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Updated: June 6, 2025
Good-bye! God be with you!" Beth's summer at Briarsfield parsonage passed quietly and sweetly. She had seemed a little sad at first, and May, with her woman's instinct, read more of her story than she thought, but she said nothing, though she doubled her little loving attentions. The love of woman for woman is passing sweet.
Ashley was announced, our old friend Edith Mayfair, the same sweet, fair girl under another name. They sat down by the window and had a long chat. "Have you seen the new minister and his wife yet?" asked Edith. "No; I heard he was going to preach to-morrow." The Rev. Mr. Perth, as the new Methodist minister, was just now occupying the attention of Briarsfield.
From a child her stories had filled columns in the Briarsfield Echo, and now she was eighteen she told herself she was ready to reach out into the great literary world a nestling longing to soar. Yes, she would be famous Beth Woodburn, of Briarsfield. She was sure of it. She would write novels; oh, such grand novels! She would drink from the very depths of nature and human life.
When I was a boy 'bout thirteen years old dey took me up de country toward Vicksburg to a place call Briarsfield. It mus'-a been named for her old home in Natchez what was called 'de Briars. I didn' b'long to Marse Jeff no great while, but I aint never fo'git de look of 'im. He was always calm lak an' savin' on his words. His wife was jus' de other way. She talked more dan a-plenty.
"'Oh, Lawrence, listen, they are singing! she cried, 'it is so beautiful; I am going home good-bye take care of Arthur, and she was gone." Dr. Woodburn paused a moment, and his breath came faster. "After that I came to Briarsfield and met your mother, Beth.
Her vast wealth as she had died childless went, by the provisions of her father's will, to a distant cousin, but her jewels she left to Beth. The following afternoon Mr. Perth read the funeral service, and they lowered the lovely burden in the shadow of the pines at the corner of the Briarsfield church-yard. There in that quiet village she had first seen him she loved.
Only you need not tell Beth you have seen me to-night," said Arthur, as he turned to leave; "I shall be out of Briarsfield before morning." Poor Arthur! Time had not yet healed his wound, but he was one of those brave souls who can "suffer and be still."
It surprised her that he sought no explanation, and before three o'clock Briarsfield was a mere speck in the distance. Nearly two months later Beth returned home. Marie had broken off her visit abruptly, and Clarence had gone away. It was a rainy Saturday, and Beth sat waiting for her father to finish his rounds. Her visit had refreshed her, and she looked fairly well again.
At Selma was a foundry, where the best ordnance I have seen was made of Briarsfield iron, from a furnace in the vicinity; and, as this would naturally attract the enemy's attention to Selma, I endeavored to prepare for him.
That night, as he was passing through Briarsfield on the late train, a desire had seized him to go back to the old place just once more, to walk up and down for a little while before the home of the woman he loved. He did not care to speak to her or to meet her face to face. She was another's promised wife.
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