Year: 1876

Sally's was always the biggest apple
~fE.m the finest tree in the orchard; the
most luscious grapes from the grapery
found their way TO Sally's desk; and in
the intervals Of his possessing a pen
knife young Master Randall left no
blunt pencil in SallS's sachel.


When it became necessary that he
should I've sent to a place OF instruction
bcfitting his station in life, and the fiat
had gone forth that the dear old days at
the village school should become part
AMI parcel of the past; when he must
bid goodbye to his romps in the new
mown hay, his races with the young
colts in the ten-acre field, his berrying
and pic-nicing, his cOasting down the
glorious old hill; when he must part
with his dog Lancer, and his gun, and
his pony-above all, with Sally-it was
a heart rending time. Whatever grown
up folks may think of these childish
griefs, they are as tough to bear as the
heavier ones that come later, and they
leave great ugly scars that are some
times only half healed over.


When Will Randall cut Sally's name
and his own deep into the bark of the
old walnut tree at the foot of the lane,
it seemed to him that the knife went
into his heart with every turn of the
letters in her precious name. Tears
rolled out of his eyes in spite of his
manly endeavor to choke them down; as
for Sally she had given way long ago,
and with her sun-bonnet tight down
over her face, was watering the gray old
moss at the foot of the tree with floods
of childish woe.


At last it was done; there were the
initials linked together deep in the rug
ged bark; the crimson light from the
western sky shone full upon each and
all. Will put his knife back in his
pocket with a click of determination,
gulped back his tears at once and for
the last time, and, taking Sally from the
ground, he smoothed back her yellow
locks, coaxing her into quiet with the
solemn promise of his loyalty hence
forth and forever to the love between
them. He declared that the names
linked there upon the tree should never
be separated while life remained to him,
and with VOWS of fealty coined from
the books he had devoured among the
lumber in the garret, and simple plants
of love brought up from the depths of
his little, swelling heart, Will bade lit
tie Sally goodbye.


But alas for the inexorable DEGREES of
fate and fashionI Seven long years had
passed and gone since that last trysting
time, and although the two names we're
still linked together upon the old wal
nut tree, the little lovers had drifted far
apart.


Young Master Randall went from one
place of instruction to another till he
reached the sNmmWn bonuna of verita-
BILE. college. Taking advantage of the
absence of their son and heir, the big
folks at the hall went abroad; the house
was closed, and although many an ap-
pie and bunch of grapes from the old
place reached Sally, with the rest of the
villagers, she never cared to taste these
luxuries from stranger hands. Will
spent his holidays away, and Sally would
not even have heard the sound of his
name had it not been for the soiourn of
Angelica Crane at a boarding school
near the college. Perhaps Sally would
rather not have heard his name than
thus from the lips of Angelica, whose
bump of reverence was small, and who
held the young Squire pretty much as
she held everybOdy-important in the
ratio that they contributed to her own
pleasure.


The acres of Farmer Crane were
broad and wide, and outnumbered by
many a score those that belonged to the
Randall family; it was whispered that
even the goodliest property of the old
Squire was heavily mortgaged to the
shrewd and forehanded countryman,
and that match between Miss Angelica
and the young Squire would not be
bad thing for the latter. On the other
hand, these plain folks at the Crane
homestead had spared no pains to show
their willingness to further whatever
plans were made for the joining of
these two, goodlv estates.


Angelica herself had confded to Sal
ly that she had more strings to her bow
than one, but that she knew which she
preferred, and had often tortured
the poor little maiden, when during
Anglica's holidays they had spent a
night or two together, by reading her,
among other love letters, some produc-
tions from the eloquent and ardent pen
Of VIII Randall, poor little Sally's per
fidious lover. Long after Angelica's
curl papers had ceased to rattle upon
the p, Vow, the soft, silken rings Of Sal
ly's "a ow hair were wet with tears of
envy and girlish despair.


But as years went by, and old time
softened the bitterness of those holiday
stabs by dealing others of more vivid
and startling character, when cares and
grief close at hand crowded about her
and hemmed her in, she became resign
ed to this one among the rest, and even
talked with Angelica of her loves and
lovers with a GOODNESS that astonished