at have you got for me?' I
'ont forget one of them aither, God helping me!" said Nora, in a
passion of tenderness and pity. "And, oh, Johnny, then afther that I
'll see me mother in the door!"

Johnny was so close at her side that she slipped her hand into his, and
neither of them stopped to think about so sweet and natural a pleasure.
"I 'd like well to help you, me darlin'," said Johnny.

"Sure, an' was n't it yourself gave me all me good fortune?" exclaimed
Nora. "I 'd be hard-hearted an' I forgot that so soon and you a Kerry
boy, and me mother often spaking of your mother's folks before ever I
thought of coming out!"

"Sure and would n't you spake the good word to your mother about me
sometime, dear?" pleaded Johnny, openly taking the part of lover.
Nora's hand was still in his; they were walking slowly in the summer
night. "I loved you the first word I heard out of your mouth,--'twas
like a thrush from home singing to me there in the train. I said when
I got home that night, I 'd think of no other girl till the day I died."

"Oh!" said Nora, frightened with the change of his voice. "Oh, Johnny,
't is too soon. We never walked out this way before; you 'll have to
wait for me; perhaps you 'd soon be tired of poor Nora, and the likes
of one that's all for saving and going home! You 'll marry a prittier
girl than me some day," she faltered, and let go his hand.

"Indeed, I won't, then," insisted Johnny O'Callahan stoutly.

"Will you let me go home to see me mother?" said Nora soberly. "I 'm
afther being very homesick, 't is the truth for me. I 'd lose all me
courage if it wa'n't for the hope of that."

"I will, indeed," said Johnny honestly.

Nora put out her hand again, of her own accord. "I 'll not say no,
then," she whispered in the dark. "I can't work long unless I do be
happy, and--well, leave me free till the month's end, and maybe then I
'll say yes. Stop, stop!" she let go Johnny's hand, and hurried along
by herself in the road, Johnny, in a transport of happiness, walking
very fast to keep up. She reached a knoll where he could see her
slender shape against the dim western sky. "Wait till I tell you;
_whisper_!" said Nora eagerly. "You know there were some of the
managers of the road, the superintendents and all those big ones, came
to Birch Plains yesterday?"

"I did be hearing something," said Johnny, wondering.

"There was a quiet-spoken, nice old gentleman came asking me at the