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

"I gave you back your troth last
night. Here are the beads, and the sill
yer piece, and the heron feathers. Now
all Is over between u.s." Here she had
evidently hesitated moment, wonder
ing If her words were strong enough;
for, on the line below she had written,
as with an echo from the prayer-book
reverberating in her ears:
" Forever and forever, amen. Mar
garet Neale."
Not Meg, his Meg; his proud, high
spirited sweetheart-but Margaret
Neale! 1t set her at such an immeas-
urable distance from him. ssAll is over
between u.s." As if she were dead and
buried out of his sight. And he had
spoken to James Ray about the snug
cottage beyond the bay; and they were
to have been married at Michaelmas!
He knew enough of the Widow Neale's
habits to ask no more questions of the
seighbors. As one of them had said,
she was close. mouthed. He knew she
had sister living in Scotland, for whom
Meg was named; but where even he did
not know. Scotland was like distant,
foreign land to the people in Rysdyk.
But the widow had money enough to 60
to Scotland or farther If she wished,
even on short notice. She had never
worked in the mines, neither had Meg.
She had comfortable annuity, left her
by her old mistress; for she had served
in great family before she married
John Neale.
Month after month passed. Michael
mas was over, the winter came and
went, and Rysdyk knew no more of her
or of Meg than when they left. The
silence, the void, grew uncomfortable to
Matt. With the early spring he carried
into effect what had been the one dream
of his life before he learned to love Meg.
America was the land of promise for
miners as well as others, and had he not
friend who worked in the great iron
mines at Ishpeming, Michigan, on the
shores of the wonderful Northern lake
that was itself almost as large as all
England? He had no father or mother,
only half uncle whose house had been
the only home he had ever known.
What better could he do than to seek
work and forgetfulness together where
there would be nothing to remind him
of the past?
So when one fine morning nearly a
year after her sudden fitting, the neigh.
bors awoke to find the door of Widow
Neale's cottage ajar and the shutters
open, the first bit of news Meg heard
was that Matt Erickson had gone to
America.
1t struck her like blow. Now, in
deed, he had dropped out of her life as
utterly as, months since, she had drop.
ped out of his. For she, too, had had
time to repent. Almost before the blue
hills of Scotland had dawned upon her
sight she had repented in dust and ashes.
How foolish she had been, like child
who throws away its bread and in q pet
and goes to bed hungry. Why had she
not worn the blue ribbon to please her
lover, even if she did not like it? As
for Jenny-but what nonsense was that!
She would have been ashamed of Matt
if he had not been kind to her.
To be sure, he had been cross and
had thrown away her ribbon. But then
he was man, and men were strong
and masterful and could not bear con-
tradiction, and she had angered him by
her foolish persistence.
All! If she could but undo it all, and
have her tall, brave, handsome lover
back again!
Once in q while, as the years went on,
at rare intervals news of him came back
to Rysdyk. He was well; he had fair
wages, though gold was not to be had
for the gathering in America any more
than in England; he had been promot-
ed and had charge of a gang Of men.
At length there was long interval of
silence. Then came floating rumors of
ill; and then after awhile a letter in q
strange handwriting, letter to his un-
Gle, who had died three weeks before it
came. There had been a bad accident
in the mines explosion; and in the
effort to save others, Matthew Erickson
had himself received dangerous injuries.
No one thought he could live. But
now, sitter months, he was slowly re.
covering, if recovery it could be called.
For he was blind. The'pOisonous vapors
had destroyed his sight.
1t was five years since he went away
five years that had brought many
changes W N1eS. IL was d SOOeEoOs
thoug htful woman, not hot-tempered
girl, who knelt by the Widow Neale's
side week after the letter came, and
said:
"It was who drove him away-Matt
Erickson" she said. eve had little
quarrel, just few idle words about q
ribbon, and I told him in my silly anger
I would have no more to say to him
while the stars shone. And now they
do not shine for him, for he is blind
blind. o. mother, 1 can not live, I can
not bear it."
"Yes, you will live, child" the Wild
ow answered quickly. "We can bear
any thing, we women. Your father
was brought in to me dead-killed in
these mines when you were scarce three
years old, my Meg, and I am alive yet.
"But this is worse than DEATH" she
cried passionately. "Mother, do you
hear? He who was my pllghted hus-
band is blind, in a far, strange country.
I must go and bring him home, home to
Rysdyk."
She had risen from her mothers arms
and stood before her in the moonlight,
pale, resolute, with her hands clasped
rigidly. "Give me my dowry, mother,