Geoffrey's Victory by Mrs Georgie Sheldon — page 169: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A THRILLING STORY. 3 165 . began, after they were seated. “He bought out old Waters all of a sudden, and, about a fortnight after, he brought the prettiest little woman I ever set eyes on to live in that house yonder—- -” £ “His wife?” eagerly queried Geoffrey. “Of course, lad—leastwise he said she was, and she was called Mrs. Dale; and if ever aman set his life by a woman, the captain was that one. He dressed her likea doll, and wouldn’t let her do a thing except make little fancy knicknacks, and was forever pettin’ and makin’ of herasif she wasachild. Wal, thev kep’ two maids —at least after a while—one in the kitchen and one to wait on Mrs. Dale, who was kind of ailin’. Margery Brown was the waitin’ maid, and she and me had been keepin’ company for quite a while, and it was agreed between us that we’d marry afore long and try our luck together in California, for I’d scraped together a snug little sum and was tired of mines. But after she went to the cap’s house she began to put me off—she grew so fond of his wife that she wouldn’t hear a word about marryin’ and leavin’ her. At the end nf a year ye were born—a cute little nine-pounder ye was, too, and a prouder man ye never see than the captain was after ye came. But it didn’t last long, for yer mother began to failafore ye were amonth old, and in another week or two she was dead. “Tt just broke the captain’s heart. He seemed half crazed, didn’t pay any heed to his business, and finally said he couldn’t stay here where everything kept his mind stirred up with the past. He told Margery he was goin’ to break up, only he didn’t know what he should do with you, for he hadn’t any place or any folks to take you to. “T thought my time to speak up had come then, and I told Margery she must take me then or never, and if the captain were willin’ we’d take the baby along with us, until he could do better by it. This pleased her, and she said she’d speak tothe master about it. He was elad enough to let ye come with us, for he knew my girl loved ye and would take better care of ye than any stranger. He said he’d pay well for it until ye were old enough to go to school, when he’d take you to some good one to begin ver edication. “Well, Margery and I were married, and went to Cali- fornia to live on a small farm I’d leased, just ont of Frisco, which I worked part of the time and let out the COMIC! XOO| KS, (60) =}