Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/257

 cursed me to my face, an' swore I haed cheated him into marryin' a penniless lass.

"Weel; I trow I haed a hard life enow—but I wa' true to him; for mind ye this, Allie, I wa' his wife, an' I luved him, in spite o' a' his onkindness. So I held by him for ower two years—through guid an' evil—till my little baby wa' born, an' thin jist what my father haed foretold kim true—the regiment wa' ordered to move, an' he went whistlin' awa', an' left me wi' the puir wee thing lyin' by my side, an' na' the first ha'f-penny to live on, an' me too weak to ettle to win ane.

"An' thin—ah! Alice, mind ye, there's nae luve like the luve that ha' growed up wi' us: my father haed niver lost sight o' me, though he left me to drink the cup I brewed; he kim to me in my desolation, an' took tent o' me, an' my puir wee lambie.

"In less than a month I got news o' the shipwreck o' ane o' the transport ships, an' my husband wa' lost. Thin my father an' mither forgave me, an' took me hame to their hearts ance mair; an' whin they deed long after, they left me weel-to-do; an' my wee