Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1864 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XII. THE. STORY OF ESTELLE. "Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Teara from the depth of some divine despair, Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy autumn-fields And thinking of the days that arc no more." Tennyson. BALMY, bright, and beautiful broke the succeeding morning. Every passenger as he came on deck looked astern to see what had become of the Champion. She still kept her usual distance, dogging the Pontiac with the persistency of a fate. Captain Crane said nothing, but it was noticeable that he puffed away at his cigar with increased vigor. Mr. Vance encountered the Berwicks once more on the hurricane deck and interchanged greetings. Little Clara recognized her friend of the day before, and, jumping from Hattie's lap, ran and pulled his coat, looking up in his face, and pouting her lips for a kiss. "I fancy I see two marked traits in your little girl, already," said Vance to the mother, after he had saluted the child; "she is strong in the affections, and has a will-power that shows itself in self-control." "You are right," replied the mother; "I have known her to bite her lips till the blood came, in her effort to keep from crying." "Such is her individuality," continued Vance. "I doubt if circumstances of education could do much to misshape her moral being." "Ah! that is a fearful consideration," said the lady; "we cannot say how far the best of us would have been perverted if our early training had been unpropitious." "I knew your father, Mrs. Berwick. He found me, a stranger stricken down by fever, forsaken and untended, in a miserable shanty called a tavern, in Southern Illinois, in the sickly season. He devoted himself to me till I was convalescent. I shall never forget his...