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"OR, A LOOK INTO THE PAST g ; ¥ 3 + - 4 - + ; IS ' bo CHAPTER XXVI. A year had rolled away--twelve long calendar months. . It was Christmas time--a good, sensible, 'seasonable Christmas, with frost "and ice in abundance, and a clear, bright, wintry-sky above. 'London was very full, people were rushing here and there, bent on emptying their purses' on the least provocation. There was an air of good nature prevailing; and _ it some por wretch stood shiver- ing, with blue, wan face, in the gutter, the embodiment of hunger, . gorrow and despair, he was, after all, in the minority, to judge by the hundreds of comfortably clad forms that. hurried past him, breathing an atmosphere of peace and prosperity. " In two days' time the church "bells would ring out the tidings that another Christmas was born, bid- ding all rejoice. : : At one of the largest houses in Grosvenor Square a carriage drew up on this bright December morn- ing, and a girl, carefully wrapped up in furs, sprang lightly out. "Ig Mrs. Crawshaw 'at home, Batts ?"' she asked of the footman who opened the door;-and receiving an answer in the affirmative, she ran up the handsome staircase with all the assurance of one who was familiar with every nook and cor- aer. "Not in her boudoir,"' she mur- mured, putting her head in at the door of a charming little apart- ment. "Oh! Janet, there you are! Where is Mrs. Crawshaw?' "You'll find her in the dining- room, miss. She's been there all the morning." Dorothy flew downstairs again, and into the room named; there she came to a full stop. "Well, what is happening?' she queried, as she beheld a perfect avalanche of baskets and parcels strewn on the table and the floor. 'Is this an amateur grocer's shop, may I ask, Mrs. Crawshaw?" Nancy laughed as she came for- ward and kissed her friend. "You are just in time to help us, Dolly,"' she observed. = 'You have met my cousin, Darcy Hamil- ton, have you not?' indicating a rather handsome young 'man, who was apparently very busy. _ Miss Leicester's manner was only moderately warm as she acknow- ledged Mr. Hamiltofi's greeting. ""So like Nancy! She has for- given these people their neglect and unkindness to her when she was a poor little. baby. Of course, they are very glad to-acknowledge their relation, now she is one of the richest widows in England. Ught I hate them all!" So de- clared Dorothy, mentally, giving a vicious tug to her sable' boa, as, in obedience to Nancy's commands, ~ she removed her furs. "Now perhaps you will tell me what all this means?' she inquir- ed again, as she recovered her tem- per. Cd Nancy smiled. She..had grown fnto a beautiful woman during the year that was gone. She was still as youthful and fresh as ever, but the girlish simplicity had left her + face, and the traces of deep thought and sorrow lived in her wonderful eyes. , Now in her gray gown, made of some soft, clinging material, with her hair piled picturesquely on the top of her small head, it would have been difficult to find a more delight- ful object for the gaze to rest om. "I am superintending the ar- rangement of my - poor people's Christmas gifts,"" she explained. "They are all to be distributed to- night. I don't know what I should have done if Darcy had not offered to come and help me." ~ } - "You know I am only too de- lighted, cousin Nancy", was the warm 'reply, spoken honestly; for, despite Dorothy's hard verdict, Darcy Hamilton was a thoroughly good-hearted young fellow, who would have fallen in love just as easily with his cousin when she had been poor and unhappy as he did now when she was a millionaire. ou don't want 1," Dolly ob- "» "| of love to the weak, kind, courte- | ity"--with a touch om Nancy's asked. 'You know, dear, I told you that--"' "Oh, yes; you told me plainiy enough! But that makes no dif- ference. You are coming down with us to-morrow, Miss Nancy, whether you like it or no. So there is an end of the matter!" "Dolly, dear, it is impossible!" "Is it--I don't think so!"' Then jumping up and flinging her arms round the dainty form, 'Darling, lyou must come--you can't refuse me--and papa--poor, 'lame papa-- he will be broken-hearted if you don't spend your Christmas witd us. We shall all be alone--only Merefield is coming, and you don t mind him. Now, you are hesitating, Nancy. Way don't you say 'yes'! Mr. Hamilton, do persuade her!' "I will if I can. I should like her to be with you above all things, Miss Leicester: I am sure it would do her good," the young man an- swered, promptly. Nancy's face wore a constrained expression ; she could not bear, to refuse these dear ones, and yet to go back to the Hall--was she strong enough to bear the gemories that must come? As her cousin spoke she woke from her musiags. "IT am afraid I must say no, Dol- ly, darling; I have asked Darcy to spend his Christmas with me, now that Sir John and Lady Hamilton are away, and--" "Oh, don't think of me, Nancy!" began Darcy. "Is that your cried Dorothy. "Why, that is easily settled. Of course, Mr. Hamilten will come, too. Oh! no, no; I won't listen to anything more; I just command you to pack up at once, both of you, and be prepared to travel down with daddy and me to-morrow. Oh! how lovely it all is!' and Dorothy executed a dance descriptive of joy, which came to a premature stop as Nancy inquired, hurriedly: "And you will really be alone, Dolly, dear?' - "Really; o-~iy Merefield. There is no one else to come; Aunt Pris- cilla is away, so is Derry, and Aunt Anne can't come, for the very good reason that she has not been asked. Daddy agreed with me that we would dispense with the crowd of cousins this year. I don't mean anything rude, Mr. Hami:- ton; you must put it all down to my delight at having eaptured this most aggravating young perso. Now, Nancy, beware; play me false and--well, I won't even breathe what my vengeance will be like, or I shall frighteh you into fits !"' And with the Dolly flung her arms about Nancy, and again kissed and hugged ler wildly. ""And now I must go. No, don't trouble to come to the door to see me off, Mr. Hamilton; stay and help to get all this work done, or we shall be having some horrible excuse about having to remain, etc. Good-bye, darling; you have made me so happy! What! you will come, Mr. Hamilton? Well, if you catch cold, it is your own fault, and if you are ill at Ripstone you won't enjoy yourself a bit. Take care of Nancy, and--"' And so, laughing gaily, Dolly flitted out of the room, and Nancy was 'alone. "It must have happened some day; I suppose," she said to her- self, with a heavy sigh, as she stood gazing into the fire; "but I wish I could have refused Dolly. She thinks to make me very happy. How little she knows!" * * * only excuse?' * * Dorothy, determined that there should be no slipping through her fingers at the'last moment, went herself to fetch Nancy and escort her to the station. f She found Dr. Grantley with Mrs. Crawshaw, and a spot of ex: citement on Nancy's tream cheeks. -'"Unele Henry has" come: home, Dalty 1"? _she explained, hurriedly ; "dear old Uncle Henry! I shall be so glad to see him again!' She could never forgive herself for having. been made to doubt Henry Chaplin's integrity for. one instant, and her warm, generous heart turned with a double wealth lent, who had been her best : hen 'she dis- '| sant home."' see her before she returns, usuat |S * | eer to ride with him, to this good Samaritan's generos- shoulder--"he will find, let us hope, not only a comfortable, but a plea- ~Dorothy's face beamed. 'Oh! -if Mr. Chaplin wants to there is plenty of room at the: Jy '"'Are you going to put up all my belongings, Dolly?' Nancy asked, with a faint smile. "Yes," was the prompt reply, "if that will ensure you being there."' And then, after having tried hard to press Dr. Grantley to join them, and having accompanied Nancy while she went to send her uncle a loving telegram, with Christmas greetings, Miss Leicester drove off in triumph to the station, where Sir Humphrey, looking hale 'and hearty, despite his lame leg and crutch, and Darcy Hamilton were awaiting them. "I expect we shall have a pitched battle between Janet and Baines,' Dorothy declared, laughingly, as they were all driving through Rip- stone village to the Hall, a few hours later, amid the courtesies and respectful greetings of the ten- ants. "You have no conception of what jealousy there is harbored .in my maid's honest breast for your abigail, Mrs. Crawshaw." . Nancy made no reply. She had grown very pale and her deep-blue eyes wandered over the well-remem- bered spots with a look of pain in them so great that it distressed Dorothy. She said nothing, how- ever, judging it kinder to leave the girl alone. "It will bring back all the old horror and trouble at fic't,'"' she thought to herself, "but that will soon pass."' But she had no knowledge of how muchssuffering this journey through Ripstone village meant to Nancy. for she knew nothing of the brief romance that had been born here in the summer that was long dead buried and forgotten, and '0 she was ignorant and unconscious of how great a sacrifice of feelings Nancy had made when she had con- sented to join their Christmas party at Ripstone Hall. "Welcome home, Nancy dear -- welcome home!" said Sir Humon- rey, as he stood? hat in hand, at the open door of his well-loved house ""There's a good piece of mistleioe somewhere about, I am sure, so you must rot be angry if I steal a kiss."' "Twenty if you like," Nancy an- swered, lifting her sweet red lis to his; then she was kissed by Dorothy, and then she found her- self in a crowd of servants, who greeted her with warm though re- spectful words of welcome. A mist of tears rose before her! eyes, and her lips quivered, but! Dolly was quick to create a diver- NIAGARA DISTRICT NEEDS PROTECTION. Enough Peaches in Goorgia Alone to Supply America. The relationship between Can- ada and the United States as re- gards the fruit industry, and the manifest need of a Protective tariff for Canadian fruit growers have been clearly shown in a series of articles by Dr. George Charles Buchanan of Beamsville, Ont., Pre- sident of the Ontario and Western Co-operative Bociety. Dealing with the Niagara peninsula Dr. Buchanan says:-- There are in the Niagara Penin- sula about 850 square miles of land on which fruit can be well grown, not counting such districts as An- caster and Dundas. Between To- ronto and Hamilton there is an- other 100 square miles; in all at least 288,000 acres. Not all of this is peach land, not THE PRESE RVING TEST || has stood the searching test of Established in 1854 FOR NEARLY 60 YEARS EXTRA GRANULATED SUGAR possible because of ics consistent high quality. FROM YOUR GROCER. The Canada Sugar Refining Co., Limited, Montreal preserving time. This is only by John Redpath. even probably 20 per cent. of it. But very little of it is of n) use for any fruit. Much can be made fine peach land by drainage, or good apple, plum or grape land; some is only good for berries, but all of it is in a good fruit climate. The unplanted land is waiting to double or quadruple in value, whenever the market demands more fruit. | It may be assumed that the value of this land for general farming is not over $100 per acre, and that for fruit purposes it is worth $500 per acre; although much of the peach land is worth $1,000 per acre; and that where it has to be drained, draining will average about $20 per acre. It can further be stated that peach land at $1,000 per acre is known to pay a good return on the investment in the hands of practi- cal growers. If we take the very low estimate of 10,000 acres plant-| ed at $500 per acre we have a value of $50 0w,000 for the orchard and berry lands. Now as our home market grows, and in our home market we have no competition, every acre of this 288,000 has 'potentially the same value, and fully half is unplanted. There are in Canada about 8,000,- 000 people, the claim 93,000,000. However that may be, our present soft fruit acre- age is fully equal to supplying Canada. It is safe to say there is not over 12,000 acres of peaches in Eastern Canada. If this supplies 8,000,000 people it would take 150,000 acres to supply 93,000,000 people, but there are 180,000 acres of peaches in Georgia alone. JE ANGRY SAMOAN WOMEN. Armed With Whips and Sticks They Attacked a Male Critic. The latest news from the South ion. "Your old room, Nancy," she' said ; then, as she slipped her hand through Narcy's arm, she whisper-' ed: "Here is Baines. Now for a good free fight. I saw Janet rear- ing her head like a Trojan a mo- ment ago."' The quiver turned into a smile, and the tears were bravely kept back as Baines was greeted, and then the two girls were alone in the dear, old, well-remembered bedroom. | "Oh, darling! I am so glad to have you here--so glad!' cried Dorothy, with real joy ringing in her tones. 'It is like old times, Nancy. Pt makes me so happy!' | round and seen all was as it should be, Dorothy, anxious that Janet's' feelings should not be hurt, her! self went to see to the good crea ture's wants, and Nancy shut the, door and was alone. and sweet, came to her as sho stood in this little room--the un- conscious happiness that preceded the birth of love--the few brief h-urs of ecstasy--the shock that, cut that ecstasy short--the mental agony that followed. How it all came back to her! The gardens and grounds that had lain bathed: in, the summer sunshine now wtretched cold and barren in the winter's rime before her--a fit em- blem of her desolate heart. (To be continued.) -- THE AMEER'S VENGEANCE. "When Sir Charles Euan-Smith, 'who died not long ago in England, was in the market place of an Af- ghanistan town he was fired at by a native. He lodged complaint with the Ameer, who appeared to take no notice of the incident, merely remarking, "That's all right."' Sir Charles complained again and met with the same reply.: He still thought that the Ameer was treat- ing a serious matter with less con- sideration: that * it deserved, but thought it advisable to say no more on the subject. 'About a week af- terward he was in by the Am- r hey rode for some distan, "Your 1" harles said: has been busy of late. ,"' replied Ny Aino | plied the attendant. Seas brings a story which illus- trates, in a fashion at once comic and serious, the chief difficulty of the German empire-builder in Sa- moa, to wit, the readiness of the German settler to intermarry with the native women. The white pop- ulation of the German colony is about 500, and there are already about 1,100 half-castes. Of the twenty married German officials, no fewer than twelve have Samoan wives. As tne native girls nearly always speak English and refuse to | learn German, the frequency of these mesalliances causes particu- lar disquiet in colonial circles in the fatherland. In April last a German settler named Michaels took it into his head to express onial newspaper, adding that quite apart from race considerations the Samoan women made inefficient and unworthy wives. Seldom has an author had more gratifying proof of his power to arouse interest and What a flood of memory, bitter inspire action. The very next morn- | {ha ration be well ba ing a deputation of several hun- red Samoan women of various shades waited upon him armed w... whips, sticks, and gardening tools. The police were just in time to rescue Michaels by taking him into custody. But the dusky amaz- ons scored 1n spite of the police, for the authorities had to bundle their calumniator out of the island as the only means of preventing ser- ious trouble. a HOW FIREFLY LIGHTS. To find out just how and why the tiny firefly is ableat will to trans- form itself into a living lamp a ser- ies of very. interesting experiments have just been conducted by F. Alexander Dermott afid Charles G. Crane of the Hygienic Laboratory of the United States Public Health and Hospital Service in Washing- ton. The investigation necessarily called for consderable delicate mi- croscopical study of the light pro- ducing organs of the firefly. It was] found that the insect produces its light by oxidation, that is, by prac- tical combustion, A woman who visited the Brit- ish museum recently inquired of an attendant: "Have you no skull of Cromwell? 'I have been looking all round, for a skull of Oliver Cromwell." "No, madam,' .re- d "We never very odd!" she aimed ; "iihey, museuni af a pesabd Me ne N THE FARM Useful Hints for the Tiller of th2 Soil FEEDING COWS FOR MILK. In ninety-nine cases probably out of a hundred where cows in a herd are not producing satisfactory profits the results are due to a lack of system in the management. In "the first place the breeding of the herd may be at fault, but this is not always a criterion, and the farmer is not justified in jumping 'to hasty conclusions. The cow is really a machine for the purpose of turning roughage, meal, grass, | roots, ete., into milk. One does not know whether or not a machine has profitable capacity until it is put to the test. If a farmer weighed (the milk of his herd of, say, ten United States cows and fed the cows alike, he; "might come to the conclusion tnat |all the cows were doing well, or he "might come to the very opposite 'conclusion, that they were all un- | profitable. In both cases he might |be wrong. The only correct basis fon which to estimate the yield of a herd of cows is individual per- formance. Then he knows that certain cows are making good use of the food they consume; others are making poorer use, and per- haps still better use. As soon as the question of individual produc- tion is soitved he is at once in pos- cession of the data necessary to determine whether or not he is feeding the cows, so they will have a chance to show what they can do. Many farmers feed cornstalks, hay and rome roots, and expect their cows to yield large quantities of milk. Often the quantity of hay is limited, and the whole ration is { wheat bran, corrmeal and oil meal mixed equal parts by weight. This should be fed twice daily. Each cow should receive as many pounds of this grain ration a day as she produces pounds of butter "fat in a week. For example, if a cow produces nine pounds of but- ter fat in seven days she should be fed nine pounds of grain a day, or four and a half pounds night and morning. If one does not know | And then, when she had gone these truths in a letter to the col- how much butter fat his cows are | producing or how much milk each lindividual yields he is in the dark (as to how each should be fed. When the meal ration is setled, then the | roughage, whatever form it takes I may be fed with a liberal hand. If lanced good cows will do justice to themselves and yield profit to their owner, even on dry feed. HOW MANY TO AN ACRE. The number of cattle to be graz- ed per acre must be determined by the experience of the farmer himself. Under no circumstances is overstocking t> be practised, if the supply of grass proves defec- tive, sell offff the supernumerary animals; if the feed be abundant, buy more stock or convert the ex- cess of grass into hay. It is an undecided question whether it is right or not that cattle, sheep and horses should be allowed to feed together in the same field. There are many farmers who will have no such trinity, and others who posi- tively object to sheep. Twelve f the latter to the acre is the rule. y horses are understood, not working horses that are too worn out to roam about in search of food, and that prefer the soiling plan, but colts which are all for play and disturb the other occupants. Cat- tle do not bite the grass clean; sheep eat the heart out of clover, thereby killing it; they also pick out their food daintily; the horses nip, as it' 'were, between 'both. Sheep fold the soil, which is no small gain, bu} are fof lead by bs ther cattle or horses. -There is stil ariothet mattar to be" dépided and which influences the number of cat- tle to be maintained. Are they to be soiled or lett to graze? The latter is the least troublesome, but fewer head can be kept. Iu soiling the green stuff must be cut twice a day and left some hours to heat down. That implies a great deal of carting away manure. But then there will be more stock support- ed. If the cattle be left out during the summer nights in a paddock {that outdoor rehef will be prized. The milking can take place in the stable as well as in the field. "In the rich grass land of Normandy the cattle are there fed by the picket plan. Every animal has a [tether of six or nine yards that {works on a swivel, so that this sur- | of fodder must be fed bare; (the herder changes the sweep of the tether twice a day. At night the janimals are housed. The water is I specially supplied from pumps tc the troughs. oe A FINE MEMORY. Blinks, after inviting to dinnei his friend Jinks, who badsjust re turned from abroad, was telling him what a fine memory his little son Bobby had. "And do you suppose he will re member me © said Jinks. "Remember you? Why, he re members every face that lhe ever saw." . An hour later they entcred the house, and, after Jinks had shaken 'hands with u.rs. Blinks, he called Bobby over to him. "And do vou remember me, my little man!" "Course T do. You're the same (fellow that dad brought last sum- {mer, and ma was so cross about [it that she didn't speak to him for a whole week." 1 EI, LUCKY MISTAKE. Grfocer Sent Pkg. of Postum ant Opened tne Eyes of the Family. A lady from Blodkline Mass. : "A package of Postum was sent me one day by mistake. "1 notified the grocer, but find- ing that there was no coffee for breakfast next morning, I prepared some of the Postum, following the directions very carefully. "It was an immediate success in my family. and from that day we have used it constantly, parents and children, too--for my three rosy youngsters are allowed to drink it freely at breakfast and luncheon. They think it delicious, and 1 would have a mutiny on my hands should I omit the beloved beverage. "My husband used to have a very delicate stomach while we were using coffee; but to our surprise his stomach has grown strong and en tirely well since we quit coffee ang have been on Postum. 'Noting the good effects in my family I wrote to my sister, whe was a coffec toper, and after muck persuasion got her to try Postum. "She was prejudiced against it at first, but when she presently found that all the ailments that coffee gave her left and she got well quickly she became and re mains a thorough and enthusiastic Postum convert. i "Her nerves, which had become shattered by the use of coffee have grown healthy again, and to-day she is a new woman, thanks to P stum." Name given by Postum Co., Battle Creek, Mich., and the "cause why!' will be found in the: great little + book," "The Road ta >! which somes. in pkgs. writes | |