FOR FREEDOM'S SAKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 17, 22 January 1900, Page 4

FOR FREEDOM'S SAKE.

CHAPTER ll.—Continued,

FIRST BLOOD. A pleasant contrast was the White House to the dwellings in Santone. It was built of wood, and was one of the first of the '* frame" houses now so constantly seen in all parts of the States. Of one storey only, it covered a good deal of ground, and with its whiteness toned down somewhat by wind and weather, its peaked shingle roof of dark brown, a large garden in front trimly laid out in beds and surrounded by a neat paling—it bad a comfortable and civilised appearance that was restful to the eye. This last feature, the garden, caught Robert's attention'at once, for he was a born gardener, never so happy as .when :delving and hoeing among plants and vegetables; and Mr. Elmore had hardly opened the gate before his companion said eagerly. " You take much pains here, sir. 1 have seen nothing like it since I left home." j

: "It is not my work, Mr. Hold- , enough. I don't reckon upon knowing the difference between a turnip and a potato until they are out of the ground. My ward and niece, Ruth Winsford, who resides with me at present, has this fancy. Here she comes to answer foi; hevself." ; Robert, who had as little expected to see a young lady in Kansas as a crocodile, locked up somewhat nervously, and immediately stiffened all over; but he presently forgot himself in surprise and admiration. Ruth Winsford was tall and slender —perhaps too slender but she carried J herself with perfect pose and balft'ue, and her full dark eyes, a very failskin, and a great mass of wavy golden hair, with which the wind took liberties, caused cooler observers than a" susceptible young man of three-and-twenty to remark that she was charmingly pretty and might some .day be a beauty. For the rest it must be confessed tbat whatever impression she made upon Robert, he made little or none her. After a slight bow when Mr. Elmore introduced his c6mpanion, Miss Ruth devoted her attention entirely to her uncle. Her eyes, which were exceedingly sharp, saw at once that something was the matter with Mr. Elmore, in spite of an effort on his part to keop his wounded cheek out of sight.

" Uncle, you are badly hurt. Youi face is bleeding. What has hap« pened " Nonsense, child, it is a scratch, Cold water, a bit of rag, and a brusl: will make me well, I received a rude punch, that was all, No further consequence followed. Lfst us come in." kittle mora than this did Mr, £!• mar© tell his family about his accident Robert's pei i'onuuices wefo nev<a mentioned at all. The conversation at lunch was kepi up almost entirely by Mr. Elmore aiu his niece. Robert, never a readj speaker, wa3 not at his ease to-day He had come distinctly to the con elusion that while he respected IsaaShappett, though he could not uhder stand him, he thoroughly disliked Mr Allen Elmore, Politics were no'

a touched upon directly, but Robert felt B that as wide a gulf existed between hio ® opinions and his host's as between men of different religions. Under these - circumstances there was no apparent i reason why Robert should not have f taken his leave when lunch was over—--3 for he had made up his mind to say t little about land at present. But he r did not go away. 110 sat meekly silent ■ while Mr. Elmore, with a coo) % > irritating incisivenes.«, railed at all men who came to Kansas under the impression that any headway could be made against the growth of slavery, He heard without protest that Abolitionists were the ruost mischievous of lunatics, and that while slavery was from a Northern point of view disagreeable, it. mijst 'toieratoS and respected because it was sacred to the, Siuth. The truth was Robert had overheard Miss Winsford tell her aunt that she intended to spend the afternoon in her garden, and a Btrong desire came upon him to see the young lady at work, So he kept himself quiet, though with great difficulty, and when he took his leave at last it was to stroll down the garden path and pause beside an energetic figure in sun bonnet and big gloves. Miss Ruth also had been watching Mr. Holdenough, and had come to the conclusion that never, in the whole course of her existence • had she read of, much less seen, so austere and forbidding a yourg man. She compared him, as he sat inwardly rebelling at the sentiments expressed by Mr. Elmore, to one of Cromwell's Ironsides in the revolution. She wondered to herself whether such a creature had ever been able in his life to appreciate the point of a joke. Her surprise, therefore, was great when he addressed her with a smile that lit up

his sombre liko a Unsli of sunlight in a dsu-k room, and askod to be allowed to examine her pirdcn. They strolled round t® Hi lio-fis together, and it was not 'iofoi-n thi-y wore deep in n learned. discussion upon tlio relative roerirn of li«flst- :ii;d henvv toils, and the viiyst- ries of potting, cutting, aiul grafting. .Tlx n M;ss \Vinsfoitl gave her experiences List fmmnipv in Kanm; awl Mr. lloldeuough dilated upon tuo advantages of a glass forcing house, and even proposed to obtain somehow Uio nrntenstte for such a luxury, and og(j for htir with his ow» hun<V. Waking ho;:i9 lit the eonl of ti c-

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