Year: 1866

him


JackP


Here be- said Jack, stopping the horses,
and looking in the direction from whence the
voice came. Hoy 2 he calculated, in tone of
astonishment and qualification, as his eye fell up
on the little figure Of the girl who had been taken
to help in the dairy.


What be you doing here, Nelly ?


Waiting to see you, jack


That's kind at any rate, and It's not many
would do it but I'm ne'er do we'll and no
one need trouble about me- said be, somewhat
bitterly.


That's just what came to tell you, return
ed the little maiden.


Then you don't ere about me I? said he,
with little vexation in his tone.


Care why should ], for a lazy fellow like
your should think not


But you might, Nelly


Might, indeed l mightn't do anything Of
the sort. Atany rate DON'T


Then what do you come here for 2


To tell you you ought to be ashamed of your
SELF


There's plenty to do that, returned the lad


Yes but you don't heed them, and you
might heed me jack Won't you begin TO work
a bit r.


/ don't know what to begin at


Your mothers a nice bit of garden, Jack


we nothing to put in it, answered jack de-
spondingy.


Nonsense said Nelly what faint heart
you have. I'll give lot Of beans to begin with.
You put up the horses, and I'll back In minute


So Jack put up the horses and waited for
Nelly. Presently she came tripping along, with
her apron full of something.


Here, said she, hold your hat She poured
the beans into it and he went home.


Next day Jack took a spade and worked
away diligently for two hours.


What's come to thee, lad p said the widow,
as he came in, all flushed and hungry to his
dinner. .W


Nelly Giles is good lass, quoth Jack and
if ever get rich Z II marry her..


Thee get rich 7 said the Widow Bligh, and
she held up her hands deprecatingly'


Strange things happen sometimes, returned
Jack and he resumed his digging with renew
ed energy. All that afternoon he dug away az
though his life depended on it.


The next day he planted bis beans. He had
evidently turned over new leaf, and the widow
and her neighbors thought the lad was bewitch-
ed, as perhaps he might have been. At any rate
he had set to work in earnest, and be soon found
plenty to do, the farmers being nothing 10th 10
give employment to one who, despiR his idleness
was a general favorite.


" Nelly alone held aloof Jack was getting
beyond her patronage he had suddenly become
more manly, and seemed as if he had grown half
head taller all at once; and Nelly turned shy,
and it was all he could do to get stray word
from her now and then.


1T was clear that she would have nothing to
say to him, which Jack thought rather hard af-
ter all the trouble he had taken to please her
and the more he pondered over it the less he
could understand it. Nelly used to be so friend
w. Perhaps if were rich man she might
give thought to me-, said Jack and so he de-
termined to go elsewhere, to seek his fortune and
return and make Nelly his WIFE


When he went to say Good bye to her, he
did it in rather blundering way


Maybe shall find you married when come
home again, Nelly, said the poor lad, looking
wistfully at her.


Maybe you YilE,' retorted Nelly, if find
any one like whilst you are away.


And so they are parted, and both repented
their speeches when it was too late to recall them.


Well what is to be is to be, soliloquized Jack
endeavoring to find consolation therein but
NelIy's the only woman that shall ever be my
wife,


- When Jack was gone, Nelly went very often
to see the Widow Bligh, and was great comfort
to her and their conversation always turned up
on Jack.


A year passed away, and no tidings came Of
him. Then another, and the two women did
not talk so much now, but they sat quietly at
their work when Nelly could spare time from the
dairy, and it was consolation to them to be to-
gether.


At the beginning of the next year Nelly was
summoned to her home in a distant county
Her mother was dying, and as she did not come
back the Widow Bligh was left to bear her trou-
BILE alone and through the spring and into the
summer she watched and watched ; and every
morning as she opened her shutters and let in the
daylight, she wondered whether that day would
bring her son home, and every evening as the
daylight faded away she said, He may come to-
morrow


And at length the tomorrow came, and
handsome sailor walked up the village street INTO
his mothers cottage; and soon as the news spread
abroad that Jack Bligh had come home with bags
of golden guineas.


tBut that was not of course, true. The first
person that Jack asked after was Nelly Giles
but he could hear nothing of her.


Never mind her, jack said the widow who
was quite content, now that she had her son,
and indeed did not care much for a rival, Shes
NOT worth thinking Of


But Jack was not of his mothers opinion,
and he was scarcely sorry to go away again, Tor
the old place seemed very dreary without Nelly,


This time he was able to write to his moth
er occasionally, for he had brushed up his writing,
and it was proud day for the widow when the
schooImaster came in TO read her sons letters


a A second time Jack Bligh came home; and
this time hired carriage laden with boxes ana
packages, stopped at the widows door, for Jack


But nothing had been heard of Nelly, and
Jack could not bear the sight of the fine things
he had brought, for he had intended the most OF
them for her.


It's all through these beans, thought poor
Jack, that came to go away


Yet would he have been any nearer hadhe stay
ed at home in idleness ?


Fifteen years had passed away, and Jack had
prospered SO we'll that he decided upon giving
up his sea-life and settling in his native village
So he took the jolly old farm and filled it with
his foreign curiosities, and the Widow Bligh pre-
sided over it in great state.


And did Jack marry 2 asked.


Don't interrupt me, said my friend For
a long time he did not, although his mother
pointed out more than one girl in the neighbor-
hood, who would make him good wife--at last
he did,


Oh = said with a Kind of sigh.


Wait continued my friend


sOne morning pale thin women entered the
village and when she was opposite the ola Dlack
|. timbered house, she asked OF wagner VINO was
passing, whether the Widow biigh was sun NV
| ing


Ay' replied the man, she be-
And has Jack come home 2
lack. indeed = said the man. Squire
Bligh's come home, and he lives ~ that house
there


q The poor woman looked up at the substan-
tial dwelling of the lad to whom she had given
the hat full of beans and her heart died within
her.


He'll not care for the like of me-, said she to
herself, as she turned to go away again.


But the shock had been too great for her toll
and travel worn frame, and she had not taken
many steps before she sank down on the ground


sThe wagoner ran to her assistance. He rails
ed her head, pushed back her bonnet, and shout
ed to the astonished Squire who happened to be
| returning from his mornings STROLL


Measter, measter if here beant Nelly Giles 7
This was on a Saturday, and how 1t all came
TO be arranged SO soon, or whether the Squire