she mentioned Nelly's name,
while Larry O'Neil sat with his hands clasped, gazing at her with an
expression of the deepest commiseration.

"We got pretty well on at first," she continued, after a pause, "because
our waggon was lighter than most o' the others; but it was near winter
before we got to the mountains, an' then our troubles begood. First of
all, one o' the oxen fell, and broke its leg. Then darlin' Nelly fell
sick, and Patrick had to carry her on his back up the mountains, for I
had got so weak meself that I wasn't fit to take her up. All the way
over I was troubled with one o' the emigrants that kep' us company--
there was thirty o' us altogether--he was a very bad man, and none o' us
liked him. He took a fancy to me, an' asked me to be his wife so often
that I had to make Patrick order him to kape away from us altogether.
He wint off in a black rage, swearin' he'd be revenged,--an' oh!"
continued Kate, wringing her hands, "he kept his word. One day there
was a dispute between our leaders which way we should go, for we had got
to two passes in the mountains; so one party went one way, and we went
another. Through the night, my--my lover came into our camp to wish me
good-bye, he said, for the last time, as he was goin' with the other
party. After he was gone, I missed Nelly, and went out to seek for her
among the tents o' my neighbours, but she was nowhere to be found. At
once I guessed he had taken her away, for well did he know I would
sooner have lost my life than my own darlin' Nell."

Again the girl paused a few moments; then she resumed, in a low voice--

"We never saw him or Nelly again. It is said the whole party perished,
an' I believe it, for they were far spent, and the road they took, I've
been towld, is worse than the one we took. It was dead winter when we
arrived, and Patrick and me came to live here. We made a good deal at
first by diggin', but we both fell sick o' the ague, and we've been
scarce able to kape us alive till now. But it won't last long. Dear
Patrick is broken down entirely, as ye see, and I haven't strength
a'most to go down to the diggin's for food. I haven't been there for a
month, for it's four miles away, as I dare say ye know. We'll both be
at rest soon."

"Ah! now, don't say that again, avic," cried Larry, smiting his thigh
with energy; "ye'll be nothin' o' the sort, that ye won't; sure yer
brother Pat is slaipin' now like an infant, he is, an' I'll go