Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-23

going on III Iue upper regions. Qau crushed
up plOwshaTe as easily as if it had been
fil5ert, and then said pleasantly: "There
are still men in the Isle Of Man." Why,
Elsie had seen with her own eyes in Kirk
Malew ehalice which had been carried
off from an elfn banquet. And with
such wonders she had to fashion her pic
ture.
First of all, there was to be house twice
as large as her fathers matched cottage
in the glen; the crOckery on the dresser
was to be replaced by silver plates, like
those used for collecting in churches on
| grand occasions; the brass candleStlcks
upon the mantelpiece were to make way
for gold ones; the stone floor would be
hidden beneath gorgeous carpet; the deal
tables and chairs must gO-sOmething of
dark wood, like the old Dutch clock.
would look better; outside there should
be handsome porch and a garden, and
geraniums in the window, and no split
/ cOngers hanging against the walls; and in
the midst of all this grandeur would be
/ Elsie herself, dressed in silk and bedecked
with Jewels, like Ben Varrey, and doing
nothing all day long but sitting in an arm
chair and ordering her servants about. As
this splendid vision passed through her
brain her dark eyes flashed with delight,
and half-uncOnsciOusly she swept the long
black hair from her beautiful face to make
herself look more like the wears daugh-
/ ter whose hair was fastened behind.
Herrings for dinner to-day; behring's
yesterday; behring's tomorrow. There
would be no more herrings, thought Elsie;
the barrel would vanish from the corner
Of the room, and, instead, she would dine
upon bacon and beef and delicacies of
4 every kind Goodbye to amVlass butter
milk and Water), SOllaghan a kind of
porridge). brahtan "a sandwich of but
tered Oatcake, potatoes and herring, and
4 u pf ~
would fare as if every day were a Sunday
school feast, and she would have plenty
Of jough beer for her father and the
nelghDors. on, yes, her enjoyment was
not to be wholly selfish. There was to be
chair for her father by the chimney cor
ner and tobacco in plenty, and he was to
sit there and smoke from morning till
night: and the neighbors were to come in
for some share of her comforts. For some
she would purchase their winter stock Of
behring's; for others she would pay men
to cut and stack their peat; and for 9th
erS, whose nets had been carried away
she would buy new ones. You see. Elsie's
notion OF paradise was smiling idleness.
tempered by little well-directed kind
ness.
1t would be interesting to learn how
many have noticed a singular omission
from her reflections. Among the fair sex
probably not one. The idea of love for the
man who had asked her to marry him had
never entered Elsie's head. She regarded
him as convenient sort of fairy who
could supply her with an illimtable num-
Der Of good things; and this stirred her
fancy rather than her aY6rice, as it would
have done with better educated girls
Robin Graham was too high above her for
her to think of loving him; she might
have Worshiped him, but love him-nO,
that was quite impossible. She felt that
] No t,T -,
der Of beings from herself; and though he
was well fitted to be the centre ornament
OF the magnificent scene she had depicted,
( she could not bring herself to think of him
/ as a tlesh-and-blood husband
But in all this golden amber it must be
confessed that there was very inaDprO-
1 pirate fly, Joe Quilliam by name, and the
/ question was not how did he get there, but
how to get him out. He was plain, SIM
1 ple-minded fisherman, good deal older
! than Elsie, but without doubt desperately
in love with her. There was no actual
/ pledge between them. His natural BASH
/ fulness had prevented him from declaring
himself, and he had not been gOaded into
doing so by the hateful presence of a rival:
while she had had no need to question her
own heart-a species of catechism that
the dilatOry fair sex seldom resorts to
until the last moment. Probably she was,
! as she believed, heart-whOle for this curl
GUS organ is very like a "Rupert's drop
hard and obdurate as iron until it is
/ touched upon one particular spot when
/ it undergOeS a sudden and irreparable
! Transformation. In EIsie's case this ca
tastrOphe had not yet happened. She had
/ listened at6entIYely to all that the fisher
man had to say, and she had occasion
ally chatfed him about his want of success
with the Holsters or the cOngers; but this
surely is not a very advanced stage of
l0,1~G a md frvxr
bright ribbons from him last H0llandtide
Eve, she had given him no definite en-
/ enlargement.
So far, all well and good. But, unfor-
tunately, Joe Quilliam was rather a hot
tempered fellow, with adisagreeably plain
way of speaking his mind, and there was
no knowing what he might do or say when
he heard that she was going to marry the
fine gentleman, Robin Graham. 1t may
/ appear strange that she should consider
him in this matter at all, but she did; she
even tried 10 devise some scheme for bene-
fling him. This unreasonable fellow
would be angry, she knew; he would re-
fuse to take anything at her hands; he
might even refuse to speak to her. There
really seemed no way of managing him.
/ " hat was she to do?
By this time they had reached the end
of the mOorland. They had walked in
silence through the heather, and were now
standing upon one of the great black head
lands that flanked the entrance to the
glen, where the rivulet widened and ran
smoothly over the glstenIng sand to meet
the wavelets. Close beside them and upon
the very verge of the cliffs, large boulder
was poised so that it seemed as if tie
slightest touch would hurl it into the
water many hundred feet below. 1t had
been deeply cut and furrOwed by icebergs,
/ but the ferns and lichens growing thickly
I n moo in,
the twilight, though there was a sharply
defined shadow at its further side. The
rocky lodges upon the face Of the perpen-
dicular cliff were white with sea birds and
a drOwsy murmur came up from the cav
ems at its base. Away among the bracken
in the glen there might occasionally be
seen CLEAN from some cottage window,
but not often, for the lights are carefully
guarded by the fisher-tOlk along the coast,
lest they should lure an unWary vessel to
destruction. Not a moving thing was in
sight; not even a ship upon that peaceful
sea. The lighthouse had long disappeared
in the gathering mist toward the south.
Butt such Ia time, when all is lifelesS,
inanimate objects have a strange way of
becoming lifelike; the winds acquire hui
man speech, and the stars sight, and the
very hills bend forward in an attitude of
anxious watching and listening. In
Elsie's case this feeling was so strong
that she drew Httle nearer 10 h0Dln lOr
protection.
''Well, Elsie, will you marry me?" he
asked, taking both her hands in his and
looking straight into her dark eyes.
IL don't know"
Surely the shadow on the further side
of IL boulder started? And it might have
been he wind or it might lave been fan
cy, bl there certainly seemed to be sighed
out il low voice full CT such mournful
patho-:
"Oh, sweet little Betsy, thou'rt breaking my
heart;
Counting Robin the king they say thou art
Both were too engaged to notice this
singular phenomenon; indeed, Robin
Graham was rather staggered at Elsie's
answer.
''YOu don't know" he exclaimed in all
aggrieved tone. ''Come, Elsie, what do
you mean? You know I'm very fond OF
you, and | hoped you were fond enough
Of me to marry me; but if you're not
well, Ive made a mistake, that's ALL
''Listen-Oh, listenI Mr.. Graham she
cried, in sudden terror.
"Merely a rabbit
"Oh, but it's no rabbit. It's the bOagane
that's about, I'm sure. Let's away! On,
do! let's make haste back, for it's neither
| a bOllan cross nor a dreain's feather that