The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mark Hurdlestone, by Susanna Moodie

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Title: Mark Hurdlestone
Or, The Two Brothers

Author: Susanna Moodie

Release Date: October 9, 2005 [EBook #16836]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARK HURDLESTONE ***

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MARK HURDLESTONE:

OR,

THE TWO BROTHERS.

BY MRS. MOODIE,

(_Sister of Agnes Strickland._)

AUTHOR OF "ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH," "ENTHUSIASM," ETC

The fire burns low, these winter nights are cold;
I'd fain to bed, and take my usual rest,
But duty cries, "There's work for thee to do;
Stir up the embers, fetch another log,
To cheer the empty hearth. This is the hour
When fancy calls to life her busy train,
And thou must note the vision ere it flies."

* * * * *

COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME.

* * * * *

THIRD EDITION.

NEW YORK:

DE WITT & DAVENPORT, PUBLISHERS,

162 NASSAU STREET.

MARK HURDLESTONE;

OR,

THE TWO BROTHERS.

CHAPTER I.

Say, who art thou--thou lean and haggard wretch!
Thou living satire on the name of man!
Thou that hast made a god of sordid gold,
And to thine idol offered up thy soul?
Oh, how I pity thee thy wasted years:
Age without comfort--youth that had no prime.
To thy dull gaze the earth was never green;
The face of nature wore no cheering smile,
For ever groping, groping in the dark;
Making the soulless object of thy search
The grave of all enjoyment.--S.M.

Towards the close of the last century, there lived in the extensive
parish of Ashton, in the county of ----, a hard-hearted, eccentric old
man, called Mark Hurdlestone, the lord of the manor, the wealthy owner
of Oak Hall and its wide demesne, the richest commoner in England, the
celebrated miser.

Mark Hurdlestone was the wonder of the place; people were never tired of
talking about him--of describing his strange appearance, his odd ways
and penur