GOLD RING. 19 first. 1 felt alarmed, as such a thing had become unusual with him, of late years; but my anxious feelings were agreeably relieved, when the children told me their father had been hoeing, for an hour, in the potato field, and was mending the garden fence. With our scanty materials, 1 got ready the best breakfast I could, and he sat down to it, with a good appetite, but said little ; and, now and then, I saw the tears starting into his eyes. I had many fears, that he would fall back into his former habits, whenever he should meet his old companions, or stop in again at the Deacon’s store. 1 was about urging him to move into another village. After breakfast, he took me aside, and asked me if I had not a gold ring. “George,” said I, “that ring was my mother’s: she took it from her finger, and gave it to me, the day that she died. I would not part with that ring, unless it were to save life. Besides, if we are industrious and honest, we shall not be forsaken.” “ Dear Jenny,” said he, “ 1 know how you prize that gold ring: 1 never loved you more than
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=