The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-06-05
MAMIE.
A Brave Scotch Lassie Who
Was Faithful Unto
Death.

SAT SIDE Dy S1Qe on Two chairs drawn close
to table upon which burned a lamp
with a green shade.
He was carving q comb from a fine
piece of tortoise shell; she, between in
tervals Of noiseless weeping, was watch
Ing him.
The room was in an upper fiat of
Edinburgh, where people lived one above
the other long before Americans learned
to do SO. It was tidy and well furnish
ed, and there were plenty Of books. In
the place of honor stood the Bible, and
SCOTS works and the poems of Burns
and the writings of the Ettrick Shepherd
were to be seen on the low shelves. BY
the fire a matronly young woman rocked
a cradle as she darned a stocking, and
near her a big man with broad shoulders
and red hair and beard was eating a din
ner which had been kept warm in a yell
low bowl. The young people did not
seem to heed their presence. Every nov
and then the girl nestled her head
against the youths shoulder, and he,
without ceasing to work, rubbed his
cheek against her hair.
sit is done," he said, ssand the pretti-
est piece OF work ! ever finished! Keep
it for my sake, lassie, until l come back
again, it's all the present I'm like to give
YOU"
Its q bonny oneI' said she. "Oh, it's
o bonny comb! Look at the thistles and
heather on It'll They'll wonder where a
poor girl like me got a comb like that.
It's worth two pound or three at the
least"
II had the bit of tortoise shell, and it's
just the work, Mamie" said the youth;
'and now the great folk have given up
combs, why, poor folk will follow.
You're not like to wear it; but for a
token you'll look at it whites, AMI say,
4 looked at Jock when he was doing it,
and you'll know every stroke of the tool
had love in it."
"Oh, Jook!" cried the girl in a sudden
passion Of grief. "Oh, Jock! / Gamma
bear it, I just Gamma. Don't go, Jocki
Don't, oh, Jockr"
She sat down beside the table, threw
her arms across it, hid her face in them,
and sobbed wildly. The man who had
been eating his dinner arose at this and
stepped out into the middle Of the room,
a great red bearded Hercules, with black
smith written all over him-her brother
in-law, Donald Mccoy.
II thought the lass had a bit more
sense" said he. IF Jock was willing to
sit down and starve with the rest of the
comb makers that the quality taking to
hairpins has put out of work, she might
have reason to below. But he is going
away to make a home for her in a new
country, where livery man doesn't follow
his fathers calm as sheep follow the
one the other. He'll have a farm in no
time. Comb making is but a finniky
trade anyhow for a big, strong lad. I'm
glad ! was not put &c &c it. Change what
may, folk must call on the blacksmith.
Fashions can't hurt him. And who
knows but the wife and I may follow
when you write how rich you and Jock
are getting, and how fine it is over there
In America"
But Mamie could only sob:
81 don't want Jock to gol Idon't want
Jock to go and leave mel"
Men think less of changing their dwell
ing places and beginning a new life than
women do. The new country, the farm,
presented no attractions to Mamie. She
preferred the old idea Of the rooms be-
hind the combmaker's shop, among her
old friends in Edinburgh. But, alas!
comb making had ceased to be a trade by
which a man could win his bread.
Jock Embry sailed for America, and
Mamie remained behind with her sister
and brother-in-1aw. She waited for let
ters. One came that had been written on
board the vessel on which Jock had sailed,
and then no moreno more or any clew
to him.
Mamie knew that he was true, and
never doubted him.
"Jock is dead; Jock Embry is dead"
she said, mi day. The next she put a
black ribbon on her bonnet. She wore
it when she crossed the ocean with her
sisters family. The rudy blacksmith
had saved enough to make a home in
America, though there were three chill
dren by this time, and Mamie would
not part from all she had in the world.
She used to look over the side of the
steamer and think Of Jock, and how, no
doubt, he looked into the waters and
thought of her. If she could but have
known how he died, and where, she
thought she should have been happier;
but she felt that that could never be.
All Scottish folk believe a little in
the supernatural, and she prayed often
to see Jocks spirit, but in vain.
At last. her feet trod the shore that
his had trodden, the earth where, no
his grave was made. 1t seemed
to Mamie as though she had come
to find it.
She was pretty, and yet young-not 22
and in this new home of hers many an
eye was caught by her fair face. Her
brother-in-law fingered in the city, 10th
to leave it, making every excuse to stay,
and old friends turned up, as it seemed
to Mamie, every day. They dropped in
Of an evening to chat Of old times, and
one and another said sweet things to
Mamie; she cared for mons of them.
The winter was no time to go out
west, Donald the blacksmith said, SO
they spent it in New York. He at his
trade, but taking plenty of holiday, and
Aleck Heath, from the old place, as big
and br&wny as Donald himself, was
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