Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/26

 *fancy. "Noo say, 'God bless my darlin'!' an' kiss me, an' sing me to sleep, an' I'll luve ye foriver, an' niver leave ye."

Gladly did the loving arms close round the little repentant one, and long after the little quivering bosom had ceased to sob and sigh, the grandmother sat rocking her to and fro, sadly listening to the voices of the stormy night, and crooning over a low, sweet lullaby—the burden of which was still, "Oh! my ain precious ane! my ain bairn's bairnie! my darlin'; my ain Alice's wee Allie!"

Long into the night she sat thus; and sadder longing for her forsaken home than little Allie ever knew came thronging thick about her; alone in a strange, wild land—the little creature, sobbing in its sleep upon her breast, her only tie to earth. But she was a woman of resolute spirit—she would not look back repiningly; and she set her face as a flint to meet and bear the destiny which her own action had drawn upon herself.