 
 only, or, in-as-much as ye do it to the least of these 
 my brethren, ye do it unto me : if even he had not 
 forseen that these ' least might come to be neglected 
 in the great, busy, struggling world. " Ah ! yes" she 
 decided at last, with a lightened heart ; " It is a sweet 
 gospel of love ; and my poor mother was one, 
 refined, but not with silver."
 
 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE UNWELCOME GUESTS, 
 
 The shadows of night were gathering about the Ray 
 mond mansion, and thickening along the somewhat 
 dull street upon which it stood, as the family carriage 
 containing Mrs. Farnham and her mother drew up 
 before its hospitable door. A sumptuous dinner 
 showily set forth, waited in the old fashioned dining 
 room : which comfortable place by the way, had 
 taken on so many fanciful decorations under the hands 
 of its new, and ambitious mistress, as to remind one 
 of an old beauty masquerading in juvenile costume. 
 Mrs. Raymond, superbly illustrating by her brilliant 
 beauty, the very latest whim of fashion, yet a trifle too 
 showily dressed to be quite an unconsciously amiable 
 hostess, waited in the parlor ; and Mr. Raymond, 
 genial and courteous, waited at the carriage door. 
 
 Had the ladies, whom he welcomed so cordially, 
 held the undisputed rank of first in the land, he could 
 not have placed himself and his belongings more 
 completely at their disposal. He introduced his young 
 wife in a glow of pride ; chose the most restful seats 
 for their comfort the luxurious parlor afforded ; and 
 at dinner, devoted himself assiduously to their enter 
 tainment, that no deficiency on the part of the wife, 
 as hostess, might be too apparent. 
 
 Mrs. Belding, quite at ease, and smiling her
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 65 
 
 complacency and enjoyment of the good cheer, sudden 
 ly turned her clear eyes upon Mrs. Raymond, who sat 
 fidgeting behind the tea-service ; and said : 
 
 " I am haunted with a fancy, dear Mrs. Raymond, 
 that we have met before ! Do, if possible tell me when 
 and where, if you recollect ?" 
 
 "I 1 do not !" Maud stammered ; her heart 
 
 beating with such force, that she thought it must be 
 heard, and scarcely rising her eyes, while the rich 
 crimson deepened painfully in her cheeks. 
 
 "Perhaps at the St. Andrews;" suggested Mr. 
 Raymond, in a good natured effort to relieve the poor 
 wife's embarrassment, which he attributed to a humili 
 ating consciousness of her plebeian antecedents. 
 " She has been a devotee at that shrine, a good many 
 years : there is where I had the good fortune to meet 
 her." 
 
 "I never was in that church in my life !" said Mrs. 
 Beldmg, thoughtfully. "I suppose I must be mis 
 taken," searching the face again with a scrutiny so 
 terrible to Maud, that all the accessories of a 
 disgraceful tableau seemed grouping themselves 
 around her; "but it puzzles me to account for the 
 familiarity of your looks." 
 
 Poor Maud ! everything was at a stake ; and for a 
 moment, she was giddy. The table and group of 
 faces whirled before her. 
 
 Mrs. Farnham quick to detect the lady's embar 
 rassment, asked : 
 
 " Don't you think, mamma, that Mrs. Raymond 
 resembles young Mrs. Darlington very much ? She 
 reminds me of her continually." 
 
 But mamma did not appear to coincide with this
 
 66 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 opinion ; and all through the evening, and even after 
 they had retired ; she was torturing her brain to recall 
 the time and place, that she had seen this face before. 
 
 " It is so very striking." she explained to Alice 
 " that one would not be likely to forget it. You know 
 I am rather remarkable for remembering faces." 
 
 " Your talent in that direction seemed to annoy 
 Mrs. Raymond," rejoined Alice. " Did you observe 
 mamma, how painfully she blushed ?" 
 
 " I cannot see why she should," returned Mrs. 
 Belding, puzzled and thoughtful, as if a mystery were 
 eluding and baffling her ; " unless she has been a 
 servant ; or something of that sort, or has done some 
 thing disgraceful." 
 
 " Why mamma, what a detective you would make !" 
 exclaimed Alice, amused at her mother's grave specu 
 lations. 
 
 " I am sure Mr. Raymond would not marry a 
 servant, or a criminal ; and she has very pretty 
 manners ; not at all self-confident, though she is as 
 beautiful as Langtry." 
 
 " It is quite apparent that she is not much accustom 
 ed to society ;" decided mamma, " but I suppose the 
 good man married her for her beauty, and I hope he 
 is not disappointed in her as a companion ; he 
 is a very worthy person; so affable and courteous, 
 I feel we shall enjoy our stay here in this restful place, 
 after being in such a state of chaos and confusion." 
 
 While Mrs. Belding and daughter were thus engaged 
 in discussing, and disrobing ; a similar scene was 
 being enacted in another apartment. 
 
 Mr. Raymond, sitting before a glowing grate, in 
 easy neglige, was deciding mentally, and orally, that
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 67 
 
 Mrs. Belding was a very comfortable, motherly sort of 
 person ; and Mrs. Farnham, very gentle and attractive; 
 but not quite as pretty as she was once ; a little 
 faded, he was sorry to notice : probably the effects of 
 watching and weariness : The poor young thing ! 
 
 " She ain't so awfully young !" said Maud, who was 
 disrobing with unusual celerity her face all in 
 shadow ; " and I think she is dreadfully milk-and-water 
 looking ; I don't see what anybody could admire so 
 much in her." 
 
 "You are not jealous this first evening !" laughed 
 the husband. 
 
 "No, I am not !" said Maud, sharply, "but I just 
 wish I had never seen them !" and could have bitten 
 her own tongue off, for saying it. 
 
 " Tut, tut !" said the paternal husband, turning to 
 look at his offended deity, and greatly mystified by a 
 mood never witnessed before : " What's amiss ? I 
 thought everything was going on like a party." 
 
 "I expect I'm tired ;" almost sobbed the distracted 
 wife ; " and I had so many engagements for this week, 
 and they've put me all out." 
 
 " Well, I'll fix that all right ;" was the soothing re 
 sponse. But what now is the programme for this 
 week ? I fear my little girl is dissipating too much." 
 
 " There's the entertainment for the missionaries, 
 to-morrow night, " began the poor wife, in a chok 
 ing voice, interrupted by the amused query : 
 
 " Then the missionaries are to have another benefit?" 
 
 " Oh, dear ! you know what I mean," protested 
 Maud, vigorously brushing out her dark hair, " it's to 
 raise funds for the heathen."
 
 68 DRAFTED IX, A SEQUEL 
 
 " Are the thriftless fellows out of pocket again ?' 
 anxiously inquired the husband. 
 
 " Other men don't laugh at their wives, when they're 
 trying to do a little good," said Maud, in a piteous 
 voice. 
 
 Raymond turned again towards his wife, but could 
 only see two shining eyes, looking reproachfully out 
 from a wealth of hair. His heart smote him. ' She 
 was dissatisfied with herself and felt her want of 
 culture more than was necessary, in the light of com 
 parison with these really elegant ladies.' 
 
 " I am not laughing at you, my dear ! but just to 
 amuse myself. Don't you know that when a man is 
 proud of his wife, he is always teasing her ? You 
 looked so brilliant to-night darling, that I feel in a 
 a very good humor : That is all. Go on with these 
 important engagements ; I am interested in all you do." 
 
 " Well," began Maud, brightening, " we have a 
 supper the next night, at the " C. W. S. G," rooms, 
 for the benefit of the " 
 
 " Hold ! Hold !" interrupted the husband ; " not so 
 fast my dear ! let me take this all in, in good form. 
 The next night, after supplying the howling savage 
 with spending money, these same benevolent martyrs, 
 contrive to eat two suppers apiece at the Christian 
 Woman's, Shirk and Gossip rooms, for the benefit of 
 there ! go on." 
 
 "Shirk and Gossip !" repeated Maud, angrily. 
 "You know what those letters stand for, and '.wr/ 
 good' is the object of our society." 
 
 "Trust a lot of women to carry it out !" laughed 
 the husband. Then stretching his arms towards the 
 offended beauty, he coaxed :
 
 TO " THE BREADWINNERS." 69 
 
 " Come here, I want to take this charitable little 
 body to my heart one minute." 
 
 " I can't" said she, but softened by his playful 
 tenderness, and perhaps in an effort to divert him from 
 herself, or make him forget her ill-nature i she began 
 to say rapidly : 
 
 "Well, at any rate, you ought to have -heard Mrs. 
 Starks, and Mrs. Hobbs talk about the committees. 
 You know Mrs. Ayres, and Mrs. Pushing, and Mrs. 
 Nailor, and those horrid old-inaids Crimp, and all that 
 crowd , always do have all the say about every commit 
 tee ; and they're dreadfully put out about this one, 
 because they're none of them on ; and that little 
 insignificant Mrs. Stubs is flying 'round in everybody's 
 face and eyes, soliciting funds ; and they say, makes 
 a ridiculous spectacle of herself." 
 
 " Well my love, I would not listen to such gossip ;" 
 said Mr. Raymond, with a decided frown upon his 
 face. " I never did like those females ; and if I were 
 you, I would not encourage them to bring their 
 grievances here." 
 
 " But I do like them," returned Maud, in a strange 
 ly defiant tone, angered at being chided ever so 
 gently. " And we are not going to submit to be 
 ruled by a few a minority, that's what the rest say ; 
 and they say there's just as much managing, and 
 conniving there, to get into power, as there is among 
 politicians ; and we're going to get up another party, 
 and vote them down." 
 
 " For Heaven's sake ! Maud, don't talk in that 
 way," exclaimed Mr. Raymond, almost sternly, " or I 
 shall have to ask you to decline farther intimacy with 
 those mutinous feminines. For my part, I would
 
 70 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 rather go to torment with a quiet woman, than paddle 
 Heavenward in the wake of an ambitious termagant." 
 
 Maud was on her pillow now ; and the disturbed 
 husband turned out the gas with a sigh, and laid down 
 beside her in a most unhappy frame of mind. All 
 was silent for a little time, when wishing to banish the 
 unpleasant subject, with all ill-feeling he asked : 
 
 " Where do you think Mrs. Belding fancies she ever 
 met you ?" 
 
 " How do you suppose 1 should know what she 
 fancies ?" retorted Maud irritably. " It is likely 
 enough she has passed me on the street a hundred 
 times : I have always lived in the city." 
 
 " Of course, of course," assented the husband. 
 " There is nothing improbable about that. I am sorry 
 their coming seems to have put you out so. I thought 
 you would like to meet them ; one can learn a great 
 deal from people like them. They moved in our very 
 best society before their reverses." 
 
 " You are always trying to improve me !" sobbed 
 Maud, " and other people don't see so many faults in 
 me." And she turned away and feigned sleep. 
 
 " Poor child ! what has happened to cross her ?" 
 pondered the restless man. " Some fancied slight I 
 suspect ; and of course she is sensitive, appearing as 
 she does, at a disadvantage. Well, well, I must be 
 patient with the undeveloped child ;" he sighed, and 
 thus counseling to himself, he fell into a profound 
 slumber. 
 
 Maud lay perfectly still for some time scarcely 
 daring to move. But thought was busy. At last she 
 crept stealthily from the bed, and crouched down be 
 fore the dying embers staring into them with
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 71 
 
 troubled eyes, and white face that looked wraith-like 
 in the dark. 
 
 She was tortured by the consciousness of being pur 
 sued and hunted down by a relentless, prying, and in 
 trepid fiend. Those dreadful eyes would never desist 
 in their ferret-like search, until all was made clear 
 as daylight to them, and she identified as the ridicu 
 lous person encountered long ago, under such extra 
 ordinary circumstances, in Captain Farnham's green 
 house. Then she would be disgraced before all the 
 world ! These thoughts made her brain whirl and 
 her thoughts come quick. How violent was her 
 anger ! and how bitter her hatred of these people ! 
 Poor Mrs. Belding would not have rested so peace 
 fully had she dreamed of the terrible maledictions in 
 voked upon her by this sleepless, frantic woman. She 
 utterly despised Mrs. Farnham too, and had not a 
 doubt but she had done everything, but offer herself 
 outright, to secure Captain Farnham. That was what 
 plenty of fashionable ladies did ; but she wouldn't 
 look at Captain Farnham now, and just gloried to 
 think he was down in the world. 
 
 But the hours were passing, and she thought with 
 alarm, day would soon come. Many plans had been 
 revolving in her mind, for absenting herself from the 
 house during their stay, and abandoned as absurd, or 
 impossible ; when a sudden recollection came to her 
 relief. She had been made very ill by some little 
 powders the doctor had once given her for a violent 
 headache, and he had said she should not take any 
 more. She remembered how frightened Charlie was, 
 because she looked so deathly, and could not even 
 raise her head from the pillow. She had some more
 
 72 DRAFTED IN. A SEQUF.I, 
 
 of them in her medicine closet, ah ! this is what she 
 would do ! 
 
 Her husband still slept. She stole noiselessly about 
 the apartment like a guilty thing, putting it all in or 
 der ; folding her ribbons and laces, and softly open 
 ing drawers and wardrobe to deposit therein every 
 scattered article about the room. Then she swallowed 
 the little white powder, and lay down beside the sleeper, 
 with a strange feeling of criminality in her beating 
 heart. 
 
 Not until almost day light did she fall asleep, so 
 powerfully agitated was her poor frenzied soul. Then 
 she slept heavily. 
 
 The house became astir : servants prepared break 
 fast, and Mr. Raymond arose at the usual hour ; 
 dressed, and before leaving the room bent for a mo 
 ment over the sleeper about to arouse her when he 
 was struck by the ghastly pallor of the lovely face. 
 
 " I will not disturb her," he thought, drawing the 
 covers tenderly about her. " I might have known the 
 poor child was ill by her strange behavior last night ;" 
 and shutting out the morning light, he closed 
 the door softly and descended to the breakfast room. 
 
 Here the guests soon appeared, to whom he re 
 gretfully made known Mrs. Raymond's probable in 
 disposition. They expressed solicitude, but hoped it 
 would prove nothing serious, and thought, with him, 
 that rest and quiet would soon restore her. 
 
 Mrs. Belding poured the coffee ; and was particu 
 larly chatty and agreeable. She had slipped back into 
 familiar surroundings, and they rested and refreshed 
 her. Mrs. Farnham too, looked better and brighter 
 than on the night before.
 
 TO " THF. BREAD WINNERS*' 73 
 
 After breakfast Mr. Raymond took another look at 
 his wife. As he bent over her, he touched her white 
 forehead with his lips ; she suddenly opened her eyes, 
 and Jooking wildly about, asked : 
 
 " What has happened ? something dreadful I know." 
 
 " You have been dreaming dear, while we break 
 fasted ; that is all, and nothing alarming either," re 
 plied the husband. 
 
 "But I am sick," groaned Maud, "oh, so sick!" 
 and her ashen face confirmed her words. 
 
 " Then we must find out the trouble at once," said 
 Mr. Raymond decidedly : and grasping one slender 
 hand, he felt nervously and clumsily for the throbbing 
 pulse with his chubby fingers. " I shall have the old 
 doctor here in a trice ; he will put all right," he said 
 cheerfully. 
 
 " I beg you won't !" pleaded Maud, vehemently. 
 " You know how I hate doctors ! Oh, I will get well, 
 only let me lie here all still." 
 
 Mr. Raymond looked thoughtful. " It will not do 
 to neglect disease," he said. "It might be something 
 serious ; the incipient stage of some virulent fever. 
 You had better let me call a physician ?" (coaxingly.) 
 
 " No, no, I wont have a doctor !" persisted Maud. 
 
 " Then I will bring Mrs. Belding up. She has had 
 experience in sickness." 
 
 " No ! no ! no !" Maud protested, with such vio 
 lence that the poor man was almost startled into the 
 belief that she was delirious. 
 
 She saw terror in his eyes, and making an effort, 
 she half rose, and throwing one arm around his neck, 
 pleaded : 
 
 " Dear Charlie, if you love me the least bit let me
 
 74 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 just lie here, and hear it all still : I am not sick much, 
 only tired, and head-achy, and the room goes round 
 when one walks in it. Promise me that you won't send 
 any one here, only have Mary look in sometimes, to 
 see if I want anything." 
 
 He kissed the white lips and promised, with a 
 mental reservation, to follow his own judgment should 
 the indisposition continue, and returned to the parlor, 
 planning as he went, how he could ensure for his guests 
 a pleasant day. "Tom and the carriage should be placed 
 at their disposal ; and if there were calls to be made, 
 or shopping to be done, they could take their own 
 time for it. The opera at night would be another 
 pleasure which they would appreciate. Then there 
 was the library, he thought with satisfaction ; and all 
 the latest monthlies and morning papers." 
 
 Mrs. Belding assured him " nothing could be more 
 delightful than a drive in the fresh, morning air. They 
 had been confined so long indoors, that it would be 
 quite a novel experience ; and Mrs. Farnham's bright 
 smile assured him of her own prospective enjoyment. 
 He took his departure therefore, happily conscious 
 that he had planned wisely for the guests, and antici 
 pating for them a pleasant day. And so it proved to be. 
 
 The next was spent in much the same way ; and 
 still the next, until time began to grow slightly mo 
 notonous. As Mrs. Raymond did not recover, a phy 
 sician had been summoned, who prescribed remedies 
 which were not taken, and rest and quiet, which were 
 strictly enforced. 
 
 Mrs. Belding was not surprised that the invalid 
 should prefer the familiar face of an old servant, in 
 her chamber, to a stranger guest's.
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 75 
 
 "/could never endure," she said to Alice, "the 
 presence of a strange face at such times. Do you 
 remember dear, when my old nurse fell ill, just as I 
 was coming through that dreadful fever, and we had 
 to take a new one ; how very unhappy it made me !" 
 
 Alice remembered, smiling as she thought of it, for 
 mamma on that occasion had childishly refused to take 
 the medicine from other hands. Still she regretted 
 that they could be of no use in the sick room. It 
 would be such a comfort to be of some small service 
 there. But in lieu of this, she worked at a dainty bit 
 of needle work, day after day, to be left as a souvenir 
 for Mrs. Raymond, when they should take their de 
 parture. 
 
 That time at last came. A letter arrived one even 
 ing, announcing the pleasant fact, that the house 
 awaited their coming, and requesting them, if conven 
 ient, to take the noon train on the next day, which 
 would bring them " home " in the early evening. 
 
 Very timely their arrival had been planned, as 
 Farnham shrewdly observed : 
 
 " At that hour, nothing of the forbidding incline, or 
 the wild look of things at this disagreeable season 
 could be seen. When spring came, it would all be so 
 different." 
 
 The call was a most welcome one. The evening 
 was spent in preparation, and the next morning, Alice 
 finished the pretty suprise, and left it with an affec 
 tionate note, for the hostess. 
 
 Before leaving they were permitted to enter the 
 darkened sick room. The white face that seemed to 
 almost lighten its twilight, filled them with serious ap 
 prehension ; and their last words to the husband,
 
 76 DRAFTED IX, A SEQUEL 
 
 who with hospitable intent accompanied them to the 
 train, were of solicitude for her. 
 
 Then the warning whistle, and one more look at the 
 kindly face, and they were on their way. 
 
 Never before were the rush, the roar, the clatter, of 
 the headlong race, such an exhilarating experience to 
 Alice, as now. She was on her way to a new home, 
 and the dearest being on earth waited her coming. 
 The very engine seemed in her happy secret. It shot 
 around curves ; danced over bridges ; put all its giant 
 strength to the task of climbing the zig-zag moun 
 tains, and went tearing through the valleys ; scream 
 ing "We are coming? we are coming?" 
 
 This, at least, is what her fancy heard, in every wild, 
 shrill whistle ; and her own heart kept repeating : " we 
 are coming ; Arthur, coming !" 
 
 The evening drew on, and suddenly they dashed 
 into semi-darkness, and the city of their destination 
 together ; dense smoke having shut off the day. 
 
 " It has seemed a remarkably short ride," observed 
 Mrs. Belding, stepping out upon the platform of the 
 Ironton depot, " and oh ! there is dear Arthur, look 
 ing for us !" 
 
 What joy it was to meet him now ! after even this 
 short separation ; and what joy to be going home ! 
 
 Sitting beside him, relating the adventures and 
 mis-adventures of the week, and listening to his voice, 
 Alice scarcely felt the time pass until they stood await 
 ing entrance at their own door, It was a narrow one; 
 but it flew wide open, and Annie West, with out 
 stretched arms, appeared therein. 
 
 " Home ! Sweet Home !" cried Alice, in exultant 
 tones, as she bounded in, like a happy child;
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 77 
 
 " Oh, Arthur, how pretty you have made it !" and 
 she surveyed the pretty parlors, delightedly. " You 
 said it was a horrid place that we must content our 
 selves in, just for a while ; but it is really the cunning- 
 est, cosiest, dearest little spot in the world !" 
 
 Mrs. Belding was glad to rest in a familiar easy 
 chair before the open fire ; but Alice ran from room to 
 room, and could not pause in her discoveries until she 
 had explored them all. 
 
 Mr. Farnham and the little niece followed with 
 smiling faces ; enjoying her surprise, and listening to 
 his praises, which seemed to each like a benediction 
 on their labor of love. 
 
 But the dining-room after all, possessed the most 
 substantial attractions. There the best supper was set 
 forth that the young housekeeper's culinary skill could 
 possibly achieve. Broiled chicken, that even Mrs. 
 Belding pronounced " done to a turn ;" pyramids of 
 snowy biscuit and delicate cake ; tempting fruits ; de 
 licious coffee and cream, all awaiting their apprecia 
 tion. Never had a feast seemed more enjoyable. 
 There was neither pallor nor weariness on any face. 
 Even Mrs. Belding was infected with the general hi 
 larity, and drank with Arthur "to the success of the 
 new suburban town !" 
 
 It was a cheerful evening altogether, that first one 
 in the new house, and it was one never to be forgotten. 
 Its careless gayety ; its boundless hope ; its faith in the 
 infinite possibilities of the future. 
 
 The next morning dispelled some of these bright 
 visions, that youth and hope, had conjured up. In 
 its disenchanting, and cold gray light, the dear hus 
 band's face was shown to Alice to look pale and worn ;
 
 78 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 and Mrs. Belding, glancing from one of the little win 
 dows, to get a view of the new surroundings, was ac 
 tually crushed by the appalling prospect. Accustomed 
 all her life to city sights and sounds, the rude desola 
 tion of these dreary hills made a sudden silence in her 
 soul. 
 
 "Oh, solitude !" she whispered, chilled by the out 
 look, " where are the charms that sages have seen in 
 thy face ?" 
 
 But she would not convey her impressions to the 
 others. She would help them to be brave. This was 
 a battle for life, and she would be foremost in the 
 ranks, for courage and endurance. With this highly 
 commendable purpose in her heart, she was sitting at 
 the breakfast table chatting with Arthur in the old 
 happy way, when a loud knock at the door announced 
 an early visitor ; then, without waiting to be ushered 
 in, Mr. Christopher Fox, with his wide set eyes rolled 
 upward to the ceiling as if mentally calculating the 
 chances of hitting his hat, which he did not see fit to 
 remove strode into the room. 
 
 " I looked in," he exclaimed, in a powerful voice 
 which sounded as if coming from an empty hogshead, 
 and, except by a slight wave of the hand, taking no 
 notice of the assembled family " to take an observa 
 tion or two. I have an offer to sell this house, with 
 the one on the other side, and I can't settle on the 
 price until I see what you have been about here." 
 
 Mr. Farnham, glancing at the ladies, said : 
 
 " It is Mr. Fox ;" and turned his eyes full upon the 
 intruder. 
 
 The guest felt, but did not heed their disapproval. 
 He stood swelling before the fire, and staring at
 
 TO " THE BREADWINNERS." 79 
 
 Mrs. Farnham, as if she had been a cheap show that 
 he had paid to look at. 
 
 " There was no need for such a paper on these 
 walls, I should say !" he decided, rolling his large orbs 
 around the room, and taking in with an indignant 
 flush, its many pretty appointments. " Something 
 cheaper would have answered the purpose here : how 
 ever, if I sell it, I'll put on price enough to cover it. 
 McGeary has bought the other house, and a brother of 
 his, a young chap just come out from the East is 
 going to buy this one. He has laid up a little money 
 and wants to invest it ; but it won't unsettle you ; un 
 less he should take it into his head to set up house 
 keeping on his own account with one of these pretty 
 girls here !" He smiled facetiously in their direction 
 as he uttered this delicate suggestion. 
 
 Mrs. Belding shot furious glances at Arthur Farn 
 ham. ' Why did he sit there silent, like a craven cow 
 ard ? Why did he not order this vulgar, odious per 
 son from the house ? She would not hesitate a mo 
 ment, if he were not present.' But he did not even 
 raise his eyes ; though by his sudden pallor, she knew 
 that his indignation was also at white heat. 
 
 Alice looked with a sly, amused smile at the great 
 uncouth figure of the man ; while Annie's grave eyes 
 wandered over his height, and breadth, with a mixture 
 of curiosity and dread, as if he had been some strange 
 mixture of wild beast that had found ingress there. 
 
 " Come, Farnham ! we'll walk along together ; we 
 must put a little more life into this business ! I'll go 
 this way," said the big man, in his deep voice, stoop 
 ing as he made his way into the kitchen, '< I want to 
 take a look at this she-bang back here !"
 
 8o DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 He surveyed the ceiling with a calculating abstrac 
 tion ; scrutinized the quality of lumber used in the 
 construction of the floor, and looked narrowly and 
 suspiciously at both sides of the door, through which 
 he made his egress. 
 
 Arthur Farnham took up his hat, with an absent air, 
 and followed him out. 
 
 " Well !" exclaimed Mrs. Belding, who was first to 
 recover from the speechless silence that fell upon this 
 exodus : " I will lock and bolt these doors, and see if 
 Mr. Christopher Fox will take possession here again in 
 that insolent manner !" and she proceeded, with a lofty 
 dignity first to the little front door, by which that 
 gentleman had entered, and then to the rear, by which 
 he had made his exit, locking and bolting both, with 
 an air of triumph, as if with the act, she had barred 
 out the arrogance of wealth through the length and 
 breadth of the whole land. 
 
 " Alice !" said she in a sharp voice, as she sank into 
 a bamboo rocker, and dropped her hands listlessly at 
 her side, " I am amazed that Arthur Farnham should 
 subject us to such impertinence ! such such really, 
 I can think of no word to express the offensiveness of 
 such manners ! Does that low, vulgar wretch know 
 whom he insults ?" she asked, in a voice broken and 
 choking with passion. " To think Arthur Farnham 
 did not resent such treatment of us !" She was wiping 
 her eyes now, and fairly sobbing with passion. 
 
 " Mamma," said Alice softly, " I am so sorry for 
 you !" and as she spoke, she knelt beside the low 
 chair, " but oh ! think of poor Arthur ! think of how 
 hard it must be for him ! Did you see how his eyes 
 flashed ? and his tired face grew so white ?"
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 8l 
 
 <% That was no rebuke !" retorted the mother angrily. 
 
 " But I suppose, mamma," returned Alice, meekly, 
 " that he does not feel that he can afford to break with 
 this man ; and that, I expect, is what it would amount 
 to, if he should fly out at everything that crossed him. 
 Think how ruinous it would be, now that we are all 
 fixed here !" 
 
 'But we should not have been all fixed here !" pro 
 tested the mother. " That is what I severely censure 
 Arthur Farnham for : a want of common prudence in 
 the matter. He should have come here himself and 
 looked the ground over carefully, and known some 
 thing of these men, before rushing headlong into this 
 fatal trap !" 
 
 " Fatal trap ?" questioned Alice, appalled at any 
 thing quite so serious in the situation. " Why do you 
 call it a fatal trap ?" 
 
 " Because I believe it to be one !" replied Mrs. 
 Belding, compressing her lips so tightly that they were 
 scarcely visible, after announcing this unpleasant con 
 viction. 
 
 " But mamma, you know how it was with us," pleaded 
 Alice, " and you did not suggest his coming here be 
 fore accepting the position." 
 
 " Position !" repeated the elder lady scornfully. "I 
 would like to have Arthur Yarnham's position here de 
 fined to my satisfaction. I was led to suppose there 
 was a partnership interest of some sort : but this mag 
 nate of the corporation certainly ignored anything of 
 the kind. Did you not observe it, Alice ?" 
 
 "Yes;" the poor wife replied, looking sadly 
 thoughtful, " but oh, mamma, I care so little about 
 that ; I know it is all in the writings ; and you remem-
 
 82 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 her how glad we all were of this opening, when every 
 place seemed filled, and we just living on expense." 
 
 Mrs. Belding sighed heavily, and pressed her hand 
 kerchief to her eyes in a melancholy way, feeling her 
 self an unhappy fugitive, " whom dark disaster fol 
 lowed fast, and followed faster." 
 
 " Don't let us take such a gloomy view of things on 
 this first morning, mamma," whispered Alice, coaxing- 
 ly. "Think how hard they have worked to smooth it all 
 for us ! I just seem to see it now. I could hardly 
 rouse Annie (she was in the kitchen and beyond hear 
 ing) this morning ; and in her sleep the child looked 
 so tired it smote me ; it just breaks my heart to see 
 poor Arthur. He is not fit to be out of bed." 
 
 Alice wiped her own eyes now, but continued : 
 
 " I am going to be just as gay as I can be ! I will 
 romp, and sing, and dance. Arthur shall not feel that 
 /am disappointed," she declared, in a voice that was 
 tremulous with eagerness and pity. 
 
 "That is the right spirit, child ?" encouraged Mrs. 
 Belding, laying a hand on the daughter's head, though 
 she did not remove the handkerchief from her eyes to 
 look at her. " I want to be brave, and will try ; but 
 this is so unexpected, so utterly humiliating, and one 
 cannot forget the life one has always lead, and tamely 
 submit to vulgar insolence because clothed in a little 
 ephemeral power." 
 
 " Why mamma ! the man is not worth discussing," 
 said Alice bravely. " I could scarcely refrain from 
 laughing at him, he seemed such an uncouth ab 
 surdity ;" and she lifted the frail hand from her head, 
 and stroked it softly, but there was something in her 
 young face that belied her careless words.
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 83 
 
 V. 
 A YOUNG REFORMER. 
 
 " What though on Jiamely fare we dine! 
 
 Wear Iwdden gray and a' that ; 
 Gie fools their silk an' knaves their wine ; 
 A mon'8 a mow,, for 'a that. " 
 
 Robinson Crusoe was not more isolated on his deso 
 late island, than this solitary family found themselves, 
 from the rush, and whirl, and progress of the great 
 world, of which they once made an infinitesimal part. 
 
 Perhaps they were even more desolate ; he had his 
 good man Friday ; who, being only a savage, 
 could be cultivated with propriety : but the plodding, 
 stern-visaged, uncouth mortals by whom they were 
 surrounded, seemed to repel, rather than excite in 
 terest. 
 
 It is true the drama of human life was being en 
 acted all around them, in both comedy and tragedy ; 
 but stripped of the settings and scenery through which 
 they had been accustomed to view it, it was but a dull 
 play. 
 
 Mrs. Belding became a prey to the liveliest discon 
 tent. In the absence of other and more agreeable 
 diversions, she devoted herself to the construction of 
 t elegant trifles in decorative art, and sought to narrow 
 her capabilities, as a human soul, to the limited degree 
 that finds enjoyment in such lavish waste of time. 
 
 " There is really nothing else to occupy one," she
 
 84 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 said one day, as she sat down to this industry, after 
 the morning's work lightened by three pairs of 
 hands had all been accomplished. " Ancient History 
 is interesting me a good deal of late, but," she added 
 listlessly, " one cannot always find pleasure in the 
 doings of people who lived thousands of years ago." 
 
 Annie thought with a vague regret, of the poor, 
 the burdened, and ignorant, at their very door ; of the 
 half naked children and sad-faced mothers whom she 
 met in her walks and the " In-as-mucli ," whispered it 
 self reproachfully to her own heart, whose sympathy 
 had been withheld, because forbidden. 
 
 On bright days Alice and she took long walks some 
 times through the dreary irregular streets, and some 
 times over the solitary hills. They had been provided 
 with a companion and protector in the form of a saga 
 cious Newfoundland dog. He was the property of Johny 
 Rafferty, a poor quarry-man ; and was loaned to the 
 young ladies for a season ; or, more properly speak 
 ing, was taking a short vacation to recuperate from 
 the wasting effects of an insufficient diet. 
 
 His master, bent nearly double with rheumatism, 
 contracted while working ankle-deep in water, could 
 not always afford enough from his scanty fare, to sup 
 ply the demands of the dog's carniverous stomach. 
 It had been a trial too, to part with him. The poor 
 man lived quite alone in a little hut at the foot of a 
 long hill beyond the quarry. 
 
 Alice and Annie had discovered the solitary cabin 
 in one of their rambles, and named it "The Hermitage." 
 Touched by the utter barrenness of the place, they 
 had sometimes contrived an appetizing dish for the for 
 lorn old creature when he should return to it at night.
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 85 
 
 Yet he had made " the wage " he boastfully in 
 formed the " manager," as he called Mr. Farnham, 
 "an" good wage too. Why Sur," he said, his eyes 
 shining with honest pride, "there warrant a mon in it 
 as could go beyint me wi' the pick, whin I coome to the 
 plaze. I were as hearty as a young buck, an' as strang 
 in me arums, an' I tuk the worruk be the perch, an' 
 golly ! I made the toime. Sur, I wint at it be starlight 
 in the marnin' an' pegged away be the lantern at night. 
 But the oowner, he got scared o' me, an' fixed the 
 wage be the day. It's ony way to hoold ye back !" 
 he said excitedly. " Noo that I can't just monage the 
 pick," spreading his hands as well as he was able, 
 his fingers were drawn together like the claws of some 
 monstrous bird, " I'm wilcome to have it be the perch. 
 So ye'll moind the dog, an' give 'im a sup 'o mate 
 whin he craves it, an' he'll watch oo'er you young 
 ladies loike a broother. But," he conditioned, his 
 old face lighting up, " whin the ould woman an' the 
 lad coomes oo'er, ye'll give him up. I'm hoordin', 
 Sur, for that toime, plaze God ! an' hoome wouldn't 
 be hoome to thim, wi'out the company o' the dog. 
 Me bye, a foine, healthy lad, is powerfu' fond o' 
 him." 
 
 And so it had come to pass that this huge, shaggy- 
 coated animal, which barked to the name of Rover, 
 accepted the caresses of the young ladies in good 
 part, and with a grave and silent appreciation, which 
 eminently became him as an honest and reliable dog. 
 He ate ravenously from their fair hands ; came at their 
 call ; and followed them faithfully as their shadows. 
 When they tripped along the narrow board-wrlk, he 
 ran joyfully after ; and when they wandered in other,
 
 86 DRAFTED IX, A SEQUKl. 
 
 and less frequented ways, he took the initiative, and 
 trotted along some distance in advance, smelling the 
 earth as he went, as if apprehensive that the founda 
 tions of the everlasting hills were not as solid as gen- 
 ally reported. 
 
 There was one place that seemed to possess a 
 strange fascination for them. It was a very old and 
 very solemn country burial-ground. There was a wide, 
 wooden, arched gate-way, and finding the gate open 
 one day, they went in. 
 
 It was a well-kept, orderly place, with broad smooth 
 walks among the graves, some of which were huddled 
 together, as if from long companionship the silent 
 sleepers were becoming friendly, and the mossy head 
 stones above them reeled and staggered like drunken 
 men on picket guard. 
 
 These bore quaint inscriptions, mostly in German, 
 which Alice would translate for Annie's benefit ; and 
 sometimes, it must be said, for their mutual amuse 
 ment. There were others of more modern date ; 
 fair polished shafts that glistened in the sun, in memory 
 of those who never more would look upon His light. 
 
 As they strolled about through the silent, dreamy 
 place, supposing themselves to be quite alone there, 
 they were astonished at coming upon an old sexton 
 digging a grave. Their footsteps were suddenly ar 
 rested, and they, awed into silence by the solemnity 
 and mystery of his occupation. Then they ventured 
 nearer, and peered shudderingly into the yawning 
 horror. 
 
 The old man resting upon the spade he had just 
 emptied, his white, straggling locks just above the 
 ground at their feet surveyed them curiously. Ap-
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS*' 87 
 
 parently satisfied that the fair apparition was not a 
 delusion of his brain, he resumed his work in stolid 
 silence. But finding them still there when he again 
 deposited his spade-full of earth, he rested it beside 
 him, and wiping the perspiration from his brow, pro 
 ceeded with the kindly garrulity of age to inform 
 their curiosity as if it had been expressed. Fixing 
 his eyes on Annie West, as well as he was able, they 
 were fearfully at cross purposes he said : 
 
 "The head that will lie here, Miss, is as young and 
 as fair as the fairest." 
 
 Sorrowfully they looked again far down into the bed 
 of earth. 
 
 "These old hands," he continued, "have made 
 many a bed hereabouts for the young; but never for 
 a prettier maid than will rest here ! Mayhap you 
 knew her ?" he questioned. " Daisy Hastings ; though 
 that warn't her name as she were christened by, only 
 everybody called her Daisy, sort of loving like." 
 
 They shook their heads in silent disavowel, and 
 Alice said : 
 
 " We are new-comers here and have no acquaintance 
 in the neighborhood whatever." 
 
 He looked at them again searchingly. " They are 
 not quite of our sort," was his mental deliberation, 
 but he said impressively : 
 
 " If ye'd ever been favored with a sight o' her, you'd 
 'ave a picter to remember !" 
 
 The stranger eyes that grew so tender, disposed the 
 old sexton to friendliness. 
 
 "Ye'll always find this a pleasant place to 
 come of a bright day," and then with a nod of 
 the head and wave of the hand toward the in
 
 88 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 numeral hillocks I could give the history of nigh 
 about half of these dead folk, having been sex 
 ton here for over twenty year ; an' I serves 'em all 
 alike ; rich an' poor ; high an' low ; old an' young ; 
 they all comes, an' I makes their bed the same." 
 
 "But this one?" asked Annie, looking with mourn 
 ful interest into the new-made grave, " can you tell us 
 something of her ? is there a mother to be heart 
 broken after her ?" 
 
 "Yis, an' heart-broken ye may well say," he replied 
 with a melancholy shake of his head. " This here, 
 Miss, at the right's the father's grave. It was mesel' 
 digged the same eight years ago come November. 
 Yis, she's seen her own trouble !" and pursuiug the 
 train of these refactions, he took up his spade, and was 
 heard scraping and delving far below, bringing occa 
 sional spadefuls to the surface. At length he paused 
 again, and continued his narrative : 
 
 "Left wi ' six, and one a cripple, an' naught to do 'wi but 
 a bit 'o ground and that morsel 'o house ye see yonder 
 jest atwixt that part in the trees, she's had her own 
 hard fight wi' poverty. But she's a master hand to 
 manage ; an' now Paul's got up to be like a father 
 to the young 'uns he's the oldest boy, an' he's a' edi- 
 cating Hiram the next to him, off at some big school 
 or 'nother, to make a man 'o the lad as they'll all be 
 proud of. He's a master inteleck, they say, is Hiram. 
 Paul's boss 'o some machine works down in the city, 
 and makes wages, I'll be bound ! for he's a stirrin', 
 go-ahead chap, as won't be kep* back for want o' put- 
 a strong shoulder to the wheel." 
 
 Here the old man disappeared, and was heard bur 
 rowing in the earth at a still greater distance from the
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 89 
 
 surface ; but rising to the top presently with a willing 
 ness in his face to impart further confidences, Alice 
 asked : 
 
 " Which is the cripple ?" 
 
 " The next one to her" he answered, pointing sig 
 nificantly to the open grave. " Helen, the little lame 
 girl, with a voice like a lark, Miss. Often an' often, 
 of a summer night, I've listened to her; sittin' in that 
 porch an' singin' over her little songs, an' it made me 
 sort o' lonesome like to hear 'em night after night, 
 the same little pieces, without a bit o' encouragement, 
 only the frogs hollerin' back." 
 
 "Poor child !" exclaimed Annie, "she will be lone 
 lier than ever now ! I wish Alice, that we knew her." 
 
 ' Ef ye walk here this hour the day after to-mor 
 row," suggested the sexton, wiping the perspiration 
 from his face with an immense bandana, and restoring 
 it to the battered crown of his old hat, " ye'll be in 
 good time to see the funeral, an' a right smart o' the 
 neighbors too." 
 
 Thanking him kindly, and expressing their purpose 
 to be there, they bade him good day, and summoning 
 Rover, who was investigating a distant group of 
 graves, turned homeward. 
 
 On that day, standing by the open gate-way among 
 a crowd of strange faces, they were silent witnesses of 
 the mournful cortege that swept in, with bowed heads 
 and measured tread, and winding through the quiet 
 avenues of this city of the dead, paused around the 
 newly made grave. 
 
 There was something peculiarly pathetic to them in 
 the scene. It was the burial of the young and beauti 
 ful, and a light had been quenched, and a joy had de-
 
 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 parted from a home that had known but little of either. 
 There were loving young hearts, to whom such grief 
 was new, and a widowed mother's, that had known its 
 own bitterness, and now drank afresh of the worm 
 wood and the gall. 
 
 She raised her heavy veil with a quick, frantic mo 
 tion, as the plain casket was being lowered to its rest 
 ing place, for a long, last look, and then leaned pas 
 sively upon the arm of the sturdy youth who supported 
 her." 
 
 "That is Paul !" thought Annie, looking with much 
 interest at the tall form and grave face of the young 
 man. There was determination and purpose expressed 
 in every line of it ; and it somehow held her eyes, 
 with a strange fascination, while the mold fell on the 
 coffin-lid, consigning "dust to dust ; ashes to ashes." 
 
 Then the mourners dispersed, and Alice and Annie 
 walked silently homeward. 
 
 " How pitiful it all was !" remarked the former, 
 breaking the mournful spell that fell upon them. I 
 almost wish we had not seen it. I suppose that poor, 
 tired-looking mother felt something of what mamma 
 would if she were to bury me." 
 
 She shuddered as she said this, and Annie looked at 
 her inquiringly. 
 
 " Don't look so frightened !" she said quickly, " I 
 don't imagine I am going to die, I mean at present. 
 But," she added in a subdued voice, "I have an al 
 most superstitious dread upon me of some coming 
 evil." 
 
 Prophetic-like, her uncle's face rose up before 
 Annie's vision, but she said nothing, and Alice sud 
 denly asked :
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 91 
 
 " Tell me Annie ! I know you notice Arthur's 
 altered looks, and dragging steps ; did you ever 
 think ? oh, did you ? that he might die ?" 
 
 After giving this expression to the terrible fear that 
 haunted her own heart, she put her handkerchief to 
 her eyes and sobbed like a child. 
 
 " Don't !" pleaded Annie, " don't ! it is only the sight 
 we have witnessed that is making you so wretched." 
 
 " No, it is not," declared Alice firmly. " I think of 
 it every night when you are all asleep. Poor Arthur ! 
 this life is dreadful for him, but he never complains." 
 
 They had never exchanged any confidences on this 
 subject before, and yet each had the same unspoken 
 dread, which Annie's artless face could not altogether 
 conceal. 
 
 " I wish" pursued Alice with unusual energy, " that I 
 could get something to do !" 
 
 You !" queried Annie, the quick blood mounting 
 to her forehead ; " it is /who should do that ! and I 
 have thought of it often, only I feared it would be 
 hard for you and your mother to spare me." 
 
 " I should think it would !" declared Alice warmly. 
 Mamma says that we could not live without you ; so 
 don't go misunderstanding ? (glancing uneasily at the 
 flushed face). "But this is what I am thinking, here 
 am I, capable of teaching music ; or the German or 
 French languages ; or giving lessons in painting ; or 
 embroidery ; or designing : or drawing, as many 
 ladies do, you know, who make a pretty sum for 
 themselves. Then think if Arthur should get worse, 
 how may comforts it would buy him !" 
 
 " Uncle would not listen to it," protested Annie. 
 
 "He would not be consulted. I would steal out
 
 92 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 while he is away, and be home before him. Oh !" she 
 sighed, " if we were only acquainted in the city !" 
 
 " That would be too far away," was Annie's dis 
 couraging rejoinder. 
 
 " If there were only a different class of people 
 about us I would just go out and try what I could 
 do," said Alice heroically. 
 
 " Perhaps," began Annie, and then hesitated, smil 
 ing and looking mysterious. 
 
 " Perhaps what ?" questioned the other. 
 
 " Well, I will tell you, it is a little secret I have 
 been keeping from you for some time, for fear it 
 might spoil our musicales : But on several occasions, 
 'The lord of the Hills' as your mamma calls Mr. 
 Fox, and his wife, and the princess Isabella, have 
 been seen to stand for the greater part of an hour, 
 just opposite our door, on the farther side of the 
 street spell-bound listeners to our evening rehearsals. 
 
 " Spies !" said Alice, with a little scornful toss of 
 her head. " I could fancy them acting in that capacity. 
 But how do you happen to know this ?" 
 
 Annie blushed. To confess this part of her secret, 
 betrayed her own low-born instincts which were 
 especially reprehensible. 
 
 " Poor Mrs. McGarvey," she said, with a little 
 deprecatory smile, " could not refrain from telling me. 
 She was coming home the first time and ran right 
 across them in the darkness. Since then I think she 
 must have watched for them ; and it would amuse 
 you ; she prides herself on your music as if it were 
 her own !" 
 
 They were at their door now ; and Mrs. Belding 
 met them, looking impatient at their long stay. " Her
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 93 
 
 supper had been waiting sometime," she said, and as 
 Arthur had not yet made his appearance, and it was 
 beyond his hour, she wished one of them would go 
 and bring him. 
 
 Alice, though wearied by her long walk, preferred 
 to go. The distance was slight only up the sharp 
 hill. The office was a small, unpainted building, 
 bearing the inevitable announcement on a towering 
 width of sign board : " The Foxburg Mutual Benefit 
 Association's office !" She had reached the door of 
 this imposing structure, which was ajar, and stood 
 still before it. Through a curtainless window a crowd 
 of workmen were visible inside. 
 
 Then she recollected that it was " pay night" the 
 time having been changed from the previous Saturday 
 to this Monday night as more convenient. 
 
 Hesitating a moment, whether to return or wait 
 outside until this business was finished, she heard a 
 faltering voice remonstrate : 
 
 " I thooght I should a' had the 'mount o' to-day's 
 along o' it." 
 
 " You see Johnny," she heard Arthur explain ; " it 
 will be the same thing, only it will turn on another 
 week's pay." 
 
 Then she was startled to hear the younger Fox, with 
 a terrible oath, call out : 
 
 "If you are grumbling about this arrangement just 
 take your money and leave ! and don't show your face 
 here again !" 
 
 " No ! No ! Master Fox !" the voice was eager, 
 and conciliatory " I didn't jest understand intirely." 
 
 " Clear out with you !" cried the stentorian voice 
 of the master, " I'll not be bothered to explain my
 
 94 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 way of settlement. This is one of them. D' ye 
 understand that ?" 
 
 " But Sur !" began Johnny. 
 
 " Make room there, I say ! we can't stay here all 
 night. Men who can't earn their salt, are always the 
 grumblers." Alice moved trom the door just in tim6 
 to escape meeting face-to-face the poor bent object 
 who staggered forth. 
 
 It was Johnny Rafferty, the rheumatic quarry-man. 
 His old slouch hat was pulled far down over his 
 excited face, and the hand that grasped the little tin 
 dinner-pail, shook as with ague. 
 
 Alice spoke a kindly word to him and hurried home 
 ward, but Rover could not be called away. He 
 seemed to divine that his old master was in some 
 trouble, and in need of sympathy. So he began 
 yelping and jumping about him in the liveliest 
 greeting, licking his distorted hands, and then lifting 
 his forepaws he placed them affectionately upon the 
 shrunken shoulders as if he would assure the master 
 of his dogship's undying faithfulness. 
 
 Poor Johnny ! he had no heart to send Rover 
 away ; and so Alice last saw them disappearing over 
 the hills together. 
 
 " I shall set him at work again, some day when we 
 are short of hands !" said Arthur Farnham, when 
 discussing the unpleasant incident, at the supper 
 table. " I think Fox wished to be rid of the man, but 
 he would not have been so hasty, had he been quite 
 himself." 
 
 " Intoxicated ; eh ?" queried Mrs. Belding, in no 
 very amiable tones, and elevating her brows in scorn.
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 95 
 
 " Slightly," returned Farnham, with a weary expres 
 sion upon his face. 
 
 He might have added, that it was nothing new : 
 that four days out of six he was in that condition at 
 their close. That no one could possibly suffer more 
 from his arrogance at these times than himself ; but 
 these were some of the humiliating secrets locked in 
 his own breast. 
 
 He had never brought home his private burdens to 
 be shared by the household, yet every day added to 
 their weight. He had most unwillingly accepted the 
 common verdict : that few persons could be found 
 more keenly alive to their own interests, in dollars 
 and cents ; more exacting in service ; more inhuman 
 in sympathy ; more indifferent to the rights of others ; 
 more intolerant ; more arrogant ; more abusive ; in 
 short, more giftedin meanness, than the two illustrious 
 Foxes, named respectively, Solomon and Christopher, 
 with whom he found himself unfortunately associated. 
 
 He had been lead to believe that the younger 
 brother, with his family, would go abroad as soon as he 
 became established here, and the work fairly inau 
 gurated ; and the elder one would take but a general 
 supervision. 
 
 But very different was the reality, every action was 
 narrowly watched ; every move sharply criticised. 
 
 If he submitted important questions to them, why 
 they employed him to furnish them ideas ! that was 
 what was expected of him. 
 
 If, after such playful rebuffs, he acted independently, 
 the result was invariably ; AMAZEMENT ! the over 
 whelming amazement of the united pair at the lack 
 of judgment ! the want of perception ! the absence
 
 96 DRAFTED IX, A SKQUF.I, 
 
 of all common prudence ! which these extravagant 
 blunders betrayed. 
 
 These encouraging experiences had been enjoyed 
 after the draining of the quarry, where so many 
 poor fellows had lost life, or health, heretofore, 
 and which had been successfully accomplished, by 
 digging a channel for the waters to flow forth ; but 
 which was characterized as : the most insane scheme 
 good money was ever wasted upon. A siphon was 
 all that was required." 
 
 Also in locating the site for the mill ; the brick 
 yard ; and in finding the proper elevation for the 
 block of houses : in fact, in every separate step he 
 had taken thus far in the progress of affairs. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding his failing health, and the 
 disadvantages of his position, so thoroughly had he 
 devoted himself to the work, and with such marked 
 results, they were compelled to recognize the new 
 superintendent agent they called him as a man of 
 superior ability. It was however, but a tacit apprecia 
 tion ; they never commended him, it was not policy. 
 
 They grudgingly admitted to each other, after a 
 severe storm of rain : " that the quarry was actually 
 as dry as a man's throat after a spree." And they 
 found by comparing statistics of labor, that it had 
 never been worked with such profit before. 
 
 They also secretly congratulated themselves, that 
 the excellent masonry in the foundation of the new 
 block, would be an advertisement for their granite far 
 and near: and furthermore, that this handsome, taste 
 ful row of dwelling houses now nearly completed 
 was as good as an insurance policy on the success of 
 the whole enterprise.
 
 TO " THE BREADWINNERS. 97 
 
 Two-story bricks, with French basements every 
 house in this altitude might enjoy that luxury, as 
 everyone would be built on a side hill were certain 
 ly attractive. 
 
 How often the brothers, disagreeing in everything 
 else enjoyed by stealth as it were, feasting their 
 greedy eyes upon this achievement of art. 
 
 Circulars were laboriously composed ; printed by 
 thousands, and sown broadcast, advertising these 
 homes. The advantages, therein set forth, were of 
 such a seductive character, as to produce the liveliest 
 dissatisfaction in the breast of any householder what 
 ever : he being thereby deprived of the luxury of a 
 paradisiacal home in the very bosom of Arcadia. 
 
 After reading these glowing accounts of the delights 
 of this region whose landscape, it was said, remind 
 ed one of the hanging gardens of Nebuchanezzer ; 
 whose clouds and sunsets were gorgeous, yet softened 
 like fair Italia's reflected in the Bay of Naples ; and 
 whose airs were of such salubrity, as to be compared 
 to nothing earthly whatever, but which so infected 
 the lives even of those mortals, fortunate enough to 
 whiff their fragrance, as evermore to shine forth in a 
 chrystaline purity of character some of the more 
 imaginative, ventured the assertion that beyond a 
 peradventure, the veritable site of the first Eden had 
 been established at last, and Mount Henry was the 
 favored spot. 
 
 Such brilliant word-painting possesses a certain fas 
 cination for even the most prosaic, and this did not 
 fail to affect a certain class in the cramped and smoky 
 city. 
 
 Buyers soon became plentiful ; yet with all the
 
 98 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 favoring conditions, there were drops of bitterness for 
 Farnham, all the more distasteful, because quaffed 
 in secret. He could not inform the stern mother-in- 
 law, or fond wife, of the downfall of his own hopes 
 of profit from these successes. 
 
 He could not tell them that he had blundered in 
 the contract, by not having it therein specified what 
 should be the value fixed upon the lots, in which he 
 had no interest, but which in the sale, monopolized 
 the entire profits of all. So he had dragged his 
 family to this place, for the privilege of a bare sub- 
 sistance, and with no other hope in the future. It had 
 been a cunningly devised swindle, to which his own 
 necessities had blinded him. Imperative want, had 
 made improvident haste ; and now there seemed no 
 help for it ; no redress. 
 
 What wonder that he listened now to Mrs. Belding's 
 interogations with weariness ! that a faint nausea, 
 like seasickness, suddenly emphasized the pallor of his 
 thin face ? that he found himself pushing back his 
 plate with a disrelish for the homely dainties of the 
 board ! 
 
 It was not Mrs. Belding's sharp eyes, or sharp 
 words ; it was not Fox's drunkenness ; nor Johnny 
 Rafferty's trouble : nor any one thing ; it was 
 everything. 
 
 " You must eat, Arthur ?" urged Mrs. Belding, 
 whisking some cold ham upon his plate, hastily fol 
 lowed by an omelet. 
 
 " That is what you need ; you have fasted too long ! 
 This is one of my omelets, such as you used to like." 
 
 He made an effort to comply, but it was evident he 
 had no relish for the viands.
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 99 
 
 Alice saw, with a fresh sinking of the heart, the 
 grave despondency of the poor face, and made an 
 heroic effort at cheerfulness ; dashing into a lively 
 description of the funeral, a graphic word picture 
 of the old sexton, and the story of Daisy Hastings, 
 as related by him. 
 
 At last she had the satisfaction of seeing that her 
 husband was interested. 
 
 " Did you mention a Paul Hastings ?" he suddenly 
 inquired, conscious of some familiarity in the sound 
 of the name. 
 
 " Yes, a tall handsome " began Annie, and 
 
 then paused, blushing to the tips of her little ears. 
 
 "Why?" asked Alice, unmindful of the unfinished 
 description, or the confusion that followed it, " did 
 you ever hear of him before ?" 
 
 " Why, yes." He replied, " I think it must be the 
 same one. If so, he is rather a noted character here 
 abouts. He is a young man whom the Foxes, and a 
 good many others hold in derision, as a meddler in the 
 unpopular question of labor reform ; doing more harm, 
 they claim, by unsettling the minds of working-men, 
 and creating discontent and thriftlsseness ; than he can 
 ever undo." 
 
 Annie's pink ears were elevated to listen, and Mrs. 
 Belding said with terse sharpness : 
 
 " Like that odious Offit ?" 
 
 "No," objected Farnham, passing his cup now to be 
 refilled, " from what I hear even from his enemies, 
 he is at least sincere in his efforts to reform some 
 of the abuses of his class." 
 
 " Do tell us about him !" said Alice " I liked the 
 looks of the student better, though there ivas a kind
 
 IOO DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 of rustic grandeur about Mm, as if the spirit of some 
 old hero had been rehabiliated and clothed in rather 
 ordinary vestments." 
 
 " That is a pretty good description for a modern 
 reformer," declared Arthur, smiling upon the little 
 wife. " But which of the old heroes now did he sug 
 gest ? Cromwell, or Luther ?" 
 
 " It would require a greater than either," exclaimed 
 Mrs. Belding bitterly, " to right the wrongs of this 
 day !" 
 
 Arthur Farnham regarded her a moment, with an 
 odd mixture of amusement and chagrin, in the quizzi 
 cal smile that lighted up his handsome eyes. 
 
 " It is wonderful," he said, " what a different view 
 of the same subject we get by shifting our point of 
 vision ! Now, you and I mother, living on Aljonquin 
 Avenue, with nothing to do, but invest in good securi 
 ties ; authorize our agents to collect rents and inter 
 ests ; and make for ourselves a holiday of life, had no 
 wrongs of any magnitude to be righted, but were con 
 tent to let the world jog on, with the least possible jar 
 or friction. The world's greatest reformers will never 
 arise from the happy, prosperous classses. They 
 have no need of reforms. They talk of them only 
 to silence the clamor of the wretched feeding the 
 hungry multitude on roses flowers of rhetoric, 
 while they gorge themselves on the substantial things 
 of life. 
 
 The father of Paul Hastings was a small manufac 
 turer, who lived and did business in the city ; and this 
 is his story as I heard it : 
 
 He leased a piece of ground, fronting on the river," 
 of an old Shylock, for twenty years ; built his mill,
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. IOI 
 
 and got in expensive machinery, and for a time did a 
 thriving business. 
 
 Paul, in those days was sent to school, and the family 
 was well cared for and happy, as those of the middle 
 classes usually are. But the time came when the big 
 fish began to dine off the little ones ; and the poor 
 fellow though he worked himself into his grave, 
 with a bravery worthy a martyr's crown, could not 
 contend against the rapacity which swallowed up his 
 little all, as soon as he ceased his struggling resistaace. 
 
 The mill and machinery were confiscated by the 
 said Shylock, immediately after the funeral, and the 
 widow and orphans left, to fight without weapons, for 
 an existence, or give it up, if defeated in the battle. 
 
 Shylock is better known about town as Ananias 
 Swoop. I have often seen him on the street. They 
 say he is as rich as a Jew, and I can vouch for his be 
 ing as yellow as a Chinaman, and deaf as a Heathen 
 Deity. I never pass him, but I think of the poor 
 widow and her orphan children. There was a large 
 family of them, and no wonder, if this boy had the 
 courage to grow up at all, that he developed into a 
 reformer."
 
 102 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 VI. 
 
 A PEEP AT THE DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE 
 CORPORATE FOX. 
 
 " Do you know there's only four days more ?" com 
 plained Miss Isabella Eugenia Josephine Fox, as she 
 burst into the breakfast-room ; " and I say ma, I 
 shan't go back to that old school !" 
 
 " Mamma looked up with a pre-occupied expression 
 in her small, black eyes. It was plain that she took 
 little heed of the somewhat overgrown young miss, 
 who thus saluted her : for she made neither answer 
 nor protest. She had heard the same energetic de 
 claration so many times during the short vacation the 
 daughter had been spending at home, that she thought 
 it not worth while to remonstrate. She would return 
 to the school \ that was settled. Besides, Mrs. 
 Christopher Fox was deeply engaged at the moment. 
 She held in one hand a bird of most brilliant plumage 
 not a living tropical song-bird, but a splendid 
 triumph of the taxidermist's skill, and in the other, 
 an elegant trifle, called a bonnet. 
 
 " I don't like this new bonnet :" she had said to 
 Christopher the evening previous, while returning 
 from church, " Did he notice Mrs. Scott Walbridges ? 
 such a love of a thing ! and we go to the same shop ; 
 and her's are not any more expensive than mine. The 
 hateful Miss Frizzette ! one would think she had a
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 103 
 
 spite against me !" she declared indignantly, "and 
 she always gives such an exquisite touch to everything 
 she makes for Mrs. Scott Walbridge." 
 
 " Your bird isn't on the right perch !" conjectured 
 the Fox, frowning on the little bonnet, in a manly 
 effort to determine the difficulty. 
 
 " Does it want to be set higher up ?" asked Mrs, 
 Fox anxiously." 
 
 " I don't know where it wants to set," confessed the 
 masculine critic, "but it don't look happy where it is 
 now." 
 
 So it was coming down from its clumsy perch thus 
 early, because it was to accompany the lady to the 
 city this morning, and it must not look as if held a 
 prisoner in her service. But the provoking bird, with 
 out a feather ruffled, seemed to possess the power of 
 mischief in an exasperating degree. The excited 
 artist fastened it this side and the other, and every 
 moment it grew more tantalizing and defiant. 'I 
 never saw such a provoking thing as it is ?" she 
 declared at last, and the wicked little glass eyes wink 
 ed back into her own which so nearly resembled 
 them like a veritable imp's. 
 
 Miss Isabella watched the struggle for some 
 moments in silence. Mamma's occupation, and more 
 especially the expression of her eyes, prevented 
 any farther allusion to her own views and determina 
 tions respecting the school. She dropped indolently 
 into an easy chair, and resumed the perusal of a 
 story, where she had laid it down late on the night 
 before ; and was soon deeply absorbed in the triumphs 
 of an American beauty and heiress, in the court 
 circles of the old world.
 
 104 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 The book was a very plethoric one, and the leaves 
 like those of a tree in autumn, were all ready to 
 flutter forth in the first breeze that shook them, but 
 even one could not be spared. The young and eager 
 eyes were filled with impatience at the slightest dis 
 placement of them, so exciting was the tale. It was 
 all about my lady, the charming countess, and the 
 little beauty's train of suitors, among whom titles 
 jostled each other in bewildering confusion. 
 
 So unconscious did she become of her immediate 
 surroundings, in following these noble personages 
 about in their round of gayties dancing and feasting 
 with them in fancy that she quite forgot that she 
 was herself, breakfastless, until aroused to the fact 
 by the entrance of her papa. Seating himself at the 
 vacant, uninviting board, he rang the little table bell 
 with an emphasis that startled both mother and 
 daughter, who hastened to join him there. Uncle 
 Solomon appeared a moment later. 
 
 The coffee urn was brought in advertising its 
 contents a little too liberally upon the outside by 
 Johnny, the colored waiter, also a trifle demoralized 
 in respect to personal neatness, having a moment 
 before turned a summer-sault in the kitchen, for the 
 benefit of the cook. Unfortunately, in this triumph 
 ant exhibition, his pockets shapeless from constant 
 stuffing, had emptied themselves of a pile of surrep 
 titious treasure, chiefly confectionary, which there had 
 been a hot scramble to secure. So Johnny, in his 
 haste, and pre-occupation, had forgotten to replace 
 the flapping pockets ; and as he had also exploded a 
 button, important in its position as supporting the
 
 TO '' THK BREAD WINNERS." 105 
 
 integrity of the old trousers, he presented a slightly 
 disordered appearance. 
 
 Bridget, very red of face, now appeared with the 
 more substantial dishes, and the breakfast was fairly 
 inaugurated. 
 
 Johnny was brought into immediate requisition, to 
 supply sundry missing articles in the menu, and as he 
 bustled about alert and active as a skipper in a storm 
 Miss Isabella watching him with ferret-like eyes, 
 was suddenly seized with the suspicion that there 
 appeared an unnatural fullness about his cheeks ; and 
 that his thick lips were uncompromisingly closed. 
 
 " Johnny !" she asked, " what have you got in your 
 mouth ?" 
 
 Johnny did not find it convenient to open it in 
 reply ; so he merely shook his head in innocent denial 
 of harboring anything whatever, in that guilless 
 receptacle. 
 
 " I know better !" protested the young lady. " You 
 have been at my box of caramels !" 
 
 Johnny was attacked with an alarming cough, and 
 adroitly managed to abstract three from either cheek 
 while his convulsed back was turned ; then clearing 
 his throat, he exclaimed in the most artless manner : 
 
 " No Miss Bella ; hope I die dis minit ef eber I sot 
 eyes on one ob 'em ! an' dat's de libin truf ?" and 
 with this asseveration, he retired to the kitchen, with 
 the injured air of an impeached Minister of the 
 Cabinet. 
 
 " He is the plague of my life !" exclaimed Mrs. 
 Christopher Fox, when he had closed the door, and 
 stood listening behind it. " As thievish and mischiev 
 ous as a monkey."
 
 lo6 DRAFTED IN, A SECjtfEL 
 
 "Why do you keep him then?" inquired her hus 
 band, with blunt interrogation in his wide-set eyes. 
 
 " He is certainly not ornamental !" announced the 
 oracular Mr. Solomon, with a face of imperturable 
 stolidity, bent in severe contemplation upon the steak 
 with which he was ignobly wrestling. 
 
 " He can do!" sighed the lady, "and he has the 
 strength of a young giant, and is just as bright as he 
 can be. You ought to see how ingenious he is ! 
 There isn't a thing about the house that gets out of 
 order, that he can't fix. Why the bellows got burst 
 in the parlor organ, and I found it turned upside 
 down, and Johnny peering all around it to find the 
 trouble. I scolded him sharply for meddling with it, 
 and set him cleaning the pavements, but one day 
 when I came home he had it all fixed as sound as 
 ever, and it would have cost a pretty sum if I had 
 sent it away for repairs." 
 
 Here was the secret of the lady's forbearance, un 
 consciously betrayed. Johnny was a cheap boy, re 
 quiring only food and cast-off clothing, with a versa 
 tility of talent that rendered him useful. 
 
 " If he were only trusty !" she sighed. 
 
 " I suppose now," said Mr. Solomon, still without 
 raising his eyes from his plate, " that there isn't much 
 good in laboring for the moral reform of such a 
 young reprobate ?" 
 
 " Oh, dear ! no," replied Mrs. Fox, hopelessly, " I've 
 tried my best with Johnny, and 
 
 " Not any of the vast machinery of your church," 
 interrupted Solomon, " if levelled at him could bring 
 the savage down ?" 
 
 " I don't see why you always arraign our church,"
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. TO? 
 
 replied Mrs. Fox sharply, " as if it were responsible 
 for everybody's misdemeanors. What effect do you 
 think any church would have on such a little heathen 
 as Johnny ?" 
 
 " Not any," decided Mr. Solomon, promptly. He 
 styled himself an " Agnostic" and cultivated little 
 reverence for the true faith, as illustrated by the 
 shining life of Mrs. Christopher Fox. 
 
 " I was going to observe," said that lady with an 
 injured air, " if you had allowed me the privilege ; 
 that I have tried to have Johnny go to Sunday School, 
 but I expect he is too wicked to wish to be seen there. 
 I gave him a good coat that Alfred had outgrown, 
 and sent him one day, and didn't the little imp run 
 off somewhere else and stay out until dark. Bridget 
 was away too ; and when I asked him where in the 
 world he had been ? he looked as solemn as if the 
 place had already taken great effect, and said ' Why- 
 Missus. I'se jist come from de Sunday School an' dats 
 de truef ! it kep in amazin'. Neber see nothin' to 
 beat it ! dey passed 'round de cake an' de wine ; an* 
 den took up de c'lection, an' I like neber to git home 
 at all, cos dey couldn't find a cent nowares about me. 
 But I jes say I fetch 'em nex' time,' And there he 
 had been seen to come from another direction, and 
 and hadn't been near the place at all." 
 
 The brothers joined in a hearty laugh at Johnny's 
 treachery and gospel-hardened condition. Miss 
 Isabella, who had waited impatiently for an opportu 
 nity to make a final appeal which she had been 
 secretly planning, here interrupted the discussion of 
 Johnny's virtues and vices, to ask :
 
 lo8 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " Do you know I have only three days after this 
 one at home, papa ?" 
 
 " No ?" 
 
 " Yes, only three day's more ; and you can't think 
 how I hate to go. I keep telling Mamma what a 
 horrid old school it is ; but she don't care. We don't 
 get half enough to eat, and all the rooms are cold ; 
 and we have to go trotting up and down long flights 
 of stairs all day to recitations ; and the teachers are 
 the grimmiest old maids, as cross and cranky as any 
 thing. I know I shall just die if I have to stay there 
 another year." 
 
 She had gained her father's attention now, and her 
 tears, she felt, were not wasted on him. 
 
 " Well ! what shall we do about it ?" he asked at 
 length. 
 
 " I don't see why I couldn't have a governess and 
 stay at home," she sobbed. " Ella Bond and Frankie 
 Sargeant are both going to." 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! ha !" laughed Mr. Christopher Fox. 
 "We are coming on pretty tolerably fast with our 
 advanced ideas ! keep right abreast of our new city, 
 eh ? So its a private teacher that our Isabella is 
 crying for this morning ?" 
 
 Miss Isabella did not heed the raillery, but wept on 
 in silence. 
 
 " It wouldn't be expensive of course," continued 
 papa ; "a whole teacher for a scholar." 
 
 " But when you haven't but one, papa ?" she coaxed 
 springing from her chair and clasping him about the 
 neck, " and plenty of money !" 
 
 " And plenty to do with it, you little minx !" he 
 laughed, pinching her ears. "What does mother say
 
 TO " THE BREADWINNERS." 109 
 
 to a private teacher ? She isn't much in favor of 
 throwing away good money, I believe." 
 
 " I will never listen to it ; was the emphatic reply 
 to this appeal, delivered with unnecessary asperity of 
 voice, and manner. " Think of giving up a school 
 room and bed-room, besides all the bother of such a 
 person in the house ! I am not to be coaxed into any 
 such folly ; no, nor teased ;" continued the lady, rais 
 ing her voice to a shrill falsetto, " nor tormented into 
 giving my consent." 
 
 Mr. Solomon Fox, who had at last conquered in the 
 contest with brute fibre now took up his hat and 
 left the house, without even a backward glance. But 
 he had not gone far, when Miss Isabella, springing to 
 his side, and catching hold of his elbow, cried : 
 
 " Oh ! Uncle Solomon ! can't you say something to 
 papa and mamma for me ? you know how I hate to go 
 away, and how home-sick I get. Don't you pity me 
 one little bit ? you cross, cantankerous, hard-hearted 
 old uncle !" 
 
 The firm mouth relaxed just the loosening of a 
 screw in its rigid expression. Uncle Solomon look 
 ed down at the flushed, eager face, not altogether 
 pleasantly, as he never looked altogether pleasantly at 
 any thing, for the very good reason that he had never 
 found anything quite satisfactory to his five capricious 
 senses, in all the round of his mundane travels. 
 
 Perhaps this child was as slightly objectionable as 
 any one object. Site was fond of him. That was 
 plain enough to the gruff old uncle ; and though 
 suspicious of most professions of the kind, it had 
 never yet occurred to him to ask, how much of this 
 gushing affection was genuine ; and how much the
 
 110 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 growth of a sentiment carefully instilled by the 
 judicious mamma, and artfully cultivated by the hope 
 ful daughter, with the tact and ability of a much 
 older diplomat ? He had fortunately never been em 
 bittered toward her, by listening to advice of this 
 sort : 
 
 " Don't notice his humors Bella, I have told you a 
 thousand times that old bachelors are always cranky 
 and disagreeable. You know there is nothing in the 
 world that would please your Aunt Josie, and her 
 managing girls, like having him fly out with us ; and 
 nothing tliey wouldn't put up with, to keep him, if he 
 ever should take it into his obstinate old head to go 
 there. But he never shall : not if I can help it. Why 
 I suppose he is worth double what your papa is, for 
 he never spends a penny. And think of that artful 
 creature, your Aunt Josie, naming the twins Solomon 
 and Soloma ! she might just as well have called them 
 money and more money ! it wouldn't have been a bit 
 plainer to people. But I hope she will be rewarded 
 as she deserves : for such bare faced hypocrisy 
 oughtn't to prosper." 
 
 " If I go away," coaxed Isabella, " you'll have no 
 one to help you at Casino or Poker" these two were 
 always partners in the games ; it was a little man- 
 ouvre of mamma's, " and no one to read to you, 
 when your eyes ache at night, and everybody's away 
 at the opera or theatre, and you don't know what to 
 do with yourself, and no one to sew the buttons on 
 your gloves, and and " 
 
 " There ! there ! you can't think of anything else 
 that you are good for," said the uncle, with a half 
 smile that quickly relapsed into a frown. "And I
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. Ill 
 
 guess it would puzzle most anybody who tried it. But 
 you are a kind of necessary evil ; and I don't mind 
 much, if your heart's set on staying home, if you say, 
 well, say that your uncle don't know how to spare 
 you." 
 
 " Oh, you darling !" cried Miss Isabella, proceed 
 ing to kiss him French fashion on either cheek, and 
 several fashions all over his mottled face. He re 
 leased himself almost gruffly, from her engaging 
 tenderness, and darted away down the gravel walk, 
 while she waved her handkerchief after him, and 
 then skipped about the porch in an ecstacy of joy. 
 This hint from Uncle Solomon would gain her cause, 
 though papa and mamma disagreed ever so much. 
 
 When she returned to the breakfast room, a lively, 
 and to her surprise, pleasant discussion was being in 
 dulged in by her respected parents. She did not 
 catch its significance or guess whether it referred in 
 any way to herself. The only sentence distinctly 
 heard was : 
 
 " Don't be abrupt ; nor at all anxious. Lead up to 
 it as if by accident." 
 
 It was her papa speaking, but her entrance checked 
 him. 
 
 " Uncle says that he can't spare me !" she cried out 
 in an eager voice, " and he said I should tell you so." 
 
 Mamma's face brightened, as if the morning sun 
 had just shone upon it out of a cloud ; and papa nod 
 ding to her, tapped the table, looking quite as if he 
 poked a sentient creature in the ribs. 
 
 " If you are ready soon," addressing Mrs. Fox, "we 
 will walk along together." 
 
 "What is it ?" inquired Miss Isabella, looking from.
 
 112 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 one face to the other, and greatly mystified by some 
 concealed purpose, she fancied expressed in each. 
 
 " Nothing whatever, my love !" was mamma's dis 
 appointing reply. " I am to spend the day with Mrs. 
 Eastlake, you must remember, and perhaps you could 
 help me to get ready." 
 
 " Is that really all ?" 
 
 " All for the present ; replied mamma sweetly, 
 hurrying away to her own room. 
 
 When beyond hearing, papa, walking up and down 
 the room, impatient to be gone suddenly asked : 
 
 " How would you like to have a teacher come to 
 the house ? I mean, come for two or three hours 
 every morning, and be free from her after that." 
 
 " Oh, papa ! it would be just lovely. She would be 
 governess without any authority ; would't she ? That 
 is just what I should like. You have no idea how 
 those teachers lorded over us at school. But / gave 
 them plenty to do !" she confessed, with a little toss 
 of the head. " Do you really think, papa, I shall 
 have a governess come to the house !" 
 
 "Don't bother about it now," advised papa, who 
 heard his wife's step on the stairs, " but it is barely 
 possible." 
 
 Mamma now made her appearance, and as she 
 hurried into her wraps, and tied on the vexatious 
 bonnet, carefully adjusting the knotted bows under 
 her chin, she said : 
 
 " I will leave my orders with you, Bell, and you 
 must see that they are carried out. Of course it is 
 wash-day, and Bridget ./ill have plenty to do to keep 
 her busy. That's a comfort ! But Johnny will need 
 close watching," and here she enumerated a long list
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS" 113 
 
 of domestic defenses which she had been actively 
 preparing for Johnnie's protection against the insid- 
 uous assaults of the wily fiend who finds some mis 
 chief still for idle hands to do.' Yet as the time 
 approached when she was actually to resign the boy 
 to this baleful influence, her anxiety for him increas 
 ed, and she came back when she had gained the 
 porch to say : " Bella, if he has any more time after 
 that, tell him to " 
 
 "Oh bother!" cried Mr. Fox impatiently " come 
 on ! He won't have any after that." 
 
 " Don't interrupt, Christopher !" said Mrs. Fox, 
 sternly ; " I know he will, and will just idle, if not 
 kept at something, and, and, he can " 
 
 "Come ! come !" called the husband from the out 
 side world. 
 
 "Be sure and have him keep up good fires," coun 
 selled mamma, and she reluctantly followed, still 
 mentally striving to shield poor Johnny from the 
 buffetings of Satan. But the outer door blowing to 
 gether behind her, prevented any farther Christian 
 consideration of the matter, and the amiable pair set 
 forth in uncommonly good spirits. 
 
 " I wish" said Mr. Christopher Fox, drawing on his 
 gloves as he went, " that you had ever called there 
 before. I don't know how this is going to set. They 
 are poor, and proud as the devil !" 
 
 Mrs. Fox smiled complacently, and said : 
 
 " Of course, you know, Christopher, that I am not 
 calling there socially : and I don't know what differ 
 ence it makes if I have never been there before : or 
 what their pride and poverty has to do with it. It is 
 purely a matter of business ; and my way of propos-
 
 114 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 ing it will be to offer the position as a favor : for I 
 should think with a husband looking enough like a 
 ghost, to scare one if they met him in the dark, that 
 she would be glad to do something to help, if it were 
 ever so little." 
 
 "I guess you are right, mother!" declared Mr. 
 Christopher , with an approving nod ; " what kind of 
 an arrangement now, will you make about wages ?" 
 
 " Well," replied Mrs. Fox, advisedly ; " I shall leave 
 that open. Say that she will be rewarded in proper- 
 portion to the value of her services ; that is the safest 
 way of dealing with people, when you can do it. It 
 makes them anxious to please, and you are not com 
 mitted to any particular sum." 
 
 "Well, luck to you ?" exclaimed the husband bland 
 ly waving his hand as they parted he to enter the 
 office, and she, to steady her descent down the steep 
 and narrow board-walk leading to the house of Fox's 
 agent, 
 
 If Mrs. Fox possessed any weakness whatever, it 
 was a pardonable vanity of her easy and graceful 
 address for, as she often observed, she had seen a 
 great deal of the world, and of it's very best society. 
 So, without any hesitation, she gave a quick, decided 
 rap at the humble door ; enjoying a sweet conscious 
 ness of Christian condescendsion in the act, which 
 was reflected in her face, by an amiable smile, both 
 winning and gracious. 
 
 " Mrs. Christopher Fox !" she announced, in a 
 sweetly modulated voice, to the instantaneous congel 
 ation of the elderly lady, who admitted her. 
 
 " Indeed !" returned the uncompromisingly erect 
 individual, who confronted her in the narrow passage,
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 115 
 
 seemingly disposed to turn her back, yet bowing 
 instead, with chilling statliness. 
 
 " I have called," said Mrs. Fox. with a fading smile, 
 " to see Mrs. Farnham, if convenient." 
 
 " Will you walk into the parlor ?" asked Mrs. Beld- 
 ing, more grimly than is quoted of the spider to the fly ; 
 and retired very angular, and majestic. 
 
 The visitor seated herse' f in a pretty antique recep 
 tion chair, and narrowly surveyed her surroundings. 
 
 " Upon my soul ! What extravagance !" she com 
 mented ; " portierres, too. Bah ! what ridiculous 
 aping of the better classes. Wonder what they are 
 made of ? The effect is quite pretty, though they are 
 a cheat, I dare say ;" and thus mentally expatiating, 
 she deliberately rose and walked across the room to 
 ascertain, by actual contact, whether her conjectures 
 were well founded. 
 
 ' Actually a genuine article, and good quality too !" 
 she frowningly admitted. "How absurd ! T can't afford 
 such hangings : and they will be glad to part with 
 these some day, and for half what they cost." 
 
 She had barely reseated herself, and regained 
 her smiling composure of manner, when Mrs. Farnham 
 entered the room. 
 
 This lady, as " Miss Alice Belding," already enjoys 
 such a reputation in the world, for beauty and grace, 
 as to render a pen-and-ink picture of her charms, in 
 this connection, superfluous. 
 
 She was a vision a revelation, to the narrow black 
 eyes of Mrs. Christopher Fox. 
 
 Never, perhaps, surrounded by all the arts and em 
 bellishments that wealth can add, had she looked more 
 strikingly lovely than now. The pale blue morning
 
 Il6 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 dress, so became her ; the sweet face so flower-like 
 in its blushing freshness ; and the crinkly golden hair, 
 knotted so simply ; altogether produced such an effect, 
 as to retard for a moment that lady's stately introduc 
 tion of herself. However, it was but a momentary 
 weakness. She was not to be taken at a disadvantage, 
 even by this uncommonly pretty woman. Summon 
 ing her most attractive graces of speech and manner, 
 and presuming, with a gracious inclination of the head, 
 and a bewitching smile, that she had the pleasure of 
 addressing Mrs. Farnham, Mrs. Christopher Fox 
 launched into a torrent of small talk, in which she 
 was particularly gifted. It was mostly in relation to 
 her personal experiences here and abroad, upon which 
 she enlarged, and upon some peculiar traits which 
 had appeared at odd intervals in one branch of her 
 family, for centuries back. " That was on the Higga- 
 bottom side of the house. Of course everybody 
 knew who the Higgabottoms were ? a name that had 
 come down in history. The Smythe's, on the other 
 side, were so entirely different ! By the way, she had 
 often been amused by the ignorance of some people, 
 as to genealogies confounding that name, you know 
 with the very common one of Smith. Of course 
 people of any research, knew that in the old English 
 dialect, Smythe was of far greater antiquity. She 
 had traced it back to the days of King Alfred, when a 
 Smythe, disguised as a peasant, had followed him into 
 his exile, and had afterward been knighted for his 
 loyalty. To commemorate this incident, and associate 
 the families, she had had her only son christened 
 Alfred : the whole name being Alfred, Smythe, Higga- 
 bottom Fox. He was a student now at Yale, and
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." I IJ 
 
 his uncle a bachelor, with nothing to do with his 
 vast, inherited wealth, indulged the boy to that ex : 
 tent that it was positively alarming. 
 
 He was not yet nineteen, and had already exhaust 
 ed all the amusements that much older people find 
 entertainment in, being as we say in Fronce, 
 blase. Of course if any great artist should be brought 
 out, here, or in the old world, Alfred would patronize 
 them ; but not with the same zest of enjoyment, Mrs. 
 Farnham, that he wonld have done under other, and 
 some might fancy, less favored circumstances.' 
 
 The faintest reflection of a smile hovered about the 
 sweet lips of the politely attentive listener, which 
 seemed to stimulate the conversationalist more than 
 three vociferous encores would have done a favorite 
 prima donna. She immediately diverged into a com 
 prehensive history of her remaining child : Isabella 
 Eugenia Josephine so named from this circumstance: 
 She had travelled extensively in the countries where 
 those lovely queens had flourished, in the darling's 
 babyhood, she might say. Now these names were 
 continually calling up reminiscences of those pleasant 
 journeyings. 
 
 "Why Mrs. Farnham, Isabella Eugenia could not 
 speak a word of her native tongue when we returned 
 to America !'" 
 
 " This had been disadvantageous to the poor child, 
 chiefly in making her an object of derision in her 
 school : and now she comes home, begging and plead 
 ing, never to be sent back again. Nothing will please 
 her but to have a governess.' 
 
 The smile faded from the lips of pretty Mrs. Farn 
 ham. and she became thoughtfully attentive an
 
 Il8 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 expression which did not escape the watchful black 
 eyes of Mrs. Christopher Fox. 
 
 Now," said that lady with fresh animation, "/am 
 totally averse to this arrangement, for several good 
 reasons. It is inconvenient to give up any room in 
 the house large as it is exclusively for school-room 
 use ; we entertain so much. Then, I fear I should be 
 too exacting in regard to the qualifications ot the 
 teacher. So very few graduates, even of our best 
 institutions, are fitted to fill such positions. Educa 
 tion has become so diversified Mrs. Farnham ; such 
 a Hyra-headed monster,as one might say that one might 
 almost shrink from the task of fulfilling all the require 
 ments. I particularly wish Isabella Eugenia, to excel 
 in music, calysthenics, and painting on china. 
 
 But as I said, repeated Mrs. Christopher Fox, with 
 emphasis, " / am averse to the idea of a private 
 teacher ; still," she reflected, with an amiable benev 
 olence of manner, " if I could find just the right 
 person ; and she for it must be a feminine should 
 be so situated that ah a slight remuneration would 
 be worth considering : why perhaps " 
 
 Then sentence trailed off, and ended in a discreet 
 pause : and Mrs. Farnham, watching her with steady 
 eyes, but fluttering heart, ventured to ask : 
 " Would you wish to engage the whole time of 
 this person ?" 
 
 u By no means ?" The lady shrugged her should 
 ers slightly, at the evident annoyance, suggested by 
 the question. 
 
 " I do not covet," she said firmly, " more than three 
 hours attendance each day : say from nine A. M. until 
 twelve."
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. ' 119 
 
 "Perhaps," said Mrs. Farnham, coloring painfully, 
 " I might be able to please you." 
 
 " Mrs. Christopher Fox looked in sweet suprise at 
 the faltering speaker ; and then gravely thoughtful, as 
 if in doubtful deliberation. The idea of finding, 
 without great difficulty and research, a person of such 
 uncommon attainments as she now required ; though 
 new, might be considered : yes, would be impartially 
 and judicially considered." 
 
 So, benevolently though quite unconsciously, 
 studying the flushed face ; the Grecian knot of gold 
 en hair ; the pose of the dainty hands even the cut 
 and quality of the blue dress ; she decided as by a 
 sudden virtuous inspiration "that she might make the 
 attempt. Indeed, she would be pleased to have her ! 
 They would not now enter into any contract, bind 
 ing to either party, but Mrs. Farnham was at liberty 
 to begin her instructions as soon as she liked." 
 
 After some more conversation, quite irrelevant to 
 the subject ; introduced to show how purely acci 
 dental that had been the lady sallied forth to spend 
 an agreeable day in the city.
 
 120 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 VII. 
 
 ONLY A QUARRYMAN. 
 
 " Now mother !" cried an upbraiding voice, in clear 
 ringing tones, " another piece in the loom ! I thought 
 you promised me only last week to take no more of 
 that sort of work ?" 
 
 " Promised ? Think a moment, Paul ?" queried 
 Mrs. Hastings, the lady addressed, turning a worn 
 face that kindled into smiles at sight of the bronzed 
 affectionate one peering in at the softly opened door. 
 "Thee must certainly remember that I did not prom 
 ise," she pleaded, while the color deepened in her hec 
 tic cheeks. " And I find my son, that I am better 
 content when I have plenty to occupy me." 
 
 " The old excuse ! and what woman in your place 
 would complain of any lack of that sort !" and a stal 
 wart, bearded, manly youth strode into the little slop 
 ing-roofed chamber, where the mother sat busily at 
 work, and looked with gloomy disapprobation at all 
 the paraphernalia warp and woof of another em 
 bryo carpet. 
 
 The mother smiled but was silent. She would not 
 hint, even to him, of the anxieties which had burdened 
 her heart all the day. I would be almost confessing 
 that she distrusted her God. But she must work ; ne 
 cessity was laid upon her. The funeral expenses now, 
 were added to all others. Hiram needed a new 
 suit. He had not written of it, or spoken of it ; yet,
 
 TO "THK BREAD WINNERS. 121 
 
 through all the tears shed on the occasion of his last 
 visit home, she had not been blind to this fact. And 
 he would graduate soon. Ah ! Paul would stagger 
 under all his load if she were to lay down these old 
 shuttles now. 
 
 Thus her thoughts had flown on, keeping time with 
 her busy fingers : but now her only response was a 
 hollow cough, particularly aggravating to Paul, who 
 heard it shudderiegly. 
 
 Seating himself upon a broken rocker and folding 
 his arms across his breast, he said with a grimly de 
 spondent smile : 
 
 " It's of no use mother ! If there is a merciful 
 Supreme Being, as you unquestionably believe, He 
 must be against us, do what we will." 
 
 "My dear boy! my dear Paul !" cried the mother, 
 " I beg thee will not fall into the foolish sin of arraign 
 ing Him for all thy poor troubles. Even in Daisy's 
 death" the name was spoken softly " I feel to say : 
 'though He slay me, yet will I trust in him.'" 
 
 " Well / don't !" said Paul with bitter emphasis. 
 " And I can't love and bless Him for rewarding your 
 life-long service by making a drudge of you in your 
 old age." 
 
 " Paul !" remonstrated the mother in sudden alarm. 
 
 " I can't help it !" he pleaded, " I have tried to hope 
 with you, that we had a friend somewhere ; but I 
 can't take it all on trust, as you do, and believe against 
 facts and evidences. I am sure if there ever was a 
 subject that a kindly-disposed Deity might be at some 
 pains to favor, it would be you, mother, and here is 
 this man for whom you are slaving ' Joe Swearing- 
 ton' I see his name on that tag in letters swaggering
 
 122 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 like himself why you read a perfect description of 
 him in this morning's lesson : 'His eyes stand out 
 with fatness ; he has more than heart can wish.' 
 Yes, and I happen to know how he came by it too. By 
 defrauding the Government making illicit whiskey. I 
 begin to think the Government itself is in league with 
 most of the big swindlers in the country. I tell you 
 mother, the honest, hard-working, level-headed men 
 of this nation will not always submit to be duped 
 by demagogues and plundered by corporations. It is 
 marvelous how all the vast industries and native ele 
 ments of wealth are revolving themselves, as if by 
 magic, into the hands of the few, and how these, band 
 ing together, making ' corners ' on every article con 
 sumed by the poor, are growing richer and richer, 
 while we starve in sight of plenty." 
 
 " ' His eyes behold : His eyelids try the children of 
 men,'" quoted Mrs. Hastings, with a face as placid as 
 an angel's. 
 
 "Well, that is a little too slow a process of justice 
 to suit me." 
 
 "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" 
 asked Mrs. Hastings, turning her mild eyes upon her 
 son. There was not a hint of reproach in them ; only 
 a sweet tranquility born of perfect trustfulness. 
 " Never," she added, " until the blessed Millennium 
 dawns will the lion and the lamb lie down together." 
 
 "No ! I should think not, from present appearances. 
 By the way, mother, those two beasts are pretty fair 
 representatives of the two great struggling classes." 
 
 "Which are the lambs?" queried Mrs. Hastings. 
 
 Paul smiled. 
 
 " No," he confessed, " human nature is not lamb-
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 1^3 
 
 like, and everywhere these forces are arrayed against 
 each other with all the virulence that opposing inter 
 ests can create. It is not only a condition of affairs 
 in our land; but it is a general uprising upheaval of 
 the lower strata of humanity throughout the world. 
 What does it mean, mother ? and what will ever har 
 monize these powerfully conflicting elements?" 
 
 " It has a meaning," mused Mrs. Hastings with a 
 far-away look in her almost prophetic eyes," a mean 
 ing to those wise enough to fathom it but I confess 
 it seems plainer to my vision, what is yet to harmonize 
 all these disturbing forces. It will not be legislation 
 alone, my son ; for there will never be statesmen wise 
 enough to legislate against all abuses of power : but 
 it will be the loving principle of the Golden Rule, 
 hidden away like leaven, in human hearts, until the 
 whole mass is leavened." 
 
 She spoke with the certainty of conviction, and as 
 if even then, possessed of the prescience of this 
 wonderful consumation. 
 
 " That good time is a long way off ; my dear little 
 mother," said Paul, looking tenderly at the pale, plain 
 face, now strangely illuminated. " Why, you have no 
 idea of the amount of corruption and wickedness 
 that is going on in the world." 
 
 " And if I can do no good by knowing it," said 
 Mrs. Hasting's cheerfully, " I had rather be doing my 
 weaving here, and praying hopefully : " Thy kingdom 
 come." 
 
 "Well," returned Paul, "that may be right for you, 
 but I prefer a more active and aggresive war upon 
 some of these evils : and whether it be the Lord's 
 side or not, I am for the weak against the strong ;
 
 124 >RAFTED IX, A SEQUEL 
 
 the oppressed against the oppressor : the despoiled 
 against the despot." 
 
 The mother, whose hands had never faltered in 
 their occupation, turned as with some sudden impulse 
 to look at her son. His words were those of impetu 
 ous youth : but his face seemed almost transfigured 
 to her. So Moses might have looked when he 
 slew the Egyptian. 
 
 " I hope my son," she counselled gently, " that thee 
 will never be tempted to resort to any desperate 
 measures, in thy fancied championship of the weak." 
 
 " Fancied championship ?" he repeated, " I hope 
 mother, you credit me with being sufficiently in 
 earnest generally in what I engage ; and as to law- 
 breaking, and violence of that sort, do you really 
 think it necessary to caution your son against it ?" 
 
 " Dear Paul," she answered humbly, " I cannot de 
 fine my fears for thee. I see thee so pre-occupied 
 and gloomy ; so different from what thee once was ; 
 so devoted to some secret gatherings that only 
 irritate and excite thee and I pray the more : ' Lead 
 us not into temptation,' as I think of the time, eight 
 and twenty years ago, when I gave thee to the Lord 
 at thy christening, and try to hope He may yet call 
 thee to His service." 
 
 ' This may be His call ; who knows, mother ? and 
 as to these secret meetings ; they are a necessity of 
 the times. Labor must organize, to baffle the organ 
 ized encroachments of capital. Why ! these mighty 
 combinations are all feeding and fattening upon the 
 blood of their victims : and the cast-iron monopolies 
 are grinding them to small dust. And what is creat 
 ing this vast omnipotence of wealth in these United
 
 TO " THE BREAD .WINNERS." 125 
 
 States, but the strong and willing hands of her toil 
 ing millions ? And shall we sit stolidly by, and see 
 a few crafty plotters turn all the tributaries of pros 
 perity to flood their own private reservoirs, and leave 
 the rest of God's creation to suffer the drouth of 
 famine ? or the dry rot of pauperism ? And to 
 crown the picture ; we become at last objects of their 
 magnanimous charities : charities, which I feel it no 
 sacrilige to call a stench in the nostrils of Heaven ; 
 for, while, with one hand they steal a million ; with 
 the other they bestow a mite, in the belief no doubt, 
 that they are obeying the scriptural injunction : ' Let 
 not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.'" 
 
 "Ah ! Paul," said the mother earnestly, "this is 
 not in accord with the sweet charity ' that thinketh no 
 evil.'" 
 
 " But when the evil thrusts itself before you ; and 
 you are endowed with perception to discern, and 
 reason to analyze ; how are you to blame for using 
 these faculties ?" 
 
 The poor mother sighed, and she looked into Paul's 
 luminous, dark eyes, smiling now, at her evident con 
 fusion, but made no answer. 
 
 Now a tinkling bell was heard, announcing supper, 
 to which welcome sound they at once responded, 
 descending to the dining-room together. Here the 
 little lame girl presided, looking unusually heated ; 
 having accomplished the feat of getting supper ; and 
 supplying by many other household labors, the place 
 made vacant. 
 
 The table, to most people of healthy appetite could 
 scarcely have seemed an attractive one, save that cloth 
 and service were scrupulously clean.
 
 I 26 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 The tea, which Helen proceeded to pour because 
 mamma's face was so white and tired looking was 
 suspiciously faint of color too ; and besides that lux 
 ury, there was only brown bread and bacon, with the 
 unusual accompaniment of nicely cooked fresh eggs. 
 
 The young housekeeper glanced at these with 
 especial pride, and Willie, the younger brother, ex 
 plained in breathless haste : how his little black hen 
 had stolen a nest, and he had found it in the cunning- 
 est place, " why mamma you wouldn't have guessed it 
 out in a year ! and there was six of the whitest eggs 
 just exactly enough for supper, and one left nobody 
 knew where, but just his own self." 
 
 Bertie, the baby and pet a nine year old brunette 
 and a beauty said she didn't want Helen to cook 
 hers, but to save it for Easter ; color and carve it the 
 way Daisy used to. 
 
 " But I told her," said Willie, paternally, " that I 
 would get her some more before that time." 
 
 " And Helen said," chimed Bertie, with an injured 
 look, " that mamma would go and divide if if " 
 
 A look from that sagacious counsellor checked the 
 speaker at this point, Mrs. Hastings, who had now 
 taken her place at the table, looked around with a 
 tender smile at the assembled group, and every young 
 head bowed with hers, in a silent thanksgiving, for the 
 daily bread. 
 
 As Paul, proceeding to wait upon the table, passed 
 to his mother a well filled plate, he said : 
 
 " I had rather a long walk to night, to take in a 
 little business I came around the Fox improvements ; 
 and I want to tell you what I saw. Do you remember 
 Johnny Rafferty ? the poor fellow who asked us into
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 127 
 
 his shanty when we were passing it one Sunday. 
 
 " Ah, yes, we were coming from a meeting at the 
 school house beyond. It is more than a year ago." 
 
 " And you remarked mother, as we came away, what 
 a sturdy specimen of manhood he was, so capable to 
 endure hard work." 
 
 "And with such an honest face, too!" said Mrs. 
 Hastings, " I recollect how it lighted up when he told 
 us ' the ould woman would be over soon,' and we 
 wouldn't know the place when she put a hand to it." 
 
 " Poor fellow !" sighed Paul. 
 
 "What has happened to him?" inquired Mrs. 
 Hastings, anxiously. 
 
 " Well, I came by there to-night, and it had such a 
 deserted look, that after I had passed it, I ran back, 
 with a feeling that something was wrong and knock 
 ed at the door. No one answered, and I tried it, and 
 finding it unfastened, went in." 
 
 He paused here, unwilling to relate more to the 
 poor sympathetic mother, with trouble enough of her 
 own ; but who somehow, contrived to burden herself 
 with a miscellaneous assortment, belonging to her 
 poorer neighbors. 
 
 "Was he sick?" inquired Mrs. Hastings, with singu 
 lar perspicacity. 
 
 "Oh yes !" replied Paul, wishing in his heart he had 
 not spoken of his adventure. 
 
 " And alone ?" 
 
 " Except for his dog." He was silent a moment ; 
 and then continued : " But that dog of his, mother, 
 did really seem almost human. It would lick poor 
 Johnny's distorted hands, and then come and whine at 
 my feet in a pitiful way."
 
 128 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " Why Paul !" exclaimed the mother, " why did you 
 not tell me this before ? we must go to him without a 
 moment's delay." 
 
 " It is not necessary, I think," he replied. '* I fixed 
 him up the best I could ; made up his fire, and got 
 him a drink, and he asked me to stop and tell a Mr. 
 Farnham that he was sick, and I did so. They 
 promised to go over at once, and are with him now 
 probably." 
 
 "Well," decided Mrs. Hastings, "it is best to be 
 sure of it, and that he is not left to die alone. What 
 now will it be best to take ?" she asked, rising hastily 
 from the table. " Something for his bed I expect is 
 needed. Bertie, bring down the old army blanket 
 that was thy father's. It will never be put to better 
 use !" 
 
 A bundle of flannel ; a paper of herbs ; a pail of 
 gruel ; all these homely stores were quickly brought 
 together, and the good mother, bonneted and shawled, 
 set forth with her son on a mission of mercy. 
 
 " In his heart, Paul was averse to the undertaking. 
 Not that he wished to spare himself, or lacked in 
 sympathy : but he felt certain the poor man was being 
 cared for, by one or the other of those very charming 
 ladies, who had expressed such sorrow for him, and 
 he was moreover conscious that he had betrayed an 
 awkward shyness, in his brief interview with them, 
 which rendered a second meeting distasteful. 
 
 " If these people are there before us mother, it will 
 not be necessary to disturb the sick man by going in." 
 
 " Well, I am not so sure about that," she said. 
 " Who are these Farnham's ? The name is new to 
 me."
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 129 
 
 "Yes, they are new-comers here. Hail from the 
 East I think. He is in with the Foxes in some capa 
 city, and a most sickly, sallow looking man he is too." 
 
 " Then he is not fit for a nurse ! " decided Mrs. 
 Hastings. " Is the wife a capable person do you 
 think, Paul ? " 
 
 " Quite, I should say in some directions," he replied, 
 smiling into the questioning eyes. " But as to being 
 especially efficient in such a case as this " he paused 
 and seemed to consider the probabilities mentally, 
 concluding the sentence, unconsciously, with a low and 
 significant whistle. 
 
 " I am glad we decided to come," returned the 
 mother, urging her weary limbs into a brisker motion. 
 
 " You see," Paul explained, " they are not exactly 
 our sort ; pleasant enough and all that ; in fact almost 
 too sweet to be quite sound, I should say : but I can't 
 imagine anything more improbable in their history, 
 than contact with such squalor and wretchedness as I 
 witnessed over there." 
 
 " You say ' they ' Paul, who are they, who have been 
 so fortunate in their lives ?" 
 
 There is one lady about your own age, mother ;" 
 he began " but for whom I would not exchange you 
 with a fortune thrown in." 
 
 "Then poverty has some compensations, "said Mrs. 
 Hastings, cheerfully. " And I, Paul, often ask myself, 
 what mother has a son like mine ?" 
 
 Paul pressed the little hand that clung so closely to 
 his arm and said : 
 
 " That would sound like irony mother, if you ever 
 indulged in it, after all my complaints to-night. But 
 about these people there are two ladies besides the
 
 130 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 one I mentioned Mrs. Farnham, a lovely, youthful 
 looking woman, and a Miss, of eighteen or twenty, 
 who might be a.sister, though very unlike her in looks. 
 But here we are ! and see ! There is some one with 
 him." 
 
 The little window was curtainless, and though the 
 light within was feeble, a slender figure could be dis 
 cerned standing by the bedside. 
 
 " Mrs. Hastings tapped lightly at the door, and it 
 was opened by a gentleman, whom Paul recognized 
 as Mr. Farnham. 
 
 As they entered the small apartment, both were con 
 scious of a chill in the brooding silence which per 
 vaded it, and instinctively turned toward the rude 
 bed on which the sufferer lay. One flickering light 
 alone struggled with the darkness of the place, and 
 threw its ghastly rays directly upon the face and form 
 of a dying man. 
 
 Yes, unmistakably, the poor quarryman's counten 
 ance bore the strange impress, with which the King of 
 Terrors seals at the last, each son and daughter of 
 Adam. 
 
 The slight girl bending over him, seemed tenderly 
 solicitous, but the time to comfort had gone by. The 
 gentlest tones of kindness were unheeded ; even the 
 large tears that dropped silently upon the poor, old 
 hands, were unnoticed. The heart, that had known 
 loneliness, and deprivation, had forgotten all. The 
 eyes that had grown dim with aching for a sight of 
 loved ones beyond the seas,could not have distinguished 
 them now, from the strange faces grouped around his 
 bed. Paul was awe-struck at the change, so mys 
 terious, which had passed upon the sick man during
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 131 
 
 his short absence, and was filled with self-reproach. 
 
 Mr. Farnham, emerging from some obscure corner, 
 unaffected by the light of the solitary candle, joined 
 the group by the bed side. 
 
 It needed only a glance at his white face, as it 
 showed there, to remind Mrs. Hastings of her son's 
 words, and with gentle firmness, she dismissed him 
 from farther attendance upon the scene. ' It was not 
 the place for him ; she would prize the company of the 
 young lady through the night's watching, but 
 indeed the gentleman must not think of remaining. 
 
 Mr. Farnham objected to this unselfish proposition ; 
 but it was seconded so earnestly by Annie West, whose 
 fears for him had taken fresh alarm, that he was pre 
 vailed upon to return home. 
 
 So the three watched through the long hours, 
 counted only to them by heart beats ; and one, like a 
 time piece unwound, ticked slower and slower ; and at 
 last stood still, without sound or motion. 
 
 Mrs. Hastings was slumbering in a disturbed way, 
 when this change came, having yielded to anxious 
 persuasions to rest in the easiest place, protected from 
 the chilly night air, by the old army blanket. 
 
 So it befell, that Paul Hastings closed the eyes, and 
 straightened the limbs of the dead quarryman ; while 
 Annie West turning from a frightened contem 
 plation of the scene, to the dim curtainless window, 
 looked out upon the dreamy world, where the pale 
 moon was silvering the silent hills, and wept, with a 
 strange, sad, grieving, for the joyless life, that had 
 gone forth alone into the vast solitude of the solemn 
 night.
 
 132 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 VIII. 
 THE NEW GOVERNESS. 
 
 It was a gloomy morning towards the end of March, 
 on which Mrs. Farnham took her way for the first 
 time to the door of the Fox mansion. She went 
 slowly along, as if wrapt in serious thought. Her 
 face had a perturbed, anxious expression. 
 
 " Poor Mamma !" she said aloud, as she presently 
 entered the avenue of trees, leading up to the broad 
 porch, "she feels this humiliation more than I do." 
 A moment later she stood ringing the door bell, with 
 a degree of hesitation never experienced in her more 
 prosperous days, and with cheeks the color of a blush 
 rose. 
 
 Johnny, the colored waiter, admitted her, and stand 
 ing very erect and giving his trousers a prudent hitch 
 informed her that " she war the new gubberness, he 
 posoomed, as Miss Bella war ' 'spectin' dis yer 
 mohnin' ; an" if she would jest stan' dar, he would 
 inform the young missus dat she war waitin.' Then 
 he retired, and Mrs. Farnham soon heard voices 
 issuing from what seemed the breakfast-room, in hur 
 ried coloquy : 
 
 " Take her into the parlor ; there's no other place 
 ready !" It was Mrs. Fox speaking though the 
 tones of her voice were shrill, rather than sweet as 
 she remembered them.
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 133 
 
 " Dar aint no fire in dat room, Missus," objected 
 Johnny. 
 
 " Well, light one then, if you must, " returned the 
 lady, " and Isabella ! don't sit there staring about as 
 if you had'nt a thought in your head ; or a concern 
 in life. Hurry and finish your breakfast, and get 
 ready. It is a shame for you to come to the table in 
 that slip-shod way ; to say nothing about keeping 
 your governess waiting the very first time she comes 
 to the house ; a fine bill we shall have to pay for a 
 private teacher to sit and fold her hands." 
 
 " Is that your programme ?" questioned a heavy 
 voice, recognized as belonging to the younger proprie 
 tor of the landed estate. 
 
 "Why no, it is not ;" retorted Mrs. Fox, " What is 
 lost on one end of a lesson, must be made up on the 
 other, I shall insist." 
 
 Here Mrs. Farnham was relieved from the embar 
 rassing position of listener, by the re-appearance of the 
 brisk and youthful Johnny ; who throwing open the 
 door to a large and sparsely furnished room, with an 
 air of pride and proprietorship, bade her, with a bland 
 wave of the hand, "please be seated." 
 
 Then he proceeded, whistling gaily, to poke the 
 ashes of a former fire through the grate in such a 
 hilarious manner as to set them dancing about in the 
 liveliest fashion. Then he brought wood and coal, and 
 soon a jolly fire went roaring up the broad chimney. 
 
 Miss Isabella made her appearance, and Johnny 
 with a complacent grin at the cheerful prospect, disap 
 peared. 
 
 The pupil advanced with a languid air of mature 
 self-possession, bowing slightly to the new subordinate,
 
 IJ4 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 who waited in the chill shadows of the gloomy parlor, 
 and called in a sharp young voice : 
 
 " Johnny, come back here, and draw the shades, 
 and unfasten the shutters !" 
 
 Johnny obeyed with alacrity ; but the flood of 
 morning light that poured in, lent no enchantment to 
 the view. It seemed rather like a disagreeably inquisi 
 tive friend hunting out imperfections dust lying 
 undisturbed upon the chairs, tables, books, and in 
 covert corners ; and winking at it in affected raillery. 
 
 " It's only our summah pawlah," drawled Miss Isabel 
 la,^ indifferent apology for the condition of the room. 
 " Mamma doesn't furnish for wintah ; we are away 
 mostly then, and don't stay heah much anyway." 
 
 She gave the bit of information almost unconscious 
 ly while taking a comprehensive survey of the face 
 and person of the new governess. 
 
 " Don't you think I have books enough ?" she asked 
 a moment later, fumbling absently amongst a formid 
 able pile which lay upon the table. " I brought all 
 these down last night to have them ready. But I hate 
 school books ! don't you ?" 
 
 " The governess smiled and was about to answer, 
 but the pupil proceeded rapidly : 
 
 " Mamma wants me to begin where I left off at 
 school. Here the hateful things all are : Geology, 
 Botany, Zoology, Conchology, Mineralogy, Astronomy, 
 Chemistry, Philosophy, History ancient and modern 
 Roman history, French History ; and oh ! she wants 
 me thorough in my French History, because you know 
 we are to go back to France soon." 
 
 The face of the inexperienced teacher assumed a 
 thoughtful expression ; and looking with doubt and
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 135 
 
 perplexity from this array of the abstruse sciences, to 
 the somnolent face of the youthful pupil, she 
 asked : 
 
 " Have you then finished the preparatory course, 
 Miss Isabella ?" 
 
 " I should think I had ?" returned the young lady, 
 with a shrug of the shoulders, and a pretty little 
 grimace, at the reminded bitterness of that particular 
 fruit of the tree of knowledge. " And mamma says 
 you need not give me very long lessons in anything 
 except music : I am just crazy for music !" 
 
 The governess confessed that she was fond of it, 
 but explained that it was not so much the long lessons, 
 as the long hours of hard practice that made one pro 
 ficient in the art. 
 
 After some vain attempts at an examination of the 
 pupil strenuously resisted on her part and much 
 honest deliberation of the teacher ; a course of study 
 was instituted, and alternate lessons arranged for 
 each day of the five constituting the school week, 
 and hours set apart for music and painting. Then 
 Miss Isabella was requested to read aloud the first 
 lesson of the next day, which was from Goodrich's 
 History of France, beginning on the 47th page : 
 chapter XVI. 
 
 " Please commence," urged the teacher, after wait 
 ing patiently some moments, what is the chapter ?" 
 
 Miss Isabella's brows met in a puzzled frown. 
 
 " I never can remembah those horrid abbreviations;" 
 she confessed, smiling naively. 
 
 " Abbreviations ?" questioned the mentor. 
 
 Miss Isabella frowned still more, but beyond this 
 gave no evidence of thought.
 
 136 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " Is it not the Roman method of notation ?" sugges 
 ted the amiable governess. 
 
 "Why of course it is !" said Miss Isabella, smiling 
 brightly. 
 
 " Well you may repeat the table up to this number," 
 persevered the teacher. 
 
 Again the pupil frowned, and as the teacher waited 
 with gentle firmness for her compliance, said with 
 heightened color : 
 
 " Indeed, Mrs. Farnham ! That doesn't belong to 
 this lesson : I'm a full sophomoah : one can't be ex 
 pected to remembah everything one has passed ovah." 
 
 However, she was prevailed upon to repeat the sim 
 ple table after her teacher, who felt conscious that in 
 devoting herself to such trifles, she was lessening her 
 dignity in the eyes of her ambitious pupil. Arriving 
 at the right number again, the reading began. 
 
 " Chapter sixteen : The Race of " 
 
 " Charlemagne," assisted the teacher, giving the 
 correct pronunciation to the French name, as she had 
 herself been taught it. 
 
 "Charlie Mayne?" corrected Mrs. Fox, with stern 
 decision from the next room ; " why Isabella, you 
 ought to remember that we called him by no other 
 name, when we were in France!" 
 
 " Please proceed !" said the governess, with a little 
 more of the blush rose in her cheeks ; yet beyond 
 this, betraying no consciousness of the interruption. 
 The reading continued, as also the espionage, for the 
 invisible mentor interposed numerous strictures and 
 revisions, chiefly in the pronunciation of words, for 
 which her eminent advantages had so happily qualified 
 her.
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS*' 137 
 
 When at last the lesson was ended, some retreating 
 footsteps assured the teacher that she was alone with 
 her pupil. She rose to go, for it was now the noonday 
 hour. Miss Isabella hovered about her instinctively, 
 and even walked a little way by her side along the 
 avenue of trees. 
 
 "I like you!" she said, with some sudden impulse, 
 "and I'm going to study real hard." 
 
 The teacher smiled, rather a sad smile it was 
 and laid her hand lightly upon the head of the girl: 
 
 " I am glad to hear you say this, Miss Isabella," 
 she replied, " we may yet enjoy these lessons together. 
 Study is delightful under some conditions." 
 
 " Do you like Lent?" inquired Miss Isabella ab 
 ruptly. 
 
 The answer was delayed a moment. The poor 
 governess, in the utter seclusion of her days, the 
 changed tenor of her life, had quite forgotten that Lent 
 had come again. She however expressed her con- 
 conviction that it was, or should be regarded by every 
 one, as a sacred and holy season; one in which to fast 
 and pray, and do works of charity and love. 
 
 Miss Isabella smiled skeptically, and confessed that 
 she hated Lent. " Mamma was always so cross when 
 she had to stay at home, that it was just dreadful! and 
 oh!" she added, "please don't mind about her cor 
 recting the pronuciation of those words." Expressing 
 at the same time a childish doubt as to the com 
 petency of the self-constituted orthcepist. 
 
 She kissed the governess before turning back, who 
 looked after the thoughtless, wayward child, with a 
 grave, sweet face, full of tender yearning. A new 
 care had been added to her life.
 
 138 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 Day after day, this little episode occurred with un 
 varying monotony. Day after day, the unfriendly 
 espionage was continued ; and yet in the service there 
 were some redeeming features. The pupil evinced 
 quite a fondness for study, and also for her patient, 
 pains-taking teacher. 
 
 Punctually at the hour, waiting the appearance of 
 her pupil, every morning found Alice at her post. 
 Arthur knew, and had not chided her. But then, as she 
 sometimes sadly confessed to her secretself, Arthur 
 was more reserved, even with her, than was his wont. 
 As solicitous for her comfort, more tenderly devoted 
 perhaps, and yet, with a strange habit of gloomy reti 
 cence fixing itself upon him. 
 
 Very anxious the wife became to make her services 
 valuable to her employers and sometimes indulged in 
 a probable estimate of these earnings. She had ex 
 pended from her own slender purse, the sum requisite 
 to furnish her pupil the most approved musical text 
 book, which thus far remained unpaid ; but of course 
 it would be remembered with the rest. She knew 
 that her instructions were at last appreciated, and this 
 made her hopeful for the future. 
 
 To employ a governess, was a never failing source 
 of pride to the people whom she served. Often, sitting 
 alone in the disorderly library, she heard the fact 
 related with impressive gravity, to some freshly ar 
 rived guest, by Mrs. Fox who also set forth the 
 superior merits and accomplishments of this person, 
 in terms that made her blood tingle. 
 
 "Of course," Mrs. Christopher Fox would languidly 
 confess " it is expensive ! ruinously expensive ! but 
 my dear friend, where the education of a child is con-
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 139 
 
 cerned the growth of a soul you might say what 
 pecuniary sacrifices are counted ?" 
 
 Annie West sometimes came to meet Alice on her 
 return from the Fox mansion, and it chanced one day, 
 as they were walking homeward together, that they 
 met Minnie Bird. Annie's face brightened with joy, 
 and she stood still in the path and held out both hands 
 to greet her. But what was her chagrin, to receive 
 only the slightest possible token of recognition, and 
 not even a word, or smile, or the most frigid touch of 
 the outstretched, welcoming hands ? 
 
 " Who was she ?" Alice asked, with heightened color. 
 
 " Why why " stammered Annie, recovering as if 
 from a blow " it was Minnie Bird, the girl I have 
 been so long expecting to call." 
 
 There was a suspicion of tears in the dark eyes, for 
 at eighteen, Annie was but a child. She had sighed 
 for companionship, and dreamed of this attractive girl 
 as yet to become her bosom friend. 
 
 " Ah, well !" said Alice, looking tenderly at the 
 grieving face, " it is the way of the world. Don't let 
 it trouble you. I have got quite beyond it," she 
 added, with a sweet patience in her blue eyes ; " I 
 seem to myself to have grown so much older, and" 
 with a little deprecatory smile " wiser, that like the 
 great Apostle ' none of these things move me.' " 
 
 This was a cheerful, sunny day at high noon, 
 and they spoke of summer as almost come. But 
 that night the wind shifted, and blew chill from the 
 North ; when morning came again, the season seemed 
 to have gone backward several degrees, and the skies 
 were frowningly overcast with some fell purpose of 
 whirlwind or storm.
 
 140 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " Don't go to-day, Alice !" urged the careful mother. 
 
 " I will wear my heavy ulster," the daughter replied, 
 "and defy the elements, with artics, and umbrella :" 
 and thus equipped she set forth. 
 
 At noon the skies were belching all their fury. It 
 rained ; it hailed : the wind raged like an angry 
 demon and the biting cold froze sheets of treacher 
 ous glass on the narrow pavements, and hung with 
 icy fringes, every branch upon the trees. 
 
 Mrs. Belding, Annie, and Arthur Farnham sat 
 around the dinner table. It was thought useless to 
 wait for Alice, she could not get there through the 
 storm. A sudden crash ! and the outer door burst 
 wide open. It was only the battle of the elements, 
 but Mrs. Belding's face blanched in an instant. Great 
 sheets of rain swept into the little room threatening 
 its complete inundation. 
 
 " I cannot but think," she said anxiously, " that 
 poor Alice may be out in all this !" 
 
 "Why, mother!" remonstrated Arthur, "it is not 
 possible ; or at least, it is not at all probable. Alice 
 would not undertake anything so hazardous." 
 
 " But if she were to venture," persisted the mother, 
 " what w,ould become of the poor child ?" 
 
 "Heaven only knows !" exclaimed Arthur, appalled 
 at the thought. " I could hardly keep my feet under 
 me in coming the little distance I did. But why 
 mother, will you always conjure up the worst of every 
 situation, and then try to persuade yourself that it is 
 the true " 
 
 Something fell heavily against the barred door, 
 interrupting his words. He sprang forward ; opened 
 it, and caught Alice in his arms !
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 141 
 
 " My God !" he cried, " Merciful Heavens ! Alice, 
 what does this mean ?" 
 
 But Alice made no answer. She might have been 
 conscious that she found her home when she took th 
 last step that brought her to the door, but she knew 
 nothing more. 
 
 "She is dead !" shrieked Mrs. Belding. 
 
 As Arthur placed her upon the couch, and with 
 nervous haste began to apply restoratives he almost 
 believed the frantic words. 
 
 Annie, the youngest of all, was now the most effi 
 cient. She prepared the hot drinks ; tore off the wet 
 garments ; wrapped her in warm blankets, and was 
 soon rewarded by seeing the eyelids tremble, and the 
 white lips grow rosy, and part with a faint smile. Yes, 
 Alice was herself at last, Heaven be praised ! 
 
 Presently she fell into a profound slumber Arthur 
 sitting beside her, and Annie moving about with noise 
 less steps, occupied with the same homely duties that 
 once so cumbered the heart of Martha ; yet with a 
 face as smiling as if with Mary, she were treasuring 
 some loving word of the Master. Mrs. Belding, grim 
 as any painted dragon, sat apart in brooding silence, 
 plying her needle with relentless industry, and appar 
 ently "nursing her wrath to keep it warm." 
 
 There was no conversation to disturb the sleeper, 
 and thus time passed until Arthur, satisfied that noth 
 ing could be better for the patient than rest, rose to 
 return to the office. Then, as if some spirit had 
 touched her with departing wings, Alice awakened 
 suddenly the illusion of her happy dream dissolved 
 to see Arthur bending over her, muffled and ready 
 to leave.
 
 142 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " I thought you would sleep a long time yet," he 
 said in apology for his haste, " and that it was the best 
 we could do for you." 
 
 " Something told me that you were hurrying away" 
 returned Alice, looking tenderly into his eyes 
 
 " Now Mrs. Belding approached, and laid a wither 
 ed hand on the face of her girl. 
 
 "Tell me, Alice," she said, sternly as if examining 
 a witness in a suit of murder " why did you leave 
 that house and come home through the storm ?" 
 
 Alice looked from one to the other, in a confused 
 way, as if trying to unite some broken threads of 
 memory. Her mother's face was forbidding in its 
 judge-like gravity, and Arthur's eyes were anxiously 
 interrogating. 
 
 " Why" she recalled, " It was their luncheon hour, 
 and they did not ask me to stay." 
 
 " Barbarians ! Heathens \" hissed Mrs. Belding. 
 
 Arthur said not a word, but taking up his hat all 
 unconscious that a pair of loving blue eyes pleaded 
 him to stay went forth into the storm. 
 
 As he strode away, he looked the very incarnation 
 of the warring eelments. 
 
 " My God !" he cried, as he hurriedly entered the 
 now vacant office " what is there left me, that is not 
 spurned, or trodden upon ?" 
 
 He sat down mechanically at his desk, and began 
 with swift fingers, to trace plans and elevations ; but 
 there was a fierce demon looking out of his eyes, and 
 following their silent action, a thousand times more 
 busy with plans of quite another sort. 
 
 11 1 will die !" he exclaimed, pausing at length to 
 give vent to the indignation he felt, and striking the
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS.' 143 
 
 desk with his clenched fist, " sooner than endure 
 this !" 
 
 The storm shook the frail building with every relay 
 of its giant forces ; but he heeded nothing of it all. 
 To him, it was the wrath of Heaven, kindled by the 
 inhumanity of man, and all unconsciously, its denun 
 ciatory thunders, mingled like harmonious music with 
 the passion of his soul. 
 
 Cyclone and earthquake ; pestilence and famine ; 
 swift destruction flying upon the wings of the wind : 
 all these would have seemed insufficient chatisement 
 for the monstrous, unscrupulous avarice, which stalked 
 like an iron shod giant, over the wide field of its slain 
 victims. He sat there long, brooding over a dark 
 picture of life, life which had once presented itself in 
 brilliant coloring. 
 
 "What wonder!" he reflected bitterly, "that so 
 many despairing, frenzied lives are ended by self- 
 destruction ! What wonder that childhood turns 
 criminal ! and manhood revels in robbery and red- 
 handed murder ! What wonder that governments are 
 insecure, and crowned heads hide themselves from 
 the fury of the oppressed ?" 
 
 The storm lulled at last, and the sun shone out, 
 gilding the earth with its golden glory, serene as if 
 storm or temptest had never been. The day was near 
 its close. Farnham locked the little office and went 
 home. He had matured a plan for his future that 
 was a sudden inspiration. This very night should see 
 him take the initiative steps which would effectually 
 sever him from this life of drudgery and humiliation. 
 He was the possessor of two paid up Life Insurance 
 policies in good companies ; and while retaining one
 
 144 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 intact, he would negotiate with the other, funds suffi 
 cient to take him to some Eldorado of the West, and 
 for the maintenance of his family for a few months 
 in their present isolated quarters. 
 
 In that time, what could he what would he not 
 accomplish ! He was familiar with those regions. 
 Thoroughly absorbed in his scheme, he proceeded to 
 his own room and secured these treasures before sit 
 ting down at the table. 
 
 The family had gathered there when he took his 
 place with an animated air, and an intense gleam 
 lighting up his sunken eyes. 
 
 He rallied Alice upon the brilliant color her morn 
 ing's adventure had given her, and advised her to 
 secure the whirlwind as her charioteer whenever she 
 particularly wished to enhance her beauty. 
 
 He informed Annie, that he was invited to be pre 
 sent at a gathering on that evening, where her friend 
 Hastings the great reformer of the day would 
 probably be one of the orators. ' He would go and 
 listen with all deference, for her sake, whatever might 
 be his own theories. (He did not say that he had al 
 ready joined the secret organization for the purpose of 
 studying its principles, and that this was not his first 
 attendance upon its gatherings.) 
 
 " You are surely not going out again to-night !" 
 remonstrated Mrs. Belding, as she saw him hurrying 
 into his over-coat as soon as he rose from the table. 
 
 " Yes mother, Alice I am going to the city ; partly 
 on my own business, and partly as a favor to Annie, here. 
 She is taking such a lively interest in this great labor 
 movement, that I want to satisfy myself that these 
 doctrines which have a power so transforming as to
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 145 
 
 make an ultra-radical of our common-sense Annie, are 
 thoroughly safe to adopt. 
 
 The night is not bad : don't detain me with ques 
 tions !" he begged, and kissing his hand to them, he 
 was gone. 
 
 Tramping on toward the brow of the hill, where 
 stood the little wooden station house of the incline, 
 his thoughts took a serions turn. He glanced back 
 ward at the lonely house he had left, and almost 
 relented in his purpose. Could he leave them there 
 friendless and unprotected ? what fearful possibilities 
 the future might hold ! For a moment courage almost 
 forsook him. Then he went blindly forward. There 
 was no other alternative ; venture he must. 
 
 Incline and cars brought him to the street and 
 number that he sought. Here lived a business acquani- 
 tance, who had manifested a friendly interest in him. 
 
 The man had plenty of money at command, and 
 he hoped to obtain a few hundred dollars by giving his 
 note, and a policy of Five Thousand, as a collateral 
 security for payment. And he had not mis-calculated 
 his opportunity. The friend was obliging ; Farnham 
 needed a vacation, and he was glad to assist him, and 
 expressed the hope and belief, that he should see him 
 much improved in health upon his return ; and with 
 mutual kindness they parted : Farnham happy in the 
 possession of sufficient means for present purposes. 
 
 This accomplished, he repaired to the hall where a 
 division of the " Workingmen's Union" held their 
 weekly meetings. 
 
 He entered the dimly lighted place, and slid into a 
 seat with a feeling akin to pleasure that he had been 
 scarcely observed by the densely packed audience.
 
 146 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 A dark, stern-visaged man of middle age, was 
 vehemently discussing some question before the house, 
 and all eyes were turned toward the speaker. 
 
 Farnham looked around over the rude assemblage, 
 and was touched by the pathos of the scene. Here 
 were gathered the poor of a great city, and what 
 marvel that burdened with anxieties, in bondage to 
 poverty, and embittered by injustice, he was struck 
 by the forlorn picture ? 
 
 There were old men with deeply furrowed, hopeless 
 faces ; and young men, with stolid, sullen ones. 
 There were sad, earnest eyes ; and sharp, hungry 
 eyes ; and dark, defiant eyes. There were stalwart 
 forms, with sinews of iron ; and bent, decrepit ones, 
 with palsied hands, which trembled from excess of 
 toil. 
 
 " Sheep, without a shepherd !" Farnham mused 
 unconsciously in the language of the compassionate 
 One. Never before had he felt such kinship with 
 suffering : for in this, as in their humanity, they were 
 indeed men and brothers. 
 
 The meeting was drawing to a close. The question 
 being agitated was ; shall we of this pool, resist a 
 farther reduction of wages ? 
 
 The speaker was loud mouthed, and bitter in his 
 denunciation of capital, and counselled " starvation, 
 rather than submission to its arrogant terms." 
 
 He sat down amid cheers, and sullen cries of 
 " victory or death !" 
 
 "The only radical cure for the usurpation of power, 
 in a free country," cried Paul Hastings, springing to 
 his feet, as soon as the other's head was lowered, 
 "lies in the BALLOT Box ! Let no brother," said he
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 147 
 
 with persuasive eloquence, in voice and manner, 
 " imagine that laying down the pick and shovel, and 
 lounging in idleness, will enable us to stem its resist 
 less tide. Europe, with her starving millions lies at 
 our very door. Beckon them, and they are here, 
 grasping eagerly the implements of labor which you 
 would unwisely, and passionately cast from you. Nay! 
 they do not wait to be signalled. Every ship that 
 cleaves the ocean, from those crowded shores, bears 
 to our own, the muscles and the sinews of toil. They 
 swarm like the locusts of Egypt upon our goodly 
 land. 
 
 "Who, I ask, owns this country ? The men who 
 have fought, and bled for its blessings ; who have 
 toiled for its riches ; who have hewed down its 
 forests, and burrowed for its treasures ; or those, 
 who by our favor sit in our capitols, squandering 
 our earnings and abusing our faith ? 
 
 " Brothers ! study the policy of our government 
 during the last decade. What is it tending toward ? 
 " He that runneth may read." Buckle on your armor; 
 and through the ballot the sacred weapon of a free 
 people make a righteous stand against the political 
 and material arrogance of the times. 
 
 " We may yet be as free as Switzerland the happiest 
 nation on the face of the earth. Every son and 
 daughter, independent as a crowned head. None 
 rich and none poor ; or, the prince and the pauper 
 may flourish alike on our unhappy soil. These possi 
 bilities lie within our control. Majorities are said to 
 rule. Lend your ears to no demagogue whomsoever! 
 Every one of them is a "friend to the workingman." 
 Soft of palm, and silver of speech, he will clasp you
 
 148 DRAFTED IN, A* SEQUEL 
 
 with the fervor of a brother, and charm you with the 
 subtlety of a serpent. 
 
 Let us not decide rashly, impulsively, but learn to 
 reason ; to labor, and to wait. 
 
 I counsel no strikes ; and shall vote for none, but 
 shall trust to a united, intelligent appeal for redress, 
 where it is alone possible to obtain it. We must ballot 
 for our rights ; fight for them, if need be ; die for 
 them if we must ! but, idle for them never !" 
 
 He sat down, amid both cheers and hisses. It was 
 evident that his sober and sound conservatism, had 
 made a profound impression upon his hearers ; but 
 laboring and waiting was a slow process for righting 
 present abuses : and it had not been contemplated as 
 a radical remedy. The vote was taken, and stood 
 149, for ; 126, against ; and the strike of the steel 
 workers was inaugurated. 
 
 Farnham stole out while the excited discussion 
 following this result was in progress, and took his way 
 homeward. It was past midnight when he arrived 
 there. He found Alice in the little parlor, patiently 
 awaiting his return. Her eyes were bright and 
 her cheeks flushed. 
 
 " How very pretty you are looking !" he whispered, 
 as he held her to his heart a moment, imprinting a 
 clinging kiss upon her sweet lips. 
 
 " And you, Arthur?" she exclaimed, "why you look 
 so important and animated, that I do believe your 
 errand to-night, has been nothing less than office 
 seeking !" 
 
 Arthur smiled. "You have almost guessed it," he 
 said, " I have been to a labor meeting, and heard one
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 149 
 
 rousing speech that moved me as a patriot, if not 
 as a partisan." 
 
 He then described to her all that he had witnessed ; 
 the poor fellows for whom he had felt such compas 
 sion ; young Hastings' speech, giving it as his private 
 opinion, that there was a brilliant future for that young 
 man. 
 
 " Then he shall have my permission and blessing !" 
 laughed Alice gleefully. 
 
 " Perhaps he may not crave either," suggested 
 Arthur. " I think, for once, you are a little fanciful, 
 Alice :" Hastings is heart and soul engrossed in this 
 great uprising of the masses ; and I doubt if he wastes 
 a thought on .anything else. He is singularly well 
 informed for a laboring man. With all my advantages 
 I am often compelled to recognize my own inferiority, 
 in point of political, and governmental research. He 
 is about as familiar with English rule, past and present, 
 as with our own. He is well up in their literature 
 too, and reasons from the color and flavor of its senti 
 ments, through successive centuries, that its most 
 advanced thinkers are rapidly outgrowing the bauble 
 of royalty, and are reaching out toward a righteous 
 self-government, that shall mean equal rights, and 
 God-given liberties for all. He says the greatest 
 novelists of the world to-day, are radicals." 
 
 " Well," resumed Alice, who had followed this digres 
 sion, much as a novel reader does the duller parts of a 
 story you must own " I have had great experience of 
 young men in love, Arthur ! and I assure you, this is 
 no fancy no fancy of mine, at least. And it isn't a 
 bit strange either," she added, and paused for a 
 reply.
 
 150 DRAFTED IX, A SEQUEL 
 
 They had retired to rest ; but this subject interested 
 her much, and she presently continued, " do you 
 recognize the fact that our Annie is growing positively 
 beautiful ?" 
 
 Evidently he did not for he had fallen fast 
 asleep ! 
 
 Alice lay for some time considering possibilities 
 that the future might hold, and then in sleep that 
 followed lightly after, had glimpses of rosy peaks 
 like hopes young dream but never, ah ! never a 
 hint of shade never a cloud of sorrow !
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS.' 
 
 IX. 
 
 A SHARP NOTE, AND A STORMY SET 
 TLEMENT. 
 
 The next morning, Farnham went to the office, 
 ostensibly to complete some drawings that he had in 
 hand ; but really to meet one or the other of the Fox 
 Brothers, who were likely to be there. There was 
 resolute purpose expressed in his face, and he held 
 the pen firmly in his skilled fingers, modeling with 
 nice exactness the proportions of parlor, dining-room 
 and kitchen, for some happy home ; while unconscious 
 ly consigning himself to the fortunes of an outcast. 
 
 Meantime, at the house he had left, this scene was 
 transpiring : Mrs. Belding sat in her own room, 
 framing a note to be sent to Mrs. Fox, explaining the 
 non-appearance of the governess, and a little errand 
 boy summonded to convey it thither, waited in the 
 dining-room, hat in hand, its completion. 
 
 In the kitchen beyond, busy with the morning's 
 work, Alice and Annie chatted pleasantly in regard to 
 it. 
 
 " If you will wash the china," remonstrated the 
 former, " put on the rubber gloves : I always do. 
 Arthur so dislikes to see my hands rough." 
 
 " But there is no one to care for mine," laughed 
 Annie, " so what does it matter whether they are soft 
 or rough ?" and baring her round, shapely arms to the 
 dimpled elbows, she proceeded with nimble fingers to
 
 I.S2 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 make a white foam of the water, into which the break 
 fast cups were hastily immersed. 
 
 " I am not so sure about that," returned Alice with 
 a mysterious nod of her wise, matronly head. "What 
 now, do you modestly think, is bringing Paul Hast 
 ings to the house so often ?" 
 
 Annie, blushed like a peony. " You know he comes 
 to talk with Uncle about about everything ; and 
 scarcely looks at any one else." 
 
 "Of course he doesn't ! that is what amuses me !" 
 laughed Alice. 
 
 The heavily fringed lids, drooped suddenly over 
 Annie's dark eyes and hid a sparkle of joy ; but at 
 that moment Mrs. Belding came into the room, clos 
 ing the door carefully behind her. 
 
 " I have written a note," she said in a low voice, 
 addressing them both, " and would like your opinion 
 of it before sending," and then read the following : 
 
 MRS. Fox: Owing to the inclemency of the weather 
 and the inhospitality of your house ; my daughter's 
 attendance there, will be discontinued. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 E. BELDING. 
 
 " Why mamma !" said Alice, after a moment's re 
 flection, " I am afraid it is a little severe. Couldn't 
 you word it differently ?" 
 
 " To be sure I could : but I intend it to be severe," 
 rejoined that irate personage, a deep carnation burn 
 ing like a live coal, in either withered cheek. " It is 
 not too severe to give expression to the resentment I 
 feel ; and I shall send it ;" she decided firmly. 
 
 " You show the value of my criticism," laughed 
 Alice.
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 153 
 
 "It suits me ; if that is anything," said Annie, with 
 an approving smile at the writer. 
 
 " Well, it will go at all events !" replied Mrs. Beld- 
 ing, and dispatched it at once. 
 
 It chanced on this particular morning, that the 
 younger member of the firm of Fox Brothers was in 
 a most irritable frame of mind. It might have result 
 ed from the effects of certain potions imbibed some 
 what recklessly on the previous day. However that 
 may be, the fact remained as his lady had more 
 forcibly, than tenderly, expressed it that " Christo 
 pher was as cross as a bear !" 
 
 Everyone in his immediate and " delightfully retired 
 location" quoting from his own florid rhetoric had 
 suffered from this attack of bile, when, fortunately 
 for the household, Mrs. Belding's note arrived. 
 
 Mrs. Fox perused it first ; her narrow black eyes 
 glinting and glowing, until they actually seemed emit 
 ting sparks of fire. Then she rushed with it to 
 Christopher, whom she found engaged in the highly 
 stimulating occupation of pulling Johnny's ears, for 
 some misdemeanor. It was a grateful diversion to the 
 boy ; who lost no time in making his retreat showing 
 his white teeth in a broad grin of relief, as he went. 
 
 " What do you think of that ?" she asked sharply, 
 giving the open note into his hand. 
 
 He certainly did not think anything very clearly ; 
 for the paper slipped in his relaxed grasp, until from 
 their position the words seemed scampering down 
 hill, and running into each other at a fearful rate. 
 
 "Mrs. Fox hie," he read, "owing hie, I can't 
 make anything out of such d d writing as this is ;
 
 154 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 hie," he declared angrily, " all out of line, and signed 
 Bedlam, aint it ! 
 
 " Bedlam ! repeated Mrs. Fox, " why you haven't 
 sense enough this morning to resent an insult. Do 
 try to think ; can't you ? This impertinent note is 
 from that odious Mrs. Belding ; the woman who put 
 on airs towards me the day I went to do them a 
 favor ; and listen to this ! It reads as though she 
 were a queen, and I, her dependent." 
 
 She read the brief note and looked at Christopher 
 with a fixed stare. 
 
 " My daughter's attendance will be discontinued," 
 he repeated after her, and then laughed so violently 
 that the dark red of his face changed to purple ; "you 
 are quite right, madam ?" he said, grasping his cane 
 and reaching for his hat. 
 
 " I hope you will just turn them all into the street !" 
 cried Mrs. Fox ; but the amiable advice was lost, for 
 her knight-errant was already hurrying with long 
 strides, in the direction of the office his wide-set 
 eyes starting from his head as if he were being chok 
 ed ; and the dainty paper containing the obnoxious 
 note, fluttering in his hand. 
 
 In this manner, he entered that place about two 
 minutes later. 
 
 A couple of men were sitting in the outer office 
 buyers, perhaps, waiting his arrival. Mr. Farnham 
 stood writing at his desk, his back toward the door. 
 
 "Come in here, Sir !" commanded Mr. Christopher 
 Fox, laying an angry hand upon his shoulder in pass 
 ing, and leading the way to the inner office. 
 
 There was something so savage in the expression 
 of the proprietor's face, that Farnham instinctively
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 155 
 
 hesitated ; the strangers seeming to consider their 
 presence superfluous walked out into the open air. 
 
 Then Mr. Fox, flourishing the open letter in the 
 other's face, conjured him, with a horrible oath to 
 "look at it." 
 
 Farnham looked with some surprise, and yet with a 
 haughty self-composure that infuriated Fox. 
 
 " Did did you know the contents of this, before 
 it went to my wife ?" he stammered fiercely. 
 
 " No ;" answered Farnham, turning away, with a 
 flushed face, to resume his pen. 
 
 " You needn't be so d d industrious," said Fox, 
 
 "because I happen to be here ; I've got a little busi 
 ness with you now, that's got to be settled. What I 
 want to understand, is : do you approve of this 
 impertinence ? 
 
 Farnham though tingling with suppressed rage 
 had no desire to precipitate a quarrel. He sought 
 only, a speedy settlement of their relations and a 
 separation. 
 
 " I shall not discuss that question with you, Mr. 
 Fox, not at least, in your present condition," and he 
 turned again to his desk. 
 
 " Not in my present condition !" roared Fox, strik 
 ing his broad chest a sounding blow. " I suppose 
 your own present condition hasn't anything to do 
 with your wonderful prudence !" 
 
 " It you think I am afraid of you, Christopher 
 Fox," replied Farnham, squaring himself again, and 
 measuring his antagonist with eyes that flashed scorn 
 and defiance, " because of your huge proportions, you 
 have an opportunity now to satisfy yourself." 
 
 "What I want to satisfy myself about," persisted
 
 156 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 the other, " is, how that woman dared to insult my 
 wife?" 
 
 " Because," replied Farnham, hurling back the 
 angry challenge of his eyes, "she dared resent the 
 insult offered her daughter by your wife in the treat 
 ment of the day before." 
 
 " Treatment !" Did you expect us to entertain our 
 servants 9" 
 
 " Mr. Fox, I have had enough of this, but if it 
 gratifies you to have it so, I will own that this letter 
 has my unqualified approval. And now Sir ! I will 
 submit to no more of your insolence, but demand an 
 immediate settlement of our business." 
 
 " Yod are a d pack of impostors. And b 
 
 G I'll give you a settlement with my cane," and 
 the infuriated Fox struck a vicious blow with his 
 heavy cane, which Farnharn avoided by a quick 
 spring, and the next instant the big man was measur 
 ing the floor with his utmost length. 
 
 So dazed was he, by the suddenness with which 
 he engaged in the occupation that his scattered 
 senses failed to comprehend the result of the experi 
 ment. Meantime, Farnham gathered up some papers; 
 put on his hat, and left the office. 
 
 He had not gone half a dozen steps, when his 
 adversary came tearing after him, like some wild 
 animal, infuriated by a wound. 
 
 Now, if there was any one thing, which Mr. Christo 
 pher Fox admired in himself, more than another, it 
 was, his scholarly proficiency in the manly art of self- 
 defense. 
 
 Farnham had knocked him down ; an indignity to 
 his person which could not be too suddenly, or too
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 157 
 
 severely dealt with. He would not have regreted 
 chatsisingthe man before ; but now, it was incumbent 
 upon his honor. His uncertain feet had scarcely 
 touched the ground, when his outstretched arm dealt 
 Farnham a sharp blow with the knobbed end of his 
 heavy cane. 
 
 It happened that the men who had retired from the 
 office a few moments before, stood conversing a little 
 distance away, and now came forward promptly, to 
 interfere in Farnham's behalf. 
 
 "Sthob dat," they cried in chorus ; the attack 
 seemed so brutal, and the contest if precipitated 
 so unequal : but surprise was succeeded by smiling 
 satisfaction, as they beheld Farnham leap upon his 
 assailant with the suppleness and fury of a tiger. He 
 twisted the weapon from his grasp, and if seven 
 dragons had possessed him, he could not have dealt 
 blows more effective, than the few that be-labored the 
 ponderous body of the luckless Fox. 
 
 " Dat ish bery goot floggins !" apostrophised one of 
 the strangers, coming up at this stage of affairs a 
 broad grin animating his otherwise phlegmatic coun 
 tenance, " Bay 'em shust a few more for bery pad 
 sheatin' o' me. Dat be petter nor money. Ha ! ha !" 
 
 But Farnham did not constitute himself the avenger 
 of another's wrongs ; releasing the much humiliated 
 and struggling proprietor, he strode away homeward, 
 with a proud step and heightened color. 
 
 " I will order my carriage, and have the dog arrest 
 ed for assault and battery, inside of half an hour !" 
 vowed the irate and much bedraggled Fox, scramb 
 ling to his feet, purple with rage and perspiring with 
 heat.
 
 158 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " De blendy vitness mil de courts ;" suggested the 
 highly amused Dutchman ; de 'sault vas you s, I vill 
 swear, put mine Got ! dat snap, he do de patterin' so 
 goot as never vas !" 
 
 With this timely hint, Mr. Christopher Fox retired 
 to the privacy of the inner office for repairs ; indulg 
 ing the while, in deep-mouthed oaths like muttered 
 thunder, consigning the victor to most undesirable 
 localities ; but his equipage was not called into im 
 mediate use, and Farnham was left unchallenged, to 
 take his adventurous way, to the gold regions of the 
 far, far West. 
 
 Leave-takings at the cottage were few and hasty. 
 
 Necessity is a stern and uncompromising master in 
 its demands upon poor human lives, and human loves. 
 There were grave apprehensions on either side for 
 the safety of the other, and each heart seemed paral 
 yzed by a contemplation of the inevitable. Farn- 
 ham's pale cheeks and wasted frame, claimed many a 
 sad foreboding ; while he, aware of what his absence 
 meant, to them, almost repented the desperate under 
 taking. 
 
 Their personal safety was all that he could insure, 
 and provision against actual want. The McGarvy 
 Brother's were now owners of the house, and honest, 
 well disposed men, he 'had thus far proved them to 
 be. With them, he stipulated, as best he could, for a 
 certain supervision and care of his family, and half 
 unbeliever as he was committed them also, to the 
 God of the fatherless and the widow. 
 
 One little incident may be recorded, for the lasting 
 impression it left upon the mind of the wanderer. 
 When farewells had been said, and last words spoken ;
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. ' 159 
 
 Farnham had turned resolutely away, and gone some 
 little distance from the house, when he was almost 
 unmanned, to find his poor Alice following him with 
 a blind, unreasoning terror ; and when he tried to 
 wave her back, she rushed into his arms and clung 
 about his neck in a childish effort to hold him back. 
 Ah ! long after, in distant lands, in solitude and sor 
 row, she seemed to him clinging there still.
 
 l6o DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 X. 
 
 LABOR TROUBLES. 
 
 "Not loud, but deep!" "Labor vs. Capital" 
 Labor Agitations !" These are some of the headings 
 of the newspaper articles, reported at this date, from 
 almost every city of the Union. Then followed 
 accounts of the discontent pervading all classes of 
 wage-workers ; until it seemed as if the behest of 
 the Almighty, had come to be an affront and an indig 
 nity to man. 
 
 Strikes ! Strikes ! along the line of industries, was 
 the rule ; labor was the exception. 
 
 Huge fires, which had lighted the skies for miles 
 around painting thereon as never artist could, their 
 gilded picture of industry and wealth ; smouldered and 
 went out. Thoroughly organized, steadily going mills 
 whose deafening call to labor, and to rest had long 
 been as familiar a feature of everyday life in their re 
 spective localities, as the sunrise and sunset became 
 suddenly mute. The merry whirr of the spindle, and the 
 clatter of the loom, were forgotten music in the manu 
 factory. The Telegraph became silent, and the huge 
 engine, a defunct monster, stranded upon the high 
 ways of commerce. Artisans laid down their tools, 
 and printers their type, and went for a holiday, as if 
 the year of jubilee 'the sabbath of labor,' had at 
 last dawned upon this Western World : as if a Joshua
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS" l6l 
 
 had commanded the sun of American prosperity, to 
 stand still in the heavens, and the evolutions of time 
 to turn backward. 
 
 But the jubilee of labor, differed widely from that 
 of royalty. That was a brilliant pageant upon the 
 stream of time, glittering and golden, like Cleopatra's 
 gilded barge resplendant in gems, and gorgeous in 
 trappings. Silken banners waved in the light of the 
 sun, and threw back his kisses ; and brazen trumpets 
 blared, and shook the earth with joy, at the tread of 
 kings. 
 
 Alas ! for the jubilee of toil. It was not a triumphal 
 march over flower-bestrewn ways. It was not even 
 peaceful, like a sabbath of rest. Sullen men patrolled 
 the streets, hungry-eyed, and riotous looking ; as if 
 in their extremity, they defied both God and man. 
 Wives and mothers who had never asked a charity 
 before, begged for themselves and their little 
 ones. 
 
 At night, discontented men gathered to discuss the 
 situation. 
 
 These meetings could not, with justice be denomi 
 nated " roll call of all the shirks ;" for sinewy arms 
 and horny hands, were the non-transferable badges of 
 honest toil ; nor could the most trifling, mingle in 
 these solemn councils, and withhold a measure of 
 sympathy from these stern-eyed, anxious visaged 
 men ; whether the wrongs they combatted, were real, 
 or fancied ; or their redress, wisely, or ignorantly 
 sought. They were fierce assemblages of thwarted 
 manhood, representing every phase of human charac 
 ter, from the stolid, unreasoning intelligence, but one 
 remove from the selfish instincts of the animal
 
 162 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 creation, to those possessing every native element of 
 greatness. 
 
 Among these Paul Hastings stood pre-eminent. His 
 honest worth ; sterling sense ; statesman-like knowl 
 edge ; trusted sympathy ; and known conservatism 
 which even rioters respected, in their saner moments, 
 together with a certain rugged and magnetic elo 
 quence, made him a conspicuous figure in these secret 
 gatherings. True, his advice was not always heeded: 
 though time generally proved its soundness, and gave 
 it added weight in future and oft-recurring emergen 
 cies. One thing was never doubted ; his devotion to 
 what he believed to be the best interests of the men 
 whom he loved and labored for as brothers, 
 
 The President, or Master Workman, of the Almal- 
 gamated Association, finding the duties of his office 
 too onerous, at this crisis of affairs, suddenly resign 
 ed : and young Hastings had been almost unanimous 
 ly elected to fill the vacancy thus created. It was an 
 office, at this early stage of its history, probably rep 
 resenting as it's 'perquisites,' more labor, and less 
 rest ; more sacrifice, and les c salary ; than any other 
 in the gift of the people. There were no surplus 
 millions in the treasury to tempt the devotion of the 
 sordid; to be farmed out among favorites ; voted for, or 
 courted for ; or " expedited" by any crafty manipula 
 tions in its speedy and certain passage to private 
 pockets. 
 
 No ! it was then, as empty as his own cupboard ; 
 and had it been otherwise, Paul Hastings was not the 
 one to appropriate the poor man's earnings. It would 
 have been to him, as Judus' thirty pieces of silver : 
 "the price of blood."
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 163 
 
 Work, he enjoyed ; and his reward had been, that a 
 widowed mother leaned on him as her stay and 
 support ; and that he had been able to make life a 
 little smoother and brighter for half orphaned 
 brothers and sisters. 
 
 But now the strike of the Steel Workers, enforced 
 idleness upon him ; and idleness was an unkown con 
 dition of all his previous life. Three days had not 
 passed, before he had proved it the most distasteful 
 and irksome, as well as the most unremunerative of 
 all occupations. But he must submit : his individual 
 independence was lost and the fiiat had gone forth. 
 
 For a little time, young Hastings had succeeded in 
 keeping his mother in partial ignorance of the real 
 state of affairs ; hoping there might still be a compro 
 mise between the employers and the employees. 
 But that hope had died out. It had become apparent 
 to his understanding, that the policy of the former, 
 towards the latter, had been pre-arranged to produce 
 this result ; and the laborers had unwisely fallen into 
 the trap set for them. 
 
 They will not be so independent when they have 
 starved awhile ! was the indifferent comment of the 
 complacent employers ; and the poor men : " we will 
 die, sooner than yield a single point !" and thus the 
 days had drifted wearily on. 
 
 Saturday night had come again, and the usual hour 
 brought Paul Hastings to the door of his mother's 
 weaving room. He listened there a moment almost 
 fearing to enter. He foresaw that he could not hide 
 the trouble from her clear eyes much longer ; and he 
 was not accustomed to deceiving her. 
 
 He could hear the shuttle fly back and forth, and
 
 164 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 the steady hammer of the lathe, making a rude 
 accompaniment to the homely music ; and it was a 
 a cheerful sound. Presently his mother's voice, sweet 
 and tremulous, sang in snatches between the loom's 
 stirring harmonies : 
 
 " Other refuge luite I none " 
 
 Rat tat! rut-tat! tat! ! 
 " Hangs my kelpies* soul on Thee. 
 
 Rat tat! rat tat! tat! ! 
 ' ' Leave, oh ! le<ive me nut alone : " 
 
 Rat-tat! cat tat! tat! ! 
 " Still support and comfort me." 
 
 Here she suddenly paused in her work, to make 
 some necessary change, and Paul raised the latch and 
 went in. She heard his step, and looked around ; 
 her face was unusually lighted up. 
 
 "Oh, my boy!" she exclaimed joyfully, "thee is 
 come at last !" 
 
 " Yes, mother," he answered, essaying a cheerful 
 tone, yet dropping into a seat behind her " It is not 
 much past the time ; is it ?" 
 
 " It only seemed so," she said smiling and turning 
 toward him again, " because I was so impatient to 
 see thee. I have been keeping some good news, with 
 the dear children's help, all day, waiting to tell thee : 
 and thee must know how hard that is, when good 
 news is so scarce." 
 
 " Don't keep it any longer then !" he urged, in a 
 voice that betrayed no lack of interest in the good 
 mother's pleasant secret. 
 
 " Well, in the first place, there came a letter from 
 Hiram this morning ; such a good, full, affectionate 
 letter ! Here it is by me in the quill basket. Thee 
 must read it ! But I can't wait for that to tell thee 
 how bravely the boy is coming on. Where dost thee
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS.' 165 
 
 think he stands now in his class of forty-five ? guess?" 
 she urged, turning her happy face around until her 
 eyes encountered Paul's. 
 
 " Why, my boy !" she exclaimed in a changed, 
 anxious voice, " what ails thee to-night ? Has thy 
 work been so cruel hard, that thy cheeks are so 
 blanched, and thine eyes so hollow ! Thou wilt soon 
 be the dear lad's sire, by thy looks, as well as thou 
 hast been by thy care." 
 
 Paul smiled ; but the patient weariness of the faint 
 smile added fresh uneasiness to the mother's heart. 
 
 " Tell me my son," she said, getting down hastily 
 from the loom, and coming to him, " what is the mat 
 ter ? There is no use keeping aught from thy mother I" 
 she urged softly, laying a caressing hand upon his 
 head. " Her eyes are quick to read the trouble in thine." 
 
 His poor head droped for a moment, beneath the 
 tenderness of the touch, and then he raised his eyes 
 to her's in a burst of silent confidence. 
 
 " There is trouble at the mill ! " she said. 
 
 "Yes, mother: trouble enough." 
 
 "The men have struck ! " she whispered with white 
 lips. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " There was a silence followed the almost inaudible 
 little monosylable which seemed to emphasize its sig 
 nificance. Mrs. Hastings tottered into a seat beside 
 her boy, and took his hand in hers. 
 
 "The Lord's will be done" she gasped, "if this 
 be his will." 
 
 Paul was silent. His eyes were fixed upon his 
 mother's face, which paled perceptibly. There was a 
 temptest raging in his own soul.
 
 1 66 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " There will be great suffering I fear," she said at 
 last roused from a contemplation of their own con 
 dition, by her habitual care for others. 
 
 " There are ten thousand men out of employment 
 in this city alone !" confessed Paul. 
 
 "The dear Lord help !" ejaculated Mrs. Hastings, 
 with fervor. "What will the harvest be ?" 
 
 "Not bread," said Paul bitterly. 
 
 " No, not bread !" she replied solemnly, but blood \ 
 Paul, blood ! That will be the harvest of all this 
 strife." 
 
 " Don't take too gloomy a view of things," pleaded 
 Paul. 
 
 " It is the natural and certain result of all the evil 
 passions which are being engendered on both sides, 
 by this most vexed question ;" persisted Mrs. Hast 
 ings. " It began in selfish jealousies, and it will end 
 in bloodshed. ' The beginning of strife,' we are told 
 ' is as the letting out of water,' and who will stop the 
 leak, now that the waters have found a vent ?" 
 
 " There will be a revolution !" said Paul, with the 
 certainty of conviction in his tones." But it may be 
 a bloodless one." 
 
 " No, it will not come,'" responded Mrs. Hastings, 
 " like The Kingdom, that is yet to be set on the 
 earth 'without observation.' " 
 
 Paul turned this thoughtful eyes full on his mother, 
 and she continued : 
 
 " That will be the peaceful reign of righteousness, 
 my son !" 
 
 " Then it is your belief," said Paul quickly, " that 
 right 13 yet to triumph in the earth ?" 
 
 " To be sure ! to be sure !" she replied cheerfully.
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 167 
 
 "All believers of inspired prophecy look forward to 
 that, as the final consummation of God's dealings 
 with man The Millennium of the world." 
 
 " Then it must be the duty of every true man to 
 bestir himself to bring about that good time !" 
 
 The mother was silent. Conservative in every fibre 
 of her being, she could not but note the stern 
 purpose expressed in her son's face with secret 
 misgivings. 
 
 " It will come," she said at last," in God's own good 
 time and v. r ay." 
 
 "But even He does not work unassisted ! said Paul, 
 with sudden enthusiasm," and I believe that this very 
 time is Ills time ! Why mother, think of it ! Think of 
 the state of ferment the nations are in, all over the 
 civilized world to-day ! Think how kings and emper 
 ors tremble upon their tottering thrones ! How the 
 oppressed are uprising everywhere in their sullen 
 discontent ! How royalty and mis-rule keep putting 
 in the screws of repression, while under the seething 
 cauldron, are raging the fierce fires of wrath that may 
 blow them to atoms !" 
 
 " My son !" remonstrated Mrs. Hastings. 
 
 " / have nothing to do with it, mother. It is 
 the outlook of the times. If I were up to quoting 
 Bible, I should say it was 'the handwriting on the 
 wall.' Look at our own country ! We have a reign 
 of Mammon ! Capital elects nearly all the rulers. 
 It would not be so, if voters were more intelligent. 
 The poor who have little time to read, or who could 
 not, if they had, must take a great deal on trust : and 
 who so ready to instruct, as office seekers ? 
 
 Voters are confused by the sophistry that is pour-
 
 l68 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 ed into their ears by vigorous-lunged politicians. Tariff 
 and anti-tariff parties pretend to base their opposite 
 convictions upon an almost saintly benevolence of 
 fore-cast, in their supreme interest for the laboring 
 man. But what is the character of their legislation ? 
 Look at the system of " trusts !" combinations pro 
 tected by law to plunder the people. There is end 
 less talk and labored oratory about curtailing the 
 power of monopoly. Why is it never accomplished. 
 It would be easy enough if they honestly wanted to 
 do it. That little pamphlet I have been reading 
 would show them how to go about it if they really 
 don't know. It gives a schedule of taxation by 
 which the poor man would escape but the rich would 
 pay with an ever increasing ratio, as the volume of 
 their estates increased until it would be found unre- 
 munerative to steal all the gold : or own all the earth 
 that produced it." 
 
 " That seems a very plain and simple way of reach 
 ing that end," assented Mrs. Hastings. 
 
 "Yes, and an effectual one," said Paul. "But the 
 trouble is ; the class in power don't want that kind 
 of taxation ; they have devised a cunning scheme by 
 which the burden is saddled on the poor, and then by 
 ingenious sophistry, convince them that they are being 
 benefitted; and they will go on as they are doing 
 and as other Republics have done until a day of 
 reckoning comes : and come it will !" 
 
 " It is better to suffer wrong, than to do wrong ;" 
 quoted Mrs. Hastings, with an anxious look at her 
 boy's face, which held her in silent contemplation a 
 moment, "But come!" she said, "this is unprofit 
 able speculation. We are commanded to pray for
 
 TO U THE BREAD WINNERS." 169 
 
 those who have the rule over us. Thee must not 
 forget to do it. They have their temptations and 
 weaknesses, like other men ; and thee might not know 
 thyself, Paul, so placed. And now the supper 
 waits."
 
 I 7 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 XI. 
 
 THE WANDERER. 
 
 At the end of a tiresome journey by rail ; Arthur 
 Farnham found himself entering the little mushroom 
 town of Stonington, in a region with which he had 
 once been familiar. It consisted of a few unpainted, 
 wooden houses, scattered along the base of a mount 
 ain ; a big hotel, and small trim depot before which 
 the cars halted. 
 
 He cast his eyes about, taking in some remembered 
 points in the landscape, and made a quick decision. 
 
 " I will halt here !" he said, grasping his satchel 
 and rushing out with the crowd. 
 
 But what was the matter? Was he ill, or only 
 weary from the sickening motion of the cars ? 
 
 He walked into the little depot, and sat down. 
 
 "Three days and nights without much food or 
 rest," he thought, "are enough to set one's brain 
 whirling ; but these railroads are so inhumanly extor 
 tionate' He made a quick motion with his hands, 
 
 and fell forward to the floor. 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 When next he felt an interest in his surroundings, 
 they were as unfamiliar as if he had awakened in 
 another world ; and yet he had no inclination to 
 reflect upon their strangeness. The immediate past 
 was all a blank. He had forgotten that he was a 
 wanderer, and fancied himself at home, and Alice
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 17! 
 
 somewhere near, He longed for her now, his head 
 was so hot, and his mouth so parched. 
 
 She would come soon he thought, and lay her cool, 
 soft palms upon his forehead. He could not turn his 
 eyes to look for her, and the sun winked at them so 
 through the curtainless windows, that they seemed on 
 fire. 
 
 Just where they were directed, at the foot of the 
 bed, a woman's dress, of Amazonian proportions, 
 hung by an arm-hole, and below this, a pile of rough 
 wooden boxes were ranged against the wall. On 
 these he fixed his eyes, with no more wonder or 
 thought, than if they had always been accustomed to 
 such rude decorations. Voices reached him through 
 a thin partition, and gradually soothed him, like a 
 mother's lullaby. 
 
 He slept, and woke again. Now it was dark, and 
 his thirst was terrible. Visions of purling brooks 
 and waterfalls, seen in some headlong ride, rose up 
 before him with tantalizing vividness. 
 
 But hark ! some one was speaking now distinctly. 
 
 It was a shrill voice in angry tones, and so loud 
 that it arrested even his wandering thoughts. 
 
 "I tell you," it said "there ain't no use of your 
 sittin' there, Joe Martin, a cotin' your Bible texes to 
 me, about charity. That begins to hum ; so I've allus 
 heerd ; an' I for one, believe in mindin' yer own 
 affairs, an* takin' care o' them as is near to you 
 blood an' bone an' not meddlin' with every tramp 
 as you hain't no call to do for." 
 
 He's no tramp, Betsy ? no more'n what I was," de 
 clared a gruff, but kindly voice. " Think o' me when 
 I come through, three year aw ! I tell you it makes
 
 172 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 a fellow kind o' human to git into them sort o" 
 straights hisself ! I lay ten week in a hunter's shanty 
 with the mountain fever ; an' I'll be blasted, if I 
 wouldn't rather have some poor chap remember me, 
 as I do that fellow that took me through it than any 
 parson's title to the promised land, this side o' 
 Kingdom come." 
 
 "Well," retorted the shrill, sharp voice, " I'm thank 
 ful I ain't beholden to nobody ; an* I say, / hain't 
 got no call to be aslavin' myself vforrh'm forlunaticks, 
 as don't know one creetur from another ; and I say, 
 Joe, you show no more sense an' he does, to be gittin' 
 in a new doctor when his money's all gone ! 
 
 There ain't another human in town but you as 
 poor as poverty yerself, and allus will be that 'ud 
 fly in the face of providence that a way. It's clear 
 to me, that it's intended for him to die : an' it's justly 
 the best thing for him : the poor, friendless creetur ! 
 But Lord-a-massy ! There they come ! purty work 
 you'r makin' fer yerself, Joe Martin !" 
 
 Then was heard the tramping of feet and the sharp 
 clatter of chairs on a sounding board floor, and for 
 some time a hurried confusion of voices, unintellig- 
 able to the dull ears of the tired, but feebly curious, 
 listener. Some one seemed to approach the door, and 
 hesitating just outside of it, say, in a smooth voice, 
 so near, as to be distinctly heard by the sick man : 
 
 " In his case Mr. Martin, it is clear there is nothing 
 to build on," 
 
 The door opened, and two men entered, closing it 
 carefully behind them. 
 
 "You'll look to me," said the gruff voice, in a 
 hoarse whisper " Betsy needn't be the wiser an' if
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 173 
 
 there's nothing to build on there," pointing to the 
 bed, "you'll trust me for a small amount I 
 guess." 
 
 "You mfsunderstand," said the other, "my good 
 man ! I meant that from my colleague's diagnosis of 
 this case, I learn that the physical depletion is such, 
 that stimulants have become of no avail ; and only 
 serve to continue this state of anasthesia in which he 
 has lain for six days he tells me." 
 
 " Well, if you all give him up," retorted the other, 
 disappointedly but determinedly, "/shan't !" 
 
 " I think it honest to tell you the plain truth at 
 once ;" declared the doctor, advancing a step, and 
 peering, with his head very much to one side, into the 
 sick man's face. 
 
 The fixed stare which he there encountered from a 
 pair of large, melancholy eyes set in a ghostly coun 
 tenance, seemed to confirm his worst premonitions. 
 He retired precipitately, shaking his head from side 
 to side ominously, while a visible shudder ran through 
 his slight, nervous frame. 
 
 Then followed more voices a whispered confusion 
 of them : Then silence and darkness with which the 
 poor sufferer had become so unconsciously familiar. 
 
 " Was it time with him yet ? or was it eternity ?" he 
 idly, and almost indifferently questioned. 
 
 He looked at his skeleton hands in doubt and per 
 plexity, as they lay on the coarse covering before 
 him ; wondering stupidly, if they really were a part 
 of himself, and found that he possessed the power to 
 move them, ever so little, across the rough surface of 
 the bed. 
 
 " He'll never be the better o' the fever here !"
 
 174 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 spoke up the kindly voice, for which his dull ears 
 were often listening. 
 
 The sun shone squarely in at the little window, and 
 he turned his eyes, and saw the man plainly enough ; 
 who now came and bent over him. He was of medium 
 height, thick-set, with dark hair, and a pair of the 
 kindliest blue eyes, that ever looked out of a bronzed 
 and bearded, though boyishly innocent face. 
 
 " Why, shake hands, old fellow !" he exclaimed glee 
 fully, " I do believe you'll pull through, in spite of 
 'em all. I tell you, you're a brick \ and I knew that 
 you'd got good stuff in you, the minute I set eyes on 
 you ; and you've hung on nobly hung on to life, 
 like a puppy to a root." 
 
 He pressed the skeleton fingers gently, as he spoke, 
 and the touch of his great brawny hand seemed to 
 impart a momentary breezy thrill, even to the sick 
 man's soul. 
 
 " We're going to have you out of this, my good 
 fellow !" encouraged the man ; " you've done yonr 
 best, but the place ain't favorable : its too low. We 
 boys are going to take you, bed and all to a shanty 
 part way up the mountain. " You'll hardly know that 
 you're a ridin'. There's health for you up there. I got 
 cured o' this same, blasted fever, on the mountains, 
 and I declare to you one whiff o' the bracin" air of 
 that region, is worth all the doctors stuff this side of 
 a grave yard." 
 
 A call in a woman's sharp voice from the next room, 
 caused the speaker to retire suddenly, closing the 
 door behind him. 
 
 " Joe" said the female, in upbraiding tones, "you're 
 a fool, if ever there was one ! a chasin' after folks as
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS. 175 
 
 isnothin' to you folks as ain't 'no account no ways." 
 
 " Don't fret, mother !" counselled the other gayly ; 
 " we shall hunt every day, and bring you down game 
 enough to last a month. I've been countin' on this 
 bit of fun a good spell now ; and it won't set us back 
 any to be doin' a kind turn to a fellow soldier, and 
 you've been chafin' a good while to be rid of him 
 now ; hain't you ?" 
 
 " He'd been in the poor 'us long ago, if I'd had 
 my way ;" returned the hospitable female : " let alone 
 haulin' him up the mountain, for good air." 
 
 " That'll be easy enough done !" replied the man ; 
 " for the poor chap's nothin' but a rack o' bones any 
 way but that's been a mighty purty woman, that he's 
 carried the picter of ; hain't she now ; Betsy ?" 
 
 " Mebbe you admire such faces as that ; but / can't 
 say as /do," returned the woman. "It's too shilly 
 shally ; that's what /call it ; I do." 
 
 " Well, mother, I guess you're right ;" assented the 
 husband. " Now you'll put us up a jug o' milk, and 
 a few o' your nice loaves, and any little extra you may 
 think of," (coaxingly). " Tom '11 find his part, and 
 he's a mighty good shot besides ; and see what we'll 
 fetch you !" 
 
 " So the sick man was borne up the mountain on 
 the brawny shoulders of two men, whose hearts were 
 far softer than their hands, and deposited upon a bed 
 of aromatic twigs in a huntsman's rude shanty. 
 
 The very scent of the Pine and Fir trees seemed to 
 impart something of vitality to the prostrate and 
 helpless being, who scarce noted at first the change 
 of scene ; or the recurrence of day and night. But 
 he rested there in the cool, breezy solitude of the.
 
 176 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 hills, like a child that has at last sobbed itself to sleep 
 upon its mother's breast. 
 
 At first, he was never alone ; one of the men stay 
 ing by him, and caring for his every want, like the 
 gentlest woman. 
 
 It was a rare picture of rude life that presently 
 grew familiar to the awakened consciousness of the 
 sick man. It passed all his previous experiences the 
 love with which he came to regard these humble com 
 panions. Their faces grew dear to him ; and the 
 touch of their hands, affectionate. He had no fear 
 of desertion, though utterly at their mercy ; but a 
 child-like confidence in their strength, and perfect 
 willingness to care for him. 
 
 Dainty bits of broiled venison : or, choicer still, the 
 breast of some mountain bird, began to tempt his 
 long passive appetite ; and strength and vigor to 
 return to his poor shattered frame. 
 
 Slowly, almost imperceptibly, but surely ; he was 
 convalescing. 
 
 At night, a huge fire always crackled before the 
 open door of the shanty, and there beside it, the men 
 sat, and told over the day's adventures ; while he lay 
 drowsing and dreaming, or listening, as well as he 
 was able, to their hunting tales. 
 
 It seemed a kind of enchanted life, somewhere be 
 tween the heaven and earth separated immeasurably 
 from the past ; and cut off from all hopes or fears 
 which might be associated with the future. 
 
 His dreams too, were blissful for then, one with 
 shining, golden hair, watched over him, smoothing 
 his pillow, and pressing fond kisses upon his hungry 
 lips.
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 177 
 
 Alas' poor human heart ! was it ah ! was it, a pity 
 ing angel, that glided into his solitary hours the wife 
 love and the woman love, all sublimated to the spiritual 
 and divine ? Did no sad forebodings ever visit his 
 pillow, as he slept and dreamed, convalescing day by 
 day ? Did no shadow of a mighty sorrow throw its 
 black length across his pathway, when at last, he went 
 forth into the sunshine weak and drooping of body, 
 but strong of heart. 
 
 One night, he returned to the shanty after a tramp 
 over the rough mountain side, and exultingly exhibi 
 ted to Tom Carley, by the unsteady light of the camp 
 fire, a fine specimen of gold bearing quartz, the result 
 of his day's work. 
 
 Tom's eyes shone in sympathy, though he could 
 hardly give the matter the attention it deserved, 
 being as he stated, and as the concentrated purpose 
 expressed in his face confirmed " mighty busy, Mr. 
 Voornam," broiling to a nicety, "de wery fattest pird 
 as vas never caught hereapouts before." 
 
 Farnham sat down upon a log outside the door his 
 attention about equally divided between examining 
 his trophy, and watching, with a pinched and eager 
 face, the culinary operation going forward. 
 
 " Joe's a coomin' up to-night !" announced the 
 cook, smilingly : 
 
 Farnham glanced at the fowl with shrewd calcula- 
 lation in his eyes, and said regretfully : 
 
 "I wish there was more of him, then, for I feel 
 certain I could eat all you have there myself." 
 
 Tom laughed gleefully, turning the bird and patting 
 it more tenderly than before, and said assuringly : 
 
 " But he always hold out, Meester Voornam, jes'
 
 178 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 like de vidow mit de oil, in de small pucket, ha ! ha .' 
 ha ! and de leetle ravens don't vorgets de good man 
 along time pefore !" 
 
 Farnham smiled not at any crudity of the imper 
 fect dialect, but strangely enough in some happy 
 sympathy with the child-like trust, which he knew 
 it but feebly expressed. 
 
 At this moment, Joe Martin appeared in sight, 
 emerging from the twilight of thick underbrush, 
 which he parted to right and left before him ; and 
 holding aloft a letter ; called out in his hearty, cheer 
 ful voice : 
 
 " Here ! d'ye see it ? Something better'n gold, to 
 night : from your purty woman, I expect !" and he 
 bounded forward, and gave the precious missive into 
 Farnham's eager hands. 
 
 He had received no word from home, in all the 
 weeks he had been absent because jio one knew 
 aught of his whereabouts, until he had recovered 
 strength to write. 
 
 He made an effort to retire, that he might enjoy 
 the reading of this letter alone ; but his eagerness re 
 fused to grant him the required time for such luxury. 
 A light would be necessary : so he tore the envelope 
 impatiently, and deciphered by the camp fire, these 
 few blotted words : 
 
 My Poor, Poor, ARTHUR : Our darling Alice has 
 gone from us ! She is dead and buried ! I can 
 scarcely believe it myself, as I write the terrible words: 
 dead and buried ! Yes Arthur, in the poor, lonely, 
 little graveyard, where she once loved to wander, our 
 sweet girl is sleeping now. She died suddenly on 
 Saturday morning, the twenty-first ; of pneumonia. 
 She had been ailing since that dreadful day when she
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 179 
 
 came home through the storm, but there seemed 
 nothing alarming, until she developed that most fatal 
 disease, and died before we were fairly conscious of 
 danger. We knew not where to reach you by telegraph, 
 and now, when it is all over all over with you, and 
 with me ; this is all I can write. She is gone, and 
 the world is empty ! Heaven help you ! when you 
 read these words, is the prayer of 
 
 Your broken-hearted mother, 
 
 E. BELDING. 
 
 Farnham sat staring at these lines, with strained 
 eyes, and face that seemed slowly freezing over, in its 
 fixed and helpless expression. He spoke not a word ; 
 nor uttered a moan. Perhaps the suddenness of the 
 blow had rendered him insensible to it. The strained 
 eyes were dry, but something went out of them, that 
 never came back in all the years that followed. The 
 men exchanged ominous nods, imparting to each other 
 the conviction afterwards verbally expressed, that : 
 'there was summat amiss wi' the old woman at home.' 
 
 But probably they never understood the connection 
 of that distant death, with the sudden, and almost 
 hopeless relapse of the invalid into his former condi 
 tion ; nor the seemingly added age with which he 
 finally emerged again into the sunshine '. yet some 
 thing they missed in his looks ; his manner ; his 
 voice ; even in his step, as he companied with them on 
 the mountains, or by the camp-fires, thereafter.
 
 l8o DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 XII. 
 
 THE WATCHER. 
 
 The short months which have passed since we took 
 our last look at the suburban town of Foxburg, have 
 wrought many changes in the fortunes of those, 
 whom we had followed thus far in our narrative. 
 
 In the busy enterprise of that growing place, they 
 were, perhaps, unfelt ; yet in this brief history, their 
 record cannot be omitted. 
 
 Two of the dwellers under the same roof alike 
 only in their mortality have shared the same com 
 mon fate. 
 
 Beautiful Alice Farnham is moldering to silent dust 
 in the little churchyard ; and the father of the round- 
 eyed baby with many others of the night gang of 
 laborers, has met his death by an explosion in the 
 mines. 
 
 The press notice of the poor young wife's demise 
 read : 
 
 " Suddenly ; on the night of the twenty-first ; of 
 Pneumonia ; Alice, wife of Arthur Farnham, aged 
 twenty-nine years. Funeral Services at her late resi 
 dence, on Highland Avenue, Foxburg, Friday, two 
 o'clock P. M. Interment private." 
 
 That was all. It was nothing to the world : why 
 should it be ? Death is busy everywhere : among 
 the high and low ; the loved and the unloved. But
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." l8l 
 
 to the mother, this blow was like the stab of a murder 
 er in the dark. So swift in its unlooked-for descent : 
 so unparalleled in its cruelty. She sank down under 
 it utterly crushed and hopeless ; fortune might now 
 do its worst ; there was nothing more it could take 
 from her. 
 
 The explosion in the mine, which resulted in the 
 loss of twenty-six lives, was a heart-rending affair. 
 People shivered over the tale of horror, as portrayed 
 in the morning papers. They also spoke of it when 
 they met, throughout the day : and some went so far, 
 as to express the belief that men who risked their 
 lives, in labor of that sort, ought to be paid in pro 
 portion to the danger incurred. 
 
 Now, however, it had become a forgotten history. 
 The mangled bodies had been cleared away, and 
 their places in the mines filled by muscles as strong ; 
 hands as willing ; and hearts as brave as their own. 
 The widows and orphans who had shrieked out their 
 wild grief at the mouth of the subterranean pit, 
 had dispersed perchance only He, "who cares for the 
 young ravens," knew whither: and to all appearances, 
 the world moved on as before. 
 
 But in the small twin houses, there was great 
 mourning. Mrs. Belding, overwhelmed by her ter 
 rible bereavement following as it had, in the wake of 
 so many misfortunes had become a weeping and 
 despondent invalid. Hope had deserted her ; and 
 so embittered was her poor heart, that like Job's wife, 
 she could almost have counselled her own soul " to 
 curse God and die." 
 
 Annie West clung to her in the bleak land of 
 strangers, like Ruth to Naoma. In her loving young
 
 I 82 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 heart, there was patience for her peevishness, and 
 tenderness for her faults. " It was age and sorrow 
 that some times made her exacting," was Annie's 
 compassionate thought. " She could never be to 
 the poor mother what Alice had been." 
 
 But she tried very hard to serve the afflicted, dis 
 consolate woman, and never suffered her to feel a 
 want that her own tireless hands could supply. 
 
 And there was the poor widow next door : Annie 
 quite forgot her uncle's counsels in the past, in dis 
 tress for this poor creature now. 
 
 By one stroke, she had lost husband and home : for 
 the latter, being under mortgage to the proprietor, 
 had already reverted to him : though the payment 
 which fell due shortly after her husband's death, was 
 inconsiderable, and the very last which remained 
 uncancelled. 
 
 The money which had been nearly saved up, had 
 been expended upon the funeral ; and thus one trouble 
 had followed swiftly upon the heels of the other. 
 
 A far more important change in the affairs of the 
 new town, had been in the sudden and mysterious 
 taking off of one of the Fox Brothers. This had created 
 more excitement and investigation, than would have 
 been accorded the entire laboring community, had 
 they been like Dathan swallowed up with all that 
 appertained to them. That might have been a just 
 rebuke in the judgment of many : but here vas a man, 
 entitled to more consideration. A land-holder, with 
 certain chartered, inalienable rights among which 
 were 'life, liberty and i lie pursuit (-f happines*.* 
 
 Contrary to, and in defiance of all these ; the former 
 it was suspected, had been maliciously taken from
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 183 
 
 him, while he was in free and full pursuit of the lat 
 ter. Every shred of evidence that could serve to 
 weave a web of guilt, around some victim, upon whom 
 to wreak just punishment for the death of this man, 
 had been dragged to light. He had been seen alive 
 on the night of the twenty-second of October, return 
 ing from the city. It was remembered that he came 
 up the incline at a quarter to eleven ; that he was a 
 solitary passenger in the car at that hour ; and that he 
 had been seen to start homeward alone. Farther than 
 this, information was wanting. No one could be 
 found possessed of the smallest fraction of knowledge 
 respecting him, until he had been discovered lying at 
 the foot of a long, dreary hill by the road side, where 
 he had slipped from the boardwalk ; or stumbled ; or 
 been dashed into eternity. 
 
 When found, there were marks upon his person, 
 not clearly distinguishable whether produced by 
 violence, or by the swift and headlong descent. 
 
 It might easily have been the deed of some infuria 
 ted hand ; and suspicion rested on many a sullen, dis 
 satisfied man in the employ of the Fox Brothers, 
 successively. 
 
 Young McGarvey who was known to have had 
 hot words with the proprietor, at the time of the fore 
 closure of the mortgage upon the dead brother's 
 house, and the apprehended ejectment of the widow ; 
 did not escape this review. However, not the 
 slightest evidence could be cited against him, and 
 matters still remained in the same unsettled state in 
 regard to his mysterious death. 
 
 The evening of which we write, was a cheerless 
 one, toward the end of October. It had been raining
 
 184 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 steadily since noon, and thick darkness came on early. 
 The unfortunate double house, which had once been 
 the property of the McGarvey Brothers, looked 
 melancholy, as if mourning past reverses. One feeble 
 light struggled forth into inky blackness in the front ; 
 and an unsteady, flickering, ghostly-like one appeared 
 and disappeared in the rear. 
 
 The wind howled like a savage, and then sighed 
 like a mourner now far away over the desolate hills ; 
 now at the very door till Mrs. Belding, sitting at the 
 little dining-room, with curtains closely drawn ; shiv- 
 ed and sighed in sympathy, as she pecked daintly at 
 the morsel of viands arranged for two. 
 
 She was alone ; Annie West having taken a basin of 
 gruel to the sick man next door, before sitting down 
 to her own meal. Several minutes elapsed to the 
 annoyance of Mrs. Belding before she returned to 
 take her seat at the small table. 
 
 " I wish you would have a little more consideration 
 for me !" pleaded the lady in reproachful tones. " I 
 am particularly sensitive about being left by myself, 
 on such a weird night as this. I would not be sur 
 prised if the house were carried off its foundation by 
 this frightful wind." 
 
 " Mr. McGarvy is much worse to-night," remarked 
 Annie, proceeding now to pour the tea. " Mrs. 
 McGarvey seems very anxious about him," she added 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 "Well, I should think there was no occasion for it," 
 returned Mrs. Belding, sipping hers distastefully, 
 " He has taken a severe cold, and makes more ado 
 than is necessary ; and they call on you much more
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS*' 185 
 
 than is agreeable : That is about the extent of it, in 
 my judgment." 
 
 " But the poor woman is so frightened, and knows 
 so little what to do," pleaded Annie. 
 
 " Of course ! that is always the case," remarked the 
 elder lady. " That is the reason I have so little 
 patience with the poor, as a class. They are so ignor 
 ant and inefficient ; besides," she added reflectively, 
 "being so hopelessly improvident." 
 
 " Well, I have really been some little help to Mrs. 
 McGarvy in those things," said Annie, cheerfully. " I 
 wish you would look in after the supper, and see what 
 you think of the young man." 
 
 " It would quite unsettle me for the night," declared 
 Mrs. Belding. 
 
 Annie looked thoughtful. The truth was, she had 
 promised to share the night's watching with the widow ; 
 and knew not how to break the unpleasant news. 
 
 " The baby is ailing, and frets so, and poor Mrs. 
 McGarvy is half crazed with her trouble. I hope I 
 hope you will not blame me, but I told her I would 
 help her through with the night." 
 
 " Oh Alice ! my child ! my child !" lamented Mrs. 
 Belding, in piteous tones, "why did you leave me 
 alone alone in the world ?" 
 
 Annie struggled to keep back the tears ; but the 
 next moment she pushed away her plate, and withdrew 
 from the table. 
 
 "Why do you not finish your supper?" chided the 
 other, in a half upbraiding, half coaxing tone, looking 
 uneasily after her. "You will get ill yourself next, 
 and then what will become of me, do you think ?" 
 
 The young girl turned with quick impetuosity, and
 
 l86 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 throwing her arms about the elder woman's neck, 
 said :' 
 
 ' Nothing shall ever come between us ! you are first 
 in my thoughts, and always will be." 
 
 " You are all that I have left," returned the 
 other, beginning to cry, " and I don't mean to be 
 cross, but heaven knows my lot is a hard one to bear; 
 I haven't deserved all this misery in my old age !" 
 
 Annie was not gifted with an extensive vocabulary 
 of comforting words ; indeed she could think of noth 
 ing that could be said ; so she only looked tenderly 
 into the appealing eyes raised to hers, and wiped away 
 the moisture in them ; and kissed the sallow, withered 
 cheeks. 
 
 " I will not keep you home," said Mrs. Belding, at 
 last. " If we can do anything for the poor things, I 
 suppose it is our duty," she confessed, " but I would 
 not sit up all night, child, it will unfit you for to 
 morrow." 
 
 " Mrs. McGarvy will lie on the couch in the same 
 room, or I should really be afraid," returned Annie, 
 " he looks so deathly, and of course she will help me 
 when I need her." 
 
 When the cloth was removed, and the china 
 returned to the closet ; the Bible lessons, and 
 evening prayer read a religious duty always strictly 
 observed by Mrs. Belding Annie glided noiselessly 
 into the sick-room. The patient lay in a death-like 
 stupor, from which it seemed he might never awake. 
 
 The widow was still supperless, and while there was 
 nothing that could be done for the sick, Annie busied 
 herself in preparing that much needed comfort for 
 her, and making the poor place as snug as possible
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 187 
 
 for the night. The crying baby was hushed to sleep, 
 and a bed made on the settee, in a dim corner, where 
 presently the worn form of the disconsolate widow 
 rested, oblivious to past or present misfortunes. 
 
 Thus, all was silent at last. Annie sat down by the 
 dim lamplight, to mend a rent in the little frock she 
 had just taken off from baby. How dismal the 
 small, dark, crowded place seemed to her ! The 
 feeble rays of the one solitary lamp were nearly absorb 
 ed in the blackness of the room, and all the sounds 
 abroad were funereal to her youthful fancy. The heavy, 
 labored breathing of the sick man, and the moaning 
 and shrieking of the wind, mingled together produc 
 ing a wild miserere, more impressive than any labored 
 master-piece of art. 
 
 She folded the little garment when finished, and sat 
 with half frightened, childish eyes fastened upon that 
 still face its dark, damp, unshorn hair, and untrimmed 
 beard, contrasting so strangely with its whiteness 
 and shivered with a vague, and undefined horror of it 
 all. 
 
 The fire burned low, and she was glad to bestir 
 herself in replenishing the fuel. Presently the sick 
 man awoke and muttered something incoherently. She 
 went to him ; but he only glanced at her wildly, and 
 turned his face away. 
 
 "You will have some of this nice drink ?" she said, 
 eager to do something for his comfort, now that it 
 seemed possible. 
 
 He took it from her hand, and drank it off quickly. 
 
 " You were very thirsty !" she said, " you have 
 slept a long time." 
 
 " And what are you doing here ?" he asked, look-
 
 l88 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 ing intently into Annie's face, with troubled and 
 distrustful eyes. 
 
 " Taking care of you you are not afraid to trust 
 me to take care of you to-night?" she questioned 
 simply, with a look so pure and good, that if he were 
 angry at finding her there, he had no word of complaint 
 to utter ; so he only closed his eyes and turned away, 
 with a half smothered groan. 
 
 " Shall I call Mrs. McGarvey ?" asked Annie, timid 
 ly, " she is right here on the couch." 
 
 " No," groaned the invalid, " I don't want nothin' 
 o' nobody." 
 
 " Would you like me to go home ?" she enquired 
 after a short pause, in which he tossed about in 
 restless impatience. 
 
 " You ain't a disturbin' me none," he muttered, 
 drawing the blankets about his head, to screen him 
 self, as well as he could, from her silent observation. 
 But he could not lie in this position long. His pain 
 seemed to increase to grow intolerable. His eyes 
 glanced from side to side, and great drops of perspi 
 ration stood upon his forehead. 
 
 Annie wiped them away with her handkerchief, and 
 administered the medicine, with the brief announce 
 ment : " it is the hour !" 
 
 " It is what hour ?" he asked wildly. 
 
 " Twelve o'clock," she replied. 
 
 He nodded significantly. " I thought so," he said. 
 " I thought they would come at midnight !" 
 
 He glanced at Annie's white face and added quickly: 
 
 " Don't you be scared ? tain't you that's wanted !" 
 
 "I will call Mrs. McGarvey," said she ; subduing 
 by a strong effort, the expression of fear that had be-
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 189 
 
 trayed itself in her face, and rising to go to her. 
 
 " No, you won't !" he objected grasping her hand, 
 and holding her back with the strength of a demon. 
 
 That she did not shriek, to arouse the woman to her 
 aid, was a surprise, when she afterwards reviewed this 
 scene ; but what she did, was to sit down, without a 
 perceptible tremor of fear, beside the bed, and look 
 into those passionate, despairing eyes like a pitying 
 angel. 
 
 " I am dying," said he, hoarsely still retaining her 
 hand in his grasp "dying!" he repeated again, in a 
 voice that smote her like the cry of a lost spirit. 
 
 " Oh, no," she said gently " you are not you will 
 be better soon. Wouldn't you like me now to read 
 you something comforting from the good book ?" and 
 she produced a small pocket Bible. " I brought it," 
 she explained, "to get help for myself." 
 
 He watched her furtive, awe-stricken eyes, but made 
 no answer. 
 
 "Shall I read !" she asked again. 
 
 " It won't do me no harm," he muttered sullenly. 
 
 With this negative encouragement, she began turn 
 ing the leaves nervously, and her eyes lighted on these 
 words : 
 
 " They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; 
 neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat ! 
 And she read them in a sweet, soothing voice. 
 
 " Them words ain't for me !" he groaned, turning 
 impatiently away. 
 
 " I will have mercy, and not sacrifice," she re 
 peated slowly from memory she knew the words were 
 there " He that cometh unto me I will in no wise 
 cast out Though his sins be as scarlet, they shall be
 
 IQ3 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 white as wool : though they be like crimson, they shall 
 be whiter than snow." 
 
 " Whiter than snow ?" he queried, with a vague 
 unrest in his wondering eyes. There seemed a 
 momentary fascination in the purity suggested. " That 
 ain't for me neither," he reflected gloomily. " There 
 ain't nothing there, Miss, for me ; nor here," he added, 
 " nothin' 'cept hard work ; and hard fare ; an ven- 
 gence generally. But read on, ef you like, an' don't 
 spare," he urged grimly. " What does it set down 
 now, ag'in ag'in murderers ?" he asked, in a hoarse 
 whisper. 
 
 " Murderers /" gasped Annie, turning her bewild- 
 ed eyes full on him, in speechless horror. 
 
 " Yes, Miss !" he responded defiantly, " an' that 
 kind o' wickedness : read it out : and don't spare, 
 I say !" 
 
 She turned the leaves irresolutely a moment and the 
 book fell from her trembling hands. 
 
 " Let it go !" he cried passionately. " I can't abide 
 the bother wi' it ! I'll jest fight it out there, as I had to 
 here ; an* ask no favors like the d n cowards." 
 
 He shut his eyes, and compressed his white lips, 
 after uttering these words, as if nerving his soul for a 
 fierce rencontre with the powers of darkness. 
 
 He lay thus for sometime, and then overcoming her 
 horror of the man Annie rose up hastily and bathed the 
 broad forehead, where the knotted veins stood out so 
 painfully ; and brushed back the damp, straggling locks. 
 "Surely," she quieted her heart, "this poor fellow is 
 not that ! He is wild to night : that is all. Oh, I 
 wish it were daylight !"
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS.' 191 
 
 He did not stir, or look at her, and she continued 
 her tender ministrations. As her hands touched his 
 brow, the pathos of his miserable life, so appealed to 
 her, that large tears welled up in her eyes, and one 
 dropped down upon his face. He opened his in quick 
 surprise, and stared at her fixedly. 
 
 " What's the matter wi' you?" he asked. 
 
 She made no reply, but the tears fell faster, while 
 some sudden emotion betrayed itself in the faint flush 
 that overspread his countenance. 
 
 "Go away !" he commanded drearily, ''this ain't no 
 place for the likes o' you. I don't want nothin' o' 
 nobody." 
 
 ' I don't want to go away," she pleaded softly ; " I 
 want to take care of you, if you will let me : I am 
 crying because because I can't help it I am so 
 sorry for you, and everybody who has trouble, and no 
 friends to help them." 
 
 " I thought," he muttered almost incoherently, 
 "that there might be summat like that somebody 
 grievin' somewheres ; an' watchin down maybe to see 
 fair play." 
 
 "There is ! oh, there is !" said Annie eagerly, "and 
 He is full of pity, and loves all alike." 
 
 " How do you know that?" he questioned, sharply. 
 
 Because because I know He does," replied Annie, 
 hesitating a moment, in her answer ; though most 
 decided in her opinion. 
 
 "Well, that ain't no good reason for my b'leivin' 
 it ;" said he almost fiercely "who've had nothin' but 
 hard knocks i' this life, and don't look for nothin' 
 better'n the next. "But," said he dropping his voice 
 to a low whisper, and looking around the room dis-
 
 192 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 trustfully, " P'r'aps if I tell you somethin' that's a 
 restin' on me like a chunk o' iron to-night, you 
 wouldn't look at me too scared an" white, an' turn 
 away wi' out lis'nin' ; would you ? Promise me!" he 
 urged vehemently, "and swear that you wouldn't tell." 
 Annie seemed deprived of the power of speech, 
 and he continued : " Swear it on ' The Book,' an' I'll 
 trust you to be fair ; an" not too hard on me." 
 
 " Quick ! quick !" he urged after a moment's wait 
 ing for he saw hesitation and fear, in the questioning 
 face. 
 
 She, stooping, recovered the Book, and touched it 
 with her white lips. 
 
 " I did the business for him!" he whispered, while 
 an angry gleam shot from his eyes ; this hand sent 
 him on afore his time! I didn't mean it to be a 
 final settlement, atween us," he added, "but he rolled 
 down the bank, an' I didn't think it worth my while to 
 look after him. Our lives wa'n't nothin" to him ; an' 
 his wa'n't no good to me. That's what I said then 
 an' If can't feel justly sorry yet ; though God knows 
 I didn't mean to kill him." 
 
 Annie's lips moved as if they would speak and the 
 man, breathing hard from the effort it had cost him to 
 make the terrible confession, regarded her wistfully. 
 
 " I knew 'twa'n't no use," he reflected, despairingly, 
 "but I somehow feel better now I've told you, an' 
 you'll b'lieve I didn't mean it ?" he pleaded, sadly, 
 "an' p'r'aps you'll speak a good word where you're 
 better acquainted nor what I am !" 
 
 Annie looked at him, doubtful of his meaning. 
 " You prays ? I'll be boun' " he queried anxiously, 
 "like any parson."
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS.' 193 
 
 " No, not that way ;" she answered softly, " but like 
 one who has a great deal of trouble, and only one 
 friend to tell it to." 
 
 He seemed to consider awhile, and then said 
 doubtfully : 
 
 " An' the more trouble you has, the less notice you 
 gets ; don't it ?" 
 
 "Oh, dear no ; " replied Annie, earnestly." ' The 
 dear Saviour seems nearest to me then a great deal. 
 I don't know what I should do if He did not," she 
 added, a trustful look shining in the depths of her 
 pure eyes. 
 
 " It passes me," said the sick man, wonderingly. 
 
 " I know it," she replied, " and that is why I am so 
 sorry for you : you have all the trouble, and have 
 missed the comfort. You forgot to pray : " Lead us 
 not into temptation" and you have been tempted : 
 still the Saviour is merciful, though He knows all the 
 sin and all the sorrow." 
 
 " He wur a hard master," declared the other, in a 
 sudden burst of anger " he thought no more o' 
 sheatin' a poor man nor eatin' his dinner, an' no more 
 o' his life nor a dog's. One of them safety lamps 
 would 'a' saved all in th' mine as exploded. But what 
 difference ? ' Plenty more across the sea :' that's what 
 they say " 
 
 Here his sullen words were interrupted by the sud 
 den appearance of Mrs. McGarvey, who came 
 staggering towards them, shading her half open eyes 
 from the light, and seeming not fairly aroused from 
 her heavy sleep. 
 
 " Oh, dear !" she exclaimed, remorsefully. " I
 
 194 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 didn't mean to leave you sittin' up so long ! Is it time 
 for the drops ?" 
 
 Annie assured her that she had been only too glad 
 to let her rest, and that the drops had not been 
 neglected. Thus consoled and comforted, she was 
 easily persuaded to lie down again, and was soon 
 sleeping as before. 
 
 After some more whispered conversation, the sick 
 man sank away into a more peaceful slumber than he 
 had yet known ; and sitting beside him in the dim 
 light, Annie did not forget to sorrow for his sins, and 
 pray for his forgiveness. But the dreadful secret 
 weighed her spirit down like lead. 
 
 " If he lives," she reflected, glancing towards him 
 shudderingly, "I shall have a partnership in his crime ! 
 Oh, it is fearful ! I feel now, as if the burden of it 
 were shifted from 7m heart to mine, so peacefully he 
 looks," she whispered, " and if he die* (but he will 
 not), it is an inheritance that I must carry with me to 
 the grave !" 
 
 Thus her thoughts ran on, keeping step with the 
 solemn hours. The wind lulled, and the storm ceased ; 
 and the friendly eyes of heaven looked down, watch 
 ing and waiting pityingly. 
 
 Inside, the fire burned with a clear and steady 
 flame ; and the heavy breathing of the sleeper was 
 the only sound that broke the stillness. The youthful 
 watcher got composed, and her mind at last reverted 
 to her own, more immediate interests. She speculated 
 as to what she could do, to eke out the very small 
 sum of money, which was all that lay between them 
 now, and actual want! It would soon be gone husband 
 it as she best could, and then what ? This question
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS" 
 
 '95 
 
 was one that kept her thoroughly aroused. It has 
 risen up, like a guant spectre of the night, to many 
 another, who has sought to scan, with prudent horo 
 scope, the wherewithal of each to-morrow. 
 
 " Uncle will never come back," she sobbed softly. 
 
 " He will die far away among strangers ; we shall 
 never know when, or how ! Everybody is dying who 
 is of the least consequence in life. Alice could teach, 
 but here am I ! What can I what shall I try to do ! 
 But do something, / must, and that at once," she 
 added within herself. Not being especially gifted in 
 resources, the needle presented itself as the only 
 weapon she could wield successfully. She knew a 
 dozen different stitches in embroidery, which she could 
 do neatly, and besides many kinds of plain and fancy 
 sewing. 
 
 ' She hoped they might not starve !' 
 
 She thought of good Mrs. Hastings, as a person 
 who might possibly assist with advice ; and was just 
 planning in fancy, a walk to the cemetery for the next 
 day that she might, as by accident call at the 
 widow's ; when some irregularity in the sick man's 
 breathing, caused her to go to him quickly, and bend 
 ing over him with her ear to his lips, what was her 
 sudden alarm, to discover that respiration had that 
 moment ceased forever ! 

 
 196 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 XIII 
 A NEW DISPENSATION. 
 
 We pass over the painful details which succeeded 
 the events narrated in the last chapter. Death and 
 burial the final tragedy of human life are often 
 times so softened by sympathy, and embellished by art, 
 as to attract, rather than repel interest. But in the 
 passage of this wretched soul into the great unknown ; 
 or of his poor body into its narrow bed of earth ; there 
 is nothing to record but the grim history. The King 
 of Terrors had appeared, and the trembling soul 
 that obeyed his summons, had passed on beyond the 
 justice, or the vengeance of man. Stripped of the 
 tatters of degradation which adhered to him in life he 
 stands an undressed spirit before the Judge of all. 
 
 It was three days after the funeral, before Annie 
 West found leisure for her intended walk to the church 
 yard. It was not so early in the afternoon when she 
 set forth, as to leave much daylight for her use ; so she 
 must go quickly, and take little time for her important 
 call. 
 
 She found the widow in her weaving room, which 
 was reached directly by a flight of stairs on the out 
 side. 
 
 She had some difficulty in making her raps heard, 
 such was the noise of the busy loom ; but a pause 
 came at last, while a fresh bobbin was put in place, 
 and her timely knock brought the welcome, "come
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS.' 197 
 
 in," in a clear, kindly voice, obeying which, she stood, 
 with heightened color, before the pleasantly surprised 
 Mrs. Hastings. 
 
 " I'll not take it back " she laughed, getting down 
 quickly from her seat in the loom, " though it is a poor 
 place to bid thee come to, dear" kissing her affection 
 ately, she added : " It seems very friendly to have thee 
 come to see me here, in my work room if thee don't 
 mind it's untidiness. And this is my reception chair ;" 
 wheeling the old rocker into place. 
 
 Annie sat down, saying : " It is not untidy, dear 
 Mrs. Hastings. I think it is really pretty, and oriental, 
 with all this array of bright colors ; and I am sure a 
 work room is the most cheerful place of all, especially 
 if there is plenty to do there." 
 
 " Indeed thee may truly say that," returned the thin- 
 faced weaver, wiping the perspiration from her brow, 
 with a corner of her wide checked apron. " Work is a 
 blessing these days, for which I cannot be too thankful. 
 But let me take thy hat and the flowers, for a little. 
 Thee must have some tea with us, after thy long 
 walk." 
 
 " No, indeed Mrs. Hastings !" replied Annie, smiling 
 in a way that meant more thanks than is commonly 
 expressed in words. " I came to see you rather par 
 ticularly though I have not long to stay, and am 
 taking these flowers to the cemetery but do not let 
 me hinder your work, f6r I can take my chair close, 
 and we can talk all the same." 
 
 " No," objected Mrs. Hastings, " I have always a 
 little quiet work in filling the bobbins, which are just 
 empty ;" and she seated herself upon an old chest, and 
 began at once this lighter and pleasanter task, with
 
 198 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 nimble fingers, which seemed to work by intuition. 
 
 Annie inquired after the health of the family, and 
 Mrs. Hastings replied with shining eyes that they had 
 never been kept freer from sickness than at the 
 present time. It was wonderful ! and she felt to 
 acknowledge it, as a special favor from Heaven : and 
 moreover, though Paul had been so many months out 
 of employment, the children had never gone quite 
 supperless to bed. Poor Paul was restless and im 
 patient, that he could find no place among all the in 
 dustries to put in his oar. But thank God, he don't 
 give up, but keeps stirring every day, like a man that 
 has something in his head that he means to bring out. 
 When he has nothing else to attend to, he is working 
 away at an invention of his own, that he often per 
 suades and encourages me, to think will make our 
 fortunes yet ; and I must confess " she added, smiling 
 hopefully, " that I have my own faith in the boy, for 
 he has a good head-piece of his own." 
 
 She blushed after speaking thus, at having betrayed 
 such foolish pride in her son, but Annie expressed so 
 much honest sympathy, that she was encouraged to 
 proceed. 
 
 " He has been such a son as few mothers have, I 
 believe ; if he should bring out something yet, that 
 should make him honored in the eyes of men, I don't 
 know but I should be too proud and happy ; if it be 
 a sin to feel so." 
 
 Annie smiled, and hoped she might enjoy the 
 experience whether or not. 
 
 " It has been a great trial to him," the good woman 
 continued, " that Hiram has been obliged to go slower 
 with his studies. He would have graduated last June
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 199 
 
 if he could have gone on in the course, but he has 
 got a position as teacher, which is most fortunate. I 
 must show thee what he has sent home with his first 
 earnings." She disappeared for a moment, returning 
 with a package which she opened with smiling haste. 
 It contained two dress patterns of flannel one of a 
 soft gray, for herself, and the other, a dark blue, 
 which she earnestly hoped, would make one, for each 
 of the little girls. 
 
 Annie praised the quality, and the color of both, 
 while Mrs. Hastings commended the thoughtfulness 
 of her boy in the generous act. 
 
 "But." said she, with sudden regret in her- voice, 
 "do pardon me, Miss Annie, for being so full of my 
 own affairs, as to forget thee had something special on 
 thy mind ; and do believe me that I am not the less 
 interested in thine, though I have put my own 
 first." 
 
 Annie did not speak for a moment ; she had never 
 confided to anyone so much as a word of their private 
 affairs, and it was hard to begin. But once she had 
 ventured upon the delicate subject, she found such a 
 thoroughly sympathetic listener, that it was not diffi 
 cult to unburden her heart of its anxieties. 
 
 " Sewing will be the best for thee, I expect ;" coun 
 selled the good woman, looking tenderly down at the 
 slight form, "and if thee likes, I will ask my son to 
 apply at some of the shops in the city for the work. 
 He is there every day, and it would be no trouble to 
 him ; and then perhaps, he could stand up for thy 
 rights a bit." 
 
 " Oh, thank you, dear Mrs. Hastings !" cried Annie 
 in quick alarm "but I would rather not depend upon
 
 200 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 anyone for that. Since you think it the best for me, 
 I will go to the city myself." 
 
 " It would not trouble him in the least ;" again the 
 good woman assured her, looking at the flushed face, 
 with a perplexed expression in her own. " But if 
 thee does not wish thy little troubles known " 
 
 "Oh, no, it is not that," returned Annie i'but 
 indeed I must be going now. You know it is dark so 
 early." 
 
 " I wish my son was here to go with thee," returned 
 the other, looking with a wistful yearning at the young 
 face. "It is such a lonely way for thee," she added 
 after a moment's thought," that I have a mind to put 
 on my bonnet and go a piece myself." 
 
 " Oh, I am not in the least afraid !" declared Annie, 
 "and you have done me more good than I can tell 
 you." 
 
 "Then come to me again!" urged Mrs. Hastings, 
 kissing the smooth brow, and stroking the brown hair 
 tenderly. " I often think that afflictions bind our poor 
 human hearts more closely than any other tie." 
 
 Annie departed, smiling backward at the tender- 
 faced widow, who stood at the top of the stairs looking 
 after her ; then hurried on her way. 
 
 Paul Hastings, coming up, almost before his mother's 
 eyes had been withdrawn from the trim figure disap 
 pearing in the distance, was urged to follow slowly, 
 so as to intercept her on the homeward way, and 
 return with her. " It would be falling night soon, and 
 the poor young thing would be lonely, and perhaps 
 frightened." 
 
 Paul seemed considering the propriety of this step, 
 when his mother added, as if to assure him :
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS.' 201 
 
 " Thy company will not be unwelcome my son ; she 
 in nowise puts herself above thy old mother, but comes 
 right in here as common and friendly as can be ; not 
 a bit conceity, or foolish. Run after her Paul !" she 
 urged again, " Poor heart ! she has got her own trou 
 bles to contend with." 
 
 Paul, who was tired and gloomy, took off his hat 
 and examined it reflectively , perhaps for the first 
 time since it had been a shelter to him. It was seen 
 to be rusty and dusty, and there was nothing more 
 encouraging to gallantry revealed by the tiny glass, 
 into which he glanced furtively a moment later if we 
 except a pair of uncommonly brilliant eyes, and the 
 handsome, manly face, out of which they looked, in a 
 straight-forward fashion. 
 
 "There is the wisp; give thyself a brush," coun 
 selled the mother, " and don't think so much of thy 
 looks, as of doing a good deed to a fellow mortal." 
 
 He accepted the advice, and set forth the more 
 willingly perhaps, that now the friendly shadows began 
 to thicken fast. 
 
 He walked briskly to the old orchard gateway, lead 
 ing to the cemetery, and there halted meditatively. 
 The silence and sombreness of the place, seemed to 
 augment the grim melancholy of his thoughts, and to 
 dispose him more and more to repel sympathy, and 
 human companionship. He had not come here from 
 choice. The truth was, he was moody; dissatisfied ; dis 
 couraged, and almost hopeless. His poor mother, 
 so trustful for his future ; so proud of his courage ; 
 and so thoroughly convinced of his capabilities ; was 
 largely spared the knowledge of these gloomy strug 
 gles of an untamed and impatient manhood. " She
 
 202 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 believed in him, and she must not be disappointed." 
 This was his creed with respect to her. 
 
 As he stood there, mechanically deciphering the 
 words upon a small tablet directly in front of him ; 
 and utterly oblivious to the fact that his eyes were 
 resting on them, he was aroused suddenly by the 
 sound of a half audible sob, borne on the still air from 
 a distant part of the ground. 
 
 He strolled a little way within the enclosure, glanc 
 ing anxiously in the direction of a well-known, care 
 fully tended, grave ; and saw Annie West kneeling 
 beside it her head bowed upon its mossy covering, 
 and her slight form shaken by such a stormy grief, 
 that he was impelled to move towards her. 
 
 She heard his approach, and raised her head, be 
 traying a frightened, tearful face. 
 
 "My mother sent me after you," he explained 
 hurriedly, raising his hat ; " she feared you might be 
 late home, and begs you will accept me as an escort. 
 I did not mean to intrude here," he added with more 
 hesitation of manner his dark eyes bent compassion 
 ately, upon the sweet, distracted face; "but please 
 come away with me now ; such wild sorrow, it seems, 
 scarcely belongs to the dead, who have made their 
 happy escape from this life of ours." 
 
 Annie snatched up her hat, which lay beside her, 
 and replacing it upon her head, to conceal her flushed 
 and tear-stained face, rose hurriedly from the ground. 
 
 " Your mother is kind," she said, in an unsteady 
 voice but indeed it is quite unnecessary I am not 
 afraid to go alone." 
 
 "But you will let me come?" pleaded the young 
 man, "now that she has sent me ; or possibly she
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 203 
 
 might feel hurt at having her offer rejected." A smile, 
 ever so faintly, hovered about his mouth, as he said 
 this. 
 
 Annie glanced at the tall, handsome youth, with an 
 embarrassment of manner, hardly knowing what 
 answer to make ; but there was something in the frank 
 eyes which met hers, that invited confidence, and she 
 said: 
 
 " I am sure I would be glad to have you come, if it 
 would not be too troublesome. It is quite a long way." 
 
 He assured her that it would be only a pleasure, and 
 they strolled away, side by side in perfect silence ; 
 she, with eyes cast down, and he, studying the half 
 averted face, so full of grieving, that he longed to 
 comfort, but could find no words with which to begin. 
 
 " What an awkward fellow I am ! " he thought, " it 
 is easier to rig up an engine, than to say six words to 
 a girl like this ; and she in trouble." 
 
 But here she raised her face to his, and said : 
 
 " Sometimes I do feel almost reconciled to Alice's 
 death " here followed a pause, and her lips quivered 
 " I know she has been spared so much trouble but 
 to-night, it seems if / could have died, instead of 
 her it would have been so much better. Is it selfish, 
 do you think ? " 
 
 " I cannot say," he answered, regarding her thought 
 fully " but my mother's belief is a more cheerful one 
 to cultivate : that whatever happens to us, must be 
 for the best, because a wiser than we, has willed it : 
 "but," he added, "I confess I find some difficulty in 
 subscribing heartily to a dispensation wholly antagon 
 istic to my own wishes in the matter." 
 
 " I should think," returned Annie, " that it would
 
 204 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 be easier, with such an example before one, of faith 
 and patience, as she is. It did me good just to look 
 at her chastened face to-day." 
 
 The young man's eyes lighted up with genuine 
 pleasure to hear his mother's praises. She was to 
 him a rare woman as heroic in her every day life as 
 any Spartan mother, and in her homely garb, wearing 
 to his thought, an invisible hale around her brow, pure 
 as the adornment of any pictured saint. 
 
 " There are few who know my mother well," he said, 
 with pride and affection in his tones, " and if she is 
 helpful to others, I suppose it is because she herself 
 has grown strong in the school of affliction." 
 
 "One would be willing to suffer, I think," said 
 Annie, " to become like her." 
 
 Suffering, unfortunately," said the young man, "does 
 not always sanctify. Sometimes I think there are 
 more people embittered than ennobled by it. The 
 masses in this country, and elsewhere who are largely 
 at the mercy of the few, are as a rule rendered antagon 
 istic, vindictive, exacting, dishonest, and unfaithful, 
 by these very dispositions shown toward themselves, 
 by those who value them, only for what they are able 
 to perform. Good employers, get good service. Now, 
 there was that man, Fox by the way, the family have 
 offered a reward for his murderer, taken dead or 
 alive and I think if he is found at all, it will be 
 among their own disaffected workmen ; for he was 
 one of the most arrogant, unfeeling and besotted of 
 his class. I sometimes think," he continued gloomily, 
 dropping his voice so as to be almost unintelligible, 
 "that it is a pity 
 
 Annie listened attentively to hear the sentence
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 205 
 
 finished, and glancing at her companion, was struck 
 by the changed expression of his face. So gentle, 
 while speaking of his mother ; it reminded her now, 
 with startling effect, of that face, that haunted her 
 day and night so dark and determined it had grown, 
 as if it too were saying : " I'll fight it out ! " 
 
 There was a short pause, in which she thought, 
 with a quickened pulse of her own connection with 
 that wretched murder ; and shuddered from a personal 
 sense of criminality, most oppressive at this moment. 
 Young Hastings began speaking, with enforced calm 
 ness, but evidently under much stress of feeling : 
 
 " I am law-abiding, Miss West, and look upon out 
 rages of that sort with instinctive horror ! But I tell 
 you there is something exasperating in the present 
 outlook of this mis-called democratic nation "some 
 thing rotten in the state of Denmark." 
 
 " Justice and equal rights, I assure you Miss West, 
 have ceased to be factors in our civil law, or in our 
 lauded government." 
 
 " It is a great subject to deal with," said Annie, 
 looking perplexed, and in the faintest degree amused, 
 also, at the stalwart youth at her side, whose strides 
 now, seemed proportionate to the vehemence of his 
 language. " It is quite beyond my powers of com 
 prehension !" she confessed naively. 
 
 " But it is not beyond affecting your destiny, as well 
 as mine, Miss West," he urged earnestly. " Make 
 the attempt once to support yourself by your labor, 
 and you will perhaps come in time to understand the 
 effect these public abuses have upon your private 
 interests." 
 
 " Did he know that she was contemplating that
 
 200 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 very thing?" she wondered but he went on: 
 
 " Labor and ' the protection of labor,' one might 
 believe from all that has been spoken and written 
 upon the subject by politicians of every shade ; to be 
 the one great philanthrophic object of our national 
 existence but the truth is, with all this benevolent 
 theorizing, it is about the only thing in the whole 
 country left unprotected ! / am strong," said he, giv 
 ing his arms an outward, impatient fling, " and 
 capable of doing, and willing to do honest work ; and 
 I have spent days, and weeks in a fruitless search for 
 it, in this ' happy land ' of 'work and bread for all,' 
 until I have become nearly maddened by the delu 
 sive fiction." 
 
 Annie regarded the impassioned, eager, eloquent 
 face of the speaker, with a mixture of pity and 
 admiration, and said : 
 
 " I know it must be cruelly hard to be obliged to be 
 idle when when one is inspired to work. But why, 
 Mr. Hastings, if people cannot get employment, do 
 not they attempt something at their own risk ? " she 
 asked, surveying the young man rather critically. 
 
 " It is not as easy to manage a small business in this 
 country, as it once was, Miss West. You do not 
 understand the difficulties to be met. First, one must 
 have some capital to begin any business ; and in my 
 own case," he said, with a momentary flush " though 
 I have had fair wages, the actual necessities of a 
 large family, and the education of my brother, have 
 absorbed them all. Besides there are very few who 
 begin in a small way, who succeed in these latter days. 
 They come into direct competition with heavy firms 
 who can afford to do their immense business at a per-
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 207 
 
 centage of profit, at which the others cannot live. 
 Then they become the legitimate spoil of the voracious 
 system of trusts, which is rapidly swallowing up all the 
 industries of the country. It was not so once. If I 
 could leave my mother," he added reflectively, " I 
 should either go to the far West, or to some of the 
 countries bordering on our free Columbia." 
 
 Then followed a pause, in which he reflected 
 impatiently, that he had been too eager to explain his 
 present position, and the complications of such a lot 
 to one wno could not be expected to understand or 
 appreciate them ; and she secretly pondered whether 
 to tell him, ever so little, of her own trouble. She 
 broke the spell by saying : 
 
 " I know I shall think more of all you say about 
 these things, when I really make the effort you have 
 only pictured to earn a support." 
 
 The young man turned and looked straight into 
 her honest eyes, questiongly. She hesitated a moment 
 and then said : 
 
 " I don't know why I should not be as frank with 
 you, as you have been with me ; " and then told him 
 the story of their past misfortunes, and something of 
 their present and future anxieties. 
 
 He listened attentively, and when she at last blush- 
 ingly unfold her plans ; offered his service, " if they 
 were worth anything," in the matter of securing work 
 from the city. 
 
 These she declined, with thanks, for the present at 
 least. " If she needed a friend, she would remember 
 him." 
 
 They were at the gate now, and paused before it 
 involuntarily ; each conscious of a newly awakened
 
 208 DRAKTKI) IX, A SEQUEL 
 
 interest in the other's personality. As their eyes met 
 now in parting, friendly glances lingered in mute 
 acknowledgement of some pleasure or benefit, this 
 chance meeting had bestowed. The " good nights" 
 were low spoken, and Annie West entered the house 
 in a kind of exaltation, and stood some moments in 
 the little hall secretly enjoying, the brief interview, 
 by retrospect, before presenting herself in the 
 supper room. 
 
 " I have waited half an hour for you," said Mrs. 
 Belding, in a complaining tone, as she now seated her 
 self at the table, " and I must say that I consider it 
 both unsafe, and unbecoming for you to stay out so 
 long, and come all that lonely way by yourself." 
 
 " But I did not come alone ! Mrs. Hastings sent 
 her son after me to the cemetery, and he brought me 
 to our door," replied Annie, looking serenely blessed, 
 as she recounted again the happy circumstance. 
 
 "Paul Hastiugs !" ejaculated Mrs. Belding, with 
 sharp displeasure ; " that idle, dangerous fellow. I 
 must ask you not to place yourself in his way again." 
 
 " He is not a dangerous fellow !" protested Annie 
 the quick blood mounting to her forehead " and he 
 would not be idle if he could help it : he told me so. 
 It makes him miserable that he is obliged to be idle !" 
 
 Mrs. Belding regarded the blushing, excited girl, 
 silently, for the space of five seconds ; and then said 
 with mournful dignity: "I realize as never before, 
 that I am living under a new dispensation ! an 
 entirely new dispensation !"
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 209 
 
 XIV. 
 "OUR HOUSE." 
 
 Not many weeks elapsed, before the conscious 
 ness so bitterly expressed by Mrs. Belding, in the 
 foregoing words, became even more painfully vivid to 
 understanding. 
 
 It was quite apparent now, that she was indeed, 
 living under a dispensation never so much as dreamed 
 of in her philosophy before. 
 
 The money placed in bank for them, had all been 
 drawn. Alice's funeral expenses had made a sad 
 drain upon it ; and though they had practiced the 
 most rigid economy since, putting far from them the 
 evil day, when there should be nothing left, that 
 time had come at last. 
 
 The household treasures, guarded sacredly, as 
 the last link binding the happy past, to the abject 
 present ; and which seemed to shed something of the 
 glamor and dignity of wealth, over the melancholy of 
 their every day life, was all that stood between them 
 now, and actual, unmitigated poverty. And these if 
 sold, would not realize a tithe of their real value. 
 
 Mrs. Belding did not favor the plain sewing as a 
 means of support. " They could surely do something 
 more remunerative than that ! " and she had afforded 
 the luxury of a morning paper for a whole week, that 
 she might study each day, the column headed " Fe-
 
 210 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 male Help Wanted,'' and thus be able to find some 
 thing more congenial. 
 
 At the breakfast table, she one day read aloud to 
 Annie : 
 
 " Wanted \ Young ladies between the ages of seven 
 teen and twenty-five, will find light, pleasant and 
 profitable employment by calling at number 326 Sham- 
 burg Street. Best of references given and required," 
 She resolved to make the application without delay 
 This had been their first adventure into the new, 
 strange, work-a-day world ; and Mrs. Belding neg 
 lected nothing which could in any way tend to the 
 success of the enterprise. She cut the precious little 
 slip from the paper, and put it prudently into her 
 pocketbook, to prevent any mistake in the street or 
 number, where they must apply for the coveted " fur 
 ther information." 
 
 " It is all very well," she said quite briskly, as she 
 puffed her snow white hair, in the fashion so becom 
 ing to her, "for people who can do nothing else, to 
 depend upon plain sewing ; but Annie, you should 
 live in Paris awhile, to see what women undertake and 
 accomplish, in the way of business." 
 
 She looked every inch the lady, on that particular 
 morning, having devoted herself in the most pains 
 taking manner, to the arts of the toilet ; thinking 
 secretly of the advantages which generally result, 
 from making that most lasting, first, good impression. 
 Annie's appearance too, even she, in her most rigid 
 scrutiny, pronounced faultless in its simplicity, 
 
 Many times, during their long ride to the city, her 
 eyes rested on the dark-eyed, delicate featured girl, 
 with a degree of complacency, and even pride in her
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 211 
 
 proprietorship. She was scarcely conscious before, 
 how pretty she was ; until by contrast now, with the 
 one who sat beside her, so coarse and vain of her 
 smart attire. 
 
 When they arrived, after some embarrassing diffi 
 culties in finding their way in a strange city, at the 
 place indicated in the advertisement, the surround 
 ings had such an unbusiness-like appearance, that 
 Mrs. Belding reverted again to the paper, to assure 
 herself of its identity. 
 
 The office, or whatever it was, she learned was on 
 the third floor, the second door to the left so she 
 was informed by the middle-aged gentleman, to whom 
 she ventured to apply for information. The faintest 
 possible smile, had illumined the gray eyes, which 
 scrutinized them both, somewhat critically, as he made 
 answer to her inquiry. 
 
 Mrs. Belding urged her way up, with the heroism of 
 a martyr, to the topmost elevation of the last stair, 
 closely followed by her young protege, and paused 
 before the mysterious door, both from fatigue and 
 shame, twin miseries, to be met and combatted, at 
 every step, under this new and trying " dispensation." 
 
 In a moment however, she summoned the necessary 
 amount of assurance, and opening the door, an 
 nounced herself, and the nature of her call, in a sweet, 
 silvery voice, which at once gained attention. 
 
 A small man, rather young, but prematurely worn 
 and colorless, sprang forward after the fashion of an 
 orator, who comes before his audience too full of 
 argument to remain corked another instant and 
 greeted the ladies effusively. They were made 
 aware however, by the scowling attention, with which
 
 212 DRAFTED IX, A SEQUEL 
 
 he had bent over his desk, and by his leaving off 
 writing, in the most rapid manner, only when Mrs. 
 Belding left off speaking, that they had disturbed him 
 in a busy moment. They might not have regretted so 
 much, had they known that he only began that frantic 
 exercise, at the approach of gentle footsteps. 
 
 There was a general greasiness and shabbiness in 
 his appearance, upon a nearer inspection, quite at 
 variance with Mrs. Belding's preconceived ideas, in 
 respect to the personal habits of well-to-do gentlemen, 
 in flourishing business ; and her cold eyes penetrated 
 him, like a winter's sunlight. 
 
 There was a thread-bareness of coat, an absence 
 of linen, and an embarrassing condition of nether 
 garments, anything but satisfactory to the highborn 
 dame, who, upon this occasion confronted him. 
 
 " Please be seated, ladies !" he urged with an ex 
 aggerated bow, and lear, intended to be a bland and 
 fascinating smile of welcome, but which, unfortunatey, 
 was far from prepossessing, or conciliatory in its 
 effect. 
 
 Utterly ignoring his blandishments, Mrs. Belding 
 said with freezing dignity : " I supposed from your 
 advertisement that there was some business con 
 ducted here some " 
 
 "Why, my good woman," he interrupted eagerly, 
 "there is. Indeed we have a large business; an 
 immense business, I may say : that is, in most of the 
 Eastern Cities ; but just here I confess it is a little 
 new yet. The fact is, the people have not been 
 quite educated up to the point, to see the advantage 
 of it, as a social organization, but it is working 
 like the leaven, you know, silently, but effectually. It
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 213 
 
 is destined to create a furore here yet, as it has in 
 every city where it has been introduced. We are 
 just establishing a branch house, or I should say " 
 
 "What is it?" inquired Mrs. Belding, cutting him 
 off quite unceremoniously, in one of his smiling, 
 stereotyped effusions of unadulterated fiction. 
 
 "A Matrimonial Insurance Bureau !" he replied, 
 glancing with undisguised admiration at the younger 
 lady. 
 
 " What?" demanded Mrs. Belding, doubting that 
 she had heard correctly. 
 
 " A Matrimonial Insurance Bureau ; Madame !" he 
 repeated smilingly. 
 
 "A matrimonial fiddlestick !" echoed the irate lady, 
 with a withering look at the shirtless swindler. 
 "Come Annie, we have only lost the labor of climbing 
 these stairs. 
 
 " I assure you madam, upon the honor of a gentle 
 man, that it has met with the most unprecedented 
 success, in all the large cities," asseverated the Matri 
 monial Insurance Man, with eager glibness, as he saw 
 the ladies retiring precipitately. 
 
 " If it has," retorted that much insulted dame, " it 
 only proves there are more idiots in the world than 
 sensible people," and so saying she plunged down two 
 long flight of stairs, much more actively than she had 
 climbed them. After this humiliating disappointment, 
 they had hastened home as fast as street cars could 
 take them, to hide there, as best they could, the morti 
 fication suffered, the only result of their first bold 
 effort to secure employment. 
 
 They had allowed two days to elapse, in which "to 
 recuperate, and regain self respect," as Mrs. Belding
 
 214 DRAFTED IN, A SF.QUF.I. 
 
 said, in a kind of bitter facetiousness, before making 
 a second pilgrimage to the city. 
 
 "This time it would not be 'a fool's errand,' " that 
 discerning woman had savagely observed, after read 
 ing this item from the yet damp, morning paper : 
 
 "Wanted Teacher to fill a vacancy in room 
 number four, second ward school building, corner of 
 Maple and Sixth Streets. Apply at once at No, 520 
 Bleak Street. By order of the Board. 
 
 They lost no time in complying with the above 
 invitation. It seemed just the right kind of, an open 
 ing for Annie. 
 
 " Of course," she said, " I "hall have to pass a 
 severe examination, for you ^incw I shall have nothing 
 else to recommend. me > but my scholarship ;" and she 
 blushed and smiled with a small share of vanity in her 
 attainments, as she secretly reviewed her standing in 
 the Bloomingdale Seminary. 
 
 How happy she was that morning, while making 
 herself ready ; as she reflected, how much she had now 
 to be thankful for, that she had not trifled away her 
 time while in school, but had fitted herself while she 
 had the opportunity, to fill such a position. Mrs. 
 Belding was right ; she could, and would, do some 
 thing besides sewing. She felt elated too by the con 
 sciousness that that much reverenced personage, 
 now appreciated her capabilities in this direction. 
 
 The same long city streets traversed ; the same 
 patrolling police, or others equally as broad, blue- 
 coated, and bright-buttoned interviewed as to loca 
 tion of streets ; and the eagerly sought for place was 
 gained ; yet not the coveted situation. This journey, 
 alas ! had been fruitless too. They had no friend at
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 215 
 
 court ; and although the vacancy had been advertised 
 as open to fair competition, favoritism was the rule 
 here, and fitness the exception. Many other candi 
 dates were in expectant waiting, when they arrived, in 
 breathless haste ; and all were informed with perfect 
 impartiality of indifference; that "the place had 
 been supplied." 
 
 The disappointment to one at least, was felt keen 
 ly. But there was no help for it nothing to do, but 
 submit, with philosophy to this new tribulation. 
 
 Mrs. Belding's face wore a deeper shade of melan 
 choly than usual, as she trod the busy streets 
 again, with Annie at her side, who could hardly 
 keep the tears from blinding her eyes as she pressed 
 along. 
 
 "I suppose," said the former, pulling her heavy 
 crape veil forward, so as to half conceal her dejected 
 features, "that we might just as well make inquiries in 
 other directions, now that we are in the city. Let us 
 go into some of the fancy and notion stores ; possibly 
 they may need help." 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Belding ! I could not be a shop girl !" 
 remonstrated Annie West. 
 
 "I am not thinking of that," replied Mrs. Belding, 
 "but of making fancy articles* for them. That, I 
 should think, would be both pleasant and profitable ; 
 and you know I have quite a knack at that kind of 
 work." 
 
 They visited several of these places in succession, 
 only to learn that they were all liberally supplied ; 
 that the prime object now, was to be rid of the stock 
 on hand. At length, wearied and utterly disheartened, 
 they entered a gentlemen's furnishing store, and
 
 2l6 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 sought, and obtained, the much despised plain sewing. 
 After so much fruitless search, even this, seemed a 
 boon. 
 
 They sat down to rest by the counter, while the 
 work a dozen fine muslin shirts was being put up, 
 in another apartment. How old and withered poor 
 Mrs. Belding's face looked to Annie's pitying eyes, 
 in the glare of this busy place ! poverty was writing 
 its sad characters all over the once softly outlined, 
 and smilingly contented features ; more painfully 
 vivid they seemed now than ever before ; as she sat 
 in a drooping posture, her pale, half averted face, 
 bowed upon her neatly gloved but shrunken hand. 
 
 "It is long after noon," thought Annie, "and she 
 needs her lunch. Oh, when I begin to earn money, 
 she shall never come to the city without having a 
 nice a real nice dinner before going back, a hot 
 oyster stew, or a great thick juicy steak, such as she 
 likes, and vegetables too. Dear me !" she whispered, 
 just to herself, "how I will work, when I once get 
 about it, to buy her some of the comforts she has 
 always been used to !" 
 
 She was interrupted by the clerk's voice, close to 
 her ear : 
 
 "Here in this parcel Madam," he said, "are the 
 garments, each cut and rolled together separately 
 with one ready made as a sample. If you return them 
 promptly, equally well put together, as the copy, I 
 think I can promise you plenty of work from our 
 house. We do a very large business in gentlemen's 
 underwear, and have a reputation for doing the best 
 work in that line, of any house in the city." 
 
 "What do you pay for this?" faltered Mrs. Belding,
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS" 217 
 
 who, all unfamiliar with this "dispensation," had quite 
 forgotten to ask for the important information sooner. 
 
 " Seventy-five cents," replied the clerk blandly, 
 beginning to replace upon the shelves some piles of 
 goods, that lay upon the counter, to signify that their 
 interview was ended. 
 
 " Seventy-five cents," repeated Mrs. Belding thought 
 fully, " I used to have them made in the house in my 
 husband's lifetime hired a woman on plain sewing 
 for one dollar a day, and she could never make more 
 than three in two days this is a trifle more of course, 
 but then we boarded her you see." 
 
 "What are you talking about?" asked the clerk, in 
 some surprise. 
 
 " I was merely thinking of the relative value of 
 work then when I paid for it, and now that I am to 
 be paid for it," she replied, "and I see it has slightly 
 advanced ; though to be sure the board and lodging, 
 would far more than make the difference ; yet seventy- 
 five cents apiece,! hope may keep one from actual want" 
 
 " Seventy-five cents apiece !" exclaimed the clerk, 
 "why Madam, that is more money than we get for 
 them ; and we sell thousands upon thousands ! seven 
 ty-five cents a dozen, for that quality is all ' our house ' 
 pays for making colored shirts at half that price. 
 This is the price in New York City. If it don't suiv 
 you there is no harm done ; we have hundreds of 
 applications at that rate." 
 
 " Mrs. Belding sat staring at the blank counter, with 
 a blank face. 
 
 "Six cents apiece!" she gasped "you certainly 
 cannot mean it. sir? why, we have spent, or shall have 
 spent, when we get home, forty, in coming for them."
 
 2ir8 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " That is not our affair !" returned the clerk, with a 
 sardonic grin. It is not likely, always to require two 
 of you to carry such a bundle I should think. Peo 
 ple who sew, perform their journeys mostly on foot." 
 This hint was probably a prudential suggestion, by 
 which he supposed they might profit in future. 
 
 Mrs. Belding's thick veil, which had all along kept 
 her poor face in friendly shadow, now concealed it 
 altogether ; and a stifled groan was distinctly audible 
 from behind it. 
 
 "Every one must do as they like. It's a. free coun 
 try,'" echoed the oracular clerk, with careless indiffer 
 ence. "It's optional with 'our house' whether you 
 take the work or leave it. One thing I can assure 
 you, because I have opportunities for knowing ; you 
 can't do any better in the city." 
 
 " Could you not send the work, after to-day, if this 
 should be done satisfactorily?" questioned Mrs. 
 Belding in a scarcely audible voice. 
 
 "Against the rule of 'our house,'" promptly ob 
 jected the astute expounder of the civil code, as laid 
 down by this grandiloquent institution "our house," 
 and the rights divine, by which it regulated its trans 
 actions, few or many, with the small world revolving 
 outside, and beyond its mighty enginery. Perhaps 
 Mrs. Belding, had never experienced, in all her 
 penitential wrestlings, for sins of every denomina 
 tion, assisted as they had been, by the wordy sug 
 gestions of the common prayer-book sincerer self- 
 abasement, and deeper humility of soul, than when 
 she took up that little paper parcel, in the face of 
 that blandly smiling clerk, and retired ignominously 
 from the royal presence of "Our House."
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS.' 219 
 
 XV. 
 THE REWARD OF TOIL. 
 
 Its oh! to be a slave, 
 
 Along with the barbarous Turk ; 
 Where Woman has never a soul lo save 
 
 If this is Christian work! " 
 
 Mrs. Belding did not raise her veil, or speak to 
 Annie, or seem to observe anything, during the whole 
 long ride homeward. Sitting there in a corner of the 
 car as immovable and irresponsive as a shrouded 
 statue her soul was perhaps more keenly susceptible 
 to the living present, more active in its sympathies, 
 than ever before. 
 
 She had never experienced such compassion for the 
 poor, as now. " Why," she queried, " do they care to 
 live ? when life is such a struggle. We cannot sup 
 port it on these terrible conditions ; and oh ! God in 
 Heaven ! is it a sin for me to think it ? I would 
 never make the attempt, but for this poor child. She 
 is young, and may yet see better days ; but I / 
 have nothing in the world to live /or/" Then she 
 glanced furtively at the sweet eyes regarding herself 
 with such tender concern, and her heart warmed and 
 yearned towards the friendless girl, with almost the 
 affection of a mother. 
 
 "I will never desert her," she thought, "she shall 
 be as Alice, to me from this hour ; and I will spare her 
 all that I can, as long as this poor old life holds out."
 
 220 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 And this resolution, the good lady was faithfu-lly 
 endeavoring to keep, as the days went slowly by. 
 
 The work was satisfactorily finished by the united 
 industry of the two, in just six days, and had been 
 returned, and more of the same sort furnished. They 
 had worked hard to do this, for as Annie observed, 
 'they were new to the business;' but they hoped 
 to accomplish more, as they grew to understand 
 it better. 
 
 Mrs. Belding did not resent the offer, as imperti 
 nent, when Paul Hastings had signified to her, that it 
 just suited his convenience, to take their parcels to, 
 and from the city, but graciously allowed him 
 to be of service to her. She would have smiled 
 now on anything : and yet, she did not complain. 
 
 The coarse and insufficient fare to which they were 
 now reduced ; the long hours of toil ; the rough work, 
 which, for the first time in her life, stained her delicate 
 hands none, nor all of these things seemed ever 
 to affect her. Her face grew sharp in its outlines ; 
 and her lips bloodless. Her eyes became sunken, 
 and her fingers emaciated ; but still she worked 
 on, more relentlessly each successive day. 
 
 But toil as they would, Annie could never gratify 
 her secretly cherished ambition, to buy a roast 
 for dinner, with plenty of appetising side dishes ; 
 such as she childishly fancied, would go a long way 
 toward bringing back something that she missed 
 in the poor old face. 
 
 One morning as they sat at work, they heard 
 the well-remembered voice of Mr. Christopher Fox 
 in the next house now occupied only by the widow 
 and her child.
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 221 
 
 It was as usual, loud and peremptory ; and they 
 could not avoid hearing, if they would, parts of a con 
 versation which followed between the landlord and 
 tenant. 
 
 His first words had not been heeded : she was 
 speaking in excited remonstrance, when their attention 
 was first closely attracted. 
 
 " I've nowheres to go, ef you turn me out, 'cept 
 into the street ; an' my poor man dead, as worked 
 hard to get a ruff o'er our heads. 'Tain't fair, 
 sir ! 'tain't Christian," she sobbed. 
 
 " Well, when I am in doubt about my duty, maybe 
 I will consult you. At present my business is to 
 collect rent for this house, of which I am the legal 
 owner. If you refuse to pay, d' you hear ? I give you 
 notice to quit fair notice to quit !" 
 
 " 'Tain't fair neither ! " expostulated the frenzied 
 voice ; " There ain't nothin' fair about it ! my old 
 man paid you nigh about up, in good honest money, 
 as he slaved hisself to death to put by ; as his 
 brother that's dead an' gone did by t'other Oh 
 dear ! oh dear ! " 
 
 They sat still in listening mood justly indignant 
 at the wrongs of their neighbor, when the door of 
 their own apartment was pushed open, and the new 
 landlord stood before them. As upon a former occas- 
 sion, he did not remove his hat, and spoke without 
 the ceremony of an introduction. 
 
 " I suppose," said he grasping the subject in hand 
 with commendable directness, and allowing no redund 
 ancy of words to affect the force of his logic, "that 
 you are aware that / am in possession here, and the
 
 222 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 quarter's rent is due : forty-five dollars. You will 
 pay it to me, now hereafter to my agent." 
 
 " Forty-five dollars !" ejaculated the elder lady, 
 still keeping her eyes upon her work, and ignoring, 
 as much as possible the presence of the odious visitor : 
 " We rented for thirty-six ; that is all we have ever 
 paid." 
 
 "I know," he acknowledged carelessly, "but that is 
 not enough not as much as the interest on the 
 money invested." 
 
 " But we have made many improvements here, 
 which have cost you no money !" Mrs. Belding re 
 torted. " It was a mere shell when Arthur Farnham 
 came to it, and he never received a farthing for all 
 the time spent in repairing it." 
 
 " That is nothing to the present purpose !" declared 
 the proprietor, with a shrewd stare at the ceiling. 
 "You can pay the amount, or suffer the con- 
 quences. I suppose you are not quite ignorant of the 
 law in such cases." 
 
 Mrs. Belding suddenly arose to her full height, and 
 with flashing eyes confronted him : 
 
 " Mr. Fox !" she cried, with startling earnestness, 
 " never comfort your soul with the belief that there 
 is no place of future punishment. He who said 
 'vengence is mine, I will repay!' who has declared 
 ' that he loves righteousness and hates robbery ' sits 
 in the Heaven of Heavens to-day, judging between 
 the oppresser and the oppressed all over the world. 
 I am impelled to tell you " 
 
 " And I am impelled to tell you" interrupted Mr. 
 Christophar Fox, changing color, in spite of his seem 
 ing bravado, " that you are a mad woman ! a stark,
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 223 
 
 staring, mad woman," he repeated, gazing at her white 
 face with a mixture of dread and awe. 
 
 "I am not mad, most noble Festus ?" she quoted in 
 a voice so strange, and with an irony so cutting, that 
 Annie West almost disbelieving her assertion, trem 
 bled and turned pale. 
 
 "Why should it be thought a thing incredible that 
 God should raise the dead ? / was dead ; disbelieving 
 in His power, blinded by the god of this world, 
 as you are blinded to-day : Heaping up riches, and 
 knowing not who should gather them : but like the 
 old king Nebuchadnezzar, " My Kingdom has de 
 parted from me and I have been cast forth to eat 
 grass like the oxen, until now I know that the most 
 High ruleth, in the kingdoms of men, and giveth it to 
 whomsoever he will." 
 
 " Is your harangue ended, Madam ?" inquired the 
 stout proprietor, in a swaggering tone of indifferent 
 banter. " If so, perhaps you will condescend to 
 devote your rather extraordinary powers, to a little 
 matter of common business, and will be so kind as to 
 pay the amount due for rent, and I will gladly relieve 
 you of my presence." 
 
 " I have no money," replied Mrs. Belding, speaking 
 in the same unnaturally calm and lofty manner as 
 before " not even the dime which would have 
 bought our gruel for the day. We shall work dinner- 
 less and supperless until this is finished and the poor 
 returns for it, come back. I have not a friend in the 
 world but this brave, patient girl. I had a beautiful 
 daughter once : she died in your service, and through 
 the worse than heathen inhospitality of your hated 
 house. She lost her young life, striving to win some
 
 224 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 trifling comforts for those she loved, and you have 
 never paid its cost, even had its worth been valued at 
 a penny. Let the curse ' she swept on, in a 
 measured monotone " that David prayed upon his 
 enemies, Oh Lord ! be upon this extortioner and 
 murderer from this hour forever /" she plead with 
 such awful and startling effect, as arrested and chain 
 ed the attention of that doomed individual, to the 
 extent of listening with staring eyes, and dilated no 
 strils through which his breath came thick and heavy 
 to the following awful anathema : 
 
 " Set thou a wicked man over him, and let Satan 
 stand at his right hand." 
 
 ' Let his days be few, and let another take his 
 place." 
 
 " Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a 
 widow." 
 
 " Let the extortioner catch all that he hath." 
 
 " Let there be none to extend mercy unto him : 
 neither let there be any to favor his fatherless 
 children." 
 
 " Let his posterity be cut off : and let his name be 
 blotted out, because he remembered not to show 
 mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy that he 
 might slay the broken in heart." "As he loved 
 cursing," she repeated with slow and terrible effect 
 looking with unwinking steadfastness into his staring 
 eyes " so let it come unto him : as he delighted not 
 in blessing, so let it be far from him !" 
 
 She folded her arms as she finished speaking, and 
 sat down as rigid of form as if frozen in death. 
 
 " She is insane !" gasped the panting proprietor, 
 turning a sickly, ashen-hued face upon Annie West,
 
 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 225 
 
 " as mad as a March Hare ! she must be taken care of." 
 
 " I shall do very well," returned Mrs. Belding. 
 ' Look to yourself, Mr. Fox ! look to yourself !" 
 
 The gentleman semed at that moment inclined to do 
 so, for he betrayed in his manner an impatient desire 
 to escape to some more agreeable locality ; and to be 
 mentally debating the propriety of such a step. 
 
 Clearly in the light of his practical judgment, it was 
 not to be thought of. To be beaten out of his dues, 
 and cowed by the frenzied harangue of a sharp- 
 tongued woman ; he vowed by all that was sacred, he 
 would not. He had heard maledictions before, and 
 did not as a rule fear them much. He thought he 
 would risk a good round cursing, sooner than the loss 
 of the money. 
 
 " Perhaps, Madam," he began, in a cool, measured 
 tone of voice, "that you fancy me so far intimidated 
 by your eloquent and forcible, not forgetting to add, 
 Jiigldy Christian denunciation of me, that I shall 
 be only too glad to leave you in undisputed possession 
 of these premises but the painful truth is, I am such 
 a rhinoceros-coated old sinner, as to be quite imper 
 vious to your tragic rendering of choice selections of 
 Bible, and have to confess that your own unassisted 
 profanity would be just as effective with me, as 
 Davids : so I advise you ; don't beat around the 
 bush, but when you anathematize, do it on your own 
 strength, and in your own sweet way : and don't be 
 indebted to David, or anybody else for original 
 expressions." 
 
 He was bantering now, and smiling in the direction 
 of Mrs. Belding's uncompromising face. "I'll tell 
 you what I'll do," he said in a conciliatory way, and
 
 226 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 
 
 staring about the room as if struck for the first 
 time, with a certain fine old picture, hanging against 
 the wall ; " I'll take that and call it even with you." 
 
 "You will?" said Mrs. Belding, measuring him with 
 her cold gray eyes. 
 
 " I should not set much value on it ; if it were 
 mine," he continued, but I want to be generous with 
 you though you have been a little rough on me, you 
 must acknowledge yourself. I suppose I have offered 
 you double its cost. But what do you call it worth 
 now ?" he asked smilingly. 
 
 Mrs. Belding trembling with suppressed passion, 
 made no answer. 
 
 "Come," said he hurriedly, " what do you propose 
 to do in the matter ? my time is a good deal more 
 valuable than anything I see here but I've tried to 
 oblige you on David's account," he added, looking 
 facetiously in the direction of pretty Annie West, 
 whose troubled face was bent so low above the work 
 she seemed intently busied upon, as to be scarcely 
 visible. "And I'll settle for the rent up to present 
 date, for that valued heir-loom, painted by one of the 
 'OLD MASTERS' I suppose," he said with swaggering 
 irony. 
 
 "Pearls before swine!" ejaculated Mrs. Belding. 
 "No, living or dead, I will never give that picture 
 into your hands !" 
 
 " Then," declared Mr. Christopher Fox, striding 
 away, with head thrown back, and wide-set eyes, seem 
 ing to stare in several directions at once, " I give you 
 fair warning that you must suffer the consequences of 
 your stupid folly." 
 
 As the proprietor of the Janded, estate, and the
 
 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 22J 
 
 suburban town of Foxburg, slammed the door behind 
 his burly and highly aggravated back ; Annie West 
 rose up, like one suddenly aroused from a nightmare, 
 and putting one arm tenderly around Mrs. Belding's 
 neck, laid her soft cheek against hers, and without one 
 word, cried there, and sobbed herself quiet again. 
 But the older and sadder eyes, had no tears in them ; 
 they were dry and hard almost wild in their 
 expression. 
 
 " Something must be done at once !" was the thought 
 of each, but neither uttered the startling words. Mrs. 
 Belding, impelled by the stern necessity of doing, 
 grasped the work she had let fall, and began sewing 
 hurriedly. 
 
 " Don't ! oh don't," pleaded Annie, taking it from 
 her with gentle force. " You are too ill to work ; and 
 I say you shall not ;" she declared resolutely. " Come 
 with me !" she coaxed ; and the poor woman so 
 strong in her indignation, only a few moments before 
 was glad now to lay her throbbing head upon the 
 girl's shoulder, and feel the strength of her support, 
 as she lead her away to the couch, where she obedient 
 ly stretched her trembling form. 
 
 " We have got One Friend left," whispered Annie, 
 bending down and kissing the wan, worn face. 
 
 " I used to think so," said Mrs. Belding, beginning 
 to cry, " I used to think I was cared for," she sobbed 
 "but where can one lean, with all the supports 
 taken away, one by one ?" 
 
 " Call upon Me in the day of trouble," repeated 
 Annie, falteringly the promise had seemed repeating 
 itself over and over to her frightened little heart,
 
 228 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 
 
 until she could think of nothing else ' and I will 
 deliver." 
 
 " I do to try," confessed the broken-hearted woman, 
 "and I always hoped He would ; but I don't know 
 where the deliverance is coming from now!" 
 
 " My ways are not your ways, neither are my 
 thoughts your thoughts : saith the Lord," repeated 
 Annie, thoughtfully ; surprised, both at the aspects of 
 the quotation and the facility with which it had come 
 to her mind. " Perhaps, after all," she reflected, " the 
 Lord intends a deliverance !" 
 
 There was great comfort in this thought, to herself 
 at least, and kissing the poor face again, she begged 
 her "not to worry, bnt to just give it all up, and rest," 
 and bringing the silken quilt to envelope her form 
 a suggestion of luxury for the susceptible lady she 
 drew the shades to hide the daylight, and went out. 
 
 " Something must be done, and done quickly !" so 
 imperative was the thought, that she did not even 
 pause in her steps to consider what might be the best 
 thing, but tried to plan some way out of their difficulties, 
 as she hastily dressed for the street. The suggestion 
 in regard to the picture had not been lost upon her. 
 She had some keepsakes too, which were quite valu 
 able. Amongst these, a dainty little watch which had 
 been given her while at school, and which had been 
 her especial delight, and the envy of all the girls, 
 becsuse of its pretty jeweled case, and elegant work 
 manship. She had meant never to part with it ; but 
 the time had come when there was no choice left in 
 the matter. This, with several other delicate and 
 costly trifles were secured, and softly opening the 
 outer door, she stole forth.
 
 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 229 
 
 Upon the little porch, she hesitated a moment, and 
 then ran around and tapped lightly at Mrs. McGarvy's 
 kitchen door. 
 
 The widow, who was crying over her washing now 
 her sole means of support took her hands from the 
 water, and opened it with an exclamation of surprise. 
 
 " Be you going out ?" she inquired. 
 
 "Yes," hurriedly "to see what can be done for us 
 all." 
 
 Then glancing at the tear-stained face, she added, 
 " Try to be brave, and maybe there will soon help 
 come !" 
 
 "God's mercy on us!" fervently ejaculated the 
 widow, with upraised hands and streaming eyes. 
 "Will you be out long ?" she asked anxiously. 
 
 " No that is, I hope not but of that I am not so 
 sure ; and if I should not come soon dear Mrs. 
 McGarvy could you would you be so kind as to 
 give Mrs. Belding a little dinner when she awakes ?" 
 asked Annie, timidly, "just a cup of tea, if you should 
 have it, and a bit of bread." 
 
 " Indeed I will," she replied heartily a broad smile 
 lighting up her face now, at the thought of the service 
 " and don't ye fret : I'll have a morsel for ye both 
 when ye come back, for I have the bit o' meat for a 
 stew an' it will give me great pleasure to clap it on 
 the fire now, an' make it ready." 
 
 Annie could have kissed the woman, she felt such a 
 thrill of gratitude : a " dinner of herbs" would have 
 been a relish, but this prospect seemed to her fancy, 
 like " the stalled ox." 
 
 " Thank you kindly," she said, heart and eyes over 
 flowing, and departed. She set her face resolutely in
 
 230 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 
 
 the direction of the Hastings' cottage, and walked 
 rapidly forward. 
 
 " I have no other person to whom I can apply," she 
 said, apologizing to her own conscience for taking her 
 trouble where there was enough and to spare, of the 
 same heavy commodity ; "and they perhaps can do 
 nothing but pity me." 
 
 In this forlorn state of mind, she entered the little 
 loft, where the cheerful loom made its own rude 
 music, and felt greatly relieved to find Mrs. Hastings 
 quite alone ; to whom she hurriedly imparted the day's 
 misfortunes. 
 
 The good woman listened to her story, with a face 
 almost as white as her own ; though far more com 
 posed in its expression. 
 
 "Ah ! it is very hard for thee my poor child ;" she 
 faltered, " who have known so few hard lines in 
 thy life. But thou must learn to trust. " They that 
 trust in the most High," she whispersd, " shall abide 
 under the shadow of the Almighty." Is'nt that a 
 promise ? All our riches are in His store-house; 
 and it is dealt out as we have need. ' It is better 
 to trust in the Lord'," she declared with the convic 
 tion of personal experience, "than to put confidence 
 in princes. He opens paths of deliverance for His 
 people to-day, even as he did for the children of 
 Israel when they went out of Egypt." 
 
 Annie smiled at her comforter, through tears. 
 
 " Now these," she continued examining the box of 
 keepsakes, which had been given into her hands, with 
 anxious but unpracticed eyes "are no doubt worth 
 a fine deal of money if they could be sold, or pawned 
 for anything like their cost ; but that is the trouble,"
 
 TO THE " BREAD WINNERS." 2^1 
 
 she sighed, ' v when one is forced to sell his goods, 
 it must always be at a sacrifice." She sat regarding 
 them for some moments thoughtfully, weighing the 
 pretty chain in her fingers, and looking tenderly 
 at the small hoops of gold, which had graced the fair 
 hands upon a previous visit ; and said : 
 
 ' Thee must not try to dispose of these things. 
 Paul will do far better. He will come home at noon, 
 when I shall lay all thy case before him. And now I 
 think thee had better go home, and comfort thy friend, 
 as may Heaven comfort thee."
 
 232 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 XVI. 
 
 A STARTLING APPARITION. 
 
 We left Captain Farnham ruined in health and for 
 tune ; a stranger in a strange land, an outcast, save 
 from the humblest shelter. He had drifted on in this 
 bleak existence, much as a deserted dismantled ship, 
 drifts on mid-ocean, rudderless, compassless. Yet 
 there came a time when he awoke to the consciousness 
 that he was still afloat ; he had not gone down when 
 the deep waters had swallowed all else. It was still 
 reserved for him to struggle with the wild waves. 
 Something was due to the brave fellows, who had 
 thought his poor life worth the saving ; and he must 
 bestir himself. Mrs. Belding and little Annie were 
 still left. How selfish he had grown in his misery and 
 weakness. He counted his years, forty-three, and 
 stupidly wondered if he should go on living till his 
 hair grew white, and his steps tottering, little dream 
 ing that time had already come. Happily, the hunter's 
 hut reflected no hint of the great change that had 
 come over him ; no mirror mocked the wintery shadow 
 that wandered ghost-like about the deserted place. 
 
 The "boys" had work in the town, now; yet Tom 
 Carley came back faithfully every night, to stay with 
 him, and minister to his comfort. 
 
 Farnham watched this man set-forth each successive 
 morning with much the same longing that a younger 
 boy feels, when a bigger brother swings his satchel
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 233 
 
 across his neck, and starts for school. He wanted to 
 go too, and began to speculate, as to his ability to 
 reach the foot of the mountain. At length, one bright 
 autumn morning, he trudged on behind, keeping the 
 stalwart workman in sight a little way, and then, 
 slowly and wearily, with many a halt for rest, follow 
 ing the trail. The men saw him a long way off, for 
 they had a wide range of vision from the roof of the 
 big barn they were shingling. How white his face 
 looked to them, as he came near, and how wistfully 
 he surveyed them, up there in the broad, bright 
 sunlight ! 
 
 " Want to come up ?" they shouted. 
 
 Farnham nodded in reply, and Tom Carley came 
 down the ladder with the agility of a squirrel. 
 
 " I am afraid," sighed the invalid surveying that 
 structure anxiously "that I am not quite equal to 
 that yet. I must sit down awhile and rest. Go back 
 to your work, Tom, and I'll sit here on this log, and 
 watch you." 
 
 " No ! no," objected Tom, " vot for ish de tackels? 
 vee'll bull you mit dem up goot, like de shingle, an' 
 make you bed mit our old coats like von brinze." 
 
 " Farnham laughed, more in enjoyment of the pros 
 pect, than at the crude English, which good-naturedly 
 drew the picture of his comfort. The ropes were 
 adjusted about him, and it was a pleasant sensation to 
 be lifted, without a struggle, into the upper air, and 
 deposited in a comfortable, half-reclining posture, 
 upon a couch of the cast off garments. Here he lay, 
 listening like one in a happy dream, to the music of 
 the hammers, which seemed to be running a race. 
 The men whistled as they worked, pausing occasion-
 
 234 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 ally to satisfy themselves that he was "all right." 
 Sometimes they broke into scraps of personal history 
 wild experiences of life on the frontier, amplified 
 largely for his edification. When the mid-day hour 
 came, he shared their lunch and drank from the same 
 vessel, of the pure water, brought from the mountain 
 spring. 
 
 Their work was supplied by a certain Colonel 
 Cunningham, the largest stockholder in a quartz min 
 ing company, and the prime minister and mover, in 
 most of the improvements being pushed forward for 
 the public weal of the new town. He had already 
 built a showy hotel of generous proportions, on Ridge 
 Avenue, and donated the site for a church, on an 
 eminence called the " Devil's back," and purposed 
 bringing water from a mountain spring, to supply the 
 future city. The stables and other out-buildings, 
 appertaining to the said hotel, were now in course of 
 construction, and these men engaged in the work. 
 
 As the day drew towards its close, the laborers 
 became less jolly, either from weariness, or dearth of 
 personal reminiscence ; suddenly Joe, broke a some 
 what long silence by singing out : 
 
 "Jehu! There's a runaway!" and a carriage came 
 rattling at a furious rate, down the rocky road. It 
 drew up sharply in front of the new building, and 
 then it was discovered that the horse was not only 
 under control, but that one of the gentlemen riding 
 behind it, was no less a personage than Colonel Cun 
 ningham, himself. He had stopped a moment on 
 his way to the hotel, to criticise their day's work. 
 The trotter a high-headed, handsome animal, was 
 covered with foam, and trembled from the effects of
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 235 
 
 too much lashing. The men, whose stout propor 
 tions more than filled the seat of the open vehicle, 
 were smoking, with evident enjoyment, and their 
 sleek beavers, worn in the wide-awake fashion, re 
 vealed in all their breadth and brilliancy, a pair of 
 bloated faces and inflamed noses. 
 
 " That one on this side's the boss !" announced Joe, 
 impressively. 
 
 It was the one with heavy guard chain and fob, 
 with so many seals dangling over his rotundity of 
 chest, and who now called out : 
 
 " How's the fun to-night, boy's ? got her well under 
 cover I see !" 
 
 "Aye! aye!" shouted Joe. "snug an' tight as a 
 man o'war ! 
 
 Farnham lying along the roof, gazed down indiffer 
 ently and, rubbing his eyes in a dazed way, looked 
 with bewildered intentness, at the bold face of "the 
 one on this side." Then, a sudden intelligence flashed 
 from their dreamy depths, and they were fixed in an 
 almost savage stare. 
 
 The carriage drove on to the hotel beyond ; and as 
 the day's work was now finished, "the boys" gathered 
 up their effects, assisted the invalid in his descent, 
 and took their way to the house where he had first 
 awoke in his fever. Here they were now to remain 
 while the work lasted, though Farnham saw himself, 
 by the flash of Mrs. Marten's eyes, on the instant of 
 his entrance, a most unwelcome intruder. Time had 
 not abated the resentment cherished toward the 
 wretched man, who, according to her phraseology 
 " had nigh about bin the ruination of 'em ; and who, -
 
 236 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 it was plain to her mind would never pay a cent, for 
 all the trouble he'd made." 
 
 A coarse, though plentiful supper was in waiting, 
 to which they eagerly addressed themselves with 
 hearty, but secret satisfaction ; for it was partaken 
 in decorous silence. 
 
 Discretion, "the boys" well understood to be now, 
 the better part of valor, in the face of the irate female, 
 who poured the coffee with spasmodic jerks, as if she 
 had been an ill-regulated machine ; and Farnham, 
 after the first chill of the home atmosphere, had 
 penetrated his thread-bare penury, was too absorbingly 
 occuped to suffer further humiliation or remorse. 
 
 Directly the meal was ended, he proposed to his 
 comrades to go over to " The Cunningham " so the 
 mushroom hotel had been christened, and hear what is 
 astir. 
 
 It was already twilight, and they were weary from a 
 hard day's work ; but something unusual in Farnham's 
 face and manner betraying suppressed excitement, 
 suggested watchfulness and concession, to an invalid's 
 caprice. They put on their hats and sauntered over 
 to the broad piazza, which seemed to welcome all 
 alike, and sat down among a crowd of loiterers 
 Farnham occuping an obscure corner, where, unob 
 served, he might look and listen. 
 
 " The boss " was there, sun of the social system, 
 and a bright galaxy of lesser lights, revolving around 
 him. His chair was tilted back at a dangerous angle; 
 one of his corpulent legs rested comfortably upon a 
 railing, which bounded an end of the porch, while his 
 eyes, apparently gazing heavenward, only watched 
 the spiral circlets of fragrant smoke he was industri-
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 237 
 
 ously emitting, and which, like the tail of a comet, 
 streamed far away into the night. 
 
 There was a lively buzz of conversation which was 
 not in the least affected by an addition of numbers. 
 
 It was a grave question of " political economy," 
 growing out of a homicide committed that very day. 
 Ed. Stuart, a rich claim holder, had, in a fit of intoxi 
 cation, shot and killed a workman. 
 
 " Would he, or would he not, be put through the 
 farce of a trial ?" 
 
 This was the subject agitating the small body of 
 men in this frontier settlement. Various had been 
 the conjectures of the probable course legal justice 
 would take, when the oracular Colonel decided the 
 case, and silenced further argument, by these weighty 
 reflections. 
 
 "What is the sense," he apostrophised, rather 
 than enquired, " of the commonwealth, prosecuting 
 in a case of this kind " It is only a reckless squander 
 ing of the treasury. A man with plenty of the " root 
 of all evil" to back him, ain't a going to suffer much 
 from gover'munt or law in this country ! No, sir ! Talk 
 about the ballot and equal rights, and all that twaddle 
 of the politicians ! Tiiey know there's no such thing, 
 here or anywhere else. Why, money is the very back 
 bone of our glorious Republic ; and it takes more of 
 it to elect our officers every four years, from the 
 President down to the tax collector, than it does to 
 pay them their salaries after they get there. So they 
 are not going to kick hard at the fellows who hold the 
 stakes, you bet ! This gover'munt is practically in the 
 nands of the moneyed power to-day, and might makes 
 right !"
 
 238 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " Do do does it !" asked a small, nervous, hol 
 low-eyed man, with a ragged jacket, and a fearful 
 stutter. 
 
 "No; I mean it unmakes it," replied the Colonel, 
 with cool impressiveness, and fixing on the questioner 
 a quizzical look of grave deliberation, " so my friend, 
 let me advise you, while we're on this subject ; never 
 go to law with a man who has got a bigger pile 
 than you can count on. If you do, you'll lose your 
 case, sure as h 1 !'" 
 
 One face, at least, in the group of listeners, grew so 
 threateningly dark, as it turned toward the speaker, 
 as to be positively savage, but all unconscious of a 
 dissenting thought, the Colonel proceeded : 
 
 I never knew it to fail. Let two men go into Court; 
 one with all the right and argument on his side, and 
 the other all the rocks, and that kind o' ballast is 
 bound to weigh down the scales of justice every time." 
 
 " We will try it ! Colonel Cunningham alias John 
 Gordon Briggv !" hissed Arthur Farnham, between 
 his teeth. "We will try it ! bloated villian and black 
 guard that you are !" 
 
 As he walked homeward with his companions, he 
 felt himself suddenly lifted out of his state of apathy 
 and indifference, by the inspiration of a just and 
 righteous indignation. 
 
 Tom Carley "smelled de rain coomin' mit de air," 
 and congratulated Joe " dat de pig barn vas wery 
 glad he vas covered under," while Farnham, forgetting 
 the mercy of One, to whom " vengeance belongeth " 
 felt that lightnings of Heaven and whirlwinds of 
 wrath,were not swift and headlong enough to satisfy his 
 impatience for justice to purify the moral atmos-
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS.' 239 
 
 phere of the contagion of one sinner. Here was the 
 miscreant who had robbed and ruined him flourish 
 ing like the prophetic "green bay tree," while he 
 ah ! what a picture he presented to himself, by com 
 parison ? 
 
 All that night he lay on his miserable bed, tossing 
 and restless, in his fierce impatience to witness the 
 tragedy when the mighty enginery of the civil law 
 should weave its web steathily, but strongly, around 
 this doomed and defiant victim. Hired detectives 
 had dogged his footsteps over land and sea, in the 
 early days of his disappearance ; while officers of 
 justice stood ready to deal it out, in unstinted 
 measure to the execrable wretch whenever, or 
 wherever he was found. What rejoicing there would 
 be, now that the law could be vindicated and just 
 punishment awarded the guilty ! 
 
 The next morning, cipher telegrams were sent to 
 the proper authorities at home, citing them to the 
 hiding place of the recreant Briggs, and in their 
 wake, followed letters with all necessary information 
 respecting him ; and now, there seemed nothing to do, 
 but await, sub-rosa, the appearance of the arresting 
 officers. To secure immunity from observation, he 
 retired again to the solitary mountain hut, and spent 
 the interim in bringing down the game with which 
 those wilds abounded. 
 
 Tom Carley, who was detailed to bring any mail 
 which might come for him, made his appearance 
 every night in camp, bringing any needed stores from 
 the town, for which Farnham bartered the fruits of 
 his trusty rifle. 
 
 In this way, day after day passed ; and then, week
 
 240 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 after week crept slowly by, yet brought no word from 
 the distant avengers of the dishonored law. He 
 waited, until convinced that ' patience had ceased to 
 be a virtue,' and then followed other messages, in 
 voking aid in his extremity ; but, like the gods of old, 
 when importuned to send fire from Heaven ; " per- 
 adventure they were deaf or they were sleeping or 
 they were on a journey ;" for no response was vouch 
 safed. 
 
 He became harrassed with anxiety and distrust ; 
 and one wild night, in the security of the mountain 
 retreat he told his two friends something of the story 
 of his past life. Uncorrupted by fiction, and largely 
 endowed with faith, they proved marvelously in 
 terested listeners. Outside, the rain poured and 
 swashed in turbulent streams, down the steep moun 
 tain side ; and the fierce winds howled and raged, 
 through the tattered pines, yet the rapt listeners heard 
 only the low, clear enunciations of a voice that seemed 
 to lay upon them an enchanter's spell. Sometimes 
 the pathos of the tale it told unconsciously por 
 trayed moved them strangely ; and honest tears 
 moistened the rough cheeks ; and again, the wrongs 
 of the injured man, who sat there beside them, cried 
 out to their rugged hearts like a brother in distress. 
 The old lantern, hanging aloft, swayed in the wind, 
 and cast weird lights over the faces of the three ; 
 and one looked white, even in the shadows and two, 
 grim, with passion and purpose. 
 
 Farnham little understood the courage and daring 
 of these simple hearted men children, they seemed 
 to him, who had grown old unconsciously but long 
 afterward he had cause to remember the grave deter-
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS 241 
 
 initiation of their kindly eyes, as it showed that 
 night. 
 
 Many conferences followed this. Almost nightly, 
 they met and mysteriously discussed plans of action ; 
 and again abandoned them as impracticable ; and 
 while they speculated and temporized, the Colonel 
 throve more and more in the public esteem, and the 
 capture of such an iron-clad became each day more 
 problematical and formidable. 
 
 Toward, the twilight of a November day, which 
 Farnham had spent upon the mountains, with his old 
 rifle for pastime, and his thoughts for serious business, 
 he saw something moving, just before him, through a 
 tangle of bushes, and supposing it a huge bird of some 
 sort, drew up, taking deliberate aim to bring it 
 down. 
 
 At that instant, the report of a gun, in the same 
 direction, arrested his purpose. He sang out to warn 
 the sportsman, whoever he might be, of his approach, 
 and struck out toward him. 
 
 Making his way through the rank under-brush, 
 snapping the twigs that obstructed his progress, he 
 found himself suddenly, face to face, with the great 
 magnate, "The Right Honorable Colonel Cunning 
 ham," as he was quoted by the press, and introduced 
 among his compeers. 
 
 Farnham recognized his adversary with a strange 
 bating of his breath, and a fiercer grasp of his 
 weapon ; while Briggs as we shall re-christian him 
 betrayed no consciousness of the other's personality. 
 
 They stood silently confronting each other for a 
 few seconds, when a sudden blanching of the florid
 
 242 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 face, and a demoniac gleam of the treacherous eyes, 
 betrayed the hasty alarm of a guilty intelligence. 
 
 Briggs felt for the gun he had dropped a moment 
 before recollecting with a gasp of terror, that it was 
 empty. 
 
 " Let it alone !" thundered Farnham, pointing his 
 own loaded rifle at the villian's breast, " or I will 
 send you where you belong, without the aid of judge 
 or jury/' 
 
 "What's the matter with you?" cried the culprit, 
 feigning surprise at the stranger's belligerent attitude, 
 while a sickly smile flickered about his coarse mouth, 
 and died there as he spoke. 
 
 "You will learn soon enough for your comfort!" 
 retorted Farnham. " Move at your peril !" he warn 
 ed for Briggs made a motion as if he would fly 
 "you will not escape justice whichever way you turn : 
 the blood hounds of the law are on your track, and 
 they will bring you down, and see that you are 
 suitably housed at last. They are apprised of your 
 comfortable hiding-place ; your false name ; and sham 
 honors. "Stir!" heagained threatened for the rest 
 less purpose was betrayed in the frightened eyes 
 " and I will shoot you, with no more compunction 
 than I would have in bringing down a wild buck." 
 
 "What do yo u want of me 9" gasped Briggs; his 
 eyes standing out with abject, craven terror. 
 
 " I want," replied Farnham, " to see you exposed in 
 this community, as you justly deserve to be. I want 
 you taken back to Buffland ; tried and condemned to 
 solitary labor in the penitentiary where you properly 
 belong. I want the money you robbed me of, and
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 
 
 243 
 
 have been trading and speculating with, restored with 
 interest for all these years. I want 
 
 " How much now?" gasped Briggs, interrupting the 
 fierce judgment poured out upon him, without stint or 
 mercy. 
 
 "What do you mean?" demanded Farnham, un 
 compromising fury flashing in his eyes. 
 
 "I mean fair !" replied Briggs, eagerly. "I'll be 
 fair and square with you : and Cap'n, what's the use 
 of quarreling, when there is a better way of settling 
 differences, / say ! I'm on the square with everybody 
 now trying my best to live right, and do right, and 
 what's the use of blasting a man's fair name one 
 situated as / am ?" 
 
 Farnham regarded him with cold, abhorrent eyes. 
 There was no relenting, and no pity in them ; and 
 though Briggs felt them penetrate his miserable 
 hypocrisies, and mock his words ; he ran hurriedly on, 
 scarce knowing what he said : 
 
 " I tell you Cap'an, I'm positively glad to run 
 across you : for its plain to see you need a friend. 
 You stand by me ; and I'll agree to stand by you ; 
 and I'm able ;" he chuckled. " Why that little trick 
 of mine tried when I was a younger man than I am 
 now By Heavens ! Farnham, its the only spot on my 
 good name that a man could put his finger on. I'm a 
 member of a church now, and going to build the 
 biggest concern within fifty miles of us. Why I'd 
 rather you'd shoot me on the spot," he whined, "than 
 not to hush this thing up ! If you get your money 
 what good is it going to do to ruin a man in my 
 position ? I'll tell you what I'll do ! Call off those 
 sharps, and leave me where you found me, and I'll
 
 244 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 give you Ten Thousand dollars, inside of three 
 days /" 
 
 "You will be a living lie, wherever you are," 
 declared Farnham, still contemplating him with scorn 
 ful eyes ;" in prison, or out ; the trouble is ; too many 
 of your sort have been let loose to prey upon 
 humanity." 
 
 " But I tell you Cap'an, upon the honor of a gentle 
 man ; I'm doing a heap of good here ; giving work to 
 hundreds of poor fellows ; and paying 'em honest 
 and treating 'em first rate. Now, I'll tell you what 
 I'll do !" he began eagerly. 
 
 "Do I" repeated Farnham, mockingly. "Don't I 
 know what you will do if you have the power ? Don't 
 I know that a cowardly thief, makes a brave liar? 
 Do you think I will let you off now with premises ? 
 your promises, John Briggs ?" 
 
 "What more can I do, here, and now? gasped the 
 terror-stricken man, for the set features of the other 
 gave fearful emphasis to the mouth of the deadly 
 weapon, held ominously before him. 
 
 " Ten Thousand dollars," began Farnham, slowly, 
 "is not one-fifth of the money you stole from me, and 
 you know it. Here," he continued, deliberately pro 
 ducing a much worn pocket hand-book, and tearing 
 therefrom a leaf, " take this stencil pen and write me 
 a note for the full amount ; with interest for six years. 
 Ten Thousand dollars, payable in three days, and the 
 remainder subject to a mortgage on all your property 
 here. 
 
 The color receeded even from Briggs' rudy nose. 
 
 " / have decided what you will do, and do quickly 
 too !" declared Farnham, in a low, determined voice.
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 245 
 
 ' I am not trifling now ; and there is but one choice 
 left you ! Empty your pockets," he commanded 
 grimly, " of every dollar they hold !" 
 
 Briggs took the pen in one hand, and fumbled 
 irresolutely in his pockets with the other. Something 
 in Farnham's face seemed to facilitate his motions ; 
 the irresolute hand suddenly brought forth a plethoric 
 wallet, which he regretfully relinquished ; and taking 
 the note-book, he adjusted it nervously against the 
 trunk of a huge tree and proceeded to write as 
 Farnham sternly dictated ! 
 
 " I, John Gordon Briggs, formerly of the city 
 of Buffland, State of New York, once in the employ 
 of Arthur Farnham, of the same city and State, and 
 with full power of attorney to act for the same : do 
 acknowledge that while so employed I did secretly 
 and maliciously defraud and rob him the said Arthur 
 Farnham of cash, bonds, and other property to the 
 full value of Sixty Thousand dollars, and abscond 
 ed with the same from that place on the night of the 
 6th of December, 187 and I now promise to pay 
 the said Arthur Farnham, the said sum of $60,000 
 (Sixty Thousand dollars), with arrears of interest from 
 date of embezzlement. Payment to be made as follows: 
 $10,000 (Ten Thousand dollars) of said money to be 
 paid within three days of this fifth day of November, 
 1 88 . The remainder payable in sums of $10,000 
 (Ten Thousand dollars) on the original indebtness, 
 with interest at six per cent, per annum on the whole 
 amount. These payments are to be made on the 
 first of January of each year until the whole sum shall 
 have been liquidated : which sum, $60,000 (Sixty 
 Thousand dollars^ with all interest thereon, shall be
 
 246 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 secured in payment to the said Arthur Farnham, by a 
 mortgage on my entire estate. Given this 5th day of 
 November, 188 under mine own hand. 
 
 JOHN GORDON BRIGGS. 
 
 ALIAS COL. C. CUNNINGHAM. 
 
 There was a baleful gleam in his eyes, as he gave 
 this back, which, though covert, did not escape the 
 other's notice. 
 
 " This will do !" decided Farnham as after carefully 
 examining the paper he folded and returned it to 
 the book for safe keeping. " And now, Mr. Briggs 
 the safest possible thing for you to do, is to keep 
 faith with me. In that case I shall not molest you, 
 and you can continue your pious and distinguished 
 relations with this favored community." 
 
 " I give you my word of honor, as a gentleman !" 
 cried Briggs, the color bounding back as suddenly as 
 it had left his face, as the muzzle of the gun was 
 removed from its immediate locality. 
 
 " I put no trust in your honor as a gentleman !" 
 returned the other, scornfully, " but shall require you 
 to fulfil every line of this agreement." They parted 
 without another word. Farnham stood several mo 
 ments watching the course his foe had taken. Down 
 the mountain he went : his velocity accelerated, both 
 by his gravity of purpose and his gravity of person. 
 "The knave ! The scoundrel !" he apostrophised, 
 as with blanched cheek and flashing eyes, he watched 
 the headlong descent. " If I feared anything, I might 
 well fear him." He made his way to the hunter's 
 hut, and sat down ; panting from excitement ; weak 
 from fatigue, and with a prophetic consciousness of 
 impending danger. He was no coward, morally or
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 247 
 
 physically ; but through his clear understanding and 
 quick perception, he saw and felt the peril of the 
 situation. 
 
 " There was too much truth in the braggart's defi 
 ance of law." His own brave threat of its aroused 
 vengenance, were unjustified, and unfounded. What 
 was law, or its guardians, but commodities to be 
 bought and sold, like a child's toy ? He had known 
 this too well long ago ; had often witnessed in the 
 civil courts, the sad spectacle where might had 
 triumphed and flaunted its purple and gold in the 
 pauper face of the righteous cause : but never never 
 felt, as now, the bitterness and helplessness of penury. 
 
 "What signifies," he reflected, "all the testimony 
 that can be piled between the earth and skies, before 
 an advocate who turns and twists the law not to 
 wring justice from the fleckless robes but jewels 
 for wife and daughters, and haunts of idleness for 
 self? And in a case of this kind," he reasoned, 
 " there are probably few servants of the people who 
 would move, without a prospect of re-embursement. 
 
 " He was no longer a figure, representing a certain 
 quantity but a cipher standing alone in the world 
 In the years which had swept past, since he belonged 
 to it ; and it, in a sense, to him he had been borne 
 down and carried beyond its treacherous memory." 
 
 While thus soliloquising, he was startled by the 
 sound of approaching footsteps, and was hurriedly 
 placing himself in an attitude of defense, when Tom, 
 and Joe those welcome ' boys' rushed in. What a 
 relief their sturdy presence afforded ? How his 
 almost woman's heart, warmed toward them ? 
 
 Tom had come to spend the night ; and Joe, partly
 
 248 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 to escape an evening at home, and partly to hear 
 stories of the hunter's life, as related Farnham, who 
 generally contrived to make a trifling adventure of 
 this sort, marveously entertaining to these child-men 
 listeners. 
 
 They were straightway rewarded ; for Farnham 
 entered at once, and with unusual animation and 
 eagerness, upon a history of the encounter just des 
 cribed. It was bristling with points of interest for 
 both his hearers. Joe felt, after thoroughly discussing 
 the situation, called upon to act in the matter, and 
 to act at once. Farnham thought the scoundrel did 
 not mean to keep the faith with him that he would 
 take advantage of his friendlessness, to still farther 
 victimize him. 
 
 " Let him try it !" exclaimed Joe, baring his brawny 
 arm to the shoulder, and feeling with a kind of savage 
 joy, along its rugged line of bone and muscle. " Let 
 him try it ! We'll show him some friends, Tom, who'll 
 stick closer'n a brother !" 
 
 Tom, when appealed to, was striding back and 
 forth in the little hut, every vein in his Dutch body 
 seeming charged with molten metal, and every sinew 
 made of iron. 
 
 He stopped, grasped Joe's hand, and held it as if in 
 a vice ; while they gazed into each others eyes, stead 
 fastly ; a stern, most unchild-like purpose reflected in 
 the face of each. 
 
 " Dat ish dhrue," nodded Tom, relinquishing the 
 rough hand and looking mightily pleased with the 
 suggestion-r-" Closer den von brudder : dat ish goot 
 eh, Mr. Voornam ?" 
 1 Aftej some more talk, which Farnham considered
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 249 
 
 childish and futile, Joe set forth for home, and Tom, 
 following him, held a whispered conversation outside, 
 which lasted so long that Farnham grew uneasy. We 
 will not reveal the secret of that mysterious interview. 
 Even Tom, when he returned made no mention of it, 
 and disinclined to further talk only remarked, as 
 he hung up his old slouch hat, preparatory to 'turning 
 in' for the night : 
 
 " You no vear has, Meester Voornam ? Sleep de 
 night all zound. Closer den von brudder ; ha, ha !"
 
 250 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 XVII. 
 A FRONTIER COURT. 
 
 When Briggs parted from his accuser on the moun 
 tain, he repaired with all haste to the hotel, and to his 
 own private parlor, therein, to take a personal observa 
 tion of the small cloud which had so suddenly 
 darkened his moral and financial horizon. He rang 
 with emphasis, and ordered champagne and oysters ; 
 and over these, grew less disturbed and more self- 
 confident. Before the decanter was emptied, he 
 even began to curse himself for " an infernal coward 
 and idiot." 
 
 " Ha ! ha, ha," he laughed, at last not openly, but 
 secretly, " He threatens me ! Talks of officers hound 
 ing my steps ! Don't I know there ain't a d d man 
 
 among them, so anxious to serve the country, that 
 he'll do it, just because it happens to be his special 
 business? No Sir! My high spoken Cap'an : you 
 might catch the bird with salt ; but you can't down 
 a rich man in this country without the rocks ! That's 
 my theology." 
 
 He glanced at his surroundings, complacently, and 
 wondered how such things ciuld happen! "Tables 
 have been turned in mighty quick time," he said 
 aloud ; and was startled that he had given voice to 
 even so much introspective thought. He set down 
 his empty glass got up, straightened himself and 
 walked about the room. Stopping before a mirror, he
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 251 
 
 gazed into it furtively, as if to assure himself that no 
 change had been wrought in his bloated face. There 
 was a look in the eyes, which made him scowl back at 
 them ; but presently it seemed to skulk behind the 
 bravery of his thoughts. He heard the entrance of a 
 squad of friends into the bar-room below. Lawyer 
 Dodge was one of them ; the very man for him 
 and he recognized also Dennis voice, one of the rail 
 road magnates, who stopped at no swindle that brought 
 Eastern travel over the new road. " What if they 
 don't find the country exactly as represented," Briggs 
 had often heard him say, " we get 'em here all the 
 same or, if they won't stay charge 'em double fare 
 home again. That pays too!" Even the sound of 
 this man's voice, now gave him comfort and confidence. 
 
 " Blow me ! if this ain't luck !" he muttered, as 
 another familiar tone struck his ear. " The Major's 
 back ! Just in on the train. They say he's laid out 
 the Chicago chaps, with his salted mine, to the tune 
 of Two Hundred Thousand ! Blast him ! But 
 money'll build up the town, and make more for the 
 rest of us, but," he reflected, "they're none of em in 
 my secret ; and won't be : I don't particularly need 
 rogues ; 'this is a clear straight case of highway 
 robbery !" 
 
 Briggs took on the Colonel Cunningham swagger 
 instantaneously. He proceeded hurriedly to divest 
 himself of the hunting coat ; the limp collar and 
 cuffs, and to make an unusually neat and impressive 
 toilet, Then he sauntered down to the bar. There 
 he found several strangers just arrived on the West 
 bound express. After effusively greeting the Major, 
 he was pompously presented to a favored few of these
 
 252 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 as "father and founder of our new and growing town, 
 the Honorable Colonel Cunningham." There was 
 one of the party, a tall, muscular, eagle-eyed, plainly 
 clad fellow who, upon hearing this name, began to 
 study the Colonel's face, with a puzzled expression 
 upon his own. 
 
 "Where under the canopy of heaven?" his per 
 plexed eyes seemed asking " have we looked upon 
 that visage before ?" 
 
 The Colonel proceeded to treat the crowd all around, 
 with the most genial hospitality ; saying as he did so, 
 that ' he was under the humiliating necessity of getting 
 trusted at the bar, as he had just been way-laid and 
 robbed, up here on the mountain.' " Fact, boys !" he 
 
 confessed laughingly, " I haven't a d d cent about 
 
 me. I would have divided with the knave, without 
 whining, but that wouldn't do : I had to stand and 
 deliver at the mouth a forty-five caliber revolver. 
 Wasn't that plucky ?" 
 
 All eyes turned upon him, with keen interest, while 
 he seemed actually expanding with the importance of 
 the adventure. ' As he believed his credit pretty fair, 
 he ordered the glasses refilled.' 
 
 The men drank again, and. excitement increased. 
 Some were ready to go forth at once, in pursuit of the 
 armed highway-man, and risk life or limb in his 
 capture, and immediate punishment. But as the 
 moments grew convivial, and the sun dropped sud 
 denly behind the mountains, they were fain to abandon 
 the enterprise until morning. Upon this decision 
 but half comprehended by some of them the party 
 slept profoundly through the short hours which 
 followed their debauch. On such a night, the day
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 253 
 
 dawned too soon and in some sleepy, muddled brains 
 the consciousness also dawned, that some pleasurable 
 excitement waited on this morning. The sun had not 
 yet climbed high enough to look askance at the little 
 town, when a noisy, and eager detachment of mounted 
 and armed men, were seen to leave it by the mountain 
 road, bent upon the capture and speedy punishment 
 of the desperate outlaw, believed to be in hiding, or 
 in deadly ambush somewhere amid the fastness of the 
 overhanging solitudes. 
 
 About the settlement, a kind of idle, holiday 
 atmosphere prevailed. Groups of men were gathered 
 here and there, among which Joe Marten circulated, 
 as frantic in his gesticulations, as any political aspirant 
 appealing to his constituents. Tom Carley much 
 perturbed in spirit followed in the wake of the 
 mountain scouts. He knew well Farnham's hiding 
 place but with all his sturdy bravery, was powerless 
 even so much as to warn him of danger, in face of the 
 advancing cavalcade. So he ran on, panting with an 
 undefined yet terrible apprehension. But toil as he 
 might, up the rough ascent, to keep the jovial riders 
 in view, they galloped away from him, until even the 
 sound of their voices was lost in the distance. 
 Hurriedly he struggled on, but, as the report of a 
 rifle shot smote on his ear, he stood still, in deadly 
 terror. 
 
 " De Lord be merciful !" he cried, and sank down 
 at the foot of a tree, overpowered and almost uncon 
 scious. Here he lay, praying in an ejaculatory, but 
 most fervent manner, " for de help ob de goot Lord 
 against de mighty !" when he was suddenly startled 
 by the return of the party, bringing Farnham in their
 
 254 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 midst. They dashed by at full speed, and springing 
 up, he followed them, as fast as his flying feet could 
 carry him. He kept the party in sight while they 
 wound around the steep mountain trail and saw them 
 in the distance, sweep into town on a fierce gallop, 
 and dismount in front of the " Cunningham." It 
 seemed, to his impatience that he only idled, while 
 stumbling on through tangles of brushwood, so far in 
 the rear, and leaping headlong over huge masses of 
 rocks which obstructed the way. When at last, 
 breathless and footsore he arrived at the entrance 
 where they had disappeared, there was neither 
 ingress or egress ; such was the crowd that surged 
 around it. 
 
 All attempts to insinuate his burly figure therein, 
 proved utterly abortive ; but he took up a position 
 as near to the closed door as he could get, and waited 
 there almost consumed with anxiety while this 
 scene was transpiring behind it : 
 
 The common bar-room suddenly put on the high 
 dignity of a court of justice. It might be lacking 
 somewhat in the grave decorum which usually dis 
 tinguishes such places, yet in the solemnity of the 
 business being transacted, it was not a whit behind 
 the chiefest of them ; for the question was one of life 
 or death. 
 
 Neither could this frontier court be considered 
 quite beyond the pale of civilization, in view of the 
 packed jury ; bribed witnesses ; and that no lawyer 
 was found to undertake the unpopular, unprofitable 
 cause of the poor prisoner at the bar. 
 
 Colonel Cunningham victor in every fiber of his 
 being opened the case himself, in the most eloquent
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS. 255 
 
 manner, by a succesful appeal to the ' bar', and the 
 testimony that flowed forth in persuasive cups, was 
 strongly condemnatory of the prisoner : and logically 
 convincing to both judge and jury. Little more of a 
 trial seemed needed, still the farce went on. Lawyer 
 Dodge swore the plaintiff, who told his story hilar 
 iously. Then, in confirmation of it, a leathern wallet, 
 taken by the highway-man, was produced, and identi 
 fied by many witnesses, as belonging to ' the Colonel' ; 
 also gold and silver which it contained. " It is a clear 
 case" Lawyer Dodge affirmed, in summing it up, "of 
 robbery, with intent to kill. There was guilt and infamy 
 written all over the face of the prisoner. Who could look 
 into those gloomy eyes, and entertain a doubt of 
 the hellish mischief plotted behind them, to entrap the 
 innocent? If the discriminating jury did their duty 
 conscientiously, earth would be quickly rid of a mon 
 ster ; and the nethermost pit, gain a worthy citizen." 
 
 He besought them to lose no time in bringing in a 
 verdict. In accordance with this advice, the smiling 
 jury were about to retire to a convenient hallway, at 
 the rear of the court room, when a ringing voice from 
 the crowd cried out : 
 
 " May it please the court !" and as all eyes were 
 turned in the direction from whence it proceeded a 
 tall, angular, stoop-shouldered man elbowed his way 
 from an obscure corner, until he stood directly in 
 front of the triumphant Colonel. 
 
 " May it please the court," he repeated, " I claim a 
 stay of judgment, until the defense be heard in this 
 case !" 
 
 The court seemed anything but pleased at the 
 unexpected interruption, though it smiled somewhat
 
 256 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 superciliously, as the unprofessional figure advanced ; 
 while Colonel Cunningham turned on him a pair of 
 questioning, baleful eyes. 
 
 " By what have you got to say in this case ?" he 
 
 demanded, fiercely. 
 
 " Only this," responded the other, returning the 
 angry stare with one of smiling, incomprehensible 
 effrontery ; " that I happen to be familiar with your 
 phiz, as well as your history, Mr. Briggs ; the former, 
 posing in the rogue's gallery ; the latter, well known 
 to every Buffland citizen shall not be supplemented 
 now, by the murder of the victim you robbed a few 
 years ago !" 
 
 Some thing like an electric current seemed to run 
 through the packed court room ; every man moved in 
 his place ; the smiles faded from the faces of the jury, 
 and the excited plaintiff sprang to his feet, shouting : 
 
 " MADMAN ! LIAR !" 
 
 Lawyer Dodge rapped on the bar with the knobbed 
 head of his cane, with such emphasis that all the 
 glasses were set a dancing ; and bawled " ORDER !" 
 until he was purple in the face ; but only seemed to 
 add to the confusion. 
 
 " If Captain Farnham were not a stranger here," 
 continued the intruder, in a voice that made itself 
 heard " he would need no defense from me ; as it 
 is," he added, turning toward the prisoner who sat 
 weary and immobile of countenance, and waving a 
 powerful arm in his direction " I am proud and 
 happy to be of service to him !" 
 
 " An accomplice !" roared Cunningham. 
 
 "The prisoner has been proven guilty of highway 
 robbery !" asserted his counsel, in stentorian tones.
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS.' 257 
 
 The jury will render a verdict in accordance with 
 the facts set forth." 
 
 "The jury will listen to the facts in this case!" 
 shouted the tall New Yorker. " Those set forth are 
 not facts, as I claim a hearing to prove," 
 
 There was confusion now, that all the rappings of 
 men and spirits could not have silenced. 
 
 The jury ignoring the petitioner rose up, to a 
 man, and shuffled ont into the hall-way. Low mutter- 
 ings and distinct oaths, issued from the crowds, which 
 surged around the doors, and blocked up the inter 
 stices of the wide room. Pistols leaped from the 
 coterie about the bar, and threateningly held the 
 prisoner at bay. Joe Marten wedged his way toward 
 the sturdy champion of his poor friend, and excitedly 
 thrust something into his hand, with some whispered 
 words of explanation. It was a crumbled paper, and 
 the tall man held it aloft, crying out : 
 
 " HEAR ! HEAR ! men and brothers ! listen to the 
 facts in the case, written out in full, by this cunning 
 Colonel, himself : 
 
 " Note of hand. 
 
 I, John Gordon Briggs, formely of the city of Buff- 
 land, of the State of New York, and in the employ 
 of Arthur Farnham," (oaths, and interruptions by the 
 plaintiff and party ; and cries of " HEAR ! HEAR !" 
 and "GO ON !" from the crowd) "do hereby promise 
 to pay to said Arthur Farnham the sum of Sixty 
 Thousand dollars being the sum of which I wilfully 
 and maliciously defrauded and robbed him, on the 
 night of the sixth when / abscond 
 ed !" shrieked the reader for the tumult had reached
 
 258 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 proportions, that even his voice was drowned in the 
 uproar. 
 
 The jury were filing in and shouting "GUILTY!' 
 when suddenly such a scene transpired as baffles pen 
 to portray. 
 
 The "boys," as the whole fraternity of stalwart- 
 framed, hard-fisted, iron-willed men were termed ; who 
 at the earnest instigation of one of their number, 
 had crowded in to see fair play, here, in this frontier 
 court of justice now decided to take matters into their 
 own hands. They had many a time, listened to the vain 
 glorious boasts of the great magnate of the mines, as 
 to the universal power and influence of capital ; and 
 had agreed among themselves, if ever there was 
 another case in point, in this uncivilized community, 
 ' to try it on with him'. 
 
 ' When justice meant injustice and law a He, in this 
 savage frontier they wanted to know it, and to be 
 there! that was all.' 
 
 And here they were ! Men of many nationalties : 
 dark-browed Italians, and heavy Huns ; flaxen-hair 
 ed Saxons, and open handed Hibernians ; many of 
 them, outwardly rude as the jagged rocks among 
 which their lives were spent ; yet endowed with judg 
 ment more true to discriminate between the right and 
 the wrong, than any acquired by labored judge, or 
 craven jury ; and glowing with a love as genuine and 
 human, for a common brotherhood, as that which 
 fires the heart of priest or prelate. 
 
 A momentary rush ; an inexplicable encounter ; 
 and the men at the bar found themselves an unarmed 
 minority the late plaintiff, and autocrat cf the court 
 room, was a struggling, voiciferating prisoner, in
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 259 
 
 the iron grasp of determined men, who bore forth his 
 huge person, as if it had been a feathers' weight. 
 
 The whole civil court followed this undignified 
 exodus into the open air ; where the self-constituted 
 counsel for the defendant, proceeded with grave per- 
 tinacy to cross-question the affrighted Colonel, who 
 was inclined to truthful answers, by the persuasive 
 logic of a pistol, pointed at his shuddering breast. 
 
 " Tell these people your true name !" he thundered ; 
 tell it without flinching !" 
 
 The wretch hesitated stared straight before him, 
 with fixed, wide-open eyes, and gasped as if breath 
 ing his last : something he saw there blanched his 
 cheek and loosened his tongue. 
 
 " John Gordon Briggs" he answered, in a scarcely 
 audible voice. 
 
 " That is correct," assented his questioner , but 
 hardly loud enough for all these friends to hear ; and 
 they are anxious to know so I will repeat : 
 
 " He says his full name is JOHN GORDON BRIGGS. 
 Now tell us," he continued, " if you were ever 
 employed by the man yonder Captain Arthur Farn- 
 ham ?" 
 
 " Yes," after a momentary glance, straight ahead. 
 
 " Did you rob him of a large sum of money, and 
 leave the country ?" 
 
 Again there was hesitation visible in the scared 
 face, but it was only momentary effective argument 
 again prevailed and he gasped : 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Did you write this note?" proceeded the question 
 er reading in a loud, clear voice, the memorable one
 
 260 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 penned upon the mountain "and are its provisions 
 just and true, as given under your hand ?" 
 
 The wretch in reply, bowed his perspiring face 
 upon his open palms, and wept aloud. 
 
 " That will do," decided the court which seemed 
 now entirely resolved into the one great angular 
 figure, bending over the weeping culprit. 
 
 " That will do ! and this community can dispose of 
 you according to its own light." And he strode away 
 to where Captain Farnham stood, leaning against a 
 pillar of the balcony for support of which his white 
 face betrayed him to be sadly in need. 
 
 They clasped hands like old friends, though the 
 stranger said : 
 
 " I never knew you personally Captain, only as a 
 figure on the streets of Buffland but that was too 
 familiar to be mistaken." 
 
 Farnham could not utter a word in reply, but only 
 pressed the outstretched hand. 
 
 " I am thankful the sentence of the whimpering 
 scoundrel doesn't rest with me !" continued the big 
 New Yorker, whose name, as it appeared on his busi 
 ness cards for he was an honest lumberman of Buff- 
 land, looking up pine lands in the far West was 
 James L. Longstreet, but familiarly known on the 
 streets at home as " Long Jim." " I don't know," he 
 said, with a sort of comic gravity, " what I should be 
 tempted to do with him : perhaps strangle him with a 
 rope. His neck is such an aggravated kind of mon 
 strosity, that it suggests an aggravated kind of remedy. 
 
 Yet, as he spoke, some turbulent mutterings of the 
 impatient crowd, caused the mocking expression of his
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 261 
 
 countenance to change instantly to one of undisguis 
 ed horror. 
 
 The sounds, though ominous, were scarcely intelli 
 gible in words. The two men rushed into the excited 
 throng. 
 
 " Not that boys ! !" cried Farnham, in an agony of 
 terror ; for he saw preparations for making short work 
 of the culprit. " Not tliat ! for Heaven's sake ! 
 Spare his life ! 
 
 They had pinned him to a tree, and in their own 
 vernacular, "were goin' to give the boss a little taste 
 o' cheap justice ! This backwoods court didn't spend 
 a million of the people's money tryin' how not to do 
 it. Oh, no ! That would be a squandering of the 
 treasury : eh Colonel ? 
 
 Now the merciless jeering was stayed. " The boys" 
 desisted from their vengeful work ; but, as in the 
 case of most new settlements, no jail had been pro 
 vided here to open its friendly doors to the criminal ; 
 and as the fixed judical penalty for all crimes herein 
 committed, was death, or banishment ; so, in this 
 case, the dread sentence was commuted, at Farnham's 
 earnest solicitation, to " Leaving the Territory within 
 twenty-four hours never to show his face there 
 again !"
 
 262 DRAFTKD IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 THE LAWYER'S CLERK. 
 
 It was a soft, Indian summer morning of a Novem 
 ber day. Beyond the limits of the city the sun was 
 probably shining in a golden splendor ; but here it 
 had not yet been able to penetrate the dense veil of 
 mist and smoke which hung cloud-like above its busy 
 thoroughfares; though by a town clock which had just 
 struck the hour, it was already ten in the forenoon. 
 
 It was not, as one might suppose, a morning favora 
 ble to sight-seeing much less was it conducive to 
 a critical survey of the fine collection of paintings 
 just placed on exhibition in the windows of Lindsey's 
 Art Gallery; but that is what three fashionably-dressed 
 young ladies who had just come sauntering down 
 Broad Avenue, were doing. This at least, was the 
 inference of the passers by and several would 
 be art critics gathered beside them and sur 
 veyed the faintly outlined landscapes with strained 
 eyes ; at which the three exchanged sly glances, and 
 remained to smile outright when the worshippers of art 
 had passed on. 
 
 The truth was, this was only a ruse to gain a little 
 courage, to open the next door, into the law office of 
 the well-known firm of 'Fisk & Granger.' 
 
 "What errand can you possibly make, girls?" asked 
 Mabel Thorn, a tall blonde, who flushed, and hesitated
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 263 
 
 to advance in the wake of the sisters moving irreso 
 lutely forward. She was a guest at the Granger's, 
 and of course felt less assurance and more delicacy in 
 entering their brother's office, especially as they had 
 informed her "that it was always half full of men." 
 
 " Say !" laughed Julia, the elder of the sisters, "why 
 we can just say that mamma wants him to come up a 
 little earlier to tea than usual this evening that 
 Maggie has an engagement out." 
 
 u Oh, no ;" objected Agnes, the younger a lively 
 brunette "let us tell him we'll drive around for him 
 at four, and go to Chestnut Grove. We've been talk 
 ing of that, you know, and it will be excuse enough." 
 
 The next instant the profound quiet of the solemn, 
 and decorous office where only the scratch of a pen 
 was heard in the hand of a busy clerk, or the rustle 
 of a leaf, turned in some ponderous folio, or a question 
 asked and answered in a low monotone was suddenly 
 invaded. 
 
 Nathaniel Granger, a fine, grave looking man, of 
 perhaps five and thirty, advanced to meet the young 
 ladies, with the faintest possible trace of annoyance on 
 his face, at this unwelcome intrusion. It was a busy 
 morning in the office ; and he was deep in the un 
 raveling of a most complicated case over which he had 
 labored too long for his own good temper. 
 
 " To what happy circumstance do I owe this un 
 expected visit ?" he began, smiling in his impatience. 
 
 " Now you needn't say anything of that amiable 
 sort," interrupted Julia, knitting her brows in girlish 
 mockery of his own " you know you are cross enough 
 to growl at us, if it were not for the self-repression 
 which you virtuously cultivate."
 
 264 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 "But we haven't come to stay," put in Agnes, 
 "though I dare say ladies' society is what you are pin 
 ing for here, to make life, in such a place, 
 endurable." 
 
 The young man flushed slightly, and one or two 
 clerks betrayed their abstraction from business, by 
 looking archly towards a remote desk where a young 
 lady was industriously writing. 
 
 "We are jealous of your devotion to business," 
 laughed Mabel Thorne, "and we have conspired to 
 spirit you away this afteroon ; Thomas is going to take 
 us to Chestnut Grove. 
 
 The attorney did not look particularly animated, 
 though his smile grew more cordial as they departed; 
 "he hoped he might make one of the party if not per 
 mitted to do so he would be grateful all the same, 
 for their benevolent intentions respecting him ;" and 
 so saying, he waved them a courteous adieu. 
 
 Their stay had been but momentary, but it must 
 suffice for the present. They had a glimpse of the 
 back at least of the "absurd little chit," who had the 
 assurance to ensconce herself as copying clerk in a law 
 office. They knew she must be bold and brazen ; 
 though Nathaniel did say, when questioned on the 
 subject that she was "sweet as a violet and shy as a 
 partridge." 
 
 "It was too aggravating," declared Mabel Thorne, 
 as they went on, in their morning stroll over town, 
 "that she did not even look around." 
 
 " I would give anything to have seen her face !" said 
 Julia. 
 
 " Yes, I did hope to get just one little peep at it, to 
 see what your brothers calls uncommon," said Mabel.
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 265 
 
 "I suspect he meant uncommon pretty, and left off 
 the latter word out of consideration to us." 
 
 " Oh, Nat's a crank anyway, about the girls !" I 
 hope, continued Julia, "he'll get horridly cheated some 
 day, when he really settles down to the momentous busi 
 ness of marrying ; for he is always pretending to 
 take such extrordinary fancies to sensible girls as he 
 calls them, and says such disagreeable things about 
 those of us who try to get a little pleasure out of life, 
 as well as all profit. Oh ! "she exclaimed," here we 
 are at Shaw's! let us stop and get "Jess;" "they 
 say it's perfectly splendid ;" and they entered a large 
 book-store, where we will leave them, examining and 
 admiring elegant and costly trifles of virtu, and buying 
 at last, "Jess" in a paper cover, to pour over during 
 the afternoon. 
 
 Now that these young ladies have expressed very 
 decided views, respecting the effrontery of Annie 
 West, in occupying this position, a slight explanation 
 is due her. 
 
 She has been now five weeks in the employ of Fisk 
 and Granger, yet is no more familiar with the people 
 hardly with the faces about her than on the first day 
 of her advent there. 
 
 Mr. Granger, it is true, was kind to her, and courte 
 ous, and frowned down any levity in the office, for her 
 sake ; and otherwise discovered his chivalry in a man 
 ner quite salutary to one or two of the younger clerks, 
 for all of which considerateness, she felt especially 
 grateful. She was almost sure, that the grave, elderly 
 man, as she regarded him, felt a sort of fraternal 
 or paternal interest in her, as his kindly eyes met hers, 
 each successive morning, in a faintly smiling welcome.
 
 266 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 The walk was too long to allow of her returning home 
 to dinner, so she took the tiniest package of 
 lunch, and ate it when everyone had left the office ; 
 and then, if the day were fair, walked a little way by 
 herself, wishing in her heart, that she knew somebody, 
 of all the crowds to speak to. One day, Mr. Granger 
 had overtaken and escorted her back to the office. 
 He availed himself of the occasion, to give her a 
 little paternal advice, respecting her deportment there, 
 which indeed, there seemed little need of, as he 
 commended it, thus far, quite warmly, and also to 
 assure her of his kindly interest in her welfare. " He 
 always felt an elder-brotherly regard for every young, 
 inexperienced and friendless ( he did not say pretty) 
 girl !" 
 
 He did not even look this, for Mr. Nathaniel 
 Granger was scrupulously conscientious in his inter 
 course with the fair sex. He was perphaps too well 
 aware that he presented, both in his person and pro 
 fession, almost irresistable attractions to any matri 
 monially disposed young lady, and he conceived it 
 judicious, in the early stages of his acquaintance with 
 this really pretty clerk, to fortify her against cherish 
 ing a too tender regard for himself. It was a noble 
 instinct of a pure and generous chivalry. 
 
 He was more fully acquainted with the history of 
 this sweet, serious eyed little maiden than she knew. 
 Her coming to them had been the merest accident. 
 Paul Hastings had called several times for a form they 
 had promised to fill out for him ; and which, with piles 
 of other work, had been laid over from day to day. 
 
 " Why do you not keep help enough ?" he asked, in 
 his brusque way, impatient at delays.
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 267 
 
 " Haven't time to hunt it up don't know who you 
 are getting when you advertise." 
 
 At this, the young man looking thoughtful he then 
 ventured to take the attorney aside, and succeeded so 
 well in interesting him in the vicissitudes of a certain 
 family, that the lawyer decided to try the experiment 
 of the employment of a female clerk. 
 
 Hastings had been able to so manage their small 
 affairs as to secure rooms for them, on a street not 
 very squalid, in the city, and also to pay the rent due 
 on the house formerly occupied. Mrs. McGarvy had 
 come to live with them ; and it was through her in 
 dustry and efficiency, as a thoroughly good washwoman, 
 that they had thus far been provided for. They 
 cared for the child through the long days, when the 
 poor mother was out which was soon every one in 
 the busy week and they still continued their struggles 
 with the sewing, which yet refused to grow remun 
 erative. 
 
 What a boon this place had seemed, to both Mrs. 
 Belding and Annie, after their hard experience with 
 the slop-work ! Annie possessed the rare accomplish 
 ment of being a good and rapid penman, and now she 
 sat, day after day, in a distant corner of an extensive 
 office, never daring to look about her, and feeling 
 sometimes as if she had grown into some hideous 
 piece of mechanism copying briefs and all sorts of 
 senseless and wordy preambles, in testamentary wills, 
 and writing ' whereas ' and the party of the first part ' 
 and 'the party of the second part,' so often, that 
 usually, in her weariness before night closed in, a dim 
 procession of mysterious "parties" seemed flying
 
 26& DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 before her on the paper, with whom she had become 
 hopelessly entangled. 
 
 But she was earning money not much to be sure 
 but she had made less and worked harder ; and now, 
 perhaps, some of the comforts which she had es 
 pecially coveted for Mrs. Belding, would be realized. 
 
 That poor woman was even more solitary in the 
 city, than she had been in the country ; alone every 
 day, with only the little Mary for company, and too 
 proud and sensitive to go out often upon the street. 
 
 They had united with a cnurch, and she sometimes 
 crept in among the worshippers feeling that it would 
 be a comfort to listen to the prayers but generally, 
 Bible reading at home was more conducive to content 
 ment ; so utterly desolate had she come to feel in 
 crowds. Sometimes, a half smile from some tender 
 old face, betraying a passing, kindly thought 
 awakened a strange hunger in her heart for human 
 sympathy, and sometimes she lingered to hear the 
 chit-chat among friends in the vestibule it was so 
 like an echo from her own dead and buried past. 
 
 A pretty, mottled kitten, astray itself, followed her 
 home, on one of these occasions, and she stroked its 
 soft fur tenderly, when once inside the door, she said, 
 with a little pathetic smile : 
 
 " This is the first friend I have made in the city 
 and Annie, I really wish we could keep it, just for 
 company." 
 
 Their home was on the second floor of a small, but 
 well kept house, and consisted of three rooms, bed 
 room, sitting room, and kitchen. In an attic, their 
 remaining goods were bestowed, and there also, they 
 had contrived a comfortable lodging for the cheerful
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS" 269 
 
 widow ; for now that she felt herself so useful in the 
 family, she was correspondingly happy. 
 
 They rejoiced too, in a knowledge of the wanderer's 
 whereabouts, for letters had been exchanged, and the 
 fact that he still lived, gave hope and promise to the 
 future. Annie dwelt nightly over the prospect of his 
 return, at no distant day partly to beguile the hours 
 with Mrs. Belding, and partly also, as a never failing 
 source of cheer to her own heart, when "weary 
 a weary." Not as the lovelorn maiden "Marianna," 
 of a sickly, vaporing sentimentalism but because 
 every healthy fibre of her body really ached, from 
 patient and long continued toil. 
 
 Sometimes she brought her work home, and wrote 
 until a very late hour, that she might earn more of 
 the precious money. She did not wonder much that 
 there was such a head-long race for it, when she 
 reflected what it could buy. She really believed she 
 was growing mercenary herself, and confided this con 
 viction solemnly, to Mrs. Belding. " Not," she said, 
 "in hoarding, but in making." 
 
 Her work was always well done, and had been 
 commended by the united heads of the august firm, 
 which was especially gratifying. Yet the poor little 
 clerk was sometimes very far from being happy, even 
 under these improved conditions of life. She had her 
 own girlish trials which in their way seemed almost as 
 hard to bear as heavier ones. 
 
 Passing and repassing on her long walks she never 
 treated herself to a ride, unless when the rain absolute 
 ly poured the many pretty girls, who, like brilliant 
 butterflies, disported them in the sunshine ; she reflect-
 
 270 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 ed bitterly upon the more favored conditions of their 
 lives. 
 
 To make ones self not only presentable, but beauti 
 ful, without effort ; to walk without weariness, and 
 have plenty of friends ! Ah ! no wonder the tired, 
 plainly clad little maiden hurried shrinking away from 
 these bevies of careless girlhood, with a small sigh 
 at her own pinched, and poverty-laden existence. 
 
 She chafed under the necessity of wearing her old 
 black cashmere after the sleeves and shoulders, from 
 constant friction with chair and desk, became as she 
 said, "so shiny, one could see their face there." She 
 sponged it laboriously, at night, and carefully darned 
 each tiny break, wondering, with anxious scrutiny of 
 her work, " if any one could see it had been mended !" 
 
 It was her one comfort, that collar and cuffs were 
 immaculately clean, for good Mrs. McGarvy laun- 
 dried them until they shone; for "thank God!" 
 as the good soul often congratulated herself, "the 
 best on 'em wa'n't before her, in puttin' a fine polish to 
 the linen," and she was heard to further observe, with 
 a sort of family pride in ' our young leddy,' that " she 
 met loads of fine misses, dressed out bravely' in silks 
 an' satins, who didn't look half the real leddy, as did 
 Miss Annie." 
 
 Even Mrs. Belding, possibly from not having 
 much else to occupy her thoughts began to watch her 
 departure each morning, with a kind of maternal satis 
 faction, and wonder secretly that the dear child could 
 contrive to look so pretty, with so very little. She 
 even indulged in some ambitious dreams, respecting 
 the girls future. Annie was really almost as beautiful 
 as Alice had been at her age ; possibly some might
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 271 
 
 think her face more attractive. She wished in her 
 secret soul, that young Hastings would not make it in 
 his way to call quite so often as he did, evidently 
 considered it his sacred duty to do. He had been 
 kind, very kind, she acknowledged most gratefully ; 
 but he was not the sort of a young man she would, 
 under other circumstances, be proud to own as an 
 acquaintance. It annoyed her too, that he was becom 
 ing quite prominent in the daily press, through its con 
 stant notices of the meetings, and doings of the 
 Working Men's Association a source of notoriety 
 which she considered neither praiseworthy nor advan 
 tageous. 
 
 Perhaps these more recent views, respecting young 
 Hastings, for whom she had come to entertain a genuine 
 regard, were only temporary, and superinduced by the 
 old Adam of pride and ambition which, unregenerate 
 traits, had not been wholly expunged from her 
 chastened heart and from a very little shine and 
 shower, had sprung into a feeble existence. 
 
 She conceived the very absurd fancy, that the young 
 attorney was becoming attracted toward her protege. 
 Twice now, he had escorted her home ; once when 
 she had written a little beyond her time, and the night 
 had fallen early on that short November day ; and 
 again more recently, when he had, at her own request, 
 ' come in ' and " refreshed her memory most delight 
 fully," as she afterwards observed, "in respect to the 
 dignified address and polished conversation of the 
 thorough gentleman." 
 
 Annie blushed, conscious of the somewhat plebian 
 individual with whom she was secretly comparing 
 this fine and learned gentleman, but said nothing-^
 
 272 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 but whispered to her own heart, " he is not half so 
 good or true." 
 
 But Mrs. Belding went on dreaming, and weav 
 ing a pretty entanglement of love and romance 
 around the rather portly figure of the astute and 
 eligible young barrister. 
 
 That tender lingering of the eyes, on the sweet 
 face, had but one meaning to her ; and it could never 
 be counterfeited. And if by-and-bye, he became 
 conscious that he loved, what was to hinder his marry 
 ing Arthur Farnham's niece ? Annie was from a good 
 family none better and the fact of their present 
 reduced circmstances was nothing or at least of 
 small moment, in the light of her own judgment, and 
 inherent pride of birth. 
 
 How then, had she possessed the mysterious gift of 
 mind reading, would she have resented this prudent 
 soliloquy of the young attorney, as on the last of these 
 occasions, he cleared himself with rapid haste from the 
 villianous neighborhood. 
 
 "I must not do this again !" and, as the innocent 
 face rose up as it would persistently to his fancy, 
 plaintively appealing to a chivalrous pity, with which 
 in this instance he found himself magnanimously en 
 dowed, he added remorsefully : 
 
 " She might misconstrue my brotherly interest in her 
 welfare ; girls usually do ; though I have certainly 
 tried to make it plain, that she is to regard me only in 
 the light of an elderly protector. What would Mabel 
 and the girls say, if they should run across me in this 
 direction ? They would hunt that old house out 
 to-morrow !" 
 
 Thus Mr, Nathaniel Granger reflected, as he
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS. 273 
 
 hurried homeward one night, where he arrived in 
 time to swallow a late dinner, and find himself booked 
 for the opera, for which he possessed no genius or 
 appreciation. But there seemed never any escape 
 for him. 
 
 Beautiful girls, and plain girls, school friends 
 of his gay sisters, were always paying visits at the 
 house. They came from the four winds, and 
 expected to be escorted in as many directions. 
 There was no end of expensive amusements for this 
 class of nomads ; who, he opined, were all reconnoiter- 
 ing for the most eligible spot in which to fix their 
 future habitations. Beside these merry misses, he 
 patiently sat through opera and theater, and waltzed 
 with them through many an insipid dance, affecting a 
 grim gaiety, but always glad to sit down at his quiet 
 desk again, and delve into the less intricate, and more 
 remunerative business there. 
 
 He had been something of a traveller, and had 
 enjoyed so much of fashionable life as to leave him 
 without any particular enthusiasm for it. Along with 
 his researches into the more obstruse sciences, he had 
 made quite a specialty of the study of woman. This 
 unfortunately, from his point of observation, had left 
 him not perfectly happy as a marriageable bachelor. 
 He had always intended to marry when the time came 
 but after years of cool and deliberate investigation, 
 he was afraid of the experiment. 
 
 A woman's choice of a husband, according to the 
 misanthropic Granger, usually consisted in selecting 
 the largest prospective pile of finery for her use in 
 the future. 
 
 He was wise not to be deluded into making one or
 
 274 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 more of the oft recurring divorce cases with which in 
 his profession, he had enjoyed a satiety of acquaint 
 ance ; or scandals in high life, in which the modern 
 society papers abound. 
 
 And yet, marriage with a poor girl, without the pale 
 of fashionable life, was not to be thought of. He was 
 proud and particularly sensitive to the world's opinions 
 though aware they were not entitled to much respect. 
 Besides, there were economic considerations not to be 
 overlooked. He was the only son of his mother, and 
 she was a widow : a touching picture, as presented in 
 a sweet little Bible story ; but this one, in the light of 
 Mr. Nathaniel Granger's experience, was more directly 
 appealing to himself, as a responsible individual. His 
 mother was a fashionable widow, with two gay, 
 marriageable daughters ; exactly like the lilies which 
 toil not, neither do they spin : and yet Solomon, in all 
 all his glory was not arrayed like either one. 
 
 If these fine sisters suited themselves in the matri 
 monial market, possibly, he might venture to set up a 
 modern establishment of his own, on his handsome 
 income. Otherwise, he foresaw nothing in the future, 
 but long processions of "seasons" spent in every part 
 of the known world ; trunks filled with costumes 
 from Worth's and hats and bonnets from the Lord 
 knows where travelling far away down the future. 
 
 It was a tiresome world to make the best of it. He 
 almost wished himself a free and easy sort of savage, 
 away from the treadmill grind that only turned out 
 fashions and follies in endless, kaleidoscopic bewil 
 derment. 
 
 Sometimes, these thoughts introspective and per 
 spective would force themselves upon his attention
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS. 275 
 
 as he sat at his desk frowning over some obstruse 
 question of the law, and so absorbed that he did not 
 even raise his eyes at the rustle of a woman's dress 
 that passed him by though the grave, pre-occupied 
 lawyer had come in early, only to listen and wait for 
 that important event. 
 
 " But she must not know it : she might think herself 
 something to him, when the case was far different. 
 She must entertain no fancies about him." 
 
 Yet as he sat there coldly speculative, his eyes 
 would unconsciously wander away in the direction ot 
 a trim little figure, bending seriously over a hard 
 task ; and he would sometimes contrive to catch a faint 
 outline of a pale, sweet face, at which he continued 
 to gaze as long as it was visible, with a most unpater- 
 nal look in their admiring depths. 
 
 And then, perhaps upon some slight pretext of pro 
 tectorship, he would find himself breaking the law 
 as he had laid it down for the peace of mind of 
 another and accompanying Annie West in safety to 
 her obscure home. Then he could feast his eyes 
 upon her beauty, and listen and marvel at her artless 
 efforts to entertain him. 
 
 " She must be nineteen or twenty," he thought, 
 gazing half amusedly, half tenderly into her serious 
 eyes, "and yet, I know many a chit of fifteen far more 
 advanced in the science of coquetry. Wonder if she 
 has ever thought of the bare possibility " 
 
 At the door, Mrs. Belding wonld make her appear 
 ance, smartly clad and smiling, but ' no', he would not 
 call : he had thought it prudent to see Miss West 
 home ; there was such unusual excitement on the 
 street ; or he had an errand in this vicinity, and with
 
 276 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 one look at the young lady, he would retire precipi 
 tately, sighing as he turned away, and wondering, as 
 he studied the pavement before him, with thoughtful 
 eyes, how it was, that this sweet, child-woman 
 possessed such power to rest his tired spirit." 
 
 One day, as Mrs. Belding, after bestowing a linger 
 ing and most admiring glance upon his retreating 
 person, closed the door behind him, she said reflectively: 
 
 "What a striking difference there is, to be sure, 
 between your two male friends ! I don't know when 
 I have met anyone more pleasing in his address than 
 this Granger.'" 
 
 Annie looked at her wistfully. 
 
 " Your well-bred, easy-going man of the world 
 asserts himself so unconsciously," she continued 
 " such manners have a charm for me. I am sensitive 
 to the last degree to their influence. Now I can hardly 
 define what is amiss with young Hastings ; he always 
 impresses me as being a downright honest, intelligent 
 person ; neither too shy, nor too self-confident, and 
 yet " 
 
 " He wears coarse boots, and companies with 
 publicans and sinners," laughed Annie gleefully. 
 
 " Nonsense, child," returned the other, slightly 
 impatient at the imputation which indeed was too 
 true, not to carry a sharp edge." I hope my judge 
 ment is not affected by such considerations and I 
 really think, if superior age is entitled to any respect, 
 as implying superior wisdom, you might pay me some 
 deference in a matter of this kind. 
 
 "To be sure I do," replied Annie, with ready 
 obedience. 
 
 " And I tell you plainly that I have often thought
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 277 
 
 that young Hastings' frequent calls here are a disad 
 vantage to you," pursued the elder lady ; " he is 
 regarded as a sort of outlaw." 
 
 "So was St. Paul," declared Annie with flashing 
 eyes. The world is cruel to the very best men and 
 women in it. You don't know of half the good he is 
 doing among the poorer classes." 
 
 " Counselling them to insubordination, and uphold 
 ing them in it !" retorted Mrs. Belding sharply, " for 
 that is the way his services as President of the 
 Amalgamated Association are viewed by the better 
 classes : addressing the workman here and there, who 
 would be far better off at work, than listening to him." 
 
 "We have worked," replied Annie, "when we 
 might almost as well have been starving in idleness 
 for we were starving at work. He says there are 
 radical wrongs which must be combatted by earnest, 
 thoughtful, determined men. He says that labor and 
 capital are in antagonism all over the civilized world 
 and that the great battle for equal human rights 
 will be fought on American soil." 
 
 Mrs. Belding smiled skeptically at Annie's rapid 
 and somewhat heated defense of one, whom at heart, 
 she frowningly discountenanced. It was not altogether 
 that he held an office which had less of honor than 
 dishonor, as its chief emolument or that he was poor 
 and hopelessly identified with the vast brotherhood of 
 workingmen but she seemed to foresee that he 
 might stand like a rock, between her and her ambition. 
 
 " I see you are growing very profound under your 
 learned instructor," she replied at length. " He 
 enjoys superior advantages no doubt, for enlightening 
 himself and others upon these mighty questions with
 
 -jyS DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 which he is so greatly exercised ; and when he has 
 settled it all fairly for the nation, possibly he may find 
 his own personal and private interests specially ad 
 vanced. When that time comes," she said smilingly, 
 " I will consent for you to be his champion." 
 
 " He will not need me then, any more than he does 
 now," said Annie, sadly "but oh, Auntie, you do 
 him such injustice ! and I am sure we owe him some 
 little gratitude-" 
 
 " Of course ! of course ! assented Mrs. Belding, 
 "and I am sure I feel most kindly toward the young 
 man, only, my dear," she whispered, "I am not willing 
 to have you add any more tender feeling in payment of 
 the debt : that is all. He is well enough as a friend ; 
 or as man with a theory of some impracticable 
 sort to work out ; or, as a would-be reformer but 
 depend upon it, he would make the poorest kind of a 
 husband for any girl who would be foolish enough to 
 marry him !" 
 
 "Why Auntie! Did you suppose that / ever 
 even thought of him in that light ?" asked Annie, 
 covering her face with both hands in her blushing 
 confusion. " I would not be so bold, when he has 
 never asked me," she protested simply. 
 
 " Well, I confess," said Mrs. Belding quickly, " I 
 hope he may never be so bold as to ask you for 
 unfortunate as it would be for your own best interests 
 to which you appear to be stone blind Annie ! I can see 
 nothing improbable, or hazardous to Itim in the event." 
 
 Perhaps Annie did not fully comprehend the signi 
 ficance of this speech, or her guilelessness was too 
 transparent to cast a shadow ; but she wisely forebore 
 to answer it.
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 279 
 
 XIX. 
 OUT OF THE SHADOWS. 
 
 The events of a few weeks, which had followed 
 each other in swift and strange succession in the life 
 of Arthur Farnham, had as suddenly aroused him 
 from a state of morbid inaction, to one of earnest 
 thought, and tireless activity. 
 
 It was not that the possession of wealth had quick 
 ened his pulses into joyful beat ; or awakened in his 
 soul, even an echo of his earlier hopes. But it was a 
 subtle and mysterious presence that had sometimes 
 stolen into his lonlier hours, with patience for their 
 weariness, and balm for their aching ; and which now 
 seemed to intensify his capabilities for doing. 
 
 The change which had come over him, had been of 
 slow growth ; yet there came an hour, from which he 
 dated the beginning of a new life. 
 
 It was a night, when sitting alone in the private 
 parlor so lately occupied by another ; heedless of all 
 the comfort of his surroundings ; and feeling the 
 emptiness of the whole world, as he never felt it 
 before ; when, with head bowed low upon his palms, 
 and tears dropping silently down from his closed eyes, 
 he bemoaned the wealth that could never be riches 
 for him ; wealth, which once, he might have bartered 
 his soul to win but which only mocked him now. 
 
 'What use had lie for the poor dust that other 
 men so coveted ? She, for whose sake he would have
 
 280 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 toiled in its pursuit, was far beyond its talismanic power 
 to bless, or to blight. That golden head was lying 
 low in a nameless grave, and the gentle spirit had 
 entered into 'the Father's house of many mansions.' 
 He had no need of riches now : it had come too late 
 He loathed and spurned it." 
 
 " Could he go back now ?" he asked himself, 
 u freighted with all this treasure, to find only a 
 grave ?" 
 
 "Home!" He repeated the word with a sadly 
 lingering cadence. " There was no more any home 
 for him on earth. He might build a house for trie 
 friendless ; or endow some charitable institution with 
 this poor gold." 
 
 Thus, he sat pondering heedless of the passing 
 hours ; unconscious of the presence of a loving, 
 pitying spirit, that glided in upon his desolation from 
 some far starry height ; letting a stray beam from the 
 open doors of paradise fall across his darkened soul. 
 
 He felt the ray : it seemed to glow and glisten 
 through all his being ; melting and subduing a heart 
 that had been cold and hard, and sometimes defiant. 
 A strange, yearning tenderness came over him, 
 and he sobbed softly, gently as a child being hush 
 ed to repose. " Could, ah ! could this sweet, soothing 
 spirit be the "Holy Comforter" Himself, that now 
 came to him, in his solitude and sorrow, so lovingly ? 
 To him the doubter, the disbeliever? 
 
 In glad surprise he cried out with the once faith 
 less, the nevermore doubting disciple : " My Lord ! 
 and my God ?" 
 
 From that moment, his hitherto joyless eyes ; and 
 empty heart ; and entire purposeless being, turned
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 281 ' 
 
 toward " The Master" with a willing obedience and 
 love. 
 
 Life ifs purposes and pursuits appeared to him 
 in illuminated perspective. Perhaps to his chastened 
 vision, its brevity, and stupendous moment as affect 
 ing the eternity of the future was given to him now 
 as a faint reflex of the last view that earth would cast 
 upon his dying eyes, when about to quit its scenes 
 forever. Time could never hang idly on his hands 
 again; "the master had need of him." There was 
 joyful stimulus in the thought. His loving, levelling 
 spirit, was yet to find a temple in every heart ; and 
 affect all the intercourse and relations of man with 
 man ; until the kingdoms of this world, should become 
 the kingdom of God, and his Christ whose reign 
 would be 'righteousness.' 
 
 To go back to the land he had left behind him, and 
 work out the problem of life by this new method, 
 became the subject of his most serious thought, and 
 object of his highest ambition. Hitherto, he had 
 labored only for self : now, the gospel of a universal 
 brotherhood dawned upon his soul with a marvelous 
 significance. The life of the humble Nazarene, was 
 its truest exponent. Without such charity ; such 
 humility, and spirit of self-renunciation ; such sym 
 pathy with suffering ; what were all the the religions 
 of the ages, save shams and mockeries ? This was 
 what he came from Heaven to teach : a common 
 love for common humanity. What were creeds and 
 dogmas, compared to one living illustration of this 
 divine principle ? 
 
 What effect had sermons upon him ; compared with 
 the persuasive eloquence of Tom's poor life of simple
 
 282 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 faith, and human kinship ? He had been subject tD 
 a religious training, almost pharisaical in its severity, 
 and yet had become infidel in belief, and misanthropic 
 in practice. He had paid all due respect to church 
 observances : sitting unweariedly Sunday after Sunday, 
 through litany and prayer, and listening uncomplaingly 
 to the performances of trained choir, and the oratory 
 of learned divine : but never had the lowly life of the 
 Master so appealed to his heart and understanding as 
 now. 
 
 There were many laborers afield, toiling with heart 
 and soul, for the establishment of His kingdom. 
 Once they had been to him, as the small dust in 
 the balance, compared with the great ones of the 
 world : now he longed to join in the service, and be 
 found among even the humblest of these. 
 
 He addressed himself with all earnestness to the 
 the adjustment of the business, which had so unex 
 pectedly fallen into his hands. Fortunately an offer 
 for his share in the Quartz Mining Company, had 
 been made, and accepted, which seemed most auspic 
 ious ; as it facilitated his departure, by placing ample 
 means at his disposal. He therefore resolved to 
 return home without delay. 
 
 Having completed all necessary arrangements, for 
 the safe disposition of his remaining interests, he 
 issued an invitation to the workingmen of the town 
 and vicinity, to meet him at the hotel on the evening 
 of his departure. Also for the same night previous 
 to the gathering he proposed for himself, a tea drink 
 ing, at his friends Joe's. This humble house-holder 
 had not presumed upon such honored fellowship, since
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 283 
 
 "the Cap'an was now himself again," but was over 
 flowing with joy and welcome. 
 
 Tom Carley was there too. The self-invited 
 guest of the occasion, had, himself, supplied the table 
 with many a luxury unknown in all its previous 
 history. 
 
 Yet the supper was not quite a cheerful one. The 
 humble friends were more constrained in the presence 
 of this now, prosperous individual, than had been 
 their wont ; and Farnham's heart was full, and his 
 thoughts too deep to flow forth unreservedly. 
 
 " It's the last supper !" exclaimed Joe, suddenly, 
 with a burst of feeling, " an' I must say, it's powerful 
 sorry I feel though it's good luck too, that's takin' 
 you away Cap'an, as nobody rejoices in more." 
 
 He paused a moment, but as nobody offered an 
 interruption continued : 
 
 " It ain't so easy to part with friends, an' forget 'em; 
 and I want to ask you now, Cap'an Farnham, if ever 
 you come back to Stonington which of course you 
 will have to sometime, if you're spared ; to look after 
 the hotel an' things as is only leased ; why you'll 
 look us up ; wont you ? you'll remember us ?" 
 
 " I rather think so," Farnham replied, gravely ; fix 
 ing his eyes on the questioner as if contemplating 
 then and there, taking a life-size portrait of the shock 
 head, and broad, kindly face, looking now, like a big 
 tender-hearted boy's " and I trust I shall not have to 
 travel quite that distance to remember you." He 
 paused and after a moment, added in a voice, quite 
 broken and hoarse : 
 
 " Boys, I shall never forget you !" 
 
 A profound silence followed, in which Mrs. Marten,
 
 284 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 very much affected wiped her eyes a good deal, and 
 at last overcoming her weakness sufficiently, declared: 
 xJte would never forget him; never! an' she hoped if 
 ever he come their way ag'in ; he'ud feel free to put 
 up with 'em, as if 'twas hum. An' she would say too, 
 that if he ever were tuk with a fever, an' were that 
 bad, as he didn't know friend from foe, she begged 
 the previlege of nussin of him which she would say, 
 she had gone through, as ef he'd been her own. An* 
 she hoped too, he didn't lay up any little word she 
 might 'ave slung at him, when heated an' overdone,' 
 as she hinted upon extreme occasions she had 
 sometimes so degenerated, that she verily believed 
 'she wa'n't accountable for what she did." 
 
 " Oh, no !" he remembered nothing but kindness, 
 now. Kindness most unlocked for, and undeserved ; 
 that he had no right to expect : but that would be 
 remembered to his dying day." 
 
 "We hear of ' entertainin' of angels unbewares," 
 sobbed the poor woman, in response to this gallant 
 and courteous speech " but I know well, ef ever I 
 sot eyes on a angel in human flesh, Joe an' me have 
 been a housen one." 
 
 Farnham's face relaxed visibly, until its expression 
 seemed almost to mock the good woman's tears ; but 
 he said : 
 
 " I expect there is the material for a very good 
 angel, in every human being, born into the world ; if 
 it could be evolved from the grosser part." 
 
 " I guess there's a good deal besides angel in most 
 folks !" returned the lady, looking doubtful whether 
 she had quite comprehended, or answered properly. 
 
 And now the dessert was served ; and over the
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS*' 285 
 
 uncommon cheer, the friends grew chatty, and talked 
 of all that had passed during the months which had 
 seemed so long in their flight to one at least, since 
 he, the guest, had been amongst them. How many 
 times he had been given up to die of straits they 
 had been in, when game eluded pursuit ; and of all 
 the vicissitudes of pioneer life, which, if written out, 
 would fill a volume in itself. 
 
 " But Meester Voornam," Tom Carley hastened 
 to say his honest eyes shining through tears, over 
 these reminiscences of a common suffering pathetic 
 now, in the light of the coming separation "You 
 don't vorgets de Sabior, how He be wery goot in all 
 de troubles ?" 
 
 " Never !" cried Farnham, feelingly, " never ! my 
 good fellow." There was moisture in his own eyes, 
 as he stood up and grasped the hand of the dear old 
 German. "And I'll never forget you, and your 
 simple trustfulness in fair and foul weather. God 
 bless you! Tom Carley !" 
 
 Tom tried to speak, but could not for some 
 moments ; but stood pressing the proffered hand, 
 while a sudden joyful revelation, broke like sunlight, 
 over his face. 
 
 " You know him? 1 ' eh? Meester Voornam?" he 
 asked at last, with a smile of wonderful satisfaction. 
 
 "Yes, dear old Tom," replied Farnham, "I believe 
 I do." 
 
 Tom sank into a chair, and covered his poor old 
 childish face, and streaming eyes, with two rough 
 hands quite overcome by some intelligence, which 
 only he had been able to appreciate.
 
 286 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " De Sabior," he whispered, "He do pe ze von 
 frien', all same through ze journeys !" 
 
 "Yes ! yes, Tom !" 
 
 "Closer zen von brudder !" sobbed Tom. 
 
 The hour had come appointed for the meeting, 
 and Farnham purposely reserved until this time the 
 presentation to the two friends conjointly, of a deed 
 of some town lots, of which he had become the 
 possessor. 
 
 Joe's face flushed up, and he laid the paper down 
 upon the table, and said with injured dignity : 
 
 " Not that, Cap'an ! not that. We hain't done 
 nothin" o' no account ; an' we don't want any pay 
 leastwise o' that sort." 
 
 Farnham comprehended the thought, the poor fel 
 low had not quite expressed in words ; and hastened 
 to say : 
 
 " Nothing that I shall ever be able to do for you 
 boys, will pay the debt of love I owe you ; and which 
 I shall always bear toward you ; and through you, to 
 the whole brotherhood of man." 
 
 Mrs. Marten examined the discarded paper, with 
 eager scrutiny ; and though her face suddenly lighted 
 as if a candle had been placed behind it she broke 
 down completely, and began to sob, wiping her cheeks 
 with her apron. 
 
 Tom had not recovered sufficiently from his secret 
 thanksgiving, over " one sinner that repenteth" to 
 attach any significance to the scene whatever ; and 
 never knew, until Farnham was well on his way East, 
 that he poor Tom Carley was a ' mon o' means, 
 owning taxable property.' 
 
 And now Farnham shook hands, and bade adieu to
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 287 
 
 the weeping partner of poor Joe's life ; and the three 
 repaired with all haste to the hotel, leaving the excited 
 woman to her own devices. She immediately set 
 about securing the precious paper, among her most 
 valued relics, and took the way with a perceptible 
 accession of dignity, to the house of her bosom friend, 
 Sally Slack, with whom she had quarrelled only the 
 day before, telling her that : " Slack was her name, 
 and Slack her natur'." 
 
 "Now, however, she could not enjoy this good fortune 
 sufficiently, without the sight of her friend's discom 
 fiture : and therefore condescended to a dignified 
 truce, and accepted the woman's company upon an im 
 mediate reconnoitering expedition to the afore-men 
 tioned premises. 
 
 At the hotel, a crowd had assembled, of various 
 nationalties, who cheered vociferously when Captain 
 Farnham entered, but became quiet and orderly, when 
 he came forward and addressed them in a few brief, 
 feeling words : 
 
 He said ' he had no language to express what he 
 felt toward them. They had made his cause their 
 own, and risked everything to right him. They had 
 secured him more than his own ; but it would be spent 
 in the interest of the workingmeu, here and elsewhere. 
 He would endeavor to prove his gratitude by the 
 devotion of his restored life and liberty, to their 
 truest and best interests. 
 
 " But, while he pledged himself to them with the 
 affection of a brother, and the fealty of a liege-man ; 
 he assured them of his reverence for law and order, 
 and that whatever of good he might seek to secure, 
 must be through its purified channels.
 
 288 DRAFTED IN. A SEQUEL 
 
 " Every man in the nation, possessed his individual 
 fraction of power to redress abuses, if he would but 
 use it intelligently ; and there need be no riots, or 
 mob-laws, within the pale of civilization. 
 
 " He begged them, as a brother, to consider these 
 things ! He said there was not so much difference 
 between the members of the one great family of man 
 as was sometimes conceded : that the dissimilarity 
 was but the effect of circumstance and condition, 
 and that the antagonism of the classes would only be, 
 harmonized, when the true Christ-love, became a 
 living principle in the hearts of all men. 
 
 It was strange to himself, with what different feel 
 ings he now looked into these faces, upturned to his 
 from those he once possessed ! 
 
 Life itself, wore a truer, a tenderer aspect. 
 
 This narrow life, so bounded by mystery, was but 
 the ante-chamber to the eternal ; whose lofty doors 
 may swing backward to any one of us, on their silent 
 hinges without a ring of warning. 
 
 " He had a strange experience in his illness ; and 
 now that he trod the solid earth once more, he 
 could not rid himself of the impression, that he had 
 been down to the grave and up to the judgment, and 
 had listened to that awful accusation : 
 
 " I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat ! 
 Thirsty, and ye gave me no drink ; naked, and ye 
 clothed me not : sick and in prison, and ye visited me 
 not !" and when fainting at the rebuke, he had be 
 sought the judge to reconsider his inoffensive earthly 
 career, He had turned on him sad eyes, full of a 
 yearning regret, and said in pitying tones, that yet he 
 seemed to hear :
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS.' 289 
 
 " Inasmuch as ye did it not unto the least of these 
 my brethern, ye did it not unto me! " 
 
 " Is it true ?" he asked, " that we shall answer here 
 after, for the uses we have individually made of this 
 present life ? That on the very threshold of another 
 life, all the wrongs, the injuries and cruelties practiced 
 on our fellows here, will rise up to confront us, like 
 ghosts of murdered brothers ? 
 
 " Ah," he cried in tones of startling earnestness, 
 "this life was never given you and me, for purposes 
 of rapine and robbery ! for greed and gain ! It is the 
 elementary school for the training of angel spirits. It 
 is for discipline in the happy rule that governs 
 Heaven which, from its first principle, to its final 
 clause, is love ! 
 
 " And now, men and brothers !" he cried, with arms 
 extended towards them, in greeting, and farewell : 
 " My last affectionate words of persuasion shall be in 
 the inspired language of an apostle of the Lord : 
 "Fear God, and keep his commandments, which is 
 the whole duty of man." 
 
 " The site for a town hall, and also a sum of money 
 toward its erection, belongs to you ; and to your 
 children after you as this paper " he said, waving 
 one toward them will tell you. When built, let it be 
 named " Memorial Hall"; and may it be the rallying 
 place, on many a joyful occasion throughout your 
 lives : a place too, where you may often meet to 
 strengthen each other's hands, and encourage each 
 other's hearts, in every honest effort to make the 
 world the better, that you have lived in it ! Heaven 
 bless you ! one and all ; and farewell!" 
 
 He passed out through the crowd ; which sat spell-
 
 2QO DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 bound by the earnestness of his appeal, and quite 
 unconscious that he was indeed leaving them. The 
 thunder of an approaching train was heard ! The 
 engine sent forth its piercing call : and a moment 
 later, Captain Farnham, satchel in hand, had boarded 
 the halting train ; and standing on the platform, with 
 uncovered head, waved his parting adieu to the 
 throng there hurriedly assembled until he was lost 
 to sight.
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 291 
 
 XX. 
 INTO THE SUNSHINE. 
 
 Several months have flown quickly by, since a mem 
 orable day, when Mrs. Belding, having been summoned 
 to the door, took in her trembling fingers a telegram, 
 which her frightened heart told her, announced the 
 death of the absent one. She could not open it 
 giddy and faint, she could only fumble absently in her 
 pocket for the money, which seemed always in 
 demand. 
 
 But Annie West, coming up at the moment just 
 returned from her day at the office ; took it from her, 
 and opening it pale, and scarcely less excited than 
 herself, read aloud these words : 
 
 "Shall be home to-night \" "Arthur Farnham." 
 Then the two rushed into each other's arms, and cried 
 there, like foolish, and unreasonable children. They 
 became hysterical in their joy and laughed and cried 
 together, as if undecided which were the correct thing. 
 
 Even when he had dropped down into their very 
 midst from some distant shadowy world and they 
 had clasped him round, with glad, loving arms, and 
 knew in truth that he was flesh and blood, there before 
 them, and not a dim spectre, moving farther and far 
 ther away ; it had still been problematical. 
 
 ' He was so changed ; how could they help weeping 
 over him ?'
 
 292 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 Age had settled down upon his head, like a hoar 
 frost in autumn, silvering the raven locks and beard, 
 and touching his face once so readily kindled into 
 smiles with a serious immobility of expression, that 
 somehow reminded them of the calm that settles on 
 the face of the dead. 
 
 But he was here, really here with them ! The sight 
 of his tall form, and the touch of his hands, gladdened 
 them. Care in the past, and anxiety for the future, 
 seemed to fall away, as if it had never been. They 
 even made a joke of their poverty, and laughed at the 
 meanness of their surroundings ; then cried again at 
 sight of the sunken, hungry eyes, tnat seemed as if 
 searching for another welcome. 
 
 All this, was only a memory now. Time had swept 
 on beyond it, and Mrs. Belding scarcely liked to refer 
 to those dismal scenes. The little rooms which shel 
 tered them through wretched days and nights, were 
 ignored ; and she refused to drive on Bleak Street, 
 because it made her lonely. 
 
 They took rooms at the Spafford House, immedi 
 ately after Mr. Farnham's return, that they might rest, 
 and recuperate, as he said, while he looked about him 
 a little, before deciding upon his future course. 
 
 And how thoroughly restful that life had been, after 
 all their work and weariness ! With ease and comfort 
 came friends too ; and the days brightened more and 
 more. 
 
 Mr. Granger, whom Mrs. Belding had ascertained to 
 be highly eligible, and of solid respectability, also con 
 tinued his attentions ; he had no cause to blush now 
 if discovered by any chance acquaintance, entering or
 
 TO " THE BREADWINNERS. 293 
 
 leaving the handsome private parlor of " his friend at 
 the Spafford." 
 
 He even waxed gallant ; making not the most dis 
 tant a illusion to disparity of years, or elder brotherly 
 interest, and became at length, the young lady's es 
 cort to the opera, or any other places that promised 
 entertainment of a rational kind, for which he de 
 veloped a sudden fondness. 
 
 Mrs. Belding looked on, smiling and satisfied. She 
 chatted with the dowagers, in which this popular 
 house abounded, and chaperoned her pretty protege 
 here and there, with much secret pride and vast eclat. 
 She found comfort too, in thinking that she was not 
 herself, an old woman. That rest and good cheer, 
 were softening the outlines of her face, and smoothing 
 out some of the deep lines, which told too plainly, 
 secrets of her poor life, that were better kept. 
 
 She became interested, once more, in the latest styles 
 for bonnets, and the most recherche modes and ma 
 terials for dress, and even indulged in the anticipation 
 of foreign travel, in company with a party who were to 
 sail in the delightful month of June. Mr. Granger, 
 and mother, with whom she had become acquainted, 
 were to be of the number, and many others, equally 
 agreeable. She had told Arthur it was desirable that 
 Annie should go, as she had never been abroad. 
 
 Young Hastings had discontinued his visits to them, 
 since they had left the old neighborhood, for which 
 Mrs. Belding could not be too thankful. The ac 
 quaintance of such a person would be greatly to Annie's 
 disadvantage, now, at least, whatever it might have 
 been once ; and she fondly believed Annie did not
 
 294 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 herself, regret his absence. She never mentioned his 
 name, or seemed to miss him. 
 
 True, she sometimes went to see his mother, but 
 it was usually when she knew him to be away on 
 some of his official duties. It had been at her sug 
 gestion too, that the little lame girl was being in 
 structed in vocal music, by one of the most competent 
 professors in the city. 
 
 That was as it should be. They ought to make 
 suitable returns tor past kindnesses; and this was a 
 sort of compromise between gratitude and charity. 
 
 Mr. Farnham, who had been much exercised, in re 
 gard to a choice of business, had decided to engage in 
 some manufacturing interest, in which he could em 
 ploy laborers at a small percentage of profit, on the 
 capital invested ; and he now spent a good deal of 
 time in a patient, and careful investigation of the 
 business industries, in and about this great central 
 workshop of the country. 
 
 On all sides he was met with the same legend from 
 employers; "there was no profit under the sun " in 
 anything King Solomon's very experience, thousands 
 of years before ! Could the policy of that Ancient 
 Nation, have been analogous to our own ? He 
 reflected that it was probable and judging from the 
 lavish expenditure of gold in the public service, he 
 concluded that the dear people of that ancient time 
 had also been sufficiently protected from a monopoly of 
 the dangerous "root !" 
 
 The modern markets of the world were glutted with 
 an over-production of every article which goes to 
 make up the sum total, of human comfort : and yet, 
 men begged, and starved, and suicided, in sight of
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS 295 
 
 plenty. There was an over-production of the finest 
 grain in the West ; and an over-production of coal and 
 iron, and steel in the Middle States ; and an over-pro 
 duction of paupers in the East augmented by daily 
 consignments from the vast emporiums of the effete 
 monarchies of the Old World ; and yet there were no 
 statesmen great enough and g 1 od enough to utilize 
 these God-given blessings, for the benefaction of the 
 world's poor and the development of the world's 
 wealth. A few great corporations prospered and grew 
 disproportionately rich ; while the fermenting masses 
 grew hungry, and stolid, and riotous. 
 
 On 'the Hill/ as elsewhere, great excitement and 
 disaffection prevailed. Besides existing evils, the heirs 
 had appealed to the law, for a just and equitable 
 division of the estate of Solomon Fox, deceased ; and 
 the exasperating ' case ' was dragging its slow length 
 along, through lower and higher court to the great 
 scandal, and annoyance of the redoubtable Christo 
 pher. It was observed, that he ate less and drank 
 more, during this anxious and exciting time, than ever 
 before. 
 
 To drown his impatience while waiting for a de 
 cision, which it seemed would never be reached, he 
 hurled himself into the wild excitement of a sporting 
 life, and followed the races from one city to another, 
 betting heavily, and winning, and losing in about equal 
 proportions. One day, his valet, who carried his 
 purse, was knocked down and robbed ; whereupon the 
 sports were renounced, and the Fox returned to the Hill. 
 
 The loss had been considerable, and necessitated an 
 immediate reduction of the workmen's wages. This 
 resulted in a strike.
 
 296 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 He at once contracted for laborers beyond the seas ; 
 but when they arrived, he found to his chagrin, that 
 they were utterly incapable of taking the places of the 
 trained workmen. Here was a dilemma! The former had 
 been evicted from their homes, and had gone forth 
 Heaven only knew where ! but probably to add their 
 poor quota to swell the sensational items of the daily 
 press of murders and suicides ; and what now was 
 he to do ? He consulted with a middle man, who, for 
 the small consideration of three thousand dollars, en 
 gaged to take these men off his hands, and furnish 
 him with competent help. 
 
 It seemed an extortionate sum, but Mr. Fox felt 
 almost comforted in closing with the demand for it 
 enabled him to triumph over his men. Those in the 
 mines were also clamoring for an advance of twenty 
 cents per ton of coal above the seventy being given 
 them ; and he conceived the humane notion of turn 
 ing them all adrift, and for an additional consideration, 
 stipulating for a fresh relay of men to work the 
 mines. 
 
 All these changes had been carried into effect , a 
 strong guard of police was detailed, to protect the 
 foreign force at their work ; and yet like the poor 
 remorseful Czar of the Russias this man enjoyed not 
 one moment of secure repose. His nightly dreams 
 were of riots and blood-shed, and conflagrations, of 
 sacked houses, and scattered treasures. 
 
 Often with the perspiration breaking over him in 
 beaded drops, he would summon his wife from her 
 sleep beside him, to listen to the wind, sweeping 
 through the orchard trees, thinking it the tramp of 
 maddened men.
 
 TO. "THE BREAD WINNERS. 297 
 
 " I see," said he, on one of these occasions, " that 
 Farnham is back again ; he was on the balcony of 
 the Spafford to-day, looking quite as if he owrwd the 
 place." 
 
 He flung himself over in the bed, in an angry, im 
 patient way, and added : 
 
 " I'll take that cut of him yet ! or my name's not 
 Fox !" 
 
 " Pshaw !" you'll do no such thing !" retorted the 
 lady, " or why did'nt you do it, at the time ; if you 
 calculated to do it all ? 
 
 The husband made no answer, and after a moment 
 she added : 
 
 " I have always been ashamed of you, to think of 
 the way you allowed those odious people to run over 
 us." 
 
 " Perhaps," suggested the husband, "you would 
 like to take up the quarrel yourself ?" 
 
 " I would not get the worst of it, if I did!" replied 
 the amiable woman, " you may be sure of that ! " 
 
 A long silence followed. 
 
 " What's the use of your being so disagreeable, 
 anyway ?" inquired the disconsolate Fox, at last. 
 " Haven't I trouble enough without your trying to 
 add anything to it ?" 
 
 "You know very well," replied the wife, " that I am 
 not trying to do anything of the sort : but those 
 people vex me so ! I lose all patience when I think 
 of them ! I expect he has come back with money." 
 
 " I don't know what I can do about it, if he has !" 
 replied the husband, irritably. "But what is your 
 reason for thinking so ? I should sooner look for
 
 298 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 him to skip, when he runs up a nice little bill at the 
 Spafford. 
 
 " Well, then you'll be disappointed ?" declared the 
 lady. " You say I like to annoy you ; but I knew 
 they were at the Spafford, before you went off to the 
 races, and I wouldn't mention it to you : and I know 
 a great deal more besides. That high-stepping 
 woman, is taken into the best society, without a thing 
 to recommend her, and Miss Annie is developing into 
 a finished coquette they say and leads that young 
 Granger (the woman hater, they call him), and half a 
 dozen others about, in the easiest manner possible." 
 
 " Nothing to her credit, I should say !" observed 
 the virtuous Fox. 
 
 " Well, what aggravates me most," declared the wife, 
 " is, they are to sail with that party the Silvertons 
 and Donithornes, and all that clique for Europe, on 
 the Sixteenth." 
 
 " Well ?" 
 
 " It is really exasperating in you, to answer me in 
 that way !" said the lady angrily. 
 
 " I don't know how to please you then," returned 
 the unfortunate husband "shall I say less or more?" 
 
 " You might say that you had promised we should 
 go back there ourselves, long before this " almost 
 sobbed the unhappy woman. " And here we are, 
 plodding about on this hill, and not the most distant 
 prospect of our getting away." 
 
 " Iliere you are wrong!" objected the husband, 
 "there is a strong probability of our getting away 
 from here though not so far as to Europe." 
 
 "What do you mean? I want to know" inquired 
 the lady quickly.
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 299 
 
 " I mean if you must go to the bottom of it," he 
 replied harshly, " that my affairs here are in a devil of 
 a muss ;" and he turned away abruptly, and would 
 not condescend to more words. 
 
 One day, as Arthur Farnham was walking rapidly 
 down South street, he met, and passed young Hast 
 ings on his way. It was not the first time, by many, 
 since his return ; for there was quite a friendship 
 established between them but occupied with his own 
 thoughts, he was hurrying on, with only a smiling 
 recognition of the eyes a touch of the hat, and a 
 wave of the hand when the other suddenly turned 
 back, and in a hesitating manner, begged leave to 
 join him in his walk : as he had something particular 
 that he wished to say to him that is, if he had time 
 to listen. 
 
 Farnham assured him that he had both leisure, and 
 interest, for whatever he had to communicate, and 
 taking his arm, they walked on together. 
 
 The blood mounted to young Hastings' face he 
 evidently labored under some embarrassment, and 
 much excitement of some hidden sort. 
 
 " Well ?" queried Farnham, breaking the silence, in 
 friendly encouragement. 
 
 " I want to trouble you with a little affair of my 
 own, and ask your advice in the matter ; if I may ?" 
 
 " Certainly ! certainly !" was Farnham's assuring 
 reply. 
 
 Paul paused, and then with a kind of dismal 
 courage, he announced : 
 
 "The fact is, Mr. Farnham, I am a patent-right 
 man !" 
 
 Their eyes met in a dubious smile.
 
 300 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " With this little difference," he hastened to explain 
 " I have spent a good deal of time and labor over 
 an invention, and another fellow has secured the 
 patent ; and commenced the manufacture of my 
 machines." He continued to smile though his 
 breath came quick, and his cheek blanched percepti 
 bly as he spoke. 
 
 " That changes your position a trifle, certainly," 
 returned Farnham "as a patentee whose-so-ever the 
 ' right" may be. But tell me how this has come about ? 
 one should guard an invention, as they would a pile 
 of gold dust." 
 
 " It came about in this way : I completed my 
 model, and having no means of securing a patent, or 
 manufacturing the machines afterward, I tried to in 
 terest a capitalist in the new invention. It was a 
 simple method of generating and adapting steam to 
 many practical uses, which had long been sought, in 
 vain. Mine was harnessed to a plow. It worked like 
 a charm ! It will tear up the soil like a young earth 
 quake ! This man seemed greatly interested, and 
 promised to put in money, against my idea, and we 
 were to share equally in the profits. But he kept de 
 laying, on some pretext or other, applying for the 
 patent, and when I got home last week, after spending 
 some time in the valley mines, I found this man 
 (Ketchum he owns the large machine works on 
 South street) had become the patentee of my idea, 
 with the merest fraction of change, and was manu 
 facturing and advertising my invention in the most 
 industrious manner." 
 
 " Never trust a man with such a suggestive name !" 
 laughed Farnham. " But can you bring any proof,"
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 3<DJ 
 
 he asked seriously, " that he made use of your idea?" 
 
 "Plenty of it !" replied Hastings eagerly. 
 
 "We'll fight it out with him then !" declared Farn- 
 ham decidedly. We'll see if treachery will always 
 thrive. I will consult a good lawyer, and see it 
 through." 
 
 Hastings grasped his hand, and looked for an 
 instant as if he were going to speak but abandoned 
 the effort. 
 
 He was overwhelmed with surprise. Advice was 
 all that he had sought for even that, he had hesita 
 ted to ask but these words were so utterly unexpect 
 ed so new was the idea of help, in his hard-condi 
 tioned life, that he stood there, quite helpless before 
 the proffered offer. 
 
 A few moments later they separated with a fervent 
 hand-shaking, and as Farnham walked on, tingling 
 with interest, and eager to begin the contest ; he said 
 to himself : 
 
 " I had rather see this poor fellow righted ; than to 
 take my seat in the legislature !" and as he felt his 
 anger kindling against the wrong doer he said 
 audibly : 
 
 " Let me right some of these abuses of power : it 
 will do more good in the world than writing sermons 
 on 'the effect of the Christian religion on modern 
 civilization.' It is plain to my comprehension, that it 
 hasn't half the effect that it should or would have, if 
 there were less talking and more doing." 
 
 The result of this chance meeting was that 
 Granger was retained as counsel ; and perhaps 
 stimulated by the interest Captain Farnham exhibited, 
 he espoused the righteous cause with great enthusiasm,
 
 302 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 and heroic persistence ; and won Annie's brightest 
 smiles, when he achieved the overthrow and confusion 
 of the fraudulent usurper ; confiscating some of his 
 hoarded wealth, and re-instating Paul Hastings in 
 the undisputed possession of his beloved invention. 
 
 Then Farnham completed the good work, by a little 
 timely help, and rented a room with power, suitable, 
 for manufacturing purposes ; where the hopeful young 
 machinist, immediately threw himself heart and soul 
 into a business of his own, which though compara 
 tively insignificant in the beginning ; was like the 
 flow of a rivulet from some hidden spring destined 
 in its onward course, to overthrow many a time 
 honored tradition of the fathers, sweeping on in the 
 wake of progress.
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 303 
 
 XXI. 
 A PEEP AT FOREIGN LANDS. 
 
 Crossing the ocean has become a matter of small 
 moment to most traveling Americans; and many of 
 our people are as familiar with Naples, and the Eternal 
 City, as with our own New York and Philadelphia. 
 
 But to Annie West a sea voyage, was a thrilling and 
 marvelous adventure. 
 
 The sixteenth of June the day on which our party 
 sailed was that cloudless summer-time, when earth 
 and air, and sky, are full of a soft and sensuous 
 beauty, presenting a picture whose charms linger in 
 the memory, like the songs of one's youth. 
 
 The sight of old Ocean, green, and vast, and vague 
 an eternity of waters was to Annie's thought, worth 
 years of life. Her joy was like that of a bird, when 
 it first cleaves the upper air. 
 
 She had never known in her narrow life what her 
 capabilities for enjoyment were. Now she felt the 
 influence of all this wealth of beauty and sublimity, 
 sweeping over her even as a harp is swept by a 
 master's touch, and her soul was filled with rich 
 harmonies. 
 
 God had been good to her her hard, barren life 
 was blossoming like the rose, and taking on hues 
 fairer than the rainbow. It seemed like some fairy 
 dream, Only such a little time ago, and she, was in,
 
 304 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 that dreary place, stitching away from sunrise till the 
 long hours struck again at night, to earn the simplest 
 fare with no hope that anything could ever happen 
 to break the monotony. Now, if she were too uncon- 
 ventially happy, only those who have known as little 
 of joy in their lives, can understand, or sympathize 
 with her rightly. 
 
 The change from care and want, to peace and 
 plenty ; from a narrow, niggardly existence, to one 
 generous in boundless possibilities, had been more 
 swift with her than that which markes the transition of 
 a creeping worm which excites only pity to the bril 
 liant-winged butterfly, which, without effort gladdens 
 every eye. And notwithstanding the damaging testi 
 mony of Mrs. Christopher Fox, she was as innocent 
 of coquetry, as this same bit of wandering rainbow. 
 
 Many a dowager of the party it was composed 
 mainly of the senior element, who could boast much 
 of Ocean travel while looking on the radiant face of 
 the youthful enthusiast felt a sense of personal loss, as 
 missing some wine of life, that age had swallowed up. 
 
 Mrs. fielding too, was quietly happy. Chatting 
 with ladies under an awning on deck in the pleasant 
 mornings and evenings, or resting and refreshing her 
 self in the cabin. The change in her life was almost 
 as marvelous but A 'ice was left behind and what 
 wonder that Annie sometimes surprised her, weeping 
 in her state-room alone ? 
 
 Then she remembered that she had a mission to 
 fulfill. Before leaving home it was a grave question 
 to decide where her duty lay, but her Uncle decided it 
 for her ' She must take the place of the lost one to 
 the desolate mother."
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 305 
 
 So Annie West had kissed his grave face, tearfully, 
 and secretly resolved to divide her attention between 
 the two. She had kept a diary of each day's life for 
 his especal delectation, writing of everything she 
 thought might have interest for him, and sending 
 bulky letters home, by almost every trans-Atlantic 
 mail. 
 
 Sometimes with an intention to amuse, she described 
 the people about her, with a dash of merry criticism, 
 always harmless and good-natured. 
 
 Here is an extract from one of these letters, written 
 the fourth day out : 
 
 " In our exile from the rest of the world, we have 
 settled down into one large, and quite affectionate 
 party, of whom Judge Loring is the pater -families. 
 
 He comes forth each morning, alert and smiling, 
 like a general reviewing his troops, with some spright 
 ly bon-mot for the elders, and always an affectionate, 
 grand-fatherly pat of the head for each young girl of 
 the party, among whom he sometimes includes me. 
 He is a merry old man, with keen, but kindly gray 
 eyes but Mrs. Judge is youthful and stately as if all 
 the dignity of the office were supported by her pro 
 bably, but for this burden, she might be cheerful with 
 the rest. 
 
 They are all on deck now watching the sunset, 
 except Mrs. Bragg the larger half of a large dealer 
 in coal and iron who sits here in the cabin as I write, 
 and tells me " that she would have went only that 
 it don't pay her to climb the stairs for such a common 
 sight." 
 
 I look at her broad face, furbelowed dress, and big 
 diamonds, saying way down in my heart, " if this be
 
 306 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 the ultimatum of riches, please God let me never be 
 rich !" 
 
 Here Mr. Granger comes down, and tells me I am 
 losing a glorious sight. He says my Uncle will never 
 thank me for wasting such grand opportunities in 
 gossip to him ; but I will make him wait while I tell 
 you that he is courteous enough to say he votes jour 
 nal writing, and journal reading, a waste of time 
 though he appears to long for nothing so much as a 
 little peep into mine." 
 
 But our object is not to describe sea-voyaging, or 
 sight-seeing beyond it. The little party of whom we 
 are writing, followed mostly in the wake of the other 
 tourists, who, for the greater part, return home with 
 a larger accession of weariness than wisdom, accumu 
 lated during the few hurried weeks spent in a surfeit 
 of sight-seeing abroad. 
 
 Mrs. Belding watched from day to day, and week 
 to week, the gradual unfolding of her pretty romance : 
 sometimes almost certain of a happy ending, and 
 again, impatient at some fancied delay in the expect 
 ed denoument. 
 
 It was apparent to the least observing, that the 
 handsome barrister devoted himself assiduously to the 
 entertainment of her fair protege, when ever his atten- 
 dence was not claimed by his somewhat exacting 
 mamma. It was also observed, that this little Miss, 
 from being the merriest of the merry, became at times, 
 timidly silent, and seemed to shrink from the atten 
 tions of her persistent admirer. 
 
 Mrs. Belding felt a flame of resentment toward 
 Annie at this stupid lack of perspicacity. Her one
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 307 
 
 distinct object in life, seemed, for the time, to have 
 resolved itself into seeing the girl eligibly settled. 
 
 To this end, she had secured the frindship of Mrs. 
 Granger a cold, passionless woman, whom otherwise 
 she would not have troubled herself to propitiate 
 and had been at no end of pains to soothe and interest 
 her, when discontented and fault-finding at some of 
 the unavoidable discomforts of travel. 
 
 Under these circumstances, she considered herself 
 rather ill-used by the poor return with which her 
 efforts seemed likely to be rewarded. 
 
 They are stopping for a few days at a rustic village 
 in Switzerland, where the majesty of the overhanging 
 mountains, especially commended itself to the amateur 
 artists of the party who amused themselves for hours 
 each day, sketching them from every point of obser 
 vation, and leaving at last the rude grandeur of 
 untamed nature, none the less regal, by their puny 
 efforts to belittle it. 
 
 Such a party went straggling forth from their com 
 modious inn, one fine morning toward the end of July ; 
 and Mrs. Belding seated high upon a pleasant balcony 
 of the same, watching furtively the disposition of the 
 group as they went their several ways was comforted 
 to see the two her heart felt most interested in, go 
 sauntering away, side by side. She followed them 
 with her eyes, and with her thoughts as they strolled 
 along now beside the chattering brook, and now 
 over the moss covered stone bridge, until they had 
 taken their positions for sketching a little beyond it. 
 
 She took up a book, of ' The Seaside Library 
 series' lying conveniently near and made a pretence 
 of reading. It was one which the romantic Mrs.
 
 308 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 Bragg had for several days been devouring with most 
 persistent and unappeasable avidity probably in an 
 effort to relax her intellectual forces from the too 
 severe strain, to which they had. been subjected here 
 tofore. 
 
 It was all about a series of juvenile flirtations, the 
 remarkable history of which had been kindly contri 
 buted by a brilliant foreign literateur, for the harm 
 less nourishment of such elephantine dowagers. The 
 baby coquette told her own amorous adventures, and 
 distinctively hinted, that in pink or blue, she was just 
 too lovely for any sublunary use. 
 
 No sooner had Mrs. Belding availed herself of this 
 literary treasure, than Judge Loring came out, looking 
 for a shady place in which to read his newspaper. 
 
 She ignored the volume, by laying it upon the 
 window ledge : he immediately took it up, and open 
 ing it at random read : 
 
 ' What dear little, round, babyish arms !' 'and then 
 stooping to kiss them, each in turn, 'they might 
 belong to a mere child.' 
 
 ' His eyes travel all over my pretty gown my slip 
 pers, and my disordered hair 
 
 ' His grace the duke ' 
 
 ' The lady Margaret, and Lady Blanche ' 
 
 " Bah !" said he, throwing it down impatiently, 
 " what do we want of a re-hash of such unmitigated 
 nonsense as this ? It is a brilliant foreign production 
 I discover, republished in our own land. Now Mrs. 
 Belding," he continued dropping as was his habit 
 into an argumentative mood, as he smoothed his 
 newspaper out before him " is there any reason that 
 we, Americans, should be deficient in a grade of
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS 309 
 
 intellect, sufficiently astute to produce literature enough 
 of this sort, for the nourishment of our little ones 
 if such a diet be considered advisable without im 
 porting this stuff from abroad ?" 
 
 " If so, possibly our infant intellect may yet attain to 
 the state of excellence required," replied the lady, 
 smiling. 
 
 "No," said he decidedly, 'our American genius, 
 (save the mark !) is not encouraged to waste time in 
 stringing together these platitudes. Such is the 
 fostering spirit of our government, which deals so 
 magnanimously in the protection of home industry, 
 that if this trash were produced there, it would for 
 tunately never see daylight." 
 
 He took up his paper, and looked it over for a few 
 moments, and then said, with a little wintry smile : 
 
 " If one can put faith in the newspapers, our people 
 at home, have succeeded in the discovery of a pair of 
 opposing candidates for the Presidency, of about the 
 same shade of character a wise settlement probably 
 of the old dispute between the " pot and the kettle " 
 not particulary gratifying to the national vanity, when 
 one happens to get a little beyond its peculiar civiliza 
 tion." 
 
 " Oh ! oh !" he laughed, a moment later ; here is 
 something that comes a little nearer home ; he read : 
 
 "'Paul Hastings: the people's choice!'" 
 
 " Last night, at a large and enthusiastic open-air 
 meeting, Paul Hastings was unanimously nominated 
 to represent the forty-fifth district, in the State Legis 
 lature. He rose to decline, but it was useless he was 
 chosen almost by acclamation. Afterward he thanked 
 them for the honor conferred, in a few, well-chosen
 
 310 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 words, but said they must remember, during the ap 
 proaching contest, that his conduct would be regulated 
 by the obsolete prejudice, that office should seek the 
 man, and not the man the office and consequently, he 
 should not enter the field, as a champion of any pro 
 fession whatever pugilist or pedestrian, tourist or 
 orator, gift-distributor, or bribery-monger. If he were 
 fairly elected, he would serve the people as fairly, if 
 within his power ; but he would not stoop to buy an 
 office, if all the gold of California lay at his feet, un 
 claimed." 
 
 " Hurrah for Hastings !" ejaculated the old Judge 
 "That is a ring of the true metal ! and he'll go in 
 strong mark what I tell you ! Mrs. Belding, I will go 
 home in time to vote for him myself ; it really gives 
 one a little interest in the outcome, wnen such men are 
 to be voted for but it goes against the grain, to help 
 any of these hungry fellows into office. You women 
 may be thankful, that it is not your business to do it." 
 
 Here Mrs. Bragg came out, looking very fresh, and 
 very fluffy, in a cool, and much be-flounced muslin : 
 her round eyes and full-moon face, reminding Mrs. 
 Belding of the truthfulness of Annie's comment, who 
 once said, " that she seemed an infant of some mam 
 moth period of time, accidentally fallen into ours." 
 
 She crossed her fat hands, and looking mischievously 
 at each, "hoped she had not interrupted a tete-a-tete." 
 
 Judge Loring resumed the reading of his paper, with 
 as much abstraction as if an answer were not a thing 
 to be considered ; and Mrs. Belding politely signified 
 that she was a welcome intruder. 
 
 The juvenile seated herself with her book, "begging 
 pardon," she said sweetly "for being so absorbed
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 311 
 
 but really she had just got to such an exciting place 
 that she must know how it came out the first wife has 
 just come, you know ! such a scene !" and here the 
 round eyes began to travel back and forth, across the 
 pages with a momentarily accelerated speed. 
 
 Mrs. Belding resumed her lace-work, stealing occa 
 sional glances at the pair in the distance ; and counting 
 with pleased eyes, "one, two, three, four," as she ran 
 the smoth floss into the meshes her thoughts mean 
 while, weaving many a silken thread into the meshes 
 of their future lives. 
 
 Down by that low-lying field, bounding a noisy 
 mountain stream, the two worked on industriously. 
 Granger sketched the rugged and bare outlines of the 
 giant Alps, with its crest of snow ; while the girl con 
 tented herself with a view of a peasant's cot pretty 
 and picturesque clinging near its base for protection 
 end shelter, great bowlders projecting above its thatch, 
 and vines creeping to the eaves. 
 
 The quaint details of this picture, interested her as 
 much as if she had been a skilled artist. There was 
 a rude mill, a little higher up, from whose great wheel 
 turning lazily around, the waters came tumbling and 
 frolicking down, as if merry to escape from toil : 
 there were goats feeding in the distance, and a tidy 
 peasant woman hanging out a line of linen, that 
 gleamed white and pure in the morning sunshine. 
 
 The masculine artist, impatient perhaps at his small 
 success, stole noiselessly up behind the fallen log upon 
 which his fair companion was seated, and looking 
 over her shoulder, watched clandestinely the progress 
 of her work. 
 
 " How deft the little fingers are !" he thought, as
 
 312 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 all unconscious of observation, they worked steadily 
 on. The pretty picture was developing into a poem, 
 to his thoughts a pastoral pure and bright as the 
 angels. " How blest could he be in such a spot, with 
 this dear little maiden, who his fancy suggested, 
 would complete the Arcadia ! What a charm his dry 
 and sordid life might put on, in such an atmos 
 phere ! He had become a cynic in the past : but it 
 was not after all, that the world was not wide, and 
 grand, and glorions ; but that human life was mostly 
 narrow, and mean, and driveling. To be an established 
 lawyer, in a great, dusty, wrangling town, had at this 
 radiant moment no fascination for him. He longed 
 to grasp the small hand, holding the fairy wand, and 
 press it to his lips. He wondered, looking down 
 upon her bowed head, " if any one had ever filled it 
 with vanity, by telling her how pretty, and shapely it 
 was ! 
 
 " What color would her hair be called ? He had 
 never seen any other hair exactly like it. Burnished 
 gold, where the sun touched it, it lay in a brown and 
 silken knot, upon her fair, firm neck. 
 
 " Had she just a spice of coquetry in her innocent 
 heart, that she sometimes avoided him ? Yes ! it must 
 be so : woman would not be woman, without it." 
 
 It was a comforting solution to his vanity, of some 
 thing in their intercourse, incomprehensible, other 
 wise. 
 
 She must admire him ; even if her heart remained 
 untouched by his gracious and gallant attention. 
 Every lady of correct taste, did him that homage 
 spontaneously. He was perplexed, by her seeming 
 indifference to his excellence.
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 313 
 
 It was not an insurmountable objection to him, that 
 she had been poor he even condoned the offense to 
 his pride that she had been a clerk in his employ. His 
 mother too, with the blue blood of the Potiphers in 
 her veins, was giving her tardy assent to his choice. 
 What time therefore, could more propitious than this, 
 for making known to her whom it so nearly concern 
 ed his carefully weighed, mature, and deliberate 
 decision ? 
 
 The young girl turned suddenly, startled and 
 
 blushing. 
 
 " Could it be, that she was already in such sympathy 
 with him, as thus to answer his thoughts ?" 
 
 He laughed musically, and it was echoed back from 
 the mocking sunshine somewhere between the earth 
 and sky. 
 
 " Pardon, Miss West !" he cried gaily " I did not 
 mean to be a spy upon you : I hoped and expected 
 every minute you would look around, with a friendly 
 thought for my welfare : bnt alas ! you have been 
 quite indifferent no Adam, it seems, is needed in 
 your paradise !" 
 
 " Oh yes !" she returned, looking at him a moment 
 curiously " that would be a decided addition would 
 you please go away far enough to look picturesque ; 
 and I will sketch you in. But let me see ! " she 
 reflected, " you must wander off, leaning upon a crook 
 and wearing a peasants jacket !" 
 
 She laughed with most provoking levity, at this 
 fancy sketch of him and he added : 
 
 " In fact, become a shepherd to these goats ?" 
 
 " It would be lovely in a landscape !"
 
 314 . DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " Then you must be the peasant maiden !" he con 
 ditioned. 
 
 " She is already sketched a much more imposing 
 figure, you see, Mr. Granger." 
 
 " Then I positively decline to serve in the capacity 
 of shepherd !" he declared, seating himself beside 
 her, " and prefer remaining here, to wandering away 
 with a crook, and a picturesque costume ; though it 
 were to furnish you celebrity as an artist. But I did 
 have a serious thought," he confessed, looking quite 
 pathetically into her laughing brown eyes that life 
 might be quite quite endurable, you know, in 
 such a spot with one like you to love." 
 
 " Like me ?" the smile faded slowly from her face, 
 and her lips quivered slightly. 
 
 "Why not like you 'gentle Annie?'" he asked 
 earnestly, trying to take possession of one dainty hand. 
 " Haven't you seen all along, that / was loving you 
 desperately ?" 
 
 She drew her hand away, and turned her agitated 
 face from him. 
 
 He smiled, mentally apostrophizing : " The dear 
 little prude !" but folding his arms resignedly, he con 
 tinued in a low, earnest voice : 
 
 "Have you not seen it almost from the first 
 moment we met ? Why, the very rustle of your 
 dress, used to thrill me, in those old, delightful days, 
 when I could watch you, unobserved ; and feared 
 every time our eyes met, mine would betray me." 
 
 " What did you fear to betray, that has lost its terror 
 now ?" asked Annie West' still turuing resolutely 
 away. 
 
 The astute lawyer opened his fine eyes very wide ;
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS. 31^ 
 
 and arched his brows, with an exaggerated expression 
 of surprise, and covert amusement. 
 
 " Really, Miss West," he pleaded, "your cross- 
 questioning, has so much of legal directness in it, 
 that I cannot help thinking what an acquisition such 
 a help-mate would be to one in my profession." 
 
 She did not respond to this sally of forensic wit 
 and he continued more seriously in fact, with a touch 
 of pathos in his voice : 
 
 " I am now nearly eight and thirty years old ; and 
 I confess to you, my dear girl, that until I met you, I 
 never truly loved a woman. I was even censorious 
 toward the sex ; believing it utterly heartless ; intrigu 
 ing, and mercenary ; but," said he, dropping his voice 
 to a fond whisper, and again attempting to take her 
 hand, " through my love for you, little Annie, I am 
 becoming hourly more tender toward their very 
 faults." 
 
 " I am like the rest," she said, smiling faintly in his 
 direction. 
 
 " As heartless and mercenary ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " I will trust you, since you confess so frankly." 
 
 "I could not trust myself," she murmured. 
 
 " Not trust yourself Annie ! not with me ?" his voice 
 was low and persuasive. 
 
 She turned and looked at him : something in her 
 brown eyes arrested his speech for a moment. They 
 were unimpassioned and grave. The man of the 
 world was puzzled, and slightly disturbed. 
 
 " Tell me Annie, what you distrust ?" 
 
 " There was a time " she began, and then sudden 
 ly paused.
 
 316 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 " When friends were fewer ?" he asked. 
 
 The clear-sighted lawyer flinched a little, as he put 
 this question. 
 
 For reply, she raised her eyes to his, full of the 
 memory of those days. 
 
 " And you doubt my professions now, because not 
 avowed in the earlier days of our acquaintance ?" he 
 asked coloring, despite his age and habit of self- 
 repression. 
 
 "These are your questions," said she, rising sud 
 denly "why ask them ?" 
 
 " Because you do me a great wrong !" 
 
 Annie was silent ; She stood before him her eyes 
 apparently studying the turf at her feet. 
 
 "Have you nothing else to say to me?" he asked 
 a note of true feeling in his voice " is love like 
 mine unworthy of you my little friend ?" 
 
 She looked up at his white face, and was touched 
 with a grave compassion. 
 
 " I will be a sister to you !" she whispered, "that 
 is what you wished long ago." 
 
 " Yes, long ago" looking into her eyes with a pas 
 sionate fondness "but that is all changed now: I 
 felt an elder-brotherly tenderness for you then now 
 I love, as only a strong nature is capable of loving : 
 you cannot have been blind to my hopes in regard to 
 you ?" 
 
 Annie longed to escape from the scene ; and began 
 gathering up her drawing materials, which had fallen 
 to the ground with excited looks and nervous fingers. 
 In her fluttering heart she wondered if she had been 
 to blame for this proud man's hopes ; and if she had 
 really been guilty of trifling with an honest affection
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 317 
 
 because of an over- weening conceit ? If so, it was 
 certainly not pleasant for her now, to witness the white 
 wretchedness of his face. 
 
 He sat watching her his arms folded ; his eyes 
 glowing dark and intense in their earnestness. 
 
 " Are you going to run away from me ?" he asked 
 presently. 
 
 She paused, and looked up real distress pictured 
 in her face. 
 
 " You are not so cold and cruel, as you would have 
 me believe," he exclaimed eagerly, opening his arms, 
 and stretching them toward her. " You will cultivate 
 a little love for me a wintry old bachelor, and we 
 will wed one of these bright days, when we are home 
 again ; and 'be happy forever after.' " 
 
 Annie shook her head faintly, as she turned away 
 in the direction of the house. 
 
 Granger sprang to his feet, and was at her side in 
 a moment ; but during the long, sauntering walk 
 homeward, the puzzled barrister became convinced, 
 that, however paradoxical it seemed, the gentle firm 
 ness of the girl at his side, in declining his honorabie 
 suit, had not a touch of coquetry in it ; and yet 
 neither his pride nor passion would suffer him to 
 despair. 
 
 Later in the day, the young lady, seated on the 
 balcony with only Mrs. Belding, was hastily and 
 eagerly scanning the home paper, left in the Judge's 
 vacant chair. 
 
 Suddenly her eyes lighted up, and her whole face 
 glowed like the heart of a rose. 
 
 "She has found it?" was the elder woman's
 
 318 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 thought, who was slily and curiously watching the 
 effect of certain intelligence contained therein, " and 
 she will marry that political demagogue, in preference 
 to an honorable gentleman. We might as well have 
 staid at home !"
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 319 
 
 XXII. 
 FREAKS OF FORTUNE. 
 
 The public sale of the estate owned and occupied 
 by the late Solomon Fox, together with his brother 
 Christopher Fox, was advertised to take place on 
 the morning of the second day of September 188 
 
 In the course of the legal investigation, which had 
 been instituted in the behalf of the rightful owner 
 ship of this property, a curious fact had come to 
 light. 
 
 A deed, executed and attested by the will and 
 hand of John Jasper Raymond, father of the present 
 Charles I. Raymond, had been found on record, 
 which conveyed all the said property to the latter, 
 who was named as the sole, and only legatee. 
 
 Captain Farnham, becoming possessed of this 
 knowledge, resolved to pay a visit to the actual owner, 
 residing still in his native city. 
 
 He was meditating the purchase of this property, and 
 establishing a business, to be conducted upon his own 
 ideas of humanity and justice, enlightened, as he 
 trusted, by the spirit of the gospel of love. 
 
 Accordingly, one day toward the end of August, 
 after ten hours ride by rail, he stood dusty and weary, 
 before the door of a fine, substantial house on Decker 
 Street, of that familiar town pulling the silver hand 
 led bell, with a strange feeling of having just awakened 
 from a sleep of years.
 
 320 DRAFTED TN, A SEQUEL 
 
 The door was opened by a starched and shining 
 black, whom he questioned as to the present where 
 abouts of the owner. The gentleman of color scruti 
 nized the fresh arrival, with grave, but intelligent 
 perspicacity. 
 
 Apparently satisfied with his investigation, he delib 
 erated a moment, profoundly, and then replied : 
 
 " Dat Gentl'am Sir, is not in at de present time; 
 but I 'spect ef you come back in de course ob half an 
 hour, you can see him." 
 
 " Is Mrs. Raymond in ?" inquired Farnham, who 
 did not relish thus being summarily dismissed, by the 
 dignified servant. 
 
 " I rather link so," he replied with dubious hospi 
 tality, " will you walk in ?" 
 
 He was ushered into the parlor a smart and 
 fashionable room and the servant went reluctantly 
 in quest of the lady, armed with the visitor's card. 
 
 In a few moments he was back again, and announced : 
 
 " De lady is not in too but ef you've no 'bjection 
 t'wait, why it's most time for the Boss to come." 
 
 He had just delivered this courteous speech with a 
 profound bow, aud retired from the room, when the 
 door bell rang again this time with a quick and 
 merry emphasis, and the courtly servant, advancing 
 with funereal gravity, admitted a very beautiful and 
 tastefully dressed lady, in the person of Mrs. Charles 
 I. Raymond. 
 
 The servant informed her of the guest, and she im 
 mediately appeared in the parlor door, bowing, and 
 faintly smiling a welcome to the stranger waiting within 
 
 Mr. Farnham rose, and advancing a step, said with 
 an easy inclination toward her ;
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 321 
 
 " My name is Farnham. Have I the pleasure of 
 meeting Mrs. Raymond, the wife of my old friend ?" 
 
 The lady bowed assent, slightly extending a daintly 
 gloved hand ; but the smile faded perceptibly, and" 
 her cheeks suddenly vied with the peony, in richness 
 of coloring. 
 
 " I ran up from Ironton, on a little matter of busi 
 ness with him," he hastily explained, "and if you will 
 be so kind as to ask him to meet me at the National, 
 anytime this evening, or to-morrow morning, I shall 
 be indebted to you." 
 
 "He will be in soon, returned Mrs. Raymond, in 
 rather a constrained voice, "will you not wait here' 
 for him ?" 
 
 He sank back into a chair, with a curiously puzzled 
 expression, in his deep-set eyes ; and the lady hastily 
 retired to her own room, to lay aside her gloves, and 
 peer with a quaking heart, into her tell-tale glass, 
 which seemed to confirm her worst suspicions, and 
 mock with those crimson blushes her own painful 
 self-consciousness. 
 
 ' What a goose I am !" she said at last, scrutinizing 
 herself still more closely, / must be changed too ! 
 Of course I am ! its seven or eight years ! They say 
 there ain't a single particle of us left the same in that 
 time and I'am sure there ain't a morsel of him left, 
 but just his eyes. I should know them I guess ! But no 
 mortal would have dreamed that was Captain Fa r n- 
 ham, without his own name and title pinned on to 
 him somewhere. 
 
 " I'll just go down and be myself!" she said, bath-" 
 ing her face hurriedly, to cool the flaming red, which
 
 322 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 she detested as vulgar : " I'm sure of one thing ! / 
 haven't got as old and ugly as he has." 
 
 There was something of triumph in her eyes, as she 
 made this sudden resolve and she went on adorning 
 herself in various little coquettish ways, and soliloqu 
 izing : 
 
 "Why he looks actually like an old ghost, walking 
 the earth to scare his murderers ! or like the ghost 
 of his great grandfather !" 
 
 She smiled at her own peerless reflection, as she 
 brushed out her fluffy bangs in a most becoming 
 style, and fastened some soft lace at her throat with a 
 long, dagger-like diamond pin. She wore a dress of 
 some soft shade, like the leaf of the mullein, which 
 fitted her like a glove ; and a boquet of pink roses at 
 her waist. 
 
 "He would never think of finding me in such a 
 home as this!" she mused "and only for something, 
 I wouldn't a bit mind his knowing who I am." 
 
 Left alone, Mr. Farnham soliloquized emphatically : 
 
 " That is she ! I should know her, if I had met 
 her in New Zealand ! The same bold, bright eyes ! 
 the same perfect outline of form and feature ! the 
 same dazzling, flower-beauty without fragrance of 
 soul ! Well-a-day ! my fair admirer ! Failure did not 
 dishearten thee ! Thy faith was great, that such a 
 paradise as this, somewhere waited on thy charms ! 
 Poor Raymond ! He is a capital fellow, and deserves 
 a better fate. 
 
 This is truly unfortunate : I must decline all hospi 
 talities, and take myself back to my inn. She must 
 never detect a single beam of recognition in my eyes,
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 323 
 
 as if I saw in her the poor, ignorant and ambitious 
 child, who made a desperate venture and lost." 
 
 He would not embarrass her for the world, with 
 a knowledge of his own consciousness of her short 
 comings. He hoped she was wiser now to his more 
 generous thought, there were some things to be con 
 sidered into her history, which justly claimed more of 
 pity, than of blame. 
 
 She had received a sufficient amount of education, 
 in the schools, to render stolid ignorance distasteful. 
 How could he censure her for that ? It was the 
 privilege of every free-born American, to lift himself 
 up in the scale of existence. Some of our wiser 
 statesmen and even presidents, had once been poor, 
 bare-footed boys ; and some of the very noblest, 
 women, of this, or any other age, were lowly born. 
 It was the fault of the books in the circulating library, 
 which had cultivated romance, rather than reason, 
 and had made her poor ambition a dream, in place of 
 a Deity. 
 
 After all, was she not more honest, and scarcely less 
 vulgar, than those more cultivated maidens, who bait 
 with false charms, the matrimonial hook, and patiently 
 angle for the weightiest fish ? 
 
 Ten minutes passed : the lady had not returned, 
 and Mr. Raymond still delayed his coming. To the 
 servant, patrolling the hall, at that moment, Mr. 
 Farnham made known his decision to go ; and that 
 functionary, prudently forbearing to remonstrate, he 
 quietly departed. 
 
 In the evening he was visited at the hotel, by his 
 friend Raymond, with whom he enjoyed a long, and 
 confidential interview. He could hardly refuse his
 
 324 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 pressing, and hospitatable offers "to take good care 
 care of him, while in the city," and almost stretched 
 his conscience beyond rebound, to furnish reasons for 
 declining. 
 
 They discussed the Foxburg enterprise exhaustive 
 ly, and Raymond took much blame to himself for that 
 (to Farnham) most disastrous affair : but pleaded that 
 he had erred through ignorance not otherwise. 
 
 Farnham gave an account of his life there, from its 
 inception, to its end ; and when he came to the 
 thrashing of Fox, Raymond laughed until his friend 
 became seriously alarmed for his safety : he grew so 
 apopletic in the face, and got into such a difficulty of 
 coughing and breaking out afresh, with convulsive 
 glee, as made it seem quite imminent. 
 
 "Come home with me !" again he urged, when he 
 he had sufficiently recovered himself ' I want you to 
 tell this story to my wife. " I declare," said he, 
 laughing again, "I haven't enjoyed anything like this 
 visit in fifty years !" 
 
 " Well," declared Farnham, smiling complacently 
 over his bit of reminisence, " I have never doubted 
 the righteousnes of that punishment, but the poor 
 man seems to be getting rather more than an enemy, 
 even could have wished him, from all I hear." 
 
 * Yes," mused Raymond, sobering suddenly, " I am 
 sorry for them up there ! Son's dead, you know ! 
 Alfred Higgabottom what was his name ?" 
 
 Farnham had not heard of this. 
 
 "Oh yes," said Raymond, "he died a couple 
 of months ago : crazed with drink blew his own 
 brains out." 
 
 The men looked into each other's eyes, with a kind
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 325 
 
 of helpless horror, and after a little, Raymond con 
 tinued : 
 
 " Yes, they have to thank what they term " our best 
 society for that ending. Alfred was a bright boy 
 but he inherited a love of stimulants, and it was fos 
 tered aud developed in high life high he repeated 
 contemptously, in the same sense that we apply to 
 the poor, staggering wretch, who pitches into the 
 gutter, and lies there in his filth and degradation 
 one is shielded from the honest scorn of respec 
 table people ; and the other left exposed to it. Why 
 Farnham, I have forbidden my wife to accept invi 
 tations to suppers and receptions where wines are 
 drunk. Some of these gatherings are most demoral 
 izing spectacles. Dante wrote the Inferno, but his 
 imagination would have been greatly assisted by 
 witnessing some of these scenes. Talk about class 
 distinctions ! If some of this class could be properly 
 dealt with, they would be sent to the inebriate asylum 
 forthwith ; if not for their own good, for the sake 
 of the youth, whom they are leading down to destruc 
 tion. 
 
 I fear Alfred has been going to the bad for the last 
 two years ; they gave him all the money he wanted^, 
 spend ; and he spent it for them until there seemed 
 nothing more that he cared to do with it ; and fie 
 died I suppose, to get a change. 
 
 Then his daughter named for all the queens, has 
 excelled every one of them, I believe in some of her ex 
 ploits. She has twice eloped, during her foreign educa 
 tional term these little episodes probably emphasizing 
 her graduation in some branches of learning : but as 
 neither of her heroes were considered eligible parties
 
 326 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 to a marriage the young lady, was reclaimed, and 
 has since made her grand debut, as one of the 'buds 
 of society,' on this side of the water." 
 
 "'Give me neither poverty nor riches,' is a pretty 
 sensible prayer yet," half soliloquized Farnham. 
 
 "No doubt," assented the other, "though as far as 
 my observation goes, not satisfactory when literally 
 answered. Poor Chris ! He will jump from one 
 extreme to the other, and never know an intermediate 
 state illustrating forcibly both the ' prince ' and the 
 'pauper.' 
 
 " Will he be so much reduced ?" inquired Farnham. 
 
 " I am afraid so. The estate is heavily encumbered 
 with debts : of course you understand it is to be 
 sold ?" 
 
 This was the precise point of interest to Farnham ; 
 and here followed a long and earnest conversation, 
 which, being purely of a business character, will not 
 be transcribed : only the outcome is important 
 here. The two decided at last upon a joint owner 
 ship of ' The Hill ' property at least until Farnham 
 was able to pay the remaining half of the purchase 
 money. This was an ambition a contingency of the 
 future, which he had yet to hope for ; and Raymond, 
 from early and bitter associations, coveted no share in 
 its possession. The amount paid on the present 
 contract would settle all claims on the estate, and 
 Farnham would take immediate possession, and con 
 tinue the business, as first projected : the plan had 
 been a good one its failure only due to accidents, 
 mismanagement and waste. 
 
 " Poor Fox had three expensive vices : he was
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 327 
 
 intemperate, a sporting-man, and a gambler," sighed 
 Raymond. 
 
 " I shall have to father him, in a certain sense," he 
 continued, "and I tell you it will be like throwing 
 money into a well ! Not a cheerful prospect ; is it ?" 
 
 " Have papers of ejectment been served upon him 
 yet ?" asked Farnham, who seemed especially anxious 
 to rid the Hill of his presence. 
 
 " Oh yes ? that is all right. I took that precaution," 
 replied Raymond, " when the deed was unearthed 
 That was a nice little game the Foxes played on me 9" 
 
 It was late, and he had risen to go, but a sudden 
 ebulition of feeling, called forth by this allusion 
 set him in motion about the room which he traveled 
 up and down for several minutes, in an elephantine 
 way, looking good-naturedly injured, at the recollec 
 tion. 
 
 "Well," said he recovering himself, " I must be off ! 
 See you again in the morning ! meanwhile, I wish you 
 joy of the enterprise ! But I tell you, I wouldn't run 
 those coal mines let alone the building, buying, and 
 selling for all it's worth. The management of one 
 business is enough to furnish a victim for the mad 
 house ; men going on a strike every third day ; 
 operators throwing up their contracts ; and bank 
 officials absconding with your money : I wash my 
 hands of any more of it." 
 
 " It was twelve o'clock when he reached home, but 
 he found Maude still sitting up for him. She met 
 him at the door, and said pettishly : 
 
 " Well, I expect you've had an awfully pleasant 
 evening, when it's lasted 'till this time !" 
 
 "Yes I have, that's a fact!" the recreant spouse
 
 328 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 declared proceeding to kiss the pouting lips, in the 
 old lover-like way. " Farnham's a trump card, I can 
 tell you !" and he looked vastly amused. " You saw 
 him, didn't you ?" 
 
 " Yes : but I didn't see that he looked so much 
 smarter than other people, for my part." 
 
 "Well, he is good stuff all the way through!" 
 decided the husband, "but you didn't like our staying 
 at the hotel : now did you ? but you see," he explain 
 ed, " Farnham thought it wasn't just the thing to 
 bring the business here a little fastidious, you know 
 and poor fellow ! his w*fe is dead too : I was 
 astonished to hear that ! Did you think to ask after 
 his folks ?" 
 
 The pretty wife confessed to a slip of the memory, 
 in that connection, adding : 
 
 " And he looks more than half dead himself !" 
 
 " That's a fact ! that's a fact !" declared Raymond, 
 " and expect he is just half dead, and laid away ; 
 but he keeps up pretty good heart yet, and seems 
 quite his old self again, after all." 
 
 "He's probably looking 'round for another wife to 
 bury," suggested Maude. 
 
 " No, I guess that's not his errand this time," said 
 the husband, "he has quite another bee in his bonnet. 
 I am afraid he is a little visionary ; but it seems he's 
 been investing in a new kind of religion, that he 
 means to bring bear on the working-men. We had a 
 a long talk. He wants the property on the Hill." 
 
 " Can he pay for it ?" asked the sharp and prudent 
 wife. 
 
 "You would trust a. philanthropist, wouldn't you ?" 
 
 " Not much ! replied the experienced woman, of
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS." 329 
 
 missionary zeal, "and I'd ask him a good price too. 
 Do you know Charley, you are fearfully easy with 
 people ?" 
 
 " Well, I guess I am puss !" laughed the husband, 
 enjoying the thought of his young wife's thrift, " but 
 what's the difference ? we are rich enough, and can 
 afford to be easy ; can't we ?" 
 
 " I don't know, I'm sure," returned the wife "but 
 I do know of a good many things that / want, and 
 can't get." 
 
 "Well, make out your list in the morning," was the 
 comfortable response, "and I'll have it attended to." 
 
 " I shall begin with a new house ; and all new fur 
 niture," declared the petted wife. 
 
 That's enough to sleep on ?" said the husband, who 
 had just flung himself into bed, and was wrapping 
 his immensity of weariness around, preparing to for 
 get for a little time " the world and the flesh," at least. 
 " That is enough to sleep on !"
 
 330 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 HEROES OF PROGRESS. 
 
 ' The Hasting's Steam Plow' was not advertised at 
 first, as extensively as it deserved, advertising costs 
 money ! It often happens that the best articles of use 
 and merit, are very slow in coming to the front, be 
 cause of the absence of this needful commodity. 
 And thus it happened that the machine over which 
 young Hastings had spent so much time and toil, and 
 perplexing thought, had a still-birth, notwithstanding 
 the gigantic proportions it was destined to attain. 
 
 But the sturdy inventor worked on, with faith and 
 patience and heroic zeal, and a self immolation on the 
 rack of toil, which might have won a martyr's crown 
 if ever awarded such lowly human service. 
 
 At last he was actually engaged in the manufacture 
 (in a small way) of his wonderful machines ; and no 
 fond father, over the birth of his first-born son, ever 
 rejoiced more rapturously than he, when the first child 
 of his brain had been evolved from the chaos of non- 
 existence, and stood in all the perfection of delicate 
 mechanism before him, 
 
 Polishing it affectionately as was his manner of 
 petting it and placing it in the best light the room 
 afforded : he proceeded to make the slender appoint 
 ments of his place as orderly and business-like as 
 possible, then hastened to fetch his mother down to 
 share with him in the triumph.
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 331 
 
 Night had come too soon upon the happy day that 
 witnessed this ceremony insignificant to all the world, 
 save to the two eager ones who viewed it ; yet the 
 unveiling of no colossal statue was ever hailed by 
 waiting multitudes, with more of real joy. 
 
 Mrs. Hastings sat in the darkness of the strange 
 place, which in her heart, she was dedicating to Paul's 
 honorable vocation with as much fervor as priest or 
 bishop, a temple of worship while he hastily pro 
 cured a penny candle, by the light of which he 
 explained to her its wonderful mechanism. The 
 mother tried with all her faculties of mind, to under 
 stand clearly the construction and workings of the 
 mysterious little monster ; but feared in her secret 
 soul that she did not. She polished her spectacles 
 and looked sharply where ever Paul told her to look, 
 as he proceeded in his lucid, but eager unraveling of 
 the principles involved she listened to his happy 
 voice, and admired the strange brilliancy of his dark 
 eyes ; and became thoroughly satisfied that her son's 
 machine would prove a marvellous success. However 
 it may detract from her mechanical wisdom, or clear 
 sighted judgment in the matter it must be confessed 
 her faith was the largest factor in her weighty and 
 wise decision, " the substance of things hoped for ; the 
 evidence of things not seen !" 
 
 We will not here forestall the proud inventor, by 
 giving a description of his original creation, as it stood 
 before them, a grand and materialized thought. He 
 is to give an exhibition of it himself at the next 
 "World's Fair" when its merits will be impartially 
 tested. A trial was given a few days later, before a 
 small company of judges, on the tough yellow soil of
 
 332 DRAFTED TN, A SEQUEL 
 
 ' The Hill' where his first inspiration was received, 
 and it was pronounced an unqualified success. 
 
 But this was not the season for plowing, but reap 
 ing ; and poor Hastings, who had sown only ideas, 
 harvested no equivalent for their value. He had 
 received a small amount, as damages for the stealing 
 of his patent, but that had been all expended in home 
 necessities, and the prospect began to look cheerless. 
 His manufacturing was all outlay, and no income. 
 The small allowance received from the ' working- 
 men's union was scarcely sufficient to defray the ex 
 penses incurred in their service : still he labored 
 on with a blind zeal : faint and weary often, both from 
 insufficient food and inadequate rest. 
 
 Farnham had called several times at his little work 
 shop to note progress ; and one day, seeing five of his 
 machines in a shining state of completeness, without 
 a purchaser, prospective or otherwise, he asked 
 suddenly : 
 
 "What are you going to do with them, Hastings?" 
 
 The young man paused in his work and looked up, 
 smiling rather dubiously as he replied : 
 
 " Have them ready for the fall plowing !" 
 
 " It is coming on," assented the guest, with a quiz 
 zical look at the indefatigable worker, and he went 
 away, planning a surprise for the young man, whose 
 courage and industry, were alike, indomitable. 
 
 The next day, some timely notices of the invention 
 appeared in the newspapers, challenging an investiga 
 tion of its merits, by the most competent judges ; to 
 gether with a brief history of the difficulties which 
 had been met, and overcome, as to the rightful 
 claimant and originator of the ideas involved.
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS 333 
 
 This created an interest in both inventor, and in 
 vention, and Paul suddenly found his workshop quite 
 besieged with curious visitors. These were not 
 altogether of the unremunerative sort, for buyers also 
 became plentiful more than could be supplied with 
 his limited facilities for manufacturing, and his patron 
 advised securing more room and a corps of workmen 
 and thus ' The Hasting's Steam Plow' became a 
 necessity of modern civilization. 
 
 Paul was a hero in his mother's eyes, which were 
 almost idolotrous in their admiration of him, and she 
 found it needful to wage many a battle with the old 
 Adam of pride whom, she feared, had taken up his 
 permanent abode in her sinfully happy heart. 
 
 Following these events had come Paul's honorable 
 nomination to the State Legislature, of which our 
 friends over the sea had received intelligence. Whether 
 in this, Farnham had been accessory, or not, it is 
 certain that in the election, that followed, he had 
 entered into the contest with a zeal and enthusiasm, 
 never accorded political matters before. 
 
 It was, he felt the battle of right against might : 
 David against Goliah. The honest patriot, against 
 the powerful giant of greed. The conflict was sharp 
 and strong. Hastings' opponent harangued the multi 
 tude with loud-mouthed volubility on every popular 
 issue ; freely pledging his loyalty and devotion to the 
 workingman's cause, while it was an open secret, that 
 he had reduced his own workmen, in mine and manu 
 factory, to starvation wages ; also, he sounded his 
 warning protest against ' extravagance in the adminis 
 tration of the government,' while spending incalcuable 
 sums to carry his own election.
 
 334 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 On every hand, throughout the exciting Presidential 
 Campaign, Farnham was reminded of the political 
 creed of Briggs. ' Money was power ; influence ; and 
 virtually, qualification for office.' Yet there were 
 righteous statesmen in legislative halls more perhaps 
 than Sodom and Gomorrah could boast and America, 
 once the home of the oppressed and beloved of 
 Heaven, might yet escape the wrathful elements of 
 destruction. Christian men must not shun the situa 
 tion : ministers of the gospel of good will toward 
 men, must not ignore it. It was imperative, he thought 
 upon every honest man of the nation, to unite in one, 
 grand, overwhelming onslaught upon the political 
 usurpers of its democratic institutions. They must 
 defy the panoplied giants encased in armor of gold, 
 and steel, and iron : seek out their weakest, most un 
 protected point which he opined was still to be found 
 in the forehead and with a pebble of truth and in 
 the name of the Lord God of Israel, fell the towering 
 Philistines to the earth. When the people became 
 thoroughly aroused to the vital interests at stake 
 monopoly, and rings, and riots, he prophesied, would 
 each, have had its day. 
 
 He was now established in the ownership and 
 occupancy of the Hill property the former inhabi 
 tants having at some time, unknown to him, " silently 
 folded their tents, and stolen away ;" their mysterious 
 disappearence forcibly reminding him of the wise 
 man's observations respecting the same class thousands 
 of years before : " I have seen the wicked in great 
 power, spreading himself like a green bay tree ; yet 
 he passed away : lo ! I sought him, but he could not 
 be found."
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS." 335 
 
 XXIV. 
 A PROSPECTIVE WEDDING. 
 
 Paul Hastings was striding homeward by the hill 
 road, deliberating earnestly upon an important 
 question of social ethics. The returned tourists had 
 just taken possession of their new home the reno 
 vated, and rehabilitated Fox Mansion over which 
 the happy Mrs. McGarvy was in future to preside as 
 housekeeper. The question he was so earnestly 
 revolving in his mind was, would this evening be 
 impertinently soon to pay his respects there ? He 
 feared it might be thought so, and yet, was it his 
 present good fortune that lent wings to his impatience 
 to see Annie West again ? Only a few months ago, 
 he had sturdily resolved never to dream of her more. 
 She was courted and flattered by others, belonging to 
 another sphere in life, from which the conditions of 
 his own, utterly and hopelessly debarred him. He 
 would not cross her pathway often, though the 
 memory of something in her bashful eyes, almost for 
 bade the stern decision. 
 
 Now his heart beat with a quick, glad violence, and 
 with a sudden joyful courage, born of prosperity and 
 hope. 
 
 " Yes, he would hazard calling to-night :" the 
 decision accelerated his pace. 
 
 " I am not favored by the elder lady," he thought;" 
 she. votes me crude and uncultured only fit to,
 
 336 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 harangue the rabble whom in her Christian fellow 
 ship she gracefully ignores." 
 
 Just at this point, he met Granger the lawyer who 
 had won his case. He was dashing gaily along 
 toward the city, in a handsome drag, behind a stylish 
 trotter : evidently foreign travel had been a benison 
 to him ; in appearance, he had gone backward in the 
 zodiac of time more than ten degrees, since Paul had 
 last looked upon him. 
 
 He made a sudden effort to stop, as he recognized 
 Hastings but his horse was under such strong head 
 way, that he merely bowed, waving his hand with a 
 backward motion, and went rapidly on. 
 
 Paul turned and looked after him, knitting his 
 brows, with a curious, questioning look, not altogether 
 complacent, and said thoughtfully : 
 
 " So he has no scruples to deter him from paying a 
 early visit ! Looked uncommonly happy ! It may be 
 lie has a prior claim to the young lady's time and 
 attention !" 
 
 This spectre of the green-eyed monster, suddenly 
 towered in such huge proportions, as to completely 
 overshadow his own insignificance, and make his 
 fancied prosperity, seem but a vain conceit. How 
 much he had dwelt upon the triumph of this hour ? 
 and now the changed expression of his face, told too 
 plainly of the downfall of some hope. 
 
 He entered his mother's cottage that night, with 
 less of joy in his face, than that good woman had 
 been accustomed to look for of late. Her fond eyes 
 were not slow to discover that something was amiss 
 with her son. It was never thought wise by her, to 
 probe a wound too suddenly ; she sought rather to
 
 TO "THE BREAD WINNERS. 337 
 
 divert one from its contemplation ; and now, believing 
 Paul's low spirits only the result of weariness, she 
 proceeded to draw a comfortable chair before the 
 bright, open fire ; happy in the consciousness, that in 
 the present instance, she possessed the means of 
 charming away her son's moodiness. 
 
 "Sit here Paul," she said with a beaming smile, 
 " and let me tell thee what has happened, while we 
 wait a bit for the tea to draw ; then we will have our 
 supper. Dost see, I am quite alone ? well, the children 
 have gone home with Miss Annie West !" 
 
 This was uncommonly interesting tidings ; the grave 
 young man became attentive in a moment, which the 
 keen-sighted mother was not slow to observe. 
 
 " Yes," she continued, proceeding to cut a delicate 
 ly white loaf that graced the cheerful supper table ; 
 " the dear girl came in, just as friendly as ever not a 
 bit changed, and sat here and talked in this very 
 room for more than an hour." 
 
 Paul instinctively glanced about the low-ceiled 
 place, with a sudden interest and delight in the scarlet 
 geraniums that brightened the windows, and the tidy 
 freshness of carpet and curtains Mrs. Hastings 
 smiled complacently, following the direction of his 
 eyes, and asked : 
 
 " Thee is not ashamed of thy mother's house-keep 
 ing, my lad, since the weary weaving days are over ?" 
 
 " Nor of herself" declared Paul, with a quick 
 illumination of countenance. 
 
 She smoothed her dress out softly with her palms, 
 a tender, deprecatory pride shining in her eyes, and 
 then he noticed for the first time, that she wore the
 
 338 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 one Hiram had sent her a luxury of apparel rarely 
 indulged in. 
 
 "Why my little mother !" he exclaimed, "How 
 could I have been blind to your beauty on this 
 occasion ?" and he seriously thought he had never seen 
 her looking quite so pretty before. 
 
 She was a slight, dark-eyed, sweet-faced woman, 
 and her gray dress was made in a simple fashion of 
 the past, much affected latterly however, by a school 
 of classical enthusiasts, who call its pretty quaintness 
 aesthetic, but of whose approval, or existence even, 
 possibiy the good woman was in blissful ignorance. 
 She wore also, a simple widow's cap, and a snowy 
 muslin kerchief, crossed in the tidy quaker fashion ; 
 and Paul secretly thought, in his affectionate pride 
 that if she were translated that moment, even the 
 angels could not much disparage her, by contrast, or 
 comparison. 
 
 "You see," she explained, " I had a thought of just 
 stepping over there for a look at them this afternoon, 
 when Miss Annie came in, quite out of breath from 
 fast walking, and looking a beautiful color from the 
 exercise, and joy too, I do believe, at seeing us all 
 again. She said, when she was so young and strong, 
 she would never think of waiting for me to come 
 first. She has brought some little presents for the 
 children from across the sea, and she took them 
 home with her to bring them." 
 
 Paul listened to these accounts with keen interest, 
 quite forgetting that supper waited. 
 
 "And she inquired for thee too, my son," the 
 mother continued, looking into the young man's eyes
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 339 
 
 with a Smiling mystery in her own and then adding 
 in a fond whisper : 
 
 " If it were anything against the dear child, I would 
 not tell thee Paul, but she spoke thy name with such 
 a pretty bashfulness, as made me smile after, to think 
 of and blushed like a June rose." 
 
 "Oh mother?" remonstrated that youth, quickly, 
 the dark rich color deepening in his own cheeks 
 though his eyes brightened "that is some of your 
 foolish conceit of me ! I should be a vain coxcomb, 
 if I had no other glass to look into, than your eyes." 
 
 " Thee never thought them so blind before," smiled 
 the mother. 
 
 " Perhaps I might have believed them now," 
 laughed Paul, "only that I have a pair of my own. 
 You see mother, the young lady happens to be fitted 
 out with a dashing beau ; one who has enjoyed great 
 opportunities for making himself admired ; since he 
 was one of the party abroad Granger ; you remem 
 ber, the lawyer? I met him not ten minutes ago, just 
 driving home from there." 
 
 The mother looked slightly disturbed : this intelli 
 gence was evidently disconcerting to some fond 
 dream of her own "but," she said, "thee will surely 
 go to see them this evening or the next. She feels a 
 true interest in thee, and thy affairs, I am certain, and 
 was quite eager to^ee thy new invention." 
 
 "My new invention !" there was no enthusiasm in 
 the young man's voice, and there was evident discon 
 tent in his face, as he repeated the words. For 
 wearied with his one idea, he was unreasonable enough 
 at this moment, to heartily wish his invention at the 
 bottom of the ocean.
 
 340 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 The judicious mother did not pursue the subject 
 farther, but consoled her son for the present, with a 
 substantial supper. The children returned, bearing 
 their treasures marvels of beauty in their eyes to be 
 praised by the mother, and handled caressingly by 
 Paul : but that youth spent the evening in reading, 
 and postponed his visit at ' the house' until the next 
 day. 
 
 Not another word had been spoken in regard to the 
 settlers on 'The Hill,' but Mrs. Hastings was secretly 
 pleased on the next night, to detect her son making 
 an unusually careful toilet, and preparing to go out. 
 He wished she were not observing him, with that 
 complacent air that she would not always be think 
 ing so much about him but then her world was such 
 a narrow one ; how could she help it ?" 
 
 "I am going out," he said, taking down his hat, 
 and looking with a kind of sly bashfulness toward his 
 mother, " but shall not be late home," and he closed 
 the door hastily behind him, almost ignoring the 
 smiling "good night," that followed him. 
 
 The Fox mansion stood at a distance of half a mile 
 from Paul's home, and he had time for considerable 
 self-examination as he walked leisurely along in its 
 direction. 
 
 'Mrs. Belding the grand aunt or whatever the 
 relationship may be, had been deqdedly cool in her 
 manner toward him upon the occasion of his last call. 
 It was not agreeable to go where one was not welcome: 
 he wished he was not indebted to Farnham for favors 
 of any kind ;' in short, the young man was in any thing 
 but a hopeful lover's mood, as he rang the bell, 
 and stood for a moment examining the substantial,
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 341 
 
 and tasteful improvements of the house and its sur 
 roundings. 
 
 "My visits here," he reflected, "are likely to be 
 few and far between." 
 
 He was admitted by a servant, and ushered into the 
 parlor a brilliantly lighted room, which to his rapid 
 glance, seemed swarming with people. 
 
 Mr. Farnham and Mrs. Belding came forward to 
 welcome him and also Annie West ; who appeared 
 taller and to him, embarrassingly prettier, than when 
 he last saw her. He was introduced to several people 
 from the city two ladies and a gentleman whose 
 names he never afterward remembered. 
 
 There was unusual warmth in Mrs. Belding's smile, 
 and Farnham, he felt, was really glad to see him here. 
 He seated himself beside Paul and looked so cordially 
 hospitable and happy, that the youth began impercep 
 tibly to part with some of his embarrassment and ill- 
 humor. 
 
 The ladies resumed a discussion of the opera of 
 the night before which they had been reviewing 
 when he came in. 
 
 From this, they drifted into an easy and familiar 
 criticism of some of the leading prima-donnas of this 
 and other lands, and spoke feelingly of the death of 
 Brignoli, and of the touching tribute of Clara Louise 
 Kellog, at his funeral, in her sweet and sorrowful 
 rendering of Love's Last Greeting.' 
 
 When it became apparent to the host that this con 
 versation was not interesting to the sturdy c.ommoner 
 who had possibly never listened to one of the sister 
 hood of " Stars" in all his mundane existence 
 he adroitly drew him into the contemplation
 
 342 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 
 
 of other themes, more to his taste the present outlook 
 in the affairs of the nation ; the feasibility of a revis 
 ion of the tariff; the relative cost of living here and in 
 England; upon which topics the young man discoursed 
 so intelligently, that Farnham smiled to himself, at 
 perceiving the ladies at last, beginning to listen to 
 the unstudied eloquence of the young statesman : 
 and in listening they forgot their admiration for the 
 greedy swarm of foreign songsters, which flock to our 
 shores to plunder and destroy our own, native songs 
 ters, just as the dominant English Sparrow has 
 already despoiled and robbed our sweet robins and 
 bobolinks. 
 
 Annie West, though she had listened to him with 
 all her heart, scarcely raised her eyes in his direction 
 until he was leaving. Then she got up hastily and 
 followed him into the hall for just a parting word. 
 They had been such friends ; and she had not seen 
 him for so long , and had so very much to tell him. 
 
 But when she stood there quite alone with him, 
 feeling, rather than seeing his handsome eyes looking 
 down upon her ; she could only tremble, and not say 
 one word of it all. 
 
 They stood thus for a few embarrasing seconds, 
 and then he said in a low voice which in spite of 
 him was caressing and tender : 
 
 " I am very glad, Miss West to see you so pleasantly 
 situated and at home once more. It will be a picture 
 of memory hereafter ; and I shall always think of you 
 as I have seen you to-night : prosperous and happy." 
 
 " But I shall not be happy," said she quickly, 
 " if you mean to stay away from us," and then color-
 
 TO " THE BREAD WINNERS. 343 
 
 ed painfully, fearing she had said a most unmaidenly 
 thing. 
 
 Paul's eyes grew intensely questioning, as they 
 gazed downward into hers. 
 
 " Don't ask me to come here," he whispered, bend 
 ing before her until their faces almost touched, " not 
 not at least," he stammered, " unles you mean it ; 
 it would be a cruel kindness." 
 
 " I do I do" she said eagerly, but as those deep, 
 earnest eyes continued to read hers, her blushes deep 
 ed ; for she felt that they were raptuorously absorbing 
 the guarded secret of her soul. 
 
 " Then I will come!" he replied in a low voice, his 
 face illumined with an ecstatic smile ; and the tender, 
 lingering hand pressure they gave at parting, was to 
 each, an impassioned joy, never to be forgotten in 
 after life for it was to each, an assurance, a compact, 
 a seal of wedded hearts and lives. 
 
 Paul walked homeward with a step as elastic as if 
 treading the air ; and if his election to the State 
 Legislature had been an assured fact, it could scarcely 
 have added to his happiness. 
 
 When Annie returned to the parlor, with beating 
 heart and flaming cheeks, which she tried to hide in 
 friendly shadow, it was to listen to the praises of her 
 beloved. 
 
 One of the guests had inquired with much interest, 
 who the gentleman was ; and her dear uncle a 
 thousand times dearer than ever before was saying 
 some of the beautiful things that were true of him ; 
 and predicting such a career for " our canditate," as is 
 open only to the honorable few. 
 
 The engagement of the happy pair which speedily
 
 344 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 followed this auspicious meeting, was not announced 
 publicly, until after his election ; which was secured 
 by an overwhelming majority. Then Mrs. Belding 
 received the congratulations of her numerous friends 
 with an accession of smiling importance, which was 
 particularly distasteful to a certain barrister, who took 
 no more airing upon The Hill, but devoted himself 
 wiih gloomy persistence to the study of Blackstone, 
 and exhibited a savage delight in the wrangles of other 
 people.
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 345 
 
 XXV. 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Foxburg was Foxburg no longer. Farnham re- 
 christened it Hill Haven, resolved to make it indeed 
 a haven and home for some of the weary and home 
 less of the earth. 
 
 There had been no pause in the activities of the 
 several branches of industry pursued upon The Hill, 
 when the change of proprietors occurred ; and no 
 displacement of men under the new rule. Farnham 
 found the entire number upon the pay-roll, to be a 
 fraction over six hundred. These represented almost 
 every shade of character and civilization, from the 
 sharp intelligence of the skilled and progressive 
 artisan, down through all the sturdy column of efficient 
 workers, even to the callous, hopeless, ne'er-do- 
 well shirks. He could have read each history in their 
 faces ; but a large humanity failed to discriminate in 
 aught of interest toward any. He had been hopeless, 
 indifferent to life, with more intelligence, and far less 
 reason, perhaps. These must be encouraged as 
 children are, to perform tasks by hope of reward. 
 
 His plan was co-operative, upon a broad platform 
 of pure philanthropy. There should be a percentage 
 of profits for all labors performed, and whatever 
 facilities he possessed for the purchase of supplies, 
 either of food or clothing should result to their 
 advantage. Whatever of wisdom, experience had
 
 346 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 taught him of the economies of life, should aid in 
 the conduct of theirs. 
 
 Luxuries should be eschewed until necessaries were 
 assured. 
 
 His first work was to institute an examination into 
 the condition of the mines, prolific heretofore in ex 
 plosions and loss of life ; and to thoroughly ensure 
 them against the recurrence of like disasters in 
 future, by introducing the most improved methods of 
 ventilation and lighting, and also, by enforcing such 
 a daily inspection of the quality of the atmosphere of 
 those subteraneous, gaseous regions, as should pre 
 vent any accident resulting from the carelessness of 
 the miners themselves. He felt personally responsi 
 ble for the safety of the poor fellows, who, for the 
 subsistance of wives and children, risked their own 
 lives, toiling on through weary years, dark spectres of 
 another world, shut out from the light of day, and the 
 sunshine of Heaven, and all the beauty of this glad 
 earth ; or ending their miserable struggles in one 
 lurid moment, in the agonies of the lost, and the 
 tortures of Hell. 
 
 These oft recurring tragedies had come to swell 
 only as unimportant tributaries the long list of 
 casualties with which the daily press abounded ; and 
 which its millions of readers, scarcely paused over ; 
 wholly irresponsible for the wholesale slaughter ; un 
 mindful of the broken hearts and homes it created. 
 Yet the cry of the destitute unregarded on earth, 
 entered into the ears of the Merciful One, pledged 
 ' not to despise their prayer.' He had not forgotten 
 them. He saw all the havoc and reckless waste of 
 human life, that careless officials and unholy greed of
 
 TO THE "BREAD WINNERS." 347 
 
 gain were creating : Ah ! He beheld, to whom 
 "vengence belongeth !" Farnham shuddered at the 
 awful retribution implied in the brief sentance : " I 
 will repay, saith the Lord ?" 
 
 A day of reckoning would surely come, when the 
 rocks and the mountains would be called on vainly, as 
 hiding places from the wrath of Heaven, for the care 
 less slayers of human lives. 
 
 Farnham felt his responsibility in the captaincy of 
 six hundred, as if commanding a force that was to 
 storm a citadel. His failure or success would be of 
 vastly greater import ; for he was with their help 
 to work out a problem in the interest of peace, which 
 should have a world-wide significance. It was the 
 divine doctrine of human brotherhood exemplified 
 without adulteration or prevarication. It was a follow 
 ing of the Master in his lowly service to the many. 
 It was laying up treasure beyond the chances and 
 changes of time investing one's all in the fair securi 
 ties of the Better Land. 
 
 Perhaps few Presidents of the Republic, or Minis 
 ters of State, have entered upon their office with more 
 hesitation, and distrust of self, than did this humble 
 servant of the Master, upon his trust as a liberal 
 impartial, and enlightened employer. 
 
 There was sullen suspicion in some eyes that re 
 garded him on that first morning the effect of grind 
 ing oppression in the past ; and there was stolid 
 indifference in the faces of others. But he must con 
 quer his way to the hearts of these men, if he would 
 do them service. He must win their confidence, if 
 they were ever to be guided by his counsels.
 
 348 DRAFTED IN, A SEQUEL 
 
 His struggles in the achievement of even this one 
 object we will not recount ; but some of the benefits 
 which resulted, might well satisfy and reward a 
 missionary's labors in distant heathendom. 
 
 Godliness, cleanliness, temperance, and thrift, soon 
 prospered in the new colony. Schools of practical 
 industry for the children, were instituted, which, en 
 lightened the parent as well. Careless, improvident 
 men, became enthusiastic to be house-holders and 
 profit-sharers. Sunday was observed as a holy day. 
 
 Still the humanizing, christianizing work goes on. 
 Farnham finds joy in his labors, and the undertaking 
 bids fair to prove remunerative to all concerned. 
 But, the history and final outcome of all the benefits 
 conferred ; the moral and spiritual elevation of char 
 acter resulting ; can never be computed here. This 
 sequel belongs to the great Hereafter. 
 
 THE END.
 
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