HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr , Editor and Publisher ELK COUNTYTHE REPUBLICAN PARTY. TWO DoLLAIlS TER ARHUM. VOL. I. RIDGWAY, PA., THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 1871. NO. 23. MY WIFE AMD 11111,1). BV 11ENKY 1. JACKSON. Tho tattoo beats, tho lights are gone, The camp around In slumber lies, Tlio night in solemn pace moves on, Tho shadows thicken o'er tho skies ; But sleep my weary eyes hath flown, Aud sad, uneasy thoughts arise. 1 think of thee, my dearest one, Whose love my early Hie hath blessed Of thee and lilin, our baby (on, Who slumbers on thy gentle breast. God of the tendrr, frail and lone, Oh, guard the tender sleeper's restl And hover geutly, hover near To her, whoso watchful eye is wet To mother, wife the doubly dear, In whose young heart have freshly met Two streams of love so deep and clear And cheer her drooping spirits yet. Now, while she kneels before Thy throne, O teach her, Ruler of the skies, That while, at Thy behest alone, Earth's mightiest powers fall aud rise, No tear is wept to Thee unknown, No hair is lost, no sparrow dies ; That Thou canst stay the ruthless hands Of dark disease, and soothe Its pain ; That only by Thy stern commands The battle's lost, the soldier's slain ; That from the distant sea or land Thou bring'st tho wanderer home again. And when upon her plllbw lone Her tear-wet cheek is sadly pressed, May happier visions beam upon The brightening current of her breast: No frowning look or angry tone Disturb tho Sabbath of her rest. Whatever late those forms may show, Loved with a passion almost wild By day, by night, In joy or woe By fears oppressed, or hopes beguiled, From every danger, every foe, O God, protect my wife and child! HAMILTON BROTHERS. i. We did not think it worth while to light the gas, as we were going out again. So we sat and talked in the fire light, Frank and I, just as we had sat aud talked a hundred times before in the busy, backward years which we two brothers had spent together. But this evening, for the first time, we talked without dropping into that utterly rest ful silence, which only those can enjoy who understand each other well ; per haps, indeed, only those who love each other (dearly. It had been a busy day, but for me its work had been light, in anticipation of the pleasure the evening was to bring. It was Lettice Oldfield's birthday, and we were to keep it to night at the Dome House. ' I had been walking all day, yet when the penciled cross was put against the last name on my list of town patients, I entered our quiet sitting room, feeling nothiDg of fatigue or hunger; feeling only that, after an hour's rest, the chief joy which the world held for me would be mine I should be with Lettice. But while I sat opposite Frank, and watched the firelight playing on his face, slowly thore crept into my heart something that was as far deeper than fatigue or hunger as our thoughts were deeper than the idle words we spoke a feeling which I vaguely knew must be pity but whether for myself or Frank I could not tell. Suddenly looking up, Frank met my eyes fixed upon his moody face, and run ning his fingers lazily through his curly hair, he laughed ; but his laugh b" not its old warm, careless ring. " How well Bent seems to be getting on out in Melbourne, Max," he said. " His letter to you is filled with his own prosperity." " It seems to me merely written to ask if we could send him out an assistant," I answered, speaking lightly ; for I did not want to-night to hear Frank com plaining of our lot. He had lately got into the way of seeming discontented with the struggle of his life, and I had failed in every argument with him. Half our time and attention was taken up by our dispensary duties, which brought us in just eighty pounds a year ; and only very slowly and gradually could we make our own practice in Red bury. So, knowing Frank loved the old twn dearly, and bai chosen his own profession, 1 felt there was nothing for us to do but to struggle on ; and he was weary of hearing me tell him that. " Of course you do not know any as sistant to send out to Bent," Frank said, turning his eyes to the fire again, and speaking with slow petulance. " The poorest young surgeons of your ac quaintance are Hamilton Brothers, and, thank Heaven, we have not yet fallen quite bo low as to exile ourselves volun tarily as drug mixers to Bent. I would not change quarters with him for any consideration, but I fear I envy his suc cess. You must own, Max, that it is hard fighting here." "So it is everywhere, in any profes sion, just at first," I answered, quietly. "There is but one thing we can do. However small our income, we can live down to it, and work hard to increase it. That, I take it, is the secret of success, Frank. Now, do not let us think about these things to-night. Why should we take gloomy faces to the Dome House, to greet Lettice on her birthday?" " You never will think beriously about our poverty," Frank replied without of fering to move; his head bent ia the caressing firelight, his gaze deep in among the ruddy coals. " But I think of it seriously aye, and hopelessly, too day and night How am I to marry on such a pittance as we possess now ?" Very slowly the burning crimson rose to my faoe, though no eyes could see it. " We can talk of that," I said, as gen . tly as I could, " when you want to mar ry." " You speak as if we were boys," he answered impatiently. "I am more than five-and-twenty now, and Lettice . is eighteen to-day. Isn't she ?" " Yes. Eighteen to-day." ' The words were uttered clearly in the silence, but my own voice sounded unfa miliar to me. I tried to read his .face, but my eyes ached so sadly in their ea gerness that I raised my hand and cov ered them. ' Yon sop, Max, if I had a good proc tice," Frank went on, still without look ing up, ' I could propose to Lettice at once j ond we might be married in a year, say, at latest. But as matters stand tho thing is impossible. Now, isn't it hard to know this, longing as I do to win Lettice for my wife ?" " To win Lettice for your wife ? That is your hopo, Frank ?" " Yes. How oddly you Bpuak I I sup pose you feel at last that it is hard to wait and struggle ?" "I could wait very patiently, and struggle very hard with such a hope as that." " But I cannot," he answered, peevish ly. " I love her so sincerely and so ea gerly that waiting is a fearful trial." The firelight flickered and faded a lit tle. Frank lay back in his low chair, his head still bent, his eyes still tracing out his thoughts among the coals. With a heavy pain at my heart I watched his fair face, and tried to grasp the great, intangible sorrow which surrounded me. " Frank, do you feel that the waiting is a trial, too, for her ?" " I know what you mean," he answer ed, slightly pausing. " Yes, Max, I think so." " Do you know it ?" I questioned, in a low voice, whose sadness touched my own heart. And he answered, with no pause at all : " Yes, Max, I know it." Again it was I who broke the long si lence, and again my own voice almost startled me. " We havo so little time to-night that we will not begin, to talk of this. An other day we can look at your chances of marrying." "So precious little they are," he mut tered, rising as I did, " that looking at them won't take us long." Frank was standing in the gaslight at the door when I joined him. At the sound of my step, he turned his bright, handsome face, and laughed. " You have been longer dressing, Max, than I ever knew you ; yet by Jove I how white and odd you look." "I haven't been quite all this time dressing," I answered lightly. " I have been doing a little book-keeping, and reading over Bent's letter again, and making up my mind." " The last an elaborate process, evi dently," he laughed, as we walked through the quiet streets together. " To what fashion have you made it up to night!"' " I have made up my mind to go out to Bent." "To WHAT?" Frank was standing still upon the pavement, his one detaining hand upon iny arm. His eyes tilled with a great incredulous astonishment. " What are you saying, Max?" "Simply what I mean, old fellow. Come along, and walk off your surprise. I want a change, and a change holding out some prospect of success. Why should I not seize this opportunity ?" "But you take me so fearfully by surprise," stammered Frank. " Why, you are a far cleverer surgeon than Bent ; you to go and be his servant. You must be mad." " Then all the more need of change for me," I said, laughing slightly. "But how is it? You have always been so fond of this towu. Your friends are all here." " I will try to make others there." " I say again the proposal seems mad ness, Max. What on earth has made you form this strauge, sudden resolu tion ?" " Many thoughts," I auswered, a little wearily. " I feel it is the best thing for me." "But I believed you never faint hearted," Frank persisted. " Where is your favorite axiom that 'Each unto himself his life can fortuuize ?' " "More than ever in my heart to night, dear fellow. I fancy the fortuni zing will be easier to me than it can be here. Now, let us forget business for a few hours. Here we are at the Dome House." We stood under the bare old lime-tree, which in summer shaded the doorway, and my hand was on the bell, when Frank stayed it, and spoke a few words in unusual earnestness. " Tell me one thing, Max, before we go in. You do not decide to leave here for my sake because I have so often complained that our practice is not sufficient for two ; and because you know I want to marry, and cannot do so as we are ? You would not leave your home, and your friends and me, and go out to drudgery for that reason, Max ? I shall not be comforta ble unless you tell me that you do it for your own sake," Knowing that my going would spare me one great pain which, in my cowar dice, I shrank from, I answered him with a quick " Yes," pulling the handle of the bell sharply as I spoke, that he might not have time to reply. But before we entered, he laid his hand softly on my shoulder, and whispered, " I always trust implicitly to your better judgment,Max, and I always will." And from that mo ment I felt that the way lay straight and smooth before my brother, aud that even he himself could see no shadow on it. How distinctly, through a long, dark vista of lonely years, do I see the dainty white-clad figure of the dear, bright lit tle friend who was' my hostess on that last night ! How distinctly could I af terwards recall every word and smile of hers, though never before had it been pain to me to watch her and listen to her, as it was upon that birthday night. We drank her health in true old-fashioned style, and, after Frank's impetuous loving speech, my words were cold and slow. And yet and yet the unacknowl edged and unanswered love that filled my heart was stronger and deeper far than his. I felt it was bo, even then, while she thanked us both so shyly.with the soft, bright blush upon her cheek. I knew and felt it even more surely still through the long years when the bright young face was only a memory. Frank and I soon followed Lettice from the dining room, leaving Mr. Old field there alone, as we always did, with the tacit understanding that he could enjoy his forty winks just as comfortably as if he had no guests. Before tho fire, in the pretty gas-lit drawing room, knelt Lettice, watching laughingly, and yet I thought a little wistfully, a row of nuts placed oil the lower bar of the grate. Her little sister, a pretty, spoilt child of eleven or twelve, was holding her there, and laughing gloefully as the nuts cracked or blazed. " That's me I" Bhe cried, after a small explosion, looking mischievously up at Frank, who had hastened forward, and was kneeling now upon the rug beside the girls. " You love me better than you love Lettice, Frank : and I and Let tice love you just about the same." " Amy, I anxiously inquired, bending my head over hers, that 1 might not see the eager, impassioned contradiction of Frank's eyes as they met Lettioe's, " which of these martyrs at the stake rep resents me ?" " This one, Max," the child replied.de lightedly. " You burn so coldly and so slow. You don't care about either of us. Does he, Lettice?" " No," answered Lettice, quietly, look ing up in her sister's face, but not be yond. " Then if that other martyr represents Lettice," said Frank, bending eagerly to watch the nuts, " how does she burn, Amy?" "O, very oddly, indeed," answered Amy, with important deliberation. "She cares just the same for every one of us. It's a most tiresome thing when a nut does that. There's no fun in it, is there, Max ?" " This ceremony is a mystery to me," I laughed, as I kissed her lips ; " but I know why Lettice's nut burns in that unsatisfactory manner. Of course, as she does not believe in its prophecy, it does not prophesy truly for her." ' But they do prophesy truly," replied Amy, "if you burn them quite properly, as I was taught in Scotland, two to gether. Shall we do it now, Lettice ? I'll burn you with Max or Frank, which ever you choose. You chose Frank be fore ; you may choose him this time too, and I'll bo with Max." I could not help a swift, intent glance into her face, and while I did so,her eyes, pure and clear, met mine without drop ping. Then she answered Frank's joy ful, entreating question, with her pretty low laugh. " I think I have been martyred suffi ciently, considering that it is my birth day, and I ought to be treated well. Amy, ring for tea. Max," she said to me, as she rose, " do you know you are reading too hard ? 1 see it in your face, to-night." She was standing close be side me, and as she raised her bright young face to me, so earnest in its kind ness, yet understanding me so little, my heart beat with a groat keen pain at every throb. " So I tell him," put in Frank, " but he is determined to do it. He has made up his mind to be a great man, and I feel it only kind to remind him constant ly that his ambition is fated never to be realized. Luck in this is as necessary as skill, and we Hamiltons never had a stroke of luck in our lives." " In that case, why do you trouble yourself to aim so high ?" asked Lettice, waitiog with quaint gravity for my an swer. " 1 don't know," I answered, my words coming with an effort. " Who aims at the sky shoots higher far than he that means a tree." "Yes, I know," she said, once more raising her warm, happy eyes to my cold stern tace. " And wins his aim ' always, shooting as Herbert meant." " How was that ?" asked Frank. " Pitching his behavior low, his pro jects higfi,' " quoted Lettice, softly. " Don't you think, Max, that the first is far harder to do than the second ?" " I certainly don't see how hard read ing is to help him in either," put in Frank, before I had time to answer. " Nor do I," she replied, with a bright sudden laugh, as she turned to him again, " and 1 appreciate your motive in trying the opposite course. You do not read hard, do you, Frank ?" "No. Very easily when I read at all. But then I do not want to be a great man. I merely want to win a hap py, easeful home, and my wife." I do not know how he could have said it : his eager eyes forcing their tale of love upon her as she stood there beside him in tho pitiless glare. I spoke hur riedly, in a light, cool tone, which told nothing of the strange pain I felt in every word. " The fact is, Lettice, Frank can't un derstand my last new whim which is to go out to Melbourne to join an old friend of ours." And this was how I told her ; on her birthday night. I, who hadworked.and hoped, and waited, for the fulfillment of that one bright dream which now lay shattered into fragments in the pretty, cheerful room. " Amy, run aud fetch papa to tea, dear."- " What do you think, Lettice, of this new project of Max's?" asked Frank, laughingly, as she moved by the tea-table. " Is it high enough ?" "I think," said Lettice, taking her seat, and softly moving the cups upon the tray without looking up at either of us, " that it is not high at all. But if Max thinks it is, I suppose he does well to carry it out." . J ust then Amy, who had earned a pair of gloves from her father in the dining room, led him in with a face full of pride and conquest. " Max," he said, looking curiously at me as he settled himself comfortably with his back to the fire ; "what's this the little one tells me ? You are surely not thinking, in any seriousness, of go ing abroad 1 " " I have decided to do so, sir, indeed, as soon as Frank and I can arrange mat ters here." "I cannot believe it. Why, if my own daughter had suddenly told me she was going I could not have been more aston ished. What can have decided you?" " I have learnt by experience, I said, trying to force a laugh, " that liedbury is unfortunately too healthy a place to support so many doctors." " Besides which," added Mr. Oldfield, laughing too, " you have also learned by experience, that its inhabitants are those terribly wie people Dryden speaks of, who depend on exercise for cure, and take long walks instead of doses. Well, this is of course, as we all know, a dar kened age, Max ; but I doubt whether you will find it much better in Austra lia. I know that I would not care to break up my old home and my old friend ships on the chance. What do you say, Lettice?" " I supposo, Max," she said, looking up at me with a little gentle smilo upon her lips, " that this is the way you have chosen for fortunizing your own life according to your old idoa that each does it for himself." " Ye?, Lettice, this is the way I have chosen," I answered, taking my tea with a hand that never Shook, though its pulse beat wildly. Frank and I walked home that night very silently. I think we had never be fore passed along the narrow, quaint old streets after an evening spent with Letttce, without talking of her, and of the home she made so bright and happy. But when we entered our own silent room wo hesitated, as if unwilling to separate so. " Max," began Frank at last, stooping down to push a coal into the smoulder ing fire, " this house seems dreary enough to return to even with you. What will it seem, I wonder, when you are gone ?" "It depends on who shall live here then, dear fellow," I answered. "No house where you and Lettice live could be dreary in any way." I could see the scarlet rush into his face even before he lighted the gas. Then he turned to me with joyous eyes ; and leaning on the chimney piece asked me laughingly when I would come back and prove that for myself. "I will come," I said, quite cheerfully, " in let me see in twenty years, per haps." " Oh, nonsense, Max," he cried, in his quick earnestness, unconsciously laying one hand upon my arm ; " you will come for my wedding." " For your wedding ?" I echoed, as if the words spoken so simply had bewild ered me. " Frank, does she really love you?" " Why, Max, old fellow, ) never saw you so nervous before. Are you afraid that I am deceiving myself or that she is deceiving me ?" " No never afraid of that. You know she loves you, Frank ?" " Yes, Max, I know it." " Then I will come unless you marry within ten years' time." Frank's whistle of astonishment broke into a hearty laugh. "A nice little waiting time you allow us, Max. We shall certainly have had leisure to think it well over." " If you don't marry until thon," I went on, laughing too,-" I will come. If you do, you must have your big brother represented j and I will come to you for a holiday in ten years' time." " Ten years I" mused Frank ; what a weary time to look on to, unless one is anticipating a happy future." " As you are, dear fellow," I inter rupted, nastily. " Now let us go to bed. This has been a long day, and to-morrow brings its own work. Good night." " Remember, Max," said Frank, in his generous, off-hand way, as he took my hand, " I do not take your half of any thing without repaying you its full value, though I may have to work off the debt by degrees, and not one farth ing of savings do I touch." " All right," I said, laughing a little, though my eyes were growing dim. " I will take sufficient for all my expenses ; but you can never be my debtor. We both start fairly. I am going out to fortunize my own life; and you are staying at home to fortunize yours. We will both do our best, and then how ever little it may be it will be well done. Good night, once more." Day after day, until the very last hour came, had I Bhruuk from bidding farewell to Lettice. Then I just went to her as I had gone many and many a time before, standing and chatting idly in the pretty room where we had often been so gay together. " If Frank is to drive here for you in time to catch the express, you allow us a very short time indeed," said Mr. Oldfield. " And yet it is a long good-bye," ad ded Lettice, jestingly; "you are not coming home for a long, long time; are you, Max ?" Frank and I have made an impor tant arrangement about that," I an swered, trying to jest too, because I fancied tho would understand what be had asked me to do. " I am going to stay ten years unless he wants me." " If he does not want you, you prefer staying out there ?" " Yes. What prospect is there of any one else wanting me?" " I suppose none," she answered, quiet ly, " as you say so ; but we shall all be glad to see you when you return. Not that you will care for that either, for you care for nothing, you know, except fortunizing your life." Her words, in their quiet, simple scorn, stabbed me to the heart. "This is a wide world, Lettice," I said, " and a world which even yet I have not fathomed." " But you expect to do so in Mel bourne?" " I hope so." With an odd little laugh she changed the subject ; and very soon Frank drove up to the gate. Mr. Oldfield and Amy went out and stood beside the dog cart, talking to him, while I followed more slowly. Lettice came with me, and stood a minute under the bare old lime tree, with the winter sunshine on her bright young face. And I looking down upon her knew that this picture would aweu in my neart tnrougn all my lonely life. Her jesting scorn was all gone now : only her eyes were a little puzzled, and a little sad. You will be auite hannv. Mit " said, " with that happiness which makes others happy too." "Tell me how, Lettice," I tried, the strong and passionate love of my heart trembling in my voice " Tell me how to win thin happiness." " I cannot," she answered softly. " I cannot teach you what you know so well. " Lettice," I said, my one deareBt friend, this is tho last moment. Give me some few words of help to take with me as a sister would have given them to me." Very softly, while her clear sweet eyes looked bravely into mine, she whispered the little verse which has been ever with me since, and has helped me often, as her voice could help me in those far-off days : " There is a cross in every lot, And an earnost need ot prayer ; But a lowly heart that leans on God, la happy everywhere." From the gate Hooked back wistfully to where she still stood under the win ter branches, and she smiled one bright, quick smile, and ran in. Then I sat down beside Frank, and Amy sprang up, and gave me, with tear filled eyes, the only kiss among all my sad good-byes. Later on, in the frosty winter morn ing, we two brothers, who had been to gether all our lives, parted on the deok of the great waiting vessel, with only a few broken words, and one long, close, lingering hand-grasp. II. " The ten years are passing, and you must keep your promise, Max, and come." I read the words over and over again. It was not ten yet, but over seven years since I had set my foot in Melbourne, and in every letter Frank had sent me through those long years, I had expected him to tell me what he had told me at last. Yet now that he had told me the words Beeined to swim before my eyes, and my fingers would not write the glad and congratulatory words I wished to send him. " Now that my reward is come," he wrote, 'I claim your promise. We only delay our marriage for your arrival. Max, old fellow, you would have felt happy for me indeed, if you had seen how willingly Mr. Oldfield gave my darling to me. I had been a son to him for years, he said; I could hardly be nearer when I was his daughter's hus band. And now my cup of happiness will bo full when you come. How soon can you be home ?" I broke off once more going back and back; hardly brave enough even yet to look beyond that going home. " Why should 1 go ?" I thought ; leaning my head upon my hands above the un touched paper. " They are happy with out me. They have all they need; a full content at last ; and I if I go go only to return again alone, bearing the old hunger in my heart. Why should I suffer that pain again now when it has slept so long ? Must I see her again, and open the old aching wound ? I hoped that the struggle was passing when we stood together in the frosty sunshine, and she whispered her parting words. Yet I promised, and I will go." So upon a bright spring morning, Frank and I met once more in England ; and tired with a tiredness which I had never felt before in all my life, I rested that evening in my own old chair be side tho cheery home fire; striving to look joyfully iuto my brother's beaming face. It hardly looked older for the seven years we had spent apart, but it was changed wonderfully by the happi ness which seemed to overflow his life. How could it have been otherwise? I thought. What might my own lutless face have been if ! " You are very tired, Max," said Frank, in his quick, glad tones. " A little ; but I was not thinking of that. I was thinking how utterly con tent you look, Frank." "So I ought to, ought I not? because I am so utterly content. Do I look changed in any other way ?" " No, none." " You do, Max," he continued, a little thoughtfully. " You look I can hardly tell how as if you had been living much longer than I have, and yet I don't mean that you look much older. You are just as you always were, I think ; and yet you look as if you had lived a great deal in those seven years if you can understand. But indeed you must have been working to some pur pose to have won yourself a name as you have done. What will Bent do now, without you ? for you are never going back, Max, never. I suppose he has earned a fortune by new, as he said he would ; if he has not, he ought to have done with such a partner ; and he must keep up his practice alone. Mine has increased so greatly that it can only now be carried on by Hamilton Brothers. Max, old fellow, does not the old name sound more winning to you than that of the new firm out in exile t iiut 1 will not urge this to-night," he added, almost as if he could read what pain the thought gave me. " Bo I look utterly content, do I ? yet I have had trouble, too. You ought to say you see the traces, Max." " What trouble has it been '" I asked. " A trouble of five years ago, Max," he answered, quietly ; " a trouble I never felt that I could tell you in a letter. When I first asked Lettice to be my wife she refused me, Max. " I feared so, Frank," I said, so low that he stooped forward to catch the words. " I feared so from your silence at that time. But never mind, dear fel low, as it has ended so brightly." " No, I don't mind now one atom. It has ended so brightly, as you say. You are too tired to go out this evening of course, Max r but as 1 promised to run in, and tell them all of your arrival as soon as I had brought you safely to Red- bury, 1 will just go across for a minute or two, it you don t mind. " I will come with you," I said, and rose at once. It would be less bard now than it could ever be again. It seemed like a dream to be walking once more at Frank's side, along the shadowy streets ; and still more like a dream to be entering unannounced the pretty familiar room, where Lettice sat alone at the window, sewing in the twi light " Lettice," cried Frank in gay eager ness. " here's Max." I was standing opposite her, looking down upon her with still, calm eyes; the frave elder brother of her affianced hus and. She dropped her work, and put hor two hands into mine in quick, glad greeting ; and I spoke to her just as I knew Frank would wish me to speak to her ; watching all the while his face as well as hers. She was changed more than he was. The face that had been almost childlike in its sunny beauty was a woman's face now ; deeper and graver, but infinitely more beautiful, I thought, as I saw its old bright sunny smile still there. She looked up at Frank, a won derful light shining in her eyes. " How you nave all you wish, .Drank, she said. And I felt that she was as happy in his love as he was in hers. I stood beside them, talking in laughing, genial tones; hoping that she could never guess how hardly I had schooled myself to this. Presently Frank passed out through the open window, and Lcttioe, looking after him, raised her eyes questioningly to me. " You think us all changed, I suppose, Max, even Frank ?" " Yes, I answered, absently. "But you have not seen Amy yot," Bhe went on, smiling. " She of course is most changed of all. Frank is gone to fetch her, 1 fancy, lie says she is like what I was at her age, but that is only his pleasant flattery, for she is very, very pretty. 1 followed her words dreamily, wonder ing whether it could really be seven year since Lettice and I had stood talk ing to each other last ; while I felt how impossible it was that the little one whom we had all combined to pet and spoil could be all what Lettice was in those old sweet days. " t rank seemed to know exactly where she would be," Lettice went on, a little nervously I fancied in my silence. " x ou remember the low old seat under the lilacs, Max ? Amy is as fond of sit ting there as as 1 used to be when I was her ace. You used to say too that you loved to rest thore on a summer eve ning ; but you have been away so long, doing so much, that those old memories will be all buried now ?" " Yes. They are all buried," I ans wered, feeling the scarlet mount into my face to contradict the coolness of my words. She smiled, a little wistful smile, which had a strange, brave tenderness in it. " 1 too have lived seven years since then," she said : " but the old memories are dear to me, Max ; and I would not bury them for all the world." " .because it is so dinerent with you and me," I faltered. "I I think I have no courage left How long Frank stays." " 1 see them in the lower garden now. Bhe answered, gently, looking away from me as I struggled with my pain. " iiow quickly Amy would have run in to greet me in the old times," I said, speaking once more as I had schooled myself to do ; only that a little bitter ness would creep into the tone. " Yes, laughed Lettioe, softly, "but she will not come this evening without Frank. She has been quite timid about your return. She asked me to-day if you would think Drank bad chosen un wisely because she is bo much younger than lie is ; so ignorant and untried, Bhe said." In the bewildered, breathless silence which followed Lettice's words, she looked up at me; deep shadows gather ing in her eyes as if she too felt the agony of the doubt and hope which stirred me. " Do you think Frank has chosen wisely, Max, in taking my little sister ?" she asked, speaking plainly the truth, which she knew now that 1 had never heard. " Lettice Lettice, is it so ?" I stam mered, my fingers tight upon the chair below me, and my beart beating wildly. " Yes, Max," she answered, " it is so." And I knew that she could read the whole story in my quivering face. And you, Jiettice f "I," she answered, in a bright, low tone " I have waited." Then I covered my face hurriedly : for boyish tears had overflowed my eyes in me untold joy or tms surprise. "Max," she whispered, her gentle touch upon my arm, " I thought that you knew this, and had come for their sakes. " No ; not for their sakes, Lettice ; for . rank's and yours. J' Why for my sake ?" she asked, tears shining in her own eyes as she looked brightly into mine. Then, low and brokenly, I told her of my love ; the long, hopeless love which would not die. And at last she answered, with her little gentle hands on mine. and a deep, true gladness shining behind the tears. "Max, dear Max, I am very glad I waited. "Max," said Frank that night after we got home, " may I have the old plate put back upon the door ?" We both laughed at the idea, for Frank was Dr. Hamilton now, and I had half-a-dozen letters after my name ; but we took a candle and went off at once to find it Frank sitting down and tak ing it upon his knee brushed the thick dust from it quite tenderly ; while, lean ing over his shoulder, I read the letters as he cleared them. " Hamilton Brothers 1 It does not do, Frank, and yet thank God for the truth it tells. We are brothers still ; we will be brothers to the end." Three persons, a woman and her two daugters, were poisoned recently at Lockport Ohio, by drinking buttermilk which had lain for some time in a pat ent composition pressed pan, whioh has been very generally adopted by the peo ple throughout that region. The pan is a composition of tin, lead and zinc, the improvement claimed for it being that it lias no joints, being pressed from a single sheet of this composition. The physician, in attendance declared that the patients were poisoned by the butter milk drank from one of these pans, the action of sour milk upon which oreates a deadly poison, although sweet milk may be placed in them with safety. The doctors seem to agree ia this decision. The persona poisoned have recovered, MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. In speaking of the canker worm the Worcester Spy says S " As printer's ink sticks and kills the wriggling politicians, so printer's ink sticks and destroys the wriggling and squirming crawlers upon our trees. A Virginian who put his faith in a fortune-teller, chopped up a valuable calf to find a ring supposed to have been swallowed by the animal. The family have since lived on veal at a cost of about $3.50 a pound. A Maine girl being bantered one day by some of her female friends in regard to her lover, who had the misfortune to have but one leg, replied : " Pooh, I wouldn t have a man witb two legs they're too common." A brakeman lately fell from a freight train at Schenoctady, but hung to the truck rigging with great presence of mind, and was dragged and bumped a quarter of a? mile over the ties before he was rescued. Bnt he saved his life. Among the death notices in a recent number of the Chicago Tribune appeared a statement that a lady (the name was given) whose remains were taken to Rochester, N. Y., for burial had waked from her trance-sleep, and would return to her home in Ozaukee, Wis., July 1. A Philadelphia physician writes to the Post to correct an impression that black berries are useful or harmless in cases where children are convalescing from diarrhoea or cholera infantum. He says that from close observation during sever al years, meantime enjoying a large practice, he is forced to believe that there is no other cause so fatal to life in these complaints as eating blackberries. A gentleman in Canada gives a history of a battle between two swarms of bees a few days ago. One swarm, he says, took forcible possession of their neigh bors' barracks, and as the attacked de fended their rights, a furious fight com menced, and the battle raged from 4:30 to 9 r. m. Next morning, as the sun ap peared, the battle was resumed, the marauders appearing not in good condi tion, but showing great pluck. The carnage continued without intermission till 10 A. M., when hundreds of dead bodies lay on the plain. At 11 the bat tle ended, when there was not one of the attacking party left to tell the tale. A Chinaman who was murdered in San Francisco recently, was given a grand funeral, some fifty carriages of Celestial svmnathizers narading in a long procession, headed by a discordant band ot Uhinese musicians. The mur dered man had been laid out in a new suit of clothes, with a quantity of feath ers around his head. In his hands were placed a dirk-knife and other weapons, with which he is expected to pitch into his murderers when they arrive in another world if he can find them. From the shoes the soles were removed, the uppers being left. This was done so that he might step softly and reverently into the presenoe of his Joss. An interesting application of electric ity, in connection with a tank for sup plying locomotives with water, is now ' i i T.-J- 11 1 " 1 1 in operation at xuaa otauon, on lire Chioago, Burlington and Quinoy Rail road. The steam pump which supplies the tank is on the bank of a small stream half a mile distant, and entirely out of sight. A float is arranged so that if the water is drawn off to a level more than two or three inches below the top of the tank a circuit is closed, connecting by wires with the pump house. This sets an alarm bell ringing within hearing of the engineer, who then starts his pump, and runs it till the tank is full, of which due notice is given by the cessation of the alarm. A young Prussian officer, who doubted the love of his affianced bride, requested, after the battle of Gravelotte, one of his friends at home to inform the young lady that he (the officer) was among the killed, and to report to him how she would receive the news. The friend complied with the officer's request but the letter which was to convey the re- Eort of the young lady's demeanor rought to the officer the terrible news of her death, the young girl having committed suicide the night after his friend's sad communication. The young officer was so impressed with the catas trophe and felt bo much aggrieved at the death of his fair young betrothed, that he went mad. He is now in a Ber lin lunatic asylum, and his case is pro nounced hopeless. Experiments are being made in India on a new form of single rail tramway. The vehicles used, in addition to the or dinary description of wheels, have a pair of flanged wheels, one behind the other, running on the single rail, which is laid at the' centre of the track. The flanged wheels are adjusted by a screw bo as to take all the weight off the or dinary wheels without lifting them much above the roadway. An experi mental line has been laid, in part at an incline of one in forty, and along this a pair of bullocks draw a load of three tons. The advantages claimed for this system are : First a very great diminu tion of power expended in hauling, as compared with traction on common roads ; second, that the cost of construc tion is only one-half that of an ordinary tramway with two lines of rails. Charleston as a commercial city it gradually rising to its old place among exporters. It has always been the great rice market of the country. In 1869-70 its crops amounted to 41,172 tierces, and this year it shows an inorease of 6,000 tierces over last year. The last crop gathered before the war was 161,515 tierces. Previous to the rebellion tho fin est quality of Carolina rice was exported to Havre for manufacture into rice stones, a beautiful imitation of Parian marble, used for statuettes, and other ornaments. Copenhagen, Bremen, and Amsterdam, and other ports of Continental Europe, imported largely of our American rice. Now our home demand would absorb fully 100,000 tierces. Endeavors are being made to introduce Chinese labor into the rice swamps, but the best judges say that only negro labor can be em ployed there profitably.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers