For nearly two years, a day has hardly passed that my family hasn't wrung the burnin' tears from my eyes on your account.

Haven't I refused matches that any young woman in my station of life ought to be I proud to accept ?" "You did, Ellen, you did; but still I know how hard it is for you to hould out against the persecution you suffer at home.

No, no, Ellen dear, I never doubted you for one minute.

All I wondher at is, that such a girl as you ever could think of one so humble as I am, compared to what you'd have a right to expect an' could get." "Well, but if I'm willin' to prefer you, John ?" said Ellen, with a smile.
"One thing I know, Ellen," he replied, "an' that is, that I'm far from bein' worthy of you; an' I ought, if I had a high enough spirit, to try to turn you against me, if it was only that you might marry a man that 'ud have it in his power to make you happier than ever I'll be able to do; any way, than ever it's likely I'll be able to do." "I don't think, John, that ever money or the wealth of the world made a man an' wife love one another yet, if they didn't do it before; but it has often put their hearts against one another." "I agree wid you in that, Ellen; but you don't know how my heart sinks when I think of your an' my own poverty.

My poor father, since the strange disappearance of little Alice, never was able to raise his head; and indeed my mother was worse.