Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-02-27

her the surveillance OF her rebellious
niece, and a hard time she had of it.
'But love proverbially laughs ut
locksmiths and surveillance, and one
day Molly's pet dove brought to her
window, tucked under his snowy wing,
a note from Abram, and this was fol-
lowed by sundry other notelets brought
by the same winged carrier, so that
Molly knew exactly the day and hour
on which Abram started for America,
and he, skirting the castle at a safe
distance, saw a tiny handkerchief flut-
tering from the turret window, and
went on his way with high courage and
hope in his heart.
GAS soon as he was fairly at sea
Molly was released from her imprison-
ment, and both her father and aunt had
reason to congratulate themselves upon
the excellent, the subdulng effect of their
course of discipline. Molly, who hith-
erto had apparently cared for little but
the pleasure of the moment, rambling
abroad on her pony, embroidering,
playing the spinnet or reading, sud-
denly developed Il remarkable taste for
h~ousewifery. Like the Greek Penelope,
she busted herself of mornings with
the maids at their spinning and weay-
ing. She learned the art of bread
making and of a~le-brewing, the best
methods for the management of poul-
try and the raising Of pigs and calves,
and, altogether, promised at last to
mature into a thrifty, entirely respect
able and proper st. Leger.
mo letters came from Abram. Those
were not days of much letter writing,
and furthermore, letters coming to
Molly through the post must have
passed through her fathers hands. But
Molly had a brave heart and she had
promised in her last note to Abram to
go to him whenever he should send for
her, and that was to be when he was
fairly established in business and a
proper escort could be had"
"Now, Aunt Pen," asked Beatrix,
demurely, ''do you consider that an
altogether right and proper thing
for revered ancestress to prom
ise?"
"Well," replied Aunt Pen, hesitating
between her entire sympathy with
Molly and her troublesome conviction
that she ought to point the proper
moral. "Molly must have done that or
else given HIM up entirely. It was GER
tain her father would never relent.
"Luckily, however," she continued,
with a sigh of relief, eve have
not to decide that; we have
only to do with the story. Two years
passed and Molly was then twenty.
You know the old custom of st. Valen-
tines Day? The first one you met af-
ter the sun had risen was to be your
Valentine for the year. Like many
other Saints days, St. Valentines Day
was held in much more sacred observ-
ance by u ancestors than by us.
And many a gift had Molly received
from Abram III his character of Valen-
tine. If I'm not mistaken there is one
in that very trunk. a tiny white silk
box painted with white rosebuds, and
containing a rosebud. 1t was the one
Abram sent her just before he went
away"
Sue, who sat nearest the brass-bound
trunk, thrust her hand under the mass
of papers, and after a slight search,
brought up the box. She opened it.
1t contained a pinch Of dry dust.
"Most things are dust after a hun
dred years." said Aunt Pen, cheerfully.
And she went on. 'Well, on the morn
ing of st. Valentines Day, just at
dawn, Molly was awakened by a slight
rustling at her window. Her dove
tluttered in upon her bed, and under
his snowy wing, in the old place, was a
note tied with a bit of blue ribbon.
Molly loosed the ribbon and down fell
the valentine which you hold in your
hand. Marjory. Read it, please" And
Mallory, sitting up among the ruins Of
the spider-leg chair, read:
go Molly, Molly, fair and sweet
3 is the blitie tomorrow
That brings you to your lovers side, M
Far, far from grief and sorrow!
Once more unto your easement, love,
My messenger comes flying; g.
Fling back tie lattice-take him in
Your Valentine espying.
"Come, come, my Molly, here I wait,
The good ship spreads her sails;
Bearing such precious freight as thou,
Goodbye to England's fi low fields,
Her hawthorne, eglantine;
/ Come with the springtime's Fastening
My lifelong Valentines"
"Our ancestor rhymed better than he
drew remarked Sue, peeping ove1
Mariory's shoulder. ..Those cooino
doves look precisely like two fighting
crows"
"What a deligtfully dreadful facilis,
you have, Sue, for taking the poetry
out of everything" said Beatrix.
.Silence in the assembly," said Aunt
Pen. .'There was another slip OF
paper, signed by John Hunt, Abrams
brother and confdant, saying that a
carriage with post-horses would be in
waiting the next night, at a certain
place, to convey Molly with the great
est possible speed to Portsmouth,
whence the ship was to sail on the
following day. Her escort was to be
John Hunt himself. who, recently mar
ried, was going with his wife to seek
his fortune also, in that distant New
England.
SMolly dropped the valentine and
note almost with a feeling of dismay.
She was a loyal-hearted maiden, as her
truth to her lover shows, anu it was
not without a deep pang Of regretful
love that she turned at the door that
night and looked her last upon the
little turret chamber wherein her
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