LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2321, 12 September 1881, Page 4

LITERATURE.

IN AN APPDE. ORCHARD, [“All the Tear Bound.”] The house stands somewhere between Plymouth and Medbury, a good distance from the high road, from which It is approached by a tall hedged lawn, Apple orchards surround it on all sides ; wildly luxuriant orchards, in which every kind of apple for which Devonshire Is famous is to be found. There are a few quince and pear trees interspersed among the apple trees in what is called the home orchard, on account of the trass in it encroaching more closely upon the house than in either of the others. But .in the time of blossom the rose colors and pinks of every shade put the snowy bloom of pear and quince entirely into the minority. There ia a courtyard in front of the house; a fine square courtyard, with a pond in the middle of it, with a willow weeping over its border. The stables and coach-house are on one side of this; the dairy and hen houses are on the other ; and opposite the house, at the extreme end of the yard, are the cow houses and pigatyes.

There is always a great otlr of life and animation in this yard. The hens seemed to cackle with louder complacency; the pigs give veat to more sonorous grunts of entente the gobbling turkey cock, the quacking geese and ducks, lift up their respective voices with more animation on this prosperous farmstead than they do on neighboring lands. Everything is scrupulously clean and bright, from the deep rod brick pavement which runs along in front of the house to the wooden cattle troughs at the further end of the yard. In winter careful’y trained holly bushes, a pyraosnthus, and a scarlet japonic* give the desirable tone of color to the front of the bouse. In spring the delicate apple blossoms make tho sweet air blush, and in summer there are masses of myrtle and clematis, of jasmine and cluster-roses, elinging about the eaves, and mingling ihtir whits and crimson buff hues together in delicious harmony. The placo is known as the little Firs, farm and house and it has been hold by the Ainsloy family for several generations of Squire Ffolett. The present holder of the farm is a young fellow of twenty-seven, who wisely follows iu the economical footsteps of bis f orefathers in most respects, bat departs from the path they trod in peace and prosperity in the matter of hunting. ‘No tenant farmer who gets his whole living out of the land has time to go gallop iog about after dona and foxes ; leave that to tho gentry, who’d be up to worse mis chief perhaps, if they weren’t trampling over tbo crops and trying to spoil the hedges and break their own necks.’ his mother, who lives with Kiobard Ainslle,

and ks-ops the house with zeal and discretion, tells him. But Biohard, though he reveres hsr opinion, disregards her on this one point. Ke always has good horses in his stables, ■and his aaut and hands are not at all infer o • to those o! the gallant old master of the hounds, Squire I folott himself. Moreover, though Rickard Aiuslio has cornered tho field more than once, and is never known to be in a bad place, it is not after the hounds and the fox only that ho rides so unremit ■ tiegiy and well. The apple-blossoms are in thoir fullest glcny just now, and old Mrs Ainsle, sitting in her comfortable highly-polished-up parlor at tho end of tho house, catchest sight of dozens of tho primost trees hung with sheets of rosy bloom. Her soul is glad within her this morning, for several reasons. Unless high winds and destructive rains come to blur it, the cider prospect is a fairer one than ever this year, and tho Little Firs older always commands a high price in the market. This is one great cause of gratification. Another is that her favorite young friend, Jane We byn, has come to spend the whole day with her. And yet another exists In the consciousness that she has a new cap just out from Plymouth, which will presently surmount her own kind, cleareyed, aoft-oomplexlonod face moat becomingly. Lastly, she is not indifferent to the fact that tho chickens now being basted carefully at the kitchen fire for the one o’clock dinner are bouncing birds, weighing five pounds a-pieoe, being of a most successfully mixed race which she has carefully bred herself.

Presently she hears voices outside the window, and her face brightens as she looks up and sees her well-grown son walkicg along under the glowing apple trees by the side of a trim-figured hszel-eyed girl, whose dress of striped galatoa is moulded as accurately to her rounded form by her own deft fingers as if it had been tho work of a Regent street milliner. ‘They’re a handsome comple, and glad shall I be the day I hear it’s settled that they are to be married,’ Mrs Ainsley thinks as her eyes follow them ; for it is one cf the pet schemes of her honest active brain that Janie shall succeed boras queen of the Little Firs farm house.

4 There’s no pinching, nor wasting, nor idleness in the Welbyna’ house,’ she is telling herself In a self-congraulatory spirit, when her reflections on this agreeable point are cut short by the sound of a horse’s hoofs clattering over the stones in the court yard, and of a bright bell-like voice ringing out a demand to know 4 lf Mr and Mrs Amalie are at home?’ The old mother's face grows curiously perplexed and flushed as these sounds greet her ears, for the voice is the voice of Mias Ffolett, the squire’s daughter, and intitntion teaches Mrs Alnslie that Miss Ffolett’a visits bode no good to her son.

Bat she cannot retain a touch of vexation in heart or manner when the room door is swung open and Mias Ffolett comes bounding in, sweet and fall of life as are all the spring influences around her, and beautiful with the beauty of yoath and high-breeding and gentlest courtesy. She is in her hat and habit—she is rarely seen out of these gar ■ ments until nightfall, indeed—and aa she advances, her slender willowy figure clearly ontlined, her sapphire blue eyes sparkling with high health and Intelligence, her fair face bright and clear In hoe as a monthly rose, Mrs Ainalie feels that her Dick would be blind indeed if he did not see something in her that thrilled him more than Janie’s more substantial charms will ever have the power to do. 4 1 come with a message from paps, ’ said this dazzling young Diana, shaking the old lady’s hand heartily. 4 He hasn’t given a tenants’ ball sines the year I was born, and now he’s going to give one on my coming of age—the third of next month yon know, I woald come and gve the Invitation to Dick and yon myself, and I’ll tell you what I’m going to wear, and all about it; but I muse see Dick too, please Mrs Alnslie, about the brawn colt. I know I’m to have another horse given me on my birthday, and of all things I would like Dick’s brown colt; but he mustn’t tell, and you mustn’t either, that I’ve said anything about it, for I’m supposed not to know. ’ She laughs delightfully as she says this, and Mro Alnslie is beginning to say how she is sure that the squire would give this apple of his eye all that her fancy desires, when Bello Ffolett catches sight of the couple out in the orchard. 4 Who’s that with Dick P ’ she asks, quickly advancing to the casement and opening it. * What a pretty picture they make under the apple-trees. No ! don’t call them, I like to look at them. I wish I could sketch.’ 4 It’s Janie Welbyn, Miss Belle,’ Mrs Alnslie says, coming and standing by the aide of her young visitor. 4 Don’t you remember her? She’s grown away a flue girl since she’s been at school in Plymouth.’ 4 And is Dick going to marry her ?’ Miss Ffolett asks with quick interest. 4 Yes, I know her again now ; isn’t she pretty ?’ I’ll tap to them, and make them look foolish;’ and she taps with her whip on the windowpane, and rings ont a clear merry 4 Good morning, Dick!’ without hesitation.

Janie looks round from under the green leaves and pink blossoms happily and undisturbedly as Eve might have looked in Paradise.

‘ It’s Mias Ffolett,’ she says, simply. •Oh! isn’t she pretty, Dick?’and in her absorbing admiration for the pretty young lady of the land, the girl does not see the nervous agony of confused embarrassment which seems about to overwhelm Dick. Even if she saw it she would not understand it. For Hits Efolett is * the squire’s daughter,’ a young lady who spends her glittering life in dining and dancing, and picnicking and hunting, and playing lawntennis and simple-minded Janie has no understanding of the * desire of the moth for the star"’

’Gome in, both of you,’ cries Belle, with the gracious peremptoriness that is in her manner to all alike, from peasants to prinoes ; ‘come in, and hear my news.’ And the pair obey her; the girl glad to go and be questioned and shaken hands with by ‘ dear Miss Bello again,’ and the man sick unto death nearly at being so near to her, wit snch an impassable golf between them. * Shall I congratulate them ?’ Belle asks hurriedly, as the young people pass out of sight on their way round to the entrance door, and Mrs Aindie shakes her head and says : ‘ Dick hasn’t spoken yet, Miss Belle, but I know what her answer will be. Bless the child, she worships the ground he walks on, and she’ll make him a good wife ; no waetIngs and no pinchings for the Welbyna’; they’re all through of a piece. I couldn’t abide a coverslut to come here in my place.’ ‘ I think I should like the man to worship the ground I trod on,’ Belle says ; and jnet then Dick and Janie come into the room, and Mias Efolett proceeds to tell them about her birthday ball, and to ask about the brown colt without delay.

Have him 7 Of course she shall have him; there Isn’t a question about that. Diok’e eyea danced with pleasure at the thought of seeing her on the oolt he has bred so cleverly and nurtured so tenderly. His sonl burns with the ardor of his desire to give her the oolt, but he does not dare to do this He almost winces as he thinks of the surprise that would flash from her bright blue eyes if he proposed such thing, and he almost hears the sternly grave tones in which the squire would refuse the offering for his daughter. ‘I had him out in the low meadow, and took him over some timber this morning, and if I’d had a cup of water in my hand there wouldn’t have been a drop spilt. He’s as clover at hie fences already as his mother Bayleaf was, and you know what she was. Miss Ffolett; you’ve seen her many a time.’ ‘ Yes, and you rode her so splendidly,’ f-e young lady says, frankly complimenting him, without a thought of the way in which her words make the blood leap along his veins. 4 1 should like to see the colt. Lick. ’

‘l’ll bring him out,' tbo young farmer says, promptly, but Belle says,— • No, no. I’ll go to the stable and look at him ; and, mind, not a word to papa or to anyone about my having asked about him. They want to surprise me.’ she laughs joyously. ‘ so you must help me to keep tho secret I’ve found ; but if you hear of anyone from our house wanting to buy a horse, mind yon offer the brown colt.’ She is going out to the stable with Richard Aluslie as she say this, leaving Mrs Atuclie and Janie In the parlor.’ (To he continued )