The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1884-11-15
A Noble Heart.

had done wrong about one thing
Neither Of tie old folks knew that wore
Evan Locke's ring in my bosom, or that
we had taken vow TO each other beside
the hawth that grew in the church
lane. i never meant to deceive, but
granny was old aud a little hard, and that
love of mine was such sweet secret.
All this time Evan Locke and l had
beer as fond as ever of each other. and
be came as often as before to talk with
grandpa in the winter nights; and still
every little while our young landlord,
Squire Turner, would stop in and sit in
his lazy way watching me kni OF spin.
l could rot help Lis comirg nor help
seeing him when he came, AID 1 did moi
deserve that Evan should be angry with
me; hut he Was, aud we Tad some hard
words.
Well, Evan was wroth with me and ]
with him not heart-deep, though,
thought-and did not see him for more
than a week,
But one night grandfather came home
from lonely ride, and shutting the door
stood between grandma and me, looking
at me, and so very strangely that We
both became frightened. At length he
spoke;
Squire Turner asked me for this lass
of ours tonight, OF all the women in
the world there is but one be loves as
he should his wife, aud that woman is
our Agatha"
Then grandpa talked TO me. He told
me how poor they had grown and how
kind the squire was, and bad but to
marry him to make my grandparents
Tree from debt and poverty their lives
through. If l refused and vexed tie
'quire, heaven only knew what might
happen.
All! II was hard TO bear-bitter hard;
but now there was no help for it. took
the ring from my bosom and laid it on
my palm and told him it was Evan
L"cke's, and that l had pligh;ed my
troth to him. Aud Grandma called me a
deceittul weuch, and grandfather looked
as though his heart would break.
One day grandpa said to me: 1T seems
that your sweetheart is not overfond of
you. or over-anxious TO see YOU"
why not?" said l.
"Where has be been this month back?"
"Busv, doubtless"
perhaps you know all about it, " said
grandma. you are going along with
him, maybe"
"Where?" said I.
She went to the kitchen door and
beckoned in woman who sat there
Dame Coombs who had just come over
with some eggs.
Il heard you rightly" she said. "You
told me Even Locke and his mother were
making ready for voyage"
They're going to Canada. My son, q
corpenter-aud a good one, though say
it-made the doctor a box for his things.
The old lady breads the new country,
but she goes for the doctors sake.
There's money to be made there, they
say. That's what takes them"
"Give me whom you will, then, since
my own love does not want me-"
So days rolled by and was close on
my marriage eve, and granny and Doro-
thy Plume were busy with my wedding
robes. l wished it was my shroud they
were working at instead
And one night the pain in my heart
grew too great, and 1 went out among
the purple heather on the moor. and
there knelt down under the stare and
prayed to be taken from this world
"For how can live without Evan2"
said.
l spoke the words aloud, and then
started up in alright, for there, at my
side, wasa little elhsh figure, and Iheard
a cry that at first 1 scarcely thought
earthly. Yet it was but Scotch Jennie.
who had followed me.
"Wby do you call for your true love
now?' she said, you sent him frae We
fJr the sake o the young squire"