Bloomington Progress, Volume 19, Number 42, Bloomington, Monroe County, 16 December 1885 — Page 7

Two Christmas Visitors;

HER HAND FOR HER MOTHER'S LIFE.

V

A. STORY OF TO-DAY.

BY. GRACE MOBTIMEB.

.J"

THE FIRST. All night long a taint curl of smoke had ascended straight into the frosty air from the chimney of a humble cabin which nestled in a cleft of a lofty mountain ; all night long a dim ray had beamed through its small unshuttered window, while the bitter frost breathed its exquisite filagree-work on .the glass, and set the shingle-nails snapping like lilliputian artillery; while the lonely mountain towered in its cold glittering shroud toward the sparkling, twinkling stars of midwinter, and the profound silence of a great solitude surrounded it. As the first silver arrow of dawn hot over the mountain's crest, the cabin door opened softly, and a wan, sweet face floated out of the inner darkness, and turned toward the coming light She was a young girl, and she might have been a very lovely one under happier circumstances, bat now, with her unbound tresses streaming down her severely plain gray dress, her burning hollow eyes, and the look of fixed melancholy upon her worn young countenance, she might fitly have represent- ' ed the spirit of those snowy heights ,a sad etherial snow-maiden. Bound and round the immeasurable landscape she swept a hopeless glance. Each peak of the encircling mountainrange was tipped with a rosy flame; the central vale lay" beneath, deep and dark as a dead sea: in all these mighty solitudes no human habitation was visible. "And this is Christmas Day!" murmured Eva Carrol, "the flay that was to have brought me my life's happiness. Oh, my lost love, you will not cornel Honor will not link itself with dishonor. Oh, father, father, it is a bitter heritage you have left to me!" Scalding tears and the burning blush of shame were her greeting to the day that was to have been so blessed. Last Christmas night Robert Bydal bad kissed beautiful Eva Carrol under the mistletoe hung in her father's drawing-room, while throngs of brilliant friends surrounded them, and her stately mother, moved as a queen among her guests. Robert was a navy officer, on the eve of departure on his first cruise; and that boldly-stolen kiss, and the fiery whisper which accompanied it were destined to h junt the capricious beauty through days to come, blacker and bitterer than the wildest imagination could have conceived. Robert Bydal bad not been gone a month when Mr. Carrol fled, having embezzled public moneys hundreds of thousands deep fled without one word to wife or daughter, leaving them to bear the brunt of all that followed. Down came retribution upon these innocents. Thennoble mansion was seized with all that it contained by furious creditors; summer friend turned coldly from the stricken ones; society cast them out, and they soon vanished from their place and were heard of no more. Who eared to know where the popular leader of fashion and her beautiful daughter had crept, to hide their broken hearts? In the hour of their extremity an eccentric, too humble to be known of society, enacted the good Samaritan. Old Jock Hepwortb, for many years the family milkman, happening across tine desolate ladies as they were leaving their home in the gray of the morning, made bold to offer them a shelter as long as they wanted it, and himself conveyed the dazed creatures to a cabin far up a lonely mountain, explaining that it would be a great convenience to him to have some one take care of the place, as he sent his cow-herd there during the summer months to attend his cattle which pastured on the surrounding slopes. And there they remained; Mrs. Carrol immediately sank into a atate of invalidism, and Eva was bound to her side. When the season came they earned a few weekly dollars from Vareoe, the cow-herd, who boarded with them, and eked them out by the sale of tne few trinkets Mrs. Carrol had ventured to claim as her own. But the last trinket had long been sold, the last dollar of Varcoe's boardmoney expended, the depth of winter was upon them, and -Mrs. Carrol lay in a sick bed, languishing not in illness alone, but for lack of sufficient food. For many weeks these helpless ones

had suffered all the agonies of destitu

tion, apparently forgotten of men, with the one single and singular exception of Varcoe the cow-herd, who fre

quently climbed the steeps to spend an

hour in silence by Mrs. Carrol's fire,

gazing stealthily at the sweet, pale daughter who moved about before him

unconscious of hh presence. Not to him could they look for sym

pathy or aid, these ladies of a higher

pltne of thought and feeling; they Btill preserved toward him the bland, unapproachable reserve of superiors, no? dreamed of the secret of his visits. As Eva Carrol looked into the smiling dawn of that Christmas Day with an anguished memory of her lover, all hope was dead within her; she was weary of the fight. She had passed the night by Iter mother's bedside, watching each throe of pain in helpless misery suffering tortures in her own worn frame; she was weary of sorrow and pain; her soul cried out for an end. Brighter waxed the dawn; all the firmament blushed a divine rose; the snowy mountains gleamed like mountains of jewels ; a silvery mist rose from tbe valley and Hosted, with the trailing skirts of a legion of angels, beaven-waxd.

"Oh, God, how beautiful Thou hust made thy world 1" she complained. "How lavish of thy power thou art to senseless nature, and hast thou forgotten us? Help, help, Lord, or we perish I" As her low broken tones died away on the breathless silence of the heights, a sound came faint and far. It was tiniest like au echo of her moaning cry. In a few moments it came again, it was nearer a long quivering cry whioh thrilled up from the depths withinexpressible mournfulness. Again and again the same sound reached her; she went to the edge of the plateau upon which the cabin was built and gazed anxiously down tie ice-sheathed slopes whioh summer-tirae saw clothed with richest verdure; and at last she saw a large dog scrambling upwards. She encouraged him with her voice, and presently he reached tie ledge and dropped at her feet exhausted. As she caressed him his great intelligent eyes fastened upon her face with almost human anxiety, and he hivd no sooner regained his breath than he was on his feet, whimpering round her, fawning upon her, licking her hands, and by every doggish art striving to show her that he was in want of her help. The tears rose to her eyes, she turned from his pleading looks sadly. "Poor waif!" she murmured, "you ask ne for food. Alas! what have I to give' you? But come, you shall not ask altogether in vain as long as I have a crust to divide with you." She returned to the cabin, the dog following her with restless movements and cries; and taking from the tiny store-room- what was literally a crust, and her last one, she broke it in two and laid a portion before the dog. He seized it in his month, but, instead of devouring it, stood before her gazing earnestly into her face and wagging Lis tail coaxingly. "I have no more, poor fellow," sae said, weeping, "and unless Ood takes pity upon me as I have taken pity upon you, I shall never eat again." She threw herself on her knees and buried her face in her hands in agony ol spirit; the plaining and mourning of the waif tortured her for a few minutes, then he scratched open the door and vanished, and she forgot him ere

long.

' Then Mrs. Carrol's weak voice called plaintively for her darling, and she forced a sweet wan smile and went in to her, carrying a little delicacy carefully hoarded, and the last she had to tempt the languishing appetite; and then she soothed her to sleep in her arms. And only when the hapless lady lay before her, white as an alabaster statue,' and almost as breathless, smiling faintly as she dreamed of happier days, did she at last steal from her room and sink into a chair by tae kitchen fire, where, utterly worn out by her vigils and the faintness of famme, she too slumbered.

THE SECOND. She dreamed; a malign influence seemed to steal over her, dread and re- i pulsion chilled her very heart; aae awoke to find a swarthy visage and a pair of black glittering eyes bending ; over her in startling proximity. "Mr. Yarcoe!" cried the young lady, rising and faring him haughtily. "Did you knock?" He was a tall, powerful young man, dark as an Indian, with an Indian's raven locks straggling down to his collar, and an Indian's narrow jetty eyes, that glimmered furtively or flashed fire according to the secret changes of his mood. As he slouched before her, showing the edges of his teeth in a conciliating smile, his broad-brimmed hat on the back of bis head, and his rough Guernsey shirt open at the throat to display his brown hairy chest, a shudder of disgust ran through her. "Seen ye through the window, "n thought ye was dead," said he in a soft slurring voice, "I could hardly b'lit vo ye was breathin' at all. Guess things is gitfrin' wuss 'stead of better; whnt? See what I brought ye for a Christmas dinner!" He turned to a corner where he had set his gun, and picked up a pair of magnificent hares, which he swung before her triumphantly. "Shot 'em eomin' up," nodded he. "An' now 111 akin 'em for ye, 'n cook 'em too, if ye like." "No no thank you," exclaimed Eva. hastily, "we shall not purchase to-day." Yarcoe east a meaning glance at the bare shelves of the store-room, which Eva had inadvertently left open, and at the clock, which pointed to the dinner hour. "Wal, hares ain't exactly chicken an' champagne, but they're better than nawthin'," he drawled.

"My mother is ill, so we have no use for them to-day," faltered Eva, growing scarlet. "Oh, they'll keep for a week," persisted Yarcoe, smoothing the silken fur and peering at the girl with a lurk

ing laugh in his eye; "besides, I ain't

sellin' 'em, I'm givin' 'em for a Obr st-mas-box; how's that?"

Eva's heart swelled ; she thought of

her mother, yearning and pining for

such nourishment; yes, nature rose

strong in herself, in eager rebellion

against any refusal of blessed food; yet

she hesitated, her lip quivering and

I the water starting to her eyes, end

looked at the man piercingly; and by

the stealthy eagerness in his eye and

the fawning smile on his lip her maiden

intuitions warned her to beware.

"You are very obliging," she said

courteously, "but I cannot accept thorn.

And bow please say no more oo the

subject And if you will kindly excuss me now, I must go to mamma." She bowed adieu and turned to laava him, but with darkened countenance and gleaming eyes he placed himself in her way, having dashed his intended offering upon the floor. "No ye don't, Miss," he snarled, "I ain't to be fooled this time. You know well what I want. Eh? What?" Ha bent down, scowling and smiling at once, his swarthy face horribly near the lady. "Xe needn't to skeer lika that, Miss," he purred as she recoiled, "I'm onlu lookin' at my wife that is to be. Eh? What say?" Eva stifled an- impulse to scream hysterically, so dreadful did the man's words and proximity seem to her, but a thought of her mother gave her strength to restrain herself. Still it was with white lips and in breathless tones that she replied at lost "Yon must be raving. What have I to do with you?" A fierce o&th broke from Yarcot. He seized tho girl by the shoulder

game, a sick person gets so tired of of " "Of staroin' ma'am; that's so!" chimed in Yarcoe. He now stood in the doorway, a malicious grin on his face, holding up the hares for Mrs. Carrol to see; and in an instant her mortification was forgotten and she sat up among her thin coverings, clasping her hnnds and gazing at the game in a kind of fascination. Eva cowered away with a moan of anguish. "They are beautiful haves," cried Mrs. Carrol excitedly, "and you are very, very kind to bring thorn. You must stay to taste them with us, must he not, darling?" So she talked on, while Yarcoe let her gloat her famished eyes upon the bait ; at last he spoke. "Yes, I foteh 'em along for you, sure enough, but it turns out there's a reason why you ain't to hev 'em after all." . "A a reason ?" faltered Mrs. Carrol, changing countenance. Eva made him an imploring gesture, the tears stream-

prayed Eva from beside the deathlike form; and when he still lingered, gloating over her distress, she suddenly faced him, a wild spirit flashing from her tear-drowned eyes. "What art' yon mode of, that you can look on a night like this without pity?" shecried. "Oh, won't -you help Iter';" "Caint without you pass your word to marry mo," drawled Varcoe. "Xot even if she dies?" asked she. "Not though half the country d ed." She stood like one transfixed, gazing into the man's dark face, reading fhevo his cruel, reckless, luthless, violent nature, comparing it with tho brave, gentle, chivalrous nature of hor last Christmas lover, liobwt Kydal; then one despairing glauoj she bent on the inanimate form of her mother, and a heart-piercing ory burst from her. "For her ake, then, lest she die of want," gasped Eva Carrol, "I say yes, I will marry you. Oh, moroiful God! what have I done?" she shrieked in frantic horror, and Yarcoe was fain to back out of the room lest he should

ami m- misfortunes seemed to put you v ithin his retch. 1'org ve and forget, ' iv sweet child; Irs fault was invqlunt; i , and not persisted in." Acd she ate of flu foo.l ho iloavly 1 ought without oik1 m'sgiving, and revived like u Cover long parched, as it drinks the H-iminer r.iin. And f'.a bore herself bravely, and h e-cd and southed her info a slumber swee, and ) rofound; and Uion, catchi:v; a mo in nt when Yarcoe had f trolled n) ilio mount.! "n behind tho eah'ntiith bin sifter-dinner pipe n his mouth, on ameio:y llioii.h's intent, she sintched up her hat and plaid and escaped. As t-he paused a moment in the doorway the sight of sky and mountain rnu-e, all b.ithed 'n rose, brought back to her mind the word with which slw had greeted the dwn of this fatal .Christmas Day. " 'The day that was to have brought me my life's happiness' I said, not knowing," she thought, racing drenched eyes heavenward in incredulous amazement. "No fiend from the pit

HARK! THE CHRISTMAS CHIMES!

with an iron grasp, and glared at her with flaming eyes. "That's your game, is it, my little lady?" he ground out, "fust fling your spell over me, lead me a fool's dance week in and week out up here for to git a look at you, an' at last scorns to be my portion ! No ye don't, Miss Carrol, not by ! I've swore to hev ye for my wife, an' Yarcoe never swore, in vain." Indignation restored her spirit. She spoke coldly, but resolutely : "You will (rain nothing bv threats except scorn.

Bemove your hands!" she said. In

spite of himself, he obeyed her. "And now listen to me," she continued, "I cannot be yonr wife; it is impossible. I am sorry for your disappointment, and amazed that you could suppose that I ever wished to attract you. That is your mistake." "Now look here," replied Yarooe, doggedly, "I know pretty well all about yon. You're in a tight place, an' nothin' you kin do is goin' to git ye out on't. Hunger 'n cold that's your Christmas fare, an' coffins for two by an' by. Eh, what?" He waited foi an answer, till she gave it in low, heartwrung toaes: "Quite true; we are forsaken of all, except God." "An' me! Jest say the word, an' all your troubles is over." "And if I do net say that word?" "Then good-bye to ye, an' ye des&rve to sutler, tliat's all." As Yarcoe uttered these words -with savage energy, Mrs. . Carrol's weak voice called wailingly for her daughter; with a bitter smile she turned from her grim lover and entered the chamber. "Who is there?" asked Mrs. Carroll, raising herseii eagerly. "Is it a friend? Is it any one who might help nS in our extremity?" "It is only Mr. Hepworth's cowherd," replied Eva, disdainfully. "Yes, ma'am, it's me," bawled Varcoe from the other room'. "I made so bold as to fetch ye up a couple of hares for a Christmas-box." "Hares?" almost screamed the poor lady, her wasted face lighting up with piteous delight. "Oh, how very good of you, Mr. Varcoe!" Then with an instinctive desire to conceal the real cause of her pleasuro, she added, "I have been craving for

ing down her white cheeks, but he took no heed. "Yes," drawled he, "Miss, here, she's too darned stand-offish for to take 'em from the likes oi Hance Yarooe, that's the reason." Mrs. Carrol oast a look of amazed reproach upon her trembling daughter. "Is this a tune oh ! you could not be so mad, so cruel!" she exclaimed. Eva buried her face in her hands; she was overwhelmed. "You'd think she'd feel that this was no time for to set up her pride agin her mother's life now, wouldn't you?" cried Varcoe. "Oh, child!" faltered the mother, laying her eager hand on Eva's bowed head, "this is not like you! Surely pride is wildly misplaced when we are dying of want!" "An' me crazy to help ye out'n yer fix," pursued the zealous Yarcoe. "Lord! I could keep ye in game jest as easy's not; I ain't got no use for 'em. An' many other ways I could keep ye comfortable." "Oh, Mr. Varcoe, surely God has put this kindness into yonr heart," cried the hapless lady, bursting into tears of relief and gratitude, "and yon will not heed my foolish child, who will be as grateful to you as I shall." "Now tell my mother the price you have put upon your proposed kindness," said the tortured girl, flashing round upon him. "A price?" murmured Mrs. Carrot faintly, catching the desperate look on Eva's face. "Yes, mamma, a price that you and I would rather die than pay !" cried Eva in thrilling tones. " Thin is the price he demands for the food which would save our lives. This hand, mamma!" and she held out her beautiful aristocratic hand before her mother. The lady uttered an indescribable cry, and, snatching her child to her bosom, flashed wild defiance over her at the cow-herd. "Monstrous ! Unnatural !" she panted out. "Begone; oh, begone at once, sir, and leave us in peace! Oh, God, help us !" she wailed in bitterness of soul, "for man is our relentless enemy," and, overwhelmed by her emotions, she sank back swooning. "Sheer want of victuals," commented Varcoe, composedly. "Nov leave us, for humanity's take 1"

drive this wild young bird he had captured to frenzy. "Won the game, an' be darned to me," muttered he, and he indulged himself in an ecstatic chuckle, standing before the kitchen fire, his head sunk between his shoulders, which shook with silent convulsions, his long eyes glimmering, and the edges of his teeth exposed in noiseless laughter. XEITHEIi l-'MST XDli SKC'UN 0. Once again the snow-olad mountains reflected the roseate blush of a cloudless sky, but Christmas Day was dying now, and the light was waning, not waxing, as the 'pale watcher of th'.morning once more opened the cabin door and swept wild, frightened glances round the scene. The costly hares had been cooked and the Chritmas dinner served in fine woodman's style by tho accepted lover himself; both ladies had partaken of the delicate fare, but with a difference, for while the mother ate with unalloyed zest, and solemn thankfulness to God who had raised them up a friend in their need, the daughter choked on every morsel her pining system forced her to put into her mouth, soul rebelling against the exactions of the body, and turning with aborrence from the price of her freedom. "Spare my mother the knowledge of this shameful bargain for this on o day," Eva had said to her conqueror; "since I have sold myself for her life's snko, I will have my price. If she kumv, she would not touch one morsel." Whatever ve like, Missie, as long's ye don't go back on me," replied her adorer in his softest drawl ; and she had dressed her face in tranquility, and crushed the wild terror which was consuming hi r, and so misled her mother that she believed Varcoe's humanity had conquered his foolish desire, and that he hud subsided into the respectful and friendly cow-herd again, anxious to atone by his services for his momentary lapse into insanity. "Think no more of the incident, my

! darling," whispered the lady anxiously i as she sought in vain to fix the girl's I restless, burning glancos and read her i mood. "Unnatural though snob an

idea may appear to us, it was almost an inevitable one to any young man with his opportunities of seeing vou; for you ore but a fair woman to him,

could have uttered more sardonic mockery ; 'my life's happiness' is Haace Varcoe." She burst into a wild peal of laughter, which she instantly sought to stifle with her hand ou her mouth, and, closing the door softly, she sped from the cam'n, choosing the path down the hill to avoid Varcoe, and so vanished, laughing still, while tears gushed from her eyes. Anywhere, anywhere ont of sight and earshot of her she loved and him she loathed; for Eva felt her brain reeling, and knew that she must indulge her grief or go mad. "And if I should never return, what matter?" whispered the tempter; "why must 1 deliver myself over to this craven wretch ? Mamma would be better off without me, for he would take care of her if he knew that I was dead." She hurried downward, half intoxicated by the very thought of escape, even through the irrevocable gate of death ; sweeter and sweeter seemed freedom to the despairing captive; inner voices uttered subtle sophistries to absolve her ot the promise wrung from her. But suddenly honor spoke in penetrating accents, Eva paused in her flight with sinking heart and trembling limbs. "Dishonor is hereditary, then," murmured she, bitterly. "False father, false daughter! No, I will not break my promise. I will keep it, at whatever cost with God's help." She sank on her knees on the icy ground, whispering agoniziug prayers for strength to do right; and when, heaven-taught, she saw that there could be no escape for her without sin, the memory of Robert Bydal rose to wring her heart with grief far bitterer than death. As she knelt there wrapped in her own sorrow, a warm touch on her hands aroused her ; she looked up to find the waif of the morning standing over her. The instant he obtained her attention he ran a few stops down the hill, looked baok at hr and whined imploringly, then returned, seizing her dress in his teeth and pulling it. All at once his meaning struck her ; he was not pleading for food, as she thought in the morning; he was begging her to go to the assistance of some one down the mouiitaki side, some one who had waited all day for the succor that came not!

"Ob, you poor fellow, if you could only have spoken 1" cried Eva, springing after him, her own wretchedness cast aside for the time; "go on then, quick! quick! I'll follow."

And the dog, mad with joy, curled i round her feet, licked herjiands, then ; bounded on in front, looking of. en back to make sure that t-he was following. It was a rough end perilous course j he led her, winding this way and that round impassable knolls and fissures, but ever treading downward; a long ;

and painful scramble for the weakened girl, yet alio followed faithfully until the dog had brought her to a narrow shelf which projected from the face of a vertical cliff, half-way down. There she beheld through the deepening shades, the form of a man who reclined against the roek ; wrapped in a sable traveling-cloak, his head upon his breast, he slept. As the dog sprang upon him with ft glad cry, he looked up, his eyes met Eva's, he was Robert Rydal! She nttai-ed a shriek of joy she was shaken to the center of her soul in a moment she was in his arms, strained close to his strongly beating heart, while their lips met in a breathless, burning kiss. "I left it there, and there I find it!" he cried, with exultant happiness. "No other lips have touched my love's, of that I am very sure ! Eva, Eva, is it indeed yon, my own sweetheart?" She started, she had forgotten her bonds she shrank from him, but he laughed as he clasped her closer, laughed in the delight of his true heart. "And so I have got my Eva on Christmas Day in spite of fate !" he cried, "though the world has moved between us two since we parted a world of wrong and sorrow and undeserved suffering. I am here to claim my darling and to shield her in my heart forever! Eva, love, yon knew I should come, did not you?"" He held her from him to gaze fondly at her, it was a aaoment of torture to her, she must blast all this sweet joy with a word ! But no--not yet oh, not already! "You are hurt. Robert," she said, leaving his question unanswered. "How came you here? Your dog was at our door at dawn. Have you lain here in the. bitter cold all day ?" Her tones shook, her face grew ashy pale how should she tell him? He thought she was terrified on his account; he hastened to reassure her. "My hurt fa a trifling matter, now that I am discovered," he said contentedly ; "it will just furnish me with the right excuse to spend a week or two under yonr roof and to be nursed by you. And I shall lay siege to your mother's heart she shall not be able to deny me her daughter, so engaging I shall be." "But your hurt, Robert? tell mu about it see how late it grows, and I have to get you home somehow." So then he pressed her head down upon his shoulder, laid his cheek to hers, and told his story. He had reached the city yesterday,

and gone J.t once to Mr. Carrol's house, where he learned the family's misfortunes, find was referred to old Hepworth for the Indies' address. Grieved at Eva's miseries, and impatient to see her at once, he hired a horse and set ont to ride the distance, accompanied by his dog, hoping to reach the cabin before the ladies had retired to rest. But tho horse was smooth shod, and the road was sheathed in glare-ice; with infinite difficulty he advanced until he saw the distant smoke from the cabin: here she road shelved over a steep crag, the horse slipped, Robert made a spring, intending to extricate himself liefore the horse fell on

him, but she moment he reached the

gronnd ho shot over the glassy brink, and, half rolling, fell to the ledge beneath. Here lie lay insensible till his dog found him ; then he recovered to find that lie had broken a leg, and was chained to the spot until succor arrived or he froze to death. The dog's sagacity preserved his life during the deadly cold of the night. He lay against Rydal's breact, ieaping him warm, and fortunately Rydal's Russian cloak had fallen with him, and was large enough to completely envelop him. At dawn Luath left him, and soo returned with a piece of bread in his mouth, which Bydal thankfully devoured, he said, blessing the kisd heart which had taken pity on a dog. Eva did not confess the sacrifice she hou made in giving that bread to the dog. But the story was done. She gently released herself from Robert's clasp and stood before him, all the light gone out of her face, drooping, constrained. "Come back, dear. Why do you leave me?" saicl he. "We have so much to say to each other. Why should you be in such a hurry to go?" But she did not return. She was weeping bitterly, her little hands convulsively pressed over her heart. "Eva," cried Rydal, amnzed, confounded to see her thus, "what is the matter? My darling, speak, for you are alarming mo." "Yes, I' must speak," she faltered. "There is no escape. Oh, Robert, how can I utter the hateful words? You must forget mo rot can not marry!" Rydal stared at her incredulously, but the rigid desolation on her fair young face struck terror to his heart. "You ara in earnest?" he exclaimed, "yes, I see that; now what can this mean? Ah, I see, a bit of woman's logic! Oh! you foolish noble-minded darling!" he laughed aloud in sheer happiness, "you want to expiate a father's sin by sacrificing your lover? But what if I won't be sacrificed? No, no, Eva, that wont do, you are mine, and I claim you," and siezing her hand he drew her toward him. A growl from the dog warned them of an intruder. Varcoe stood before them, black with jealous rage. "You claim her, do ye?" snarled he. "Wal, so ) I! She gev me her promise; eh, didnt ye now, Missie?" Rydal looked from one to the other in stupeffcctioa. . "Eva?" he exolaimed, panic-smitten by her expression. She gave him a look of supreme torture she was mu.w. "Speak, deiir, is this true?" murmured Rydal.

"Deny it if ye dare!" mocked Varcoe. She shuddered. "It is truer she said in a hollow voice, Rydal dropped her hand; a stifled moan escaped her. With a loud laugh Varcoe stretched forward to sieze her, and seeing her recoil in horror, he yelled out an oath, and following her as she retreated, with a lithe leap reached Iter, and snatched her up in his arms. Her piercing shriek was not uttered in vain. As Rydal dragged himself toward them the dog bounded upon Yarcoe, and with snapping jaws and warning growls sought to make him drop the girl. Varcoe fought like at fiend ; grasping the half-senseless Eva with one-arm, he 'rained savage blows U on Liuitii, reckless how he was rousing the noble creature's fiercest instincts. He yelled with laughter as he laid the dog at bis feet, stunned for the moment by the brutal blows, and then he kicked him savagely. ' Take care what you're about, the dog will have his revenge for that," shouted Rydal, whose broken limb delayed his frantic efforts to reach the miscreant, "and drop the lady, you're endangering her life, you mad fool!" ' She's mine, I tell ye," yelled Varcoe, 'an' I mean to keep her. AKve or dead, she's mine!" With a demoniac leer at Bydal, he gathered up his prize and turned to go. And then Luath took his revenge. He rose, quivering, blood-stained, eyed his departing foe an instant, and then his fangs were buried in his throat; his weight sent the man staggering to the verge of the precipice. Rydal shouted to his dog, in vein; he shouted to Yarcoe to drop the girl, in vain. Man and dog were reeling end -struggling on the icy brink. Yarcoe, half strangled, choked ont one last vaunt, "Dead or alive, she's mine!" They tottered, Bydal made a grand leap to the spot, and, just in time, caught the fluttering garments of bis love and wrested her from the deathgrip of the doomed wretch, who, with a shriek that will ring in his ears forever, plunged backward and vanished, whirling, into the abyss. Luath was saved literally by an hair-breadth. His struggles had entangled his hind legs in Eva's flowing skirt, and as Rydal swung her back from the edge, Luath loosened his hold on Varcoe and was landed half dead on the brink. It was well for these poor distracted lovers, left helpless on an icy ledge mid-air in the deepening night, that George Martin, livery-stable keeper, was a master who looked after his own property, and did not delegate it to bis employes. Otherwise, when "Black Bess" arrived at her stable door at midnight on Christmas eve, foaming, trembling and riderless, beyond few idle conjectures wide of the mark, nothing would have been said or done to clear up the mystery.

But Mr. Martin was within ear-shot, and Black Bess was instantly under his. inspection, with the result that inquiries were set on foot concerning the route taken by Captain BydaL The trail led-the party of rescuers up the mountain side, and at the very moment when the circumstances just detailed were taking place they were in the cabin making inquiries of the lewildered Mrs. Carrol. The name of Bydal was a burst of light to her. She was able to assure them that the gentleman had intended to visit her, and that therefore he could not be far off. Robert was still listening to Eve's story, which explained everything that had amazed him, when poor old Luath revived sufficiently to utter a faint bark of warning, and a party of men filed round the rock and expressed the utmost joy at finding the lost man alive. And so he had his wish. He was taken to the cabin and nursed by his own true love, while want and misery fled forever from the hearth and Eva Carrol mourned no more.

A THOUGHTFULSWEETHEART. "Only one thing I ask, darling," she whispered. "What is it, my own sweet?" he yelled. "Let our engagement be a secret for another month." "Why? No, let me tell the world you are mine. Let me show them the prize I have won." "Not for a month, dearest one, one little month, I beg of you." "Why do you want to keep it a secret? I fear you do not love me." "I adore yon. You are the only man I ever loved. But yon are poor and and " "But I will be rich. With you, love, I will work fer wealth." "Yes, darling, yes. But Harry is wealthy, George is well off; William has plenty, and several of my admirers have money." "Still thinking of your admirers?" "Yes, dear, for Christmas is next week, and they have all given me handsome presents on previous occasions." "Thoughtful angel, forgive me. Let us wait a year."

Christmas as a religious holiday i

instituted by a decretal letter issued by Pcpe Teleaphorus, who died A. D. 138; but it was not until the fourth century that a fixed day was decided on, the festival, theretofore, being movable, according to the phases of the moon, Ik the fourth century the urgenoy of St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, obtained from Pope Julius L an order for an investigation to be made concerning the day of Christ's nativity. The result of the inquiry by the theologians East and West was an agreement upon tbe 46th of December. Sang Holland in honor of the day: There's a song in tbe air! There's a star in the eky ! There's mother's deep prayer, nd a baby's tow cry t And tbe star rine ita s while toe beautiful ring.

For tbe uanger of Bethlehem cradle a 1

In tbe light of that tar Lie the ages impearied ; And that song from afar Has swept over the world, JS ory boarih is aflame, and tbe beauttfui atnaj. In tie homes of tile Nations tbat 1mm Is UBf ..