Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-06-11
coM0Ek 0EkjSATlOM.
THE SILVER RING.
\ STORY OF THE NORTH COAST OF ENGLAND.

of Blackburn the furze was In full
 bloom and stretched, in broad level N patches of gold, for miles along the
 coast. At the mouth of a ravine looking over the sea sat a lass and lad courting.
 The girl wore the ordinary fisher dress. Yet in her face and figure she differed somewhat from the robust comeliness of the fisher lasses on the coast.
 The young fellow was of much more orth- odox north country type, with the ruddy checks, blue fearless eyes, and fair curling hair these fisher-folk have had transmitted from the Morse invaders.
 Jim Craster never took kindly to the life of fisherman, and his father did not oppose him when he expressed a determination to go to sea altogether.
 Perhaps the old fisherman did not realize what tho boy was to him until the parting took place. He had been q lucky man and 8 thrifty all his life, and his board was con- siderable for his position. Banks were very little thought of by people of humble posi- tion in those days, and certainly old Craster would not have trusted his dearly loved old guineas to any one of them. He preferred adhering to the old-fashioned notions of stock ing feet, cracked tcapots and holes in chim- neys as secure resting places for coin.
 It was trial to him when Jim came homo as first mate and fell ill love with Molly Pen- wick, Irish Molly's daughter. But if Jim must needs make fool of himself, why choose a lass without q penny piece to bless herself with, when Ailsie-Black Jack Stevenson's ailsie with three houses and a share in a lu- crative coasting vessel, trading in goods that did not always pay duty, tackled to her tail- was to be had for the asking.
 But Jim was fool, and his heart ran away will ic Az h0 sat her waist, her head lying on his shoulder, and those wonderful, tender, wistful orbs looking up into his own, he would not have changed places with the king upon his throne.
 "Ah, Jim, yell be forgetting your Molly when ye're away beyond the sea there!" said the girl at last, in soft, plaintive voice.
 Molly spoke like her mother, whom she favored in every way. This did not tend to increase her popularity with the fsher-folk, who are "clannish" to an extraordinary de- gree, and, resenting the fathers marriage with further even after his death, bore a grudge against tho poor woman In conse- quence. She had much the worst of the bar gain in every sense of the word, since she gave up a comfortable situation to marry him, and he repaid her by drinking himself to death in couple of years time leaving her penniless and with child to bringup.
 ''Now Molly, ye know that's not true, so dinna make believc."
 "An' what of Black Jacks Ailsic.' Jim? The lass that has nothin' to give ye but the love of a faithful heart may we'll fear and tremble lest it should be powerless to bind ye. Yer father upcasted 1t to mother that ye might marry one with money, and who could that be but Ailsie?"
 Jim's sunny brow clouded.
 'Aw wadna marry Ailsie, though she were made O gold, and there wasn't another girl f creation! Come, Molly. say yell be mine Aw maun be off to Shilds tomorrow thou knows, and aw want your word afore aw gan.
 Molly made no audible promise, but she put her arm round his neck and kissed him on the lips, and he was content. All at once Molly shivered as though an icy breath crept over her.
 "Oh, am too happy! I feel as though it could not last. Ones heart must not sing such sweet music forever, or 1t will not care to think of heaven
 Nonsense Molly! We are young and we love each other."
 "Surc, I don't know" returned Molly sim- ply; it comes natural, anyhow. Butye mind ould Bridget O'Shea mothers great aunt that was she had eyes that could read the future -she told me that the lines in my face were set for misfortune, and no one can alter theil destiny.
 No fear O that my canny sweetheart! "Aw ye afraid to take VOW, then? "I shall not change, Jim," said the girl raising her head proudly and looking him straight in the face. But since you will have it l and do not fear the words, we will say them 1 together, and my ring will do for the pledge.' It is very much the fashion among the fish l CT girls to wear rings of silver as ornaments and Molly's middle finger was so embellished She drew the ring out as far as the first joint ! then held out her hand:
 l "Put your finger against mine, and, as 1 say the words, it must pass from my finger to yours, and then you are to repeat the words l after me-"
 The sailor obeyed. He placed his finger
 ready, and waited for the VOW to be spoken. Finger to finger, heart to heart, Bind thou together that nothing can part: l Soul clfnging to soul | Through fire and through wave. ! The same be their goal ! Through life and the grave; | In love or hate forever to go l To hell or to heaven, to bliss or to woe
 Molly's clear, young voice repeated tn
 words and before they ended the silver rim was transferred to the sailors brown finger. The lovers drew close to each other an
 ceased speaking. All had been said. Wer they not pledged to each other H through Tiff
 and beeyond7." l The gloom ofa November day rapidly deeI
 ened into night.
 Under any circumstances this Smuggler bay must have been an eerie and dismal place
 but under the melancholy twilight which pre- vailed that autumn afternoon, it was q kin of hades, a dim. depressing, soul-saddenin spot.
 Stopping and crawling along, and ever now and again stopping to turn over and e,
 amino closely some of the heaps of drift, al : peared figure which might have passed fe . l spirit out on the prowl to discover any po
 tion of wrecked cargo that the sea had chose to disgorge.
 , This was, in fact, the errand of the searche
 one of the fishermen from Blackburn. shi : had gone on the rocks Q little to the nortl
 ward couple of hours before, while the ere
 were washed one by one from the riggin,
 and, no rescue being possible, were drowne
 within sight of land.
 This old man, for such he appeared to b
 correctly judged that the current would dri
 portions of the wreckage into the bay.
 Suddenly he gave low cry, stopped shol
 and with the hook he carried began to cle'
 away a lot of driftwood from something whit
 lay there at his feet, AS the rubbish W,