I hate you!"

He flung the pony's head from him, making the animal rear and almost
fall back over me, but I stuck on, and, digging my spurs into his
flanks, dashed on along the path, leaving the man gazing fiercely at me
with his fist clenched and his arm extended in the direction I had
taken. When I again took one more alarmed look round, he had
disappeared. My first impression was that the man was mad, but still
his curses and his threats and fierce looks frightened me, and I must
own that I felt somewhat inclined to cry. I did not, though, but
galloped on as hard as I could till I reached the house. Giving my pony
to a groom, I ran up into my room without speaking, and, locking myself
in, burst into a fit of tears. Two hours afterwards my mother,
wondering at my non-appearance in the drawing-room, came to my door, and
when I opened it and exhibited my scared countenance, she inquired if
anything dreadful had happened. "Oh no--nothing," I answered. "Only an
odd man appeared in the woods, and said something strange--but it's all
right now." This was the only account I ever gave of the adventure. It
was surmised that I had met a gipsy, who probably hoped to extort money
from me. My father made inquiries in every direction, and gave notice
that he should prosecute any rogues and vagabonds found trespassing on
his property.

I, however, could not help often thinking over the adventure, and
wondering what the man could have meant when he said that I had come
between him and fortune. I determined to try and get my mother to solve
the mystery, so one day I asked her, casually, if my father had
inherited his estate, or how it was that he became possessed of it. She
seemed surprised at the question, but told me, with some hesitation, it
seemed to me, that he had gained the property a short time before, after
a long-contested lawsuit. Somebody coming in prevented me from asking
further questions, and my mother never again alluded to the subject.

Story 8--Chapter 2.

Three years passed by. I had been seized with an ardent desire to go to
sea, and as my parents had never been in the habit of thwarting my
wishes, they could not refuse me this somewhat unreason able one in a
young gentleman heir to some fifteen thousand a year. What they might
have done had I been an only son I do not know, but as I had several
brothers and sisters, they considered, I conclude, that should I be
expended in fighting my count