Mr. Hunter was owner of the famous Brereton Quarry & Stone Works,
located about a mile above the thriving village of Brereton, on the
eastern bank of the Castaran river, and at a somewhat greater distance
below the town of Denville. The quarry was a valuable one and the
owner was in comfortable circumstances, with the prospect of acquiring
considerable more of a fortune out of the yield of excellent building
stone. The quarry had been worked for something like ten years, and
the discovery that he had such a fine deposit on his small farm was in
the minds of his neighbors equivalent to the finding of a gold mine,
for as the excavation proceeded, the quality of the material improved
and Mr. Hunter refused an offer from a company which, but for the
stone, would have been a very liberal price for the whole farm.
Mr. Hunter had been a widower ever since his boy was three years old,
and the youth was now fourteen. His sister Maggie was two years his
senior, and they were deeply attached to each other. Maggie was a
daughter after her father's own heart,--one of those rare, sensible
girls who cannot be spoiled by indulgence, who was equally fond of her
parent and who stood unflinchingly by her brother in the little
differences between father and son, which, sad to say, were becoming
more frequent and serious with the passing weeks and months. It is
probable that the affection of the parent for the daughter prevented
him from ever thinking of marrying again, for she was a model
housekeeper, and he could not bear the thought of seeing anyone come
into the family and usurp, even in a small degree, her functions and
place.
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