The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-01-26

Some one had been there before me,
and she wore his portrait next to her |
heart. Fool that | was not to guess it. |
never asked whose portrait it was.
Tom Armstrong; or Jack Mayden's, |
did not care. When Nellie was well |
enough to 90, in the course of an hour |
or two, drove her home and bade her |
goodbye, saying:
az regret that should have been the |
means of alarming you so, Miss Brodie."
She looked up into my face with her
great blue eyes, and said:
''It was so foolish in me to faint
away"
1 thought to myself, "what deceitful
creatures women aTep' for the look she
gave me was as sweet as if she had not
worn another mans portrait in her
bosom.
A week from that day 1 went to New
York, and sought out an old ship-owner,
who had been my fathers friend.
"pm tired of farming,n l said, "and
want to try the sea as common sailor"
The old man would have laughed me
out of the notion, but when he found
me firm, he gave me what he could.
l went on board a vessel bound for
China, and wrote to sister Jennie, tell
ing her to send for Uncle William and
his wife to manage the farm, which ]
knew they would be glad todo; but /
never told her where l was or what l
had done. | meant, you see, to throw
myself away, and be heard of no more
by anyone. OF course l was mad for
the time; that is the only excuse for
me.
lead the sort Of life a sailor leads
! for year or two. l grew no better for
! it, and no happier. The other men had
mostly some one at home-mother or
sister, wife or sweetheart-to get letter
! from at times; I, of my own act, had no
one. And all the while, at work or at
mess, or in the hours when watch was
! kept on deck, l thought of Nellie; saw
her as she looked when she sat by her
| fathers side in the moonlight; saw her
with the freight on her golden hair,
beside the winter hearth; saw her smil-
| ing up at me as we whirled through
the snow drifts that last bright day,
and saw her as she lay like dead thing
in my arms; and fancy painted other
pictures. l saw her as Tom Armstrong;
wife. l saw her-oh heaveus!-with
his children on her knee!
! am not sure but that l should have
turned an idiot had not something hap
pened to alter the circumstances of my
position. This was nothing else than
the total wreck of our vessel, and my
narrow escape from drowning, but with
an arm broken by the falling of a spar.
For a month 1 lay on a sick-bed, and
then with a sOftened heart and feeling
that was sick of the sea, went home
to sister Jennie, to be farmer, if
could.
In these two years she had never had
a line from me. Not an angry word did
she give me, but ran into my arms and
wept on my bosom like a child; she
showed me the wedding ring on her fin
ger, and the baby lying asleep in the
cradle, and told me whose wife she was.
She was Mrs. Tom Armstrong, and l
had never guessed they liked each
other.
al am as happy as the day is long,"
she said, "Only fretting about you. How
could you go away so, Ned? If you did
not think of my feelings you might
have remembered Nellie BrOdie's."
"Nellie Brodie's feelingw l cried.
"Don't laugh at me, Jennie"
Laugh at yOum she cried; "laugh
at you, my dear! | haven't thought OF
it. Did you quarrel that night? 1t
must have been a quarrel, | think.
W AboC lNhAb vas ~ , gouAS vi ACAo
"Miss BrOdie and | never had a quar-
rel," l said.
40 Ned" she resumed, softly, 'don't
try to hide it from me, when l saw your
portrait in her bosom. told you so,
know, and thought it was settled, and
was so glad"
I started up, and caught Jennie:
wrist.
"My portraitr' I cried.
"Why, Ned, Ned, don't look at me
sO,n screamed Jennie; "what does it all
mean2 Your portrait, of course; one O
those photographs you had taken-l
found the rest after you went away
Oh, Ned, don't look so, dearw
81 thought you said she wore another
fellows picture" I said: "that drove
me away; that, and nothing else. Oh
what wretched fool pve been! l die
not know she had my picture, and
might have cast her away, 1 who loved
. her so, and have pined for her all these
yearsw
But Jennie, dear Jennie, with hel
, kind, mOtherly face and loving WON.
, ans eyes, cam1 close to me, and gently
putting her arms about my neck, whis
pered,
"Don't despair, Ned. She has nevel
! llhGu al youO GlSe3 anu kuOW lot GER
tain that she wears your picture still.'
| And these words brought my you'll
back to me; the years seemed blotteC
out, and l was the Ned Brown who fel
t in love with Nellie BrOdie once more
: Well, Jennie told the truth; went t.
see Nellie BrOdie, and found her swee
and beautiful as ever; we were married
: when the spring came, and the bird
/ began to build their nests in the greer
orchard. Afterward, when she haC
! been my wife for come time, Nellie told
me, under these very apple trees, how
, she had found my picture one day wheI
! no one saw her-worn il and wept owe
it while was far away, trying to forge
} her-trying, but never succeeding, fO
t the love l had for Nellie Brode wa
part of my life, and will be, l believe
/ part of the eternity, where, when deatl
sewers US here, we shall be reunited
What is that which is heightened by
: being cut at both ends? A ditch.