Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-05
syvops1s oF PREvIors cHAprrRs.

the baptism of the child. Mr.. Harwood, who is
afraid Of being dispossessed OF his wealth, buys
Dams silence with 3 cheque of Gl0O down and 81
TIE SToRY-CHAPTERs I. AND II.-Eighteen
years have rolled on since the prologue, and
Nellie Pemberton, the infant, has grown into q
fine, handsome young woman. She IS beloved
by mary, but at present she IS heart-whole.
Mark Eliot, mechanic employed at the same
mill, at last meets her, and q case of love at
first sight ensues. As he is mending her loom,
which hsd Just broken down, nre occurred IN a
neighboring mill belonging to Mr.. HarwOOd,
and something like panic ensues.
CHAPTERS III. AND IVA scene of, wild con-
fusion ensues and the hands hastily endeavOr
20 leave the burning building. Nellie Pember.
ton returns 10 the mill to rescue . friend of hers
Annie Fsrrimond, who had been left behind,
and shortly afterward she is seen on the roof of
the burning mill. Marx Eliot sees her peril and
resolves TO rescue her at The risk Of his own life
CHAPTERS V. AND NI.-Nellie PembeTton, in
her brave attempt to rescue Annie, her COM
panlon, from the burning pulIdlngl courage
ously mounts the stairs leading to the room in
which Annie lies unconscious. She aTouses her
and they make their way 10 the burning roof.
Mark then sees them and manages by attaching
3 rope from one building TO another 10 save the
women from their imminent peril.
CHAPTER vH.-THE PARTY At THE
FsTAR.''
Number forty-seven, Manchester Road
Warringham, was the end house of q
long row Of dwellings which stood on the
outskirts of the little town wherein the
scene of our story is laid. The block of
cottages indicated were inhabited by
working people of the lower order
golfers, cotton operatives, foundry men,
and so PORTLAND the bulk of the houses
were neither better nor worse in appear
ence than the majority of similar abodes,
tenanted by similar people in busy,
thriving towns.
Not few Of the GOorsteps were dirty
during the mid-week days, and the
windows also during the same period were
rather neglected. But it was Sunday
afternoon now, the weekly cleaning was
over. and every house IN the rOw-iu
fact every respectable working man 5
house in the town-was wearing its
hebdomadaI aspect of cleanliness and
comfort.
But number forty-seven, unlike its
fellows, was always cleanly-even bright
looking. Perhaps it was because there
were no children there, no sturdy, mis-
chievOus lads and wenches 10 trample
on the white threshold with their miry
clogs and smear the bright windows with
their sticky fingers.
At this cosy little cottage lived Nellie
Pemberton and her adopted mOther-the
Nancy Pemberton of the prologue, but
Mrs. MaTsden now.
To this house the little waif had been
brought when Nancy married Jim Mars
den, and here she had lived for the last
eighteen years. AS child she had run
and played about the adjoining streets
and yards in company with Annie FarrI-
mond and others, and she had enjoyed
the dirt and freedom of her earlier days
with as much zest and profit as any of
her poor, neutrality-suspicious. had done.
Providence had willed il that Nancy
and her good man were to be childless,
and this circumstance served 10 bind lit
tie Nellie, the unknown, more tightly
round the hearts and affections of her
parents by adoption.
When the bright faced little lassie's
years numbered half a dozen, she was
sent to school and kept there until the
dawn of her teens. Nellie was g clever
girl, and the ease with which she mas
tered her lessons made her favor
tie with the old schoolmaster. Still, for
all that, there was no more frolicsome
and mischievous wench in the whole
school.
The brave, spOrtive lass was ever in
mischief OF some kind-now making hid
cons inartistio caricatures of her masters
face and big Wellington nose,' and
passing them along the class, then CIV
ing the word of ''dictation'' to her fell
low scholars; turning the school topsy-
turvy if the slow, weak-sighted, big
hearted old master left the room for
moment or two.
But in spite of her pranks, Nellie's
sweet face made friends of all, and there
was not q lad in the school who would not
have thrown up his favorite game in
stantly at her wish and run a mile to
gain her favor.
- -
latter came more sobriety Of conduct,
more sOlidity of character. After the
days work in the mill was ended it was
the girl s habit, especially in the winter
season, to pass the rest of the evening at
the fireside with some book borrowed
from the shelves of the excellent public
library WaTringham possessed,
And this custom Of reading much had
benefited Nellie IN divers ways. 1t had
quickened her mental faculties, stored
her mind with information, taught her
such knowledge of men, the world, and
things in general SIS one can gather from
books.
The happiness that had reigned for so
many years in the household OF the Mars
dens at No. AZ came to a sudden, an aw-
full end one Christmas eve, nearly three
years before the period indicated at the
commencement of this tale.
An explosion had occurred at the pit
wherein poor Jim Marsden worked, and
he was one of the victims. When the
Christmas bells were pealing from a
thousand steeples the miner was brought
home dead, burned to cinder nearly
and battered almost beyond the recogn1-
ton of his dear ones.
After that terrible event Nellie and
Mrs. Marsden had continued to live on in
the old house. The dead husband had
lived a careful, Woodworking life and
when he was taken away so suddenly his
wife was not left unprovided for, so that
the widow and her adopted daughter
managed to live comfortably.
Nancy was q bonny bOXom woman
still, and if she had cared about il she
might have been married again. Only
month or two ago an old admirer of hers
had came awoolDg her, but she had
thought of the dead, shaken her head
sadly, and said the man nay.
II was now three or four weeks since
the great fire at Harwood's mill had