VI. NORA'S SACRIFICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2730, 11 July 1906, Page 74

VI. NORA'S SACRIFICE.

(For Special Subject Week, 1906.) By Icicle.

"And must you go'" she asked. "Yes." he replied, "but, remember, it will only be for a short time."

They stood under the- ivy-covered porch, these two young people. He" was going away to a distant town to earn his living, and when he had earned enough to make a home he was coming buck again. They loved each other veiy dearly, and it was hard for them to part. '-But, ' ho continued, "we will be well repaid when I come back to Claim YOU for my bride."

The next day he sailed. She -went down to the wharf to see him away, and when the time to part came they were both very sad, but he reassured her by saying it would ill end well. She missed him very much for a while. He wrote to her regularly, and she gradually got happy again.

Five long summers had come and gone before he talked of coming home. He would be coming back again in threa months. Nora (for that was her np.me) counted the days for the hour when they should meet again. Two months had gone, when one day the postman brought a letter for Nora. In eager haste 9he tore it open but alas! what news did it bring her' The pink tinge in her face turned to a pallid hue, and her lips bscame pallid and her hands trembled so that she could hardly hold the letter. It told her that her lover had been at work carpentering on a high building, when he slipped from the ladder he was standing on and fell to the ground. He had been internally injured, and there was little hope for his recovery. Nora at once- flew upstairs and glanced at a daily paper. iTes, a steamer would sail in half an hour. She hastily summoned a passing cab, and, telling her parents what had happened, she departed Three Jc.ig, v.enry days passed ere the voyage ended. She hurried to tha house where Jack had been taken. On her entrance she wa-s told to sit down and wait a while, as the doctor was at that moment attending to him. Pic&ently the doctor came in to her", and she asked him if there was any hope! "No," he said, 1- I am very sorry to have to tell you that he will not ia*,t «n hour." She asked if she could see him. and being answered in ths affirmative she at ones went to him. On her entrance he did not notice her, and she was able to get to the bedside before he saw her It was wel! he did not see the look on her face. Was this the Ja<.k that had left her so healthy and robust? Now he was thin and haggard.

"Oh, Jack/ she cried, "are we to be parted thus"'"

"Be calm, my love." he said "I am happy now I was afraid you would not be here in time " But she said, "I can never be happy arftei you aie gon- Why has f.tte been so cruel to us ? j. had pictured a much diffeient life to this." But she suddenly stopped, as she noticed a change pass over his face. "Trust to God," ho said, "and you will get over it in time I am sinking fast, Nora. I shall soon be gone. I want you to kiss me, darling, before I go. Good-bye, love."

"Good-bye, my love," she said. She kissed him once mere, and then his soul passed tc the better land.

Nora's gncf was very sad, and when they talked of burying him in the town where he died she would not hear of it. She took his corpse home with her and buried it in her father's family vault. Many a pad hour she passed there Her father, who had never been a rich man, lost all his money speculating in a gold mine At this time a rich friend of his named Jackson came to see him, and, being charmed with Nora's girlish prettiuess. he fell in love with her. After a while he made Nora's father acquainted with the fact, at the same time telling him that if Nora became his bride he would gladly asist them in their tiuip of need. In fact, he meant he would provide them with a. home as long as they lived.

One day Hr Jackson asked Nora if she would marry him. At first .she refused, but at last she gave in, after being tearfully entreated by her parents to accept him. The wedding day had. arrived, and it was about half an hour before the ceremony when Nora's mother mis&ed her She abked Nellie (who was to be her bridesmaid) if she knew where Nora, was. She replied that she did not, but she would go and look for her. She thought that Bhe might have gone to the cemetery. Nellie sped along to the eeruetery, and there she found Nora in front of her dead lover's grave. Nellie told her to come back at once, as her mother had missed her. As they walked along they saw all the people waiting for them at the church. Nora told Nellie that she was sacrificing herself for her parents' benefit. The wedding was over, and the bride and bridegroom were travelling. They had travelled through America and France, and they were sttrwng through Italy. One day Nora felt ill, and on the doctor being summoned it waa found that she was suffering from a. fever which A/as prevalent there at the time. The attack was not severe enough to threaten her life and =hp gradually got better, and was Boon able to sit in a chair; but life seemed to have no interest for her, and after living in a. semi-indifferent state for a while she gradually sank and died*