The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-11-27

pie leaves We're flying and the migrat-
ing birds gathering in the rowen mead
| oWs, He said:
Il cannot regulate the clock now, but
l will be around again another year."
lie went to Monmouth with the army.
He was gone three years.
When he came back, the sylphlike
Annie was gone-where none knew.
She had been gone two years.
Why had she gone? It"was the old
tale. A common sailor from the prov
inces came to work one summer on the
farm. He received his pay in the fall
and disappeared, and the day after he
went Annie went too. 1t was very mys-
ferrous. She was her mothers girl"
She had spent her evenings with the
sailor after the moving days by the
grindstone under the great maple trees.
He had sung to her English sailor
songs and told her stories of the Span
ish main and of his cottage at ST.
Johns. He was a homely man, but
merry hearted, and Annie had listened
to him as to one enchanted. She car
ried him cold drinks fright from the
well' in the field. She watched by the
bars for him to come in from the mead
ows and fields. She grew thin, had
crying spells" thought she was going
into a decline" She was not like her
self. The love stronger than that for a
mother had found Annie amid the clio
yer fields when the west winds were
blowing. The common sailor had be-
come to her more than life. She felt
that she could live better without 9th
ers than without him.
She had said to her mother one day:
"Malone"-the sailors name-'has
good heart. / find my own in it. 1 wish
we could give him a better chance in
life"
He is an adventurer, thrown upon
the world like hulk of driftWood,
hitler and thither," said her mother.
Il pity him. His heart deserves better
friends than he has found. 1 want to
be his friend. Why may I not?'
IF you were ever to marry a common
sailor. Annie, 1 would strew salt on
your grave. l married a common man,
but he has been good to me. I have no
respect whatever for those who marry
beneath them and shame their own
names"
The girl turned away and went out to
the timothy meadows, where the work
people We're, and sat down amid the
MOSES under the wayside trees. 1t was
fiery day. The bobolinks were top
ping for joy in the part of the field yet
unknown. The scythes rang merrily as
swish by swish the long green waves of
grass fell.
Her father came to the shade of the
trees and sat down,
Annie" he said, you have been cry
| ing"
Father, have something to say to
you. Do you object to my being partial
to Malone? He is an honest man"
mo, Annie. But your mother-she
would take your head off. l am willing
| to see young people choose their own
and make their own way in the world.
| Such are the happiest. Malone likes
you, Annie. can see that. He is of an
| honest family. His father was a sea
captain. But if your mother were to
find it out, heaven pity you both"
Il could never live without you, ia
Their. My heart would ever return to
you. I love you as my life, but love
Malone. We would be true to you. 1
shall always he Annie"
oh, Annie, has it gone that far? I
am sorry for you. But will always be
true to you, Annie; always, whatever
may come, because you are Annie"
Malone came into the shadow of the
trees, a noble looking sailor, full of
lusty life. His coming frightened a
robin from her nest, and he moved
away from the home bough of the
quivering mother bird. 1t was a little
thing but it touched Annie's heart, and
she rose and went toward the meadow
bars. The bayfield,, the orchards, the
house of her childhood, had lost their
old charm for her.
The time of decision came. He went
away. and one day the question was
asked:
What has become of Annie?"
There was a sudden alarm, then ter
ror of suspense in the simple home.
The work people said that she had not
been herself of late: that her mind had
seemed to wander; that she would sit
and watch the martins under the caves
in strange way, with faroff look in
her eyes.
And she had vanished at last like
swifts in the chimney and the martins
under the caves.
They searched for her. They found
that she had gone with the sailor. She
had been seen on ship at Castle Will
liam with him.
Her father said, 'I knew it would be
Sc" and added, My old heart has lost
interest in the ninety and nine"
When Mis- Overfield read the whole
history, her heart turned into stone,
and she said:
Even though it be Annie, heart of
my heart. life Of my life, as she once
was, l will never forgive her-never!"
"Pshaw. woman!" said Farmer Over
field. Il would. l would like to have
her back now. A father forgives a girl
whatever she may do and the mother a