Eben Holden: A Tale of the North CountryBacheller, Irving
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Eben Holden: A Tale of the North Country
Bacheller, Irving
Farm life -- Fiction; Historical fiction; New York (State) -- Fiction
The remarkable thing about Margaret Hull was her simple faith. It looked
to no glittering generality for its reward, such as the soul's highest
good, much talked of in the philosophy of that time. She believed that,
for every soul she saved, one jewel would be added to her crown in
Heaven. And yet she wore no jewel upon her person. Her black costume was
beautifully fitted to her fine form, but was almost severely plain. It
occurred to me that she did not quite understand her own heart, and, for
that matter, who does? But she had somewhat in her soul that passeth all
understanding--I shall not try to say what, with so little knowledge of
those high things, save that I know it was of God. To what patience and
unwearying effort she had schooled herself I was soon to know.
'Can you not find anyone to love you?' she said, turning to McClingan.
'You know the Bible says it is not good for man to live alone.
'It does, Madame,' said he, 'but I have a mighty fear in me, remembering
the twenty-fourth verse of the twenty-fifth chapter of Proverbs: “It
is better to dwell in the corner of the housetops than with a brawling
woman in a wide house.” We cannot all be so fortunate as our friend
Trumbull. But I have felt the great passion.
He smiled at her faintly as he spoke in a quiet manner, his r s coming
off his tongue with a stately roll. His environment and the company had
given him a fair degree of stimulation. There was a fine dignity in
his deep voice, and his body bristled with it, from his stiff and
heavy shock of blonde hair parted carefully on the left side, to his
high-heeled boots. The few light hairs that stood in lonely abandonment
on his upper lip, the rest of his lean visage always well shorn, had no
small part in the grand effect of McClingan.
'A love story!' said Miss Hull. 'I do wish I had your confidence. I like
a real, true love story.
'A simple stawry it is,' said McClingan, 'and Jam proud of my part in
it. I shall be glad to tell the stawry if you are to hear it.'
We assured him of our interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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