Waterbury Democrat., 1902-12-20

puSIlCu l1lG AdAu0 OdNhs CNCll d b that, time went on.
 The faithful old lamp purned it's steadfastest, but at last the cruse was dry, and the flame, after few spasms, collapsed, and a tower of funeral smoke rose from the chi1,,-
 Ana still John had not said his say. They drew the curtain, and sat in the dim candlelight of the stars. Silence engulfed them as a night, and though they were in mutual embrace, their souls seemed to be groping for each other in a cave of gloom. The thought of parting, and the daily risk there was in each moment of absence added fear to the awe of the loneli- ness that was awaiting them.
 Tn the depths of this sadness, John felt able to speak. He felt that notn- ing he could say could make either feel more sorrowful. As he caressed L--cy's hair, he said,. with kisses as commas, semi-colons, and periods, in plentiful punctuation:
 Lucy Darr, want you to promise not to misunderstood me intention ally in what I'm going to tell you. I want you to promise not to think even for moment that it springs from anything but the greatness of my love for you. You know that the highest ambition of my soul is to make you my wife. If I win you; and can keep you close with me to the end of my days, I shall have been successful, even if I never get be- yond living in a log cabin. And if I and sound and all complete, I'm go- ing to make you marry me, whether you've changed your mind by that time or not. But there are certain things called bullets and shells flying round battlefields like birds of prey, and they occasionally hit people, and they usually leave 8 man lacking in some particular. Now, don't carry any charm, because I don't know any that will work. So it is not bit unlikely that I shall come home with an arm, or a leg, or a couple of eyes, or three or four ears missing. I've already shown that can be hit by a good marlsman. There's dimple in my cheek that will always say: This way went the bullet,' and there's large spot on my side that looks as if it were puckered up with a draw-string, that says: "A piece of home looking like an example in suh- traction or long division, you'd want to marry me just the same, and take care of the remnants, if you had to keep them in a work-basket.( But l don't propose to tie you up. to any such unconditional surrender. So, whenI go away, Lucy, 1 leave you as free as found you; not so heart- free, hope, but absolutely free from any obligation or betrothal.
 It was Q long speech, and Lucy took it all in silence. There was the first temptation to complain. that in offering her her freedom he protest ed too much, and really sought his own. Lucy let it pass. At the end of Johns peroration, she sat in deep musing silence for a few minutes.
 It was an eloquent silence, and thought and devotion and studious unselfishness( throbbed through it like pulse. After long while, she put her lips to her lover's, and mur- mured: ..:. '..7: *--~.
 ''I understand you perfectly, dear John, and it shall be as you wish. Affianced or free, it can make no diff ference in my love for you, my prayers for your safety, and for your great splendid success and my long ing, longing, longing to have you back home again. .*-| :
 Still they sat together under the starry shower. And when midnight boomed from the old clock-an un. speakably late hour in the country old Mrs. Darr appeared in the hall above with lamp, and called as gently as she could-for she hears the sobbing of the girl, and the deep, consoling voice of the man.
 ''Lucy, my child, it's terrible late; better come upstairs"
 It was to Lucy as a proclamation, a rude intrusion on sacrament. But John, knowing that lovers last good. bys are none the easier for repeti- tion, hushed the protest Lucy was about to give voice to, and called out:
 s'I'm leaving in just a minute, Mrs. Darr. I'll bid you goodnight and good-by."
 The old woman wished him luck in his warfaring, and departed. taking with her the inquisitive lamp-light, and giving them back to the stars that .have watched so many partings, and have learned to be merely stoic loolSers-on, without comment or cmo- .tion. If the stars had not learned indifference, they would long ago have wept themselves away.
 At last John managed to say the last farewell. and to cease the kiss ing of the tear-embittered sweets of Lucy's cheek He found his horse in the stable, mounted him, and paused at the edge of the piazza to give an- other farewell kiss, and to repeat the alternate farewell. He begged Lucy to hurry in out of the frosty air, but as long as he could see the Darr homestead, in the shadows he could see, or thought he could see, the fiut- tering handkerchief of the girl he lief behind.
 Too Many Women Smokers.