CHAPTER XII.

CHANGES AT PINE FARM.

After her father's death, Mary was no longer the bright happy girl she
had been before. Even her favourite flowers seemed to have lost all
their beauty, and the pine trees near the farm looked as though they
were clothed in mourning. From time to time she attended the church at
Erlenbrunn; and when here she never failed to visit her father's grave.
On every opportunity she went to this sacred spot to weep for her
departed parent, and she never left the grave without having made fresh
resolutions to ignore the pleasures of the world, and to live only to
God. As time went on her grief gradually moderated, but she soon had
new trials to undergo.

Great changes took place in Pine Farm. The good farmer had given the
farm to his only son, an amiable, good-tempered young man, but unhappy
in his choice of a wife, whom he had married a short time before. She
was a handsome woman, and possessed of considerable means; but she was
vain to a degree, and cared for nothing but money. Pride and greed had
gradually imprinted on her features an expression of harshness so
striking that, with all her beauty, her looks were repellent. She was
violently opposed to religion, and was thus without any restraint on
her conduct. By every means in her power she sought to make the lives
of her husband's parents miserable. If she knew that anything would
give them pleasure, she delighted in doing the contrary, and when she
gave them the food which was their due, according to the contract they
had made with their son, it was always with a bad grace, and in a
grudging spirit.

The good old man and his wife lived the greater part of their time in a
little back room, seldom appearing outside. As for their son, he led a
miserable life; for his wife overwhelmed him with constant abuse, and
was constantly reminding him of the money she had brought him. Being of
a peaceable disposition, and averse to quarrelling and disputing, he
bore his sufferings in silence. His wife would never quietly allow him
to visit his parents, for fear, as she said, he would give them
something secretly. In the evening, after he had finished his work, he
used to try to find an opportunity to visit them, when he would
complain to them of his hard lot.

"Well," said his father, "so it is. You suffered yourself to be dazzled
by the thought of her gold, and to be fascinated by her good looks. I
yielded too easily to your wishes, and thu