SUNSHINE AND SHADOW OR PAUL BURTON’S SURPRISE ------------------ _A Romance of the_ _American Revolution_ ------------------ BY JULIA A. MOORE ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. 5 CHAPTER II. 11 CHAPTER III. 17 CHAPTER IV. 23 CHAPTER V. 31 CHAPTER VI. 37 CHAPTER VII. 45 CHAPTER VIII. 51 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER I. Many years ago, in one of the New England States near the banks of a small lake, stood a beautiful farm house, surrounded by a fine orchard. John Hilton, the owner of this romantic place, was an intelligent farmer and was kind to all people who chanced to come to his house. His family consisted of himself, wife and two children, a son and daughter. Warren, the eldest, was a fine lad of eighteen, with blue eyes and light complexion, and inherited his father’s kind disposition. Minnie was a brunette, a splendid girl of sixteen, with a heart as pure as the wild flowers around her home. She had company. Her cousin, Nettie Spaulding, had come from the city of New York to spend her birthday. Nettie was a lovely girl of eighteen, with dark brown eyes and dark auburn hair which hung in lovely curls around her shapely head. She had come to spend a few days with her cousin in the country. Since her father’s death nothing seemed to please this dreary, kind-hearted child of nature more than to visit her uncle’s house by the lake, where she could roam at will in the woods and gather wild flowers where nature had planted them so artistically. That Monday morning there was a great bustle around the house. There was to be a party on the Friday night following in honor of the young lady friend, and all seemed to enjoy the pleasure it afforded, except the young lady. She was silent and often in tears, and her cousins could not draw her out of this apathy. That afternoon her cousins were going to town to do some shopping. Nettie preferred staying at home and going down to the lake to gather wild flowers for a bouquet. “It is so pleasant to gather roses, lilies and shrubs alone by the lake;” thus she said to her cousins as they rode away. Warren waved an adieu as he said, “Dear cousin, do not go too near the brink of the lake, as you may fall in and there would be no one to get you out.”