Red Lodge picket. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1889-1907, 1893-02-25
LOVES TOKEN.
"What are you doing, Johnl"
John Turner was working hard at

y
John Turner was working hard a
something and humming over anl
over the same old song, HE hal
but a saxpence; he brak' it in twa,
to his own melodious 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 hel
fiat, worn tenpence, cut in half
/ with hole in each piece.
''Yeu know lovers always used te
break a silver sixpence. Your song
put me in mind. I've carved y on
your half and M on mine, and you
must find a ribbon to wear them
! next our hearts by, all our lives.
"But you are not going ava,
John2"
Il hope not. It's a pretty idea,
though, isn't it1 Suppose they were
my only tenpence. wonder whether
you'd cast me off if 1 had only ten
pence in the world, and that broken?
Milly, the shy, made no answer.
But she nestled 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 a 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 conversa-
tions, and that saunter home along
the shore by moonlight as a 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, SO 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 the others name upon it, fastened
to the slender ribbon Of true blue
They were to be married il Au
gust, and it was now July. Niiljy's
white robe was made, and mimic
orange blossoms lay in the drawers
of the bureau. John Turner had
bought the snug farmhouse Of old
Gilmore. who bad lost his wife and
was going to the city to live with his
eldest son. and had furnished the
best room in a manner that awak-
ened the envy Of every woman in
the place.
There were but three Sundays
more before the wedding III the old
church, and the house warming and
the changing Of those two lovers
into husband and wife. Oniy three
Sundays, and they had just broken
a tenpence together and had spent
that long day III 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 quarreled.
A little thing at first, and both
only waiting for the other to apollo.
gizc. But you know the tiny blue
flame from a 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 spark. She felt insulted. He
thought it her place to give in.
At last the end came, and loving
each other still they parted. Mlly
sent back Johns letters and her en-
gagement ring and a little parcel Of
gifts believed with tears as they
were folded away, and he returned
her tiny notes and the watch guara
she had made him But somehow
Milly never thought Of sending back
that broken bit Of silver about her
neck, and John kept his half also.
He'll never remember so small a
thing-I may keep that" thought
Milly.
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 resold, and
John Turner went away to sea, and
Milly-somehow women always have
the hardest part-Milly had to stay
at home, and fold away the white
dress and the orange wreath, and
hear condolences and prying ques-
tions, and sit in the same pew in
and walk alone over the
same path she had so often trod
by her lovers side But upon the
stormy ocean or in the humdruln
routine of weary household duties
each wore against the poor, worn
heart, that bore SO much and told so
little, the broken tenpence with its
tiny ribbon Of true blue.
For a long while Milly used to
start at every step and fancy john
was coming back to WOO her again.
For long while, whenever the dogs
barked after dark or the pigeons
rustled and cooed upon their perches
she thought they heard John in the
garden path. But John never came.
And one year passed, and two, and
four more, bringing great trouble,
for her mother died, and with that
her father, who was very old, broke
down and took to his bed, and she
seemed to be quite alone in the
world.
Il another year she was an or
nl,a,, md l1nc1r fn,, ce,.t-aill that