Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1866-06-01


Nina knew that Tom had an unbound
ed admiration for Kitty Smith. It eut
the poor girI to the very heart but she
did not neglect her work, and 90 wander
ing about the woods in an insane manner
nor was she consumed by a dumb, tear
/ less sorrow" No. She gave Tom two
| or three good seedlings about the matter
| which he always answered that he care d
nothing whatever about Kitty. but that
he wasn't going to be such a slave that
/ ne couldn't look at a pretty girl and
/ then Nina would take a cry, and then
they would kiss and make up
But Tom had not been to see her now
for two weeks, and in that time Nina had
/ thought over the matter a great deal, and
/ had begun to see the right way through
it, as she would have expressed herself
/ Some of these thoughts were in her mind
now, but the minister gave out the hymn,
and Nina tried to put all such worldly
i thoughts away, for she was a good. re-
/ ligious girl, and believed In everything
| that was proper and orthodox. / know
that factory heroines are always wonder
/ ing why the All Powerful permits sin, and
! then Furnishes It-Why they are cursed
| with inherited Vices-that they are senti-
mental inidels, in short-fearing to trust
themselves to gloomy and cruel faith
Nina had none Of these doubts and fears
/ She believed in the straight and narrow
way and she knew perfectly well that all
iuhdels and hereties would shUrely go to
! he'll. Perhaps IN the very bottom of her
/ heart she wished 1t we're not so, but she
never would have dared to utter this,
| even to her own consciousness, she would
/ have thought it Wicked-a suggestion Of
/ the devil
The congregation were accustomed to
spend the intermission in the graveyard,
! where they gathered into groups to eat
/ their lunch, and to gossip. Nina stole
/ away to an unInvItIDg spot where the old
! tombstones were half sunk into the earth,
| and the graves we're OvergroWn with weeds.
/ Here she thought she would not be fol-
! lowed for she wanted to think about Tom.
/ She had been there but a few minutes
f when she saw him coming slowly toward
| her, with his eyes bent upon the ground.
/ He is sorry. poor fellow, she thought,
/ II know he is sorry
Tom started on seeing her. How you
! do startle a fellow, Nina r. he said
/ And you look like a gost. What is the
! matter Does anything trouble you,
1 Nina Z? he added, IN moro kindly tone.
Nina did not lean her pale face against
the tombstone, and say God knows p or
/ look at him reproachfully like a dumb
/ animal being led to the slaughter, or do
1 anything else she ought to have done
| She looked at him with contempt, and
| ezclaiming, Tom HartIe, you are a fOoll"
] walked away as fast as she could, for fear
she would cry. which was a weakness of
| hers.
She did not 90 far The thoughts that
1 Toms Unlucky question had dissipated
| came back to her, and turning around she
/ went back to the place where she had left
| him He was leaning against the fence,
/ looking at the hills in the distance with
sad and troubled face.
| TON, said Nina, kindly, laying her
/ hand on his shoulder, Il know what you
/ are thinking about. Don grieve over it.
\ 1t can't be helped, and you're not bit to
/ blame for it, and | guess it will all come
out right In the end somehow.
And she was gone before Tom quite
| comDrehended her words.
/ Tom did not intend to walk home with
Kitty Smith, but when they went out OF
/ church, and she looked at him with her
great brown eyes, he was drawn to her
| side as by a magnet, and they walked
/ away together; and Nina saw it. and 1t
made her angry. Angry that he had so
| little consideration for her after what she
! had said to him in the graveyard, and
| more angry because he did it in the sight
| Of all the congregation, who she knew
/ had wondered at it, and pitIed her.
Her road was the same as theirs, but
/ she went round longer way to the quar-
! ry, so as to avoid walking behind them.
| The quarry was half way home, and when
! she got there she sat down to rest In
thick growth of young pines upon the
summit of breezy hill. But she was
| destined to find no mental repose that
| day, for she had been there but a few
minutes when Tom and Kitty came in
! sight. They had lOitered long on the
road. They should have been home by
| this time. Nina watched them as they
| seated themselves on the grass near her
| place of cOncealment, and she noted
! Kitty's coquettish ways, and Toms IN
| creasing admiration.
Il wish she would slip down into the
quarry and break her neck /" thought
! Nina.
At last on Kitty expressinga wish for
! some wild gOosebeTries, Tom went off on
| a search for some. He was gone a long
! time and Kitty began to yaWn, and Nina
! wished most heartily he would come back,
so they would go home and she could get
away. Kitty spied a tuft of eolum bines
nodding on the very edge of the hill, and
true to her natural instincts Of gratifying
a present pleasure without thought be-
yond, she ran to them and plUeked them
up. The ground here was sloping, the
grass dry, and slippery. She felt herself
gliding swiftly down the hill, and, clutch
ing wildly at the air, she caught hold of
birch sapliug as she swung off its side,
viii eh had been quarFied away until 1t
/ had become almost smOOthe for descent
of some forty feet. And there she hung,
her only support the sapling which she
girded with her left hand, which bent so
low with her weight that It's plumed top
touched her head. She knew it must
break soon, and she looked at the jagged
rocks far below her, and cried, and shrek
ed for help
IF she had had any presence of mind
she would have seen that she had one
chance for her life. Nina saw it In flash,
and called out to her
tSwing yourself a little to the right,
Kitty, and put your foot upon that little
point of rock Don't you see it?''
II see 1t 7 shrieked Kitty, but I can I
do it. Help me o help me ~
Nina ran to the spot. There was no
friendly rock or bush to hold it-nothing
but the shelving bank, and slippery grass,
and the one sapling which was the frail
support of poor Kitty. She threw her
self upon the ground, as far from the edge
as she could, and seized hold of Kitty's
wrist.
Now, Kitty, don't let go the sapling
and swing yourself upon that roek-you
can easily do it.
"I can't do it! shall fall if l move
Pull me up; Nina, pull me up
''I can't" said Nina. "The grass is
slippery, and there is nothing to hold by
and I haven't the strength. Get on the
rock; Tom will soon be here"
Rut the terror-strickeD Kitty began &c