The Argosy — page 328: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A Rare Case. 311 and has never milked a cow in her life! What were you thinking of to bring her here ?”’ ‘‘She came in my way. I suppose you can teach her. She has not a friend in the world to look to.” ‘¢ She will not be worth her wages.” ‘Ah! that’s just my luck: well, we must do the best we can with her. If the steward had never mentioned her to me, now—but then he did mention her, and here she is.” There she was, and there she stayed. Apt to learn, willing to be taught, grateful for the real kindness she met with, Mattie was soon the best hand at milking for miles round, soon devoted to the baby. Three years passed quietly, and then came the romance of Mattie’s life. She was twenty that summer, and Adam Armitage, a grave man, was fully ten years her senior. A great traveller, member of a world- renowned scientific society, a student and discoverer—he was, between two scientific expeditions, refreshing heart and brain by a walking tour through the home counties. He had wandered over the level marsh lands, losing his way among the watercourses ; sauntered through lanes whose hedges were one tangle of wild flowers; past villages embosomed in trees, old manors with spreading oaks and leafy beeches, and deer standing knee-deep in ferns. Then away over the Downs, walking for miles along the breezy crest of them, a wide panorama on either hand, and beneath the foot a grassy track, hardly visible at times, but reappearing again: and if faithfully followed leading straight to the sea-side town near to which was Drew’s farm, and Mattie milking her cows, playing with the child amongst the hay, singing at her work, and all unconscious of coming fate. Adam’s walking tour ended at the farm Drew had taken only a year before, and the dwelling-house it had been found more convenient to inhabit than the smaller building on the old land close to the road. Mr. Armitage found the pure air of the Downs good for him. He hired a littlke upper chamber, from the window of which one could inhale the strong sea breeze that yet came to it, subtly scented from the blossoming clover across which it blew. He made friends with all the family. To Mattie it was delightful to meet once more some one with all the tricks of speech and manner of the more refined society amongst which her youth had been passed. Little Harry followed this new friend wherever he went; Harry’s mother called him a right-down pleasant gentleman; the farmer called him a good man... Drew took this idea from the long talks the men had together, and to which Mattie would listen, humbly feeling that, in spite of her Own superior education, the farmer had more in common with Mr. Armitage, and understood him better than she could. Living in a practical work-a-day world himself, the world of science had a wonderful fascination for Drew. He liked few things better than to hear of recent discoveries, and the light thrown by them upon re- COMIC OOO S (S©) im