The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-02-13
Selected Storp.
A Broken Sixpence.


cheerily. whats good-by,' any way?
IT'S so much better than FAREWELL
cay, laddie, ay y tbs So You'll
come again to Margurth, as you've glen
me word, Alan?"
The question was so eager and yet so
tenderly confident
Come again to you and Oban?' he
asked, laughing. NOW, could | stay
away? There, they are calling from
the boat | must go. Good-by, Mar
gurth; be true to the broken siXpence."
4" True to her troth-plight," she
thought; /" the angels in heaven could
not be truer."
And as he waved his hand to her in
his last farewell she did not know that
he had no more intention of returning
to her to keep his plighted faith than
he had of putting on a last years faded
garment, thrown aside for a newer
fancy.
She watched him till the binding
tears hid him from her sight. A
cracked and querulous voice greeted
her as she entered the little cottage.
$50 'ee's aye game, the moo? An
would ha' been as weel had it been
month agane. Ye've flashed me sar,
Margurtb, VII your lovin's and leavin's.
Gae to your wark, girl"
Margurth sighed. 1t was so hard to
be forced to her routine of duties while
her heavy heart longed for the brooding
silence of the beach and cliffs. She
had yet to learn that grief is soonest
overcome by firing labor.
"I'd meier ha' seen him had ZEE game
month ago, aunt" she said, listlessly.
"Im thiukin' 'twould ha' been as
well had We no."
What mean ye, aunt?" Margurth
cried, Indignantly. 81 haze his faith
surelie we Gamma misdoot the broken
sixpence ~
"Ay, can l." replied her aunt,
grimly, "an' him as weel till / see him
again"
The days went heavily by at the cot
tage. The aunt was ailing and COM
planning more than usual, and Mar
gurth's lot at best was hard one.
She had a soul above busting and
DISTINGUISHING, things that occupied her
aunts whole attention when she was
able to drag herself about her work.
4" All, bonnie laverockW sighed Mar
gurth, catching the sound of his merry
lifting as it dropped to her through the
blue air. "Could | but wing VII you
for day, how quick I'd find him am
nestle doom into his lOvin' heart!"
But these longings she kept close
locked in her bosom, and the winter
passed in loneliness, but tinged with
hope for the coming spring.
When the snow had melted enough
E.. |. IL 10
make her simple purchases, she found
that during the snow and storms evil
rumor had been busy also. On every
hand she met with GOODNESS and sus-
picious glances where she had been ac-
customed to warm cordially from her
Scotch neighbors. She was vaguely
troubled, but forgot all about it in her
bitter disappointment at finding no let
ter as yet from Alan.
She was walking slowly with bent
head, and half way through the town,
when suddenly young girl turned the
corner ahead of her and was hurrying
swiftly away.
"Alce!' she called, joyfully. Surely
her dear friend, her playmate of so
many bygone years, would be ready to
give her welcome.
The girl hesitated, then turned
slowly and waited.
" | thocht We didna see me-" said
to the mither 'noo-I haze a word frae
aunt"
To her surprise the girl did not move
to accompany her.
"What is't them" she exclaimed, i'm
patiently, "what ails the folk?"
81 daurna, Margurth," said Alice,
sadly. "Mither forbid that | should
speak VII We, even. l Gamma bide to
talk"
Alice saw two friends coming and
tried to hasten away, but Margurth
caught her dress, and so held her.
"Ye shall ma gaze" she cried, A" till
We haze telled me a. ~
"Gude company tits ye're keepin,'
Mistress Alicep' cried the two girls
who had just come up. Wheer's
your fine lover, Margurth?" they
sneered
"'Tis my lover ye're speirin' after;
tits for him we treat me sac! Because
haze gram guide mon to wed We gle
me shame! IT'S that we are jealous o.
my guide luck" cried Margurth, with
blazing eyes.
"Na, ma, spittire," cried one; COTS
not your lover we care abou', it's that
he haze gotten an game as the sayin'
rims. He'll no. come again to marry.
Alice had shrunk back at this last
speech, but now she looked inquiringly
at Margurth and waited for her answer.
AS for Margurth, she seemed like one
stricken to stone. Then she tore her
broken siXpence from her bosom, where
it had rested for so many months, and
held it out to them.
"D'ye see that?" she cried, her
breast heaving with anger and pain
"an' daur We gaze against the broken
sixpence? Pm an honester lassie than
you the day, We bold-faced things"
For an instant the girls were silenced,
for to them the ceremony of breaking
a sixpence when plighting troth was
much more binding than our engage
ment ring, so easily changed from one
hand to another; and in fact is only ex-
ceeded in solemnity by the marriage
ceremony itsslf.
Dut tho n,irlo oOOn raoouara1 than