The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-10-24

| llfn.
The peas were all shelled long ago, but
Mary Anne and had been so interested il
the telling and TIE hearing of tie story
we had forgettea time. But / rose at it,
close, and after explaining 20 her the mOdus
operandi of a personal went away feeling
that | had never understood the poets
EvanCeline before. ! had also dim ides
that the name of Mary Anne's lover was
familiar to me, but it was such typical
Irish maize that l concluded il was only
that that made me fancy | had heard il
| before.
II was the day after I had heard the
story when something happened. some
thing so remarkably well timed, l told my
self in quite hutter, that felt as if / was
living a novel. / was sitting by nay win.
dow, from which l could see Mary Anne
fitting TO and fro, bringing in the clothes
from the line, and with pencil and paper
was busy planning a most effective person
al to Patrick Donahue, late of County
| Clare, Ireland, when l heard q cry so full
| Of Joy that the summer AIR thrilled with it.
and looking out saw Mary Anne with a
tail young fellow clasped in her arms "It
can't bet can't be Patrick / gasped,
but heard the girl say presently, as she
/ lifted her radiant face from the mans
breast:
my darlint. nay dsrlint! To think !
have found ye at last, atther the weary,
weary toime! But we did not doubt me.
| darlint, did yei"
The man muttered something, could
not hear what, but l listened for Mary
Anne's reply cut was so long that We
lost hope, Patrick? Yis, yis, thought so,
but ye niver thought of ould Dinnis
O'Flynn having a hundred gold guineas
Z hid away in broken tay pot under the
bed, and him having ut all to Mary Anne "
She had drawn the man, who seemed to
me strangely confused and abashed, to the
kitchen porch, and could hear distinctly
in the still, peaceful air, and from the
shadow of the curtain, peeping out, saw
the two, the woman positively trans
formed, and the man wearing q half
shamed, half sulky look.
Look here, Mary Anne" he said at last,
looking down as he scrapsd his foot back
and forth over the porch step, I'm sorry
for ut, the Vargin kHsws-this trouble
you've been to and aid, though we ought to
have known better-but-but | found liv-
ing near as hard in Aueriky as in the ould
country, and saving passage money a
wurruk of eternity, snd-and-well. to put
it plain to We, Mary Anne, met a gyurl
last year, Kitty OBryaa, and-and-Im
married.
She did not faint, she only gazed at him
as if fascinated by snake, her face as
white as the apron she we're and her whole
figure rigid and deadly still The man did
not look up, but continued to follow his
scraping foot till the girls silence seemed
70 strike him, when he moved slowly off.
'Tm sorry, Mary Anne" he said, making
an embarrassed stand at the gate. when
she moistened her white lips and answered
in voice would not have known, 'Pm
sorry, too" and turned and went into the
house.
/ took no notice of her altered looks
and made no mention of what had oc-
CURED, but the next morning, when she
was helping me in the dairy, she said, 81
was afther telling ye Of Pathrick the other
day, num-" She choked little and then
went on. 1--WE seen him, num-"
II know, l know, my poor girl" l said
hastily. 81 heard it all, and we won't talk
of it. for l want you to forget it if you
can"
Eyes, mum, if 1 can," she answered,
signing
She had not single word of reproach
for the false one, rot plant for herself,
nor did | find her rcmiss in duty, but in
her idle moments she would sit and hold
her head in her hands. as if she found it
an exertion TO even carry it erect, and with
such a hopeless look in her eyes that I
found myself often shedding tears over the
broken romance of this poor, faithful soul,
even If she was only my hired girl.
Once Patrick passed the house with his
wife, pretty, trim little woman. with
cheeks like rosy apple, who carried in
her arms tiny bundle of flannel and long
white skirts, but as the man lived a mile
or two beyond us / hoped that he had only
been casually passing on his way home. If
Mary Anne saw the party she made no
sign, but that afternoon. over some work
helped her with, told her the story of
Longfellow's "Evangeline," thinking to
comfort her. She listened with the tears
running unchecked down her face, but
when L had finished made her comment
quietly, "Betther dead than unthrue,
mum"
Then the only bitter thing ever heard
from her lips broke forth in wall "Oh.
mum, | could bear ut il | had found him
dying but he wps untrue. unthruem
All through the autumn and winter
Mary Anne grew winter and her eyes
larger and brighter, while little hacking
cough kept her awake at night and worried
her all day. But she contended that she
was suffering no pain, aud that in the
spring she would be better, and insisting
on doing her work she kept up until one
day tOrcibly shut her into a little room
wheIe the sun shone morning and after
noon, with orders that she was 70 devote
her energies wholly TO the task of getting
well. And so, really unable to do any
thing else, my poor Evangelins sat at her
window all day long watching the birds
upon the sill picking up the crumbs her
hands had put out for them, but when the
hoef beats of horse or the ringing tread
OF man could be heard coming she would
limp away from the pane on any little pre-
tense she could seize on
The white haired priest. whose gentle
old hands guided her weary soul through
the dark valley, and the doctor had come
and gone one day just as the spring dswned
family in the land, and held Mary Anne's
waxen hand in my own, waiting to hear
the upward sweep of the wings Of the death |
angel, who was already in the room. when |
she withdrew her fingers from nv clasp |
and caught at the little pouch about her |
neck. She could not speak, but as she |
turned her patient eyes on me ! read her |
wish,
'Yeu want IL left IN its place." whis- |
pered, and as she smiled her affirmation /
ny EvanEeline went koDe.-Willa Lloyd /
Jackson n Philadelphia Tines.
Dyed fJTrs may be at once detected by the /
isct that Shey are the same color through