The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1878-03-30

ana Inc music OF the spheres; dark and
cruel days, when the clouds that threat
ened showed no silver Innings On such
morning, SO many years ago, Angus and
she had gone out to gather spring flowers,
and the wood had been full of spicy odors,
and the pale blood-root was waiting for
them, its petals all on tiptoe; at such
another date they listened to the night
ingale's futing, while the stars stole out
as if to listen with them, and the new
moon hung a golden bow low in the
heavens, and she had asked, "Do you
ever wish by the moon, August"
"Never," he had answered but | shall
tonight; shall wish that you may love
me forever and ever" And then he had
kissed her, and the nightingales kept
futing." There was that day in June
which should have been their wedding
day; and the time when he kissed her
last, under the golden laburnum-tre !;
and then that dreadful morning when her
father came home, black as a thunder
cloud, and swore she would never marry
the son of the man who had ruined him,
who had robbed him of the invention into
the perfection of which he had put all
his money, his hopes and his energies for
years. Bertha had refused to renounce
her lover on account her father wrong !;
there had followed a scene; then her
father had seemed to soften, and travelled
to London with her to talk the matter
over with a lawyer. She had been glad
enough to go, for was not Angus some
where in the great throng of London at
his work? would she not be sure to meet
him? But the day after they reached
the big noisy city her father had taken
her out and on board ship, sightseeing
and suddenly, while she looked and lis
tened and wondered and talked with the
captain-who was in the secret-suddenly
the shore, the masts, the steeples, began
to recede, and they were standing out to
sea, bound for America. Oh, what long
and hateful voyage it was! how she long
ed for the sight of Angus, to say just one
parting word, to tell him it was no fault
of hers, and she should love him forever
and ever! What terrible days they were
which carried her farther and farther from
England The fine weather seemed vast
ed without Angus. When storms bore
down upon them she only shivered at the
thought of dying apart from him. But
as they drew near the New World, her
father, weakened by long and useless
struggle with fortune, and broken utterly
by this "unkindest cut" gave up the
contest and lay down to die.
" Promise me, Bertha" he begged
Promise that you will never write to
that mans son, that you will hide your
self from him. Promise me, or / shall
not rest in my grave. Promise, child,
and l shall die easy, willingly. Can you
refuse this last request?" And amidst
grief and distraction, poor Bertha prom
ised. And she kept her promise for
twenty years and better. Never one
word for Angus had crossed the water to
tell him whether she lived or died. though
longing thoughts and wishes went out to
him on every wind that blew, though
night after night her pillow was wet with
bitter tears, though he had never been
out of her mind, waking or sleeping. AT
first she had comforted herself with the
belief that he would find her out himself
but, as time passed, this hope faded and
died, and was given decent burial. How
should he know that she had proved
true, that she had loved him ON and on
Why should he not suppose that she had
left him of her own choice, because she
scOrned the son of his father? No doubt
he had thought himself to unlove her
had almost forgotten the old fondness,
the old hurt; and married some good
woman, and was happy by his own fire
side with his children. She hoped he was
! happy; as for that good woman, she did
not care to think of her overmuch. But
daily she pictured him in the midst of
his family-pictured him young and
handsome, with the color in his smooth
cheek, the bronze shade in his waving
hair, the sparkle in his eyes, forgetting
that twenty years had robbed him of
youth and its beauty.
! When her father died there had not
been enough money left in the purse to
take her home to England, though Capt.
Seymour would gladly have carried her
back without it if she would have taken
him for better or worse Afterward she
had parted with her trinkets one by one
for her daily bread, till she could earn
with all but the shining ring that Angus
had given her, and which was now worn
quite thin, though the old legend en-
graved within was yet plainly legible:
Though he seek till he be gray,
But in all these twenty years she had
never saved enough from her necessities
to pay her homeward passage. If per-
chance she got a few dollars ahead, some
poor SOULS greater need appealed to her;
and it was now fifteen years since she
had gravitated to Great Harrington and
cast anchor, but no one in all the place
dreamed that romance had ever touched
so plain and old commonplace body as
Miss Bertha, who was doubtless made to
sew, to tend the sick, and stir gruels and
broths and mustard plasters, leaving the
poetry of life for her younger neighbors
She had been out, toward the last of Janu-
airy, watching all night, and as she
stepped into the frosty air, and began to
to remember that she was hungry and
drowsy, she suddenly encountered DIR.
March coming round corner.
"Speak of angels and you hear their
wings" said he al was thinking of
of you, Miss Bertha, this very minute"
"Don't turn my head, doctor"
"Well, you see, the brig Abby Jane
came in lately. She's a whaler-been
of these two years. Most of the crew
belong in Great Harrington, and the
deuce take it if they aren't all down
with the ship fever; came ashore as well
as you are, too. Now the bother is,
some have families to see after them,
and Some haven't; and all the people
are as scared as they were in the small
pox panic. and nurses can't be found for
love or money-at least not enough.
I've been up myself these two nights
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