The Black Forge Mills

The fragrant odor of sweet fern, and of pine and hemlock came to Ralph Carleton, the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Afton, as he leaned against the low window sill of his...

About ten o'clock the next evening the door bell of the First Church parsonage rang with a sharp and prolonged peal, as though pulled by a vigorous hand. The servant had gone to...

On a cold, stormy day, six months later, Mr. Carleton sat at his study table, his head bowed upon his hands his whole attitude that of dejectedness, if not of grief. What was th...

The First Church bell tolled loudly for the six o'clock prayer and praise service the next Sunday evening. As the last stroke sounded Mr. Carleton came rapidly in, and took his...

The month of March opened cold and stormy. All day long the rain and sleet had fallen unceasingly. As night approached there was no cessation of the storm; it had rather increas...

Owensett Bay, at the head of which the town of Afton stood, was a beautiful sheet of water. It was six or eight miles long, and three to four miles broad, and for the most part...

All Afton awoke one Saturday morning in July, and speedily went into a state of intense excitement. One of its largest stores on the main street had been forcibly opened during...

There are three astonishing things in this world; I presume there may be many more, but there certainly are _three_. First of all, it is astonishing how fast evil tidings will t...

Wednesday morning opened dark and lowering, but notwithstanding this, so great was the interest taken in Ray Branford's trial, that the large hall where the judge had decided to...

"Well, then, Ray, good-bye until Monday. We shall see you then?" Mr. George Woodhull said, as the boy stepped into a boat at the Long Point Farm wharf, and took up the oars.

Away up at the extreme end of the Parade, and commanding an extensive view of the town and bay, stood the Afton Graded School building. Four stories high, solid, square, substan...

The spring term of the Afton Graded School began the last week in March, and as Ray expected early in April to begin another season's work for Mr. Woodhull, he did not think it...

"I do not see how we can do differently. It is simply a choice between shutting down the mills altogether or reducing the wages of the help. For the sake of the employés we have...

A low sigh, that was all, but the quick ears of Betsy Branford heard it, and she looked toward the table at which her husband, with bowed head, was sitting, and then a heavier s...

Ray acted instinctively, and so did the most natural thing under the circumstances. Screaming "fire" two or three times at the top of his voice, he ran swiftly down the hill tow...

Ray now entered into a struggle with himself--a struggle so long and so bitter that it well-nigh overwhelmed him. His reason and his conscience were arrayed against his pride an...

While in the Afton Graded School, Ray had become familiar with a code of communication among the scholars, wherein numerals were used for the consonants, and certain consonants...

At the close of the service, Mr. Carleton came around where Ray was talking with Edward Lawton and his sister Daisy, and remarked, as he laid his hand on the boy's shoulder:

It is impossible to follow Ray and Edward in all the details of their academic life. All that can here be done is to give a few incidents that will illustrate their mental and s...

It was a soft balmy day in June, just two years later than the close of our previous chapter. The little village of Wenton lay nestling white and beautiful among its surrounding...

The unfortunate but heroic death of Mr. Branford attracted wide attention, and the Wenton Memorial Chapel was filled to overflowing on the day of his funeral. Mr. Carleton offic...

When Ray reached Clinton Academy, he found a note awaiting him from the merchant whose deformed son he taught. It simply requested that he should call at the merchant's place of...

Ray and Edward left Easton on the same train with their Afton and Wenton friends. All, in fact, had taken seats in the same car, and a bright, merry, vivacious company they made...

Four years in college and three years in the seminary--seven years in all--was a long period of time to wait before entering on one's life work Ray thought, as he and Edward Law...

The train arrived at Afton a little past midnight, and Ray and Edward found Dr. Gasque at the station with his carriage waiting for them. To their anxious inquiry as to Mrs. Law...

Daisy's convalescence was slow but sure. In a week she was regarded as out of danger, and Ray returned to his work at Easton. He at once wrote the mission board, informing them...