LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 803, 18 January 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE SACKFUL OF SOVEREIGNS. A WONDERFUL STORY OF CHRISTMAS LUCK. ( Continued.) The £4ooodivided, as the paper described, into three portions, were in the iron safe sure enough. When the canvas bags were emptied, four thousand bright new golden sovereigns in three glittering heaps lay upon the table—an amazing dazzling sight this, truly, to unaccustomed eyes, but to those of the experienced bank clerk, George Woodwyu, suggesting nothing for the first moment so much as checking by a careful counting the correctness of the amounts ; and, of course, they were correct to the last sovereign. No contemptible sum either for ‘humble livers’ in content, such as George and his wife were ; and it was with a grateful heart that he prepared to place his wife’s and his child’s portion in, as he thought, some more profitable place of security than an iron safe Still, without any mean repining or covetous feeling with regard to what they had naturally supposed they Vould come into, it was impossible for them to banish all sense of disappointment. The ever-recurring question as to what the old man could have done with his money would In itself have kept this sense alive. , The ne’er-do-weel renegade son, Tom Rihktnau, Avho with all his faults was not a bad fellow at heart, and very fond of his

sister, had never entirely broken off communication with home. His father, in his anger, had forbidden the mention of thelad’s name from the time he quitted England to go as a common seaman before the mast. But to his sister Alice he had from time to time written ; and when, by his last letter, he showed that he had, after a fashion, managed to make a start in sheep farming in Australia, with a prospect of doing well, she had ventured to put the letter into her father’s hands. He read it, but he gave it back without any remark. Nevertheless, it seemed he had not forgotten it. Thus means were opened for sending the £ISOO to Tom without much difficulty ; and the loving sister in doing so, we may be sure, poured out in the fulness of her heart many entreaties that her brother would profit by his father’s forgiveness and generosity, and many an earnest hope that he might be spared to return to his native land. Within twelve months of old Matthew’s death the Woodwyns knew that Tom had received the money safely. He wrote : * It has come in the very nick of time, and bj its means you will see I shall coin a fortune that shall be large enough before I have done to compensate us all for the lamentable loss we sustain through the eccentric and mysterious crotchets entertained by my father in all money matters, though I don’t despair of your coming upon some trace yet of the ‘ bulk’ of his property. What I have got, however, I shall invest in this farming business, in which I am a partner with a man win'in I picked up out here, and who, like myself, had nothing to begin with ; but we shall both be rich men in time, and then, but not till then, my dear and loving Alice, you will see me in England again.’ ‘Sobe it 1 I hope Tom will not be disappointed ; it is time his luck began to turn. If a little of it came this way, I should not be sorry,’ was George Woodwyn’s remark when he had read the letter.

* What do you mean!’ inquired Alice. ‘ Why, I mean,’ answered her husband, ‘ that mine seems to be deserting me, I did not intend to tell you about it, but, you see, it’s of no use my attempting to keep anything from you ; the fact is, I have had another disappointment in the bank this very day. There have been more promotions, owing to the opening of the new branch, but lam again passed over, 1 suppose I shall be left out in the cold now till I am an old man. I’m sure it’s very fortunate we have no house rent to pay, for I shall get no rise in salary for years, I can see.’

‘Now, dear, don’t begin to worry yourself, please, about money ; we shall do very well even if you don’t get an increase, though it is hard for you; but we shall always have this roof to cover us, thanks to my dear mother’s foresight in making her father leave this little freehold to me at her death. At any rate, we can never be turned out of house and home; besides, there will be dividends coming in soon from mine and Lily’s portion of dear father’s money.’ ‘Yes, yes; I know all about that: not. but what I see the shares in the Wheal Grydd Copper-Mining Company have gradually been going down, and they are now at five or six lower than we bought in, not quite a year ago. I daresay I am foolish ; but there seems to be a ruu of bad luck with us just now—that’s all I meant to say; think no more about it.’

But a loving wife has sharpened perceptions, and will easily divine the state of her husband’s mind, strive he never so ear nestly to hide it; and though Alice Woodwyn gave little heed to the tone in which George had referred to the matter of luck on this occasion, the first suspicion that he had some anxiety which he was keeping from her was raised by it. This suspicion increased after some months, when she observed, not only that there was a saddened look creeping over her husband’s kindly face, but a constant inclination on his part to refer to the ill-luck which he conceived was besetting them. In the course, however, of-little more than three years after they were left alone in their home a real anxiety arose, which touched both husband and wife more nearly perhaps than any they had ever felt. The little girl Lilian became dangerously ill, and after the fever which struck her down had passed she remained in sadly delicate health for many months. She had to be taken to the sea for change of air; and what with this, and the heavy expenses for medical attendance (for the first doctors in London were consulted), it was indeed found that their income was barely sufficient to meet the heavy strain upon it. For it must never be forgotten that though the mother and daughter’s portion, amounting to £2500 of old Matthew’s money, had yielded by its investment in the ‘ Wheal Grydd Company ’ fair dividends up to this time, they were not equivalent to the share the old grandfather had contributed to the expenses of _ the home, and which of course had entirely ceased through the unhappy mystery in which he had chosen to envelop his affairs. By way of adding to the Woodwyns’ anxieties, news had come that Tom Rickman’s venture with the sheep farming was going wrong. A murrain had broken out, by which he had lost largo sums ; whilst, to put the finishing stroke to their misfortunes, the dividends from the ‘ Wheal Grydd Company' suddenly ceased, there being a check in the mining operations. ~

By the time, therefore, that the fifth Christmas after Mr Rickmans death was coming round, we find the Woodwyns really in somewhat straitened circumstances. Still sickly, Lilian has this autumn failed to get her usual breath of sea air ; it could not be afforded, and this deprivation left its mark on the pallid cheeks of both mother and daughter. As if, too, to bear out the adage that misfortunes never come alone, one gloomy November aftownoon, George, returnj ing from the City more depressed than ever, has to make a clean breast of his troubles, unable to evade the tender questionings and appealing looks of his wife.

‘ I don’t know what we shall do, darling,’ he said, ‘ but that abominable mining company, after gradually showing signs of decreasing prosperity, the shares going steadily down month by month, so that I should have lost hundreds of yours and dear Lily’s money if I had sold—though I ought to have had the pluck to realise my loss long ago—has finally come to such a pass that every one in the City says there must be a call on the shares soon. I have foreseen this for months, I may say for years, and yet I have been such an idiot, I could not make up my mind to sell.’ (2o be continued.)