Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-05-09

the last sad words of the song, but so softly
mat neither of these two heard it,.
"oh, sweet little Betsy, thou'r breaking my
Counting Robin the King thew saw thou art.
Robin the King, Robin tho King Pidlan."
r When the invisible singer ceased the dark
nils seemed to grow darker and a gloom to
raj! over the ~undulating moorland and the
manned starry and %cloudless. Elsie, per-
ceiving that the "merry dancers" had
vanished, couldnot repress a little shudder,
but she was soon absorbed in the contem.
plation OF the bright prospect suddenly
opened out before her.
She was a beautiful picture of fairyland,
FOR it was quite impossible to imagine it's
existence in real life. Wild billy coastscen.
cry is fruitful in marvels; but set a man
down in the middle of a plain and he would
suppose the earth to be fiat, and life a mo.
notonous level track along it. Here in this
terry; the tales that the old folks told around
their cottage-fres after nightfall were of
things and beings invisible to dull citizens.
There was Ben Varrey, the mermaid, who,
betore every great festival, impaired to her
jewels new brilliancy by setting them in
seen flashing in the sunlight, while the
syrens sang bewitching melodies to en-
tice mortals away from them. Who
had not heard Of the splendid city,
with it's gilded towers ndminarets, which
that mighty magician, Fin MacCoul, had
Though he had transformed its inhabitants
into blocks Of granite, yet curiously enough
they were summoned to church regularly
every Sunday, for the sailors often heard
the tinkling of the bell; and the whole
island rose to the surface once every seven
only one could see it and lay a Bible upon
1t. And beneath Castle Rushen was there
not a wonderful race of giants, who drank
out of golden goblets and wore magnificent
clothes, and whose suburban retreat was
illuminated by q reckless %profusion of wax
adyenturesome mortal hadinterviewed one
Of them, and the giant, after asking how
things were going on in the upper regions;
had crushed up a p~lowshare as easily as if
it had been a filbert, and then said pleas
antly: .sThere are still mon in the Isle
of Man." Why, Elsie had seen with her
own eyes in Kirk Malew q chalice which
had been carried off from an elfin banquet.
And with such wonders she had to fashion
her picture.
First of all, there was to be a house twice
as large as her fathers matched cottage
was to be replaced by silver plates, like
those used for collecting in churches on
grand occasions; the brass candlesticks
upon the mantelpiece were to make way
for gold ones; the stone floor would be hid
den beneath a gorgeous carpet; the deal
tables and chairs must go-something of
wood, like the old Dutch clock, would look
better; outside, there should be a 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 do nothing all day
long ,but,sitting in an armchair and order.
ing her %servants about. AS this splendid
vision passed through her brain her dark
eyes flashed with delight, and %half-uncon-
sciously she swept the long black hair from
her beautiful face to make herself look more
like the Wears daughter, whose hair was
fastened behind.
Herrings for dinner to-day; herrings yes
terday; behring's tomorrow. There would
be no more behring's, thought Elsie; the
barrel would vanish from the corner of the
room, and, instead, she would dine upon
bacon and beef and delicacies of every
kind. Goodbye to amylass (butter-milk
and water), sollaghan "a kind ofporridge),
braghtan IA sandwich of buttered oatcake,
potatoes and herring), and binjean (curds);
instead of these she would fare as if every
day were a Sunday school feast, and she
would have plenty of jough (beer) for her
father and the ~neighbors. Oh, yes, her en-.
joyment was lot to be wholly selfish.
There was to be a chair for her father by
Uu0 CulLuuoY.COEuGI anu tODACCO Ill plouUV,
and he was to sit there and smoke from
morning till night; and her 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 n stack their peat; and
| for others, whose nets had been carried
away, she would buy new ones. You see,
! Elsie's notion of paradise was smiling idle
ness, tempered by a little well-directed
kindness. rY ..
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 en-
tered Elsie's head. She regarded him as a
convenient sort of fairy who could supply
her with an illimitable number of good
things; and this stirred her fancy rather
with better educatedgirls. Robin Graham
was too high above her for her to think of
loving him; she might ave worshiped him,
but love him-no, that was quite impossi-
BILE. She felt that he belonged to some en-
tirely different order of beings from her.
self; and, though he was well fitted TO be
the center, ornament of the magnificent
scene size had depicted, she could not bring
herself to think Of him as a f1esh-and-blood
husband.
But in all this golden amber it must be
| confessed that there was a very lnappro-
Df1aCe n.y. OO0 &ulAAAdAA ~ A%AAos ~AN VAS
Question was not how did he get there, but
how to get him out. He was q plain, SIM
Die. minded fisherman, a good. deal older
than Elsie, but without doubt desperately
in love with her. There was no actual
pledge between them. His natural
bashfulness had prevented hin 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 chat the d%ilatoryL air
sex seldom resorts to until the last mo-
ment. Probably she was, as she believed,
heart-whole, for this curious organ is very
like a "Rupert's drop"-hard and
as iron until it is touched upon one partic;,
ular spot, when it u%ndergoes a sudden and
irreparable transformation: In Elsle's
ease this catastrophe had not yet happen.
ed. She. had listened attentively to all that
the fisherman had to say, and she had oc'
casionally chaffed him about his wanto OF sue.
cess with the Holsters or the congers; but
this surely is not a very advanced stage OF
iove-making, and, beyond accepting a lew
bright ribbons from him last Hollandtld9
Eve, she had given him no definite sncouf'
agement. --