a flash of joy
illuminating his face; "do you, really?"

"There you are," said Sally; "it's a shame I have let you know! Yes,
Moses Pennel, she loves you like an angel, as none of you men deserve to
be loved,--as you in particular don't."

Moses sat down on a point of rock, and looked on the ground
discountenanced. Sally stood up glowing and triumphant, as if she had
her foot on the neck of her oppressor and meant to make the most of it.

"Now what do you think of yourself for all this summer's work?--for what
you have just said, asking me if I didn't love you? Supposing, now, I
had done as other girls would, played the fool and blushed, and said
yes? Why, to-morrow you would have been thinking how to be rid of me! I
shall save you all that trouble, sir."

"Sally, I own I have been acting like a fool," said Moses, humbly.

"You have done more than that,--you have acted wickedly," said Sally.

"And am I the only one to blame?" said Moses, lifting his head with a
show of resistance.

"Listen, sir!" said Sally, energetically; "I have played the fool and
acted wrong too, but there is just this difference between you and me:
you had nothing to lose, and I a great deal; your heart, such as it was,
was safely disposed of. But supposing you had won mine, what would you
have done with it? That was the last thing you considered."

"Go on, Sally, don't spare; I'm a vile dog, unworthy of either of you,"
said Moses.

Sally looked down on her handsome penitent with some relenting, as he
sat quite dejected, his strong arms drooping, and his long eyelashes
cast down.

"I'll be friends with you," she said, "because, after all, I'm not so
very much better than you. We have both done wrong, and made dear Mara
very unhappy. But after all, I was not so much to blame as you; because,
if there had been any reality in your love, I could have paid it
honestly. I had a heart to give,--I have it now, and hope long to keep
it," said Sally.

"Sally, you are a right noble girl. I never knew what you were till
now," said Moses, looking at her with admiration.

"It's the first time for all these six months that we have either of us
spoken a word of truth or sense to each other. I never did anything but
trifle with you, and you the same. Now we've come to some plain dry
land, we may walk on and be friends. So now help me up these rocks, and
I will go home."

"And you'll not come home with me?"

"Of course not. I think you may now go