sat here watching the stars, didn't I hold thy little finger and point
it up to the North Star and make thee promise to marry me? And if thou
art going to change thy mind, 'twill break my heart," and his mouth
took a sad, pathetic curve.

"But I am not going to change. I remember the star which I pointed to
when I promised to marry thee. 'Twill be up there by and by when the
light is gone, for it is always there, though the others move about."

"Yes, 'tis the North Star, and the English have a saying, 'As true as
the North Star'--that's what thou must be to me, Morva."

"Yes, indeed. The English are very wise people. But after all, Will,
I must laugh when I think of a clergyman marrying a shepherdess. Oh!
Will, Will!" added the girl more seriously and in a deprecating tone,
"thou art talking nonsense. Think it over for a day or two, and then
we'll talk about it. I cannot stay longer--Ann will be angry."

And slipping out of his grasp, she ran with light footsteps over the
soft turf, Will looking after her bewildered and troubled, until she
disappeared round the edge of the ridge; then he rose slowly, picked up
his book, and followed her with slow steps and an anxious look on his
handsome face. He was tall and well grown, like every member of the
Garthowen family; his reddish-brown hair so thick above his forehead
that his small cap of country frieze was scarcely required as a
covering for his head; and not even the coarse material of his homespun
suit, or his thick country-made shoes, could hide a certain air of
jaunty distinction, which was a subject of derision amongst the young
lads of his acquaintance, but of which he himself was secretly proud.
From boyhood he had despised the commonplace ways of his rustic home,