Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: RTJTLEDGE. CHAPTER I. " Heavily hangs the broad sunflower, Over its grave i" the earth Bo chilly; Heavily hangs the hollyhock, Heavily hangs the tiger lily. Tbnnysoh. It was th'i gloomy twilight ot a gloomy November day; dark and leaden clouds were fast shutting out every linger- ing ray of daylight; and the wind, which moaned dismally around the house, was tossing into mad antics the leaves which strewed the playground. The lamps were not lighted yet; of visible fires the penaionnat of St. Catharine's was innocent; a dull black stove, more or less gigantic, according to the size of the apartment, gloomed in every one, and affected favorably the thermometer, if not the imagination. We paced untiringly up and down the dim corridor—Nelly, Agnes and I—three children, who, by virtue of our youth, ought to have been let off, one would have thought, for some years yet, from the deep depression that was fast settling on our spirits. In truth we were all three very miserable, we thought—Nelly and Agnes, I am afraid, more so than I, who in common justice ought to have participated deeply in, as I was the chief occasion of, their grief. My trunk was packed and strapped, and stood outside the door of my dormitory, ready for the porter's attention. In it lay my school-books, closed forever, as I hoped; aud souvenirs innumerable of school friendships and the undying love of the extremely young persons by whom I was surrounded. From them I was to be severed to-morrow, as was expected, and "It might be for years, ani it might be for ever," ns Nelly had just said, choking up on the last sentence. I did feel unhappy, and very much like " choking up " too, when I passed the great windows, that looked into the play ground, and remembered all the mad hours of frolic I ha/ ...