was to
himself or any one else. Nothing was expected of him, consequently
nothing was asked of him, and as his father made plans for the future,
he began to wonder how he himself was henceforth to exist. His father
would be in California, and he had too much pride to lounge around the
old homestead, which had come to them through George Moreland's
generosity.

Suddenly it occurred to him that he too would go with his father,--he
would help him repair their fortune,--he would not be in the way of so
much temptation as at home,--he would be a man, and when he returned
home, hope painted a joyful meeting with his mother and Jenny, who
should be proud to acknowledge him as a son and brother. Mr. Lincoln
warmly seconded his resolution, which possibly would have never been
carried out, had not Henry heard of Miss Herndon's engagement with a
rich old bachelor whom he had often heard her ridicule. Cursing the
fickleness of the fair lady, and half wishing that he had not broken
with Ella, whose fortune, though not what he had expected, was
considerable, he bade adieu to his native sky, and two weeks after the
family removed to Chicopee, he sailed with his father for the land of
gold.

But alas! The tempter was there before him, and in an unguarded moment
he fell. The newly-made grave, the narrow coffin, the pale, dead
sister, and the solemn vow were all forgotten, and a debauch of three
weeks was followed by a violent fever, which in a few days cut short
his mortal career. He died alone, with none but his father to witness
his wild ravings, in which he talked of his distant home, of Jenny and
Rose, Mary Howard, and Ella, the last of whom he seemed now to love
with a madness amounting almost to frenzy. Tearing out handfuls of his
rich brown hair, he thrust it into his father's hand, bidding him to
carry it to Ella, and tell her that the heart she had so earnestly
coveted was hers in death. And the father, far more wretched now than
when his first-born daughter died, promised every thing, and when his
only son was dead, he laid him down to sleep beneath the blue sky of
California, where not one of the many bitter tears shed for him in his
far off home could fall upon his lonely grave.

CHAPTER XXXIII

CONCLUSION.

Great was the excitement in Rice Corner when it was known that on the
evening of the tenth of September a grand wedding would take place, at
the house of Mrs. Mason. Mary was to be married to the "richest