The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-01-24
LOVES TOKEN.

ne Drak III III IVA, W HIS
own me odious Scotch air. He looked
up and smiled when Milly Gray asked
HIM the question, but made no answer
for some moments. At last he arose
and laid before her q fat, worn ten
pence. cut in half, with a hole in each
piece.
You know lovers always used to
break a silver sixpence. Your song
put me in mind. I've carved j. on
your half and M on mine, and you
must find q ribbon tO wear tn 3m next
our hearts by, all our lives"
But you are not going ava,
joint"
Il hope not, It's a pretty idea,
though, isn't it? Suppose they were
my only tenpence. | wonder whether
you'd cast me off if | had only ten
pence in the world, and that broken4"
Milly, the shy, made ne answer.
But she nestled a little closer to John
and made herself busy with the bit of
blue ribbon she had drawn from her
pocket. Just then it would have taken
d great deal to make her cast John
Turner off, and he could not fancy it
possible that she could offend him.
All their lives long the two lovers
remembered that long summer after
noon, and those whispered converse
tions, and that saunter home along
the shore by moonlight as q little bit
Of paradise which had somehow lost
itself in this hard old earth. AS days
are very warm and bright sometimes
before a storm. 80 were those hours
the sweetest perhaps Of all their brief
engagement year.
When they parted each wore the
broken tenpence, with the first letter
Of others name upon it, fastened to the
slender ribbon of true blue
They were to bemarried il August.
and it was now July Ally's white
robe was made, and mimic orange blos
sons lay in the drawers of the bureau.
John Turner had bought the snug
farm house Of old Gilmore, who had
Lost his wife and was going 20 the city
to live with his eldest e0n, and had
furnished the best room III q manner
that awakened the envy Of every
woman in the place
There were but three Sundays more
before the wedding in the old church,
and khe house warming and the chang
ing Of those two lovers into husband
and wife. only three Sundays, and
they had just broken a tenpence to
gether and ia / spent that long day In
the old woods and had gone home to
lie awake and watch the stars and
think of each other all night, And yet
before those three Sundays were over
they had quarreied.
A little thing at first, and both only
waiting for the other to apologize But
you know the tiny blue fame from 8
match may spread and widen into a
great tongue of fire which is strong
enough to lick a city into ashes.
Pride and temper famed the little
angry sp ark. she felt insulted He
thought it her place to give in.
At last the end came, and loving
each other still they parted. Alliy sent
back Johns letters and her engage
ment ring and a little parcel of gifts
believed with tears AS they were folded
away, and he returned her tiny n rtee
and the watch guard she had made
him. Butsomehow Mllly never thought
OF sending back that broken bit of sIl
yer about her neck, and John kept his
half also.
He'll never remember so small a
thing-I may keep shat" thought
Milty.
And John sighed:
"She has flung hers away, I dare
say. and as she can't know I've kept
this I'll wear it yet"
So the farmhouse was res0ld, and
John Turner went away to sea, and
Milly-somehow ONE always have
the hardest partially had to stay at
home, and fold away the white dress
and the orange wreath. and hear con
dolences and prying questions, and sit
in the same pew in church, and walk
alone over the same path she had so
often trod by her lovers side. But
upon the stormy ocean Or in the hum
drum routine of weary household
duties each against the poor,
worn heart, that bore so much and
told S little, the broken tenpence with
It's tiny ribbon of true blue.
For a long while Mllly used to start
at every step and fancy John was com
ing back to WOO her again. For along