"I never was till I loved you, my dear, and I 'm not very bad yet, for I don't wear my posy next my heart, but where I can see it every day, and so never forget for whom I am working. Should n't wonder if that bit of nonsense had kept me economical, honest, and hard at it, for I never opened my pocket-book that I did n't think of you.""That 's lovely, Tom," and Polly found it so touching that she felt for her handkerchief; but Tom took it away, and made her laugh instead of cry, by saying, in a wheedlesome tone,­"I don't believe you did as much, for all your romance. Did you, now?""If you won't laugh, I 'll show you my treasures. I began first, and I 've worn them longest."As she spoke, Polly drew out the old locket, opened it, and showed the picture Tom gave her in the bag of peanuts cut small and fitted in on one side on the other was a curl of reddish hair and a black button. How Tom laughed when he saw them!
"You don't mean you 've kept that frightful guy of a boy all this time?
Polly! Polly! you are the most faithful 'loveress,' as Maud says, that was ever known.""Don't flatter yourself that I 've worn it all these years, sir; I only put it in last spring because I did n't dare to ask for one of the new ones. The button came off the old coat you insisted on wearing after the failure, as if it was your duty to look as shabby as possible, and the curl I stole from Maud. Are n't we silly?"He did not seem to think so, and after a short pause for refreshments, Polly turned serious, and said anxiously,­"When must you go back to your hard work?""In a week or two; but it won't seem drudgery now, for you 'll write every day, and I shall feel that I 'm working to get a home for you. That will give me a forty-man-power, and I 'll pay up my debts and get a good start, and then Ned and I will be married and go into partnership, and we 'll all be the happiest, busiest people in the West.""It sounds delightful; but won't it take a long time, Tom?""Only a few years, and we need n't wait a minute after Syd is paid, if you don't mind beginning rather low down, Polly.""I 'd rather work up with you, than sit idle while you toil away all alone. That 's the way father and mother did, and I think they were very happy in spite of the poverty and hard work.""Then we 'll do it by another year, for I must get more salary before I take you away from a good home here. I wish, oh, Polly, how I wish Ihad a half of the money I 've wasted, to make you comfortable, now.""Never mind, I don't want it; I 'd rather have less, and know you earned it all yourself," cried Polly, as Tom struck his hand on his knee with an acute pang of regret at the power he had lost.
"It 's like you to say it, and I won't waste any words bewailing myself, because I was a fool. We will work up together, my brave Polly, and you shall yet be proud of your husband, though he is 'poor Tom Shaw.' "She was as sure of that as if an oracle had foretold it, and was not deceived; for the loving heart that had always seen, believed, and tried to strengthen all good impulses in Tom, was well repaid for its instinctive trust by the happiness of the years to come.
"Yes," she said, hopefully, "I know you will succeed, for the best thing a man can have, is work with a purpose in it, and the will to do it heartily.""There is one better thing, Polly," answered Tom, turning her face up a little, that he might see his inspiration shining in her eyes.
"What is it, dear?"
"A good woman to love and help him all his life, as you will me, please God.""Even though she is old-fashioned," whispered Polly, with happy eyes, the brighter for their tears, as she looked up at the young man, who, through her, had caught a glimpse of the truest success, and was not ashamed to owe it to love and labor, two beautiful old fashions that began long ago, with the first pair in Eden.
Lest any of my young readers who have honored Maud with their interest should suffer the pangs of unsatisfied curiosity as to her future, I will add for their benefit that she did not marry Will, but remained a busy, lively spinster all her days, and kept house for her father in the most delightful manner.
Will's ministerial dream came to pass in the course of time, however, and a gentle, bright-eyed lady ruled over the parsonage, whom the reverend William called his "little Jane."Farther into futurity even this rash pen dares not proceed, but pauses here, concluding in the words of the dear old fairy tales, "And so they were married, and all lived happily till they died."
