The rejected wife

More than ninety years ago, what is now the city of Norwich was a thriving village scattered over one of the most picturesque hills in the world. Its wildness and its beauty for...

While these preparations were going on in the old farm-house, a little cavalcade, consisting of two gentlemen and a lady, followed by a negro servant, was galloping through a sw...

The family-supper was over, and the Arnolds were gathered about the wide fire-place in the best room, listening to the animated conversation of their son, and forming plans of a...

Hagar’s own private dreams of amusement are not to be forgotten, you may be assured. After the bells had been thoroughly scoured, the furs mended, and he had got all the work po...

In the woods upon the hill that rose some distance beyond Mr. Arnold’s house, stood two log houses that we have before mentioned. One of them was built quite near the road cut t...

On the day after thanksgiving, Arnold and his friends were to have returned to New Haven. Short as his visit had been, the young man was more than anxious to leave his home agai...

“Town!” cried the lady, with a pretty scream, “town! when you know I detest the very sight of a house that isn’t built of logs. No—no, I am dying to see the Falls, that we only...

Meantime Amy Leonard had spent a night that she could never think of after without a pang of self-pity that made her thrill from head to foot. So young, so helpless, with no fri...

Notwithstanding the sound of the sleigh-bells, Laura’s voice rang out sweet and clear on the frosty air. She half started to her feet among the furs, and, seizing the reins, swe...

“Oh! Amy! Amy! how did this come about?” she cried, while the tears rained down her face. “You in danger in the water, and I staying here with her! Oh! Joshua, Joshua, I did not...

It was the doctor from Norwich, who left his horse tied to the fence knee deep in snow while he went up to the cabin with a pair of leathern saddle-bags swung over his arm and a...

When Mr. Arnold’s double sleigh drove up to the farm-house the next morning, the whole family gathered at the front-door to receive the guest, now rendered doubly interesting fr...

Mr. Arnold, the elder, had driven to the falls; and, while his wife was holding her motherly conference in the sick-room, he went down to the saw-mill and found Leonard busy amo...

After the morning when Arnold became acquainted with his father’s frailty, he had dared to despise the old man in his heart,—dared to let this unnatural contempt be manifest in...

From some cause, Arnold had ceased to urge an immediate departure from his old home, and lingered day after day at the farm-house, till his guests began to wonder at a change wh...

Arnold was a self-sufficient egotist, and considered his own will, in every case, the higher law. He possessed intense pride, but of that rude sort which is distinguished by an...

The stricken man arose, wearily, and turned his face towards the town. How could he go home, with that fierce son ready to receive him with bitterness and reproach? How meet the...

New Haven is one of the most beautiful places on earth, even at the present day, when the green mountains are shorn of their forest-crowns, and cultivation has taken the place o...

Far in the depths of the forest that clothed the foot of East Rock and spread up to the verge of the town he had wandered; not for solitude, nor in search of that quiet which le...

All night long, Laura lay upon her bed, counting the hours with feverish impatience, gazing drearily out upon the moonlight, and weeping, at times, till the curtains overhead tr...

There had been a revival in the leading congregations at Norwich. This religious sentiment commenced with the return of old Mr. Arnold to brotherhood with his former associates....

A religious excitement, wherever it arises, is sure to wake a thousand virtues into action, which, in ordinary times, sleep supinely in human nature. Besides the prayer-meetings...

Another house in Norwich was the scene of trouble that day. The Arnold Mansion, so full of life and bustle when we first saw it, was greatly changed since the master had forsake...

The minister’s spinning-bee created a world of wholesome excitement in Norwich; every household was awake and in action. Men and women who had half grudgingly laid out a portion...

Mrs. Leonard and her daughter went into the house again, where the minister met them with his grave and pleasant welcome. Mrs. Leonard was not gifted with that keen sensibility...

While the assembly within the minister’s house was in that wild state which follows an event which no one thoroughly understands, Joshua Leonard came in from the orchard, where...

Joshua Leonard heard these cries, and they smote through his iron frame as lightning strikes an oak. He had been dumb till now. The sight of his child flitting by him like a gho...

Amy had left the house from fright alone. The sound of her father’s voice in stern denunciation fell like iron on her heart. She was out-doors, and fleeing along the shadowy sid...

Mrs. Arnold came into the room at this appeal; her white bed-dress sweeping the floor, and her sweet, old face shaded by the borders of her night-cap. The face was anxious; the...

At early dawn Joshua Leonard and his wife were astir. Neither of them had slept daring the night, still no words had passed between them, save when the low voice of the wife ros...

In these days of long journeys, when a trip to Europe is decided on one hour, and undertaken the next, a voyage to New Haven from Norwich is scarcely more than a morning’s drive...

Now that Amy Leonard was at home once more, with her conscience free of its cruel secret, and the forgiveness of her parents assured, a certain degree of tranquillity came back...

Before Paul de Montreuil started for Norwich, and while the intended marriage of his sister was kept a secret in New Haven, the unhappy young man whose interview with Arnold in...

The Arnolds had sailed, taking Amy with them. Hagar was left entire mistress of the farm-house, an honor which she undoubtedly made the most of. There is no describing the comfo...

A Sabbath day in New England. Who can describe it?—the sublime stillness, the hush which falls on every living thing, filling the very atmosphere with a spirit of prayer. The tr...

When the marriage of Laura de Montreuil was settled upon, her brother, always kind and over-indulgent, purchased one of those fine, old mansions that are now almost swept away f...

Yes, the two household-servants at Arnold’s farm breakfasted lovingly together, there is no doubt of that. But when the green-eyed monster once gets possession of a man, it is n...

The cabin on the Yantic was a sad, sad home after Amy left it. Since the minister’s festival it had been a house of sorrow, but now, that she was gone,—utterly gone,—a sense of...

Two vessels,—one steering eastward toward the ocean, one bearing west,—passed each other on the Long Island Sound. That going toward the ocean was a staunch brig, thoroughly pre...

The vessel which was to bring the Arnold family to New Haven had been watched and waited for only as a craft freighted with love ever is watched. When she first rose on the hori...

Arnold was with Laura that evening, and a more perfect contrast between the dim room where the Arnold family sat, and the exquisite boudoir in which the young man was lounging a...

But the two men did not return so promptly as she expected. Under one of the noble elms which shaded the college grounds they had paused in deep conversation. Both were agitated...

Arnold entered the hotel with an imperious step, and a storm in his eyes. With these feelings he had no wish to meet his mother, and received Hannah’s affectionate greeting almo...

“I think they mean to kill each other. You are one of God’s holy ministers. I beseech you, I charge you to prevent it. This man is my betrothed husband; Benedict is my brother....

In the first gray of the morning, a female ran up the steps of Paul De Montreuil’s dwelling, and seizing on the knocker sent one loud, prolonged reverberation through the buildi...