A WINTER HY MN, WINTER relgneth o'er the land, Freezing with its icy breath; ead and bare the tall trees stand 3, All 1s chill and drear as Death, Yet it soameth but a day Since the Summer flowers were here Since they stacked the balmy hay, Since they reaped the golden ear, Sunny days are past and gone; So the years go speeding past; Onward ever, each new one Swifter speeding than the last, Life is walingi 1ife is brief; Death, like Winter, standeth nigh; Each one, like the falling leaf Soon shall fade, and fall, and die. But the sleeping earth shall wake, And the flower shall burst in bloom, And all nature rising, break Glorious from its wintry tomb, 8c, Lord, after slumber blest Comes a bright awakening, And our flesh in hope shall rest Of a never-fading Spring. Amen. . BESSIE'S FOLLY. BY WALTER ¥. JACKSON, A lovely young girl ina dark blue riding habit runs lightly down the shallows steps, and, scarcely touching her escort’s extended hand, springs into the saddle of the magnificent black steed in waiting. “Isn’t he a splendid creature?” she says, patting the proudly arched neck with one gauntleted little hand. “1 don’t believe he is half as vicious as $hey say he is, captain.” “Perhaps not,” replied her compan- fon. Then, glancing at the thorough- bred's lithe limbs, flowing mane and great, fiery eyes, headded: “Since you are determined to ride him, Miss Bes- ale, let us hope so, at least.” With the last words, he swings him- self into the saddle of his own horse, and the two abot ride away, when they are checked by a deep, musi- eal voice saying behind them: “Miss Raymond, you surely intend to ride that brute.” Bessie Raymond's dimpled cheeks crimson. She looks back the speaker, a tall, elegs do not at it figure, standing on the hotel's broad piazza, with brown eyes almost aflame. “You can see for yourself,” 1s her sharp reply. “Did I not tell you last night that I meant to do so?” “But’'—with a slight elevation of his Jark brows—*1 thought you were jest- ing. When you spoke of trusting your- self upon his back, I warned you that his record was a bad one, and advised yon if yon valued your life to keep away from hum.” “Advised!” Bessie's red lip curls. “You may call it advice Dr. Lane, but it was given in the tone of & command. The fact that you are a friend of my father's gives you no right to control my actions, and you need not attempt to assume 1t. Will you kindly remem- ber this in the future?” The physician smiles—a smile that makes the girl secretly wither. “I have no desire to control your ~actions,” he says tranqully. “It is frue that your father, when he learned I was to spend a few weeks in this placewhere you are summering, beg- ged me to look after your welfare as might an elder brother or an old family friend; and this 1 have tried to do; thongh I never yet presumed to do more than advise you. As you find even {hat distasteful, howover, I beg to assure that henceforth I will annoy youn no more.”’ “1s there a tone of mockery in his low, deep voice? It seems to the girl hat a laughing demon 1s looking at her «out of his sphinx-like gray eyes. Her own grow darker, and her little teeth close on lips that have now be- come ashen. “Thank yon,” smiling palely. ‘You ean be generous, it seems Sut” — turning to her companion ‘‘we waste time. Let us go.” “Une moment,” interposes the phy- sician. He comes down the steps and appeals to the man. “Harrell,” he says. “youn know something of that brute. Can yom not dissuade Miss #taymond from riding hm?” The young officer shrugs his ders hopelessly. “1 have done my best, my good sir, and failed. You need have no fears, however. Though Black Hawk is an ugly brute, I flatter myself that I can control him. Miss Bessie is in no real «danger while under my charge, you may rest assured.” “Is she not?” says the other, with his cool, slow smile. Then, bowing to Bessie, who ncoords iim buta slight inclination of Ther haughty little head, he slowly turns AWRY. A little later, as the two horses go eantering down the graveled drive and out into the winding mountain road, Bessie litts her angry dark eyes to her cavalier's blonde face, saying pas- sionately: “What a bear he is! 1lnsome way he is always making one feel so small does he do it? What—what makes him so hateful?” FL Harrell laughs. ‘““You appear to like him even less than I do, Miss Bessie. Surely, you have n better reason for it than that which appears on the surface.” The girl's cheeks grow scarlet, “He is a ps ig icy, masterful sort of Ma creature,’ she says, Shughty as Eblis and selfwilled as a Czar, ow «ould any one fancy such a man as that?” wil” indeed,” asserts Captain Har- He smiles a little as ho speaks. He believes that wounded self esteem is at the bottom of Bessie's dislike of Dr. Lane. The slavish horag shounl- eo that most men pay to the little beauty is a bom- ago in which the physician has had no part. He is not one of the humble, sighing kind. Whatever he may se- aretly feel, be has always trea the Joung lady with a cool, courteous in- ifference that she has found qalling 1n the extreme. “He is hateful,” she cries, her oyes fall of angry tears— “odious.” “1 am truly glad you think so,” the captain says. ‘lor do you know’ — leaning toward her with anasir of eager leading 1 bad begun to fear that it was different with you-—that—that, in fact, you eared for him." lently and giving the reins a quick jerk. Black Hawk shies and throws up his maned crest with a snort. “I!” she repeats, in a choked voice. “You must be"? “Take care!” cries the captain. My God!” Ie makes a desperate clutch at the steed’s bridle, but he is too late. With a rear and a plunge, Black Hawk takes the bit between his teeth, and, with flattened ears and glaring eyes, hurls himself up the road like a living thun- derbolt. An ejaculation of horror breaks from the officer's lips. It is echoed shriek from Bessie. The bridle having been torn from her grasp, she is cling- ing with both hands to Black Hawk's streaming mane, while she looks back with dilating eyes, crying aflright- edly: “Oh, help me, captain! Save me!” Harrell stares after her helplessly. He is for the time incapable either ot speech or action. Then his eyes in- stinetively turn to the right where a bridle path leaves the road, cutting through a dense growth of oak and hickory. string, reaches the curving road about a quarter of a mile farther on, shorten- ing the distance to that point nearly a third. Urgiug his horse forward with whip and heel, Harrel dashes into it, muttering through colorless lips: “If I fail to reach there in time to stop him, may Heaven have mercy her! She will eertalnly be thrown when he goes plunging down the steep de 3 PY scent beyond. The thought turns him eold. leans forward, straining his eves the path along which his Lors ng. On- on they rush But stop! Her @ is the too late K 3 TH fs on his right, 1 Hisshrinking gaze i steed rushing #1 OR. y maddened sends him reeli gasping. The sight of avalan brute foree charging straight to- ward him has well-nizh parslyzed him. Not even for her can he rash upon the certain death that here seems to await him. A faint cry breaks from Bessie's lips. Thongh he has failed her she beholds a second figure, that has suddenly ap- peared upon the scene, leaping from the back of a horse near the roadside, and boundiag into the way before her. As be wheels there, confronting the blazing-eyed, foam-flecked black demon dashing toward him, she sces the pale granite-like face of Dr. Lane. With that smile upon his lips that she knows so well, and a glint as of steel in his deep gray eyes, he springs straight at Black Hawk's froth-drip- ping jaws, clutching the bit with hands of iron. A short but furious struggle follows, the black rearing and plunging, and striving, but vainly, to strike down the physician with histerrible hoofs. While the result is still in doubt, the doctor more thap onco being lifted from his feet, ana swung to and fro like a pendu- lum, Bessie manages to slip from the saddle to the ground. “Loose ” # that y é Ol him! she cries, her voice quivering with the anguish of fear. “Loose him for Heaven's sake! He will kill you, doetor!” A low, fierce laugh and a savage jerk at the bit is Dr. Lane's only reply. At the same moment, however, Black Hawk ceases to struggle, and stands be- fore him with a bowed head, meek and trembling. “There!” says the victor, passing his hand soothingly over the shining black muzzle. ‘I think the evil spirit is ex- orcised for the time.” “Doctor,” says a sweet and humble voice beside him. He looks round. A very white little Bessie, her face enframed with a tangle of soft brown curls, her lovely eyes wide and brimming, stands with clasped hands looking up at him. “Weli?” he smiles, She draws a long deep breath, mouth quivering wistfully. “Why did you follow us?” ters. “Why did you risk for me?” At this the rock like calm is broken. A burning glow sweeps into his cheeks, while his eyes grow tender and dazzling. “Because” —in tones whose passion- ate sweetness makes her heart leap—<1 love you, little one.” Her cheeks are no longer pale. The lilies give place to mantling roses. “You love me?’ she murmurs, dreamy-voiced. ‘You do, really?” “Better than life,” is the fervent gos onse, “More than tongue can tell. The dark lashes sink over her half- dazed eyes, , if I had known!” she utters tremulously, ‘I thought you despised me, believing me nothing but a haman butterfly; and it made me so hard and bitter against yon; becanse—because—- Oh!” covering her tingling cheeks with both hands, “I mustn't tell you that. But won't you—do, please—try to fore vo jhe for--for treating you so “It onl oe be kind to me through all future,” he says, with grave tenderness, She gives him a glance so lovely in its Jromise that an answer in words seoms quite unnecessary. leant, ! such is the view that Captain Harrell, | coming up ot this juncture, takes of the matter, her fal- life tho your short his stammer apol and is vory kind and HOB Apo Op the sore, It will bo many a day before he , forgets the result of that morning ride | with Bessie, now Mrs, Dr. Lane, among the Carclinian mountains, It is well to bo eminent, but to feel , eminent is 0 misfortame,