"Gee up, whoa," said Joe, throwing his halter over the neck of one of the calm black horses as he came up with the creature, out of which all frolicsome spirits had long departed. "Thee's got a bit of ugly work to do, so see thee does it kindly."
It was a bit of ugly work, enough to displease all the animal creation of the Falcon Range.
Captain Guy Falconer, the younger son of the late owner of the Moat, had come home from active service with his regiment abroad, to die in the prime of manhood of a neglected wound.
But not before having, both by precept and example, impressed all around him with the conviction that to him "to die was gain," and that his triumphant faith had enfolded the young wife and children whom he must leave behind, and placed them in his heavenly Father's arms, to be cared for, and brought to Him in due time.
And this treasured remembrance now soothed the pain of an uprooting from home and its associations, such as neither she nor her husband had ever contemplated. For the elder Mr. Falconer had long held a lucrative and honourable appointment abroad, and only used his inheritance at home to drain its resources, and to supply his own and his elder son's extravagances, leaving the mansion and grounds to the tenancy of Captain Falconer's family with the impression that the estate must one day follow its long antecedent history by descent in the male line to the lawful heir-presumptive, the only son of Guy and Blanche Falconer.
Mr. Geoffry, the elder son of the now deceased proprietor, had neither inclination nor health for the English climate, hated the responsibilities of a landlord, was childless, and devoid of affection or sympathy for the brother whose interests he did not scruple to set aside, and whose admired and devoted wife he rejoiced to humble and oppress.
The late turn of affairs had revealed something of this to the boy, who had hitherto considered himself born to a respectable though encumbered inheritance, and the tumult of feeling roused within taught him an unexpected lesson upon the very unsatisfactory foundation of earthly hope, and the treacherous failure of human character unsustained by Christian principle.
For Master Guy had found himself in several violent passions, had indulged in more unbecoming language concerning his uncle and grandfather than had ever been heard from his lips before, had flung his lesson books into a corner, trampled down the flowers in his own particular garden, shaken his young fist at the aggravating birds that sang on cheerily among the trees, and exhausted himself in a flood of tears, with his arms clasped round the neck of a sympathising pony.
The ferment of feeling among tenants and dependents did not serve to lessen his disgust and indignation; wherever he went, kind hearts resented, and thoughtless tongues commented, until poor Guy regarded himself as the most injured of mortals, and his own the most blighted of prospects, to say nothing of those of his mother and sister.
In a state of utter self-abandonment, dreading the event of the morrow, hating to think of the last night in the dear old home, the boy had wandered from spot to spot endeared by happy childish memories, until he could bear no more, and as if the tomb would be a desirable end to all his troubles, went last to the quiet resting-place beneath the cedars.