LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 264, 16 April 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

MADGE'S SACRIFICE.

By E. M. Alford.

( Continued,)

Poor Kit! he had never felt so ashamed of himself in his short life before. It seemed to put his easy-going self-indulgence and carelessness about money affairs in quite a new light. He called himself a great many ugly names in private, and wore a defiant, aggrieved air in public for some days. At last, on Christmas Eve, he could stand it no longer, and startled Madge with the exclamation : " I say, Madge, it's more than a fellow can stand; I wouldn't have come home this vac. if I'd known how horrid it would be. I'm not going to keep the peace any longer. So you must let me off. I shall tell the governor first, and Tom after. A fellow can't go through Christmas with a thing like this on his mind !'

* Very well, Kit, only don't let Tom make a fuss about the money. Now my hair's gone, it would be too bad to have lost it in vain.'

' You won't have done that, Madge, anyhow,'said Kit in a choky voice. 'You've made me see myself in my right colors at last. I had no idea before what a selfish villain I was.'

Madge smiled brightly up into the dolorous face above her, saying, • You are my own dear old Kit, of whom we shall all be proud some day, I know.' And so, with lightened hearts, the two separated: Kit to repair to his father's study, there to make his contrite confession, and explain Madge's sacrifice ; Madge to lay out the two pounds Kit had returned to her on buns and presents for the school-chil-dren's feast, which was to take place on this Christmas Eve.

The oak-panelled parlour before described was to be the scene of the festivities, where forty boys and girls were to be regaled first, and entertained after by a Christmas-tree and magic-lantern; the former to be presided over by Madge and Mary Helston, the latter to be managed by Kit and Tom. The girls had been pricking their fingers over holly decorations, and making their arms ache with decking the tree during a good part of the afternoon, with only Nellie and Bob, and little Clare, as their helpers or hinderers. The last thing was to hang the mistletoe, and that was quite beyond their powers. 'I wish Tom were here,' sighed Mary. • He used to be so ready to help in this sort of thing. But when I asked him to come with me to-day, he looked quite glum, and said he had other things to attend to. So tiresome, too, for I know he's only moping about at home, and worrying mother with his dismals.'

'And Kit's gone out, too,' said Nellie, 'and he has always hung the mistletoe before!'

The absence of the respective brothers seemed to throw a gloom over the party. The young ones missed the rollicking fun that Kit and Tom together generally set going. And the two girls, I think, if the truth must be told, each felt a certain amount of depression at the defection of their respective cavaliers. For poor Kit had been too out of heart with himself this Christmas-tide to venture much into Mary's presence; looking upon her, as he did, as a superior being to himself; one whom it was almost profanation for a good-for-nothing spendthrift to dare to approach. Tom Helston, on the other hand, had nursed his wrath against Madge for the mercenary disposal of her hair. And though sore at heart over his broken idol, had yet been barely civil to her when they unavoidably met. Now Madge felt this much more than she could have believed possible. She had always felt a great interest in Tom, and in his successes at school and college. But she had fancied this a similar sisterly interest to that which she had taken in Kit's triumphs at cricket and foot-ball. Nor did she guess till deprived of it how precious his friendship was to her; nor how much of her own mental growth she owed to the long holiday letters with the clever, well-read Oxonian ; nor how much the tedium of school-work was cheered by the thought of how Tom Helston would expect her to be well up in this, or to cultivate her taste for that. She knew now that she had disappointed him, and felt depressed with the consciousness.

The twilight was creeping on, and the spiritless workers were sitting listlessly on the chimney settees, when, with a merry peal of laughter, Kit burst into the room, laden with a great branch of glistening holly thickly besprinkledwithberries, andfollowed more quietly by Tom with a gigantic mis-tletoe-bough. ' Hallo 1 little ones,' cried Kit, throwing down his holly, • set to work and strip off all these sprigs, while Tom and I hoist this fine fellow to the ceiling. By your leave, Miss Mary," stooping to kiss the blushing girl, as she stood admiring the pretty white berries of the bough he had suspended. Kit was himself again, and no mistake, as full of fun and frolic as the most frolicsome could wish. And pretty Mary brightened up, and the children grew uproarious. But Madge, though happy in the changed aspect of things, felt shy and ill at ease, and uncomfortably conscious of her cropped head. While Tom, generally so full of quiet humour, and so ready to respond to Kit's jokes, looked unwontedly grave for him, with a new expression on his kind, clever face, that Madge could not interpret. At last the mistletoe was hung, and all arrangements completed, half an hour before the time for the arrival of the guests, when Kit exclaimed :

' Now for a coze round the fire, and see who can tell the most horrible stories !'

1 No, no !' said little Clare, ' I don't like Kit's stories; they're all about ghosts and ogres. Please, Mr Tom, tell us a fairy story ; I like your stories best.' And the little maid climbed on his knee, and nestled her curly head against his shoulder, composing herself to a comfortable listening, with one chubby finger thrust into her mouth.

' Very well,' said Tom ; «I'll try : • Once upon a time there was a very beautiful princess, and she was as good as she was beautiful. Everybody praised her ; some for her beauty, and some for her goodness, and not a few for both. ' She was always dressed, too, in the loveliest dresses, and wore the most dazzling jewels in the world. And the people of that country were pi'oud of their princess, and of all her beauty and splendid attire. =. • Now it came to pass that there was a dreadful iamiae is one part of that JaatL >Jt

was the people's own fault, because they had been too lazy to sow the seeds properly in the spring. But the consequence was that women and children and even strong men were dying for want of food, and for lack of money to buy food from those that had plenty.

'At last in their trouble they went to the good princess and asked her to help them. 'So she emptied all her coppers and gave them every penny she had, and they went away happy. *But soon they came again in as much distress as before; for that money was all spent, and the famine was worse than ever. ' Then the Princess took off all her brilliant jewels and gave them to the beggars. But the courtiers grumbled and said: ' Why should our princess lose her beauty for the sake of these miserables ? There is nothing so priceless as beauty.' • Then the princess answered : • Look on me, my people, the fairy Selbstverleugnung (self-sacrifice) maketh amends.'

'And as they looked, they saw a fairy wand waved over their princess, and were obliged to confess that her beauty was more dazzling than before. ' But again the poor people came in their tattered garments to ask for bread. Then the princess arose and took one of the poor women with her into an inner chamber, and exchanged her own gorgeous attire for the tattered clothing of the poor woman, and returned again to her throne. •But when the courtiers saw what was done, they were more furious still, and axclaimed : ' Shame on our princess to insult her beauty thus. There is nothing so priceless as beauty!' ' But again the fairy wand waved in the air over her bent head, and again the people confessed, ' Her beauty is more dazzling than ever!'

' When next the beggars came, the courtiers jeered at them and said: 'Go home, ye knaves! ye have spoiled our princess already. What would you have of her now !' ' But the princess lifted her snowy arms, and took out the pin that fastened her golden locks, till they fell, a shower of real gold, around her, and flowed over the steps of the throne to the very feet of the beggars. Then the princess called for a pair of shears and clipped them all off, and the beggars gathered up the shining gold in armfuls, and went away blessing her. ' But the courtiers were furious now, and would have pursued and beaten the beggars, had not the princess called to them in her gracious tone, and said, • Look on me, my people, the fairy Selbstverleugnung maketh amends.' And when they turned,lb ! there was the wand waving over the head of the princess, and her beauty was more dazzling than ever !

' Again the beggars came in their distress, and now the princess was puzzled for a moment. But presently she sent for a clever dentist, who put her under laughing gas, and drew all her pearly teeth in a twinkling by the power of steam. Each tooth was a separate pearl of great value. So the beggars went away richer than ever with their thirty-six precious pearls, and never came to beg of their princess any more, but bought corn, and cropped their lands diligently, singing the praises of their beautiful princess, who had given her very hair and her teeth for them!

• But when the courtiers saw the dainty pearls fall from her ruby lips, they were mad with anger, and ran upon the beggars to kill them.

'But suddenly the sweet tones of the princess checked them, as she cried, "Look on me my people, and confess that the fairy Selbstverleugnung yet maketh amends." So they turned and looked on her, and the courtiers had to shade their eyes with their hands, so dazzling was the brilliancy of her beauty. ' Then they exclaimed with one voice: " Hail to the fairy Selbstverleugnung ! Hail to our peerless princess ! Beauty is precious for beauty's sake, but the beauty of Selbstverleugnung is beyond all price!"' ' What a funny story,' said little Clare. • What does that long word mean ?' 'lt means self-sacrifice,' said Tom, 'and it is the name of the good fairy that makes even ugly people beautiful, and makes the lovely, lovelier far.'

* I'm sure the princess couldn't have looked pretty,' asserted Nellie, 'when all her hair was gone, and her teeth too. She must have been a worse fright even than Madge !' On hearing her own name, Madge looked up from her intense gaze into the fire, and glanced across at Tom on the opposite settee. But as their eyes met, a conscious blush passed over her fair face, and the blue eyes drooped again under his earnest gaze, while little Clare added to her confusion by exclaiming, with a sudden happy thought: ' I do believe Mr Tom meant Madge all along, and that she is his beautiful princess !' Upon this Madge rose, saying she must go and look out for her guests. And Tom presently followed her, and found her standing in the quaint old porch, cooling her blushing cheeks in the frosty air, and waiting for the children. ' Oh! Madge,'he said in a tone of entreaty, ' will you be my own beautiful princess, and teach me through life your lesson of Selbstverleugnung ?' Madge raised her glistening blue eyes to his, and said, smiling through her tears : ' Oh! Tom, how can Ibe that, when you know I am such a fright!'

How Tom convinced her of the contrary, it is not our mission to inquire. We onlyknow that the considerate school children gave them time to settle the matter there io the porch to their mutual satisfaction, and that the said children received a beaming welcome from the happy pair as their reward when at last they made their appearance, trooping up hand in hand to the vicarage, singing a carol as they went. Never had a happier Christmas Eve been passed under that dear old vicarage roof than was spent by the young people on this particular occasion entertaining their merry guests. And when the vicar laid his hand on Madge's head as she wished him goodnight, saying, ' Bless you, my child, it was a golden deed after all,' she felt that her cup at least was brim full.

Some years have passed since then. Kit has taken his degree without any more failures or debts, and is helping his father a« curate: the villagers respecting him none the les3 for being the best cricketer in all the country round. He and his pretty wife live with her mother in the dainty cottage aforementioned. His friend Tom has led a brilliant career so far, and is looked upon as one of the most promising young barristers at the Bar. His wife's golden head is often bent with hia over his work, and she is in the full eeftpe pf tho word '' i helpmeet " for tuaa>