Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1894-02-01

bread and milk in the nursery.
George said, by way of quieting hi
wife's fears.
i But Nellie was not quite so Ger.
tain about the ice-cream, and sh,
went to Harry several times during
the night, and felt tired and worr
the next day; and at Maggie's sug
gestion took glass of wine to stead
her nerves and remove the faintnes.
and languor which she felt as the
natural consequence of a night oi
wakefulness. Harry, too, was cross
and irritable, and asked for swine
to make me feel some better and q
dood boy which 50 amused his
mother that she forgot Mrs. Fow.
ler's warning, Have care for the
little boy and allowed him to
drink what was left in the glass. and
then wonder what made him so cross
and irritable when he was usually
as merry and blithe as a bird.
The three jugs of wine, which
Nellie had thought would last for
ever. were nearly empty before the
luscious fruit hung rich and ripe
again upon vines; for the glasses
were SO pretty that it seemed a pity
not to use them, especially if there
was company to dinner. as was fire.
quently the case; for George and
Nellie both were Hospitality inclin-
ed, and their table was often full of
guests who came, some from the
village and some from the neigh
boring towns. George seldom drank
spirits of any kind. 1t made his
head ache, he said, and with no fear
for him to trouble her and no
thought of danger elsewhere, Nellie
gathered the ripe fruit again, and
bottled up her wine and suffered
Harry to sip what was left in the
pitchers and dishes used in the bot
tling.
Harmless as water,' her friends
said Of the newly made wine, and
she believed it, without once stop
ping to reflect how, by means of
this beverage, 'as harmless as water
a taste might be cultivated in her
little boy which would, in after
years, pierce her heart with the bit
terest pang mother can ever know.
CHAPTER Ill.
TIRE wTNE-GLAssEs BRING FORTH
FRUIT.
Fifteen years have passed. and we
look in again at the pleasant cottage
where Nellie Fisher gave her first
dinner-party to Mrs. Gen. Rossiter.
The day is cold and gloomy, and
the November sky is dark and gray
with signs of coming storm; and,
as night is shutting down, Nellie
Fisher stands by the window look
ing wistfully down the street as if
expecting some one.
The table is spread in the cheer
full dining-room, but only for three.
No guests are expected tonight;
indeed, they seldom see company
now at the Vine Cottage, ESQ called
from the profusion of grape-vines
about the place,) for a terrible
trouble has settled upon their
hearthstone, ! and in its shadow
George and Nellie have both grown
old and care-worn, and they shrink
from the curious gaze of the public,
as If feeling that in some way they
are to blame for the calamity which
has overtaken them. Georges hair
is white as snow-the effect OF the
fever he had two years ago, seme Of
the villagers says, but he knows
better. He could tell Of night after
night of wakefulness, with ears
strained to catch the first sound of
footsteps he never mistook; of fire.
quent battlings with wintry storms,
and hunting through low dens of
vice many and many time when
the village clock was striking the
small hours of the morning. Mel
lie, too, is sadly changed; and,
though not yet forty years Of age,
she looks fully ten years older, and
feels as il she had lived and suffer-
cd forever. All the freshness from
her pretty face is gone, and her
sunny blue eyes. which used to fash
so brightly, are faded aud sGnken,
and seldom light mp with anything
like CLEAN of JOY.
The wine-gIasses bought Fifteen
years before have done their work,
and borne fruit tenfold more abun-
dant than all the many vines upon