One balmy spring day, when the blue skies seemed wedded to the emerald hills, they laid her form away, and little Margaret had lost a mother's earthly protection. In less than a year after that sweet face went out of the home, another came to take her place; a woman in form and feature, but in nature a tyrant, harsh and cruel. For little Margaret she had no love, nought but bitter words; while her father, growing more silent and morose each day, and finding his home a scene of contest, absenteduk uggs sale himself, and passed most of his leisure hours with more congenial companions in the village. Margaret grew to womanhood with but a limited education; indeed, a very meagre one, such only as she could obtain from an irregular attendance at the village school, in summer when the farm work was lightest, and in winter, a day now and then when the bleak weather and the rough, almost impassable roads allowed her to reach the place which was to her far more pleasant than any other on earth. It was her hands which done the heaviest and hardest work of the family. No word of cheer or praise ever passed her mother's lips. All this, and it was no wonder her life was crushed out, that her step had no lightness, and her eye none of the vivacity of youth. The out-door work, such as caring for the cattle, was, at last added to her other burdens; yet all this she would have done willingly, could her soul have received something which she felt she so much needed-the light and blessing of love. She was deeply impressed with this when she entered other homes on errands, and she longed for the warmth of affection sheBurberry sale saw manifested in every look and word of their happy inmates. Yet her poor, crushed nature dared not rise and assert its rights. She had been oppressed so long, that the mind had lost all native elasticity, and one whose sympathies were alive would have looked on her as a blighted bud-a poor uncared for flower, by life's road-side. It was quite dark when she finished her milking, and went to give the young heifer her hay. She loved this animal more than any living thing beside the old house dog, and as she patted her soft hide, the creature turned on her eyes which seemed full of love, as if to show to her that there is some light in the darkest hour, something compensatory in the lowliest form of labor. Margaret lingered beside the animal, and thought how much better she loved her than she did her present mother. "I love you, Bessie," she said, as the creature stretched forth her head to scent the warm milk in the pail. "I 've a good mind to, Bessie; you want some, don't you?" and without stopping to think of the consequences, she turned some of the contents of cheap nike shox shoes the pail into Bessie's trough. "Margaret Thorne! I wonder if you don't know when it's dark. It's high time your work was done!" screamed her mother at the top of her voice. She seized her pails and ran to the house, making all possible haste to strain and set the milk away. But Mrs. Thorne took it from her hands, saying, "Go and 'tend to the supper. I'll do this myself." "There ain't as much as there ought to be inter two quarts," said her mother, returning and looking the girl squarely in the eye. "What does this mean? I'd like to know." Margaret was awe-struck. She dared not tell her that she had given some to Bessie, and yet she could not tell an untruth. One struggle, and she answered: "I gave some to Bessie," letting fall a dish in her fright. It broke into atoms. "Careless jade you! Break my dishes and steal my milk; giving it without my leave to a dumb beast. There, take that," and she gave her a sharp blow on the face. It was not the blow that made the poor girl's blood tinge her cheeks, but the sense of degradation; the low life she was living, in daily contact with one so overbearing, coarse, and rude. She did not weep, but one might have known by those suppressed sobs, that the heart's love was being sapped, all its feelings outraged. At that moment her father came in, and finding supper delayed, commenced scolding in a loud voice. "I tell www.cheapnikeshoxstore.net ye what, woman, I won't work and provide, to be treated in this ere way. D' ye hear?" and he came close to Margaret and looked into her face. "Yes, sir. I was late to-night." "Yer allus late, somehow. Why don't yer stir round and be lively like other gals, and be more cheery like?" His poor, rough nature was beginning to feel the need of a better life. "Let her work as I have, and she'll be thankful to have a roof over her head, let alone the things I make her," broke in Mrs. Thorne. "When I was a gal, I had to work for my bread and butter." Having thus relieved her mind, she flew busily about, and the supper was soon ready, to which they sat down, but not as to a homelike repast. Such a thing was not known in that house. The evening, as usual, passed in a dull routine of drudgery, and Margaret was, as she had been hundreds of times before, glad to reach its close and retire to her room. Thus wore the winter slowly away, and the days so full of labor, unrelieved by pleasure of any kind, were fast undermining the health and spirits of the sad girl. When spring came, her step was slower and her cheek paler, but there was no eye of love to mark those changes, and her labors were not lessened. At length her strength gave way, and a slow fever coursed through her veins as the result of over-taxation. The languor it produced was almost insupportable, Nike Shox NZ and she longed for the green woods, and the pure air, and a sight of running waters. Mrs. Thorne saw that something must be done, and finally consented that Margaret might take a little recreation in the manner she had proposed, accompanying her consent with the remark that she thought it a very idle way of spending one's time. Margaret's constant companion in her rambles was the faithful dog Trot, who highly enjoyed this new phase of life, and with him at her side she had nothing to fear. The change brought new life to her wasted system, and as she conned over the beauties around, watched the sparkle of the running brooks, and listened to the songs of the free birds, she wished that her life was as free and beautiful. One day while trimming a wreath of oak leaves, she thought she heard footsteps, and the low growl of Trot, before she had time to turn her head, confirmed her impression that some one was approaching. She turned, and encountered the gaze of a stranger, who said in a deep, pleasant voice: "I have lost my way, I believe. Is this Wilton Grove, Miss?" "It is," she answered, not daring to raise her eyes. "Thank you. I Nike Shox R4 was not quite sure, yet I thought I followed the direction," said the stranger, and gracefully bowing, departed. In all her life so bright and manly a face had never crossed her path. And that voice-it seemed to answer to something down deep in her soul. It kindled a fire which was almost extinct, and that fire was hope. Perhaps she would some day see people just like him, live with them, and be young and happy. Old Trot seemed to share her new-found pleasure, and looked knowingly into her face, as much as to say, "There are some folks in the world worth looking at." She went home that night to dream of other forms and faces than those she had been so long accustomed to, and slept more sound than she had for many months. Weeks passed away, and the bloom came back to Margaret's cheek, a new life was in her eye, for the voice of love had spoken to her heart, and the blood leaped till the color of her face vied with that of the roses. The young man whom she met that day in the grove, often found his way to that spot, not by mistake but by inclination, attracted by the fair face of Margaret. Again and Nike Shox Agent again he came, till his glowing words kindled the flame of hope to love, and it became a source of greatest pleasure to him to watch her dreamy eyes glow with brightness under his repeated vows of constancy. Clarence Bowen was the only son of a city merchant of great wealth, acquired by his own indefatigable industry. His son had inherited none of his father's zeal for business, and after repeated efforts to make him what nature had never intended he should be, he sent him to study law at the college in D--, a thriving town a few miles from Margaret's home. It was while there, and in an hour when weary with study, he wandered away to the spot where he accidentally met her. His nature being not of the highest order, he did not hesitate to poison her mind with flattering words, until at length he won her heart, not as a pearl of great price, a treasure for himself, but as a bauble, which he might cast aside when its charm had departed.
