The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1885-03-18

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TO this shop, and had stamped them
selves, fresh from his heart, upon the
ring. Lovers are always finding such
adventures, and always thinking them
peculiar to themselves.
"I will take this" said he. The
ieweler, who seemed taciturn fellow,
nodded, as if bridegroom's fancies
were matters of course, and the pur-
chase was made.
1t was really a very wonderful
thing" thought Stephen. at seems
too strange to belicve-finding q ring
with just those very words. I'm glad
there must be something out of the
common in this ring; just as there's
something out of the common in the
whole story. / shouldn't have believed
such a story if I'd been told. Still,
though, when one comes to think of it,
it isn't likely Patience Blackthorn
would be married with common
ring"
That was the whole of Stephens busi-
ness in Manchester that day. Having
had some cold meat and glass of ale,
for his walk had made him hungry, he
set off to return to Legs Croft by the
same road he had come. But he had
not reached the fifth milestone when it
occurred to him that, as he was, taking
a holiday from his holiday, he might as
well go home by way Of the church
where he was to be married. Of course
he had seen the church of his native
village many hundred times before;
but then it had been only common
steeple, now it was to become sacred
building indeed. ...
To get to Legs Croft by way of the
church one had to leave the road, as l
have said, the fifth stone from the town,
and follow path that led through some
open fields to the top of some low hills,
whence on one side one could
see the lazy smoke and the minister
tower of Manchester, and broad river
beyond; on the other, the network of
low, wooded slopes and narrow valleys
in which were hidden Leys Croft and
Welslead, and many another ancient
farm! His back turned to the minister
and river, Stephen looked toward the
woods and pastures, all in their gold
and green, and smiling as If the land
scapc were alive and Tapped in the ut
most luxury of peace and verdure. The
chimncys and the turmoil of Millport
had broken his familiarity with the
view, and he was able to regard
the scenes in which he had been
born and bred, and had learned
to love, with Travelled eyes, 1t
seemed impossible with such a
before him, to remember that
the world was at war, and that other
just as peaceful OF right and
as ready to smile with fruit and harvest,
were at that very hour, maybe, the
background of waste and carnage.
Stephen knew all that, as every En-
glishman knew it, with his mind. but
only in the way we know things with
which we have no real concern. Proba-
bly, it would never have entered his
mind at all had it not been for that
momentary glimpse of gilt
tering steel and rattle OF drums.
He followed the path down the other
side of the hill, and vaulted over
church stile into field that sloped |
down to q running stream shrouded in |
bushes and boughs. 1t was crossed by |
the most primitive OF bridges, u single
loose plank, while the beaches sloped
down to the water, making Lilliputian
cliffs and sands. 1t was here that
Stephen, ages ago, had made his first
attempts at angling, with string and a
crooked pin-how Infinite long ago it all
seemed! For old times sake, he could
not pass the bridge without just one
more scramble into the recesses Of tho
copse whence the brown water came
out into the sunshine.