mising subject. Her
precocity was of a very unpleasant order, and caused her father a great
deal of annoyance.

When everything else failed him, Sam had the baby for consolation. The
little wretch had been so utterly uncared for since its appearance that
it seemed surprised for some time by its father's demonstrations of
affection, but finally the meaning of this seemed made known to it,
probably in the way the same meanings are translated to babies
everywhere else, and from being a forlorn and fretful child it
gradually became so cheerful that its own mother began to display some
interest in it and make a plaything of it, to her own manifest
advantage.

But Jane, the elder daughter, who was a woman in stature and already
knew more of the world than is good for women in general, was a
constant source of anxiety to Sam. Many a night the unhappy father
lingered in the neighborhood of the hotel, seeking for an opportunity
to see his daughter and talk with her; not that he had much to say, but
that he hoped by his presence to keep more congenial company away from
her. When he heard any village gossip in the house, he always could
trace it to his daughter Jane. Whenever Mary broke out with some new
and wild expression of longing, he understood who put it into her mind.
Whenever his wife complained that she was not so well dressed as some
other women whose husbands were plain workmen, and expressed a wish for
some tawdry bit of finery, Sam could trace the desire, by very little
questioning, back to his daughter Jane.

He prayed about it, thought about it, groaned over it, wept over it,
and still saw no means within his power to bring the girl back to an
interest in her family and to bring her up so that she should not
disgrace the name which he was trying to rehabilitate. But the more
thought and effort he gave to the subject, the less seemed his chance
of success.

CHAPTER VIII.

Eleanor Prency was the handsomest girl in all Bruceton. Indeed, she so
far distanced all other girls in brilliancy and manners, as well as in
good looks, that no other young woman thought of being jealous of her.
Among her sex she occupied the position of a peerless horse or athlete
among sporting men; she was "barred" whenever comparisons were made.

As she was an only child, she was especially dear to her parents, who
had bestowed upon her every advantage which their means, intelligence,
and social standing could supply, and she ha