Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1894-06-01

h3 Outt SCL buNt tuO
Frenchman. Zone does not boast,
but n pretty girl gave me that. Yes,
and n kiss ALSO"
John turned as pale rs his horid face
could turn. He made no answer, but
marched straight out of the tap-room
and into Betty's kitchen.
She stood near the door in her holt
day dress, with her white cotton
gloves on. Tho magpies were chatter
ing overhead, and afar the church
bells were ringing.
"You arc going to church with me,
John?" she asked softly, and with n
smile.
"That depends" said John Leaf.
Then no walked straight up to her
and looked full into her honest eyes.
"You don't look like cheat" he
said; "but who knows woman Take
off your gloves, Betty"
She obeyed.
"Where's your ring?" he asked.
Betty burst into tears.
cts lost, John" she said. "I can
find it nowhere"
"You haven't looked on Monseer's
hhSCi, ehCH, otiei oouu. LOU pOOr
fool, to give it to him and think I
shouldn't know it !"
ooh, I'll swear never did," sobbod
Betty. 'I wish your ring to any one
else Why, John"
But he pushed her from him with
his rough hand, and would hear no
word from her; and the next day ho
left the inn and enlisted once more,
and was sent away again to India.
And Betty left the inn also, and took
service with q farmers wife hard by =;
and whatever the magpies chartered
about, it wns no more of the love max
ing Tint they heard whom John and
Betty snt together beneath the old oak
tree
Five years won't by. At last John
received letter from England, telling
him that his father was dead, and had
left all Ills little possessions to his
only son.
John Leafs fighting days were over,
in any case, and he was on tho invalid
list for life. He had fought as des-
perate men do, had beon commended
and promoted, and had some medals
and ribbons to show and boast of MS
compensation for n wooden leg. So
he went home again, and settled down
as proprietor of the 'Magpie's Nest, "
and was sort of hero among his
nelghbors, but he was very lonely.
Men do not quite forgot in five years.
He could still see Betty's buxom form
fitting about the kitchen in imagina-
ton, and when the mngpies chartered
in their nests ho could fancy that he
sat with her still under tho OIL,
branches. Then he grew wroth with
the magpies, who seemed to mock him,
and ordered his little serving boy to
tear the nests down.
In vain the lad pleaded for the birds.
In vain he declared that, even if the
new nests went, the old ono in the
topmost branches should be left "for
luck"
eff the old magpies that built
that find it gone, they'll peck some
ones eyes out in the night time" said
the boy. ''Its been known to be done
often"
But John Leaf, the soldier, had cast
away his countrys superstitions.
"I'll have those magpies chattering
about my ears no MORE" no said
cup, and leave not n nest of them all.
Some of the noisy devils will take pos
session of that old rag if it is left
hanging"
So the boy obeyed. lie planted n
ladder against the tree, and then
swung out upon the branches. There
was grievous noise; and doubtless to
this day old magpies tell their children
of that massacre of the innoccnts Mt
the great oak tree. But there were no
birds to chatter and scream in that
great rag of q nest which the lads
hand clutched Mt last. He came down
with the relic in his hand, md stood
before his master with grin.
"Eh, master may have all found
in the old nest?" nc asked.
eff it's not magpie's egg" said
John Leaf
'1t's better than that" said the
lad. cts silver ring"
.'Let me see it," cried John Leaf,
and snatched it from his hand.
1t was the ring with which he had
plighted his troth to Betty under the
old oak, and he knew now that the
magpies had stolen it, and that the
Frenchman wore only one that re-
sembled it.
The first thing that John did was to
call himself hard names: ga jealous
fool" ga suspicious brutel" Heaven
knows what else. Then he melted,
and all by himself in the bit of woods
beyond the house, shed tears, and
vowed to find Betty if she still lived
on EARTH.
Where he went, of whom he in
quired, matters not; but one day
when the sun was setting in the west
he opened little cottage gate to
which he had teen directed. and saw,
at her knitting, under n vine-covered
porch, his Betty, not changed one
single bit. And she? She looked at
him, and did not know him, with his
thin sallow face and his wooden leg.