The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1879-05-07

The last murmur that he made as he
dropped off to sleep was, Found an
uncle two cousins and-and-" and he
was dreaming of a black-eyed girl in
white in another minute.
Nv.
The phlegmatic clerk at the pawn
brokers' turned over two lockets appar-
emily Just alike and examined them
curiously, then put them back in their
wrappers and was about to put them
away when a fellow-clerk approached
and also looked at them. They changed
them about a little and then placed them
in the wrappers and in the safe. The
next day both lockets were redeemed.
They thought it curious at the moment,
but odd things are of daily occurrence in
the Office of pawnbroker, the theater of
the daily tragedy of woe and want, pow
erty, hunger and dirt.
Frank looked at the locket when he
reached his hotel; it was the same.
There was the little bright spot where
the pawnbroker's acid had touched the
corner of the case, but the rest was the
same exactly. No-he rubbed his eyes
whereas when he took the locket to
the pawnbroker the initials on the case
had read:
V.D.V.
M. E. 49,
OF this he was perfectly sure; yet, here
now. they were plainly reversed, and
read
ME-
V.D.V.
He puzzled over it for some time.
Then he went down in cab and de-
mapded of the pawnbroker an explana-
ton. The young man told him of the
two lockets, exactly alike, left within an
hour of each other on the preceding day,
each pledged for $40, each redeemed in
the morning, and explanations how they
must have been changed. The young
man hoped that there was no harm done;
remembered that the other locket was
left by "young woman;" really didn't
remember what she looked like, and then
went back to his work. Frank returned
home puzzled. 1t really didn't matter;
it was only chance purchase of unique
tIife in iewelry; he hadn't the remotest
idea whose the initials We're, but he was
superstitious about it, and it troubled
him. That the locket had a double in
New York there could be no doubt, and
so Frank resolved not to tell the story,
but to wear the locket on his watch
CHILL, III tilc DOpc IL WOulu bOIIc
time attract the attention of some one
who could solve the mystery.
V.
Mamma" cried Bessie the next day
when, her confession made, she had re-
deemed her precious locket and was ex-
amining it, Mamma, this is not my
locket This is the other one. This is
poor grandma's love token to her faith
less lover come back to her grandchild f;
see, see,n she ratified on in wild excite
ment. Mrs. Prayne looked sharply, saw
the reversed initials, and was as excited
in a moment as Bessie, Cousin Tom was
dispatched to the pawnbroker's for in
formation. He learned but little more
than Frank, and so the mystery was
talked of and speculated upon for the
next week. Grandma's love story was
told over and over. Briefly it was this
Mary Emerson and Van Dyke Vedder
were lovers years before. They exchanged
| lockets made for them. Vedder went
| sailing away out into the west and mar
| ried, leaving grandma, then young and
pretty, to soon console herself with an
other lover and husband She always
kept the locket and a warm spot in her
heart, as every woman does for the man
| whom she once loved. But she never
saw or heard of him again in life Bessie
received her blessing, her little fortune
and the precious lOcket from grandma OF
her death-bed. And now, after fifty
years and without a clew, the locket.
were changed by some mysterious agency
vi.
Two months later Bessie and Franl
met again at the Franklyns' pretty hous,
at Newport. They had both forgotten
the lockets, and soon forgot the world il
each other.
One summer evening Bessie promised
to be his wife, and as two little whit
arms went up around his neck, Franl
was guilty of most unconventional pro
ceeding. He actually was surprised ou
of taking immediate advantage of hi
newly-acquired privileges. Among tn
lace about Bessie's neck rested the othe
locket. The love tokens were love
| tokens still.
Bessie told her grandmother's littl
romance, and the initials were explaine'
] to Frank, who exclaimed, almost witt
awe: Ivan Dyke Vedder, the faithles
lover of your grandmother, Mary Emer
son. was my grandfather"
In handsome house in Fifth avenu
there hangs upon the parlor wall velve
p case. In it are two lOckets, each as lik
= the other as can we'll be imagined
1 cameo surrounded by an enameled snak
5 with ruby eyes. Over them hang thre
! golden balls.-NssO York Star.