joyful meeting, the lovers kiss, in which there was no shame, the tears
of joy in which there was no weakness; the heartfelt pleasure of two
honest hearts. But the partings were soon to be over, for after the next
voyage the young lovers were to be wedded. The simple wedding dress was
made and all was ready. With gay snatches of song, and merry feet the
young girl flitted about the house, impatiently waiting the day which
was to bring her lover. There was only one more day of waiting and
"to-morrow, to-morrow he comes," she sang. Early in the evening dark
clouds formed in the sky, the wind began to moan, the waves beat high
upon the shore, the murmuring winds changed to howling blasts, the waves
rolled mountains high, the spirits of the sea and air seemed to have
arisen in their fury, doors rattled, houses shook on their
foundations--and to-morrow came, but no lover. The wedding clothes were
laid away, and the day which was to have seen the young girl made a
happy wife, found her a heart-broken stricken woman; and now she must
take up her burden, and from month to month and year to year, carry this
leaden weight called a heart.

The years rolled by taking with them her girlish beauty, and leaving in
its place the wrinkles of time and sorrow. As time passed the idea took
possession of her that her lover would still come back. True the vessel
in which he sailed had been wrecked, but still there lingered the one
faint hope, and every night she lit the lamp and placed it in the
window as she had done in her youth, as the beacon light for the absent
love. As time passed she followed her father to the grave and in a short
time stood by the bed of her dying mother. And now she was alone in her
loneliness and desolation. Every year when the day came which was to
have been her wedding day, the white dress, which had grown yellow with
age, was taken out, folded and flowers scattered over it as carefully as
we would sprinkle flowers over a child's grave, for in the box in which