A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



scream of fifes. It drew up there at the steps. 

 What do you suppose that mother cared for the 

 flags and the fifes, when she saw that grizzly and 

 dirty wreck lifted out with the deadly pallour on 

 his cheeks ? It was June, and the air was heavy 

 with sweet reproaches. &quot; Put me down here,&quot; 

 he said, &quot; on the porch for a while. I am going 

 to die. Let me die out here.&quot; 



Out of Griselle s scraps and patches there looms 

 up another son who was speculative, and, I fear, 

 dissolute. He must have made a great deal of 

 money, in one way or another, and must have 

 squandered it in the risky endeavour to make 

 more. There were times when he was hard 

 pinched by his own recklessness, and then he 

 wrote to his mother, and she helped him out 

 secretly, from the little savings of her own, but 

 never questioning him. One summer he came 

 up for a visit to the farm and brought a young 

 wife with him. I see him sitting there under the 

 vines, with the air of an exhibitor, and expecting 

 all the family to admire his bride ; treating them 

 with the easy superiority of the young man who 

 suddenly knows it all. I can see the mother try 

 ing to meet this young woman with maternal 

 courtesy, and being regarded in return as very 

 prim and fussy. There must have been many 

 little stories current in the family after the young 

 wife went away. How she asked one of the girls 

 if somebody could not play the piano when she 

 was going to bed it was so awfully still and 

 couldn t they cut the bread a little thinner ; and 



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