1868]
THE FORGET-JIIE-IVOT .-
A CIIRISTMAS sroza r.
55
and then a. dewdrop rolled from the 1 her eyes, and then gazed into the dis , tance. I followed her eyes. Along the moss and carried it to the stream. Lilli pressed her fingers to her eyes, road through zhe valley, a horseman was and when Kiippchen good-naturedly in riding fast. It was he. quired what ailed her, she declared it was the stars that shone too dimly, and “ Lilli,” cried Kiippchen, impatiently. “What is the use of going on with this? added something about its being im prudent thus to try to read in the dark. Who is the girl? how did she come to As that was precisely what he had be- . have a Forget-me-not in her hand ? who fore told her, Kiippchen reminded her is /12? We know nothing about all this.” of the fact, and tried to convince her But the willful little Lilli had taken it that he had been right. But then she into her head that she would decipher denied it all, and stoutly maintained, her flower to the end. that though the stars might be to blame, “ My dear," she said, “ do not inter her reading had not hurt her in the rupt me. It is easy enough to compre least; and in proof of the truth of her hend. A young man has just given a assertion, she made ready for the perusal Forget-me-not to a young girl. He rides of the fifth leaf of the Forget-me-not away. She watches him from the win that she held in her hand. Kéippchen dow. That is all clear enough. The saw at once that any arguments on the rest of the story will show if I am right ground of prudence would be thrown or not."
away, and yielded to the humor of his friend, and listened to her story with as good a grace as he could assume. But this time Lilli looked somewhat perplexed as she perused her leaflet, while across the countenance of her friend flitted a slight expression of ma licious pleasure at her discomfiture, as she began: “ Something must have got into my eye and blinded me for a moment, for
When he was out of sight she turned from the window. She had held back her tears, lest they should for a. moment have veiled him from her sight. _And now she stood alone in the room, and a stream of tears flowed over her cheeks, She smiled
this petal, and half of the story is gone.”
in the midst of her weeping, and pressed me to her lips. “Is it true, really true, that he loves me P” . She paced through the room with a light, quick step; the flood of a new and wonderful happiness carried her on its rushing tide. She stood before the mir
“ Ah, then, let us make an end of the
ror, and looked as if she would read her
reading,” said Kéippchen, and was about
own soul in her face, that had grown dearer to her since she knew that he loved her. She almost started at the traces of tears on her cheeks. “Tears !” she said. “Tears, and I never was so happy in all my life before!’ She smiled, and dashed them away, but the diamond drops still fell like show ers in April. She walked to and fro tiL
with the fourth leaf I have torn away a part of the yellow heart of the flower, and with it some of the inmost fibres of
to get up. “ By no means,” said Lilli, holding him back. “I always make it a rule to read my books to the end. And thou, who art so clever and hast so much learning, and hast had so much experience of the world, wilt be able to make out the drift and to guess the rest of the history. Ve seem to be just in the middle, and from here on to the end it is all clear; and thou must now listen.” She read:
she became calmer; and the thoughts which had lately been swept aside by a great emotion returned to their natural channel, and the circumstances of her
CONCLUSION.
life rose before her. She stood suddenly The young girl stood in the window still. and held me in her hand. She pressed “ My grandmother!” she cried, “ my her hand to her brow, and drew it across I grandmother ! I dare not confess this
