elopement. It had been the one hard point to get over in his conception of
his father, but he could never have explained it by such a scene as this.
It would have hampered him terribly in his tale had he dreamed of it. He
passed over the unfortunate incident with a romancer's touch, and dwelt
upon his grandfather's bitter resentment which he resented as the son of
his mother's choice. The Van Eltens and Brodericks all fared hardly at the
hands of their legatee.

It was not only in the person of a hireling who had abused his trust that
Abraham had felt himself outraged. There were old neighborhood spites and
feuds going back, dividing blood from blood--even brothers of the same
blood. There was trouble between him and his brother Jacob, of New York,
dating from the settlement of their father's, Broderick Van Elten's,
estate; and no one knows what besides that was private and personal may
have entered into it. It was years since they had met, but Jacob kept well
abreast of his brother's misfortunes. A bachelor himself, with no children
to lose or to quarrel with, it was not displeasing to him to hear of the
breaks in his brother's household.

"What, what, what! The last one left him,--run off with one of his men!
What a fool the man must be. Can't he look after his women folks better
than that? Better have lost her with the others. Two boys, and Chrissy,
and the girl--and now the last girl gone off with his hired man. Poor
Chrissy! Guess she had about enough of it. Things have come out pretty
much even, after all! There was more love and lickin's wasted on Abe.
Father was proudest of him, but he couldn't break him. Hi! but I've
crawled under the woodshed to hear him yell, and father would tan him with
a raw-hide, but he couldn't break him; couldn't get a sound out of him.
Big, and hard, and tough--Chrissy thought she knew a man; she thought she
took the best one."