Project Gutenberg's Harper's Round Table, August 13, 1895, by Various

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Title: Harper's Round Table, August 13, 1895

Author: Various

Release Date: July 7, 2010 [EBook #33104]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S ROUND TABLE, AUGUST 13, 1895 ***

Produced by Annie McGuire

[Illustration: HARPER'S ROUND TABLE]

Copyright, 1895, by HARPER & BROTHERS. All Rights Reserved.

* * * * *

PUBLISHED WEEKLY. NEW YORK, TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1895. FIVE CENTS A COPY.

VOL. XVI.--NO. 824. TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.

* * * * *

[Illustration]

THE STORY OF NOEL DUVAL.

BY FRANCIS STERNE PALMER.

The summer of 1814 was a troubled one for the people living in northern
New York. English troops were concentrating at points just across the
Canadian border, and there were rumors that they would soon invade the
territory of the States. The farmers were being hastily drilled into
militia companies--train-bands, as they were called; the women were
anxious and frightened; the boys shared the general excitement, and were
busy drilling.

Early one warm July evening four persons were sitting in the little
lattice-covered portico of a cottage in the outskirts of one of the
larger villages near the Canadian border. The most noticeable of the
little group was Madam Marston, an old lady, tall and straight, one of
the type that furnished the New England pioneers with wives as hardy and
brave as themselves. On the bench on the other side of the portico sat
her daughter; the Widow Duval, a slender, gentle woman, but with the
same look of determination in her fine gray eyes. Close to her side was
Noel Duval, a boy of about fifteen, whose dark skin and keen aquiline
features came from his French Canadian father, but who had his mother's
eyes. The sharpness of the boy's features was emphasized by the thinness
of his face, which was pinched, as if by suffering. While a child he had
met an accident that had brought on a long illness, and left one arm
withered and almost helpless. His sister, little Ninette, nestled close
to her stately grandmoth