Year: 1878

enough to compete with any young lady
in the place, and might, 1 verify believe,
| If you were not so obstinate and head
strong, be surrounded and admired as
you used to be, and you might, for my
sake, Jane, at least attend those little
entertainments"


Mamma put her handkerchief to her
eyes, and yielded; / groaned in flesh
and in spirit, but / yielded. After ]
had tidied up the work, and settled
mamma in the cool shady sitting-room,
upon her favorite lounge, with a nice
book in her hand, and palm-leaf close
by--for the day was growing hot-I
twisted up my hair before the glass,
with many sour mocking grimace at
the dark, thin, discontented face there
in, put on an ugly brown linen dress, q
calabash of hat, and went off to the
church.


My mother looked after me with such
misery in her face that called back to
her that / would wear something nice in
the evening.


"Win you wear your rose-colored
Grape ?" pleaded mamma.


"Will 1 wear spangles, and jump
through a hoop ?" I said. "No, mamma;
I'll wear my black silk"


"And curl your hair ?" she coaxed.


"There's whole switch already
curled for me up in my bureau drawer"
1 replied. "It's nice this hot weather
to have very little hair of ones own p


"Don't scream so /" said poor mother,
looking toward the Hunters side win
dows.


AS if the Hunters didn't know all
about my failing charms, and no doubt
took an inventory of them half yearly to
send abroad to the eldest son, who had
been away in China these five years and
more, and would likely never come back
again. At least he had written to me to
that effect when he went away. had
the old letter yet in a secret recess of
that same old bureau where lay the con-
venient switch of hair.


Time was when needed no curls
shorn from naaidens across the seas or
manufactured from home material. 1
had plenty of my own. Jack Hunter
cut one of them off with his penknife
that night when we parted.


"I don't know" said he, savagely,
whether most hate you or love you
but I'll keep this to remember the girl
who hirted and fooled away the truest
Affection a man ever had for woman"


He hacked the curl from my head
with his penknife, and looked at me as
If he was half tempted to do me further
butchery; and God knows 1 didn't care
then if he had drawn the knife across
nv throat; should not have resisted
him.


Don't go, Jack |" I cried out at last,
holding the edge of his coat. Don't
GO, anyway, so far as China; if you do,
[ shall commence to dig hole when
you get there. They say that China is
right under us, and Til begin with
little pick and shovel as soon MS we get
news of your arrival. Then you can
begin on your side, and we'll meet each
other halfway"


He flung me from him with something
like an oath. "You would joke and
laugh over my grave" he said, and
went away, not to come back again.


Who would have believed it possiblep
That the years would come and go, the
sweet summers bloom and fade, the |
heart of the roses lose strength and fail
and fall away, to come again as sweet,
as strong, as fresh rs ever, and Jack,
my Jack, never come back to me? Yet |
he was not dead-nor wed. That was
one good thing. And he was out there
among those women with narrow eyes
and stinted feet, and he didn't rs yet
know a word of the language. He was
growing fat, he-wrote home to his peo-
pie next door, and bald, which didn't
matter on the top of his head so long as
he could keep enough to cultivate a pig
tail. This was necessary, as he meant
to set up for Chinese mandarin, and
was already embroidering a gown for
the purpose on spare nights. And II
felt, when they read me the letter, that
it was Jacks turn now to make merry,
when other hearts were sick and sad.


IL he had only sent me one little line
He showered gifts upon other people
chests of tea and parcels of silk, lovely
bits of decorated china, big soft beauti-
full shawls of Grape. He sent gewgaws
and gold to so many others; if he had
only given me one little word


They must have told him had been
sorely punished; that my mischievous
gayety he had whitfield out like the fame
of candle; that even the beauty of
which he had been so proud and fond
was gone-every bit of itgone. Sleepless
nights and useless repinings, long, weari-
some days, endless years filed with wild
yearning for that which seemed forever
hopeless, had robbed me of all. The
old bloom of the heart took with it the
crimson cheek, the laughing eye, and
the light, elastic step. Even my hair
fell out. Alas poor me, the flesh fell
from my bones. AS limited before, it
was not a very alluring object that
greeted me in the glass on the morning
of my twenty-seventh birthday.
"Aroint thee, witch /" cried, and
wiped away with the hand-towel some
salt tears that fell upon the dimity bu-
reau cover, and upon the grave of sad,
sweet memories. Then put on my
ugly brown dress, and the hideous bon
| NET TO match and went off to the chnrch