THE
OLD
STONE
MANSION.
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only too well, rushed between, and bade him stand aside, in God’s name, for that the mar- riage vow separated him from me forever. The door shut with a clang and I was alone and perishing.
When I began to recover, I was feebler than achild. Weeks went by, even after this, before I could leave my room. At last, about the mid- dle of autumn, I found myself comparatively re- stored to health.
But what a prospect there was in the future! I knew not, in all the world, a friend to whom I could apply. My funds were exhausted. The winter would soon be at hand, and it was a win- ter of which the most terrible forebodings were everywhere entertained; for commercial and manufacturing distress were universal. Since I had been struck down, by illness, one of those financial crises which occasionally devastate the nation had occurred: thousands of the rich had become poor; starvation stared the multitude in the face.
By chance, one day, when reduced to nearly the last extremity of despair, I saw an advertisement, in a daily paper, which I had borrowed to read. It ran as follows:
Wanted.—A governess to take charge of two small children. Apply at Hemlock Farm, near the Poplar Station, on the Ridge railroad.
A sudden hope filled me. I would expend what little money I had, in going to this place; for I reasoned that its distance would preclude many applications; and so my chance of success would be increased. It was the first time, too, the advertisement had been inserted; and if I set out, at once, I might anticipate all others. In five minutes I was on my way to the railroad office, where I learned that Poplar Station was about fifty miles distant, and that the afternoon train would start in an hour. I determined to go that day.
Before long, therefore, I was rushing along the side of a beautiful river, the western sun gilding its wooded heights and shimmering on its placid waters. The towns and factories, Seattered at intervals on either shore, shot past like white wreaths of smoke. Now we dashed through a dark tunnel, now crossed the stream in a twinkling on a bridge. The rapid motion Was in unison with the stir’and excitement of my mind. TI looked through the barred windows of the car and blessed the mile-posts as they flew by. I was impatient to be at my journey’s end.
For I now began to fear that some one had anticipated me. There was a morning train, so that any one who had seen the advertisement soon enough, might have had the start of me by several hours. I knew there must be hundreds out of employment, who were quite as competent for the situation. Then I tortured myself with the idea that there might be many in the train I saw more than one whose air and dress gave color to this notion. How T watched, at each station, to see if they got out! When, at last, all had left but one, leaving no other passengers of my sex, except ladies whose dress showed them above the necessity of seeking such a situation, and coarse featured women evidently belonging to the agricultural popula- tion of the German county we were traversing, I sighed with inexpressible relief: a relief only to be understood by those, who have been in fear for their daily bread, and have had those fears quieted temporarily.
I now began to speculate, for the first time, as to the character of the place I was visiting; for, up to this point, such had been my eager- ness to get the start of other applicants, I had not thought of this. Its homely title showed that it was an ordinary farm-house; and from its location, in the heart of a region wholly rural, I concluded the culture of its family was of the rudest. But why need a governess at all? Why not be content with the road-side school? I puzzled myself, for a long while, endeavoring to solve this problem, but to no purpose. T could conjecture nothing, except that one of the children, if not both of them, were half idiotic; that this rendered their attendance at the district school impossible; and hence the necessity of & governess. I knew enough of that section of the state to know that no other circumstance could induce a farmer to resort to so comparatively expensive a method of education. I settled, therefore, that this was the state of the case. I was aware there were plenty of farmers, in that vicinity, rich enough to employ a governess, if compelled to; so there was no difficulty on this account.
I now began to picture to myself the life I should lead. In imagination, I drew a picture of the house and its surroundings. It was an old stone dwelling, probably with a roof green with moss, standing in some low bit of ground, near the river, where the early German settlers always located their habitations, partly to secure a more abundant supply of water, partly because of the richer soil in the bottoms. It hag, near it, a stone barn, a huge edifice, more than four times as large as itself, bursting with abundant crops. Close by was a little, low, white-washed spring-house, with a solitary willow drooping
