Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1894-07-05

saw. Dec nun on SUNDAY going tc
chapel, clean and smart, as straight
as a pole, with blue eyes looking SC
frank and smiling you'd say he
looked q picture.
He had struck up mighty affec.
tion for me before he had been q
month in the gang. You would
have thought twas a wonder he had
managed to live so long without me.
He told me all about his friends and
such like most confidential, and
found out be had to keep his moth
er and hadn't a sixpence he could
call his own.
All he told me | told Hetty, and
she would listen, with a lovely color
in her cheeks, and go On talking
about him after l had stopped, till
all of sudden it came upon me
that him and her knew as much OF
each other as | did and more, too,
and liked what they knew to a de-
gree that was considerable.
was trifle put out about it,
for / knew he was poor, and it
would be bad lookout if they was
to come together; still, as I've said,
I'm heavy and slow in most things,
and l thought I'd better hold my
tongue awhile longer.
| Well, one day remember it as
clear as yesterday--it was between
the lights on September evening,
very quiet and still, the stars just
showing out like sparkles of dia-
mond light we get in the seams at
times. / was smoking my pipe in
our back room-father was out of
the house--when | heard voices in
the other room across the passage.
1t was Matty and my sister talking
together.
Matty was the dwarf. lie had a
long Welsh name, but we called
him "Matty' in the general way
because of his rough hair, and he
didn't seem to mind the joke.
| knew his voice well enough. 1t
wasn't exactly unpleasant, though
deep, with sometimes q sort of crack
in it, but anything like it sounded
just then I never heard before.
1t made me sit up and put my
pipe down pretty sudden.
4 love you,' he says to Hetty.
'I've loved you ever since I've seen
you; won't you marry me? I'd be
a good husband to you.'
She went into light kind of
scornful laugh.
Marry you?' she says. 'Why,
Matty, you must be dreaming! OF
course / won't
And then l guessed she gave her
head toss with a way she had.
got up and went a step nearer
the door, for l didn't know how he
might take it, them dwarfs being
uncertain creatures.
lie was silent minute. Then
he says
Pm stunted and crooked, know,
but l love you better than any other
man will ever love You, and I've a
comfortable home to offer you.'
IF you had twenty homes l
wouldn't have you,' she answers
quick. SO do say no more about
it,
have often thought she was q
trifle sharp and unkind in her
speech, but | fancy the girl was
more than half frightened, for he
must have looked a rare object in
that dim light, and, after all, pretty
girls don't stop to pick and choose
their words SO gently as they might,
perhaps.
/ think he moved round the room
after that, for his voice sounded
near to me. He spoke short and
savage like
'Jim Marwood's the man that
stands between you and me. DO
you think I've been blind? Do you
think / can't see that! Jim Mar
wood has got your heart; and do you
think you will ever marry him while
I'm alive
l got a shiver down the back and
felt round for my stick, for his
tone was awful, and I didn't know
what he might do next.
Hetty never was the girl to be
cowed, and she flashed round on
him the next moment like gun
powder.
st is Jim Marwood that has got
my heart, and have his, and I'm
not ashamed to say it before you or
any man. l know you've got your