The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-03-10
MANY CROSSES IN LIFE.

NhOSSES
Jacqueline looked at the little old.
fashioned seal which bore this inscrip-
ton engraved upon it in white corne-
Ian: Many crosses in life" 1t was
true saying, engraved on many heart
withal-in Jacqueline's heart, toe. She
turned it in her toil-worn fingers with
sigh, thinking that perhaps some super.
stition attached to its use that, had she
lost or put it away, life might have gone
otherwise with her; for poor Jacqueline
had known many crosses thwarted
youth, poverty, enforced idleness, and
blasted hopes. 1t seemed to her that
this little seal typifed them all. She
remembered one who had brought it for
her birthday gift, who had kissed her
when he placed the chain about her
neck, and had said If you wear your
crosses as an ornament, love, they can
hardly bear heavily upon YOU"
But they had borne heavily upon her.
They had stolen the color from her
cheeks, the glow from her eyes, the
roundness from her limbs they had
mingled silver with the brown satin of
her hair, and had written themselves in
wrinkles upon the white brow; they
had bowed the stubborn will, and bent
the stiff neck, and broken the sobbing
heart.
He had said. too, that the crosses on
the seal made the effect of q crown in
outline, while she answered that they
looked rather like a crown of stars
But. for all that youthful fancy, few
stars had shone across her path, and her
crown was yet to come. And the giyer
of the sacred gift had left her these
many years. She sometimes thought
she had done wrongly, as the wife Of
another to keep this little memento of
that dear past-that all her trials had
arisen 10 upbraid her for the SIM to as
sure her that somewhere, under all the
pain and WEAKNESS and long suffering,
she still preserved one smouldering
spark for the lover she had forsaken in
her youth.
But then, had she been happy wife,
as other wives had been happy, giving
all and receiving much, that would have
made all the difference in the world. 1t
seemed now to her as if the girl who
waited at the boat to see her lover off,
10 take her last look, to give him the
blessing of her beaming glance to tighten
there, ages ago was it?-with blushing
cheek and wistful eyes, was some other
person than herself Jacqueline some
one of whom she had read, some picture
she had seen, something dreamed, or
imagined or heard in the strains of dis
tant music; but surely nothing like it
had ever been experienced in her own
bleak existence. Love had entered her
heart, like sunlight through a prison
grating, only to move forward and leave
the darkness more terrible; but, for all
that, Il were better to have known the
sunshine than TO have been born blind.
Mark had been as poor as herself
when he brought her that simple gift
only clerk in the house of Call & Dunn,
on miserable stipend but, as the poet
sings, his hoard was little, but his heart
was great, and Jacqueline had believed
it; for after all, after everything, she
had never been quite able to change her
creed. To be sure, she had seemed to
change, to doubt him but what of that
She could control her own actions, force
her own inclinations, but her emotions
were subject to a higher and more po-
tent influence still. As if it were only
yesterday, she could remember when
Mr.. Dunn suddenly appeared before her
one afternoon, in the doorway of her
humble home. She had not heard him
enter; he had been regarding her, I'M
observed-who could say how long p
weighing her character in the balance
with his false weights, making rough
calculations of her pride and principle.
When she looked up and saw him there,
her needle snapped beneath her finger,
and brought the blood.
This is a bad beginning said he,
gravely.
'Of what ?" she cried, in alarm. as
anything the matter with Mark ?"
Nothing that you can help, child"
he answered, almost tenderly " and yet
perhaps you may-if you will"
If will ~ she repeated ." Is there
anything | would not do?" asking it
of herself rather than appealing to
him.
Nothing ?" he questioned. "Are you
certain? Think"
Nothing. Tell me what you mean,
Mr.. Dunn; you torture me. Is Mark
sick ? is he in trouble ~
Mark is in prison, Jacqueline."
In prison! Mark There, you are
rying to frighten me-"
-" am speaking the truth-the dread
full truth
She sat now with her hands folded
upon her work, all the color vanish
ing from her tinted cheek, never to
reappear again save in momentary
flush.
"Can nothing be done?' she gasped,
presently. "0f what is he-accused ~
"Of forging the signature of Call &
Dunn to check"
"And he did it ?" she asked. "You
believe it"
"There is blasting proof, Jacque
line" sadly. "The money found in his
possession, the blanks at his hand, the
signature fac-similed over sheets of pa.
per in his private desk. But these
proofs are all in my power they can be
used or not, at my pleasure y and
she felt his breath upon her cheek
and met pair of eyes full of signifi.