The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1879-08-22

"And you'll not go to the fair,
either?" said Matt, in tones OF suppress
ed passion. "Is that what You mean"
"l'll not 60 with you," she answer
ed, growing cool herself Is she grew
angry. "Yet it's likely enough that I
may 90. There are plenty of lads who
would be glad to take me with no rib
oons at all"
With strong effort the young man
put the curb upon his tongue, but his
face darkened. You'll 90 with me or
no one, Meg" he said. "This is all
nonsense-and we to be married next
Michaelmas! But come" and he put
out his hand to raise her from the stone
" it grows dark"
Meg, still angry but willing to be
pacified If she must, allowed him to as.
sist her, and stood beside her stalwart
lover with burning cheeks and down.
cast eyes. She rather liked, on the
whole, his tacit refusal to defend him
self and his masterful way of telling
her it was all nonsense" But just at
this moment, as il-luck would have it, q
small brown-paper parcel dropped
from the folds of her shawl. Matt
stopped to pick it up. It burst open
and yard or two of scarlet ribbon rip
pied over his fingers.
Now our poor Meg, not to be outdone
by the fair Jenny, had bought this RIB
bon herself that very evening, meaning
to wear it to the fair next week. But it
so happened that when Matt went to
Mother Marley's shop to buy his own
blue love token, he had found Dan Will
lis there the only man in Rysdyk whose
rivalship he had ever feared. And Dan
was buying ribbon precisely like this.
Mother Marley had wrapped it in this
very piece of paper, Matt was sure, and
he had seen Dan put it in his pocket
and walk off with it.
And now, here it was! His gift was
spurned, then, and his rivals accepted;
and all Meg's talk about Jenny was q
mere subterfuge-an excuse for quar-
rel.
It was easy to see now why she had
been so irritable of late, and so prone to
take offense. But man could not
stand every thing, and if Meg preferred
Dan Willis to him, why so be it.
Yet if she would not wear his love
token she certainly should not wear
Dams. He hardly meant to do it; he
was sorry the next minute. But what
he did, as the tide of passion swept him
off his feet for an instant, was to wind
the two ribbons into q knot and throw
them vehemently into the sea.
"There!" he cried, sthat's settled
once for ALL"
"And something else is settled, too,
Matt Erickson" retorted Meg, in a
white heat. "ThereHl be no marriage
for us next Michaelmas, no marriage
then or ever! You would strike me
some day, for aught know, if should
choose to wear red knot rather than q
blue. I'll not run the risk. I'll have
nothing more to say to you while the
stars shine," and darling round the cliff,
she was half way down to the beach be-
fore he ever thought of stopping her.
The next day Erickson, magnanimous,
great-hearted fellow that he was, after
all, having gotten over his quarrel from
Meg's standpoint, it occurred to him
that he might have drawn uncalled-for
differences. Dan Willis might have q
dozen sweethearts who all liked red rib
bons for aught he knew. And how like
fool he had behaved, losing his temper
like hot boy and throwing
Meg's poor little trinkets over the cliff.
No wonder she was afraid to trust him.
More than one husband in Rysdyk was
in the habit of beating his wife on as
slight provocation as the hue of rib
bon; and it was not strange that high
I'd ~ 1s1>o Mac oho,,0A Aoo1sno IN
run the risk after she had once seen him
in fury.
As for Jenny, she had come in be-
tween him and Meg. He could see it
now. But she was going home the day
after the fair, and he would see Meg
that very night and tell her so. For he
did not dream that all was indeed over
between them. He could hardly wait
for the hour to leave the mine.
He changed his soiled clothes, ate his
supper hurriedly, and was soon on his
way to Meg, stopping as he went to buy
another ribbon-red, this time, and
broader and richer and handsomer than
the enc he had robbed her of.
Then he went on through the crook
ed, scattered little village till he reach
ed the Widow Neale's cottage, just on
the outskirts.
To his surprise he found the door
locked and the shutters closed. As he
stood in his perplexity, white-haired
urchin who was turning somersaults
near by shouted: I" Ho, you, Matt Erick-
son! It's no good to wait there; the
widow and Meg have gone away"
"Gone? Where?"
"Don't know. To France, like
enough-or to Ameriky-or to London
or somewheres. They took big box
and q bundle, and they don't know but
they'll stay forever'n ever. Meg said
so, and, making a rotating wheel of
himself, the lad vanished round the cor
ner.
Just then the door of the nearest cot
tage opened and q woman's face looked
out. 1t was growing dark.
els it yoH. Erickson! There's no
one at home in the house there. But l
have something here was to give you
when you came this way"
His face was stern and set and white
in the fading light, as he took the little
packet from the wonan's hand.
where have they gone?' was all he
said.