CHAPTER I SOMETHING BEFORE UNKNOWN Clara Heyward was dressed in deep mourning, and it was evident that the emblems of bereavement were not worn merely in compliance with a social custom. Her face was pallid from grief, and her dark beautiful eyes were dim from much weeping. She sat in the little parlor of a […]

“Mother,” remarked Farmer Banning, discontentedly, “Susie is making a long visit.” “She is coming home next week,” said his cheery wife. She had drawn her low chair close to the air-tight stove, for a late March snowstorm was raging without. “It seems to me that I miss her more and more.” “Well, I’m not jealous.” […]

“Jack, she played with me deliberately, heartlessly. I can never forgive her.” “In that case, Will, I congratulate you. Such a girl isn’t worth a second thought, and you’ve made a happy escape.” “No congratulations, if you please. You can talk coolly, because in regard to such matters you are cool, and, I may add, […]

The Christmas holidays had come, and with them a welcome vacation for Hedley Marstern. Although as yet a briefless young lawyer, he had a case in hand which absorbed many of his thoughts–the conflicting claims of two young women in his native village on the Hudson. It must not be imagined that the young women […]

It was the day before Thanksgiving. The brief cloudy November afternoon was fast merging into early twilight. The trees, now gaunt and bare, creaked and groaned in the passing gale, clashing their icy branches together with sounds sadly unlike the slumberous rustle of their foliage in June. And that same foliage was now flying before […]

Picnicking in December would be a dreary experience even if one could command all the appliances of comfort which outdoor life permitted. This would be especially true in the latitude of Boston and on the bleak hills overlooking that city and its environing waters. Dreary business indeed Ezekiel Watkins regarded it as he shivered over […]

CHAPTER I. ITS DISCOVERY Jeff, the hero of my tale, was as truly a part of the Southern Confederacy as the greater Jeff at Richmond. Indeed, were it not for the humbler Jeff and the class he represented, the other Jeff would never have attained his eminence. Jeff’s prospects were as dark as himself. He […]

The August morning was bright and fair, but Herbert Scofield’s brow was clouded. He had wandered off to a remote part of the grounds of a summer hotel on the Hudson, and seated in the shade of a tree, had lapsed into such deep thought that his cigar had gone out and the birds were […]

It was the beginning of a battle. The skirmish line of the Union advance was sweeping rapidly over a rough mountainous region in the South, and in his place on the extreme left of this line was Private Anson Marlow. Tall trees rising from underbrush, rocks, bowlders, gulches worn by spring torrents, were the characteristics […]

A TRADITION OF THE REVOLUTION Not very far from the Highlands of the Hudson, but at a considerable distance from the river, there stood, one hundred years ago, a farmhouse that evidently had been built as much for strength and defence as for comfort. The dwelling was one story and a half in height, and […]