THOSE LETTERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2524, 30 July 1902, Page 74

THOSE LETTERS.

(Fob tub Witxev.)

13 v L'has. Oscut Palmhb

Hie tune bad arrived when they were to pait — they who had grown up together, and never until lately realised how much they were to each other Now, for the last time foi many yeais maybe, they strolled beneath the stais among the tus&ocky hills. Tliere beside the nanow stream they paused, and, savage with himself that so many tunes had gone by when he might Lave passionately loved that little girl, lie turned and took her tender hands in his. 'ihe moon, a slender silver bow, was sinking toward tfie long, low line of hills, over which still lingered the delicious light of departing da}-. Muffled beatings stole down from the far hillside, and barkings from the homestead came deep and solemn.

"'Jessie ! My love, Jessie ! lam going away fiom you. We have grown up together; we lidve lived alone, yet we were never alone while we had one another. Now I must go far, far away for years and years, but there is only one little woman in the wc.rld for me, and I shall love you always, dear ; I shall always love you." He lifted her thrilling hands a little, bent and kissed them, and she saw the tremor that twitched bis lip. "Long, love, as the sunset light lingers among yonder mountains, long as the tender moon shines over sea or shore, my spa it. will Meal back to be with you liere. And you? Are j'ou mine for ever?' 1

"I nevei knew that I loved you, dear, but I am yours for ever."

And one with forbidding face stole from the stunted manuka and took his way hastily adown the valley, unseen of those innocent lovers, who caught and wondered at the smell gi i£bj\£ c .°. §JA°kS i» their

Weeks and months and years had gone. Far and footsore, heartsore, he had wandered. He had carried his swag in the drought-stricken Never-never Land, where the sun blazes down on the blasted plain, and the tiny bushes in the heated, hazy distance are magnified until they resemble trees ; the same horrible, depressing sameness broods and burdens for ever, and the toilworn traveller must twirl a feather or twig before his eyes to keep the flies from his face. He had heard the roller thunder on the shores of a thousand solitary isles, and seen the gleaming bodies of dusky women, when they sported in the surf of tepid, azure seas. He had heard the grating of myriad feet in crowded thoroughfares beneath the glare of many lights, and had passed the turmoil of many years alone, and with never a word from the darling of his youth, the tender girl he had loved so long ago.

And now it was night — a black, bitter night. Mass after mass of inky cloud swept up from the southern horizon before the biting wind, and hurled its sleety burden about the hills behind which the crescefifc moon had sunk so long ago. Footsore and famished, he hailed the publichouse fire with delight, and while awaiting supper he beard a well-known voice hiccoughing in drunken confidence to a cornered stranger:

"Well, you see, I was dead shook on this here girl, and that young saint who was doing a bear-up to her had a. great set on me. so I swore to get even with him. I was working for her old bloke, and always had to post the letters, so took fine care that none of hers went to him or that none of his reached her. Why didn't she post 'em herself? Well, you see, she couldn't ride, and it is a matter of some 20 miles of bridle track, and her old bloke he kmder passed the wink to me. so it was all right."

That famished swagger had forgotten his weariness. "You besotted sinner! You cursed cur ! You disgusting dog !" And with every exclamation he dealt a sinewy thrust at that instantly-sobered sneak. Then leaving him a-spra-wl on the floor, he bounded bare-headed into the bitter night. And over miles of storm-swept hill and down by darksome gullies he hurried. He forded the frozen stream and saw the light among the trees. The blind was up, and she was seated at the table bending over a book, reading aloud to her aged mother. It was a timorous knock at the door, which was soon opened, and the light fell on his weather-beaten face.

"Harry!" she said, "my Harry! What a long time you have been !" She put out her hands. Rough and somewhat hard they weTe, but he took them in his horny fists and kissed them as she drew him into the cosy room. "Mother, here's Harry ! I toldyou he would come," nnd then she fell into her chair, and sobbed as she had never j.obbed in all the dreary days that she had. lived alone.