Year: 1875

\ y
could make her assurance good. The dis
charge had been long impending. The
times We're hard, the mark ct overstocked
the mills losing money. Personal solici
tatlons, had the poor girl the influence tt
urge them, would be unavailing II Ag
gle remained, another must 90 in hel
place, She would accept the alternative
She knew what it meant. 1t would be
cold and hunger, and, it sickness came
possible destitution But, with reckless
ness foreign certainly to her New Eng
land blood, she took the chances that she
might serve her friend. She was alone in
the world, while Aggie had family to
whom half her wages went but it was
not much feeling OF duty as the blind
tatallsm of affection that led to this sacri-
fee.


oh Saturday the announcement OF the
reduction was made, and Mary carried
out her plan. Then came weary days,
weary to heart and to mind For Joe's
light fancy for the strange impulsive girl
gave signs Of fading What was in the
mans case an effect of the lax morals of
u factory village was in hers true affair
of an unframed heart With him it was
i
day conference brought no satisfaction,
and Sleep found her poor pillow always
Wet but, like the Mary Wilson of colo
NAL days, she clung to the man who had
done her heart the greatest wrong.


Night now tell carrier 1t was dark
when she took her place to intercept Joe
on his way to the mill; so dark that her
tall figure was not distinguishable from
the gateway against which she leaned
waiting. For days She had not met her
lover, and the thought had forced itself
more strongly upon her that she was
stunned


AS She stood stralning her eyes into the
blaclness that hid everything, footsteps
approached The new corners were two,
and they stopped as if for farewell so near
to Mary that she held her breath to avoid
discovery.


"Gool-by !" spoke Joc's voice from out
the deep shadow that concealed all sur
place Tomorrow


Mary clung to the railway, listening for
the answer 1t came, i'll tones only too
familiar:


'.Good-by, Joe! Don't forget anything
You have promised me. You're forget
tul fellow and don't believe you care
half rs much for me as You pretend y
Here there was a sound as of physical pro-
test on Joe's part, with suppressed laugh
ter from the girl.


ape 20 along That's enough for to-
night"


Mary sunk to the ground with a moan,
as her lover walked through the gate and
Aggie tripped of toward the town. She
lay there, daZed By the sudden revelation,
until the cold wind that blew away the
clouds from the face of the stars had chill
ed her poorly clad form. Her heart was
irozen, too, and she arose hating and
ycarning for revenge against the lover
who cast her off, aud the friend who had
robbed her Of her lover even while accept
ing her sacrifice OF comfort She would
no more OF it,


The Indian spirit that had sumbered
ion generations now asserted its immortal
ity and claimed full possession Her an
ccstrial brave planned The massacre OF the
Ashton cOlonlstS with no more bitter cru
city than this metamorphosed factory Girl
plotted with herself against the two per
sons tor whom an hour before she would
have given up life Itself. She arose from
the frozen ground, transformed as if by
the evil influence latent in the blood OF
her race. ii it had waited long and quiet
ly for this opportunity, it now boldly as
serted its dominion. 1t might have been
an inplacable Indian that strobe off under
Mary Wilson's faded shawl to her lodg-
ngs. Her thoughts were too wild for a
civilized brain OF lor the days Of looms
and railways.


She pondered through the long night
at the same place" he had said That
place was the other side of the deep and
slow moving canal which supplied power
for the mill They came straight up the
path. They must have crossed the foot
bridge together-thus her thoughts ran
should they ever cross it again 1t was
clear ana simple To move one end OF
the plank 50 that the vibration of body
crossing should disl0dge it from the bank
to watch the faithlcss lover and the false
friend step upon it, and to see them reel
and plunge together into the chill black
ness below


Suddenly as the purpose had formed it
self in her mind, the details came with
terrible slowness. 1t was as if the blow
that had awakened her worse nature had
stunned instead of qnickening her intelli-
gence The idea Of vengeance had pre-
scntcd itself naturally and promptly as
she arose from the ground, on which she
had sunk with 10 lceling but that of woe
and scii-pity in her heart and in place of
the rapid suggestions that had before
cour5cd through her brain, and the ming
led tears and moans that had expressed
her pain, there was now one dull and stol
id impulse prevailing over ali else, anC
working itself out BY Slow, laborious, anC
cruel methods.


The change was hardly that which take;
place when an insane mania sezes the
mind Mary Wilson was not mad, a
science knows madness. In her short sea
son of unconscousness new and strange
soul and a fearful will seemed to have en-
tered the vacant brain and heart, leaving
| the former occupants to wander through
| iniiLity with no power over or claim upol
the bodily tenement that had been stolel
| from them. Even more despotic than the
| possession of scriptural narrative, the de-
mon that had entered into the poor cir
left no sense of a present Deity to be wor
! shipped or to be sought in prayer Al
was dark and blank but the one dreadful
purpose to which She was moved with the
persstency of IN implacable savage i'm
pulse.


What was the impulse that drove he
away from her lodgings, away from th'
rafting mill, and away from the village
streets crowded thrice q day with a hasti
y passing throng? Could she have told
Could she have accounted for those wan
derlngs through the frozen woods; thos'
| hours spent crouchlng under the bank o
the rayine, where the rush Of the Black
River oyer its powders drowned all tn,
sounds of civilization, and the signing
spruces shut out every sight? She knew
only that she hated the faces OF her fellow
beings, their voices, and their society


They We're nothing to her until she ha(
done what she must do. and then wha
would they be? Thought reached no far
thcr if she might be said to think.


The same power that had impeiled hel
as IN dream all day brought her, drag
gled, famishing and burning with a hea
that had no wholesome warmth for he
l ,.A.I 4 IL,