The Argosy — page 150: what you’re looking at

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

140 Madge's Sacrifice. the moral line, they beat us all to bits, and no mistake!” And so the friends parted. 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 careless- ness 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 nght colours 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 our 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-children’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. , “‘T wish Tom were here,” sighed Mary. ‘He used to be so ready to help in this sort of thing. But whenI 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 wotrying 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 CORNICE OOS (GO)