ved from the East with his family, and
with them was slowly accumulating a competence for his declining days.

Robert Nettleton's family consisted of himself, his wife, and their
three children. He was looked upon by his neighbors as somewhat erratic
and strange, being repelling in his manner, and at times sullen and
reticent. He went about his duties in a severe way, and at all times
compelled the strictest obedience from each member of his family. On the
contrary, his wife was a meek-eyed little woman, patient and
long-suffering, and was looked upon in the neighborhood as a nonentity
from her unresisting, broken-down demeanor, save in times of sickness
and trouble, when she was immediately in great demand, as she had little
to say, but much to do, and had an effective method of noiseless, tender
watching and nursing at command, which was at all times ungrudgingly
employed.

The children consisted of one boy and two girls, the eldest of whom, now
in her eighteenth year, little dreamed of the despicable commotion she
was to create in after-life, and was the reigning belle of the
community, though she always kept the country bumpkins at a respectful
distance and was feared by fully as many as she was admired, from her
impetuous, imperious ways, that brooked no opposition or hinderance. One
would have to travel a long distance to find a more attractive figure
and face than those possessed by this country girl. She was somewhat
above the medium height, a living model for a Venus, supple and lithe as
the willows that grew upon the banks of the winding stream, and so
physically powerful that she had already gained some notoriety among her
acquaintances through having soundly shaken the pedagogue of the
district school, and afterwards pitched him through the window into an
adjacent snow-drift, where he had remained buried to his middle, his
legs wildly waving signals of distress, until she had just as
impulsively released him.

Although somewhat strange and unusual, her features, while not
strikingly beautiful, were still singularly attractive. Her head, which
was large and seemingly well provided with faculties of quick
perception, was covered with a wondrous wealth of black hair, so heavy
and luxurious as to be almost unmanageable, and which, when not in
restraint, fell about her form, hiding it completely, nearly to her
feet. Her forehead was full and prominent, while her eyes, large and
rather deeply set, and fringed w