Natures Serial Story | Page 6

eager quest after the obscure
laws of cause and effect, which might enable him to accomplish what
to his plodding neighbors would seem almost miraculous. He
understood that the forces with which he was dealing were wellnigh
infinite; and it was his delight to study them, to combine them, and
make them his servants. It was his theory that the energy in nature was
like a vast motive power, over which man could throw the belt of his
skill and knowledge, and so produce results commensurate with the
force of which he availed himself. There was, therefore, an unfailing
zest in his work, and the majority of his labors had the character of
experiments, which, nevertheless, were so guided by experience that
they were rarely futile or unremunerative. On themes that accorded
with his tastes and pursuits he would often talk earnestly and well, but
his silence and preoccupation at other times proved that it is not best to
be dominated by one idea, even though it be a large one.

CHAPTER II

AMY WINFIELD
The reader may now consider himself introduced to the household with
whom he is invited to sojourn. In time he will grow better acquainted
with the different members of the family, as they in their several ways
develop their own individuality. A remark from old Mr. Clifford
indicates that another guest is expected, who, unlike ourselves, will be
present in reality, not fancy, and who is destined to become a
permanent inmate of the home.
"This is a bitter day," he said, "for little Amy to come to us; and yet,
unless something unforeseen prevents, she will be at the station this
evening."
"Don't worry about the child," Burtis responded, promptly; "I'll meet
her, and am glad of an excuse to go out this horrid day. I'll wrap her up
in furs like an Esquimau."
"Yes, and upset her in the drifts with your reckless driving," said
good-natured Leonard. "Thunder is wild enough at any time; but of late,
between the cold, high feeding, and idleness, he'll have to be broken
over again; lucky if he don't break your neck in the operation. The little
girl will feel strange enough, anyway, coming among people that she
has never seen, and I don't intend that she shall be frightened out of her
wits into the bargain by your harum-scarum ways. You'd give her the
impression that we were only half-civilized. So I'll drive over for her in
the family sleigh, and take Alf with me. He will be nearer her own age,
and help to break the ice. If you want a lark, go out by yourself, and
drive where you please, after your own break-neck style."
"Leonard is right," resumed Mr. Clifford, emphatically. "The ward
committed to me by my dear old friend should be brought to her home
with every mark of respect and affection by the one who has the best
right to represent me. I'd go myself, were not the cold so severe; but
then Leonard's ways are almost as fatherly as my own; and when his
good wife there gets hold of the child she'll soon be fused into the
family, in spite of the zero weather. She'll find all the cold without the
door."

"I yield," said Burtis, with a careless laugh. "Len shall bring home the
little chick, and put her under his wife's wing. I should probably
misrepresent the family, and make a bad first impression; and as for
Webb, you might as well send the undertaker for her."
"I don't think she will feel strange among us very long," said Leonard's
wife. "She shall hang up her stocking to-night, like the other children,
and I have some nice little knick-knacks with which to fill it. These,
and the gifts which the rest of you have provided, will delight her, as
they do all little people, and make her feel at once that she is part of the
family."
"Maggie expresses my purpose fully," concluded Mr. Clifford. "As far
as it is within our power, we should make her one of the family. In
view of my friend's letters, this is the position that I desire her to
sustain, and it will be the simplest and most natural relation for us all.
Your mother and I will receive her as a daughter, and it is my wish that
my sons should treat her as a sister from the first."
Amy Winfield, the subject of the above remarks, was the only daughter
of a gentleman who had once been Mr. Clifford's most intimate friend,
and also his partner in many business transactions. Mr. Winfield had
long resided abroad, and there had lost the wife whom he had married
rather late in life. When feeling his own end drawing near, his