nt,
that he had been sent to rusticate among rocks and hills so sterile
there would be little chance for his wild acts to take root; but then,
to some old ladies and young ones too, this rumor lent but additional
interest.

"Poor boy! what else could one expect? With such comeliness of person,
endless wealth, unlimited advantages--the only wonder was he was not
completely ruined." And he was compassionated and pitied for being
obliged to remain in so old-fashioned and out-of-the-way country town as
insignificant Newberg.

This pity was quite thrown away. Philip St. Leger was in his element; he
had never been so happy in his life; Newberg was made up of hills, in
the midst of grander mountains; it nestled in the western shadow of
Keansarge; and King's Hill and Sunapee reared loftily around her their
bold bleak fronts. A beautiful lake of the same name lay blue and clear
at Sunapee's foot. "Pleasant Lake" lay in another direction, famous for
its delicious trout and fragrant pond lilies.

Philip, the young scapegrace from city and from college, was in an
ecstacy; he had never beheld skies so blue, lakes so fair, landscapes so
lovely; with every breath he seemed to draw in life, vigor, and a new
sense of beauty. Every morning he was up at sunrise, scouring the
country upon the back of Nellie, a graceful, fleet young mare which Col.
Selby had generously set aside for his use. Maids, matrons, and small
boys stood in gaping amaze, stool in one hand and milk pail in the
other, watching half-fearfully, half-admiringly, the fearless young
equestrian, who shot by like a comet, his long, black hair streaming in
the wind.

It was Philip's delight to create this stare and wonder, to which poor
Nellie was obliged to contribute still more than her young master's
pleasure. If he could leap over some low garden wall, dart over a famous
strawberry bed, or amidst the melon patch, he thought he had done
something splendid. The owner's dismay, not alone at the ruin, but at
the untamed spirit that dared it, gave him peculiar delight.

Those old ladies who found their fattest goose dangling half-dead from
the apple-bough in the early morning, or who looked in vain for patient
cows within the yard, whose bars had mysteriously disappeared, began
less to admire this youthful metropolitan.

Complaints poured in upon Col. Selby. At first he laughed and made light
of them; then he consulted his wife. She was a staid, proper person,
careful o