The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1884-05-23

but . bright Easter TO pst*y-for com.
ing home from the village on Easter
Eve, with some Of the other servant
maids, over the moor, at the head oi
the avenue stand, q flrst sight to the
girls terror, and then to their relief
two men-old Strstton, the hsad-keep.
or, and VIII Halfacre-ready to pilot
them safely through the darkness Of
the frs. And o. the old man warns ur
into some keeper.6aga-now under
that very tree some one had killed some
one else that was deer stealing-Wil.
liam drops behind with Patty, and
speaks!
Hootl hootl your warning to them,
wise old owl /! coursing through the trees
You know how hard il IL to find food fol
two young ones in the old church tower
Ct Eversley, and avoid keepers traps!
Yap yap! your warning, crafty Mr.. Fox
You too have your family cares, and
rabbits are scarce and cubs are hungry!
But the wisdom Of the owl and the craft
of the fox are unheeded; and the youna
couple live Q lifetime Of love in thai
sllort homeward walk.
Happy at lest was Patty. But still q
cloud hung over her little horizon. The
wedding day was not to be till after mid
mer-till after the pheasants' nest.
ing season was we'll over, ss till theu
Will would have to be up and out ell
night and every night and awho knows. >
said he carelessly," that the Hartford
Bridge boys msynt pay US some more
visits?"
Nays thirty.one days were long to
Patty, especially as the Hartford Bridge
boys had one heavy brush with tile
keepers of the Great House. and then
another, till Patty began to fear for he,
swain's life. An impulsive lover was
Patty-having once loved, her love
was her very life-and when the
third brush came with the poach-
ers the poor child was wetl-nigh
wild. A month still of the pheasant
season and the most dangerous oi
all-how could she survive Il? What
could she do to help him? Pray? She
had prayed morning, noon, and night.
Could she ask her young mistress to
intercede with the Squire to get Will
something else to do? No-she dare
not. The Squire at that moment wa.
red hot, externally and internally, with
gout. and he had already given Will
two chances. He would never give him
another. What was to be doneP
While she was rocking her poor little
heart strings and brains to find some se'
curer life for her beloved, one day ther
appeared at the hall door, where the old
Squire was sitting in the warm soutl,
sun, watching the hounds exercising on
the grass plot, the well-known face Of
Dinah Lee-the Mother-in- Israel of
North Hants gypsies. Every one was
kind to old Dinah; and the Squire, even
after cursing her and her tribe for
sheep stealers, and goodness knows
what else, chucked her q shilling, and
sent her around to the buttery door,
where, as luck would have it, she met
Martha.
OF all people Dinah was the one Pat
ty wished most to meet, for q story Of
her grandmother's had been running in
her head for the last few weeks, to the
effect that If "some one" did something
on st. Johns Eve, it would render him
or his friends invisible. And ere Di.
nah could say word Patty had drawn
her into the buttery room, crossed hel
palm with silver sixpence, and asked
the result: which was simple enough,
for Dinah had seen the cricket match
nigh upon year ago and
MY pretty honey would marry tall
dark man, but not till he had passed
through many dangers even to the dan
ger of death, from which he might o,
might not recover"
Too futtered to see the incoherence
Of this prophesy, Patty then broached
her more important question.
"Was there not some way Dinah
could tell her that would make her lover
invisible, so as to save him from all
these dangers?"
"Yes;" but Dinah could not let out
the secret to everybody. She was
"poor. and had to live"
In few moments the little hoard oi
money from Patty's box up stairs was in
the old gypsy woman's hand, in answe,
to which came these directions:
"On st. Johns Eve, between eleven
o'clock and midnight, if you would find
invisibility, take platter of wood. and
let there fall into it some seed of the
king fern; which done in fasting and in
silence, will insure you to walk both day
and night. in heat or cold, rain and fire,
without being seen."
"But where am I to find the king
fern?" y
"Ask your man, honey" !" was:the only
answer vouchsafed; and, to avoid fur.
ther questioning, Dinah slipped away,
deaf to all entreaties and even to the
enticements of the larder.
On that same day Patty found out
where the king fern grew, under the
summer.house hill and twas only the
next that Will, unwilling of the pur.
pose, and provided her with specimen
Of the fern itself, wooden platter, and
o full description of where to gathe,
moro down in the damp shaughs.
Verify life seemed unbearable to
Patty for the next few days, overwronght
with fear for her lover. All the super
stition of the old Southern Saxon
blazed out in her, 80 that though Dinal
had not absolutely said the fern seed
would render Will invisible to the
poachers, she had come to the conclu-
sion that if she could gather it herself
she could hover about him like guar.
dian angel and save him from harm
A doubt Of the infallibility of Dinah't
specific never entered into her mind.
Even the coming home of the youne
Squire toward the middle of June wa
of no import to her, though he wa.
more ardently inclined than ever
Patty lived only for her lover, and
ignored all else. Indeed, so pale and
anxious she grew that every one noticed
it; but with a set purpose before her
she looked not right nor left, except to
make such loveto the old housekeepel
as should get her possession of the key
Of the door leading on to the terrace
whence she could easily go around by
the corner of the bowling green into
the park.
st. Johns Eve came at last! The
morning seemed unending, the after.
noon intolerable, and tea in the house.
keepers room oppressively weary.
As luck would have it, Patty's young
mistress went to bed early that night.
The lights in the lower suit of state
rooms were put out ct . little past ten,
and II o'clock found Patty creeping on
tip-toe down the staircase into the
hall, through whose lattlced windows
tho n,oon atroamoI in IN <r, rnony a tro