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BT hvESSlNGTON •fl/jjr GIRLS WILL WED, «,« rose at the early daybreak, 6 rfS a sick and aching head, yonder why erirU will ved wouldn't, I'm sure, if they reckoned 'S, tiling that a wife must bear: iicy 1 Jneve'done work of a household Xhe never-done Mother care. dozen pieces to wash to-day, K'nd the children must go ,to 8chOolt ,,,, nvery one knows on washing day* inbv is cross as a rule: W 1 Uri iget is new to the work yet. nh dear, liow my head does ache!) .t aii all have the din tier to 030k, A»d all of the beds to make." \n tlic coiTeo or kiss—which was it?— liealed IlkeamaficaUsharm T]l «pir of diligent gladness Wms everywhere «ta the farm. Tli" rnMier worked hard at the plowing. Vie mother forgot her pain, i[ -jii .ct did well with hor washing1,. There wasn't a drop of rain. An.! the wife, sitting down in the fire-light" The baliy n-'ofo at her side, li.-i liiisl'iitiii chatting, and watching her v.'iih a husband's loving prido, 1\. inirht much of her full and pleasant home, Iiit children asleep in bed I s:ii'l. with a sweet, contented laugh: •So wonder that uirtswtUwcd!" —LiUic E. Barr, in JV. I". Ledger. .Ail ROBIN REE. Hark! there it was again, that strange 1 floating over the silent sea and •,». in land and falling on the ear as softly las ilii-tledown. It was one of the old songs lw country, perhaps sung by some fish Jt ir.:in as he walked homeward through the I.Aiiiiinm twilight with his empty creel on Icick and money in his pocket. The |si: L'ir was invisible, but the words were •0 to -knots and ribbons of green thou'lt m.-ar. if. sweet little Betsy, with mc thou'lt pair, llobin the King, ltobin the King ridlan." Tii'.' prevailing stillness made it difficult Jto -a}' whether the words came from far or |u ir. The breeze was too slight to stir the llmk'kcii, and the peat-smoke nung in mo jii.nloss wreaths over the' cottage chimneys •in tiio glen, apd the clouds of tiny butter lsi..'s that had flitted over* the gorse and Ijkiulier during the day-time had mysteri |ri«ly vanished at sunset. The conies were awake, no doubt, but they prudently kept Jout of sight. The curlews were asleep Ismong the turnips, the gray plover were •away on the hillside, and down yonder l-imuns tho cliffs the gulls and gannets and •guillemots were standing in- long white Ikws. But if the solemn night was voiceless, it |ia 1 wonderful charm of its own, though •t'ue moon was yet to emerge like some lfiHiid dragon-fly from its slumbers beneath 1:1? waters. The air was laden with the llrdlmess of the sea and the perfume of the norland flowers the sky was a deep un Itelt blue, to which the countless stars Jjii-kering in its dome imparted a vastness •jffluw.isurably greater than that of the sun |!ii ilay immediately overhead lay Yn ll'vijil llooar Ree Ghorree, the Great Road •l- which King Orry brought his yellow ilardcd-Norsemen to the coast of Man J'i at its northern extremity a pinkish Inv was now advancing and now reced |i! afraid of invading the realm of night, •ve unwilling to leave a scene of so much livaiuy. Away to the south, beyond a Tpvat sweep of tranquil water, broken •«i!y by the spear-points of tbe stars, a lifiise mist was winding around the bays land headlands, and as it drew aside for a liniment there came from its midst the •bright flash of a light-house but elsewhere •tlii- atmosphere was so clear that the rocks •t'ajoil out in bold relief, their shadows as Isuining all manner of fantastic shapes. In the background the hills cut into the •li.iiu sky like a row of enormous shark's |tt.th, and after sweeping past fields of •mm and elover, with many a cozy little IK'iuestead nestling among the trees, they •at last arrived at this wild spot where Isorse and heather and bracken tumbled liiiio a deep glen, and then spread out oa •tttlier hand into a sheet of gold and brown •«iiil purple, studded with an occasional liwulder, as if to prevent the wind blowing •it iiway. a couple of hundred yards lur th'.-r down the moorland terminated sud •Ui uly in a perpendicular wall of schist that •''topped into the sea many hundred feet •"'•low, but parted in the center as if it had •oi-i'!) cleft with a mighty hatchet. A few iiiiu-h'.'d, whitewashed cottages crouched •ti]' hi the sides of the glen, for the wind -vmi-times blew such a shrill blast down •"•at narrow channel that it was nccessary tnke advantage of the little shelter to be '"""d there. Iu the ferny depths there »as a glisten of silver, and a keen ear •"I'oht have detected the babble of the lui'Mk as it hurried seaward. I for the invisible singer, the whole »"j'id seemed to be asleep, and the stars '"'ici-d down upon an unbroken solitude. 1 gently the voice went on: 'Ili'd top-knots and ribbonB of black thoul't wear m'd thee Queen of the May, I swear, iioUn the kiug,Kobiu the king ridlan." 1'lie words had scarcely died away when ugures mounted the steep side of the In•(!" 1 slowly \v .'iiCi 1 11 •['HE HERALD.'SS BATEMAS HcDOXAlD. SPRINGS. D. T. made their waiy toward ono was a st tall, handsome, ui-Uressed man with a brown beard the woman,young and beautiful. He Vi °reak the silence. iSu_- ,e ^'ve heen thinking—thinking very I ot asking you to marry me." 'liV lnarrV'youP' She had stopped sud- uy to staro at him, her dark eyes brim- 01 asl I)1iishmeut, a warm flush on her cheeks, which were partly shaded ,^ack hair, flowing around her 'ii, I y. Moulders, and her hands clasped iji.i P,1 her. Standing there in the s! m-h°i 10 heather, she looked like a •hum ,awn* marry you, Mr. Gra i-,,. slle u'v repeated, weighing out the iaioniw °1? oue as if 10 that Bet at their way. h,„ shouldn't say 'Me marry you!'" sav W1 a it 'Grni?? Kv iici t? slight shiver. "You should marry you.' And it would be nicer wei!e. t0 substitute Robin for Mr. 'K'jiin,i"i'1Vw °l1 has an abominably formal I two 8uch Sreat ^fieud^ of quite standing. Thus corrected the 1 r-uus' 11 I 1 ^"-y you, RoWnl' to obl replies, 'Why not?'" tiaroii ?,0.uhtful whether she fully appre 'aiid iv„A- slnEular she ivu?'ng\ a"swore?in1^ a,??5r Itt'av fW mixture of teaching lnaeed.it is doubtful whether y.ua understood it. flsher Kirl 1 r?wa am," she Keutiim??' ^'s you that axe a grand 'h'msfw ?nli W1 nioney and lands an(l -t wo^iYil neighbors tell me. Oh, -Mf. Graham »S® Of ffiih~thevVan\?^ ^^n,I~th?'ai:cident And then Fi.«» ?. easil7 togetber n^my s^8 Mfe' .11?°?^ f. t,-. soon as breakfast was ready, l-'ntlier etimo in from the yard •«£«. ,i, kji-ed the siok little mother, "Whs .-ure (hat li«r work was hard." i, -ai'l to the noisy boys: "Be stilli your mother's not well to-day iv ii id by is he jit. "could kiss the pain away." brushed aside, Stt/ru something to aiveun won't be al- you thought tL matwr ^eluVer »°B «8kedIher?tdaM«H00keK T'!ye Iv* Bt her*as if hs hmd ^S¥,|6?^SSAflS 1 aSSS^fiwwsess weapiRoill show-room, but inexpressibly hoU8fc There's not an No thfil8!"0®1^?in a 40,1 ot 8U0h stuff. like a onnM m« -wnil*s nu-: Tlic biikinz and cleaning were over \vju ii the boys came home from school •i- .'iv forgot it was wnshlng-day, A ."id pleasantly broke his ruio iMi at nitrht the house was clean and bright, Tnc was not a thing Hiniss. ••T on'y wife," the father thought, ••Would do as much for a kiss." 1utet« domestic PlGttSant, htimdrnm hnahan/1 an#) anido things generally. oould manage that, Elsie?" her HaV?68' Mr- °raham," she exclaimed, "andIim«o.Wille'0P®n with surprise do^h»f? 'hinkitig old Kitty Corkill could ,?• for you." Thewords touchedrath- d'scordant note, but the voice was sin sweet, having leahied its cadences S and waves. n«.i ?Te11.' never mind about Kitty Corkill. She is old and Ugly,, and you are neither the one nor the other. Which is it to be, Elsie, yes or ho?" And now from across the heather came tne last sad words of the song, but so softly that neither of these two heafd it: "Oh, sJ^®^"ttle Betsy, thou'rt breaking my Courting Hobin tho King they say thou art, Bobln tho King, ltobin the King ridlan." When the invisible singer ceased the dark hills seemed to grow darker and a gloom to tall over the undulating moorland and the wide sea beyond, though the skv still re mained starry and cloudless. Elsie, per ceiving that the "merry dancers" had vauished, could not repress a little shudder, but she was soon absorbed in the contem plation of the bright prospect suddenly opened out before her. She was ai beautiful picture of fairyland, for it was quite impossible to imagine its existence in real life. Wild hilly coast scen ery is fruitful in marvels but set a man down in the middle of a plain and he would suppose the earth to be flat, and life a mo notonous level track along it. Here in this lonely glon, the whole air was full of mys tery the tales that the old folk? told around their cottage-fires after nightfall were of things and beings invisible to dull citizens. There was Ben Varrey, the mermaid, who, before every great festival, imparted to her jewels new brilliancy by setting them in the wave-tops, and there they might be seen flashing in the sunlight, while the syrens sang bewitching melodies to en tice mortals away from them. Who had not heard of the splendid city, with its gilded towers and minarets, which that mighty magician, Fin MacCoul, had sunk beneath tho waves off Port Soderic? Though he had transformed its inhabitants into blocks of granite, yet curiously enough they were summoned to church regularly every Sunday,, for the sailors often heard the tinkling of the boll and the whole island rose to the surface once every seven years, and would remain above water if only one could sea it and lay a Bible upon it. And beneath Castle Rushen was there not a wonderful race of giants, who drank out of golden goblets and wore magnificent clothes, and whose suburban retreat was illuminated by a reckless profusion of wax candles? This was incontestable, for an adventuresome mortal had interviewed one of them, and the. giant, after asking how things were going on in the upper regionsj had crushed up a plowshare as easily as if it had been a filbert, and then said pleas antly: "There are still men in the Isle of Man." Why, Elsie had seen with her own eyes inKiikMalewa chalice which had been carried off from an elfin banquet. And with such wonders she had to fashion her picture. First of all, there was to be a house twice as large as her father's thatched eottage in the glen the crockery on the dresser was to ue replaced by silver plates, like those used for collecting in churches on grand occasions the brass candlesticks upon the mantelpiece were to make way for gold ones the stone floor would be hid den beneath a gorgeous carpet the deal tables and chairs must go—something of wood, like the old Dutch clock, would look better outside there should be a handsome porch and a garden, and geraniums in the window, and no split congers hanging against the walls and in the midst of all this grandeur would be Elsie herself, dressed in silk and bedecked with jewels, like Ben Varrey, and do nothing all day long but .sitting in an arm-chair and order ing her servants about. As this splendid vision passed through her brain her dark eyes flashed with delight, and half-uncon sciously she swept the long black hair from her beautiful face to make Herself look more like the Vicar's daughter, whose' hair was fastened behind. Herrings for dinner to-day herrings yes terday herrings to-morrow. There would be no more herrings, thought Elsie the barrel would vanish from the corner of the room, and, instead, she would dine upon bacon and beef and delicacies of every kind. Good-bye to amylass (butter-milk and water), sollaghan (a kind of porridge), braghtan (a sandwich of buttered oatcake, potatoes and herring), and binjean (curds) instead of these she would faro as if every day were -a Sunday school feast, and she would have plenty of jough (beer) for her father and the neighbors. Oh, yes, her en joyment was not to be wholly selfish. There was to be a chair for her father by the chimney-corner, and tobacco in plentv, and he was to sit there and smoke from morning till night and her neighbors were to come in for some share of her comforts. For some, she would purchase their winter stock of herrings for others, she would pay men to cut and stack the.ir peat and for others, whose nets had been carried away, she would buy new ones. You see, Elsie's notion of paradise was smiling idle ness, tempered by a little well-directed kinduess. It would be interesting to learn how many have noticed a singular omission from her reflections. Among the fair sex probably not one. The idea of love for the man who had asked her to marry him had never en tered Elsie's head. She regarded him as a convenient sort of fairy who could supply her with an illimitable number of good things and this'stirred her fancy rather than her avarice, as it would have done with better educated girls. Robin Graham was too high above her for her to think of loving him she might have worshiped him, but love hint—no, that was quite impossi ble. She felt that he belonged to some en tirely different order of beings from her self and, though he was well fitted to be the center ornament of the magnificent scene she had depicted, she could not bring herself to think of him as a flesh-and-blood husband. But in nil this golden amber it must be confessed that there was a very inappro priate fly, Joe Quilliam by name, and the questiou was not how did he get there, but how to get him out. He was a plain, sim ple-minded fisherman, a good, deal older than Elsie, but without doubt desperately in love with her. There was no actual pledge between them. His natural basht'ulness had prevented him from declaring himself, and he had not been goaded into doing so by the hateful presence of but thinSfoi1me u1 "iiiuam." I cloti?i? marry 6 glanced from his fine humble garb—a coarse |«liu\vl home-spun wool, a blue »!it hor .. °^er ''er breast and fastened Itliis riwnistt ^ind of sun-bonnet. In I-was s,.(J,®.ct the disparity between them ll'ave binT^ odious, though it would |%ure or a rival while she had had no need to question her own heart-* species of catechism that the dilatory fair sex seldom resorts t® until the last mo ment. Probably she was, as she believed, heart-whole, for this curious organ is very like a "Rupert's drop"—hard and obdurate as iron until it is touched upon one partic ular spot, when it undergoes a sudden and irreparable transformation. In Elsie case this catastrophe had not yet happen ed. She.had listened attentively to all that the fisherman had to say, and she had oc casionally chaffed himabout his wantof sue. cess beau?itiwh gU'1,S gra°6fUl i»iaureI''11=°t- ,aciin,s. iu haste to repent at I Suid Uobin Graham, with delib- IJII.HIIIIl'IWJIjllj!! with the lobsters or the congers but this surely is not a very advanoed stage of love-making, and, beyond accepting a few bright ribbons from hiui last HoUandtidj Eve, she had given him no definite encour agement. f,v^ i/ jo**, r.t^ it'/ far, all well and good, put, unfortu nately, Joe Quilliam was rath«r a hot-tem pered fellow, with a disagreeable plain way of speaking his mind, and there was no knowing-what he might.do or say when, he heard that she was going to marry the fine gentleman, Robin Graham. It may appear strange that she should consider him in this matter at all, btlt she did: she even tried to devise some asheme for bene*1 fitting him. This unreasonable fellow would be angry, she knew he would refuse to take anything at her hands he might even refuse to speak to her. Ther& Mrily seemed no way of managing him.'^Vhat was she to do? By thisttime they had reached the end of the moorland. They had walked in silence through the heather and were now stand ing upon one of the great, black headlands that flanked the entrance to thegien, where tho rivulet widened and ran smoothly over the glistening sand to meet tbe wave lets. Close beside them, and upon the very verge of the cliffs, a large bowlder was poised so that it seemed as if the slightest touch would hurl it into the water many hundred feet below. It had been deeply cut and furrowed by icebergs, bnt the ferns and lichens growing thickly upon it gave it a rounded appearance in the twilight, though there was a sharply defined shadow at its further side. The rocky ledges upon the face of the perpendicular cliff were white with sea-birds, and a drowsy mur mur came up from the caverns at its base. Away among the bracken in the glen there might occasionally be seen'a gleam from some cottage window, but notolten, for the lights are carefully guarded by the fisher folk along the coast, lest they should lure an unwary vessel to destruction. Not a moving thing was iri sight not even a ship upon that peaceful sea. The light-house had long disappeared in the gathering mist toward the south. But at such a time, when all is lifeless, inanimate objects have a strange way of becoming life-like the winds acquire human speech, and the stars sight, anil the very hills bend forward in an attitude of anxious watching and listen ing. In Elsie's case this feeling was. so strong thut she drew a little nearer to Robin for protection. "Well, Elsie, will you marry me?" 'he asked, taking both ber hands in his and looking straight into her eyes. "—I don't know." Surely the shadow on tho further side of the bowlder started. And it might have been the wind, or it might have been fancy, but there certainly seemed to be sighed out in a low voice full of such mournful pathos: "Oh sweet little Betsy, thou'rt breaking my heart Courting ltobin the King, they say thou Botb were too engaged to notice this sin gular phenomenon Indeed, Robin Graham was rather staggered at Elsie's answer. "You don't know!" he exclaimed, in an aggrieved tone. "Come, Else, what do you mean? You know I'm very fond of you, and I hoped you were fond enough of me to marry me but, if you're not well, I've made a mistake, that's all." "Listen—oh listen, Mr. Graham," she cried in sudden terror. "Merely a rabbit." "Oh, but it's no rabbit. It's the boagane that's about, I'm sure. Let's away! Oh 1 -do 1 let's make haste back, for its neither a bollan cross nor a dreain's feather that I have." "You really must get rid of such no tions," said Robin, who felt keenly that ignorance in a wife would be bad enough, but that superstition would be quite un bearable. "At your age,' Elsie, you ought to know that boganes are 'gone extinct civilization has drowned them, every one in fact, they never existed anywhere but in the imaginations of silly old worn I sieau, of tuose wno didn't know any bet ter. And how on eafth could a miserable fishbone or a wren's feather protect vou from harm? It's sheer nonsense. Oh, I'm not blaming you, but those who put such folly into your innocent head: they ought to be ashamed of themselves." She was more astonished now than when he had asked her to marry him, and in her indignation she forgot all about the sound that had startled her. Drawing her hands away from him, she stepped back a little, and, with her dark eyes flashing and her head thrown back, she looked more like a beautiful Queen than a simple fisher girl. The feeling which bids us cherish what our fathers have cherished is akin to parental instinct it was very strong in Elsie. What did this stranger mean by saying that there were no such things as boaganes, when their existence was known to per sons of the meanest intelligence, even to Black Bailey, the idiot. The ignorance of tue man was pitiful! Why, the Phynno deree was a well-known character in Rushen, where he mowed hay-fields and corn-fields, and sometimes tossed bowlders about by way of a change, and the boulders might be seen as proof positive of his ex istence. Was not the specter-bound seen nightly in Peel Castle? And was it not matter of notoriety that "Dame Eleanor Cobham, Gloucester's wife," haunted the same place? But there was no need to go beyond the glen itself it was full of gob lins. The waterbull, the glashtyn and the nightsteed had been seen by many old enough to believe their own eyes and, as for the horrible groans of these noisy spirits, on a Winter's night it was not safe to go out of doors—at any rate, without protection of a chaplet of bollan-feailleoin. And yet this stranger had the impudence to sa/ that it was all nonsense, that boag anes were a myth! "Oh, but I've heard them, Mr. Graham," said Elsie. "You heard the wind, Elsie." "And I've seen them, too." "You thought so, Elsie, but you were wrong. You could not see what does not exist." "It's all very well for you as hasn't seen them to say they don't exist but it's other people that have spen them, and they know that there are boaganes everywhere." Here was an awkward stumbling-block. To marry a woman who believed in goblins did seem outrageous. Every night she might be putting out bowls of water for them to drink, and laying dust on the floor to observe their footsteps in the morning, and then brushing it carefully from the door towards the hearth lest a whole house ful of good- luck should be swept away. There would be no doing anything for fear of offending these ridiculous spirits. Robin Graham had decided upon attempt ing a very dangerous thing—nothing more or less than an experiment in matrimony. He really had become somewhat tired of the trammels and .ways of the society in which his life had been spent, and he had grown so fond of Elsie that he had deter mined to marry and educate her.. The samo thing had been done before why not agarn? About three months before this time he had come to tbe glen for the purpose of fishing, and he had taken an'd furnished a pictur esque little cottage. He had been thrown much in Elsie's company she had helped him with his boat and his lines, and she had shown him the best places to go for cod and whiting and mackerel. In this way their acquaintance had progressed rapidly until it had reached the present .stage. Hewas sure that she was good and beautiful what more could he want in a wife?-Of course, it would be useless to think of raising her to his level it would be equally useless to think .of descending to ners but surely somewhere between there must exist a platform on which they %could 1 meet on equal terms. Compromise is the very es-' sence of a happy married life Robin Gra ham had resolved to put this principle into practice without delay. He hod studied the simple habits of the people about, and he was convinced that the thing was prac ticable, though perhaps not without some little friction at first. This evening, how ever, two or three trifles, such as Elsie's fis ramntar, had jarred rather painfully upon susceptibilities, but nothing sp much as •his revelation about" her superstition. She had displayed, too, an unexpected amount of obstinacy in the interest of her educa tion this had to be eradicated at once. "Elsie, your charms would be jitst as useful to you as a straw to a drowning man. Such notions are out of date they belong to the days of witchcraft and non- Nil! assure you they woidd Andas7nrnthese a a TOa flOCl_among edaca»ietl people. •ou m.L preposterous Kodgaies, reallv 2»«lVe HH,1levills Elsie gave him a timid little smile of thanks. "That was'very thoughtful of you, Joe." she murmured. "And now I want to come to a plain un 'erstan'in' with you, Elsie," Quilliam went on. "It's not for me to deny that I haven't heard what you've been sayin' between yourselves, for I have—an' its vexed me more than enough. An' first of all let me have my say about the boaganes, which this learned gentleman here comin' from England where they know so much, though they live in towns for all that, says is all nonsense. Tut! any fool with eyes and ears in his head—and that's not much to ask him, I reckon—could talk of boaganes that he has heard—aye, an' seen, too, by the hundred. It's only this very night—an' it's solemn truth I'm tellin' you—as I sat watchin' for the Mary Jane, which is about due, I saw a great black thing rear itself put of the water just inside o' the tideway yonner, an' it looked aroun' an' gave a ter'ble moan, an' then sank again, an' I saw no more of it an' on'y for my bollan cross here, I'd ha' run for the glen, for it was somethin' dreadful." This horrible picture wrought upon El sie's imagination to such an extent that she uttered a slight scream, whereupon the fisherman, hastuy disengaging the fish bone that was tied round his neck, handed it to Elsie, who took it eagerly. He shot a triumphant glance at Robin, but Robin was unequal to the occasion—ho could only laugh contemptuously. To put himself in opposition to this ignorant fellow* and run the risk of failure, was what he wished to avoid at all hazards unfortunately, how ever, it was forced upon him in a very un pleasant way. "May be, you'll remember last Hollan tide Eve, Elsie," continued Quilliam. "Anyway those ribbons round your neck will help bring it to your mind. It was for a pledge that I gave them to you, though I am ,so stupid at talkin' that I hold my tongue foolishly. Surely, Elsie, you knew 1 was madly fond of you and your sweet face, and your pretty ways—surely, surely. Aw, but it's a poor, plain, awkward fellow that I am to think of such as you an' likely enough if it hadn't been for the ould proverb, 'Black as the raven is, he'll find a mate," which I keptrepeatin' and repeatin' to myself continually, I would never have foun' the courage to look up to you, beauti ful thing that you are. Tnere's one here, though, that's not so backward at all an' now the question is, which is it to be? for one or the other it must be, an' it's for you to decide this very night. Heaven help thee, my Elsie! an' Heaven help me, too, if you turn your back npon me this night but if so be—well, I'll take ship in some ocean-goin' vessel, an' never trouble you more, so you needn't fear at all, but .just give your answer straight." And he stood like a soldier on parade, though the quivering abcyit his mouth looked strangely pathetic in that brown, weather-worn face. Here was a horrible catastrophe! It had been a lovely picture: Elsie with her-pretty face and dark eyes and flowing black hair, with the still water glistening at the base of the bluff precipice whitened with .sea birds, and the heather all around her, anil the stars shining overhead, and the rivulet deep down in the ferny glen. And suddenly there had come into it a discordant ele ment. the rudely-clad fellow with his awk ward speech and ungainly ways, and all its beauty had vanished. Robin Grahan was at once disgusted and indignant disgusted at being brought into rivalry with a rough fisherman, indignant at this fisherman's impertinence in aspiring to Elsie's hand, and iu placing him in such an undignified position. It is needless to say that this last consideration had the most weight with him. But how was he to extricate himself from this unpleasant dilemma? That ho and Joe Quilliam should be matched against oue another for Elsie's Jiand would be a life long disgrace, even should he prove suc cessful to be rejected in the presence of his humble rival would be simply intolerable and to withdraw from this disagreeable contest would be construed into an acknowl edgment of defeat. Clearly, he could neither advance nor retreat, nor even remain where he was without encountering disaster. It was difficult to discover the least of the evils presented for his selection. Meanwhile, Elsie stood silent between the two men. Holding the bollan cross in ber hand, she kept glancing from one to the other, and then down into the picturesque glen where she had spent her simple life among the bracken and the heather and the corse. There were boaganes there, no floubt, for they loved the peat-smoke and the moorland flowers, and they revel in the babbling brook and the sparkling waves. There her father lived and there her grand father had lived, and her ancestors foi* many centuries, and if their lives had been uneventful except for the perils of the sea, they had not been unhappy. Was she to break away from all these old traditions and become a great lady? or was she to continue in the peaceful groove that' had been so pleasant to her fathers? Which of these two? Oh, that some fairy would help her in this distresssing situation!' No sooner had she conceived this wish than there was a swift rush of something black through the air. It was immediately followed by the pitiful squeal of some crea ture in agony. They all turned, and saw on a hillock, a few yards distant, a young rabbit in the clutch of a hawk, which had swooped down upon the overventuresome little ball of wool before itcould take refuge in its burrow. Robin Graham regarded the scene with curiosity. It was new to him, and he was wondering whether the hawk would proceed to devour its prey then and there, or whether it would carry it off bodily in its talons. But Els'le was. deeply moved. "On, do save the poor little thing!" she cried. Pride kept Robin motionless even now he was determined to hold aloof from any WBSSt aM*arano* in them—you thinSL here never were such i'" Pro7e it to you." oftr?h?£f adopted the foolish device assertion t2,1,t,r?nKthon his case by a mere victioi™t\,Ju strong in her con him a?hi 8^e "It'«ilS «e^.point: She aWh«,t„£ana5iB1??.rant "Pi?. "Gained from attacking said. simply: them mJJ. Qu'}llat*-t,hat has toldtae about them many a time. Oh, and I believe him, fl*horman matters?" Orahamn?''iBn0rantflshar know girl «ifBw!hn f?rshsla?asiflcot,onof oit^ep' Mr- his'intended common lout efa Like^na" exceedingly objectionable. °.thers, he considered himself rank of iVf °rH? e,vei7Yomanthehis been' •wLwi® in own hut he looked upon women on a lower rung of the social ladder as .s,ul)erior to the men. Somehow or ?Plnionf» had never been juxtaposition in bis own mind: ILS,- ??d Perhaps he might have rec°ncile them, conflicting *®em* The very idea that this !w ™. .gir},belo?ged *9 the same class as I Through fellow, Joe Quilliam, was enough to make one shudder. Robin Graham hast ened to repudiate it. Joe Qumiam is all very well in his wav. no doubt," he said "but-" der'.and U® 7' ..f*?0 shadow emerged from the far side of ^tb°? took the shape of a tall, Sf'-looking fisherman, in knee boots Jpern9ey. He had a pleasant, open tace, though its expression was half 8aa mid half angry as he advanced toward 'hecoitple on the edge of the cliff. Vou here, Joe?" exclaimed Elsie, in evident alarm. Even this annoyed Robin. _hat does it matter?" he asked. Listeners never hear any good of them selves, and Quilliam is no exception to the rule." "Aw, I'm hero plainly enough, an' vou may say I came to listen if it suits you, Mr. Graham," said Quilliam "but this I know, that it wasn't my own doin' at all, an. I thought it better to keep quiet than to be disturbin' Elsie by sneakin' off—any wavi until you began for to speak o' me, and then it was best to come out for sure." of rtaflrf. Btat MfriSTrapid strides carried Che fisherman' to the spot The great bird' relinquished' its prey and rose slowly in the air while, apparently none the worse tor its adventure', the rab bit scampered ofl{ and. tumbled, into its hole. 7ie.(Good night), Mr.' Graham," said Elsie, in her stateliest mainer. ,-Her use of the Manx expression taade her meaning sufficiently clear. Without an other word she walked across to Joe QuiK liam and put her hdnd in his and together they went away through the heather, and vanished in the glen. As for .Robin Graham, the. lesson was useful, though galling in the extreme. Sit ting alone npon the cliff, he thought the matter over, and at length admitted that, worse might have befallen him. But it was decidedly unpleasant to hear the voice of his successful rival ringing out merrily in the distance: Red top-knots and ribbons of black thou'lt wear: I'll make tho Queen, of tho May, I swear. Robin Bee, Robin ye Ree ridlan." —All the Year Bound. feci Parotitis «r Mumps. ,y./' The disease technically termed pa rotitis and familiarity known as mumps, is a swelling of the parotid glands. It is a contagious disease, more common among children than among grown people, and yet grown people who have never had it are liable to take it. The swelling is usually on both sides, but soruet mes confined to one side. As is well known by every student of physiology the first stage of d'gestion, viz., mastication, takes place in the mouth, whore the food is ground by the teeth and moistened with saliva from the salivary glands. These glands, which discharge the saliva, are six in number, viz., the sublingual, situated at the base of the tongue in tho front of the mouth the submaxillary, under the cheeks. and the parotid, whL'h are at the back part of the mouth and jaw, nearest to the ears. These last are the glands that are inflamed in this disease. Dr. J. W. Draper, professor in tho University of New York, says: "The parotid saliva is thin and watery', limpid and colorless, inodorous and tasteless." It is not, however, as might at first ap pear from this description,, pure water, for he goes on to say that it contains various alkaline substances, which aid in digestion, such as sulpho-cyanide of potassium, albuminate of soda and a great deal of lime. The saliva discharged by the parotid glands is much more abundant than that from the other salivary glands, so that when these glands are out of order there is a dryness in the mouth, and both because of this and on account of the swelling and soreness, the patient can only take food in a liquid form. Indeed, the patient often finds it diffi cult to open the mouth or to swallow. There is usually a good deal of head- ache, and more or less fever, and yet not enough to prevent the sufferer from wishing to be up and dressed. The important point in this disease is to keep the patient from taking cold, and to keep him as cheerful and com fortable as possible in doors. When the peculiar swelling first makes its appea ance, wrap the face in flannel or in warmed cotton batting, carefully avoid all chills and exposure and let the diet be hot gruel, warm teas, that made from sage and catmint being preferable to that made from Chinese nerb. Every thing should be done to induce and promote perspiration. If, as is fre quently the ease, the bowels are con stipated, this •difficulty must be over come by suitable means. In short, all the eliminatory organs must be set to work, that the system may be freed from all impurities, and if this can be accomplished without the aid of medicine, so much the better. This will tend to relieve the fever and headache. And the next thing to be done is to remove as far as possible all sources of anxiety and keep the sufterer in as cheerful a state of mind as is prac ticable. It is a fact that anxiety or grief ar-r rests the flow of saliva, and as we are only hungry when the saliva and gas trin juices are flowing, this is the reason why people who suffer mentally lose their appetite. The digestion is de pendent to a great degree upon the state of the mind. Anxiety of mind, therefore, by checking the flow of saliva, may be one of the primary or indirect causes of this disease, and the second ary cause is usually taking cold by such exposure as throws a current of cold or damp air upon the jaw. This is on the supposition that the patient has not been exposed to take the disease from another person. For example, a school boy is over anxious about his examina tions or his lessons (with the present mischievous, forcing hot-bed system practiced in many of our city schools, it is a wonder so many children live at all) then he i$ exposed to cold air, being obliged to stand in a current for some minutes, causing the perspiration to be suddenly checked. Next morning his face is swollen at the angle of the jaw, and he has much pain and some fever, yet still feels well enough to go out as usual "and probably wants to go to school. Well will it be if his mother forbids this, and keeps him at home warm and happy for a few days following the ad vice just given. In this case the dis ease will probably pass off in about a week or less, without much medicine, if acy. But if he goes out as usual, and takes more cold, the chances are that the attack will be very severe. This remark or prudent caution will also .apply to most childish diseases of which I have formerly treated in the Household, such as scarlet fever, measles, whooping Judge Andrew Mansette. one of tbo best known jurists in Arkanaas, after an adjournment of the Historical So ciety, the other night, related the fol lowing story to a party of friends wh© lingered in the tinamber of odd, old manuscripts: While a young man, I was not looked tipon as one of those hard-working, plodding boys who never fail to make' a reputation in youth and lose it in manhood. The fact is I was rather wild, and, by certain people whose lives were spent in the straight-jacket of narrow-minded opinion, not regarded as particularly truthful. One or two of our most prominent farmers went so far as to say that I sometimes drank too much, but what quantity in those days was regarded as too much, I was not at that time, and neither am I now, able to determine. One day I went to town, a little vil lage in he northern part of the State, and yielding to the allure ents of met ropolitan life, I remained until late in the evening. Night came on shortly after I started home, and with the dark less, a heavy rain. About half way between town and my father's house, stood an old log church, dismal enough in the day, to say nothing of a night like this, but it aflorded the only means of shelter from the downpour of rain, I stopped, dismounted and stood in the doorway, holding my bridle reins, least my eye around rather nervously and at tempted to penetrate the deep gloom of the interior, for although I wsfs not afraid, yet I felt that strange, un speakable dread which occasions often cause to settle upon the most cour ageous of men. After awhile, just a vivid flash of lightning lit up the place, Hooked around again. Standing near the pulpit, with long hair disheveled, with ghastly face and staring eyes stood, a woman, dressed in robes of flowing white. I was startled, but a moment afterward, when total darkness came again, I persuaded mysftlf that it must have been only a fancy, still I kept my eyes turned back, in dreadful fascina tion. Another Hash. The figure, with arms outstretched, with face of deathly pallor, and with hair streaming in tangled masses, approached slowly down the aisle. I knew that if I ran away and ever told my experience, Ey cough, croup, etc. Not that all these will pass off as harmlessly or as quickly as mumps but their severity will in all cases be very much mitigated by prudent care at the outset, during the disease, and? for some time afterward. In fighting all diseases we must always remem ber the old motto of the ancients, "dis cretion is the better part of valor." In parotitis or mumps, exposure to cold may cause the brain to be so af fected as to cause delirium, indeed, in even mild cases the head is very hot and the patient is apt to talk his sleep in a wandering way. But impru dent exposure to cold ol'ten causes the disease to go to some other part of the body, and a skillful physician must be called into save life." How many doctors' bills might be saved by care and prudence. The "ounce of pre ventive is Aj'orth a pound of cure," al ways.Cor. Households eople would laugh at me, and though his time I was somewhat frightened, yet I was determined to wait, awhile longer and be fully convinced. It was some time before there was another flash, but I stood, gazing intently. The church was again lit With a dazzling glare, and the woman was in a few feet, from where I stood, just in the act of! throwing her arms around me. My1 horse snorted and pulled me from the! doorway. There was no longer any! mistake, and, though this may have! been a fancy, my hair pushed my hat off. Anyway, the hat fell, and tow terrified to regain it, I sprang1 upon my horse and dashed away, letting the animal out, as: the saying is, How I da hed over logs and among trees without being killednsi a wonder, but reaching the road the! horse seemed to fly. About three milesi from the church lived old Mr. Gantling,: with whom I wa« acquainted, and reach ing his house, I dismounted, hitched my horse and almost burst into the room.! The old gentleman had not gone to bedj ana seeing me bareheaded and doubtless noticing my fright, he started up and. exclaimed: "Why, Andrew, what in the world is the matter?" "I've seen a ghost." "WhiU!" with surprise, for he knew that I \ras not given to superstition. "Have seen a ghosj?" "Yes, sir at the "old church." I then related my experience, during which recital the family gathered around me. "That was certainly very strange," said the old man when I had finished, "but are you certain that it was not a fancy?" "1 would bet my life on its being a fact. It was a ghost just as sure as vou live." "Well, let's put up your horse. Stay all night, and in the morning, we'll go and investigate." I couldn't sleep. Every time I suc ceeded in persuading myself into a doze, that face, with it'.s startling eyes, un earthly expression and deathly com plexion, came up before me. isro one ever welcomed the sunlight more than 1 did that morning, and yet I dreaded to go back to the church. After breakfast, partaken of heartily by every one but me, the old gentleman and I mounted our horses and proceed ed toward the church. I must have presented a comical appearance,' for I wore a child's hat above an agitated ex pression. My hat had not fallen oft where I thought it had, or perhaps the wind might liave blown it, but we found it in the road, almost covered' with the damp earth, which the heavy rain had beaten aroutid it. Just before reaching tho church, we meta man who lived in the neighborhood. He seemed greatly distressed. Turning to my companion he said: "Have you seen anything of my poor, demented daughter? She left home several days an, although we watched her closely, and has not been heard of since. I.could never give my consent for her to be taken to an asylum." A flash of intelligence, instead of a flash of lightning, now appeared, and .Mr. Gantling, turning to me remarked: "Andrew, she is the ghost you saw iu the church last night." We proceeded to the church, and there behind the pulpit, knelt the poor girL She had gone crazy on th^subject of re ligion. fl my freight had not been thus explained, no reasoning, even unto this day, could have convinced me that I had not seen a ghost.—Arkansas 'Traveler. —A new plan of dividing the year is proposed by Dr. Theodore Dimon, of Auburn, N. Y., who says it should be gin with March 1, the beginning of spring. This, he argues, would bring our artificial "civic" year, so-called, into harmony with the year of nature. It would begin its "March" with the awakening of plant life September,. October, November and December would, in reality, be the seventh., eighth, ninth and tenth months and rthe year would come to a cioay- with Febtuary, whith would become with Imore reason what its meaning —a time for expiation. 1 a1 ii ,N I li 'n if1 I- IK :#fi fit it fff* a t!