Year: 1871

"And you will not forget me, lit
tie Nellie?"


"Forget you, Fred? AS if | could
ever know happy hour without
youw and the brown eyes, usually
so full of merriment, now shone
through glittering tears.


"But you, Fred, away off in that
great city, with so much that is
new to please you, will find some
one else TOTO love, while l shall be
forgotten and alone"


And the sentence so bravely COM
menced, ended in n great choking
sob; then covering her face with her
hands, the maiden on whose brow
but fourteen summers had left their
blooming freshness, yielded to the
first great grief her young heart had
ever known, and all for the sake of
her childhood's friend and playmate,
who had come to bid her a long
good-by.


''Neliie, dear Nellie, how can you
speak so? You will break my heart,
indeed you will, if you are going to
make our parting still harder by
your distrust of me-"


The boy-lover gently drew her
head upon his shoulder, with its
dark curls ripping in shining waves
against his breast, and, withdraw
ing one little dimpled hand from
the lovely tear-stained face, Caress-
ed it tenderly with his own.


"Do YOU not know, Nellie, that it
is the hope of being one day able to
ask for this little hand, end of OBJ
tanning a home worthy of the jewel
that may grace it, that alone can re-
concile me to our separation. And
| know, for l am older than you,
Nellie, that it is | who viii have
most cause for doubt"


"Listen, Nellie; you are lovely as
a fairy now, and you will be very
beautiful. You are the only child
of n proud, ambitious father, and
the beautiful heiress of Squire Field
ing's fine estate, and will not want
for suitors, and those, too, more ELI
gible than the son of poor widow,
if not more fattering to a maiden's
pride. Forgive me, Nellie; you may
not always regard the friend of ear
ly youth as you do now"


"You think me a child, Fred, and
that time will teach me to forget;
but | feel to-day that have a wo-
mans heart, and l know that to you
this heart can never change. | will
wait for you, dear Fred, and never,
no, never, love another, though l
am sure your riches could not make
us happier"


They sat together still, those two
child-lovers, beneath the chestnut
4
branches they had played many a
long summer day, and where now
they exchanged their pledges of
eternal constancy; and not until the
lengthening shadows fell around
them did Nellie watch for the last
time his receding footsteps as they
pressed the beaten path down TO the
village cot that was to be his home
no longer; while his lips, yet dewy
with the tears she had " ept for him,
mtirmured again those precious
words that were to be his sOlace in
the coming years: II will wait for
YOU, Fred, darling; Twill wait"


Nellie Fielding was bereft of a
mothers love ere scarce those in
fant lips could lisp her name; and
Fred Truman's mother had loved
and petted the little orphan, who
crept into her heart with her pret-
ty winning ways, until she became
scarcely second to her own boy in
her affections. 1t was Fred who
trundled her over the lawn in her
baby carriage, and culled for her
the first spring blossoms; and his
the hand that led her to and from
ln n n -
little charge as she was grateful for
his protection.


His mother watched with fond
delight the growing intimacy be-
tween those two as each passing
year developed the innate sweetness
of the little girl; and those who
knew her noble boy might well have
pardoned the mothers partiality in
the wish that their lives might ever
flow together as smoothly and natu-
rally as now. But mother and son
would equally have scorned to offer
her an inferior position. and togeth-
er they had matured their plans for
the future; in furtherance of which
they must bid adieu TO the home
they had learned to love, and where
the wanderer now left his treasure
to watch and wait.


Mrs. Truman had known better
days; but her father having died in
solvent, she married a poor artist
who had long loved her; and now
her fatherless boy was left to carve
his fortune by his own eXertiOn.
If Squire Fielding had ever given
the subject thought. he evidently
saw in this intimacy nothing more
than child's preference on the part
J of Nellie, and deemed it only natur-