Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-05-19

All Powerful permits sin, and then pun
ishes it-why they are cursed with inner
tied vices-that they are sentimental in
fdels, in short-fearing to trust thernselve
to a gloomy and cruel faith. None o
these doubts and fears had Nina. Sh'
lieved herself in the straight and narrow
way and she knew perfectly well that al
infdels and Roman Catholics would gotC
hell. Perhaps in the very bottom of hel
heart she wished it were not 50, but she
never would have dared TO utter this, ever
to her W 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 uninviting spot where the old
tombstones were half sunk into the earth,
and the graves were overgrown with
weeds. Here she thought she would not
be followed, for she wanted to think about
Tom.
She had been there but a few minutes
when she saw him coming slowly toward
her, with his eyes bent upon the ground.
ale is sorry, poor fellow" she thought,
~ know be is sorry"
Tom started on seeing her. "How you
do startlea fellow, Nina ~ he said. Sand
you look like a ghost. What is the mat
ter? Does anything trouble you, Nina p
be added, in a more kindly tone.
Nina did not lean her pale face against
the tombstone, and say "God knowsl" or
look at him responsibility like a dumb an
imal being led to the slaughter, or do
anything else she ought to have done.
She looked at him with contempt, and
exelsiming, "Tom Hartle, you are a fool"
walked away as fast as she could, for fear
she should cry, which was a weakness of
hers.
She did not go far. The thoughts that
Toms unlucky question had dissipated
came back to her, and turning round 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 a
sad and troubled face.
aTom,1 said Nina, kindly, laying her
hand on his shoulder, II know what you
are thinking about. Don't grieve over it.
1t can't be helped, and you're not a bit to
blame furit, and 1 guess it will all come
out right in the end somehow
And she was gone before Tom quite
comprehended 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 it
made her angry. Angry that he had so
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 a longer way to the quar-
so as TO avoid walking behind them.
The quarry was half way home, and when
she got there she sat down to rest in a
thick growth of young pines upon the
of a breezy hill. But she was
destined to find no mental repose that
day, for she had been there but a few
when Tom and Kitty came in
sight. They had loitered long on the
road. They should have been home by
his time. Nina watched them as they
seated themselves on the grass near her
of concealment, and she noted Kit
.y3s coquettish ways, and Toms i%ncreas-
Ing admiration.
II wish she would slip down into the
quarry and break her neck p thought
Nina.
At last on Kitty expressing a wish for
wild gooseberies, Tom went off on
4 search for some. He was gone a long
lime and Kitty began to yawn, and Nina
most heartily ha 1-nuld come back,
10 they could GO home and she could get
away. kittie spied a tuft of columbines
lodding on the very edge of the hill, and
rue to her natural instincts of gratifying
1 present pleasure without a thought be-
FOND, she ran to them and plucked them
ip. The ground hero was sloping, the
grass dry, and slippery. She felt herself
swiftly down the hill, and, clutch
wildly at the air, she caught hold Of a
birch sapling as she swung off its side,
which had been quarried away until it had
almost smooth for a descent of
some forty feet. And there she hung, her
Dnly support the sapling which she grid
cd with her left hand, which bent so Pw
with her weight that its plumed top
her head. She knew it must
break soon, and she looked at the Jagged
far below her, and cried, and
shrieked 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 a
fash, and called out to her:
"Swing yourself a little to the right,
Kitty, and put your foot upon that little
point of rock. Don't you see it ?"
II see it!n shrieked Kitty, "but l can't
DO it. Help me! 0help meP'
Nina ran to the spot. There WAS no
rock or bush to hold to-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
as she could, and seized hold of
wrist.
eEow, Kitty, don't let go the sapling,
and swing yourself upon that rock-you
can easily do it"
al can't do it, I shall fall if 1 novel
Pull me up; Nina, pull me upl"
II can't said Nina. "The grass is
and there's nothing to hold by,
and l haven't the strength. Get on the
rock; Tom will soon be here"
But the terror-stricken Kitty began TO
struggle, and Nina felt herself moving
the edge of that awful preeipice.
'You are pulling me off, Kitty. l
can't hold you if you struggle. The rock
is your only chance
But Kitty would only scream, and
and now Nina wa drawn so
near the edge that she could see far down
into that fearful depth.
1T will let her go" she thought, "she
will kill me if L DON'T But her next
thought was, "Wbat shall Itell Tom when
he comes back2 No, I will a v her or
we will die together"
She saw that a root of the sapling was,
above the ground. This was a little thing
but it gave her some hope. Still
keeping hold Of Kitty's wrist, she raised
herselfon her knees, and worked herself
slowly and carefully along that treach-
eroB bank, she reached the root, and
fixed her knees firmly against it. Then
taking off her shawl she lowered it to
Kitty's hand. Kitty clutched it with SO
strong and despairing q hold that Nina
shook and tottered. She recovered her
self, and closing her eyes for an instant to
summon all her courage, and TO commend
her soul to God, she exerted all her
strength, and swinging Kitty round
landed her in safety on the little rocky
ledge. And now, some of Kitty's sense
returning to her, she managed, with the
helm of Minnie and the shawl, to scramble