Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER III. Speculative remarks with which the reader may or may not agree -- An old woman -- Hopes and wishes com/mingled with hard facts -- The dog Crusoe's education begun. IT is pleasant to look upon a serene, quiet, humble face. On such a face did Richard Varley look every night when he entered his mother's cottage. Mrs. Varley was a widow, and she had followed the fortunes of her brother, Daniel Hood, ever since the death of her husband. Love for her only brother induced her to forsake the peaceful village of Maryland and enter upon the wild life of a backwoods settlement. Dick's mother was thin, and old, and wrinkled, but her face was stamped with a species of beauty which never fades -- the beauty of a loving look. Ah! the brow of snow and the peach-bloom cheek may snare the heart of man for a time, but the loving look alone can forge that adamantine chain that time, age, eternity shall never break. Mistake us not, reader, and bear with us if we attempt to analyze this look which characterized Mrs. Varley. A rare diamond is worth stopping to glance at, even when one is in a hurry. The brightest jewel in the human heart is worth a thought or two. By a lovinglook we do not mean a look of love bestowed on a beloved object. That is common enough ; and thankful should we be that it is so common in a world that's overfull of hatred. Still less do we mean that smile and look of intense affection with which some people -- good people too -- greet friend and foe alike, and by which effort to work out their beau, ideal of the expression of Christian love they do signally damage their cause, by saddening the serious and repelling the gay. Much less do we mean that perpetual smile ofgood-will which argues more of personal comfort and self-love than anything else. No; ...
