FAMILY PRIDE

OR

Purified by Suffering

BY MARY J. HOLMES

Author of "Dora Deane," "The English Orphans," "Homestead on the
Hillside," "Tempest and Sunshine," "Lena Rivers," "Meadowbrook," "Cousin
Maude," etc., etc.




CHAPTER I.

THE FARMHOUSE AT SILVERTON.


Uncle Ephraim Barlow, deacon of the orthodox church in Silverton,
Massachusetts, was an old-fashioned man, clinging to the old-time
customs of his fathers, and looking with but little toleration upon what
he termed the "new-fangled notions" of the present generation. Born and
reared amid the rocks and hills of the Bay State, his nature partook
largely of the nature of his surroundings, and he grew into manhood with
many a rough point adhering to his character, which, nevertheless, taken
as a whole, was, like the wild New England scenery, beautiful and grand.
None knew Uncle Ephraim Barlow but to respect him, and at the church
where he was a worshiper few would have been missed more than the tall,