ALL IS FAIRJN LOVE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 17 October 1891, Page 4

ALL IS FAIRJN LOVE.

I ■ • A FAMILY FEUD. I " Click, click, the sharp beat of the rain. I itorm was sounding against the casements ! of Mrs. Maple's farm-house. i I It was an old, old house, and Mrs. Maple I was an old, old woman. But you will find tufts of snowy blossoms bursting from agelichened apple trees, and sprays of greenery I on the boughs of century-old oak trees; and i so it happened th;.t Minnie Maple, the J ancient crone's great granddaughter, was the bud and blossom of her worn-out life. i i Old Mrs. Maple owned the house, and had money out at interest ; but she was a shrewd old lady and liked to keep her affairs I i in her own hands. And pretty Minnie, al- ! 1 beit an heiress in prospective, taught the I village school and took care of the farm ! dairy out of school hours. " It won't hurt her to work for a living if she is to be rich one of these days," said Mrs. Maple. " I worked when I was a girl." And upon this dreary night Mrs. Maple's swift knitting needles gleamed like steady lightning in the firelight, and Minnie sat on a chair beside her, mending table-cloths, while ever and anon a big drop would splash down upon the darned spots like a glistening globule of dew. "But, grandmother, why?" burst out Minnie at last, with her blue eyes lifted up like lorget-me-nots drenched in rain to the old lady's parchment-like face. " Because I say so," said old Mrs, Maple. And the fire crackled, and the rain beat sharply against the window-panes, and the knitting needles made zigzags of light as they flew in and out. ' .. " But you say yourself, grandmother, that he's a good young man." Old Mrs. Maple nodded. " Without a bad habit in the world," And again old Mrs. Maple nodded like a Chinese mandarin in a collection of curiosities. " And doing well with his farm." For the third time Mrs. Maple nodded. " Then, grandmother, why won't you conBent to our marriage ?" urged the girl. " Child," said Mrs. Maple, turning her spectacle glasses full upon Minnie's sweet flower-like face, " I've told you why half a hundred times. It's because your grandfather and his grandfather were mortal enemies. Because your grandfather's last words upon his death-bed were, ' I leave my soul to heaven, my money to my dear wife, and my everlasting enmity to Job Crofton.'" " But, grandmother," said Minnie, with a shudder, " that was very, very wicked. And now they lie so close together in the graveyard, they cannot be enemies still." Old Mrs. Maple shook her white head. " Your grandfather was a very vindictive man, Minnie," said she. "I never disobeyed him living, and 1 never will disobey him dead." " But, grandmother," coaxed Minnie, with her fresh cheek against the old lady's hand, "he wouldn't know it. How could he?" " Child, child, your grandfather Maple knew everything," said the old lady, with a sudden suspicious glance over her left j shoulder, as something seemed to rustle in the casement. " And Ido believe his ghost would haunt me if I didn't give heed to his last words. No, no ; Gilbert Crofton can never be your husband, and you may as well give up the idea at first as at last." And Minnie cried herself to sleep that night. " For I never, never can marry him without grandmother Maple's consent," she gobbed. I'll stay single for his sake to the Jay of my death ; but I can never disobey the kind old soul who has been a mother to me and brought me up from a baby." The next night there was a merry gathering at Farmer Ashworth's, and Minnie Maple was there, but Gilbert Crofton did not make his appearance until late. "I've been busy," said Gilbert. "But .icver mind, so long as I am in time to dance me or two dances with you." And they walked home together under the Mear cold sky, talking happily oi what might w. it only grandmother Maple's adamantine Heart could be softened. Bui, late though it was. with the old '• :lock on the stroke of one, there was a light j shining redly from the sitting-room windows, j and through the uncunained casements they ::oulcl see grandmother Maple marching up ! :uul down the room like a sentinel on duty, . twr liigh-hecled bouts tapping on the floor, | tier lingers instinctively wandering around i and around the inskie of her empty snuff- ' .x>.\. i Minnie hurried into the room. I If. J A VISITOR FROM THE OTHER WORLD. " Why, grandmother," she cried, " what- | ?ver is the matter ? Here are the logs all i .turned down to white ashes, and the candleivick guttering, and you in such a flutter as iever was seen. What has: happened, grandmother ?" Mrs. Maple turned her keen blue eyes upon her granddaughter with an expression like that of a sleep-walker. "Minnie, come in," said she, "and shut lhat door. Is that you, Gilbert Crofton, the of Job ? Come you in also. Children," with her old hands shaking as if palsy-stricken, " I've seen a ghost !" " Impossible !" cried Gilbert Crofton. " Dear grandmother, you must have been •.heaming," said Minnie, creeping up to her r.ide and drawing her down into the old armi :hair beside the hearth. " Dreaming !" shrieked the old woman. " I was as wide awake as I am at this moment. I had been over to see Mrs. Muir's ' ack child, and it was close on 10 o'clock I when I got back. And the minute I crossed the threshold I had that queer feeling of I someone being in the room creep all over me. And there, sure enough, in the chair opposite where he used to sit, thirty goc4 years ago, was your great-grand father Maple, with his old queer wig and his suit of brown, and the very green spectacles he used to wear for his weak eyes. And he took his pipe out of his mouth and looked at me just as your great-grand-father Maple has looked at me a thousand times. And says I, " Reuben, is that you ?" And says he, " Yes, Mary, it is I." And says I, " Oh, Reuben, what brings you back to this world?" And says he, "To wipe out the stains of a wicked life." And says I, "Are you happy, Reuben?" And says he, " Yes, and that's the reason I want others to be." And then I began to tremble all over, and says I, " Is it anything I can do, Reuben?" And says he, "There's no more offending or giving offence in the other world, Mary, and Job Crofton's soul and mine are at variance no longer. Let there be peace, Mary, and let the young man Gilbert be your grand-child's husband." And then he knocked the bowl of his pipe on the edge of the handiron, as I've seen him do so often, and he got up and walked out of the room, just for all the world like a living creature. I have often heard that ghosts can go through a keyhole, but your great-grandfather Maple's ghost opened thrs door and, moreover, forgot to shut it after him. So when I roused up enough to know what was going on around me the candle was blown out." " Oh, grandmother ! do you think that was real ?" cried Minnie, with startled eyes. " Didn't I see it with my own eyes, and J hear it with my own ears ?" demanded old Mrs. Maple. " It's your grandfather's ghost ! And I might have known that if he wanted to appear he could, for he had obstinacy enough for anything, rest bis 50u1... You To be Concluded.)