Lincoln County advocate. (Canton, Dakota Territory, [S.D.]) 1876-1877, 1877-01-03
She put up her umbrella and hurried

She put up her umbrella and hurried
home-the home of q clearinghouse
took her belated and solitary supper,
aud ran up to her own little sitting
room. A fire burned in the CRATE, and
her piano-sole relic Of former splen.
dor-stood open, with some new music
upon it. Before sitting down to her
long practice, she went to the window
and looked out. All the world was
white and still and ghostly, and faster
and faster the snow was falling.
AS she stood, the tall, dark figure of
a man opened the gate, and cam
blowing through the snow to the front
doors 49,.
Zone Of the boarders," she thought,
"belateo as I was. How cross Mrs.
White will be-"
She left the window and went to the
piano. Before she commenced her
practice, and half unconsciously, she
began softly to sing her favorite old
anthem.
Then she stopped, conscious at the
door and opened, and the intruder did
not advance.
"Come in," she said, "and shut the
door, please; there is drau-"
She stopped with low cry, but he
took her at her word, shut the door, and
came forward.
II have come back, Katie" he said
Will you forgive me and shake
hands?"
He took both hers without waiting for
leave, and held them fast.
II only reached England yesterday"
he vent on. GAIL these years I have
been abroad, trying to forget you and
be happy, and I have neither forgotten
you nor been happy. You were right
and was wrong I have come back
to tell you so, and to ask you if you
have forgotten n,es"
Forgotten you !" she repeats almost
with sob. 90 my Harry! my
Harry!"
II am no longer rich," he says.
"Rosie and the little ones are at the old
homestead, and the drunken husband
has drunk himself to death. tried to
alter with my duty, Katie, before 1
went away; | sought out Rose and prof
fered her portion of her fathers for.
tune. She was proud as you told me
she would be, and refused it with
scorn. 4 am poor, she said, almost
starving; but will not take as favor
from you, Harry Hatton, that which is
my right. Keep all or give all!' l
kept all, Katie, and if could have for.
gotten you, might have kept all in the
end. But love you so we'll, my Katie,
that I ask nothing but you for the rest
of my life. We will be poor, but we
will be together. Say you forgive me,
Katie; you have not said it yet"
She said it then, holding him close,
her happy tears damping his already
damp coat-collar.
"You and I are to spend Christmas
Day with Rose," he says presently, that
first transport over. "She's a Jolly little
soul as ever lived, in spite of all her
troubles, and right glad to have done
with matrimony forever. Who knows
but that after eight years of it you may
not echo her sentiment
II think I will risk it though" saws
Miss Englehart, looking at him, hand.
some and big and brown, with adoring
eyes. 20 Harry! to think did not
know you striding through the snow up
to the gate| was just thinking, with
ever SO little Of 8 pang, that no Gift
would be mine this year, while all the
time the best and dearest of Christmas
boxes was coming to me over the
snow"
"Christmas has brought you your
lover, and New Year shall bring you
your husband" said Harry.
And New Year did.