The Sentinel. [volume] (Trenton, N.J.) 1880-1882, 1881-01-29

feeezing than his own when she bade
him "Good-day." Nevertheless, she
asked herself continually what it could
mean. What had come over Jack, that
he should treat her as if he was MORALLY
offended
And when she left Mickey late at
night, promising to come back the next
day with heaps of picture books, it was
with pain at her heart that she vainly
tried to conquer.
And now it seemed, indeed. as if Mrs.
Carr's prophecy had come to pass, and
Sallie had fallen " between two stools. "
All the gossips of the neighborhood
were commenting upon the fact of
Sallie's "desertion " by both her
levers.
81 told you so," said the mother.
you'll settle down with your crooked
stick at last, and you needn't expect any
sympathy from me-"
In The meantime Crosset was playing
the gallant to Sallie's neighbour shall
low, pert girl-and Jack Crowel was
reported to be " engaged" to a charm
ing widow who lived not far away.
AS for Sallie, she bore her troubles
with unfinching fortitude. Deep in her
heart she loved Jack as she could love
but once in her life. She knew it now
had known it. in fact, since the day
when she had come so near giving her
self to Crosset. But neither friend nor
foe ever suspected how many tears fell
from those bright eyes, or how many
regrets visited her midnight hours.
She made the best of the situation, and
laughed and sung and firted till all her
prudent relatives gave her over to hard
ness of heart. When the year rolled
around and brought the next winter,
Sallie found herself often at the Irish
cot. One or another of the children was
ailing, and Mickey was sent for "the
kind lady" And "the kind lady -"
busted herself with fiannels, and cruel,
and broth, driving back thus the intrud-
ing thoughts that still persisted in
haunting her.
One day when she was beguiling the
twins, Joseph and Mary, through an
attack of scarletina, by making mag
nifcent scrap-book in their presence,
Mickey, willing to aid in the good work
brought gorgeous picture from some
hidden shrine, and offered it up a sacri-
fee to the twins.
Sallie took it, and was about to plunge
it into the paste, when she caught sight
of writing on the reverse side, familiar
writing, too, that brought the blood in
a scarlet tide to her cheeks.
Presently she began bargaining with
Mickey for the sale of the picture, and
gladdened his heart with a dazzling
ten-cent piece. Then she folded the
valentine, for such it was, and put it in
her pocket.
AS soon as she could appease the
scarlet twins, she left them to the care
of their brothers and sisters, and
FASTENED home to examine her treasure.
How her heart beat with rapture and
fell with fear when she found that it was,
as she suspected, Jacks Crowel's last
years valentine. And it was more than
a valentine; under this thin disguise
was vailed the tenderest wooing, ending
with the all-important question. An
answer was begged for from the writer's
Darling Valentine"
All, Saint Valentine, you have much
to answer for, but this time you were q
blessing to q pair of sadly bewildered
lovers.
The day was close at hand, and Sallie,
with the daintiest pen on the daintiest
sheet, wrote valentine detailing the
woes of two hearts long severed by cruel
accident.
The parable was so plain that Jack
Crowel. dreaming over his cigar of the
one girl that he had ever loved, sprang
to his feet when he read it. put on bis
overcoat, and started for Sallie Cars.
- dropped the valentine out of my
pocket when I picked up little Mick,
he explained, kissing the cheek that lay
against his shoulder. my bad mem
ory mas cheated me out of years hap
piness."
So it happened that Sallie was saved
from the impending crooked stick, as
we'll as the unenviable seat between the
"two stools" thanks to little Mick ant
St. Valentine.
On What Did Atlas Stand.
0nIOn tho loo IN od