Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1898-02-10


And so Meg's love story began, and as
the time Aew away it was apparent to
everybody that she was growing abso-
Iutely pretty-happiness having much
power in this direction-and that the time
was approaching when the honest young
brakeman and herself would cease to be
lovers and become husband and wife.
Indeed, they had talked it all over, and
Meg had told Tom that she had saved
500 from her meager salary, and Tom
had confessed that before he had known
her he had spent all his earnings, but
since that time he had begun to put by
n little. and now had $500, and that he
meant to work hard and get promotion,
so that they could some time have a
home Of their own" etc, just as humble,
happy lovers always have done and al
ways will do, and then they decided that
they would put the 500 and the $500 to-
gether, and, as that was the LIST of Feb
ruary, they would get married Feb. II
valentine wedding" as Tom said, and
then, when she said ''she never had had
a valentine" he laughed out of heart
just bubbling over with sweetness, and
love, and merriment, and told her she
would be her valentine and she would be
his" and then he kissed her, and Meg
was in such state of delight that she
forgot she ever had been lonely, and she
wouldn't have charged places with a
queen, even if the latter had insisted up
on it. ~
Meg had n pretty new dress made and,
somewhat softened by the love affair
which had gone forward directly under
- a. L. IL 4
preparations for wedding supper which
was to outdo any previous effort of the
kind in the sneighborhood. Indeed she
had resolved that for once she would be
cxtravagant, and she got out several an
cient receipts, which were headed Brides
Cake" and set to work beating eggs and
weighing sugnr IN n way which made the
kitchen sculIon TO declare, in a confden-
tial manneE to the garbage man, that
"Missus 'peared to be little teched in
her upper story" and gave as her reason
for her conclusion that 'She was a-mak.
in cake to Beat sixty"
A few days before the time set for the
wedding the weather, which had been in
that condition known as ''muggy," turned
cold, and when Tom came around to bid
Meg good-by before going out on his run
for the last time before he claimed her
as his bride, he had powder OF snow on
his collar and that strange, indescribable
smell of cold on his clothing which made
Meg snuggle up to him and say she 'was
sorry he had to go out in the cold,' and
then, as she kissed him in that motherly
way that comes natural to women when
they love, sheasked him to ''be very care
| full and watch his footing as he ran across
Al. n. al. a
be slippery because of the snow" and, al
last. she let him GO.
ST. Valentines morn dawned clear and
| bright, although snow lay like bleacheC
linen whereykf a heavy team or an earl,
| pedestrian had not marred its purity, ant
| Meg arose light of heart and light of foo
to make the final preparations for hei
union with the man she loved. She hat
told the foreman on the previous evening
that she would not return to the factory
and that hireling of men, who considere,
humanity of her kind as merely adjunct
to money getting, had deigned to say II
an interlocutory fashion,: Going to gi
married, hey?" Meg did not answer, bu
she felt such delight at leaving the hug
building, where she had been merely a
| n piece of the machinery, that it SCENE,
| to her she had never known freedom an,
vaguely wondered IL 1t really were she
Meg-who walked on air and was so hap
by that now and then she caught ut he
heart lest II should beat aloud.
No. POT, which was Toms train. woul
be in at 800 o'clock, and at 9, In tn
presence of only one or two Of the board
ers and the landlady, the ceremony was I
be performed Meg watched the clocl
but when the hands pointed to 4:30 sh
concluded that the train was an hour lat
and she would don the pretty gown so a
to be all ready when Tom came. She smi
ed ut her image in the glass as for tn
twentieth time she shook out the rustlin
skirt and then ran hastily down to agai
look Mt the clock. 1t was 8 o'clock nov
and still Tom had not come, and all O
once something like II cold hand. graspe
Meg's heart and she tremblcd rs one wit