St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-02-16

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first, the names of those killed in bat
tie. Thank God, thank God, he was
not among them Then, the seriously
wounded. All there it was, one of
the very irst-Lieutenant John Mar
riott, of the Royal Engineers He was
suffering agonies in a camp hospital ?
perhaps dying, or perhaps deadl Oh,
why had she not gone out at the be-
ginning of the war, with other ladies as
a nurse? Then she might have been
with him now, to win him back to life
again with her care and tenderness, or
to comfort until the end.
Wish was vain as it was earnest for
she was in her faraway English home
and must hurry into the school room
to superintend the lessons of her young
sister, and into the garden to see about
having the autumn fruits picked for
jam making and to a dozen other
small duties, which make up the sum
total of woman's daily life.
Two days afterward there came
great comfort for her in an Indian let
ter from Jack, written some weeks be-
fore the Maiwand disaster, and brim-
full of good spirits and hope, aud these
words were at the end of it
off get through this campaign all
right and come home again safe and
sound, will my time of probation be
over then? Tell me, my darling, for
indeed, l am getting weary of it,"
Aye, the time of probation was over,
but would he ever know it.
After that Jill heard nothing of him
for over six months, and, although she
had not seen any mention of his death
in the papers, hope, growing less and
less, had almost left her. In spite of
her good courage, it was with a white
face and weary step that she went
about her duties she who was wont
to be so cheerful in the days gone by,
that she had been called by the family
"Sunsline.n
She had now a strange fancy for sit
ting, toward sunset, alone in the bay
window, where she had last parted
from her lover, and one evening-it
was Sunday-having excused herself
from going with the rest to church on
the plea of fatigue, she lay there in a
rocking chair, dreaming sweet day
dreams of that bright, manly young
face which had looked so entreatingly
into hers, and seeming to hear again
his reprOachful cry-"Ah, Jill if you
cared us much as | do !"
A day dream, and yet reality, for,
as she raised her eyes, Jack, or else his
ghost, was standing beside her
But it was no ghost who flung his
arm round her neck, and repeated
again and again
"My darling! My Jill My treasure ~
ooh! Jack, Jack; | thought you
would never GOMEZ"
$50 did l !" he said solemnly. "But
look at me, my dear one; [ am not the
same. L"
Then she saw that the right sleeve
of his coat was hanging empty at his
side.
"No, Jack, you are not the same"
she said, catching up her breath, "fOr
you are mine now, whatever is in store
for either of us. Only forgive me for
not having trusted you sooner"
"Yet that was well, my love, because
you see, if we had been promised to
each other and | had come back to you
ike this, why you would have felt
obliged to have me, and-perhaps-
perhaps"
al should never have been so worth
ess as that, hope but doing without
you has taught me to value you now,
and if the lines have been hard"
She was crying on his poor wounded
shoulder.
"Please God, the hard lines are over
or us both for me they are, at any
ate" he whispered, looking down at
Ter fondly and proudly, "for the angels
Ire not all in heaven yet"