The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1872-03-08

carry out her cherished scheme of takins
the three small sisters eastward will
her; but she meekly assented to the
Squire's terms, as being better than
nothing at all.
1t was nearly week afterwards, and
Alice Hall was coming home, tired and
weary, from her first days experience
in the red school-house, where the seven.
teen Western urchins had stared at the
new school-ma am from down East, as
if she had been a gorilla or a two
headed sheep. The November leaves
rustlcd softly under her foot, and the
sweet, decaying scent of the old woods
breethed over her senses like some gen.
tie opiate. She had nearly reached
the turn of the road, when her own
home would be in sight, when the eldest
Of her half-sisters, little Lucy Drew,
came running to meet her.
Sister, sister, there's strange man
sitting by' the fire. He's been waiting
ever 50 long to see you.
Alice fastened her footsteps at this
rather startling piece of news, while
Lucy frisked about by her side.
And he took Bessie on his lap and
told her stories, and he said we were
nice little girls sister; and I brought
him bowl of milk, and some of the
biscuits you made last night
Alice smiled as she opened the door
of the humble habitation that had been
built by hard-working Peter Drew but
her cheek suddenly blanched as she be-
held the countenance of the strange
man who had been the subject of little
Lucy's exuberant hospitality.
1t was Earnest Morton who sat by
the Western fireside, with Bessy and
Jane clinging to his knees!
Ernest
At first she thought it some basless
lelusionS f her own brain-some fancied
resemblance springing from the secret,
unsatistied lengings of her heart. But
when he was holding both her hands,
and looking straight into her eyes, she
knew that it was none other than
Erncst's sclf-Ernest, come all this
weary length Of miles to sec her again.
Get the little ones ready as soon as
you can Alice he said chcerily, when
she had sat down opposite him, with
cherry lips apart, and eyes all humid
with unspoken happiness. we are all
going eastward together, you know!'
'We?'
Yes; I and my wife, and my little
sisters. For I stopped and spoke to
the minister at Okcyville, two miles
back, and he is coming to marry us this
very evening"
But, Ernest
My dear, I know very we'll what
you're going to say but l behaved like
a brute. Not until you were gone did
| see what pearl Of price 1 had thrown
away. You were right, as you always
are, and was wrong. 1 have tried to
live without you, and l found it was an
impossible thing. So, here I am, and
here remain until you return with
me. I've taken the pretty house in
Parker street-you remember it,
with the bay-window looking towards
the south, and the delectable china
closets in the dining-room. And it's
all furnished as neat and complete as a
pima room upstairs just the thing for
these little women, audi
stop, Ernest. | have no right to
ask you to burden yourself with the
care Of my half-sisters, said Alice reso-
lutely.
who asked me, ia like to know?
You haven't. I've adopted 'em of my
own free will and pleasure, and you
have nothing whatever to say on the
subject
The tears rushed to Alice's eyes.
What change in the horizon of her
life since she had locked the school
house door with such weary heart two
hours since
oh, Ernest, | think am too happy!
You can't be too happy, my brave
hearted little heroine-that's quite inn
possible he said, tenderly clasping her
hand. 'How pale you have grown !!
But shall bring the bloom back to
your cheek, when get you safely es-
tablished in Parker Street. There s
a little carriage and pair of ponies in
the stables there. What will the girl
les say to that?
The children crowded round to hear
Of the wonderful new acquisition, and
Alice stole away to lay aside her bonnet
and brush out her cur!s.
And, kneeling at her bedside, she