Il8 I CO A -FISHING. 



He had one son ; but Walter Brand, the child of his 

 old age, was a wanderer, and his wife Alice, the daughter 

 of the clergyman, lived in the old house with Stephen, and 

 cared for him and superintended the domestic duties of 

 the home-farm. 



Alice had been a favorite in the village before her mar- 

 riage, and most persons thought well of the match; but 

 Walter was a restless boy, and although sole heir to his 

 father's wealth, which was not small, and although he had 

 a gentle wife at home that loved him truly and fondly, he 

 yet preferred to rove, and seldom returned to the old 

 place under the elms. 



They had one child. He was a boy, and from his birth 

 was so like the old man that you were startled and almost 

 frightened at the strange resemblance. There was an old 

 look on the child's face that grew tenfold older every year 

 that he lived, and when he was seven, you might have 

 taken his countenance for that of a man of seventy. He 

 was hopelessly deformed. This sorrowful truth began to 

 force itself on the mother's mind before he was two years 

 old, and at length there could be no doubt of the fact. 

 Like all deformed children of tender-hearted parents, he 

 was far more dear to his mother on this very account, and 

 she cherished him as a very gem lost out of heaven and 

 found by them. And such he was. There was a depth 

 of quiet beauty in his childish soul that passed all sound- 

 ing. No one seemed to penetrate its mysteries except 

 the old man, his grandfather, and he would sit for hours 

 looking into the large black eyes of the boy, and appar- 

 ently gazing into the very soul of his pet. They grew to 

 each other. The old man for his sake came half way 

 .back to his childhood and met him — for the boy seemed 

 to be half way to old age, even at six years old. Alice 



