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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #68027 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68027)
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXI, No. 6,
-December 1842, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXI, No. 6, December 1842
-
-Author: Various
-
-Editors: George Rex Graham
- Rufus W. Griswold
-
-Release Date: May 8, 2022 [eBook #68027]
-[Most recently updated: November 24, 2022]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: Mardi Desjardins & the online Distributed Proofreaders
- Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net from page images
- generously made available by the Internet Archive
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE, VOL. XXI,
-NO. 6, DECEMBER 1842 ***
-
-
-
-
- GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.
- Vol. XXI. December, 1842 No. 6.
-
-
- Contents
-
- Fiction and Literature
-
- Richard Dale
- The Widow of Newbury
- Malina Gray
- Truth
- The Persecutor’s Daughter
- A Race for a Sweetheart
- Harry Cavendish
- The Ladies’ Library
- The Hasty Marriage
- Review Of New Books
- Editor’s Table
-
- Poetry
-
- The Serenade
- Sonnets
- Sonnet
- Noon
- True Affection
- The Farewell
- The Holynights
- The Pastor’s Visit
- To the Night-Wind in Autumn
-
- Transcriber’s Notes can be found at the end of this eBook.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: Painted by E. Prentice, Engraved by H.S. Sadd
-_Awaiting the Husband’s Return_
-_Engraved Expressly for Graham’s Magazine._
-
-
-
-
- GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.
-
- Vol. XXI. PHILADELPHIA: DECEMBER, 1842. No. 6.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- RICHARD DALE.
-
-
- BY J. FENIMORE COOPER, AUTHOR OF “THE SPY,” “THE PIONEERS,” ETC.
-
-
-Among the many brave men who early contributed to render the navy of the
-republic popular and respectable, the gallant seaman whose name is
-placed at the head of this article is entitled to a conspicuous place;
-equally on account of his services, his professional skill, and his
-personal merit. Although his connection with the marine, created under
-the constitution of 1789, was of short continuance, it left a durable
-impression on the service; and, if we look back to the dark period of
-the Revolution, we find him contending in some of the fiercest combats
-of the period, always with heroism, and not unfrequently with success.
-Circumstances, too, have connected his renown with one of the most
-remarkable naval battles on record; a distinction of itself which fully
-entitles him to a high place among those who have fought and bled for
-the independence of their country, in stations of subordinate authority.
-
-Richard Dale was born in the colony of Virginia, on the 6th November,
-1756. His birthplace was in the county of Norfolk, and not distant from
-the well known port of the same name. His parents were native Americans,
-of respectable standing, though of rather reduced circumstances. His
-father, dying early, left a widow with five children, of whom the
-subject of this memoir was the eldest. Some time after the death of his
-father, his mother contracted a second marriage with a gentleman of the
-name of Cooper, among the issue of which were two well known
-ship-masters of Philadelphia.
-
-Young Dale manifested an inclination for the sea at a very early period
-of life. The distrust of a parental control that has no foundation in
-nature, and which is apt to be regarded with jealousy, stimulated if it
-did not quicken this desire, and we find him at the tender age of
-twelve, or in 1768, making a voyage between Norfolk and Liverpool, in a
-vessel commanded by one of his own uncles. On his return home, he
-appears to have passed nearly a twelve-month on shore; but his desire to
-become a sailor still continuing, in the spring of 1770 he was regularly
-apprenticed to a respectable merchant and ship-owner, of the borough of
-Norfolk, named Newton. From this moment his fortune in life was cast,
-and he continued devotedly employed in the profession until his
-enterprise, prudence and gallantry enabled him finally to retire with
-credit, an unblemished name, and a competency.
-
-During his apprenticeship, Dale appears to have been, most of the time,
-employed in the West India trade. Every sailor has his chances and
-hair-breadth escapes, and our young mariner met with two, at that period
-of his life, which may be thought worthy of notice. On one occasion he
-fell from the spars stowed on the belfry into the vessel’s hold, hitting
-the kelson, a distance of near twenty feet; escaping, however, without
-material injury. A much greater risk was incurred on another. While the
-vessel to which he belonged was running off the wind, with a stiff
-breeze, Dale was accidentally knocked overboard by the jib sheets, and
-was not picked up without great difficulty. He was an hour in the water,
-sustaining himself by swimming, and he ever spoke of the incident as one
-of more peril than any other in a perilous career.
-
-When nineteen, or in 1775, Dale had risen to the station of chief mate
-on board a large brig belonging to his owner. In this situation he
-appears to have remained industriously engaged during the few first
-months of the struggle for independence; the active warfare not having
-yet extended itself as far south as his part of the country. Early in
-1776, however, the aspect of things began to change, and it is probable
-that the interruption to commerce rendered him the master of his own
-movements.
-
-Virginia, in common with most of the larger and more maritime colonies,
-had a sort of marine of its own; more especially anterior to the
-Declaration of Independence. It consisted principally of bay craft, and
-was employed in the extensive estuaries and rivers of that commonwealth.
-On board of one of these light cruisers Dale was entered as a
-lieutenant, in the early part of the memorable year 1776. While in this
-service, he was sent a short distance for some guns, in a river craft;
-but falling in with a tender of the Liverpool frigate, which ship was
-then cruising on the Cape Henry station, he was captured and carried
-into Norfolk. These tenders were usually smart little cruisers, another,
-belonging to the same frigate, having been taken shortly before, by the
-U. S. brig Lexington, after a sharp and bloody conflict. Resistance in
-the case of Dale was consequently out of the question, his capture
-having been altogether a matter of course.
-
-On reaching Norfolk, our young officer was thrown on board a
-prison-ship. Here he found himself in the midst of those whom it was the
-fashion to call “loyal subjects.” Many of them were his old school-mates
-and friends. Among the latter was a young man of the name of Bridges
-Gutteridge, a sailor like himself, and one who possessed his entire
-confidence. Mr. Gutteridge, who it is believed subsequently took part
-with his countrymen himself, was then employed by the British, in the
-waters of the Chesapeake, actually commanding a tender in their service.
-The quarrel was still recent; and honorable, as well as honest men,
-under the opinions which prevailed in that day, might well be divided as
-to its merits. Mr. Gutteridge had persuaded himself he was pursuing the
-proper course. Entertaining such opinions, he earnestly set about the
-attempt of making a convert of his captured friend. The usual arguments,
-touching the sacred rights of the king—himself merely a legalized
-usurper, by the way, if any validity is to be given to the claims of
-hereditary right to the crown—and the desperate nature of the “rebel
-cause,” were freely and strenuously used, until Dale began to waver in
-his faith. In the end, he yielded and consented to accompany his friend
-in a cruise against the vessels of the state. This occurred in the month
-of May, and, hostilities beginning now to be active, the tender soon
-fell in with a party of Americans, in some pilot boats, that were
-employed in the Rappahannock. A warm engagement ensued, in which the
-tender was compelled to run, after meeting with a heavy loss. It was a
-rude initiation into the mysteries of war, the fighting being of a
-desperate, and almost of a personal character. This was one of those
-combats that often occurred about this period, and in those waters, most
-of them being close and sanguinary.
-
-In this affair, Dale received a severe wound, having been hit in the
-head by a musket ball; with this wound he was confined several weeks at
-Norfolk, during which time he had abundance of leisure to reflect on the
-false step into which he had been persuaded, and to form certain
-healthful resolutions for the future. To use his own words, in speaking
-of this error of his early life, he determined “never again to put
-himself in the way of the bullets of his own country.” This resolution,
-however, it was necessary to conceal, if he would escape the horrors of
-a prison-ship, and he “bided his time,” fully determined to take service
-again under the American flag, at the first fitting opportunity.
-
-In the peculiar state of the two countries at the time, and with the
-doubtful and contested morality of the misunderstanding, there was
-nothing extraordinary in this incident. Similar circumstances occurred
-to many men, who, with the best intentions and purest motives, saw, or
-fancied they saw, reasons for changing sides in what, in their eyes, was
-strictly a family quarrel. In the case of Dale, however, the feature
-most worthy of comment was the singleness of mind and simple integrity
-with which he used to confess his own error, together with the manner in
-which he finally became a convert to the true political faith. No
-narrative of the life of this respectable seaman would be complete,
-without including this temporary wavering of purpose; nor would any
-delineation of his character be just, that did not point out the candor
-and sincerity with which he, in after life, admitted his fault.
-
-Dale was only in his twentieth year when he received this instructive
-lesson from the “bullets of his countrymen.” From that time, he took
-good care not to place himself again in their way, going, in June or
-July, to Bermuda, on a more peaceable expedition, in company with
-William Gutteridge, a relative of his beguiling friend. On the return
-passage, the vessel was captured by the Lexington, the brig just
-mentioned, then a successful cruiser, under the orders of Capt. John
-Barry; an officer who subsequently died at the head of the service. This
-occurred just after the Declaration of Independence, and Dale
-immediately offered himself as a volunteer under the national flag. He
-was received and rated as a midshipman within a few hours of his
-capture. This was the commencement of Dale’s service in the regular navy
-of his native country. It was also the commencement of his acquaintance
-with the distinguished commander of the Lexington, whose friendship and
-respect he enjoyed down to the day of the latter’s death. While the brig
-was out, our midshipman had another narrow escape from death, having,
-together with several others, been struck senseless by lightning during
-a severe thunder storm.
-
-Barry made the capture just mentioned near the end of his cruise, and he
-soon after went into Philadelphia, which place Dale now saw for the
-first time. Here Barry left the Lexington to take command of the
-Effingham 28, a ship that never got to sea, leaving our new midshipman
-in the brig. Capt. Hallock was Barry’s successor, and he soon rated
-Dale, by this time an active and skilful seaman, a master’s mate. Early
-in the autumn, the Lexington sailed for Cape François, on special duty.
-On her return, in the month of December, she fell in with the Pearl
-frigate,[1] and was captured without resistance, carrying an armament of
-only a few fours.
-
-As it was blowing very fresh at the moment this capture was made, the
-Pearl took out of the prize four or five officers, threw a small crew on
-board, and directed the brig to follow her. By some accounts Dale was
-left in the Lexington, while by others he was not. A succinct history of
-the events of his life, written by a connection under his own eye, and
-which is now before us, gives the latter version of the affair, and is
-probably the true one. At all events, the remaining officers and crew of
-the Lexington rose upon the captors in the course of the night, retook
-the brig, and carried her into Baltimore.[2]
-
-The English landed several of their prisoners on Cape Henlopen, in
-January, 1777, under some arrangement that cannot now be explained,
-though probably it was connected with an exchange for the men taken and
-carried away in the prize. Among these was Dale, who made the best of
-his way to Philadelphia, when he received orders to proceed to
-Baltimore; which he obeyed, and rejoined his brig, the command of which
-had now been transferred to Capt. Henry Johnston.
-
-The next service on which the Lexington was employed was in the European
-seas. In March, she sailed from Baltimore for Bordeaux, with despatches.
-On her arrival, this brig was attached to a small squadron under the
-orders of Capt. Lambert Wickes, who was in the Reprisal 16, having under
-his command also the Dolphin 10, Capt. Samuel Nicholson. This force of
-little vessels accomplished a bold and destructive cruise, making the
-entire circuit of Ireland, though it was eventually chased into a French
-port by a line-of-battle ship. Its object was the interception of
-certain linen-ships, which it missed; its success, however, in the main,
-was such as to excite great alarm among the English merchants, and to
-produce warm remonstrances to France, from their government.
-
-At this time France was not at war with England, although she secretly
-favored and aided the cause of the revolted colonies. The appearance of
-American cruisers in the narrow seas, however, gave rise to so many
-complaints, as to induce the French government, in preference to pushing
-matters to extremities, temporarily to sequester the vessels. The
-Lexington was included in this measure, having been detained in port
-more than two months; or, until security was given that she would quit
-the European seas. This was done, and the brig got to sea again on the
-18th September, 1777.[3]
-
-It is probable that the recent difficulties had some effect on the
-amount of the military stores on board all three of the American
-vessels. At all events, it is certain that the Lexington sailed with a
-short supply of both powder and shot, particularly of the latter. The
-very next day she made an English cutter lying-to, which was approached
-with a confidence that could only have proceeded from a mistake as to
-her character. This cutter proved to be a man-of-war, called the Alert,
-commanded by Lieutenant, afterward Admiral Bazely, having a strong crew
-on board, and an armament of ten sixes.
-
-In the action that ensued, and which was particularly well fought on the
-part of the enemy, the Americans were, in a measure, taken by surprise.
-So little were the latter prepared for the conflict, that not a match
-was ready when the engagement commenced, and several broadsides were
-fired by discharging muskets at the vents of the guns. The firing killed
-the wind, and there being considerable sea on, the engagement became
-very protracted, during which the Lexington expended most of her
-ammunition.
-
-After a cannonading of two hours, believing his antagonist to be too
-much crippled to follow, and aware of his own inability to continue the
-action much longer, Capt. Johnston made sail, and left the cutter, under
-favor of a breeze that just then sprung up. The Lexington left the Alert
-rapidly at first, but the latter having bent new sails, and being the
-faster vessel, in the course of three or four hours succeeded in getting
-alongside again, and of renewing the engagement. This second struggle
-lasted an hour, the fighting being principally on one side. After the
-Lexington had thrown her last shot, had broken up and used all the iron
-that could be made available as substitutes, and had three of her
-officers and several of her men slain, besides many wounded, Capt.
-Johnston struck his colors. The first lieutenant, marine officer, and
-master of the Lexington were among the slain.
-
-By this accident Dale became a prisoner for the third time. This
-occurred when he wanted just fifty days of being twenty-one years old.
-On this occasion, however, he escaped unhurt, though the combat had been
-both fierce and sanguinary. The prize was taken into Plymouth, and her
-officers, after undergoing a severe examination, in order to ascertain
-their birthplaces, were all thrown into Mill Prison, on a charge of high
-treason. Here they found the common men; the whole being doomed to a
-rigorous and painful confinement.
-
-Either from policy or cupidity, the treatment received by the Americans,
-in this particular prison, was of a cruel and oppressive character.
-There is no apology for excessive rigor, or, indeed, for any constraint
-beyond that which is necessary to security, toward an uncondemned man.
-Viewed as mere prisoners of war, the Americans might claim the usual
-indulgence; viewed as subjects still to be tried, they were rightfully
-included in that healthful maxim of the law, which assumes that all are
-innocent until they are proved to be guilty. So severe were the
-privations of the Americans on this occasion, however, that, in pure
-hunger, they caught a stray dog one day, skinned, cooked and ate him, to
-satisfy their cravings for food. Their situation at length attracted the
-attention of the liberal; statements of their wants were laid before the
-public, and an appeal was made to the humanity of the English nation.
-This is always an efficient mode of obtaining assistance, and the large
-sum of sixteen thousand pounds was soon raised; thereby relieving the
-wants of the sufferers, and effectually effacing the stain from the
-national escutcheon; by demonstrating that the sufferers found a
-generous sympathy in the breasts of the public. But man requires more
-than food and warmth. Although suffering no longer from actual want and
-brutal maltreatment, Dale and his companions pined for liberty—to be
-once more fighting the battles of their country. Seeing no hopes of an
-exchange, a large party of the prisoners determined to make an attempt
-at escape. A suitable place was selected, and a hole under a wall was
-commenced. The work required secrecy and time. The earth was removed,
-little by little, in the pockets of the captives, care being had to
-conceal the place, until a hole of sufficient size was made to permit
-the body of a man to pass through. It was a tedious process, for the
-only opportunity which occurred to empty their pockets, was while the
-Americans were exercising on the walls of their prison, for a short
-period of each day. By patience and perseverance they accomplished their
-purpose, however, every hour dreading exposure and defeat.
-
-When all was ready, Capt. Johnston, most of his officers, and several of
-his crew, or, as many as were in the secret, passed through the hole,
-and escaped. This was in February, 1778. The party wandered about the
-country in company, and by night, for more than a week; suffering all
-sorts of privations, until it was resolved to take the wiser course of
-separating. Dale, accompanied by one other, found his way to London,
-hotly pursued. At one time the two lay concealed under some straw in an
-out-house, while the premises were searched by those who were in quest
-of them. On reaching London, Dale and his companion immediately got on
-board a vessel about to sail for Dunkirk. A press-gang unluckily took
-this craft in its rounds, and suspecting the true objects of the
-fugitives, they were arrested, and, their characters being ascertained,
-they were sent back to Mill Prison in disgrace.
-
-This was the commencement of a captivity far more tedious than the
-former. In the first place they were condemned to forty days’
-confinement in the black hole, as the punishment for the late escape;
-and, released from this durance, they were deprived of many of their
-former indulgences. Dale himself took his revenge in singing “rebel
-songs,” and paid a second visit to the black hole, as the penalty. This
-state of things, with alternations of favor and punishment, continued
-quite a year, when Dale, singly, succeeded in again effecting his great
-object of getting free.
-
-The mode in which this second escape was made is known, but the manner
-by which he procured the means he refused to his dying day to disclose.
-At all events, he obtained a full suit of British uniform, attired in
-which, and seizing a favorable moment, he boldly walked past all the
-sentinels, and got off. That some one was connected with his escape who
-might suffer by his revelations is almost certain; and it is a trait in
-his character worthy of notice, that he kept this secret, with
-scrupulous fidelity, for forty-seven years. It is not known that he ever
-divulged it even to any individual of his own family.
-
-Rendered wary by experience, Dale now proceeded with great address and
-caution. He probably had money, as well as clothes. At all events, he
-went to London, found means to procure a passport, and left the country
-for France, unsuspected and undetected. On reaching a friendly soil, he
-hastened to l’Orient, and joined the force then equipping under Paul
-Jones, in his old rank of a master’s mate. Here he was actively employed
-for some months, affording the commodore an opportunity to ascertain his
-true merits, when they met with something like their just reward. As
-Dale was now near twenty-three, and an accomplished seaman, Jones, after
-trying several less competent persons, procured a commission for him
-from the commissioners, and made him the first lieutenant of his own
-ship, the justly celebrated Bon Homme Richard.
-
-It is not our intention, in this article, to enter any farther into the
-incidents of this well known cruise, than is necessary to complete the
-present subject. Dale does not appear in any prominent situation, though
-always discharging the duties of his responsible station, with skill and
-credit, until the squadron appeared off Leith, with the intention of
-seizing that town—the port of Edinburgh—and of laying it under
-contribution. On this occasion, our lieutenant was selected to command
-the boats that were to land, a high compliment to so young a man, as
-coming from one of the character of Paul Jones. Every thing was ready,
-Dale had received his final orders, and was in the very act of
-proceeding to the ship’s side to enter his boat, when a heavy squall
-struck the vessels, and induced an order for the men to come on deck,
-and assist in shortening sail. The vessels were compelled to bear up
-before it, to save their spars; this carried them out of the firth; and,
-a gale succeeding, the enterprise was necessarily abandoned. This gale
-proved so heavy, that one of the prizes actually foundered.
-
-This attempt of Jones, while it is admitted to have greatly alarmed the
-coast, has often been pronounced rash and inconsiderate. Such was not
-the opinion of Dale. A man of singular moderation in his modes of
-thinking, and totally without bravado, it was his conviction that the
-effort would have been crowned with success. He assured the writer,
-years after the occurrence, that he was about to embark in the
-expedition with feelings of high confidence, and that he believed
-nothing but the inopportune intervention of the squall stood between
-Jones and a triumphant _coup de main_.
-
-A few days later, Jones made a secret proposal to his officers, which
-some affirm was to burn the shipping at North Shields, but which the
-commanders of two of his vessels strenuously opposed, in consequence of
-which the project was abandoned. The commodore himself, in speaking of
-the manner in which this and other similar propositions were received by
-his subordinates, extolled the ardor invariably manifested by the young
-men, among whom Dale was one of the foremost. Had it rested with them,
-the attempts at least would all have been made.
-
-On the 19th September occurred the celebrated battle between the Serapis
-and the Bon Homme Richard. As the proper place to enter fully into the
-details of that murderous combat will be in the biography of Jones, we
-shall confine ourselves at present to incidents with which the subject
-of this memoir was more immediately connected.
-
-The Bon Homme Richard had finally sailed on this cruise with only two
-proper sea-lieutenants on board her. There was a third officer of the
-name of Lunt, who has been indifferently called a lieutenant and the
-sailing-master, but who properly filled the latter station. This
-gentleman had separated from the ship in a fog, on the coast of Ireland,
-while in the pursuit of some deserters, and never rejoined the squadron.
-Another person of the same name, and believed to be the brother of the
-master, was the second lieutenant. He was sent in a pilot-boat,
-accompanied by a midshipman and several men, to capture a vessel in
-sight, before Jones made the Baltic fleet coming round Flamborough Head.
-This party was not able to return to the Bon Homme Richard, until after
-the battle had terminated. In consequence of these two circumstances,
-each so novel in itself, the American frigate fought this bloody and
-arduous combat with only one officer on board her, of the rank of a
-sea-lieutenant, who was Dale. This is the reason why the latter is so
-often mentioned as _the_ lieutenant of the Bon Homme Richard, during
-that memorable fight. The fact rendered his duties more arduous and
-diversified, and entitles him to the greater credit for their proper
-performance.
-
-Dale was stationed on the gun-deck, where of course he commanded in
-chief, though it appears that his proper personal division was the
-forward guns. Until the ships got foul of each other, this brought him
-particularly into the hottest of the work; the Serapis keeping much on
-the bows, or ahead of the Bon Homme Richard. It is known that Jones was
-much pleased with his deportment, which, in truth, was every way worthy
-of his own. When the alarm was given that the ship was sinking, Dale
-went below himself to ascertain the real state of the water, and his
-confident and fearless report cheered the men to renewed exertions.
-Shortly after, the supply of powder was stopped, when our lieutenant
-again quitted his quarters to inquire into the cause. On reaching the
-magazine passage he was told by the sentinels that they had closed the
-ingress, on account of a great number of strange and foreign faces that
-they saw around them. On further inquiry, Dale discovered that the
-master at arms, of his own head, had let loose all the prisoners—more
-than a hundred in number—under the belief that the ship was sinking.
-Dale soon saw the danger which might ensue, but finding the English much
-alarmed at the supposed condition of the ship, he succeeded in mustering
-them, and setting them at work at the pumps, where, by their exertions,
-they probably prevented the apprehended calamity. For some time, at the
-close of the action, all his guns being rendered useless, Dale was
-employed principally in this important service. There is no question
-that without some such succor, the Richard would have gone down much
-earlier than she did. It is a singular feature of this every-way
-extraordinary battle, that here were Englishmen, zealously employed in
-aiding the efforts of their enemies, under the cool control of a
-collected and observant officer.
-
-At length the cheerful intelligence was received that the enemy had
-struck. Dale went on deck, and immediately demanded Jones’ permission to
-take possession of the prize. It was granted, and had he never
-manifested any other act of personal intrepidity, his promptitude on
-this occasion, and the manner in which he went to work, to attain his
-purpose, would have shown him to be a man above personal considerations,
-when duty or honor pointed out his course. The main-yard of the Serapis
-was hanging a-cock-bill, over the side of the American ship. The brace
-was shot away, and the pendant hung within reach. Seizing the latter,
-Dale literally swung himself off, and alighted alone on the quarter-deck
-of the Serapis. Here he found no one but the brave Pierson, who had
-struck his own flag; but the men below were still ignorant of the act.
-We may form an opinion of the risk that the young man ran, in thus
-boarding his enemy at night, and in the confusion of such a combat, for
-the English were still firing below, by the fact that Mr. Mayrant, a
-young man of South Carolina, and a midshipman of the Bon Homme Richard,
-who led a party after the lieutenant, was actually run through the thigh
-by a boarding pike, and by the hands of a man in the waist below.
-
-The first act of Dale, on getting on the quarter deck of the Serapis,
-was to direct her captain to go on board the American ship. While thus
-employed, the English first lieutenant came up from below, and finding
-that the Americans had ceased their fire, he demanded if they had
-struck. “No, sir,” answered Dale, “it is this ship that has struck, and
-you are my prisoner.” An appeal to Capt. Pierson confirming this, the
-English lieutenant offered to go below and silence the remaining guns of
-the Serapis. To this Dale objected, and had both the officers passed on
-board the Bon Homme Richard. In a short time, the English below were
-sent from their guns, and full possession was obtained of the prize.
-
-As more men were soon sent from the Bon Homme Richard, the two ships
-were now separated, the Richard making sail, and Jones ordering Dale to
-follow with the prize. A sense of fatigue had come over the latter, in
-consequence of the reaction of so much excitement and so great
-exertions, and he took a seat on the binnacle. Here he issued an order
-to brace the head yards aback, and to put the helm down. Wondering that
-the ship did not pay off, he directed that the wheel-ropes should be
-examined. It was reported that they were not injured, and that the helm
-was hard down. Astonished to find the ship immovable under such
-circumstances, there being a light breeze, Dale sprang upon his feet,
-and then discovered, for the first time, that he had been severely
-wounded, by a splinter, in the foot and ankle. The hurt, now that he was
-no longer sustained by the excitement of battle, deprived him of the use
-of his leg, and he fell. Just at this moment, Mr. Lunt, the officer who
-had been absent in the pilot-boat, reached the Richard, and Dale was
-forced to give up to him the command of the prize. The cause of the
-Serapis’ not minding her helm was the fact that Capt. Pierson had
-dropped an anchor under foot when the two ships got foul; a circumstance
-of which the Americans were ignorant until this moment.
-
-Dale was some time laid up with his wound, but he remained with Jones in
-his old station of first lieutenant, accompanying that officer, in the
-Alliance, from the Texel to l’Orient. In the controversy which ensued
-between the commodore and Landais, our lieutenant took sides warmly with
-the first, and even offered to head a party to recover the Alliance, by
-force. This measure not being resorted to, he remained with Jones, and
-finally sailed with him for America, as his first lieutenant, in the
-Ariel 20, a ship lent to the Americans, by the King of France.
-
-The Ariel quitted port in October, 1780, but encountered a tremendous
-gale of wind off the Penmarks. Losing her masts, she was compelled to
-return to refit. On this occasion Dale, in his responsible situation of
-first lieutenant, showed all the coolness of his character, and the
-resources of a thorough seaman. The tempest was almost a hurricane, and
-of extraordinary violence. The Ariel sailed a second time about the
-commencement of the year 1781, and reached Philadelphia on the 18th
-February. During the passage home, she had a short action, in the night,
-with a heavy British letter-of-marque, that gave her name as the
-Triumph; and which ship is said to have struck, but to have made her
-escape by treachery. Jones, who was greedy of glory, even fancied that
-his enemy was a vessel of war, and that he had captured a vessel of at
-least equal force. This was not Dale’s impression. He spoke of the
-affair to the writer of this article, as one of no great moment, even
-questioning whether their antagonist struck at all; giving it as his
-belief she was a quick-working and fast-sailing letter-of-marque. He
-distinctly stated that she got off by out-manœuvring the Ariel, which
-vessel was badly manned, and had an exceedingly mixed and disaffected
-crew. It is worthy of remark that, while two articles, enumerating the
-services of Dale, have been written by gentlemen connected with himself,
-and possessing his confidence, neither mentions this affair; a proof, in
-itself, that Dale considered it one of little moment.
-
-The account which Dale always gave of the meeting between the Ariel and
-Triumph—admitting such to have been the name of the English ship—so
-different from that which has found its way into various publications,
-on the representation of other actors in that affair, is illustrative of
-the character of the man. Simple of mind, totally without exaggeration,
-and a lover, as well as a practicer, of severe truth, he was a man whose
-representations might be fully relied on. Even in his account of the
-extraordinary combat between the Richard and Serapis, he stripped the
-affair of all its romance, and of every thing that was wonderful;
-rendering the whole clear, simple and intelligible as his own thoughts.
-The only narratives of that battle, worthy of a seaman, have been
-written rigidly after his explanations, which leave it a bloody and
-murderous fight, but one wholly without the marvelous.
-
-On his arrival at Philadelphia, after an absence of four years, more
-than one of which had been spent in prison, Dale was just twenty-four
-years and two months old. He was now regularly put on the list of
-lieutenants, by the marine committee of Congress; his former authority
-proceeding from the agents of the government in Europe. It is owing to
-this circumstance that the register of government places him so low as a
-lieutenant. Dale now parted from Paul Jones, with whom he had served
-near two years; and that, too, in some of the most trying scenes of the
-latter’s life. The commodore was anxious to take his favorite lieutenant
-with him to the America 74; but the latter declined the service, under
-the impression it would be a long time before the ship got to sea. He
-judged right, the America being transferred to the French in the end,
-and Jones himself never again sailing under the American flag.
-
-The name of Dale will inseparably be connected with the battle of the
-Richard and Serapis. His prominent position and excellent conduct
-entitle him to this mark of distinction, and it says much for the
-superior, when it confers fame to have been “Paul Jones’ first
-lieutenant.” We smile, however, at the legends of the day, when we
-recall the account of the “Lieutenants Grubb” and other heroes of
-romance, who have been made to figure in the histories of that renowned
-combat, and place them in contrast with the truth-loving, sincere, moral
-and respectable subject of this memoir. The sword which Louis XVI.
-bestowed on Jones, for this victory, passed into the hands of Dale, and
-is now the property of a gallant son, a fitting mark of the services of
-the father, on the glorious occasion it commemorates.[4]
-
-Dale was employed on board a schooner that was manned from the Ariel,
-after reaching Philadelphia, and sent down the Delaware to convoy
-certain public stores. The following June, he joined the Trumbull 28,
-Captain Nicholson, as her first lieutenant. The Trumbull left the capes
-of the Delaware on the 8th August, 1781, being chased off the land by
-three of the enemy’s cruisers. The weather was squally and night set in
-dark. In endeavoring to avoid her pursuers, the Trumbull found herself
-alongside of the largest, a frigate of thirty-two guns, and an action
-was fought under the most unfavorable circumstances. The Trumbull’s
-fore-topmast was hanging over, or rather through her forecastle, her
-crew was disorganized, and the vessel herself in a state of no
-preparation for a conflict with an equal force; much less with that
-actually opposed to her. The officers made great exertions, and
-maintained an action of more than an hour, when the colors of the
-American ship were struck to the Iris 32, and Monk 18. The former of
-these vessels had been the American frigate Hancock, and the latter was
-subsequently captured in the Delaware, by Barney in the Hyder Ally.
-
-This was the fourth serious affair in which Dale had been engaged that
-war, and the fourth time he had been captured. As he was hurt also in
-this battle, it made the third of his wounds. His confinement, however,
-was short, and the treatment not a subject of complaint. He was taken
-into New York, paroled on Long Island, and exchanged in November.
-
-No new service offering in a marine which, by this time, had lost most
-of its ships, Dale obtained a furlough, and joined a large
-letter-of-marque called the Queen of France, that carried twelve guns,
-as her first officer. Soon after he was appointed to the command of the
-same vessel. In the spring of 1782, this ship, in company with several
-other letters-of-marque, sailed for France, making many captures by the
-way. The ship of Dale, however, parted from the fleet, and, falling in
-with an English privateer of fourteen guns, a severe engagement
-followed, in which both parties were much cut up; they parted by mutual
-consent. Dale did not get back to Philadelphia until February of the
-succeeding year, or until about the time that peace was made.
-
-In common with most of the officers of the navy, Lieutenant Dale was
-disbanded, as soon as the war ceased. He was now in the twenty-seventh
-year of his age, with a perfect knowledge of his profession, in which he
-had passed more than half his life, a high reputation for his rank, a
-courage that had often been tried, a body well scarred, a character
-beyond reproach, and not altogether without “money in his purse.” Under
-the circumstances, he naturally determined to follow up his fortunes in
-the line in which he had commenced his career. He became part owner of a
-large ship, and sailed in her for London, December, 1783, in the station
-of master. After this, he embarked successfully in the East India trade,
-in the same character, commanding several of the finest ships out of the
-country. In this manner he accumulated a respectable fortune, and began
-to take his place among the worthies of the land in a new character.
-
-In September, 1791, Mr. Dale was married to Dorothy Crathorne, the
-daughter of another respectable ship-master of Philadelphia, and then a
-ward of Barry’s. With this lady he passed the remainder of his days, she
-surviving him as his widow, and dying some years later than himself. No
-change in his pursuits occurred until 1794, when the new government
-commenced the organization of another marine, which has resulted in that
-which the country now possesses.
-
-Dale was one of the six captains appointed under the law of 1794, that
-directed the construction of as many frigates, with a view to resist the
-aggressions of Algiers. Each of the new captains was ordered to
-superintend the construction of one of the frigates, and Dale, who was
-fifth in rank, was directed to assume the superintendence of the one
-laid down at Norfolk, virtually the place of his nativity. This ship was
-intended to be a frigate of the first class, but, by some mistake in her
-moulds, she proved in the end to be the smallest of the six vessels then
-built. It was the unfortunate Chesapeake, a vessel that never was in a
-situation to reflect much credit on the service. Her construction,
-however, was deferred, in consequence of an arrangement with Algiers,
-and her captain was put on furlough.
-
-Dale now returned to the China trade, in which he continued until the
-spring of 1798. The last vessel he commanded was called the Ganges. She
-was a fine, fast ship, and the state of our relations with France
-requiring a hurried armament, the government bought this vessel, in
-common with several others, put an armament of suitable guns in her,
-with a full crew, gave her to Dale, and ordered her on the coast as a
-regular cruiser.
-
-In consequence of this arrangement, Capt. Dale was the first officer who
-ever got to sea under the pennant of the present navy. He sailed in May,
-1798, and was followed by the Constellation and Delaware in a few days.
-The service of Dale in his new capacity was short, however, in
-consequence of some questions relating to rank. The captains appointed
-in 1794 claimed their old places, and, it being uncertain what might be
-the final decision of the government, as there were many aspirants, Dale
-declined serving until the matter was determined. In May, 1799, he
-sailed for Canton again, in command of a strong letter-of-marque, under
-a furlough. On his return from this voyage he found his place on the
-list settled according to his own views of justice and honor, and
-reported himself for service. Nothing offered, however, until the
-difficulties with France were arranged; but, in May, 1801, he was
-ordered to take command of a squadron of observation about to be sent to
-the Mediterranean.
-
-Dale now hoisted his broad pennant, for the first and only time, and
-assumed the title by which he was known for the rest of his days. He was
-in the prime of life, being in his forty-fifth year, of an active, manly
-frame, and had every prospect before him of a long and honorable
-service. The ships put under his orders were the President 44, Capt.
-James Barron; Philadelphia 38, Capt. Samuel Barron; Essex 32, Capt.
-William Bainbridge; and Enterprise 12, Lieut. Com. Sterrett. A better
-appointed, or a better commanded force, probably never sailed from
-America. But there was little to do, under the timid policy and
-defective laws of the day. War was not supposed to exist, although
-hostilities did; and vessels were sent into foreign seas with crews
-shipped for a period that would scarcely allow of a vessel’s being got
-into proper order.
-
-The squadron sailed June 1st, 1801, and reached Gibraltar July 1st. The
-Philadelphia blockaded the Tripolitan admiral, with two cruisers, in
-Gibraltar, while the other vessels went aloft. A sharp action occurred
-between the Enterprise and a Tripolitan of equal force, in which the
-latter was compelled to submit, but was allowed to go into her own port
-again, for want of legal authority to detain her. Dale appeared off
-Tripoli, endeavored to negotiate a little about an exchange of
-prisoners, and did blockade the port; but his orders fettered him in a
-way to prevent any serious enterprises. In a word, no circumstances
-occurred to allow the commodore to show his true character, except as it
-was manifested in his humanity, prudence and dignity. As a superior, he
-obtained the profound respect of all under his orders, and to this day
-his name is mentioned with regard by those who then served under him. It
-is thought that this squadron did much toward establishing the high
-discipline of the marine. In one instance only had Dale an opportunity
-of manifesting his high personal and professional qualities. The
-President struck a rock in quitting Port Mahon, and for some hours she
-was thought to be in imminent danger of foundering. Dale assumed the
-command, and one of his lieutenants, himself subsequently a flag officer
-of rare seamanship and merit, has often recounted to the writer his
-admiration of the commodore’s coolness, judgment, and nerve, on so
-trying an occasion. The ship was carried to Toulon, blowing a gale, and,
-on examination, it was found that she was only saved from destruction by
-the skilful manner in which the wood ends had been secured.
-
-The vigilance of Dale was so great, however, and his dispositions so
-skilful, that the Tripolitans made no captures while he commanded in
-those seas. In March, 1802, he sailed for home, under his orders,
-reaching Hampton Roads in April, after a cruise of about ten months. The
-succeeding autumn, Com. Dale received an order to hold himself in
-readiness to resume the command from which he had just returned. Ever
-ready to serve his country, when it could be done with honor, he would
-cheerfully have made his preparations accordingly, but, by the order
-itself, he ascertained that he was to be sent out without a captain in
-his own ship. This, agreeably to the notions he entertained, was a
-descent in the scale of rank, and he declined serving on such terms.
-There being no alternative between obedience and resignation, he chose
-the latter, and quitted the navy. At this time, he was the third captain
-on the list, and it is no more than justice to say, that he stood second
-to no other in the public estimation.
-
-Dale never went to sea again. Possessed of an ample fortune, and
-possessing the esteem of all who knew him, he commanded the respect of
-those with whom he differed in opinion touching the question which drove
-him from the navy. With the latter he never quarreled, for, at the
-proper period, he gave to it his two elder sons. To the last he retained
-his interest in its success, and his care of mariners, in general,
-extended far beyond the interests of this life.
-
-Many years previously to his death, Com. Dale entered into full
-communion with the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which he proved a
-consistent and pious member. Under the newly awakened feelings which
-induced this step, he was the originater of a Mariner’s Church, in
-Philadelphia, attending it in person, every Sunday afternoon, for a long
-succession of years. He was as free with his purse, too, as with his
-time; and his charities, though properly concealed, were believed to be
-large and discriminating. With some it may be deemed a matter of moment,
-with all it should be a proof of the estimation in which Dale was held
-by certainly a very respectable part of his fellow citizens, that he was
-named to be the first president of the Washington Benevolent Society; an
-association that soon degenerated to serve the ends of party politics,
-whatever may have been the design that influenced the few with which it
-originated.
-
-The evening of the life of Dale was singularly peaceful and happy. It
-was as calm as its morning had been tempestuous. It is true he had to
-weep for the loss of his first-born son, a noble youth, who died of
-wounds received in the action between his old ship, the President, and a
-British squadron; but he had given the young man to his country, and
-knew how to bear up under the privation. He died, himself, in the
-seventieth year of his age, in his dwelling at Philadelphia, February
-26th, 1826; departing in peace with God and man, as he fondly trusted
-himself, and as those who survive have every reason to hope.
-
-By his marriage with Miss Crathorne, Com. Dale had several children,
-five of whom lived to become men and women, viz. three sons and two
-daughters. Of the former, Richard, the eldest, fell, at an early age, a
-midshipman on board the President. John Montgomery, the second, is now a
-commander in the navy, having served with Warrington, in the last
-English war. This gentleman is married to a lady of the well known
-family of Willing. Edward Crathorne, the youngest son, is a merchant of
-Philadelphia. He is married and has children. The eldest daughter,
-Sarah, married T. M’Kean Pettit, Esq., a judge of the District Court, in
-Philadelphia, and is dead, leaving issue. Elizabeth, the youngest, is
-the wife of Com. George Campbell Reed, of the navy, and has no issue.
-
-In considering the character of Dale, we are struck with its simple
-modesty and frank sincerity, quite as much as with its more brilliant
-qualities. His courage and constancy were of the highest order,
-rendering him always equal to the most critical duties, and never
-wearying in their performance. Such a man is perfectly free from all
-exaggeration. As he was not afraid to act when his cooler judgment
-approved, he had no distrusts to overcome ere he could forbear, as
-prudence dictated. Jones found him a man ready and willing to second all
-his boldest and most hazardous attempts, so long as reason showed the
-probabilities of success; but the deed done, none more thoroughly
-stripped it of all false coloring, or viewed it in a truer light than he
-who had risked his life in aiding to achieve it.
-
-The person of Dale was in harmony with his moral qualities. It was
-manly, seaman-like, and of singularly respectable bearing. Simplicity,
-good faith, truth and courage were imprinted on his countenance, which
-all who were thrown into his company soon discovered was no more than
-the mirror of his mind. The navy has had more brilliant intellects,
-officers of profounder mental attainments, and of higher natural gifts,
-but it has had few leaders of cooler judgment, sounder discretion, more
-inflexible justice, or indomitable resolution. He was of a nature, an
-experience, and a professional skill to command respect and to inspire
-confidence, tributes that were cheerfully paid by all who served under
-his orders. The writer of this article has had extensive opportunities
-of hearing character discussed among the sea-officers of his country;
-few escape criticism, of some sort or other, for their professional
-acts, and fewer still, as men; yet he cannot recall a single instance in
-which he has ever heard a whisper of complaint against the public or
-private career of Richard Dale. This total exemption from the usual
-fortunes of the race may, in part, be owing to the shortness of the
-latter’s service in the present marine, and to the limited acquaintance
-of his cotemporaries, but it is difficult to believe that it is not
-chiefly to be ascribed to the thoroughly seaman-like character of the
-officer, and to the perfect truth and sterling probity of the man.
-
------
-
-[1] This ship has been differently stated to have been the Liverpool and
-the Pearl. We follow what we think the best authorities.
-
-[2] The prize-officer of the Lexington was a young American, of a highly
-respectable family, then an acting lieutenant in the English navy. His
-prisoners seized an occasion to rise, at a moment when he had gone below
-for an instant, in consequence of which he was dismissed the service;
-living the remainder of his life, and dying, in his native country.
-
-[3] It is a curious feature of the times, that, the French ordering the
-Americans to quit their ports with their prizes, the latter were taken
-out a short distance to sea and sold, Frenchmen becoming the purchasers,
-and finding means to secure the property.
-
-[4] This sword has, quite recently, become the subject of public
-discussion, and of some private feeling, under circumstances not wholly
-without interest to the navy and the country. At page 63, vol. 2, of
-Mackenzie’s Life of Paul Jones, is the following note, viz.:
-
- “This sword was sent by Jones’ heirs to his valued friend,
- Robert Morris, to whose favor he had owed his opportunities of
- distinguishing himself. Mr. Morris gave the sword to the navy of
- the United States. It was to be retained and worn by the senior
- officer, and transmitted at his death, to his successor. After
- passing through the hands of Commodore Barry, _and one or two
- other senior officers_, it came into possession of Commodore
- Dale, and now remains in his family, through some mistake in the
- nature of the bequest, which seems to require that it should
- either be restored to the navy in the person of its senior
- officer, or else revert to the heirs of Mr. Robert Morris, from
- one of whom the writer has received this information.”
-
- That Captain Mackenzie has been correctly informed as to a
- portion of the foregoing statement, is as probable as it is
- certain he has been misled as to the remainder. It would have
- been more discreet, however, in a writer to have heard both
- sides, previously to laying such a statement before the world. A
- very little inquiry might have satisfied him that Commodore Dale
- could not have held any thing as the senior officer of the navy,
- since he never occupied that station. We believe the following
- will be found to be accurate.
-
- Of the manner in which Commodore Barry became possessed of this
- sword we know nothing beyond report, and the statement of
- Captain Mackenzie. We understand that a female member of the
- Morris family gives a version of the affair like that published
- in the note we have quoted, but the accuracy of her
- recollections can hardly be put in opposition to the _acts_ of
- such men as Barry and Dale.
-
- The sword never passed through the hands “_of one or two other
- senior officers_,” as stated by Captain Mackenzie, at all. It
- was bequeathed by Commodore Barry to Commodore Dale, in his
- will, and in the following words, viz.
-
- “Item, I give and bequeath to my good friend Captain Richard
- Dale, _my_ gold-hilted sword, as a token of my esteem for him.”
-
- We have carefully examined the will, inventory, &c. of Commodore
- Barry. The first is dated February 27, 1803; the will is proved
- and the inventory filed in the following September, in which
- month Commodore Barry died. Now, Commodore Dale was not in the
- navy at all, when this sword was bequeathed to him, nor when he
- received it. Dale resigned in the autumn of 1802; and he never
- rose nearer to the head of the list of captains, than to be the
- third in rank; Barry, himself, and Samuel Nicholson, being his
- seniors, when he resigned.
-
- The inventory of Commodore Barry’s personal property is very
- minute, containing articles of a value as low as one dollar. It
- mentions _two_ swords, both of which are specifically
- bequeathed—viz. “_my_ gold-hilted” and “_my_ silver-hilted
- sword.” No allusion is made in the will to any trust. Only these
- two swords were found among the assets, and each was delivered
- agreeably to the bequest. The gold-hilted sword was known in the
- family, as the “Paul Jones sword,” and there is not the smallest
- doubt Commodore Barry intended to bequeath this particular
- sword, in full property, to Commodore Dale.
-
- Let us next look to the probabilities of the case. The heirs of
- Paul Jones, who left no issue, gave the sword to Robert Morris,
- says Captain Mackenzie, as a mark of gratitude. This may very
- well be true. But Mr. Morris “gave the sword to the navy of the
- United States,” to be retained and worn by its senior officer.
- It would have been a more usual course to have lodged the sword
- in the Navy Department, had such been the intention. That
- Commodore Barry did not view _his_ possession of the sword in
- this light, is clear enough by his will. He gave it, _without_
- restraint of any sort, to a friend who was not in the navy at
- all, and who never had been its senior officer. This he did, in
- full possession of his mind and powers, six months before he
- died, and under circumstances to render any misconception highly
- improbable.
-
- Can we find any motive for the bequest of Commodore Barry? It
- was not personal to himself, as the sword went out of his own
- family. The _other sword_ he gave to a brother-in-law. “Paul
- Jones’ sword” was bequeathed to a distinguished professional
- friend—to one who, of all others, next to Jones himself, had
- the best professional right to wear it—to “Paul Jones’ first
- lieutenant.” Commodore Dale did leave sons, and some in the
- navy; and the country will believe that the one who now owns the
- sword has as good a moral right to wear it, as the remote
- collaterals of Jones, and a much better right than the senior
- officer of the navy, on proof as vague as that offered. His
- _legal_ right to the sword seems to be beyond dispute.
-
- In the inventory of Commodore Barry’s personals, this sword is
- thus mentioned, viz.—“a very elegant gold-hilted sword—$300.”
- The other sword is thus mentioned, viz.—“a handsome
- silver-hilted, do. $100.”
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE SERENADE.
-
-
- Beneath a bower, where poplar branches long
- Embracing wove Seclusion o’er the abode
- Of hermit sage, what time the full moon rode
- ’Mid spectre clouds her star-paved streets along,
- Rose on the listening air a plaintive song,
- Sweet as the harmony of an angel’s lyre,
- And soft as sweet; breathed heavenward from a quire
- Of Beauty, hid the encircling shades among.
- Of mysteries high, I ween, that sage had dreamed—
- Who now, upstarting, clasps his hands to hear
- The _mystic notes of Nature’s Anthem_ clear,
- Which holiest bards have heard and heavenly deemed!
- ’Tis even thus as to that sage it seemed—
- ’Tis Beauty makes the dreams of Wisdom, dear!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE WIDOW OF NEWBURY.
-
-
- BY THE AUTHOR OF “HENRI QUATRE.”
-
-
-’Twas the eve of Newbury fair, and the time near the close of the long
-reign of Harry the Eighth, after monasteries were suppressed. Reform
-stalked through the land—all things were turned topsy-turvy—abbots and
-monks beggared, that poor lords might thrive—priests permitted
-marriage, and nuns driven from their pleasant retreats, were forced to
-spin for a livelihood. But amid the greater marvels, the townspeople of
-Newbury had often leisure to ask why Mistress Avery remained so long a
-widow.
-
-Sitting in her embowered porch, watching the cavalcade of merchants,
-buffoons and jugglers, on their way to the encampment and site of the
-morrow’s revels, she attracted many a longing eye. The merchant, whose
-wandering vocation led him from ancient Byzantium to the shores of the
-Thames, who came to Newbury to exchange rich silks and foreign jewelry
-for broadcloth, as he rode by the capacious square tenement, with its
-deep, embayed windows of dark chesnut-wood, and caught a glimpse of the
-fair owner, sighed when contrasting his own desolate, wandering lot with
-that of the fortunate wooer of the rich, comely widow. Mistress Avery
-was relict of the richest clothier of Newbury, who, dying, left her in
-sole possession of looms, lands, tenements and leases. Handsome, young,
-brisk, with riches unquestionable, she attracted tender regards from all
-quarters—even the proud gentry of Berkshire, with genealogical tree
-rooting from Norman marauder, far back as the conquest, disdained not an
-alliance garnished with broad manors, woods of a century’s growth, and
-goodly array of tenements, of which our widow held fee-simple. But when
-pressed successively by belted knight and worshipful esquire, she
-courteously declined their offers, alleging she was bent on marrying one
-of her own class in life, (if she should change condition,) one who
-could take upon himself, without degradation, the task of superintending
-the looms. High born swains repulsed, the field was open to gallants of
-lowlier rank. But these faring no better, and incurring the ridicule of
-neighbors, suitors became shy and reserved, seeking to extract token of
-favor ere they avowed themselves. If the curate called, ’twas merely an
-inquiry after her soul’s health—the inquiry perhaps linked to a request
-that she would, from her stores of boundless wealth, add a trifle to the
-contributions of the poor’s box. The lawyer had his ever ready and
-undeniable excuses for visiting—leases there were to sign, indentures
-to cancel. Nor was the tailor barred his plea—was there not much
-broadcloth yearly fashioned into apparel for lusty serving-man, active
-apprentice?
-
-Behind Mistress Avery, as she sat gazing at the straggling pageantry,
-there loitered in hall and doorway the apprentices and domestic servants
-of the household. Distinguished amongst his companions, by superior
-stature, stood John Winehcomb, chief apprentice. To him the widow oft
-turned with remark on passing stranger; the soft regard thrown into her
-address would have excused boldness in one far less favored by nature
-than the apprentice, but his answers were submissive, modest, even
-bashful. An acute observer might perhaps have detected a shade of
-discontent on the widow’s handsome features, perhaps, as fancifully,
-attributed it to the coyness and reserve of young Winehcomb; and,
-indeed, as revolving months lengthened the period of widowhood, there
-had not been wanting whispers, that ’Prentice John stood a fairer chance
-with his mistress than all the knights or reputable burgher citizens and
-yeomen of the county. His appearance certainly did not gainsay the
-rumor—he had completed his twentieth year, health flushed his cheeks,
-honesty and intelligence stamped his looks—the features were bold and
-decided, though of modest expression. In character, he was one of those
-gifted youths, in whom strict attention and unvarying promptitude supply
-the place of experience, and who acquire the management and conduct of
-business, in ordinary cases, rarely entrusted to men of mature years.
-The clothier, when dying, recommended his spouse to confide business
-affairs to John—she had done so; in the factory and with the workmen
-’Prentice John was all and everything—from his word ’twas useless to
-appeal.
-
-But when young Winehcomb’s credit with Mistress Avery was canvassed, the
-gossips were at a loss to affix on decisive marks of favor or
-tenderness. ’Tis true, he accompanied her to church, but so did the
-other apprentices—walked by her side, sat next his mistress during
-prayers, his arm was accepted, his hand arranged the cushions—but then,
-was he not chief apprentice, would it not be slighting to prefer the
-services of a junior? Look narrowly at his conduct—there were none of
-the characteristics of a favored swain, no semblance of behavior
-indicating one presumptuous of the honor, nor could the absence of these
-tokens be attributed to natural timidity in the presence of the sex, for
-at country meetings and fairs, where hoydenish romping was the usual
-diversion of youth, John participated in rustic gallantries. Yet, sooth
-to say, though the gossips were at fault, they were not wrong in their
-conjectures; the widow was deeply in love with ’Prentice John, for his
-sake had dismissed high-born suitors, wealthy citizens, and, we need
-hardly say, (though scrupulously regardful of reputation,) had given him
-many hints, which, alas! he was slow to understand. It might be
-inexperience, want of self-confidence, or innate modesty, which withheld
-the youth from tracing her encouragement to its real motive; but from
-whatever cause, Mistress Avery, who had a very high opinion of her own
-personal attractions, knew he must be perfectly well acquainted with her
-riches, was greatly perplexed with his diffidence, his want of
-susceptibility, and concluded the apprentice must be in love elsewhere
-to withstand such allurements.
-
-One while, racked with jealousy, determined in very spite and vexation
-to accept the offer of the first suitor, the next hour affection gained
-the ascendancy, and she resolved to declare her love. But pride took
-fire and caused a tumult in the heart, of which young Winehcomb, the
-unconscious origin, was little aware. How provoking the calmness of his
-replies, the quiet gaze which met her impassioned glance! Oft with
-difficulty she refrained from bestowing a hearty cuff on the cold youth,
-object of fond desire—as often, and with greater difficulty, did she
-refrain from tenderer salute. To-morrow shall put this wilful-headed boy
-to the test! If his heart be engaged, it is more than likely he has made
-an assignation, which I will frustrate! So thought Mistress Avery,
-revolving a scheme to bring young Diffidence on his knees, or to a
-direct confession that he loved another. Under pretence of making
-inquiries respecting the description of merchandise then passing the
-house, borne on a long train of pack-horses, under conduct of merchants
-of foreign aspect, the widow beckoned the apprentice (who was standing
-at respectful distance, beneath the threshold, with his fellow
-apprentices) to approach her chair, placed outside the house under cover
-of the overarching porch.
-
-“John!” said the dame, fixing her large eyes on the youth, “I warrant
-there is store enough of trinkets and finery in yon bales to satisfy the
-wants of every maiden in Newbury. Happy the youth whose wages are
-unspent, for to-morrow, by ’r Lady! he might buy the love of the most
-hard-hearted damsel. Certes, no swain need die of love, if he have money
-in his purse!”
-
-“If the love were bought by those foreign pedlar wares, it would not be
-much for a Newbury lad to boast of,” replied the young man,
-blushing—for the gaze of his mistress was keen and ardent.
-
-“Are the lads of Newbury then so disinterested, Master John,” exclaimed
-the widow. “Well! I will put one, at least, to the proof. I must walk
-through the fair, if only to chat with my tenants’ wives from Spene and
-Thatcham, and shall need your protection, for these strange foreigners
-may be rude, and Cicely is such a coward she would run away.”
-
-Mrs. Avery was rather baffled by the result of her own feint; for,
-contrary to expectation, she could discover neither chagrin nor
-disappointment; the apprentice answered cheerfully, he should be proud
-to attend on his honored mistress, and would not forget a good cudgel,
-more than a match for any foreigner’s steel—nay, to ensure her from
-insult, he would bring all his fellow apprentices. This was more than
-the lady desired. She was again puzzled, and declined, rather pettishly,
-the extra corps of gallants, volunteered by the apprentice, more
-especially, as she affirmed that it was contrary to the letter and
-spirit of their indentures, which guaranteed festival and fair-days to
-be at their own disposal. But they would gladly abandon the privilege to
-do her service, rejoined the pertinacious and simple youth, with
-ill-timed assiduity.
-
-“Fool!” muttered the widow between her teeth, but not so indistinctly as
-to pass unheard by the apprentice, who immediately drew back abashed.
-
-A bright morrow gladdened the hearts of the good folk of Newbury. The
-morn was occupied in the sale and purchase of commodities—the staple
-article of the town was readily exchanged for foreign merchandise, or
-broad Spanish pieces, as suited the inclination of the parties dealing.
-These were busy hours for young Winehcomb and his associates, but amply
-redeemed by the gayety and attractive dissipation of the afternoon. In
-walking through the fair, Mistress Avery leaned on the youth’s arm, an
-honor envied the apprentice by many an anxious, would-be suitor. Ere
-growing tired of the drollery of the jugglers, mountebanks and buffoons,
-or the more serious spectacle of the scenic moralites, they encountered
-Master Luke Milner, the attorney, who thought the opportunity should not
-be thrown away of endeavoring to gain the widow’s good graces. Master
-Luke believed his chance very fair—he was of good family, on the
-youthful side of thirty, but exceedingly foppish, after the style of the
-London gallants, but caricatured—too many ribbons on doublet, too many
-jewels on beaver, shoes garnished with roses large as sunflowers. “The
-worshipful attorney will never do for me,” thought Mistress Avery! She
-had often thought so, and was blind to many courtesies and compliments
-which the learned man ventured to throw in with his legal opinions. But
-now she had a part to play, a stratagem to practice on the feelings of
-young Winehcomb. Love, like hunger, will break through every restraint;
-she scrupled not making the lawyer’s vanity subservient to her policy,
-and, accordingly, listened to his flattery with more than ordinary
-attention, keeping an eye, the while, on ’Prentice John, to observe the
-effect of the legal gallant’s honeyed speeches. Alas! for poor,
-love-stricken Mistress Avery—no burning jealousy flushed the cheek of
-John—lightened in his eye, or trembled through his frame! Hearing the
-conversation grow each moment more interesting and tender, believing
-himself one too many, he politely retired to a respectful distance. Was
-he so cold and insensible, the handsome blockhead? soliloquized Mistress
-Avery, heedless of the lawyer’s flowing speeches—I will break the
-indentures—banish him the house! The wretch!
-
-Not cold, not insensible, Mistress Avery, for see! Even whilst he
-loiters, there approaches a party from the village of Spene, with whom
-our apprentice is intimate—he laughs, chats with the young men and
-maidens, and finally, as the mirth grows more uproarious, salutes a very
-handsome, fresh colored, smart young damsel. The dame, who witnessed the
-scene, stung with jealousy, believing her suspicions confirmed, broke
-off abruptly, whilst Master Luke was at the very _acme_ of his tender
-theme; leaving the astonished gallant, cap in hand, to the derision of
-acquaintance, who sarcastically advised him to repair the loss by writ
-of error.
-
-
- CHAPTER II.
-
-Though the widow took no notice of the incident which aroused her
-jealousy, John was made sensible he had incurred her displeasure. She
-walked silent, moody, reserved, scarcely replied to his remarks; her
-large, dark eye flashed anger, but the apprentice, though awed, was
-struck with its beauty, more struck than he had ever been. It was a new
-sensation he experienced. He inwardly deprecated the threatened wrath,
-wondered by what sad mischance he had incurred it, was more tremblingly
-alive to her resentment, than when oft-times—during the course of
-apprenticeship—conscious of deserving it. A strange, uneasy feeling
-began to haunt him—he was sensible of loss of favor, and though, after
-taxing memory, unconscious of merited disgrace—was surprised,
-inquieted, by the deep dejection of spirits under which he labored. It
-seemed as though he had incurred a loss, of which he knew not the extent
-till now. His arm trembled, and she snappishly rebuked his unsteadiness;
-he again encountered her glance—it was wild, angry, fierce, yet he felt
-he could have looked forever.
-
-They were opposite one of those temporary taverns, erected for the
-accommodation of the higher classes frequenting the fair—tricked out
-with gaudy splendor, yet affording delicious viands, choice wines to
-wearied strollers. It so happened that, passing by the open doorway,
-their progress was arrested by Master Nathaniel Buttress, the wealthy
-tanner—mean, avaricious, advanced in years, yet ardently longing to add
-the widow’s possessions to his own accumulated riches. With studied bow,
-and precise flourish of beaver, he bade Mistress Avery good day, and
-followed up the salute by invitation to sip a glass of sack, the
-fashionable beverage of the time. At fair-season, there was not the
-slightest impropriety, either in the offer, or its acceptation—it was
-quite in the usual license of these festivals. But ’Prentice John was
-doubly surprised; in the first place, that the miserly tanner (his
-niggardliness was proverbial) should have screwed up courage to treat
-any one with the high-priced nectar—and that his arm, which he
-gallantly offered, should have been accepted with alacrity by the fair
-dame, who, our apprentice was aware, had oft made devious circuits, on
-many occasions, to elude a meeting. Young Winehcomb found himself,
-lacquey-fashion, following in the rear. He was deeply mortified—such
-circumstance had never happened before—yet, though vexed, the annoyance
-was only secondary to extreme surprise at the character of his own
-feelings. He had valued highly the good will, kind words, and occasional
-gifts of the lady, as proofs of favor, founded on his honesty, diligence
-and promptitude, or, at least, without deeply analizing his feelings,
-believed that in such spirit he received them. But now, smarting under
-disgrace, it seemed as though lost favor was dear for its own
-sake—bereft of smiles to which he had been insensible till the present
-hour, he was unhappy, miserable. ’Prentice John had great difficulty in
-withholding his cudgel from the tanner’s back, but though he gave him
-not a beating, he mentally promised one. Master Buttress, elated with
-good fortune, was more vain-glorious than cautious; unlike prudent
-lover, uncertain of continuance of sudden favor, dreading loss of
-vantage ground, snatched by eager rivals, he escorted the dame to a
-conspicuous seat, whence they could behold the fair, from whence his
-favored lot was visible to all. The ready drawers, ere ardor called,
-hastened to place before the guests a tray laden with costly delicacies,
-crowned with silver flagon full of the favorite potation. Young
-Winehcomb, who sat apart, though partaking the dainties, was maddened to
-behold his mistress listen so complacently to the addresses of the
-veteran suitor. Could she be serious? And if she were—what then? Was
-she not absolute mistress of herself, her wealth—and was he so
-specially concerned in her choice? This self-questioning elicited the
-conviction, startling though true, that he was deeply, personally
-concerned. He was, then, undeniably in love with his mistress! Was the
-passion of sudden growth, the birth of the present hour? Alas! no—it
-had been long smouldering unconsciously—nay, if he doubted, memory
-flashed innumerable, though till now, unnoticed facts proving its
-existence—and he had foolishly let slip the golden chance of wooing
-till too late—till his advantages were the prey of a successful
-rival!—his own affection only brought to light by the torch of
-jealousy. Such was the cruel, torturing position of young Winehcomb.
-’Twas aggravated in being obliged to listen to the tanner’s flattery, to
-witness its favorable reception. Nay, worse—he became conscious that
-Mistress Avery remarked his inquietude, his ill-suppressed hatred of
-Master Nathaniel, as her eye was often for a moment bent on him. He was
-convinced she took pleasure in his torments, for on these occasions her
-manner—though strictly within the rigid limits of propriety—invariably
-was more marked and tender toward the detested, fulsome niggard. He had
-heard, alas! such was the custom of the sex. Often was ’Prentice John
-resolved on leaving the lovers to their own conversation, but restrained
-anger on reflecting it was his duty to be present with and protect
-Mistress Avery, till she quitted the fair and returned home. Nor did he
-relish the notion of leaving the field altogether to the
-tanner—jealousy united with sense of duty in detaining the youth.
-
-Master Buttress was in rare good humor; he could not deem otherwise but
-that he was the fortunate, chosen man, and he found leisure in the
-intervals of fits of gallantry, to conjure flitting visions of broad
-manor added to broad manor, tenement to tenement, and to picture the
-future Master—nay, Worshipful Master Nathaniel Buttress, richest
-gentleman in the county of Berkshire. The only damp on his high spirits
-was the present outlay; he had been drawn into expenses far beyond usual
-habits; had never been guilty of similar extravagance; the veriest
-prodigal of London could not have ordered a more costly board; and that
-tall, rosy-cheeked lad imbibed the precious sack with the avidity of a
-sponge, and never looked a tithe the better humored, but sat grinning
-menaces at him—the donor of the feast! Well! well! all should soon be
-remedied, and the disagreeable, lanky apprentice turned adrift.
-
-“But who is that now passing the tavern; is it not Master Luke Milner,
-the attorney? How enviously he looks! he has the reputation of having
-pressed hard his own suit, but in vain! If I invite him, he will gladly
-come—drink the widow’s health—and it will save me half the reckoning!”
-So reasoned the tanner. The lawyer accepted the invitation, though a
-slight shade of displeasure, he could not wholly dispel, flushed his
-brow. Master Luke entered, bowing lowly to the widow. Drawing a chair,
-near as good manners admitted, to the fair dame, he carefully deposited
-scented gloves and jeweled beaver on adjoining bench, and, in sitting,
-showed anxiety to display a trim foot, though rather overshadowed by the
-large roses. The tanner soon perceived that avarice had induced a
-grievous oversight, for the widow was not quite won. It was both
-unaccountable and annoying—how perverse these women are! she seemed now
-disposed to extend as much favor to Master Luke as she had previously
-exhibited to Master Buttress. ’Prentice John was pleased and distressed
-at the scene—glad of the tanner’s discomfiture, he was enraged at the
-other’s success. The elder suitor had shown indifference to the presence
-of the apprentice, viewed him as a necessary appendage to the widow’s
-state, or, at worst, a tax on his purse to the extent of sack imbibed;
-but our lawyer, nearer John’s own age, and gifted with keener eye than
-his rival, liked not young Winehcomb’s vicinity, his prying, resolute
-gaze.
-
-“Mistress Avery,” said the lawyer blandly, “our young friend appears
-uneasy; nor do I wonder, for more than once, in the fair, did I hear
-red, pouting lips lament the absence of Jack Winehcomb. I pray thee,
-suffer the lad to stroll where he lists; Master Nathaniel and your
-unworthy servant, with permission, will zealously protect the pride and
-boast of Newbury.”
-
-If John had broken any engagement by attendance on her, replied the
-dame—and a keen smile, part malicious, part searching, lit up the
-widow’s features as she gazed on the disconcerted youth—let him seek
-Cicely, who was not far off, to take his place, and he had full
-permission to absent himself. ’Prentice John, though vexed and out of
-countenance, said he had no other engagement than duty enjoined, and he
-was entirely at his mistress’ command.
-
-“Then I must not spoil Cicely’s holiday,” remarked the widow. The
-apprentice was doubtful whether she spoke in displeasure or not—the
-tone of voice and expression of countenance were equivocal. A quiet
-smile, which played for an instant around her mouth, when he declared he
-had no engagement, presaged returning favor, but the horizon was again
-clouded. Mistress Avery, turning to the gallants, said the youth should
-have his own way, that for herself she never found his presence
-irksome—he was so stupid, she might talk treason in his company without
-danger—what she was obliged to say was generally misunderstood. Stupid!
-misunderstood! Were there, in these words, more meant than met the ear?
-Had he been so blind, so deaf? Meanwhile the situation of the rivals was
-far from pleasant; the tanner had introduced an enemy within the
-fortress, whom he could neither dislodge nor compete with; the lawyer
-was angry that he had not the field to himself; whilst fair Mistress
-Avery, with impartial justice, hung the scales of favor suspended.
-Neither could now positively declare he was the chosen swain. Half
-suppressed taunts, and sarcasm clothed in ceremonious language,
-threatened more open bickering, when Master Luke, with due regard to a
-lady’s feelings, besought her to pardon their absence for a few minutes,
-as he suddenly recollected an affair important to the welfare of his
-friend, Master Buttress. The dame was condescending, declared she had
-too much regard for Master Nathaniel to deem their absence a slight,
-under the circumstances; so the lawyer, affecting to produce a leathern
-note-case, retired with his rival. The apprentice felt his situation
-awkward, but he was presently relieved; Mistress Avery bade him follow
-the gentlemen unperceived, and if they drew weapons, or otherwise
-exhibited hostilities, immediately interfere to prevent mischief.
-Concealed by the angle of a canvass booth, he listened, unseen, to the
-wordy strife. The lawyer was cool, sarcastic, overbearing; the tanner,
-fiery and threatening. Presuming on youth, good figure, and flowing
-rhetoric, the former contemned the pretensions of the elder rival, whom
-he affirmed had nothing to recommend him but wealth not needed; why,
-therefore, pursue a rivalry, when he could not lay claim to one certain
-token of affection? And the man of law began enumerating the
-distinguishing marks of favor which Dame Avery, spite of prudent,
-cautious, self-restraint, could not avoid exhibiting as soon as he
-entered the tavern. The tanner’s replication was in the same style. If
-these be marks of affection, thought the listener, what would they say
-to my pretensions if I told all? And ’Prentice John, as he listened and
-commented on what he heard, grew a wiser, more knowing youth.
-
-“If thou wert a younger man, Master Nathaniel,” said the lawyer, “there
-would be no need for these mutual taunts. We have a readier mode of
-settling—”
-
-“Curse thy youth, and thee too,” exclaimed the tanner; “’cause thou art
-a vain, braggart fop, with thy galloon and thy large cabbage roses,
-think’st to brave it over me?—there!—and there!” And so saying, the
-valiant tanner dealt successive cuffs on Master Luke’s doublet, and
-drawing weapon, awaited the attack. Their rapiers—for the tanner,
-though following a handicraft, yet, as owning broad lands, deemed
-himself entitled to wear a weapon and dub himself gentleman—immediately
-crossed, but the alert apprentice, with stout cudgel, threw himself
-between and struck down their guard.
-
-“Good sirs! good sirs! forbear!” cried one hastening to assist young
-Winehcomb. ’Twas the curate of Spene. The belligerents immediately
-sheathed their weapons, muttering future vengeance. The holy man
-requested to know the cause of quarrel, and offered to act as umpire.
-This, after demur and consideration, was agreed to. Hearing each in
-turn, he proposed, as more becoming their respective characters than
-fighting, that the case should be stated to Mistress Avery—the election
-left to the fair widow. As each deemed himself the favored candidate,
-and, indeed, with good cause, for our dame had been gracious to both,
-the curate’s proposal was accepted, and his eloquence solicited to open
-the pleadings. The party thereupon returned to the tavern, the
-apprentice not the least interested actor in the drama.
-
-The curate of Spene, though grave and sententious, threw into his speech
-an under current of humor and _bonhommie_, which touched off the
-pretensions of each suitor with dramatic effect and felicity. Neither
-could question his impartiality, nor had he, as he affirmed, secret
-preponderance either way; both were esteemed friends, both had received
-the offices of the church at his hands, both had listened to his Sabbath
-exhortations. Which of the twain reigned in the lady’s heart, to him he
-should offer congratulation; to the other he could fairly say, that he
-merited the honor for which he had unsuccessfully striven.
-
-There was a pause, a deep silence. The blushing widow must now speak,
-declare herself, decide her own fate, and with it the fortunes of the
-suitors. How ardently did ’Prentice John long for one of the many
-opportunities of pleading his passion, oft thrown in his way, so
-heedlessly neglected! Would she indeed make an election? then, farewell,
-Newbury! in some far distant land would he hide his disgrace, forget his
-folly.
-
-Mistress Avery said the gentlemen had certainly given her cause long to
-remember Newbury Fair; yet they could not expect her mind made up on so
-momentous a question of a sudden; besides, it was now Wednesday, which
-had ever been an unlucky day with the Averys, but to-morrow (Thursday)
-week they should have a decisive answer—her preference made
-known—provided, and it was the only stipulation besides secrecy, they
-both refrained pressing their amorous suits in the interim.
-
-So ended the conference, and as the rivals, with the curate, gallantly
-bade the lady adieu (having promised obedience in every particular)
-’Prentice John, in a paroxysm of anger and remorse, made firm resolve
-that he would challenge to mortal combat the favored suitor, beat him
-within an inch of life if he refused to fight, upbraid the widow for
-secretly fomenting a passion which she laughed at, and flee, forever,
-the town of Newbury.
-
-“You forget, John, I shall need your arm through the press,” exclaimed
-the dame reproachfully. The apprentice started; he had been leaning
-against the bench, lost in bitter reverie; he saw not his mistress was
-waiting. Uttering an indistinct apology, he escorted the lady from the
-tavern in time to witness that the tanner had been sufficiently adroit
-to palm off half the expense of the entertainment on his rival. Whether
-this was omen of higher fortune, the sequel will show.
-
-They scarcely spoke during the remainder of the walk, nor even after
-reaching home. ’Prentice John was reserved, melancholy, brooding over
-bitter reflections; the dame, sly, observant, oft casting furtive
-glances at young Winehcomb, seemingly, as he thought, indulging secret
-pleasure on beholding his misery. On the morrow they were together in
-the compting-room; it was his duty to produce entries of the bales of
-cloth sold during the business-period of the Fair; to account for the
-same in bullion, or according to the terms of sale.
-
-“These for thyself, John,” said the widow, placing a few gold pieces on
-the table, whilst she proceeded to place, under triple lock, the
-remainder. They remained untouched. The third lock of the huge iron
-chest duly shot, the dame arose, was surprised on beholding the money
-still lying unappropriated; John looking like man under sentence of
-death.
-
-“Have I grown niggardly, Master Winehcomb?” exclaimed the widow, “speak,
-if you would have more.”
-
-John replied by asking if she thought the ten pieces sufficient to equip
-him, and pay passage to Cadiz, where he heard an expedition was fitting
-out, in which many Englishmen had volunteered. Mistress Avery, with a
-calmness which confirmed his despair, replied in the negative, but
-demanded why he should think of starting for Cadiz, ere, indeed, his
-indentures were determined. The apprentice declared wildly, if she
-married either tanner or lawyer, he would depart, even with no more than
-the ten pieces, and for his reasons—he was not then sufficiently master
-of himself to detail them!
-
-“But, John,” said the widow, in a tone of expostulation, whilst a smile
-lurked in the eyes and round the mouth, “what am I to do if I say No?
-they press me so hard!”
-
-The Newbury apprentice, at his mistress’ feet, taught the answer she
-should give. On the following Monday, Master John Winehcomb was united
-in marriage with Mistress Avery—the wedding celebrated by the grandest
-entertainment ever beheld in the county of Berkshire, the fame whereof
-spread even as far as the court of bluff Harry. If lacking splendor in
-any particular, the omission was owing to the short time for
-preparation, as no expense was spared. The unfortunate suitors, of
-course, understood the affair from common report, and thought it
-unnecessary to seek their fate at the widow’s domicil, when they could
-learn it from every man, woman and child in the town. They were invited
-to the wedding feast, but wisely declined, as the story of their strange
-wooing was already abroad.
-
-It was the custom, in those days, for the bridegroom to salute the bride
-on the cheek, in the church, after the ceremony was performed.
-
-“And you are ready to swear, Master John,” whispered the dame as the
-bridegroom approached, “that you never saw that damsel before Fair-day,
-whom you kissed at the Fair?”
-
-“No—nor since!” replied he, believing it a hint for his future conduct.
-
-Master Winehcomb lived happily—his wealth increased so quickly, with
-the increasing demand for the staple article of Newbury, that when the
-Earl of Surrey marched against James the Fourth of Scotland, who was
-then ravaging the borders, the rich clothier accompanied the expedition
-with a retinue of one hundred servants and artisans, clothed and armed
-at his own expense. The memory of John Winehcomb and his rich and
-handsome spouse was long preserved in their native town.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- SONNETS.
-
-
- BY MISS ELIZABETH B. BARRETT.
-
-
- I.
-
- I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless;
- That only men incredulous of despair,
- Half taught in anguish, through the midnight air
- Beat upward to God’s throne in loud access
- Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness
- In hearts, as countries, lieth silent, bare
- Under the blenching, vertical eye-glare
- Of the free chartered heavens. Be still! express
- Grief for thy dead in silence like to Death!
- Most like a monumental statue set
- In everlasting watch and moveless wo,
- Till itself crumble to the dust beneath.
- Touch it, spectator! Are its eyelids wet?
- If it could weep it could arise and go!
-
-
-
-
- II.
-
- When some belovéd voice, which was to you
- Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,
- And silence against which you dare not cry
- Aches round you with an anguish dreadly new—
- What hope, what help? What music will undo
- That silence to your sense? Not friendship’s sigh,
- Not reason’s labored proof, not melody
- Of viols, nor the dancers footing through;
- Not songs of poets, nor of nightingales,
- Whose hearts leap upward from the cypress trees
- To Venus’ star! nor yet the spheric laws
- Self-chanted—nor the angels’ sweet “all hails,”
- Met in the smile of God! Nay, none of these!
- Speak, Christ at His right hand, and fill this pause.
-
-
-
-
- III.
-
- What are we set on earth for? Say, to toil!
- Nor seek to leave thy tending of the vines
- For all the heat o’ the sun, till it declines,
- And Death’s mild curfew shall from work assoil.
- God did anoint thee with his odorous oil
- To wrestle, not to reign—and he assigns
- All thy tears over like pure crystallines
- Unto thy fellows, working the same soil.
- To wear for amulets. So others shall
- Take patience, labor, to their heart and hand,
- From thy hand, and thy heart, and thy brave cheer,
- And God’s grace fructify through thee to all!
- The least flower with a brimming cup may stand
- And share its dew-drop with another near.
-
-
-
-
- IV.
-
- The woman singeth at her spinning-wheel
- A pleasant song, ballad or barcarolle,
- She thinketh of her song, upon the whole,
- Far more than of her flax; and yet the reel
- Is full, and artfully her fingers feel,
- With quick adjustment, provident control,
- The lines, too subtly twisted to unroll,
- Out to the perfect thread. I hence appeal
- To the dear Christian church—that we may do
- Our Father’s business in these temples mirk,
- So swift and steadfast, so intent and strong—
- While so, apart from toil, our souls pursue
- Some high, calm, spheric tune—proving our work
- The better for the sweetness of our song.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- SONNET.
-
-
- BY MRS. SEBA SMITH.
-
-
- I dreamed last night, that I myself did lay
- Within the grave—and after stood and wept—
- My spirit sorrowed where its ashes slept—
- ’Twas a strange dream, and yet meseems it may
- Prefigure that which is akin to truth—
- How sorrow we o’er perish’d dreams of youth!
- High hopes, and aspirations doom’d to be
- Crush’d, and o’er-mastered by earth’s destiny!
- Fame, that the spirit loathing turns to ruth—
- And that deluding faith so loath to part,
- That earth will shrine for us one kindred heart;
- Oh, ’tis the ashes of such things, that wring
- Tears from the eyes! Hopes like to these depart,
- And we bow down in dread, o’er-shadowed by death’s wing.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- MALINA GRAY.
-
-
- BY ANN S. STEPHENS.
-
-
- (Concluded from page 278.)
-
-
- CHAPTER III.
-
- “I sigh when all my youthful friends caress—
- They laugh in health, and future evils brave;
- Love has for them a gentle power to bless,
- While I shall moulder in my silent grave.
- God of the just, thou gavest the bitter cup,
- I bow to thy behest, and drink it up.”
-
-
-We had penetrated to the depth of the pine grove, and it was difficult
-to find our way out through the tangled undergrowth and the unequal
-hollows; but Malina had become thoughtful for others once more, and
-though excitement no longer made her own progress easy, she guarded me
-with double care; lifted me over the hollows and carried me in her arms
-when the thickets were too intricate or the ground very uneven. She
-kissed me as we reached a foot-path which led to our cottage, and,
-pointing to the door, would have left me to go home alone; but when she
-saw that I was troubled regarding my torn frock, kindness of heart
-prompted her to come back. She led me to the house, explained my
-misfortune, and went away. I sat down on the door-sill and watched her
-till she entered the portico of her mother’s dwelling, and when they
-remarked on her dejected looks, and questioned me of the cause, I
-answered that Malina was tired with walking so long in the woods, for it
-seemed as if the tears which I had seen her shed and the passionate
-words which she had uttered were a secret which I should do wrong to
-mention.
-
-In about an hour Phebe Gray and our young minister stopped at the
-door-yard gate to inquire for Malina. I told them that she had gone
-home, and when Mr. Mosier lifted me in his arms, and, looking into my
-face, asked what I had been crying about, I turned my head away to evade
-his kiss and besought him to set me down. The contrast between his happy
-face, the deep and almost brilliant expression of joy which lighted it
-up, and the sorrowful look of poor Malina forced itself even on my
-childish mind. I felt that which I had no power to comprehend, and from
-that time never loved our minister nor Phebe Gray as I had loved them.
-They walked home very slowly, she leaning on his arm with an air of
-dependence and trustfulness which was full of feeling and feminine
-delicacy; he would check their progress every few moments to point out
-some familiar beauty in the landscape, as if they had never looked upon
-it before. They loitered by the rock spring, and along the river road,
-tranquil in their happiness, till the dusk almost concealed them as they
-entered Mrs. Gray’s house.
-
-Almost every evening, for a week, our minister and Phebe Gray took their
-walk around the pine grove, and always alone. Malina was confined to the
-house. She had taken cold, Mrs. Gray said, and the night air was bad for
-her lungs. But often, when her sister was loitering along the river’s
-bank, happy in the wealth of her newly aroused affections, Malina might
-be seen at her chamber window, with her cheek languidly supported by a
-hand which was becoming thinner each day, and gazing earnestly after the
-two beings dearest to her on earth, but whose happiness she could not
-witness without emotions that were well nigh killing her. Her mother saw
-nothing of this. She only knew that Malina was quieter than usual and
-not very well, that her eyes were heavy and her step languid as she
-moved around the house. She did not see the heart struggling against
-itself, the stern principle which grew strong in the contest. She never
-dreamed of that desolate and lonely sensation which haunted her
-daughter’s pillow with watchfulness, and made her waking hours a season
-of trial cruel as the grave. She saw that Malina was strangely affected;
-true, she smiled still, but it was meekly, sadly, and it seemed as if
-the music of her laugh was exhausted forever; her eyes grew misty and
-sorrowful in their expression, and tears would sometimes fill them
-without apparent cause. Still it was gravely asserted that Malina had
-only a slight cold, a nervous attack which would go off in a day or two!
-But there was something in her illness which Phebe could not comprehend;
-a wish for solitude, and a strange nervous dread of any thing like
-intimate conversation with herself, which prevented an acknowledgment of
-her own deep causes of happiness. Her sensitive modesty made her
-desirous of some encouragement to unburden her heart of its wealth of
-hope even to her sister, and when she saw that Malina shunned her, that
-her eyes had a wandering and estranged look whenever they turned upon
-her face, she felt checked and almost repulsed in her confidence. If any
-thing could have disturbed the pure happiness which reigned in her
-bosom, it would have been this extraordinary mood in one who had from
-childhood shared every thought and wish almost as soon as it was formed.
-It had a power to disturb, though it could not entirely destroy the
-tranquillity of her mind.
-
-“I will talk with her about it to-night,” murmured Phebe, as she opened
-her chamber door one evening, after a long conversation with Mr. Mosier
-in the portico. “I wish, though, she would ask some question, or even
-look curious to know what keeps us together so much; I little thought to
-have kept a secret from Malina so long.”
-
-As these thoughts passed through her mind, Phebe Gray gathered up the
-bed-drapery, and lying down by her sister, passing an arm caressingly
-over her waist, laid her blushing cheek against the now pallid face
-which rested on the pillow. She felt that tears were upon it, and that
-the snowy linen under her head was wet as if Malina had cried herself to
-sleep.
-
-“Malina, wake up a minute, I have something to tell you,” murmured the
-young girl, in a low, half timid whisper.
-
-The moonbeams lay full upon the bed, and Phebe Gray was looking
-earnestly in the face of the beautiful sleeper. She could see the silken
-lashes quivering on her cheek, and a tremulous motion of the lips, nay,
-it seemed to her as if a single tear broke through the lashes and rolled
-over the pale cheek, and she was certain that something like a faint
-shudder crept through the form which was half circled by her arm. But
-Malina gave no answer, and the gentle questioner was too sensitive for
-another effort to win attention. She quietly laid her head on the pillow
-and sunk to sleep, but not to indulge in the sweet, unbroken dream of
-happiness which had shed roses over her couch so many nights. There was
-sadness at heart, a presentiment of coming ill, and a solicitude
-regarding her sister which kept her anxious and rendered her slumber
-broken and unrefreshing. About midnight, when the stillness of her
-chamber rendered every sound more than usually audible, she was
-disturbed by the broken and half stifled sobs which arose from her
-sister’s pillow. Again she stole her arm over the weeping girl, and
-questioned her regarding the source of her grief. Malina only turned her
-face away, and sobbed more bitterly than before.
-
-“Why will you not speak to me, Malina? what has come between us of
-late?—speak to me, sister—you are in sorrow, and I have—oh how
-much—cause for joy! yet we have all at once learned to conceal thoughts
-from one another. Tell me what troubles you—for I cannot be entirely
-happy while you are ill and so sad.”
-
-Malina redoubled her sobs, but amid the tumult of her grief she
-murmured, “Tell me all, Phebe, all you feel, all you wish; but I have no
-secrets, no sorrow. There is a little pain in my side, sometimes, and
-that makes me low spirited. I have always been so healthy, you know,
-that a little illness frightens me. Do not mind me, but talk of
-yourself. You are happy, Phebe, _very_ happy! were not those your words?
-tell me all—I can be glad and rejoice in any thing that gives you
-pleasure—any thing on earth—if my heart were breaking. So let us talk
-it all over now, the room is so quiet and dark, and we shall neither of
-us get sleepy—do you think we shall, sister?—you may, but I have
-almost forgotten how to sleep,” and, as Malina ceased speaking, she
-stole an arm around her sister’s neck, and, choking back her sobs,
-composed herself to listen.
-
-Phebe rose up in the bed, gathered the drapery around them, for the
-moonbeams were bright enough to reveal her blushes, and, sinking to her
-pillow, again murmured the story of her love, its return, and all the
-bright anticipations that made her future so beautiful. Malina nerved
-herself to listen; she uttered no word of distrust, and checked all
-manifestations of discontent by a strong effort of self-control, when
-all was told—when she was made certain that her sister and the only
-being she had ever regarded with more than a sister’s love, were to be
-married—that their wedding day was fixed, and, that the mother’s
-sanction had already been granted—she remained silent for a moment, and
-strove to gain the mastery over her feelings. When she spoke, her frame
-shook with the bitter emotions which could not be altogether subdued,
-but her voice was low and very calm. Mr. Mosier was poor, and Phebe not
-yet of age. If he were installed in the old meeting-house, they would be
-compelled to live with Mrs. Gray till something could be saved from his
-small salary to purchase a dwelling and begin housekeeping. This thought
-caused some anxiety to the engaged couple. The young clergyman had
-learned something of Mrs. Gray’s real character, and was reluctant to
-erect his domestic altar beneath her tyrannical auspices. Phebe, too,
-longed for a quiet home of her own, a happy, free home, where she might
-follow her own innocent impulses, unchecked and without fear.
-
-“You shall have that home, my sister,” said Malina Gray, twining her
-arms around her companion, and kissing her with a gush of true
-affection; “there is the old parsonage house; you shall have that, and
-the money which dear minister Brown left to me; all are yours and _his_.
-You will be happy there—very happy. I know he loved the old place. Now,
-good night, Phebe; let us go to sleep!” and with a low gasping sob,
-which was not the less painful that it gave no sound, Malina turned away
-her head.
-
-Phebe was too disinterested and high-minded herself, for a thought of
-refusing Malina’s generosity.
-
-“We shall, indeed, be happy,” she said; “you will come and live with us,
-and by the time you are married, we shall have saved enough to pay all
-the money back again. You _will_ live with us?”
-
-Malina thought of the quiet grave-yard, which could be seen from the
-parsonage window, and answered—
-
-“I shall want no other home.”
-
-Phebe talked on, more cheerfully than usual, and when her sister did not
-answer, she thought her asleep; but Malina had fainted, and lay
-senseless upon her pillow.
-
-It was soon rumored through the village that our new minister was
-engaged to Phebe Gray, and every body was delighted with the match.
-Phebe was just the creature for a clergyman’s wife, quiet and gentle,
-with manners that gave dignity to the softness of her disposition. In
-the general satisfaction which reigned in the village, Malina was quite
-overlooked. Her change of appearance was imputed to sadness at parting
-with her sister; and, at times, when the wedding was talked of in her
-presence, the rich color which burned over her cheeks, the brilliancy of
-her eyes, and the flashes of wild merriment that sprung to her lips,
-deceived the unobserving into a belief of her entire happiness. She
-spent much of her time at the old parsonage, superintending the
-arrangements of her sister’s home with a degree of taste and energy
-which surprised all who witnessed her exertions. The rooms were all
-newly arranged, delicate paper was purchased at New Haven for the walls,
-new stepping stones were laid at the front door, green blinds gave a
-look of elegance and seclusion to the windows; the profuse rose bushes
-and lilac trees were pruned, and a white picket-fence hedged in the
-little wilderness of flowers which blossomed in the front yard. The
-cabinet maker, on School Hill, was busy with the furniture, all of a
-superior kind. The carpet-weaver had borrowed two _quill-wheels_, and
-all the spools, for a mile round, in order to expedite the progress of
-sixty yards of striped carpeting through his cumbrous loom. The house
-and its adornments were to be comfortable and elegant beyond any thing
-that had been known in our village for a long time; and all was Malina’s
-work. Her untiring assiduity created the little paradise which another
-was to enjoy. Her money purchased the books which filled the little
-study, whose window opened upon the most verdant corner of the orchard.
-Her trembling hands placed a new inlaid flute on the little table, and
-drew the easy chair close by, that the bridegroom might find every thing
-ready and home-like in his new dwelling.
-
-One afternoon Malina was left alone; the workmen had departed to their
-suppers, and her task was finished for the day. She had just hung the
-pet robin in his old place by the dining-room window; he seemed to
-recognize the room, and flew about his cage, chirping and fluttering his
-wings, as if to thank her for bringing him home once more. It was the
-first hour of repose that Malina had known for many weeks, and now, that
-she had nothing more to perform, painful thoughts and regrets that would
-no longer be stifled, fell back upon her heart, and she was, oh, how
-desolate! There, in her blooming youth, she sat hopeless and weary of
-life—for what is life to a woman without affection? The heart was full
-of warm and generous feelings, burthened with a wealth of tenderness,
-and yet she had no future, nothing to hope for, nothing to dread; her
-destiny seemed consummated there and then. Youth is in itself so
-hopeful, that we can scarcely imagine a creature in the first bud of
-life yearning for the grave. But Malina was very sad. She looked through
-the open door into the orchard; the green old apple trees were heavy
-with blossoms, and through the garniture of thrifty leaves, and the rosy
-shower which blushed among them, a corner of the old meeting-house met
-her gaze—a portion of the grave-yard, and a new tomb-stone, which
-gleamed out from the young grass which had already started up from our
-minister’s death place. How green and quiet it looked—and oh, how
-earnestly Malina Gray longed to lie down in that still spot, and be at
-rest. Yet Malina was young, and no human being dreamed how wretched she
-was. The orchard was full of singing birds that day, and there had been
-a time when the gush of sweet sounds, that rose and swelled amid the
-foliage, would have made her heart leap, but now it filled her eyes with
-tears. The sunshine that played and quivered among the leaves—the wind
-that now and then gushed through the heavy boughs, scattering the grass
-with rosy flakes, and sighing as it swept off to the open plain—all
-seemed a mockery.
-
-She was heart sick, and yearned to die. How cruel is that power by which
-a broken heart draws thoughts of sadness from the sweet and beautiful
-things of nature. Malina gazed through her tears at the change her own
-hands had wrought. The unseemly plantains had disappeared from the back
-door-step, and around the well-curb a bed of valley-lilies were just
-forming their pearly buds.
-
-“They will be in blossom for Phebe’s hair,” murmured the young girl,
-“and for mine—for am I not to be bridemaid?”
-
-With a mournful smile gleaming through her tears, Malina arose, and
-tying on her bonnet, left the house. She met Phebe and Mr. Mosier near
-the front gate. They were sauntering toward their new dwelling, tranquil
-and happy; to them, every thing whispered of joy; the fragrant orchard,
-the birds caroling within its shadows, and all the beautiful landscape
-were full of pleasant associations. Every hope and thought in _their_
-bosoms blossomed in unison with nature.
-
-How true it is that thought and feeling, like the sun, give color to
-outward things. The heart creates its own sunshine, or the cloud through
-which nature is revealed to it. Phebe Gray and her betrothed husband
-felt nothing but the sweet and the beautiful—their hearts were brimful
-of sunshine. But, alas, for Malina, she looked through the cloud.
-
-Malina walked on. The two contented beings by the gate were happy enough
-without her. She strove to smile cheerfully as they spoke to her, and in
-a tone of forced playfulness forbade them entering the house till their
-wedding day.
-
-Malina had gathered beneath the roof of that old parsonage house many
-luxuries almost unknown in the neighborhood; every thing calculated to
-gratify the fine taste of the young divine, or add to the comfort of her
-sister, had been unsparingly purchased, till her patrimony was almost
-exhausted. While this duty lasted, and the excitement of action was upon
-her, Malina sustained the burthen of her sorrows with an aching, but
-firm heart. She had taken no time for thought—scarcely for tears—but
-worked on, as if toiling through a feverish dream. Her cheeks were
-always flushed, and sometimes the music of her laugh rang loud and
-strangely through the bridal chamber which she was decorating; but the
-companions who assisted her were often startled by the reckless tone of
-her laugh; it was too absent and wild for happiness or merriment,
-entirely deficient in that low, rich melody, which had once made her
-voice so full of healthy joy. Yet all the neighbors were commenting on
-her generous conduct, and the brilliancy of her spirits; and it was
-often remarked that Malina Gray was never so fond of company, so
-careless in her mirth, or so startling in her wit, as she had been since
-the engagement of her sister, and since she had recovered from the
-slight cold which confined her to the house when that engagement was
-first whispered in the village.
-
-To a heart capable of self-sacrifice, there is no feeling so lonely as
-that which follows exhausted power. No conviction, so keenly painful, as
-a knowledge that a beloved being, who has cost us the hopes of a life in
-resigning, can be happy without our aid—that we have nothing to render
-up—no aim for exertion—nothing to do but sit down and gaze upon the
-blank which existence has become. Her task was done. The excitement
-over, and then came to the heart of Malina Gray the toil and pain of
-concealed suffering; the aching restlessness which eats into the bud of
-human life. Once more it was rumored that she was ill, and, but for
-other and more absorbing subjects, Mrs. Gray might have been alarmed for
-the safety of her child; but she was so intent on other things, that the
-poor girl and her sufferings remained unheeded at home, save by the
-gentle Phebe and her betrothed husband.
-
-When Mrs. Gray invited our young minister to reside at her house, it was
-probably with some vague expectation of the result which followed; and
-when her consent was desired to his union with Phebe, it was given
-promptly, and with evident satisfaction. But the young divine, though a
-meek and true Christian, had a dignity of character and opinion which
-sometimes proved at variance with the exactions of an ambitious and
-arbitrary matron. She had expected that he would continue to reside in
-her family, after the marriage, and looked forward to an extended
-dominion in her own household, and increased influence in the church, to
-be secured by this arrangement. But when he persisted in establishing an
-independent home, in managing his own salary, and becoming the sole
-protector of his future wife, whose state of moral servitude he could
-not witness without pain, Mrs. Gray’s enthusiasm in favor of the match
-gradually subsided, and when Malina insisted upon surrendering her newly
-acquired property to the young couple, and giving them the parsonage for
-a residence, the haughty woman became stern in her opposition, and while
-she took every means to render her own house an unpleasant residence for
-the parties, found some excuse to delay the wedding, from week to week,
-and at last refused to sanction it, till Mr. Mosier should be regularly
-installed in the pulpit, which he had now filled almost a year. Still
-Mrs. Gray was not a woman to talk openly of a change in her opinions.
-She was too calculating and subtle for useless words.
-
-It had been settled in church council, that our young minister should be
-installed a few weeks after the time appointed for his marriage, and the
-young couple submitted to the imposed delay without a murmur. During
-these intervening weeks, and while Malina was occupied in embellishing
-the parsonage, Mrs. Gray was observed to be absent from home more
-frequently than usual. There was scarcely an influential church member
-near the old meeting-house, with whom she had not taken her knitting
-work, to spend a social afternoon; and several tea-parties were given in
-a quiet way at her own house, where she presided over the silver
-tea-urn, and old fashioned china, with more than ordinary condescension
-and dignity. But these were all impromptu meetings, and invariably took
-place when Mr. Mosier and Phebe were invited elsewhere.
-
-The parents of our young minister were aged and very respectable
-farmers, residing in the vicinity of New Haven; but they were far from
-wealthy, and the farm they cultivated was not their own property. A week
-before the Sabbath appointed for the installation, Mr. Mosier
-accompanied his intended bride and her mother on a visit to his parents,
-where the haughty matron first learned that the man whom her daughter
-was about to marry had been a _charity student_. A benevolent society
-had paid his tuition at Yale College, at least that portion which he had
-been unable to meet by his own exertions. There had been no concealment
-of this truth on his part, for he had informed Phebe of the matter, and
-believed Mrs. Gray already aware of it. But Phebe, in the generous
-simplicity of her heart, never conceived it possible that the manner of
-his education could be deemed a cause of reproach, and it had left no
-impression on her mind; to her upright understanding there was no
-degradation in the thought that her lover had been a _charity student_.
-
-Mrs. Gray gave no demonstration of the displeasure which filled her
-bosom on receiving this intelligence, but she quietly made an excuse for
-returning home with her daughter the next day, and, with every
-appearance of disinterested kindness, insisted that Mr. Mosier should
-not interrupt his visit to accompany them. “She could easily drive
-home,” she said, “the horse was gentle, and the roads perfectly good;
-her son-in-law must remain with his family; it would be cruel to force
-him away so abruptly.” Mrs. Gray said all this in her usual manner,
-shook hands with the old people, allowed the young divine to assist her
-into the chaise, and pretended to be very intently occupied in searching
-for something in her traveling basket, while he placed Phebe in her
-seat, and, with her slender hand clasped in his own, was whispering his
-farewell.
-
-“Remember, and be in readiness next Sabbath,” he said, in a low voice,
-“tell Malina that she must take good care of you. I shall come on
-Saturday evening.”
-
-Phebe murmured that she would be ready; but as she returned the farewell
-clasp of his hand, tears started to her eyes. She could not have told
-the reason, but a strange feeling of melancholy came over her, and it
-seemed as if the parting were forever. She looked back as the chaise
-drove away—he was standing on the door step by his parents, and the
-whole group waved their hands, smiling cheerfully, as they saw her turn
-for a last glance. But still her heart was heavy.
-
-What passed between Mrs. Gray and her daughter during their drive home,
-we have no means of recording. But as Malina sat in her chamber window,
-and saw the chaise toiling up the hill that afternoon, her sister leaned
-forward, and she caught a glimpse of her face. It was white as marble,
-and stained with tears. Malina had been ill, but she started up, hastily
-girded her white morning wrapper to her waist, and went down. Mrs. Gray
-loitered to give some directions to the “hired man” about her horse, and
-Phebe was descending from the chaise without assistance. The moment her
-foot touched the earth, she tottered, and would have fallen but for
-Malina, who sprang forward, and flinging her arms around her, inquired
-eagerly and kindly what had befallen her.
-
-Phebe attempted to speak, but the words died on her lips, and the color
-left them; she lifted her hand as if to grasp at something for support,
-and fainted in her sister’s arms.
-
-“Mother, what is the matter?—where is Mr. Mosier?—tell me, pray tell
-me, what has made poor Phebe so ill, and why is she looking so
-wretched?”
-
-Mrs. Gray turned, and saw that her child was senseless.
-
-“Go and bring some water,” she said to the man, “carry that basket in
-with you, and make haste. Raise her head a little, you are crushing her
-bonnet,” she continued, turning to Malina; “there, take it off—she will
-come to, directly.”
-
-As she spoke, Mrs. Gray calmly untied her daughter’s bonnet, and held it
-till the man came with water, while Malina stood trembling beneath the
-weight of the fainting girl, tenderly smoothing back the bright tresses
-from her forehead, and wildly kissing her pale lips, amid a thousand
-vague questions, which no one thought of answering.
-
-Mrs. Gray took a pitcher of water from the man, who came panting from
-the well, and laving her hands in it, laid them on the pale face which
-Malina was still covering with tears and kisses. There was a faint
-struggle, a gasping sigh, and after a little Phebe began to murmur upon
-her sister’s bosom, like one just awaking from a dream. She shrunk from
-her mother, when that stubborn woman would have assisted her to rise,
-and clinging to Malina, walked with trembling steps toward the house.
-
-“Oh, not there—up, to our own room, Malina,” said the poor girl, as her
-sister would have led her into the parlor. She was obliged to sit down
-more than once in ascending the stairs; and when at length Malina laid
-her upon the bed in their own dear room, she looked sadly around, and
-reaching up her arms, clasped the bending neck of her sister, and began
-to weep.
-
-“I must never see him again—never—never,” she said, while her voice
-was broken with tears; “oh, Malina, did you think any human being could
-be so cruel?”
-
-Malina started, and for one instant a flash of pleasure broke into her
-eyes. It was an unworthy feeling, and the next moment her face was
-flooded with shame that she had known it; and when she sat down by her
-sister, and besought her to say what had thus unnerved her, it was with
-as true sympathy as ever warmed the heart of a noble and
-self-sacrificing woman.
-
-The cause of her sorrow was soon explained. Phebe had been commanded by
-her arbitrary mother to give up all thoughts of a union with Mr. Mosier.
-The gentle girl, for the first time in her life, had ventured to
-expostulate with her parent. The hope of her young life was at stake,
-and her heart trembled at the thought of separation from the man whom
-she had learned to love so devotedly. It was all in vain. Mrs. Gray was
-resolved, her prejudices were aroused, and to their gratification the
-happiness of her child was as dust.
-
-Phebe had been educated with almost holy reverence for the authority of
-a parent, and though her heart broke, she dared not oppose her mother’s
-command. Her spirit withered beneath it, like a flower trodden to the
-earth, but she submitted. Not so Malina. Once more she ventured to
-reason with and oppose her mother, but only to call down resentment on
-her own head. This was no sudden resolution in Mrs. Gray; she had gone
-steadily to work, and planned out her own results. She was one of those
-cold pattern women who never know an impulse—whose virtues are
-polished, like marble, and as cold. She had paved her way quietly and
-well. The next morning, while her two children were sorrowing in their
-room, she was driving from house to house, exerting her influence over
-better hearts and weaker minds than her own, to the ruin of those who
-had loved and trusted her. And while Phebe lay upon a sick bed, a vestry
-council was called at the old meeting-house, and a decision passed by a
-majority of a single man, which deprived our young minister of the
-pulpit he was to have taken as his own the following Sabbath. Many good
-and just men of the congregation protested against this cruel and unjust
-act; but in churches, as in communities, the good and the merciful do
-not always constitute a majority.
-
-The decision of this church meeting was forwarded to Mr. Mosier, and
-with it a letter from Mrs. Gray. The next morning he rode by our cottage
-on horseback, slowly, and as one in deep and morbid thought. He crossed
-the old bridge, and, as he did so, looked earnestly toward Mrs. Gray’s
-dwelling. He paused a moment at the end, and then rode at a brisker pace
-up the hill.
-
-Phebe had been feverish, and very low, all that morning. Malina was
-watching by her side, and as she lay with her eyes closed in an
-imperfect slumber, the sound of a horse coming up the road made her
-start from the pillow, and while her cheek burned with a more feverish
-red, she fixed her eyes upon the open sash.
-
-“It is he—I know it!” she said, clasping her hand, and looking into
-Malina’s face; “I will get up; mother cannot refuse to let me see him
-this once;” and with a kind of feverish joy the poor girl flung aside
-the bed clothes, and stepped out on the floor. With trembling and eager
-hands she gathered up her beautiful tresses, and began to braid them
-about her head, earnestly beseeching Malina all the time to assist her
-in getting ready to go down.
-
-The kind hearted sister required no entreaty. She helped to array the
-invalid, though her own breath came gaspingly, and her hands shook like
-aspens in performing their duty.
-
-“There, now—there, I am ready. See, do I look very ill, Malina?” said
-the excited young creature, turning to her sister; “it will make his
-heart ache to see how red my cheeks are. Do you think he will detect the
-fever?” and dashing some lavender over her handkerchief with an
-impetuosity all unlike her usual quiet movements, the half delirious
-girl took her sister’s arm, and was hurrying from the room. But the
-sound of a horse, rapidly passing the house, again came to her ear, and,
-with a faint exclamation, she sprung to the window just in time to catch
-a glimpse of her lover as he rode by. He lifted his face to the open
-sash, and she saw that it was very pale. He saw her, checked his horse
-an instant, half raised his hand, and then turning away with seeming
-effort, he rode slowly down the hill.
-
-“He is gone,” exclaimed the unhappy girl, “gone without a word, almost
-without a look!”
-
-And with a wavering step, Phebe Gray moved toward the bed, and amid the
-confusion of her feverish thoughts, she called on Malina to come and
-undo the bridal wreath which was girding her forehead so painfully.
-
-But Malina was away. She had caught one glimpse at the pale face
-uplifted to her window, and with a wild impulse to see the minister once
-more, she flung a shawl over her head, and left the room. With the speed
-of an antelope, she darted through the garden, and forcing a passage
-through the brushwood which lined a hollow beyond, leaped down upon the
-natural basin of granite, where the rock-spring poured its waves, just
-as he had dismounted, and was proceeding to dip up the water in his
-palm, and bathe his forehead with it. He looked care-worn and pale, and
-the expression of his eyes, as he dropped the water from his hand, and
-turned them suddenly on the young girl, was that of a strong heart in
-ruins, and with its energies prostrated. He held forth his hand and
-tried to smile, but the attempt was a painful one, and died in a faint
-quiver of the lips.
-
-Malina did not take his hand—she had no power—but stood with her left
-foot half buried in the damp moss which lined the spring, and the other
-planted hard against the granite basin; her hands clasped amid the
-drapery of her shawl, and her eyes lifted to his, glittering with
-excitement, and yet full of tears. The breath came pantingly through her
-unquiet lips, and in the struggle of her emotions, the words of greeting
-which she would have uttered, were broken into sobs.
-
-“This is very kind of you, Miss Gray,” said the young clergyman, in a
-low voice, which had something of proud constraint in its tones; “I
-inquired for you at the house, but your mother informed me that you were
-engaged, and that your sister did not wish to see me.”
-
-“Not wish to see you!” exclaimed Malina, suddenly finding voice;
-“Phebe—my poor Phebe—not wish to see you! Alas, for her, she cannot
-see any one; this cruel business has broken her heart. Oh, Mr. Mosier,
-why is it that such wrong can be done? why submit to it? what right has
-my mother thus to interfere, to the unhappiness of her child?”
-
-Mr. Mosier did not reply, his thoughts were far away, and, though he
-gazed earnestly on the enthusiastic face lifted to his, Malina knew that
-he was not thinking of her. She felt humbled, and turned away her face
-as one who had been rebuked. So she stood gazing, with a look of patient
-humility, on the waters sparkling in the basin at her feet, till at last
-he aroused himself and spoke. But she, who felt every word he uttered as
-if it were a tone of music, had no share in his speech or his thoughts.
-Things all too precious for her were rendered to another, and she must
-endure the pain.
-
-“So she was ill, and _could_ not come. Yet she knew I was there, and sat
-in the room all the time. I saw her at the window, and she looked—tell
-me, Malina, my sweet, kind sister,” he added, suddenly, “did she wish to
-see me?—would she come for a moment here or into the garden?”
-
-The young man looked anxious, and his cheek flushed brilliantly as he
-spoke, for the moment his well regulated mind had lost its balance, and
-the passions of earth were strong within him. It was but for a moment;
-before Malina had time to reply, the flush died from his face.
-
-“No,” he added, with a sorrowful motion of the head, “it is wrong to
-ask, foolish to desire an interview—comfort her, Malina, say that which
-I cannot have permission to utter in her presence; say how deeply, how
-earnestly I have loved her, how weary I am of the world, how lonely my
-heart is now—say to her—alas! what message have I to send—I, who can
-scarcely turn my face heavenward, the clouds are so dark that lie heaped
-before me!”
-
-These words were uttered in a tone of such despondency that Malina once
-more lifted her eyes, and would have spoken words of encouragement which
-she was far from feeling, for her own wretchedness seemed completed in
-that of the beings she most loved; but, while her lips were parted, he
-made a sudden effort at composure, and saying that all might yet be
-well, in a broken and hurried voice, he drew Malina toward him and
-stooped to press his lips to her forehead, without seeming conscious of
-the act—but she was all too conscious, the blood rushed to her cheeks,
-and she trembled in his arms like a frightened child. He saw it not, for
-to his thought she was a sister only, and though his lips had pressed
-her forehead for the first time, he did not think of it, but mounted his
-horse and rode away before she had power to utter a word or make a
-gesture to detain him.
-
-He was gone forever, and she was alone—alone! how often is that word
-misapplied; the loving and the loved are never alone—but so it was with
-Malina Gray.
-
-
- CHAPTER IV.
-
- “In the cold, damp earth we laid her,
- When the forest cast its leaf,
- And we sighed, that one so beautiful
- Should have a lot so brief.”
-
-
-“So, Madam, you refuse—my boy is dying, and he yearns to look once more
-on the poor girl who would have been his wife in a single week.”
-
-It was but a few days after her interview with Mr. Mosier, that Malina
-heard these words issue from her mother’s parlor, as she was passing
-through the hall, from the chamber where she had just left Phebe
-striving to beguile her weary thoughts with a book. The door was ajar,
-and there was a power in the words which made her start and listen. It
-was a deep, manly voice, that of an aged person, but entreaty,
-tenderness and something almost like resentment, combined to render it
-startling and pathetic. Malina held her breath, and, drawing a step
-nearer, looked through the door.
-
-An aged man was standing before her mother, he held a cane without
-resting on it, and a broad brimmed hat was in his left hand; firm and
-erect he stood in the quiet room, the gray hair sweeping back from his
-forehead, and his plain dress giving him the look of a patriarch; his
-face was agitated, but so full of benevolence that Malina loved the old
-man before she guessed who he was. Violent passions could seldom have
-passed over those mild features, still they were disturbed as he spoke,
-and the good old man was evidently struggling with strong and bitter
-emotions. There was something in the grasp of his hand on the cane, and
-in his dignified bearing, which awed the sympathy it excited.
-
-Mrs. Gray was sitting in her easy chair, looking rather earnestly at the
-old man. She had been engaged in knitting when he entered, but had laid
-the work on a little round stand by her side, and seemed rather anxious
-to take it up again; but she was too punctilious for that, and very
-blandly requested her visitor to resume the seat from which he had
-risen. “No, I have not time to sit down, every minute is worth years to
-me now—my only son is dying, and I am absent from his side.” The old
-man now paused, his chin began to quiver, and turning away his face, he
-strove to conceal the tears that broke into his eyes from the calm and
-heartless woman who sat gazing upon him.
-
-“Madam,” he said, but his voice was broken, and his hand shook till the
-hat fell from his grasp to the floor. “Madam, I beseech you, think
-better of this! My boy cannot live forty-eight hours; the doctors told
-me so before I left him. But I came from his bed side, when each lost
-moment was as a drop of blood wrung from my heart, thinking that you
-might refuse any messenger but his father. You are a woman and should
-feel for him, and here I gave up five whole hours of this precious time
-that he might look on the face of that poor girl before he dies; and his
-mother—you have had children sleeping against your heart, madam—do you
-think his mother would not find it a comfort if the soul of her only
-child could go up to heaven from her bosom where he nestled in his first
-infancy? Do you think she has no woman’s yearning wish for the last
-embrace, the last endearing word? She loves the boy better than her own
-soul, and he is dying before her eyes—but she gave him up. When she saw
-that he moaned for the presence of one who had become dearer than his
-own mother, she bade me come hither and bring the girl that her first
-born might die in the arms he loved best—think, woman, every moment I
-spend in talking here is wrung from the death bed of a child that was
-all on earth that two old people had to love and hope for. I must
-depart, but let _her_ go with me.”
-
-The old man unconsciously clasped his hands as he spoke, and tears fell
-like rain over his withered cheeks.
-
-Mrs. Gray glanced at him with something of wonder in her face, and
-extending out her hand, took up the knitting work as if to end the
-conference.
-
-“And can you still refuse!” exclaimed the old man.
-
-“It would not be proper,” replied Mrs. Gray, quietly unscrewing the top
-of her silver knitting case, “besides, Phebe is not well enough to ride
-so far even if she desired it, and the fever may be contagious.”
-
-“If I could talk with the young lady I am sure she _would_ desire it,”
-said the old man, almost humbly, for his heart grew heavy at the thought
-of returning to the death bed of his son with his errand unaccomplished.
-“Leave it to her good feelings, madam, and if they plead against me I
-will depart and trouble you no more.”
-
-Neither the pleading voice, nor the agony of over-wrought feelings with
-which the unhappy father spoke, reached the heart of Mrs. Gray. While
-the old man stood before her, trembling beneath the burden of his grief,
-she placed her needle in its sheath, twisted the worsted over her
-finger, and went through the intricacies of a seam stitch before even
-her eyes were lifted toward him.
-
-“You must recollect, Mr. Mosier,” she said, “Phebe is not at present
-engaged to your son, and even if she were, I do not think it would be
-exactly correct for her to visit him. I am sorry for the young
-gentleman, very; I will see that our new minister mentions his case in
-prayer next Sabbath; we all feel for him—but he would not be advised.
-Indeed—”
-
-Here Mrs. Gray dropped a stitch, and paused while it was looped up
-again. When she raised her eyes, the face of her auditor was stern, and
-as calm as her own. The tears had dropped from his cheek, his hands were
-both grasping the head of his cane, and if that pharisaical woman could
-have shrunk from any thing, the solemn and reproving eyes which dwelt on
-her face would have kindled the most generous blood of her heart into
-blushes of shame. But it is hard to wring the die of shame from a
-self-righteous heart. Mrs. Gray believed herself to be acting in a most
-Christian-like spirit, in still retaining the heartless civility of her
-manner toward the poor old man whom her own cruelty had bereaved. Her
-heart was entombed in the self-conceit of its own sanctity, like dust in
-the marble of a sarcophagus.
-
-“Woman,” said the old man, and this time his voice was firm, and
-thrillingly solemn; “you have no heart. You are a mother, and should
-know how much worse than death it is to see the child whom you have
-loved and cherished, and woven in your very heart-strings, perishing
-before your eyes. Oh, how proud we were of that boy! how his poor mother
-loved him! what a day it was when she and I walked up the broad aisle of
-that old meeting-house yonder, and saw him standing in the pulpit—a
-minister of the gospel. We had prayed for that sight—toiled and slaved
-for it—and were so happy—so very happy. He is on his death bed now.
-Woman, _you_ have sent him there—you, who were a mother, thought
-nothing of smiting a sister woman through the heart—you, a professor of
-religion, can do murder more subtle and cruel than that which cleaves a
-man through the brain, and look calm and speak softly, nay, smilingly
-refuse the last dying request of your victim. Woman, I will not curse
-you—that right rests with the high God of Heaven, who looketh down upon
-the murder you have done, not as man looketh, not as the law
-looketh—before _him_, shall you be arraigned, and that cold heart shall
-be made to shudder at the depth of its own crime—_he_ will be thine
-accuser—he, thy victim, who was so gentle, so sweet tempered, that
-thoughts of revenge never entered his heart. In a few short hours he
-will stand in the broad light of Heaven, sent there untimely; and even
-as Abel bear witness against his brother, he shall bear witness against
-thee! The Almighty may not place his mark upon thy brow—the law may not
-brand thee—but one who can wring the life from a human being by silent
-and moral cruelty, is not less a murderer than the man who smites his
-brother to the heart with a poniard!”
-
-Mrs. Gray was at length moved—for the solemn and stern energy of that
-pale old man might have startled the dead from their graves—the
-knitting dropped from her hands, her eyes darkled with terror, and her
-face turned white as a corpse beneath the snowy lace and the black and
-false hair that shaded it. She would have spoken, but the pallid lips
-trembled without uttering a sound, while the hands which rested in her
-lap began to shiver, as she strove to lift them and motion him away.
-
-The old man left her where she sat, and went into the hall; but his
-feelings had been too cruelly outraged, and there his strength gave way;
-he sunk helplessly to a settee, and covering his face with his hands,
-wept like a child.
-
-Malina had left the hall and stood in her sister’s chamber. Phebe was
-dressed and seated by the window, pondering over the pages of a book,
-though she had not turned a leaf that day. She did not raise her eyes
-when the door opened, but seemed unconscious of a second person.
-
-“Come with me,” said Malina, grasping the hand which lay in her sister’s
-lap, with fingers that clung to it like ice. “Come!”
-
-There was something in Malina’s face that frightened her companion from
-the apathy that had for days settled on her spirits. She arose, without
-a word, and was led down stairs, and into the hall. It was empty. Old
-Mr. Mosier had departed, and the front door was left open behind him.
-
-“Phebe,” said Malina Gray, in a faint whisper, “_he_ is dying, and has
-sent for you—his father sat there, but a moment since. Our mother has
-refused that you should see him. He is pining to die with his head
-against your heart. Sister, will you go?”
-
-“I will plead with her—kneel to her,” said Phebe Gray, and opening the
-parlor door, she entered alone.
-
-Malina paused an instant, and turning through a side door, passed across
-a small clover lot, toward the stables. A horse stood cropping the white
-blossoms in a corner of the field. She looked around for some one to
-help her, but the men were all away on the upper farm—so she drew
-toward the gentle animal, and beckoning with her hand, uttered a few
-coaxing words, and persuaded him toward the stables. He bent his neck
-while her trembling hands placed the bit in his mouth, which was yet
-half full of fragrant grass, and turned his head to watch her, as she
-girded the saddle to his back. When she tied him to the garden fence,
-and entered the house again, he followed her with his eyes, and, with a
-short neigh, fell to tearing with his mouth the honeysuckle vines that
-crept along the fence.
-
-As Malina entered the hall she saw Phebe gliding up stairs toward their
-room; she was walking feebly, and held by the bannister as she went.
-When the sisters stood within the chamber together, Phebe sunk to a
-chair, while Malina looked earnestly in her face, and uttered a single
-sentence—
-
-“Will you go?”
-
-“She has forbidden it,” replied Phebe, faintly.
-
-“Will you go?” said Malina, once more.
-
-“I dare not disobey her!” Phebe spoke with difficulty, and clasping both
-hands over her face, moaned as if in pain, for the struggle within her
-heart was terrible.
-
-When Phebe became sufficiently composed to look up, her sister was gone.
-She was glad to be alone, and creeping toward the bed, knelt down and
-prayed.
-
-Malina had snatched a bonnet and shawl from the bed while her sister’s
-face was concealed, and gliding down stairs into the open air, she
-mounted the horse and rode away.
-
-It was sunset as the poor girl came slowly over the old bridge, and rode
-by our house. I was playing in the front yard, and ran out to meet
-her—but all at once she drew the bridle tight, and the spirited horse
-sprung forward on the way before my childish voice could be heard. The
-gloom of coming night lay heavily amid the pine boughs, as the young
-girl rode under them, and when she dashed up the road, and disappeared
-over Fall’s Hill, both horse and rider were for one moment displayed in
-bold relief against a pile of crimson and golden clouds which lay heaped
-in the horizon. When she disappeared, it seemed, to my infant fancy, as
-if the gates of heaven had unfolded to receive her.
-
-The night came on clear, and lighted both by moon and stars, the
-solitary traveler still kept the road, accompanied only by her spirited
-animal, and the shadow which seemed gliding along the dewy green-sward
-by her side, like a silent guardian. It was late in the evening when the
-horse checked himself at the fence before a red farm-house, with a
-sloping roof, and two large trees embowering it with foliage.
-
-It seemed like supernatural instinct in the animal, for he had only been
-there once before, and Malina, in the tumult of her thoughts, scarcely
-knew where she wished to stop. There was a light twinkling through the
-thick leaves of a tree bough that dropped over one of the front windows,
-but it was very faint, and seemed forcing itself through the folds of a
-window curtain. Malina grasped the horn of her saddle, and dropping
-feebly down to the green-sward, moved toward the house. There was a
-foot-path which led to the front door—she followed this, and found
-herself in a dark entry, with a narrow stream of light falling through
-the entrance to an inner room. The sound of a faint, wandering voice,
-and of smothered sobs, stole from the room. Malina breathed heavily as
-she touched the door, and glided into the room. It was indeed the
-chamber of death. A solitary candle burned on the table, amid glasses
-and vials, sending forth just sufficient light to reveal an old
-fashioned tent bed, with its white drapery sweeping to the floor, and
-its heavy fringes hanging motionless, as if they had been cut from
-marble. At the foot of this bed knelt an old man; his hands were clasped
-beneath his face, and the long gray hair swept thickly over them, as he
-prayed. A female stood between Malina and the bed; she was bending over
-the pillows which were heaped high upon it, and though the poor girl
-could not see her face, she _felt_ that it was _his_ mother. She moved,
-and the sound of her footstep on the sanded floor made the old lady lift
-her head, and Malina saw his face once more. Oh, how white and changed
-it was! The damp, black hair fell heavily over his forehead, shadows lay
-about the closed eyelids, and there was an expression about the mouth,
-which was not a smile, and yet seemed deathly and sweet. His head was
-raised high with pillows, and though he seemed to sleep, the breath came
-painfully from his lips, and with a struggle that constantly disturbed
-the linen which lay in waves across his breast.
-
-Malina stood upright in the dim light, motionless as a thing of marble,
-her eyes fixed on the dying man, and unconscious, in the force of her
-grief, that to all in the room, save him who saw her not, she was a
-stranger, and had intruded into the sanctuary of private grief.
-
-It mattered not; Malina’s step had been mistaken for that of a woman
-from the kitchen, and no one knew that the wretched young creature was
-there.
-
-There was a motion of the bed clothes, a faint murmur, and the dying man
-opened his eyes—those large, eloquent eyes that Malina had thought upon
-so often, and so thrillingly. There was a mist upon them now, but
-through it broke a soft and strange light, heavenly and beautiful. The
-old lady bent her ear, and listened to the faint murmur, which seemed
-dying on his lips.
-
-“My father—when will he come back?—it is late!”
-
-The sound was very faint, but the old man had heard it amid the strong
-agony of his prayer. He arose, and moving round the bed, bent over his
-son. A light, almost preternatural, came to the eyes of that dying man,
-and with a sudden effort he found voice to speak.
-
-“My father,” he said, “thank God—you have returned in time. Where is
-she?”
-
-“My son,” said the old man, in a voice which he vainly strove to render
-calm, “in a little time she will meet you in heaven—but she is not
-here.”
-
-The invalid had turned his head upon the pillow, with a look of touching
-eagerness; but it fell back—his eyes closed faintly, and after gasping
-once or twice, he lay motionless, save the lips, which gave forth broken
-but beautiful fragments of speech, such as came uppermost in his pure,
-but wandering mind, for he was delirious now. The last vibrations of his
-soul were disturbed by disappointment in his sole earthly wish. In the
-broken murmurs that fell from his lips, Malina heard her own name, and
-it unlocked the ice which seemed closing round her heart. With a sob
-that broke to her lips amid a gush of tears, she sprung toward the bed,
-and falling upon her knees, clasped the pale hand which fell over the
-bed, and pressed her quivering lips repeatedly upon it, while her voice
-mingled with the choking grief that shook her whole frame.
-
-“Forgive me! oh, let me stay!” she said, lifting her face to the old
-woman, but still nervously grasping the dying man’s hand; “I loved him
-better than she did—better than anybody could—better than my own soul!
-Let me stay, and die with him! No one asked _me_ to come, but I am here.
-You will not send me away?”
-
-The voice of Malina Gray was soft and low, like that of her sister; and
-though broken with grief, it is probable that the dying man was
-bewildered by the sound. He started from the pillow—a glorious lustre
-broke through the mist which whelmed his eyes, and as Malina sprang to
-her feet, his face fell upon her shoulder, and his cold cheek lay
-against hers. It was very strange—Malina knew that he was dying, but a
-flash of wild joy thrilled through her heart, and for the first time
-since she had heard of his illness, a faint color broke into the cheek
-which pressed his. She laid him gently upon the pillow, and parting the
-damp hair from his forehead, pressed her lips tremblingly upon it, while
-her sobs filled the chamber. When the dying man felt the touch of her
-quivering mouth, a smile stole over his face—again the misty eyes were
-unclosed, and feebly lifting his arm, he wound it over her neck and drew
-her to his bosom, while the unformed words he would have spoken were
-lost amid the dying music of his soul. A moment, and his arm fell softly
-from Malina’s neck. The young creature lifted her face from his bosom,
-and looking at his mother, murmured—
-
-“He loved _her_ living—but is he not mine in death?—mine, for ever and
-ever!”
-
-She turned to lay her face near his heart once more, but there was no
-color in her lips then. She started, and, with a cold shudder, bent her
-cheek slowly to his bosom—it pressed heavily, and more heavily, on the
-cold clay—her limbs relaxed, and she sunk across the bed, senseless as
-the beautiful corpse which cumbered it.
-
-The gloom of death had shadowed that farm-house two days, and now it was
-desolate. The kind neighbors who had walked in and out, ministering to
-grief, no longer broke the solemn hush which pervaded the dwelling. The
-departed was indeed the departed—for they had borne him over his
-father’s threshold, and laid him down to sleep in the dark earth. Malina
-followed him to the grave. She was a stranger, but no one asked why she
-stood among the mourners, and without their sable vestments. When the
-aged mother bent over the coffin, and looked upon the dead, the young
-girl drew to her side, and fixed her eyes upon the cold still face which
-had never met her glance coldly before. The mother wept, but Malina
-could not shed a tear, although the solemn and hushed grief upon her
-face awed even village curiosity.
-
-And now they were alone—the parents, and that poor girl. She was upon
-her knees—her head was bent, and its redundant hair veiled her face,
-while the broken hearted young creature begged a blessing from _his
-mother_ before she went away. The sorrowing woman laid her hands upon
-the bright tresses which flowed over her lap for a moment, then lifting
-the suppliant to her bosom, wept over her.
-
-Mr. Mosier, when he heard the sobs of his wife, arose, and clasping his
-hands over Malina’s head, silently besought a blessing on her. She drew
-back, and he saw that her face was still calm; so taking her hands in
-his, he began to persuade and reason with her. She listened, and gazed
-earnestly in his face as he spoke. At last, tears started to her eyes,
-and when the old man saw this, big drops began to stream down his own
-cheek, and the clasp of his hand grew tremulous, as he led her from the
-room.
-
-As the old man placed Malina in her saddle, he glanced in her face, and
-a misgiving came to his heart. He questioned himself if it was safe to
-trust her to the road without protection; but when he proposed
-accompanying her part of the way, at least, she pleaded against it with
-startling eagerness, and, thinking of his afflicted wife, he allowed her
-to depart.
-
-Malina had a secret wish at her heart, which caused it to pant for
-solitude. Her road lay close by the grave-yard where our young minister
-was buried, and she yearned to stand once more by his death place, and
-alone. When she reached the sacred place, she looked to the right and
-left, timidly, as if her errand had been a wrong one. Her nerves were
-strung to their utmost tension, and she was morbidly fearful of being
-seen—every thing was solitary and quiet; the long grass bending to the
-breeze, as it sighed over the graves, and the soft rustling sound which
-whispered amid the leaves of a clump of weeping willows, that curtained
-an entire household that had gone down to sleep together, were all the
-sounds that fell upon her ear. She tied the horse to the fence, and
-passing forward to _his_ grave, sat upon a pile of sods that had been
-left by the sexton. She neither wept nor moved—but there she remained
-in the bright sunshine, gazing hour after hour on a tuft of tiny white
-blossoms, which sprung up from a sod which they had placed just over his
-heart. Now and then, she twined her hands together as they reposed in
-her lap—and as the sunshine went suddenly away, and heavy black clouds
-rolled over the sky, with the lightning playing amid their ragged folds,
-she smiled, and drew closer to the grave.
-
-At last, a roar of thunder burst from the clouds, big drops of rain came
-down upon the graves, and bent the willows more droopingly to the earth.
-
-Malina lifted her eyes upward with a wild and startled look, then
-turning them on the willows which sheltered that single family, and on
-the congregation of graves which lay around her, all covered with long
-grass, she rested them on the mound at her feet, murmuring—
-
-“Have all a covering from the cold rain, but thee?”
-
-As she spoke, Malina took off her shawl, and spreading it over the newly
-made grave, cast herself upon it, and for the first time since she felt
-his heart stop beating beneath hers, moaned and sobbed as if her very
-life were going from her.
-
-In a few moments the garments of our poor mourner were saturated with
-rain—still she clung closer to the grave, murmuring words of wild
-endearment to the unconscious inmate, and congratulating herself, with
-strange earnestness, that she was still able to shield his bosom from
-the storm.
-
-At last, the clouds rolled away, and though the sun was just going down,
-his last fires kindled a rainbow amid the water drops that yet filled
-the air. Malina lifted her head, and gazed upward—a smile parted her
-lips when she saw the rainbow, and pressing her cheek upon the grave
-again, she whispered—
-
-“The angels have built thee a bridge, love!”
-
-The sun went down, and Malina arose from the grave, shivering from head
-to foot. She gazed around, and was turning her eyes with a wistful look
-on her late resting place, as if she meditated casting herself down
-again, when a low neigh from the horse which still remained by the
-fence, aroused her, and leaving the shawl behind, she hurried toward the
-patient animal, and mounting him, rode away.
-
-Malina must have wandered from the usual road, in the strange
-abstraction of her mind, for it was midnight when she came opposite the
-old meeting-house. Prompted, doubtless, by some vague fear of returning
-home, or perhaps allured to pause by the open gate, the weary and half
-bewildered girl turned her horse, and riding close to the front door of
-the parsonage house, dismounted, and allowed him to wander amid the
-flower beds and rose bushes which filled the yard. Thrusting her hand
-beneath the door sill, she took out a key, and fitted it to the lock,
-but with difficulty, for her hands trembled; and though hot flushes
-every moment darted through her frame, she was shivering with cold. She
-went up stairs, holding feebly by the balusters, and guided by the
-moonlight, which fell from a window overhead, she entered a room—that
-which she had decorated as the bridal chamber of her sister Phebe, and
-of the departed. A clear moonlight came through the windows, and lay
-like flags of silver amid the black shadows which filled the apartment.
-Every thing was still and motionless; not a breath stirred the bridal
-ribands with which the muslin curtains were looped back. The bed lay
-with the moonlight sleeping amid its pillows, like a snow drift, when
-the air is calm; and the atmosphere was impregnated by the dead flowers
-which had been profusely lavished on the toilet, and now hung crisp and
-withered in their vases. Malina was very ill, and a fever burned through
-her veins—her limbs were almost powerless, and her forehead seemed
-girdled with iron. Still was she sensible of surrounding things, and her
-heart swelled with the recollections which thronged on her aching brain.
-She unfastened her damp dress, and with difficulty crept into bed.
-
-“Poor, poor Phebe,” she murmured, gathering the white counterpane over
-her shivering form, “how little she thinks I am here—how she would pity
-me, so ill, and all alone. Alas, how sad a thing this trouble is—I have
-not thought of Phebe these many long days—I wonder if she is ill as I
-am—if her head is so hot, and her limbs chilled, till they shake so.
-This is a cold bed—very, very cold—but his is colder still. Oh, my
-God! _he is dead_—and I have seen his grave. I—but it was not
-me—no—he loved my sister. But I had his dying kiss! It was the last
-throb of his heart that beat against mine, and chilled me so. That was
-it—that was it!”
-
-With such fragments of speech, and moans of pain, Malina verged into the
-delirium of a raging fever. At times she would weep, and call for her
-sister, in tones of yearning tenderness—then notes of music would break
-from her lips, and ring through every corner of the solitary house, as
-if a prisoned angel were pleading for release there. When the fever came
-on, fierce and strong, she began to ask for water—to weep, and wring
-her hands, while she entreated some visionary being to leave her in the
-grave-yard where _he_ was; where showers were continually falling and
-weaving rainbows around those who thirsted for rest or drink; and so her
-voice of suffering rose and swelled through the lone building all night.
-When the day dawned, she was still awake and delirious; tears stood on
-her crimson cheeks, and entreaties for water still rose to her parched
-lips.
-
-It came at last—she knew not how it was, but a pale, sweet face bent
-over her, a soft voice was speaking comfort, and a glass of water cooler
-and more refreshing than she had ever tasted before was held to her
-lips. She was just conscious enough to think that it was Phebe who
-ministered to her wants, or some good seraph that looked as sweetly sad
-and kind. Then she sunk to sleep, and it was many weeks before she awoke
-from the dream that followed.
-
-It was Phebe Gray who stood by the sick bed of the sufferer. A villager
-had seen Mrs. Gray’s horse that morning, bridled and with his saddle on,
-trampling among the flower beds and feasting upon the choice rose bushes
-which grew in the parsonage yard—he went in to secure the animal and
-was terrified by the voice of suffering which issued from the house. He
-went up stairs, saw the delirious young creature who occupied the bridal
-chamber, and hastened to inform Mrs. Gray—but Phebe had struggled with
-her own sufferings and stood over Malina’s sick bed many hours before
-the mother had arranged her dress and prepared herself to pass through
-the village with that degree of propriety which she considered due to
-her character.
-
-Malina lay many weeks before the fever left her; then a cough set in and
-a hectic spot settled and burned into her thin cheeks. The poor girl
-smiled a sad quiet smile, when she heard them say each evening, that a
-little over exertion had excited her, that she had taken a slight cold
-which in the turn of her disease was felt more than usual. Still the
-cough deepened, the crimson spot burned on, and she knew that the life
-which kindled would soon be exhausted. And so it was, that autumn when
-the woods were all flushed with those dyes which an early frost brings
-to the foliage, when the nuts were ripe and the brown leaves fell in
-showers over the crisp moss, Malina Gray was extended beneath the snowy
-drapery which her own hands had gathered above the bridal bed. White
-ribands were still knotted amid the folds which seemed brooding over her
-like a cloud, and a few crimson fall flowers lay scattered upon the
-pillow, some of them so close to the marble cheek that a faint tinge was
-coldly reflected there. For two whole nights Phebe watched the beautiful
-clay reposing in the dim light upon her own bridal bed, but scarcely
-more changed than her own sweet self. Malina was the happiest, her heart
-had broken amid the struggle of its suffering, but that of the watcher
-lay crushed and withering in her young bosom. She felt that life was yet
-strong within her; but hope, love, every thing that makes life pleasant
-to a woman, had departed. She was still good, still pure almost as an
-angel, but the sad smile which settled on her lips never deepened to a
-laugh again, and no human being ever saw a tear in her changeless and
-sorrowful eyes.
-
-They laid Malina Gray down to sleep beside old minister Brown—in the
-very spot she had yearned to repose in. A large circle of neighbors
-gathered around the grave, some in tears, and all very sorrowful. Mrs.
-Gray stood by the coffin; her mourning was arranged with great care, and
-a veil of new crape, deeply hemmed, fell decorously over her face, and
-the white handkerchief, with which she concealed those maternal tears
-proper for a mother, whose duty it was to be resigned under any
-dispensation. But Phebe stood silent and motionless; no handkerchief was
-lifted to her eyes, and the face which gleamed beneath the crape veil,
-was profoundly calm, almost as that of the corpse.
-
-We had a new minister, on trial, of Mrs. Gray’s choosing, who performed
-the funeral service, and when all was over, returned home with the
-mourners; when they knelt in the little parlor that night, he prayed
-earnestly, and with genuine tears, for the bereaved mother; he besought
-the Lord to visit, with consolation, one who was a mother in Israel, a
-bright and shining ornament in the Christian church; a woman who had
-brought up her children in the fear and admonition of the Lord; whose
-path was growing brighter and brighter to the perfect day when she would
-reap a rich reward in heaven.
-
-Amid a few natural sobs which awoke in the widow’s heart, she murmured,
-“Amen,” satisfied that her life had been one of perfect rectitude, and
-that in all things she had been a pattern mother, and an ornament to the
-church, which ought to be her consolation under any bereavement.
-
-The new minister was a very conscientious man, but practical in all his
-ideas; he was honest in the high opinion which he entertained of Mrs.
-Gray, and not sufficiently sensitive to shrink from offering his hand to
-Phebe, when that lady delicately gave him to understand that the step
-would be satisfactory to herself. The old parsonage house was still
-empty, and Phebe’s inheritance. He was an installed pastor, and Miss
-Gray’s engagement to his predecessor never entered his mind as an
-objection.
-
-Phebe betrayed no emotion when the proposal was made. She simply
-declined it, without giving a reason; and when he married another
-person, and would have rented the parsonage, she said with decision—“It
-must remain as my sister left it!”
-
-And when Mrs. Gray would have remonstrated, she answered, still with
-firmness—
-
-“I am of age, mother, but still will obey you in all things else. Act as
-you like regarding the other property—but no stranger shall ever live
-in the parsonage. Poor Malina furnished it for _him_, and for me. She
-died there, and so will I!”
-
- * * * * *
-
-It may be so, for the old house is still uninhabited. Every thing
-remains as Malina left it; the bridal chamber, the easy chair, and the
-flute upon the table; time has made little change in those silent
-apartments, for every week Phebe, who has become a calm and sorrowful
-old maid, goes up to the house alone, and remains there for many hours;
-sometimes seated at the study table, and gazing at a grave which may be
-seen through the trees. Once, a child gathering valley lilies, beneath
-the window, saw her standing at the open sash, with her sad eyes turned
-toward the grave-yard. She was talking to herself—the child dropped his
-flowers and listened, for there was something so mournful in her voice,
-that his little heart thrilled to the sound.
-
-“They tell me that he wearied himself, and died of fever,” she said;
-“and that thou, my sister, perished naturally, and as we all must. Alas,
-if I could but think so. Why not have told me how he was beloved before
-it was too late? I would have given him up—and while you were happy,
-this heart had not become so palsied and feelingless. Alas, it was well
-that thy heart _could_ break, my poor, poor Malina!”
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- NOON.[5]
-
-
- BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.
-
-
- ’Tis noon. At noon the Hebrew bowed the knee
- And worshiped, while the husbandman withdrew
- From the scorched field, and the wayfaring man
- Grew faint, and turned aside by bubbling fount,
- Or rested in the shadow of the palm.
-
- I, too, amid the overflow of day,
- Behold the power which wields and cherishes
- The frame of Nature. From this brow of rock
- That overlooks the Hudson’s western marge,
- I gaze upon the long array of groves,
- The piles and gulfs of verdure drinking in
- The grateful heats. They love the fiery sun;
- Their broadening leaves grow glossier, and their sprays
- Climb as he looks upon them. In the midst,
- The swelling river into his green gulfs,
- Unshadowed save by passing sails above,
- Takes the redundant glory, and enjoys
- The summer in his chilly bed. Coy flowers,
- That would not open in the early light,
- Push back their plaited sheaths. The rivulet’s pool,
- That darkly quivered all the morning long
- In the cool shade, now glimmers in the sun,
- And o’er its surface shoots, and shoots again,
- The glittering dragon-fly, and deep within
- Run the brown water-beetles to and fro.
-
- A silence, the brief sabbath of an hour,
- Reigns o’er the fields; the laborer sits within
- His dwelling; he has left his steers awhile,
- Unyoked, to bite the herbage, and his dog
- Sleeps stretched beside the door-stone in the shade.
- Now the gray marmot, with uplifted paws,
- No more sits listening by his den, but steals
- Abroad, in safety, to the clover field,
- And crops its juicy blossoms. All the while
- A ceaseless murmur from the populous town
- Swells o’er these solitudes; a mingled sound
- Of jarring wheels, and iron hoofs that clash
- Upon the stony ways, and hammer clang,
- And creak of engines lifting ponderous bulks,
- And calls and cries, and tread of eager feet,
- Innumerable, hurrying to and fro.
- Noon, in that mighty mart of nations, brings
- No pause to toil and care; with early day
- Began the tumult, and shall only cease
- When midnight, hushing one by one the sounds
- Of bustle, gathers the tired brood to rest.
-
- Thus, in this feverish time, when love of gain
- And luxury possess the hearts of men,
- Thus is it with the noon of human life.
- We in our fervid manhood, in our strength
- Of reason, we, with hurry, noise and care,
- Plan, toil and strive, and pause not to refresh
- Our spirits with the calm and beautiful
- Of God’s harmonious universe, that won
- Our youthful wonder; pause not to inquire
- Why we are here, and what the reverence
- Man owes to man, and what the mystery
- That links us to the greater world, beside
- Whose borders we but hover for a space.
-
------
-
-[5] From an unpublished Poem.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- TRUTH.
-
-
- BY MRS. FRANCES SARGENT OSGOOD.
-
-
- “This above all!—to thine own self be true!
- And it must follow, as the night the day,
- Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
-
-
-
- CHAPTER I.
-
- A MOTHER’S INFLUENCE.
-
-“Mother! mother!” exclaimed a sweet, eager voice, and the speaker, a
-child of thirteen years, burst into the room, where Mrs. Carlton sat at
-work, “don’t you think there is to be a prize given on exhibition day
-for the best composition! And I mean to try for it—sha’nt I?”
-
-She was a little, harum-scarum looking imp! I suppose she had run all
-the way home from school, for her straw bonnet hung on her neck instead
-of her head, and a profusion of soft dark hair was streaming in such
-disorder about her glowing face, that you could not tell if she were
-pretty or not; but you could see a pair of brilliant, gray or blue or
-black eyes—they certainly changed their color with every new emotion;
-but I think they were really gray—full of laughter, and love beaming
-through the truant tresses, and all eloquent with the beauty of a fresh,
-warm soul. This change in the child’s eyes is no freak of a foolish
-fancy; for every one noticed it; and her school-crony, Kate Sumner, used
-to declare, that when Harriet was angry they were black; gray when she
-was thoughtful; violet when sad; and when happy and loving, they changed
-to the tenderest blue.
-
-Mrs. Carlton drew the little girl toward her, and smoothed back the
-rebellious curls, at the same time exclaiming, with a long drawn sigh,
-“My _dear_ Harriet! how you _do_ look!”
-
-“Oh, mother! it’s not the least matter how _I_ look! If I were only a
-beauty, now, like Angelina Burton, I would keep my hair as smooth as—as
-_any_ thing; but I wouldn’t rub my cheeks though, as she does always,
-just before she goes into a room where there’s company—would _you_,
-mother?”
-
-The mother gazed at her child’s expressive face, as she spoke, with its
-irregular, yet lovely features, the strange, bright eyes, the changing
-cheek, the full and sweet, but spirited mouth, and said to herself,
-“Whatever you may think, my darling, I would not change your simple,
-innocent, childlike unconsciousness, for all Angelina’s beauty, spoiled
-as it is by vanity and affectation.”
-
-“But, mother, do give me a subject for composition, for I want to write
-it now, this minute!”
-
-“Harriet,” said Mrs. Carlton quietly, “go and brush your hair, change
-your shoes, and mend that rent in your dress as neatly as you can.”
-
-Harriet half pouted; but she met her mother’s tranquil eye; the pout
-changed to a good-humored smile, and kissing her affectionately, she
-bounded off to do her bidding.
-
-While she is gone, you would like—would you not, dear reader?—to ask a
-few questions about her. I can guess what they are, and will answer
-them, to the best of my knowledge.
-
-Mrs. Carlton is a widow, with a moderate fortune, and a handsome house
-in Tremont street, Boston. She has been a star in fashionable life, but
-since the loss of her husband, whom she tenderly loved, she has retired
-from the gay world, and devoted herself to her child—a wild, frank,
-happy, generous and impetuous creature, with half a dozen glaring
-faults, and one rare virtue which nobly redeemed them all. That virtue,
-patient reader, you must find out for yourself. Perhaps you will catch a
-glimpse of it in
-
-
- CHAPTER II.
-
- AUNT ELOISE.
-
-Harriet was busy with her composition, when her aunt, who was on a visit
-to Mrs. Carlton, entered the room. Aunt Eloise was a weak minded and
-weak hearted lady of a very uncertain age—unhappily gifted with more
-sensibility than sense. She really had a deal of feeling—for
-herself—and an almost inexhaustible shower of tears, varied
-occasionally by hysterics and fainting-fits, whenever any pressing
-exigency in the fate of her friends demanded self-possession, energy, or
-immediate assistance. If, too, there happened, as there will sometimes,
-in all households, to be an urgent necessity for instant exertion by any
-member of the family, such as sewing, watching with an invalid, shopping
-with a country cousin, poor Aunt Eloise was invariably and most
-unfortunately seized with a sudden toothache, headache, pain in the
-side, strange feelings, dreadful nervousness, or some trouble of the
-kind, which quite precluded the propriety of asking her aid.
-
-Every morning at breakfast Aunt Eloise edified the family with a
-wonderful dream, which the breakfast-bell had interrupted, and every
-evening she grew sentimental over the reminiscences which the twilight
-hour awakened. It was then that innumerable shades of former admirers
-arose. Some doubted if they had ever been _more_ than shades; but Aunt
-Eloise certainly knew best about that, and who had a right to deny, that
-Mr. Smith had knelt to her for pity; that Colonel Green had vowed
-eternal adoration; and that Lawyer Lynx had laid his heart, his hand,
-and his fees, which were not quite a fortune, at her feet?
-
-Aunt Eloise had been—at least she hinted so—a beauty and a blue, in
-her day; and, to maintain both characters, she rouged, wore false
-ringlets, and scribbled love-verses, which she had a bad habit of
-leaving, by accident, between the leaves of books in every frequented
-room of the house.
-
-She thought and avowed herself extravagantly fond of her niece, during
-her early childhood, and imagined that she displayed a graceful
-enthusiasm in exclaiming, every now and then, in her presence, and in
-that of others, “Oh! you angel child! I do think she is the sweetest
-creature! Come here and kiss me, you beauty!” &c. &c. But no one ever
-saw Aunt Eloise taking care of the child, attending to its little wants,
-or doing any thing for its benefit. The only tangible proof of her
-affection for her niece, was in the shape of bonbons and candy, which
-she was in the habit of bringing home from her frequent walks in Tremont
-street. Harriet regularly handed these forbidden luxuries to her mother,
-and Mrs. Carlton as regularly threw them in the fire.
-
-“Isn’t it a pity to waste such nice things, mother? Why not give them to
-some poor child in the street?” asked the little girl one day, as she
-watched, with longing eyes, a paper full of the tempting poison, which
-her mother was quietly emptying into the grate.
-
-Mrs. Carlton did not disdain to reason with her child—
-
-“That would be _worse_ than wasted, dear. It would be cruel to give to
-another what I refuse to you on account of its unwholesomeness.”
-
-But Harriet had now been for a long time out of the spinster’s books—as
-the saying is—and this misfortune occurred as follows—
-
-One morning, when she was about six years old, the child came into her
-mother’s room from her aunt’s, where she had been alternately pelted,
-scolded, and teased, till she was weary, and, seating herself in a
-corner, remained for some time absorbed in thought. She had been reading
-to her mother that morning, and one sentence, of which she had asked an
-explanation, had made a deep impression upon her. It was this—“God
-sends us trials and troubles to strengthen and purify our hearts.” She
-now sat in her corner, without speaking or stirring, until her mother’s
-voice startled her from her reverie.
-
-“Of what are you now thinking, Harriet?”
-
-“Mother, did God send Aunt Eloise to strengthen and purify my heart?”
-
-“What do you mean, my child?”
-
-“Why, the book says he sends trials for that, and she is the greatest
-trial _I_ have, you know.”
-
-The indignant maiden was just entering the room as this dialogue began,
-and hearing her own name, she had stopped, unseen, to listen. Speechless
-with rage, she returned to her chamber, and was never heard to call
-Harriet an angel child again.
-
-But we have wasted more words on the fair Eloise’s follies than they
-deserve. Let us return to Harriet’s all-important composition.
-
-The maiden-lady, selfish and indolent as she was, took it into her head
-sometimes to be exceedingly inquisitive; and officious too, particularly
-where she thought her literary talents could come into play. She walked
-up to Harriet and looked over her shoulder.
-
-“What’s this, hey? oh! a story! That’s right, Harriet, I am glad to see
-you taking to literary pursuits. Come, child! give me the pen and I will
-improve that sentence for you.”
-
-“Thank you, aunt! but I don’t want it improved.”
-
-“Not want it improved! There’s vanity!”
-
-“Indeed, aunt, I am not vain about it, and I would like you to help me,
-if it were not to be shown as mine. It wouldn’t be fair, you know, to
-pass off another’s as my own. I am writing for a prize.”
-
-“For a prize! So much the more reason that you should be assisted.
-There, dear, run away to your play and I will write it all for you.
-You’ll be sure to win the prize.”
-
-With every word thus uttered, Harriet’s eyes had grown larger and
-darker, and at the close, she turned them, full of astonishment, from
-her aunt’s face to her mother’s. Reassured by the expression of the
-latter, she replied,
-
-“But, Aunt Eloise, that would be a falsehood, you know.”
-
-“A falsehood, miss!” cried the maiden, sharply, “It is a very common
-thing, I assure you!”
-
-“But not the less false for being common, Eloise,” said Mrs. Carlton;
-“pray let Harriet have her own way about it. It would be far better to
-lose the prize, than to gain it thus dishonestly.”
-
-Aunt Eloise, as usual, secretly determined to have _her_ own way; but
-she said no more then, and Harriet pursued her employment without
-further interruption.
-
-
- CHAPTER III.
-
- THE PRIZE.
-
-The exhibition day had arrived. Harriet had finished her story several
-days before, and read it to her mother. It was a simple, graceful,
-childlike effusion, with less of pretension and ornament, and more of
-spirit and originality than the compositions of most children of the
-same age contain.
-
-Mrs. Carlton seemed much pleased; but Aunt Eloise had criticised it
-without mercy. At the same time she was observed to smile frequently
-with a cunning, sly, triumphant expression, peculiar to herself—an
-expression which she always wore when she had a secret, and secrets she
-had, in abundance—a new one almost every day—trivial, petty secrets,
-which no one cared about but herself; but which _she_ guarded as
-jealously as if they had been apples of gold.
-
-The exhibition day had arrived.
-
-“Good bye, mother; good bye, aunty,” said Harriet, glancing for a moment
-into the breakfast-room.
-
-She was looking very pretty in a simple, tasteful dress, made for the
-occasion. She held the story in her hand, neatly enclosed in an
-envelope, and her eyes were full of hope—the cloudless hope of
-childhood.
-
-“Don’t be surprised, Harriet,” said her aunt, “at any thing that may
-happen to-day. Only be thankful if the prize is yours, that’s all.”
-
-“If Kate Sumner don’t win it, I do _hope_ I shall!” replied the eager
-child, and away she tripped to school.
-
-At twelve o’clock Mrs. Carlton and her sister took their seats among the
-audience, in the exhibition room. The usual exercises were completed,
-and it only remained for the compositions to be read aloud by the
-teacher.
-
-The first was a sentimental essay upon Friendship. Mr. Wentworth, the
-teacher, looked first surprised, then amused, then vexed as he read,
-while a gaily and fashionably dressed lady, who occupied a conspicuous
-place in the assembly, was observed to toss her head and fan herself
-with a very complacent air, while she met, with a nod, the conscious
-eyes of a fair and beautiful, but haughty looking girl of fifteen seated
-among the pupils.
-
-“By Angelina Burton,” said the teacher, as he concluded, and laying it
-aside without further comment, he took up the next—“Lines to a Favorite
-Tree,” by Catherine Sumner.
-
-It was short and simple, and ran as follows—
-
- Thy leaves’ lightest murmur,
- Oh! beautiful tree!
- Each bend of thy branches,
- The stately, the free,
- Each wild, wavy whisper,
- Is music to me.
-
- I gaze thro’ thy labyrinth,
- Golden and green,
- Where the light loves to linger,
- In glory serene,
- Far up, till yon heaven-blue
- Trembles between.
-
- I shut out the city,
- Its sight and its sound,
- And away, far away,
- For the forest I’m bound,
- For the noble old forest,
- Which ages have crowned!
-
- I lean on its moss banks,
- I stoop o’er its rills,
- I see, thro’ its vistas,
- The vapor-wreathed hills,
- And my soul with a gush
- Of wild happiness fills!
-
- I pine for the freshness,
- The freedom, the health,
- Which Nature can give me—
- My soul’s dearest wealth
- Is wasted in cities;
- Where only, by stealth,
-
- The mountain-born breezes
- Can fitfully play,
- Where we steal but a glimpse
- Of this glorious day,
- And but by the calendar,
- Learn it is May.
-
- But away with repining,
- I’ll study, from thee,
- A lesson of patience,
- Oh! noble, old tree!
- ’Mid dark walls imprisoned,
- Thou droop’st not like me;
-
- But strivest forever,
- Still up, strong and brave,
- ’Till in Heaven’s pure sunshine,
- Thy free branches wave!
- Oh! thus may _I_ meet it,
- No longer a slave!
-
-The next was a story, and Harriet Carlton’s eyes and cheeks changed
-color as she listened. It was the same, yet not the same! The incidents
-were hers, the sentiment more novel-like, and many a flowery and highly
-wrought sentence had been introduced, which she had never heard before.
-
-She sat speechless with wonder, indignation, and dismay, and though
-several other inferior compositions were read, she was so absorbed in
-reverie, that she heard no more until she was startled by Mr.
-Wentworth’s voice calling her by name. She looked up. In his hand was
-the prize—a richly chased, golden pencil-case, suspended to a chain of
-the same material. The sound, the sight recalled her bewildered
-faculties, and ere she reached the desk, she had formed a resolution,
-which, however, it required all her native strength of soul to put in
-practice.
-
-“Miss Carlton, the prize is yours!” and the teacher leaned forward to
-throw the chain around her neck. The child drew back—
-
-“No, sir,” she said in a low, but firm and distinct voice, looking up
-bravely in his face, “I did not write the story you have read.”
-
-“Not write it!” exclaimed Mr. Wentworth, “Why, then, does it bear your
-name? Am I to understand, Miss Carlton, that you have asked another’s
-assistance in your composition, and that you now repent the deception?”
-
-Poor Harriet! this was too much! Her dark eyes first flashed, and then
-filled with tears; her lip trembled with emotion, and she paused a
-moment, as if disdaining a reply to this unmerited charge.
-
-A slight and sneering laugh from the beauty aroused her, and she
-answered, respectfully but firmly,
-
-“The story, I did write, was in that envelope yesterday. Some one has
-changed it without my knowledge. It was not so good as that you have
-read; so I must not take the prize.”
-
-There was a murmur of applause through the assembly, and the teacher
-bent upon the blushing girl a look of approval, which amply repaid her
-for all the embarrassment she had suffered.
-
-Aunt Eloise took advantage of the momentary excitement to steal
-unobserved from the room. Harriet took her seat, and Miss Angelina
-Burton was next called up. The portly matron leaned smilingly forward;
-and the graceful, little beauty, already affecting the airs of a fine
-lady, sauntered up to the desk and languidly reached out her hand for
-the prize.
-
-“I cannot say much for your taste in selection, Miss Burton. I do not
-admire your author’s sentiments. The next time you wish to make an
-extract, you must allow me to choose for you. There are better things
-than this, even in the trashy magazine from which you have copied it.”
-
-And with this severe, but justly merited reproof of the imposition that
-had been practiced, he handed the young lady, not the prize, which she
-expected, but the MS. essay on Friendship, which she had copied, word
-for word, from an old magazine.
-
-The portly lady turned very red, and the beauty, bursting into tears of
-anger and mortification, returned to her seat discomfited.
-
-“Miss Catherine Sumner,” resumed the teacher, with a benign smile, to a
-plain, yet noble-looking girl, who came forward as he spoke, “I believe
-there can be no mistake about _your_ little effusion. I feel great
-pleasure in presenting you the reward, due, not only to your mental
-cultivation, but to the goodness of your heart. What! do _you_, too,
-hesitate?”
-
-“Will you be kind enough, sir,” said the generous Kate, taking a paper
-from her pocket, “to read Harriet’s story before you decide. I asked her
-for a copy several days ago, and here it is.”
-
-“You shall read it to the audience yourself, my dear; I am sure they
-will listen patiently to so kind a pleader in her friend’s behalf.”
-
-The listeners looked pleased and eager to hear the story; and Kate
-Sumner, with a modest self-possession, which well became her, and with
-her fine eyes lighting up as she read, did full justice to the pretty
-and touching story, of which Harriet had been so cruelly robbed.
-
-“It is well worth reading,” said Mr. Wentworth, when she had finished;
-“your friend has won the prize, my dear young lady; and, as she owes it
-to your generosity, you shall have the pleasure of bestowing it,
-yourself.”
-
-Kate’s face glowed with emotion as she hung the chain around Harriet’s
-neck; and Harriet could not restrain her tears, while she whispered,
-
-“I will take it, _not_ as a prize, but as a gift from _you_, dear Kate!”
-
-“And now, Miss Sumner,” said Mr. Wentworth, in conclusion, “let me beg
-your acceptance of these volumes, as a token of your teacher’s respect
-and esteem,” and presenting her a beautifully bound edition of Milton’s
-works, he bowed his adieu to the retiring audience.
-
- * * * * *
-
-“Will you lend me your prize-pencil this morning, Harriet?” said Mrs.
-Carlton the next day. She was dressed for a walk, and Harriet wondered
-why she should want the pencil to take out with her; but she immediately
-unclasped the chain from her neck, and handed it to her mother without
-asking any questions.
-
-She was rewarded at dinner by finding it lying at the side of her plate,
-with the single word, “Truth” engraved upon its seal.
-
- * * * * *
-
-[Illustration: E. T. Parris., Engraved by Rawdon, Wright, Hatch, &
- Smillie.
-_True Affection._
-_Engraved expressly for Graham’s Magazine._]
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- TRUE AFFECTION.
-
-
- ILLUSTRATION OF A PICTURE.
-
-
- Matron in thy golden prime,
- Well the world may envy thee;
- Thou hast reached the happy time
- When life holds her jubilee—
- Midway on her pilgrimage,
- Looking backward and before,
- Where end infancy and age
- On her being’s misty shore.
-
- Turning to the past, thine eye
- Dwells upon a way of flowers—
- Not a cloud upon the sky
- ’Neath which passed the happy hours.
- Clear the vision of the True!—
- Standing on the verge of Time,
- See! Hope opens to your view
- Glories of the better clime!
-
- So the past and present life—
- What the tale the present tells?
- Childhood—maidenhood—a _wife_—
- Thus the tide of being swells—
- Mother! oh all else in this
- Fade as stars before the sun,
- Thou the highest point of bliss
- Yielded to the True hast won.
-
- Love—communion—in these words
- All the happiness we know;
- Without them the world affords
- Nought to bind the heart below;
- “True Affection!” with unrest
- We the boon demand of all;
- Vainly seeking, still unblest—
- Strangers at life’s carnival.
-
- Earnest, calm, unchanging love,
- With no doubt its light to shade—
- Oh, the happiness above
- Is but this eternal made!
- Thou hast found it—in thine eyes,
- In the eyes that look to thine,
- As the stars from summer skies
- Sweetly do we see it shine.
-
- Exiles from a better sphere
- Weary wanderers are we,
- Doomed ’mid clouds to linger here,
- Source of bliss, unknowing thee!
- Save, when from the world apart
- Thou upon our gloomy way
- Shinest from a kindred heart,
- Turning darkness into day!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE PERSECUTOR’S DAUGHTER.
-
-
- BY CHARLES J. PETERSON.
-
-
-The last days of November are at hand, and the melancholy woods, shorn
-of their foliage, stand skeleton-like against the cold, lowering sky; or
-toss their branches to and fro, with a low moaning sound, in the fitful
-tempest. Hark! how the gale swells out with the deep voice of a
-cathedral organ, or dies plaintively away like the cry of a lost child
-in the forest. The sky is covered with cloud-rifts of a deep, leaden
-color, only a spot of blue sky being here and there visible; but
-occasionally the sun, bursting, like a god, from the darkness that
-encircles him, covers the brown hills with an effulgent glory, while the
-opposite firmament is lit up with a dull, fiery glow, that has something
-almost spectral in its aspect. The streams are swollen and discolored,
-and roll their turbid waters hoarsely onward. Along the fields the brown
-grass whistles in the wind, and the bare flower-stalks rattle, with a
-melancholy tone, in the garden. Now and then, drops of rain plash
-heavily to the ground. The wind comes with a sudden chill to the
-nerves—the bay is crisped into foam by the fitful gusts—and along the
-bleak coast the now mountain waves roll in with a hoarse, sullen roar,
-forewarning us of shipwreck and death. Sad thoughts insensibly possess
-the mind, and tales of sorrow, that had long been forgot, come up to our
-memories. One such is even now heavy on our heart—listen! and we will
-rehearse it.
-
-It was on just such a morning as this, many a long year ago, and far
-away from our own happy land, that a little congregation was gathered
-together in the hills to worship God. The time was in those sore and
-evil days when the decree of a tyrannical king had gone forth, that no
-man should worship, except as a corrupt hierarchy and lascivious court
-might ordain—and when, all over Scotland, those who would not give up
-the free birthright of their fathers, were driven to meet in mountain
-glens, and on lonely moors, whither their pastors—the holy men who had
-baptized them in infancy, and united them to the dear objects of their
-love—had already been hunted. And often, in solitary places, where
-hitherto only the cry of the eagle had been heard, the Sabbath hymn rose
-sweetly up from tender maidens and tearful wives, while their brothers
-and husbands listened with weapons in their hands, or watched from some
-neighboring eminence, lest the fiery dragoons of Claverhouse should be
-in sight. And when these God-defying troopers, with hands red with the
-blood of the saints, burst into the little flock, woful was the tale,
-and loud the wailing that went through all the vales around. Every new
-Sabbath brought its tale of slaughter, until the land smoked with blood,
-and the incense thereof went up from a hundred hills, crying for
-vengeance to the Most High.
-
-And such a congregation had now met in the hollow of three hills, far
-away from the usual track of the persecutors. A simple rock served the
-hoary headed pastor for a pulpit; while hard by, a rivulet, brawling
-over its pebbly bed, and then for a moment expanding into a mimic lake,
-bottomed with silvery sands, formed the holy font for baptism. Around
-was gathered the little flock—aged sires and young striplings, staid
-matrons and meek-eyed maidens, young children and stalwart men—all
-gazing upward into the pastor’s face, a sacred throng. But there was one
-other there, who seemed equally with him an object of anxious interest,
-and on whom every eye was occasionally turned—a bright, beautiful
-being, with far more of heaven than earth in her deep, azure eyes. Oh!
-lovely was that fair-haired girl, even as we may have dreamed a seraph
-to be, all glorious with golden wings, under the throne of God. And now
-there sat in those soft blue eyes an expression of meek sorrow, tempered
-with high and holy faith, for many and sore had been the trials of Helen
-Græme; but grace had been given her to endure them all, and even to rise
-above them, with a courage which had made her dear unto every heart
-among these wandering and persecuted ones.
-
-The father of Helen was the last son of a family which had been decaying
-for centuries, and which, of all its once mighty possessions, retained
-only the comparatively small estate of Craigburnie, in one of the
-southern counties of Scotland. To rebuild the fortunes of his house had
-been the darling wish of her father. For this purpose he had entered the
-army of the Covenanters, during the wars of the great revolution, and
-served with some distinction, though without permanent advantage, in
-consequence of the return of the king. On the happening of this event,
-Mr. Græme retired to his estate, soured and disappointed. Here he would
-have been far more discontented than he was, but for his wife, a lady of
-the meekest piety, and whose single minded charity was known throughout
-all her native hills, for Mrs. Græme was the daughter of one of the
-holiest ministers of the kirk, and inherited not only his piety, but the
-fervent admiration with which he was regarded by his parishioners. She
-early instilled into her child the pure precepts of our holy religion,
-and often might the little girl be seen seated at her mother’s knee,
-lisping the word of God, which the parent taught her thus early to
-peruse. And, on the Sabbath, who listened more attentively to the
-venerable pastor, or joined with sweeter voice in the anthem of praise?
-Nurtured thus, what wonder that at seventeen she seemed the counterpart
-of the mother, and was regarded by the poorer folk around the Brae—her
-mother’s birthplace, and where she spent several months each
-year—almost with veneration, for had not many of them, in times of sore
-trial, been sustained by the bounty, and cheered by the smiles of the
-heavenly girl?
-
-But at length her mother fell sick, and for many a weary month Helen
-watched by the sufferer’s bed-side, a ministering angel. During this
-illness she noticed that, at times, her father would seem lost in
-thought, as if something weighed heavily on his mind; but Helen regarded
-it little, attributing it to his suspense at her mother’s danger, for he
-loved both her and his child with an intensity seemingly in
-contradiction to his hard, unbending character, but which, in truth, was
-the result of his total seclusion from the world; for the sympathies
-thus shut out from others lavished themselves wholly on his wife and
-daughter. At length, Mrs. Græme died, and for many days it seemed as if
-that strong man’s heart would break, while Helen wept in silence, though
-not less uncontrollably. Her father was now sterner than ever, though
-not to her. He was more alone, often indulged in fits of musing, and was
-absent at Edinburgh for some days—an unusual occurrence—and when he
-came back it was as Sir Roland Græme, a title which men said he had
-purchased by selling himself to the Court. Helen heard these
-rumors—which, however, came to her ears in whispers, and which at first
-she could not believe—with sorrow and despair of heart; but no word of
-reproof broke from her lips. Her sufferings were endured silently; but
-so deep was her grief, that she pined away, seeming to all eyes a being
-lent awhile to earth, and gradually exhaling to heaven. Her father,
-thinking her sorrow sprung wholly from her mother’s death, and wishing,
-perhaps, that she should be from home when he should first act for the
-government, sent her to her mother’s native vale, alleging, and
-doubtless hoping, that change of air would restore her to health. It
-were doing him no more than justice to say, that his paternal love was
-fully aroused to Helen’s danger, and that he took the only possible
-means to keep at his side this dear bud of her who was now in heaven. He
-forgot how much the little family at the Brae leaned toward the
-persecuted sect—he forgot the disaffected character of the district
-into which Helen went—he forgot the danger lest her own feelings should
-become enlisted in behalf of those against whom he was so soon to draw
-his sword; remembering only—for was he not a father?—that his child’s
-health was in danger, and that a residence in the mountain district
-where she had been born, and where she had spent so many happy years,
-was the sole chance of saving her life.
-
-And now Helen was once more amid the scenes where her childhood had been
-spent, and every old counsel and prayer of her mother, recalled to mind
-by the spots where they had been first heard, rose up before her, and
-softened her heart; and often, at Sabbath eve, or in the still watches
-of the night, it seemed to her as if the spirit of that sainted mother
-hovered over her, whispering her heavenward, and bidding her never to
-forget or forsake her God. All the sympathies which now surrounded her,
-drew her to the persecuted sect; for her cousin and aunt were both among
-the non-conformists; and though the little kirk, standing all alone in
-the hills, a cool well in a parched desert, was now closed, and he who
-had formerly ministered there an outcast, yet the sight and recognition
-of him, at more than one stolen meeting, recalled to Helen’s mind the
-time when he blessed her, nestling bird-like to her mother’s bosom, she
-looking the while half affrightedly, yet oh, how reverentially, up into
-the face of the mild old man! And was not her heart softened, even to
-tears, when the patriarch, well remembering her—for none did he ever
-forget—sought her among the crowd, and, laying his hands on her head,
-blessed her, hoping that God still kept her in the way her mother had
-trod? From that hour Helen became a changed being. The light heartedness
-of youth was gone. She wept often, and prayed in solitary places by
-herself; for lo! the struggle in her bosom, between duty to her parent,
-and a higher duty to God, waxed stronger and stronger; but daily she
-yearned more and more to the oppressed remnant, until finally it was
-whispered in the scattered congregation that the persecutor’s
-daughter—that child of many prayers—was to become a professed member
-of the flock. And old men and nursing mothers in the church blessed God
-as they heard it.
-
-On this Sabbath morning, Helen had, for the first time, openly attended
-a meeting in the hills. At first, she had come with fear and trembling,
-but when she saw the looks of kindly sympathy with which all regarded
-her, she became more composed, and could enter on the holy duties of the
-day in a fitting mood. And when the aged pastor gave out the hymn, and
-the congregation joined in the sacred anthem, what voice sang of
-redeeming love so sweetly as that of Helen?
-
-Lo! the vision of light has passed from our souls, and in place of that
-seraphic countenance, we behold the face of a stern warrior, in every
-feature of which we read of cruelty and blood. Even now he is hot in
-pursuit of the suffering remnant, and with his troop of fiery dragoons
-interrupts the Sabbath quiet of the vales and glens, with the jingling
-of broad swords and the ribald jests of scoffers; and many a dark-browed
-peasant scowls on the persecutor as he passes, and prays that God will
-yet avenge his slaughtered saints. Nor, if the popular rumor is to be
-believed, is that vengeance altogether withheld; for men say that Sir
-Roland Græme, having sold his religion for the paltry honors of earth,
-has been already cursed from on high, and that, sleeping or waking, he
-finds no rest from the stingings of remorse; yet, like one who has
-committed the unpardonable sin, he cannot draw back from his career of
-blood, but is impelled onward, as if by some irresistible power, to
-still darker crimes. Look upon his face again, and tell us if there is
-not something there which you shudder to behold—something of untold
-horror in that stern, God-defying brow, as if the arch-enemy had already
-been suffered to affix his seal upon it.
-
-And whither was that man of blood going? Far, far over hill and dale, to
-the slaughter of the saints. He had heard, through some traitor, of the
-assemblage to be held that morning in the hills, and with the first dawn
-of day he and his troopers had been in the saddle, thirsting to
-participate in the bloody sacrament. For the last half hour he had
-seemed lost in thought, and now he suddenly drew in his rein, and turned
-to his lieutenant.
-
-“Lennox,” he said, “I believe I will not lead these brave fellows
-to-day, but surrender the command to you. I see, over yonder hill, the
-blue summit that looks down on the Brae, where my daughter is visiting.
-I have not seen her for months, nor is it probable I shall be in this
-district for many months more. The country here is widely disaffected,
-and therefore an unbecoming residence for a child of mine. It has just
-struck me that I might cross the hills, and bring her home with me this
-afternoon. And yet something whispers to me that I ought rather to
-pursue these traitors and schismatics,” he continued, as if to himself;
-“however, I can trust to you, and it is imperative that my daughter
-leave this district. We will meet here by four o’clock. Your road lies
-down yonder glen. All I have to say is, ‘spare none!’”
-
-“I understand,” said the subordinate; “neither age nor sex.”
-
-“Neither age nor sex, nor even those of rank, if such there be,” sternly
-said Sir Roland; “when the poison has sunk deep, nothing but the cautery
-will cure. And hark ye! on the faithful execution of your commands
-depends your hope of preferment. I would not spare my own child, if I
-found her among these spawn of Satan!”
-
-And, with these memorable words, he ordered a detachment of his company
-to follow him, and rode off, though at first reluctantly, in the
-direction of the Brae.
-
-The route was passed in silence, for Sir Roland was buried in thought.
-There was indeed cause for it. One or two things in the last letter he
-had received from his daughter—and that missive had now been written a
-month—made him feel uneasy, lest she looked more favorably on the
-persecuted sect than became a daughter of his; and it was this fear, all
-at once recalled to mind by the business on which he had set forth this
-morning, that determined him so suddenly to leave the dispersion of the
-conventicle to his lieutenant, while he should ride over to the Brae,
-and bring his daughter home. Other thoughts, too, were busy within him.
-The long coveted rank had brought little alleviation to his soured and
-disappointed mind, for his fortune was now more than ever inadequate to
-his condition, and all the peculiarly sensitive feelings of a proud man
-were stung to the quick by the indignities to which, in consequence, he
-was often exposed. Moreover, he was aware of the light in which he was
-held, since his change of politics, not only by the common people, but
-by large portions of the gentry; so that, on every hand, he was soured
-and irritated, and longed to wreak on the Covenanters the hate which he
-felt toward all men.
-
-And yet, as he approached the Brae, and saw at a distance the low roof
-of the mansion from which he had taken his bride, gentler feelings stole
-into his bosom. He thought of her whom he had once loved with all the
-fervor of a first passion—he remembered the happy years they had spent
-together—and when he recollected that she was now no more, and that the
-last time he had beheld these roofs he had been in her company, a tear
-almost gathered into his eye. Then he thought of his daughter. As her
-image rose up before him, his heart was fully melted. With all the
-sternness of his character he loved that daughter as few fathers
-loved—ay! loved her doubly since her mother’s death, for she was now
-the only object in the whole wide world on which he could bestow aught
-of affection. And now, joy at the prospect of meeting her gave to his
-spirits the glad exhilaration of boyhood, and quickening his pace, he
-galloped gaily across the hills, nor drew his rein until he reached the
-door of the old mansion.
-
-The Brae was an antique and partially dilapidated residence, at present
-inhabited by the aunt of Helen, and a daughter about the age of Miss
-Græme. At all times it wore a sombre, deserted look, but on this morning
-it seemed peculiarly desolate, for the whole front of the house was
-closed, and all the outhouses shut up. A strange fear came over the
-father, as he beheld the absence of these signs of life, and he hastily
-ordered one of the dragoons to dismount and knock at the door. The man
-obeyed, but for a time knocked in vain. The sound of the hilt of his
-heavy sword, striking on the door, echoed through the long hall of the
-house; but no signs of life within were visible. The usual frown on the
-face of Sir Roland grew darker, and he cried angrily—
-
-“Blow off the lock with a pistol, and search the house!”
-
-At this instant, however, and just as the trooper was proceeding to
-execute this order, the face of an old woman was protruded from one of
-the upper windows, while she demanded who was below.
-
-“Sir Roland Græme,” replied the leader; “where are the family? where is
-Miss Græme? Is any one sick?”
-
-“They are all well, but out!” briefly said the woman.
-
-“Out—out!” exclaimed the persecutor, “and on Sunday, when there is no
-church within miles. By G—,” he continued, striving to drown his fears
-in rage, “is this a time to be out? Where have they gone? Answer truly,
-on your life!”
-
-“May it please your honor,” said one of the dragoons, touching his cap,
-“may they not have gone to this conventicle, and taken your daughter
-with them?”
-
-Quick as lightning, Sir Roland wheeled round on the unthinking speaker,
-and while the indentation on his brow became deeper than ever, and his
-eye flashed with rage, he said—
-
-“_My_ daughter consorting with traitors and schismatics! Breathe but the
-word again, and by the God of heaven I will cleave you to the chine!”
-and his fingers played nervously with the hilt of his sword; but, seeing
-the deprecating look of the trooper, he recovered himself, and added,
-“tush! man, you are innocent, but take care how even innocently you
-rouse the tiger.”
-
-“Tiger,” shrieked the old woman, who had known Sir Roland in former
-days, and who now seemed impelled by some sudden gust of passion to
-speak out, “it is well said; ay! one whose fangs have been in the hearts
-of the persecuted remnant—but God will avenge his people. Know, false
-persecutor, that your daughter _has_ gone forth to-day to become one of
-the chosen few against whom, oh! man of sin, you have so often ridden
-with steel and war horse, holding the commission of your master, the
-Evil One. Go to, Roland Græme, I mind ye when ye were a boy, and little
-did I think ye would ever become the Judas you are now.”
-
-It is probable that if her hearer had comprehended the whole of this
-harangue, a bullet would have been the speaker’s reward; but the first
-words of the old woman, when taken in connection with the desertion of
-the house, and his own misgivings from Helen’s late letter, assured him
-that his daughter had indeed attended the conventicle. The conviction
-fell on his heart with agonizing force. Remembering the injunctions of
-indiscriminate butchery he had laid on his subordinate, and well knowing
-that the command would be fulfilled to the very letter, he staggered
-back in his saddle, with a face whiter than ashes, and was fain to grasp
-the pommel for support, while he exclaimed in tones wrung from him by
-the keenest anguish—
-
-“My child!—my child!—I have murdered my child!”
-
-“What is that ye say?” screamed the old hag, leaning eagerly forward;
-“have ye sent out your reiving dragoons against the Lord’s anointed? and
-ye fear that they will slay your ain bairn. Oh! man of blood, the
-judgment of God has come upon ye—the judgment has come upon ye!”
-
-But to the voice of the speaker, as well as to the astonished looks of
-the dragoons, the father was insensible. He still remained clutching the
-saddle, every feature of his face working with intense agony, and his
-eyes glaring vacantly on the air. Those who looked on him shrunk back
-aghast at the horror of his aspect; which, fearful as it was, only
-faintly shadowed forth the torture of the soul within. The peril of his
-only child stupefied him for a time. Then a succession of wild images
-rose up to his mind. He saw his daughter flying before the ruthless
-dragoons—he heard her cries for mercy, and the bitter sneer of
-disbelief on the part of her pursuers—he beheld her lying a corpse on
-the bare heath, her bosom gashed with brutal wounds, and her long fair
-hair dabbled with blood. In that moment the memory of every one whom he
-had slain came up before him—the mothers who had clung to his knees,
-the babes who had looked innocently in his face as they died, the
-daughters whose aged parents he had slain before their eyes. He thought
-of the silvery headed patriarch whom he had shot for refusing the test,
-and the prophetic warning of the victim that he, even he, the proud
-persecutor, should curse the day he ever drew his sword against the
-saints, came up to his memory. He groaned in anguish. For a time none
-dared to intrude on his misery. One of his men, a trusty body adherent,
-at length ventured to speak, by asking him if they had not better ride
-with all haste after Lennox, in the hope that they might yet come up in
-time. Starting, as if a shot had struck him, the father plunged his
-rowels into the side of his steed, until the blood gushed forth, and
-wheeling his horse sharp around, looked back sternly on his followers,
-as he led the way at a fearful pace up the hill. Well did he know the
-country around, and necessary, indeed, was that knowledge, for his
-frantic gallop required the most intimate acquaintance with every turn
-and inequality of the road. Over hill and dale, through glen and moor he
-dashed, reckless of danger, for how could he think of aught but his
-daughter? Oh! what would he not have given to be assured that he should
-once more look into her soft blue eyes, that he should again press her
-to his bosom. What now to him was rank or wealth? Perhaps he thought
-that Helen would be able to reveal her name ere she fell a victim—but
-no! for even if she spoke, would his subordinate believe her story?
-Once, the very suspicion that she favored the Covenanters had angered
-him, but now he would forgive every thing, only to be assured of her
-safety. The contending emotions—hope and fear, love and anger, suspense
-and despair—that agitated his bosom, made that hour’s ride an hour of
-agony, such as he had never before thought a human being could endure,
-and live. He felt that the curse of God was on him—that all the agonies
-he had inflicted on others were now concentrated on himself—that he was
-bound to the wheel of fire. His punishment had already begun. He had
-rushed against the thick bosses of the Almighty’s buckler, and found,
-like him of old, that man could not contend against the Most High.
-
-We remember, when a boy, waking from a dream of horror, to find our
-mother smiling over our sleep. Oh! never shall we forget the heavenly
-radiance of that loved face, for radiant with heaven it seemed to us,
-after the terrors of that midnight vision. Even so we feel when turning
-from contemplating the tortures of the persecutor, to gaze on his
-sainted child. The hour was now approaching noon, and Helen, in the
-presence of the silent flock, had taken upon her those vows she could
-never put off. Tears fell from many an eye as the worshipers beheld her
-thus in their midst; and the old pastor was so affected that he could
-scarcely speak.
-
-“God will reward you, my daughter, and give you strength,” he said; “I
-bless His holy name that thou art delivered from the dominion of Baal.
-It is hard, I know, to disobey a parent; but saith not the Scripture,
-that we must leave father and mother, if required, and take up our cross
-and follow Christ? Only persevere, and God will make your way plain to
-you, guiding you, even as he led the children of Israel, with a pillar
-of cloud by day, and of fire by night. Trials, and sore ones, we must
-all have in this world—and I boast not, but only speak to cheer you,
-when I say that mine have been many and hard, but God has given me grace
-to endure all, even as He will give it unto you. But my race is nearly
-run; the golden urn will soon be broken at the fountain. I only pray to
-die like the martyrs of old, with my armor on, and my sword girt to my
-thigh. Come, oh! Lord, most mighty,” he continued, raising his hands and
-eyes rapturously above, “come, oh! Lord most gracious, and come
-quickly!”
-
-A deep silence followed the conclusion of this prayer, while the tears
-of many fell fast and thick. Every eye was fixed on the holy man, or
-turned to Helen, for the countenances of both already seemed to glow, as
-those of angels. None dared to draw a breath, lest they should dispel
-the hushed stillness that so well accorded with the solemnity of the
-moment. But suddenly a cry was heard, clear, loud and startling—“The
-dragoons—the dragoons are here!” and had a voice come from the dead, it
-would not have produced a more sudden change in the hearers. Every one
-started up, and all eyes were turned toward the point whence the cry had
-proceeded. There, on a gentle eminence, stood a shepherd waving his
-plaid, and making gestures for the congregation to fly up the glen. In
-an instant all was confusion. Mothers clasped their infants to their
-bosoms, and looked up tremblingly, with faces whiter than ashes—maidens
-clung to their lovers, and gazed around with dilated eyes and looks of
-terror—and fathers and brothers, gathering around these dear ones,
-hurried them on foot and horseback, in the direction indicated by the
-sentinel. The escort of Helen and her aunt had been several armed
-retainers, and these now rallied to the side of their mistress and the
-pastor, prepared to make good their retreat, or defend themselves to the
-last. Hoping to escape the notice of the pursuers, they dashed off in a
-different direction from that pursued by the others of the congregation;
-but just as they turned the angle of the hill, the pennons of the
-troopers came into sight, and by the immediate diversion of a party in
-pursuit of them, the fugitives knew they were detected. Pricking their
-horses, they now hurried rapidly onward, and for several hundred yards
-lost sight of their pursuers. At length, the little party reached the
-brow of a slight acclivity.
-
-“Faster—faster,” said one who had looked back, “they gain on us—press
-on.”
-
-Every eye was turned in the direction of the pursuers, and there, not
-half the distance they had been before, were the dragoons, thundering
-along with fiery haste. The sight gave new energy to the fugitives, who
-urged on their steeds with redoubled vigor. For a while now the result
-seemed doubtful. During this interval of suspense the feelings of the
-fugitives were of the most conflicting character—the instinctive love
-of life alternating with a holy resignation to whatever fate might be
-assigned them. Now, as they gained on the troopers, the former
-prevailed, and now, as they saw their pursuers drawing nigher, the
-latter won the mastery. The emotions of each, meanwhile, were different.
-The old pastor, with eyes uplifted, seemed rapturously awaiting
-martyrdom—the aunt and cousin of Helen were pale and red by turns as
-their fear or faith rose triumphant, while the serving men frowned
-darkly as they looked behind, and appeared to wish for a chance to
-exchange passes with their steel-clad oppressors. But the feelings of
-Helen were most difficult to analyze, though perhaps they had less of
-earth in them than those of any except the pastor. Subdued by the day’s
-sacrifice of herself, and all glowing with divine faith and energy, what
-had she to fear from death? Yet, even with this perfect resignation, she
-could not avoid looking back on their pursuers, while her heart heat
-quicker as the distance increased between the troopers and themselves.
-
-“We gain—we gain—press on, we shall escape,” shouted the leader of the
-little party, “the Lord will yet deliver us from our enemies.”
-
-“Nay, nay,” said the pastor suddenly, “the hour has come—see ye not
-that we are cut off in front, lo! the horses and the men-of-war.”
-
-A cry—almost a shriek—broke from Helen’s two female companions as they
-looked ahead, and saw, emerging from a narrow ravine, another party of
-dragoons, led by a tall, dark man far in advance of the rest, and all
-riding with tumultuous haste. Helen spoke not, but only raised her eyes
-to heaven, for escape was now impossible. The ravine ahead was the only
-feasible outlet in that direction, from the glen up which the fugitives
-had fled, and to turn back would be to fall on the swords of their
-pursuers. The serving men looked aghast, and drew in their reins, which
-example the rest of the party immediately followed. For a minute there
-was a profound silence. At length the leader again spoke.
-
-“Why stand we here? Escape is impossible, unless we can cut our way
-through. Let us charge the party behind, for that is the smaller. Form a
-circle around the women—wheel—trot.”
-
-There was no time for consultation, and the proposal seemed to point out
-the only feasible plan. With the words they wheeled their horses, and
-dashed to the desperate attack. The dragoons seemed for an instant
-astonished by the movement, but did not slacken their pace. Their leader
-waved his sword, and turning to his men, led the onset in person,
-shouting “God save the king and bishops,” while the Covenanters,
-unsheathing their blades, raised the cry of “The sword of the Lord and
-Gideon.” And thus, borne in the midst of those armed men as in the
-embrace of a whirlwind, Helen was hurried toward the dragoons. And as
-they galloped along, the heavenly girl, with heart uplifted, prayed,
-while her countenance shone with a glory as of the cherubim.
-
-And who was it that dashed so frantically up the glen, as if fearful
-that he might not arrive to whet his blade in the blood of the
-fugitives? Who, but Sir Roland Græme, flying to save his daughter, and
-even now almost maddened with the thought that he had come too late, for
-the instant that he emerged from the ravine he recognized his child, and
-now, when he saw her turned back to the pursuers, and his practiced eye
-told him that he could not reach her until the two parties should be
-engaged in deadly combat, the same sickening sensation of horror which
-had attacked him at the Brae came over him again. With a sharp cry of
-agony he ploughed his spurs into the already bloody sides of his horse,
-and sprang forward at a pace even more frantic than that which he had
-before led; but swift as was his progress it seemed to him only that of
-a snail. On—on—he urged his gallant beast, and nearer and nearer the
-fugitives and their first pursuers drew to each other. What though he
-gained on the group!—he saw that the hostile parties would meet while
-he would yet be far away. Oh! what were his feelings as this conviction
-forced itself on him. If only another mile, in which to overtake them,
-had been given him, he might perhaps have succeeded; but now hope was in
-vain! Cold drops of sweat stood on his brow, while his heart throbbed
-almost to bursting against his corselet. Did none recognize him, and
-could they not understand his frantic signs? He
-shouted—again—again—again. The dead might as well be expected to
-hear. He waved his plumed hat on high, but, at that instant, with the
-shock of an earthquake, the opponents met. A dizziness came over his
-eyes, but with a mighty effort he rallied his reeling faculties, and
-looked at the fight. Was his child yet alive? He saw the gleam of the
-broadswords, the blaze of firearms, and all the tumult of the conflict,
-but his daughter was not visible. Suddenly a sharp, quick, female
-shriek, rising shrill over the uproar, met his ear. God of heaven, had
-his Helen fallen! Another leap of his frantic steed, and he was near
-enough to hear the shouts of the combatants and distinguish particular
-persons. He trembled with eagerness, but lo! his daughter was still
-unharmed, girt around as with a wall of steel, by the broadswords of her
-defenders. He rose in his stirrups at the sight, and waving his hat
-around his head, shouted with the voice of a Titan. Joy—joy! they
-recognize him, and his child extends her arms toward him. She is saved.
-But no! for at this very instant, when at length they understood by
-their leader’s gestures that they were to desist, one of the dragoons,
-availing himself of the confusion of the moment and thirsting for
-vengeance for a wound he had received, aimed a pistol at the pastor’s
-bosom, and though a fellow soldier struck aside his arm, it was only to
-wing the deadly ball to another heart, even that of Helen, who all along
-had been nestled by the side of the holy man. She fell back into his
-arms, the blood gushing from her bosom, and for an instant they thought
-her gone. But when the pastor called on her name she faintly opened her
-eyes, pressed his hand, smiled sweetly, and murmuring of heaven, sank
-away apparently into a slumber.
-
-One wild cry of horror had risen, at her fall, from those immediately
-around her, telling the tale of her murder; but the father needed not
-this confirmation of his worst fears, for he had seen the shot and
-beheld her fall. Galloping wildly forward, with a few gigantic leaps he
-reached the offender, whom he smote to the earth with a single blow of
-his broadsword. The next instant he was by his daughter’s side, the
-group opening awe-struck to let him pass. He spoke not, but oh! the
-terrible agony of his countenance. Putting them aside with arms
-extended, he approached and gazed down into the face of his child—gazed
-as Sapphira did when the apostle told her doom, and she saw the bearers
-returning from her husband’s burial. And for a minute of profound
-silence he continued gazing thus, into that fair sweet face, on which,
-though now stilled as in death, there yet lingered a smile of heavenly
-joy. He shuddered as he looked, and his countenance became livid as that
-of a corpse. He essayed to speak, but though his lips moved, no sound
-proceeded from them. At length slowly, almost reluctantly, he stooped
-down and took her hand.
-
-“Helen—Helen,” he said, in a choking voice, “you are not dead. Say
-so—tell me I am not your murderer. Oh! speak, and forgive me.”
-
-The dying girl faintly opened her eyes, and gazed vacantly into her
-father’s face. Her senses were fast deserting her. She did not recognize
-him.
-
-“Oh God! my child is dying,” groaned the father. “Helen, Helen,” he
-continued, raising his voice, “do you not know me? I am your
-father—your murderer. Do not look on me with such strange eyes! Helen,
-Helen dear, say, if only by a smile, that you forgive me. Oh! Lord God
-of heaven,” he exclaimed, lifting his eyes agonizingly above, “have
-mercy on me—suffer her to live to forgive me—crush not the bruised
-reed,” and hot tears gushed from his eyes and trickled in his daughter’s
-face.
-
-“Who weeps?” faintly said the dying sufferer, “weep not for me. Tell my
-father how I love him, and die blessing him—”
-
-“Thank thee, Almighty Father, I thank thee,” gasped the penitent.
-“Helen, here is your father—I am he.”
-
-For the first time, now, the dying girl seemed fully to comprehend her
-situation. She looked a minute around the group, and then, with a sweet
-smile, her eyes rested on her father’s face. She faintly pressed his
-hand. Tears gushed from his eyes like rain, and though he strove to
-speak he could not for his sobs. She murmured of him, of her mother, of
-heaven, and then they knew she was dead. The father looked on her a
-moment, and with a groan—which none there ever forgot—sunk helpless to
-her side. They raised him, but he was a corpse. “Vengeance is mine,”
-saith the Lord, “and I will repay.”
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- A RACE FOR A SWEETHEART.
-
-
- BY MR. SEBA SMITH.
-
-
-Hardly any event creates a stronger sensation in a thinly settled New
-England village, especially among the young folks, than the arrival of a
-fresh and blooming miss, who comes to make her abode in the
-neighborhood. When, therefore, Squire Johnson, the only lawyer in the
-place, and a very respectable man of course, told Farmer Jones one
-afternoon that his wife’s sister, a smart girl of eighteen, was coming
-in a few days to reside in his family, the news flew like wildfire
-through Pond village, and was the principal topic of conversation for a
-week. Pond village is situated upon the margin of one of those numerous
-and beautiful sheets of water that gem the whole surface of New England,
-like the bright stars in an evening sky, and received its appellation to
-distinguish it from two or three other villages in the same town, which
-could not boast of a similar location. When Farmer Jones came in to his
-supper about sunset that afternoon, and took his seat at the table, the
-eyes of the whole family were upon him, for there was a peculiar working
-about his mouth and a knowing glance of his eye, that always told them
-when he had something of interest to communicate. But Farmer Jones’
-secretiveness was large, and his temperament not the most active, and he
-would probably have rolled the important secret as a sweet morsel under
-his tongue for a long time, had not Mrs. Jones, who was of rather an
-impatient and prying turn of mind, contrived to draw it from him.
-
-“Now, Mr. Jones,” said she, as she handed him his cup of tea, “what is
-it you are going to say? Do out with it; for you’ve been chawing
-something or other over in your mind ever since you came into the
-house.”
-
-“It’s my tobacher, I s’pose,” said Mr. Jones, with another knowing
-glance of his eye.
-
-“Now, father, what is the use?” said Susan; “we all know you’ve got
-something or other you want to say, and why can’t you tell us what
-’tis?”
-
-“La, who cares what ’tis?” said Mrs. Jones; “if it was any thing worth
-telling, we shouldn’t have to wait for it, I dare say.”
-
-Hereupon Mrs. Jones assumed an air of the most perfect indifference, as
-the surest way of conquering what she was pleased to call Mr. Jones’
-obstinacy, which by the way was a very improper term to apply in the
-case; for it was purely the working of secretiveness without the least
-particle of obstinacy attached to it.
-
-There was a pause for two or three minutes in the conversation, till Mr.
-Jones passed his cup to be filled a second time, when with a couple of
-preparatory hems he began to let out the secret.
-
-“We are to have a new neighbor here in a few days,” said Mr. Jones,
-stopping short when he had uttered thus much, and sipping his tea and
-filling his mouth with food.
-
-Mrs. Jones, who was perfect in her tactics, said not a word, but
-attended to the affairs of the table, as though she had not noticed what
-was said. The farmer’s secretiveness had at last worked itself out, and
-he began again.
-
-“Squire Johnson’s wife’s sister is coming here in a few days, and is
-going to live with ’em.”
-
-The news being thus fairly divulged, it left free scope for
-conversation.
-
-“Well, I wonder if she is a proud, stuck up piece,” said Mrs. Jones.
-
-“I shouldn’t think she would be,” said Susan, “for there aint a more
-sociabler woman in the neighborhood than Miss Johnson. So if she’s at
-all like her sister I think we shall like her.”
-
-“I wonder how old she is,” said Stephen, who was just verging toward the
-close of his twenty-first year.
-
-“The squire called her eighteen,” said Mr. Jones, giving a wink to his
-wife, as much as to say, that’s about the right age for Stephen.
-
-“I wonder if she is handsome,” said Susan, who was somewhat vain of her
-own looks, and having been a sort of reigning belle in Pond village for
-some time, felt a little alarm at the idea of a rival.
-
-“I dare be bound she’s handsome,” said Mrs. Jones, “if she’s sister to
-Miss Johnson; for where’ll you find a handsomer woman than Miss Johnson,
-go the town through?”
-
-After supper, Stephen went down to Mr. Robinson’s store, and told the
-news to young Charles Robinson and all the young fellows who were
-gathered there for a game at quoits and a ring at wrestling. And Susan
-went directly over to Mr. Bean’s and told Patty, and Patty went round to
-the Widow Davis’ and told Sally, and before nine o’clock the matter was
-pretty well understood in about every house in the village.
-
-At the close of the fourth day, a little before sunset, a chaise was
-seen to drive up to Squire Johnson’s door. Of course the eyes of the
-whole village were turned in that direction. Sally Davis, who was just
-coming in from milking, set her pail down on the grass by the side of
-the road as soon as the chaise came in sight, and watched it till it
-reached the squire’s door, and the gentleman and lady had got out and
-gone into the house. Patty Bean was doing up the ironing that afternoon,
-and she had just taken a hot iron from the fire as the chaise passed the
-door, and she ran with it in her hand and stood on the door steps till
-the whole ceremony of alighting, greeting, and entering the house, was
-over. Old Mrs. Bean stood with her head out of the window, her
-iron-bowed spectacles resting upon the top of her forehead, her
-shriveled hand placed across her eyebrows to defend her red eyes from
-the rays of the setting sun, and her skinny chin protruding about three
-inches in advance of a couple of stubs of teeth, which her open mouth
-exposed fairly to view.
-
-“Seems to me they are dreadful loving,” said old Mrs. Bean, as she saw
-Mrs. Johnson descend the steps and welcome her sister with a kiss.
-
-“La me, if there isn’t the squire kissing of her tu,” said Patty; “well,
-I declare, I would a waited till I got into the house, I’ll die if I
-wouldn’t. It looks so vulgar to be kissing afore folks, and out doors
-tu; I should think Squire Johnson would be ashamed of himself.”
-
-“Well, I shouldn’t,” said young John Bean, who came up at that moment,
-and who had passed the chaise just as the young lady alighted from it.
-“I shouldn’t be ashamed to kiss sich a pretty gal as that any how; I’d
-kiss her wherever I could ketch her, if it was in the meetin-house.”
-
-“Why, is she handsome, Jack?” said Patty.
-
-“Yes, she’s got the prettiest little puckery kind of a mouth I’ve seen
-this six months. Her cheeks are red, and her eyes shine like new
-buttons.”
-
-“Well,” replied Patty, “if she’ll only take the shine off of Susan Jones
-when she goes to meetin, Sunday, I sha’n’t care.”
-
-While these observations were going on at old Mr. Bean’s, Charles
-Robinson and a group of young fellows with him were standing in front of
-Robinson’s store, a little farther down the road, and watching the scene
-that was passing at Squire Johnson’s. They witnessed the whole with
-becoming decorum, now and then making a remark about the fine horse and
-the handsome chaise, till they saw the tall squire bend his head down
-and give the young lady a kiss, when they all burst out into a loud
-laugh. In a moment, being conscious that their laugh must be heard and
-noticed at the squire’s, they, in order to do away the impression it
-must necessarily make, at once turned their heads the other way, and
-Charles Robinson, who was quick at an expedient, knocked off the hat of
-the lad who was standing next to him, and then they all laughed louder
-than before.
-
-“Here comes Jack Bean,” said Charles, “now we shall hear something about
-her, for Jack was coming by the squire’s when she got out of the chaise.
-How does she look, Jack?”
-
-“Handsome as a picter,” said Jack. “I haint seen a prettier gal since
-last Thanksgiving Day, when Jane Ford was here to visit Susan Jones.”
-
-“Black eyes or blue?” said Charles.
-
-“Blue,” said Jack, “but all-fired bright.”
-
-“Tall or short?” said Stephen Jones, who was rather short himself, and
-therefore felt a particular interest on that point.
-
-“Rather short,” said Jack, “but straight and round as our young colt.”
-
-“Do you know what her name is?” said Charles.
-
-“They called her Lucy when she got out of the chaise,” said Jack, “and
-as Miss Johnson’s name was Brown before she was married, I s’pose her
-name must be Lucy Brown.”
-
-“Just such a name as I like,” said Charles Robinson; “Lucy Brown sounds
-well. Now suppose, in order to get acquainted with her, we all hands
-take a sail to-morrow night, about this time, on the pond, and invite
-her to go with us.”
-
-“Agreed,” said Stephen Jones. “Agreed,” said Jack Bean. “Agreed,” said
-all hands.
-
-The question then arose, who should carry the invitation to her; and the
-young men being rather bashful on that score, it was finally settled
-that Susan Jones should bear the invitation, and accompany her to the
-boat, where they should all be in waiting to receive her. The next day
-was a very long day, at least to most of the young men of Pond village;
-and promptly, an hour before sunset, most of them were assembled, with
-half a score of their sisters and female cousins, by a little stone
-wharf on the margin of the pond, for the proposed sail. All the girls in
-the village, of a suitable age, were there, except Patty Bean. She had
-undergone a good deal of fidgeting and fussing during the day, to
-prepare for the sail, but had been disappointed. Her new bonnet was not
-done; and as for wearing her old flap-sided bonnet, she declared she
-would not, if she never went. Presently Susan Jones and Miss Lucy Brown
-were seen coming down the road. In a moment all were quiet, the laugh
-and the joke were hushed, and each one put on his best looks. When they
-arrived, Susan went through the ceremony of introducing Miss Brown to
-each of the ladies and gentlemen present.
-
-“But how in the world are you going to sail?” said Miss Brown, “for
-there isn’t a breath of wind; and I don’t see any sail-boat, neither.”
-
-“Oh, the less wind we have, the better, when we sail here,” said Charles
-Robinson; “and there is our sail-boat,” pointing to a flat-bottomed
-scow-boat, some twenty feet long by ten wide.
-
-“We don’t use no sails,” said Jack Bean; “sometimes, when the wind is
-fair, we put up a bush to help pull along a little, and when ’tisn’t, we
-row.”
-
-The party were soon embarked on board the scow, and a couple of oars
-were set in motion, and they glided slowly and pleasantly over as lovely
-a sheet of water as ever glowed in the sunsetting ray. In one hour’s
-time, the whole party felt perfectly acquainted with Miss Lucy Brown.
-She had talked in the most lively and fascinating manner; she had told
-stories and sung songs. Among others, she had given Moore’s boat song,
-with the sweetest possible effect; and by the time they returned to the
-landing, it would hardly be too much to say that half the young men in
-the party were decidedly in love with her.
-
-A stern regard to truth requires a remark to be made here, not
-altogether favorable to Susan Jones, which is the more to be regretted,
-as she was in the main an excellent hearted girl, and highly esteemed by
-the whole village. It was observed that as the company grew more and
-more pleased with Miss Lucy Brown, Susan Jones was less and less
-animated, till at last she became quite reserved, and apparently sad.
-She, however, on landing, treated Miss Brown with respectful attention,
-accompanied her home to Squire Johnson’s door, and cordially bade her
-good night.
-
-The casual glimpses which the young men of Pond village had of Miss
-Brown during the remainder of the week, as she occasionally stood at the
-door, or looked out at the window, or once or twice when she walked out
-with Susan Jones, and the fair view they all had of her at meeting on
-the Sabbath, served but to increase their admiration, and to render her
-more and more an object of attraction. She was regarded by all as a
-prize, and several of them were already planning what steps it was best
-to take in order to win her. The two most prominent candidates, however,
-for Miss Brown’s favor, were Charles Robinson and Stephen Jones. Their
-position and standing among the young men of the village seemed to put
-all others in the back ground. Charles, whose father was wealthy, had
-every advantage which money could procure. But Stephen, though poor, had
-decidedly the advantage over Charles in personal recommendations. He had
-more talent, was more sprightly and intelligent, and more pleasing in
-his address. From the evening of the sail on the pond, they had both
-watched every movement of Miss Brown with the most intense interest;
-and, as nothing can deceive a lover, each had, with an interest no less
-intense, watched every movement of the other. They had ceased to speak
-to each other about her, and if her name was mentioned in their
-presence, both were always observed to color.
-
-The second week after her arrival, through the influence of Squire
-Johnson, the district school was offered to Miss Brown on the other side
-of the pond, which offer was accepted, and she went immediately to take
-charge of it. This announcement at first threw something of a damper
-upon the spirits of the young people of Pond village. But when it was
-understood the school would continue but a few weeks, and being but a
-mile and a half distant, Miss Brown would come home every Saturday
-afternoon, and spend the Sabbath, it was not very difficult to be
-reconciled to the temporary arrangement. The week wore away heavily,
-especially to Charles Robinson and Stephen Jones. They counted the days
-impatiently till Saturday, and on Saturday they counted the long and
-lagging hours till noon. They had both made up their minds that it would
-be dangerous to wait longer, and they had both resolved not to let
-another Sabbath pass without making direct proposals to Miss Brown.
-
-Stephen Jones was too early a riser for Charles Robinson, and, in any
-enterprise where both were concerned, was pretty sure to take the lead,
-except where money could carry the palm, and then, of course, it was
-always borne away by Charles. As Miss Lucy had been absent most of the
-week, and was to be at home that afternoon, Charles Robinson had made an
-arrangement with his mother and sisters to have a little tea party in
-the evening, for the purpose of inviting Miss Brown; and then, of
-course, he should walk home with her in the evening; and then, of
-course, would be a good opportunity to break the ice, and make known to
-her his feelings and wishes. Stephen Jones, however, was more prompt in
-his movements. He had got wind of the proposed tea party, although
-himself and sister, for obvious reasons, had not been invited, and he
-resolved not to risk the arrival of Miss Brown and her visit to Mr.
-Robinson’s, before he should see her. She would dismiss her school at
-noon, and come the distance of a mile and a half round the pond home.
-His mind was at once made up. He would go round and meet her at the
-school-house, and accompany her on her walk. There, in that winding road
-around those delightful waters, with the tall and shady trees over head,
-and the wild grape-vines twining round their trunks, and climbing to the
-branches, while the wild birds were singing through the woods, and the
-wild ducks playing in the coves along the shore, surely there, if any
-where in the world, could a man bring his mind up to the point of
-speaking of love.
-
-Accordingly, a little before noon, Stephen washed and brushed himself
-up, and put on his Sunday clothes, and started on his expedition. In
-order to avoid observation, he took a back route across the field,
-intending to come into the road by the pond, a little out of the
-village. As ill luck would have it, Charles Robinson had been out in the
-same direction, and was returning with an armful of green boughs and
-wild flowers, to ornament the parlor for the evening. He saw Stephen,
-and noticed his dress, and the direction he was going, and he at once
-smoked the whole business. His first impulse was to rush upon him and
-collar him, and demand that he should return back. But then he
-recollected that in the last scratch he had with Stephen, two or three
-years before, he had a little the worst of it, and he instinctively
-stood still while Stephen passed on without seeing him. It flashed upon
-his mind at once that the question must now be reduced to a game of
-speed. If he could by any means gain the school-house first, and engage
-Miss Lucy to walk home with him, he should consider himself safe. But if
-Stephen should reach the school-house first, he should feel a good deal
-of uneasiness for the consequences. Stephen was walking very leisurely,
-and unconscious that he was in any danger of a competitor on the course,
-and it was important that his suspicions should not be awakened.
-Charles, therefore, remained perfectly quiet till Stephen had got a
-little out of hearing, and then he threw down his bushes and flowers,
-and ran to the wharf below the store with his utmost speed. He had one
-advantage over Stephen. He was ready at a moment’s warning to start on
-an expedition of this kind, for Sunday clothes were an every-day affair
-with him. There was a light canoe, belonging to his father, lying at the
-wharf, and a couple of stout boys were there fishing. Charles hailed
-them, and told them if they would row him across the pond as quick as
-they possibly could, he would give them a quarter of a dollar a piece.
-This, in their view, was a splendid offer for their services, and they
-jumped on board with alacrity and manned the oars. Charles took a
-paddle, and stood in the stern to steer the boat, and help propel her
-ahead. The distance by water was a little less than by land, and
-although Stephen had considerably the start of him, he believed he
-should be able to reach the school-house first, especially if Stephen
-should not see him and quicken his pace. In one minute after he arrived
-at the wharf, the boat was under full way. The boys laid down to the
-oars with right good will, and Charles put out all his strength upon the
-paddle. They were shooting over the water twice as fast as a man could
-walk, and Charles already felt sure of the victory. But when they had
-gone about half a mile, they came in the range of a little opening in
-the trees on the shore, where the road was exposed to view, and there,
-at that critical moment, was Stephen pursuing his easy walk. Charles’
-heart was in his mouth. Still it was possible Stephen might not see
-them, for he had not yet looked round. Lest the sound of the oars might
-attract his attention, Charles had instantly, on coming in sight,
-ordered the boys to stop rowing, and he grasped his paddle with
-breathless anxiety, and waited for Stephen again to disappear. But just
-as he was upon the point of passing behind some trees, where the boat
-would be out of his sight, Stephen turned his head and looked round. He
-stopped short, turned square round, and stood for the space of a minute
-looking steadily at the boat. Then lifting his hand, and shaking his
-fist resolutely at Charles, as much as to say I understand you, he
-started into a quick run.
-
-“Now, boys,” said Charles, “buckle to your oars for your lives, and if
-you get to the shore so I can reach the school-house before Stephen
-does, I’ll give you half a dollar a piece.”
-
-This of course added new life to the boys and increased speed to the
-boat. Their little canoe flew over the water almost like a bird,
-carrying a white bone in her mouth, and leaving a long ripple on the
-glassy wave behind her. Charles’ hands trembled, but still he did good
-execution with his paddle. Although Stephen upon the run was a very
-different thing from Stephen at a slow walk, Charles still had strong
-hopes of winning the race and gaining his point. He several times caught
-glimpses of Stephen through the trees, and, as well as he could judge,
-the boat had a little the best of it. But when they came out into the
-last opening, where for a little way they had a fair view of each other,
-Charles thought Stephen ran faster than ever; and although he was now
-considerably nearer the school-house than Stephen was, he still trembled
-for the result. They were now within fifty rods of the shore, and
-Charles appealed again to the boys’ love of money.
-
-“Now,” said he, “we have not a minute to spare. If we gain the point,
-I’ll give you a dollar apiece.”
-
-The boys strained every nerve, and Charles’ paddle made the water fly
-like the tail of a wounded shark. When within half a dozen rods of the
-shore, Charles urged them again to spring with all their might, and one
-of the boys making a desperate plunge upon his oar, snapped it in two.
-The first pull of the other oar headed the boat from land. Charles saw
-at once that the delay must be fatal, if he depended on the boat to
-carry him ashore. The water was but three feet deep, and the bottom was
-sandy. He sprung from the boat, and rushed toward the shore as fast as
-he was able to press through the water. He flew up the bank, and along
-the road, till he reached the school-house. The door was open, but he
-could see no one within. Several children were at play round the door,
-who, having seen Charles approach with such haste, stood with mouths and
-eyes wide open, looking at him.
-
-“Where’s the schoolma’m?” said Charles, hastily, to one of the largest
-boys.
-
-“Why?” said the boy, opening his eyes still wider, “is any of the folks
-dead?”
-
-“You little rascal, I say, where’s the schoolma’m?”
-
-“She jest went down that road,” said the boy, “two or three minutes
-ago.”
-
-“Was she alone?” said Charles.
-
-“She started alone,” said the boy, “and a man met her out there a little
-ways, and turned about and went with her.”
-
-Charles felt that his cake was all dough again, and that he might as
-well give it up for a bad job, and go home. Stephen Jones and Lucy Brown
-walked very leisurely home through the woods, and Charles and the boys
-went very leisurely in the boat across the pond. They even stopped by
-the way, and caught a mess of fish, since the boys had thrown their
-lines into the boat when they started. And when they reached the wharf,
-Charles, in order to show that he had been a fishing, took a large
-string of the fish in his hand, and carried them up to the house. Miss
-Lucy Brown, on her way home through the woods, had undoubtedly been
-informed of the proposed tea-party for the evening, to which she was to
-be invited, and to which Stephen Jones and Susan Jones were not invited;
-and when Miss Lucy’s invitation came, she sent word back, that she was
-_engaged_.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE FAREWELL.
-
-
- Farewell, farewell—O! ne’er from me
- Till now that word hath hopeless passed;
- But, sweet one, faltered forth to thee,
- It seems this once as ’twere the last—
- The last that thou wilt ever hear
- From him who knows thy worth too well;
- I’ll stifle one relenting tear,
- That mingles in this last farewell.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- HARRY CAVENDISH.
-
-
- BY THE AUTHOR OF “CRUISING IN THE LAST WAR,” “THE REEFER OF ’76,” ETC.
-
-
- CONCLUSION.
-
-I was now alone in the world; I had neither ship, nor home; and she I
-had loved was wedded to another. It is strange how misanthropical a man
-becomes, after disappointment has soured his disposition, and destroyed,
-one after another, the beautiful dreams of his youth. When I sat down
-and thought of the hopes of my earlier years, now gone forever; when I
-speculated upon my future prospects; when I recalled to mind how few of
-the friends I had begun life with remained, an indescribable sadness
-came over me, and, had it not been for my manhood, I would have found a
-relief in tears. My zest for society was gone. I cared little for the
-ordinary business of life. I only longed for a fitting opportunity to
-re-enter the service, and distinguish myself by some gallant deed, which
-I did not care to survive, for even fame had become hateful to me, since
-it reminded me how insufficient it was to win or retain the love of
-woman. In a word, I had become a misanthrope, and was fast losing all
-the energy of my character in sickly regrets over the past.
-
-Of the St. Clairs I had not inquired since my return, and their names,
-from motives of delicacy perhaps, were never mentioned in my presence.
-Yet they occupied a large portion of my thoughts, and often would I
-start, and my heart flutter, when, in the streets, I fancied, for a
-moment, that I recognized the form of Annette. But a nearer approach
-made evident my mistake, and dissipated my embarrassment. Much, however,
-as I thought of her, I had never inquired to whom she had been married;
-yet my curiosity on this point continually gained strength; and when I
-had been a fortnight in Newport without hearing any allusion to her, I
-began to wish that some one would break the ominous silence which seemed
-to hang around her and her family. Still I dared not trust myself to
-broach the subject. I continued, therefore, ignorant of their present
-situation, and of all that concerned them.
-
-There is, not far from the town, and situated in one of the most
-beautiful portions of the island, a favorite resort which has long been
-known by the familiar and characteristic name of “The Glen.” The spot is
-one where the deity of romance might sit enshrined. Here, on a still
-summer night, we might, without much stretch of fancy, look for fairies
-to come forth and gambol, or listen to the light music of airy spirits
-hovering above us. The whole place reminds you of an enchanted bower,
-and dull must be his heart who does not feel the stirrings of the
-divinity within him as he gazes on the lovely scenery around. He who can
-listen here unmoved to the low gurgle of the brook, or the light rustle
-of the leaves in the summer wind, must be formed of the coarsest clods
-of clay, nor boast one spark of our immortal nature.
-
-The glen was my favorite resort, and thither would I go and spend whole
-afternoons, listening to the laughing prattle of the little river, or
-striving to catch, in pauses of the breeze, the murmur of the
-neighboring sea. A rude bench had been constructed under some trees, in
-a partially open glade, at the lower extremity of the ravine, and here I
-usually sat, indulging in those dreamy, half-sick reveries which are
-characteristic of youth. The stream, which brawled down the ravine, in a
-succession of rapids and cascades, here glided smoothly along on a level
-bottom, its banks fringed with long grass interspersed with wild roses,
-and its bed strewed with pebbles, round and silvery, that glistened in
-the sunbeams, which, here and there, struggled through the trees, and
-shimmered on the stream. Faint and low came to the ear the sound of the
-mill, situated at the upper end of the ravine; while occasionally a bird
-whistled on the stillness, or a leaf floated lazily down into the river,
-and went on its way, a tiny bark. The seclusion of my favorite retreat
-was often enlivened by the appearance of strangers, but as they
-generally remained only a few minutes, I had the spot, for most of the
-time, to myself. Here I dreamed away the long summer afternoons, often
-lingering until the moon had risen, to make the scene seem even more
-beautiful, under her silvery light. I had no pleasure in any other spot.
-Perhaps it was because I had once been here with Annette, when we were
-both younger, and I, at least, happier; and I could remember plucking a
-flower for her from a time-worn bush that still grew on the margin of
-the stream. God knows how we love to haunt the spot made dear to us by
-old and tender recollections!
-
-I was sitting, one afternoon, on the rude bench I have spoken of,
-listlessly casting pebbles into the river, when I heard the sound of
-approaching voices, but I was so accustomed to the visits of strangers,
-that I did not pause to look up. Directly the voices came nearer, and
-suddenly a word was spoken that thrilled through every nerve of my
-system. It was only a single word, but that voice!—surely it could be
-none other than Annette’s. My sensations, at that moment, I will not
-pretend to analyze. I longed to look up, and yet I dared not. My heart
-fluttered wildly, and I could feel the blood rushing in torrents to my
-face; but, if I had been called on at that instant to speak, I could not
-have complied for worlds. Luckily the tree, under whose shadow I sat,
-concealed me from the approaching visitors, and I had thus time to rally
-my spirits ere the strangers came up. As they drew near I recognized the
-voice of Mr. St. Clair, and then that of Annette’s cousin Isabel, while
-there were one or two other speakers who were strangers to me. Doubtless
-one of them was Annette’s husband, and, as this thought flashed across
-me, I looked up, impelled by an irresistible impulse. The party were now
-within almost twenty yards, coming gaily down the glen. Foremost in the
-group walked Isabel, leaning on the arm of a tall, gentlemanly looking
-individual, and turning ever and anon around to Annette, who followed
-immediately behind, at the side of her father. Another lady, attended by
-a gentleman, made up the rest of the company. Where could Annette’s
-husband be? was the question that occurred to me—and who was the
-distinguished looking gentleman on whose arm Isabel was so familiarly
-leaning? But my thoughts were cut short by a conversation which now
-began, and of which, during a minute, I was an unknown auditor—for my
-position still concealed me from the party, and my surprise at first,
-and afterwards delicacy, prevented me from appearing.
-
-“Ah! Annette,” said Isabel, archly, turning around to her cousin, “do
-you know this spot, but especially that rose-bush yonder?—here, right
-beyond that old tree—you seem wonderfully ignorant all at once! I
-wonder where the donor of that aforesaid rose-bud is now. I would lay a
-guinea that it is yet in your possession, preserved in some favorite
-book, pressed out between the leaves. Come, answer frankly, is it not
-so, my sweet coz?”
-
-I could hear no reply, if one was made, and immediately another voice
-spoke. It was that of Isabel’s companion, coming to the aid of Annette.
-
-“You are too much given to believe that Annette follows your example,
-Isabel—now do you turn penitent, and let me be father confessor—how
-many rose-buds, ay! and for that matter, even leaves, have you in your
-collection, presented to you by your humble servant, before we had pity
-on each other, and were married? I found a flower, last week, in a copy
-of Spenser, and, if I remember aright, I was the donor of the trifle.”
-
-“Oh! you betray yourself,” gaily retorted Isabel, “but men are
-foolish—and of all foolish men I ever met with, a certain Albert
-Marston was, before his marriage, the most foolish. I take credit to
-myself,” she continued, in the same playful strain, “for having worked
-such a reformation in him since that event. But this is not what we were
-talking of—you wish to divert me from my purpose by this light Cossack
-warfare—but it won’t do,” she continued, and I fancied she stamped her
-foot prettily, as she was wont to do at Clairville Hall, when she was
-disposed to have her way; “no—no—Annette must be the one to turn
-penitent, and I will play father confessor. Say, now, fair coz, was it
-not a certain fancy to see this same rose-bush, that induced you to
-insist on coming here?”
-
-During this conversation the parties had remained nearly stationary at
-some distance from me. Strange suspicions began to flash through my
-mind, as soon as Isabel commenced her banter; and these suspicions had
-now been changed into a certainty. Annette was still unmarried, and it
-was Isabel’s wedding at which I had come so near being present, at
-Clairville Hall. Nor was this all. I was still loved. Oh! the wild, the
-rapturous feelings of that moment. I could with difficulty restrain
-myself from rising and rushing toward them; but motives of delicacy
-forbade me thus to reveal that the conversation had been overheard. And
-yet should I remain in my present position, and play the listener still
-further? I knew not what to do. All these considerations flashed through
-my mind in the space of less than a minute, during which the party had
-been silent, apparently enjoying Annette’s confusion.
-
-“Come, not ready to answer yet?” began Isabel; “well, if you will not,
-you shan’t have the rose from that bush, for which you’ve come. Let us
-go back,” she said, playfully.
-
-The whole party seemed to enter into the jest, and laughingly retraced
-their steps. This afforded me the opportunity for which I longed.
-Hastily rising from my seat, I glided unnoticed from tree to tree, until
-I reached a copse on the left of the glen, and advancing up the ravine,
-under cover of this screen, I re-entered the path at a bend some
-distance above the St. Clairs. Here I listened for a moment, and caught
-the sound of their approaching voices. Determining no longer to be a
-listener to their conversation, I proceeded down the glen, and, as I
-turned the corner, a few paces in advance, I came full in sight of the
-approaching group. In an instant the gay laughing of the party ceased,
-and I saw Annette shrink blushing behind her father. Isabel was the
-first to speak. Darting forward, with that frankness and gaiety which
-always characterized her, she grasped my hand, and said—
-
-“You don’t know how happy we all are to see you. Where could you have
-come from?—and how could you have made such a mistake as to
-congratulate Annette, instead of me, on being married? But come, I must
-surrender you to the others—I see they are dying to speak to you.
-Uncle, Annette—how lucky it was that we came here to-day!”
-
-“My dear boy,” said Mr. St. Clair, warmly pressing my hand, “I cannot
-tell how rejoiced I am to see you. We heard a rumor that you were lost,
-and we all wept—Isabel for the first time for years. It was but a few
-days since that we heard you were at Newport, and, as we were coming
-hither, I hastened my journey, determined to search you out. We are on
-our way there now, and only stopped here a few minutes to relieve
-ourselves after a long ride. This day shall be marked with a white
-stone. But here I have been keeping you from speaking to Annette—we old
-men, you know, are apt to be garrulous.”
-
-My eyes, indeed, had been seeking Annette, who, still covered with
-blushes, and unable to control her embarrassment, sought to conceal them
-by keeping in the back ground. As for me, I had become wonderfully
-self-possessed. I now advanced and took her hand. It trembled in my own,
-and when I spoke, though she replied faintly, she did not dare to look
-into my face, except for a moment, after which her eyes again sought the
-ground in beautiful embarrassment. My unexpected appearance, combined
-with her cousin’s late raillery, covered her face with blushes, and, for
-some time, she could not rally herself sufficient to participate in the
-conversation.
-
-What more have I to tell? I was now happy, and for my misanthropy, it
-died with the cause that produced it. Mr. St. Clair said that the
-wedding need not be delayed, and in less than a month I led Annette to
-the altar. Years have flown since then, but I still enjoy unalloyed
-felicity, and Annette seems to my eyes more beautiful than ever. It only
-remains for me to bid my readers FAREWELL!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE HOLYNIGHTS.
-
-
- BY HENRY MORFORD.
-
-
- Some say that ’gainst the time that season comes
- Wherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated
- The bird of dawning singeth all night long,
- And then they say no sprite dares stir abroad,
- The nights are wholesome then, no planets strike,
- No fairy takes or witch hath power to charm,
- So hallowed and so gracious is the time.
- Hamlet.
-
- Hushed be the voice of mirthfulness,
- And stilled be the plaintive tones of care,
- That from too many a heart recess
- Go forth to float on the midnight air;
- It is no time for the wild excess,
- No time for the loose unbridled reign
- That passion gives to her votaries
- When they sever away the golden chain.
-
- Stilled on the ears of the seraph choir
- Let the lingering hymns of the season go,
- As they sweep their hands o’er the golden wire
- To the anthem of love and peace below;
- And let us keep in a holy mood
- The coming hours of that sacred time
- When the word went forth for the hush of blood
- And the passing knell for the soul of crime!
-
- When the hosts of the upper region stirred
- That another star came forth to shine,
- And the rush of an angel’s wing was heard
- O’er the moonlit plains of Palestine,
- And a softer light o’er the earth was flung
- And the pale stars waxed no longer dim,
- And forth on a thousand harps outrung
- The rising notes of the angels’ hymn.
-
- The same bright stars that then looked down
- With a guardian watch o’er hill and plain,
- Unfading gems in the starry crown
- Glittering on in the blue remain,
- And the solemn awe that crept them round
- As they watched their flocks that holy time,
- An echo with us to-night has found
- In the new-born light of another clime.
-
- It has been felt this many a year,
- The sacred spell of the season’s death,
- And the brighter glow of the starry sphere
- As it came that time with the angels’ breath,
- For brighter yet the stars gleam out
- As the noisome vapor shrinks away
- From the open glade that it hung about
- Darkened and damp this many a day.
-
- List how the spirit-breathings come
- Upon our ears from the voice sublime
- Of him who ruled in the spirits’ home,
- Who wrote and sang for the end of time!
- Hark how he tells when the time is near,
- The bird of the dawn sings all night long
- And the fairy legions disappear
- When he comes abroad with his matin song.
-
- No spirits forth, nor the rank compound
- That glows with the witches’ midnight toil,
- No deeps of the forest-close resound
- With the wizard shriek and the caldron boil.
- No planets chill the warm heart’s blood
- With the mockery of a demon fire,
- No vapors veil with a sickly shroud
- The moss-grown top of the old church spire,—
-
- For he who stood in that dreadful watch
- On the gray rampart of Elsinore
- Told how they ceased from their revel catch
- And their reign at the Christmas time was o’er;
- We feel it now, as he felt it then,
- That the air is full of holiness,
- And we need not forms from the earth again
- Of the starry hosts to guard and bless.
-
- Then stilled on the ears of the seraph choir
- Let the lingering hymns of the season go,
- As they sweep their hands o’er the golden wire
- To the anthem of love and peace below;
- And let us keep in a holy mood
- The passing hours of that sacred time
- When the word went forth for the hush of blood
- And the passing knell for the soul of crime!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE LADIES’ LIBRARY.
-
-
- BY W. A. JONES.
-
-
-That admirable manual of “_les petites morales_,” and even of higher
-matters occasionally, the Spectator, contains a paper which we hesitate
-not to accept as a just specimen of cotemporary satire on female
-education; we refer to the catalogue of a Ladies’ Library. This
-heterogeneous collection embraces heroical romances and romancing
-histories, the ranting tragedies of the day, with the libertine comedies
-of the same period. In a word, it leads us to infer pretty plainly the
-insignificant pretensions the gentle women of Queen Anne’s day could lay
-to any thing like refinement of education, or even a correct propriety
-in dress and demeanor. Tell me your company, and I will disclose your
-own character; speak that I may know you, are trite maxims; but give me
-a list of your favorite authors is by no means so common, though at
-least as true, a test. The literary and indirectly the moral depravity
-of taste exhibited by the women of that age, is easily accounted for,
-when we once learn the fashionable authors and the indifferent
-countenance given to any authors but those of the most frivolous
-description. The queen herself was an illiterate woman, and we are told
-never once had the curiosity to look into the classic productions of
-Pope. King William, the preceding sovereign, was so ignorant of books
-and the literary character, as to offer Swift, with whom he had been
-agreeably prepossessed, the place of captain of a regiment of horse.
-
-Indulging ourselves in a rapid transition, we pass from this era to the
-epoch of Johnson and Burke, and Goldsmith and Sheridan, we come to the
-reign of George III. Here we find the scene altered. From the gay saloon
-we are dropped, as if by magic, into the library or conversation room.
-We read not of balls, but of literary dinners and æsthetic teas, and we
-meet for company, not thoughtless, dressy dames of fashion and minions
-of the goddess of pleasure, but grave, precise professors in petticoats,
-women who had exchanged a world of anxiety for the turn of a head-dress,
-or the shape of a flounce for an equally wise anxiety about the
-philosophy of education, the success of their sonnets and tragedies, and
-moral tales for the young. The pedantry of authorship and dogmatic
-conversation superseded the more harmless pedantry of dress. Then we
-read of the stupidest company in the world, which arrogated to itself
-the claim of being the best. A race of learned ladies arose; _bas
-bleus_, the Montagues, the Mores, the Sewards, the Chapones, patronized
-by such prosing old formalists as Doctors Gregory and Aiken, and even by
-one man of vigorous talent, Johnson, and one man of real genius,
-Richardson. The last two endured much, because they were flattered much.
-
-When we speak thus contemptuously of learned ladies, we intend to
-express a disgust at the pretensions of those who pass under that name.
-Genuine learning can never be despised, whoever may be its possessor;
-but of genuine learning it is not harsh to suspect a considerable
-deficiency where there is so much of display and anxious rivalry. Even
-where the learning is exact and solid, it is to be remembered that many
-departments are utterly unsuited to the female mind; where, at best,
-little can be accomplished and that of a harsh repulsive nature. We want
-no Daciers, no Somervilles, no Marcets, but give us as you will as many
-Inchbalds, Burneys, Edgeworths, Misses Barrett, as can be had for love
-or money.
-
-From the ladies we seek literature, not learning, in its old scholastic
-sense. They certainly have received pleasure from books, and are bound
-to return the gratification in a similar way by delighting us. And this
-they can do in their legitimate attempts. It shall be a prominent object
-of the present general introduction to a short series of critical
-sketches, to attempt a definition of the limits which should bound those
-attempts, and also to endeavor at suggesting the proper studies for
-ladies, and the authors that ought to rank as favorites with the fair.
-In a list of the latter, female writers should bear a considerable
-proportion, and will assuredly not be forgotten.
-
-We believe the question as to the relative sexual distinctions of
-intellectual character, is now generally considered as settled. There is
-allowed to be a species of genius essentially feminine. Equality is no
-more arrogated than superiority of ability, and it would be as wisely
-arrogated. The most limited observation of life and the most superficial
-acquaintance with books, must effectually demonstrate the superior
-capacity of man for the great works of life and speculation. It is true,
-great geniuses are rare and seldom needed, and the generality of women
-rank on a par with the generality of men. In many cases, women of talent
-surpass men of an equal calibre of mere talent, through other and
-constitutional causes—a greater facility of receiving and transmitting
-impressions, greater instinctive subtlety of apprehension, and a
-livelier sympathy. We cordially admit the female intellect, in the
-ordinary concerns of life and the current passages of society, has often
-the advantage of the masculine understanding. Cleverness outshines solid
-ability, and a smart woman is much more showy than a profound man. In
-certain walks of authorship, too, women are pre-eminently successful; in
-cases narrative of real or fictitious events, (in the last implying a
-strain of ready invention,) in lively descriptions of natural beauty or
-artificial manners; in the development of the milder sentiments,
-especially the sentiment of love; in airy, comic ridicule. On the other
-hand, the highest attempts of women in poetry have uniformly failed. We
-have read of no female epic of even a respectable rank: those who have
-written tragedies, have written moral lectures (of an inferior sort)
-like Hannah More; or anatomies of the passions, direct and formal, like
-Joanna Baillie; or an historical sketch, as Rienzi. We are apt to
-suspect that the personal charms of Sappho proved too much for the
-admirers of her poetic rhapsodies, otherwise Longinus has done her foul
-injustice; for the fragment he quotes is to be praised and censured
-solely for its obscurity. This would have been a great merit in
-Lycophron.
-
-In the volume of British Poetesses, edited by Mr. Dyce, it is
-astonishing to find how little real poetry he has been able to collect
-out of the writings of near a century of authors, scattered over the
-surface of five or six centuries. It must be allowed that some of the
-finest shortest pieces by female writers have appeared since the
-publication of that selection. In the volume referred to, much sensible
-verse and some sprightly copies of verses occur; a fair share of pure
-reflective sentiment, delivered in pleasing language rarely rising above
-correctness; of high genius there is not a particle,—no pretensions to
-sublimity or fervor. The best piece and the finest poem, we think, ever
-composed by woman, is the charming ballad of Auld Robin Gray. That is a
-genuine bit of true poesy, and perfect in the highest department of the
-female imagination in the pathos of domestic tragedy. In the present
-century we have Mrs. Howitt and Mrs. Southey, but chief of all, Miss
-Barrett.[6] The finest attempts of the most pleasing writer of this
-class, do not rise so high as the delightful ballad above named. They
-are sweet, plaintive, moral strains, the melodious notes of a lute,
-tuned by taper fingers in a romantic bower, not the deep, majestic,
-awful tones of the great organ, or the spirited and stirring blasts of
-the trumpet. The ancient bard struck wild and mournful, or hearty and
-vigorous, notes from his harp—perchance placed “on a rock whose
-frowning brow,” &c. and striving with the rough symphonies of the
-tempest; but the sybil of modern days plays elegant and pretty, or soft
-and tender airs upon her flageolet or accordion, in the boudoir or
-saloon.
-
-A poet is, from the laws both of physiology and philology,—masculine.
-His vocation is manly, or rather divine. And we have never heard any
-traits of feminine character attributed to the great poet, (in the Greek
-sense,) the Creator of the universe. The muses are represented as
-females, but then they are the inspirers, never the composers, of verse.
-So should be the poet’s muse, as she is often the poet’s theme. There
-are higher themes, but of an abstract nature, in general: ethical,
-religious, metaphysical. Let female beauty then sit for her portrait
-instead of being the painter. Let poets chant her charms, but let her
-not spoil a fair ideal image by writing bad verses. If all were rightly
-viewed, a happy home would seem preferable to a seat on Parnassus, and
-the Fountain of Content would furnish more palatable draughts than the
-Font of Helicon. The quiet home is not always the muses’ bower; though
-we trust the muses’ bower is placed in no turbulent society.
-
-Women write for women. They may entertain, but cannot, from the nature
-of the case, become instructors to men. They know far less of life,
-their circle of experience is confined. They are unfitted for many paths
-of active exertion, and consequently are rendered incapable of forming
-just opinions on many matters. We do not include a natural incapacity
-for many studies, and as natural a dislike for many more. Many kinds of
-learning, and many actual necessary pursuits and practices, it is deemed
-improper for a refined woman to know. How, then, _can_ a female author
-become a teacher of men?
-
-Literature would miss many pleasant associations if the names of the
-best female writers were expunged from a list of classic authors, and
-the world would lose many delightful works—the novel of sentiment and
-the novel of manners, letter writing, moral tales for children, books of
-travels, gossiping memoirs—Mrs. Inchbald, Madame D’Arblay, Miss
-Edgeworth, Lady M. W. Montague, Miss Martineau, and Miss Sedgwick, with
-a host besides. Women have sprightliness, cleverness, smartness, though
-but little wit. There is a body and substance in true wit, with a
-reflectiveness rarely found apart from a masculine intellect. In all
-English comedy, we recollect but two female writers of sterling value,
-Mrs. Conley and Mrs. Guthrie, and their plays are formed on the Spanish
-model, and made up of incident and intrigue, much more than of fine
-repartees or brilliant dialogue. We know of no one writer of the other
-sex, that has a high character for humor—no Rabelais, no Sterne, no
-Swift, no Goldsmith, no Dickens, no Irving. The female character does
-not admit of it.
-
-Women cannot write history. It requires too great solidity, and too
-minute research for their quick intellects. They write, instead,
-delightful memoirs. Who, but an antiquary or historical commentator, had
-not rather read Lucy Hutchinson’s Life of her Husband, than any of the
-professed histories of the Commonwealth—and exchange Lady Fanshawe for
-the other royalist biographers.
-
-Neither are women to turn politicians or orators. We hope never to hear
-of a female Burke; she would be an overbearing termagant. A spice of a
-talent for scolding, is the highest form of eloquence we can
-conscientiously allow the ladies.
-
-Criticism is for men; when women assume it, they write scandal. The
-current notion of criticism with most, is that of libelous abuse. From
-all such, Heaven defend us.
-
-Women feel more than they think, and (sometimes) say more than do. They
-are consequently better adapted to describe sentiments, than to
-speculate on causes and effects. They are more at home in their letters,
-than in tracts of political economy.
-
-The proper faculties in women to cultivate most assiduously are, the
-taste and the religious sentiment; the first, as the leading trait of
-the intellectual; and the last, as the governing power of the moral
-constitution. Give a woman a pure taste and high principles, and she is
-safe from the arts of the wiliest libertine. Let her have all other
-gifts but these, and she is comparatively defenceless. Taste purifies
-the heart as well as the head, and religion strengthens both. The
-strongest propensities to pleasure are not so often the means of
-disgrace and ruin, as the carelessness of ignorant virtue, and an
-unenlightened moral sense. This makes all the difference in the world,
-between the daughter of a poor countryman, and the child of an educated
-gentleman. Both have the same desires, but how differently directed and
-controlled. Yet we find nineteen lapses from virtue in the one case,
-where we find one in the other.
-
-Believing that what does not interest, does not benefit the mind, we
-would avoid all pedantic lectures to women, on all subjects to which
-they discover any aversion. Study should be made a pleasure, and reading
-pure recreation. In a general sense, we would say the best works for
-female readers are those that tend to form the highest domestic
-character. Works of the highest imagination, as being above that
-condition, and scientific authors, who address a different class of
-faculties, are both unsuitable. An admirable wife may not relish the
-sublimity of Milton or Hamlet; and a charming companion be ignorant of
-the existence of such a science as Algebra. A superficial acquaintance
-with the elements of the physical sciences, is worse than total
-unacquaintance with them.
-
-Religion should be taught as a sentiment, not as an abstract principle,
-or in doctrinal positions, a sentiment of love and grateful obedience;
-morality, impressed as the practical exercise of self-denial and active
-benevolence. In courses of reading, too much is laid down of a dry
-nature. Girls are disgusted with tedious accounts of battles and
-negotiations, dates and names. The moral should be educed best filled
-for the female heart, and apart from the romantic periods, and the
-reigns of female sovereigns, or epochs when the women held a very
-prominent place in the state, or in public regard. We would have women
-affectionate wives, obedient daughters, agreeable companions, skilful
-economists, judicious friends; but we must confess it does not fall
-within our scheme to make them legislators or lawyers, diplomatists or
-politicians. We therefore think nine tenths of all history is absolutely
-useless for women. Too many really good biographies of great and good
-men and women can hardly be read, and will be read to much greater
-advantage than histories, as they leave a definite and individual
-impression. The reading good books of travels, is, next to going over
-the ground in person, the best method of studying geography. Grammar and
-rhetoric,[7] (after a clear statement of the elements and chief rules,)
-are best learnt in the perusal of classic authors, the essayists, &c.;
-and, in the same way, the theory of taste and the arts. The most
-important of accomplishments is not systematically treated in any
-system—conversation. But a father and mother of education, can teach
-this better than any professor. Expensive schools turn out half-trained
-pupils. Eight years at home, well employed, and two at a good but not
-fashionable school, are better than ten years spent in the most popular
-female seminary, conducted in the ordinary style. Such is a meagre
-outline of our idea of female education, into which we have digressed
-unawares.
-
-Female authors should constitute a fair proportion of a lady’s
-library—and those masculine writers who have something of the
-tenderness and purity of the feminine character in their works. The
-subjects and authors we propose for occasional consideration, will
-embrace specimens of each, in prose and poetry, fiction and reality,
-satire and sentiment. We think we may promise a less erudite paper for
-the second number, though to some readers all that is not very lively is
-proportionably dull.
-
------
-
-[6] This lady’s failure in an attempt to translate Æschylus, is a fair
-confirmation of our opinion of the inability of the female imagination
-to soar beyond a certain height.
-
-[7] The benefit flowing from _these_ studies is chiefly of a negative
-character.
-
- * * * * *
-
-[Illustration: A. L. Dick.
-__The Pastor’s Visit__
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE PASTOR’S VISIT.
-
-
- ILLUSTRATION OF A PICTURE.
-
-
- The noon is past—the sun declines
- Below the western hills;
- Upon the peasant’s face joy shines.
- And peace his bosom fills.
- He stands beside the cottage door,
- His wife and children round,
- With that content which evermore
- Doth with the true abound.
-
- The pastor, pausing on his way,
- Surveys the happy scene;
- If all mankind were pure as they
- Slights tasks for him, I ween!
- Not in the peasant’s cottage dwell
- Sin and her joyless train,
- He thinks of palace, dome and cell,
- And passes on again!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE HASTY MARRIAGE.
-
-
- A SKETCH FROM REAL LIFE.
-
-
- BY THE AUTHOR OF “THE BRIDAL.”
-
-
-How few “look before they leap,” even in an affair of so much moment as
-matrimony. We fear the fault is in our system. We educate our daughters
-superficially—for _display_ rather than usefulness—to catch the eye
-rather than win the heart. Our girls are taught in early life, either
-directly or indirectly, that marriage is the great object of woman’s
-ambition, and in endeavoring to secure that object, and to surpass in
-the race of conquest their companions and rivals, they sometimes wed
-rashly and to the sacrifice of happiness. Difficult, we are aware, is
-the task of discrimination with the young and inexperienced. Pure and
-artless themselves, they are apt to imagine the possession of like
-virtues by all others, and to conceive it impossible for a fine form and
-a handsome face to be associated with a false heart. Alas! how often are
-they disappointed! How frequently do the sudden attachments of early
-life prove hollow and unsubstantial! How often is it discovered that the
-first dream of love, which has been so extravagantly eulogized by poets
-and romancers, was a mere delusion that would not bear the test of time
-and of reason! With what bitterness of disappointment have many started
-from this dream! Stripped of the rainbow coloring with which the fancy
-is apt to paint an object of idolatry, how prominent appear the darkness
-and the deformity! How broad the contrast between the just view of truth
-and the rapid and prejudiced survey of passion! How often do we see
-beings standing before the altar, pledging themselves to each other for
-weal and for wo, who, comparatively speaking, were strangers but
-yesterday! Knowing little of each other’s lives and dispositions, merits
-or demerits, they are willing to risk peace of mind for long years, and
-to identify destinies for time, perhaps for eternity! Can we wonder that
-strife sometimes mars the domestic circle—that wives are left lonely
-and deserted—that the agency of man should so often be invoked to part
-beings who have been joined together by an ordinance of God!
-
-A happy union is indeed a scene upon which, without irreverence, we may
-suppose the angels in Heaven gaze from their bright places of abode with
-delight and approval. An unnatural or a discordant marriage, on the
-other hand, must form a source of delight to the arch enemy of mankind,
-for in it he can recognize the soul of evil. That the young should seek
-for and cling to a kindred spirit is natural. The undivided possession
-of a pure heart is perhaps the very acme of human felicity. “One home,
-one wife, and one God,” is the sentiment of one of the wisest of his
-race, and it is only when man is on the shady side of fifty that he
-begins to appreciate the truth of this philosophy in all its solemnity
-and force. Then his pleasures of life are derived as much from the past
-as the future, and the associations of that past, if mingled with
-virtue, fidelity, patriotism and religion, are indeed blissful.
-
-We pity the lonely and the desolate—the loveless and the unloved—the
-being without a wife or a friend—without one trusting and confiding
-spirit, to whom the heart may turn in its hour of sorrow and pour out
-its inmost and saddest thoughts. The cold and selfish mortal who passes
-year after year without experiencing the delightful concord of sentiment
-to be found in a kindred soul, is indeed the most miserable of his
-species. Even his joys are robbed of half their delight, because
-unshared by another, by one to whom he is allied by love and friendship.
-Wretched indeed is the isolated individual who, mingling with the
-multitude, can single out no destiny identified with his—no faithful
-and devoted heart, the breath of whose existence seems bound up with
-his. Nature has denied to such a being the holiest impulses that warm
-and agitate the human breast. Even the birds are mated, and without a
-ministering angel “a sweet companion,” the first born was lonely and
-desolate in the garden of Eden. So it must ever be with the frail and
-feeble things of mortal existence. If Paradise could not be appreciated
-and enjoyed alone, how can man reconcile loneliness to his fallen
-condition? The desire of the heart is for sweet companionship—the
-inward craving of the spirit is for a being to love. Can we wonder then
-that in this country, where early marriage is taught to be desirable, so
-many should choose rashly?
-
-We remember Annette Delisle as a being of yesterday. She sang well—she
-danced well—and in many respects she was a beauty. Not one of our
-beauties at the time, for her form was too slight and sylph-like,—her
-joy was too gushing—her spirits too redundant. She dressed from early
-childhood with taste and elegance, and wore her dark hair in long
-ringlets over her shoulders. She had many friends, and even at sixteen
-her admirers were liberal in number and profuse in flattery. Her mother,
-a weak and vain woman, was proud of her daughter—proud of the attention
-that daughter received, and eager to display her on every occasion. Thus
-she not only frequently accompanied her to public balls, which were then
-more fashionable and somewhat more select than at present, but she
-permitted her to accept of numerous invitations to parties, and to
-mingle almost nightly during the winter season in the gay scenes of our
-metropolis. The father, good-natured man, was a manufacturer, and was so
-wedded to business, that he could not spare time even for the proper
-care of his favorite child. Alas! this good nature in fathers! It
-sometimes degenerates into a sad vice, and is the source of much misery
-in after life. The man who lacks the energy to control his own
-household,—who is either too negligent, or too weak to point out the
-true path and to direct the footsteps of his offspring therein, is
-guilty of much that is unpardonable.
-
-But such a father was Mr. Delisle, while the mother, worse if possible,
-gave the reins almost wholly into the hands of her daughter, and was but
-too fond of the hollow and unmeaning admiration which the practiced in
-art and in compliment among the sterner sex are so apt to bestow upon
-the vain and empty, whether old or young.
-
-The result of this course upon Annette Delisle may well be imagined.
-While she sparkled in the ball room, and glittered in the giddy throng,
-her heart, her mind, and her morals were neglected. The mazes of the
-world, its quicksands and its hypocrisy were unknown to her. She
-flirted, laughed and trifled with the many, caught one hour by a fine
-form, another by a rich voice, and a third by a dashing exterior. And
-yet, in the depths of that young girl’s breast, were rich and true
-affections. Properly trained, she would have graced any circle. Her mind
-was good by nature—her spirit was benevolent and cheerful—and many of
-the lights of beauty flashed and brightened around her. Despite her
-artificial manner, and her air of coquetry, her feelings were deep and
-strong. Her being was one of impulse, and her attachments, even to her
-school companions, were animated by truth and fidelity. Thus it was when
-Annette discovered that the society of Howard Leroy possessed an unusual
-charm for her—that she saw him approach with pleasure—that she
-listened with more than her wonted attention to his remarks—that she
-felt the blood mount to her cheek at his compliments—that she found her
-eyes following as he wandered through the ball room—that she lisped his
-name even in her dreams.
-
-Never can I forget the dashing Leroy. He was what is usually denominated
-“a handsome fellow”—one of the butterflies of society—a ladies’ man,
-in the general acceptation, and a favorite also with his own sex. He
-rode well, talked well, and sang an excellent song. This latter
-qualification was in some respects a fatal gift, for it introduced him
-into many a gay circle from which he otherwise would have been
-excluded—made him sought for, and vain of his voice, and thus won him
-away from the more useful pursuits of life. Leroy, moreover, was fond of
-poetry—was able to quote glowing passages, and had, withal, a touch of
-romance in his character, which served not a little to enhance him in
-the estimation of some of his female acquaintance. He assumed a
-remarkable degree of independence—was rather bold and reckless in his
-manner and language, and possessed the faculty of talking for hours in
-relation to the prominent beauties of Moore, Byron and Bulwer. These
-were the traits of character which won upon the mind and heart of
-Annette Delisle. Her education and mode of life had fitted her for the
-arts of such a man. She fancied him something superior to the ordinary
-fop—to the mere merchant or shopkeeper. Leroy became her ardent and
-enthusiastic admirer. The fact soon reached the ears of her father. He
-roused himself for the moment, and proceeded to investigate the
-realities of the case. Leroy he ascertained to be an idle, dissolute
-pretender, and dependent, he feared, upon the gaming-table for his means
-of subsistence. He was of good family, and had received a fair
-education. But he had gone astray from the path of rectitude in early
-life, and now contrived to appear on the principal promenades as a
-fashionable lounger—but the world wondered how!
-
-The manufacturer was terrified at the prospect for his daughter, whom he
-really loved, but it was too late. Leroy saw the storm coming, and
-prevailed upon Annette, by falsehood and misrepresentation, to consent
-to a secret marriage. Fondly and long she clung to the delusion that her
-husband had been slandered—that one who could _talk_ so well, and
-_profess_ so much, could not be a villain. He _was_ not one, perhaps, in
-the usual interpretation; but we can conceive of no more heartless
-wretch than the man who deliberately deceives and betrays a fond and
-confiding woman. Leroy never loved Annette with a true and exalted
-affection. He felt himself bankrupt in fortune, and nearly so in
-character, and he was base enough to become the husband of an
-unsuspecting girl, in the hope of a dependency upon the bounty of her
-father. Deceived in this, for the old manufacturer would have nothing to
-do with him, he soon threw off the mask. At first cold and indifferent,
-he speedily grew harsh and unkind. True, there were moments when his
-better nature prevailed, and he would endeavor, by apparent contrition
-and well turned promises, to atone for his conduct. But, they were few
-and far between, and diminished in number as time rolled on. Strange,
-despite the giddy character of Annette—despite the little care which
-had been bestowed upon her principles, she clung to him with the true
-fidelity of woman. She loved him with her whole soul, and while the
-pride of her woman nature repelled the idea of any public exposure of
-her situation, and while she even concealed from her parents much of the
-unworthy conduct of Leroy, she still cherished a belief of his ultimate
-reform. Night after night she sat in her quiet chamber, or gazed
-earnestly from the window, in the hope that the form of her husband
-might appear before the midnight hour. Who may paint the agony of her
-mind at such moments—the jealous fears that shot like daggers through
-her breast, as to his haunts and his society—the apprehension of danger
-and of death—the terrible fancies which mingled him in some dreadful
-scene at the gaming table—and, worse than all, the oft repelled, but
-still returning conviction, that the wine cup was too familiar with his
-lips!
-
-God, in pity look down upon and impart moral courage to the lonely wives
-of the world—the dejected ones to whom home is desolate, whose hearts
-are breaking slowly, secretly, string by string—who live only for their
-little ones, and because they know it wrong to plunge unbidden into
-eternity! Beings who have ventured their all of earthly happiness, and
-have lost all—who have been deceived, betrayed, and are now deserted!
-Pity and console them, Great Creator, for the misery of unrequited love,
-of wounded pride, of crushed affection, of hopeless despair throughout
-this life, can only be soothed and softened by a heavenly influence!
-
-Poor Annette! Step by step her husband plunged on in the downward path.
-Ray after ray departed from the light of her beauty. Wider and wider
-became the gulf between the manufacturer and his son-in-law. But, horror
-of horrors! the crisis soon came! The resource of gambling failed at
-last with Leroy, and _then_—he resorted to forgery!—ay! he forged the
-name of George Delisle, the father of his wife, and fled the country in
-order to escape the penalty of his crime!
-
- * * * * *
-
-But a few days have gone by since we saw Annette. Only five years have
-elapsed since her marriage. What a change! The lily has supplanted the
-rose—the eye has lost its fire—the step its buoyancy—the form its
-grace. She is a doomed and broken hearted woman. Disease has “marked her
-for his own.” Loss of sleep—mental anxiety—the disgrace—the
-shame—the ignominy of her husband’s career, are hurrying her rapidly to
-a premature grave!
-
-Mothers, be warned! Virtue, Integrity and Religion are the only safe
-companions for your budding and beautiful daughters!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- TO THE NIGHT-WIND IN AUTUMN.
-
-
- BY THE AUTHOR OF “TECUMSEH.”
-
-
- Whence art thou, spirit wind?
- Soothing with thy low voice the ear of Night,
- And breathing o’er the wakeful, pensive mind
- An influence of pleased yet sad delight.
-
- Thou tell’st not of thy birth,
- O viewless wanderer from land to land:
- But gathering all the secrets of the earth
- Where’er, unseen, thy airy wings expand,
-
- At this hushed, holy hour,
- When time seems part of vast eternity,
- Thou dost reveal them with a magic power,
- Saddening the soul with thy weird minstrelsy.
-
- All nature seems to hear,
- The woods, the waters, and each silent star;
- What, that can thus enchain their earnest ear,
- Bring’st thou of untold tidings from afar?
-
- Is it of new, fair lands,
- Of fresh-lit worlds that in the welkin burn!
- Do new oäses gem Zahara’s sands,
- Or the lost Pleiad to the skies return?
-
- Nay! ’tis a voice of grief,
- Of grief subdued, but deepened through long years,
- The soul of Sorrow, seeking not relief,
- Still gathering bitter knowledge without tears.
-
- For thou, since earth was young
- And rose green Eden purpled with the morn,
- Its solemn wastes and homes of men among,
- Circling all zones, thy mourning flight hast borne.
-
- Empires have risen in might,
- And peopled cities through the outspread earth,
- And thou hast passed them at the hour of night
- Listing the sounds of revelry and mirth.
-
- Again thou hast gone by—
- City and empire were alike o’erthrown,
- Temple and palace, fall’n confusedly,
- In marble ruin on the desert strown.
-
- In time-long solitudes,
- Where dark, old mountains pierced the silent air,
- Bright rivers roamed, and stretched untraversed woods,
- Thou joy’dst to hope that these were changeless there.
-
- Lo! as the ages passed,
- Thou found’st them struck with alteration dire,
- The streams new-channeled, forests earthward cast,
- The crumbling mountains scathed with storm and fire.
-
- Gone but a few short hours,
- Beauty and bloom beguiled thy wanderings,
- And thou mad’st love unto the virgin flowers,
- Sighing through green trees and by mossy springs.
-
- Now on the earth’s cold bed,
- Fallen and faded, waste their forms away,
- And all around the withered leaves are shed,
- Mementos mute of Nature’s wide decay.
-
- Vain is the breath of morn;
- Vainly the night-dews on their couches weep;
- In vain thou call’st them at thy soft return,
- No more awaking from their gloomy sleep.
-
- . . . . . . . .
-
- Oh hush! Oh hush! sweet wind!
- Thou melancholy soul! be still, I pray,
- Nor pierce this heart so long in grief resigned,
- With ’plainings for the loved but lifeless clay.
-
- Ah! now by thee I hear
- The earnest, gentle voices, as of old:
- They speak—in accents tremulously clear—
- The young, the beautiful, the noble-souled.
-
- The beautiful, the young,
- The form of light, the wise and honored head—
- Thou bring’st the music of a lyre unstrung!—
- Oh cease!—with tears I ask it—they are _dead_!
-
- . . . . . . . .
-
- While mortal joys depart,
- While loved ones lie beneath the grave’s green sod,
- May we not fail to hear, with trembling heart,
- In thy low tone the “still small voice of God.”
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.
-
-
- _Natural History of New York: By Authority. Albany, Thurlow
- Weed, Printer to the State. New York, Wiley & Putnam, and D.
- Appleton & Co._
-
-We are among those who believe that, as characterizing the present age,
-the cultivation of purely mechanical and natural science has been
-carried much too far, or rather, has been made too exclusive and
-absorbing. It is not the _highest_ science—for it concerns only that
-which is around us—which is altogether outward. Man is always greater
-than the world of nature in which he lives, and just as clearly must the
-_science_ of man, the philosophy of his moral and intellectual being,
-rank far above that of the soulless creation which was made to minister
-to his wants. When, therefore, this lower science so draws to itself the
-life of any age, as to disparage and shut out the higher, it works a
-positive injury to the well-being of that age. Still it is only thus in
-comparison with a nobler and more lofty study that we would venture to
-cast the faintest reproach upon that natural science which in no slight
-degree absorbs the intellectual effort of the present generation.
-Regarded as related to, and a part of, a complete system of education,
-it becomes most important and necessary; and its cultivation, even to
-apparent excess, a cause of rejoicing and a source of the highest hope.
-
-We need scarcely say, then, that we look upon the explorations which
-have been made “by authority” into the Geology and general Natural
-History of several of the most important States in the Union, as among
-the proudest achievements of the present day. Most of them, it is true,
-grew out of designs not the highest on the part of those by whom they
-were originated. The development of resources, the discovery of mineral
-wealth, or other elements of power, formed in most cases the principal
-aim of those at whose instance these surveys were undertaken. But this
-is of little importance. The results are, on this account, none the less
-valuable to the cause of natural science, nor is our joy at their
-successful prosecution the less ardent or sincere. In all the States in
-which they have been undertaken, they have been fruitful of the best
-results; and the facts thus brought together will be found of priceless
-value to students and inquirers for ages to come.
-
-The State of New York has just completed her survey, which has been
-conducted on a scale commensurate with her wealth and enterprise. The
-different departments of the survey were, in 1836, assigned to eight
-gentlemen well qualified for the task, and from that time until their
-completion, the explorations were conducted with energy and enthusiasm.
-The reports are to be published in ten magnificent quarto volumes, of
-which the first is now before us. A more splendid monument of
-intelligent enterprise in the cause of science, has seldom been erected
-by any State. The first volume contains only a portion of the first
-report on Zoology, by Mr. James E. DeKay, to whom this department was
-committed. Governor Seward has written an introduction to the work,
-which occupies nearly two hundred pages. It is valuable as a historical
-record of the progress of the arts, the sciences, and the various
-branches of enterprise and industry in the State, though as a literary
-performance it can claim no especial merit. It is, indeed, little more
-than a compendium of the history of the State, and of its general
-statistics, of which the different portions have been contributed by
-different persons. The portion of the Zoological Report which this
-volume contains—relating merely to the Mammalia of the State—is highly
-valuable, and, to the naturalist, exceedingly interesting. Previous to
-this survey, no complete Zoology of the State had been attempted. In
-1813, Samuel L. Mitchell commenced an account of the fishes of New York,
-which was the first work on the subject ever undertaken; and the impulse
-given to the science by his labors in fact laid the foundation for
-whatever has been effected in the same department since. Several other
-branches of Zoology had received some slight attention before the
-commencement of the State survey. Bachman, a well known naturalist of
-South Carolina, had made interesting discoveries in the families of
-smaller quadrupeds, and much valuable information concerning the
-ornithology of the State had been collected by Wilson, Audubon, Cooper,
-Bonaparte and DeKay. Barnes had classified the Unionidæ of the lakes and
-rivers, and the Mollusca of the sea coast had been well studied by Dr.
-Gay, of New York city. But the report of Mr. DeKay in this department
-presents by far a more full and comprehensive account of the Zoology of
-New York than had ever before been made. The State was divided into four
-Zoological districts: first, the western district, embracing all the
-western portion of the State, as far east as the sources of the Mohawk;
-second, the northern, comprising all that portion of the State lying
-north of the Mohawk valley; third, the valley of the Hudson, including
-all the counties watered by that river and its tributaries; and fourth,
-the Atlantic district, embracing Long Island. In regard to its natural
-history, the northern district is by far the most important. Strange as
-it may seem to those who are accustomed to hear only of the wealth, the
-refinement, and the advanced civilization of the “Empire State,” there
-is embraced in this northern district a great tract of a thousand square
-miles, lying in loneliness, fresh as it came from the hand of God,
-untouched, and almost unvisited by man. It is clad with forests of great
-and majestic beauty, echoing only the sigh of the tempest, the screams
-of the untamed dwellers in its wilds, and now and then the rifle of the
-hunter, who there finds game, such as in long gone times the red men
-loved to chase. It is thickly overspread with lakes, embosomed in
-mountains, now lying calmly and smilingly beneath the sun, and the next
-hour lashed into frowns, when
-
- “The tempest shooteth, from the steep,
- The shadow of its coming.”
-
-Travelers who would wander through it, must provide themselves with
-guides, and trust to hunting and chance for food and lodging. No one
-_lives_ there—the whole is one vast, solitary wilderness, untouched by
-man—lying in its own majesty—unconscious even that the foot of the
-adventurous Genoese has been set upon the continent.
-
- “Still this great solitude is quick with life;
- Myriads of insects, gaudy as the flowers
- They flutter over, gentle quadrupeds,
- And birds that scarce have learned the fear of man,
- Are here, and sliding reptiles of the ground,
- Startlingly beautiful.”
-
-This vast wild region is inhabited by many animals that are rarely found
-in any other portion of the State. The bear, the moose, the panther, the
-deer, and most fur-bearing animals, make their homes among its
-mountains. Arctic birds, too, that are never known farther south, are
-seen in abundance. The whole district covers an area of about six
-thousand square miles. The western district is eminent for its fertility
-and beauty, and has also a high degree of zoological interest.
-
-The number of quadrupeds enumerated in the report, as found within the
-State, is something more than one hundred. Each of these is
-scientifically and fully described. Included in the volume are a great
-number of illustrations, taken with the greatest care from the living
-animals or the best specimens that could be found. The real colors are
-preserved, and in every case the relative size is indicated. The
-outlines, for the purpose of accuracy, were always taken with a camera
-lucida, and the illustrations, drawn by Hill, were lithographed by
-Endicott.
-
-The whole style of the work is eminently worthy the enterprise, results
-of which it contains, and the State which undertook its fulfilment. We
-look for the forthcoming volumes with no little interest. The botanical
-department has been under the charge of John Toney; the mineralogical
-and chemical were assigned to Lewis C. Beck; the geological to W. W.
-Mather, Ebenezer Emmons, James Hall, and Leonard Vanuxem, and the
-palæontological to Timothy A. Conrad. Beside these reports, the results
-of the survey appear in eight several collections of specimens of the
-animals, plants, soils, minerals, rocks and fossils, found within the
-State—one of which collections constitutes a museum of natural history
-at the capital of the State, and the others are distributed among
-collegiate institutions. We rejoice at the completion of this great
-survey, and hope soon to see a similar exploration effected in every
-State of the Union. The cause of science will receive from it an aid of
-which scientific men alone can rightly estimate the value.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Holy War, made by Shaddai upon Diabolus, for the Regaining
- of the Metropolis of the World. By John Bunyan. Philadelphia,
- American Sunday School Union._
-
-The celebrated Dr. Owen was occasionally one of the hearers of Bunyan,
-when he preached in London; and being asked by Charles the Second how a
-learned man, like him, could listen to the prating of an illiterate
-tinker, he is said to have replied, “May it please your Majesty, could I
-possess that tinker’s abilities for preaching, I would gladly relinquish
-all my scholarship.” His genius as an author was even greater than he
-exhibited in the pulpit. Southey, Macauley, and other eminent critics,
-regard him as one of the “immortal authors of England.” The Pilgrim’s
-Progress has been the most popular of his sixty or seventy works.
-Probably no book by an uninspired writer has been more universally read.
-The Holy War was written ten years after the appearance of that
-beautiful creation, and if not equal to it in all respects, is certainly
-one of the most ingenious allegories in the language, as well as one of
-the most _useful_ exhibitions of practical Christianity. The edition
-before us is superior to any other printed in America, in its typography
-and illustrations.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Little Gift_; _Useful Stories_; _Poems for Little Folks_.
- _Three small volumes._
-
-Mr. Colman, of New York, in the autumn of every year, publishes numerous
-miniature gift books for children, with fine engravings, instructive
-tales and poems, etc., of which the above are specimens.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Thulia: A Poem: By J. C. Palmer, M. D., U. S. N. Illustrated
- with Twelve Original Designs, by A. Agate, Artist of the late
- Exploring Expedition. One volume, octavo. New York, Samuel
- Colman._
-
-This beautifully printed and illustrated volume resembles very much, in
-its appearance, the elegant edition of Gray’s “Elegy,” published several
-years since in London. We can say no more in praise of its typography
-and embellishments. The poem itself possesses considerable merit. Doctor
-Palmer was attached to the Exploring Expedition which returned to this
-country last summer from the southern seas, and “Thulia” is founded on
-incidents which occurred on the war-ship Peacock, and the schooner
-Flying Fish, while in the Antarctic ocean. The verse is free and
-melodious, and the ideas and illustrations generally appropriate and
-poetical. We quote a lyric that will convey to the reader a just idea of
-the poet’s style.
-
- ANTARCTIC MARINER’S SONG.
-
- Sweetly, from the land of roses,
- Sighing comes the northern breeze;
- And the smile of dawn reposes,
- All in blushes, on the seas.
- Now within the sleeping sail,
- Murmurs soft the gentle gale.
- Ease the sheet, and keep away:
- Glory guides us South to-day!
-
- Yonder, see! the icy portal
- Opens for us to the Pole;
- And, where never entered mortal,
- Thither speed we to the goal.
- Hopes before and doubts behind,
- On we fly before the wind.
- Steady, so—now let it blow!
- Glory guides, and South we go.
-
- Vainly do these gloomy borders,
- All their frightful forms oppose;
- Vainly frown these frozen warders,
- Mailed in sleet, and helmed in snow.
- Though, beneath the ghastly skies,
- Curdled all the ocean lies,
- Lash we up its foam anew—
- Dash we all its terrors through!
-
- Circled by these columns hoary,
- All the field of fame is ours;
- Here to carve a name in story,
- Or a tomb beneath these towers.
- Southward still our way we trace,
- Winding through an icy maze.
- Luff her to—there she goes through!
- Glory leads, and we pursue.
-
-The notes appended to the poem contain the most interesting account of
-the expedition that has yet been given to the public.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Scenes in the Holy Land: one volume square duodecimo.
- Philadelphia, American Sunday School Union._
-
-This work is founded on, or rather is a free translation of, the “Scènes
-Evangéliques” of Napoleon Roussel, published a year or two since in
-Paris. It contains an account of the principal incidents in the lives of
-the Savior and of the great apostle of the Gentiles, written with
-singular simplicity and perspicuity, and illustrated with numerous
-etchings by a clever French artist. It is published, we believe, as a
-juvenile gift book for the holiday season.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Ladies’ Annual Register for 1843. New York, S. Colman._
-
-The Ladies’ Annual Register is a neat little annuary, edited for several
-years by Mrs. Gilman, of Charleston. It embraces, beside the usual
-contents of the almanacs, many useful recipes for the housewife, with
-anecdotes, poems, etc.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Biblical and Prophetical Works of Rev. George Bush, D. D.,
- author of “The Life of Mohammed,” etc., and Professor of Hebrew
- in the New York City University. New York, Dayton & Newman._
-
-Professor Bush is one of the most profound and ingenious scholars and
-critics of the present age, and we perceive with pleasure that he is
-rapidly multiplying the fruits of his industrious pen. To all the lovers
-of sound biblical exposition it must be gratifying to know that the
-Hebrew Scriptures are in a fair way to develop their riches to the
-English reader more fully than ever before. Professor Bush’s
-commentaries on the Old Testament, now extending to six volumes, embrace
-all the works of the Pentateuch but the last two, and these, we learn,
-he proposes shortly to enter upon. His careful study, his scrupulous
-fidelity in eliciting the exact meaning of the original, and his
-peculiar tact in explaining it, have made his Notes everywhere popular,
-so that before the completion of the series, the first volume has
-reached a sixth edition, the second a fifth, etc. In all of them will be
-found discussions on the most important points of biblical science,
-extending far beyond the ordinary dimensions of expository notes, and
-amounting in fact to elaborate dissertations of great value. Among the
-subjects thus extensively treated are, in Genesis, the temptation and
-the fall, the dispersion from Babel, the prophecies of Noah, the
-character of Melchizedec, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the
-history of Joseph, and the prophetical benedictions of Jacob; in Exodus,
-the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, the miracles of the magicians, the
-pillar of cloud as the seat of the Shekinah, the decalogue, the Hebrew
-theocracy, the tabernacle, the cherubim, the candle-stick, the shew
-bread, the altar, &c.; in Leviticus, a clear and minute specification of
-the different sacrifices, the law of marriage, including the case of
-marriage with a deceased wife’s sister, very largely considered, and a
-full account of the Jewish festivals. The sixth volume, including Joshua
-and Judges, contains an ample and erudite exposition of the Song of
-Deborah, and an extended discussion on the subject of Jeptha’s vow, with
-a view to determine whether the Jewish warrior really sacrificed his
-daughter. The Professor gives an array of very strong reasons in favor
-of the negative.
-
-In his celebrated “Treatise on the Millennium,” which merely as a
-literary performance has received the highest commendations of the
-critics, our author has assumed the position that the millennium,
-_strictly so called_, is past. But by the millennium he does not
-understand the golden age of the church, which he, in common with nearly
-all good men, regards as a future era. He contends that as the memorable
-period of the thousand years of the apocalypse is distinguished mainly
-by the binding of the symbolical dragon, we must first determine by the
-legitimate canons of interpretation what is shadowed forth by this
-mystic personage, before we can assure ourselves of the true character
-of the millennial age. But the dragon, he supposes, is the grand
-hieroglyphic of Paganism—the “binding of the dragon,” but a figurative
-phrase for the suppression of Paganism within the limits of the Roman
-empire, a fulfilment which he contends commenced in the reign of
-Constantine, and was consummated in that of Theodosius, his successor.
-Professor Bush draws largely on the pages of Gibbon in support of his
-theory, assuming all along the great foundation principle that _the
-apocalypse of John is but a series of pictured emblems, shadowing forth
-the ecclesiastical and civil history of the world_. From a cursory
-examination of his Treatise, we are inclined to adopt the opinion of one
-of the first theologians of our country, that if his premises be
-admitted, his conclusion is irresistible; and that _he_ did not know how
-to gainsay the premises.
-
-In the Hierophant, a monthly publication of which he is editor, he
-enters elaborately into the nature of the prophetic symbols, and in the
-last number brings out some grand results as to the physical destiny of
-the globe. He assumes that a fair construction of the language of the
-prophets is far from countenancing the idle dreams of Miller and his
-school respecting the literal conflagration of the heavens and the
-earth, and does not even teach that such a catastrophe is _ever_ to take
-place. He denies not that this _may_ possibly be the finale which awaits
-our planet and the solar system, but if so, it is to be gathered rather
-from astronomy than revelation—from the apocalypse of Newton, Laplace
-and Herschell, than from that of John.
-
-In general literature, in science and in art, America has furnished some
-of the best names in the world of letters; but it is in theology and
-religious philosophy that our countrymen have made the greatest
-advances. We need but allude to Edwards, Dwight, Emmons, Marsh, Beecher,
-Alexander, Stuart, McIlvaine, and Bush in proof of this. Perhaps we may
-add to the list Orestes Brownson, who, however erratic and peculiar, is
-a man of singular genius and sincerity. In our endeavors to keep the
-readers of this magazine advised of the condition of our literature, we
-should fail of our intent if at times we did not notice books and
-authors of a grave character. The useful and the true is in every thing
-the national aim. The writings of which we have spoken particularly in
-this brief notice, are distinguished for remarkable directness of
-language and logical clearness, as much as for profound scholarship, and
-they are among the most original works of their class brought out in our
-times.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Songs, Odes, and other Poems, on National Subjects: Compiled
- from Various Sources: by William McCarty. Three volumes
- duodecimo. Philadelphia, W. McCarty._
-
-Mr. McCarty is a bookseller, of the long established house of McCarty &
-Davis, in Market street. He is an antiquary also, and has in his
-chambers one of the best collections of books relating to our history
-and antiquities to be found in this country. Several years ago he
-“formed the plan of gathering together our national songs and ballads,
-deeming the task, however humble,” he says, “one of which the result
-would be acceptable to his countrymen.” He has since gleaned from all
-the files of magazines, newspapers and other periodicals, in the public
-libraries and in his own possession, published since Braddock’s defeat
-at DuQuesne, every scrap of verse, “good, bad, or indifferent,” relating
-to men, manners and events in America, and had them printed in three
-neat volumes, the first of which contains the “patriotic,” the second
-the “military,” and the third the “naval.” It is certainly a very
-curious collection. Some of the pieces, indeed, were written by
-foreigners, and have as little relation to any thing in America as to
-the quackeries of Græfenberg; and others are not decidedly poetical; but
-by far the greater number belong to one or another of the divisions in
-which the compiler has placed them, and, as he well remarks, “the
-present and future generations of Americans will hardly disdain those
-strains, however homely, which cheered and animated our citizen soldiers
-and seamen, ‘in the times that tried men’s souls,’ at the camp-fire or
-on the forecastle.” We perceive that Mr. McCarty has copied from our
-Magazine for October most of the pieces included in the article on “The
-Minstrelsy of the Revolution.” We have many others not embraced in his
-volumes, of which we intend to present a few additional specimens to our
-readers, in connection, perhaps, with some of the most curious verses in
-the books he has given us.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Wing-and-Wing, or Le Feu-Follet. By the author of “The Red
- Rover,” “The Pilot,” “The Path Finder,” etc. Two volumes,
- duodecimo. Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard._
-
-We received this novel too recently to be able to do it justice in our
-present number. It is a story of the sea, and from a cursory examination
-we are inclined to believe it equal to Mr. Cooper’s most celebrated
-naval romances. The scene is in the Mediterranean, in the memorable
-years 1798 and 1799. Le Feu-Follet is a French privateer, commanded by
-Raoul Yvard, a skilful, bold and chivalrous sailor, and the interest of
-the tale turns principally upon the manœuvres by which he preserves her
-from capture by the English frigate Prosperine. The character second in
-importance on board the republican privateer is Ithule Bolt, a shrewd
-Yankee, who, impressed into the British navy, had shared in the dangers
-of Nelson’s victory, and now added to a patriotic hatred of the English,
-some slight ill will created by what he deemed unjustifiable appliances
-of the lash during his service on board the Prosperine. Blended with the
-main narrative is a history of the loves of the commander of Le
-Feu-Follet and a beautiful Italian girl, Ghita Giuntotardi, one of our
-author’s most admirably drawn heroines. Those who would know more of the
-plot we refer to the book itself, or to the Yankee lieutenant, who in
-due time returned to the United Slates, married a widow, and “settled in
-life” somewhere in the Granite State. He is said at the present moment
-to be an active abolitionist, a patron of the temperance cause, and a
-terror to evil doers, under the appellation of Deacon Bolt. We are
-pleased to learn that the publishers have fixed the price of
-Wing-and-Wing at half a dollar—lower by fifty per cent. at least than
-an American novel was ever sold for before. For this reason, as well as
-on account of its remarkable merit, we predict for it a sale equal to
-that of “The Spy,” or “The Red Rover.”
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Poets and Poetry of America: with a Historical
- Introduction. By Rufus W. Griswold. Third edition. With
- Illustrations by the First Artists._
-
-Messrs. Carey & Hart have just issued a new edition of this work, with
-beautiful illustrations from paintings by Leslie, Inman, Creswick,
-Sully, Thompson, Verbryck, Hoyt, and Harding, engraved by Cheney,
-Cushman, Dodson, and Forrest. We believe that no other book of so
-expensive a character has passed to a second edition in the United
-States during the year. The fact that this has reached a _third_ edition
-in six months seems to indicate that our poetical literature is properly
-appreciated, in our own country, at least. The price of the third
-edition has very properly been reduced to two dollars and a half.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Little Boys’ and Girls’ Library: Edited by Mrs. Sarah J.
- Hale. Six books, small quarto. New York, Edward Dunigan._
-
-The stories in these little volumes are written with taste and
-simplicity. Though Mrs. Hale’s incidents are generally pleasing, we do
-not in all cases approve their tendency. With deference for her better
-judgment, we think the boy who, in “The Way to Save,” bought the glass
-box, was much wiser than he who bought the draught board.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Youth’s Keepsake: A Christmas and New Year’s Gift for Young
- People._ _The Annualette: A Christmas and New Year’s Gift for
- Children. Philadelphia, Thomas, Cowperthwaite & Co._
-
-Two very beautiful and interesting annuals, of the character of which
-the titles are sufficiently descriptive.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Sporting Scenes and Sundry Sketches: being the Miscellaneous
- Writings of J. Cypress, jr. Edited by Frank Forester. In Two
- vols., 12mo. New York, Gould, Banks & Co., 1842._
-
-“J. Cypress, jr.” was the late William P. Hawes, of the city of New
-York; and “Frank Forester” is the name by which one of the finest
-scholars, critics, and writers, whose productions have ever given a
-charm to our periodical literature—Henry William Herbert, the author of
-“Cromwell,” and numerous tales and other compositions in this
-Magazine—is known in the “sporting world.” Mr. Hawes was educated for
-the bar; his writings were generally on political or sporting topics, in
-the daily gazettes, or the magazines. The admirable series of papers,
-entitled “Fire Island Ana,” was written for the American Monthly, while
-that work was under Mr. Herbert; and most of his later compositions
-appeared in the “Turf Register.” We have not room to do them justice.
-They have never been excelled in this country, in richness of humor,
-freshness, or originality. Mr. Hawes had the modesty of genius. He lived
-in the quiet enjoyment of the life and the scenes he so felicitously
-delineated, and was unknown as a writer beyond the limited circle of his
-intimate friends until they and the world were deprived of his presence.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Task, and other Poems: By William Cowper. One volume,
- duodecimo. Philadelphia, Carey & Hart._
-
-Among the poets who have written in the English language on religious
-themes, Cowper unquestionably ranks next to Milton in genius, and before
-him as a teacher. The Presbyterian poet is admired for his sublime
-conceptions and his unequaled mastery of language and the intricacies of
-rhythm; but the bard of Olney is loved by the good and the true as a
-friend. The new edition of the Task is one of the most beautiful
-specimens of typography produced in this country, and the etchings, by
-Cheney, which illustrate it, are of course admirably executed.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Way of Life: By Charles Hodge, Professor in the Theological
- Seminary of Princeton, New Jersey. One volume duodecimo, pp.
- 348. Philadelphia, American Sunday School Union._
-
-Among the many very excellent works published by the American Sunday
-School Union, we know of none written with more ability, or calculated
-to do more good than this admirable treatise. The plenary inspiration of
-the Scriptures, the great practical doctrines they teach, and the
-influence which these doctrines should exert upon the heart and life,
-are set forth by the learned author with candor, simplicity and
-eloquence.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Books for Youth: Heroines of Sacred History, by Mrs. Steele;
- Philip and his Garden, by Charlotte Elizabeth; Rocky Island, by
- Samuel Wilberforce; Alice Benden, by Charlotte Elizabeth;
- Clementine Cuvier, by John Angell James; The Simple Flower, by
- Charlotte Elizabeth; The Flower of Innocence, by Charlotte
- Elizabeth; and Moral Tales, by Robert Merry. New York, John S.
- Taylor & Co._
-
-The eight volumes, of which we have given the titles above, are bound in
-a uniform style, and constitute a very neat and excellent library for
-juvenile readers. We know of no books that can be more appropriately
-presented to the young in the approaching holidays than those of
-Archdeacon Wilberforce, John Angell James, and Charlotte Elizabeth.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- EDITOR’S TABLE.
-
-
-Miss Barrett.—In this number will be found a series of sonnets by Miss
-Elizabeth B. Barrett, among the first of her contributions to any
-American periodical. They were originally intended for “Arcturus,” to
-which magazine they were sent; but arriving after the discontinuance of
-that periodical, its editors placed them at our disposal, “thinking the
-good company into which they would be introduced in ‘Graham,’ would be
-every way agreeable to the fair authoress.”
-
-Miss Barrett’s productions are unique in this age of lady authors. They
-have the “touch of nature” in common with the best; they have, too,
-sentiment, passion and fancy in the highest degree, without reminding us
-of Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Norton, or L. E. L. Her excellence is her own; her
-mind is colored by what it feeds on; the fine tissue of her flowing
-style comes to us from the loom of Grecian thought. She is the learned
-poetess of the day, familiar with Homer and Æschylus and Sophocles, and
-to the musings of Tempe she has added the inspiration of Christianity,
-“above all Greek, all Roman fame.” She has translated the Prometheus to
-the delight of scholars, and has lately contributed a series of very
-remarkable prose papers to the London Athenæum. Her reading Greek
-recalls to us Roger Ascham’s anecdote of Lady Jane Grey; but Lady Jane
-Grey has left us no such verses.
-
-A striking characteristic of Miss Barrett’s prose, is its prevailing
-seriousness, approaching to solemnity—a garb borrowed from the
-“sceptred pale” of her favorite Greek drama of fate. She loses much with
-the general reader by a dim mysticism; but many of her later poems are
-free from any such defect. The great writers whom she loves will teach
-her the plain, simple, universal language of poetry.
-
-Her dreams and abstractions, though “caviare to the generale,” have
-their admirers, who will ever find in pure and elevated philosophy
-expressed in the words of enthusiasm the living presence of poetry. On
-Parnassus there are many groves: far from the dust of the highway,
-embosomed in twilight woods that seem to symbol Reverence and Faith
-trusting on the unseen, we may hear in the whispering of the trees, the
-wavering breath of insect life, the accompaniment of our poet’s strain.
-Despise not dreams and reveries. With Cowley, Miss Barrett vindicates
-herself. “The father of poets tells us, even dreams, too, are from God.”
-
-We cannot here do justice to Miss Barrett’s volume of the Seraphim, or
-to her other poems. We cannot here illustrate as we would the lofty tone
-of her conceptions, which in grandeur and human interest belong to the
-highest and most enduring of lyrical strains. She has thrown aside
-sentimentality, the fluency without thought, the cheap eloquence that
-marks a certain school of lady poets, for the genuine language of
-emotion, the fire-new currency of speech forged in the secret chambers
-of the heart. From two volumes of her poetry before us, (unfamiliar as
-yet to American readers—they cannot be so long,) we quote one poem,
-perhaps not the most brilliant of all, but inferior to none of the rest
-in the pathos, the tenderness, the deep Christian sympathy with human
-life, which dwell in the soul of this rare poetess.
-
- THE SLEEP.
-
- “He giveth His beloved sleep.”—_Psalm cxxvii. 2._
-
- Of all the thoughts of God that are
- Borne inward unto souls afar,
- Along the Psalmist’s music deep—
- Now tell me if that any is,
- For gift or grace surpassing this—
- “He giveth his beloved sleep?”
-
- What would we give to our beloved?
- The hero’s heart, to be unmoved—
- The poet’s star-tuned harp, to sweep—
- The senate’s shout to patriot vows—
- The monarch’s crown, to light the brows?—
- “He giveth _His_ beloved sleep.”
-
- What do we give to our beloved?
- A little faith, all undisproved—
- A little dust, to overweep—
- And bitter memories, to make
- The whole earth blasted for our sake!
- “He giveth His beloved sleep.”
-
- “Sleep soft, beloved!” we sometimes say,
- But have no tune to charm away
- Sad dreams that through the eyelids creep:
- But never doleful dream again
- Shall break the happy slumber, when
- “He giveth His beloved sleep.”
-
- O earth, so full of dreary noises!
- O men, with wailing in your voices!
- O delved gold, the wailers heap!
- O strife, O curse, that o’er it fall!
- God makes a silence through you all,
- And “giveth His beloved sleep!”
-
- His dew drops mutely on the hill;
- His cloud above it saileth still,
- Though on its slope men toil and reap!
- More softly than the dew is shed,
- Or cloud is floated overhead,
- “He giveth His beloved sleep.”
-
- Ha! men may wonder while they scan
- A living, thinking, feeling man,
- In such a rest his heart to keep;
- But angels say—and through the word
- I ween their blessed smile is _heard_—
- “He giveth His beloved sleep!”
-
- For me my heart that erst did go,
- Most like a tired child at a show,
- That sees through tears the juggler’s leap,—
- Would now its wearied vision close,
- Would childlike on _His_ love repose,
- Who “giveth His beloved sleep!”
-
- And friends!—dear friends!—when it shall be
- That this low breath is gone from me,
- And round my bier ye come to weep—
- Let me, most loving of you all,
- Say, not a tear must o’er her fall—
- “He giveth His beloved sleep!”
-
-Stars that Have Set in MDCCCXLII.—Among the dead of the year now
-drawing to a close, America laments her Marsh and Channing, and Europe,
-Sismondi and some less brilliant luminaries.
-
-The Rev. James Marsh, D.D. was, at the time of his death, the third day
-of July, Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy in the
-University of Vermont. He was a calm, chaste scholar, an earnest and
-profound thinker, and a powerful and eloquent advocate of the highest
-principles of religion and philosophy, with the perfect simplicity and
-grandeur of whose life were blended the rarest virtues that adorn
-humanity. His principal published writings, excepting a few articles in
-the leading reviews, and some translations from the German, are devoted
-to those high and spiritual principles of philosophy, of which Coleridge
-and Kant were the most celebrated European exponents. We are pleased to
-learn that Professor Torrey, one of the dearest friends of the departed,
-is now superintending the publication of a complete edition of his
-works.
-
-The name of William Ellery Channing has been long familiar to the
-readers of America and Great Britain. He was equally popular in both
-countries, and in both was regarded as one of the greatest authors of
-the age. The first edition of his collected writings we believe was
-published some five or six years since in Glasgow, and the last, in six
-octavo volumes, in Boston, in the winter of 1840. We presume his later
-productions, unprinted sermons, etc.—sufficient to fill several
-additional volumes—will soon be published, with his memoirs. Doctor
-Channing was for a long period the leading divine of the Unitarian
-belief, and though an ardent controvertist, was regarded by all men with
-love and reverence. The purity of his life, his high aims, his candor,
-and the dignity and beauty of his diction, won for him a reputation that
-will endure when most of the names now prominent in the world of letters
-are forgotten. He died in Bennington, in Vermont, on his return way from
-an excursion among the Green Mountains in search of health, on the
-second day of October.
-
-John Charles Leonard de Sismondi was one of the most celebrated
-historical, political and æsthetical writers of the time. He died near
-Geneva, on the twenty-fifth of June, in his sixty-ninth year. He was the
-author of New Principles of Political Economy, A History of the Italian
-Republics, A History of the Literature of Southern Europe, A History of
-France, Julia Severn, a romance, and several other works, making in the
-aggregate about one hundred and fifty volumes, in the French editions.
-As a historian he has rarely been surpassed, and in every department of
-letters he exercised a powerful influence for nearly half a century.
-
-Mr. James Grahame, author of the excellent History of the United Slates
-which bears his name; Sir Robert Kerr Porter, the traveler; Theodore E.
-Hook, the novelist, biographer, and dramatic writer; and Robert Mudie,
-author of several works on natural history, etc. were better known in
-this country than any of the other literary characters who have died in
-Europe during the present year.
-
- * * * * *
-
-New Books.—We received several new works too late to be noticed
-properly in our present number, of which we have space to mention
-particularly only Mr. Norman’s “Rambles in Yucatan,” and Mr. Lester’s
-observations on “The Condition and Fate of England,” both from the press
-of Messrs. Langley, of New York. The first is an exceedingly interesting
-work, and the last quite as good as the same author’s “Glory and Shame
-of England.” We shall endeavor to do them full justice in our Magazine
-for January.
-
-The End of the Year.—With the present number we bring to a close
-another year of the publication of Graham’s Magazine. The many
-improvements which since our last anniversary have been effected in the
-work, and the extraordinary accessions to our subscription list—between
-twenty and thirty thousand in twelve months!—impart to us a
-satisfaction which we trust is shared in some degree by our million
-readers.
-
-Since the commencement of the present year, Rufus W. Griswold has become
-associated with the proprietor in the editorship of the Magazine; and to
-our corps of contributors have been added William C. Bryant and Richard
-H. Dana, the first American poets, and the equals of any now living in
-the world; James Fenimore Cooper, the greatest of living novelists;
-Charles F. Hoffman, one of the most admired poets and prose writers of
-our country; Elizabeth B. Barrett, the truest female poet who has
-written in the English language; J. H. Mancur, the author of “Henri
-Quatre;” George H. Colton, the author of “Tecumseh;” H. T. Tuckerman,
-the author of “Isabelle, or Sicily,” etc.; the author of “A New Home”
-and “Forest Life,” who, under the name of “_Mary Clavers_,” has won a
-reputation second to that of none of the writers of her sex in America;
-Mrs. E. F. Ellet, the well known author of “The Characters of Schiller,”
-etc.; Mrs. Seba Smith, whose elegant and truthful compositions are as
-universally admired as they are read; and several others, whom we have
-not now space to mention. All these, with our favorite old writers,
-Professor Longfellow, George Hill, Edgar A. Poe, Mrs. Embury, Mrs.
-Stephens, and others, we shall retain for our succeeding volumes.
-
-We shall likewise receive regular contributions during the ensuing year,
-from N. P. Willis, whose many admirable qualities as a writer have made
-his name familiar wherever English literature is read; T. C. Grattan,
-the popular author of “Highways and Byways,” “The Heiress of Bruges,”
-etc.; “_Maria del Occidente_,” the author of “Zophiel,” and many others,
-whose names will from month to month grace our pages.
-
-Let our Past speak for our Future. The improvements made in Graham’s
-Magazine, in 1842, will be surpassed by those that we shall introduce in
-1843. In all the departments of our work we shall remain in advance of
-every other candidate for the public favor.
-
- * * * * *
-
-The Author of the Sketch Book.—In a notice of the Miscellanies of Sir
-Walter Scott, in the number of this Magazine for September, we made
-allusion to reviews of various publications of Mr. Washington Irving,
-which we had good reason for believing were written by that gentleman
-himself. We learn with pleasure, from one who speaks on the subject by
-authority, that Mr. Irving is guiltless of the imputed self laudation.
-He did indeed write the article in the London Quarterly on his
-“Chronicles of Grenada,” and received for it the sum we mentioned; but,
-like so many of the modern “reviews,” it had very little relation to the
-work which gave it a title, or to its author.
-
- * * * * *
-
-H. Hastings Weld.—We notice that this talented and agreeable writer,
-formerly editor of the Brother Jonathan, has taken the editorial charge
-of the United States Saturday Post, a family newspaper of the largest
-class and circulation. We feel assured that the humor and vivacity of
-Mr. Weld’s pen will tend to make the paper still more popular, and to
-add greatly to the already enormous subscription list. This paper
-already circulates more copies weekly than any other family newspaper in
-the Union.
-
- * * * * *
-
-Transcriber’s Notes:
-
-Table of Contents has been added for reader convenience. Archaic
-spellings and hyphenation have been retained. Obvious punctuation and
-typesetting errors have been corrected without note.
-
-In the story _Malina Gray_, this concluding installment had two parts
-titled Chapter III. The second Chapter III has been corrected to Chapter
-IV.
-
-[End of _Graham’s Magazine, Vol. XXI, No. 6, December 1842_, George R.
-Graham, Editor]
-
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-<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Graham&#039;s Magazine, Vol. XXI, No. 6, December 1842, by Various</p>
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
-at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
-are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this eBook.
-</div>
-
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Graham&#039;s Magazine, Vol. XXI, No. 6, December 1842</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Various</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Editors: George Rex Graham</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em;'>Rufus W. Griswold</p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: May 8, 2022 [eBook #68027]<br />
-[Most recently updated: November 24, 2022]</p></p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
- <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Mardi Desjardins &amp; the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net from page images generously made available by the Internet Archive</p>
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRAHAM&#039;S MAGAZINE, VOL. XXI, NO. 6, DECEMBER 1842 ***</div>
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0000' style='width:50%;height:auto;'/>
-</div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;font-size:1.9em;font-weight:bold;'>GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;font-size:1.2em;font-weight:bold;'><span class='sc'>Vol. XXI.</span> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;December, 1842 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;No. 6.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:1.2em;font-weight:bold;'>Contents</p>
-
-<table id='tab1' summary='' class='center'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' style='width: 25em;'/>
-<col span='1' style='width: 1em;'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tab1c1-col2 tdStyle0' colspan='2'><span class='bold'><span style='font-size:larger'>Fiction and Literature</span></span></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#ric'>Richard Dale</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#wid'>The Widow of Newbury</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#mal'>Malina Gray</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#tru'>Truth</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#per'>The Persecutor’s Daughter</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#rac'>A Race for a Sweetheart</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#har'>Harry Cavendish</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#lad'>The Ladies’ Library</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#has'>The Hasty Marriage</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#rev'>Review Of New Books</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#edi'>Editor’s Table</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-</table>
-
-<table id='tab2' summary='' class='center'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' style='width: 25em;'/>
-<col span='1' style='width: 1em;'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tab2c1-col2 tdStyle0' colspan='2'><span class='bold'><span style='font-size:larger'>Poetry</span></span></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#the'>The Serenade</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#son'>Sonnets</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#sonn'>Sonnet</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#noo'>Noon</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#aff'>True Affection</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#far'>The Farewell</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#hol'>The Holynights</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#pas'>The Pastor’s Visit</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#win'>To the Night-Wind in Autumn</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'><a href='#notes'>Transcriber’s Notes</a> can be found at the end of this eBook.</p>
-
-<hr class='pbk'/>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/i001.jpg' alt='a young woman standing by a window' id='iid-0001' style='width:85%;height:auto;'/>
-<p class='caption'><span style='font-size:smaller'>Painted by E. Prentice &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Engraved by H.S. Sadd</span><br/></p> <br/><span class='it'>Awaiting the Husband’s Return</span><br/> <br/><span class='it'>Engraved Expressly for Graham’s Magazine.</span>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='pbk'/>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;font-size:1.9em;font-weight:bold;'>GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk100'/>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:1.1em;font-weight:bold;'><span class='sc'>Vol. XXI.</span> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;PHILADELPHIA: DECEMBER, 1842. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class='sc'>No. 6.</span></p>
-
-<hr class='tbk101'/>
-
-<div><h1 class='nobreak'><a id='ric'></a>RICHARD DALE.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY J. FENIMORE COOPER, AUTHOR OF “THE SPY,” “THE PIONEERS,” ETC.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Among the many brave men who early contributed
-to render the navy of the republic popular and respectable,
-the gallant seaman whose name is placed
-at the head of this article is entitled to a conspicuous
-place; equally on account of his services, his professional
-skill, and his personal merit. Although his
-connection with the marine, created under the constitution
-of 1789, was of short continuance, it left a
-durable impression on the service; and, if we look
-back to the dark period of the Revolution, we find
-him contending in some of the fiercest combats of the
-period, always with heroism, and not unfrequently
-with success. Circumstances, too, have connected
-his renown with one of the most remarkable naval
-battles on record; a distinction of itself which fully
-entitles him to a high place among those who have
-fought and bled for the independence of their country,
-in stations of subordinate authority.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Richard Dale was born in the colony of Virginia,
-on the 6th November, 1756. His birthplace was in
-the county of Norfolk, and not distant from the well
-known port of the same name. His parents were
-native Americans, of respectable standing, though
-of rather reduced circumstances. His father, dying
-early, left a widow with five children, of whom the
-subject of this memoir was the eldest. Some time
-after the death of his father, his mother contracted a
-second marriage with a gentleman of the name of
-Cooper, among the issue of which were two well
-known ship-masters of Philadelphia.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Young Dale manifested an inclination for the sea
-at a very early period of life. The distrust of a
-parental control that has no foundation in nature, and
-which is apt to be regarded with jealousy, stimulated
-if it did not quicken this desire, and we find him at
-the tender age of twelve, or in 1768, making a voyage
-between Norfolk and Liverpool, in a vessel commanded
-by one of his own uncles. On his return
-home, he appears to have passed nearly a twelve-month
-on shore; but his desire to become a sailor
-still continuing, in the spring of 1770 he was regularly
-apprenticed to a respectable merchant and
-ship-owner, of the borough of Norfolk, named Newton.
-From this moment his fortune in life was cast,
-and he continued devotedly employed in the profession
-until his enterprise, prudence and gallantry enabled
-him finally to retire with credit, an unblemished
-name, and a competency.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>During his apprenticeship, Dale appears to have
-been, most of the time, employed in the West India
-trade. Every sailor has his chances and hair-breadth
-escapes, and our young mariner met with two, at
-that period of his life, which may be thought worthy
-of notice. On one occasion he fell from the spars
-stowed on the belfry into the vessel’s hold, hitting the
-kelson, a distance of near twenty feet; escaping, however,
-without material injury. A much greater risk
-was incurred on another. While the vessel to which
-he belonged was running off the wind, with a stiff
-breeze, Dale was accidentally knocked overboard
-by the jib sheets, and was not picked up without
-great difficulty. He was an hour in the water, sustaining
-himself by swimming, and he ever spoke of
-the incident as one of more peril than any other in a
-perilous career.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When nineteen, or in 1775, Dale had risen to the
-station of chief mate on board a large brig belonging
-to his owner. In this situation he appears to have
-remained industriously engaged during the few first
-months of the struggle for independence; the active
-warfare not having yet extended itself as far south as
-his part of the country. Early in 1776, however, the
-aspect of things began to change, and it is probable
-that the interruption to commerce rendered him the
-master of his own movements.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Virginia, in common with most of the larger and
-more maritime colonies, had a sort of marine of its
-own; more especially anterior to the Declaration of
-Independence. It consisted principally of bay craft,
-and was employed in the extensive estuaries and
-rivers of that commonwealth. On board of one of
-these light cruisers Dale was entered as a lieutenant,
-in the early part of the memorable year 1776. While
-in this service, he was sent a short distance for some
-guns, in a river craft; but falling in with a tender of
-the Liverpool frigate, which ship was then cruising
-on the Cape Henry station, he was captured and carried
-into Norfolk. These tenders were usually smart
-little cruisers, another, belonging to the same frigate,
-having been taken shortly before, by the U. S. brig
-Lexington, after a sharp and bloody conflict. Resistance
-in the case of Dale was consequently out of the
-question, his capture having been altogether a matter
-of course.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On reaching Norfolk, our young officer was thrown
-on board a prison-ship. Here he found himself in
-the midst of those whom it was the fashion to call
-“loyal subjects.” Many of them were his old school-mates
-and friends. Among the latter was a young
-man of the name of Bridges Gutteridge, a sailor like
-himself, and one who possessed his entire confidence.
-Mr. Gutteridge, who it is believed subsequently took
-part with his countrymen himself, was then employed
-by the British, in the waters of the Chesapeake, actually
-commanding a tender in their service. The
-quarrel was still recent; and honorable, as well as
-honest men, under the opinions which prevailed in
-that day, might well be divided as to its merits. Mr.
-Gutteridge had persuaded himself he was pursuing
-the proper course. Entertaining such opinions, he
-earnestly set about the attempt of making a convert
-of his captured friend. The usual arguments, touching
-the sacred rights of the king—himself merely a
-legalized usurper, by the way, if any validity is to
-be given to the claims of hereditary right to the
-crown—and the desperate nature of the “rebel
-cause,” were freely and strenuously used, until Dale
-began to waver in his faith. In the end, he yielded
-and consented to accompany his friend in a cruise
-against the vessels of the state. This occurred in
-the month of May, and, hostilities beginning now to
-be active, the tender soon fell in with a party of
-Americans, in some pilot boats, that were employed
-in the Rappahannock. A warm engagement ensued,
-in which the tender was compelled to run, after
-meeting with a heavy loss. It was a rude initiation
-into the mysteries of war, the fighting being of a
-desperate, and almost of a personal character. This
-was one of those combats that often occurred about
-this period, and in those waters, most of them being
-close and sanguinary.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In this affair, Dale received a severe wound, having
-been hit in the head by a musket ball; with this
-wound he was confined several weeks at Norfolk,
-during which time he had abundance of leisure to
-reflect on the false step into which he had been persuaded,
-and to form certain healthful resolutions for
-the future. To use his own words, in speaking of
-this error of his early life, he determined “never
-again to put himself in the way of the bullets of his
-own country.” This resolution, however, it was necessary
-to conceal, if he would escape the horrors
-of a prison-ship, and he “bided his time,” fully determined
-to take service again under the American
-flag, at the first fitting opportunity.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the peculiar state of the two countries at the
-time, and with the doubtful and contested morality of
-the misunderstanding, there was nothing extraordinary
-in this incident. Similar circumstances occurred
-to many men, who, with the best intentions and
-purest motives, saw, or fancied they saw, reasons
-for changing sides in what, in their eyes, was strictly
-a family quarrel. In the case of Dale, however, the
-feature most worthy of comment was the singleness
-of mind and simple integrity with which he used to
-confess his own error, together with the manner in
-which he finally became a convert to the true political
-faith. No narrative of the life of this respectable
-seaman would be complete, without including
-this temporary wavering of purpose; nor would any
-delineation of his character be just, that did not point
-out the candor and sincerity with which he, in after
-life, admitted his fault.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale was only in his twentieth year when he received
-this instructive lesson from the “bullets of his
-countrymen.” From that time, he took good care
-not to place himself again in their way, going, in
-June or July, to Bermuda, on a more peaceable expedition,
-in company with William Gutteridge, a
-relative of his beguiling friend. On the return passage,
-the vessel was captured by the Lexington, the
-brig just mentioned, then a successful cruiser, under
-the orders of Capt. John Barry; an officer who subsequently
-died at the head of the service. This occurred
-just after the Declaration of Independence,
-and Dale immediately offered himself as a volunteer
-under the national flag. He was received and rated
-as a midshipman within a few hours of his capture.
-This was the commencement of Dale’s service in
-the regular navy of his native country. It was also
-the commencement of his acquaintance with the distinguished
-commander of the Lexington, whose
-friendship and respect he enjoyed down to the day of
-the latter’s death. While the brig was out, our midshipman
-had another narrow escape from death,
-having, together with several others, been struck
-senseless by lightning during a severe thunder storm.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Barry made the capture just mentioned near the
-end of his cruise, and he soon after went into Philadelphia,
-which place Dale now saw for the first time.
-Here Barry left the Lexington to take command of
-the Effingham 28, a ship that never got to sea, leaving
-our new midshipman in the brig. Capt. Hallock
-was Barry’s successor, and he soon rated Dale, by
-this time an active and skilful seaman, a master’s
-mate. Early in the autumn, the Lexington sailed for
-Cape François, on special duty. On her return, in
-the month of December, she fell in with the Pearl
-frigate,<a id='r1'/><a href='#f1' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[1]</span></sup></a> and was captured without resistance, carrying
-an armament of only a few fours.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As it was blowing very fresh at the moment this
-capture was made, the Pearl took out of the prize
-four or five officers, threw a small crew on board,
-and directed the brig to follow her. By some accounts
-Dale was left in the Lexington, while by
-others he was not. A succinct history of the events
-of his life, written by a connection under his own
-eye, and which is now before us, gives the latter
-version of the affair, and is probably the true one.
-At all events, the remaining officers and crew of
-the Lexington rose upon the captors in the course of
-the night, retook the brig, and carried her into Baltimore.<a id='r2'/><a href='#f2' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[2]</span></sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The English landed several of their prisoners on
-Cape Henlopen, in January, 1777, under some arrangement
-that cannot now be explained, though
-probably it was connected with an exchange for the
-men taken and carried away in the prize. Among
-these was Dale, who made the best of his way to
-Philadelphia, when he received orders to proceed to
-Baltimore; which he obeyed, and rejoined his brig,
-the command of which had now been transferred to
-Capt. Henry Johnston.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The next service on which the Lexington was employed
-was in the European seas. In March, she
-sailed from Baltimore for Bordeaux, with despatches.
-On her arrival, this brig was attached to a small
-squadron under the orders of Capt. Lambert Wickes,
-who was in the Reprisal 16, having under his command
-also the Dolphin 10, Capt. Samuel Nicholson.
-This force of little vessels accomplished a bold and
-destructive cruise, making the entire circuit of Ireland,
-though it was eventually chased into a French
-port by a line-of-battle ship. Its object was the interception
-of certain linen-ships, which it missed;
-its success, however, in the main, was such as to
-excite great alarm among the English merchants,
-and to produce warm remonstrances to France, from
-their government.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At this time France was not at war with England,
-although she secretly favored and aided the cause of
-the revolted colonies. The appearance of American
-cruisers in the narrow seas, however, gave rise to
-so many complaints, as to induce the French government,
-in preference to pushing matters to extremities,
-temporarily to sequester the vessels. The Lexington
-was included in this measure, having been detained
-in port more than two months; or, until security was
-given that she would quit the European seas. This
-was done, and the brig got to sea again on the 18th
-September, 1777.<a id='r3'/><a href='#f3' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[3]</span></sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It is probable that the recent difficulties had some
-effect on the amount of the military stores on board
-all three of the American vessels. At all events, it
-is certain that the Lexington sailed with a short supply
-of both powder and shot, particularly of the latter.
-The very next day she made an English cutter lying-to,
-which was approached with a confidence that
-could only have proceeded from a mistake as to her
-character. This cutter proved to be a man-of-war,
-called the Alert, commanded by Lieutenant, afterward
-Admiral Bazely, having a strong crew on
-board, and an armament of ten sixes.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the action that ensued, and which was particularly
-well fought on the part of the enemy, the Americans
-were, in a measure, taken by surprise. So
-little were the latter prepared for the conflict, that
-not a match was ready when the engagement commenced,
-and several broadsides were fired by discharging
-muskets at the vents of the guns. The firing
-killed the wind, and there being considerable sea on,
-the engagement became very protracted, during
-which the Lexington expended most of her ammunition.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>After a cannonading of two hours, believing his
-antagonist to be too much crippled to follow, and
-aware of his own inability to continue the action
-much longer, Capt. Johnston made sail, and left the
-cutter, under favor of a breeze that just then sprung
-up. The Lexington left the Alert rapidly at first, but
-the latter having bent new sails, and being the faster
-vessel, in the course of three or four hours succeeded
-in getting alongside again, and of renewing the engagement.
-This second struggle lasted an hour, the
-fighting being principally on one side. After the
-Lexington had thrown her last shot, had broken up
-and used all the iron that could be made available as
-substitutes, and had three of her officers and several
-of her men slain, besides many wounded, Capt.
-Johnston struck his colors. The first lieutenant,
-marine officer, and master of the Lexington were
-among the slain.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>By this accident Dale became a prisoner for the
-third time. This occurred when he wanted just fifty
-days of being twenty-one years old. On this occasion,
-however, he escaped unhurt, though the combat
-had been both fierce and sanguinary. The prize
-was taken into Plymouth, and her officers, after undergoing
-a severe examination, in order to ascertain
-their birthplaces, were all thrown into Mill Prison,
-on a charge of high treason. Here they found the
-common men; the whole being doomed to a rigorous
-and painful confinement.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Either from policy or cupidity, the treatment received
-by the Americans, in this particular prison,
-was of a cruel and oppressive character. There is
-no apology for excessive rigor, or, indeed, for any
-constraint beyond that which is necessary to security,
-toward an uncondemned man. Viewed as mere
-prisoners of war, the Americans might claim the
-usual indulgence; viewed as subjects still to be tried,
-they were rightfully included in that healthful maxim
-of the law, which assumes that all are innocent until
-they are proved to be guilty. So severe were the
-privations of the Americans on this occasion, however,
-that, in pure hunger, they caught a stray dog
-one day, skinned, cooked and ate him, to satisfy their
-cravings for food. Their situation at length attracted
-the attention of the liberal; statements of their wants
-were laid before the public, and an appeal was made
-to the humanity of the English nation. This is always
-an efficient mode of obtaining assistance, and the
-large sum of sixteen thousand pounds was soon
-raised; thereby relieving the wants of the sufferers,
-and effectually effacing the stain from the national
-escutcheon; by demonstrating that the sufferers
-found a generous sympathy in the breasts of the
-public. But man requires more than food and
-warmth. Although suffering no longer from actual
-want and brutal maltreatment, Dale and his companions
-pined for liberty—to be once more fighting the
-battles of their country. Seeing no hopes of an exchange,
-a large party of the prisoners determined to
-make an attempt at escape. A suitable place was
-selected, and a hole under a wall was commenced.
-The work required secrecy and time. The earth
-was removed, little by little, in the pockets of the
-captives, care being had to conceal the place, until a
-hole of sufficient size was made to permit the body
-of a man to pass through. It was a tedious process,
-for the only opportunity which occurred to empty
-their pockets, was while the Americans were exercising
-on the walls of their prison, for a short period
-of each day. By patience and perseverance they
-accomplished their purpose, however, every hour
-dreading exposure and defeat.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When all was ready, Capt. Johnston, most of his
-officers, and several of his crew, or, as many as
-were in the secret, passed through the hole, and
-escaped. This was in February, 1778. The party
-wandered about the country in company, and by
-night, for more than a week; suffering all sorts of
-privations, until it was resolved to take the wiser
-course of separating. Dale, accompanied by one
-other, found his way to London, hotly pursued. At
-one time the two lay concealed under some straw in
-an out-house, while the premises were searched by
-those who were in quest of them. On reaching London,
-Dale and his companion immediately got on
-board a vessel about to sail for Dunkirk. A press-gang
-unluckily took this craft in its rounds, and suspecting
-the true objects of the fugitives, they were
-arrested, and, their characters being ascertained,
-they were sent back to Mill Prison in disgrace.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This was the commencement of a captivity far
-more tedious than the former. In the first place they
-were condemned to forty days’ confinement in the
-black hole, as the punishment for the late escape;
-and, released from this durance, they were deprived
-of many of their former indulgences. Dale himself
-took his revenge in singing “rebel songs,” and paid
-a second visit to the black hole, as the penalty. This
-state of things, with alternations of favor and punishment,
-continued quite a year, when Dale, singly,
-succeeded in again effecting his great object of getting
-free.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The mode in which this second escape was made
-is known, but the manner by which he procured the
-means he refused to his dying day to disclose. At
-all events, he obtained a full suit of British uniform,
-attired in which, and seizing a favorable moment, he
-boldly walked past all the sentinels, and got off.
-That some one was connected with his escape who
-might suffer by his revelations is almost certain; and
-it is a trait in his character worthy of notice, that he
-kept this secret, with scrupulous fidelity, for forty-seven
-years. It is not known that he ever divulged
-it even to any individual of his own family.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Rendered wary by experience, Dale now proceeded
-with great address and caution. He probably
-had money, as well as clothes. At all events, he
-went to London, found means to procure a passport,
-and left the country for France, unsuspected and undetected.
-On reaching a friendly soil, he hastened
-to l’Orient, and joined the force then equipping under
-Paul Jones, in his old rank of a master’s mate.
-Here he was actively employed for some months,
-affording the commodore an opportunity to ascertain
-his true merits, when they met with something like
-their just reward. As Dale was now near twenty-three,
-and an accomplished seaman, Jones, after
-trying several less competent persons, procured a
-commission for him from the commissioners, and
-made him the first lieutenant of his own ship, the
-justly celebrated Bon Homme Richard.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It is not our intention, in this article, to enter any
-farther into the incidents of this well known cruise,
-than is necessary to complete the present subject.
-Dale does not appear in any prominent situation,
-though always discharging the duties of his responsible
-station, with skill and credit, until the squadron
-appeared off Leith, with the intention of seizing that
-town—the port of Edinburgh—and of laying it under
-contribution. On this occasion, our lieutenant was
-selected to command the boats that were to land,
-a high compliment to so young a man, as coming
-from one of the character of Paul Jones. Every
-thing was ready, Dale had received his final orders,
-and was in the very act of proceeding to the ship’s
-side to enter his boat, when a heavy squall struck the
-vessels, and induced an order for the men to come
-on deck, and assist in shortening sail. The vessels
-were compelled to bear up before it, to save their
-spars; this carried them out of the firth; and, a gale
-succeeding, the enterprise was necessarily abandoned.
-This gale proved so heavy, that one of the
-prizes actually foundered.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This attempt of Jones, while it is admitted to have
-greatly alarmed the coast, has often been pronounced
-rash and inconsiderate. Such was not the opinion
-of Dale. A man of singular moderation in his modes
-of thinking, and totally without bravado, it was his
-conviction that the effort would have been crowned
-with success. He assured the writer, years after the
-occurrence, that he was about to embark in the expedition
-with feelings of high confidence, and that he
-believed nothing but the inopportune intervention of
-the squall stood between Jones and a triumphant
-<span class='it'>coup de main</span>.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A few days later, Jones made a secret proposal to
-his officers, which some affirm was to burn the shipping
-at North Shields, but which the commanders of
-two of his vessels strenuously opposed, in consequence
-of which the project was abandoned. The
-commodore himself, in speaking of the manner in
-which this and other similar propositions were received
-by his subordinates, extolled the ardor invariably
-manifested by the young men, among whom
-Dale was one of the foremost. Had it rested with
-them, the attempts at least would all have been made.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On the 19th September occurred the celebrated
-battle between the Serapis and the Bon Homme
-Richard. As the proper place to enter fully into the
-details of that murderous combat will be in the biography
-of Jones, we shall confine ourselves at present
-to incidents with which the subject of this
-memoir was more immediately connected.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Bon Homme Richard had finally sailed on
-this cruise with only two proper sea-lieutenants on
-board her. There was a third officer of the name of
-Lunt, who has been indifferently called a lieutenant
-and the sailing-master, but who properly filled the
-latter station. This gentleman had separated from
-the ship in a fog, on the coast of Ireland, while in
-the pursuit of some deserters, and never rejoined
-the squadron. Another person of the same name,
-and believed to be the brother of the master, was the
-second lieutenant. He was sent in a pilot-boat, accompanied
-by a midshipman and several men, to
-capture a vessel in sight, before Jones made the Baltic
-fleet coming round Flamborough Head. This
-party was not able to return to the Bon Homme
-Richard, until after the battle had terminated. In
-consequence of these two circumstances, each so
-novel in itself, the American frigate fought this
-bloody and arduous combat with only one officer on
-board her, of the rank of a sea-lieutenant, who
-was Dale. This is the reason why the latter is so
-often mentioned as <span class='it'>the</span> lieutenant of the Bon Homme
-Richard, during that memorable fight. The fact rendered
-his duties more arduous and diversified, and
-entitles him to the greater credit for their proper
-performance.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale was stationed on the gun-deck, where of
-course he commanded in chief, though it appears
-that his proper personal division was the forward
-guns. Until the ships got foul of each other, this
-brought him particularly into the hottest of the work;
-the Serapis keeping much on the bows, or ahead of
-the Bon Homme Richard. It is known that Jones was
-much pleased with his deportment, which, in truth,
-was every way worthy of his own. When the alarm
-was given that the ship was sinking, Dale went below
-himself to ascertain the real state of the water, and
-his confident and fearless report cheered the men to
-renewed exertions. Shortly after, the supply of powder
-was stopped, when our lieutenant again quitted
-his quarters to inquire into the cause. On reaching
-the magazine passage he was told by the sentinels
-that they had closed the ingress, on account of a
-great number of strange and foreign faces that they
-saw around them. On further inquiry, Dale discovered
-that the master at arms, of his own head, had
-let loose all the prisoners—more than a hundred in
-number—under the belief that the ship was sinking.
-Dale soon saw the danger which might ensue, but
-finding the English much alarmed at the supposed
-condition of the ship, he succeeded in mustering
-them, and setting them at work at the pumps, where,
-by their exertions, they probably prevented the apprehended
-calamity. For some time, at the close of
-the action, all his guns being rendered useless, Dale
-was employed principally in this important service.
-There is no question that without some such succor,
-the Richard would have gone down much earlier
-than she did. It is a singular feature of this every-way
-extraordinary battle, that here were Englishmen,
-zealously employed in aiding the efforts of their
-enemies, under the cool control of a collected and
-observant officer.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At length the cheerful intelligence was received
-that the enemy had struck. Dale went on deck, and
-immediately demanded Jones’ permission to take
-possession of the prize. It was granted, and had he
-never manifested any other act of personal intrepidity,
-his promptitude on this occasion, and the
-manner in which he went to work, to attain his purpose,
-would have shown him to be a man above personal
-considerations, when duty or honor pointed out
-his course. The main-yard of the Serapis was hanging
-a-cock-bill, over the side of the American ship.
-The brace was shot away, and the pendant hung
-within reach. Seizing the latter, Dale literally swung
-himself off, and alighted alone on the quarter-deck of
-the Serapis. Here he found no one but the brave
-Pierson, who had struck his own flag; but the men
-below were still ignorant of the act. We may form
-an opinion of the risk that the young man ran, in
-thus boarding his enemy at night, and in the confusion
-of such a combat, for the English were still
-firing below, by the fact that Mr. Mayrant, a young
-man of South Carolina, and a midshipman of the
-Bon Homme Richard, who led a party after the
-lieutenant, was actually run through the thigh by a
-boarding pike, and by the hands of a man in the
-waist below.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The first act of Dale, on getting on the quarter
-deck of the Serapis, was to direct her captain to go
-on board the American ship. While thus employed,
-the English first lieutenant came up from below, and
-finding that the Americans had ceased their fire, he
-demanded if they had struck. “No, sir,” answered
-Dale, “it is this ship that has struck, and you are my
-prisoner.” An appeal to Capt. Pierson confirming
-this, the English lieutenant offered to go below and
-silence the remaining guns of the Serapis. To this
-Dale objected, and had both the officers passed on
-board the Bon Homme Richard. In a short time,
-the English below were sent from their guns, and
-full possession was obtained of the prize.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As more men were soon sent from the Bon Homme
-Richard, the two ships were now separated, the
-Richard making sail, and Jones ordering Dale to follow
-with the prize. A sense of fatigue had come
-over the latter, in consequence of the reaction of so
-much excitement and so great exertions, and he took
-a seat on the binnacle. Here he issued an order to
-brace the head yards aback, and to put the helm
-down. Wondering that the ship did not pay off, he
-directed that the wheel-ropes should be examined. It
-was reported that they were not injured, and that the
-helm was hard down. Astonished to find the ship
-immovable under such circumstances, there being
-a light breeze, Dale sprang upon his feet, and then
-discovered, for the first time, that he had been severely
-wounded, by a splinter, in the foot and ankle.
-The hurt, now that he was no longer sustained by the
-excitement of battle, deprived him of the use of his
-leg, and he fell. Just at this moment, Mr. Lunt, the
-officer who had been absent in the pilot-boat, reached
-the Richard, and Dale was forced to give up to him
-the command of the prize. The cause of the Serapis’
-not minding her helm was the fact that Capt.
-Pierson had dropped an anchor under foot when the
-two ships got foul; a circumstance of which the
-Americans were ignorant until this moment.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale was some time laid up with his wound, but
-he remained with Jones in his old station of first
-lieutenant, accompanying that officer, in the Alliance,
-from the Texel to l’Orient. In the controversy which
-ensued between the commodore and Landais, our
-lieutenant took sides warmly with the first, and even
-offered to head a party to recover the Alliance, by
-force. This measure not being resorted to, he remained
-with Jones, and finally sailed with him for
-America, as his first lieutenant, in the Ariel 20, a
-ship lent to the Americans, by the King of France.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Ariel quitted port in October, 1780, but encountered
-a tremendous gale of wind off the Penmarks.
-Losing her masts, she was compelled to
-return to refit. On this occasion Dale, in his responsible
-situation of first lieutenant, showed all the
-coolness of his character, and the resources of a
-thorough seaman. The tempest was almost a hurricane,
-and of extraordinary violence. The Ariel
-sailed a second time about the commencement of the
-year 1781, and reached Philadelphia on the 18th
-February. During the passage home, she had a
-short action, in the night, with a heavy British letter-of-marque,
-that gave her name as the Triumph; and
-which ship is said to have struck, but to have made
-her escape by treachery. Jones, who was greedy of
-glory, even fancied that his enemy was a vessel of
-war, and that he had captured a vessel of at least
-equal force. This was not Dale’s impression. He
-spoke of the affair to the writer of this article, as one
-of no great moment, even questioning whether their
-antagonist struck at all; giving it as his belief
-she was a quick-working and fast-sailing letter-of-marque.
-He distinctly stated that she got off by out-manœuvring
-the Ariel, which vessel was badly manned,
-and had an exceedingly mixed and disaffected
-crew. It is worthy of remark that, while two articles,
-enumerating the services of Dale, have been
-written by gentlemen connected with himself, and
-possessing his confidence, neither mentions this affair;
-a proof, in itself, that Dale considered it one of little
-moment.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The account which Dale always gave of the meeting
-between the Ariel and Triumph—admitting such
-to have been the name of the English ship—so different
-from that which has found its way into various
-publications, on the representation of other actors in
-that affair, is illustrative of the character of the man.
-Simple of mind, totally without exaggeration, and a
-lover, as well as a practicer, of severe truth, he was
-a man whose representations might be fully relied
-on. Even in his account of the extraordinary combat
-between the Richard and Serapis, he stripped the
-affair of all its romance, and of every thing that was
-wonderful; rendering the whole clear, simple and
-intelligible as his own thoughts. The only narratives
-of that battle, worthy of a seaman, have been written
-rigidly after his explanations, which leave it a bloody
-and murderous fight, but one wholly without the
-marvelous.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On his arrival at Philadelphia, after an absence of
-four years, more than one of which had been spent
-in prison, Dale was just twenty-four years and two
-months old. He was now regularly put on the list
-of lieutenants, by the marine committee of Congress;
-his former authority proceeding from the agents of
-the government in Europe. It is owing to this circumstance
-that the register of government places
-him so low as a lieutenant. Dale now parted from
-Paul Jones, with whom he had served near two
-years; and that, too, in some of the most trying
-scenes of the latter’s life. The commodore was
-anxious to take his favorite lieutenant with him to
-the America 74; but the latter declined the service,
-under the impression it would be a long time before
-the ship got to sea. He judged right, the America
-being transferred to the French in the end, and Jones
-himself never again sailing under the American flag.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The name of Dale will inseparably be connected
-with the battle of the Richard and Serapis. His
-prominent position and excellent conduct entitle him
-to this mark of distinction, and it says much for the
-superior, when it confers fame to have been “Paul
-Jones’ first lieutenant.” We smile, however, at the
-legends of the day, when we recall the account of
-the “Lieutenants Grubb” and other heroes of romance,
-who have been made to figure in the histories
-of that renowned combat, and place them in contrast
-with the truth-loving, sincere, moral and respectable
-subject of this memoir. The sword which Louis
-XVI. bestowed on Jones, for this victory, passed into
-the hands of Dale, and is now the property of a gallant
-son, a fitting mark of the services of the father,
-on the glorious occasion it commemorates.<a id='r4'/><a href='#f4' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[4]</span></sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale was employed on board a schooner that was
-manned from the Ariel, after reaching Philadelphia,
-and sent down the Delaware to convoy certain public
-stores. The following June, he joined the Trumbull
-28, Captain Nicholson, as her first lieutenant. The
-Trumbull left the capes of the Delaware on the 8th
-August, 1781, being chased off the land by three of
-the enemy’s cruisers. The weather was squally and
-night set in dark. In endeavoring to avoid her pursuers,
-the Trumbull found herself alongside of the
-largest, a frigate of thirty-two guns, and an action
-was fought under the most unfavorable circumstances.
-The Trumbull’s fore-topmast was hanging over, or
-rather through her forecastle, her crew was disorganized,
-and the vessel herself in a state of no preparation
-for a conflict with an equal force; much
-less with that actually opposed to her. The officers
-made great exertions, and maintained an action of
-more than an hour, when the colors of the American
-ship were struck to the Iris 32, and Monk 18. The
-former of these vessels had been the American frigate
-Hancock, and the latter was subsequently captured
-in the Delaware, by Barney in the Hyder Ally.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This was the fourth serious affair in which Dale
-had been engaged that war, and the fourth time he
-had been captured. As he was hurt also in this
-battle, it made the third of his wounds. His confinement,
-however, was short, and the treatment not a
-subject of complaint. He was taken into New York,
-paroled on Long Island, and exchanged in November.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>No new service offering in a marine which, by
-this time, had lost most of its ships, Dale obtained a
-furlough, and joined a large letter-of-marque called
-the Queen of France, that carried twelve guns, as
-her first officer. Soon after he was appointed to the
-command of the same vessel. In the spring of 1782,
-this ship, in company with several other letters-of-marque,
-sailed for France, making many captures
-by the way. The ship of Dale, however, parted
-from the fleet, and, falling in with an English privateer
-of fourteen guns, a severe engagement followed,
-in which both parties were much cut up; they parted
-by mutual consent. Dale did not get back to Philadelphia
-until February of the succeeding year, or
-until about the time that peace was made.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In common with most of the officers of the navy,
-Lieutenant Dale was disbanded, as soon as the war
-ceased. He was now in the twenty-seventh year of
-his age, with a perfect knowledge of his profession,
-in which he had passed more than half his life, a
-high reputation for his rank, a courage that had often
-been tried, a body well scarred, a character beyond
-reproach, and not altogether without “money in his
-purse.” Under the circumstances, he naturally determined
-to follow up his fortunes in the line in
-which he had commenced his career. He became
-part owner of a large ship, and sailed in her for
-London, December, 1783, in the station of master.
-After this, he embarked successfully in the East
-India trade, in the same character, commanding
-several of the finest ships out of the country. In this
-manner he accumulated a respectable fortune, and
-began to take his place among the worthies of the
-land in a new character.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In September, 1791, Mr. Dale was married to
-Dorothy Crathorne, the daughter of another respectable
-ship-master of Philadelphia, and then a ward
-of Barry’s. With this lady he passed the remainder
-of his days, she surviving him as his widow, and dying
-some years later than himself. No change in his pursuits
-occurred until 1794, when the new government
-commenced the organization of another marine, which
-has resulted in that which the country now possesses.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale was one of the six captains appointed under
-the law of 1794, that directed the construction of as
-many frigates, with a view to resist the aggressions
-of Algiers. Each of the new captains was ordered
-to superintend the construction of one of the frigates,
-and Dale, who was fifth in rank, was directed to
-assume the superintendence of the one laid down at
-Norfolk, virtually the place of his nativity. This
-ship was intended to be a frigate of the first class,
-but, by some mistake in her moulds, she proved in
-the end to be the smallest of the six vessels then
-built. It was the unfortunate Chesapeake, a vessel
-that never was in a situation to reflect much credit
-on the service. Her construction, however, was
-deferred, in consequence of an arrangement with
-Algiers, and her captain was put on furlough.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale now returned to the China trade, in which he
-continued until the spring of 1798. The last vessel
-he commanded was called the Ganges. She was a
-fine, fast ship, and the state of our relations with
-France requiring a hurried armament, the government
-bought this vessel, in common with several
-others, put an armament of suitable guns in her, with
-a full crew, gave her to Dale, and ordered her on the
-coast as a regular cruiser.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In consequence of this arrangement, Capt. Dale
-was the first officer who ever got to sea under the
-pennant of the present navy. He sailed in May,
-1798, and was followed by the Constellation and
-Delaware in a few days. The service of Dale in
-his new capacity was short, however, in consequence
-of some questions relating to rank. The
-captains appointed in 1794 claimed their old places,
-and, it being uncertain what might be the final decision
-of the government, as there were many aspirants,
-Dale declined serving until the matter was
-determined. In May, 1799, he sailed for Canton
-again, in command of a strong letter-of-marque, under
-a furlough. On his return from this voyage he
-found his place on the list settled according to his
-own views of justice and honor, and reported himself
-for service. Nothing offered, however, until the
-difficulties with France were arranged; but, in
-May, 1801, he was ordered to take command of a
-squadron of observation about to be sent to the
-Mediterranean.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale now hoisted his broad pennant, for the first
-and only time, and assumed the title by which he was
-known for the rest of his days. He was in the prime
-of life, being in his forty-fifth year, of an active,
-manly frame, and had every prospect before him of
-a long and honorable service. The ships put under
-his orders were the President 44, Capt. James Barron;
-Philadelphia 38, Capt. Samuel Barron; Essex
-32, Capt. William Bainbridge; and Enterprise 12,
-Lieut. Com. Sterrett. A better appointed, or a better
-commanded force, probably never sailed from America.
-But there was little to do, under the timid
-policy and defective laws of the day. War was not
-supposed to exist, although hostilities did; and vessels
-were sent into foreign seas with crews shipped for a
-period that would scarcely allow of a vessel’s being
-got into proper order.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The squadron sailed June 1st, 1801, and reached
-Gibraltar July 1st. The Philadelphia blockaded the
-Tripolitan admiral, with two cruisers, in Gibraltar,
-while the other vessels went aloft. A sharp action
-occurred between the Enterprise and a Tripolitan of
-equal force, in which the latter was compelled to
-submit, but was allowed to go into her own port
-again, for want of legal authority to detain her. Dale
-appeared off Tripoli, endeavored to negotiate a little
-about an exchange of prisoners, and did blockade
-the port; but his orders fettered him in a way to
-prevent any serious enterprises. In a word, no circumstances
-occurred to allow the commodore to
-show his true character, except as it was manifested
-in his humanity, prudence and dignity. As a superior,
-he obtained the profound respect of all under his
-orders, and to this day his name is mentioned with
-regard by those who then served under him. It is
-thought that this squadron did much toward establishing
-the high discipline of the marine. In one instance
-only had Dale an opportunity of manifesting his high
-personal and professional qualities. The President
-struck a rock in quitting Port Mahon, and for some
-hours she was thought to be in imminent danger of
-foundering. Dale assumed the command, and one of
-his lieutenants, himself subsequently a flag officer of
-rare seamanship and merit, has often recounted to
-the writer his admiration of the commodore’s coolness,
-judgment, and nerve, on so trying an occasion.
-The ship was carried to Toulon, blowing a gale,
-and, on examination, it was found that she was only
-saved from destruction by the skilful manner in which
-the wood ends had been secured.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The vigilance of Dale was so great, however, and
-his dispositions so skilful, that the Tripolitans made
-no captures while he commanded in those seas. In
-March, 1802, he sailed for home, under his orders,
-reaching Hampton Roads in April, after a cruise of
-about ten months. The succeeding autumn, Com.
-Dale received an order to hold himself in readiness
-to resume the command from which he had just returned.
-Ever ready to serve his country, when it
-could be done with honor, he would cheerfully have
-made his preparations accordingly, but, by the order
-itself, he ascertained that he was to be sent out without
-a captain in his own ship. This, agreeably to
-the notions he entertained, was a descent in the scale
-of rank, and he declined serving on such terms.
-There being no alternative between obedience and
-resignation, he chose the latter, and quitted the navy.
-At this time, he was the third captain on the list, and
-it is no more than justice to say, that he stood second
-to no other in the public estimation.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale never went to sea again. Possessed of an
-ample fortune, and possessing the esteem of all who
-knew him, he commanded the respect of those with
-whom he differed in opinion touching the question
-which drove him from the navy. With the latter he
-never quarreled, for, at the proper period, he gave
-to it his two elder sons. To the last he retained his
-interest in its success, and his care of mariners, in
-general, extended far beyond the interests of this life.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Many years previously to his death, Com. Dale
-entered into full communion with the Protestant
-Episcopal Church, of which he proved a consistent
-and pious member. Under the newly awakened
-feelings which induced this step, he was the originater
-of a Mariner’s Church, in Philadelphia, attending
-it in person, every Sunday afternoon, for a long
-succession of years. He was as free with his purse,
-too, as with his time; and his charities, though properly
-concealed, were believed to be large and discriminating.
-With some it may be deemed a matter
-of moment, with all it should be a proof of the estimation
-in which Dale was held by certainly a very
-respectable part of his fellow citizens, that he was
-named to be the first president of the Washington
-Benevolent Society; an association that soon degenerated
-to serve the ends of party politics, whatever
-may have been the design that influenced the few
-with which it originated.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The evening of the life of Dale was singularly
-peaceful and happy. It was as calm as its morning
-had been tempestuous. It is true he had to weep
-for the loss of his first-born son, a noble youth, who
-died of wounds received in the action between his
-old ship, the President, and a British squadron; but
-he had given the young man to his country, and knew
-how to bear up under the privation. He died, himself,
-in the seventieth year of his age, in his dwelling at
-Philadelphia, February 26th, 1826; departing in peace
-with God and man, as he fondly trusted himself, and
-as those who survive have every reason to hope.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>By his marriage with Miss Crathorne, Com. Dale
-had several children, five of whom lived to become
-men and women, viz. three sons and two daughters.
-Of the former, Richard, the eldest, fell, at an early
-age, a midshipman on board the President. John
-Montgomery, the second, is now a commander in the
-navy, having served with Warrington, in the last
-English war. This gentleman is married to a lady
-of the well known family of Willing. Edward Crathorne,
-the youngest son, is a merchant of Philadelphia.
-He is married and has children. The eldest
-daughter, Sarah, married T. M’Kean Pettit, Esq., a
-judge of the District Court, in Philadelphia, and is
-dead, leaving issue. Elizabeth, the youngest, is the
-wife of Com. George Campbell Reed, of the navy,
-and has no issue.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In considering the character of Dale, we are
-struck with its simple modesty and frank sincerity,
-quite as much as with its more brilliant qualities.
-His courage and constancy were of the highest order,
-rendering him always equal to the most critical duties,
-and never wearying in their performance. Such
-a man is perfectly free from all exaggeration. As he
-was not afraid to act when his cooler judgment approved,
-he had no distrusts to overcome ere he could
-forbear, as prudence dictated. Jones found him a
-man ready and willing to second all his boldest and
-most hazardous attempts, so long as reason showed
-the probabilities of success; but the deed done, none
-more thoroughly stripped it of all false coloring, or
-viewed it in a truer light than he who had risked his
-life in aiding to achieve it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The person of Dale was in harmony with his moral
-qualities. It was manly, seaman-like, and of singularly
-respectable bearing. Simplicity, good faith,
-truth and courage were imprinted on his countenance,
-which all who were thrown into his company
-soon discovered was no more than the mirror of his
-mind. The navy has had more brilliant intellects,
-officers of profounder mental attainments, and of
-higher natural gifts, but it has had few leaders of
-cooler judgment, sounder discretion, more inflexible
-justice, or indomitable resolution. He was of a nature,
-an experience, and a professional skill to command
-respect and to inspire confidence, tributes that
-were cheerfully paid by all who served under his
-orders. The writer of this article has had extensive
-opportunities of hearing character discussed among
-the sea-officers of his country; few escape criticism,
-of some sort or other, for their professional acts, and
-fewer still, as men; yet he cannot recall a single instance
-in which he has ever heard a whisper of complaint
-against the public or private career of Richard
-Dale. This total exemption from the usual fortunes
-of the race may, in part, be owing to the shortness
-of the latter’s service in the present marine, and to
-the limited acquaintance of his cotemporaries, but
-it is difficult to believe that it is not chiefly to
-be ascribed to the thoroughly seaman-like character
-of the officer, and to the perfect truth and sterling
-probity of the man.</p>
-
-<hr class='footnotemark'/>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_1'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' class='footnoteid'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div class='footnote-id' id='f1'><a href='#r1'>[1]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This ship has been differently stated to have been the
-Liverpool and the Pearl. We follow what we think the
-best authorities.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_2'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' class='footnoteid'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div class='footnote-id' id='f2'><a href='#r2'>[2]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The prize-officer of the Lexington was a young American,
-of a highly respectable family, then an acting lieutenant
-in the English navy. His prisoners seized an occasion
-to rise, at a moment when he had gone below for an
-instant, in consequence of which he was dismissed the service;
-living the remainder of his life, and dying, in his
-native country.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_3'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' class='footnoteid'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div class='footnote-id' id='f3'><a href='#r3'>[3]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It is a curious feature of the times, that, the French
-ordering the Americans to quit their ports with their prizes,
-the latter were taken out a short distance to sea and sold,
-Frenchmen becoming the purchasers, and finding means to
-secure the property.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_4'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' class='footnoteid'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div class='footnote-id' id='f4'><a href='#r4'>[4]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This sword has, quite recently, become the subject of
-public discussion, and of some private feeling, under circumstances
-not wholly without interest to the navy and
-the country. At page 63, vol. 2, of Mackenzie’s Life of Paul
-Jones, is the following note, viz.:</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r8'>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“This sword was sent by Jones’ heirs to his valued
-friend, Robert Morris, to whose favor he had owed his
-opportunities of distinguishing himself. Mr. Morris gave
-the sword to the navy of the United States. It was to be
-retained and worn by the senior officer, and transmitted
-at his death, to his successor. After passing through the
-hands of Commodore Barry, <span class='it'>and one or two other senior
-officers</span>, it came into possession of Commodore Dale, and
-now remains in his family, through some mistake in the
-nature of the bequest, which seems to require that it should
-either be restored to the navy in the person of its senior
-officer, or else revert to the heirs of Mr. Robert Morris,
-from one of whom the writer has received this information.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>That Captain Mackenzie has been correctly informed as to
-a portion of the foregoing statement, is as probable as it is
-certain he has been misled as to the remainder. It would
-have been more discreet, however, in a writer to have heard
-both sides, previously to laying such a statement before the
-world. A very little inquiry might have satisfied him that
-Commodore Dale could not have held any thing as the
-senior officer of the navy, since he never occupied that
-station. We believe the following will be found to be
-accurate.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Of the manner in which Commodore Barry became possessed
-of this sword we know nothing beyond report, and
-the statement of Captain Mackenzie. We understand that
-a female member of the Morris family gives a version of
-the affair like that published in the note we have quoted,
-but the accuracy of her recollections can hardly be put in
-opposition to the <span class='it'>acts</span> of such men as Barry and Dale.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The sword never passed through the hands “<span class='it'>of one or two
-other senior officers</span>,” as stated by Captain Mackenzie, at all.
-It was bequeathed by Commodore Barry to Commodore
-Dale, in his will, and in the following words, viz.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Item, I give and bequeath to my good friend Captain
-Richard Dale, <span class='it'>my</span> gold-hilted sword, as a token of my
-esteem for him.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We have carefully examined the will, inventory, &amp;c. of
-Commodore Barry. The first is dated February 27, 1803;
-the will is proved and the inventory filed in the following
-September, in which month Commodore Barry died. Now,
-Commodore Dale was not in the navy at all, when this
-sword was bequeathed to him, nor when he received it.
-Dale resigned in the autumn of 1802; and he never rose
-nearer to the head of the list of captains, than to be the
-third in rank; Barry, himself, and Samuel Nicholson, being
-his seniors, when he resigned.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The inventory of Commodore Barry’s personal property
-is very minute, containing articles of a value as low as one
-dollar. It mentions <span class='it'>two</span> swords, both of which are specifically
-bequeathed—viz. “<span class='it'>my</span> gold-hilted” and “<span class='it'>my</span> silver-hilted
-sword.” No allusion is made in the will to any
-trust. Only these two swords were found among the assets,
-and each was delivered agreeably to the bequest.
-The gold-hilted sword was known in the family, as the
-“Paul Jones sword,” and there is not the smallest doubt
-Commodore Barry intended to bequeath this particular
-sword, in full property, to Commodore Dale.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Let us next look to the probabilities of the case. The heirs
-of Paul Jones, who left no issue, gave the sword to Robert
-Morris, says Captain Mackenzie, as a mark of gratitude.
-This may very well be true. But Mr. Morris “gave the
-sword to the navy of the United States,” to be retained and
-worn by its senior officer. It would have been a more
-usual course to have lodged the sword in the Navy Department,
-had such been the intention. That Commodore Barry
-did not view <span class='it'>his</span> possession of the sword in this light, is
-clear enough by his will. He gave it, <span class='it'>without</span> restraint of
-any sort, to a friend who was not in the navy at all, and
-who never had been its senior officer. This he did, in full
-possession of his mind and powers, six months before he
-died, and under circumstances to render any misconception
-highly improbable.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Can we find any motive for the bequest of Commodore
-Barry? It was not personal to himself, as the sword went
-out of his own family. The <span class='it'>other sword</span> he gave to a brother-in-law.
-“Paul Jones’ sword” was bequeathed to a distinguished
-professional friend—to one who, of all others, next
-to Jones himself, had the best professional right to wear it—to
-“Paul Jones’ first lieutenant.” Commodore Dale did
-leave sons, and some in the navy; and the country will believe
-that the one who now owns the sword has as good a
-moral right to wear it, as the remote collaterals of Jones, and
-a much better right than the senior officer of the navy, on
-proof as vague as that offered. His <span class='it'>legal</span> right to the sword
-seems to be beyond dispute.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the inventory of Commodore Barry’s personals, this
-sword is thus mentioned, viz.—“a very elegant gold-hilted
-sword—$300.” The other sword is thus mentioned, viz.—“a
-handsome silver-hilted, do. $100.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk102'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='the'></a>THE SERENADE.</h1></div>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Beneath a bower, where poplar branches long</p>
-<p class='line0'>Embracing wove Seclusion o’er the abode</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of hermit sage, what time the full moon rode</p>
-<p class='line0'>’Mid spectre clouds her star-paved streets along,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Rose on the listening air a plaintive song,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Sweet as the harmony of an angel’s lyre,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And soft as sweet; breathed heavenward from a quire</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of Beauty, hid the encircling shades among.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of mysteries high, I ween, that sage had dreamed⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Who now, upstarting, clasps his hands to hear</p>
-<p class='line0'>The <span class='it'>mystic notes of Nature’s Anthem</span> clear,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Which holiest bards have heard and heavenly deemed!</p>
-<p class='line0'>’Tis even thus as to that sage it seemed⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>’Tis Beauty makes the dreams of Wisdom, dear!</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk103'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='wid'></a>THE WIDOW OF NEWBURY.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY THE AUTHOR OF “HENRI QUATRE.”</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>’Twas the eve of Newbury fair, and the time
-near the close of the long reign of Harry the Eighth,
-after monasteries were suppressed. Reform stalked
-through the land—all things were turned topsy-turvy—abbots
-and monks beggared, that poor lords might
-thrive—priests permitted marriage, and nuns driven
-from their pleasant retreats, were forced to spin for
-a livelihood. But amid the greater marvels, the
-townspeople of Newbury had often leisure to ask
-why Mistress Avery remained so long a widow.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Sitting in her embowered porch, watching the
-cavalcade of merchants, buffoons and jugglers, on
-their way to the encampment and site of the morrow’s
-revels, she attracted many a longing eye. The
-merchant, whose wandering vocation led him from
-ancient Byzantium to the shores of the Thames, who
-came to Newbury to exchange rich silks and foreign
-jewelry for broadcloth, as he rode by the capacious
-square tenement, with its deep, embayed windows
-of dark chesnut-wood, and caught a glimpse of the
-fair owner, sighed when contrasting his own desolate,
-wandering lot with that of the fortunate wooer of the
-rich, comely widow. Mistress Avery was relict of
-the richest clothier of Newbury, who, dying, left her
-in sole possession of looms, lands, tenements and
-leases. Handsome, young, brisk, with riches unquestionable,
-she attracted tender regards from all
-quarters—even the proud gentry of Berkshire, with
-genealogical tree rooting from Norman marauder,
-far back as the conquest, disdained not an alliance
-garnished with broad manors, woods of a century’s
-growth, and goodly array of tenements, of which
-our widow held fee-simple. But when pressed successively
-by belted knight and worshipful esquire,
-she courteously declined their offers, alleging she
-was bent on marrying one of her own class in life,
-(if she should change condition,) one who could take
-upon himself, without degradation, the task of superintending
-the looms. High born swains repulsed, the
-field was open to gallants of lowlier rank. But these
-faring no better, and incurring the ridicule of neighbors,
-suitors became shy and reserved, seeking to
-extract token of favor ere they avowed themselves.
-If the curate called, ’twas merely an inquiry after
-her soul’s health—the inquiry perhaps linked to a request
-that she would, from her stores of boundless
-wealth, add a trifle to the contributions of the poor’s
-box. The lawyer had his ever ready and undeniable
-excuses for visiting—leases there were to sign, indentures
-to cancel. Nor was the tailor barred his
-plea—was there not much broadcloth yearly fashioned
-into apparel for lusty serving-man, active apprentice?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Behind Mistress Avery, as she sat gazing at the
-straggling pageantry, there loitered in hall and doorway
-the apprentices and domestic servants of the
-household. Distinguished amongst his companions,
-by superior stature, stood John Winehcomb, chief
-apprentice. To him the widow oft turned with remark
-on passing stranger; the soft regard thrown
-into her address would have excused boldness in
-one far less favored by nature than the apprentice,
-but his answers were submissive, modest, even bashful.
-An acute observer might perhaps have detected
-a shade of discontent on the widow’s handsome features,
-perhaps, as fancifully, attributed it to the coyness
-and reserve of young Winehcomb; and, indeed,
-as revolving months lengthened the period of widowhood,
-there had not been wanting whispers, that
-’Prentice John stood a fairer chance with his mistress
-than all the knights or reputable burgher citizens
-and yeomen of the county. His appearance certainly
-did not gainsay the rumor—he had completed his
-twentieth year, health flushed his cheeks, honesty
-and intelligence stamped his looks—the features
-were bold and decided, though of modest expression.
-In character, he was one of those gifted youths, in
-whom strict attention and unvarying promptitude
-supply the place of experience, and who acquire the
-management and conduct of business, in ordinary
-cases, rarely entrusted to men of mature years. The
-clothier, when dying, recommended his spouse to
-confide business affairs to John—she had done so; in
-the factory and with the workmen ’Prentice John
-was all and everything—from his word ’twas useless
-to appeal.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But when young Winehcomb’s credit with Mistress
-Avery was canvassed, the gossips were at a loss to
-affix on decisive marks of favor or tenderness. ’Tis
-true, he accompanied her to church, but so did the
-other apprentices—walked by her side, sat next his
-mistress during prayers, his arm was accepted, his
-hand arranged the cushions—but then, was he not
-chief apprentice, would it not be slighting to prefer
-the services of a junior? Look narrowly at his
-conduct—there were none of the characteristics of a
-favored swain, no semblance of behavior indicating
-one presumptuous of the honor, nor could the absence
-of these tokens be attributed to natural timidity in
-the presence of the sex, for at country meetings and
-fairs, where hoydenish romping was the usual diversion
-of youth, John participated in rustic gallantries.
-Yet, sooth to say, though the gossips were at fault,
-they were not wrong in their conjectures; the widow
-was deeply in love with ’Prentice John, for his sake
-had dismissed high-born suitors, wealthy citizens,
-and, we need hardly say, (though scrupulously regardful
-of reputation,) had given him many hints,
-which, alas! he was slow to understand. It might
-be inexperience, want of self-confidence, or innate
-modesty, which withheld the youth from tracing her
-encouragement to its real motive; but from whatever
-cause, Mistress Avery, who had a very high opinion
-of her own personal attractions, knew he must be
-perfectly well acquainted with her riches, was greatly
-perplexed with his diffidence, his want of susceptibility,
-and concluded the apprentice must be in love
-elsewhere to withstand such allurements.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>One while, racked with jealousy, determined in
-very spite and vexation to accept the offer of the first
-suitor, the next hour affection gained the ascendancy,
-and she resolved to declare her love. But pride took
-fire and caused a tumult in the heart, of which young
-Winehcomb, the unconscious origin, was little aware.
-How provoking the calmness of his replies, the quiet
-gaze which met her impassioned glance! Oft with
-difficulty she refrained from bestowing a hearty cuff
-on the cold youth, object of fond desire—as often,
-and with greater difficulty, did she refrain from tenderer
-salute. To-morrow shall put this wilful-headed
-boy to the test! If his heart be engaged, it
-is more than likely he has made an assignation,
-which I will frustrate! So thought Mistress Avery,
-revolving a scheme to bring young Diffidence on his
-knees, or to a direct confession that he loved another.
-Under pretence of making inquiries respecting the
-description of merchandise then passing the house,
-borne on a long train of pack-horses, under conduct
-of merchants of foreign aspect, the widow beckoned
-the apprentice (who was standing at respectful distance,
-beneath the threshold, with his fellow apprentices)
-to approach her chair, placed outside the house
-under cover of the overarching porch.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“John!” said the dame, fixing her large eyes on
-the youth, “I warrant there is store enough of trinkets
-and finery in yon bales to satisfy the wants of
-every maiden in Newbury. Happy the youth whose
-wages are unspent, for to-morrow, by ’r Lady! he
-might buy the love of the most hard-hearted damsel.
-Certes, no swain need die of love, if he have money
-in his purse!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If the love were bought by those foreign pedlar
-wares, it would not be much for a Newbury lad to
-boast of,” replied the young man, blushing—for the
-gaze of his mistress was keen and ardent.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Are the lads of Newbury then so disinterested,
-Master John,” exclaimed the widow. “Well! I
-will put one, at least, to the proof. I must walk
-through the fair, if only to chat with my tenants’
-wives from Spene and Thatcham, and shall need
-your protection, for these strange foreigners may be
-rude, and Cicely is such a coward she would run
-away.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Avery was rather baffled by the result of her
-own feint; for, contrary to expectation, she could
-discover neither chagrin nor disappointment; the
-apprentice answered cheerfully, he should be proud
-to attend on his honored mistress, and would not forget
-a good cudgel, more than a match for any
-foreigner’s steel—nay, to ensure her from insult, he
-would bring all his fellow apprentices. This was
-more than the lady desired. She was again puzzled,
-and declined, rather pettishly, the extra corps of
-gallants, volunteered by the apprentice, more especially,
-as she affirmed that it was contrary to the letter
-and spirit of their indentures, which guaranteed
-festival and fair-days to be at their own disposal.
-But they would gladly abandon the privilege to do
-her service, rejoined the pertinacious and simple
-youth, with ill-timed assiduity.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Fool!” muttered the widow between her teeth,
-but not so indistinctly as to pass unheard by the
-apprentice, who immediately drew back abashed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A bright morrow gladdened the hearts of the good
-folk of Newbury. The morn was occupied in the
-sale and purchase of commodities—the staple article
-of the town was readily exchanged for foreign merchandise,
-or broad Spanish pieces, as suited the inclination
-of the parties dealing. These were busy
-hours for young Winehcomb and his associates, but
-amply redeemed by the gayety and attractive dissipation
-of the afternoon. In walking through the fair,
-Mistress Avery leaned on the youth’s arm, an honor
-envied the apprentice by many an anxious, would-be
-suitor. Ere growing tired of the drollery of the jugglers,
-mountebanks and buffoons, or the more serious
-spectacle of the scenic moralites, they encountered
-Master Luke Milner, the attorney, who thought the
-opportunity should not be thrown away of endeavoring
-to gain the widow’s good graces. Master Luke
-believed his chance very fair—he was of good family,
-on the youthful side of thirty, but exceedingly foppish,
-after the style of the London gallants, but caricatured—too
-many ribbons on doublet, too many
-jewels on beaver, shoes garnished with roses large
-as sunflowers. “The worshipful attorney will never
-do for me,” thought Mistress Avery! She had often
-thought so, and was blind to many courtesies and
-compliments which the learned man ventured to
-throw in with his legal opinions. But now she had
-a part to play, a stratagem to practice on the feelings
-of young Winehcomb. Love, like hunger, will
-break through every restraint; she scrupled not
-making the lawyer’s vanity subservient to her policy,
-and, accordingly, listened to his flattery with more
-than ordinary attention, keeping an eye, the while,
-on ’Prentice John, to observe the effect of the
-legal gallant’s honeyed speeches. Alas! for poor,
-love-stricken Mistress Avery—no burning jealousy
-flushed the cheek of John—lightened in his eye, or
-trembled through his frame! Hearing the conversation
-grow each moment more interesting and tender,
-believing himself one too many, he politely retired to
-a respectful distance. Was he so cold and insensible,
-the handsome blockhead? soliloquized Mistress
-Avery, heedless of the lawyer’s flowing speeches—I
-will break the indentures—banish him the house!
-The wretch!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Not cold, not insensible, Mistress Avery, for see!
-Even whilst he loiters, there approaches a party from
-the village of Spene, with whom our apprentice is
-intimate—he laughs, chats with the young men and
-maidens, and finally, as the mirth grows more uproarious,
-salutes a very handsome, fresh colored,
-smart young damsel. The dame, who witnessed the
-scene, stung with jealousy, believing her suspicions
-confirmed, broke off abruptly, whilst Master Luke
-was at the very <span class='it'>acme</span> of his tender theme; leaving
-the astonished gallant, cap in hand, to the derision of
-acquaintance, who sarcastically advised him to repair
-the loss by writ of error.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1em;'>——</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER II.</h2>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Though the widow took no notice of the incident
-which aroused her jealousy, John was made sensible
-he had incurred her displeasure. She walked silent,
-moody, reserved, scarcely replied to his remarks;
-her large, dark eye flashed anger, but the apprentice,
-though awed, was struck with its beauty, more struck
-than he had ever been. It was a new sensation he
-experienced. He inwardly deprecated the threatened
-wrath, wondered by what sad mischance he had incurred
-it, was more tremblingly alive to her resentment,
-than when oft-times—during the course of apprenticeship—conscious
-of deserving it. A strange,
-uneasy feeling began to haunt him—he was sensible
-of loss of favor, and though, after taxing memory,
-unconscious of merited disgrace—was surprised, inquieted,
-by the deep dejection of spirits under which
-he labored. It seemed as though he had incurred a
-loss, of which he knew not the extent till now. His
-arm trembled, and she snappishly rebuked his unsteadiness;
-he again encountered her glance—it was
-wild, angry, fierce, yet he felt he could have looked
-forever.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>They were opposite one of those temporary taverns,
-erected for the accommodation of the higher classes
-frequenting the fair—tricked out with gaudy splendor,
-yet affording delicious viands, choice wines to wearied
-strollers. It so happened that, passing by the
-open doorway, their progress was arrested by Master
-Nathaniel Buttress, the wealthy tanner—mean,
-avaricious, advanced in years, yet ardently longing
-to add the widow’s possessions to his own accumulated
-riches. With studied bow, and precise flourish
-of beaver, he bade Mistress Avery good day, and followed
-up the salute by invitation to sip a glass of
-sack, the fashionable beverage of the time. At fair-season,
-there was not the slightest impropriety, either
-in the offer, or its acceptation—it was quite in the
-usual license of these festivals. But ’Prentice John
-was doubly surprised; in the first place, that the
-miserly tanner (his niggardliness was proverbial)
-should have screwed up courage to treat any one with
-the high-priced nectar—and that his arm, which he
-gallantly offered, should have been accepted with
-alacrity by the fair dame, who, our apprentice was
-aware, had oft made devious circuits, on many
-occasions, to elude a meeting. Young Winehcomb
-found himself, lacquey-fashion, following in the rear.
-He was deeply mortified—such circumstance had
-never happened before—yet, though vexed, the annoyance
-was only secondary to extreme surprise at
-the character of his own feelings. He had valued
-highly the good will, kind words, and occasional
-gifts of the lady, as proofs of favor, founded on his
-honesty, diligence and promptitude, or, at least, without
-deeply analizing his feelings, believed that in
-such spirit he received them. But now, smarting
-under disgrace, it seemed as though lost favor was
-dear for its own sake—bereft of smiles to which he
-had been insensible till the present hour, he was unhappy,
-miserable. ’Prentice John had great difficulty
-in withholding his cudgel from the tanner’s back, but
-though he gave him not a beating, he mentally promised
-one. Master Buttress, elated with good fortune,
-was more vain-glorious than cautious; unlike
-prudent lover, uncertain of continuance of sudden
-favor, dreading loss of vantage ground, snatched by
-eager rivals, he escorted the dame to a conspicuous
-seat, whence they could behold the fair, from whence
-his favored lot was visible to all. The ready drawers,
-ere ardor called, hastened to place before the guests
-a tray laden with costly delicacies, crowned with
-silver flagon full of the favorite potation. Young
-Winehcomb, who sat apart, though partaking the
-dainties, was maddened to behold his mistress listen
-so complacently to the addresses of the veteran
-suitor. Could she be serious? And if she were—what
-then? Was she not absolute mistress of herself,
-her wealth—and was he so specially concerned
-in her choice? This self-questioning elicited the
-conviction, startling though true, that he was deeply,
-personally concerned. He was, then, undeniably in
-love with his mistress! Was the passion of sudden
-growth, the birth of the present hour? Alas! no—it
-had been long smouldering unconsciously—nay, if
-he doubted, memory flashed innumerable, though till
-now, unnoticed facts proving its existence—and he
-had foolishly let slip the golden chance of wooing
-till too late—till his advantages were the prey of a
-successful rival!—his own affection only brought to
-light by the torch of jealousy. Such was the cruel,
-torturing position of young Winehcomb. ’Twas
-aggravated in being obliged to listen to the tanner’s
-flattery, to witness its favorable reception. Nay,
-worse—he became conscious that Mistress Avery
-remarked his inquietude, his ill-suppressed hatred of
-Master Nathaniel, as her eye was often for a moment
-bent on him. He was convinced she took pleasure
-in his torments, for on these occasions her manner—though
-strictly within the rigid limits of propriety—invariably
-was more marked and tender toward
-the detested, fulsome niggard. He had heard, alas!
-such was the custom of the sex. Often was ’Prentice
-John resolved on leaving the lovers to their own
-conversation, but restrained anger on reflecting it
-was his duty to be present with and protect Mistress
-Avery, till she quitted the fair and returned home.
-Nor did he relish the notion of leaving the field altogether
-to the tanner—jealousy united with sense of
-duty in detaining the youth.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Master Buttress was in rare good humor; he could
-not deem otherwise but that he was the fortunate,
-chosen man, and he found leisure in the intervals of fits
-of gallantry, to conjure flitting visions of broad manor
-added to broad manor, tenement to tenement, and to
-picture the future Master—nay, Worshipful Master
-Nathaniel Buttress, richest gentleman in the county
-of Berkshire. The only damp on his high spirits was
-the present outlay; he had been drawn into expenses
-far beyond usual habits; had never been guilty of
-similar extravagance; the veriest prodigal of London
-could not have ordered a more costly board; and
-that tall, rosy-cheeked lad imbibed the precious sack
-with the avidity of a sponge, and never looked a
-tithe the better humored, but sat grinning menaces at
-him—the donor of the feast! Well! well! all should
-soon be remedied, and the disagreeable, lanky apprentice
-turned adrift.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But who is that now passing the tavern; is it not
-Master Luke Milner, the attorney? How enviously
-he looks! he has the reputation of having pressed
-hard his own suit, but in vain! If I invite him, he
-will gladly come—drink the widow’s health—and it
-will save me half the reckoning!” So reasoned the
-tanner. The lawyer accepted the invitation, though
-a slight shade of displeasure, he could not wholly
-dispel, flushed his brow. Master Luke entered,
-bowing lowly to the widow. Drawing a chair, near
-as good manners admitted, to the fair dame, he carefully
-deposited scented gloves and jeweled beaver
-on adjoining bench, and, in sitting, showed anxiety
-to display a trim foot, though rather overshadowed
-by the large roses. The tanner soon perceived that
-avarice had induced a grievous oversight, for the
-widow was not quite won. It was both unaccountable
-and annoying—how perverse these women are!
-she seemed now disposed to extend as much favor to
-Master Luke as she had previously exhibited to Master
-Buttress. ’Prentice John was pleased and distressed
-at the scene—glad of the tanner’s discomfiture,
-he was enraged at the other’s success. The
-elder suitor had shown indifference to the presence
-of the apprentice, viewed him as a necessary appendage
-to the widow’s state, or, at worst, a tax on his
-purse to the extent of sack imbibed; but our lawyer,
-nearer John’s own age, and gifted with keener eye
-than his rival, liked not young Winehcomb’s vicinity,
-his prying, resolute gaze.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Mistress Avery,” said the lawyer blandly, “our
-young friend appears uneasy; nor do I wonder, for
-more than once, in the fair, did I hear red, pouting
-lips lament the absence of Jack Winehcomb. I pray
-thee, suffer the lad to stroll where he lists; Master
-Nathaniel and your unworthy servant, with permission,
-will zealously protect the pride and boast of
-Newbury.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>If John had broken any engagement by attendance
-on her, replied the dame—and a keen smile, part
-malicious, part searching, lit up the widow’s features
-as she gazed on the disconcerted youth—let him seek
-Cicely, who was not far off, to take his place, and he
-had full permission to absent himself. ’Prentice
-John, though vexed and out of countenance, said he
-had no other engagement than duty enjoined, and he
-was entirely at his mistress’ command.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Then I must not spoil Cicely’s holiday,” remarked
-the widow. The apprentice was doubtful
-whether she spoke in displeasure or not—the tone of
-voice and expression of countenance were equivocal.
-A quiet smile, which played for an instant around
-her mouth, when he declared he had no engagement,
-presaged returning favor, but the horizon was again
-clouded. Mistress Avery, turning to the gallants,
-said the youth should have his own way, that for herself
-she never found his presence irksome—he was
-so stupid, she might talk treason in his company
-without danger—what she was obliged to say was
-generally misunderstood. Stupid! misunderstood!
-Were there, in these words, more meant than met the
-ear? Had he been so blind, so deaf? Meanwhile
-the situation of the rivals was far from pleasant; the
-tanner had introduced an enemy within the fortress,
-whom he could neither dislodge nor compete with;
-the lawyer was angry that he had not the field to
-himself; whilst fair Mistress Avery, with impartial
-justice, hung the scales of favor suspended. Neither
-could now positively declare he was the chosen
-swain. Half suppressed taunts, and sarcasm clothed
-in ceremonious language, threatened more open
-bickering, when Master Luke, with due regard to a
-lady’s feelings, besought her to pardon their absence
-for a few minutes, as he suddenly recollected an affair
-important to the welfare of his friend, Master Buttress.
-The dame was condescending, declared she
-had too much regard for Master Nathaniel to deem
-their absence a slight, under the circumstances; so
-the lawyer, affecting to produce a leathern note-case,
-retired with his rival. The apprentice felt his situation
-awkward, but he was presently relieved; Mistress
-Avery bade him follow the gentlemen unperceived,
-and if they drew weapons, or otherwise exhibited
-hostilities, immediately interfere to prevent
-mischief. Concealed by the angle of a canvass booth,
-he listened, unseen, to the wordy strife. The lawyer
-was cool, sarcastic, overbearing; the tanner, fiery
-and threatening. Presuming on youth, good figure,
-and flowing rhetoric, the former contemned the pretensions
-of the elder rival, whom he affirmed had
-nothing to recommend him but wealth not needed;
-why, therefore, pursue a rivalry, when he could not
-lay claim to one certain token of affection? And the
-man of law began enumerating the distinguishing
-marks of favor which Dame Avery, spite of prudent,
-cautious, self-restraint, could not avoid exhibiting as
-soon as he entered the tavern. The tanner’s replication
-was in the same style. If these be marks of
-affection, thought the listener, what would they say
-to my pretensions if I told all? And ’Prentice John,
-as he listened and commented on what he heard,
-grew a wiser, more knowing youth.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If thou wert a younger man, Master Nathaniel,”
-said the lawyer, “there would be no need for these
-mutual taunts. We have a readier mode of settling⁠—”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Curse thy youth, and thee too,” exclaimed the
-tanner; “ ’cause thou art a vain, braggart fop, with
-thy galloon and thy large cabbage roses, think’st
-to brave it over me?—there!—and there!” And so
-saying, the valiant tanner dealt successive cuffs on
-Master Luke’s doublet, and drawing weapon, awaited
-the attack. Their rapiers—for the tanner, though
-following a handicraft, yet, as owning broad lands,
-deemed himself entitled to wear a weapon and
-dub himself gentleman—immediately crossed, but
-the alert apprentice, with stout cudgel, threw himself
-between and struck down their guard.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Good sirs! good sirs! forbear!” cried one hastening
-to assist young Winehcomb. ’Twas the curate
-of Spene. The belligerents immediately sheathed
-their weapons, muttering future vengeance. The
-holy man requested to know the cause of quarrel,
-and offered to act as umpire. This, after demur and
-consideration, was agreed to. Hearing each in turn,
-he proposed, as more becoming their respective
-characters than fighting, that the case should be stated
-to Mistress Avery—the election left to the fair widow.
-As each deemed himself the favored candidate, and,
-indeed, with good cause, for our dame had been
-gracious to both, the curate’s proposal was accepted,
-and his eloquence solicited to open the pleadings.
-The party thereupon returned to the tavern, the apprentice
-not the least interested actor in the drama.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The curate of Spene, though grave and sententious,
-threw into his speech an under current of humor and
-<span class='it'>bonhommie</span>, which touched off the pretensions of each
-suitor with dramatic effect and felicity. Neither
-could question his impartiality, nor had he, as he
-affirmed, secret preponderance either way; both
-were esteemed friends, both had received the offices
-of the church at his hands, both had listened to his
-Sabbath exhortations. Which of the twain reigned
-in the lady’s heart, to him he should offer congratulation;
-to the other he could fairly say, that he merited
-the honor for which he had unsuccessfully striven.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There was a pause, a deep silence. The blushing
-widow must now speak, declare herself, decide her
-own fate, and with it the fortunes of the suitors. How
-ardently did ’Prentice John long for one of the many
-opportunities of pleading his passion, oft thrown in
-his way, so heedlessly neglected! Would she indeed
-make an election? then, farewell, Newbury! in some
-far distant land would he hide his disgrace, forget
-his folly.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mistress Avery said the gentlemen had certainly
-given her cause long to remember Newbury Fair;
-yet they could not expect her mind made up on so
-momentous a question of a sudden; besides, it was
-now Wednesday, which had ever been an unlucky
-day with the Averys, but to-morrow (Thursday) week
-they should have a decisive answer—her preference
-made known—provided, and it was the only stipulation
-besides secrecy, they both refrained pressing
-their amorous suits in the interim.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>So ended the conference, and as the rivals, with
-the curate, gallantly bade the lady adieu (having promised
-obedience in every particular) ’Prentice John,
-in a paroxysm of anger and remorse, made firm resolve
-that he would challenge to mortal combat the
-favored suitor, beat him within an inch of life if he
-refused to fight, upbraid the widow for secretly fomenting
-a passion which she laughed at, and flee,
-forever, the town of Newbury.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You forget, John, I shall need your arm through
-the press,” exclaimed the dame reproachfully. The
-apprentice started; he had been leaning against the
-bench, lost in bitter reverie; he saw not his mistress
-was waiting. Uttering an indistinct apology, he escorted
-the lady from the tavern in time to witness that
-the tanner had been sufficiently adroit to palm off
-half the expense of the entertainment on his rival.
-Whether this was omen of higher fortune, the sequel
-will show.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>They scarcely spoke during the remainder of the
-walk, nor even after reaching home. ’Prentice John
-was reserved, melancholy, brooding over bitter reflections;
-the dame, sly, observant, oft casting furtive
-glances at young Winehcomb, seemingly, as he
-thought, indulging secret pleasure on beholding his
-misery. On the morrow they were together in the
-compting-room; it was his duty to produce entries
-of the bales of cloth sold during the business-period
-of the Fair; to account for the same in bullion, or
-according to the terms of sale.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“These for thyself, John,” said the widow, placing
-a few gold pieces on the table, whilst she proceeded
-to place, under triple lock, the remainder. They remained
-untouched. The third lock of the huge iron
-chest duly shot, the dame arose, was surprised on
-beholding the money still lying unappropriated; John
-looking like man under sentence of death.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Have I grown niggardly, Master Winehcomb?”
-exclaimed the widow, “speak, if you would have
-more.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>John replied by asking if she thought the ten pieces
-sufficient to equip him, and pay passage to Cadiz,
-where he heard an expedition was fitting out, in which
-many Englishmen had volunteered. Mistress Avery,
-with a calmness which confirmed his despair, replied
-in the negative, but demanded why he should think
-of starting for Cadiz, ere, indeed, his indentures were
-determined. The apprentice declared wildly, if she
-married either tanner or lawyer, he would depart,
-even with no more than the ten pieces, and for his
-reasons—he was not then sufficiently master of himself
-to detail them!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But, John,” said the widow, in a tone of expostulation,
-whilst a smile lurked in the eyes and round
-the mouth, “what am I to do if I say No? they press
-me so hard!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Newbury apprentice, at his mistress’ feet,
-taught the answer she should give. On the following
-Monday, Master John Winehcomb was united in
-marriage with Mistress Avery—the wedding celebrated
-by the grandest entertainment ever beheld in
-the county of Berkshire, the fame whereof spread
-even as far as the court of bluff Harry. If lacking
-splendor in any particular, the omission was owing
-to the short time for preparation, as no expense was
-spared. The unfortunate suitors, of course, understood
-the affair from common report, and thought it
-unnecessary to seek their fate at the widow’s domicil,
-when they could learn it from every man,
-woman and child in the town. They were invited
-to the wedding feast, but wisely declined, as the story
-of their strange wooing was already abroad.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was the custom, in those days, for the bridegroom
-to salute the bride on the cheek, in the church,
-after the ceremony was performed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“And you are ready to swear, Master John,”
-whispered the dame as the bridegroom approached,
-“that you never saw that damsel before Fair-day,
-whom you kissed at the Fair?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“No—nor since!” replied he, believing it a hint
-for his future conduct.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Master Winehcomb lived happily—his wealth increased
-so quickly, with the increasing demand for
-the staple article of Newbury, that when the Earl of
-Surrey marched against James the Fourth of Scotland,
-who was then ravaging the borders, the rich
-clothier accompanied the expedition with a retinue
-of one hundred servants and artisans, clothed and
-armed at his own expense. The memory of John
-Winehcomb and his rich and handsome spouse was
-long preserved in their native town.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk104'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='son'></a>SONNETS.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY MISS ELIZABETH B. BARRETT.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;I.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless;</p>
-<p class='line0'>That only men incredulous of despair,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Half taught in anguish, through the midnight air</p>
-<p class='line0'>Beat upward to God’s throne in loud access</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness</p>
-<p class='line0'>In hearts, as countries, lieth silent, bare</p>
-<p class='line0'>Under the blenching, vertical eye-glare</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of the free chartered heavens. Be still! express</p>
-<p class='line0'>Grief for thy dead in silence like to Death!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Most like a monumental statue set</p>
-<p class='line0'>In everlasting watch and moveless wo,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Till itself crumble to the dust beneath.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Touch it, spectator! Are its eyelids wet?</p>
-<p class='line0'>If it could weep it could arise and go!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='pbk'/>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;II.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>When some belovéd voice, which was to you</p>
-<p class='line0'>Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And silence against which you dare not cry</p>
-<p class='line0'>Aches round you with an anguish dreadly new⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>What hope, what help? What music will undo</p>
-<p class='line0'>That silence to your sense? Not friendship’s sigh,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Not reason’s labored proof, not melody</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of viols, nor the dancers footing through;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Not songs of poets, nor of nightingales,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Whose hearts leap upward from the cypress trees</p>
-<p class='line0'>To Venus’ star! nor yet the spheric laws</p>
-<p class='line0'>Self-chanted—nor the angels’ sweet “all hails,”</p>
-<p class='line0'>Met in the smile of God! Nay, none of these!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Speak, Christ at His right hand, and fill this pause.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='pbk'/>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;III.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>What are we set on earth for? Say, to toil!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Nor seek to leave thy tending of the vines</p>
-<p class='line0'>For all the heat o’ the sun, till it declines,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And Death’s mild curfew shall from work assoil.</p>
-<p class='line0'>God did anoint thee with his odorous oil</p>
-<p class='line0'>To wrestle, not to reign—and he assigns</p>
-<p class='line0'>All thy tears over like pure crystallines</p>
-<p class='line0'>Unto thy fellows, working the same soil.</p>
-<p class='line0'>To wear for amulets. So others shall</p>
-<p class='line0'>Take patience, labor, to their heart and hand,</p>
-<p class='line0'>From thy hand, and thy heart, and thy brave cheer,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And God’s grace fructify through thee to all!</p>
-<p class='line0'>The least flower with a brimming cup may stand</p>
-<p class='line0'>And share its dew-drop with another near.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='pbk'/>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;IV.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>The woman singeth at her spinning-wheel</p>
-<p class='line0'>A pleasant song, ballad or barcarolle,</p>
-<p class='line0'>She thinketh of her song, upon the whole,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Far more than of her flax; and yet the reel</p>
-<p class='line0'>Is full, and artfully her fingers feel,</p>
-<p class='line0'>With quick adjustment, provident control,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The lines, too subtly twisted to unroll,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Out to the perfect thread. I hence appeal</p>
-<p class='line0'>To the dear Christian church—that we may do</p>
-<p class='line0'>Our Father’s business in these temples mirk,</p>
-<p class='line0'>So swift and steadfast, so intent and strong⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>While so, apart from toil, our souls pursue</p>
-<p class='line0'>Some high, calm, spheric tune—proving our work</p>
-<p class='line0'>The better for the sweetness of our song.</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk105'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='sonn'></a>SONNET.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY MRS. SEBA SMITH.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>I dreamed last night, that I myself did lay</p>
-<p class='line0'>Within the grave—and after stood and wept⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>My spirit sorrowed where its ashes slept⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>’Twas a strange dream, and yet meseems it may</p>
-<p class='line0'>Prefigure that which is akin to truth⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>How sorrow we o’er perish’d dreams of youth!</p>
-<p class='line0'>High hopes, and aspirations doom’d to be</p>
-<p class='line0'>Crush’d, and o’er-mastered by earth’s destiny!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Fame, that the spirit loathing turns to ruth⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>And that deluding faith so loath to part,</p>
-<p class='line0'>That earth will shrine for us one kindred heart;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Oh, ’tis the ashes of such things, that wring</p>
-<p class='line0'>Tears from the eyes! Hopes like to these depart,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And we bow down in dread, o’er-shadowed by death’s wing.</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk106'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='mal'></a>MALINA GRAY.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY ANN S. STEPHENS.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;'>(Concluded from page 278.)</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER III.</h2>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';fs:0.9em;' -->
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>“I sigh when all my youthful friends caress—</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>&ensp;&ensp;They laugh in health, and future evils brave;</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>Love has for them a gentle power to bless,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>&ensp;&ensp;While I shall moulder in my silent grave.</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>God of the just, thou gavest the bitter cup,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>I bow to thy behest, and drink it up.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'>We had penetrated to the depth of the pine grove,
-and it was difficult to find our way out through the
-tangled undergrowth and the unequal hollows; but
-Malina had become thoughtful for others once more,
-and though excitement no longer made her own progress
-easy, she guarded me with double care; lifted
-me over the hollows and carried me in her arms
-when the thickets were too intricate or the ground
-very uneven. She kissed me as we reached a foot-path
-which led to our cottage, and, pointing to the
-door, would have left me to go home alone; but when
-she saw that I was troubled regarding my torn frock,
-kindness of heart prompted her to come back. She
-led me to the house, explained my misfortune, and
-went away. I sat down on the door-sill and watched
-her till she entered the portico of her mother’s dwelling,
-and when they remarked on her dejected looks,
-and questioned me of the cause, I answered that Malina
-was tired with walking so long in the woods,
-for it seemed as if the tears which I had seen her
-shed and the passionate words which she had uttered
-were a secret which I should do wrong to mention.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In about an hour Phebe Gray and our young minister
-stopped at the door-yard gate to inquire for Malina.
-I told them that she had gone home, and when
-Mr. Mosier lifted me in his arms, and, looking into
-my face, asked what I had been crying about, I
-turned my head away to evade his kiss and besought
-him to set me down. The contrast between his
-happy face, the deep and almost brilliant expression
-of joy which lighted it up, and the sorrowful look of
-poor Malina forced itself even on my childish mind.
-I felt that which I had no power to comprehend, and
-from that time never loved our minister nor Phebe
-Gray as I had loved them. They walked home very
-slowly, she leaning on his arm with an air of dependence
-and trustfulness which was full of feeling
-and feminine delicacy; he would check their progress
-every few moments to point out some familiar
-beauty in the landscape, as if they had never looked
-upon it before. They loitered by the rock spring,
-and along the river road, tranquil in their happiness,
-till the dusk almost concealed them as they entered
-Mrs. Gray’s house.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Almost every evening, for a week, our minister
-and Phebe Gray took their walk around the pine
-grove, and always alone. Malina was confined to
-the house. She had taken cold, Mrs. Gray said, and
-the night air was bad for her lungs. But often, when
-her sister was loitering along the river’s bank, happy
-in the wealth of her newly aroused affections, Malina
-might be seen at her chamber window, with her
-cheek languidly supported by a hand which was becoming
-thinner each day, and gazing earnestly after
-the two beings dearest to her on earth, but whose
-happiness she could not witness without emotions
-that were well nigh killing her. Her mother saw
-nothing of this. She only knew that Malina was
-quieter than usual and not very well, that her eyes
-were heavy and her step languid as she moved around
-the house. She did not see the heart struggling
-against itself, the stern principle which grew strong
-in the contest. She never dreamed of that desolate
-and lonely sensation which haunted her daughter’s
-pillow with watchfulness, and made her waking
-hours a season of trial cruel as the grave. She saw
-that Malina was strangely affected; true, she smiled
-still, but it was meekly, sadly, and it seemed as if
-the music of her laugh was exhausted forever; her
-eyes grew misty and sorrowful in their expression,
-and tears would sometimes fill them without apparent
-cause. Still it was gravely asserted that Malina
-had only a slight cold, a nervous attack which would
-go off in a day or two! But there was something in
-her illness which Phebe could not comprehend; a
-wish for solitude, and a strange nervous dread of
-any thing like intimate conversation with herself,
-which prevented an acknowledgment of her own
-deep causes of happiness. Her sensitive modesty
-made her desirous of some encouragement to unburden
-her heart of its wealth of hope even to her
-sister, and when she saw that Malina shunned her,
-that her eyes had a wandering and estranged look
-whenever they turned upon her face, she felt checked
-and almost repulsed in her confidence. If any thing
-could have disturbed the pure happiness which
-reigned in her bosom, it would have been this extraordinary
-mood in one who had from childhood shared
-every thought and wish almost as soon as it was
-formed. It had a power to disturb, though it could
-not entirely destroy the tranquillity of her mind.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I will talk with her about it to-night,” murmured
-Phebe, as she opened her chamber door one evening,
-after a long conversation with Mr. Mosier in the
-portico. “I wish, though, she would ask some question,
-or even look curious to know what keeps us
-together so much; I little thought to have kept a
-secret from Malina so long.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As these thoughts passed through her mind, Phebe
-Gray gathered up the bed-drapery, and lying down
-by her sister, passing an arm caressingly over her
-waist, laid her blushing cheek against the now pallid
-face which rested on the pillow. She felt that tears
-were upon it, and that the snowy linen under her
-head was wet as if Malina had cried herself to sleep.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Malina, wake up a minute, I have something to
-tell you,” murmured the young girl, in a low, half
-timid whisper.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The moonbeams lay full upon the bed, and Phebe
-Gray was looking earnestly in the face of the beautiful
-sleeper. She could see the silken lashes quivering
-on her cheek, and a tremulous motion of the lips,
-nay, it seemed to her as if a single tear broke through
-the lashes and rolled over the pale cheek, and she
-was certain that something like a faint shudder crept
-through the form which was half circled by her arm.
-But Malina gave no answer, and the gentle questioner
-was too sensitive for another effort to win attention.
-She quietly laid her head on the pillow and sunk to
-sleep, but not to indulge in the sweet, unbroken dream
-of happiness which had shed roses over her couch so
-many nights. There was sadness at heart, a presentiment
-of coming ill, and a solicitude regarding
-her sister which kept her anxious and rendered her
-slumber broken and unrefreshing. About midnight,
-when the stillness of her chamber rendered every
-sound more than usually audible, she was disturbed
-by the broken and half stifled sobs which arose from
-her sister’s pillow. Again she stole her arm over
-the weeping girl, and questioned her regarding the
-source of her grief. Malina only turned her face
-away, and sobbed more bitterly than before.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why will you not speak to me, Malina? what
-has come between us of late?—speak to me, sister—you
-are in sorrow, and I have—oh how much—cause
-for joy! yet we have all at once learned to conceal
-thoughts from one another. Tell me what troubles
-you—for I cannot be entirely happy while you are ill
-and so sad.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina redoubled her sobs, but amid the tumult of
-her grief she murmured, “Tell me all, Phebe, all you
-feel, all you wish; but I have no secrets, no sorrow.
-There is a little pain in my side, sometimes, and that
-makes me low spirited. I have always been so
-healthy, you know, that a little illness frightens me.
-Do not mind me, but talk of yourself. You are happy,
-Phebe, <span class='it'>very</span> happy! were not those your words?
-tell me all—I can be glad and rejoice in any thing
-that gives you pleasure—any thing on earth—if my
-heart were breaking. So let us talk it all over now,
-the room is so quiet and dark, and we shall neither
-of us get sleepy—do you think we shall, sister?—you
-may, but I have almost forgotten how to sleep,” and,
-as Malina ceased speaking, she stole an arm around
-her sister’s neck, and, choking back her sobs, composed
-herself to listen.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe rose up in the bed, gathered the drapery
-around them, for the moonbeams were bright enough
-to reveal her blushes, and, sinking to her pillow,
-again murmured the story of her love, its return, and
-all the bright anticipations that made her future so
-beautiful. Malina nerved herself to listen; she uttered
-no word of distrust, and checked all manifestations
-of discontent by a strong effort of self-control,
-when all was told—when she was made certain that
-her sister and the only being she had ever regarded
-with more than a sister’s love, were to be married—that
-their wedding day was fixed, and, that the mother’s
-sanction had already been granted—she remained
-silent for a moment, and strove to gain the
-mastery over her feelings. When she spoke, her
-frame shook with the bitter emotions which could
-not be altogether subdued, but her voice was low
-and very calm. Mr. Mosier was poor, and Phebe
-not yet of age. If he were installed in the old meeting-house,
-they would be compelled to live with Mrs.
-Gray till something could be saved from his small
-salary to purchase a dwelling and begin housekeeping.
-This thought caused some anxiety to the engaged
-couple. The young clergyman had learned something
-of Mrs. Gray’s real character, and was reluctant
-to erect his domestic altar beneath her tyrannical
-auspices. Phebe, too, longed for a quiet home
-of her own, a happy, free home, where she might
-follow her own innocent impulses, unchecked and
-without fear.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You shall have that home, my sister,” said Malina
-Gray, twining her arms around her companion,
-and kissing her with a gush of true affection; “there
-is the old parsonage house; you shall have that, and
-the money which dear minister Brown left to me;
-all are yours and <span class='it'>his</span>. You will be happy there—very
-happy. I know he loved the old place. Now,
-good night, Phebe; let us go to sleep!” and with a
-low gasping sob, which was not the less painful that
-it gave no sound, Malina turned away her head.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe was too disinterested and high-minded herself,
-for a thought of refusing Malina’s generosity.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“We shall, indeed, be happy,” she said; “you
-will come and live with us, and by the time you are
-married, we shall have saved enough to pay all the
-money back again. You <span class='it'>will</span> live with us?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina thought of the quiet grave-yard, which
-could be seen from the parsonage window, and answered—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I shall want no other home.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe talked on, more cheerfully than usual, and
-when her sister did not answer, she thought her
-asleep; but Malina had fainted, and lay senseless
-upon her pillow.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was soon rumored through the village that our
-new minister was engaged to Phebe Gray, and every
-body was delighted with the match. Phebe was just
-the creature for a clergyman’s wife, quiet and gentle,
-with manners that gave dignity to the softness of her
-disposition. In the general satisfaction which reigned
-in the village, Malina was quite overlooked. Her
-change of appearance was imputed to sadness at
-parting with her sister; and, at times, when the wedding
-was talked of in her presence, the rich color
-which burned over her cheeks, the brilliancy of her
-eyes, and the flashes of wild merriment that sprung
-to her lips, deceived the unobserving into a belief of
-her entire happiness. She spent much of her time at
-the old parsonage, superintending the arrangements
-of her sister’s home with a degree of taste and energy
-which surprised all who witnessed her exertions.
-The rooms were all newly arranged, delicate paper
-was purchased at New Haven for the walls, new
-stepping stones were laid at the front door, green
-blinds gave a look of elegance and seclusion to the
-windows; the profuse rose bushes and lilac trees
-were pruned, and a white picket-fence hedged in
-the little wilderness of flowers which blossomed in
-the front yard. The cabinet maker, on School
-Hill, was busy with the furniture, all of a superior
-kind. The carpet-weaver had borrowed two <span class='it'>quill-wheels</span>,
-and all the spools, for a mile round, in order
-to expedite the progress of sixty yards of striped carpeting
-through his cumbrous loom. The house and
-its adornments were to be comfortable and elegant
-beyond any thing that had been known in our village
-for a long time; and all was Malina’s work. Her
-untiring assiduity created the little paradise which
-another was to enjoy. Her money purchased the
-books which filled the little study, whose window
-opened upon the most verdant corner of the orchard.
-Her trembling hands placed a new inlaid flute on the
-little table, and drew the easy chair close by, that the
-bridegroom might find every thing ready and home-like
-in his new dwelling.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>One afternoon Malina was left alone; the workmen
-had departed to their suppers, and her task was
-finished for the day. She had just hung the pet robin
-in his old place by the dining-room window; he
-seemed to recognize the room, and flew about his
-cage, chirping and fluttering his wings, as if to thank
-her for bringing him home once more. It was the
-first hour of repose that Malina had known for many
-weeks, and now, that she had nothing more to perform,
-painful thoughts and regrets that would no
-longer be stifled, fell back upon her heart, and she
-was, oh, how desolate! There, in her blooming
-youth, she sat hopeless and weary of life—for what
-is life to a woman without affection? The heart
-was full of warm and generous feelings, burthened
-with a wealth of tenderness, and yet she had no
-future, nothing to hope for, nothing to dread; her
-destiny seemed consummated there and then. Youth
-is in itself so hopeful, that we can scarcely imagine
-a creature in the first bud of life yearning for the
-grave. But Malina was very sad. She looked through
-the open door into the orchard; the green old apple
-trees were heavy with blossoms, and through the
-garniture of thrifty leaves, and the rosy shower which
-blushed among them, a corner of the old meeting-house
-met her gaze—a portion of the grave-yard, and
-a new tomb-stone, which gleamed out from the young
-grass which had already started up from our minister’s
-death place. How green and quiet it looked—and
-oh, how earnestly Malina Gray longed to lie
-down in that still spot, and be at rest. Yet Malina
-was young, and no human being dreamed how
-wretched she was. The orchard was full of singing
-birds that day, and there had been a time when the
-gush of sweet sounds, that rose and swelled amid the
-foliage, would have made her heart leap, but now it
-filled her eyes with tears. The sunshine that played
-and quivered among the leaves—the wind that now
-and then gushed through the heavy boughs, scattering
-the grass with rosy flakes, and sighing as it swept
-off to the open plain—all seemed a mockery.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She was heart sick, and yearned to die. How
-cruel is that power by which a broken heart draws
-thoughts of sadness from the sweet and beautiful
-things of nature. Malina gazed through her tears at
-the change her own hands had wrought. The unseemly
-plantains had disappeared from the back
-door-step, and around the well-curb a bed of valley-lilies
-were just forming their pearly buds.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“They will be in blossom for Phebe’s hair,” murmured
-the young girl, “and for mine—for am I not to
-be bridemaid?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>With a mournful smile gleaming through her tears,
-Malina arose, and tying on her bonnet, left the house.
-She met Phebe and Mr. Mosier near the front gate.
-They were sauntering toward their new dwelling,
-tranquil and happy; to them, every thing whispered
-of joy; the fragrant orchard, the birds caroling within
-its shadows, and all the beautiful landscape were full
-of pleasant associations. Every hope and thought in
-<span class='it'>their</span> bosoms blossomed in unison with nature.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>How true it is that thought and feeling, like the
-sun, give color to outward things. The heart creates
-its own sunshine, or the cloud through which nature
-is revealed to it. Phebe Gray and her betrothed
-husband felt nothing but the sweet and the beautiful—their
-hearts were brimful of sunshine. But, alas,
-for Malina, she looked through the cloud.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina walked on. The two contented beings by
-the gate were happy enough without her. She strove
-to smile cheerfully as they spoke to her, and in a tone
-of forced playfulness forbade them entering the house
-till their wedding day.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina had gathered beneath the roof of that old
-parsonage house many luxuries almost unknown in
-the neighborhood; every thing calculated to gratify
-the fine taste of the young divine, or add to the comfort
-of her sister, had been unsparingly purchased,
-till her patrimony was almost exhausted. While
-this duty lasted, and the excitement of action was
-upon her, Malina sustained the burthen of her sorrows
-with an aching, but firm heart. She had taken
-no time for thought—scarcely for tears—but worked
-on, as if toiling through a feverish dream. Her
-cheeks were always flushed, and sometimes the
-music of her laugh rang loud and strangely through
-the bridal chamber which she was decorating; but
-the companions who assisted her were often startled
-by the reckless tone of her laugh; it was too absent
-and wild for happiness or merriment, entirely deficient
-in that low, rich melody, which had once
-made her voice so full of healthy joy. Yet all the
-neighbors were commenting on her generous conduct,
-and the brilliancy of her spirits; and it was
-often remarked that Malina Gray was never so fond
-of company, so careless in her mirth, or so startling
-in her wit, as she had been since the engagement of
-her sister, and since she had recovered from the
-slight cold which confined her to the house when
-that engagement was first whispered in the village.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>To a heart capable of self-sacrifice, there is no
-feeling so lonely as that which follows exhausted
-power. No conviction, so keenly painful, as a
-knowledge that a beloved being, who has cost us
-the hopes of a life in resigning, can be happy without
-our aid—that we have nothing to render up—no
-aim for exertion—nothing to do but sit down and
-gaze upon the blank which existence has become.
-Her task was done. The excitement over, and then
-came to the heart of Malina Gray the toil and pain
-of concealed suffering; the aching restlessness which
-eats into the bud of human life. Once more it was
-rumored that she was ill, and, but for other and more
-absorbing subjects, Mrs. Gray might have been
-alarmed for the safety of her child; but she was so
-intent on other things, that the poor girl and her sufferings
-remained unheeded at home, save by the
-gentle Phebe and her betrothed husband.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When Mrs. Gray invited our young minister to reside
-at her house, it was probably with some vague
-expectation of the result which followed; and when
-her consent was desired to his union with Phebe, it
-was given promptly, and with evident satisfaction.
-But the young divine, though a meek and true Christian,
-had a dignity of character and opinion which
-sometimes proved at variance with the exactions of
-an ambitious and arbitrary matron. She had expected
-that he would continue to reside in her
-family, after the marriage, and looked forward to
-an extended dominion in her own household, and
-increased influence in the church, to be secured by
-this arrangement. But when he persisted in establishing
-an independent home, in managing his own
-salary, and becoming the sole protector of his future
-wife, whose state of moral servitude he could not
-witness without pain, Mrs. Gray’s enthusiasm in
-favor of the match gradually subsided, and when
-Malina insisted upon surrendering her newly acquired
-property to the young couple, and giving
-them the parsonage for a residence, the haughty
-woman became stern in her opposition, and while
-she took every means to render her own house an
-unpleasant residence for the parties, found some excuse
-to delay the wedding, from week to week, and
-at last refused to sanction it, till Mr. Mosier should
-be regularly installed in the pulpit, which he had
-now filled almost a year. Still Mrs. Gray was not
-a woman to talk openly of a change in her opinions.
-She was too calculating and subtle for useless words.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It had been settled in church council, that our
-young minister should be installed a few weeks after
-the time appointed for his marriage, and the young
-couple submitted to the imposed delay without a
-murmur. During these intervening weeks, and
-while Malina was occupied in embellishing the parsonage,
-Mrs. Gray was observed to be absent from
-home more frequently than usual. There was
-scarcely an influential church member near the old
-meeting-house, with whom she had not taken her
-knitting work, to spend a social afternoon; and
-several tea-parties were given in a quiet way at her
-own house, where she presided over the silver tea-urn,
-and old fashioned china, with more than ordinary
-condescension and dignity. But these were all
-impromptu meetings, and invariably took place
-when Mr. Mosier and Phebe were invited elsewhere.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The parents of our young minister were aged and
-very respectable farmers, residing in the vicinity of
-New Haven; but they were far from wealthy, and
-the farm they cultivated was not their own property.
-A week before the Sabbath appointed for the installation,
-Mr. Mosier accompanied his intended bride
-and her mother on a visit to his parents, where the
-haughty matron first learned that the man whom her
-daughter was about to marry had been a <span class='it'>charity
-student</span>. A benevolent society had paid his tuition
-at Yale College, at least that portion which he had
-been unable to meet by his own exertions. There
-had been no concealment of this truth on his part, for
-he had informed Phebe of the matter, and believed
-Mrs. Gray already aware of it. But Phebe, in the
-generous simplicity of her heart, never conceived it
-possible that the manner of his education could be
-deemed a cause of reproach, and it had left no impression
-on her mind; to her upright understanding
-there was no degradation in the thought that her
-lover had been a <span class='it'>charity student</span>.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Gray gave no demonstration of the displeasure
-which filled her bosom on receiving this intelligence,
-but she quietly made an excuse for returning
-home with her daughter the next day, and, with every
-appearance of disinterested kindness, insisted that
-Mr. Mosier should not interrupt his visit to accompany
-them. “She could easily drive home,” she
-said, “the horse was gentle, and the roads perfectly
-good; her son-in-law must remain with his family;
-it would be cruel to force him away so abruptly.”
-Mrs. Gray said all this in her usual manner, shook
-hands with the old people, allowed the young divine
-to assist her into the chaise, and pretended to be
-very intently occupied in searching for something in
-her traveling basket, while he placed Phebe in her
-seat, and, with her slender hand clasped in his own,
-was whispering his farewell.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Remember, and be in readiness next Sabbath,”
-he said, in a low voice, “tell Malina that she must
-take good care of you. I shall come on Saturday
-evening.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe murmured that she would be ready; but as
-she returned the farewell clasp of his hand, tears
-started to her eyes. She could not have told the
-reason, but a strange feeling of melancholy came
-over her, and it seemed as if the parting were forever.
-She looked back as the chaise drove away—he
-was standing on the door step by his parents, and
-the whole group waved their hands, smiling cheerfully,
-as they saw her turn for a last glance. But
-still her heart was heavy.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>What passed between Mrs. Gray and her daughter
-during their drive home, we have no means of
-recording. But as Malina sat in her chamber window,
-and saw the chaise toiling up the hill that afternoon,
-her sister leaned forward, and she caught a glimpse
-of her face. It was white as marble, and stained
-with tears. Malina had been ill, but she started up,
-hastily girded her white morning wrapper to her
-waist, and went down. Mrs. Gray loitered to give
-some directions to the “hired man” about her horse,
-and Phebe was descending from the chaise without
-assistance. The moment her foot touched the earth,
-she tottered, and would have fallen but for Malina,
-who sprang forward, and flinging her arms around
-her, inquired eagerly and kindly what had befallen
-her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe attempted to speak, but the words died on
-her lips, and the color left them; she lifted her hand
-as if to grasp at something for support, and fainted in
-her sister’s arms.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Mother, what is the matter?—where is Mr.
-Mosier?—tell me, pray tell me, what has made poor
-Phebe so ill, and why is she looking so wretched?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Gray turned, and saw that her child was
-senseless.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Go and bring some water,” she said to the man,
-“carry that basket in with you, and make haste.
-Raise her head a little, you are crushing her bonnet,”
-she continued, turning to Malina; “there,
-take it off—she will come to, directly.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As she spoke, Mrs. Gray calmly untied her daughter’s
-bonnet, and held it till the man came with water,
-while Malina stood trembling beneath the weight of
-the fainting girl, tenderly smoothing back the bright
-tresses from her forehead, and wildly kissing her
-pale lips, amid a thousand vague questions, which
-no one thought of answering.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Gray took a pitcher of water from the man,
-who came panting from the well, and laving her
-hands in it, laid them on the pale face which Malina
-was still covering with tears and kisses. There was
-a faint struggle, a gasping sigh, and after a little
-Phebe began to murmur upon her sister’s bosom,
-like one just awaking from a dream. She shrunk
-from her mother, when that stubborn woman would
-have assisted her to rise, and clinging to Malina,
-walked with trembling steps toward the house.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh, not there—up, to our own room, Malina,”
-said the poor girl, as her sister would have led her
-into the parlor. She was obliged to sit down more
-than once in ascending the stairs; and when at
-length Malina laid her upon the bed in their own
-dear room, she looked sadly around, and reaching
-up her arms, clasped the bending neck of her sister,
-and began to weep.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I must never see him again—never—never,” she
-said, while her voice was broken with tears; “oh,
-Malina, did you think any human being could be so
-cruel?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina started, and for one instant a flash of pleasure
-broke into her eyes. It was an unworthy feeling,
-and the next moment her face was flooded with
-shame that she had known it; and when she sat
-down by her sister, and besought her to say what
-had thus unnerved her, it was with as true sympathy
-as ever warmed the heart of a noble and self-sacrificing
-woman.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The cause of her sorrow was soon explained.
-Phebe had been commanded by her arbitrary mother
-to give up all thoughts of a union with Mr. Mosier.
-The gentle girl, for the first time in her life, had
-ventured to expostulate with her parent. The hope
-of her young life was at stake, and her heart trembled
-at the thought of separation from the man whom
-she had learned to love so devotedly. It was all in
-vain. Mrs. Gray was resolved, her prejudices were
-aroused, and to their gratification the happiness of
-her child was as dust.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe had been educated with almost holy reverence
-for the authority of a parent, and though her
-heart broke, she dared not oppose her mother’s command.
-Her spirit withered beneath it, like a flower
-trodden to the earth, but she submitted. Not so Malina.
-Once more she ventured to reason with and
-oppose her mother, but only to call down resentment
-on her own head. This was no sudden resolution in
-Mrs. Gray; she had gone steadily to work, and
-planned out her own results. She was one of those
-cold pattern women who never know an impulse—whose
-virtues are polished, like marble, and as cold.
-She had paved her way quietly and well. The next
-morning, while her two children were sorrowing in
-their room, she was driving from house to house,
-exerting her influence over better hearts and weaker
-minds than her own, to the ruin of those who had
-loved and trusted her. And while Phebe lay upon a
-sick bed, a vestry council was called at the old
-meeting-house, and a decision passed by a majority
-of a single man, which deprived our young minister
-of the pulpit he was to have taken as his own the
-following Sabbath. Many good and just men of the
-congregation protested against this cruel and unjust
-act; but in churches, as in communities, the good
-and the merciful do not always constitute a majority.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The decision of this church meeting was forwarded
-to Mr. Mosier, and with it a letter from Mrs. Gray.
-The next morning he rode by our cottage on horseback,
-slowly, and as one in deep and morbid thought.
-He crossed the old bridge, and, as he did so, looked
-earnestly toward Mrs. Gray’s dwelling. He paused
-a moment at the end, and then rode at a brisker pace
-up the hill.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe had been feverish, and very low, all that
-morning. Malina was watching by her side, and as
-she lay with her eyes closed in an imperfect slumber,
-the sound of a horse coming up the road made
-her start from the pillow, and while her cheek burned
-with a more feverish red, she fixed her eyes upon
-the open sash.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“It is he—I know it!” she said, clasping her hand,
-and looking into Malina’s face; “I will get up;
-mother cannot refuse to let me see him this once;”
-and with a kind of feverish joy the poor girl flung
-aside the bed clothes, and stepped out on the floor.
-With trembling and eager hands she gathered up her
-beautiful tresses, and began to braid them about her
-head, earnestly beseeching Malina all the time to assist
-her in getting ready to go down.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The kind hearted sister required no entreaty. She
-helped to array the invalid, though her own breath
-came gaspingly, and her hands shook like aspens in
-performing their duty.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“There, now—there, I am ready. See, do I look
-very ill, Malina?” said the excited young creature,
-turning to her sister; “it will make his heart ache
-to see how red my cheeks are. Do you think he
-will detect the fever?” and dashing some lavender
-over her handkerchief with an impetuosity all unlike
-her usual quiet movements, the half delirious girl
-took her sister’s arm, and was hurrying from the
-room. But the sound of a horse, rapidly passing the
-house, again came to her ear, and, with a faint exclamation,
-she sprung to the window just in time to
-catch a glimpse of her lover as he rode by. He
-lifted his face to the open sash, and she saw that it
-was very pale. He saw her, checked his horse
-an instant, half raised his hand, and then turning
-away with seeming effort, he rode slowly down the
-hill.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“He is gone,” exclaimed the unhappy girl, “gone
-without a word, almost without a look!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And with a wavering step, Phebe Gray moved toward
-the bed, and amid the confusion of her feverish
-thoughts, she called on Malina to come and undo the
-bridal wreath which was girding her forehead so
-painfully.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But Malina was away. She had caught one
-glimpse at the pale face uplifted to her window,
-and with a wild impulse to see the minister once
-more, she flung a shawl over her head, and left the
-room. With the speed of an antelope, she darted
-through the garden, and forcing a passage through
-the brushwood which lined a hollow beyond, leaped
-down upon the natural basin of granite, where the
-rock-spring poured its waves, just as he had dismounted,
-and was proceeding to dip up the water in
-his palm, and bathe his forehead with it. He looked
-care-worn and pale, and the expression of his eyes,
-as he dropped the water from his hand, and turned
-them suddenly on the young girl, was that of a strong
-heart in ruins, and with its energies prostrated. He
-held forth his hand and tried to smile, but the attempt
-was a painful one, and died in a faint quiver of the
-lips.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina did not take his hand—she had no power—but
-stood with her left foot half buried in the damp
-moss which lined the spring, and the other planted
-hard against the granite basin; her hands clasped
-amid the drapery of her shawl, and her eyes lifted to
-his, glittering with excitement, and yet full of tears.
-The breath came pantingly through her unquiet lips,
-and in the struggle of her emotions, the words of
-greeting which she would have uttered, were broken
-into sobs.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“This is very kind of you, Miss Gray,” said the
-young clergyman, in a low voice, which had something
-of proud constraint in its tones; “I inquired
-for you at the house, but your mother informed me
-that you were engaged, and that your sister did not
-wish to see me.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Not wish to see you!” exclaimed Malina, suddenly
-finding voice; “Phebe—my poor Phebe—not
-wish to see you! Alas, for her, she cannot see any
-one; this cruel business has broken her heart. Oh,
-Mr. Mosier, why is it that such wrong can be done?
-why submit to it? what right has my mother thus to
-interfere, to the unhappiness of her child?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mr. Mosier did not reply, his thoughts were far
-away, and, though he gazed earnestly on the enthusiastic
-face lifted to his, Malina knew that he was
-not thinking of her. She felt humbled, and turned
-away her face as one who had been rebuked. So
-she stood gazing, with a look of patient humility, on
-the waters sparkling in the basin at her feet, till at
-last he aroused himself and spoke. But she, who
-felt every word he uttered as if it were a tone of music,
-had no share in his speech or his thoughts.
-Things all too precious for her were rendered to
-another, and she must endure the pain.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“So she was ill, and <span class='it'>could</span> not come. Yet she
-knew I was there, and sat in the room all the time.
-I saw her at the window, and she looked—tell me,
-Malina, my sweet, kind sister,” he added, suddenly,
-“did she wish to see me?—would she come for a
-moment here or into the garden?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The young man looked anxious, and his cheek
-flushed brilliantly as he spoke, for the moment his
-well regulated mind had lost its balance, and the
-passions of earth were strong within him. It was
-but for a moment; before Malina had time to reply,
-the flush died from his face.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“No,” he added, with a sorrowful motion of the
-head, “it is wrong to ask, foolish to desire an interview—comfort
-her, Malina, say that which I cannot
-have permission to utter in her presence; say how
-deeply, how earnestly I have loved her, how weary
-I am of the world, how lonely my heart is now—say
-to her—alas! what message have I to send—I, who
-can scarcely turn my face heavenward, the clouds
-are so dark that lie heaped before me!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>These words were uttered in a tone of such despondency
-that Malina once more lifted her eyes,
-and would have spoken words of encouragement
-which she was far from feeling, for her own wretchedness
-seemed completed in that of the beings she
-most loved; but, while her lips were parted, he made
-a sudden effort at composure, and saying that all
-might yet be well, in a broken and hurried voice, he
-drew Malina toward him and stooped to press his
-lips to her forehead, without seeming conscious of
-the act—but she was all too conscious, the blood
-rushed to her cheeks, and she trembled in his arms
-like a frightened child. He saw it not, for to his
-thought she was a sister only, and though his lips
-had pressed her forehead for the first time, he did not
-think of it, but mounted his horse and rode away before
-she had power to utter a word or make a gesture
-to detain him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>He was gone forever, and she was alone—alone!
-how often is that word misapplied; the loving and
-the loved are never alone—but so it was with Malina
-Gray.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1em;'>——</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'><a id='chap'></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';fs:0.9em;' -->
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>“In the cold, damp earth we laid her,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>&ensp;&ensp;When the forest cast its leaf,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>And we sighed, that one so beautiful</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>&ensp;&ensp;Should have a lot so brief.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'>“So, Madam, you refuse—my boy is dying, and
-he yearns to look once more on the poor girl who
-would have been his wife in a single week.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was but a few days after her interview with Mr.
-Mosier, that Malina heard these words issue from
-her mother’s parlor, as she was passing through the
-hall, from the chamber where she had just left Phebe
-striving to beguile her weary thoughts with a book.
-The door was ajar, and there was a power in the
-words which made her start and listen. It was a
-deep, manly voice, that of an aged person, but entreaty,
-tenderness and something almost like resentment,
-combined to render it startling and pathetic.
-Malina held her breath, and, drawing a step nearer,
-looked through the door.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>An aged man was standing before her mother, he
-held a cane without resting on it, and a broad brimmed
-hat was in his left hand; firm and erect he stood
-in the quiet room, the gray hair sweeping back from
-his forehead, and his plain dress giving him the look
-of a patriarch; his face was agitated, but so full of
-benevolence that Malina loved the old man before
-she guessed who he was. Violent passions could
-seldom have passed over those mild features, still
-they were disturbed as he spoke, and the good old
-man was evidently struggling with strong and bitter
-emotions. There was something in the grasp of his
-hand on the cane, and in his dignified bearing, which
-awed the sympathy it excited.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Gray was sitting in her easy chair, looking
-rather earnestly at the old man. She had been engaged
-in knitting when he entered, but had laid the
-work on a little round stand by her side, and seemed
-rather anxious to take it up again; but she was too
-punctilious for that, and very blandly requested her
-visitor to resume the seat from which he had risen.
-“No, I have not time to sit down, every minute is
-worth years to me now—my only son is dying, and I
-am absent from his side.” The old man now paused,
-his chin began to quiver, and turning away his face,
-he strove to conceal the tears that broke into his eyes
-from the calm and heartless woman who sat gazing
-upon him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Madam,” he said, but his voice was broken, and
-his hand shook till the hat fell from his grasp to the
-floor. “Madam, I beseech you, think better of this!
-My boy cannot live forty-eight hours; the doctors
-told me so before I left him. But I came from his
-bed side, when each lost moment was as a drop of
-blood wrung from my heart, thinking that you might
-refuse any messenger but his father. You are a woman
-and should feel for him, and here I gave up five
-whole hours of this precious time that he might look
-on the face of that poor girl before he dies; and his
-mother—you have had children sleeping against
-your heart, madam—do you think his mother would
-not find it a comfort if the soul of her only child
-could go up to heaven from her bosom where he
-nestled in his first infancy? Do you think she has no
-woman’s yearning wish for the last embrace, the last
-endearing word? She loves the boy better than her
-own soul, and he is dying before her eyes—but she
-gave him up. When she saw that he moaned for
-the presence of one who had become dearer than his
-own mother, she bade me come hither and bring the
-girl that her first born might die in the arms he loved
-best—think, woman, every moment I spend in talking
-here is wrung from the death bed of a child that
-was all on earth that two old people had to love and
-hope for. I must depart, but let <span class='it'>her</span> go with me.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The old man unconsciously clasped his hands as
-he spoke, and tears fell like rain over his withered
-cheeks.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Gray glanced at him with something of wonder
-in her face, and extending out her hand, took up
-the knitting work as if to end the conference.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“And can you still refuse!” exclaimed the old man.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“It would not be proper,” replied Mrs. Gray,
-quietly unscrewing the top of her silver knitting
-case, “besides, Phebe is not well enough to ride so
-far even if she desired it, and the fever may be contagious.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If I could talk with the young lady I am sure she
-<span class='it'>would</span> desire it,” said the old man, almost humbly,
-for his heart grew heavy at the thought of returning
-to the death bed of his son with his errand unaccomplished.
-“Leave it to her good feelings, madam, and
-if they plead against me I will depart and trouble
-you no more.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Neither the pleading voice, nor the agony of over-wrought
-feelings with which the unhappy father
-spoke, reached the heart of Mrs. Gray. While the
-old man stood before her, trembling beneath the burden
-of his grief, she placed her needle in its sheath,
-twisted the worsted over her finger, and went through
-the intricacies of a seam stitch before even her eyes
-were lifted toward him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You must recollect, Mr. Mosier,” she said,
-“Phebe is not at present engaged to your son, and
-even if she were, I do not think it would be exactly
-correct for her to visit him. I am sorry for the
-young gentleman, very; I will see that our new minister
-mentions his case in prayer next Sabbath; we all
-feel for him—but he would not be advised. Indeed⁠—”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Here Mrs. Gray dropped a stitch, and paused while
-it was looped up again. When she raised her eyes,
-the face of her auditor was stern, and as calm as her
-own. The tears had dropped from his cheek, his
-hands were both grasping the head of his cane, and
-if that pharisaical woman could have shrunk from
-any thing, the solemn and reproving eyes which
-dwelt on her face would have kindled the most
-generous blood of her heart into blushes of shame.
-But it is hard to wring the die of shame from a self-righteous
-heart. Mrs. Gray believed herself to be
-acting in a most Christian-like spirit, in still retaining
-the heartless civility of her manner toward the
-poor old man whom her own cruelty had bereaved.
-Her heart was entombed in the self-conceit of its
-own sanctity, like dust in the marble of a sarcophagus.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Woman,” said the old man, and this time his
-voice was firm, and thrillingly solemn; “you have
-no heart. You are a mother, and should know how
-much worse than death it is to see the child whom
-you have loved and cherished, and woven in your
-very heart-strings, perishing before your eyes. Oh,
-how proud we were of that boy! how his poor mother
-loved him! what a day it was when she and I
-walked up the broad aisle of that old meeting-house
-yonder, and saw him standing in the pulpit—a minister
-of the gospel. We had prayed for that sight—toiled
-and slaved for it—and were so happy—so very
-happy. He is on his death bed now. Woman, <span class='it'>you</span>
-have sent him there—you, who were a mother,
-thought nothing of smiting a sister woman through
-the heart—you, a professor of religion, can do murder
-more subtle and cruel than that which cleaves
-a man through the brain, and look calm and speak
-softly, nay, smilingly refuse the last dying request of
-your victim. Woman, I will not curse you—that
-right rests with the high God of Heaven, who looketh
-down upon the murder you have done, not as
-man looketh, not as the law looketh—before <span class='it'>him</span>,
-shall you be arraigned, and that cold heart shall be
-made to shudder at the depth of its own crime—<span class='it'>he</span>
-will be thine accuser—he, thy victim, who was so
-gentle, so sweet tempered, that thoughts of revenge
-never entered his heart. In a few short hours he
-will stand in the broad light of Heaven, sent there
-untimely; and even as Abel bear witness against his
-brother, he shall bear witness against thee! The
-Almighty may not place his mark upon thy brow—the
-law may not brand thee—but one who can wring
-the life from a human being by silent and moral
-cruelty, is not less a murderer than the man who
-smites his brother to the heart with a poniard!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Gray was at length moved—for the solemn
-and stern energy of that pale old man might have
-startled the dead from their graves—the knitting
-dropped from her hands, her eyes darkled with terror,
-and her face turned white as a corpse beneath
-the snowy lace and the black and false hair that
-shaded it. She would have spoken, but the pallid
-lips trembled without uttering a sound, while the
-hands which rested in her lap began to shiver, as she
-strove to lift them and motion him away.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The old man left her where she sat, and went into
-the hall; but his feelings had been too cruelly outraged,
-and there his strength gave way; he sunk
-helplessly to a settee, and covering his face with his
-hands, wept like a child.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina had left the hall and stood in her sister’s
-chamber. Phebe was dressed and seated by the
-window, pondering over the pages of a book, though
-she had not turned a leaf that day. She did not raise
-her eyes when the door opened, but seemed unconscious
-of a second person.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Come with me,” said Malina, grasping the hand
-which lay in her sister’s lap, with fingers that clung
-to it like ice. “Come!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There was something in Malina’s face that frightened
-her companion from the apathy that had for
-days settled on her spirits. She arose, without a
-word, and was led down stairs, and into the hall.
-It was empty. Old Mr. Mosier had departed, and
-the front door was left open behind him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Phebe,” said Malina Gray, in a faint whisper,
-“<span class='it'>he</span> is dying, and has sent for you—his father sat
-there, but a moment since. Our mother has refused
-that you should see him. He is pining to die with
-his head against your heart. Sister, will you go?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I will plead with her—kneel to her,” said Phebe
-Gray, and opening the parlor door, she entered
-alone.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina paused an instant, and turning through a
-side door, passed across a small clover lot, toward
-the stables. A horse stood cropping the white blossoms
-in a corner of the field. She looked around for
-some one to help her, but the men were all away on
-the upper farm—so she drew toward the gentle animal,
-and beckoning with her hand, uttered a few
-coaxing words, and persuaded him toward the
-stables. He bent his neck while her trembling
-hands placed the bit in his mouth, which was yet
-half full of fragrant grass, and turned his head to
-watch her, as she girded the saddle to his back.
-When she tied him to the garden fence, and entered
-the house again, he followed her with his eyes, and,
-with a short neigh, fell to tearing with his mouth the
-honeysuckle vines that crept along the fence.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As Malina entered the hall she saw Phebe gliding
-up stairs toward their room; she was walking feebly,
-and held by the bannister as she went. When the
-sisters stood within the chamber together, Phebe
-sunk to a chair, while Malina looked earnestly in
-her face, and uttered a single sentence⁠—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Will you go?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“She has forbidden it,” replied Phebe, faintly.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Will you go?” said Malina, once more.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I dare not disobey her!” Phebe spoke with difficulty,
-and clasping both hands over her face, moaned
-as if in pain, for the struggle within her heart was
-terrible.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When Phebe became sufficiently composed to look
-up, her sister was gone. She was glad to be alone,
-and creeping toward the bed, knelt down and prayed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina had snatched a bonnet and shawl from the
-bed while her sister’s face was concealed, and gliding
-down stairs into the open air, she mounted the
-horse and rode away.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was sunset as the poor girl came slowly over the
-old bridge, and rode by our house. I was playing in
-the front yard, and ran out to meet her—but all at
-once she drew the bridle tight, and the spirited horse
-sprung forward on the way before my childish voice
-could be heard. The gloom of coming night lay
-heavily amid the pine boughs, as the young girl rode
-under them, and when she dashed up the road, and
-disappeared over Fall’s Hill, both horse and rider
-were for one moment displayed in bold relief against
-a pile of crimson and golden clouds which lay heaped
-in the horizon. When she disappeared, it seemed,
-to my infant fancy, as if the gates of heaven had unfolded
-to receive her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The night came on clear, and lighted both by moon
-and stars, the solitary traveler still kept the road,
-accompanied only by her spirited animal, and the
-shadow which seemed gliding along the dewy green-sward
-by her side, like a silent guardian. It was
-late in the evening when the horse checked himself
-at the fence before a red farm-house, with a sloping
-roof, and two large trees embowering it with foliage.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It seemed like supernatural instinct in the animal,
-for he had only been there once before, and Malina,
-in the tumult of her thoughts, scarcely knew where
-she wished to stop. There was a light twinkling
-through the thick leaves of a tree bough that dropped
-over one of the front windows, but it was very faint,
-and seemed forcing itself through the folds of a window
-curtain. Malina grasped the horn of her saddle,
-and dropping feebly down to the green-sward, moved
-toward the house. There was a foot-path which led
-to the front door—she followed this, and found herself
-in a dark entry, with a narrow stream of light
-falling through the entrance to an inner room. The
-sound of a faint, wandering voice, and of smothered
-sobs, stole from the room. Malina breathed heavily
-as she touched the door, and glided into the room.
-It was indeed the chamber of death. A solitary
-candle burned on the table, amid glasses and vials,
-sending forth just sufficient light to reveal an old
-fashioned tent bed, with its white drapery sweeping
-to the floor, and its heavy fringes hanging motionless,
-as if they had been cut from marble. At the
-foot of this bed knelt an old man; his hands were
-clasped beneath his face, and the long gray hair
-swept thickly over them, as he prayed. A female
-stood between Malina and the bed; she was bending
-over the pillows which were heaped high upon
-it, and though the poor girl could not see her face,
-she <span class='it'>felt</span> that it was <span class='it'>his</span> mother. She moved, and the
-sound of her footstep on the sanded floor made the
-old lady lift her head, and Malina saw his face once
-more. Oh, how white and changed it was! The
-damp, black hair fell heavily over his forehead,
-shadows lay about the closed eyelids, and there was
-an expression about the mouth, which was not a
-smile, and yet seemed deathly and sweet. His head
-was raised high with pillows, and though he seemed
-to sleep, the breath came painfully from his lips, and
-with a struggle that constantly disturbed the linen
-which lay in waves across his breast.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina stood upright in the dim light, motionless
-as a thing of marble, her eyes fixed on the dying
-man, and unconscious, in the force of her grief, that
-to all in the room, save him who saw her not, she
-was a stranger, and had intruded into the sanctuary
-of private grief.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It mattered not; Malina’s step had been mistaken
-for that of a woman from the kitchen, and no one
-knew that the wretched young creature was there.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There was a motion of the bed clothes, a faint
-murmur, and the dying man opened his eyes—those
-large, eloquent eyes that Malina had thought upon
-so often, and so thrillingly. There was a mist upon
-them now, but through it broke a soft and strange
-light, heavenly and beautiful. The old lady bent her
-ear, and listened to the faint murmur, which seemed
-dying on his lips.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“My father—when will he come back?—it is
-late!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The sound was very faint, but the old man had
-heard it amid the strong agony of his prayer. He
-arose, and moving round the bed, bent over his son.
-A light, almost preternatural, came to the eyes of
-that dying man, and with a sudden effort he found
-voice to speak.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“My father,” he said, “thank God—you have returned
-in time. Where is she?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“My son,” said the old man, in a voice which he
-vainly strove to render calm, “in a little time she
-will meet you in heaven—but she is not here.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The invalid had turned his head upon the pillow,
-with a look of touching eagerness; but it fell back—his
-eyes closed faintly, and after gasping once or
-twice, he lay motionless, save the lips, which gave
-forth broken but beautiful fragments of speech, such
-as came uppermost in his pure, but wandering mind,
-for he was delirious now. The last vibrations of his
-soul were disturbed by disappointment in his sole
-earthly wish. In the broken murmurs that fell from
-his lips, Malina heard her own name, and it unlocked
-the ice which seemed closing round her
-heart. With a sob that broke to her lips amid a
-gush of tears, she sprung toward the bed, and falling
-upon her knees, clasped the pale hand which fell
-over the bed, and pressed her quivering lips repeatedly
-upon it, while her voice mingled with the choking
-grief that shook her whole frame.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Forgive me! oh, let me stay!” she said, lifting
-her face to the old woman, but still nervously grasping
-the dying man’s hand; “I loved him better than
-she did—better than anybody could—better than my
-own soul! Let me stay, and die with him! No one
-asked <span class='it'>me</span> to come, but I am here. You will not send
-me away?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The voice of Malina Gray was soft and low, like
-that of her sister; and though broken with grief, it
-is probable that the dying man was bewildered by
-the sound. He started from the pillow—a glorious
-lustre broke through the mist which whelmed his
-eyes, and as Malina sprang to her feet, his face fell
-upon her shoulder, and his cold cheek lay against
-hers. It was very strange—Malina knew that he
-was dying, but a flash of wild joy thrilled through
-her heart, and for the first time since she had heard
-of his illness, a faint color broke into the cheek
-which pressed his. She laid him gently upon the
-pillow, and parting the damp hair from his forehead,
-pressed her lips tremblingly upon it, while her sobs
-filled the chamber. When the dying man felt the
-touch of her quivering mouth, a smile stole over his
-face—again the misty eyes were unclosed, and feebly
-lifting his arm, he wound it over her neck and drew
-her to his bosom, while the unformed words he would
-have spoken were lost amid the dying music of his
-soul. A moment, and his arm fell softly from Malina’s
-neck. The young creature lifted her face
-from his bosom, and looking at his mother, murmured⁠—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“He loved <span class='it'>her</span> living—but is he not mine in death?—mine,
-for ever and ever!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She turned to lay her face near his heart once
-more, but there was no color in her lips then. She
-started, and, with a cold shudder, bent her cheek
-slowly to his bosom—it pressed heavily, and more
-heavily, on the cold clay—her limbs relaxed, and
-she sunk across the bed, senseless as the beautiful
-corpse which cumbered it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The gloom of death had shadowed that farm-house
-two days, and now it was desolate. The kind neighbors
-who had walked in and out, ministering to grief,
-no longer broke the solemn hush which pervaded the
-dwelling. The departed was indeed the departed—for
-they had borne him over his father’s threshold,
-and laid him down to sleep in the dark earth. Malina
-followed him to the grave. She was a stranger,
-but no one asked why she stood among the mourners,
-and without their sable vestments. When the aged
-mother bent over the coffin, and looked upon the
-dead, the young girl drew to her side, and fixed her
-eyes upon the cold still face which had never met her
-glance coldly before. The mother wept, but Malina
-could not shed a tear, although the solemn and hushed
-grief upon her face awed even village curiosity.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And now they were alone—the parents, and that
-poor girl. She was upon her knees—her head was
-bent, and its redundant hair veiled her face, while
-the broken hearted young creature begged a blessing
-from <span class='it'>his mother</span> before she went away. The sorrowing
-woman laid her hands upon the bright tresses
-which flowed over her lap for a moment, then lifting
-the suppliant to her bosom, wept over her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mr. Mosier, when he heard the sobs of his wife,
-arose, and clasping his hands over Malina’s head,
-silently besought a blessing on her. She drew back,
-and he saw that her face was still calm; so taking
-her hands in his, he began to persuade and reason
-with her. She listened, and gazed earnestly in his
-face as he spoke. At last, tears started to her eyes,
-and when the old man saw this, big drops began to
-stream down his own cheek, and the clasp of his
-hand grew tremulous, as he led her from the room.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As the old man placed Malina in her saddle, he
-glanced in her face, and a misgiving came to his
-heart. He questioned himself if it was safe to trust
-her to the road without protection; but when he proposed
-accompanying her part of the way, at least,
-she pleaded against it with startling eagerness, and,
-thinking of his afflicted wife, he allowed her to depart.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina had a secret wish at her heart, which
-caused it to pant for solitude. Her road lay close by
-the grave-yard where our young minister was buried,
-and she yearned to stand once more by his death
-place, and alone. When she reached the sacred
-place, she looked to the right and left, timidly, as if
-her errand had been a wrong one. Her nerves were
-strung to their utmost tension, and she was morbidly
-fearful of being seen—every thing was solitary and
-quiet; the long grass bending to the breeze, as it
-sighed over the graves, and the soft rustling sound
-which whispered amid the leaves of a clump of
-weeping willows, that curtained an entire household
-that had gone down to sleep together, were all the
-sounds that fell upon her ear. She tied the horse to
-the fence, and passing forward to <span class='it'>his</span> grave, sat upon
-a pile of sods that had been left by the sexton. She
-neither wept nor moved—but there she remained in
-the bright sunshine, gazing hour after hour on a tuft
-of tiny white blossoms, which sprung up from a sod
-which they had placed just over his heart. Now
-and then, she twined her hands together as they reposed
-in her lap—and as the sunshine went suddenly
-away, and heavy black clouds rolled over the sky,
-with the lightning playing amid their ragged folds,
-she smiled, and drew closer to the grave.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At last, a roar of thunder burst from the clouds,
-big drops of rain came down upon the graves, and
-bent the willows more droopingly to the earth.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina lifted her eyes upward with a wild and
-startled look, then turning them on the willows
-which sheltered that single family, and on the congregation
-of graves which lay around her, all covered
-with long grass, she rested them on the mound at
-her feet, murmuring⁠—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Have all a covering from the cold rain, but thee?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As she spoke, Malina took off her shawl, and
-spreading it over the newly made grave, cast herself
-upon it, and for the first time since she felt his
-heart stop beating beneath hers, moaned and sobbed
-as if her very life were going from her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In a few moments the garments of our poor mourner
-were saturated with rain—still she clung closer to the
-grave, murmuring words of wild endearment to the
-unconscious inmate, and congratulating herself, with
-strange earnestness, that she was still able to shield
-his bosom from the storm.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At last, the clouds rolled away, and though the sun
-was just going down, his last fires kindled a rainbow
-amid the water drops that yet filled the air. Malina
-lifted her head, and gazed upward—a smile parted
-her lips when she saw the rainbow, and pressing her
-cheek upon the grave again, she whispered⁠—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“The angels have built thee a bridge, love!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The sun went down, and Malina arose from the
-grave, shivering from head to foot. She gazed
-around, and was turning her eyes with a wistful
-look on her late resting place, as if she meditated
-casting herself down again, when a low neigh from
-the horse which still remained by the fence, aroused
-her, and leaving the shawl behind, she hurried toward
-the patient animal, and mounting him, rode away.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina must have wandered from the usual road,
-in the strange abstraction of her mind, for it was
-midnight when she came opposite the old meeting-house.
-Prompted, doubtless, by some vague fear of
-returning home, or perhaps allured to pause by the
-open gate, the weary and half bewildered girl
-turned her horse, and riding close to the front door
-of the parsonage house, dismounted, and allowed
-him to wander amid the flower beds and rose bushes
-which filled the yard. Thrusting her hand beneath
-the door sill, she took out a key, and fitted it to the
-lock, but with difficulty, for her hands trembled; and
-though hot flushes every moment darted through her
-frame, she was shivering with cold. She went up
-stairs, holding feebly by the balusters, and guided
-by the moonlight, which fell from a window overhead,
-she entered a room—that which she had
-decorated as the bridal chamber of her sister Phebe,
-and of the departed. A clear moonlight came
-through the windows, and lay like flags of silver
-amid the black shadows which filled the apartment.
-Every thing was still and motionless; not a breath
-stirred the bridal ribands with which the muslin curtains
-were looped back. The bed lay with the
-moonlight sleeping amid its pillows, like a snow
-drift, when the air is calm; and the atmosphere was
-impregnated by the dead flowers which had been
-profusely lavished on the toilet, and now hung crisp
-and withered in their vases. Malina was very ill,
-and a fever burned through her veins—her limbs
-were almost powerless, and her forehead seemed
-girdled with iron. Still was she sensible of surrounding
-things, and her heart swelled with the
-recollections which thronged on her aching brain.
-She unfastened her damp dress, and with difficulty
-crept into bed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Poor, poor Phebe,” she murmured, gathering
-the white counterpane over her shivering form,
-“how little she thinks I am here—how she would
-pity me, so ill, and all alone. Alas, how sad a thing
-this trouble is—I have not thought of Phebe these
-many long days—I wonder if she is ill as I am—if
-her head is so hot, and her limbs chilled, till they
-shake so. This is a cold bed—very, very cold—but
-his is colder still. Oh, my God! <span class='it'>he is dead</span>—and I
-have seen his grave. I—but it was not me—no—he
-loved my sister. But I had his dying kiss! It was
-the last throb of his heart that beat against mine, and
-chilled me so. That was it—that was it!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>With such fragments of speech, and moans of
-pain, Malina verged into the delirium of a raging
-fever. At times she would weep, and call for her
-sister, in tones of yearning tenderness—then notes
-of music would break from her lips, and ring
-through every corner of the solitary house, as if a
-prisoned angel were pleading for release there.
-When the fever came on, fierce and strong, she
-began to ask for water—to weep, and wring her
-hands, while she entreated some visionary being to
-leave her in the grave-yard where <span class='it'>he</span> was; where
-showers were continually falling and weaving rainbows
-around those who thirsted for rest or drink;
-and so her voice of suffering rose and swelled
-through the lone building all night. When the day
-dawned, she was still awake and delirious; tears
-stood on her crimson cheeks, and entreaties for
-water still rose to her parched lips.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It came at last—she knew not how it was, but a
-pale, sweet face bent over her, a soft voice was
-speaking comfort, and a glass of water cooler and
-more refreshing than she had ever tasted before was
-held to her lips. She was just conscious enough to
-think that it was Phebe who ministered to her wants,
-or some good seraph that looked as sweetly sad and
-kind. Then she sunk to sleep, and it was many weeks
-before she awoke from the dream that followed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was Phebe Gray who stood by the sick bed of
-the sufferer. A villager had seen Mrs. Gray’s horse
-that morning, bridled and with his saddle on, trampling
-among the flower beds and feasting upon the
-choice rose bushes which grew in the parsonage
-yard—he went in to secure the animal and was terrified
-by the voice of suffering which issued from the
-house. He went up stairs, saw the delirious young
-creature who occupied the bridal chamber, and
-hastened to inform Mrs. Gray—but Phebe had struggled
-with her own sufferings and stood over Malina’s
-sick bed many hours before the mother had arranged
-her dress and prepared herself to pass through the
-village with that degree of propriety which she
-considered due to her character.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina lay many weeks before the fever left her;
-then a cough set in and a hectic spot settled and
-burned into her thin cheeks. The poor girl smiled
-a sad quiet smile, when she heard them say each evening,
-that a little over exertion had excited her, that
-she had taken a slight cold which in the turn of her
-disease was felt more than usual. Still the cough
-deepened, the crimson spot burned on, and she knew
-that the life which kindled would soon be exhausted.
-And so it was, that autumn when the woods were all
-flushed with those dyes which an early frost brings
-to the foliage, when the nuts were ripe and the brown
-leaves fell in showers over the crisp moss, Malina
-Gray was extended beneath the snowy drapery which
-her own hands had gathered above the bridal bed.
-White ribands were still knotted amid the folds which
-seemed brooding over her like a cloud, and a few
-crimson fall flowers lay scattered upon the pillow,
-some of them so close to the marble cheek that a
-faint tinge was coldly reflected there. For two
-whole nights Phebe watched the beautiful clay reposing
-in the dim light upon her own bridal bed, but
-scarcely more changed than her own sweet self.
-Malina was the happiest, her heart had broken amid
-the struggle of its suffering, but that of the watcher
-lay crushed and withering in her young bosom. She
-felt that life was yet strong within her; but hope,
-love, every thing that makes life pleasant to a woman,
-had departed. She was still good, still pure almost as
-an angel, but the sad smile which settled on her lips
-never deepened to a laugh again, and no human being
-ever saw a tear in her changeless and sorrowful eyes.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>They laid Malina Gray down to sleep beside old
-minister Brown—in the very spot she had yearned
-to repose in. A large circle of neighbors gathered
-around the grave, some in tears, and all very sorrowful.
-Mrs. Gray stood by the coffin; her mourning
-was arranged with great care, and a veil of new
-crape, deeply hemmed, fell decorously over her
-face, and the white handkerchief, with which she
-concealed those maternal tears proper for a mother,
-whose duty it was to be resigned under any dispensation.
-But Phebe stood silent and motionless; no
-handkerchief was lifted to her eyes, and the face
-which gleamed beneath the crape veil, was profoundly
-calm, almost as that of the corpse.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We had a new minister, on trial, of Mrs. Gray’s
-choosing, who performed the funeral service, and
-when all was over, returned home with the mourners;
-when they knelt in the little parlor that night,
-he prayed earnestly, and with genuine tears, for the
-bereaved mother; he besought the Lord to visit,
-with consolation, one who was a mother in Israel, a
-bright and shining ornament in the Christian church;
-a woman who had brought up her children in the
-fear and admonition of the Lord; whose path was
-growing brighter and brighter to the perfect day
-when she would reap a rich reward in heaven.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Amid a few natural sobs which awoke in the
-widow’s heart, she murmured, “Amen,” satisfied
-that her life had been one of perfect rectitude, and
-that in all things she had been a pattern mother, and
-an ornament to the church, which ought to be her
-consolation under any bereavement.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The new minister was a very conscientious man,
-but practical in all his ideas; he was honest in the
-high opinion which he entertained of Mrs. Gray, and
-not sufficiently sensitive to shrink from offering his
-hand to Phebe, when that lady delicately gave him
-to understand that the step would be satisfactory to
-herself. The old parsonage house was still empty,
-and Phebe’s inheritance. He was an installed pastor,
-and Miss Gray’s engagement to his predecessor
-never entered his mind as an objection.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe betrayed no emotion when the proposal was
-made. She simply declined it, without giving a
-reason; and when he married another person, and
-would have rented the parsonage, she said with
-decision—“It must remain as my sister left it!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And when Mrs. Gray would have remonstrated,
-she answered, still with firmness⁠—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I am of age, mother, but still will obey you in
-all things else. Act as you like regarding the other
-property—but no stranger shall ever live in the parsonage.
-Poor Malina furnished it for <span class='it'>him</span>, and for
-me. She died there, and so will I!”</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk107'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It may be so, for the old house is still uninhabited.
-Every thing remains as Malina left it; the bridal
-chamber, the easy chair, and the flute upon the
-table; time has made little change in those silent
-apartments, for every week Phebe, who has become
-a calm and sorrowful old maid, goes up to the house
-alone, and remains there for many hours; sometimes
-seated at the study table, and gazing at a
-grave which may be seen through the trees. Once,
-a child gathering valley lilies, beneath the window,
-saw her standing at the open sash, with her sad eyes
-turned toward the grave-yard. She was talking to
-herself—the child dropped his flowers and listened,
-for there was something so mournful in her voice,
-that his little heart thrilled to the sound.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“They tell me that he wearied himself, and died
-of fever,” she said; “and that thou, my sister, perished
-naturally, and as we all must. Alas, if I could
-but think so. Why not have told me how he was
-beloved before it was too late? I would have given
-him up—and while you were happy, this heart had
-not become so palsied and feelingless. Alas, it was
-well that thy heart <span class='it'>could</span> break, my poor, poor
-Malina!”</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk108'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='noo'></a>NOON.<a id='r5'/><a href='#f5' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[5]</span></sup></a></h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;’Tis noon. At noon the Hebrew bowed the knee</p>
-<p class='line0'>And worshiped, while the husbandman withdrew</p>
-<p class='line0'>From the scorched field, and the wayfaring man</p>
-<p class='line0'>Grew faint, and turned aside by bubbling fount,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Or rested in the shadow of the palm.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;I, too, amid the overflow of day,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Behold the power which wields and cherishes</p>
-<p class='line0'>The frame of Nature. From this brow of rock</p>
-<p class='line0'>That overlooks the Hudson’s western marge,</p>
-<p class='line0'>I gaze upon the long array of groves,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The piles and gulfs of verdure drinking in</p>
-<p class='line0'>The grateful heats. They love the fiery sun;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Their broadening leaves grow glossier, and their sprays</p>
-<p class='line0'>Climb as he looks upon them. In the midst,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The swelling river into his green gulfs,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Unshadowed save by passing sails above,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Takes the redundant glory, and enjoys</p>
-<p class='line0'>The summer in his chilly bed. Coy flowers,</p>
-<p class='line0'>That would not open in the early light,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Push back their plaited sheaths. The rivulet’s pool,</p>
-<p class='line0'>That darkly quivered all the morning long</p>
-<p class='line0'>In the cool shade, now glimmers in the sun,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And o’er its surface shoots, and shoots again,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The glittering dragon-fly, and deep within</p>
-<p class='line0'>Run the brown water-beetles to and fro.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;A silence, the brief sabbath of an hour,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Reigns o’er the fields; the laborer sits within</p>
-<p class='line0'>His dwelling; he has left his steers awhile,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Unyoked, to bite the herbage, and his dog</p>
-<p class='line0'>Sleeps stretched beside the door-stone in the shade.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Now the gray marmot, with uplifted paws,</p>
-<p class='line0'>No more sits listening by his den, but steals</p>
-<p class='line0'>Abroad, in safety, to the clover field,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And crops its juicy blossoms. All the while</p>
-<p class='line0'>A ceaseless murmur from the populous town</p>
-<p class='line0'>Swells o’er these solitudes; a mingled sound</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of jarring wheels, and iron hoofs that clash</p>
-<p class='line0'>Upon the stony ways, and hammer clang,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And creak of engines lifting ponderous bulks,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And calls and cries, and tread of eager feet,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Innumerable, hurrying to and fro.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Noon, in that mighty mart of nations, brings</p>
-<p class='line0'>No pause to toil and care; with early day</p>
-<p class='line0'>Began the tumult, and shall only cease</p>
-<p class='line0'>When midnight, hushing one by one the sounds</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of bustle, gathers the tired brood to rest.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thus, in this feverish time, when love of gain</p>
-<p class='line0'>And luxury possess the hearts of men,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thus is it with the noon of human life.</p>
-<p class='line0'>We in our fervid manhood, in our strength</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of reason, we, with hurry, noise and care,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Plan, toil and strive, and pause not to refresh</p>
-<p class='line0'>Our spirits with the calm and beautiful</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of God’s harmonious universe, that won</p>
-<p class='line0'>Our youthful wonder; pause not to inquire</p>
-<p class='line0'>Why we are here, and what the reverence</p>
-<p class='line0'>Man owes to man, and what the mystery</p>
-<p class='line0'>That links us to the greater world, beside</p>
-<p class='line0'>Whose borders we but hover for a space.</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='footnotemark'/>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_5'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' class='footnoteid'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div class='footnote-id' id='f5'><a href='#r5'>[5]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>From an unpublished Poem.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk109'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='tru'></a>TRUTH.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY MRS. FRANCES SARGENT OSGOOD.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';fs:0.9em;' -->
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>“This above all!—to thine own self be true!</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>And it must follow, as the night the day,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>Thou canst not then be false to any man.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER I.</h2>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:0.9em;'>A MOTHER’S INFLUENCE.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Mother! mother!” exclaimed a sweet, eager
-voice, and the speaker, a child of thirteen years,
-burst into the room, where Mrs. Carlton sat at work,
-“don’t you think there is to be a prize given on
-exhibition day for the best composition! And I mean
-to try for it—sha’nt I?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She was a little, harum-scarum looking imp! I
-suppose she had run all the way home from school,
-for her straw bonnet hung on her neck instead of
-her head, and a profusion of soft dark hair was
-streaming in such disorder about her glowing face,
-that you could not tell if she were pretty or not; but
-you could see a pair of brilliant, gray or blue or black
-eyes—they certainly changed their color with every
-new emotion; but I think they were really gray—full
-of laughter, and love beaming through the truant
-tresses, and all eloquent with the beauty of a fresh,
-warm soul. This change in the child’s eyes is no
-freak of a foolish fancy; for every one noticed it;
-and her school-crony, Kate Sumner, used to declare,
-that when Harriet was angry they were black; gray
-when she was thoughtful; violet when sad; and
-when happy and loving, they changed to the tenderest
-blue.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Carlton drew the little girl toward her, and
-smoothed back the rebellious curls, at the same time
-exclaiming, with a long drawn sigh, “My <span class='it'>dear</span>
-Harriet! how you <span class='it'>do</span> look!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh, mother! it’s not the least matter how <span class='it'>I</span> look!
-If I were only a beauty, now, like Angelina Burton,
-I would keep my hair as smooth as—as <span class='it'>any</span> thing;
-but I wouldn’t rub my cheeks though, as she does
-always, just before she goes into a room where
-there’s company—would <span class='it'>you</span>, mother?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The mother gazed at her child’s expressive face,
-as she spoke, with its irregular, yet lovely features,
-the strange, bright eyes, the changing cheek, the full
-and sweet, but spirited mouth, and said to herself,
-“Whatever you may think, my darling, I would not
-change your simple, innocent, childlike unconsciousness,
-for all Angelina’s beauty, spoiled as it is by
-vanity and affectation.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But, mother, do give me a subject for composition,
-for I want to write it now, this minute!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Harriet,” said Mrs. Carlton quietly, “go and
-brush your hair, change your shoes, and mend that
-rent in your dress as neatly as you can.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Harriet half pouted; but she met her mother’s
-tranquil eye; the pout changed to a good-humored
-smile, and kissing her affectionately, she bounded
-off to do her bidding.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>While she is gone, you would like—would you not,
-dear reader?—to ask a few questions about her. I
-can guess what they are, and will answer them, to
-the best of my knowledge.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Carlton is a widow, with a moderate fortune,
-and a handsome house in Tremont street, Boston.
-She has been a star in fashionable life, but since
-the loss of her husband, whom she tenderly loved,
-she has retired from the gay world, and devoted
-herself to her child—a wild, frank, happy, generous
-and impetuous creature, with half a dozen glaring
-faults, and one rare virtue which nobly redeemed
-them all. That virtue, patient reader, you must find
-out for yourself. Perhaps you will catch a glimpse
-of it in</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1em;'>——</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER II.</h2>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:0.9em;'>AUNT ELOISE.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Harriet was busy with her composition, when her
-aunt, who was on a visit to Mrs. Carlton, entered
-the room. Aunt Eloise was a weak minded and weak
-hearted lady of a very uncertain age—unhappily
-gifted with more sensibility than sense. She really
-had a deal of feeling—for herself—and an almost inexhaustible
-shower of tears, varied occasionally by
-hysterics and fainting-fits, whenever any pressing
-exigency in the fate of her friends demanded self-possession,
-energy, or immediate assistance. If, too,
-there happened, as there will sometimes, in all households,
-to be an urgent necessity for instant exertion
-by any member of the family, such as sewing, watching
-with an invalid, shopping with a country cousin,
-poor Aunt Eloise was invariably and most unfortunately
-seized with a sudden toothache, headache, pain
-in the side, strange feelings, dreadful nervousness, or
-some trouble of the kind, which quite precluded the
-propriety of asking her aid.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Every morning at breakfast Aunt Eloise edified
-the family with a wonderful dream, which the breakfast-bell
-had interrupted, and every evening she grew
-sentimental over the reminiscences which the twilight
-hour awakened. It was then that innumerable
-shades of former admirers arose. Some doubted if
-they had ever been <span class='it'>more</span> than shades; but Aunt
-Eloise certainly knew best about that, and who had a
-right to deny, that Mr. Smith had knelt to her for
-pity; that Colonel Green had vowed eternal adoration;
-and that Lawyer Lynx had laid his heart, his
-hand, and his fees, which were not quite a fortune,
-at her feet?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Aunt Eloise had been—at least she hinted so—a
-beauty and a blue, in her day; and, to maintain both
-characters, she rouged, wore false ringlets, and scribbled
-love-verses, which she had a bad habit of leaving,
-by accident, between the leaves of books in
-every frequented room of the house.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She thought and avowed herself extravagantly fond
-of her niece, during her early childhood, and imagined
-that she displayed a graceful enthusiasm in exclaiming,
-every now and then, in her presence, and
-in that of others, “Oh! you angel child! I do think
-she is the sweetest creature! Come here and kiss
-me, you beauty!” &amp;c. &amp;c. But no one ever saw
-Aunt Eloise taking care of the child, attending to its
-little wants, or doing any thing for its benefit. The
-only tangible proof of her affection for her niece,
-was in the shape of bonbons and candy, which she
-was in the habit of bringing home from her frequent
-walks in Tremont street. Harriet regularly handed
-these forbidden luxuries to her mother, and Mrs.
-Carlton as regularly threw them in the fire.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Isn’t it a pity to waste such nice things, mother?
-Why not give them to some poor child in the street?”
-asked the little girl one day, as she watched, with
-longing eyes, a paper full of the tempting poison,
-which her mother was quietly emptying into the
-grate.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Carlton did not disdain to reason with her
-child—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“That would be <span class='it'>worse</span> than wasted, dear. It
-would be cruel to give to another what I refuse to
-you on account of its unwholesomeness.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But Harriet had now been for a long time out of
-the spinster’s books—as the saying is—and this misfortune
-occurred as follows—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>One morning, when she was about six years old,
-the child came into her mother’s room from her
-aunt’s, where she had been alternately pelted, scolded,
-and teased, till she was weary, and, seating herself
-in a corner, remained for some time absorbed in
-thought. She had been reading to her mother that
-morning, and one sentence, of which she had asked
-an explanation, had made a deep impression upon
-her. It was this—“God sends us trials and troubles
-to strengthen and purify our hearts.” She now sat
-in her corner, without speaking or stirring, until her
-mother’s voice startled her from her reverie.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Of what are you now thinking, Harriet?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Mother, did God send Aunt Eloise to strengthen
-and purify my heart?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What do you mean, my child?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why, the book says he sends trials for that, and
-she is the greatest trial <span class='it'>I</span> have, you know.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The indignant maiden was just entering the room
-as this dialogue began, and hearing her own name,
-she had stopped, unseen, to listen. Speechless with
-rage, she returned to her chamber, and was never
-heard to call Harriet an angel child again.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But we have wasted more words on the fair Eloise’s
-follies than they deserve. Let us return to Harriet’s
-all-important composition.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The maiden-lady, selfish and indolent as she was,
-took it into her head sometimes to be exceedingly inquisitive;
-and officious too, particularly where she
-thought her literary talents could come into play.
-She walked up to Harriet and looked over her
-shoulder.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What’s this, hey? oh! a story! That’s right,
-Harriet, I am glad to see you taking to literary pursuits.
-Come, child! give me the pen and I will improve
-that sentence for you.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Thank you, aunt! but I don’t want it improved.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Not want it improved! There’s vanity!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Indeed, aunt, I am not vain about it, and I
-would like you to help me, if it were not to be
-shown as mine. It wouldn’t be fair, you know,
-to pass off another’s as my own. I am writing for
-a prize.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“For a prize! So much the more reason that you
-should be assisted. There, dear, run away to your
-play and I will write it all for you. You’ll be sure
-to win the prize.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>With every word thus uttered, Harriet’s eyes had
-grown larger and darker, and at the close, she turned
-them, full of astonishment, from her aunt’s face to
-her mother’s. Reassured by the expression of the
-latter, she replied,</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But, Aunt Eloise, that would be a falsehood, you
-know.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“A falsehood, miss!” cried the maiden, sharply,
-“It is a very common thing, I assure you!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But not the less false for being common, Eloise,”
-said Mrs. Carlton; “pray let Harriet have her own
-way about it. It would be far better to lose the prize,
-than to gain it thus dishonestly.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Aunt Eloise, as usual, secretly determined to have
-<span class='it'>her</span> own way; but she said no more then, and Harriet
-pursued her employment without further interruption.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1em;'>——</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER III.</h2>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:0.9em;'>THE PRIZE.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The exhibition day had arrived. Harriet had
-finished her story several days before, and read it to
-her mother. It was a simple, graceful, childlike
-effusion, with less of pretension and ornament, and
-more of spirit and originality than the compositions
-of most children of the same age contain.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Carlton seemed much pleased; but Aunt
-Eloise had criticised it without mercy. At the same
-time she was observed to smile frequently with a
-cunning, sly, triumphant expression, peculiar to herself—an
-expression which she always wore when
-she had a secret, and secrets she had, in abundance—a
-new one almost every day—trivial, petty secrets,
-which no one cared about but herself; but which
-<span class='it'>she</span> guarded as jealously as if they had been apples
-of gold.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The exhibition day had arrived.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Good bye, mother; good bye, aunty,” said Harriet,
-glancing for a moment into the breakfast-room.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She was looking very pretty in a simple, tasteful
-dress, made for the occasion. She held the story in
-her hand, neatly enclosed in an envelope, and her
-eyes were full of hope—the cloudless hope of childhood.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Don’t be surprised, Harriet,” said her aunt, “at
-any thing that may happen to-day. Only be thankful
-if the prize is yours, that’s all.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If Kate Sumner don’t win it, I do <span class='it'>hope</span> I shall!”
-replied the eager child, and away she tripped to
-school.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At twelve o’clock Mrs. Carlton and her sister took
-their seats among the audience, in the exhibition
-room. The usual exercises were completed, and it
-only remained for the compositions to be read aloud
-by the teacher.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The first was a sentimental essay upon Friendship.
-Mr. Wentworth, the teacher, looked first surprised,
-then amused, then vexed as he read, while a gaily
-and fashionably dressed lady, who occupied a conspicuous
-place in the assembly, was observed to
-toss her head and fan herself with a very complacent
-air, while she met, with a nod, the conscious eyes
-of a fair and beautiful, but haughty looking girl of
-fifteen seated among the pupils.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“By Angelina Burton,” said the teacher, as he
-concluded, and laying it aside without further comment,
-he took up the next—“Lines to a Favorite
-Tree,” by Catherine Sumner.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was short and simple, and ran as follows⁠—</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thy leaves’ lightest murmur,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Oh! beautiful tree!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Each bend of thy branches,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The stately, the free,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Each wild, wavy whisper,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Is music to me.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>I gaze thro’ thy labyrinth,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Golden and green,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Where the light loves to linger,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;In glory serene,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Far up, till yon heaven-blue</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Trembles between.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>I shut out the city,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Its sight and its sound,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And away, far away,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;For the forest I’m bound,</p>
-<p class='line0'>For the noble old forest,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Which ages have crowned!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>I lean on its moss banks,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;I stoop o’er its rills,</p>
-<p class='line0'>I see, thro’ its vistas,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The vapor-wreathed hills,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And my soul with a gush</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Of wild happiness fills!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>I pine for the freshness,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The freedom, the health,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Which Nature can give me—</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;My soul’s dearest wealth</p>
-<p class='line0'>Is wasted in cities;</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Where only, by stealth,</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>The mountain-born breezes</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Can fitfully play,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Where we steal but a glimpse</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Of this glorious day,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And but by the calendar,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Learn it is May.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>But away with repining,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;I’ll study, from thee,</p>
-<p class='line0'>A lesson of patience,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Oh! noble, old tree!</p>
-<p class='line0'>’Mid dark walls imprisoned,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thou droop’st not like me;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>But strivest forever,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Still up, strong and brave,</p>
-<p class='line0'>’Till in Heaven’s pure sunshine,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thy free branches wave!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Oh! thus may <span class='it'>I</span> meet it,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;No longer a slave!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'>The next was a story, and Harriet Carlton’s eyes
-and cheeks changed color as she listened. It was
-the same, yet not the same! The incidents were
-hers, the sentiment more novel-like, and many a
-flowery and highly wrought sentence had been
-introduced, which she had never heard before.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She sat speechless with wonder, indignation, and
-dismay, and though several other inferior compositions
-were read, she was so absorbed in reverie, that
-she heard no more until she was startled by Mr.
-Wentworth’s voice calling her by name. She looked
-up. In his hand was the prize—a richly chased,
-golden pencil-case, suspended to a chain of the same
-material. The sound, the sight recalled her bewildered
-faculties, and ere she reached the desk, she
-had formed a resolution, which, however, it required
-all her native strength of soul to put in practice.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Miss Carlton, the prize is yours!” and the teacher
-leaned forward to throw the chain around her neck.
-The child drew back⁠—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“No, sir,” she said in a low, but firm and distinct
-voice, looking up bravely in his face, “I did not
-write the story you have read.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Not write it!” exclaimed Mr. Wentworth, “Why,
-then, does it bear your name? Am I to understand,
-Miss Carlton, that you have asked another’s assistance
-in your composition, and that you now repent
-the deception?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Poor Harriet! this was too much! Her dark eyes
-first flashed, and then filled with tears; her lip trembled
-with emotion, and she paused a moment, as if
-disdaining a reply to this unmerited charge.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A slight and sneering laugh from the beauty aroused
-her, and she answered, respectfully but firmly,</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“The story, I did write, was in that envelope yesterday.
-Some one has changed it without my knowledge.
-It was not so good as that you have read; so
-I must not take the prize.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There was a murmur of applause through the
-assembly, and the teacher bent upon the blushing
-girl a look of approval, which amply repaid her for
-all the embarrassment she had suffered.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Aunt Eloise took advantage of the momentary
-excitement to steal unobserved from the room. Harriet
-took her seat, and Miss Angelina Burton was
-next called up. The portly matron leaned smilingly
-forward; and the graceful, little beauty, already
-affecting the airs of a fine lady, sauntered up to the
-desk and languidly reached out her hand for the
-prize.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I cannot say much for your taste in selection,
-Miss Burton. I do not admire your author’s sentiments.
-The next time you wish to make an extract,
-you must allow me to choose for you. There are
-better things than this, even in the trashy magazine
-from which you have copied it.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And with this severe, but justly merited reproof of
-the imposition that had been practiced, he handed
-the young lady, not the prize, which she expected,
-but the MS. essay on Friendship, which she had
-copied, word for word, from an old magazine.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The portly lady turned very red, and the beauty,
-bursting into tears of anger and mortification,
-returned to her seat discomfited.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Miss Catherine Sumner,” resumed the teacher,
-with a benign smile, to a plain, yet noble-looking
-girl, who came forward as he spoke, “I believe
-there can be no mistake about <span class='it'>your</span> little effusion. I
-feel great pleasure in presenting you the reward,
-due, not only to your mental cultivation, but to the
-goodness of your heart. What! do <span class='it'>you</span>, too, hesitate?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Will you be kind enough, sir,” said the generous
-Kate, taking a paper from her pocket, “to read
-Harriet’s story before you decide. I asked her for a
-copy several days ago, and here it is.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You shall read it to the audience yourself, my
-dear; I am sure they will listen patiently to so kind
-a pleader in her friend’s behalf.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The listeners looked pleased and eager to hear the
-story; and Kate Sumner, with a modest self-possession,
-which well became her, and with her fine eyes
-lighting up as she read, did full justice to the pretty
-and touching story, of which Harriet had been so
-cruelly robbed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“It is well worth reading,” said Mr. Wentworth,
-when she had finished; “your friend has won the
-prize, my dear young lady; and, as she owes it to
-your generosity, you shall have the pleasure of
-bestowing it, yourself.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Kate’s face glowed with emotion as she hung the
-chain around Harriet’s neck; and Harriet could not
-restrain her tears, while she whispered,</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I will take it, <span class='it'>not</span> as a prize, but as a gift from
-<span class='it'>you</span>, dear Kate!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“And now, Miss Sumner,” said Mr. Wentworth,
-in conclusion, “let me beg your acceptance of these
-volumes, as a token of your teacher’s respect and
-esteem,” and presenting her a beautifully bound edition
-of Milton’s works, he bowed his adieu to the retiring
-audience.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk110'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Will you lend me your prize-pencil this morning,
-Harriet?” said Mrs. Carlton the next day. She was
-dressed for a walk, and Harriet wondered why she
-should want the pencil to take out with her; but she
-immediately unclasped the chain from her neck, and
-handed it to her mother without asking any questions.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She was rewarded at dinner by finding it lying
-at the side of her plate, with the single word,
-“Truth” engraved upon its seal.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk111'/>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/i069.jpg' alt='a young woman holds two young girls and a dog in her lap' id='iid-0002' style='width:75%;height:auto;'/>
-<p class='caption'><span style='font-size:smaller'>E. T. Parris. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Engraved by Rawdon, Wright, Hatch, &amp; Smillie.</span><br/></p> <br/><span class='it'>True Affection.</span><br/> <br/><span class='it'>Engraved expressly for Graham’s Magazine.</span>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk112'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='aff'></a>TRUE AFFECTION.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-weight:bold;'>ILLUSTRATION OF A PICTURE.</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Matron in thy golden prime,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Well the world may envy thee;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thou hast reached the happy time</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;When life holds her jubilee⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Midway on her pilgrimage,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Looking backward and before,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Where end infancy and age</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;On her being’s misty shore.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Turning to the past, thine eye</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Dwells upon a way of flowers⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Not a cloud upon the sky</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;’Neath which passed the happy hours.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Clear the vision of the True!⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Standing on the verge of Time,</p>
-<p class='line0'>See! Hope opens to your view</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Glories of the better clime!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>So the past and present life⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;What the tale the present tells?</p>
-<p class='line0'>Childhood—maidenhood—a <span class='it'>wife</span>⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thus the tide of being swells⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'><span class='sc'>Mother!</span> oh all else in this</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Fade as stars before the sun,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thou the highest point of bliss</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Yielded to the True hast won.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Love—communion—in these words</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;All the happiness we know;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Without them the world affords</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Nought to bind the heart below;</p>
-<p class='line0'>“True Affection!” with unrest</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;We the boon demand of all;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Vainly seeking, still unblest⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Strangers at life’s carnival.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Earnest, calm, unchanging love,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;With no doubt its light to shade⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Oh, the happiness above</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Is but this eternal made!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thou hast found it—in thine eyes,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;In the eyes that look to thine,</p>
-<p class='line0'>As the stars from summer skies</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Sweetly do we see it shine.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Exiles from a better sphere</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Weary wanderers are we,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Doomed ’mid clouds to linger here,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Source of bliss, unknowing thee!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Save, when from the world apart</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thou upon our gloomy way</p>
-<p class='line0'>Shinest from a kindred heart,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Turning darkness into day!</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk113'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='per'></a>THE PERSECUTOR’S DAUGHTER.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY CHARLES J. PETERSON.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The last days of November are at hand, and the
-melancholy woods, shorn of their foliage, stand
-skeleton-like against the cold, lowering sky; or toss
-their branches to and fro, with a low moaning
-sound, in the fitful tempest. Hark! how the gale
-swells out with the deep voice of a cathedral organ,
-or dies plaintively away like the cry of a lost child
-in the forest. The sky is covered with cloud-rifts of
-a deep, leaden color, only a spot of blue sky being
-here and there visible; but occasionally the sun,
-bursting, like a god, from the darkness that encircles
-him, covers the brown hills with an effulgent
-glory, while the opposite firmament is lit up with a
-dull, fiery glow, that has something almost spectral
-in its aspect. The streams are swollen and discolored,
-and roll their turbid waters hoarsely onward.
-Along the fields the brown grass whistles in
-the wind, and the bare flower-stalks rattle, with a
-melancholy tone, in the garden. Now and then,
-drops of rain plash heavily to the ground. The
-wind comes with a sudden chill to the nerves—the
-bay is crisped into foam by the fitful gusts—and
-along the bleak coast the now mountain waves roll
-in with a hoarse, sullen roar, forewarning us of
-shipwreck and death. Sad thoughts insensibly possess
-the mind, and tales of sorrow, that had long
-been forgot, come up to our memories. One such
-is even now heavy on our heart—listen! and we
-will rehearse it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was on just such a morning as this, many a long
-year ago, and far away from our own happy land,
-that a little congregation was gathered together in
-the hills to worship God. The time was in those
-sore and evil days when the decree of a tyrannical
-king had gone forth, that no man should worship,
-except as a corrupt hierarchy and lascivious court
-might ordain—and when, all over Scotland, those
-who would not give up the free birthright of their
-fathers, were driven to meet in mountain glens, and
-on lonely moors, whither their pastors—the holy
-men who had baptized them in infancy, and united
-them to the dear objects of their love—had already
-been hunted. And often, in solitary places, where
-hitherto only the cry of the eagle had been heard,
-the Sabbath hymn rose sweetly up from tender
-maidens and tearful wives, while their brothers and
-husbands listened with weapons in their hands, or
-watched from some neighboring eminence, lest the
-fiery dragoons of Claverhouse should be in sight.
-And when these God-defying troopers, with hands
-red with the blood of the saints, burst into the little
-flock, woful was the tale, and loud the wailing that
-went through all the vales around. Every new Sabbath
-brought its tale of slaughter, until the land
-smoked with blood, and the incense thereof went
-up from a hundred hills, crying for vengeance to the
-Most High.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And such a congregation had now met in the hollow
-of three hills, far away from the usual track of
-the persecutors. A simple rock served the hoary
-headed pastor for a pulpit; while hard by, a rivulet,
-brawling over its pebbly bed, and then for a moment
-expanding into a mimic lake, bottomed with silvery
-sands, formed the holy font for baptism. Around
-was gathered the little flock—aged sires and young
-striplings, staid matrons and meek-eyed maidens,
-young children and stalwart men—all gazing upward
-into the pastor’s face, a sacred throng. But
-there was one other there, who seemed equally with
-him an object of anxious interest, and on whom
-every eye was occasionally turned—a bright, beautiful
-being, with far more of heaven than earth in
-her deep, azure eyes. Oh! lovely was that fair-haired
-girl, even as we may have dreamed a seraph
-to be, all glorious with golden wings, under the
-throne of God. And now there sat in those soft blue
-eyes an expression of meek sorrow, tempered with
-high and holy faith, for many and sore had been
-the trials of Helen Græme; but grace had been
-given her to endure them all, and even to rise above
-them, with a courage which had made her dear unto
-every heart among these wandering and persecuted
-ones.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The father of Helen was the last son of a family
-which had been decaying for centuries, and which,
-of all its once mighty possessions, retained only the
-comparatively small estate of Craigburnie, in one of
-the southern counties of Scotland. To rebuild the
-fortunes of his house had been the darling wish of
-her father. For this purpose he had entered the
-army of the Covenanters, during the wars of the
-great revolution, and served with some distinction,
-though without permanent advantage, in consequence
-of the return of the king. On the happening
-of this event, Mr. Græme retired to his estate,
-soured and disappointed. Here he would have been
-far more discontented than he was, but for his wife,
-a lady of the meekest piety, and whose single minded
-charity was known throughout all her native hills,
-for Mrs. Græme was the daughter of one of the
-holiest ministers of the kirk, and inherited not only
-his piety, but the fervent admiration with which he
-was regarded by his parishioners. She early instilled
-into her child the pure precepts of our holy religion,
-and often might the little girl be seen seated at her
-mother’s knee, lisping the word of God, which the
-parent taught her thus early to peruse. And, on the
-Sabbath, who listened more attentively to the venerable
-pastor, or joined with sweeter voice in the
-anthem of praise? Nurtured thus, what wonder
-that at seventeen she seemed the counterpart of the
-mother, and was regarded by the poorer folk around
-the Brae—her mother’s birthplace, and where she
-spent several months each year—almost with veneration,
-for had not many of them, in times of sore
-trial, been sustained by the bounty, and cheered by
-the smiles of the heavenly girl?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But at length her mother fell sick, and for many a
-weary month Helen watched by the sufferer’s bed-side,
-a ministering angel. During this illness she
-noticed that, at times, her father would seem lost in
-thought, as if something weighed heavily on his mind;
-but Helen regarded it little, attributing it to his suspense
-at her mother’s danger, for he loved both her
-and his child with an intensity seemingly in contradiction
-to his hard, unbending character, but which,
-in truth, was the result of his total seclusion from the
-world; for the sympathies thus shut out from others
-lavished themselves wholly on his wife and daughter.
-At length, Mrs. Græme died, and for many days it
-seemed as if that strong man’s heart would break,
-while Helen wept in silence, though not less uncontrollably.
-Her father was now sterner than ever,
-though not to her. He was more alone, often indulged
-in fits of musing, and was absent at Edinburgh
-for some days—an unusual occurrence—and
-when he came back it was as Sir Roland Græme,
-a title which men said he had purchased by selling
-himself to the Court. Helen heard these rumors—which,
-however, came to her ears in whispers, and
-which at first she could not believe—with sorrow and
-despair of heart; but no word of reproof broke from
-her lips. Her sufferings were endured silently; but
-so deep was her grief, that she pined away, seeming
-to all eyes a being lent awhile to earth, and gradually
-exhaling to heaven. Her father, thinking her
-sorrow sprung wholly from her mother’s death, and
-wishing, perhaps, that she should be from home
-when he should first act for the government, sent
-her to her mother’s native vale, alleging, and doubtless
-hoping, that change of air would restore her to
-health. It were doing him no more than justice to
-say, that his paternal love was fully aroused to
-Helen’s danger, and that he took the only possible
-means to keep at his side this dear bud of her who
-was now in heaven. He forgot how much the little
-family at the Brae leaned toward the persecuted
-sect—he forgot the disaffected character of the district
-into which Helen went—he forgot the danger
-lest her own feelings should become enlisted in behalf
-of those against whom he was so soon to draw
-his sword; remembering only—for was he not a
-father?—that his child’s health was in danger, and
-that a residence in the mountain district where she
-had been born, and where she had spent so many
-happy years, was the sole chance of saving her
-life.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And now Helen was once more amid the scenes
-where her childhood had been spent, and every old
-counsel and prayer of her mother, recalled to mind
-by the spots where they had been first heard, rose
-up before her, and softened her heart; and often, at
-Sabbath eve, or in the still watches of the night, it
-seemed to her as if the spirit of that sainted mother
-hovered over her, whispering her heavenward, and
-bidding her never to forget or forsake her God. All
-the sympathies which now surrounded her, drew her
-to the persecuted sect; for her cousin and aunt were
-both among the non-conformists; and though the
-little kirk, standing all alone in the hills, a cool well
-in a parched desert, was now closed, and he who
-had formerly ministered there an outcast, yet the
-sight and recognition of him, at more than one stolen
-meeting, recalled to Helen’s mind the time when he
-blessed her, nestling bird-like to her mother’s bosom,
-she looking the while half affrightedly, yet oh, how
-reverentially, up into the face of the mild old man!
-And was not her heart softened, even to tears, when
-the patriarch, well remembering her—for none did
-he ever forget—sought her among the crowd, and,
-laying his hands on her head, blessed her, hoping
-that God still kept her in the way her mother had
-trod? From that hour Helen became a changed
-being. The light heartedness of youth was gone.
-She wept often, and prayed in solitary places by
-herself; for lo! the struggle in her bosom, between
-duty to her parent, and a higher duty to God, waxed
-stronger and stronger; but daily she yearned more
-and more to the oppressed remnant, until finally it
-was whispered in the scattered congregation that the
-persecutor’s daughter—that child of many prayers—was
-to become a professed member of the flock.
-And old men and nursing mothers in the church
-blessed God as they heard it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On this Sabbath morning, Helen had, for the first
-time, openly attended a meeting in the hills. At
-first, she had come with fear and trembling, but
-when she saw the looks of kindly sympathy with
-which all regarded her, she became more composed,
-and could enter on the holy duties of the day in a
-fitting mood. And when the aged pastor gave out
-the hymn, and the congregation joined in the sacred
-anthem, what voice sang of redeeming love so
-sweetly as that of Helen?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Lo! the vision of light has passed from our souls,
-and in place of that seraphic countenance, we behold
-the face of a stern warrior, in every feature of
-which we read of cruelty and blood. Even now he
-is hot in pursuit of the suffering remnant, and with
-his troop of fiery dragoons interrupts the Sabbath
-quiet of the vales and glens, with the jingling of
-broad swords and the ribald jests of scoffers; and
-many a dark-browed peasant scowls on the persecutor
-as he passes, and prays that God will yet avenge
-his slaughtered saints. Nor, if the popular rumor is
-to be believed, is that vengeance altogether withheld;
-for men say that Sir Roland Græme, having
-sold his religion for the paltry honors of earth, has
-been already cursed from on high, and that, sleeping
-or waking, he finds no rest from the stingings of
-remorse; yet, like one who has committed the unpardonable
-sin, he cannot draw back from his career
-of blood, but is impelled onward, as if by some irresistible
-power, to still darker crimes. Look upon
-his face again, and tell us if there is not something
-there which you shudder to behold—something of
-untold horror in that stern, God-defying brow, as if
-the arch-enemy had already been suffered to affix his
-seal upon it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And whither was that man of blood going? Far,
-far over hill and dale, to the slaughter of the saints.
-He had heard, through some traitor, of the assemblage
-to be held that morning in the hills, and with
-the first dawn of day he and his troopers had been in
-the saddle, thirsting to participate in the bloody sacrament.
-For the last half hour he had seemed lost in
-thought, and now he suddenly drew in his rein, and
-turned to his lieutenant.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Lennox,” he said, “I believe I will not lead
-these brave fellows to-day, but surrender the command
-to you. I see, over yonder hill, the blue summit
-that looks down on the Brae, where my daughter
-is visiting. I have not seen her for months, nor is it
-probable I shall be in this district for many months
-more. The country here is widely disaffected, and
-therefore an unbecoming residence for a child of
-mine. It has just struck me that I might cross the
-hills, and bring her home with me this afternoon.
-And yet something whispers to me that I ought
-rather to pursue these traitors and schismatics,” he
-continued, as if to himself; “however, I can trust
-to you, and it is imperative that my daughter leave
-this district. We will meet here by four o’clock.
-Your road lies down yonder glen. All I have to say
-is, ‘spare none!’ ”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I understand,” said the subordinate; “neither
-age nor sex.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Neither age nor sex, nor even those of rank, if
-such there be,” sternly said Sir Roland; “when the
-poison has sunk deep, nothing but the cautery will
-cure. And hark ye! on the faithful execution of
-your commands depends your hope of preferment.
-I would not spare my own child, if I found her
-among these spawn of Satan!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And, with these memorable words, he ordered a
-detachment of his company to follow him, and rode
-off, though at first reluctantly, in the direction of the
-Brae.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The route was passed in silence, for Sir Roland
-was buried in thought. There was indeed cause for
-it. One or two things in the last letter he had received
-from his daughter—and that missive had now
-been written a month—made him feel uneasy, lest
-she looked more favorably on the persecuted sect
-than became a daughter of his; and it was this fear,
-all at once recalled to mind by the business on
-which he had set forth this morning, that determined
-him so suddenly to leave the dispersion of the conventicle
-to his lieutenant, while he should ride over
-to the Brae, and bring his daughter home. Other
-thoughts, too, were busy within him. The long
-coveted rank had brought little alleviation to his
-soured and disappointed mind, for his fortune was
-now more than ever inadequate to his condition,
-and all the peculiarly sensitive feelings of a proud
-man were stung to the quick by the indignities to
-which, in consequence, he was often exposed.
-Moreover, he was aware of the light in which he
-was held, since his change of politics, not only by
-the common people, but by large portions of the
-gentry; so that, on every hand, he was soured and
-irritated, and longed to wreak on the Covenanters
-the hate which he felt toward all men.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And yet, as he approached the Brae, and saw at a
-distance the low roof of the mansion from which he
-had taken his bride, gentler feelings stole into his
-bosom. He thought of her whom he had once loved
-with all the fervor of a first passion—he remembered
-the happy years they had spent together—and when
-he recollected that she was now no more, and that
-the last time he had beheld these roofs he had been in
-her company, a tear almost gathered into his eye.
-Then he thought of his daughter. As her image rose
-up before him, his heart was fully melted. With all
-the sternness of his character he loved that daughter
-as few fathers loved—ay! loved her doubly since
-her mother’s death, for she was now the only object
-in the whole wide world on which he could bestow
-aught of affection. And now, joy at the prospect of
-meeting her gave to his spirits the glad exhilaration
-of boyhood, and quickening his pace, he galloped
-gaily across the hills, nor drew his rein until he
-reached the door of the old mansion.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Brae was an antique and partially dilapidated
-residence, at present inhabited by the aunt of Helen,
-and a daughter about the age of Miss Græme. At
-all times it wore a sombre, deserted look, but on this
-morning it seemed peculiarly desolate, for the whole
-front of the house was closed, and all the outhouses
-shut up. A strange fear came over the father, as he
-beheld the absence of these signs of life, and he
-hastily ordered one of the dragoons to dismount and
-knock at the door. The man obeyed, but for a time
-knocked in vain. The sound of the hilt of his heavy
-sword, striking on the door, echoed through the long
-hall of the house; but no signs of life within were
-visible. The usual frown on the face of Sir Roland
-grew darker, and he cried angrily—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Blow off the lock with a pistol, and search the
-house!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At this instant, however, and just as the trooper
-was proceeding to execute this order, the face of an
-old woman was protruded from one of the upper
-windows, while she demanded who was below.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Sir Roland Græme,” replied the leader; “where
-are the family? where is Miss Græme? Is any one
-sick?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“They are all well, but out!” briefly said the
-woman.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Out—out!” exclaimed the persecutor, “and on
-Sunday, when there is no church within miles. By
-G—,” he continued, striving to drown his fears in
-rage, “is this a time to be out? Where have they
-gone? Answer truly, on your life!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“May it please your honor,” said one of the
-dragoons, touching his cap, “may they not have
-gone to this conventicle, and taken your daughter
-with them?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Quick as lightning, Sir Roland wheeled round on
-the unthinking speaker, and while the indentation
-on his brow became deeper than ever, and his
-eye flashed with rage, he said—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>My</span> daughter consorting with traitors and schismatics!
-Breathe but the word again, and by the
-God of heaven I will cleave you to the chine!”
-and his fingers played nervously with the hilt of his
-sword; but, seeing the deprecating look of the
-trooper, he recovered himself, and added, “tush!
-man, you are innocent, but take care how even innocently
-you rouse the tiger.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Tiger,” shrieked the old woman, who had known
-Sir Roland in former days, and who now seemed impelled
-by some sudden gust of passion to speak out,
-“it is well said; ay! one whose fangs have been in
-the hearts of the persecuted remnant—but God will
-avenge his people. Know, false persecutor, that
-your daughter <span class='it'>has</span> gone forth to-day to become one
-of the chosen few against whom, oh! man of sin,
-you have so often ridden with steel and war horse,
-holding the commission of your master, the Evil
-One. Go to, Roland Græme, I mind ye when ye
-were a boy, and little did I think ye would ever become
-the Judas you are now.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It is probable that if her hearer had comprehended
-the whole of this harangue, a bullet would have been
-the speaker’s reward; but the first words of the old
-woman, when taken in connection with the desertion
-of the house, and his own misgivings from Helen’s
-late letter, assured him that his daughter had indeed
-attended the conventicle. The conviction fell on his
-heart with agonizing force. Remembering the injunctions
-of indiscriminate butchery he had laid on
-his subordinate, and well knowing that the command
-would be fulfilled to the very letter, he staggered
-back in his saddle, with a face whiter than ashes,
-and was fain to grasp the pommel for support, while
-he exclaimed in tones wrung from him by the keenest
-anguish—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“My child!—my child!—I have murdered my
-child!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What is that ye say?” screamed the old hag,
-leaning eagerly forward; “have ye sent out your
-reiving dragoons against the Lord’s anointed? and
-ye fear that they will slay your ain bairn. Oh! man
-of blood, the judgment of God has come upon ye—the
-judgment has come upon ye!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But to the voice of the speaker, as well as to the
-astonished looks of the dragoons, the father was insensible.
-He still remained clutching the saddle,
-every feature of his face working with intense
-agony, and his eyes glaring vacantly on the air.
-Those who looked on him shrunk back aghast at
-the horror of his aspect; which, fearful as it was,
-only faintly shadowed forth the torture of the soul
-within. The peril of his only child stupefied him for
-a time. Then a succession of wild images rose up
-to his mind. He saw his daughter flying before the
-ruthless dragoons—he heard her cries for mercy, and
-the bitter sneer of disbelief on the part of her pursuers—he
-beheld her lying a corpse on the bare
-heath, her bosom gashed with brutal wounds, and
-her long fair hair dabbled with blood. In that moment
-the memory of every one whom he had slain
-came up before him—the mothers who had clung to
-his knees, the babes who had looked innocently in
-his face as they died, the daughters whose aged
-parents he had slain before their eyes. He thought
-of the silvery headed patriarch whom he had shot
-for refusing the test, and the prophetic warning of
-the victim that he, even he, the proud persecutor,
-should curse the day he ever drew his sword against
-the saints, came up to his memory. He groaned in
-anguish. For a time none dared to intrude on his
-misery. One of his men, a trusty body adherent, at
-length ventured to speak, by asking him if they had
-not better ride with all haste after Lennox, in the
-hope that they might yet come up in time. Starting,
-as if a shot had struck him, the father plunged his
-rowels into the side of his steed, until the blood
-gushed forth, and wheeling his horse sharp around,
-looked back sternly on his followers, as he led the
-way at a fearful pace up the hill. Well did he
-know the country around, and necessary, indeed,
-was that knowledge, for his frantic gallop required
-the most intimate acquaintance with every turn and
-inequality of the road. Over hill and dale, through
-glen and moor he dashed, reckless of danger, for
-how could he think of aught but his daughter? Oh!
-what would he not have given to be assured that he
-should once more look into her soft blue eyes, that
-he should again press her to his bosom. What now
-to him was rank or wealth? Perhaps he thought
-that Helen would be able to reveal her name ere she
-fell a victim—but no! for even if she spoke, would
-his subordinate believe her story? Once, the very
-suspicion that she favored the Covenanters had angered
-him, but now he would forgive every thing,
-only to be assured of her safety. The contending
-emotions—hope and fear, love and anger, suspense
-and despair—that agitated his bosom, made that
-hour’s ride an hour of agony, such as he had never
-before thought a human being could endure, and
-live. He felt that the curse of God was on him—that
-all the agonies he had inflicted on others were
-now concentrated on himself—that he was bound to
-the wheel of fire. His punishment had already begun.
-He had rushed against the thick bosses of the Almighty’s
-buckler, and found, like him of old, that
-man could not contend against the Most High.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We remember, when a boy, waking from a dream
-of horror, to find our mother smiling over our sleep.
-Oh! never shall we forget the heavenly radiance of
-that loved face, for radiant with heaven it seemed to
-us, after the terrors of that midnight vision. Even
-so we feel when turning from contemplating the tortures
-of the persecutor, to gaze on his sainted child.
-The hour was now approaching noon, and Helen, in
-the presence of the silent flock, had taken upon her
-those vows she could never put off. Tears fell from
-many an eye as the worshipers beheld her thus in
-their midst; and the old pastor was so affected that
-he could scarcely speak.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“God will reward you, my daughter, and give you
-strength,” he said; “I bless His holy name that thou
-art delivered from the dominion of Baal. It is hard,
-I know, to disobey a parent; but saith not the Scripture,
-that we must leave father and mother, if required,
-and take up our cross and follow Christ?
-Only persevere, and God will make your way plain
-to you, guiding you, even as he led the children of
-Israel, with a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by
-night. Trials, and sore ones, we must all have in
-this world—and I boast not, but only speak to cheer
-you, when I say that mine have been many and hard,
-but God has given me grace to endure all, even as
-He will give it unto you. But my race is nearly run;
-the golden urn will soon be broken at the fountain.
-I only pray to die like the martyrs of old, with my
-armor on, and my sword girt to my thigh. Come,
-oh! Lord, most mighty,” he continued, raising his
-hands and eyes rapturously above, “come, oh! Lord
-most gracious, and come quickly!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A deep silence followed the conclusion of this
-prayer, while the tears of many fell fast and thick.
-Every eye was fixed on the holy man, or turned to
-Helen, for the countenances of both already seemed
-to glow, as those of angels. None dared to draw a
-breath, lest they should dispel the hushed stillness
-that so well accorded with the solemnity of the moment.
-But suddenly a cry was heard, clear, loud
-and startling—“The dragoons—the dragoons are
-here!” and had a voice come from the dead, it
-would not have produced a more sudden change in
-the hearers. Every one started up, and all eyes
-were turned toward the point whence the cry had
-proceeded. There, on a gentle eminence, stood a
-shepherd waving his plaid, and making gestures for
-the congregation to fly up the glen. In an instant all
-was confusion. Mothers clasped their infants to
-their bosoms, and looked up tremblingly, with faces
-whiter than ashes—maidens clung to their lovers,
-and gazed around with dilated eyes and looks of
-terror—and fathers and brothers, gathering around
-these dear ones, hurried them on foot and horseback,
-in the direction indicated by the sentinel. The escort
-of Helen and her aunt had been several armed retainers,
-and these now rallied to the side of their
-mistress and the pastor, prepared to make good their
-retreat, or defend themselves to the last. Hoping to
-escape the notice of the pursuers, they dashed off in
-a different direction from that pursued by the others
-of the congregation; but just as they turned the angle
-of the hill, the pennons of the troopers came into
-sight, and by the immediate diversion of a party in
-pursuit of them, the fugitives knew they were detected.
-Pricking their horses, they now hurried
-rapidly onward, and for several hundred yards lost
-sight of their pursuers. At length, the little party
-reached the brow of a slight acclivity.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Faster—faster,” said one who had looked back,
-“they gain on us—press on.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Every eye was turned in the direction of the pursuers,
-and there, not half the distance they had been
-before, were the dragoons, thundering along with
-fiery haste. The sight gave new energy to the fugitives,
-who urged on their steeds with redoubled vigor.
-For a while now the result seemed doubtful. During
-this interval of suspense the feelings of the fugitives
-were of the most conflicting character—the instinctive
-love of life alternating with a holy resignation
-to whatever fate might be assigned them. Now, as
-they gained on the troopers, the former prevailed,
-and now, as they saw their pursuers drawing nigher,
-the latter won the mastery. The emotions of each,
-meanwhile, were different. The old pastor, with
-eyes uplifted, seemed rapturously awaiting martyrdom—the
-aunt and cousin of Helen were pale and red
-by turns as their fear or faith rose triumphant, while
-the serving men frowned darkly as they looked behind,
-and appeared to wish for a chance to exchange
-passes with their steel-clad oppressors. But the feelings
-of Helen were most difficult to analyze, though
-perhaps they had less of earth in them than those of
-any except the pastor. Subdued by the day’s sacrifice
-of herself, and all glowing with divine faith and
-energy, what had she to fear from death? Yet, even
-with this perfect resignation, she could not avoid
-looking back on their pursuers, while her heart heat
-quicker as the distance increased between the troopers
-and themselves.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“We gain—we gain—press on, we shall escape,”
-shouted the leader of the little party, “the Lord will
-yet deliver us from our enemies.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Nay, nay,” said the pastor suddenly, “the hour
-has come—see ye not that we are cut off in front, lo!
-the horses and the men-of-war.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A cry—almost a shriek—broke from Helen’s two
-female companions as they looked ahead, and saw,
-emerging from a narrow ravine, another party of
-dragoons, led by a tall, dark man far in advance of
-the rest, and all riding with tumultuous haste. Helen
-spoke not, but only raised her eyes to heaven, for
-escape was now impossible. The ravine ahead was
-the only feasible outlet in that direction, from the
-glen up which the fugitives had fled, and to turn back
-would be to fall on the swords of their pursuers.
-The serving men looked aghast, and drew in their
-reins, which example the rest of the party immediately
-followed. For a minute there was a profound
-silence. At length the leader again spoke.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why stand we here? Escape is impossible, unless
-we can cut our way through. Let us charge the
-party behind, for that is the smaller. Form a circle
-around the women—wheel—trot.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There was no time for consultation, and the proposal
-seemed to point out the only feasible plan.
-With the words they wheeled their horses, and dashed
-to the desperate attack. The dragoons seemed
-for an instant astonished by the movement, but did
-not slacken their pace. Their leader waved his
-sword, and turning to his men, led the onset in person,
-shouting “God save the king and bishops,”
-while the Covenanters, unsheathing their blades,
-raised the cry of “The sword of the Lord and Gideon.”
-And thus, borne in the midst of those armed
-men as in the embrace of a whirlwind, Helen
-was hurried toward the dragoons. And as they galloped
-along, the heavenly girl, with heart uplifted,
-prayed, while her countenance shone with a glory
-as of the cherubim.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And who was it that dashed so frantically up the
-glen, as if fearful that he might not arrive to whet
-his blade in the blood of the fugitives? Who, but
-Sir Roland Græme, flying to save his daughter, and
-even now almost maddened with the thought that he
-had come too late, for the instant that he emerged
-from the ravine he recognized his child, and now,
-when he saw her turned back to the pursuers, and
-his practiced eye told him that he could not reach her
-until the two parties should be engaged in deadly
-combat, the same sickening sensation of horror
-which had attacked him at the Brae came over him
-again. With a sharp cry of agony he ploughed his
-spurs into the already bloody sides of his horse, and
-sprang forward at a pace even more frantic than that
-which he had before led; but swift as was his progress
-it seemed to him only that of a snail. On—on—he
-urged his gallant beast, and nearer and nearer
-the fugitives and their first pursuers drew to each
-other. What though he gained on the group!—he
-saw that the hostile parties would meet while he
-would yet be far away. Oh! what were his feelings as
-this conviction forced itself on him. If only another
-mile, in which to overtake them, had been given
-him, he might perhaps have succeeded; but now
-hope was in vain! Cold drops of sweat stood on his
-brow, while his heart throbbed almost to bursting
-against his corselet. Did none recognize him, and
-could they not understand his frantic signs? He
-shouted—again—again—again. The dead might as
-well be expected to hear. He waved his plumed hat
-on high, but, at that instant, with the shock of an
-earthquake, the opponents met. A dizziness came
-over his eyes, but with a mighty effort he rallied his
-reeling faculties, and looked at the fight. Was his
-child yet alive? He saw the gleam of the broadswords,
-the blaze of firearms, and all the tumult of
-the conflict, but his daughter was not visible. Suddenly
-a sharp, quick, female shriek, rising shrill over
-the uproar, met his ear. God of heaven, had his
-Helen fallen! Another leap of his frantic steed, and
-he was near enough to hear the shouts of the combatants
-and distinguish particular persons. He trembled
-with eagerness, but lo! his daughter was still
-unharmed, girt around as with a wall of steel, by
-the broadswords of her defenders. He rose in his
-stirrups at the sight, and waving his hat around his
-head, shouted with the voice of a Titan. Joy—joy!
-they recognize him, and his child extends her arms
-toward him. She is saved. But no! for at this very
-instant, when at length they understood by their leader’s
-gestures that they were to desist, one of the
-dragoons, availing himself of the confusion of the
-moment and thirsting for vengeance for a wound he
-had received, aimed a pistol at the pastor’s bosom,
-and though a fellow soldier struck aside his arm, it
-was only to wing the deadly ball to another heart,
-even that of Helen, who all along had been nestled
-by the side of the holy man. She fell back into his
-arms, the blood gushing from her bosom, and for an
-instant they thought her gone. But when the pastor
-called on her name she faintly opened her eyes,
-pressed his hand, smiled sweetly, and murmuring of
-heaven, sank away apparently into a slumber.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>One wild cry of horror had risen, at her fall, from
-those immediately around her, telling the tale of her
-murder; but the father needed not this confirmation
-of his worst fears, for he had seen the shot and beheld
-her fall. Galloping wildly forward, with a few gigantic
-leaps he reached the offender, whom he smote
-to the earth with a single blow of his broadsword.
-The next instant he was by his daughter’s side, the
-group opening awe-struck to let him pass. He spoke
-not, but oh! the terrible agony of his countenance.
-Putting them aside with arms extended, he approached
-and gazed down into the face of his child—gazed as
-Sapphira did when the apostle told her doom, and she
-saw the bearers returning from her husband’s burial.
-And for a minute of profound silence he continued
-gazing thus, into that fair sweet face, on which,
-though now stilled as in death, there yet lingered a
-smile of heavenly joy. He shuddered as he looked,
-and his countenance became livid as that of a corpse.
-He essayed to speak, but though his lips moved, no
-sound proceeded from them. At length slowly, almost
-reluctantly, he stooped down and took her
-hand.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Helen—Helen,” he said, in a choking voice,
-“you are not dead. Say so—tell me I am not your
-murderer. Oh! speak, and forgive me.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The dying girl faintly opened her eyes, and gazed
-vacantly into her father’s face. Her senses were
-fast deserting her. She did not recognize him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh God! my child is dying,” groaned the father.
-“Helen, Helen,” he continued, raising his voice,
-“do you not know me? I am your father—your
-murderer. Do not look on me with such strange
-eyes! Helen, Helen dear, say, if only by a smile,
-that you forgive me. Oh! Lord God of heaven,”
-he exclaimed, lifting his eyes agonizingly above,
-“have mercy on me—suffer her to live to forgive
-me—crush not the bruised reed,” and hot tears
-gushed from his eyes and trickled in his daughter’s
-face.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Who weeps?” faintly said the dying sufferer,
-“weep not for me. Tell my father how I love him,
-and die blessing him⁠—”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Thank thee, Almighty Father, I thank thee,”
-gasped the penitent. “Helen, here is your father—I
-am he.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>For the first time, now, the dying girl seemed fully
-to comprehend her situation. She looked a minute
-around the group, and then, with a sweet smile, her
-eyes rested on her father’s face. She faintly pressed
-his hand. Tears gushed from his eyes like rain, and
-though he strove to speak he could not for his sobs.
-She murmured of him, of her mother, of heaven, and
-then they knew she was dead. The father looked on
-her a moment, and with a groan—which none there
-ever forgot—sunk helpless to her side. They raised
-him, but he was a corpse. “Vengeance is mine,”
-saith the Lord, “and I will repay.”</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk114'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='rac'></a>A RACE FOR A SWEETHEART.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY MR. SEBA SMITH.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Hardly any event creates a stronger sensation in
-a thinly settled New England village, especially
-among the young folks, than the arrival of a fresh
-and blooming miss, who comes to make her abode
-in the neighborhood. When, therefore, Squire Johnson,
-the only lawyer in the place, and a very respectable
-man of course, told Farmer Jones one afternoon
-that his wife’s sister, a smart girl of eighteen,
-was coming in a few days to reside in his family,
-the news flew like wildfire through Pond village, and
-was the principal topic of conversation for a week.
-Pond village is situated upon the margin of one of
-those numerous and beautiful sheets of water that
-gem the whole surface of New England, like the
-bright stars in an evening sky, and received its appellation
-to distinguish it from two or three other
-villages in the same town, which could not boast of
-a similar location. When Farmer Jones came in to
-his supper about sunset that afternoon, and took his
-seat at the table, the eyes of the whole family were
-upon him, for there was a peculiar working about
-his mouth and a knowing glance of his eye, that
-always told them when he had something of interest
-to communicate. But Farmer Jones’ secretiveness
-was large, and his temperament not the most active,
-and he would probably have rolled the important
-secret as a sweet morsel under his tongue for a
-long time, had not Mrs. Jones, who was of rather an
-impatient and prying turn of mind, contrived to draw
-it from him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Now, Mr. Jones,” said she, as she handed him
-his cup of tea, “what is it you are going to say? Do
-out with it; for you’ve been chawing something or
-other over in your mind ever since you came into
-the house.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“It’s my tobacher, I s’pose,” said Mr. Jones, with
-another knowing glance of his eye.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Now, father, what is the use?” said Susan; “we
-all know you’ve got something or other you want to
-say, and why can’t you tell us what ’tis?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“La, who cares what ’tis?” said Mrs. Jones; “if
-it was any thing worth telling, we shouldn’t have to
-wait for it, I dare say.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Hereupon Mrs. Jones assumed an air of the most
-perfect indifference, as the surest way of conquering
-what she was pleased to call Mr. Jones’ obstinacy,
-which by the way was a very improper term to apply
-in the case; for it was purely the working of
-secretiveness without the least particle of obstinacy
-attached to it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There was a pause for two or three minutes in the
-conversation, till Mr. Jones passed his cup to be filled
-a second time, when with a couple of preparatory
-hems he began to let out the secret.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“We are to have a new neighbor here in a few
-days,” said Mr. Jones, stopping short when he had
-uttered thus much, and sipping his tea and filling his
-mouth with food.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Jones, who was perfect in her tactics, said
-not a word, but attended to the affairs of the table, as
-though she had not noticed what was said. The
-farmer’s secretiveness had at last worked itself out,
-and he began again.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Squire Johnson’s wife’s sister is coming here in
-a few days, and is going to live with ’em.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The news being thus fairly divulged, it left free
-scope for conversation.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well, I wonder if she is a proud, stuck up
-piece,” said Mrs. Jones.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I shouldn’t think she would be,” said Susan,
-“for there aint a more sociabler woman in the
-neighborhood than Miss Johnson. So if she’s at all
-like her sister I think we shall like her.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I wonder how old she is,” said Stephen, who was
-just verging toward the close of his twenty-first year.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“The squire called her eighteen,” said Mr. Jones,
-giving a wink to his wife, as much as to say, that’s
-about the right age for Stephen.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I wonder if she is handsome,” said Susan, who
-was somewhat vain of her own looks, and having
-been a sort of reigning belle in Pond village for some
-time, felt a little alarm at the idea of a rival.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I dare be bound she’s handsome,” said Mrs.
-Jones, “if she’s sister to Miss Johnson; for where’ll
-you find a handsomer woman than Miss Johnson, go
-the town through?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>After supper, Stephen went down to Mr. Robinson’s
-store, and told the news to young Charles
-Robinson and all the young fellows who were
-gathered there for a game at quoits and a ring at
-wrestling. And Susan went directly over to Mr.
-Bean’s and told Patty, and Patty went round to the
-Widow Davis’ and told Sally, and before nine o’clock
-the matter was pretty well understood in about every
-house in the village.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At the close of the fourth day, a little before sunset,
-a chaise was seen to drive up to Squire Johnson’s
-door. Of course the eyes of the whole village
-were turned in that direction. Sally Davis, who was
-just coming in from milking, set her pail down on
-the grass by the side of the road as soon as the chaise
-came in sight, and watched it till it reached the
-squire’s door, and the gentleman and lady had got
-out and gone into the house. Patty Bean was doing
-up the ironing that afternoon, and she had just taken
-a hot iron from the fire as the chaise passed the door,
-and she ran with it in her hand and stood on the door
-steps till the whole ceremony of alighting, greeting,
-and entering the house, was over. Old Mrs. Bean
-stood with her head out of the window, her iron-bowed
-spectacles resting upon the top of her forehead,
-her shriveled hand placed across her eyebrows
-to defend her red eyes from the rays of the setting
-sun, and her skinny chin protruding about three
-inches in advance of a couple of stubs of teeth, which
-her open mouth exposed fairly to view.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Seems to me they are dreadful loving,” said old
-Mrs. Bean, as she saw Mrs. Johnson descend the
-steps and welcome her sister with a kiss.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“La me, if there isn’t the squire kissing of her
-tu,” said Patty; “well, I declare, I would a waited
-till I got into the house, I’ll die if I wouldn’t. It
-looks so vulgar to be kissing afore folks, and out
-doors tu; I should think Squire Johnson would be
-ashamed of himself.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well, I shouldn’t,” said young John Bean, who
-came up at that moment, and who had passed the
-chaise just as the young lady alighted from it. “I
-shouldn’t be ashamed to kiss sich a pretty gal as that
-any how; I’d kiss her wherever I could ketch her,
-if it was in the meetin-house.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why, is she handsome, Jack?” said Patty.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yes, she’s got the prettiest little puckery kind of
-a mouth I’ve seen this six months. Her cheeks are
-red, and her eyes shine like new buttons.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well,” replied Patty, “if she’ll only take the
-shine off of Susan Jones when she goes to meetin,
-Sunday, I sha’n’t care.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>While these observations were going on at old Mr.
-Bean’s, Charles Robinson and a group of young fellows
-with him were standing in front of Robinson’s
-store, a little farther down the road, and watching
-the scene that was passing at Squire Johnson’s.
-They witnessed the whole with becoming decorum,
-now and then making a remark about the fine horse
-and the handsome chaise, till they saw the tall squire
-bend his head down and give the young lady a kiss,
-when they all burst out into a loud laugh. In a moment,
-being conscious that their laugh must be heard
-and noticed at the squire’s, they, in order to do away
-the impression it must necessarily make, at once
-turned their heads the other way, and Charles Robinson,
-who was quick at an expedient, knocked off the
-hat of the lad who was standing next to him, and
-then they all laughed louder than before.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Here comes Jack Bean,” said Charles, “now we
-shall hear something about her, for Jack was coming
-by the squire’s when she got out of the chaise. How
-does she look, Jack?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Handsome as a picter,” said Jack. “I haint
-seen a prettier gal since last Thanksgiving Day,
-when Jane Ford was here to visit Susan Jones.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Black eyes or blue?” said Charles.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Blue,” said Jack, “but all-fired bright.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Tall or short?” said Stephen Jones, who was
-rather short himself, and therefore felt a particular
-interest on that point.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Rather short,” said Jack, “but straight and round
-as our young colt.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Do you know what her name is?” said Charles.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“They called her Lucy when she got out of the
-chaise,” said Jack, “and as Miss Johnson’s name
-was Brown before she was married, I s’pose her
-name must be Lucy Brown.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Just such a name as I like,” said Charles Robinson;
-“Lucy Brown sounds well. Now suppose, in
-order to get acquainted with her, we all hands take a
-sail to-morrow night, about this time, on the pond,
-and invite her to go with us.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Agreed,” said Stephen Jones. “Agreed,” said
-Jack Bean. “Agreed,” said all hands.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The question then arose, who should carry the invitation
-to her; and the young men being rather
-bashful on that score, it was finally settled that
-Susan Jones should bear the invitation, and accompany
-her to the boat, where they should all be in
-waiting to receive her. The next day was a very
-long day, at least to most of the young men of Pond
-village; and promptly, an hour before sunset, most
-of them were assembled, with half a score of their
-sisters and female cousins, by a little stone wharf on
-the margin of the pond, for the proposed sail. All
-the girls in the village, of a suitable age, were there,
-except Patty Bean. She had undergone a good deal
-of fidgeting and fussing during the day, to prepare for
-the sail, but had been disappointed. Her new bonnet
-was not done; and as for wearing her old flap-sided
-bonnet, she declared she would not, if she
-never went. Presently Susan Jones and Miss Lucy
-Brown were seen coming down the road. In a moment
-all were quiet, the laugh and the joke were
-hushed, and each one put on his best looks. When
-they arrived, Susan went through the ceremony of
-introducing Miss Brown to each of the ladies and
-gentlemen present.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But how in the world are you going to sail?”
-said Miss Brown, “for there isn’t a breath of wind;
-and I don’t see any sail-boat, neither.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh, the less wind we have, the better, when we
-sail here,” said Charles Robinson; “and there is
-our sail-boat,” pointing to a flat-bottomed scow-boat,
-some twenty feet long by ten wide.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“We don’t use no sails,” said Jack Bean; “sometimes,
-when the wind is fair, we put up a bush to
-help pull along a little, and when ’tisn’t, we row.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The party were soon embarked on board the scow,
-and a couple of oars were set in motion, and they
-glided slowly and pleasantly over as lovely a sheet
-of water as ever glowed in the sunsetting ray. In
-one hour’s time, the whole party felt perfectly acquainted
-with Miss Lucy Brown. She had talked in
-the most lively and fascinating manner; she had told
-stories and sung songs. Among others, she had
-given Moore’s boat song, with the sweetest possible
-effect; and by the time they returned to the landing,
-it would hardly be too much to say that half the
-young men in the party were decidedly in love with
-her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A stern regard to truth requires a remark to be
-made here, not altogether favorable to Susan Jones,
-which is the more to be regretted, as she was in the
-main an excellent hearted girl, and highly esteemed
-by the whole village. It was observed that as the
-company grew more and more pleased with Miss
-Lucy Brown, Susan Jones was less and less animated,
-till at last she became quite reserved, and
-apparently sad. She, however, on landing, treated
-Miss Brown with respectful attention, accompanied
-her home to Squire Johnson’s door, and cordially
-bade her good night.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The casual glimpses which the young men of
-Pond village had of Miss Brown during the remainder
-of the week, as she occasionally stood at
-the door, or looked out at the window, or once or
-twice when she walked out with Susan Jones, and
-the fair view they all had of her at meeting on the
-Sabbath, served but to increase their admiration,
-and to render her more and more an object of attraction.
-She was regarded by all as a prize, and several
-of them were already planning what steps it was
-best to take in order to win her. The two most prominent
-candidates, however, for Miss Brown’s favor,
-were Charles Robinson and Stephen Jones. Their
-position and standing among the young men of the
-village seemed to put all others in the back ground.
-Charles, whose father was wealthy, had every advantage
-which money could procure. But Stephen,
-though poor, had decidedly the advantage over
-Charles in personal recommendations. He had
-more talent, was more sprightly and intelligent,
-and more pleasing in his address. From the evening
-of the sail on the pond, they had both watched
-every movement of Miss Brown with the most intense
-interest; and, as nothing can deceive a lover,
-each had, with an interest no less intense, watched
-every movement of the other. They had ceased to
-speak to each other about her, and if her name was
-mentioned in their presence, both were always observed
-to color.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The second week after her arrival, through the
-influence of Squire Johnson, the district school was
-offered to Miss Brown on the other side of the pond,
-which offer was accepted, and she went immediately
-to take charge of it. This announcement at first
-threw something of a damper upon the spirits of the
-young people of Pond village. But when it was understood
-the school would continue but a few weeks,
-and being but a mile and a half distant, Miss Brown
-would come home every Saturday afternoon, and
-spend the Sabbath, it was not very difficult to be reconciled
-to the temporary arrangement. The week
-wore away heavily, especially to Charles Robinson
-and Stephen Jones. They counted the days impatiently
-till Saturday, and on Saturday they counted
-the long and lagging hours till noon. They had both
-made up their minds that it would be dangerous to
-wait longer, and they had both resolved not to let
-another Sabbath pass without making direct proposals
-to Miss Brown.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Stephen Jones was too early a riser for Charles
-Robinson, and, in any enterprise where both were
-concerned, was pretty sure to take the lead, except
-where money could carry the palm, and then, of
-course, it was always borne away by Charles. As
-Miss Lucy had been absent most of the week, and
-was to be at home that afternoon, Charles Robinson
-had made an arrangement with his mother and sisters
-to have a little tea party in the evening, for the purpose
-of inviting Miss Brown; and then, of course,
-he should walk home with her in the evening; and
-then, of course, would be a good opportunity to
-break the ice, and make known to her his feelings
-and wishes. Stephen Jones, however, was more
-prompt in his movements. He had got wind of the
-proposed tea party, although himself and sister, for
-obvious reasons, had not been invited, and he resolved
-not to risk the arrival of Miss Brown and her
-visit to Mr. Robinson’s, before he should see her.
-She would dismiss her school at noon, and come the
-distance of a mile and a half round the pond home.
-His mind was at once made up. He would go round
-and meet her at the school-house, and accompany
-her on her walk. There, in that winding road
-around those delightful waters, with the tall and
-shady trees over head, and the wild grape-vines
-twining round their trunks, and climbing to the
-branches, while the wild birds were singing through
-the woods, and the wild ducks playing in the coves
-along the shore, surely there, if any where in the
-world, could a man bring his mind up to the point
-of speaking of love.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Accordingly, a little before noon, Stephen washed
-and brushed himself up, and put on his Sunday
-clothes, and started on his expedition. In order to
-avoid observation, he took a back route across the
-field, intending to come into the road by the pond, a
-little out of the village. As ill luck would have it,
-Charles Robinson had been out in the same direction,
-and was returning with an armful of green
-boughs and wild flowers, to ornament the parlor for
-the evening. He saw Stephen, and noticed his
-dress, and the direction he was going, and he at
-once smoked the whole business. His first impulse
-was to rush upon him and collar him, and demand
-that he should return back. But then he recollected
-that in the last scratch he had with Stephen, two or
-three years before, he had a little the worst of it,
-and he instinctively stood still while Stephen passed
-on without seeing him. It flashed upon his mind at
-once that the question must now be reduced to a
-game of speed. If he could by any means gain the
-school-house first, and engage Miss Lucy to walk
-home with him, he should consider himself safe.
-But if Stephen should reach the school-house first,
-he should feel a good deal of uneasiness for the consequences.
-Stephen was walking very leisurely,
-and unconscious that he was in any danger of a
-competitor on the course, and it was important that
-his suspicions should not be awakened. Charles,
-therefore, remained perfectly quiet till Stephen had
-got a little out of hearing, and then he threw down
-his bushes and flowers, and ran to the wharf below
-the store with his utmost speed. He had one advantage
-over Stephen. He was ready at a moment’s
-warning to start on an expedition of this kind, for
-Sunday clothes were an every-day affair with him.
-There was a light canoe, belonging to his father,
-lying at the wharf, and a couple of stout boys were
-there fishing. Charles hailed them, and told them if
-they would row him across the pond as quick as
-they possibly could, he would give them a quarter of
-a dollar a piece. This, in their view, was a splendid
-offer for their services, and they jumped on board
-with alacrity and manned the oars. Charles took a
-paddle, and stood in the stern to steer the boat, and
-help propel her ahead. The distance by water was
-a little less than by land, and although Stephen had
-considerably the start of him, he believed he should
-be able to reach the school-house first, especially if
-Stephen should not see him and quicken his pace.
-In one minute after he arrived at the wharf, the boat
-was under full way. The boys laid down to the oars
-with right good will, and Charles put out all his
-strength upon the paddle. They were shooting over
-the water twice as fast as a man could walk, and
-Charles already felt sure of the victory. But when
-they had gone about half a mile, they came in the
-range of a little opening in the trees on the shore,
-where the road was exposed to view, and there, at
-that critical moment, was Stephen pursuing his easy
-walk. Charles’ heart was in his mouth. Still it was
-possible Stephen might not see them, for he had not
-yet looked round. Lest the sound of the oars might
-attract his attention, Charles had instantly, on coming
-in sight, ordered the boys to stop rowing, and he
-grasped his paddle with breathless anxiety, and
-waited for Stephen again to disappear. But just as
-he was upon the point of passing behind some trees,
-where the boat would be out of his sight, Stephen
-turned his head and looked round. He stopped short,
-turned square round, and stood for the space of a
-minute looking steadily at the boat. Then lifting his
-hand, and shaking his fist resolutely at Charles, as
-much as to say I understand you, he started into a
-quick run.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Now, boys,” said Charles, “buckle to your oars
-for your lives, and if you get to the shore so I can
-reach the school-house before Stephen does, I’ll give
-you half a dollar a piece.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This of course added new life to the boys and increased
-speed to the boat. Their little canoe flew
-over the water almost like a bird, carrying a white
-bone in her mouth, and leaving a long ripple on the
-glassy wave behind her. Charles’ hands trembled,
-but still he did good execution with his paddle. Although
-Stephen upon the run was a very different
-thing from Stephen at a slow walk, Charles still had
-strong hopes of winning the race and gaining his
-point. He several times caught glimpses of Stephen
-through the trees, and, as well as he could judge, the
-boat had a little the best of it. But when they came
-out into the last opening, where for a little way they
-had a fair view of each other, Charles thought Stephen
-ran faster than ever; and although he was now
-considerably nearer the school-house than Stephen
-was, he still trembled for the result. They were
-now within fifty rods of the shore, and Charles appealed
-again to the boys’ love of money.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Now,” said he, “we have not a minute to
-spare. If we gain the point, I’ll give you a dollar
-apiece.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The boys strained every nerve, and Charles’ paddle
-made the water fly like the tail of a wounded shark.
-When within half a dozen rods of the shore, Charles
-urged them again to spring with all their might,
-and one of the boys making a desperate plunge upon
-his oar, snapped it in two. The first pull of the other
-oar headed the boat from land. Charles saw at once
-that the delay must be fatal, if he depended on the
-boat to carry him ashore. The water was but three
-feet deep, and the bottom was sandy. He sprung
-from the boat, and rushed toward the shore as fast
-as he was able to press through the water. He flew
-up the bank, and along the road, till he reached the
-school-house. The door was open, but he could see
-no one within. Several children were at play round
-the door, who, having seen Charles approach with
-such haste, stood with mouths and eyes wide open,
-looking at him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Where’s the schoolma’m?” said Charles, hastily,
-to one of the largest boys.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why?” said the boy, opening his eyes still
-wider, “is any of the folks dead?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You little rascal, I say, where’s the schoolma’m?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“She jest went down that road,” said the boy,
-“two or three minutes ago.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Was she alone?” said Charles.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“She started alone,” said the boy, “and a man
-met her out there a little ways, and turned about and
-went with her.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Charles felt that his cake was all dough again, and
-that he might as well give it up for a bad job, and go
-home. Stephen Jones and Lucy Brown walked very
-leisurely home through the woods, and Charles and
-the boys went very leisurely in the boat across the
-pond. They even stopped by the way, and caught a
-mess of fish, since the boys had thrown their lines
-into the boat when they started. And when they
-reached the wharf, Charles, in order to show that he
-had been a fishing, took a large string of the fish in
-his hand, and carried them up to the house. Miss
-Lucy Brown, on her way home through the woods,
-had undoubtedly been informed of the proposed tea-party
-for the evening, to which she was to be invited,
-and to which Stephen Jones and Susan Jones
-were not invited; and when Miss Lucy’s invitation
-came, she sent word back, that she was <span class='it'>engaged</span>.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk115'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='far'></a>THE FAREWELL.</h1></div>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Farewell, farewell—O! ne’er from me</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Till now that word hath hopeless passed;</p>
-<p class='line0'>But, sweet one, faltered forth to thee,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;It seems this once as ’twere the last⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>The last that thou wilt ever hear</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;From him who knows thy worth too well;</p>
-<p class='line0'>I’ll stifle one relenting tear,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;That mingles in this last farewell.</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk116'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='har'></a>HARRY CAVENDISH.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY THE AUTHOR OF “CRUISING IN THE LAST WAR,” “THE REEFER OF ’76,” ETC.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CONCLUSION.</h2>
-
-<p class='pindent'>I was now alone in the world; I had neither ship,
-nor home; and she I had loved was wedded to
-another. It is strange how misanthropical a man
-becomes, after disappointment has soured his disposition,
-and destroyed, one after another, the beautiful
-dreams of his youth. When I sat down and thought
-of the hopes of my earlier years, now gone forever;
-when I speculated upon my future prospects; when I
-recalled to mind how few of the friends I had begun
-life with remained, an indescribable sadness came
-over me, and, had it not been for my manhood, I
-would have found a relief in tears. My zest for
-society was gone. I cared little for the ordinary
-business of life. I only longed for a fitting opportunity
-to re-enter the service, and distinguish myself by
-some gallant deed, which I did not care to survive,
-for even fame had become hateful to me, since it
-reminded me how insufficient it was to win or retain
-the love of woman. In a word, I had become a misanthrope,
-and was fast losing all the energy of my
-character in sickly regrets over the past.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Of the St. Clairs I had not inquired since my return,
-and their names, from motives of delicacy
-perhaps, were never mentioned in my presence.
-Yet they occupied a large portion of my thoughts,
-and often would I start, and my heart flutter, when,
-in the streets, I fancied, for a moment, that I recognized
-the form of Annette. But a nearer approach
-made evident my mistake, and dissipated my embarrassment.
-Much, however, as I thought of her, I
-had never inquired to whom she had been married;
-yet my curiosity on this point continually gained
-strength; and when I had been a fortnight in Newport
-without hearing any allusion to her, I began to
-wish that some one would break the ominous silence
-which seemed to hang around her and her family.
-Still I dared not trust myself to broach the subject.
-I continued, therefore, ignorant of their present
-situation, and of all that concerned them.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There is, not far from the town, and situated in
-one of the most beautiful portions of the island, a
-favorite resort which has long been known by the
-familiar and characteristic name of “The Glen.”
-The spot is one where the deity of romance might
-sit enshrined. Here, on a still summer night, we
-might, without much stretch of fancy, look for fairies
-to come forth and gambol, or listen to the light music
-of airy spirits hovering above us. The whole place
-reminds you of an enchanted bower, and dull must
-be his heart who does not feel the stirrings of the
-divinity within him as he gazes on the lovely scenery
-around. He who can listen here unmoved to the low
-gurgle of the brook, or the light rustle of the leaves
-in the summer wind, must be formed of the coarsest
-clods of clay, nor boast one spark of our immortal
-nature.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The glen was my favorite resort, and thither would
-I go and spend whole afternoons, listening to the
-laughing prattle of the little river, or striving to
-catch, in pauses of the breeze, the murmur of the
-neighboring sea. A rude bench had been constructed
-under some trees, in a partially open glade, at the
-lower extremity of the ravine, and here I usually
-sat, indulging in those dreamy, half-sick reveries
-which are characteristic of youth. The stream,
-which brawled down the ravine, in a succession of
-rapids and cascades, here glided smoothly along on
-a level bottom, its banks fringed with long grass
-interspersed with wild roses, and its bed strewed
-with pebbles, round and silvery, that glistened in the
-sunbeams, which, here and there, struggled through
-the trees, and shimmered on the stream. Faint and
-low came to the ear the sound of the mill, situated
-at the upper end of the ravine; while occasionally a
-bird whistled on the stillness, or a leaf floated lazily
-down into the river, and went on its way, a tiny
-bark. The seclusion of my favorite retreat was
-often enlivened by the appearance of strangers, but
-as they generally remained only a few minutes, I
-had the spot, for most of the time, to myself. Here
-I dreamed away the long summer afternoons, often
-lingering until the moon had risen, to make the
-scene seem even more beautiful, under her silvery
-light. I had no pleasure in any other spot. Perhaps
-it was because I had once been here with Annette,
-when we were both younger, and I, at least,
-happier; and I could remember plucking a flower
-for her from a time-worn bush that still grew on the
-margin of the stream. God knows how we love to
-haunt the spot made dear to us by old and tender
-recollections!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>I was sitting, one afternoon, on the rude bench I
-have spoken of, listlessly casting pebbles into the
-river, when I heard the sound of approaching voices,
-but I was so accustomed to the visits of strangers,
-that I did not pause to look up. Directly the voices
-came nearer, and suddenly a word was spoken that
-thrilled through every nerve of my system. It was
-only a single word, but that voice!—surely it could
-be none other than Annette’s. My sensations, at
-that moment, I will not pretend to analyze. I longed
-to look up, and yet I dared not. My heart fluttered
-wildly, and I could feel the blood rushing in torrents
-to my face; but, if I had been called on at that instant
-to speak, I could not have complied for worlds.
-Luckily the tree, under whose shadow I sat, concealed
-me from the approaching visitors, and I had
-thus time to rally my spirits ere the strangers came
-up. As they drew near I recognized the voice of
-Mr. St. Clair, and then that of Annette’s cousin Isabel,
-while there were one or two other speakers
-who were strangers to me. Doubtless one of them
-was Annette’s husband, and, as this thought flashed
-across me, I looked up, impelled by an irresistible
-impulse. The party were now within almost twenty
-yards, coming gaily down the glen. Foremost in
-the group walked Isabel, leaning on the arm of a
-tall, gentlemanly looking individual, and turning
-ever and anon around to Annette, who followed immediately
-behind, at the side of her father. Another
-lady, attended by a gentleman, made up the rest of
-the company. Where could Annette’s husband be?
-was the question that occurred to me—and who was
-the distinguished looking gentleman on whose arm
-Isabel was so familiarly leaning? But my thoughts
-were cut short by a conversation which now began,
-and of which, during a minute, I was an unknown
-auditor—for my position still concealed me from the
-party, and my surprise at first, and afterwards delicacy,
-prevented me from appearing.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Ah! Annette,” said Isabel, archly, turning around
-to her cousin, “do you know this spot, but especially
-that rose-bush yonder?—here, right beyond that old
-tree—you seem wonderfully ignorant all at once! I
-wonder where the donor of that aforesaid rose-bud is
-now. I would lay a guinea that it is yet in your possession,
-preserved in some favorite book, pressed out
-between the leaves. Come, answer frankly, is it not
-so, my sweet coz?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>I could hear no reply, if one was made, and immediately
-another voice spoke. It was that of Isabel’s
-companion, coming to the aid of Annette.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You are too much given to believe that Annette
-follows your example, Isabel—now do you turn
-penitent, and let me be father confessor—how many
-rose-buds, ay! and for that matter, even leaves, have
-you in your collection, presented to you by your
-humble servant, before we had pity on each other,
-and were married? I found a flower, last week, in
-a copy of Spenser, and, if I remember aright, I was
-the donor of the trifle.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh! you betray yourself,” gaily retorted Isabel,
-“but men are foolish—and of all foolish men I ever
-met with, a certain Albert Marston was, before his
-marriage, the most foolish. I take credit to myself,”
-she continued, in the same playful strain, “for
-having worked such a reformation in him since that
-event. But this is not what we were talking of—you
-wish to divert me from my purpose by this light
-Cossack warfare—but it won’t do,” she continued,
-and I fancied she stamped her foot prettily, as she
-was wont to do at Clairville Hall, when she was disposed
-to have her way; “no—no—Annette must be
-the one to turn penitent, and I will play father confessor.
-Say, now, fair coz, was it not a certain fancy
-to see this same rose-bush, that induced you to insist
-on coming here?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>During this conversation the parties had remained
-nearly stationary at some distance from me. Strange
-suspicions began to flash through my mind, as soon
-as Isabel commenced her banter; and these suspicions
-had now been changed into a certainty.
-Annette was still unmarried, and it was Isabel’s
-wedding at which I had come so near being present,
-at Clairville Hall. Nor was this all. I was still
-loved. Oh! the wild, the rapturous feelings of that
-moment. I could with difficulty restrain myself
-from rising and rushing toward them; but motives
-of delicacy forbade me thus to reveal that the conversation
-had been overheard. And yet should I
-remain in my present position, and play the listener
-still further? I knew not what to do. All these
-considerations flashed through my mind in the space
-of less than a minute, during which the party had
-been silent, apparently enjoying Annette’s confusion.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Come, not ready to answer yet?” began Isabel;
-“well, if you will not, you shan’t have the rose from
-that bush, for which you’ve come. Let us go back,”
-she said, playfully.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The whole party seemed to enter into the jest, and
-laughingly retraced their steps. This afforded me
-the opportunity for which I longed. Hastily rising
-from my seat, I glided unnoticed from tree to tree,
-until I reached a copse on the left of the glen, and
-advancing up the ravine, under cover of this screen,
-I re-entered the path at a bend some distance above
-the St. Clairs. Here I listened for a moment, and
-caught the sound of their approaching voices. Determining
-no longer to be a listener to their conversation,
-I proceeded down the glen, and, as I turned
-the corner, a few paces in advance, I came full in
-sight of the approaching group. In an instant the
-gay laughing of the party ceased, and I saw Annette
-shrink blushing behind her father. Isabel was the
-first to speak. Darting forward, with that frankness
-and gaiety which always characterized her, she
-grasped my hand, and said⁠—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You don’t know how happy we all are to see
-you. Where could you have come from?—and how
-could you have made such a mistake as to congratulate
-Annette, instead of me, on being married? But
-come, I must surrender you to the others—I see they
-are dying to speak to you. Uncle, Annette—how
-lucky it was that we came here to-day!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“My dear boy,” said Mr. St. Clair, warmly pressing
-my hand, “I cannot tell how rejoiced I am to
-see you. We heard a rumor that you were lost, and
-we all wept—Isabel for the first time for years. It
-was but a few days since that we heard you were at
-Newport, and, as we were coming hither, I hastened
-my journey, determined to search you out. We are
-on our way there now, and only stopped here a few
-minutes to relieve ourselves after a long ride. This
-day shall be marked with a white stone. But here I
-have been keeping you from speaking to Annette—we
-old men, you know, are apt to be garrulous.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>My eyes, indeed, had been seeking Annette, who,
-still covered with blushes, and unable to control her
-embarrassment, sought to conceal them by keeping
-in the back ground. As for me, I had become wonderfully
-self-possessed. I now advanced and took
-her hand. It trembled in my own, and when I
-spoke, though she replied faintly, she did not dare
-to look into my face, except for a moment, after
-which her eyes again sought the ground in beautiful
-embarrassment. My unexpected appearance, combined
-with her cousin’s late raillery, covered her
-face with blushes, and, for some time, she could not
-rally herself sufficient to participate in the conversation.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>What more have I to tell? I was now happy,
-and for my misanthropy, it died with the cause that
-produced it. Mr. St. Clair said that the wedding
-need not be delayed, and in less than a month I led
-Annette to the altar. Years have flown since then,
-but I still enjoy unalloyed felicity, and Annette seems
-to my eyes more beautiful than ever. It only remains
-for me to bid my readers <span style='font-size:smaller'>FAREWELL</span>!</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk117'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='hol'></a>THE HOLYNIGHTS.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY HENRY MORFORD.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';fs:0.9em;' -->
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>Some say that ’gainst the time that season comes</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>Wherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>The bird of dawning singeth all night long,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>And then they say no sprite dares stir abroad,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>The nights are wholesome then, no planets strike,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>No fairy takes or witch hath power to charm,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>So hallowed and so gracious is the time.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:right;margin-right:0em;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:0.9em;'><span class='sc'>Hamlet.</span></p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Hushed be the voice of mirthfulness,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And stilled be the plaintive tones of care,</p>
-<p class='line0'>That from too many a heart recess</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Go forth to float on the midnight air;</p>
-<p class='line0'>It is no time for the wild excess,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;No time for the loose unbridled reign</p>
-<p class='line0'>That passion gives to her votaries</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;When they sever away the golden chain.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Stilled on the ears of the seraph choir</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Let the lingering hymns of the season go,</p>
-<p class='line0'>As they sweep their hands o’er the golden wire</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;To the anthem of love and peace below;</p>
-<p class='line0'>And let us keep in a holy mood</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The coming hours of that sacred time</p>
-<p class='line0'>When the word went forth for the hush of blood</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And the passing knell for the soul of crime!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>When the hosts of the upper region stirred</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;That another star came forth to shine,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And the rush of an angel’s wing was heard</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;O’er the moonlit plains of Palestine,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And a softer light o’er the earth was flung</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And the pale stars waxed no longer dim,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And forth on a thousand harps outrung</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The rising notes of the angels’ hymn.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>The same bright stars that then looked down</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;With a guardian watch o’er hill and plain,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Unfading gems in the starry crown</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Glittering on in the blue remain,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And the solemn awe that crept them round</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;As they watched their flocks that holy time,</p>
-<p class='line0'>An echo with us to-night has found</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;In the new-born light of another clime.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>It has been felt this many a year,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The sacred spell of the season’s death,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And the brighter glow of the starry sphere</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;As it came that time with the angels’ breath,</p>
-<p class='line0'>For brighter yet the stars gleam out</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;As the noisome vapor shrinks away</p>
-<p class='line0'>From the open glade that it hung about</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Darkened and damp this many a day.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>List how the spirit-breathings come</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Upon our ears from the voice sublime</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of him who ruled in the spirits’ home,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Who wrote and sang for the end of time!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Hark how he tells when the time is near,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The bird of the dawn sings all night long</p>
-<p class='line0'>And the fairy legions disappear</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;When he comes abroad with his matin song.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>No spirits forth, nor the rank compound</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;That glows with the witches’ midnight toil,</p>
-<p class='line0'>No deeps of the forest-close resound</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;With the wizard shriek and the caldron boil.</p>
-<p class='line0'>No planets chill the warm heart’s blood</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;With the mockery of a demon fire,</p>
-<p class='line0'>No vapors veil with a sickly shroud</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The moss-grown top of the old church spire,⁠—</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>For he who stood in that dreadful watch</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;On the gray rampart of Elsinore</p>
-<p class='line0'>Told how they ceased from their revel catch</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And their reign at the Christmas time was o’er;</p>
-<p class='line0'>We feel it now, as he felt it then,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;That the air is full of holiness,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And we need not forms from the earth again</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Of the starry hosts to guard and bless.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Then stilled on the ears of the seraph choir</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Let the lingering hymns of the season go,</p>
-<p class='line0'>As they sweep their hands o’er the golden wire</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;To the anthem of love and peace below;</p>
-<p class='line0'>And let us keep in a holy mood</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The passing hours of that sacred time</p>
-<p class='line0'>When the word went forth for the hush of blood</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And the passing knell for the soul of crime!</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk118'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='lad'></a>THE LADIES’ LIBRARY.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY W. A. JONES.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>That admirable manual of “<span class='it'>les petites morales</span>,”
-and even of higher matters occasionally, the Spectator,
-contains a paper which we hesitate not to accept
-as a just specimen of cotemporary satire on female
-education; we refer to the catalogue of a Ladies’
-Library. This heterogeneous collection embraces
-heroical romances and romancing histories, the ranting
-tragedies of the day, with the libertine comedies
-of the same period. In a word, it leads us to infer
-pretty plainly the insignificant pretensions the gentle
-women of Queen Anne’s day could lay to any thing
-like refinement of education, or even a correct propriety
-in dress and demeanor. Tell me your company,
-and I will disclose your own character; speak
-that I may know you, are trite maxims; but give me a
-list of your favorite authors is by no means so common,
-though at least as true, a test. The literary
-and indirectly the moral depravity of taste exhibited
-by the women of that age, is easily accounted for,
-when we once learn the fashionable authors and the
-indifferent countenance given to any authors but those
-of the most frivolous description. The queen herself
-was an illiterate woman, and we are told never once
-had the curiosity to look into the classic productions
-of Pope. King William, the preceding sovereign,
-was so ignorant of books and the literary character,
-as to offer Swift, with whom he had been agreeably
-prepossessed, the place of captain of a regiment of
-horse.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Indulging ourselves in a rapid transition, we pass
-from this era to the epoch of Johnson and Burke, and
-Goldsmith and Sheridan, we come to the reign of
-George III. Here we find the scene altered. From
-the gay saloon we are dropped, as if by magic, into the
-library or conversation room. We read not of balls,
-but of literary dinners and æsthetic teas, and we meet
-for company, not thoughtless, dressy dames of fashion
-and minions of the goddess of pleasure, but grave, precise
-professors in petticoats, women who had exchanged
-a world of anxiety for the turn of a head-dress,
-or the shape of a flounce for an equally wise
-anxiety about the philosophy of education, the success
-of their sonnets and tragedies, and moral tales for the
-young. The pedantry of authorship and dogmatic
-conversation superseded the more harmless pedantry
-of dress. Then we read of the stupidest company in
-the world, which arrogated to itself the claim of being
-the best. A race of learned ladies arose; <span class='it'>bas bleus</span>,
-the Montagues, the Mores, the Sewards, the Chapones,
-patronized by such prosing old formalists as
-Doctors Gregory and Aiken, and even by one man
-of vigorous talent, Johnson, and one man of real
-genius, Richardson. The last two endured much,
-because they were flattered much.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When we speak thus contemptuously of learned
-ladies, we intend to express a disgust at the pretensions
-of those who pass under that name. Genuine
-learning can never be despised, whoever may be its
-possessor; but of genuine learning it is not harsh to
-suspect a considerable deficiency where there is so
-much of display and anxious rivalry. Even where
-the learning is exact and solid, it is to be remembered
-that many departments are utterly unsuited to the
-female mind; where, at best, little can be accomplished
-and that of a harsh repulsive nature. We
-want no Daciers, no Somervilles, no Marcets, but
-give us as you will as many Inchbalds, Burneys,
-Edgeworths, Misses Barrett, as can be had for love
-or money.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>From the ladies we seek literature, not learning,
-in its old scholastic sense. They certainly have received
-pleasure from books, and are bound to return
-the gratification in a similar way by delighting us.
-And this they can do in their legitimate attempts. It
-shall be a prominent object of the present general
-introduction to a short series of critical sketches, to
-attempt a definition of the limits which should bound
-those attempts, and also to endeavor at suggesting
-the proper studies for ladies, and the authors that
-ought to rank as favorites with the fair. In a list of
-the latter, female writers should bear a considerable
-proportion, and will assuredly not be forgotten.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We believe the question as to the relative sexual
-distinctions of intellectual character, is now generally
-considered as settled. There is allowed to be a species
-of genius essentially feminine. Equality is no
-more arrogated than superiority of ability, and it
-would be as wisely arrogated. The most limited
-observation of life and the most superficial acquaintance
-with books, must effectually demonstrate the
-superior capacity of man for the great works of life
-and speculation. It is true, great geniuses are rare
-and seldom needed, and the generality of women
-rank on a par with the generality of men. In many
-cases, women of talent surpass men of an equal
-calibre of mere talent, through other and constitutional
-causes—a greater facility of receiving and transmitting
-impressions, greater instinctive subtlety of apprehension,
-and a livelier sympathy. We cordially
-admit the female intellect, in the ordinary concerns
-of life and the current passages of society, has often
-the advantage of the masculine understanding. Cleverness
-outshines solid ability, and a smart woman
-is much more showy than a profound man. In certain
-walks of authorship, too, women are pre-eminently
-successful; in cases narrative of real or
-fictitious events, (in the last implying a strain of
-ready invention,) in lively descriptions of natural
-beauty or artificial manners; in the development of
-the milder sentiments, especially the sentiment of
-love; in airy, comic ridicule. On the other hand,
-the highest attempts of women in poetry have uniformly
-failed. We have read of no female epic of
-even a respectable rank: those who have written
-tragedies, have written moral lectures (of an inferior
-sort) like Hannah More; or anatomies of the passions,
-direct and formal, like Joanna Baillie; or an historical
-sketch, as Rienzi. We are apt to suspect that
-the personal charms of Sappho proved too much for
-the admirers of her poetic rhapsodies, otherwise
-Longinus has done her foul injustice; for the fragment
-he quotes is to be praised and censured solely
-for its obscurity. This would have been a great
-merit in Lycophron.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the volume of British Poetesses, edited by Mr.
-Dyce, it is astonishing to find how little real poetry
-he has been able to collect out of the writings of
-near a century of authors, scattered over the surface
-of five or six centuries. It must be allowed that
-some of the finest shortest pieces by female writers
-have appeared since the publication of that selection.
-In the volume referred to, much sensible verse and
-some sprightly copies of verses occur; a fair share
-of pure reflective sentiment, delivered in pleasing
-language rarely rising above correctness; of high
-genius there is not a particle,—no pretensions to sublimity
-or fervor. The best piece and the finest
-poem, we think, ever composed by woman, is the
-charming ballad of Auld Robin Gray. That is a
-genuine bit of true poesy, and perfect in the highest
-department of the female imagination in the pathos
-of domestic tragedy. In the present century we
-have Mrs. Howitt and Mrs. Southey, but chief of all,
-Miss Barrett.<a id='r6'/><a href='#f6' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[6]</span></sup></a> The finest attempts of the most
-pleasing writer of this class, do not rise so high as
-the delightful ballad above named. They are sweet,
-plaintive, moral strains, the melodious notes of a
-lute, tuned by taper fingers in a romantic bower, not
-the deep, majestic, awful tones of the great organ,
-or the spirited and stirring blasts of the trumpet.
-The ancient bard struck wild and mournful, or hearty
-and vigorous, notes from his harp—perchance placed
-“on a rock whose frowning brow,” &amp;c. and striving
-with the rough symphonies of the tempest; but the
-sybil of modern days plays elegant and pretty, or soft
-and tender airs upon her flageolet or accordion, in
-the boudoir or saloon.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A poet is, from the laws both of physiology and
-philology,—masculine. His vocation is manly, or
-rather divine. And we have never heard any traits
-of feminine character attributed to the great poet, (in
-the Greek sense,) the Creator of the universe. The
-muses are represented as females, but then they are
-the inspirers, never the composers, of verse. So
-should be the poet’s muse, as she is often the poet’s
-theme. There are higher themes, but of an abstract
-nature, in general: ethical, religious, metaphysical.
-Let female beauty then sit for her portrait instead of
-being the painter. Let poets chant her charms, but
-let her not spoil a fair ideal image by writing bad
-verses. If all were rightly viewed, a happy home
-would seem preferable to a seat on Parnassus, and the
-Fountain of Content would furnish more palatable
-draughts than the Font of Helicon. The quiet home
-is not always the muses’ bower; though we trust the
-muses’ bower is placed in no turbulent society.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Women write for women. They may entertain,
-but cannot, from the nature of the case, become instructors
-to men. They know far less of life, their
-circle of experience is confined. They are unfitted
-for many paths of active exertion, and consequently
-are rendered incapable of forming just opinions on
-many matters. We do not include a natural incapacity
-for many studies, and as natural a dislike for
-many more. Many kinds of learning, and many actual
-necessary pursuits and practices, it is deemed
-improper for a refined woman to know. How, then,
-<span class='it'>can</span> a female author become a teacher of men?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Literature would miss many pleasant associations
-if the names of the best female writers were expunged
-from a list of classic authors, and the world
-would lose many delightful works—the novel of
-sentiment and the novel of manners, letter writing,
-moral tales for children, books of travels, gossiping
-memoirs—Mrs. Inchbald, Madame D’Arblay, Miss
-Edgeworth, Lady M. W. Montague, Miss Martineau,
-and Miss Sedgwick, with a host besides. Women
-have sprightliness, cleverness, smartness, though but
-little wit. There is a body and substance in true
-wit, with a reflectiveness rarely found apart from a
-masculine intellect. In all English comedy, we recollect
-but two female writers of sterling value,
-Mrs. Conley and Mrs. Guthrie, and their plays are
-formed on the Spanish model, and made up of incident
-and intrigue, much more than of fine repartees or
-brilliant dialogue. We know of no one writer of the
-other sex, that has a high character for humor—no
-Rabelais, no Sterne, no Swift, no Goldsmith, no
-Dickens, no Irving. The female character does not
-admit of it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Women cannot write history. It requires too
-great solidity, and too minute research for their
-quick intellects. They write, instead, delightful
-memoirs. Who, but an antiquary or historical
-commentator, had not rather read Lucy Hutchinson’s
-Life of her Husband, than any of the professed
-histories of the Commonwealth—and exchange Lady
-Fanshawe for the other royalist biographers.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Neither are women to turn politicians or orators.
-We hope never to hear of a female Burke; she
-would be an overbearing termagant. A spice of a
-talent for scolding, is the highest form of eloquence
-we can conscientiously allow the ladies.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Criticism is for men; when women assume it,
-they write scandal. The current notion of criticism
-with most, is that of libelous abuse. From all such,
-Heaven defend us.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Women feel more than they think, and (sometimes)
-say more than do. They are consequently better
-adapted to describe sentiments, than to speculate on
-causes and effects. They are more at home in their
-letters, than in tracts of political economy.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The proper faculties in women to cultivate most
-assiduously are, the taste and the religious sentiment;
-the first, as the leading trait of the intellectual; and
-the last, as the governing power of the moral constitution.
-Give a woman a pure taste and high principles,
-and she is safe from the arts of the wiliest
-libertine. Let her have all other gifts but these, and
-she is comparatively defenceless. Taste purifies the
-heart as well as the head, and religion strengthens
-both. The strongest propensities to pleasure are not
-so often the means of disgrace and ruin, as the carelessness
-of ignorant virtue, and an unenlightened
-moral sense. This makes all the difference in the
-world, between the daughter of a poor countryman,
-and the child of an educated gentleman. Both have
-the same desires, but how differently directed and
-controlled. Yet we find nineteen lapses from virtue
-in the one case, where we find one in the other.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Believing that what does not interest, does not
-benefit the mind, we would avoid all pedantic lectures
-to women, on all subjects to which they discover
-any aversion. Study should be made a pleasure,
-and reading pure recreation. In a general
-sense, we would say the best works for female
-readers are those that tend to form the highest
-domestic character. Works of the highest imagination,
-as being above that condition, and scientific
-authors, who address a different class of faculties,
-are both unsuitable. An admirable wife may not
-relish the sublimity of Milton or Hamlet; and a
-charming companion be ignorant of the existence of
-such a science as Algebra. A superficial acquaintance
-with the elements of the physical sciences, is
-worse than total unacquaintance with them.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Religion should be taught as a sentiment, not as an
-abstract principle, or in doctrinal positions, a sentiment
-of love and grateful obedience; morality, impressed
-as the practical exercise of self-denial and
-active benevolence. In courses of reading, too much
-is laid down of a dry nature. Girls are disgusted
-with tedious accounts of battles and negotiations,
-dates and names. The moral should be educed best
-filled for the female heart, and apart from the romantic
-periods, and the reigns of female sovereigns, or
-epochs when the women held a very prominent
-place in the state, or in public regard. We would
-have women affectionate wives, obedient daughters,
-agreeable companions, skilful economists, judicious
-friends; but we must confess it does not fall within
-our scheme to make them legislators or lawyers,
-diplomatists or politicians. We therefore think
-nine tenths of all history is absolutely useless for
-women. Too many really good biographies of great
-and good men and women can hardly be read, and
-will be read to much greater advantage than histories,
-as they leave a definite and individual impression.
-The reading good books of travels, is,
-next to going over the ground in person, the best
-method of studying geography. Grammar and rhetoric,<a id='r7'/><a href='#f7' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[7]</span></sup></a>
-(after a clear statement of the elements and
-chief rules,) are best learnt in the perusal of classic
-authors, the essayists, &amp;c.; and, in the same way,
-the theory of taste and the arts. The most important
-of accomplishments is not systematically treated in
-any system—conversation. But a father and mother
-of education, can teach this better than any professor.
-Expensive schools turn out half-trained pupils.
-Eight years at home, well employed, and two at a
-good but not fashionable school, are better than ten
-years spent in the most popular female seminary,
-conducted in the ordinary style. Such is a meagre
-outline of our idea of female education, into which
-we have digressed unawares.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Female authors should constitute a fair proportion
-of a lady’s library—and those masculine writers who
-have something of the tenderness and purity of the
-feminine character in their works. The subjects
-and authors we propose for occasional consideration,
-will embrace specimens of each, in prose and
-poetry, fiction and reality, satire and sentiment. We
-think we may promise a less erudite paper for the
-second number, though to some readers all that is
-not very lively is proportionably dull.</p>
-
-<hr class='footnotemark'/>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_6'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' class='footnoteid'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div class='footnote-id' id='f6'><a href='#r6'>[6]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This lady’s failure in an attempt to translate Æschylus,
-is a fair confirmation of our opinion of the inability of the
-female imagination to soar beyond a certain height.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_7'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' class='footnoteid'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div class='footnote-id' id='f7'><a href='#r7'>[7]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The benefit flowing from <span class='it'>these</span> studies is chiefly of a
-negative character.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk119'/>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/i106.jpg' alt='a man on horseback stopped at a cottage doorway' id='iid-0003' style='width:100%;height:auto;'/>
-<p class='caption'><span style='font-size:smaller'>A. L. Dick</span><br/></p> <br/><span class='it'><span class='it'>The Pastor’s Visit</span></span><br/>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk120'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='pas'></a>THE PASTOR’S VISIT.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-weight:bold;'>ILLUSTRATION OF A PICTURE.</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>The noon is past—the sun declines</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Below the western hills;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Upon the peasant’s face joy shines.</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And peace his bosom fills.</p>
-<p class='line0'>He stands beside the cottage door,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;His wife and children round,</p>
-<p class='line0'>With that content which evermore</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Doth with the true abound.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>The pastor, pausing on his way,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Surveys the happy scene;</p>
-<p class='line0'>If all mankind were pure as they</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Slights tasks for him, I ween!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Not in the peasant’s cottage dwell</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Sin and her joyless train,</p>
-<p class='line0'>He thinks of palace, dome and cell,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And passes on again!</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk121'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='has'></a>THE HASTY MARRIAGE.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-weight:bold;'>A SKETCH FROM REAL LIFE.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY THE AUTHOR OF “THE BRIDAL.”</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>How few “look before they leap,” even in an affair
-of so much moment as matrimony. We fear the
-fault is in our system. We educate our daughters
-superficially—for <span class='it'>display</span> rather than usefulness—to
-catch the eye rather than win the heart. Our girls
-are taught in early life, either directly or indirectly,
-that marriage is the great object of woman’s ambition,
-and in endeavoring to secure that object, and to surpass
-in the race of conquest their companions and
-rivals, they sometimes wed rashly and to the sacrifice
-of happiness. Difficult, we are aware, is the task
-of discrimination with the young and inexperienced.
-Pure and artless themselves, they are apt to imagine
-the possession of like virtues by all others, and to
-conceive it impossible for a fine form and a handsome
-face to be associated with a false heart. Alas!
-how often are they disappointed! How frequently
-do the sudden attachments of early life prove hollow
-and unsubstantial! How often is it discovered that
-the first dream of love, which has been so extravagantly
-eulogized by poets and romancers, was a mere
-delusion that would not bear the test of time and of
-reason! With what bitterness of disappointment
-have many started from this dream! Stripped of the
-rainbow coloring with which the fancy is apt to paint
-an object of idolatry, how prominent appear the darkness
-and the deformity! How broad the contrast
-between the just view of truth and the rapid and prejudiced
-survey of passion! How often do we see
-beings standing before the altar, pledging themselves
-to each other for weal and for wo, who, comparatively
-speaking, were strangers but yesterday!
-Knowing little of each other’s lives and dispositions,
-merits or demerits, they are willing to risk peace of
-mind for long years, and to identify destinies for time,
-perhaps for eternity! Can we wonder that strife
-sometimes mars the domestic circle—that wives are
-left lonely and deserted—that the agency of man
-should so often be invoked to part beings who have
-been joined together by an ordinance of God!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A happy union is indeed a scene upon which, without
-irreverence, we may suppose the angels in Heaven
-gaze from their bright places of abode with
-delight and approval. An unnatural or a discordant
-marriage, on the other hand, must form a source of
-delight to the arch enemy of mankind, for in it he
-can recognize the soul of evil. That the young
-should seek for and cling to a kindred spirit is natural.
-The undivided possession of a pure heart is perhaps
-the very acme of human felicity. “One home, one
-wife, and one God,” is the sentiment of one of the
-wisest of his race, and it is only when man is on the
-shady side of fifty that he begins to appreciate the
-truth of this philosophy in all its solemnity and force.
-Then his pleasures of life are derived as much from
-the past as the future, and the associations of that
-past, if mingled with virtue, fidelity, patriotism and
-religion, are indeed blissful.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We pity the lonely and the desolate—the loveless
-and the unloved—the being without a wife or a friend—without
-one trusting and confiding spirit, to whom
-the heart may turn in its hour of sorrow and pour out
-its inmost and saddest thoughts. The cold and selfish
-mortal who passes year after year without experiencing
-the delightful concord of sentiment to be found in
-a kindred soul, is indeed the most miserable of his
-species. Even his joys are robbed of half their delight,
-because unshared by another, by one to whom
-he is allied by love and friendship. Wretched indeed
-is the isolated individual who, mingling with
-the multitude, can single out no destiny identified
-with his—no faithful and devoted heart, the breath of
-whose existence seems bound up with his. Nature
-has denied to such a being the holiest impulses
-that warm and agitate the human breast. Even the
-birds are mated, and without a ministering angel “a
-sweet companion,” the first born was lonely and
-desolate in the garden of Eden. So it must ever be
-with the frail and feeble things of mortal existence.
-If Paradise could not be appreciated and enjoyed
-alone, how can man reconcile loneliness to his fallen
-condition? The desire of the heart is for sweet companionship—the
-inward craving of the spirit is for a
-being to love. Can we wonder then that in this
-country, where early marriage is taught to be desirable,
-so many should choose rashly?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We remember <span class='sc'>Annette Delisle</span> as a being of
-yesterday. She sang well—she danced well—and in
-many respects she was a beauty. Not one of our
-beauties at the time, for her form was too slight and
-sylph-like,—her joy was too gushing—her spirits too
-redundant. She dressed from early childhood with
-taste and elegance, and wore her dark hair in long
-ringlets over her shoulders. She had many friends,
-and even at sixteen her admirers were liberal in
-number and profuse in flattery. Her mother, a
-weak and vain woman, was proud of her daughter—proud
-of the attention that daughter received, and
-eager to display her on every occasion. Thus she
-not only frequently accompanied her to public balls,
-which were then more fashionable and somewhat
-more select than at present, but she permitted her to
-accept of numerous invitations to parties, and to
-mingle almost nightly during the winter season in
-the gay scenes of our metropolis. The father, good-natured
-man, was a manufacturer, and was so wedded
-to business, that he could not spare time even
-for the proper care of his favorite child. Alas!
-this good nature in fathers! It sometimes degenerates
-into a sad vice, and is the source of much
-misery in after life. The man who lacks the energy
-to control his own household,—who is either too
-negligent, or too weak to point out the true path and
-to direct the footsteps of his offspring therein, is
-guilty of much that is unpardonable.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But such a father was Mr. Delisle, while the mother,
-worse if possible, gave the reins almost wholly
-into the hands of her daughter, and was but too fond of
-the hollow and unmeaning admiration which the practiced
-in art and in compliment among the sterner sex
-are so apt to bestow upon the vain and empty, whether
-old or young.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The result of this course upon Annette Delisle may
-well be imagined. While she sparkled in the ball
-room, and glittered in the giddy throng, her heart,
-her mind, and her morals were neglected. The
-mazes of the world, its quicksands and its hypocrisy
-were unknown to her. She flirted, laughed and
-trifled with the many, caught one hour by a fine
-form, another by a rich voice, and a third by a dashing
-exterior. And yet, in the depths of that young
-girl’s breast, were rich and true affections. Properly
-trained, she would have graced any circle. Her
-mind was good by nature—her spirit was benevolent
-and cheerful—and many of the lights of beauty
-flashed and brightened around her. Despite her
-artificial manner, and her air of coquetry, her feelings
-were deep and strong. Her being was one of
-impulse, and her attachments, even to her school
-companions, were animated by truth and fidelity.
-Thus it was when Annette discovered that the society
-of Howard Leroy possessed an unusual charm for
-her—that she saw him approach with pleasure—that
-she listened with more than her wonted attention
-to his remarks—that she felt the blood mount to
-her cheek at his compliments—that she found her
-eyes following as he wandered through the ball
-room—that she lisped his name even in her dreams.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Never can I forget the dashing Leroy. He was
-what is usually denominated “a handsome fellow”—one
-of the butterflies of society—a ladies’ man,
-in the general acceptation, and a favorite also with
-his own sex. He rode well, talked well, and sang
-an excellent song. This latter qualification was in
-some respects a fatal gift, for it introduced him into
-many a gay circle from which he otherwise would
-have been excluded—made him sought for, and vain
-of his voice, and thus won him away from the more
-useful pursuits of life. Leroy, moreover, was fond of
-poetry—was able to quote glowing passages, and had,
-withal, a touch of romance in his character, which
-served not a little to enhance him in the estimation
-of some of his female acquaintance. He assumed a
-remarkable degree of independence—was rather
-bold and reckless in his manner and language, and
-possessed the faculty of talking for hours in relation
-to the prominent beauties of Moore, Byron and Bulwer.
-These were the traits of character which won
-upon the mind and heart of Annette Delisle. Her
-education and mode of life had fitted her for the arts
-of such a man. She fancied him something superior
-to the ordinary fop—to the mere merchant or shopkeeper.
-Leroy became her ardent and enthusiastic
-admirer. The fact soon reached the ears of her
-father. He roused himself for the moment, and proceeded
-to investigate the realities of the case. Leroy
-he ascertained to be an idle, dissolute pretender, and
-dependent, he feared, upon the gaming-table for his
-means of subsistence. He was of good family, and
-had received a fair education. But he had gone
-astray from the path of rectitude in early life, and
-now contrived to appear on the principal promenades
-as a fashionable lounger—but the world wondered
-how!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The manufacturer was terrified at the prospect for
-his daughter, whom he really loved, but it was too
-late. Leroy saw the storm coming, and prevailed
-upon Annette, by falsehood and misrepresentation,
-to consent to a secret marriage. Fondly and long
-she clung to the delusion that her husband had been
-slandered—that one who could <span class='it'>talk</span> so well, and <span class='it'>profess</span>
-so much, could not be a villain. He <span class='it'>was</span> not
-one, perhaps, in the usual interpretation; but we
-can conceive of no more heartless wretch than the
-man who deliberately deceives and betrays a fond
-and confiding woman. Leroy never loved Annette
-with a true and exalted affection. He felt himself
-bankrupt in fortune, and nearly so in character, and
-he was base enough to become the husband of an
-unsuspecting girl, in the hope of a dependency upon
-the bounty of her father. Deceived in this, for the
-old manufacturer would have nothing to do with
-him, he soon threw off the mask. At first cold and
-indifferent, he speedily grew harsh and unkind.
-True, there were moments when his better nature
-prevailed, and he would endeavor, by apparent contrition
-and well turned promises, to atone for his conduct.
-But, they were few and far between, and
-diminished in number as time rolled on. Strange,
-despite the giddy character of Annette—despite the
-little care which had been bestowed upon her principles,
-she clung to him with the true fidelity of
-woman. She loved him with her whole soul, and
-while the pride of her woman nature repelled the
-idea of any public exposure of her situation, and
-while she even concealed from her parents much of
-the unworthy conduct of Leroy, she still cherished
-a belief of his ultimate reform. Night after
-night she sat in her quiet chamber, or gazed earnestly
-from the window, in the hope that the form of
-her husband might appear before the midnight
-hour. Who may paint the agony of her mind at such
-moments—the jealous fears that shot like daggers
-through her breast, as to his haunts and his society—the
-apprehension of danger and of death—the terrible
-fancies which mingled him in some dreadful scene at
-the gaming table—and, worse than all, the oft repelled,
-but still returning conviction, that the wine
-cup was too familiar with his lips!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>God, in pity look down upon and impart moral
-courage to the lonely wives of the world—the dejected
-ones to whom home is desolate, whose hearts
-are breaking slowly, secretly, string by string—who
-live only for their little ones, and because they know
-it wrong to plunge unbidden into eternity! Beings
-who have ventured their all of earthly happiness,
-and have lost all—who have been deceived, betrayed,
-and are now deserted! Pity and console
-them, Great Creator, for the misery of unrequited
-love, of wounded pride, of crushed affection, of
-hopeless despair throughout this life, can only be
-soothed and softened by a heavenly influence!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Poor Annette! Step by step her husband plunged
-on in the downward path. Ray after ray departed
-from the light of her beauty. Wider and wider became
-the gulf between the manufacturer and his
-son-in-law. But, horror of horrors! the crisis soon
-came! The resource of gambling failed at last with
-Leroy, and <span class='it'>then</span>—he resorted to forgery!—ay! he
-forged the name of George Delisle, the father of his
-wife, and fled the country in order to escape the
-penalty of his crime!</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk122'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But a few days have gone by since we saw Annette.
-Only five years have elapsed since her marriage.
-What a change! The lily has supplanted
-the rose—the eye has lost its fire—the step its buoyancy—the
-form its grace. She is a doomed and
-broken hearted woman. Disease has “marked her
-for his own.” Loss of sleep—mental anxiety—the
-disgrace—the shame—the ignominy of her husband’s
-career, are hurrying her rapidly to a premature
-grave!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mothers, be warned! Virtue, Integrity and Religion
-are the only safe companions for your budding
-and beautiful daughters!</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk123'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='win'></a>TO THE NIGHT-WIND IN AUTUMN.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY THE AUTHOR OF “TECUMSEH.”</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Whence art thou, spirit wind?</p>
-<p class='line0'>Soothing with thy low voice the ear of Night,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And breathing o’er the wakeful, pensive mind</p>
-<p class='line0'>An influence of pleased yet sad delight.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thou tell’st not of thy birth,</p>
-<p class='line0'>O viewless wanderer from land to land:</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;But gathering all the secrets of the earth</p>
-<p class='line0'>Where’er, unseen, thy airy wings expand,</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;At this hushed, holy hour,</p>
-<p class='line0'>When time seems part of vast eternity,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thou dost reveal them with a magic power,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Saddening the soul with thy weird minstrelsy.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;All nature seems to hear,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The woods, the waters, and each silent star;</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;What, that can thus enchain their earnest ear,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Bring’st thou of untold tidings from afar?</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Is it of new, fair lands,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of fresh-lit worlds that in the welkin burn!</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Do new oäses gem Zahara’s sands,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Or the lost Pleiad to the skies return?</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Nay! ’tis a voice of grief,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of grief subdued, but deepened through long years,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The soul of Sorrow, seeking not relief,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Still gathering bitter knowledge without tears.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;For thou, since earth was young</p>
-<p class='line0'>And rose green Eden purpled with the morn,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Its solemn wastes and homes of men among,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Circling all zones, thy mourning flight hast borne.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Empires have risen in might,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And peopled cities through the outspread earth,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And thou hast passed them at the hour of night</p>
-<p class='line0'>Listing the sounds of revelry and mirth.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Again thou hast gone by⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>City and empire were alike o’erthrown,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Temple and palace, fall’n confusedly,</p>
-<p class='line0'>In marble ruin on the desert strown.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;In time-long solitudes,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Where dark, old mountains pierced the silent air,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Bright rivers roamed, and stretched untraversed woods,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thou joy’dst to hope that these were changeless there.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Lo! as the ages passed,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thou found’st them struck with alteration dire,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The streams new-channeled, forests earthward cast,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The crumbling mountains scathed with storm and fire.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Gone but a few short hours,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Beauty and bloom beguiled thy wanderings,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And thou mad’st love unto the virgin flowers,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Sighing through green trees and by mossy springs.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Now on the earth’s cold bed,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Fallen and faded, waste their forms away,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And all around the withered leaves are shed,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Mementos mute of Nature’s wide decay.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Vain is the breath of morn;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Vainly the night-dews on their couches weep;</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;In vain thou call’st them at thy soft return,</p>
-<p class='line0'>No more awaking from their gloomy sleep.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Oh hush! Oh hush! sweet wind!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thou melancholy soul! be still, I pray,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Nor pierce this heart so long in grief resigned,</p>
-<p class='line0'>With ’plainings for the loved but lifeless clay.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Ah! now by thee I hear</p>
-<p class='line0'>The earnest, gentle voices, as of old:</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;They speak—in accents tremulously clear⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>The young, the beautiful, the noble-souled.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The beautiful, the young,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The form of light, the wise and honored head⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thou bring’st the music of a lyre unstrung!⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Oh cease!—with tears I ask it—they are <span class='it'>dead</span>!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;While mortal joys depart,</p>
-<p class='line0'>While loved ones lie beneath the grave’s green sod,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;May we not fail to hear, with trembling heart,</p>
-<p class='line0'>In thy low tone the “still small voice of <span class='sc'>God</span>.”</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk124'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='rev'></a>REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.</h1></div>
-
-<hr class='tbk125'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Natural History of New York: By Authority. Albany,
-Thurlow Weed, Printer to the State. New York, Wiley
-&amp; Putnam, and D. Appleton &amp; Co.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We are among those who believe that, as characterizing
-the present age, the cultivation of purely mechanical and
-natural science has been carried much too far, or rather,
-has been made too exclusive and absorbing. It is not the
-<span class='it'>highest</span> science—for it concerns only that which is around
-us—which is altogether outward. Man is always greater
-than the world of nature in which he lives, and just as
-clearly must the <span class='it'>science</span> of man, the philosophy of his moral
-and intellectual being, rank far above that of the soulless
-creation which was made to minister to his wants. When,
-therefore, this lower science so draws to itself the life of
-any age, as to disparage and shut out the higher, it works a
-positive injury to the well-being of that age. Still it is
-only thus in comparison with a nobler and more lofty study
-that we would venture to cast the faintest reproach upon
-that natural science which in no slight degree absorbs the
-intellectual effort of the present generation. Regarded as
-related to, and a part of, a complete system of education, it
-becomes most important and necessary; and its cultivation,
-even to apparent excess, a cause of rejoicing and a source
-of the highest hope.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We need scarcely say, then, that we look upon the explorations
-which have been made “by authority” into the
-Geology and general Natural History of several of the most
-important States in the Union, as among the proudest
-achievements of the present day. Most of them, it is true,
-grew out of designs not the highest on the part of those by
-whom they were originated. The development of resources,
-the discovery of mineral wealth, or other elements
-of power, formed in most cases the principal aim of those
-at whose instance these surveys were undertaken. But
-this is of little importance. The results are, on this account,
-none the less valuable to the cause of natural science,
-nor is our joy at their successful prosecution the less ardent
-or sincere. In all the States in which they have been undertaken,
-they have been fruitful of the best results; and
-the facts thus brought together will be found of priceless
-value to students and inquirers for ages to come.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The State of New York has just completed her survey,
-which has been conducted on a scale commensurate with
-her wealth and enterprise. The different departments of
-the survey were, in 1836, assigned to eight gentlemen well
-qualified for the task, and from that time until their completion,
-the explorations were conducted with energy and
-enthusiasm. The reports are to be published in ten magnificent
-quarto volumes, of which the first is now before
-us. A more splendid monument of intelligent enterprise
-in the cause of science, has seldom been erected by any
-State. The first volume contains only a portion of the first
-report on Zoology, by Mr. <span class='sc'>James E. DeKay</span>, to whom this
-department was committed. Governor Seward has written
-an introduction to the work, which occupies nearly two
-hundred pages. It is valuable as a historical record of the
-progress of the arts, the sciences, and the various branches
-of enterprise and industry in the State, though as a literary
-performance it can claim no especial merit. It is, indeed,
-little more than a compendium of the history of the State,
-and of its general statistics, of which the different portions
-have been contributed by different persons. The portion of
-the Zoological Report which this volume contains—relating
-merely to the Mammalia of the State—is highly valuable,
-and, to the naturalist, exceedingly interesting. Previous
-to this survey, no complete Zoology of the State had
-been attempted. In 1813, Samuel L. Mitchell commenced
-an account of the fishes of New York, which was the first
-work on the subject ever undertaken; and the impulse
-given to the science by his labors in fact laid the foundation
-for whatever has been effected in the same department
-since. Several other branches of Zoology had received
-some slight attention before the commencement of the State
-survey. Bachman, a well known naturalist of South
-Carolina, had made interesting discoveries in the families
-of smaller quadrupeds, and much valuable information
-concerning the ornithology of the State had been collected
-by Wilson, Audubon, Cooper, Bonaparte and DeKay.
-Barnes had classified the Unionidæ of the lakes and rivers,
-and the Mollusca of the sea coast had been well studied by
-Dr. Gay, of New York city. But the report of Mr. DeKay
-in this department presents by far a more full and comprehensive
-account of the Zoology of New York than had
-ever before been made. The State was divided into four
-Zoological districts: first, the western district, embracing
-all the western portion of the State, as far east as the
-sources of the Mohawk; second, the northern, comprising
-all that portion of the State lying north of the Mohawk
-valley; third, the valley of the Hudson, including all the
-counties watered by that river and its tributaries; and
-fourth, the Atlantic district, embracing Long Island. In
-regard to its natural history, the northern district is by far
-the most important. Strange as it may seem to those who
-are accustomed to hear only of the wealth, the refinement,
-and the advanced civilization of the “Empire State,” there
-is embraced in this northern district a great tract of a thousand
-square miles, lying in loneliness, fresh as it came from
-the hand of God, untouched, and almost unvisited by man.
-It is clad with forests of great and majestic beauty, echoing
-only the sigh of the tempest, the screams of the untamed
-dwellers in its wilds, and now and then the rifle of the
-hunter, who there finds game, such as in long gone times
-the red men loved to chase. It is thickly overspread with
-lakes, embosomed in mountains, now lying calmly and
-smilingly beneath the sun, and the next hour lashed into
-frowns, when</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line0'>“The tempest shooteth, from the steep,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;The shadow of its coming.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'>Travelers who would wander through it, must provide
-themselves with guides, and trust to hunting and chance for
-food and lodging. No one <span class='it'>lives</span> there—the whole is one
-vast, solitary wilderness, untouched by man—lying in its
-own majesty—unconscious even that the foot of the adventurous
-Genoese has been set upon the continent.</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line0'>“Still this great solitude is quick with life;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Myriads of insects, gaudy as the flowers</p>
-<p class='line0'>They flutter over, gentle quadrupeds,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And birds that scarce have learned the fear of man,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Are here, and sliding reptiles of the ground,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Startlingly beautiful.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'>This vast wild region is inhabited by many animals that
-are rarely found in any other portion of the State. The
-bear, the moose, the panther, the deer, and most fur-bearing
-animals, make their homes among its mountains. Arctic
-birds, too, that are never known farther south, are seen in
-abundance. The whole district covers an area of about six
-thousand square miles. The western district is eminent for
-its fertility and beauty, and has also a high degree of zoological
-interest.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The number of quadrupeds enumerated in the report, as
-found within the State, is something more than one hundred.
-Each of these is scientifically and fully described. Included
-in the volume are a great number of illustrations, taken
-with the greatest care from the living animals or the best
-specimens that could be found. The real colors are preserved,
-and in every case the relative size is indicated.
-The outlines, for the purpose of accuracy, were always
-taken with a camera lucida, and the illustrations, drawn by
-Hill, were lithographed by Endicott.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The whole style of the work is eminently worthy the enterprise,
-results of which it contains, and the State which
-undertook its fulfilment. We look for the forthcoming
-volumes with no little interest. The botanical department
-has been under the charge of John Toney; the mineralogical
-and chemical were assigned to Lewis C. Beck; the geological
-to W. W. Mather, Ebenezer Emmons, James Hall,
-and Leonard Vanuxem, and the palæontological to Timothy
-A. Conrad. Beside these reports, the results of the survey
-appear in eight several collections of specimens of the animals,
-plants, soils, minerals, rocks and fossils, found within
-the State—one of which collections constitutes a museum
-of natural history at the capital of the State, and the others
-are distributed among collegiate institutions. We rejoice
-at the completion of this great survey, and hope soon to see
-a similar exploration effected in every State of the Union.
-The cause of science will receive from it an aid of which
-scientific men alone can rightly estimate the value.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk126'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Holy War, made by Shaddai upon Diabolus, for the
-Regaining of the Metropolis of the World. By John
-Bunyan. Philadelphia, American Sunday School Union.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The celebrated Dr. Owen was occasionally one of the
-hearers of Bunyan, when he preached in London; and being
-asked by Charles the Second how a learned man, like
-him, could listen to the prating of an illiterate tinker, he
-is said to have replied, “May it please your Majesty, could
-I possess that tinker’s abilities for preaching, I would gladly
-relinquish all my scholarship.” His genius as an author
-was even greater than he exhibited in the pulpit. Southey,
-Macauley, and other eminent critics, regard him as one of
-the “immortal authors of England.” The Pilgrim’s Progress
-has been the most popular of his sixty or seventy
-works. Probably no book by an uninspired writer has been
-more universally read. The Holy War was written ten
-years after the appearance of that beautiful creation, and if
-not equal to it in all respects, is certainly one of the most
-ingenious allegories in the language, as well as one of the
-most <span class='it'>useful</span> exhibitions of practical Christianity. The edition
-before us is superior to any other printed in America,
-in its typography and illustrations.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk127'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Little Gift</span>; <span class='it'>Useful Stories</span>; <span class='it'>Poems for Little Folks</span>.
-<span class='it'>Three small volumes.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mr. Colman, of New York, in the autumn of every year,
-publishes numerous miniature gift books for children, with
-fine engravings, instructive tales and poems, etc., of which
-the above are specimens.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk128'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Thulia: A Poem: By J. C. Palmer, M. D., U. S. N. Illustrated
-with Twelve Original Designs, by A. Agate,
-Artist of the late Exploring Expedition. One volume,
-octavo. New York, Samuel Colman.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This beautifully printed and illustrated volume resembles
-very much, in its appearance, the elegant edition of Gray’s
-“Elegy,” published several years since in London. We
-can say no more in praise of its typography and embellishments.
-The poem itself possesses considerable merit.
-Doctor Palmer was attached to the Exploring Expedition
-which returned to this country last summer from the southern
-seas, and “Thulia” is founded on incidents which occurred
-on the war-ship Peacock, and the schooner Flying
-Fish, while in the Antarctic ocean. The verse is free and
-melodious, and the ideas and illustrations generally appropriate
-and poetical. We quote a lyric that will convey
-to the reader a just idea of the poet’s style.</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;ANTARCTIC MARINER’S SONG.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Sweetly, from the land of roses,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Sighing comes the northern breeze;</p>
-<p class='line0'>And the smile of dawn reposes,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;All in blushes, on the seas.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Now within the sleeping sail,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Murmurs soft the gentle gale.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Ease the sheet, and keep away:</p>
-<p class='line0'>Glory guides us South to-day!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Yonder, see! the icy portal</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Opens for us to the Pole;</p>
-<p class='line0'>And, where never entered mortal,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thither speed we to the goal.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Hopes before and doubts behind,</p>
-<p class='line0'>On we fly before the wind.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Steady, so—now let it blow!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Glory guides, and South we go.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Vainly do these gloomy borders,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;All their frightful forms oppose;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Vainly frown these frozen warders,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Mailed in sleet, and helmed in snow.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Though, beneath the ghastly skies,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Curdled all the ocean lies,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Lash we up its foam anew—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Dash we all its terrors through!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Circled by these columns hoary,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;All the field of fame is ours;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Here to carve a name in story,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Or a tomb beneath these towers.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Southward still our way we trace,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Winding through an icy maze.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Luff her to—there she goes through!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Glory leads, and we pursue.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'>The notes appended to the poem contain the most interesting
-account of the expedition that has yet been given to
-the public.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk129'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Scenes in the Holy Land: one volume square duodecimo.
-Philadelphia, American Sunday School Union.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This work is founded on, or rather is a free translation
-of, the “Scènes Evangéliques” of Napoleon Roussel, published
-a year or two since in Paris. It contains an account
-of the principal incidents in the lives of the Savior and of
-the great apostle of the Gentiles, written with singular simplicity
-and perspicuity, and illustrated with numerous etchings
-by a clever French artist. It is published, we believe,
-as a juvenile gift book for the holiday season.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk130'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Ladies’ Annual Register for 1843. New York, S. Colman.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Ladies’ Annual Register is a neat little annuary,
-edited for several years by Mrs. Gilman, of Charleston. It
-embraces, beside the usual contents of the almanacs, many
-useful recipes for the housewife, with anecdotes, poems,
-etc.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk131'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Biblical and Prophetical Works of Rev. George Bush, D. D.,
-author of “The Life of Mohammed,” etc., and Professor
-of Hebrew in the New York City University. New York,
-Dayton &amp; Newman.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Professor Bush is one of the most profound and ingenious
-scholars and critics of the present age, and we perceive
-with pleasure that he is rapidly multiplying the fruits of
-his industrious pen. To all the lovers of sound biblical exposition
-it must be gratifying to know that the Hebrew
-Scriptures are in a fair way to develop their riches to the
-English reader more fully than ever before. Professor
-Bush’s commentaries on the Old Testament, now extending
-to six volumes, embrace all the works of the Pentateuch
-but the last two, and these, we learn, he proposes shortly
-to enter upon. His careful study, his scrupulous fidelity
-in eliciting the exact meaning of the original, and his peculiar
-tact in explaining it, have made his Notes everywhere
-popular, so that before the completion of the series, the first
-volume has reached a sixth edition, the second a fifth, etc.
-In all of them will be found discussions on the most important
-points of biblical science, extending far beyond the
-ordinary dimensions of expository notes, and amounting in
-fact to elaborate dissertations of great value. Among the
-subjects thus extensively treated are, in Genesis, the temptation
-and the fall, the dispersion from Babel, the prophecies
-of Noah, the character of Melchizedec, the destruction of
-Sodom and Gomorrah, the history of Joseph, and the prophetical
-benedictions of Jacob; in Exodus, the hardening
-of Pharaoh’s heart, the miracles of the magicians, the pillar
-of cloud as the seat of the Shekinah, the decalogue, the Hebrew
-theocracy, the tabernacle, the cherubim, the candle-stick,
-the shew bread, the altar, &amp;c.; in Leviticus, a clear
-and minute specification of the different sacrifices, the law
-of marriage, including the case of marriage with a deceased
-wife’s sister, very largely considered, and a full account of
-the Jewish festivals. The sixth volume, including Joshua
-and Judges, contains an ample and erudite exposition of
-the Song of Deborah, and an extended discussion on the
-subject of Jeptha’s vow, with a view to determine whether
-the Jewish warrior really sacrificed his daughter. The
-Professor gives an array of very strong reasons in favor of
-the negative.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In his celebrated “Treatise on the Millennium,” which
-merely as a literary performance has received the highest
-commendations of the critics, our author has assumed
-the position that the millennium, <span class='it'>strictly so called</span>, is past.
-But by the millennium he does not understand the golden
-age of the church, which he, in common with nearly all
-good men, regards as a future era. He contends that as
-the memorable period of the thousand years of the apocalypse
-is distinguished mainly by the binding of the symbolical
-dragon, we must first determine by the legitimate
-canons of interpretation what is shadowed forth by this
-mystic personage, before we can assure ourselves of the
-true character of the millennial age. But the dragon, he
-supposes, is the grand hieroglyphic of Paganism—the
-“binding of the dragon,” but a figurative phrase for the
-suppression of Paganism within the limits of the Roman
-empire, a fulfilment which he contends commenced in the
-reign of Constantine, and was consummated in that of
-Theodosius, his successor. Professor Bush draws largely
-on the pages of Gibbon in support of his theory, assuming
-all along the great foundation principle that <span class='it'>the apocalypse
-of John is but a series of pictured emblems, shadowing
-forth the ecclesiastical and civil history of the world</span>. From
-a cursory examination of his Treatise, we are inclined to
-adopt the opinion of one of the first theologians of our
-country, that if his premises be admitted, his conclusion is
-irresistible; and that <span class='it'>he</span> did not know how to gainsay the
-premises.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the Hierophant, a monthly publication of which he is
-editor, he enters elaborately into the nature of the prophetic
-symbols, and in the last number brings out some
-grand results as to the physical destiny of the globe. He
-assumes that a fair construction of the language of the prophets
-is far from countenancing the idle dreams of Miller
-and his school respecting the literal conflagration of the
-heavens and the earth, and does not even teach that such a
-catastrophe is <span class='it'>ever</span> to take place. He denies not that this
-<span class='it'>may</span> possibly be the finale which awaits our planet and
-the solar system, but if so, it is to be gathered rather from
-astronomy than revelation—from the apocalypse of Newton,
-Laplace and Herschell, than from that of John.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In general literature, in science and in art, America has
-furnished some of the best names in the world of letters;
-but it is in theology and religious philosophy that our countrymen
-have made the greatest advances. We need but
-allude to Edwards, Dwight, Emmons, Marsh, Beecher,
-Alexander, Stuart, McIlvaine, and Bush in proof of this.
-Perhaps we may add to the list Orestes Brownson, who,
-however erratic and peculiar, is a man of singular genius
-and sincerity. In our endeavors to keep the readers of this
-magazine advised of the condition of our literature, we
-should fail of our intent if at times we did not notice books
-and authors of a grave character. The useful and the true
-is in every thing the national aim. The writings of which
-we have spoken particularly in this brief notice, are distinguished
-for remarkable directness of language and logical
-clearness, as much as for profound scholarship, and they
-are among the most original works of their class brought
-out in our times.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk132'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Songs, Odes, and other Poems, on National Subjects:
-Compiled from Various Sources: by William McCarty.
-Three volumes duodecimo. Philadelphia, W. McCarty.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mr. McCarty is a bookseller, of the long established house
-of McCarty &amp; Davis, in Market street. He is an antiquary
-also, and has in his chambers one of the best collections of
-books relating to our history and antiquities to be found in
-this country. Several years ago he “formed the plan of gathering
-together our national songs and ballads, deeming
-the task, however humble,” he says, “one of which the
-result would be acceptable to his countrymen.” He has
-since gleaned from all the files of magazines, newspapers
-and other periodicals, in the public libraries and in his own
-possession, published since Braddock’s defeat at DuQuesne,
-every scrap of verse, “good, bad, or indifferent,” relating
-to men, manners and events in America, and had them
-printed in three neat volumes, the first of which contains
-the “patriotic,” the second the “military,” and the third
-the “naval.” It is certainly a very curious collection.
-Some of the pieces, indeed, were written by foreigners, and
-have as little relation to any thing in America as to the
-quackeries of Græfenberg; and others are not decidedly
-poetical; but by far the greater number belong to one or
-another of the divisions in which the compiler has placed
-them, and, as he well remarks, “the present and future
-generations of Americans will hardly disdain those strains,
-however homely, which cheered and animated our citizen
-soldiers and seamen, ‘in the times that tried men’s souls,’
-at the camp-fire or on the forecastle.” We perceive that
-Mr. McCarty has copied from our Magazine for October most
-of the pieces included in the article on “The Minstrelsy of
-the Revolution.” We have many others not embraced in
-his volumes, of which we intend to present a few additional
-specimens to our readers, in connection, perhaps, with some
-of the most curious verses in the books he has given us.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk133'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Wing-and-Wing, or Le Feu-Follet. By the author of “The
-Red Rover,” “The Pilot,” “The Path Finder,” etc. Two
-volumes, duodecimo. Philadelphia, Lea &amp; Blanchard.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We received this novel too recently to be able to do it
-justice in our present number. It is a story of the sea, and
-from a cursory examination we are inclined to believe it
-equal to Mr. Cooper’s most celebrated naval romances.
-The scene is in the Mediterranean, in the memorable years
-1798 and 1799. Le Feu-Follet is a French privateer, commanded
-by Raoul Yvard, a skilful, bold and chivalrous
-sailor, and the interest of the tale turns principally upon
-the manœuvres by which he preserves her from capture by
-the English frigate Prosperine. The character second in
-importance on board the republican privateer is Ithule Bolt,
-a shrewd Yankee, who, impressed into the British navy,
-had shared in the dangers of Nelson’s victory, and now
-added to a patriotic hatred of the English, some slight ill
-will created by what he deemed unjustifiable appliances of
-the lash during his service on board the Prosperine. Blended
-with the main narrative is a history of the loves of the commander
-of Le Feu-Follet and a beautiful Italian girl,
-Ghita Giuntotardi, one of our author’s most admirably
-drawn heroines. Those who would know more of the plot
-we refer to the book itself, or to the Yankee lieutenant,
-who in due time returned to the United Slates, married a
-widow, and “settled in life” somewhere in the Granite
-State. He is said at the present moment to be an active
-abolitionist, a patron of the temperance cause, and a terror
-to evil doers, under the appellation of Deacon Bolt. We
-are pleased to learn that the publishers have fixed the price
-of Wing-and-Wing at half a dollar—lower by fifty per cent.
-at least than an American novel was ever sold for before.
-For this reason, as well as on account of its remarkable
-merit, we predict for it a sale equal to that of “The Spy,”
-or “The Red Rover.”</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk134'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Poets and Poetry of America: with a Historical Introduction.
-By Rufus W. Griswold. Third edition. With
-Illustrations by the First Artists.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Messrs. Carey &amp; Hart have just issued a new edition of
-this work, with beautiful illustrations from paintings by
-Leslie, Inman, Creswick, Sully, Thompson, Verbryck,
-Hoyt, and Harding, engraved by Cheney, Cushman, Dodson,
-and Forrest. We believe that no other book of so
-expensive a character has passed to a second edition in the
-United States during the year. The fact that this has
-reached a <span class='it'>third</span> edition in six months seems to indicate that
-our poetical literature is properly appreciated, in our own
-country, at least. The price of the third edition has very
-properly been reduced to two dollars and a half.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk135'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Little Boys’ and Girls’ Library: Edited by Mrs. Sarah
-J. Hale. Six books, small quarto. New York, Edward
-Dunigan.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The stories in these little volumes are written with taste
-and simplicity. Though Mrs. Hale’s incidents are generally
-pleasing, we do not in all cases approve their tendency.
-With deference for her better judgment, we think the boy
-who, in “The Way to Save,” bought the glass box, was
-much wiser than he who bought the draught board.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk136'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Youth’s Keepsake: A Christmas and New Year’s Gift
-for Young People.</span> <span class='it'>The Annualette: A Christmas and
-New Year’s Gift for Children. Philadelphia, Thomas,
-Cowperthwaite &amp; Co.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Two very beautiful and interesting annuals, of the character
-of which the titles are sufficiently descriptive.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk137'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Sporting Scenes and Sundry Sketches: being the Miscellaneous
-Writings of J. Cypress, jr. Edited by Frank
-Forester. In Two vols., 12mo. New York, Gould, Banks
-&amp; Co., 1842.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“<span class='sc'>J. Cypress</span>, jr.” was the late William P. Hawes, of the
-city of New York; and “Frank Forester” is the name by
-which one of the finest scholars, critics, and writers, whose
-productions have ever given a charm to our periodical literature—Henry
-William Herbert, the author of “Cromwell,”
-and numerous tales and other compositions in this Magazine—is
-known in the “sporting world.” Mr. Hawes was
-educated for the bar; his writings were generally on political
-or sporting topics, in the daily gazettes, or the magazines.
-The admirable series of papers, entitled “Fire
-Island Ana,” was written for the American Monthly,
-while that work was under Mr. Herbert; and most of his
-later compositions appeared in the “Turf Register.” We
-have not room to do them justice. They have never been
-excelled in this country, in richness of humor, freshness,
-or originality. Mr. Hawes had the modesty of genius.
-He lived in the quiet enjoyment of the life and the scenes
-he so felicitously delineated, and was unknown as a writer
-beyond the limited circle of his intimate friends until they
-and the world were deprived of his presence.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk138'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Task, and other Poems: By William Cowper. One
-volume, duodecimo. Philadelphia, Carey &amp; Hart.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Among the poets who have written in the English language
-on religious themes, Cowper unquestionably ranks
-next to Milton in genius, and before him as a teacher.
-The Presbyterian poet is admired for his sublime conceptions
-and his unequaled mastery of language and the intricacies
-of rhythm; but the bard of Olney is loved by the good
-and the true as a friend. The new edition of the Task is
-one of the most beautiful specimens of typography produced
-in this country, and the etchings, by Cheney, which illustrate
-it, are of course admirably executed.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk139'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Way of Life: By Charles Hodge, Professor in the
-Theological Seminary of Princeton, New Jersey. One
-volume duodecimo, pp. 348. Philadelphia, American
-Sunday School Union.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Among the many very excellent works published by the
-American Sunday School Union, we know of none written
-with more ability, or calculated to do more good than this
-admirable treatise. The plenary inspiration of the Scriptures,
-the great practical doctrines they teach, and the influence
-which these doctrines should exert upon the heart
-and life, are set forth by the learned author with candor,
-simplicity and eloquence.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk140'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Books for Youth: Heroines of Sacred History, by Mrs.
-Steele; Philip and his Garden, by Charlotte Elizabeth;
-Rocky Island, by Samuel Wilberforce; Alice Benden, by
-Charlotte Elizabeth; Clementine Cuvier, by John Angell
-James; The Simple Flower, by Charlotte Elizabeth; The
-Flower of Innocence, by Charlotte Elizabeth; and Moral
-Tales, by Robert Merry. New York, John S. Taylor &amp; Co.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The eight volumes, of which we have given the titles
-above, are bound in a uniform style, and constitute a very
-neat and excellent library for juvenile readers. We know
-of no books that can be more appropriately presented to the
-young in the approaching holidays than those of Archdeacon
-Wilberforce, John Angell James, and Charlotte
-Elizabeth.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk141'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='edi'></a>EDITOR’S TABLE.</h1></div>
-
-<hr class='tbk142'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>Miss Barrett.</span>—In this number will be found a series of
-sonnets by Miss Elizabeth B. Barrett, among the first of her
-contributions to any American periodical. They were originally
-intended for “Arcturus,” to which magazine they
-were sent; but arriving after the discontinuance of that
-periodical, its editors placed them at our disposal, “thinking
-the good company into which they would be introduced in
-‘Graham,’ would be every way agreeable to the fair authoress.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Miss Barrett’s productions are unique in this age of lady
-authors. They have the “touch of nature” in common
-with the best; they have, too, sentiment, passion and fancy
-in the highest degree, without reminding us of Mrs. Hemans,
-Mrs. Norton, or L. E. L. Her excellence is her
-own; her mind is colored by what it feeds on; the fine tissue
-of her flowing style comes to us from the loom of Grecian
-thought. She is the learned poetess of the day, familiar
-with Homer and Æschylus and Sophocles, and to the musings
-of Tempe she has added the inspiration of Christianity,
-“above all Greek, all Roman fame.” She has translated
-the Prometheus to the delight of scholars, and has lately
-contributed a series of very remarkable prose papers to the
-London Athenæum. Her reading Greek recalls to us
-Roger Ascham’s anecdote of Lady Jane Grey; but Lady
-Jane Grey has left us no such verses.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A striking characteristic of Miss Barrett’s prose, is its
-prevailing seriousness, approaching to solemnity—a garb
-borrowed from the “sceptred pale” of her favorite Greek
-drama of fate. She loses much with the general reader by
-a dim mysticism; but many of her later poems are free from
-any such defect. The great writers whom she loves will
-teach her the plain, simple, universal language of poetry.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Her dreams and abstractions, though “caviare to the
-generale,” have their admirers, who will ever find in pure
-and elevated philosophy expressed in the words of enthusiasm
-the living presence of poetry. On Parnassus there
-are many groves: far from the dust of the highway, embosomed
-in twilight woods that seem to symbol Reverence
-and Faith trusting on the unseen, we may hear in the whispering
-of the trees, the wavering breath of insect life, the
-accompaniment of our poet’s strain. Despise not dreams
-and reveries. With Cowley, Miss Barrett vindicates herself.
-“The father of poets tells us, even dreams, too, are from
-God.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We cannot here do justice to Miss Barrett’s volume of the
-Seraphim, or to her other poems. We cannot here illustrate
-as we would the lofty tone of her conceptions, which
-in grandeur and human interest belong to the highest and
-most enduring of lyrical strains. She has thrown aside
-sentimentality, the fluency without thought, the cheap eloquence
-that marks a certain school of lady poets, for the
-genuine language of emotion, the fire-new currency of
-speech forged in the secret chambers of the heart. From
-two volumes of her poetry before us, (unfamiliar as yet to
-American readers—they cannot be so long,) we quote one
-poem, perhaps not the most brilliant of all, but inferior to
-none of the rest in the pathos, the tenderness, the deep
-Christian sympathy with human life, which dwell in the
-soul of this rare poetess.</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;THE SLEEP.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'><span style='font-size:smaller'>“He giveth His beloved sleep.”—<span class='it'>Psalm cxxvii. 2.</span></span></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Of all the thoughts of God that are</p>
-<p class='line0'>Borne inward unto souls afar,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Along the Psalmist’s music deep⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Now tell me if that any is,</p>
-<p class='line0'>For gift or grace surpassing this⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>“He giveth his beloved sleep?”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>What would we give to our beloved?</p>
-<p class='line0'>The hero’s heart, to be unmoved⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>The poet’s star-tuned harp, to sweep⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>The senate’s shout to patriot vows—</p>
-<p class='line0'>The monarch’s crown, to light the brows?—</p>
-<p class='line0'>“He giveth <span class='it'>His</span> beloved sleep.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>What do we give to our beloved?</p>
-<p class='line0'>A little faith, all undisproved⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>A little dust, to overweep⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>And bitter memories, to make</p>
-<p class='line0'>The whole earth blasted for our sake!</p>
-<p class='line0'>“He giveth His beloved sleep.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>“Sleep soft, beloved!” we sometimes say,</p>
-<p class='line0'>But have no tune to charm away</p>
-<p class='line0'>Sad dreams that through the eyelids creep:</p>
-<p class='line0'>But never doleful dream again</p>
-<p class='line0'>Shall break the happy slumber, when</p>
-<p class='line0'>“He giveth His beloved sleep.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>O earth, so full of dreary noises!</p>
-<p class='line0'>O men, with wailing in your voices!</p>
-<p class='line0'>O delved gold, the wailers heap!</p>
-<p class='line0'>O strife, O curse, that o’er it fall!</p>
-<p class='line0'>God makes a silence through you all,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And “giveth His beloved sleep!”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>His dew drops mutely on the hill;</p>
-<p class='line0'>His cloud above it saileth still,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Though on its slope men toil and reap!</p>
-<p class='line0'>More softly than the dew is shed,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Or cloud is floated overhead,</p>
-<p class='line0'>“He giveth His beloved sleep.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Ha! men may wonder while they scan</p>
-<p class='line0'>A living, thinking, feeling man,</p>
-<p class='line0'>In such a rest his heart to keep;</p>
-<p class='line0'>But angels say—and through the word</p>
-<p class='line0'>I ween their blessed smile is <span class='it'>heard</span>⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>“He giveth His beloved sleep!”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>For me my heart that erst did go,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Most like a tired child at a show,</p>
-<p class='line0'>That sees through tears the juggler’s leap,⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Would now its wearied vision close,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Would childlike on <span class='it'>His</span> love repose,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Who “giveth His beloved sleep!”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>And friends!—dear friends!—when it shall be</p>
-<p class='line0'>That this low breath is gone from me,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And round my bier ye come to weep⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Let me, most loving of you all,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Say, not a tear must o’er her fall⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>“He giveth His beloved sleep!”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>Stars that Have Set in MDCCCXLII.</span>—Among the
-dead of the year now drawing to a close, America laments
-her Marsh and Channing, and Europe, Sismondi and some
-less brilliant luminaries.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Rev. <span class='sc'>James Marsh</span>, D.D. was, at the time of his
-death, the third day of July, Professor of Moral and Intellectual
-Philosophy in the University of Vermont. He was
-a calm, chaste scholar, an earnest and profound thinker,
-and a powerful and eloquent advocate of the highest principles
-of religion and philosophy, with the perfect simplicity
-and grandeur of whose life were blended the rarest
-virtues that adorn humanity. His principal published writings,
-excepting a few articles in the leading reviews, and
-some translations from the German, are devoted to those
-high and spiritual principles of philosophy, of which Coleridge
-and Kant were the most celebrated European exponents.
-We are pleased to learn that Professor Torrey, one
-of the dearest friends of the departed, is now superintending
-the publication of a complete edition of his works.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The name of <span class='sc'>William Ellery Channing</span> has been long
-familiar to the readers of America and Great Britain. He
-was equally popular in both countries, and in both was
-regarded as one of the greatest authors of the age. The
-first edition of his collected writings we believe was published
-some five or six years since in Glasgow, and the last,
-in six octavo volumes, in Boston, in the winter of 1840.
-We presume his later productions, unprinted sermons, etc.—sufficient
-to fill several additional volumes—will soon
-be published, with his memoirs. Doctor <span class='sc'>Channing</span> was
-for a long period the leading divine of the Unitarian belief,
-and though an ardent controvertist, was regarded by all
-men with love and reverence. The purity of his life, his
-high aims, his candor, and the dignity and beauty of his diction,
-won for him a reputation that will endure when
-most of the names now prominent in the world of letters
-are forgotten. He died in Bennington, in Vermont, on his
-return way from an excursion among the Green Mountains
-in search of health, on the second day of October.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>John Charles Leonard de Sismondi</span> was one of the
-most celebrated historical, political and æsthetical writers
-of the time. He died near Geneva, on the twenty-fifth of
-June, in his sixty-ninth year. He was the author of New
-Principles of Political Economy, A History of the Italian
-Republics, A History of the Literature of Southern Europe,
-A History of France, Julia Severn, a romance, and several
-other works, making in the aggregate about one hundred
-and fifty volumes, in the French editions. As a
-historian he has rarely been surpassed, and in every department
-of letters he exercised a powerful influence for
-nearly half a century.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mr. <span class='sc'>James Grahame</span>, author of the excellent History of
-the United Slates which bears his name; Sir <span class='sc'>Robert Kerr
-Porter</span>, the traveler; <span class='sc'>Theodore E. Hook</span>, the novelist,
-biographer, and dramatic writer; and <span class='sc'>Robert Mudie</span>,
-author of several works on natural history, etc. were better
-known in this country than any of the other literary characters
-who have died in Europe during the present year.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk143'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>New Books.</span>—We received several new works too late
-to be noticed properly in our present number, of which we
-have space to mention particularly only Mr. <span class='sc'>Norman’s</span>
-“Rambles in Yucatan,” and Mr. <span class='sc'>Lester’s</span> observations
-on “The Condition and Fate of England,” both from the
-press of Messrs. Langley, of New York. The first is an
-exceedingly interesting work, and the last quite as good as
-the same author’s “Glory and Shame of England.” We
-shall endeavor to do them full justice in our Magazine for
-January.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>The End of the Year.</span>—With the present number we
-bring to a close another year of the publication of <span class='sc'>Graham’s
-Magazine</span>. The many improvements which since our last
-anniversary have been effected in the work, and the extraordinary
-accessions to our subscription list—between
-twenty and thirty thousand in twelve months!—impart to
-us a satisfaction which we trust is shared in some degree
-by our million readers.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Since the commencement of the present year, <span class='sc'>Rufus W.
-Griswold</span> has become associated with the proprietor in
-the editorship of the Magazine; and to our corps of contributors
-have been added <span class='sc'>William C. Bryant</span> and <span class='sc'>Richard
-H. Dana</span>, the first American poets, and the equals of
-any now living in the world; <span class='sc'>James Fenimore Cooper</span>,
-the greatest of living novelists; <span class='sc'>Charles F. Hoffman</span>, one
-of the most admired poets and prose writers of our country;
-<span class='sc'>Elizabeth B. Barrett</span>, the truest female poet who has
-written in the English language; <span class='sc'>J. H. Mancur</span>, the author
-of “Henri Quatre;” <span class='sc'>George H. Colton</span>, the author of
-“Tecumseh;” <span class='sc'>H. T. Tuckerman</span>, the author of “Isabelle, or
-Sicily,” etc.; the author of “A New Home” and “Forest
-Life,” who, under the name of “<span class='it'>Mary Clavers</span>,” has won a
-reputation second to that of none of the writers of her sex in
-America; Mrs. <span class='sc'>E. F. Ellet</span>, the well known author of
-“The Characters of Schiller,” etc.; Mrs. <span class='sc'>Seba Smith</span>,
-whose elegant and truthful compositions are as universally
-admired as they are read; and several others, whom we
-have not now space to mention. All these, with our favorite
-old writers, Professor <span class='sc'>Longfellow</span>, <span class='sc'>George Hill</span>,
-<span class='sc'>Edgar A. Poe</span>, Mrs. <span class='sc'>Embury</span>, Mrs. <span class='sc'>Stephens</span>, and others,
-we shall retain for our succeeding volumes.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We shall likewise receive regular contributions during
-the ensuing year, from <span class='sc'>N. P. Willis</span>, whose many admirable
-qualities as a writer have made his name familiar
-wherever English literature is read; <span class='sc'>T. C. Grattan</span>,
-the popular author of “Highways and Byways,” “The
-Heiress of Bruges,” etc.; “<span class='it'>Maria del Occidente</span>,” the
-author of “Zophiel,” and many others, whose names will
-from month to month grace our pages.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Let our Past speak for our Future. The improvements
-made in <span class='sc'>Graham’s Magazine</span>, in 1842, will be surpassed
-by those that we shall introduce in 1843. In all the departments
-of our work we shall remain in advance of every
-other candidate for the public favor.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk144'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>The Author of the Sketch Book.</span>—In a notice of the
-Miscellanies of Sir Walter Scott, in the number of this
-Magazine for September, we made allusion to reviews of
-various publications of Mr. Washington Irving, which we
-had good reason for believing were written by that gentleman
-himself. We learn with pleasure, from one who
-speaks on the subject by authority, that Mr. Irving is guiltless
-of the imputed self laudation. He did indeed write the
-article in the London Quarterly on his “Chronicles of
-Grenada,” and received for it the sum we mentioned; but,
-like so many of the modern “reviews,” it had very little
-relation to the work which gave it a title, or to its author.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk145'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>H. Hastings Weld.</span>—We notice that this talented and
-agreeable writer, formerly editor of the Brother Jonathan,
-has taken the editorial charge of the <span class='sc'>United States Saturday
-Post</span>, a family newspaper of the largest class and
-circulation. We feel assured that the humor and vivacity
-of Mr. Weld’s pen will tend to make the paper still more
-popular, and to add greatly to the already enormous subscription
-list. This paper already circulates more copies
-weekly than any other family newspaper in the Union.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk146'/>
-
-<p class='line' style='margin-top:2em;font-size:1.1em;font-weight:bold;'><a id='notes'></a>Transcriber’s Notes:</p>
-
-<p class='noindent'>Table of Contents has been added for reader convenience.
-Archaic spellings and hyphenation have been retained. Obvious
-punctuation and typesetting errors have been corrected
-without note.</p>
-
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-
-<p class='noindent'>In the story <span class='it'>Malina Gray</span>, this concluding installment had two parts
-titled Chapter III. The second Chapter III has been corrected to <a href='#chap'>Chapter IV</a>.</p>
-
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-
-<p class='noindent'>[End of <span class='it'>Graham’s Magazine, Vol. XXI, No. 6, December 1842</span>, George R. Graham, Editor]</p>
-
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXI, No. 6,
-December 1842, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXI, No. 6, December 1842
-
-Author: Various
-
-Editors: George Rex Graham
- Rufus W. Griswold
-
-Release Date: May 8, 2022 [eBook #68027]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: Mardi Desjardins & the online Distributed Proofreaders
- Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net from page images
- generously made available by the Internet Archive
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE, VOL. XXI,
-NO. 6, DECEMBER 1842 ***
-
- GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.
- Vol. XXI. December, 1842 No. 6.
-
-
- Contents
-
- Fiction and Literature
-
- Richard Dale
- The Widow of Newbury
- Malina Gray
- Truth
- The Persecutor’s Daughter
- A Race for a Sweetheart
- Harry Cavendish
- The Ladies’ Library
- The Hasty Marriage
- Review Of New Books
- Editor’s Table
-
- Poetry
-
- The Serenade
- Sonnets
- Sonnet
- Noon
- True Affection
- The Farewell
- The Holynights
- The Pastor’s Visit
- To the Night-Wind in Autumn
-
- Transcriber’s Notes can be found at the end of this eBook.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: Painted by E. Prentice, Engraved by H.S. Sadd
-_Awaiting the Husband’s Return_
-_Engraved Expressly for Graham’s Magazine._
-
-
-
-
- GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.
-
- Vol. XXI. PHILADELPHIA: DECEMBER, 1842. No. 6.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- RICHARD DALE.
-
-
- BY J. FENIMORE COOPER, AUTHOR OF “THE SPY,” “THE PIONEERS,” ETC.
-
-
-Among the many brave men who early contributed to render the navy of the
-republic popular and respectable, the gallant seaman whose name is
-placed at the head of this article is entitled to a conspicuous place;
-equally on account of his services, his professional skill, and his
-personal merit. Although his connection with the marine, created under
-the constitution of 1789, was of short continuance, it left a durable
-impression on the service; and, if we look back to the dark period of
-the Revolution, we find him contending in some of the fiercest combats
-of the period, always with heroism, and not unfrequently with success.
-Circumstances, too, have connected his renown with one of the most
-remarkable naval battles on record; a distinction of itself which fully
-entitles him to a high place among those who have fought and bled for
-the independence of their country, in stations of subordinate authority.
-
-Richard Dale was born in the colony of Virginia, on the 6th November,
-1756. His birthplace was in the county of Norfolk, and not distant from
-the well known port of the same name. His parents were native Americans,
-of respectable standing, though of rather reduced circumstances. His
-father, dying early, left a widow with five children, of whom the
-subject of this memoir was the eldest. Some time after the death of his
-father, his mother contracted a second marriage with a gentleman of the
-name of Cooper, among the issue of which were two well known
-ship-masters of Philadelphia.
-
-Young Dale manifested an inclination for the sea at a very early period
-of life. The distrust of a parental control that has no foundation in
-nature, and which is apt to be regarded with jealousy, stimulated if it
-did not quicken this desire, and we find him at the tender age of
-twelve, or in 1768, making a voyage between Norfolk and Liverpool, in a
-vessel commanded by one of his own uncles. On his return home, he
-appears to have passed nearly a twelve-month on shore; but his desire to
-become a sailor still continuing, in the spring of 1770 he was regularly
-apprenticed to a respectable merchant and ship-owner, of the borough of
-Norfolk, named Newton. From this moment his fortune in life was cast,
-and he continued devotedly employed in the profession until his
-enterprise, prudence and gallantry enabled him finally to retire with
-credit, an unblemished name, and a competency.
-
-During his apprenticeship, Dale appears to have been, most of the time,
-employed in the West India trade. Every sailor has his chances and
-hair-breadth escapes, and our young mariner met with two, at that period
-of his life, which may be thought worthy of notice. On one occasion he
-fell from the spars stowed on the belfry into the vessel’s hold, hitting
-the kelson, a distance of near twenty feet; escaping, however, without
-material injury. A much greater risk was incurred on another. While the
-vessel to which he belonged was running off the wind, with a stiff
-breeze, Dale was accidentally knocked overboard by the jib sheets, and
-was not picked up without great difficulty. He was an hour in the water,
-sustaining himself by swimming, and he ever spoke of the incident as one
-of more peril than any other in a perilous career.
-
-When nineteen, or in 1775, Dale had risen to the station of chief mate
-on board a large brig belonging to his owner. In this situation he
-appears to have remained industriously engaged during the few first
-months of the struggle for independence; the active warfare not having
-yet extended itself as far south as his part of the country. Early in
-1776, however, the aspect of things began to change, and it is probable
-that the interruption to commerce rendered him the master of his own
-movements.
-
-Virginia, in common with most of the larger and more maritime colonies,
-had a sort of marine of its own; more especially anterior to the
-Declaration of Independence. It consisted principally of bay craft, and
-was employed in the extensive estuaries and rivers of that commonwealth.
-On board of one of these light cruisers Dale was entered as a
-lieutenant, in the early part of the memorable year 1776. While in this
-service, he was sent a short distance for some guns, in a river craft;
-but falling in with a tender of the Liverpool frigate, which ship was
-then cruising on the Cape Henry station, he was captured and carried
-into Norfolk. These tenders were usually smart little cruisers, another,
-belonging to the same frigate, having been taken shortly before, by the
-U. S. brig Lexington, after a sharp and bloody conflict. Resistance in
-the case of Dale was consequently out of the question, his capture
-having been altogether a matter of course.
-
-On reaching Norfolk, our young officer was thrown on board a
-prison-ship. Here he found himself in the midst of those whom it was the
-fashion to call “loyal subjects.” Many of them were his old school-mates
-and friends. Among the latter was a young man of the name of Bridges
-Gutteridge, a sailor like himself, and one who possessed his entire
-confidence. Mr. Gutteridge, who it is believed subsequently took part
-with his countrymen himself, was then employed by the British, in the
-waters of the Chesapeake, actually commanding a tender in their service.
-The quarrel was still recent; and honorable, as well as honest men,
-under the opinions which prevailed in that day, might well be divided as
-to its merits. Mr. Gutteridge had persuaded himself he was pursuing the
-proper course. Entertaining such opinions, he earnestly set about the
-attempt of making a convert of his captured friend. The usual arguments,
-touching the sacred rights of the king—himself merely a legalized
-usurper, by the way, if any validity is to be given to the claims of
-hereditary right to the crown—and the desperate nature of the “rebel
-cause,” were freely and strenuously used, until Dale began to waver in
-his faith. In the end, he yielded and consented to accompany his friend
-in a cruise against the vessels of the state. This occurred in the month
-of May, and, hostilities beginning now to be active, the tender soon
-fell in with a party of Americans, in some pilot boats, that were
-employed in the Rappahannock. A warm engagement ensued, in which the
-tender was compelled to run, after meeting with a heavy loss. It was a
-rude initiation into the mysteries of war, the fighting being of a
-desperate, and almost of a personal character. This was one of those
-combats that often occurred about this period, and in those waters, most
-of them being close and sanguinary.
-
-In this affair, Dale received a severe wound, having been hit in the
-head by a musket ball; with this wound he was confined several weeks at
-Norfolk, during which time he had abundance of leisure to reflect on the
-false step into which he had been persuaded, and to form certain
-healthful resolutions for the future. To use his own words, in speaking
-of this error of his early life, he determined “never again to put
-himself in the way of the bullets of his own country.” This resolution,
-however, it was necessary to conceal, if he would escape the horrors of
-a prison-ship, and he “bided his time,” fully determined to take service
-again under the American flag, at the first fitting opportunity.
-
-In the peculiar state of the two countries at the time, and with the
-doubtful and contested morality of the misunderstanding, there was
-nothing extraordinary in this incident. Similar circumstances occurred
-to many men, who, with the best intentions and purest motives, saw, or
-fancied they saw, reasons for changing sides in what, in their eyes, was
-strictly a family quarrel. In the case of Dale, however, the feature
-most worthy of comment was the singleness of mind and simple integrity
-with which he used to confess his own error, together with the manner in
-which he finally became a convert to the true political faith. No
-narrative of the life of this respectable seaman would be complete,
-without including this temporary wavering of purpose; nor would any
-delineation of his character be just, that did not point out the candor
-and sincerity with which he, in after life, admitted his fault.
-
-Dale was only in his twentieth year when he received this instructive
-lesson from the “bullets of his countrymen.” From that time, he took
-good care not to place himself again in their way, going, in June or
-July, to Bermuda, on a more peaceable expedition, in company with
-William Gutteridge, a relative of his beguiling friend. On the return
-passage, the vessel was captured by the Lexington, the brig just
-mentioned, then a successful cruiser, under the orders of Capt. John
-Barry; an officer who subsequently died at the head of the service. This
-occurred just after the Declaration of Independence, and Dale
-immediately offered himself as a volunteer under the national flag. He
-was received and rated as a midshipman within a few hours of his
-capture. This was the commencement of Dale’s service in the regular navy
-of his native country. It was also the commencement of his acquaintance
-with the distinguished commander of the Lexington, whose friendship and
-respect he enjoyed down to the day of the latter’s death. While the brig
-was out, our midshipman had another narrow escape from death, having,
-together with several others, been struck senseless by lightning during
-a severe thunder storm.
-
-Barry made the capture just mentioned near the end of his cruise, and he
-soon after went into Philadelphia, which place Dale now saw for the
-first time. Here Barry left the Lexington to take command of the
-Effingham 28, a ship that never got to sea, leaving our new midshipman
-in the brig. Capt. Hallock was Barry’s successor, and he soon rated
-Dale, by this time an active and skilful seaman, a master’s mate. Early
-in the autumn, the Lexington sailed for Cape François, on special duty.
-On her return, in the month of December, she fell in with the Pearl
-frigate,[1] and was captured without resistance, carrying an armament of
-only a few fours.
-
-As it was blowing very fresh at the moment this capture was made, the
-Pearl took out of the prize four or five officers, threw a small crew on
-board, and directed the brig to follow her. By some accounts Dale was
-left in the Lexington, while by others he was not. A succinct history of
-the events of his life, written by a connection under his own eye, and
-which is now before us, gives the latter version of the affair, and is
-probably the true one. At all events, the remaining officers and crew of
-the Lexington rose upon the captors in the course of the night, retook
-the brig, and carried her into Baltimore.[2]
-
-The English landed several of their prisoners on Cape Henlopen, in
-January, 1777, under some arrangement that cannot now be explained,
-though probably it was connected with an exchange for the men taken and
-carried away in the prize. Among these was Dale, who made the best of
-his way to Philadelphia, when he received orders to proceed to
-Baltimore; which he obeyed, and rejoined his brig, the command of which
-had now been transferred to Capt. Henry Johnston.
-
-The next service on which the Lexington was employed was in the European
-seas. In March, she sailed from Baltimore for Bordeaux, with despatches.
-On her arrival, this brig was attached to a small squadron under the
-orders of Capt. Lambert Wickes, who was in the Reprisal 16, having under
-his command also the Dolphin 10, Capt. Samuel Nicholson. This force of
-little vessels accomplished a bold and destructive cruise, making the
-entire circuit of Ireland, though it was eventually chased into a French
-port by a line-of-battle ship. Its object was the interception of
-certain linen-ships, which it missed; its success, however, in the main,
-was such as to excite great alarm among the English merchants, and to
-produce warm remonstrances to France, from their government.
-
-At this time France was not at war with England, although she secretly
-favored and aided the cause of the revolted colonies. The appearance of
-American cruisers in the narrow seas, however, gave rise to so many
-complaints, as to induce the French government, in preference to pushing
-matters to extremities, temporarily to sequester the vessels. The
-Lexington was included in this measure, having been detained in port
-more than two months; or, until security was given that she would quit
-the European seas. This was done, and the brig got to sea again on the
-18th September, 1777.[3]
-
-It is probable that the recent difficulties had some effect on the
-amount of the military stores on board all three of the American
-vessels. At all events, it is certain that the Lexington sailed with a
-short supply of both powder and shot, particularly of the latter. The
-very next day she made an English cutter lying-to, which was approached
-with a confidence that could only have proceeded from a mistake as to
-her character. This cutter proved to be a man-of-war, called the Alert,
-commanded by Lieutenant, afterward Admiral Bazely, having a strong crew
-on board, and an armament of ten sixes.
-
-In the action that ensued, and which was particularly well fought on the
-part of the enemy, the Americans were, in a measure, taken by surprise.
-So little were the latter prepared for the conflict, that not a match
-was ready when the engagement commenced, and several broadsides were
-fired by discharging muskets at the vents of the guns. The firing killed
-the wind, and there being considerable sea on, the engagement became
-very protracted, during which the Lexington expended most of her
-ammunition.
-
-After a cannonading of two hours, believing his antagonist to be too
-much crippled to follow, and aware of his own inability to continue the
-action much longer, Capt. Johnston made sail, and left the cutter, under
-favor of a breeze that just then sprung up. The Lexington left the Alert
-rapidly at first, but the latter having bent new sails, and being the
-faster vessel, in the course of three or four hours succeeded in getting
-alongside again, and of renewing the engagement. This second struggle
-lasted an hour, the fighting being principally on one side. After the
-Lexington had thrown her last shot, had broken up and used all the iron
-that could be made available as substitutes, and had three of her
-officers and several of her men slain, besides many wounded, Capt.
-Johnston struck his colors. The first lieutenant, marine officer, and
-master of the Lexington were among the slain.
-
-By this accident Dale became a prisoner for the third time. This
-occurred when he wanted just fifty days of being twenty-one years old.
-On this occasion, however, he escaped unhurt, though the combat had been
-both fierce and sanguinary. The prize was taken into Plymouth, and her
-officers, after undergoing a severe examination, in order to ascertain
-their birthplaces, were all thrown into Mill Prison, on a charge of high
-treason. Here they found the common men; the whole being doomed to a
-rigorous and painful confinement.
-
-Either from policy or cupidity, the treatment received by the Americans,
-in this particular prison, was of a cruel and oppressive character.
-There is no apology for excessive rigor, or, indeed, for any constraint
-beyond that which is necessary to security, toward an uncondemned man.
-Viewed as mere prisoners of war, the Americans might claim the usual
-indulgence; viewed as subjects still to be tried, they were rightfully
-included in that healthful maxim of the law, which assumes that all are
-innocent until they are proved to be guilty. So severe were the
-privations of the Americans on this occasion, however, that, in pure
-hunger, they caught a stray dog one day, skinned, cooked and ate him, to
-satisfy their cravings for food. Their situation at length attracted the
-attention of the liberal; statements of their wants were laid before the
-public, and an appeal was made to the humanity of the English nation.
-This is always an efficient mode of obtaining assistance, and the large
-sum of sixteen thousand pounds was soon raised; thereby relieving the
-wants of the sufferers, and effectually effacing the stain from the
-national escutcheon; by demonstrating that the sufferers found a
-generous sympathy in the breasts of the public. But man requires more
-than food and warmth. Although suffering no longer from actual want and
-brutal maltreatment, Dale and his companions pined for liberty—to be
-once more fighting the battles of their country. Seeing no hopes of an
-exchange, a large party of the prisoners determined to make an attempt
-at escape. A suitable place was selected, and a hole under a wall was
-commenced. The work required secrecy and time. The earth was removed,
-little by little, in the pockets of the captives, care being had to
-conceal the place, until a hole of sufficient size was made to permit
-the body of a man to pass through. It was a tedious process, for the
-only opportunity which occurred to empty their pockets, was while the
-Americans were exercising on the walls of their prison, for a short
-period of each day. By patience and perseverance they accomplished their
-purpose, however, every hour dreading exposure and defeat.
-
-When all was ready, Capt. Johnston, most of his officers, and several of
-his crew, or, as many as were in the secret, passed through the hole,
-and escaped. This was in February, 1778. The party wandered about the
-country in company, and by night, for more than a week; suffering all
-sorts of privations, until it was resolved to take the wiser course of
-separating. Dale, accompanied by one other, found his way to London,
-hotly pursued. At one time the two lay concealed under some straw in an
-out-house, while the premises were searched by those who were in quest
-of them. On reaching London, Dale and his companion immediately got on
-board a vessel about to sail for Dunkirk. A press-gang unluckily took
-this craft in its rounds, and suspecting the true objects of the
-fugitives, they were arrested, and, their characters being ascertained,
-they were sent back to Mill Prison in disgrace.
-
-This was the commencement of a captivity far more tedious than the
-former. In the first place they were condemned to forty days’
-confinement in the black hole, as the punishment for the late escape;
-and, released from this durance, they were deprived of many of their
-former indulgences. Dale himself took his revenge in singing “rebel
-songs,” and paid a second visit to the black hole, as the penalty. This
-state of things, with alternations of favor and punishment, continued
-quite a year, when Dale, singly, succeeded in again effecting his great
-object of getting free.
-
-The mode in which this second escape was made is known, but the manner
-by which he procured the means he refused to his dying day to disclose.
-At all events, he obtained a full suit of British uniform, attired in
-which, and seizing a favorable moment, he boldly walked past all the
-sentinels, and got off. That some one was connected with his escape who
-might suffer by his revelations is almost certain; and it is a trait in
-his character worthy of notice, that he kept this secret, with
-scrupulous fidelity, for forty-seven years. It is not known that he ever
-divulged it even to any individual of his own family.
-
-Rendered wary by experience, Dale now proceeded with great address and
-caution. He probably had money, as well as clothes. At all events, he
-went to London, found means to procure a passport, and left the country
-for France, unsuspected and undetected. On reaching a friendly soil, he
-hastened to l’Orient, and joined the force then equipping under Paul
-Jones, in his old rank of a master’s mate. Here he was actively employed
-for some months, affording the commodore an opportunity to ascertain his
-true merits, when they met with something like their just reward. As
-Dale was now near twenty-three, and an accomplished seaman, Jones, after
-trying several less competent persons, procured a commission for him
-from the commissioners, and made him the first lieutenant of his own
-ship, the justly celebrated Bon Homme Richard.
-
-It is not our intention, in this article, to enter any farther into the
-incidents of this well known cruise, than is necessary to complete the
-present subject. Dale does not appear in any prominent situation, though
-always discharging the duties of his responsible station, with skill and
-credit, until the squadron appeared off Leith, with the intention of
-seizing that town—the port of Edinburgh—and of laying it under
-contribution. On this occasion, our lieutenant was selected to command
-the boats that were to land, a high compliment to so young a man, as
-coming from one of the character of Paul Jones. Every thing was ready,
-Dale had received his final orders, and was in the very act of
-proceeding to the ship’s side to enter his boat, when a heavy squall
-struck the vessels, and induced an order for the men to come on deck,
-and assist in shortening sail. The vessels were compelled to bear up
-before it, to save their spars; this carried them out of the firth; and,
-a gale succeeding, the enterprise was necessarily abandoned. This gale
-proved so heavy, that one of the prizes actually foundered.
-
-This attempt of Jones, while it is admitted to have greatly alarmed the
-coast, has often been pronounced rash and inconsiderate. Such was not
-the opinion of Dale. A man of singular moderation in his modes of
-thinking, and totally without bravado, it was his conviction that the
-effort would have been crowned with success. He assured the writer,
-years after the occurrence, that he was about to embark in the
-expedition with feelings of high confidence, and that he believed
-nothing but the inopportune intervention of the squall stood between
-Jones and a triumphant _coup de main_.
-
-A few days later, Jones made a secret proposal to his officers, which
-some affirm was to burn the shipping at North Shields, but which the
-commanders of two of his vessels strenuously opposed, in consequence of
-which the project was abandoned. The commodore himself, in speaking of
-the manner in which this and other similar propositions were received by
-his subordinates, extolled the ardor invariably manifested by the young
-men, among whom Dale was one of the foremost. Had it rested with them,
-the attempts at least would all have been made.
-
-On the 19th September occurred the celebrated battle between the Serapis
-and the Bon Homme Richard. As the proper place to enter fully into the
-details of that murderous combat will be in the biography of Jones, we
-shall confine ourselves at present to incidents with which the subject
-of this memoir was more immediately connected.
-
-The Bon Homme Richard had finally sailed on this cruise with only two
-proper sea-lieutenants on board her. There was a third officer of the
-name of Lunt, who has been indifferently called a lieutenant and the
-sailing-master, but who properly filled the latter station. This
-gentleman had separated from the ship in a fog, on the coast of Ireland,
-while in the pursuit of some deserters, and never rejoined the squadron.
-Another person of the same name, and believed to be the brother of the
-master, was the second lieutenant. He was sent in a pilot-boat,
-accompanied by a midshipman and several men, to capture a vessel in
-sight, before Jones made the Baltic fleet coming round Flamborough Head.
-This party was not able to return to the Bon Homme Richard, until after
-the battle had terminated. In consequence of these two circumstances,
-each so novel in itself, the American frigate fought this bloody and
-arduous combat with only one officer on board her, of the rank of a
-sea-lieutenant, who was Dale. This is the reason why the latter is so
-often mentioned as _the_ lieutenant of the Bon Homme Richard, during
-that memorable fight. The fact rendered his duties more arduous and
-diversified, and entitles him to the greater credit for their proper
-performance.
-
-Dale was stationed on the gun-deck, where of course he commanded in
-chief, though it appears that his proper personal division was the
-forward guns. Until the ships got foul of each other, this brought him
-particularly into the hottest of the work; the Serapis keeping much on
-the bows, or ahead of the Bon Homme Richard. It is known that Jones was
-much pleased with his deportment, which, in truth, was every way worthy
-of his own. When the alarm was given that the ship was sinking, Dale
-went below himself to ascertain the real state of the water, and his
-confident and fearless report cheered the men to renewed exertions.
-Shortly after, the supply of powder was stopped, when our lieutenant
-again quitted his quarters to inquire into the cause. On reaching the
-magazine passage he was told by the sentinels that they had closed the
-ingress, on account of a great number of strange and foreign faces that
-they saw around them. On further inquiry, Dale discovered that the
-master at arms, of his own head, had let loose all the prisoners—more
-than a hundred in number—under the belief that the ship was sinking.
-Dale soon saw the danger which might ensue, but finding the English much
-alarmed at the supposed condition of the ship, he succeeded in mustering
-them, and setting them at work at the pumps, where, by their exertions,
-they probably prevented the apprehended calamity. For some time, at the
-close of the action, all his guns being rendered useless, Dale was
-employed principally in this important service. There is no question
-that without some such succor, the Richard would have gone down much
-earlier than she did. It is a singular feature of this every-way
-extraordinary battle, that here were Englishmen, zealously employed in
-aiding the efforts of their enemies, under the cool control of a
-collected and observant officer.
-
-At length the cheerful intelligence was received that the enemy had
-struck. Dale went on deck, and immediately demanded Jones’ permission to
-take possession of the prize. It was granted, and had he never
-manifested any other act of personal intrepidity, his promptitude on
-this occasion, and the manner in which he went to work, to attain his
-purpose, would have shown him to be a man above personal considerations,
-when duty or honor pointed out his course. The main-yard of the Serapis
-was hanging a-cock-bill, over the side of the American ship. The brace
-was shot away, and the pendant hung within reach. Seizing the latter,
-Dale literally swung himself off, and alighted alone on the quarter-deck
-of the Serapis. Here he found no one but the brave Pierson, who had
-struck his own flag; but the men below were still ignorant of the act.
-We may form an opinion of the risk that the young man ran, in thus
-boarding his enemy at night, and in the confusion of such a combat, for
-the English were still firing below, by the fact that Mr. Mayrant, a
-young man of South Carolina, and a midshipman of the Bon Homme Richard,
-who led a party after the lieutenant, was actually run through the thigh
-by a boarding pike, and by the hands of a man in the waist below.
-
-The first act of Dale, on getting on the quarter deck of the Serapis,
-was to direct her captain to go on board the American ship. While thus
-employed, the English first lieutenant came up from below, and finding
-that the Americans had ceased their fire, he demanded if they had
-struck. “No, sir,” answered Dale, “it is this ship that has struck, and
-you are my prisoner.” An appeal to Capt. Pierson confirming this, the
-English lieutenant offered to go below and silence the remaining guns of
-the Serapis. To this Dale objected, and had both the officers passed on
-board the Bon Homme Richard. In a short time, the English below were
-sent from their guns, and full possession was obtained of the prize.
-
-As more men were soon sent from the Bon Homme Richard, the two ships
-were now separated, the Richard making sail, and Jones ordering Dale to
-follow with the prize. A sense of fatigue had come over the latter, in
-consequence of the reaction of so much excitement and so great
-exertions, and he took a seat on the binnacle. Here he issued an order
-to brace the head yards aback, and to put the helm down. Wondering that
-the ship did not pay off, he directed that the wheel-ropes should be
-examined. It was reported that they were not injured, and that the helm
-was hard down. Astonished to find the ship immovable under such
-circumstances, there being a light breeze, Dale sprang upon his feet,
-and then discovered, for the first time, that he had been severely
-wounded, by a splinter, in the foot and ankle. The hurt, now that he was
-no longer sustained by the excitement of battle, deprived him of the use
-of his leg, and he fell. Just at this moment, Mr. Lunt, the officer who
-had been absent in the pilot-boat, reached the Richard, and Dale was
-forced to give up to him the command of the prize. The cause of the
-Serapis’ not minding her helm was the fact that Capt. Pierson had
-dropped an anchor under foot when the two ships got foul; a circumstance
-of which the Americans were ignorant until this moment.
-
-Dale was some time laid up with his wound, but he remained with Jones in
-his old station of first lieutenant, accompanying that officer, in the
-Alliance, from the Texel to l’Orient. In the controversy which ensued
-between the commodore and Landais, our lieutenant took sides warmly with
-the first, and even offered to head a party to recover the Alliance, by
-force. This measure not being resorted to, he remained with Jones, and
-finally sailed with him for America, as his first lieutenant, in the
-Ariel 20, a ship lent to the Americans, by the King of France.
-
-The Ariel quitted port in October, 1780, but encountered a tremendous
-gale of wind off the Penmarks. Losing her masts, she was compelled to
-return to refit. On this occasion Dale, in his responsible situation of
-first lieutenant, showed all the coolness of his character, and the
-resources of a thorough seaman. The tempest was almost a hurricane, and
-of extraordinary violence. The Ariel sailed a second time about the
-commencement of the year 1781, and reached Philadelphia on the 18th
-February. During the passage home, she had a short action, in the night,
-with a heavy British letter-of-marque, that gave her name as the
-Triumph; and which ship is said to have struck, but to have made her
-escape by treachery. Jones, who was greedy of glory, even fancied that
-his enemy was a vessel of war, and that he had captured a vessel of at
-least equal force. This was not Dale’s impression. He spoke of the
-affair to the writer of this article, as one of no great moment, even
-questioning whether their antagonist struck at all; giving it as his
-belief she was a quick-working and fast-sailing letter-of-marque. He
-distinctly stated that she got off by out-manœuvring the Ariel, which
-vessel was badly manned, and had an exceedingly mixed and disaffected
-crew. It is worthy of remark that, while two articles, enumerating the
-services of Dale, have been written by gentlemen connected with himself,
-and possessing his confidence, neither mentions this affair; a proof, in
-itself, that Dale considered it one of little moment.
-
-The account which Dale always gave of the meeting between the Ariel and
-Triumph—admitting such to have been the name of the English ship—so
-different from that which has found its way into various publications,
-on the representation of other actors in that affair, is illustrative of
-the character of the man. Simple of mind, totally without exaggeration,
-and a lover, as well as a practicer, of severe truth, he was a man whose
-representations might be fully relied on. Even in his account of the
-extraordinary combat between the Richard and Serapis, he stripped the
-affair of all its romance, and of every thing that was wonderful;
-rendering the whole clear, simple and intelligible as his own thoughts.
-The only narratives of that battle, worthy of a seaman, have been
-written rigidly after his explanations, which leave it a bloody and
-murderous fight, but one wholly without the marvelous.
-
-On his arrival at Philadelphia, after an absence of four years, more
-than one of which had been spent in prison, Dale was just twenty-four
-years and two months old. He was now regularly put on the list of
-lieutenants, by the marine committee of Congress; his former authority
-proceeding from the agents of the government in Europe. It is owing to
-this circumstance that the register of government places him so low as a
-lieutenant. Dale now parted from Paul Jones, with whom he had served
-near two years; and that, too, in some of the most trying scenes of the
-latter’s life. The commodore was anxious to take his favorite lieutenant
-with him to the America 74; but the latter declined the service, under
-the impression it would be a long time before the ship got to sea. He
-judged right, the America being transferred to the French in the end,
-and Jones himself never again sailing under the American flag.
-
-The name of Dale will inseparably be connected with the battle of the
-Richard and Serapis. His prominent position and excellent conduct
-entitle him to this mark of distinction, and it says much for the
-superior, when it confers fame to have been “Paul Jones’ first
-lieutenant.” We smile, however, at the legends of the day, when we
-recall the account of the “Lieutenants Grubb” and other heroes of
-romance, who have been made to figure in the histories of that renowned
-combat, and place them in contrast with the truth-loving, sincere, moral
-and respectable subject of this memoir. The sword which Louis XVI.
-bestowed on Jones, for this victory, passed into the hands of Dale, and
-is now the property of a gallant son, a fitting mark of the services of
-the father, on the glorious occasion it commemorates.[4]
-
-Dale was employed on board a schooner that was manned from the Ariel,
-after reaching Philadelphia, and sent down the Delaware to convoy
-certain public stores. The following June, he joined the Trumbull 28,
-Captain Nicholson, as her first lieutenant. The Trumbull left the capes
-of the Delaware on the 8th August, 1781, being chased off the land by
-three of the enemy’s cruisers. The weather was squally and night set in
-dark. In endeavoring to avoid her pursuers, the Trumbull found herself
-alongside of the largest, a frigate of thirty-two guns, and an action
-was fought under the most unfavorable circumstances. The Trumbull’s
-fore-topmast was hanging over, or rather through her forecastle, her
-crew was disorganized, and the vessel herself in a state of no
-preparation for a conflict with an equal force; much less with that
-actually opposed to her. The officers made great exertions, and
-maintained an action of more than an hour, when the colors of the
-American ship were struck to the Iris 32, and Monk 18. The former of
-these vessels had been the American frigate Hancock, and the latter was
-subsequently captured in the Delaware, by Barney in the Hyder Ally.
-
-This was the fourth serious affair in which Dale had been engaged that
-war, and the fourth time he had been captured. As he was hurt also in
-this battle, it made the third of his wounds. His confinement, however,
-was short, and the treatment not a subject of complaint. He was taken
-into New York, paroled on Long Island, and exchanged in November.
-
-No new service offering in a marine which, by this time, had lost most
-of its ships, Dale obtained a furlough, and joined a large
-letter-of-marque called the Queen of France, that carried twelve guns,
-as her first officer. Soon after he was appointed to the command of the
-same vessel. In the spring of 1782, this ship, in company with several
-other letters-of-marque, sailed for France, making many captures by the
-way. The ship of Dale, however, parted from the fleet, and, falling in
-with an English privateer of fourteen guns, a severe engagement
-followed, in which both parties were much cut up; they parted by mutual
-consent. Dale did not get back to Philadelphia until February of the
-succeeding year, or until about the time that peace was made.
-
-In common with most of the officers of the navy, Lieutenant Dale was
-disbanded, as soon as the war ceased. He was now in the twenty-seventh
-year of his age, with a perfect knowledge of his profession, in which he
-had passed more than half his life, a high reputation for his rank, a
-courage that had often been tried, a body well scarred, a character
-beyond reproach, and not altogether without “money in his purse.” Under
-the circumstances, he naturally determined to follow up his fortunes in
-the line in which he had commenced his career. He became part owner of a
-large ship, and sailed in her for London, December, 1783, in the station
-of master. After this, he embarked successfully in the East India trade,
-in the same character, commanding several of the finest ships out of the
-country. In this manner he accumulated a respectable fortune, and began
-to take his place among the worthies of the land in a new character.
-
-In September, 1791, Mr. Dale was married to Dorothy Crathorne, the
-daughter of another respectable ship-master of Philadelphia, and then a
-ward of Barry’s. With this lady he passed the remainder of his days, she
-surviving him as his widow, and dying some years later than himself. No
-change in his pursuits occurred until 1794, when the new government
-commenced the organization of another marine, which has resulted in that
-which the country now possesses.
-
-Dale was one of the six captains appointed under the law of 1794, that
-directed the construction of as many frigates, with a view to resist the
-aggressions of Algiers. Each of the new captains was ordered to
-superintend the construction of one of the frigates, and Dale, who was
-fifth in rank, was directed to assume the superintendence of the one
-laid down at Norfolk, virtually the place of his nativity. This ship was
-intended to be a frigate of the first class, but, by some mistake in her
-moulds, she proved in the end to be the smallest of the six vessels then
-built. It was the unfortunate Chesapeake, a vessel that never was in a
-situation to reflect much credit on the service. Her construction,
-however, was deferred, in consequence of an arrangement with Algiers,
-and her captain was put on furlough.
-
-Dale now returned to the China trade, in which he continued until the
-spring of 1798. The last vessel he commanded was called the Ganges. She
-was a fine, fast ship, and the state of our relations with France
-requiring a hurried armament, the government bought this vessel, in
-common with several others, put an armament of suitable guns in her,
-with a full crew, gave her to Dale, and ordered her on the coast as a
-regular cruiser.
-
-In consequence of this arrangement, Capt. Dale was the first officer who
-ever got to sea under the pennant of the present navy. He sailed in May,
-1798, and was followed by the Constellation and Delaware in a few days.
-The service of Dale in his new capacity was short, however, in
-consequence of some questions relating to rank. The captains appointed
-in 1794 claimed their old places, and, it being uncertain what might be
-the final decision of the government, as there were many aspirants, Dale
-declined serving until the matter was determined. In May, 1799, he
-sailed for Canton again, in command of a strong letter-of-marque, under
-a furlough. On his return from this voyage he found his place on the
-list settled according to his own views of justice and honor, and
-reported himself for service. Nothing offered, however, until the
-difficulties with France were arranged; but, in May, 1801, he was
-ordered to take command of a squadron of observation about to be sent to
-the Mediterranean.
-
-Dale now hoisted his broad pennant, for the first and only time, and
-assumed the title by which he was known for the rest of his days. He was
-in the prime of life, being in his forty-fifth year, of an active, manly
-frame, and had every prospect before him of a long and honorable
-service. The ships put under his orders were the President 44, Capt.
-James Barron; Philadelphia 38, Capt. Samuel Barron; Essex 32, Capt.
-William Bainbridge; and Enterprise 12, Lieut. Com. Sterrett. A better
-appointed, or a better commanded force, probably never sailed from
-America. But there was little to do, under the timid policy and
-defective laws of the day. War was not supposed to exist, although
-hostilities did; and vessels were sent into foreign seas with crews
-shipped for a period that would scarcely allow of a vessel’s being got
-into proper order.
-
-The squadron sailed June 1st, 1801, and reached Gibraltar July 1st. The
-Philadelphia blockaded the Tripolitan admiral, with two cruisers, in
-Gibraltar, while the other vessels went aloft. A sharp action occurred
-between the Enterprise and a Tripolitan of equal force, in which the
-latter was compelled to submit, but was allowed to go into her own port
-again, for want of legal authority to detain her. Dale appeared off
-Tripoli, endeavored to negotiate a little about an exchange of
-prisoners, and did blockade the port; but his orders fettered him in a
-way to prevent any serious enterprises. In a word, no circumstances
-occurred to allow the commodore to show his true character, except as it
-was manifested in his humanity, prudence and dignity. As a superior, he
-obtained the profound respect of all under his orders, and to this day
-his name is mentioned with regard by those who then served under him. It
-is thought that this squadron did much toward establishing the high
-discipline of the marine. In one instance only had Dale an opportunity
-of manifesting his high personal and professional qualities. The
-President struck a rock in quitting Port Mahon, and for some hours she
-was thought to be in imminent danger of foundering. Dale assumed the
-command, and one of his lieutenants, himself subsequently a flag officer
-of rare seamanship and merit, has often recounted to the writer his
-admiration of the commodore’s coolness, judgment, and nerve, on so
-trying an occasion. The ship was carried to Toulon, blowing a gale, and,
-on examination, it was found that she was only saved from destruction by
-the skilful manner in which the wood ends had been secured.
-
-The vigilance of Dale was so great, however, and his dispositions so
-skilful, that the Tripolitans made no captures while he commanded in
-those seas. In March, 1802, he sailed for home, under his orders,
-reaching Hampton Roads in April, after a cruise of about ten months. The
-succeeding autumn, Com. Dale received an order to hold himself in
-readiness to resume the command from which he had just returned. Ever
-ready to serve his country, when it could be done with honor, he would
-cheerfully have made his preparations accordingly, but, by the order
-itself, he ascertained that he was to be sent out without a captain in
-his own ship. This, agreeably to the notions he entertained, was a
-descent in the scale of rank, and he declined serving on such terms.
-There being no alternative between obedience and resignation, he chose
-the latter, and quitted the navy. At this time, he was the third captain
-on the list, and it is no more than justice to say, that he stood second
-to no other in the public estimation.
-
-Dale never went to sea again. Possessed of an ample fortune, and
-possessing the esteem of all who knew him, he commanded the respect of
-those with whom he differed in opinion touching the question which drove
-him from the navy. With the latter he never quarreled, for, at the
-proper period, he gave to it his two elder sons. To the last he retained
-his interest in its success, and his care of mariners, in general,
-extended far beyond the interests of this life.
-
-Many years previously to his death, Com. Dale entered into full
-communion with the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which he proved a
-consistent and pious member. Under the newly awakened feelings which
-induced this step, he was the originater of a Mariner’s Church, in
-Philadelphia, attending it in person, every Sunday afternoon, for a long
-succession of years. He was as free with his purse, too, as with his
-time; and his charities, though properly concealed, were believed to be
-large and discriminating. With some it may be deemed a matter of moment,
-with all it should be a proof of the estimation in which Dale was held
-by certainly a very respectable part of his fellow citizens, that he was
-named to be the first president of the Washington Benevolent Society; an
-association that soon degenerated to serve the ends of party politics,
-whatever may have been the design that influenced the few with which it
-originated.
-
-The evening of the life of Dale was singularly peaceful and happy. It
-was as calm as its morning had been tempestuous. It is true he had to
-weep for the loss of his first-born son, a noble youth, who died of
-wounds received in the action between his old ship, the President, and a
-British squadron; but he had given the young man to his country, and
-knew how to bear up under the privation. He died, himself, in the
-seventieth year of his age, in his dwelling at Philadelphia, February
-26th, 1826; departing in peace with God and man, as he fondly trusted
-himself, and as those who survive have every reason to hope.
-
-By his marriage with Miss Crathorne, Com. Dale had several children,
-five of whom lived to become men and women, viz. three sons and two
-daughters. Of the former, Richard, the eldest, fell, at an early age, a
-midshipman on board the President. John Montgomery, the second, is now a
-commander in the navy, having served with Warrington, in the last
-English war. This gentleman is married to a lady of the well known
-family of Willing. Edward Crathorne, the youngest son, is a merchant of
-Philadelphia. He is married and has children. The eldest daughter,
-Sarah, married T. M’Kean Pettit, Esq., a judge of the District Court, in
-Philadelphia, and is dead, leaving issue. Elizabeth, the youngest, is
-the wife of Com. George Campbell Reed, of the navy, and has no issue.
-
-In considering the character of Dale, we are struck with its simple
-modesty and frank sincerity, quite as much as with its more brilliant
-qualities. His courage and constancy were of the highest order,
-rendering him always equal to the most critical duties, and never
-wearying in their performance. Such a man is perfectly free from all
-exaggeration. As he was not afraid to act when his cooler judgment
-approved, he had no distrusts to overcome ere he could forbear, as
-prudence dictated. Jones found him a man ready and willing to second all
-his boldest and most hazardous attempts, so long as reason showed the
-probabilities of success; but the deed done, none more thoroughly
-stripped it of all false coloring, or viewed it in a truer light than he
-who had risked his life in aiding to achieve it.
-
-The person of Dale was in harmony with his moral qualities. It was
-manly, seaman-like, and of singularly respectable bearing. Simplicity,
-good faith, truth and courage were imprinted on his countenance, which
-all who were thrown into his company soon discovered was no more than
-the mirror of his mind. The navy has had more brilliant intellects,
-officers of profounder mental attainments, and of higher natural gifts,
-but it has had few leaders of cooler judgment, sounder discretion, more
-inflexible justice, or indomitable resolution. He was of a nature, an
-experience, and a professional skill to command respect and to inspire
-confidence, tributes that were cheerfully paid by all who served under
-his orders. The writer of this article has had extensive opportunities
-of hearing character discussed among the sea-officers of his country;
-few escape criticism, of some sort or other, for their professional
-acts, and fewer still, as men; yet he cannot recall a single instance in
-which he has ever heard a whisper of complaint against the public or
-private career of Richard Dale. This total exemption from the usual
-fortunes of the race may, in part, be owing to the shortness of the
-latter’s service in the present marine, and to the limited acquaintance
-of his cotemporaries, but it is difficult to believe that it is not
-chiefly to be ascribed to the thoroughly seaman-like character of the
-officer, and to the perfect truth and sterling probity of the man.
-
------
-
-[1] This ship has been differently stated to have been the Liverpool and
-the Pearl. We follow what we think the best authorities.
-
-[2] The prize-officer of the Lexington was a young American, of a highly
-respectable family, then an acting lieutenant in the English navy. His
-prisoners seized an occasion to rise, at a moment when he had gone below
-for an instant, in consequence of which he was dismissed the service;
-living the remainder of his life, and dying, in his native country.
-
-[3] It is a curious feature of the times, that, the French ordering the
-Americans to quit their ports with their prizes, the latter were taken
-out a short distance to sea and sold, Frenchmen becoming the purchasers,
-and finding means to secure the property.
-
-[4] This sword has, quite recently, become the subject of public
-discussion, and of some private feeling, under circumstances not wholly
-without interest to the navy and the country. At page 63, vol. 2, of
-Mackenzie’s Life of Paul Jones, is the following note, viz.:
-
- “This sword was sent by Jones’ heirs to his valued friend,
- Robert Morris, to whose favor he had owed his opportunities of
- distinguishing himself. Mr. Morris gave the sword to the navy of
- the United States. It was to be retained and worn by the senior
- officer, and transmitted at his death, to his successor. After
- passing through the hands of Commodore Barry, _and one or two
- other senior officers_, it came into possession of Commodore
- Dale, and now remains in his family, through some mistake in the
- nature of the bequest, which seems to require that it should
- either be restored to the navy in the person of its senior
- officer, or else revert to the heirs of Mr. Robert Morris, from
- one of whom the writer has received this information.”
-
- That Captain Mackenzie has been correctly informed as to a
- portion of the foregoing statement, is as probable as it is
- certain he has been misled as to the remainder. It would have
- been more discreet, however, in a writer to have heard both
- sides, previously to laying such a statement before the world. A
- very little inquiry might have satisfied him that Commodore Dale
- could not have held any thing as the senior officer of the navy,
- since he never occupied that station. We believe the following
- will be found to be accurate.
-
- Of the manner in which Commodore Barry became possessed of this
- sword we know nothing beyond report, and the statement of
- Captain Mackenzie. We understand that a female member of the
- Morris family gives a version of the affair like that published
- in the note we have quoted, but the accuracy of her
- recollections can hardly be put in opposition to the _acts_ of
- such men as Barry and Dale.
-
- The sword never passed through the hands “_of one or two other
- senior officers_,” as stated by Captain Mackenzie, at all. It
- was bequeathed by Commodore Barry to Commodore Dale, in his
- will, and in the following words, viz.
-
- “Item, I give and bequeath to my good friend Captain Richard
- Dale, _my_ gold-hilted sword, as a token of my esteem for him.”
-
- We have carefully examined the will, inventory, &c. of Commodore
- Barry. The first is dated February 27, 1803; the will is proved
- and the inventory filed in the following September, in which
- month Commodore Barry died. Now, Commodore Dale was not in the
- navy at all, when this sword was bequeathed to him, nor when he
- received it. Dale resigned in the autumn of 1802; and he never
- rose nearer to the head of the list of captains, than to be the
- third in rank; Barry, himself, and Samuel Nicholson, being his
- seniors, when he resigned.
-
- The inventory of Commodore Barry’s personal property is very
- minute, containing articles of a value as low as one dollar. It
- mentions _two_ swords, both of which are specifically
- bequeathed—viz. “_my_ gold-hilted” and “_my_ silver-hilted
- sword.” No allusion is made in the will to any trust. Only these
- two swords were found among the assets, and each was delivered
- agreeably to the bequest. The gold-hilted sword was known in the
- family, as the “Paul Jones sword,” and there is not the smallest
- doubt Commodore Barry intended to bequeath this particular
- sword, in full property, to Commodore Dale.
-
- Let us next look to the probabilities of the case. The heirs of
- Paul Jones, who left no issue, gave the sword to Robert Morris,
- says Captain Mackenzie, as a mark of gratitude. This may very
- well be true. But Mr. Morris “gave the sword to the navy of the
- United States,” to be retained and worn by its senior officer.
- It would have been a more usual course to have lodged the sword
- in the Navy Department, had such been the intention. That
- Commodore Barry did not view _his_ possession of the sword in
- this light, is clear enough by his will. He gave it, _without_
- restraint of any sort, to a friend who was not in the navy at
- all, and who never had been its senior officer. This he did, in
- full possession of his mind and powers, six months before he
- died, and under circumstances to render any misconception highly
- improbable.
-
- Can we find any motive for the bequest of Commodore Barry? It
- was not personal to himself, as the sword went out of his own
- family. The _other sword_ he gave to a brother-in-law. “Paul
- Jones’ sword” was bequeathed to a distinguished professional
- friend—to one who, of all others, next to Jones himself, had
- the best professional right to wear it—to “Paul Jones’ first
- lieutenant.” Commodore Dale did leave sons, and some in the
- navy; and the country will believe that the one who now owns the
- sword has as good a moral right to wear it, as the remote
- collaterals of Jones, and a much better right than the senior
- officer of the navy, on proof as vague as that offered. His
- _legal_ right to the sword seems to be beyond dispute.
-
- In the inventory of Commodore Barry’s personals, this sword is
- thus mentioned, viz.—“a very elegant gold-hilted sword—$300.”
- The other sword is thus mentioned, viz.—“a handsome
- silver-hilted, do. $100.”
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE SERENADE.
-
-
- Beneath a bower, where poplar branches long
- Embracing wove Seclusion o’er the abode
- Of hermit sage, what time the full moon rode
- ’Mid spectre clouds her star-paved streets along,
- Rose on the listening air a plaintive song,
- Sweet as the harmony of an angel’s lyre,
- And soft as sweet; breathed heavenward from a quire
- Of Beauty, hid the encircling shades among.
- Of mysteries high, I ween, that sage had dreamed—
- Who now, upstarting, clasps his hands to hear
- The _mystic notes of Nature’s Anthem_ clear,
- Which holiest bards have heard and heavenly deemed!
- ’Tis even thus as to that sage it seemed—
- ’Tis Beauty makes the dreams of Wisdom, dear!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE WIDOW OF NEWBURY.
-
-
- BY THE AUTHOR OF “HENRI QUATRE.”
-
-
-’Twas the eve of Newbury fair, and the time near the close of the long
-reign of Harry the Eighth, after monasteries were suppressed. Reform
-stalked through the land—all things were turned topsy-turvy—abbots and
-monks beggared, that poor lords might thrive—priests permitted
-marriage, and nuns driven from their pleasant retreats, were forced to
-spin for a livelihood. But amid the greater marvels, the townspeople of
-Newbury had often leisure to ask why Mistress Avery remained so long a
-widow.
-
-Sitting in her embowered porch, watching the cavalcade of merchants,
-buffoons and jugglers, on their way to the encampment and site of the
-morrow’s revels, she attracted many a longing eye. The merchant, whose
-wandering vocation led him from ancient Byzantium to the shores of the
-Thames, who came to Newbury to exchange rich silks and foreign jewelry
-for broadcloth, as he rode by the capacious square tenement, with its
-deep, embayed windows of dark chesnut-wood, and caught a glimpse of the
-fair owner, sighed when contrasting his own desolate, wandering lot with
-that of the fortunate wooer of the rich, comely widow. Mistress Avery
-was relict of the richest clothier of Newbury, who, dying, left her in
-sole possession of looms, lands, tenements and leases. Handsome, young,
-brisk, with riches unquestionable, she attracted tender regards from all
-quarters—even the proud gentry of Berkshire, with genealogical tree
-rooting from Norman marauder, far back as the conquest, disdained not an
-alliance garnished with broad manors, woods of a century’s growth, and
-goodly array of tenements, of which our widow held fee-simple. But when
-pressed successively by belted knight and worshipful esquire, she
-courteously declined their offers, alleging she was bent on marrying one
-of her own class in life, (if she should change condition,) one who
-could take upon himself, without degradation, the task of superintending
-the looms. High born swains repulsed, the field was open to gallants of
-lowlier rank. But these faring no better, and incurring the ridicule of
-neighbors, suitors became shy and reserved, seeking to extract token of
-favor ere they avowed themselves. If the curate called, ’twas merely an
-inquiry after her soul’s health—the inquiry perhaps linked to a request
-that she would, from her stores of boundless wealth, add a trifle to the
-contributions of the poor’s box. The lawyer had his ever ready and
-undeniable excuses for visiting—leases there were to sign, indentures
-to cancel. Nor was the tailor barred his plea—was there not much
-broadcloth yearly fashioned into apparel for lusty serving-man, active
-apprentice?
-
-Behind Mistress Avery, as she sat gazing at the straggling pageantry,
-there loitered in hall and doorway the apprentices and domestic servants
-of the household. Distinguished amongst his companions, by superior
-stature, stood John Winehcomb, chief apprentice. To him the widow oft
-turned with remark on passing stranger; the soft regard thrown into her
-address would have excused boldness in one far less favored by nature
-than the apprentice, but his answers were submissive, modest, even
-bashful. An acute observer might perhaps have detected a shade of
-discontent on the widow’s handsome features, perhaps, as fancifully,
-attributed it to the coyness and reserve of young Winehcomb; and,
-indeed, as revolving months lengthened the period of widowhood, there
-had not been wanting whispers, that ’Prentice John stood a fairer chance
-with his mistress than all the knights or reputable burgher citizens and
-yeomen of the county. His appearance certainly did not gainsay the
-rumor—he had completed his twentieth year, health flushed his cheeks,
-honesty and intelligence stamped his looks—the features were bold and
-decided, though of modest expression. In character, he was one of those
-gifted youths, in whom strict attention and unvarying promptitude supply
-the place of experience, and who acquire the management and conduct of
-business, in ordinary cases, rarely entrusted to men of mature years.
-The clothier, when dying, recommended his spouse to confide business
-affairs to John—she had done so; in the factory and with the workmen
-’Prentice John was all and everything—from his word ’twas useless to
-appeal.
-
-But when young Winehcomb’s credit with Mistress Avery was canvassed, the
-gossips were at a loss to affix on decisive marks of favor or
-tenderness. ’Tis true, he accompanied her to church, but so did the
-other apprentices—walked by her side, sat next his mistress during
-prayers, his arm was accepted, his hand arranged the cushions—but then,
-was he not chief apprentice, would it not be slighting to prefer the
-services of a junior? Look narrowly at his conduct—there were none of
-the characteristics of a favored swain, no semblance of behavior
-indicating one presumptuous of the honor, nor could the absence of these
-tokens be attributed to natural timidity in the presence of the sex, for
-at country meetings and fairs, where hoydenish romping was the usual
-diversion of youth, John participated in rustic gallantries. Yet, sooth
-to say, though the gossips were at fault, they were not wrong in their
-conjectures; the widow was deeply in love with ’Prentice John, for his
-sake had dismissed high-born suitors, wealthy citizens, and, we need
-hardly say, (though scrupulously regardful of reputation,) had given him
-many hints, which, alas! he was slow to understand. It might be
-inexperience, want of self-confidence, or innate modesty, which withheld
-the youth from tracing her encouragement to its real motive; but from
-whatever cause, Mistress Avery, who had a very high opinion of her own
-personal attractions, knew he must be perfectly well acquainted with her
-riches, was greatly perplexed with his diffidence, his want of
-susceptibility, and concluded the apprentice must be in love elsewhere
-to withstand such allurements.
-
-One while, racked with jealousy, determined in very spite and vexation
-to accept the offer of the first suitor, the next hour affection gained
-the ascendancy, and she resolved to declare her love. But pride took
-fire and caused a tumult in the heart, of which young Winehcomb, the
-unconscious origin, was little aware. How provoking the calmness of his
-replies, the quiet gaze which met her impassioned glance! Oft with
-difficulty she refrained from bestowing a hearty cuff on the cold youth,
-object of fond desire—as often, and with greater difficulty, did she
-refrain from tenderer salute. To-morrow shall put this wilful-headed boy
-to the test! If his heart be engaged, it is more than likely he has made
-an assignation, which I will frustrate! So thought Mistress Avery,
-revolving a scheme to bring young Diffidence on his knees, or to a
-direct confession that he loved another. Under pretence of making
-inquiries respecting the description of merchandise then passing the
-house, borne on a long train of pack-horses, under conduct of merchants
-of foreign aspect, the widow beckoned the apprentice (who was standing
-at respectful distance, beneath the threshold, with his fellow
-apprentices) to approach her chair, placed outside the house under cover
-of the overarching porch.
-
-“John!” said the dame, fixing her large eyes on the youth, “I warrant
-there is store enough of trinkets and finery in yon bales to satisfy the
-wants of every maiden in Newbury. Happy the youth whose wages are
-unspent, for to-morrow, by ’r Lady! he might buy the love of the most
-hard-hearted damsel. Certes, no swain need die of love, if he have money
-in his purse!”
-
-“If the love were bought by those foreign pedlar wares, it would not be
-much for a Newbury lad to boast of,” replied the young man,
-blushing—for the gaze of his mistress was keen and ardent.
-
-“Are the lads of Newbury then so disinterested, Master John,” exclaimed
-the widow. “Well! I will put one, at least, to the proof. I must walk
-through the fair, if only to chat with my tenants’ wives from Spene and
-Thatcham, and shall need your protection, for these strange foreigners
-may be rude, and Cicely is such a coward she would run away.”
-
-Mrs. Avery was rather baffled by the result of her own feint; for,
-contrary to expectation, she could discover neither chagrin nor
-disappointment; the apprentice answered cheerfully, he should be proud
-to attend on his honored mistress, and would not forget a good cudgel,
-more than a match for any foreigner’s steel—nay, to ensure her from
-insult, he would bring all his fellow apprentices. This was more than
-the lady desired. She was again puzzled, and declined, rather pettishly,
-the extra corps of gallants, volunteered by the apprentice, more
-especially, as she affirmed that it was contrary to the letter and
-spirit of their indentures, which guaranteed festival and fair-days to
-be at their own disposal. But they would gladly abandon the privilege to
-do her service, rejoined the pertinacious and simple youth, with
-ill-timed assiduity.
-
-“Fool!” muttered the widow between her teeth, but not so indistinctly as
-to pass unheard by the apprentice, who immediately drew back abashed.
-
-A bright morrow gladdened the hearts of the good folk of Newbury. The
-morn was occupied in the sale and purchase of commodities—the staple
-article of the town was readily exchanged for foreign merchandise, or
-broad Spanish pieces, as suited the inclination of the parties dealing.
-These were busy hours for young Winehcomb and his associates, but amply
-redeemed by the gayety and attractive dissipation of the afternoon. In
-walking through the fair, Mistress Avery leaned on the youth’s arm, an
-honor envied the apprentice by many an anxious, would-be suitor. Ere
-growing tired of the drollery of the jugglers, mountebanks and buffoons,
-or the more serious spectacle of the scenic moralites, they encountered
-Master Luke Milner, the attorney, who thought the opportunity should not
-be thrown away of endeavoring to gain the widow’s good graces. Master
-Luke believed his chance very fair—he was of good family, on the
-youthful side of thirty, but exceedingly foppish, after the style of the
-London gallants, but caricatured—too many ribbons on doublet, too many
-jewels on beaver, shoes garnished with roses large as sunflowers. “The
-worshipful attorney will never do for me,” thought Mistress Avery! She
-had often thought so, and was blind to many courtesies and compliments
-which the learned man ventured to throw in with his legal opinions. But
-now she had a part to play, a stratagem to practice on the feelings of
-young Winehcomb. Love, like hunger, will break through every restraint;
-she scrupled not making the lawyer’s vanity subservient to her policy,
-and, accordingly, listened to his flattery with more than ordinary
-attention, keeping an eye, the while, on ’Prentice John, to observe the
-effect of the legal gallant’s honeyed speeches. Alas! for poor,
-love-stricken Mistress Avery—no burning jealousy flushed the cheek of
-John—lightened in his eye, or trembled through his frame! Hearing the
-conversation grow each moment more interesting and tender, believing
-himself one too many, he politely retired to a respectful distance. Was
-he so cold and insensible, the handsome blockhead? soliloquized Mistress
-Avery, heedless of the lawyer’s flowing speeches—I will break the
-indentures—banish him the house! The wretch!
-
-Not cold, not insensible, Mistress Avery, for see! Even whilst he
-loiters, there approaches a party from the village of Spene, with whom
-our apprentice is intimate—he laughs, chats with the young men and
-maidens, and finally, as the mirth grows more uproarious, salutes a very
-handsome, fresh colored, smart young damsel. The dame, who witnessed the
-scene, stung with jealousy, believing her suspicions confirmed, broke
-off abruptly, whilst Master Luke was at the very _acme_ of his tender
-theme; leaving the astonished gallant, cap in hand, to the derision of
-acquaintance, who sarcastically advised him to repair the loss by writ
-of error.
-
-
- CHAPTER II.
-
-Though the widow took no notice of the incident which aroused her
-jealousy, John was made sensible he had incurred her displeasure. She
-walked silent, moody, reserved, scarcely replied to his remarks; her
-large, dark eye flashed anger, but the apprentice, though awed, was
-struck with its beauty, more struck than he had ever been. It was a new
-sensation he experienced. He inwardly deprecated the threatened wrath,
-wondered by what sad mischance he had incurred it, was more tremblingly
-alive to her resentment, than when oft-times—during the course of
-apprenticeship—conscious of deserving it. A strange, uneasy feeling
-began to haunt him—he was sensible of loss of favor, and though, after
-taxing memory, unconscious of merited disgrace—was surprised,
-inquieted, by the deep dejection of spirits under which he labored. It
-seemed as though he had incurred a loss, of which he knew not the extent
-till now. His arm trembled, and she snappishly rebuked his unsteadiness;
-he again encountered her glance—it was wild, angry, fierce, yet he felt
-he could have looked forever.
-
-They were opposite one of those temporary taverns, erected for the
-accommodation of the higher classes frequenting the fair—tricked out
-with gaudy splendor, yet affording delicious viands, choice wines to
-wearied strollers. It so happened that, passing by the open doorway,
-their progress was arrested by Master Nathaniel Buttress, the wealthy
-tanner—mean, avaricious, advanced in years, yet ardently longing to add
-the widow’s possessions to his own accumulated riches. With studied bow,
-and precise flourish of beaver, he bade Mistress Avery good day, and
-followed up the salute by invitation to sip a glass of sack, the
-fashionable beverage of the time. At fair-season, there was not the
-slightest impropriety, either in the offer, or its acceptation—it was
-quite in the usual license of these festivals. But ’Prentice John was
-doubly surprised; in the first place, that the miserly tanner (his
-niggardliness was proverbial) should have screwed up courage to treat
-any one with the high-priced nectar—and that his arm, which he
-gallantly offered, should have been accepted with alacrity by the fair
-dame, who, our apprentice was aware, had oft made devious circuits, on
-many occasions, to elude a meeting. Young Winehcomb found himself,
-lacquey-fashion, following in the rear. He was deeply mortified—such
-circumstance had never happened before—yet, though vexed, the annoyance
-was only secondary to extreme surprise at the character of his own
-feelings. He had valued highly the good will, kind words, and occasional
-gifts of the lady, as proofs of favor, founded on his honesty, diligence
-and promptitude, or, at least, without deeply analizing his feelings,
-believed that in such spirit he received them. But now, smarting under
-disgrace, it seemed as though lost favor was dear for its own
-sake—bereft of smiles to which he had been insensible till the present
-hour, he was unhappy, miserable. ’Prentice John had great difficulty in
-withholding his cudgel from the tanner’s back, but though he gave him
-not a beating, he mentally promised one. Master Buttress, elated with
-good fortune, was more vain-glorious than cautious; unlike prudent
-lover, uncertain of continuance of sudden favor, dreading loss of
-vantage ground, snatched by eager rivals, he escorted the dame to a
-conspicuous seat, whence they could behold the fair, from whence his
-favored lot was visible to all. The ready drawers, ere ardor called,
-hastened to place before the guests a tray laden with costly delicacies,
-crowned with silver flagon full of the favorite potation. Young
-Winehcomb, who sat apart, though partaking the dainties, was maddened to
-behold his mistress listen so complacently to the addresses of the
-veteran suitor. Could she be serious? And if she were—what then? Was
-she not absolute mistress of herself, her wealth—and was he so
-specially concerned in her choice? This self-questioning elicited the
-conviction, startling though true, that he was deeply, personally
-concerned. He was, then, undeniably in love with his mistress! Was the
-passion of sudden growth, the birth of the present hour? Alas! no—it
-had been long smouldering unconsciously—nay, if he doubted, memory
-flashed innumerable, though till now, unnoticed facts proving its
-existence—and he had foolishly let slip the golden chance of wooing
-till too late—till his advantages were the prey of a successful
-rival!—his own affection only brought to light by the torch of
-jealousy. Such was the cruel, torturing position of young Winehcomb.
-’Twas aggravated in being obliged to listen to the tanner’s flattery, to
-witness its favorable reception. Nay, worse—he became conscious that
-Mistress Avery remarked his inquietude, his ill-suppressed hatred of
-Master Nathaniel, as her eye was often for a moment bent on him. He was
-convinced she took pleasure in his torments, for on these occasions her
-manner—though strictly within the rigid limits of propriety—invariably
-was more marked and tender toward the detested, fulsome niggard. He had
-heard, alas! such was the custom of the sex. Often was ’Prentice John
-resolved on leaving the lovers to their own conversation, but restrained
-anger on reflecting it was his duty to be present with and protect
-Mistress Avery, till she quitted the fair and returned home. Nor did he
-relish the notion of leaving the field altogether to the
-tanner—jealousy united with sense of duty in detaining the youth.
-
-Master Buttress was in rare good humor; he could not deem otherwise but
-that he was the fortunate, chosen man, and he found leisure in the
-intervals of fits of gallantry, to conjure flitting visions of broad
-manor added to broad manor, tenement to tenement, and to picture the
-future Master—nay, Worshipful Master Nathaniel Buttress, richest
-gentleman in the county of Berkshire. The only damp on his high spirits
-was the present outlay; he had been drawn into expenses far beyond usual
-habits; had never been guilty of similar extravagance; the veriest
-prodigal of London could not have ordered a more costly board; and that
-tall, rosy-cheeked lad imbibed the precious sack with the avidity of a
-sponge, and never looked a tithe the better humored, but sat grinning
-menaces at him—the donor of the feast! Well! well! all should soon be
-remedied, and the disagreeable, lanky apprentice turned adrift.
-
-“But who is that now passing the tavern; is it not Master Luke Milner,
-the attorney? How enviously he looks! he has the reputation of having
-pressed hard his own suit, but in vain! If I invite him, he will gladly
-come—drink the widow’s health—and it will save me half the reckoning!”
-So reasoned the tanner. The lawyer accepted the invitation, though a
-slight shade of displeasure, he could not wholly dispel, flushed his
-brow. Master Luke entered, bowing lowly to the widow. Drawing a chair,
-near as good manners admitted, to the fair dame, he carefully deposited
-scented gloves and jeweled beaver on adjoining bench, and, in sitting,
-showed anxiety to display a trim foot, though rather overshadowed by the
-large roses. The tanner soon perceived that avarice had induced a
-grievous oversight, for the widow was not quite won. It was both
-unaccountable and annoying—how perverse these women are! she seemed now
-disposed to extend as much favor to Master Luke as she had previously
-exhibited to Master Buttress. ’Prentice John was pleased and distressed
-at the scene—glad of the tanner’s discomfiture, he was enraged at the
-other’s success. The elder suitor had shown indifference to the presence
-of the apprentice, viewed him as a necessary appendage to the widow’s
-state, or, at worst, a tax on his purse to the extent of sack imbibed;
-but our lawyer, nearer John’s own age, and gifted with keener eye than
-his rival, liked not young Winehcomb’s vicinity, his prying, resolute
-gaze.
-
-“Mistress Avery,” said the lawyer blandly, “our young friend appears
-uneasy; nor do I wonder, for more than once, in the fair, did I hear
-red, pouting lips lament the absence of Jack Winehcomb. I pray thee,
-suffer the lad to stroll where he lists; Master Nathaniel and your
-unworthy servant, with permission, will zealously protect the pride and
-boast of Newbury.”
-
-If John had broken any engagement by attendance on her, replied the
-dame—and a keen smile, part malicious, part searching, lit up the
-widow’s features as she gazed on the disconcerted youth—let him seek
-Cicely, who was not far off, to take his place, and he had full
-permission to absent himself. ’Prentice John, though vexed and out of
-countenance, said he had no other engagement than duty enjoined, and he
-was entirely at his mistress’ command.
-
-“Then I must not spoil Cicely’s holiday,” remarked the widow. The
-apprentice was doubtful whether she spoke in displeasure or not—the
-tone of voice and expression of countenance were equivocal. A quiet
-smile, which played for an instant around her mouth, when he declared he
-had no engagement, presaged returning favor, but the horizon was again
-clouded. Mistress Avery, turning to the gallants, said the youth should
-have his own way, that for herself she never found his presence
-irksome—he was so stupid, she might talk treason in his company without
-danger—what she was obliged to say was generally misunderstood. Stupid!
-misunderstood! Were there, in these words, more meant than met the ear?
-Had he been so blind, so deaf? Meanwhile the situation of the rivals was
-far from pleasant; the tanner had introduced an enemy within the
-fortress, whom he could neither dislodge nor compete with; the lawyer
-was angry that he had not the field to himself; whilst fair Mistress
-Avery, with impartial justice, hung the scales of favor suspended.
-Neither could now positively declare he was the chosen swain. Half
-suppressed taunts, and sarcasm clothed in ceremonious language,
-threatened more open bickering, when Master Luke, with due regard to a
-lady’s feelings, besought her to pardon their absence for a few minutes,
-as he suddenly recollected an affair important to the welfare of his
-friend, Master Buttress. The dame was condescending, declared she had
-too much regard for Master Nathaniel to deem their absence a slight,
-under the circumstances; so the lawyer, affecting to produce a leathern
-note-case, retired with his rival. The apprentice felt his situation
-awkward, but he was presently relieved; Mistress Avery bade him follow
-the gentlemen unperceived, and if they drew weapons, or otherwise
-exhibited hostilities, immediately interfere to prevent mischief.
-Concealed by the angle of a canvass booth, he listened, unseen, to the
-wordy strife. The lawyer was cool, sarcastic, overbearing; the tanner,
-fiery and threatening. Presuming on youth, good figure, and flowing
-rhetoric, the former contemned the pretensions of the elder rival, whom
-he affirmed had nothing to recommend him but wealth not needed; why,
-therefore, pursue a rivalry, when he could not lay claim to one certain
-token of affection? And the man of law began enumerating the
-distinguishing marks of favor which Dame Avery, spite of prudent,
-cautious, self-restraint, could not avoid exhibiting as soon as he
-entered the tavern. The tanner’s replication was in the same style. If
-these be marks of affection, thought the listener, what would they say
-to my pretensions if I told all? And ’Prentice John, as he listened and
-commented on what he heard, grew a wiser, more knowing youth.
-
-“If thou wert a younger man, Master Nathaniel,” said the lawyer, “there
-would be no need for these mutual taunts. We have a readier mode of
-settling—”
-
-“Curse thy youth, and thee too,” exclaimed the tanner; “’cause thou art
-a vain, braggart fop, with thy galloon and thy large cabbage roses,
-think’st to brave it over me?—there!—and there!” And so saying, the
-valiant tanner dealt successive cuffs on Master Luke’s doublet, and
-drawing weapon, awaited the attack. Their rapiers—for the tanner,
-though following a handicraft, yet, as owning broad lands, deemed
-himself entitled to wear a weapon and dub himself gentleman—immediately
-crossed, but the alert apprentice, with stout cudgel, threw himself
-between and struck down their guard.
-
-“Good sirs! good sirs! forbear!” cried one hastening to assist young
-Winehcomb. ’Twas the curate of Spene. The belligerents immediately
-sheathed their weapons, muttering future vengeance. The holy man
-requested to know the cause of quarrel, and offered to act as umpire.
-This, after demur and consideration, was agreed to. Hearing each in
-turn, he proposed, as more becoming their respective characters than
-fighting, that the case should be stated to Mistress Avery—the election
-left to the fair widow. As each deemed himself the favored candidate,
-and, indeed, with good cause, for our dame had been gracious to both,
-the curate’s proposal was accepted, and his eloquence solicited to open
-the pleadings. The party thereupon returned to the tavern, the
-apprentice not the least interested actor in the drama.
-
-The curate of Spene, though grave and sententious, threw into his speech
-an under current of humor and _bonhommie_, which touched off the
-pretensions of each suitor with dramatic effect and felicity. Neither
-could question his impartiality, nor had he, as he affirmed, secret
-preponderance either way; both were esteemed friends, both had received
-the offices of the church at his hands, both had listened to his Sabbath
-exhortations. Which of the twain reigned in the lady’s heart, to him he
-should offer congratulation; to the other he could fairly say, that he
-merited the honor for which he had unsuccessfully striven.
-
-There was a pause, a deep silence. The blushing widow must now speak,
-declare herself, decide her own fate, and with it the fortunes of the
-suitors. How ardently did ’Prentice John long for one of the many
-opportunities of pleading his passion, oft thrown in his way, so
-heedlessly neglected! Would she indeed make an election? then, farewell,
-Newbury! in some far distant land would he hide his disgrace, forget his
-folly.
-
-Mistress Avery said the gentlemen had certainly given her cause long to
-remember Newbury Fair; yet they could not expect her mind made up on so
-momentous a question of a sudden; besides, it was now Wednesday, which
-had ever been an unlucky day with the Averys, but to-morrow (Thursday)
-week they should have a decisive answer—her preference made
-known—provided, and it was the only stipulation besides secrecy, they
-both refrained pressing their amorous suits in the interim.
-
-So ended the conference, and as the rivals, with the curate, gallantly
-bade the lady adieu (having promised obedience in every particular)
-’Prentice John, in a paroxysm of anger and remorse, made firm resolve
-that he would challenge to mortal combat the favored suitor, beat him
-within an inch of life if he refused to fight, upbraid the widow for
-secretly fomenting a passion which she laughed at, and flee, forever,
-the town of Newbury.
-
-“You forget, John, I shall need your arm through the press,” exclaimed
-the dame reproachfully. The apprentice started; he had been leaning
-against the bench, lost in bitter reverie; he saw not his mistress was
-waiting. Uttering an indistinct apology, he escorted the lady from the
-tavern in time to witness that the tanner had been sufficiently adroit
-to palm off half the expense of the entertainment on his rival. Whether
-this was omen of higher fortune, the sequel will show.
-
-They scarcely spoke during the remainder of the walk, nor even after
-reaching home. ’Prentice John was reserved, melancholy, brooding over
-bitter reflections; the dame, sly, observant, oft casting furtive
-glances at young Winehcomb, seemingly, as he thought, indulging secret
-pleasure on beholding his misery. On the morrow they were together in
-the compting-room; it was his duty to produce entries of the bales of
-cloth sold during the business-period of the Fair; to account for the
-same in bullion, or according to the terms of sale.
-
-“These for thyself, John,” said the widow, placing a few gold pieces on
-the table, whilst she proceeded to place, under triple lock, the
-remainder. They remained untouched. The third lock of the huge iron
-chest duly shot, the dame arose, was surprised on beholding the money
-still lying unappropriated; John looking like man under sentence of
-death.
-
-“Have I grown niggardly, Master Winehcomb?” exclaimed the widow, “speak,
-if you would have more.”
-
-John replied by asking if she thought the ten pieces sufficient to equip
-him, and pay passage to Cadiz, where he heard an expedition was fitting
-out, in which many Englishmen had volunteered. Mistress Avery, with a
-calmness which confirmed his despair, replied in the negative, but
-demanded why he should think of starting for Cadiz, ere, indeed, his
-indentures were determined. The apprentice declared wildly, if she
-married either tanner or lawyer, he would depart, even with no more than
-the ten pieces, and for his reasons—he was not then sufficiently master
-of himself to detail them!
-
-“But, John,” said the widow, in a tone of expostulation, whilst a smile
-lurked in the eyes and round the mouth, “what am I to do if I say No?
-they press me so hard!”
-
-The Newbury apprentice, at his mistress’ feet, taught the answer she
-should give. On the following Monday, Master John Winehcomb was united
-in marriage with Mistress Avery—the wedding celebrated by the grandest
-entertainment ever beheld in the county of Berkshire, the fame whereof
-spread even as far as the court of bluff Harry. If lacking splendor in
-any particular, the omission was owing to the short time for
-preparation, as no expense was spared. The unfortunate suitors, of
-course, understood the affair from common report, and thought it
-unnecessary to seek their fate at the widow’s domicil, when they could
-learn it from every man, woman and child in the town. They were invited
-to the wedding feast, but wisely declined, as the story of their strange
-wooing was already abroad.
-
-It was the custom, in those days, for the bridegroom to salute the bride
-on the cheek, in the church, after the ceremony was performed.
-
-“And you are ready to swear, Master John,” whispered the dame as the
-bridegroom approached, “that you never saw that damsel before Fair-day,
-whom you kissed at the Fair?”
-
-“No—nor since!” replied he, believing it a hint for his future conduct.
-
-Master Winehcomb lived happily—his wealth increased so quickly, with
-the increasing demand for the staple article of Newbury, that when the
-Earl of Surrey marched against James the Fourth of Scotland, who was
-then ravaging the borders, the rich clothier accompanied the expedition
-with a retinue of one hundred servants and artisans, clothed and armed
-at his own expense. The memory of John Winehcomb and his rich and
-handsome spouse was long preserved in their native town.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- SONNETS.
-
-
- BY MISS ELIZABETH B. BARRETT.
-
-
- I.
-
- I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless;
- That only men incredulous of despair,
- Half taught in anguish, through the midnight air
- Beat upward to God’s throne in loud access
- Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness
- In hearts, as countries, lieth silent, bare
- Under the blenching, vertical eye-glare
- Of the free chartered heavens. Be still! express
- Grief for thy dead in silence like to Death!
- Most like a monumental statue set
- In everlasting watch and moveless wo,
- Till itself crumble to the dust beneath.
- Touch it, spectator! Are its eyelids wet?
- If it could weep it could arise and go!
-
-
-
-
- II.
-
- When some belovéd voice, which was to you
- Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,
- And silence against which you dare not cry
- Aches round you with an anguish dreadly new—
- What hope, what help? What music will undo
- That silence to your sense? Not friendship’s sigh,
- Not reason’s labored proof, not melody
- Of viols, nor the dancers footing through;
- Not songs of poets, nor of nightingales,
- Whose hearts leap upward from the cypress trees
- To Venus’ star! nor yet the spheric laws
- Self-chanted—nor the angels’ sweet “all hails,”
- Met in the smile of God! Nay, none of these!
- Speak, Christ at His right hand, and fill this pause.
-
-
-
-
- III.
-
- What are we set on earth for? Say, to toil!
- Nor seek to leave thy tending of the vines
- For all the heat o’ the sun, till it declines,
- And Death’s mild curfew shall from work assoil.
- God did anoint thee with his odorous oil
- To wrestle, not to reign—and he assigns
- All thy tears over like pure crystallines
- Unto thy fellows, working the same soil.
- To wear for amulets. So others shall
- Take patience, labor, to their heart and hand,
- From thy hand, and thy heart, and thy brave cheer,
- And God’s grace fructify through thee to all!
- The least flower with a brimming cup may stand
- And share its dew-drop with another near.
-
-
-
-
- IV.
-
- The woman singeth at her spinning-wheel
- A pleasant song, ballad or barcarolle,
- She thinketh of her song, upon the whole,
- Far more than of her flax; and yet the reel
- Is full, and artfully her fingers feel,
- With quick adjustment, provident control,
- The lines, too subtly twisted to unroll,
- Out to the perfect thread. I hence appeal
- To the dear Christian church—that we may do
- Our Father’s business in these temples mirk,
- So swift and steadfast, so intent and strong—
- While so, apart from toil, our souls pursue
- Some high, calm, spheric tune—proving our work
- The better for the sweetness of our song.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- SONNET.
-
-
- BY MRS. SEBA SMITH.
-
-
- I dreamed last night, that I myself did lay
- Within the grave—and after stood and wept—
- My spirit sorrowed where its ashes slept—
- ’Twas a strange dream, and yet meseems it may
- Prefigure that which is akin to truth—
- How sorrow we o’er perish’d dreams of youth!
- High hopes, and aspirations doom’d to be
- Crush’d, and o’er-mastered by earth’s destiny!
- Fame, that the spirit loathing turns to ruth—
- And that deluding faith so loath to part,
- That earth will shrine for us one kindred heart;
- Oh, ’tis the ashes of such things, that wring
- Tears from the eyes! Hopes like to these depart,
- And we bow down in dread, o’er-shadowed by death’s wing.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- MALINA GRAY.
-
-
- BY ANN S. STEPHENS.
-
-
- (Concluded from page 278.)
-
-
- CHAPTER III.
-
- “I sigh when all my youthful friends caress—
- They laugh in health, and future evils brave;
- Love has for them a gentle power to bless,
- While I shall moulder in my silent grave.
- God of the just, thou gavest the bitter cup,
- I bow to thy behest, and drink it up.”
-
-
-We had penetrated to the depth of the pine grove, and it was difficult
-to find our way out through the tangled undergrowth and the unequal
-hollows; but Malina had become thoughtful for others once more, and
-though excitement no longer made her own progress easy, she guarded me
-with double care; lifted me over the hollows and carried me in her arms
-when the thickets were too intricate or the ground very uneven. She
-kissed me as we reached a foot-path which led to our cottage, and,
-pointing to the door, would have left me to go home alone; but when she
-saw that I was troubled regarding my torn frock, kindness of heart
-prompted her to come back. She led me to the house, explained my
-misfortune, and went away. I sat down on the door-sill and watched her
-till she entered the portico of her mother’s dwelling, and when they
-remarked on her dejected looks, and questioned me of the cause, I
-answered that Malina was tired with walking so long in the woods, for it
-seemed as if the tears which I had seen her shed and the passionate
-words which she had uttered were a secret which I should do wrong to
-mention.
-
-In about an hour Phebe Gray and our young minister stopped at the
-door-yard gate to inquire for Malina. I told them that she had gone
-home, and when Mr. Mosier lifted me in his arms, and, looking into my
-face, asked what I had been crying about, I turned my head away to evade
-his kiss and besought him to set me down. The contrast between his happy
-face, the deep and almost brilliant expression of joy which lighted it
-up, and the sorrowful look of poor Malina forced itself even on my
-childish mind. I felt that which I had no power to comprehend, and from
-that time never loved our minister nor Phebe Gray as I had loved them.
-They walked home very slowly, she leaning on his arm with an air of
-dependence and trustfulness which was full of feeling and feminine
-delicacy; he would check their progress every few moments to point out
-some familiar beauty in the landscape, as if they had never looked upon
-it before. They loitered by the rock spring, and along the river road,
-tranquil in their happiness, till the dusk almost concealed them as they
-entered Mrs. Gray’s house.
-
-Almost every evening, for a week, our minister and Phebe Gray took their
-walk around the pine grove, and always alone. Malina was confined to the
-house. She had taken cold, Mrs. Gray said, and the night air was bad for
-her lungs. But often, when her sister was loitering along the river’s
-bank, happy in the wealth of her newly aroused affections, Malina might
-be seen at her chamber window, with her cheek languidly supported by a
-hand which was becoming thinner each day, and gazing earnestly after the
-two beings dearest to her on earth, but whose happiness she could not
-witness without emotions that were well nigh killing her. Her mother saw
-nothing of this. She only knew that Malina was quieter than usual and
-not very well, that her eyes were heavy and her step languid as she
-moved around the house. She did not see the heart struggling against
-itself, the stern principle which grew strong in the contest. She never
-dreamed of that desolate and lonely sensation which haunted her
-daughter’s pillow with watchfulness, and made her waking hours a season
-of trial cruel as the grave. She saw that Malina was strangely affected;
-true, she smiled still, but it was meekly, sadly, and it seemed as if
-the music of her laugh was exhausted forever; her eyes grew misty and
-sorrowful in their expression, and tears would sometimes fill them
-without apparent cause. Still it was gravely asserted that Malina had
-only a slight cold, a nervous attack which would go off in a day or two!
-But there was something in her illness which Phebe could not comprehend;
-a wish for solitude, and a strange nervous dread of any thing like
-intimate conversation with herself, which prevented an acknowledgment of
-her own deep causes of happiness. Her sensitive modesty made her
-desirous of some encouragement to unburden her heart of its wealth of
-hope even to her sister, and when she saw that Malina shunned her, that
-her eyes had a wandering and estranged look whenever they turned upon
-her face, she felt checked and almost repulsed in her confidence. If any
-thing could have disturbed the pure happiness which reigned in her
-bosom, it would have been this extraordinary mood in one who had from
-childhood shared every thought and wish almost as soon as it was formed.
-It had a power to disturb, though it could not entirely destroy the
-tranquillity of her mind.
-
-“I will talk with her about it to-night,” murmured Phebe, as she opened
-her chamber door one evening, after a long conversation with Mr. Mosier
-in the portico. “I wish, though, she would ask some question, or even
-look curious to know what keeps us together so much; I little thought to
-have kept a secret from Malina so long.”
-
-As these thoughts passed through her mind, Phebe Gray gathered up the
-bed-drapery, and lying down by her sister, passing an arm caressingly
-over her waist, laid her blushing cheek against the now pallid face
-which rested on the pillow. She felt that tears were upon it, and that
-the snowy linen under her head was wet as if Malina had cried herself to
-sleep.
-
-“Malina, wake up a minute, I have something to tell you,” murmured the
-young girl, in a low, half timid whisper.
-
-The moonbeams lay full upon the bed, and Phebe Gray was looking
-earnestly in the face of the beautiful sleeper. She could see the silken
-lashes quivering on her cheek, and a tremulous motion of the lips, nay,
-it seemed to her as if a single tear broke through the lashes and rolled
-over the pale cheek, and she was certain that something like a faint
-shudder crept through the form which was half circled by her arm. But
-Malina gave no answer, and the gentle questioner was too sensitive for
-another effort to win attention. She quietly laid her head on the pillow
-and sunk to sleep, but not to indulge in the sweet, unbroken dream of
-happiness which had shed roses over her couch so many nights. There was
-sadness at heart, a presentiment of coming ill, and a solicitude
-regarding her sister which kept her anxious and rendered her slumber
-broken and unrefreshing. About midnight, when the stillness of her
-chamber rendered every sound more than usually audible, she was
-disturbed by the broken and half stifled sobs which arose from her
-sister’s pillow. Again she stole her arm over the weeping girl, and
-questioned her regarding the source of her grief. Malina only turned her
-face away, and sobbed more bitterly than before.
-
-“Why will you not speak to me, Malina? what has come between us of
-late?—speak to me, sister—you are in sorrow, and I have—oh how
-much—cause for joy! yet we have all at once learned to conceal thoughts
-from one another. Tell me what troubles you—for I cannot be entirely
-happy while you are ill and so sad.”
-
-Malina redoubled her sobs, but amid the tumult of her grief she
-murmured, “Tell me all, Phebe, all you feel, all you wish; but I have no
-secrets, no sorrow. There is a little pain in my side, sometimes, and
-that makes me low spirited. I have always been so healthy, you know,
-that a little illness frightens me. Do not mind me, but talk of
-yourself. You are happy, Phebe, _very_ happy! were not those your words?
-tell me all—I can be glad and rejoice in any thing that gives you
-pleasure—any thing on earth—if my heart were breaking. So let us talk
-it all over now, the room is so quiet and dark, and we shall neither of
-us get sleepy—do you think we shall, sister?—you may, but I have
-almost forgotten how to sleep,” and, as Malina ceased speaking, she
-stole an arm around her sister’s neck, and, choking back her sobs,
-composed herself to listen.
-
-Phebe rose up in the bed, gathered the drapery around them, for the
-moonbeams were bright enough to reveal her blushes, and, sinking to her
-pillow, again murmured the story of her love, its return, and all the
-bright anticipations that made her future so beautiful. Malina nerved
-herself to listen; she uttered no word of distrust, and checked all
-manifestations of discontent by a strong effort of self-control, when
-all was told—when she was made certain that her sister and the only
-being she had ever regarded with more than a sister’s love, were to be
-married—that their wedding day was fixed, and, that the mother’s
-sanction had already been granted—she remained silent for a moment, and
-strove to gain the mastery over her feelings. When she spoke, her frame
-shook with the bitter emotions which could not be altogether subdued,
-but her voice was low and very calm. Mr. Mosier was poor, and Phebe not
-yet of age. If he were installed in the old meeting-house, they would be
-compelled to live with Mrs. Gray till something could be saved from his
-small salary to purchase a dwelling and begin housekeeping. This thought
-caused some anxiety to the engaged couple. The young clergyman had
-learned something of Mrs. Gray’s real character, and was reluctant to
-erect his domestic altar beneath her tyrannical auspices. Phebe, too,
-longed for a quiet home of her own, a happy, free home, where she might
-follow her own innocent impulses, unchecked and without fear.
-
-“You shall have that home, my sister,” said Malina Gray, twining her
-arms around her companion, and kissing her with a gush of true
-affection; “there is the old parsonage house; you shall have that, and
-the money which dear minister Brown left to me; all are yours and _his_.
-You will be happy there—very happy. I know he loved the old place. Now,
-good night, Phebe; let us go to sleep!” and with a low gasping sob,
-which was not the less painful that it gave no sound, Malina turned away
-her head.
-
-Phebe was too disinterested and high-minded herself, for a thought of
-refusing Malina’s generosity.
-
-“We shall, indeed, be happy,” she said; “you will come and live with us,
-and by the time you are married, we shall have saved enough to pay all
-the money back again. You _will_ live with us?”
-
-Malina thought of the quiet grave-yard, which could be seen from the
-parsonage window, and answered—
-
-“I shall want no other home.”
-
-Phebe talked on, more cheerfully than usual, and when her sister did not
-answer, she thought her asleep; but Malina had fainted, and lay
-senseless upon her pillow.
-
-It was soon rumored through the village that our new minister was
-engaged to Phebe Gray, and every body was delighted with the match.
-Phebe was just the creature for a clergyman’s wife, quiet and gentle,
-with manners that gave dignity to the softness of her disposition. In
-the general satisfaction which reigned in the village, Malina was quite
-overlooked. Her change of appearance was imputed to sadness at parting
-with her sister; and, at times, when the wedding was talked of in her
-presence, the rich color which burned over her cheeks, the brilliancy of
-her eyes, and the flashes of wild merriment that sprung to her lips,
-deceived the unobserving into a belief of her entire happiness. She
-spent much of her time at the old parsonage, superintending the
-arrangements of her sister’s home with a degree of taste and energy
-which surprised all who witnessed her exertions. The rooms were all
-newly arranged, delicate paper was purchased at New Haven for the walls,
-new stepping stones were laid at the front door, green blinds gave a
-look of elegance and seclusion to the windows; the profuse rose bushes
-and lilac trees were pruned, and a white picket-fence hedged in the
-little wilderness of flowers which blossomed in the front yard. The
-cabinet maker, on School Hill, was busy with the furniture, all of a
-superior kind. The carpet-weaver had borrowed two _quill-wheels_, and
-all the spools, for a mile round, in order to expedite the progress of
-sixty yards of striped carpeting through his cumbrous loom. The house
-and its adornments were to be comfortable and elegant beyond any thing
-that had been known in our village for a long time; and all was Malina’s
-work. Her untiring assiduity created the little paradise which another
-was to enjoy. Her money purchased the books which filled the little
-study, whose window opened upon the most verdant corner of the orchard.
-Her trembling hands placed a new inlaid flute on the little table, and
-drew the easy chair close by, that the bridegroom might find every thing
-ready and home-like in his new dwelling.
-
-One afternoon Malina was left alone; the workmen had departed to their
-suppers, and her task was finished for the day. She had just hung the
-pet robin in his old place by the dining-room window; he seemed to
-recognize the room, and flew about his cage, chirping and fluttering his
-wings, as if to thank her for bringing him home once more. It was the
-first hour of repose that Malina had known for many weeks, and now, that
-she had nothing more to perform, painful thoughts and regrets that would
-no longer be stifled, fell back upon her heart, and she was, oh, how
-desolate! There, in her blooming youth, she sat hopeless and weary of
-life—for what is life to a woman without affection? The heart was full
-of warm and generous feelings, burthened with a wealth of tenderness,
-and yet she had no future, nothing to hope for, nothing to dread; her
-destiny seemed consummated there and then. Youth is in itself so
-hopeful, that we can scarcely imagine a creature in the first bud of
-life yearning for the grave. But Malina was very sad. She looked through
-the open door into the orchard; the green old apple trees were heavy
-with blossoms, and through the garniture of thrifty leaves, and the rosy
-shower which blushed among them, a corner of the old meeting-house met
-her gaze—a portion of the grave-yard, and a new tomb-stone, which
-gleamed out from the young grass which had already started up from our
-minister’s death place. How green and quiet it looked—and oh, how
-earnestly Malina Gray longed to lie down in that still spot, and be at
-rest. Yet Malina was young, and no human being dreamed how wretched she
-was. The orchard was full of singing birds that day, and there had been
-a time when the gush of sweet sounds, that rose and swelled amid the
-foliage, would have made her heart leap, but now it filled her eyes with
-tears. The sunshine that played and quivered among the leaves—the wind
-that now and then gushed through the heavy boughs, scattering the grass
-with rosy flakes, and sighing as it swept off to the open plain—all
-seemed a mockery.
-
-She was heart sick, and yearned to die. How cruel is that power by which
-a broken heart draws thoughts of sadness from the sweet and beautiful
-things of nature. Malina gazed through her tears at the change her own
-hands had wrought. The unseemly plantains had disappeared from the back
-door-step, and around the well-curb a bed of valley-lilies were just
-forming their pearly buds.
-
-“They will be in blossom for Phebe’s hair,” murmured the young girl,
-“and for mine—for am I not to be bridemaid?”
-
-With a mournful smile gleaming through her tears, Malina arose, and
-tying on her bonnet, left the house. She met Phebe and Mr. Mosier near
-the front gate. They were sauntering toward their new dwelling, tranquil
-and happy; to them, every thing whispered of joy; the fragrant orchard,
-the birds caroling within its shadows, and all the beautiful landscape
-were full of pleasant associations. Every hope and thought in _their_
-bosoms blossomed in unison with nature.
-
-How true it is that thought and feeling, like the sun, give color to
-outward things. The heart creates its own sunshine, or the cloud through
-which nature is revealed to it. Phebe Gray and her betrothed husband
-felt nothing but the sweet and the beautiful—their hearts were brimful
-of sunshine. But, alas, for Malina, she looked through the cloud.
-
-Malina walked on. The two contented beings by the gate were happy enough
-without her. She strove to smile cheerfully as they spoke to her, and in
-a tone of forced playfulness forbade them entering the house till their
-wedding day.
-
-Malina had gathered beneath the roof of that old parsonage house many
-luxuries almost unknown in the neighborhood; every thing calculated to
-gratify the fine taste of the young divine, or add to the comfort of her
-sister, had been unsparingly purchased, till her patrimony was almost
-exhausted. While this duty lasted, and the excitement of action was upon
-her, Malina sustained the burthen of her sorrows with an aching, but
-firm heart. She had taken no time for thought—scarcely for tears—but
-worked on, as if toiling through a feverish dream. Her cheeks were
-always flushed, and sometimes the music of her laugh rang loud and
-strangely through the bridal chamber which she was decorating; but the
-companions who assisted her were often startled by the reckless tone of
-her laugh; it was too absent and wild for happiness or merriment,
-entirely deficient in that low, rich melody, which had once made her
-voice so full of healthy joy. Yet all the neighbors were commenting on
-her generous conduct, and the brilliancy of her spirits; and it was
-often remarked that Malina Gray was never so fond of company, so
-careless in her mirth, or so startling in her wit, as she had been since
-the engagement of her sister, and since she had recovered from the
-slight cold which confined her to the house when that engagement was
-first whispered in the village.
-
-To a heart capable of self-sacrifice, there is no feeling so lonely as
-that which follows exhausted power. No conviction, so keenly painful, as
-a knowledge that a beloved being, who has cost us the hopes of a life in
-resigning, can be happy without our aid—that we have nothing to render
-up—no aim for exertion—nothing to do but sit down and gaze upon the
-blank which existence has become. Her task was done. The excitement
-over, and then came to the heart of Malina Gray the toil and pain of
-concealed suffering; the aching restlessness which eats into the bud of
-human life. Once more it was rumored that she was ill, and, but for
-other and more absorbing subjects, Mrs. Gray might have been alarmed for
-the safety of her child; but she was so intent on other things, that the
-poor girl and her sufferings remained unheeded at home, save by the
-gentle Phebe and her betrothed husband.
-
-When Mrs. Gray invited our young minister to reside at her house, it was
-probably with some vague expectation of the result which followed; and
-when her consent was desired to his union with Phebe, it was given
-promptly, and with evident satisfaction. But the young divine, though a
-meek and true Christian, had a dignity of character and opinion which
-sometimes proved at variance with the exactions of an ambitious and
-arbitrary matron. She had expected that he would continue to reside in
-her family, after the marriage, and looked forward to an extended
-dominion in her own household, and increased influence in the church, to
-be secured by this arrangement. But when he persisted in establishing an
-independent home, in managing his own salary, and becoming the sole
-protector of his future wife, whose state of moral servitude he could
-not witness without pain, Mrs. Gray’s enthusiasm in favor of the match
-gradually subsided, and when Malina insisted upon surrendering her newly
-acquired property to the young couple, and giving them the parsonage for
-a residence, the haughty woman became stern in her opposition, and while
-she took every means to render her own house an unpleasant residence for
-the parties, found some excuse to delay the wedding, from week to week,
-and at last refused to sanction it, till Mr. Mosier should be regularly
-installed in the pulpit, which he had now filled almost a year. Still
-Mrs. Gray was not a woman to talk openly of a change in her opinions.
-She was too calculating and subtle for useless words.
-
-It had been settled in church council, that our young minister should be
-installed a few weeks after the time appointed for his marriage, and the
-young couple submitted to the imposed delay without a murmur. During
-these intervening weeks, and while Malina was occupied in embellishing
-the parsonage, Mrs. Gray was observed to be absent from home more
-frequently than usual. There was scarcely an influential church member
-near the old meeting-house, with whom she had not taken her knitting
-work, to spend a social afternoon; and several tea-parties were given in
-a quiet way at her own house, where she presided over the silver
-tea-urn, and old fashioned china, with more than ordinary condescension
-and dignity. But these were all impromptu meetings, and invariably took
-place when Mr. Mosier and Phebe were invited elsewhere.
-
-The parents of our young minister were aged and very respectable
-farmers, residing in the vicinity of New Haven; but they were far from
-wealthy, and the farm they cultivated was not their own property. A week
-before the Sabbath appointed for the installation, Mr. Mosier
-accompanied his intended bride and her mother on a visit to his parents,
-where the haughty matron first learned that the man whom her daughter
-was about to marry had been a _charity student_. A benevolent society
-had paid his tuition at Yale College, at least that portion which he had
-been unable to meet by his own exertions. There had been no concealment
-of this truth on his part, for he had informed Phebe of the matter, and
-believed Mrs. Gray already aware of it. But Phebe, in the generous
-simplicity of her heart, never conceived it possible that the manner of
-his education could be deemed a cause of reproach, and it had left no
-impression on her mind; to her upright understanding there was no
-degradation in the thought that her lover had been a _charity student_.
-
-Mrs. Gray gave no demonstration of the displeasure which filled her
-bosom on receiving this intelligence, but she quietly made an excuse for
-returning home with her daughter the next day, and, with every
-appearance of disinterested kindness, insisted that Mr. Mosier should
-not interrupt his visit to accompany them. “She could easily drive
-home,” she said, “the horse was gentle, and the roads perfectly good;
-her son-in-law must remain with his family; it would be cruel to force
-him away so abruptly.” Mrs. Gray said all this in her usual manner,
-shook hands with the old people, allowed the young divine to assist her
-into the chaise, and pretended to be very intently occupied in searching
-for something in her traveling basket, while he placed Phebe in her
-seat, and, with her slender hand clasped in his own, was whispering his
-farewell.
-
-“Remember, and be in readiness next Sabbath,” he said, in a low voice,
-“tell Malina that she must take good care of you. I shall come on
-Saturday evening.”
-
-Phebe murmured that she would be ready; but as she returned the farewell
-clasp of his hand, tears started to her eyes. She could not have told
-the reason, but a strange feeling of melancholy came over her, and it
-seemed as if the parting were forever. She looked back as the chaise
-drove away—he was standing on the door step by his parents, and the
-whole group waved their hands, smiling cheerfully, as they saw her turn
-for a last glance. But still her heart was heavy.
-
-What passed between Mrs. Gray and her daughter during their drive home,
-we have no means of recording. But as Malina sat in her chamber window,
-and saw the chaise toiling up the hill that afternoon, her sister leaned
-forward, and she caught a glimpse of her face. It was white as marble,
-and stained with tears. Malina had been ill, but she started up, hastily
-girded her white morning wrapper to her waist, and went down. Mrs. Gray
-loitered to give some directions to the “hired man” about her horse, and
-Phebe was descending from the chaise without assistance. The moment her
-foot touched the earth, she tottered, and would have fallen but for
-Malina, who sprang forward, and flinging her arms around her, inquired
-eagerly and kindly what had befallen her.
-
-Phebe attempted to speak, but the words died on her lips, and the color
-left them; she lifted her hand as if to grasp at something for support,
-and fainted in her sister’s arms.
-
-“Mother, what is the matter?—where is Mr. Mosier?—tell me, pray tell
-me, what has made poor Phebe so ill, and why is she looking so
-wretched?”
-
-Mrs. Gray turned, and saw that her child was senseless.
-
-“Go and bring some water,” she said to the man, “carry that basket in
-with you, and make haste. Raise her head a little, you are crushing her
-bonnet,” she continued, turning to Malina; “there, take it off—she will
-come to, directly.”
-
-As she spoke, Mrs. Gray calmly untied her daughter’s bonnet, and held it
-till the man came with water, while Malina stood trembling beneath the
-weight of the fainting girl, tenderly smoothing back the bright tresses
-from her forehead, and wildly kissing her pale lips, amid a thousand
-vague questions, which no one thought of answering.
-
-Mrs. Gray took a pitcher of water from the man, who came panting from
-the well, and laving her hands in it, laid them on the pale face which
-Malina was still covering with tears and kisses. There was a faint
-struggle, a gasping sigh, and after a little Phebe began to murmur upon
-her sister’s bosom, like one just awaking from a dream. She shrunk from
-her mother, when that stubborn woman would have assisted her to rise,
-and clinging to Malina, walked with trembling steps toward the house.
-
-“Oh, not there—up, to our own room, Malina,” said the poor girl, as her
-sister would have led her into the parlor. She was obliged to sit down
-more than once in ascending the stairs; and when at length Malina laid
-her upon the bed in their own dear room, she looked sadly around, and
-reaching up her arms, clasped the bending neck of her sister, and began
-to weep.
-
-“I must never see him again—never—never,” she said, while her voice
-was broken with tears; “oh, Malina, did you think any human being could
-be so cruel?”
-
-Malina started, and for one instant a flash of pleasure broke into her
-eyes. It was an unworthy feeling, and the next moment her face was
-flooded with shame that she had known it; and when she sat down by her
-sister, and besought her to say what had thus unnerved her, it was with
-as true sympathy as ever warmed the heart of a noble and
-self-sacrificing woman.
-
-The cause of her sorrow was soon explained. Phebe had been commanded by
-her arbitrary mother to give up all thoughts of a union with Mr. Mosier.
-The gentle girl, for the first time in her life, had ventured to
-expostulate with her parent. The hope of her young life was at stake,
-and her heart trembled at the thought of separation from the man whom
-she had learned to love so devotedly. It was all in vain. Mrs. Gray was
-resolved, her prejudices were aroused, and to their gratification the
-happiness of her child was as dust.
-
-Phebe had been educated with almost holy reverence for the authority of
-a parent, and though her heart broke, she dared not oppose her mother’s
-command. Her spirit withered beneath it, like a flower trodden to the
-earth, but she submitted. Not so Malina. Once more she ventured to
-reason with and oppose her mother, but only to call down resentment on
-her own head. This was no sudden resolution in Mrs. Gray; she had gone
-steadily to work, and planned out her own results. She was one of those
-cold pattern women who never know an impulse—whose virtues are
-polished, like marble, and as cold. She had paved her way quietly and
-well. The next morning, while her two children were sorrowing in their
-room, she was driving from house to house, exerting her influence over
-better hearts and weaker minds than her own, to the ruin of those who
-had loved and trusted her. And while Phebe lay upon a sick bed, a vestry
-council was called at the old meeting-house, and a decision passed by a
-majority of a single man, which deprived our young minister of the
-pulpit he was to have taken as his own the following Sabbath. Many good
-and just men of the congregation protested against this cruel and unjust
-act; but in churches, as in communities, the good and the merciful do
-not always constitute a majority.
-
-The decision of this church meeting was forwarded to Mr. Mosier, and
-with it a letter from Mrs. Gray. The next morning he rode by our cottage
-on horseback, slowly, and as one in deep and morbid thought. He crossed
-the old bridge, and, as he did so, looked earnestly toward Mrs. Gray’s
-dwelling. He paused a moment at the end, and then rode at a brisker pace
-up the hill.
-
-Phebe had been feverish, and very low, all that morning. Malina was
-watching by her side, and as she lay with her eyes closed in an
-imperfect slumber, the sound of a horse coming up the road made her
-start from the pillow, and while her cheek burned with a more feverish
-red, she fixed her eyes upon the open sash.
-
-“It is he—I know it!” she said, clasping her hand, and looking into
-Malina’s face; “I will get up; mother cannot refuse to let me see him
-this once;” and with a kind of feverish joy the poor girl flung aside
-the bed clothes, and stepped out on the floor. With trembling and eager
-hands she gathered up her beautiful tresses, and began to braid them
-about her head, earnestly beseeching Malina all the time to assist her
-in getting ready to go down.
-
-The kind hearted sister required no entreaty. She helped to array the
-invalid, though her own breath came gaspingly, and her hands shook like
-aspens in performing their duty.
-
-“There, now—there, I am ready. See, do I look very ill, Malina?” said
-the excited young creature, turning to her sister; “it will make his
-heart ache to see how red my cheeks are. Do you think he will detect the
-fever?” and dashing some lavender over her handkerchief with an
-impetuosity all unlike her usual quiet movements, the half delirious
-girl took her sister’s arm, and was hurrying from the room. But the
-sound of a horse, rapidly passing the house, again came to her ear, and,
-with a faint exclamation, she sprung to the window just in time to catch
-a glimpse of her lover as he rode by. He lifted his face to the open
-sash, and she saw that it was very pale. He saw her, checked his horse
-an instant, half raised his hand, and then turning away with seeming
-effort, he rode slowly down the hill.
-
-“He is gone,” exclaimed the unhappy girl, “gone without a word, almost
-without a look!”
-
-And with a wavering step, Phebe Gray moved toward the bed, and amid the
-confusion of her feverish thoughts, she called on Malina to come and
-undo the bridal wreath which was girding her forehead so painfully.
-
-But Malina was away. She had caught one glimpse at the pale face
-uplifted to her window, and with a wild impulse to see the minister once
-more, she flung a shawl over her head, and left the room. With the speed
-of an antelope, she darted through the garden, and forcing a passage
-through the brushwood which lined a hollow beyond, leaped down upon the
-natural basin of granite, where the rock-spring poured its waves, just
-as he had dismounted, and was proceeding to dip up the water in his
-palm, and bathe his forehead with it. He looked care-worn and pale, and
-the expression of his eyes, as he dropped the water from his hand, and
-turned them suddenly on the young girl, was that of a strong heart in
-ruins, and with its energies prostrated. He held forth his hand and
-tried to smile, but the attempt was a painful one, and died in a faint
-quiver of the lips.
-
-Malina did not take his hand—she had no power—but stood with her left
-foot half buried in the damp moss which lined the spring, and the other
-planted hard against the granite basin; her hands clasped amid the
-drapery of her shawl, and her eyes lifted to his, glittering with
-excitement, and yet full of tears. The breath came pantingly through her
-unquiet lips, and in the struggle of her emotions, the words of greeting
-which she would have uttered, were broken into sobs.
-
-“This is very kind of you, Miss Gray,” said the young clergyman, in a
-low voice, which had something of proud constraint in its tones; “I
-inquired for you at the house, but your mother informed me that you were
-engaged, and that your sister did not wish to see me.”
-
-“Not wish to see you!” exclaimed Malina, suddenly finding voice;
-“Phebe—my poor Phebe—not wish to see you! Alas, for her, she cannot
-see any one; this cruel business has broken her heart. Oh, Mr. Mosier,
-why is it that such wrong can be done? why submit to it? what right has
-my mother thus to interfere, to the unhappiness of her child?”
-
-Mr. Mosier did not reply, his thoughts were far away, and, though he
-gazed earnestly on the enthusiastic face lifted to his, Malina knew that
-he was not thinking of her. She felt humbled, and turned away her face
-as one who had been rebuked. So she stood gazing, with a look of patient
-humility, on the waters sparkling in the basin at her feet, till at last
-he aroused himself and spoke. But she, who felt every word he uttered as
-if it were a tone of music, had no share in his speech or his thoughts.
-Things all too precious for her were rendered to another, and she must
-endure the pain.
-
-“So she was ill, and _could_ not come. Yet she knew I was there, and sat
-in the room all the time. I saw her at the window, and she looked—tell
-me, Malina, my sweet, kind sister,” he added, suddenly, “did she wish to
-see me?—would she come for a moment here or into the garden?”
-
-The young man looked anxious, and his cheek flushed brilliantly as he
-spoke, for the moment his well regulated mind had lost its balance, and
-the passions of earth were strong within him. It was but for a moment;
-before Malina had time to reply, the flush died from his face.
-
-“No,” he added, with a sorrowful motion of the head, “it is wrong to
-ask, foolish to desire an interview—comfort her, Malina, say that which
-I cannot have permission to utter in her presence; say how deeply, how
-earnestly I have loved her, how weary I am of the world, how lonely my
-heart is now—say to her—alas! what message have I to send—I, who can
-scarcely turn my face heavenward, the clouds are so dark that lie heaped
-before me!”
-
-These words were uttered in a tone of such despondency that Malina once
-more lifted her eyes, and would have spoken words of encouragement which
-she was far from feeling, for her own wretchedness seemed completed in
-that of the beings she most loved; but, while her lips were parted, he
-made a sudden effort at composure, and saying that all might yet be
-well, in a broken and hurried voice, he drew Malina toward him and
-stooped to press his lips to her forehead, without seeming conscious of
-the act—but she was all too conscious, the blood rushed to her cheeks,
-and she trembled in his arms like a frightened child. He saw it not, for
-to his thought she was a sister only, and though his lips had pressed
-her forehead for the first time, he did not think of it, but mounted his
-horse and rode away before she had power to utter a word or make a
-gesture to detain him.
-
-He was gone forever, and she was alone—alone! how often is that word
-misapplied; the loving and the loved are never alone—but so it was with
-Malina Gray.
-
-
- CHAPTER IV.
-
- “In the cold, damp earth we laid her,
- When the forest cast its leaf,
- And we sighed, that one so beautiful
- Should have a lot so brief.”
-
-
-“So, Madam, you refuse—my boy is dying, and he yearns to look once more
-on the poor girl who would have been his wife in a single week.”
-
-It was but a few days after her interview with Mr. Mosier, that Malina
-heard these words issue from her mother’s parlor, as she was passing
-through the hall, from the chamber where she had just left Phebe
-striving to beguile her weary thoughts with a book. The door was ajar,
-and there was a power in the words which made her start and listen. It
-was a deep, manly voice, that of an aged person, but entreaty,
-tenderness and something almost like resentment, combined to render it
-startling and pathetic. Malina held her breath, and, drawing a step
-nearer, looked through the door.
-
-An aged man was standing before her mother, he held a cane without
-resting on it, and a broad brimmed hat was in his left hand; firm and
-erect he stood in the quiet room, the gray hair sweeping back from his
-forehead, and his plain dress giving him the look of a patriarch; his
-face was agitated, but so full of benevolence that Malina loved the old
-man before she guessed who he was. Violent passions could seldom have
-passed over those mild features, still they were disturbed as he spoke,
-and the good old man was evidently struggling with strong and bitter
-emotions. There was something in the grasp of his hand on the cane, and
-in his dignified bearing, which awed the sympathy it excited.
-
-Mrs. Gray was sitting in her easy chair, looking rather earnestly at the
-old man. She had been engaged in knitting when he entered, but had laid
-the work on a little round stand by her side, and seemed rather anxious
-to take it up again; but she was too punctilious for that, and very
-blandly requested her visitor to resume the seat from which he had
-risen. “No, I have not time to sit down, every minute is worth years to
-me now—my only son is dying, and I am absent from his side.” The old
-man now paused, his chin began to quiver, and turning away his face, he
-strove to conceal the tears that broke into his eyes from the calm and
-heartless woman who sat gazing upon him.
-
-“Madam,” he said, but his voice was broken, and his hand shook till the
-hat fell from his grasp to the floor. “Madam, I beseech you, think
-better of this! My boy cannot live forty-eight hours; the doctors told
-me so before I left him. But I came from his bed side, when each lost
-moment was as a drop of blood wrung from my heart, thinking that you
-might refuse any messenger but his father. You are a woman and should
-feel for him, and here I gave up five whole hours of this precious time
-that he might look on the face of that poor girl before he dies; and his
-mother—you have had children sleeping against your heart, madam—do you
-think his mother would not find it a comfort if the soul of her only
-child could go up to heaven from her bosom where he nestled in his first
-infancy? Do you think she has no woman’s yearning wish for the last
-embrace, the last endearing word? She loves the boy better than her own
-soul, and he is dying before her eyes—but she gave him up. When she saw
-that he moaned for the presence of one who had become dearer than his
-own mother, she bade me come hither and bring the girl that her first
-born might die in the arms he loved best—think, woman, every moment I
-spend in talking here is wrung from the death bed of a child that was
-all on earth that two old people had to love and hope for. I must
-depart, but let _her_ go with me.”
-
-The old man unconsciously clasped his hands as he spoke, and tears fell
-like rain over his withered cheeks.
-
-Mrs. Gray glanced at him with something of wonder in her face, and
-extending out her hand, took up the knitting work as if to end the
-conference.
-
-“And can you still refuse!” exclaimed the old man.
-
-“It would not be proper,” replied Mrs. Gray, quietly unscrewing the top
-of her silver knitting case, “besides, Phebe is not well enough to ride
-so far even if she desired it, and the fever may be contagious.”
-
-“If I could talk with the young lady I am sure she _would_ desire it,”
-said the old man, almost humbly, for his heart grew heavy at the thought
-of returning to the death bed of his son with his errand unaccomplished.
-“Leave it to her good feelings, madam, and if they plead against me I
-will depart and trouble you no more.”
-
-Neither the pleading voice, nor the agony of over-wrought feelings with
-which the unhappy father spoke, reached the heart of Mrs. Gray. While
-the old man stood before her, trembling beneath the burden of his grief,
-she placed her needle in its sheath, twisted the worsted over her
-finger, and went through the intricacies of a seam stitch before even
-her eyes were lifted toward him.
-
-“You must recollect, Mr. Mosier,” she said, “Phebe is not at present
-engaged to your son, and even if she were, I do not think it would be
-exactly correct for her to visit him. I am sorry for the young
-gentleman, very; I will see that our new minister mentions his case in
-prayer next Sabbath; we all feel for him—but he would not be advised.
-Indeed—”
-
-Here Mrs. Gray dropped a stitch, and paused while it was looped up
-again. When she raised her eyes, the face of her auditor was stern, and
-as calm as her own. The tears had dropped from his cheek, his hands were
-both grasping the head of his cane, and if that pharisaical woman could
-have shrunk from any thing, the solemn and reproving eyes which dwelt on
-her face would have kindled the most generous blood of her heart into
-blushes of shame. But it is hard to wring the die of shame from a
-self-righteous heart. Mrs. Gray believed herself to be acting in a most
-Christian-like spirit, in still retaining the heartless civility of her
-manner toward the poor old man whom her own cruelty had bereaved. Her
-heart was entombed in the self-conceit of its own sanctity, like dust in
-the marble of a sarcophagus.
-
-“Woman,” said the old man, and this time his voice was firm, and
-thrillingly solemn; “you have no heart. You are a mother, and should
-know how much worse than death it is to see the child whom you have
-loved and cherished, and woven in your very heart-strings, perishing
-before your eyes. Oh, how proud we were of that boy! how his poor mother
-loved him! what a day it was when she and I walked up the broad aisle of
-that old meeting-house yonder, and saw him standing in the pulpit—a
-minister of the gospel. We had prayed for that sight—toiled and slaved
-for it—and were so happy—so very happy. He is on his death bed now.
-Woman, _you_ have sent him there—you, who were a mother, thought
-nothing of smiting a sister woman through the heart—you, a professor of
-religion, can do murder more subtle and cruel than that which cleaves a
-man through the brain, and look calm and speak softly, nay, smilingly
-refuse the last dying request of your victim. Woman, I will not curse
-you—that right rests with the high God of Heaven, who looketh down upon
-the murder you have done, not as man looketh, not as the law
-looketh—before _him_, shall you be arraigned, and that cold heart shall
-be made to shudder at the depth of its own crime—_he_ will be thine
-accuser—he, thy victim, who was so gentle, so sweet tempered, that
-thoughts of revenge never entered his heart. In a few short hours he
-will stand in the broad light of Heaven, sent there untimely; and even
-as Abel bear witness against his brother, he shall bear witness against
-thee! The Almighty may not place his mark upon thy brow—the law may not
-brand thee—but one who can wring the life from a human being by silent
-and moral cruelty, is not less a murderer than the man who smites his
-brother to the heart with a poniard!”
-
-Mrs. Gray was at length moved—for the solemn and stern energy of that
-pale old man might have startled the dead from their graves—the
-knitting dropped from her hands, her eyes darkled with terror, and her
-face turned white as a corpse beneath the snowy lace and the black and
-false hair that shaded it. She would have spoken, but the pallid lips
-trembled without uttering a sound, while the hands which rested in her
-lap began to shiver, as she strove to lift them and motion him away.
-
-The old man left her where she sat, and went into the hall; but his
-feelings had been too cruelly outraged, and there his strength gave way;
-he sunk helplessly to a settee, and covering his face with his hands,
-wept like a child.
-
-Malina had left the hall and stood in her sister’s chamber. Phebe was
-dressed and seated by the window, pondering over the pages of a book,
-though she had not turned a leaf that day. She did not raise her eyes
-when the door opened, but seemed unconscious of a second person.
-
-“Come with me,” said Malina, grasping the hand which lay in her sister’s
-lap, with fingers that clung to it like ice. “Come!”
-
-There was something in Malina’s face that frightened her companion from
-the apathy that had for days settled on her spirits. She arose, without
-a word, and was led down stairs, and into the hall. It was empty. Old
-Mr. Mosier had departed, and the front door was left open behind him.
-
-“Phebe,” said Malina Gray, in a faint whisper, “_he_ is dying, and has
-sent for you—his father sat there, but a moment since. Our mother has
-refused that you should see him. He is pining to die with his head
-against your heart. Sister, will you go?”
-
-“I will plead with her—kneel to her,” said Phebe Gray, and opening the
-parlor door, she entered alone.
-
-Malina paused an instant, and turning through a side door, passed across
-a small clover lot, toward the stables. A horse stood cropping the white
-blossoms in a corner of the field. She looked around for some one to
-help her, but the men were all away on the upper farm—so she drew
-toward the gentle animal, and beckoning with her hand, uttered a few
-coaxing words, and persuaded him toward the stables. He bent his neck
-while her trembling hands placed the bit in his mouth, which was yet
-half full of fragrant grass, and turned his head to watch her, as she
-girded the saddle to his back. When she tied him to the garden fence,
-and entered the house again, he followed her with his eyes, and, with a
-short neigh, fell to tearing with his mouth the honeysuckle vines that
-crept along the fence.
-
-As Malina entered the hall she saw Phebe gliding up stairs toward their
-room; she was walking feebly, and held by the bannister as she went.
-When the sisters stood within the chamber together, Phebe sunk to a
-chair, while Malina looked earnestly in her face, and uttered a single
-sentence—
-
-“Will you go?”
-
-“She has forbidden it,” replied Phebe, faintly.
-
-“Will you go?” said Malina, once more.
-
-“I dare not disobey her!” Phebe spoke with difficulty, and clasping both
-hands over her face, moaned as if in pain, for the struggle within her
-heart was terrible.
-
-When Phebe became sufficiently composed to look up, her sister was gone.
-She was glad to be alone, and creeping toward the bed, knelt down and
-prayed.
-
-Malina had snatched a bonnet and shawl from the bed while her sister’s
-face was concealed, and gliding down stairs into the open air, she
-mounted the horse and rode away.
-
-It was sunset as the poor girl came slowly over the old bridge, and rode
-by our house. I was playing in the front yard, and ran out to meet
-her—but all at once she drew the bridle tight, and the spirited horse
-sprung forward on the way before my childish voice could be heard. The
-gloom of coming night lay heavily amid the pine boughs, as the young
-girl rode under them, and when she dashed up the road, and disappeared
-over Fall’s Hill, both horse and rider were for one moment displayed in
-bold relief against a pile of crimson and golden clouds which lay heaped
-in the horizon. When she disappeared, it seemed, to my infant fancy, as
-if the gates of heaven had unfolded to receive her.
-
-The night came on clear, and lighted both by moon and stars, the
-solitary traveler still kept the road, accompanied only by her spirited
-animal, and the shadow which seemed gliding along the dewy green-sward
-by her side, like a silent guardian. It was late in the evening when the
-horse checked himself at the fence before a red farm-house, with a
-sloping roof, and two large trees embowering it with foliage.
-
-It seemed like supernatural instinct in the animal, for he had only been
-there once before, and Malina, in the tumult of her thoughts, scarcely
-knew where she wished to stop. There was a light twinkling through the
-thick leaves of a tree bough that dropped over one of the front windows,
-but it was very faint, and seemed forcing itself through the folds of a
-window curtain. Malina grasped the horn of her saddle, and dropping
-feebly down to the green-sward, moved toward the house. There was a
-foot-path which led to the front door—she followed this, and found
-herself in a dark entry, with a narrow stream of light falling through
-the entrance to an inner room. The sound of a faint, wandering voice,
-and of smothered sobs, stole from the room. Malina breathed heavily as
-she touched the door, and glided into the room. It was indeed the
-chamber of death. A solitary candle burned on the table, amid glasses
-and vials, sending forth just sufficient light to reveal an old
-fashioned tent bed, with its white drapery sweeping to the floor, and
-its heavy fringes hanging motionless, as if they had been cut from
-marble. At the foot of this bed knelt an old man; his hands were clasped
-beneath his face, and the long gray hair swept thickly over them, as he
-prayed. A female stood between Malina and the bed; she was bending over
-the pillows which were heaped high upon it, and though the poor girl
-could not see her face, she _felt_ that it was _his_ mother. She moved,
-and the sound of her footstep on the sanded floor made the old lady lift
-her head, and Malina saw his face once more. Oh, how white and changed
-it was! The damp, black hair fell heavily over his forehead, shadows lay
-about the closed eyelids, and there was an expression about the mouth,
-which was not a smile, and yet seemed deathly and sweet. His head was
-raised high with pillows, and though he seemed to sleep, the breath came
-painfully from his lips, and with a struggle that constantly disturbed
-the linen which lay in waves across his breast.
-
-Malina stood upright in the dim light, motionless as a thing of marble,
-her eyes fixed on the dying man, and unconscious, in the force of her
-grief, that to all in the room, save him who saw her not, she was a
-stranger, and had intruded into the sanctuary of private grief.
-
-It mattered not; Malina’s step had been mistaken for that of a woman
-from the kitchen, and no one knew that the wretched young creature was
-there.
-
-There was a motion of the bed clothes, a faint murmur, and the dying man
-opened his eyes—those large, eloquent eyes that Malina had thought upon
-so often, and so thrillingly. There was a mist upon them now, but
-through it broke a soft and strange light, heavenly and beautiful. The
-old lady bent her ear, and listened to the faint murmur, which seemed
-dying on his lips.
-
-“My father—when will he come back?—it is late!”
-
-The sound was very faint, but the old man had heard it amid the strong
-agony of his prayer. He arose, and moving round the bed, bent over his
-son. A light, almost preternatural, came to the eyes of that dying man,
-and with a sudden effort he found voice to speak.
-
-“My father,” he said, “thank God—you have returned in time. Where is
-she?”
-
-“My son,” said the old man, in a voice which he vainly strove to render
-calm, “in a little time she will meet you in heaven—but she is not
-here.”
-
-The invalid had turned his head upon the pillow, with a look of touching
-eagerness; but it fell back—his eyes closed faintly, and after gasping
-once or twice, he lay motionless, save the lips, which gave forth broken
-but beautiful fragments of speech, such as came uppermost in his pure,
-but wandering mind, for he was delirious now. The last vibrations of his
-soul were disturbed by disappointment in his sole earthly wish. In the
-broken murmurs that fell from his lips, Malina heard her own name, and
-it unlocked the ice which seemed closing round her heart. With a sob
-that broke to her lips amid a gush of tears, she sprung toward the bed,
-and falling upon her knees, clasped the pale hand which fell over the
-bed, and pressed her quivering lips repeatedly upon it, while her voice
-mingled with the choking grief that shook her whole frame.
-
-“Forgive me! oh, let me stay!” she said, lifting her face to the old
-woman, but still nervously grasping the dying man’s hand; “I loved him
-better than she did—better than anybody could—better than my own soul!
-Let me stay, and die with him! No one asked _me_ to come, but I am here.
-You will not send me away?”
-
-The voice of Malina Gray was soft and low, like that of her sister; and
-though broken with grief, it is probable that the dying man was
-bewildered by the sound. He started from the pillow—a glorious lustre
-broke through the mist which whelmed his eyes, and as Malina sprang to
-her feet, his face fell upon her shoulder, and his cold cheek lay
-against hers. It was very strange—Malina knew that he was dying, but a
-flash of wild joy thrilled through her heart, and for the first time
-since she had heard of his illness, a faint color broke into the cheek
-which pressed his. She laid him gently upon the pillow, and parting the
-damp hair from his forehead, pressed her lips tremblingly upon it, while
-her sobs filled the chamber. When the dying man felt the touch of her
-quivering mouth, a smile stole over his face—again the misty eyes were
-unclosed, and feebly lifting his arm, he wound it over her neck and drew
-her to his bosom, while the unformed words he would have spoken were
-lost amid the dying music of his soul. A moment, and his arm fell softly
-from Malina’s neck. The young creature lifted her face from his bosom,
-and looking at his mother, murmured—
-
-“He loved _her_ living—but is he not mine in death?—mine, for ever and
-ever!”
-
-She turned to lay her face near his heart once more, but there was no
-color in her lips then. She started, and, with a cold shudder, bent her
-cheek slowly to his bosom—it pressed heavily, and more heavily, on the
-cold clay—her limbs relaxed, and she sunk across the bed, senseless as
-the beautiful corpse which cumbered it.
-
-The gloom of death had shadowed that farm-house two days, and now it was
-desolate. The kind neighbors who had walked in and out, ministering to
-grief, no longer broke the solemn hush which pervaded the dwelling. The
-departed was indeed the departed—for they had borne him over his
-father’s threshold, and laid him down to sleep in the dark earth. Malina
-followed him to the grave. She was a stranger, but no one asked why she
-stood among the mourners, and without their sable vestments. When the
-aged mother bent over the coffin, and looked upon the dead, the young
-girl drew to her side, and fixed her eyes upon the cold still face which
-had never met her glance coldly before. The mother wept, but Malina
-could not shed a tear, although the solemn and hushed grief upon her
-face awed even village curiosity.
-
-And now they were alone—the parents, and that poor girl. She was upon
-her knees—her head was bent, and its redundant hair veiled her face,
-while the broken hearted young creature begged a blessing from _his
-mother_ before she went away. The sorrowing woman laid her hands upon
-the bright tresses which flowed over her lap for a moment, then lifting
-the suppliant to her bosom, wept over her.
-
-Mr. Mosier, when he heard the sobs of his wife, arose, and clasping his
-hands over Malina’s head, silently besought a blessing on her. She drew
-back, and he saw that her face was still calm; so taking her hands in
-his, he began to persuade and reason with her. She listened, and gazed
-earnestly in his face as he spoke. At last, tears started to her eyes,
-and when the old man saw this, big drops began to stream down his own
-cheek, and the clasp of his hand grew tremulous, as he led her from the
-room.
-
-As the old man placed Malina in her saddle, he glanced in her face, and
-a misgiving came to his heart. He questioned himself if it was safe to
-trust her to the road without protection; but when he proposed
-accompanying her part of the way, at least, she pleaded against it with
-startling eagerness, and, thinking of his afflicted wife, he allowed her
-to depart.
-
-Malina had a secret wish at her heart, which caused it to pant for
-solitude. Her road lay close by the grave-yard where our young minister
-was buried, and she yearned to stand once more by his death place, and
-alone. When she reached the sacred place, she looked to the right and
-left, timidly, as if her errand had been a wrong one. Her nerves were
-strung to their utmost tension, and she was morbidly fearful of being
-seen—every thing was solitary and quiet; the long grass bending to the
-breeze, as it sighed over the graves, and the soft rustling sound which
-whispered amid the leaves of a clump of weeping willows, that curtained
-an entire household that had gone down to sleep together, were all the
-sounds that fell upon her ear. She tied the horse to the fence, and
-passing forward to _his_ grave, sat upon a pile of sods that had been
-left by the sexton. She neither wept nor moved—but there she remained
-in the bright sunshine, gazing hour after hour on a tuft of tiny white
-blossoms, which sprung up from a sod which they had placed just over his
-heart. Now and then, she twined her hands together as they reposed in
-her lap—and as the sunshine went suddenly away, and heavy black clouds
-rolled over the sky, with the lightning playing amid their ragged folds,
-she smiled, and drew closer to the grave.
-
-At last, a roar of thunder burst from the clouds, big drops of rain came
-down upon the graves, and bent the willows more droopingly to the earth.
-
-Malina lifted her eyes upward with a wild and startled look, then
-turning them on the willows which sheltered that single family, and on
-the congregation of graves which lay around her, all covered with long
-grass, she rested them on the mound at her feet, murmuring—
-
-“Have all a covering from the cold rain, but thee?”
-
-As she spoke, Malina took off her shawl, and spreading it over the newly
-made grave, cast herself upon it, and for the first time since she felt
-his heart stop beating beneath hers, moaned and sobbed as if her very
-life were going from her.
-
-In a few moments the garments of our poor mourner were saturated with
-rain—still she clung closer to the grave, murmuring words of wild
-endearment to the unconscious inmate, and congratulating herself, with
-strange earnestness, that she was still able to shield his bosom from
-the storm.
-
-At last, the clouds rolled away, and though the sun was just going down,
-his last fires kindled a rainbow amid the water drops that yet filled
-the air. Malina lifted her head, and gazed upward—a smile parted her
-lips when she saw the rainbow, and pressing her cheek upon the grave
-again, she whispered—
-
-“The angels have built thee a bridge, love!”
-
-The sun went down, and Malina arose from the grave, shivering from head
-to foot. She gazed around, and was turning her eyes with a wistful look
-on her late resting place, as if she meditated casting herself down
-again, when a low neigh from the horse which still remained by the
-fence, aroused her, and leaving the shawl behind, she hurried toward the
-patient animal, and mounting him, rode away.
-
-Malina must have wandered from the usual road, in the strange
-abstraction of her mind, for it was midnight when she came opposite the
-old meeting-house. Prompted, doubtless, by some vague fear of returning
-home, or perhaps allured to pause by the open gate, the weary and half
-bewildered girl turned her horse, and riding close to the front door of
-the parsonage house, dismounted, and allowed him to wander amid the
-flower beds and rose bushes which filled the yard. Thrusting her hand
-beneath the door sill, she took out a key, and fitted it to the lock,
-but with difficulty, for her hands trembled; and though hot flushes
-every moment darted through her frame, she was shivering with cold. She
-went up stairs, holding feebly by the balusters, and guided by the
-moonlight, which fell from a window overhead, she entered a room—that
-which she had decorated as the bridal chamber of her sister Phebe, and
-of the departed. A clear moonlight came through the windows, and lay
-like flags of silver amid the black shadows which filled the apartment.
-Every thing was still and motionless; not a breath stirred the bridal
-ribands with which the muslin curtains were looped back. The bed lay
-with the moonlight sleeping amid its pillows, like a snow drift, when
-the air is calm; and the atmosphere was impregnated by the dead flowers
-which had been profusely lavished on the toilet, and now hung crisp and
-withered in their vases. Malina was very ill, and a fever burned through
-her veins—her limbs were almost powerless, and her forehead seemed
-girdled with iron. Still was she sensible of surrounding things, and her
-heart swelled with the recollections which thronged on her aching brain.
-She unfastened her damp dress, and with difficulty crept into bed.
-
-“Poor, poor Phebe,” she murmured, gathering the white counterpane over
-her shivering form, “how little she thinks I am here—how she would pity
-me, so ill, and all alone. Alas, how sad a thing this trouble is—I have
-not thought of Phebe these many long days—I wonder if she is ill as I
-am—if her head is so hot, and her limbs chilled, till they shake so.
-This is a cold bed—very, very cold—but his is colder still. Oh, my
-God! _he is dead_—and I have seen his grave. I—but it was not
-me—no—he loved my sister. But I had his dying kiss! It was the last
-throb of his heart that beat against mine, and chilled me so. That was
-it—that was it!”
-
-With such fragments of speech, and moans of pain, Malina verged into the
-delirium of a raging fever. At times she would weep, and call for her
-sister, in tones of yearning tenderness—then notes of music would break
-from her lips, and ring through every corner of the solitary house, as
-if a prisoned angel were pleading for release there. When the fever came
-on, fierce and strong, she began to ask for water—to weep, and wring
-her hands, while she entreated some visionary being to leave her in the
-grave-yard where _he_ was; where showers were continually falling and
-weaving rainbows around those who thirsted for rest or drink; and so her
-voice of suffering rose and swelled through the lone building all night.
-When the day dawned, she was still awake and delirious; tears stood on
-her crimson cheeks, and entreaties for water still rose to her parched
-lips.
-
-It came at last—she knew not how it was, but a pale, sweet face bent
-over her, a soft voice was speaking comfort, and a glass of water cooler
-and more refreshing than she had ever tasted before was held to her
-lips. She was just conscious enough to think that it was Phebe who
-ministered to her wants, or some good seraph that looked as sweetly sad
-and kind. Then she sunk to sleep, and it was many weeks before she awoke
-from the dream that followed.
-
-It was Phebe Gray who stood by the sick bed of the sufferer. A villager
-had seen Mrs. Gray’s horse that morning, bridled and with his saddle on,
-trampling among the flower beds and feasting upon the choice rose bushes
-which grew in the parsonage yard—he went in to secure the animal and
-was terrified by the voice of suffering which issued from the house. He
-went up stairs, saw the delirious young creature who occupied the bridal
-chamber, and hastened to inform Mrs. Gray—but Phebe had struggled with
-her own sufferings and stood over Malina’s sick bed many hours before
-the mother had arranged her dress and prepared herself to pass through
-the village with that degree of propriety which she considered due to
-her character.
-
-Malina lay many weeks before the fever left her; then a cough set in and
-a hectic spot settled and burned into her thin cheeks. The poor girl
-smiled a sad quiet smile, when she heard them say each evening, that a
-little over exertion had excited her, that she had taken a slight cold
-which in the turn of her disease was felt more than usual. Still the
-cough deepened, the crimson spot burned on, and she knew that the life
-which kindled would soon be exhausted. And so it was, that autumn when
-the woods were all flushed with those dyes which an early frost brings
-to the foliage, when the nuts were ripe and the brown leaves fell in
-showers over the crisp moss, Malina Gray was extended beneath the snowy
-drapery which her own hands had gathered above the bridal bed. White
-ribands were still knotted amid the folds which seemed brooding over her
-like a cloud, and a few crimson fall flowers lay scattered upon the
-pillow, some of them so close to the marble cheek that a faint tinge was
-coldly reflected there. For two whole nights Phebe watched the beautiful
-clay reposing in the dim light upon her own bridal bed, but scarcely
-more changed than her own sweet self. Malina was the happiest, her heart
-had broken amid the struggle of its suffering, but that of the watcher
-lay crushed and withering in her young bosom. She felt that life was yet
-strong within her; but hope, love, every thing that makes life pleasant
-to a woman, had departed. She was still good, still pure almost as an
-angel, but the sad smile which settled on her lips never deepened to a
-laugh again, and no human being ever saw a tear in her changeless and
-sorrowful eyes.
-
-They laid Malina Gray down to sleep beside old minister Brown—in the
-very spot she had yearned to repose in. A large circle of neighbors
-gathered around the grave, some in tears, and all very sorrowful. Mrs.
-Gray stood by the coffin; her mourning was arranged with great care, and
-a veil of new crape, deeply hemmed, fell decorously over her face, and
-the white handkerchief, with which she concealed those maternal tears
-proper for a mother, whose duty it was to be resigned under any
-dispensation. But Phebe stood silent and motionless; no handkerchief was
-lifted to her eyes, and the face which gleamed beneath the crape veil,
-was profoundly calm, almost as that of the corpse.
-
-We had a new minister, on trial, of Mrs. Gray’s choosing, who performed
-the funeral service, and when all was over, returned home with the
-mourners; when they knelt in the little parlor that night, he prayed
-earnestly, and with genuine tears, for the bereaved mother; he besought
-the Lord to visit, with consolation, one who was a mother in Israel, a
-bright and shining ornament in the Christian church; a woman who had
-brought up her children in the fear and admonition of the Lord; whose
-path was growing brighter and brighter to the perfect day when she would
-reap a rich reward in heaven.
-
-Amid a few natural sobs which awoke in the widow’s heart, she murmured,
-“Amen,” satisfied that her life had been one of perfect rectitude, and
-that in all things she had been a pattern mother, and an ornament to the
-church, which ought to be her consolation under any bereavement.
-
-The new minister was a very conscientious man, but practical in all his
-ideas; he was honest in the high opinion which he entertained of Mrs.
-Gray, and not sufficiently sensitive to shrink from offering his hand to
-Phebe, when that lady delicately gave him to understand that the step
-would be satisfactory to herself. The old parsonage house was still
-empty, and Phebe’s inheritance. He was an installed pastor, and Miss
-Gray’s engagement to his predecessor never entered his mind as an
-objection.
-
-Phebe betrayed no emotion when the proposal was made. She simply
-declined it, without giving a reason; and when he married another
-person, and would have rented the parsonage, she said with decision—“It
-must remain as my sister left it!”
-
-And when Mrs. Gray would have remonstrated, she answered, still with
-firmness—
-
-“I am of age, mother, but still will obey you in all things else. Act as
-you like regarding the other property—but no stranger shall ever live
-in the parsonage. Poor Malina furnished it for _him_, and for me. She
-died there, and so will I!”
-
- * * * * *
-
-It may be so, for the old house is still uninhabited. Every thing
-remains as Malina left it; the bridal chamber, the easy chair, and the
-flute upon the table; time has made little change in those silent
-apartments, for every week Phebe, who has become a calm and sorrowful
-old maid, goes up to the house alone, and remains there for many hours;
-sometimes seated at the study table, and gazing at a grave which may be
-seen through the trees. Once, a child gathering valley lilies, beneath
-the window, saw her standing at the open sash, with her sad eyes turned
-toward the grave-yard. She was talking to herself—the child dropped his
-flowers and listened, for there was something so mournful in her voice,
-that his little heart thrilled to the sound.
-
-“They tell me that he wearied himself, and died of fever,” she said;
-“and that thou, my sister, perished naturally, and as we all must. Alas,
-if I could but think so. Why not have told me how he was beloved before
-it was too late? I would have given him up—and while you were happy,
-this heart had not become so palsied and feelingless. Alas, it was well
-that thy heart _could_ break, my poor, poor Malina!”
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- NOON.[5]
-
-
- BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.
-
-
- ’Tis noon. At noon the Hebrew bowed the knee
- And worshiped, while the husbandman withdrew
- From the scorched field, and the wayfaring man
- Grew faint, and turned aside by bubbling fount,
- Or rested in the shadow of the palm.
-
- I, too, amid the overflow of day,
- Behold the power which wields and cherishes
- The frame of Nature. From this brow of rock
- That overlooks the Hudson’s western marge,
- I gaze upon the long array of groves,
- The piles and gulfs of verdure drinking in
- The grateful heats. They love the fiery sun;
- Their broadening leaves grow glossier, and their sprays
- Climb as he looks upon them. In the midst,
- The swelling river into his green gulfs,
- Unshadowed save by passing sails above,
- Takes the redundant glory, and enjoys
- The summer in his chilly bed. Coy flowers,
- That would not open in the early light,
- Push back their plaited sheaths. The rivulet’s pool,
- That darkly quivered all the morning long
- In the cool shade, now glimmers in the sun,
- And o’er its surface shoots, and shoots again,
- The glittering dragon-fly, and deep within
- Run the brown water-beetles to and fro.
-
- A silence, the brief sabbath of an hour,
- Reigns o’er the fields; the laborer sits within
- His dwelling; he has left his steers awhile,
- Unyoked, to bite the herbage, and his dog
- Sleeps stretched beside the door-stone in the shade.
- Now the gray marmot, with uplifted paws,
- No more sits listening by his den, but steals
- Abroad, in safety, to the clover field,
- And crops its juicy blossoms. All the while
- A ceaseless murmur from the populous town
- Swells o’er these solitudes; a mingled sound
- Of jarring wheels, and iron hoofs that clash
- Upon the stony ways, and hammer clang,
- And creak of engines lifting ponderous bulks,
- And calls and cries, and tread of eager feet,
- Innumerable, hurrying to and fro.
- Noon, in that mighty mart of nations, brings
- No pause to toil and care; with early day
- Began the tumult, and shall only cease
- When midnight, hushing one by one the sounds
- Of bustle, gathers the tired brood to rest.
-
- Thus, in this feverish time, when love of gain
- And luxury possess the hearts of men,
- Thus is it with the noon of human life.
- We in our fervid manhood, in our strength
- Of reason, we, with hurry, noise and care,
- Plan, toil and strive, and pause not to refresh
- Our spirits with the calm and beautiful
- Of God’s harmonious universe, that won
- Our youthful wonder; pause not to inquire
- Why we are here, and what the reverence
- Man owes to man, and what the mystery
- That links us to the greater world, beside
- Whose borders we but hover for a space.
-
------
-
-[5] From an unpublished Poem.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- TRUTH.
-
-
- BY MRS. FRANCES SARGENT OSGOOD.
-
-
- “This above all!—to thine own self be true!
- And it must follow, as the night the day,
- Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
-
-
-
- CHAPTER I.
-
- A MOTHER’S INFLUENCE.
-
-“Mother! mother!” exclaimed a sweet, eager voice, and the speaker, a
-child of thirteen years, burst into the room, where Mrs. Carlton sat at
-work, “don’t you think there is to be a prize given on exhibition day
-for the best composition! And I mean to try for it—sha’nt I?”
-
-She was a little, harum-scarum looking imp! I suppose she had run all
-the way home from school, for her straw bonnet hung on her neck instead
-of her head, and a profusion of soft dark hair was streaming in such
-disorder about her glowing face, that you could not tell if she were
-pretty or not; but you could see a pair of brilliant, gray or blue or
-black eyes—they certainly changed their color with every new emotion;
-but I think they were really gray—full of laughter, and love beaming
-through the truant tresses, and all eloquent with the beauty of a fresh,
-warm soul. This change in the child’s eyes is no freak of a foolish
-fancy; for every one noticed it; and her school-crony, Kate Sumner, used
-to declare, that when Harriet was angry they were black; gray when she
-was thoughtful; violet when sad; and when happy and loving, they changed
-to the tenderest blue.
-
-Mrs. Carlton drew the little girl toward her, and smoothed back the
-rebellious curls, at the same time exclaiming, with a long drawn sigh,
-“My _dear_ Harriet! how you _do_ look!”
-
-“Oh, mother! it’s not the least matter how _I_ look! If I were only a
-beauty, now, like Angelina Burton, I would keep my hair as smooth as—as
-_any_ thing; but I wouldn’t rub my cheeks though, as she does always,
-just before she goes into a room where there’s company—would _you_,
-mother?”
-
-The mother gazed at her child’s expressive face, as she spoke, with its
-irregular, yet lovely features, the strange, bright eyes, the changing
-cheek, the full and sweet, but spirited mouth, and said to herself,
-“Whatever you may think, my darling, I would not change your simple,
-innocent, childlike unconsciousness, for all Angelina’s beauty, spoiled
-as it is by vanity and affectation.”
-
-“But, mother, do give me a subject for composition, for I want to write
-it now, this minute!”
-
-“Harriet,” said Mrs. Carlton quietly, “go and brush your hair, change
-your shoes, and mend that rent in your dress as neatly as you can.”
-
-Harriet half pouted; but she met her mother’s tranquil eye; the pout
-changed to a good-humored smile, and kissing her affectionately, she
-bounded off to do her bidding.
-
-While she is gone, you would like—would you not, dear reader?—to ask a
-few questions about her. I can guess what they are, and will answer
-them, to the best of my knowledge.
-
-Mrs. Carlton is a widow, with a moderate fortune, and a handsome house
-in Tremont street, Boston. She has been a star in fashionable life, but
-since the loss of her husband, whom she tenderly loved, she has retired
-from the gay world, and devoted herself to her child—a wild, frank,
-happy, generous and impetuous creature, with half a dozen glaring
-faults, and one rare virtue which nobly redeemed them all. That virtue,
-patient reader, you must find out for yourself. Perhaps you will catch a
-glimpse of it in
-
-
- CHAPTER II.
-
- AUNT ELOISE.
-
-Harriet was busy with her composition, when her aunt, who was on a visit
-to Mrs. Carlton, entered the room. Aunt Eloise was a weak minded and
-weak hearted lady of a very uncertain age—unhappily gifted with more
-sensibility than sense. She really had a deal of feeling—for
-herself—and an almost inexhaustible shower of tears, varied
-occasionally by hysterics and fainting-fits, whenever any pressing
-exigency in the fate of her friends demanded self-possession, energy, or
-immediate assistance. If, too, there happened, as there will sometimes,
-in all households, to be an urgent necessity for instant exertion by any
-member of the family, such as sewing, watching with an invalid, shopping
-with a country cousin, poor Aunt Eloise was invariably and most
-unfortunately seized with a sudden toothache, headache, pain in the
-side, strange feelings, dreadful nervousness, or some trouble of the
-kind, which quite precluded the propriety of asking her aid.
-
-Every morning at breakfast Aunt Eloise edified the family with a
-wonderful dream, which the breakfast-bell had interrupted, and every
-evening she grew sentimental over the reminiscences which the twilight
-hour awakened. It was then that innumerable shades of former admirers
-arose. Some doubted if they had ever been _more_ than shades; but Aunt
-Eloise certainly knew best about that, and who had a right to deny, that
-Mr. Smith had knelt to her for pity; that Colonel Green had vowed
-eternal adoration; and that Lawyer Lynx had laid his heart, his hand,
-and his fees, which were not quite a fortune, at her feet?
-
-Aunt Eloise had been—at least she hinted so—a beauty and a blue, in
-her day; and, to maintain both characters, she rouged, wore false
-ringlets, and scribbled love-verses, which she had a bad habit of
-leaving, by accident, between the leaves of books in every frequented
-room of the house.
-
-She thought and avowed herself extravagantly fond of her niece, during
-her early childhood, and imagined that she displayed a graceful
-enthusiasm in exclaiming, every now and then, in her presence, and in
-that of others, “Oh! you angel child! I do think she is the sweetest
-creature! Come here and kiss me, you beauty!” &c. &c. But no one ever
-saw Aunt Eloise taking care of the child, attending to its little wants,
-or doing any thing for its benefit. The only tangible proof of her
-affection for her niece, was in the shape of bonbons and candy, which
-she was in the habit of bringing home from her frequent walks in Tremont
-street. Harriet regularly handed these forbidden luxuries to her mother,
-and Mrs. Carlton as regularly threw them in the fire.
-
-“Isn’t it a pity to waste such nice things, mother? Why not give them to
-some poor child in the street?” asked the little girl one day, as she
-watched, with longing eyes, a paper full of the tempting poison, which
-her mother was quietly emptying into the grate.
-
-Mrs. Carlton did not disdain to reason with her child—
-
-“That would be _worse_ than wasted, dear. It would be cruel to give to
-another what I refuse to you on account of its unwholesomeness.”
-
-But Harriet had now been for a long time out of the spinster’s books—as
-the saying is—and this misfortune occurred as follows—
-
-One morning, when she was about six years old, the child came into her
-mother’s room from her aunt’s, where she had been alternately pelted,
-scolded, and teased, till she was weary, and, seating herself in a
-corner, remained for some time absorbed in thought. She had been reading
-to her mother that morning, and one sentence, of which she had asked an
-explanation, had made a deep impression upon her. It was this—“God
-sends us trials and troubles to strengthen and purify our hearts.” She
-now sat in her corner, without speaking or stirring, until her mother’s
-voice startled her from her reverie.
-
-“Of what are you now thinking, Harriet?”
-
-“Mother, did God send Aunt Eloise to strengthen and purify my heart?”
-
-“What do you mean, my child?”
-
-“Why, the book says he sends trials for that, and she is the greatest
-trial _I_ have, you know.”
-
-The indignant maiden was just entering the room as this dialogue began,
-and hearing her own name, she had stopped, unseen, to listen. Speechless
-with rage, she returned to her chamber, and was never heard to call
-Harriet an angel child again.
-
-But we have wasted more words on the fair Eloise’s follies than they
-deserve. Let us return to Harriet’s all-important composition.
-
-The maiden-lady, selfish and indolent as she was, took it into her head
-sometimes to be exceedingly inquisitive; and officious too, particularly
-where she thought her literary talents could come into play. She walked
-up to Harriet and looked over her shoulder.
-
-“What’s this, hey? oh! a story! That’s right, Harriet, I am glad to see
-you taking to literary pursuits. Come, child! give me the pen and I will
-improve that sentence for you.”
-
-“Thank you, aunt! but I don’t want it improved.”
-
-“Not want it improved! There’s vanity!”
-
-“Indeed, aunt, I am not vain about it, and I would like you to help me,
-if it were not to be shown as mine. It wouldn’t be fair, you know, to
-pass off another’s as my own. I am writing for a prize.”
-
-“For a prize! So much the more reason that you should be assisted.
-There, dear, run away to your play and I will write it all for you.
-You’ll be sure to win the prize.”
-
-With every word thus uttered, Harriet’s eyes had grown larger and
-darker, and at the close, she turned them, full of astonishment, from
-her aunt’s face to her mother’s. Reassured by the expression of the
-latter, she replied,
-
-“But, Aunt Eloise, that would be a falsehood, you know.”
-
-“A falsehood, miss!” cried the maiden, sharply, “It is a very common
-thing, I assure you!”
-
-“But not the less false for being common, Eloise,” said Mrs. Carlton;
-“pray let Harriet have her own way about it. It would be far better to
-lose the prize, than to gain it thus dishonestly.”
-
-Aunt Eloise, as usual, secretly determined to have _her_ own way; but
-she said no more then, and Harriet pursued her employment without
-further interruption.
-
-
- CHAPTER III.
-
- THE PRIZE.
-
-The exhibition day had arrived. Harriet had finished her story several
-days before, and read it to her mother. It was a simple, graceful,
-childlike effusion, with less of pretension and ornament, and more of
-spirit and originality than the compositions of most children of the
-same age contain.
-
-Mrs. Carlton seemed much pleased; but Aunt Eloise had criticised it
-without mercy. At the same time she was observed to smile frequently
-with a cunning, sly, triumphant expression, peculiar to herself—an
-expression which she always wore when she had a secret, and secrets she
-had, in abundance—a new one almost every day—trivial, petty secrets,
-which no one cared about but herself; but which _she_ guarded as
-jealously as if they had been apples of gold.
-
-The exhibition day had arrived.
-
-“Good bye, mother; good bye, aunty,” said Harriet, glancing for a moment
-into the breakfast-room.
-
-She was looking very pretty in a simple, tasteful dress, made for the
-occasion. She held the story in her hand, neatly enclosed in an
-envelope, and her eyes were full of hope—the cloudless hope of
-childhood.
-
-“Don’t be surprised, Harriet,” said her aunt, “at any thing that may
-happen to-day. Only be thankful if the prize is yours, that’s all.”
-
-“If Kate Sumner don’t win it, I do _hope_ I shall!” replied the eager
-child, and away she tripped to school.
-
-At twelve o’clock Mrs. Carlton and her sister took their seats among the
-audience, in the exhibition room. The usual exercises were completed,
-and it only remained for the compositions to be read aloud by the
-teacher.
-
-The first was a sentimental essay upon Friendship. Mr. Wentworth, the
-teacher, looked first surprised, then amused, then vexed as he read,
-while a gaily and fashionably dressed lady, who occupied a conspicuous
-place in the assembly, was observed to toss her head and fan herself
-with a very complacent air, while she met, with a nod, the conscious
-eyes of a fair and beautiful, but haughty looking girl of fifteen seated
-among the pupils.
-
-“By Angelina Burton,” said the teacher, as he concluded, and laying it
-aside without further comment, he took up the next—“Lines to a Favorite
-Tree,” by Catherine Sumner.
-
-It was short and simple, and ran as follows—
-
- Thy leaves’ lightest murmur,
- Oh! beautiful tree!
- Each bend of thy branches,
- The stately, the free,
- Each wild, wavy whisper,
- Is music to me.
-
- I gaze thro’ thy labyrinth,
- Golden and green,
- Where the light loves to linger,
- In glory serene,
- Far up, till yon heaven-blue
- Trembles between.
-
- I shut out the city,
- Its sight and its sound,
- And away, far away,
- For the forest I’m bound,
- For the noble old forest,
- Which ages have crowned!
-
- I lean on its moss banks,
- I stoop o’er its rills,
- I see, thro’ its vistas,
- The vapor-wreathed hills,
- And my soul with a gush
- Of wild happiness fills!
-
- I pine for the freshness,
- The freedom, the health,
- Which Nature can give me—
- My soul’s dearest wealth
- Is wasted in cities;
- Where only, by stealth,
-
- The mountain-born breezes
- Can fitfully play,
- Where we steal but a glimpse
- Of this glorious day,
- And but by the calendar,
- Learn it is May.
-
- But away with repining,
- I’ll study, from thee,
- A lesson of patience,
- Oh! noble, old tree!
- ’Mid dark walls imprisoned,
- Thou droop’st not like me;
-
- But strivest forever,
- Still up, strong and brave,
- ’Till in Heaven’s pure sunshine,
- Thy free branches wave!
- Oh! thus may _I_ meet it,
- No longer a slave!
-
-The next was a story, and Harriet Carlton’s eyes and cheeks changed
-color as she listened. It was the same, yet not the same! The incidents
-were hers, the sentiment more novel-like, and many a flowery and highly
-wrought sentence had been introduced, which she had never heard before.
-
-She sat speechless with wonder, indignation, and dismay, and though
-several other inferior compositions were read, she was so absorbed in
-reverie, that she heard no more until she was startled by Mr.
-Wentworth’s voice calling her by name. She looked up. In his hand was
-the prize—a richly chased, golden pencil-case, suspended to a chain of
-the same material. The sound, the sight recalled her bewildered
-faculties, and ere she reached the desk, she had formed a resolution,
-which, however, it required all her native strength of soul to put in
-practice.
-
-“Miss Carlton, the prize is yours!” and the teacher leaned forward to
-throw the chain around her neck. The child drew back—
-
-“No, sir,” she said in a low, but firm and distinct voice, looking up
-bravely in his face, “I did not write the story you have read.”
-
-“Not write it!” exclaimed Mr. Wentworth, “Why, then, does it bear your
-name? Am I to understand, Miss Carlton, that you have asked another’s
-assistance in your composition, and that you now repent the deception?”
-
-Poor Harriet! this was too much! Her dark eyes first flashed, and then
-filled with tears; her lip trembled with emotion, and she paused a
-moment, as if disdaining a reply to this unmerited charge.
-
-A slight and sneering laugh from the beauty aroused her, and she
-answered, respectfully but firmly,
-
-“The story, I did write, was in that envelope yesterday. Some one has
-changed it without my knowledge. It was not so good as that you have
-read; so I must not take the prize.”
-
-There was a murmur of applause through the assembly, and the teacher
-bent upon the blushing girl a look of approval, which amply repaid her
-for all the embarrassment she had suffered.
-
-Aunt Eloise took advantage of the momentary excitement to steal
-unobserved from the room. Harriet took her seat, and Miss Angelina
-Burton was next called up. The portly matron leaned smilingly forward;
-and the graceful, little beauty, already affecting the airs of a fine
-lady, sauntered up to the desk and languidly reached out her hand for
-the prize.
-
-“I cannot say much for your taste in selection, Miss Burton. I do not
-admire your author’s sentiments. The next time you wish to make an
-extract, you must allow me to choose for you. There are better things
-than this, even in the trashy magazine from which you have copied it.”
-
-And with this severe, but justly merited reproof of the imposition that
-had been practiced, he handed the young lady, not the prize, which she
-expected, but the MS. essay on Friendship, which she had copied, word
-for word, from an old magazine.
-
-The portly lady turned very red, and the beauty, bursting into tears of
-anger and mortification, returned to her seat discomfited.
-
-“Miss Catherine Sumner,” resumed the teacher, with a benign smile, to a
-plain, yet noble-looking girl, who came forward as he spoke, “I believe
-there can be no mistake about _your_ little effusion. I feel great
-pleasure in presenting you the reward, due, not only to your mental
-cultivation, but to the goodness of your heart. What! do _you_, too,
-hesitate?”
-
-“Will you be kind enough, sir,” said the generous Kate, taking a paper
-from her pocket, “to read Harriet’s story before you decide. I asked her
-for a copy several days ago, and here it is.”
-
-“You shall read it to the audience yourself, my dear; I am sure they
-will listen patiently to so kind a pleader in her friend’s behalf.”
-
-The listeners looked pleased and eager to hear the story; and Kate
-Sumner, with a modest self-possession, which well became her, and with
-her fine eyes lighting up as she read, did full justice to the pretty
-and touching story, of which Harriet had been so cruelly robbed.
-
-“It is well worth reading,” said Mr. Wentworth, when she had finished;
-“your friend has won the prize, my dear young lady; and, as she owes it
-to your generosity, you shall have the pleasure of bestowing it,
-yourself.”
-
-Kate’s face glowed with emotion as she hung the chain around Harriet’s
-neck; and Harriet could not restrain her tears, while she whispered,
-
-“I will take it, _not_ as a prize, but as a gift from _you_, dear Kate!”
-
-“And now, Miss Sumner,” said Mr. Wentworth, in conclusion, “let me beg
-your acceptance of these volumes, as a token of your teacher’s respect
-and esteem,” and presenting her a beautifully bound edition of Milton’s
-works, he bowed his adieu to the retiring audience.
-
- * * * * *
-
-“Will you lend me your prize-pencil this morning, Harriet?” said Mrs.
-Carlton the next day. She was dressed for a walk, and Harriet wondered
-why she should want the pencil to take out with her; but she immediately
-unclasped the chain from her neck, and handed it to her mother without
-asking any questions.
-
-She was rewarded at dinner by finding it lying at the side of her plate,
-with the single word, “Truth” engraved upon its seal.
-
- * * * * *
-
-[Illustration: E. T. Parris., Engraved by Rawdon, Wright, Hatch, &
- Smillie.
-_True Affection._
-_Engraved expressly for Graham’s Magazine._]
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- TRUE AFFECTION.
-
-
- ILLUSTRATION OF A PICTURE.
-
-
- Matron in thy golden prime,
- Well the world may envy thee;
- Thou hast reached the happy time
- When life holds her jubilee—
- Midway on her pilgrimage,
- Looking backward and before,
- Where end infancy and age
- On her being’s misty shore.
-
- Turning to the past, thine eye
- Dwells upon a way of flowers—
- Not a cloud upon the sky
- ’Neath which passed the happy hours.
- Clear the vision of the True!—
- Standing on the verge of Time,
- See! Hope opens to your view
- Glories of the better clime!
-
- So the past and present life—
- What the tale the present tells?
- Childhood—maidenhood—a _wife_—
- Thus the tide of being swells—
- Mother! oh all else in this
- Fade as stars before the sun,
- Thou the highest point of bliss
- Yielded to the True hast won.
-
- Love—communion—in these words
- All the happiness we know;
- Without them the world affords
- Nought to bind the heart below;
- “True Affection!” with unrest
- We the boon demand of all;
- Vainly seeking, still unblest—
- Strangers at life’s carnival.
-
- Earnest, calm, unchanging love,
- With no doubt its light to shade—
- Oh, the happiness above
- Is but this eternal made!
- Thou hast found it—in thine eyes,
- In the eyes that look to thine,
- As the stars from summer skies
- Sweetly do we see it shine.
-
- Exiles from a better sphere
- Weary wanderers are we,
- Doomed ’mid clouds to linger here,
- Source of bliss, unknowing thee!
- Save, when from the world apart
- Thou upon our gloomy way
- Shinest from a kindred heart,
- Turning darkness into day!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE PERSECUTOR’S DAUGHTER.
-
-
- BY CHARLES J. PETERSON.
-
-
-The last days of November are at hand, and the melancholy woods, shorn
-of their foliage, stand skeleton-like against the cold, lowering sky; or
-toss their branches to and fro, with a low moaning sound, in the fitful
-tempest. Hark! how the gale swells out with the deep voice of a
-cathedral organ, or dies plaintively away like the cry of a lost child
-in the forest. The sky is covered with cloud-rifts of a deep, leaden
-color, only a spot of blue sky being here and there visible; but
-occasionally the sun, bursting, like a god, from the darkness that
-encircles him, covers the brown hills with an effulgent glory, while the
-opposite firmament is lit up with a dull, fiery glow, that has something
-almost spectral in its aspect. The streams are swollen and discolored,
-and roll their turbid waters hoarsely onward. Along the fields the brown
-grass whistles in the wind, and the bare flower-stalks rattle, with a
-melancholy tone, in the garden. Now and then, drops of rain plash
-heavily to the ground. The wind comes with a sudden chill to the
-nerves—the bay is crisped into foam by the fitful gusts—and along the
-bleak coast the now mountain waves roll in with a hoarse, sullen roar,
-forewarning us of shipwreck and death. Sad thoughts insensibly possess
-the mind, and tales of sorrow, that had long been forgot, come up to our
-memories. One such is even now heavy on our heart—listen! and we will
-rehearse it.
-
-It was on just such a morning as this, many a long year ago, and far
-away from our own happy land, that a little congregation was gathered
-together in the hills to worship God. The time was in those sore and
-evil days when the decree of a tyrannical king had gone forth, that no
-man should worship, except as a corrupt hierarchy and lascivious court
-might ordain—and when, all over Scotland, those who would not give up
-the free birthright of their fathers, were driven to meet in mountain
-glens, and on lonely moors, whither their pastors—the holy men who had
-baptized them in infancy, and united them to the dear objects of their
-love—had already been hunted. And often, in solitary places, where
-hitherto only the cry of the eagle had been heard, the Sabbath hymn rose
-sweetly up from tender maidens and tearful wives, while their brothers
-and husbands listened with weapons in their hands, or watched from some
-neighboring eminence, lest the fiery dragoons of Claverhouse should be
-in sight. And when these God-defying troopers, with hands red with the
-blood of the saints, burst into the little flock, woful was the tale,
-and loud the wailing that went through all the vales around. Every new
-Sabbath brought its tale of slaughter, until the land smoked with blood,
-and the incense thereof went up from a hundred hills, crying for
-vengeance to the Most High.
-
-And such a congregation had now met in the hollow of three hills, far
-away from the usual track of the persecutors. A simple rock served the
-hoary headed pastor for a pulpit; while hard by, a rivulet, brawling
-over its pebbly bed, and then for a moment expanding into a mimic lake,
-bottomed with silvery sands, formed the holy font for baptism. Around
-was gathered the little flock—aged sires and young striplings, staid
-matrons and meek-eyed maidens, young children and stalwart men—all
-gazing upward into the pastor’s face, a sacred throng. But there was one
-other there, who seemed equally with him an object of anxious interest,
-and on whom every eye was occasionally turned—a bright, beautiful
-being, with far more of heaven than earth in her deep, azure eyes. Oh!
-lovely was that fair-haired girl, even as we may have dreamed a seraph
-to be, all glorious with golden wings, under the throne of God. And now
-there sat in those soft blue eyes an expression of meek sorrow, tempered
-with high and holy faith, for many and sore had been the trials of Helen
-Græme; but grace had been given her to endure them all, and even to rise
-above them, with a courage which had made her dear unto every heart
-among these wandering and persecuted ones.
-
-The father of Helen was the last son of a family which had been decaying
-for centuries, and which, of all its once mighty possessions, retained
-only the comparatively small estate of Craigburnie, in one of the
-southern counties of Scotland. To rebuild the fortunes of his house had
-been the darling wish of her father. For this purpose he had entered the
-army of the Covenanters, during the wars of the great revolution, and
-served with some distinction, though without permanent advantage, in
-consequence of the return of the king. On the happening of this event,
-Mr. Græme retired to his estate, soured and disappointed. Here he would
-have been far more discontented than he was, but for his wife, a lady of
-the meekest piety, and whose single minded charity was known throughout
-all her native hills, for Mrs. Græme was the daughter of one of the
-holiest ministers of the kirk, and inherited not only his piety, but the
-fervent admiration with which he was regarded by his parishioners. She
-early instilled into her child the pure precepts of our holy religion,
-and often might the little girl be seen seated at her mother’s knee,
-lisping the word of God, which the parent taught her thus early to
-peruse. And, on the Sabbath, who listened more attentively to the
-venerable pastor, or joined with sweeter voice in the anthem of praise?
-Nurtured thus, what wonder that at seventeen she seemed the counterpart
-of the mother, and was regarded by the poorer folk around the Brae—her
-mother’s birthplace, and where she spent several months each
-year—almost with veneration, for had not many of them, in times of sore
-trial, been sustained by the bounty, and cheered by the smiles of the
-heavenly girl?
-
-But at length her mother fell sick, and for many a weary month Helen
-watched by the sufferer’s bed-side, a ministering angel. During this
-illness she noticed that, at times, her father would seem lost in
-thought, as if something weighed heavily on his mind; but Helen regarded
-it little, attributing it to his suspense at her mother’s danger, for he
-loved both her and his child with an intensity seemingly in
-contradiction to his hard, unbending character, but which, in truth, was
-the result of his total seclusion from the world; for the sympathies
-thus shut out from others lavished themselves wholly on his wife and
-daughter. At length, Mrs. Græme died, and for many days it seemed as if
-that strong man’s heart would break, while Helen wept in silence, though
-not less uncontrollably. Her father was now sterner than ever, though
-not to her. He was more alone, often indulged in fits of musing, and was
-absent at Edinburgh for some days—an unusual occurrence—and when he
-came back it was as Sir Roland Græme, a title which men said he had
-purchased by selling himself to the Court. Helen heard these
-rumors—which, however, came to her ears in whispers, and which at first
-she could not believe—with sorrow and despair of heart; but no word of
-reproof broke from her lips. Her sufferings were endured silently; but
-so deep was her grief, that she pined away, seeming to all eyes a being
-lent awhile to earth, and gradually exhaling to heaven. Her father,
-thinking her sorrow sprung wholly from her mother’s death, and wishing,
-perhaps, that she should be from home when he should first act for the
-government, sent her to her mother’s native vale, alleging, and
-doubtless hoping, that change of air would restore her to health. It
-were doing him no more than justice to say, that his paternal love was
-fully aroused to Helen’s danger, and that he took the only possible
-means to keep at his side this dear bud of her who was now in heaven. He
-forgot how much the little family at the Brae leaned toward the
-persecuted sect—he forgot the disaffected character of the district
-into which Helen went—he forgot the danger lest her own feelings should
-become enlisted in behalf of those against whom he was so soon to draw
-his sword; remembering only—for was he not a father?—that his child’s
-health was in danger, and that a residence in the mountain district
-where she had been born, and where she had spent so many happy years,
-was the sole chance of saving her life.
-
-And now Helen was once more amid the scenes where her childhood had been
-spent, and every old counsel and prayer of her mother, recalled to mind
-by the spots where they had been first heard, rose up before her, and
-softened her heart; and often, at Sabbath eve, or in the still watches
-of the night, it seemed to her as if the spirit of that sainted mother
-hovered over her, whispering her heavenward, and bidding her never to
-forget or forsake her God. All the sympathies which now surrounded her,
-drew her to the persecuted sect; for her cousin and aunt were both among
-the non-conformists; and though the little kirk, standing all alone in
-the hills, a cool well in a parched desert, was now closed, and he who
-had formerly ministered there an outcast, yet the sight and recognition
-of him, at more than one stolen meeting, recalled to Helen’s mind the
-time when he blessed her, nestling bird-like to her mother’s bosom, she
-looking the while half affrightedly, yet oh, how reverentially, up into
-the face of the mild old man! And was not her heart softened, even to
-tears, when the patriarch, well remembering her—for none did he ever
-forget—sought her among the crowd, and, laying his hands on her head,
-blessed her, hoping that God still kept her in the way her mother had
-trod? From that hour Helen became a changed being. The light heartedness
-of youth was gone. She wept often, and prayed in solitary places by
-herself; for lo! the struggle in her bosom, between duty to her parent,
-and a higher duty to God, waxed stronger and stronger; but daily she
-yearned more and more to the oppressed remnant, until finally it was
-whispered in the scattered congregation that the persecutor’s
-daughter—that child of many prayers—was to become a professed member
-of the flock. And old men and nursing mothers in the church blessed God
-as they heard it.
-
-On this Sabbath morning, Helen had, for the first time, openly attended
-a meeting in the hills. At first, she had come with fear and trembling,
-but when she saw the looks of kindly sympathy with which all regarded
-her, she became more composed, and could enter on the holy duties of the
-day in a fitting mood. And when the aged pastor gave out the hymn, and
-the congregation joined in the sacred anthem, what voice sang of
-redeeming love so sweetly as that of Helen?
-
-Lo! the vision of light has passed from our souls, and in place of that
-seraphic countenance, we behold the face of a stern warrior, in every
-feature of which we read of cruelty and blood. Even now he is hot in
-pursuit of the suffering remnant, and with his troop of fiery dragoons
-interrupts the Sabbath quiet of the vales and glens, with the jingling
-of broad swords and the ribald jests of scoffers; and many a dark-browed
-peasant scowls on the persecutor as he passes, and prays that God will
-yet avenge his slaughtered saints. Nor, if the popular rumor is to be
-believed, is that vengeance altogether withheld; for men say that Sir
-Roland Græme, having sold his religion for the paltry honors of earth,
-has been already cursed from on high, and that, sleeping or waking, he
-finds no rest from the stingings of remorse; yet, like one who has
-committed the unpardonable sin, he cannot draw back from his career of
-blood, but is impelled onward, as if by some irresistible power, to
-still darker crimes. Look upon his face again, and tell us if there is
-not something there which you shudder to behold—something of untold
-horror in that stern, God-defying brow, as if the arch-enemy had already
-been suffered to affix his seal upon it.
-
-And whither was that man of blood going? Far, far over hill and dale, to
-the slaughter of the saints. He had heard, through some traitor, of the
-assemblage to be held that morning in the hills, and with the first dawn
-of day he and his troopers had been in the saddle, thirsting to
-participate in the bloody sacrament. For the last half hour he had
-seemed lost in thought, and now he suddenly drew in his rein, and turned
-to his lieutenant.
-
-“Lennox,” he said, “I believe I will not lead these brave fellows
-to-day, but surrender the command to you. I see, over yonder hill, the
-blue summit that looks down on the Brae, where my daughter is visiting.
-I have not seen her for months, nor is it probable I shall be in this
-district for many months more. The country here is widely disaffected,
-and therefore an unbecoming residence for a child of mine. It has just
-struck me that I might cross the hills, and bring her home with me this
-afternoon. And yet something whispers to me that I ought rather to
-pursue these traitors and schismatics,” he continued, as if to himself;
-“however, I can trust to you, and it is imperative that my daughter
-leave this district. We will meet here by four o’clock. Your road lies
-down yonder glen. All I have to say is, ‘spare none!’”
-
-“I understand,” said the subordinate; “neither age nor sex.”
-
-“Neither age nor sex, nor even those of rank, if such there be,” sternly
-said Sir Roland; “when the poison has sunk deep, nothing but the cautery
-will cure. And hark ye! on the faithful execution of your commands
-depends your hope of preferment. I would not spare my own child, if I
-found her among these spawn of Satan!”
-
-And, with these memorable words, he ordered a detachment of his company
-to follow him, and rode off, though at first reluctantly, in the
-direction of the Brae.
-
-The route was passed in silence, for Sir Roland was buried in thought.
-There was indeed cause for it. One or two things in the last letter he
-had received from his daughter—and that missive had now been written a
-month—made him feel uneasy, lest she looked more favorably on the
-persecuted sect than became a daughter of his; and it was this fear, all
-at once recalled to mind by the business on which he had set forth this
-morning, that determined him so suddenly to leave the dispersion of the
-conventicle to his lieutenant, while he should ride over to the Brae,
-and bring his daughter home. Other thoughts, too, were busy within him.
-The long coveted rank had brought little alleviation to his soured and
-disappointed mind, for his fortune was now more than ever inadequate to
-his condition, and all the peculiarly sensitive feelings of a proud man
-were stung to the quick by the indignities to which, in consequence, he
-was often exposed. Moreover, he was aware of the light in which he was
-held, since his change of politics, not only by the common people, but
-by large portions of the gentry; so that, on every hand, he was soured
-and irritated, and longed to wreak on the Covenanters the hate which he
-felt toward all men.
-
-And yet, as he approached the Brae, and saw at a distance the low roof
-of the mansion from which he had taken his bride, gentler feelings stole
-into his bosom. He thought of her whom he had once loved with all the
-fervor of a first passion—he remembered the happy years they had spent
-together—and when he recollected that she was now no more, and that the
-last time he had beheld these roofs he had been in her company, a tear
-almost gathered into his eye. Then he thought of his daughter. As her
-image rose up before him, his heart was fully melted. With all the
-sternness of his character he loved that daughter as few fathers
-loved—ay! loved her doubly since her mother’s death, for she was now
-the only object in the whole wide world on which he could bestow aught
-of affection. And now, joy at the prospect of meeting her gave to his
-spirits the glad exhilaration of boyhood, and quickening his pace, he
-galloped gaily across the hills, nor drew his rein until he reached the
-door of the old mansion.
-
-The Brae was an antique and partially dilapidated residence, at present
-inhabited by the aunt of Helen, and a daughter about the age of Miss
-Græme. At all times it wore a sombre, deserted look, but on this morning
-it seemed peculiarly desolate, for the whole front of the house was
-closed, and all the outhouses shut up. A strange fear came over the
-father, as he beheld the absence of these signs of life, and he hastily
-ordered one of the dragoons to dismount and knock at the door. The man
-obeyed, but for a time knocked in vain. The sound of the hilt of his
-heavy sword, striking on the door, echoed through the long hall of the
-house; but no signs of life within were visible. The usual frown on the
-face of Sir Roland grew darker, and he cried angrily—
-
-“Blow off the lock with a pistol, and search the house!”
-
-At this instant, however, and just as the trooper was proceeding to
-execute this order, the face of an old woman was protruded from one of
-the upper windows, while she demanded who was below.
-
-“Sir Roland Græme,” replied the leader; “where are the family? where is
-Miss Græme? Is any one sick?”
-
-“They are all well, but out!” briefly said the woman.
-
-“Out—out!” exclaimed the persecutor, “and on Sunday, when there is no
-church within miles. By G—,” he continued, striving to drown his fears
-in rage, “is this a time to be out? Where have they gone? Answer truly,
-on your life!”
-
-“May it please your honor,” said one of the dragoons, touching his cap,
-“may they not have gone to this conventicle, and taken your daughter
-with them?”
-
-Quick as lightning, Sir Roland wheeled round on the unthinking speaker,
-and while the indentation on his brow became deeper than ever, and his
-eye flashed with rage, he said—
-
-“_My_ daughter consorting with traitors and schismatics! Breathe but the
-word again, and by the God of heaven I will cleave you to the chine!”
-and his fingers played nervously with the hilt of his sword; but, seeing
-the deprecating look of the trooper, he recovered himself, and added,
-“tush! man, you are innocent, but take care how even innocently you
-rouse the tiger.”
-
-“Tiger,” shrieked the old woman, who had known Sir Roland in former
-days, and who now seemed impelled by some sudden gust of passion to
-speak out, “it is well said; ay! one whose fangs have been in the hearts
-of the persecuted remnant—but God will avenge his people. Know, false
-persecutor, that your daughter _has_ gone forth to-day to become one of
-the chosen few against whom, oh! man of sin, you have so often ridden
-with steel and war horse, holding the commission of your master, the
-Evil One. Go to, Roland Græme, I mind ye when ye were a boy, and little
-did I think ye would ever become the Judas you are now.”
-
-It is probable that if her hearer had comprehended the whole of this
-harangue, a bullet would have been the speaker’s reward; but the first
-words of the old woman, when taken in connection with the desertion of
-the house, and his own misgivings from Helen’s late letter, assured him
-that his daughter had indeed attended the conventicle. The conviction
-fell on his heart with agonizing force. Remembering the injunctions of
-indiscriminate butchery he had laid on his subordinate, and well knowing
-that the command would be fulfilled to the very letter, he staggered
-back in his saddle, with a face whiter than ashes, and was fain to grasp
-the pommel for support, while he exclaimed in tones wrung from him by
-the keenest anguish—
-
-“My child!—my child!—I have murdered my child!”
-
-“What is that ye say?” screamed the old hag, leaning eagerly forward;
-“have ye sent out your reiving dragoons against the Lord’s anointed? and
-ye fear that they will slay your ain bairn. Oh! man of blood, the
-judgment of God has come upon ye—the judgment has come upon ye!”
-
-But to the voice of the speaker, as well as to the astonished looks of
-the dragoons, the father was insensible. He still remained clutching the
-saddle, every feature of his face working with intense agony, and his
-eyes glaring vacantly on the air. Those who looked on him shrunk back
-aghast at the horror of his aspect; which, fearful as it was, only
-faintly shadowed forth the torture of the soul within. The peril of his
-only child stupefied him for a time. Then a succession of wild images
-rose up to his mind. He saw his daughter flying before the ruthless
-dragoons—he heard her cries for mercy, and the bitter sneer of
-disbelief on the part of her pursuers—he beheld her lying a corpse on
-the bare heath, her bosom gashed with brutal wounds, and her long fair
-hair dabbled with blood. In that moment the memory of every one whom he
-had slain came up before him—the mothers who had clung to his knees,
-the babes who had looked innocently in his face as they died, the
-daughters whose aged parents he had slain before their eyes. He thought
-of the silvery headed patriarch whom he had shot for refusing the test,
-and the prophetic warning of the victim that he, even he, the proud
-persecutor, should curse the day he ever drew his sword against the
-saints, came up to his memory. He groaned in anguish. For a time none
-dared to intrude on his misery. One of his men, a trusty body adherent,
-at length ventured to speak, by asking him if they had not better ride
-with all haste after Lennox, in the hope that they might yet come up in
-time. Starting, as if a shot had struck him, the father plunged his
-rowels into the side of his steed, until the blood gushed forth, and
-wheeling his horse sharp around, looked back sternly on his followers,
-as he led the way at a fearful pace up the hill. Well did he know the
-country around, and necessary, indeed, was that knowledge, for his
-frantic gallop required the most intimate acquaintance with every turn
-and inequality of the road. Over hill and dale, through glen and moor he
-dashed, reckless of danger, for how could he think of aught but his
-daughter? Oh! what would he not have given to be assured that he should
-once more look into her soft blue eyes, that he should again press her
-to his bosom. What now to him was rank or wealth? Perhaps he thought
-that Helen would be able to reveal her name ere she fell a victim—but
-no! for even if she spoke, would his subordinate believe her story?
-Once, the very suspicion that she favored the Covenanters had angered
-him, but now he would forgive every thing, only to be assured of her
-safety. The contending emotions—hope and fear, love and anger, suspense
-and despair—that agitated his bosom, made that hour’s ride an hour of
-agony, such as he had never before thought a human being could endure,
-and live. He felt that the curse of God was on him—that all the agonies
-he had inflicted on others were now concentrated on himself—that he was
-bound to the wheel of fire. His punishment had already begun. He had
-rushed against the thick bosses of the Almighty’s buckler, and found,
-like him of old, that man could not contend against the Most High.
-
-We remember, when a boy, waking from a dream of horror, to find our
-mother smiling over our sleep. Oh! never shall we forget the heavenly
-radiance of that loved face, for radiant with heaven it seemed to us,
-after the terrors of that midnight vision. Even so we feel when turning
-from contemplating the tortures of the persecutor, to gaze on his
-sainted child. The hour was now approaching noon, and Helen, in the
-presence of the silent flock, had taken upon her those vows she could
-never put off. Tears fell from many an eye as the worshipers beheld her
-thus in their midst; and the old pastor was so affected that he could
-scarcely speak.
-
-“God will reward you, my daughter, and give you strength,” he said; “I
-bless His holy name that thou art delivered from the dominion of Baal.
-It is hard, I know, to disobey a parent; but saith not the Scripture,
-that we must leave father and mother, if required, and take up our cross
-and follow Christ? Only persevere, and God will make your way plain to
-you, guiding you, even as he led the children of Israel, with a pillar
-of cloud by day, and of fire by night. Trials, and sore ones, we must
-all have in this world—and I boast not, but only speak to cheer you,
-when I say that mine have been many and hard, but God has given me grace
-to endure all, even as He will give it unto you. But my race is nearly
-run; the golden urn will soon be broken at the fountain. I only pray to
-die like the martyrs of old, with my armor on, and my sword girt to my
-thigh. Come, oh! Lord, most mighty,” he continued, raising his hands and
-eyes rapturously above, “come, oh! Lord most gracious, and come
-quickly!”
-
-A deep silence followed the conclusion of this prayer, while the tears
-of many fell fast and thick. Every eye was fixed on the holy man, or
-turned to Helen, for the countenances of both already seemed to glow, as
-those of angels. None dared to draw a breath, lest they should dispel
-the hushed stillness that so well accorded with the solemnity of the
-moment. But suddenly a cry was heard, clear, loud and startling—“The
-dragoons—the dragoons are here!” and had a voice come from the dead, it
-would not have produced a more sudden change in the hearers. Every one
-started up, and all eyes were turned toward the point whence the cry had
-proceeded. There, on a gentle eminence, stood a shepherd waving his
-plaid, and making gestures for the congregation to fly up the glen. In
-an instant all was confusion. Mothers clasped their infants to their
-bosoms, and looked up tremblingly, with faces whiter than ashes—maidens
-clung to their lovers, and gazed around with dilated eyes and looks of
-terror—and fathers and brothers, gathering around these dear ones,
-hurried them on foot and horseback, in the direction indicated by the
-sentinel. The escort of Helen and her aunt had been several armed
-retainers, and these now rallied to the side of their mistress and the
-pastor, prepared to make good their retreat, or defend themselves to the
-last. Hoping to escape the notice of the pursuers, they dashed off in a
-different direction from that pursued by the others of the congregation;
-but just as they turned the angle of the hill, the pennons of the
-troopers came into sight, and by the immediate diversion of a party in
-pursuit of them, the fugitives knew they were detected. Pricking their
-horses, they now hurried rapidly onward, and for several hundred yards
-lost sight of their pursuers. At length, the little party reached the
-brow of a slight acclivity.
-
-“Faster—faster,” said one who had looked back, “they gain on us—press
-on.”
-
-Every eye was turned in the direction of the pursuers, and there, not
-half the distance they had been before, were the dragoons, thundering
-along with fiery haste. The sight gave new energy to the fugitives, who
-urged on their steeds with redoubled vigor. For a while now the result
-seemed doubtful. During this interval of suspense the feelings of the
-fugitives were of the most conflicting character—the instinctive love
-of life alternating with a holy resignation to whatever fate might be
-assigned them. Now, as they gained on the troopers, the former
-prevailed, and now, as they saw their pursuers drawing nigher, the
-latter won the mastery. The emotions of each, meanwhile, were different.
-The old pastor, with eyes uplifted, seemed rapturously awaiting
-martyrdom—the aunt and cousin of Helen were pale and red by turns as
-their fear or faith rose triumphant, while the serving men frowned
-darkly as they looked behind, and appeared to wish for a chance to
-exchange passes with their steel-clad oppressors. But the feelings of
-Helen were most difficult to analyze, though perhaps they had less of
-earth in them than those of any except the pastor. Subdued by the day’s
-sacrifice of herself, and all glowing with divine faith and energy, what
-had she to fear from death? Yet, even with this perfect resignation, she
-could not avoid looking back on their pursuers, while her heart heat
-quicker as the distance increased between the troopers and themselves.
-
-“We gain—we gain—press on, we shall escape,” shouted the leader of the
-little party, “the Lord will yet deliver us from our enemies.”
-
-“Nay, nay,” said the pastor suddenly, “the hour has come—see ye not
-that we are cut off in front, lo! the horses and the men-of-war.”
-
-A cry—almost a shriek—broke from Helen’s two female companions as they
-looked ahead, and saw, emerging from a narrow ravine, another party of
-dragoons, led by a tall, dark man far in advance of the rest, and all
-riding with tumultuous haste. Helen spoke not, but only raised her eyes
-to heaven, for escape was now impossible. The ravine ahead was the only
-feasible outlet in that direction, from the glen up which the fugitives
-had fled, and to turn back would be to fall on the swords of their
-pursuers. The serving men looked aghast, and drew in their reins, which
-example the rest of the party immediately followed. For a minute there
-was a profound silence. At length the leader again spoke.
-
-“Why stand we here? Escape is impossible, unless we can cut our way
-through. Let us charge the party behind, for that is the smaller. Form a
-circle around the women—wheel—trot.”
-
-There was no time for consultation, and the proposal seemed to point out
-the only feasible plan. With the words they wheeled their horses, and
-dashed to the desperate attack. The dragoons seemed for an instant
-astonished by the movement, but did not slacken their pace. Their leader
-waved his sword, and turning to his men, led the onset in person,
-shouting “God save the king and bishops,” while the Covenanters,
-unsheathing their blades, raised the cry of “The sword of the Lord and
-Gideon.” And thus, borne in the midst of those armed men as in the
-embrace of a whirlwind, Helen was hurried toward the dragoons. And as
-they galloped along, the heavenly girl, with heart uplifted, prayed,
-while her countenance shone with a glory as of the cherubim.
-
-And who was it that dashed so frantically up the glen, as if fearful
-that he might not arrive to whet his blade in the blood of the
-fugitives? Who, but Sir Roland Græme, flying to save his daughter, and
-even now almost maddened with the thought that he had come too late, for
-the instant that he emerged from the ravine he recognized his child, and
-now, when he saw her turned back to the pursuers, and his practiced eye
-told him that he could not reach her until the two parties should be
-engaged in deadly combat, the same sickening sensation of horror which
-had attacked him at the Brae came over him again. With a sharp cry of
-agony he ploughed his spurs into the already bloody sides of his horse,
-and sprang forward at a pace even more frantic than that which he had
-before led; but swift as was his progress it seemed to him only that of
-a snail. On—on—he urged his gallant beast, and nearer and nearer the
-fugitives and their first pursuers drew to each other. What though he
-gained on the group!—he saw that the hostile parties would meet while
-he would yet be far away. Oh! what were his feelings as this conviction
-forced itself on him. If only another mile, in which to overtake them,
-had been given him, he might perhaps have succeeded; but now hope was in
-vain! Cold drops of sweat stood on his brow, while his heart throbbed
-almost to bursting against his corselet. Did none recognize him, and
-could they not understand his frantic signs? He
-shouted—again—again—again. The dead might as well be expected to
-hear. He waved his plumed hat on high, but, at that instant, with the
-shock of an earthquake, the opponents met. A dizziness came over his
-eyes, but with a mighty effort he rallied his reeling faculties, and
-looked at the fight. Was his child yet alive? He saw the gleam of the
-broadswords, the blaze of firearms, and all the tumult of the conflict,
-but his daughter was not visible. Suddenly a sharp, quick, female
-shriek, rising shrill over the uproar, met his ear. God of heaven, had
-his Helen fallen! Another leap of his frantic steed, and he was near
-enough to hear the shouts of the combatants and distinguish particular
-persons. He trembled with eagerness, but lo! his daughter was still
-unharmed, girt around as with a wall of steel, by the broadswords of her
-defenders. He rose in his stirrups at the sight, and waving his hat
-around his head, shouted with the voice of a Titan. Joy—joy! they
-recognize him, and his child extends her arms toward him. She is saved.
-But no! for at this very instant, when at length they understood by
-their leader’s gestures that they were to desist, one of the dragoons,
-availing himself of the confusion of the moment and thirsting for
-vengeance for a wound he had received, aimed a pistol at the pastor’s
-bosom, and though a fellow soldier struck aside his arm, it was only to
-wing the deadly ball to another heart, even that of Helen, who all along
-had been nestled by the side of the holy man. She fell back into his
-arms, the blood gushing from her bosom, and for an instant they thought
-her gone. But when the pastor called on her name she faintly opened her
-eyes, pressed his hand, smiled sweetly, and murmuring of heaven, sank
-away apparently into a slumber.
-
-One wild cry of horror had risen, at her fall, from those immediately
-around her, telling the tale of her murder; but the father needed not
-this confirmation of his worst fears, for he had seen the shot and
-beheld her fall. Galloping wildly forward, with a few gigantic leaps he
-reached the offender, whom he smote to the earth with a single blow of
-his broadsword. The next instant he was by his daughter’s side, the
-group opening awe-struck to let him pass. He spoke not, but oh! the
-terrible agony of his countenance. Putting them aside with arms
-extended, he approached and gazed down into the face of his child—gazed
-as Sapphira did when the apostle told her doom, and she saw the bearers
-returning from her husband’s burial. And for a minute of profound
-silence he continued gazing thus, into that fair sweet face, on which,
-though now stilled as in death, there yet lingered a smile of heavenly
-joy. He shuddered as he looked, and his countenance became livid as that
-of a corpse. He essayed to speak, but though his lips moved, no sound
-proceeded from them. At length slowly, almost reluctantly, he stooped
-down and took her hand.
-
-“Helen—Helen,” he said, in a choking voice, “you are not dead. Say
-so—tell me I am not your murderer. Oh! speak, and forgive me.”
-
-The dying girl faintly opened her eyes, and gazed vacantly into her
-father’s face. Her senses were fast deserting her. She did not recognize
-him.
-
-“Oh God! my child is dying,” groaned the father. “Helen, Helen,” he
-continued, raising his voice, “do you not know me? I am your
-father—your murderer. Do not look on me with such strange eyes! Helen,
-Helen dear, say, if only by a smile, that you forgive me. Oh! Lord God
-of heaven,” he exclaimed, lifting his eyes agonizingly above, “have
-mercy on me—suffer her to live to forgive me—crush not the bruised
-reed,” and hot tears gushed from his eyes and trickled in his daughter’s
-face.
-
-“Who weeps?” faintly said the dying sufferer, “weep not for me. Tell my
-father how I love him, and die blessing him—”
-
-“Thank thee, Almighty Father, I thank thee,” gasped the penitent.
-“Helen, here is your father—I am he.”
-
-For the first time, now, the dying girl seemed fully to comprehend her
-situation. She looked a minute around the group, and then, with a sweet
-smile, her eyes rested on her father’s face. She faintly pressed his
-hand. Tears gushed from his eyes like rain, and though he strove to
-speak he could not for his sobs. She murmured of him, of her mother, of
-heaven, and then they knew she was dead. The father looked on her a
-moment, and with a groan—which none there ever forgot—sunk helpless to
-her side. They raised him, but he was a corpse. “Vengeance is mine,”
-saith the Lord, “and I will repay.”
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- A RACE FOR A SWEETHEART.
-
-
- BY MR. SEBA SMITH.
-
-
-Hardly any event creates a stronger sensation in a thinly settled New
-England village, especially among the young folks, than the arrival of a
-fresh and blooming miss, who comes to make her abode in the
-neighborhood. When, therefore, Squire Johnson, the only lawyer in the
-place, and a very respectable man of course, told Farmer Jones one
-afternoon that his wife’s sister, a smart girl of eighteen, was coming
-in a few days to reside in his family, the news flew like wildfire
-through Pond village, and was the principal topic of conversation for a
-week. Pond village is situated upon the margin of one of those numerous
-and beautiful sheets of water that gem the whole surface of New England,
-like the bright stars in an evening sky, and received its appellation to
-distinguish it from two or three other villages in the same town, which
-could not boast of a similar location. When Farmer Jones came in to his
-supper about sunset that afternoon, and took his seat at the table, the
-eyes of the whole family were upon him, for there was a peculiar working
-about his mouth and a knowing glance of his eye, that always told them
-when he had something of interest to communicate. But Farmer Jones’
-secretiveness was large, and his temperament not the most active, and he
-would probably have rolled the important secret as a sweet morsel under
-his tongue for a long time, had not Mrs. Jones, who was of rather an
-impatient and prying turn of mind, contrived to draw it from him.
-
-“Now, Mr. Jones,” said she, as she handed him his cup of tea, “what is
-it you are going to say? Do out with it; for you’ve been chawing
-something or other over in your mind ever since you came into the
-house.”
-
-“It’s my tobacher, I s’pose,” said Mr. Jones, with another knowing
-glance of his eye.
-
-“Now, father, what is the use?” said Susan; “we all know you’ve got
-something or other you want to say, and why can’t you tell us what
-’tis?”
-
-“La, who cares what ’tis?” said Mrs. Jones; “if it was any thing worth
-telling, we shouldn’t have to wait for it, I dare say.”
-
-Hereupon Mrs. Jones assumed an air of the most perfect indifference, as
-the surest way of conquering what she was pleased to call Mr. Jones’
-obstinacy, which by the way was a very improper term to apply in the
-case; for it was purely the working of secretiveness without the least
-particle of obstinacy attached to it.
-
-There was a pause for two or three minutes in the conversation, till Mr.
-Jones passed his cup to be filled a second time, when with a couple of
-preparatory hems he began to let out the secret.
-
-“We are to have a new neighbor here in a few days,” said Mr. Jones,
-stopping short when he had uttered thus much, and sipping his tea and
-filling his mouth with food.
-
-Mrs. Jones, who was perfect in her tactics, said not a word, but
-attended to the affairs of the table, as though she had not noticed what
-was said. The farmer’s secretiveness had at last worked itself out, and
-he began again.
-
-“Squire Johnson’s wife’s sister is coming here in a few days, and is
-going to live with ’em.”
-
-The news being thus fairly divulged, it left free scope for
-conversation.
-
-“Well, I wonder if she is a proud, stuck up piece,” said Mrs. Jones.
-
-“I shouldn’t think she would be,” said Susan, “for there aint a more
-sociabler woman in the neighborhood than Miss Johnson. So if she’s at
-all like her sister I think we shall like her.”
-
-“I wonder how old she is,” said Stephen, who was just verging toward the
-close of his twenty-first year.
-
-“The squire called her eighteen,” said Mr. Jones, giving a wink to his
-wife, as much as to say, that’s about the right age for Stephen.
-
-“I wonder if she is handsome,” said Susan, who was somewhat vain of her
-own looks, and having been a sort of reigning belle in Pond village for
-some time, felt a little alarm at the idea of a rival.
-
-“I dare be bound she’s handsome,” said Mrs. Jones, “if she’s sister to
-Miss Johnson; for where’ll you find a handsomer woman than Miss Johnson,
-go the town through?”
-
-After supper, Stephen went down to Mr. Robinson’s store, and told the
-news to young Charles Robinson and all the young fellows who were
-gathered there for a game at quoits and a ring at wrestling. And Susan
-went directly over to Mr. Bean’s and told Patty, and Patty went round to
-the Widow Davis’ and told Sally, and before nine o’clock the matter was
-pretty well understood in about every house in the village.
-
-At the close of the fourth day, a little before sunset, a chaise was
-seen to drive up to Squire Johnson’s door. Of course the eyes of the
-whole village were turned in that direction. Sally Davis, who was just
-coming in from milking, set her pail down on the grass by the side of
-the road as soon as the chaise came in sight, and watched it till it
-reached the squire’s door, and the gentleman and lady had got out and
-gone into the house. Patty Bean was doing up the ironing that afternoon,
-and she had just taken a hot iron from the fire as the chaise passed the
-door, and she ran with it in her hand and stood on the door steps till
-the whole ceremony of alighting, greeting, and entering the house, was
-over. Old Mrs. Bean stood with her head out of the window, her
-iron-bowed spectacles resting upon the top of her forehead, her
-shriveled hand placed across her eyebrows to defend her red eyes from
-the rays of the setting sun, and her skinny chin protruding about three
-inches in advance of a couple of stubs of teeth, which her open mouth
-exposed fairly to view.
-
-“Seems to me they are dreadful loving,” said old Mrs. Bean, as she saw
-Mrs. Johnson descend the steps and welcome her sister with a kiss.
-
-“La me, if there isn’t the squire kissing of her tu,” said Patty; “well,
-I declare, I would a waited till I got into the house, I’ll die if I
-wouldn’t. It looks so vulgar to be kissing afore folks, and out doors
-tu; I should think Squire Johnson would be ashamed of himself.”
-
-“Well, I shouldn’t,” said young John Bean, who came up at that moment,
-and who had passed the chaise just as the young lady alighted from it.
-“I shouldn’t be ashamed to kiss sich a pretty gal as that any how; I’d
-kiss her wherever I could ketch her, if it was in the meetin-house.”
-
-“Why, is she handsome, Jack?” said Patty.
-
-“Yes, she’s got the prettiest little puckery kind of a mouth I’ve seen
-this six months. Her cheeks are red, and her eyes shine like new
-buttons.”
-
-“Well,” replied Patty, “if she’ll only take the shine off of Susan Jones
-when she goes to meetin, Sunday, I sha’n’t care.”
-
-While these observations were going on at old Mr. Bean’s, Charles
-Robinson and a group of young fellows with him were standing in front of
-Robinson’s store, a little farther down the road, and watching the scene
-that was passing at Squire Johnson’s. They witnessed the whole with
-becoming decorum, now and then making a remark about the fine horse and
-the handsome chaise, till they saw the tall squire bend his head down
-and give the young lady a kiss, when they all burst out into a loud
-laugh. In a moment, being conscious that their laugh must be heard and
-noticed at the squire’s, they, in order to do away the impression it
-must necessarily make, at once turned their heads the other way, and
-Charles Robinson, who was quick at an expedient, knocked off the hat of
-the lad who was standing next to him, and then they all laughed louder
-than before.
-
-“Here comes Jack Bean,” said Charles, “now we shall hear something about
-her, for Jack was coming by the squire’s when she got out of the chaise.
-How does she look, Jack?”
-
-“Handsome as a picter,” said Jack. “I haint seen a prettier gal since
-last Thanksgiving Day, when Jane Ford was here to visit Susan Jones.”
-
-“Black eyes or blue?” said Charles.
-
-“Blue,” said Jack, “but all-fired bright.”
-
-“Tall or short?” said Stephen Jones, who was rather short himself, and
-therefore felt a particular interest on that point.
-
-“Rather short,” said Jack, “but straight and round as our young colt.”
-
-“Do you know what her name is?” said Charles.
-
-“They called her Lucy when she got out of the chaise,” said Jack, “and
-as Miss Johnson’s name was Brown before she was married, I s’pose her
-name must be Lucy Brown.”
-
-“Just such a name as I like,” said Charles Robinson; “Lucy Brown sounds
-well. Now suppose, in order to get acquainted with her, we all hands
-take a sail to-morrow night, about this time, on the pond, and invite
-her to go with us.”
-
-“Agreed,” said Stephen Jones. “Agreed,” said Jack Bean. “Agreed,” said
-all hands.
-
-The question then arose, who should carry the invitation to her; and the
-young men being rather bashful on that score, it was finally settled
-that Susan Jones should bear the invitation, and accompany her to the
-boat, where they should all be in waiting to receive her. The next day
-was a very long day, at least to most of the young men of Pond village;
-and promptly, an hour before sunset, most of them were assembled, with
-half a score of their sisters and female cousins, by a little stone
-wharf on the margin of the pond, for the proposed sail. All the girls in
-the village, of a suitable age, were there, except Patty Bean. She had
-undergone a good deal of fidgeting and fussing during the day, to
-prepare for the sail, but had been disappointed. Her new bonnet was not
-done; and as for wearing her old flap-sided bonnet, she declared she
-would not, if she never went. Presently Susan Jones and Miss Lucy Brown
-were seen coming down the road. In a moment all were quiet, the laugh
-and the joke were hushed, and each one put on his best looks. When they
-arrived, Susan went through the ceremony of introducing Miss Brown to
-each of the ladies and gentlemen present.
-
-“But how in the world are you going to sail?” said Miss Brown, “for
-there isn’t a breath of wind; and I don’t see any sail-boat, neither.”
-
-“Oh, the less wind we have, the better, when we sail here,” said Charles
-Robinson; “and there is our sail-boat,” pointing to a flat-bottomed
-scow-boat, some twenty feet long by ten wide.
-
-“We don’t use no sails,” said Jack Bean; “sometimes, when the wind is
-fair, we put up a bush to help pull along a little, and when ’tisn’t, we
-row.”
-
-The party were soon embarked on board the scow, and a couple of oars
-were set in motion, and they glided slowly and pleasantly over as lovely
-a sheet of water as ever glowed in the sunsetting ray. In one hour’s
-time, the whole party felt perfectly acquainted with Miss Lucy Brown.
-She had talked in the most lively and fascinating manner; she had told
-stories and sung songs. Among others, she had given Moore’s boat song,
-with the sweetest possible effect; and by the time they returned to the
-landing, it would hardly be too much to say that half the young men in
-the party were decidedly in love with her.
-
-A stern regard to truth requires a remark to be made here, not
-altogether favorable to Susan Jones, which is the more to be regretted,
-as she was in the main an excellent hearted girl, and highly esteemed by
-the whole village. It was observed that as the company grew more and
-more pleased with Miss Lucy Brown, Susan Jones was less and less
-animated, till at last she became quite reserved, and apparently sad.
-She, however, on landing, treated Miss Brown with respectful attention,
-accompanied her home to Squire Johnson’s door, and cordially bade her
-good night.
-
-The casual glimpses which the young men of Pond village had of Miss
-Brown during the remainder of the week, as she occasionally stood at the
-door, or looked out at the window, or once or twice when she walked out
-with Susan Jones, and the fair view they all had of her at meeting on
-the Sabbath, served but to increase their admiration, and to render her
-more and more an object of attraction. She was regarded by all as a
-prize, and several of them were already planning what steps it was best
-to take in order to win her. The two most prominent candidates, however,
-for Miss Brown’s favor, were Charles Robinson and Stephen Jones. Their
-position and standing among the young men of the village seemed to put
-all others in the back ground. Charles, whose father was wealthy, had
-every advantage which money could procure. But Stephen, though poor, had
-decidedly the advantage over Charles in personal recommendations. He had
-more talent, was more sprightly and intelligent, and more pleasing in
-his address. From the evening of the sail on the pond, they had both
-watched every movement of Miss Brown with the most intense interest;
-and, as nothing can deceive a lover, each had, with an interest no less
-intense, watched every movement of the other. They had ceased to speak
-to each other about her, and if her name was mentioned in their
-presence, both were always observed to color.
-
-The second week after her arrival, through the influence of Squire
-Johnson, the district school was offered to Miss Brown on the other side
-of the pond, which offer was accepted, and she went immediately to take
-charge of it. This announcement at first threw something of a damper
-upon the spirits of the young people of Pond village. But when it was
-understood the school would continue but a few weeks, and being but a
-mile and a half distant, Miss Brown would come home every Saturday
-afternoon, and spend the Sabbath, it was not very difficult to be
-reconciled to the temporary arrangement. The week wore away heavily,
-especially to Charles Robinson and Stephen Jones. They counted the days
-impatiently till Saturday, and on Saturday they counted the long and
-lagging hours till noon. They had both made up their minds that it would
-be dangerous to wait longer, and they had both resolved not to let
-another Sabbath pass without making direct proposals to Miss Brown.
-
-Stephen Jones was too early a riser for Charles Robinson, and, in any
-enterprise where both were concerned, was pretty sure to take the lead,
-except where money could carry the palm, and then, of course, it was
-always borne away by Charles. As Miss Lucy had been absent most of the
-week, and was to be at home that afternoon, Charles Robinson had made an
-arrangement with his mother and sisters to have a little tea party in
-the evening, for the purpose of inviting Miss Brown; and then, of
-course, he should walk home with her in the evening; and then, of
-course, would be a good opportunity to break the ice, and make known to
-her his feelings and wishes. Stephen Jones, however, was more prompt in
-his movements. He had got wind of the proposed tea party, although
-himself and sister, for obvious reasons, had not been invited, and he
-resolved not to risk the arrival of Miss Brown and her visit to Mr.
-Robinson’s, before he should see her. She would dismiss her school at
-noon, and come the distance of a mile and a half round the pond home.
-His mind was at once made up. He would go round and meet her at the
-school-house, and accompany her on her walk. There, in that winding road
-around those delightful waters, with the tall and shady trees over head,
-and the wild grape-vines twining round their trunks, and climbing to the
-branches, while the wild birds were singing through the woods, and the
-wild ducks playing in the coves along the shore, surely there, if any
-where in the world, could a man bring his mind up to the point of
-speaking of love.
-
-Accordingly, a little before noon, Stephen washed and brushed himself
-up, and put on his Sunday clothes, and started on his expedition. In
-order to avoid observation, he took a back route across the field,
-intending to come into the road by the pond, a little out of the
-village. As ill luck would have it, Charles Robinson had been out in the
-same direction, and was returning with an armful of green boughs and
-wild flowers, to ornament the parlor for the evening. He saw Stephen,
-and noticed his dress, and the direction he was going, and he at once
-smoked the whole business. His first impulse was to rush upon him and
-collar him, and demand that he should return back. But then he
-recollected that in the last scratch he had with Stephen, two or three
-years before, he had a little the worst of it, and he instinctively
-stood still while Stephen passed on without seeing him. It flashed upon
-his mind at once that the question must now be reduced to a game of
-speed. If he could by any means gain the school-house first, and engage
-Miss Lucy to walk home with him, he should consider himself safe. But if
-Stephen should reach the school-house first, he should feel a good deal
-of uneasiness for the consequences. Stephen was walking very leisurely,
-and unconscious that he was in any danger of a competitor on the course,
-and it was important that his suspicions should not be awakened.
-Charles, therefore, remained perfectly quiet till Stephen had got a
-little out of hearing, and then he threw down his bushes and flowers,
-and ran to the wharf below the store with his utmost speed. He had one
-advantage over Stephen. He was ready at a moment’s warning to start on
-an expedition of this kind, for Sunday clothes were an every-day affair
-with him. There was a light canoe, belonging to his father, lying at the
-wharf, and a couple of stout boys were there fishing. Charles hailed
-them, and told them if they would row him across the pond as quick as
-they possibly could, he would give them a quarter of a dollar a piece.
-This, in their view, was a splendid offer for their services, and they
-jumped on board with alacrity and manned the oars. Charles took a
-paddle, and stood in the stern to steer the boat, and help propel her
-ahead. The distance by water was a little less than by land, and
-although Stephen had considerably the start of him, he believed he
-should be able to reach the school-house first, especially if Stephen
-should not see him and quicken his pace. In one minute after he arrived
-at the wharf, the boat was under full way. The boys laid down to the
-oars with right good will, and Charles put out all his strength upon the
-paddle. They were shooting over the water twice as fast as a man could
-walk, and Charles already felt sure of the victory. But when they had
-gone about half a mile, they came in the range of a little opening in
-the trees on the shore, where the road was exposed to view, and there,
-at that critical moment, was Stephen pursuing his easy walk. Charles’
-heart was in his mouth. Still it was possible Stephen might not see
-them, for he had not yet looked round. Lest the sound of the oars might
-attract his attention, Charles had instantly, on coming in sight,
-ordered the boys to stop rowing, and he grasped his paddle with
-breathless anxiety, and waited for Stephen again to disappear. But just
-as he was upon the point of passing behind some trees, where the boat
-would be out of his sight, Stephen turned his head and looked round. He
-stopped short, turned square round, and stood for the space of a minute
-looking steadily at the boat. Then lifting his hand, and shaking his
-fist resolutely at Charles, as much as to say I understand you, he
-started into a quick run.
-
-“Now, boys,” said Charles, “buckle to your oars for your lives, and if
-you get to the shore so I can reach the school-house before Stephen
-does, I’ll give you half a dollar a piece.”
-
-This of course added new life to the boys and increased speed to the
-boat. Their little canoe flew over the water almost like a bird,
-carrying a white bone in her mouth, and leaving a long ripple on the
-glassy wave behind her. Charles’ hands trembled, but still he did good
-execution with his paddle. Although Stephen upon the run was a very
-different thing from Stephen at a slow walk, Charles still had strong
-hopes of winning the race and gaining his point. He several times caught
-glimpses of Stephen through the trees, and, as well as he could judge,
-the boat had a little the best of it. But when they came out into the
-last opening, where for a little way they had a fair view of each other,
-Charles thought Stephen ran faster than ever; and although he was now
-considerably nearer the school-house than Stephen was, he still trembled
-for the result. They were now within fifty rods of the shore, and
-Charles appealed again to the boys’ love of money.
-
-“Now,” said he, “we have not a minute to spare. If we gain the point,
-I’ll give you a dollar apiece.”
-
-The boys strained every nerve, and Charles’ paddle made the water fly
-like the tail of a wounded shark. When within half a dozen rods of the
-shore, Charles urged them again to spring with all their might, and one
-of the boys making a desperate plunge upon his oar, snapped it in two.
-The first pull of the other oar headed the boat from land. Charles saw
-at once that the delay must be fatal, if he depended on the boat to
-carry him ashore. The water was but three feet deep, and the bottom was
-sandy. He sprung from the boat, and rushed toward the shore as fast as
-he was able to press through the water. He flew up the bank, and along
-the road, till he reached the school-house. The door was open, but he
-could see no one within. Several children were at play round the door,
-who, having seen Charles approach with such haste, stood with mouths and
-eyes wide open, looking at him.
-
-“Where’s the schoolma’m?” said Charles, hastily, to one of the largest
-boys.
-
-“Why?” said the boy, opening his eyes still wider, “is any of the folks
-dead?”
-
-“You little rascal, I say, where’s the schoolma’m?”
-
-“She jest went down that road,” said the boy, “two or three minutes
-ago.”
-
-“Was she alone?” said Charles.
-
-“She started alone,” said the boy, “and a man met her out there a little
-ways, and turned about and went with her.”
-
-Charles felt that his cake was all dough again, and that he might as
-well give it up for a bad job, and go home. Stephen Jones and Lucy Brown
-walked very leisurely home through the woods, and Charles and the boys
-went very leisurely in the boat across the pond. They even stopped by
-the way, and caught a mess of fish, since the boys had thrown their
-lines into the boat when they started. And when they reached the wharf,
-Charles, in order to show that he had been a fishing, took a large
-string of the fish in his hand, and carried them up to the house. Miss
-Lucy Brown, on her way home through the woods, had undoubtedly been
-informed of the proposed tea-party for the evening, to which she was to
-be invited, and to which Stephen Jones and Susan Jones were not invited;
-and when Miss Lucy’s invitation came, she sent word back, that she was
-_engaged_.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE FAREWELL.
-
-
- Farewell, farewell—O! ne’er from me
- Till now that word hath hopeless passed;
- But, sweet one, faltered forth to thee,
- It seems this once as ’twere the last—
- The last that thou wilt ever hear
- From him who knows thy worth too well;
- I’ll stifle one relenting tear,
- That mingles in this last farewell.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- HARRY CAVENDISH.
-
-
- BY THE AUTHOR OF “CRUISING IN THE LAST WAR,” “THE REEFER OF ’76,” ETC.
-
-
- CONCLUSION.
-
-I was now alone in the world; I had neither ship, nor home; and she I
-had loved was wedded to another. It is strange how misanthropical a man
-becomes, after disappointment has soured his disposition, and destroyed,
-one after another, the beautiful dreams of his youth. When I sat down
-and thought of the hopes of my earlier years, now gone forever; when I
-speculated upon my future prospects; when I recalled to mind how few of
-the friends I had begun life with remained, an indescribable sadness
-came over me, and, had it not been for my manhood, I would have found a
-relief in tears. My zest for society was gone. I cared little for the
-ordinary business of life. I only longed for a fitting opportunity to
-re-enter the service, and distinguish myself by some gallant deed, which
-I did not care to survive, for even fame had become hateful to me, since
-it reminded me how insufficient it was to win or retain the love of
-woman. In a word, I had become a misanthrope, and was fast losing all
-the energy of my character in sickly regrets over the past.
-
-Of the St. Clairs I had not inquired since my return, and their names,
-from motives of delicacy perhaps, were never mentioned in my presence.
-Yet they occupied a large portion of my thoughts, and often would I
-start, and my heart flutter, when, in the streets, I fancied, for a
-moment, that I recognized the form of Annette. But a nearer approach
-made evident my mistake, and dissipated my embarrassment. Much, however,
-as I thought of her, I had never inquired to whom she had been married;
-yet my curiosity on this point continually gained strength; and when I
-had been a fortnight in Newport without hearing any allusion to her, I
-began to wish that some one would break the ominous silence which seemed
-to hang around her and her family. Still I dared not trust myself to
-broach the subject. I continued, therefore, ignorant of their present
-situation, and of all that concerned them.
-
-There is, not far from the town, and situated in one of the most
-beautiful portions of the island, a favorite resort which has long been
-known by the familiar and characteristic name of “The Glen.” The spot is
-one where the deity of romance might sit enshrined. Here, on a still
-summer night, we might, without much stretch of fancy, look for fairies
-to come forth and gambol, or listen to the light music of airy spirits
-hovering above us. The whole place reminds you of an enchanted bower,
-and dull must be his heart who does not feel the stirrings of the
-divinity within him as he gazes on the lovely scenery around. He who can
-listen here unmoved to the low gurgle of the brook, or the light rustle
-of the leaves in the summer wind, must be formed of the coarsest clods
-of clay, nor boast one spark of our immortal nature.
-
-The glen was my favorite resort, and thither would I go and spend whole
-afternoons, listening to the laughing prattle of the little river, or
-striving to catch, in pauses of the breeze, the murmur of the
-neighboring sea. A rude bench had been constructed under some trees, in
-a partially open glade, at the lower extremity of the ravine, and here I
-usually sat, indulging in those dreamy, half-sick reveries which are
-characteristic of youth. The stream, which brawled down the ravine, in a
-succession of rapids and cascades, here glided smoothly along on a level
-bottom, its banks fringed with long grass interspersed with wild roses,
-and its bed strewed with pebbles, round and silvery, that glistened in
-the sunbeams, which, here and there, struggled through the trees, and
-shimmered on the stream. Faint and low came to the ear the sound of the
-mill, situated at the upper end of the ravine; while occasionally a bird
-whistled on the stillness, or a leaf floated lazily down into the river,
-and went on its way, a tiny bark. The seclusion of my favorite retreat
-was often enlivened by the appearance of strangers, but as they
-generally remained only a few minutes, I had the spot, for most of the
-time, to myself. Here I dreamed away the long summer afternoons, often
-lingering until the moon had risen, to make the scene seem even more
-beautiful, under her silvery light. I had no pleasure in any other spot.
-Perhaps it was because I had once been here with Annette, when we were
-both younger, and I, at least, happier; and I could remember plucking a
-flower for her from a time-worn bush that still grew on the margin of
-the stream. God knows how we love to haunt the spot made dear to us by
-old and tender recollections!
-
-I was sitting, one afternoon, on the rude bench I have spoken of,
-listlessly casting pebbles into the river, when I heard the sound of
-approaching voices, but I was so accustomed to the visits of strangers,
-that I did not pause to look up. Directly the voices came nearer, and
-suddenly a word was spoken that thrilled through every nerve of my
-system. It was only a single word, but that voice!—surely it could be
-none other than Annette’s. My sensations, at that moment, I will not
-pretend to analyze. I longed to look up, and yet I dared not. My heart
-fluttered wildly, and I could feel the blood rushing in torrents to my
-face; but, if I had been called on at that instant to speak, I could not
-have complied for worlds. Luckily the tree, under whose shadow I sat,
-concealed me from the approaching visitors, and I had thus time to rally
-my spirits ere the strangers came up. As they drew near I recognized the
-voice of Mr. St. Clair, and then that of Annette’s cousin Isabel, while
-there were one or two other speakers who were strangers to me. Doubtless
-one of them was Annette’s husband, and, as this thought flashed across
-me, I looked up, impelled by an irresistible impulse. The party were now
-within almost twenty yards, coming gaily down the glen. Foremost in the
-group walked Isabel, leaning on the arm of a tall, gentlemanly looking
-individual, and turning ever and anon around to Annette, who followed
-immediately behind, at the side of her father. Another lady, attended by
-a gentleman, made up the rest of the company. Where could Annette’s
-husband be? was the question that occurred to me—and who was the
-distinguished looking gentleman on whose arm Isabel was so familiarly
-leaning? But my thoughts were cut short by a conversation which now
-began, and of which, during a minute, I was an unknown auditor—for my
-position still concealed me from the party, and my surprise at first,
-and afterwards delicacy, prevented me from appearing.
-
-“Ah! Annette,” said Isabel, archly, turning around to her cousin, “do
-you know this spot, but especially that rose-bush yonder?—here, right
-beyond that old tree—you seem wonderfully ignorant all at once! I
-wonder where the donor of that aforesaid rose-bud is now. I would lay a
-guinea that it is yet in your possession, preserved in some favorite
-book, pressed out between the leaves. Come, answer frankly, is it not
-so, my sweet coz?”
-
-I could hear no reply, if one was made, and immediately another voice
-spoke. It was that of Isabel’s companion, coming to the aid of Annette.
-
-“You are too much given to believe that Annette follows your example,
-Isabel—now do you turn penitent, and let me be father confessor—how
-many rose-buds, ay! and for that matter, even leaves, have you in your
-collection, presented to you by your humble servant, before we had pity
-on each other, and were married? I found a flower, last week, in a copy
-of Spenser, and, if I remember aright, I was the donor of the trifle.”
-
-“Oh! you betray yourself,” gaily retorted Isabel, “but men are
-foolish—and of all foolish men I ever met with, a certain Albert
-Marston was, before his marriage, the most foolish. I take credit to
-myself,” she continued, in the same playful strain, “for having worked
-such a reformation in him since that event. But this is not what we were
-talking of—you wish to divert me from my purpose by this light Cossack
-warfare—but it won’t do,” she continued, and I fancied she stamped her
-foot prettily, as she was wont to do at Clairville Hall, when she was
-disposed to have her way; “no—no—Annette must be the one to turn
-penitent, and I will play father confessor. Say, now, fair coz, was it
-not a certain fancy to see this same rose-bush, that induced you to
-insist on coming here?”
-
-During this conversation the parties had remained nearly stationary at
-some distance from me. Strange suspicions began to flash through my
-mind, as soon as Isabel commenced her banter; and these suspicions had
-now been changed into a certainty. Annette was still unmarried, and it
-was Isabel’s wedding at which I had come so near being present, at
-Clairville Hall. Nor was this all. I was still loved. Oh! the wild, the
-rapturous feelings of that moment. I could with difficulty restrain
-myself from rising and rushing toward them; but motives of delicacy
-forbade me thus to reveal that the conversation had been overheard. And
-yet should I remain in my present position, and play the listener still
-further? I knew not what to do. All these considerations flashed through
-my mind in the space of less than a minute, during which the party had
-been silent, apparently enjoying Annette’s confusion.
-
-“Come, not ready to answer yet?” began Isabel; “well, if you will not,
-you shan’t have the rose from that bush, for which you’ve come. Let us
-go back,” she said, playfully.
-
-The whole party seemed to enter into the jest, and laughingly retraced
-their steps. This afforded me the opportunity for which I longed.
-Hastily rising from my seat, I glided unnoticed from tree to tree, until
-I reached a copse on the left of the glen, and advancing up the ravine,
-under cover of this screen, I re-entered the path at a bend some
-distance above the St. Clairs. Here I listened for a moment, and caught
-the sound of their approaching voices. Determining no longer to be a
-listener to their conversation, I proceeded down the glen, and, as I
-turned the corner, a few paces in advance, I came full in sight of the
-approaching group. In an instant the gay laughing of the party ceased,
-and I saw Annette shrink blushing behind her father. Isabel was the
-first to speak. Darting forward, with that frankness and gaiety which
-always characterized her, she grasped my hand, and said—
-
-“You don’t know how happy we all are to see you. Where could you have
-come from?—and how could you have made such a mistake as to
-congratulate Annette, instead of me, on being married? But come, I must
-surrender you to the others—I see they are dying to speak to you.
-Uncle, Annette—how lucky it was that we came here to-day!”
-
-“My dear boy,” said Mr. St. Clair, warmly pressing my hand, “I cannot
-tell how rejoiced I am to see you. We heard a rumor that you were lost,
-and we all wept—Isabel for the first time for years. It was but a few
-days since that we heard you were at Newport, and, as we were coming
-hither, I hastened my journey, determined to search you out. We are on
-our way there now, and only stopped here a few minutes to relieve
-ourselves after a long ride. This day shall be marked with a white
-stone. But here I have been keeping you from speaking to Annette—we old
-men, you know, are apt to be garrulous.”
-
-My eyes, indeed, had been seeking Annette, who, still covered with
-blushes, and unable to control her embarrassment, sought to conceal them
-by keeping in the back ground. As for me, I had become wonderfully
-self-possessed. I now advanced and took her hand. It trembled in my own,
-and when I spoke, though she replied faintly, she did not dare to look
-into my face, except for a moment, after which her eyes again sought the
-ground in beautiful embarrassment. My unexpected appearance, combined
-with her cousin’s late raillery, covered her face with blushes, and, for
-some time, she could not rally herself sufficient to participate in the
-conversation.
-
-What more have I to tell? I was now happy, and for my misanthropy, it
-died with the cause that produced it. Mr. St. Clair said that the
-wedding need not be delayed, and in less than a month I led Annette to
-the altar. Years have flown since then, but I still enjoy unalloyed
-felicity, and Annette seems to my eyes more beautiful than ever. It only
-remains for me to bid my readers FAREWELL!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE HOLYNIGHTS.
-
-
- BY HENRY MORFORD.
-
-
- Some say that ’gainst the time that season comes
- Wherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated
- The bird of dawning singeth all night long,
- And then they say no sprite dares stir abroad,
- The nights are wholesome then, no planets strike,
- No fairy takes or witch hath power to charm,
- So hallowed and so gracious is the time.
- Hamlet.
-
- Hushed be the voice of mirthfulness,
- And stilled be the plaintive tones of care,
- That from too many a heart recess
- Go forth to float on the midnight air;
- It is no time for the wild excess,
- No time for the loose unbridled reign
- That passion gives to her votaries
- When they sever away the golden chain.
-
- Stilled on the ears of the seraph choir
- Let the lingering hymns of the season go,
- As they sweep their hands o’er the golden wire
- To the anthem of love and peace below;
- And let us keep in a holy mood
- The coming hours of that sacred time
- When the word went forth for the hush of blood
- And the passing knell for the soul of crime!
-
- When the hosts of the upper region stirred
- That another star came forth to shine,
- And the rush of an angel’s wing was heard
- O’er the moonlit plains of Palestine,
- And a softer light o’er the earth was flung
- And the pale stars waxed no longer dim,
- And forth on a thousand harps outrung
- The rising notes of the angels’ hymn.
-
- The same bright stars that then looked down
- With a guardian watch o’er hill and plain,
- Unfading gems in the starry crown
- Glittering on in the blue remain,
- And the solemn awe that crept them round
- As they watched their flocks that holy time,
- An echo with us to-night has found
- In the new-born light of another clime.
-
- It has been felt this many a year,
- The sacred spell of the season’s death,
- And the brighter glow of the starry sphere
- As it came that time with the angels’ breath,
- For brighter yet the stars gleam out
- As the noisome vapor shrinks away
- From the open glade that it hung about
- Darkened and damp this many a day.
-
- List how the spirit-breathings come
- Upon our ears from the voice sublime
- Of him who ruled in the spirits’ home,
- Who wrote and sang for the end of time!
- Hark how he tells when the time is near,
- The bird of the dawn sings all night long
- And the fairy legions disappear
- When he comes abroad with his matin song.
-
- No spirits forth, nor the rank compound
- That glows with the witches’ midnight toil,
- No deeps of the forest-close resound
- With the wizard shriek and the caldron boil.
- No planets chill the warm heart’s blood
- With the mockery of a demon fire,
- No vapors veil with a sickly shroud
- The moss-grown top of the old church spire,—
-
- For he who stood in that dreadful watch
- On the gray rampart of Elsinore
- Told how they ceased from their revel catch
- And their reign at the Christmas time was o’er;
- We feel it now, as he felt it then,
- That the air is full of holiness,
- And we need not forms from the earth again
- Of the starry hosts to guard and bless.
-
- Then stilled on the ears of the seraph choir
- Let the lingering hymns of the season go,
- As they sweep their hands o’er the golden wire
- To the anthem of love and peace below;
- And let us keep in a holy mood
- The passing hours of that sacred time
- When the word went forth for the hush of blood
- And the passing knell for the soul of crime!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE LADIES’ LIBRARY.
-
-
- BY W. A. JONES.
-
-
-That admirable manual of “_les petites morales_,” and even of higher
-matters occasionally, the Spectator, contains a paper which we hesitate
-not to accept as a just specimen of cotemporary satire on female
-education; we refer to the catalogue of a Ladies’ Library. This
-heterogeneous collection embraces heroical romances and romancing
-histories, the ranting tragedies of the day, with the libertine comedies
-of the same period. In a word, it leads us to infer pretty plainly the
-insignificant pretensions the gentle women of Queen Anne’s day could lay
-to any thing like refinement of education, or even a correct propriety
-in dress and demeanor. Tell me your company, and I will disclose your
-own character; speak that I may know you, are trite maxims; but give me
-a list of your favorite authors is by no means so common, though at
-least as true, a test. The literary and indirectly the moral depravity
-of taste exhibited by the women of that age, is easily accounted for,
-when we once learn the fashionable authors and the indifferent
-countenance given to any authors but those of the most frivolous
-description. The queen herself was an illiterate woman, and we are told
-never once had the curiosity to look into the classic productions of
-Pope. King William, the preceding sovereign, was so ignorant of books
-and the literary character, as to offer Swift, with whom he had been
-agreeably prepossessed, the place of captain of a regiment of horse.
-
-Indulging ourselves in a rapid transition, we pass from this era to the
-epoch of Johnson and Burke, and Goldsmith and Sheridan, we come to the
-reign of George III. Here we find the scene altered. From the gay saloon
-we are dropped, as if by magic, into the library or conversation room.
-We read not of balls, but of literary dinners and æsthetic teas, and we
-meet for company, not thoughtless, dressy dames of fashion and minions
-of the goddess of pleasure, but grave, precise professors in petticoats,
-women who had exchanged a world of anxiety for the turn of a head-dress,
-or the shape of a flounce for an equally wise anxiety about the
-philosophy of education, the success of their sonnets and tragedies, and
-moral tales for the young. The pedantry of authorship and dogmatic
-conversation superseded the more harmless pedantry of dress. Then we
-read of the stupidest company in the world, which arrogated to itself
-the claim of being the best. A race of learned ladies arose; _bas
-bleus_, the Montagues, the Mores, the Sewards, the Chapones, patronized
-by such prosing old formalists as Doctors Gregory and Aiken, and even by
-one man of vigorous talent, Johnson, and one man of real genius,
-Richardson. The last two endured much, because they were flattered much.
-
-When we speak thus contemptuously of learned ladies, we intend to
-express a disgust at the pretensions of those who pass under that name.
-Genuine learning can never be despised, whoever may be its possessor;
-but of genuine learning it is not harsh to suspect a considerable
-deficiency where there is so much of display and anxious rivalry. Even
-where the learning is exact and solid, it is to be remembered that many
-departments are utterly unsuited to the female mind; where, at best,
-little can be accomplished and that of a harsh repulsive nature. We want
-no Daciers, no Somervilles, no Marcets, but give us as you will as many
-Inchbalds, Burneys, Edgeworths, Misses Barrett, as can be had for love
-or money.
-
-From the ladies we seek literature, not learning, in its old scholastic
-sense. They certainly have received pleasure from books, and are bound
-to return the gratification in a similar way by delighting us. And this
-they can do in their legitimate attempts. It shall be a prominent object
-of the present general introduction to a short series of critical
-sketches, to attempt a definition of the limits which should bound those
-attempts, and also to endeavor at suggesting the proper studies for
-ladies, and the authors that ought to rank as favorites with the fair.
-In a list of the latter, female writers should bear a considerable
-proportion, and will assuredly not be forgotten.
-
-We believe the question as to the relative sexual distinctions of
-intellectual character, is now generally considered as settled. There is
-allowed to be a species of genius essentially feminine. Equality is no
-more arrogated than superiority of ability, and it would be as wisely
-arrogated. The most limited observation of life and the most superficial
-acquaintance with books, must effectually demonstrate the superior
-capacity of man for the great works of life and speculation. It is true,
-great geniuses are rare and seldom needed, and the generality of women
-rank on a par with the generality of men. In many cases, women of talent
-surpass men of an equal calibre of mere talent, through other and
-constitutional causes—a greater facility of receiving and transmitting
-impressions, greater instinctive subtlety of apprehension, and a
-livelier sympathy. We cordially admit the female intellect, in the
-ordinary concerns of life and the current passages of society, has often
-the advantage of the masculine understanding. Cleverness outshines solid
-ability, and a smart woman is much more showy than a profound man. In
-certain walks of authorship, too, women are pre-eminently successful; in
-cases narrative of real or fictitious events, (in the last implying a
-strain of ready invention,) in lively descriptions of natural beauty or
-artificial manners; in the development of the milder sentiments,
-especially the sentiment of love; in airy, comic ridicule. On the other
-hand, the highest attempts of women in poetry have uniformly failed. We
-have read of no female epic of even a respectable rank: those who have
-written tragedies, have written moral lectures (of an inferior sort)
-like Hannah More; or anatomies of the passions, direct and formal, like
-Joanna Baillie; or an historical sketch, as Rienzi. We are apt to
-suspect that the personal charms of Sappho proved too much for the
-admirers of her poetic rhapsodies, otherwise Longinus has done her foul
-injustice; for the fragment he quotes is to be praised and censured
-solely for its obscurity. This would have been a great merit in
-Lycophron.
-
-In the volume of British Poetesses, edited by Mr. Dyce, it is
-astonishing to find how little real poetry he has been able to collect
-out of the writings of near a century of authors, scattered over the
-surface of five or six centuries. It must be allowed that some of the
-finest shortest pieces by female writers have appeared since the
-publication of that selection. In the volume referred to, much sensible
-verse and some sprightly copies of verses occur; a fair share of pure
-reflective sentiment, delivered in pleasing language rarely rising above
-correctness; of high genius there is not a particle,—no pretensions to
-sublimity or fervor. The best piece and the finest poem, we think, ever
-composed by woman, is the charming ballad of Auld Robin Gray. That is a
-genuine bit of true poesy, and perfect in the highest department of the
-female imagination in the pathos of domestic tragedy. In the present
-century we have Mrs. Howitt and Mrs. Southey, but chief of all, Miss
-Barrett.[6] The finest attempts of the most pleasing writer of this
-class, do not rise so high as the delightful ballad above named. They
-are sweet, plaintive, moral strains, the melodious notes of a lute,
-tuned by taper fingers in a romantic bower, not the deep, majestic,
-awful tones of the great organ, or the spirited and stirring blasts of
-the trumpet. The ancient bard struck wild and mournful, or hearty and
-vigorous, notes from his harp—perchance placed “on a rock whose
-frowning brow,” &c. and striving with the rough symphonies of the
-tempest; but the sybil of modern days plays elegant and pretty, or soft
-and tender airs upon her flageolet or accordion, in the boudoir or
-saloon.
-
-A poet is, from the laws both of physiology and philology,—masculine.
-His vocation is manly, or rather divine. And we have never heard any
-traits of feminine character attributed to the great poet, (in the Greek
-sense,) the Creator of the universe. The muses are represented as
-females, but then they are the inspirers, never the composers, of verse.
-So should be the poet’s muse, as she is often the poet’s theme. There
-are higher themes, but of an abstract nature, in general: ethical,
-religious, metaphysical. Let female beauty then sit for her portrait
-instead of being the painter. Let poets chant her charms, but let her
-not spoil a fair ideal image by writing bad verses. If all were rightly
-viewed, a happy home would seem preferable to a seat on Parnassus, and
-the Fountain of Content would furnish more palatable draughts than the
-Font of Helicon. The quiet home is not always the muses’ bower; though
-we trust the muses’ bower is placed in no turbulent society.
-
-Women write for women. They may entertain, but cannot, from the nature
-of the case, become instructors to men. They know far less of life,
-their circle of experience is confined. They are unfitted for many paths
-of active exertion, and consequently are rendered incapable of forming
-just opinions on many matters. We do not include a natural incapacity
-for many studies, and as natural a dislike for many more. Many kinds of
-learning, and many actual necessary pursuits and practices, it is deemed
-improper for a refined woman to know. How, then, _can_ a female author
-become a teacher of men?
-
-Literature would miss many pleasant associations if the names of the
-best female writers were expunged from a list of classic authors, and
-the world would lose many delightful works—the novel of sentiment and
-the novel of manners, letter writing, moral tales for children, books of
-travels, gossiping memoirs—Mrs. Inchbald, Madame D’Arblay, Miss
-Edgeworth, Lady M. W. Montague, Miss Martineau, and Miss Sedgwick, with
-a host besides. Women have sprightliness, cleverness, smartness, though
-but little wit. There is a body and substance in true wit, with a
-reflectiveness rarely found apart from a masculine intellect. In all
-English comedy, we recollect but two female writers of sterling value,
-Mrs. Conley and Mrs. Guthrie, and their plays are formed on the Spanish
-model, and made up of incident and intrigue, much more than of fine
-repartees or brilliant dialogue. We know of no one writer of the other
-sex, that has a high character for humor—no Rabelais, no Sterne, no
-Swift, no Goldsmith, no Dickens, no Irving. The female character does
-not admit of it.
-
-Women cannot write history. It requires too great solidity, and too
-minute research for their quick intellects. They write, instead,
-delightful memoirs. Who, but an antiquary or historical commentator, had
-not rather read Lucy Hutchinson’s Life of her Husband, than any of the
-professed histories of the Commonwealth—and exchange Lady Fanshawe for
-the other royalist biographers.
-
-Neither are women to turn politicians or orators. We hope never to hear
-of a female Burke; she would be an overbearing termagant. A spice of a
-talent for scolding, is the highest form of eloquence we can
-conscientiously allow the ladies.
-
-Criticism is for men; when women assume it, they write scandal. The
-current notion of criticism with most, is that of libelous abuse. From
-all such, Heaven defend us.
-
-Women feel more than they think, and (sometimes) say more than do. They
-are consequently better adapted to describe sentiments, than to
-speculate on causes and effects. They are more at home in their letters,
-than in tracts of political economy.
-
-The proper faculties in women to cultivate most assiduously are, the
-taste and the religious sentiment; the first, as the leading trait of
-the intellectual; and the last, as the governing power of the moral
-constitution. Give a woman a pure taste and high principles, and she is
-safe from the arts of the wiliest libertine. Let her have all other
-gifts but these, and she is comparatively defenceless. Taste purifies
-the heart as well as the head, and religion strengthens both. The
-strongest propensities to pleasure are not so often the means of
-disgrace and ruin, as the carelessness of ignorant virtue, and an
-unenlightened moral sense. This makes all the difference in the world,
-between the daughter of a poor countryman, and the child of an educated
-gentleman. Both have the same desires, but how differently directed and
-controlled. Yet we find nineteen lapses from virtue in the one case,
-where we find one in the other.
-
-Believing that what does not interest, does not benefit the mind, we
-would avoid all pedantic lectures to women, on all subjects to which
-they discover any aversion. Study should be made a pleasure, and reading
-pure recreation. In a general sense, we would say the best works for
-female readers are those that tend to form the highest domestic
-character. Works of the highest imagination, as being above that
-condition, and scientific authors, who address a different class of
-faculties, are both unsuitable. An admirable wife may not relish the
-sublimity of Milton or Hamlet; and a charming companion be ignorant of
-the existence of such a science as Algebra. A superficial acquaintance
-with the elements of the physical sciences, is worse than total
-unacquaintance with them.
-
-Religion should be taught as a sentiment, not as an abstract principle,
-or in doctrinal positions, a sentiment of love and grateful obedience;
-morality, impressed as the practical exercise of self-denial and active
-benevolence. In courses of reading, too much is laid down of a dry
-nature. Girls are disgusted with tedious accounts of battles and
-negotiations, dates and names. The moral should be educed best filled
-for the female heart, and apart from the romantic periods, and the
-reigns of female sovereigns, or epochs when the women held a very
-prominent place in the state, or in public regard. We would have women
-affectionate wives, obedient daughters, agreeable companions, skilful
-economists, judicious friends; but we must confess it does not fall
-within our scheme to make them legislators or lawyers, diplomatists or
-politicians. We therefore think nine tenths of all history is absolutely
-useless for women. Too many really good biographies of great and good
-men and women can hardly be read, and will be read to much greater
-advantage than histories, as they leave a definite and individual
-impression. The reading good books of travels, is, next to going over
-the ground in person, the best method of studying geography. Grammar and
-rhetoric,[7] (after a clear statement of the elements and chief rules,)
-are best learnt in the perusal of classic authors, the essayists, &c.;
-and, in the same way, the theory of taste and the arts. The most
-important of accomplishments is not systematically treated in any
-system—conversation. But a father and mother of education, can teach
-this better than any professor. Expensive schools turn out half-trained
-pupils. Eight years at home, well employed, and two at a good but not
-fashionable school, are better than ten years spent in the most popular
-female seminary, conducted in the ordinary style. Such is a meagre
-outline of our idea of female education, into which we have digressed
-unawares.
-
-Female authors should constitute a fair proportion of a lady’s
-library—and those masculine writers who have something of the
-tenderness and purity of the feminine character in their works. The
-subjects and authors we propose for occasional consideration, will
-embrace specimens of each, in prose and poetry, fiction and reality,
-satire and sentiment. We think we may promise a less erudite paper for
-the second number, though to some readers all that is not very lively is
-proportionably dull.
-
------
-
-[6] This lady’s failure in an attempt to translate Æschylus, is a fair
-confirmation of our opinion of the inability of the female imagination
-to soar beyond a certain height.
-
-[7] The benefit flowing from _these_ studies is chiefly of a negative
-character.
-
- * * * * *
-
-[Illustration: A. L. Dick.
-__The Pastor’s Visit__
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE PASTOR’S VISIT.
-
-
- ILLUSTRATION OF A PICTURE.
-
-
- The noon is past—the sun declines
- Below the western hills;
- Upon the peasant’s face joy shines.
- And peace his bosom fills.
- He stands beside the cottage door,
- His wife and children round,
- With that content which evermore
- Doth with the true abound.
-
- The pastor, pausing on his way,
- Surveys the happy scene;
- If all mankind were pure as they
- Slights tasks for him, I ween!
- Not in the peasant’s cottage dwell
- Sin and her joyless train,
- He thinks of palace, dome and cell,
- And passes on again!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE HASTY MARRIAGE.
-
-
- A SKETCH FROM REAL LIFE.
-
-
- BY THE AUTHOR OF “THE BRIDAL.”
-
-
-How few “look before they leap,” even in an affair of so much moment as
-matrimony. We fear the fault is in our system. We educate our daughters
-superficially—for _display_ rather than usefulness—to catch the eye
-rather than win the heart. Our girls are taught in early life, either
-directly or indirectly, that marriage is the great object of woman’s
-ambition, and in endeavoring to secure that object, and to surpass in
-the race of conquest their companions and rivals, they sometimes wed
-rashly and to the sacrifice of happiness. Difficult, we are aware, is
-the task of discrimination with the young and inexperienced. Pure and
-artless themselves, they are apt to imagine the possession of like
-virtues by all others, and to conceive it impossible for a fine form and
-a handsome face to be associated with a false heart. Alas! how often are
-they disappointed! How frequently do the sudden attachments of early
-life prove hollow and unsubstantial! How often is it discovered that the
-first dream of love, which has been so extravagantly eulogized by poets
-and romancers, was a mere delusion that would not bear the test of time
-and of reason! With what bitterness of disappointment have many started
-from this dream! Stripped of the rainbow coloring with which the fancy
-is apt to paint an object of idolatry, how prominent appear the darkness
-and the deformity! How broad the contrast between the just view of truth
-and the rapid and prejudiced survey of passion! How often do we see
-beings standing before the altar, pledging themselves to each other for
-weal and for wo, who, comparatively speaking, were strangers but
-yesterday! Knowing little of each other’s lives and dispositions, merits
-or demerits, they are willing to risk peace of mind for long years, and
-to identify destinies for time, perhaps for eternity! Can we wonder that
-strife sometimes mars the domestic circle—that wives are left lonely
-and deserted—that the agency of man should so often be invoked to part
-beings who have been joined together by an ordinance of God!
-
-A happy union is indeed a scene upon which, without irreverence, we may
-suppose the angels in Heaven gaze from their bright places of abode with
-delight and approval. An unnatural or a discordant marriage, on the
-other hand, must form a source of delight to the arch enemy of mankind,
-for in it he can recognize the soul of evil. That the young should seek
-for and cling to a kindred spirit is natural. The undivided possession
-of a pure heart is perhaps the very acme of human felicity. “One home,
-one wife, and one God,” is the sentiment of one of the wisest of his
-race, and it is only when man is on the shady side of fifty that he
-begins to appreciate the truth of this philosophy in all its solemnity
-and force. Then his pleasures of life are derived as much from the past
-as the future, and the associations of that past, if mingled with
-virtue, fidelity, patriotism and religion, are indeed blissful.
-
-We pity the lonely and the desolate—the loveless and the unloved—the
-being without a wife or a friend—without one trusting and confiding
-spirit, to whom the heart may turn in its hour of sorrow and pour out
-its inmost and saddest thoughts. The cold and selfish mortal who passes
-year after year without experiencing the delightful concord of sentiment
-to be found in a kindred soul, is indeed the most miserable of his
-species. Even his joys are robbed of half their delight, because
-unshared by another, by one to whom he is allied by love and friendship.
-Wretched indeed is the isolated individual who, mingling with the
-multitude, can single out no destiny identified with his—no faithful
-and devoted heart, the breath of whose existence seems bound up with
-his. Nature has denied to such a being the holiest impulses that warm
-and agitate the human breast. Even the birds are mated, and without a
-ministering angel “a sweet companion,” the first born was lonely and
-desolate in the garden of Eden. So it must ever be with the frail and
-feeble things of mortal existence. If Paradise could not be appreciated
-and enjoyed alone, how can man reconcile loneliness to his fallen
-condition? The desire of the heart is for sweet companionship—the
-inward craving of the spirit is for a being to love. Can we wonder then
-that in this country, where early marriage is taught to be desirable, so
-many should choose rashly?
-
-We remember Annette Delisle as a being of yesterday. She sang well—she
-danced well—and in many respects she was a beauty. Not one of our
-beauties at the time, for her form was too slight and sylph-like,—her
-joy was too gushing—her spirits too redundant. She dressed from early
-childhood with taste and elegance, and wore her dark hair in long
-ringlets over her shoulders. She had many friends, and even at sixteen
-her admirers were liberal in number and profuse in flattery. Her mother,
-a weak and vain woman, was proud of her daughter—proud of the attention
-that daughter received, and eager to display her on every occasion. Thus
-she not only frequently accompanied her to public balls, which were then
-more fashionable and somewhat more select than at present, but she
-permitted her to accept of numerous invitations to parties, and to
-mingle almost nightly during the winter season in the gay scenes of our
-metropolis. The father, good-natured man, was a manufacturer, and was so
-wedded to business, that he could not spare time even for the proper
-care of his favorite child. Alas! this good nature in fathers! It
-sometimes degenerates into a sad vice, and is the source of much misery
-in after life. The man who lacks the energy to control his own
-household,—who is either too negligent, or too weak to point out the
-true path and to direct the footsteps of his offspring therein, is
-guilty of much that is unpardonable.
-
-But such a father was Mr. Delisle, while the mother, worse if possible,
-gave the reins almost wholly into the hands of her daughter, and was but
-too fond of the hollow and unmeaning admiration which the practiced in
-art and in compliment among the sterner sex are so apt to bestow upon
-the vain and empty, whether old or young.
-
-The result of this course upon Annette Delisle may well be imagined.
-While she sparkled in the ball room, and glittered in the giddy throng,
-her heart, her mind, and her morals were neglected. The mazes of the
-world, its quicksands and its hypocrisy were unknown to her. She
-flirted, laughed and trifled with the many, caught one hour by a fine
-form, another by a rich voice, and a third by a dashing exterior. And
-yet, in the depths of that young girl’s breast, were rich and true
-affections. Properly trained, she would have graced any circle. Her mind
-was good by nature—her spirit was benevolent and cheerful—and many of
-the lights of beauty flashed and brightened around her. Despite her
-artificial manner, and her air of coquetry, her feelings were deep and
-strong. Her being was one of impulse, and her attachments, even to her
-school companions, were animated by truth and fidelity. Thus it was when
-Annette discovered that the society of Howard Leroy possessed an unusual
-charm for her—that she saw him approach with pleasure—that she
-listened with more than her wonted attention to his remarks—that she
-felt the blood mount to her cheek at his compliments—that she found her
-eyes following as he wandered through the ball room—that she lisped his
-name even in her dreams.
-
-Never can I forget the dashing Leroy. He was what is usually denominated
-“a handsome fellow”—one of the butterflies of society—a ladies’ man,
-in the general acceptation, and a favorite also with his own sex. He
-rode well, talked well, and sang an excellent song. This latter
-qualification was in some respects a fatal gift, for it introduced him
-into many a gay circle from which he otherwise would have been
-excluded—made him sought for, and vain of his voice, and thus won him
-away from the more useful pursuits of life. Leroy, moreover, was fond of
-poetry—was able to quote glowing passages, and had, withal, a touch of
-romance in his character, which served not a little to enhance him in
-the estimation of some of his female acquaintance. He assumed a
-remarkable degree of independence—was rather bold and reckless in his
-manner and language, and possessed the faculty of talking for hours in
-relation to the prominent beauties of Moore, Byron and Bulwer. These
-were the traits of character which won upon the mind and heart of
-Annette Delisle. Her education and mode of life had fitted her for the
-arts of such a man. She fancied him something superior to the ordinary
-fop—to the mere merchant or shopkeeper. Leroy became her ardent and
-enthusiastic admirer. The fact soon reached the ears of her father. He
-roused himself for the moment, and proceeded to investigate the
-realities of the case. Leroy he ascertained to be an idle, dissolute
-pretender, and dependent, he feared, upon the gaming-table for his means
-of subsistence. He was of good family, and had received a fair
-education. But he had gone astray from the path of rectitude in early
-life, and now contrived to appear on the principal promenades as a
-fashionable lounger—but the world wondered how!
-
-The manufacturer was terrified at the prospect for his daughter, whom he
-really loved, but it was too late. Leroy saw the storm coming, and
-prevailed upon Annette, by falsehood and misrepresentation, to consent
-to a secret marriage. Fondly and long she clung to the delusion that her
-husband had been slandered—that one who could _talk_ so well, and
-_profess_ so much, could not be a villain. He _was_ not one, perhaps, in
-the usual interpretation; but we can conceive of no more heartless
-wretch than the man who deliberately deceives and betrays a fond and
-confiding woman. Leroy never loved Annette with a true and exalted
-affection. He felt himself bankrupt in fortune, and nearly so in
-character, and he was base enough to become the husband of an
-unsuspecting girl, in the hope of a dependency upon the bounty of her
-father. Deceived in this, for the old manufacturer would have nothing to
-do with him, he soon threw off the mask. At first cold and indifferent,
-he speedily grew harsh and unkind. True, there were moments when his
-better nature prevailed, and he would endeavor, by apparent contrition
-and well turned promises, to atone for his conduct. But, they were few
-and far between, and diminished in number as time rolled on. Strange,
-despite the giddy character of Annette—despite the little care which
-had been bestowed upon her principles, she clung to him with the true
-fidelity of woman. She loved him with her whole soul, and while the
-pride of her woman nature repelled the idea of any public exposure of
-her situation, and while she even concealed from her parents much of the
-unworthy conduct of Leroy, she still cherished a belief of his ultimate
-reform. Night after night she sat in her quiet chamber, or gazed
-earnestly from the window, in the hope that the form of her husband
-might appear before the midnight hour. Who may paint the agony of her
-mind at such moments—the jealous fears that shot like daggers through
-her breast, as to his haunts and his society—the apprehension of danger
-and of death—the terrible fancies which mingled him in some dreadful
-scene at the gaming table—and, worse than all, the oft repelled, but
-still returning conviction, that the wine cup was too familiar with his
-lips!
-
-God, in pity look down upon and impart moral courage to the lonely wives
-of the world—the dejected ones to whom home is desolate, whose hearts
-are breaking slowly, secretly, string by string—who live only for their
-little ones, and because they know it wrong to plunge unbidden into
-eternity! Beings who have ventured their all of earthly happiness, and
-have lost all—who have been deceived, betrayed, and are now deserted!
-Pity and console them, Great Creator, for the misery of unrequited love,
-of wounded pride, of crushed affection, of hopeless despair throughout
-this life, can only be soothed and softened by a heavenly influence!
-
-Poor Annette! Step by step her husband plunged on in the downward path.
-Ray after ray departed from the light of her beauty. Wider and wider
-became the gulf between the manufacturer and his son-in-law. But, horror
-of horrors! the crisis soon came! The resource of gambling failed at
-last with Leroy, and _then_—he resorted to forgery!—ay! he forged the
-name of George Delisle, the father of his wife, and fled the country in
-order to escape the penalty of his crime!
-
- * * * * *
-
-But a few days have gone by since we saw Annette. Only five years have
-elapsed since her marriage. What a change! The lily has supplanted the
-rose—the eye has lost its fire—the step its buoyancy—the form its
-grace. She is a doomed and broken hearted woman. Disease has “marked her
-for his own.” Loss of sleep—mental anxiety—the disgrace—the
-shame—the ignominy of her husband’s career, are hurrying her rapidly to
-a premature grave!
-
-Mothers, be warned! Virtue, Integrity and Religion are the only safe
-companions for your budding and beautiful daughters!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- TO THE NIGHT-WIND IN AUTUMN.
-
-
- BY THE AUTHOR OF “TECUMSEH.”
-
-
- Whence art thou, spirit wind?
- Soothing with thy low voice the ear of Night,
- And breathing o’er the wakeful, pensive mind
- An influence of pleased yet sad delight.
-
- Thou tell’st not of thy birth,
- O viewless wanderer from land to land:
- But gathering all the secrets of the earth
- Where’er, unseen, thy airy wings expand,
-
- At this hushed, holy hour,
- When time seems part of vast eternity,
- Thou dost reveal them with a magic power,
- Saddening the soul with thy weird minstrelsy.
-
- All nature seems to hear,
- The woods, the waters, and each silent star;
- What, that can thus enchain their earnest ear,
- Bring’st thou of untold tidings from afar?
-
- Is it of new, fair lands,
- Of fresh-lit worlds that in the welkin burn!
- Do new oäses gem Zahara’s sands,
- Or the lost Pleiad to the skies return?
-
- Nay! ’tis a voice of grief,
- Of grief subdued, but deepened through long years,
- The soul of Sorrow, seeking not relief,
- Still gathering bitter knowledge without tears.
-
- For thou, since earth was young
- And rose green Eden purpled with the morn,
- Its solemn wastes and homes of men among,
- Circling all zones, thy mourning flight hast borne.
-
- Empires have risen in might,
- And peopled cities through the outspread earth,
- And thou hast passed them at the hour of night
- Listing the sounds of revelry and mirth.
-
- Again thou hast gone by—
- City and empire were alike o’erthrown,
- Temple and palace, fall’n confusedly,
- In marble ruin on the desert strown.
-
- In time-long solitudes,
- Where dark, old mountains pierced the silent air,
- Bright rivers roamed, and stretched untraversed woods,
- Thou joy’dst to hope that these were changeless there.
-
- Lo! as the ages passed,
- Thou found’st them struck with alteration dire,
- The streams new-channeled, forests earthward cast,
- The crumbling mountains scathed with storm and fire.
-
- Gone but a few short hours,
- Beauty and bloom beguiled thy wanderings,
- And thou mad’st love unto the virgin flowers,
- Sighing through green trees and by mossy springs.
-
- Now on the earth’s cold bed,
- Fallen and faded, waste their forms away,
- And all around the withered leaves are shed,
- Mementos mute of Nature’s wide decay.
-
- Vain is the breath of morn;
- Vainly the night-dews on their couches weep;
- In vain thou call’st them at thy soft return,
- No more awaking from their gloomy sleep.
-
- . . . . . . . .
-
- Oh hush! Oh hush! sweet wind!
- Thou melancholy soul! be still, I pray,
- Nor pierce this heart so long in grief resigned,
- With ’plainings for the loved but lifeless clay.
-
- Ah! now by thee I hear
- The earnest, gentle voices, as of old:
- They speak—in accents tremulously clear—
- The young, the beautiful, the noble-souled.
-
- The beautiful, the young,
- The form of light, the wise and honored head—
- Thou bring’st the music of a lyre unstrung!—
- Oh cease!—with tears I ask it—they are _dead_!
-
- . . . . . . . .
-
- While mortal joys depart,
- While loved ones lie beneath the grave’s green sod,
- May we not fail to hear, with trembling heart,
- In thy low tone the “still small voice of God.”
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.
-
-
- _Natural History of New York: By Authority. Albany, Thurlow
- Weed, Printer to the State. New York, Wiley & Putnam, and D.
- Appleton & Co._
-
-We are among those who believe that, as characterizing the present age,
-the cultivation of purely mechanical and natural science has been
-carried much too far, or rather, has been made too exclusive and
-absorbing. It is not the _highest_ science—for it concerns only that
-which is around us—which is altogether outward. Man is always greater
-than the world of nature in which he lives, and just as clearly must the
-_science_ of man, the philosophy of his moral and intellectual being,
-rank far above that of the soulless creation which was made to minister
-to his wants. When, therefore, this lower science so draws to itself the
-life of any age, as to disparage and shut out the higher, it works a
-positive injury to the well-being of that age. Still it is only thus in
-comparison with a nobler and more lofty study that we would venture to
-cast the faintest reproach upon that natural science which in no slight
-degree absorbs the intellectual effort of the present generation.
-Regarded as related to, and a part of, a complete system of education,
-it becomes most important and necessary; and its cultivation, even to
-apparent excess, a cause of rejoicing and a source of the highest hope.
-
-We need scarcely say, then, that we look upon the explorations which
-have been made “by authority” into the Geology and general Natural
-History of several of the most important States in the Union, as among
-the proudest achievements of the present day. Most of them, it is true,
-grew out of designs not the highest on the part of those by whom they
-were originated. The development of resources, the discovery of mineral
-wealth, or other elements of power, formed in most cases the principal
-aim of those at whose instance these surveys were undertaken. But this
-is of little importance. The results are, on this account, none the less
-valuable to the cause of natural science, nor is our joy at their
-successful prosecution the less ardent or sincere. In all the States in
-which they have been undertaken, they have been fruitful of the best
-results; and the facts thus brought together will be found of priceless
-value to students and inquirers for ages to come.
-
-The State of New York has just completed her survey, which has been
-conducted on a scale commensurate with her wealth and enterprise. The
-different departments of the survey were, in 1836, assigned to eight
-gentlemen well qualified for the task, and from that time until their
-completion, the explorations were conducted with energy and enthusiasm.
-The reports are to be published in ten magnificent quarto volumes, of
-which the first is now before us. A more splendid monument of
-intelligent enterprise in the cause of science, has seldom been erected
-by any State. The first volume contains only a portion of the first
-report on Zoology, by Mr. James E. DeKay, to whom this department was
-committed. Governor Seward has written an introduction to the work,
-which occupies nearly two hundred pages. It is valuable as a historical
-record of the progress of the arts, the sciences, and the various
-branches of enterprise and industry in the State, though as a literary
-performance it can claim no especial merit. It is, indeed, little more
-than a compendium of the history of the State, and of its general
-statistics, of which the different portions have been contributed by
-different persons. The portion of the Zoological Report which this
-volume contains—relating merely to the Mammalia of the State—is highly
-valuable, and, to the naturalist, exceedingly interesting. Previous to
-this survey, no complete Zoology of the State had been attempted. In
-1813, Samuel L. Mitchell commenced an account of the fishes of New York,
-which was the first work on the subject ever undertaken; and the impulse
-given to the science by his labors in fact laid the foundation for
-whatever has been effected in the same department since. Several other
-branches of Zoology had received some slight attention before the
-commencement of the State survey. Bachman, a well known naturalist of
-South Carolina, had made interesting discoveries in the families of
-smaller quadrupeds, and much valuable information concerning the
-ornithology of the State had been collected by Wilson, Audubon, Cooper,
-Bonaparte and DeKay. Barnes had classified the Unionidæ of the lakes and
-rivers, and the Mollusca of the sea coast had been well studied by Dr.
-Gay, of New York city. But the report of Mr. DeKay in this department
-presents by far a more full and comprehensive account of the Zoology of
-New York than had ever before been made. The State was divided into four
-Zoological districts: first, the western district, embracing all the
-western portion of the State, as far east as the sources of the Mohawk;
-second, the northern, comprising all that portion of the State lying
-north of the Mohawk valley; third, the valley of the Hudson, including
-all the counties watered by that river and its tributaries; and fourth,
-the Atlantic district, embracing Long Island. In regard to its natural
-history, the northern district is by far the most important. Strange as
-it may seem to those who are accustomed to hear only of the wealth, the
-refinement, and the advanced civilization of the “Empire State,” there
-is embraced in this northern district a great tract of a thousand square
-miles, lying in loneliness, fresh as it came from the hand of God,
-untouched, and almost unvisited by man. It is clad with forests of great
-and majestic beauty, echoing only the sigh of the tempest, the screams
-of the untamed dwellers in its wilds, and now and then the rifle of the
-hunter, who there finds game, such as in long gone times the red men
-loved to chase. It is thickly overspread with lakes, embosomed in
-mountains, now lying calmly and smilingly beneath the sun, and the next
-hour lashed into frowns, when
-
- “The tempest shooteth, from the steep,
- The shadow of its coming.”
-
-Travelers who would wander through it, must provide themselves with
-guides, and trust to hunting and chance for food and lodging. No one
-_lives_ there—the whole is one vast, solitary wilderness, untouched by
-man—lying in its own majesty—unconscious even that the foot of the
-adventurous Genoese has been set upon the continent.
-
- “Still this great solitude is quick with life;
- Myriads of insects, gaudy as the flowers
- They flutter over, gentle quadrupeds,
- And birds that scarce have learned the fear of man,
- Are here, and sliding reptiles of the ground,
- Startlingly beautiful.”
-
-This vast wild region is inhabited by many animals that are rarely found
-in any other portion of the State. The bear, the moose, the panther, the
-deer, and most fur-bearing animals, make their homes among its
-mountains. Arctic birds, too, that are never known farther south, are
-seen in abundance. The whole district covers an area of about six
-thousand square miles. The western district is eminent for its fertility
-and beauty, and has also a high degree of zoological interest.
-
-The number of quadrupeds enumerated in the report, as found within the
-State, is something more than one hundred. Each of these is
-scientifically and fully described. Included in the volume are a great
-number of illustrations, taken with the greatest care from the living
-animals or the best specimens that could be found. The real colors are
-preserved, and in every case the relative size is indicated. The
-outlines, for the purpose of accuracy, were always taken with a camera
-lucida, and the illustrations, drawn by Hill, were lithographed by
-Endicott.
-
-The whole style of the work is eminently worthy the enterprise, results
-of which it contains, and the State which undertook its fulfilment. We
-look for the forthcoming volumes with no little interest. The botanical
-department has been under the charge of John Toney; the mineralogical
-and chemical were assigned to Lewis C. Beck; the geological to W. W.
-Mather, Ebenezer Emmons, James Hall, and Leonard Vanuxem, and the
-palæontological to Timothy A. Conrad. Beside these reports, the results
-of the survey appear in eight several collections of specimens of the
-animals, plants, soils, minerals, rocks and fossils, found within the
-State—one of which collections constitutes a museum of natural history
-at the capital of the State, and the others are distributed among
-collegiate institutions. We rejoice at the completion of this great
-survey, and hope soon to see a similar exploration effected in every
-State of the Union. The cause of science will receive from it an aid of
-which scientific men alone can rightly estimate the value.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Holy War, made by Shaddai upon Diabolus, for the Regaining
- of the Metropolis of the World. By John Bunyan. Philadelphia,
- American Sunday School Union._
-
-The celebrated Dr. Owen was occasionally one of the hearers of Bunyan,
-when he preached in London; and being asked by Charles the Second how a
-learned man, like him, could listen to the prating of an illiterate
-tinker, he is said to have replied, “May it please your Majesty, could I
-possess that tinker’s abilities for preaching, I would gladly relinquish
-all my scholarship.” His genius as an author was even greater than he
-exhibited in the pulpit. Southey, Macauley, and other eminent critics,
-regard him as one of the “immortal authors of England.” The Pilgrim’s
-Progress has been the most popular of his sixty or seventy works.
-Probably no book by an uninspired writer has been more universally read.
-The Holy War was written ten years after the appearance of that
-beautiful creation, and if not equal to it in all respects, is certainly
-one of the most ingenious allegories in the language, as well as one of
-the most _useful_ exhibitions of practical Christianity. The edition
-before us is superior to any other printed in America, in its typography
-and illustrations.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Little Gift_; _Useful Stories_; _Poems for Little Folks_.
- _Three small volumes._
-
-Mr. Colman, of New York, in the autumn of every year, publishes numerous
-miniature gift books for children, with fine engravings, instructive
-tales and poems, etc., of which the above are specimens.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Thulia: A Poem: By J. C. Palmer, M. D., U. S. N. Illustrated
- with Twelve Original Designs, by A. Agate, Artist of the late
- Exploring Expedition. One volume, octavo. New York, Samuel
- Colman._
-
-This beautifully printed and illustrated volume resembles very much, in
-its appearance, the elegant edition of Gray’s “Elegy,” published several
-years since in London. We can say no more in praise of its typography
-and embellishments. The poem itself possesses considerable merit. Doctor
-Palmer was attached to the Exploring Expedition which returned to this
-country last summer from the southern seas, and “Thulia” is founded on
-incidents which occurred on the war-ship Peacock, and the schooner
-Flying Fish, while in the Antarctic ocean. The verse is free and
-melodious, and the ideas and illustrations generally appropriate and
-poetical. We quote a lyric that will convey to the reader a just idea of
-the poet’s style.
-
- ANTARCTIC MARINER’S SONG.
-
- Sweetly, from the land of roses,
- Sighing comes the northern breeze;
- And the smile of dawn reposes,
- All in blushes, on the seas.
- Now within the sleeping sail,
- Murmurs soft the gentle gale.
- Ease the sheet, and keep away:
- Glory guides us South to-day!
-
- Yonder, see! the icy portal
- Opens for us to the Pole;
- And, where never entered mortal,
- Thither speed we to the goal.
- Hopes before and doubts behind,
- On we fly before the wind.
- Steady, so—now let it blow!
- Glory guides, and South we go.
-
- Vainly do these gloomy borders,
- All their frightful forms oppose;
- Vainly frown these frozen warders,
- Mailed in sleet, and helmed in snow.
- Though, beneath the ghastly skies,
- Curdled all the ocean lies,
- Lash we up its foam anew—
- Dash we all its terrors through!
-
- Circled by these columns hoary,
- All the field of fame is ours;
- Here to carve a name in story,
- Or a tomb beneath these towers.
- Southward still our way we trace,
- Winding through an icy maze.
- Luff her to—there she goes through!
- Glory leads, and we pursue.
-
-The notes appended to the poem contain the most interesting account of
-the expedition that has yet been given to the public.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Scenes in the Holy Land: one volume square duodecimo.
- Philadelphia, American Sunday School Union._
-
-This work is founded on, or rather is a free translation of, the “Scènes
-Evangéliques” of Napoleon Roussel, published a year or two since in
-Paris. It contains an account of the principal incidents in the lives of
-the Savior and of the great apostle of the Gentiles, written with
-singular simplicity and perspicuity, and illustrated with numerous
-etchings by a clever French artist. It is published, we believe, as a
-juvenile gift book for the holiday season.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Ladies’ Annual Register for 1843. New York, S. Colman._
-
-The Ladies’ Annual Register is a neat little annuary, edited for several
-years by Mrs. Gilman, of Charleston. It embraces, beside the usual
-contents of the almanacs, many useful recipes for the housewife, with
-anecdotes, poems, etc.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Biblical and Prophetical Works of Rev. George Bush, D. D.,
- author of “The Life of Mohammed,” etc., and Professor of Hebrew
- in the New York City University. New York, Dayton & Newman._
-
-Professor Bush is one of the most profound and ingenious scholars and
-critics of the present age, and we perceive with pleasure that he is
-rapidly multiplying the fruits of his industrious pen. To all the lovers
-of sound biblical exposition it must be gratifying to know that the
-Hebrew Scriptures are in a fair way to develop their riches to the
-English reader more fully than ever before. Professor Bush’s
-commentaries on the Old Testament, now extending to six volumes, embrace
-all the works of the Pentateuch but the last two, and these, we learn,
-he proposes shortly to enter upon. His careful study, his scrupulous
-fidelity in eliciting the exact meaning of the original, and his
-peculiar tact in explaining it, have made his Notes everywhere popular,
-so that before the completion of the series, the first volume has
-reached a sixth edition, the second a fifth, etc. In all of them will be
-found discussions on the most important points of biblical science,
-extending far beyond the ordinary dimensions of expository notes, and
-amounting in fact to elaborate dissertations of great value. Among the
-subjects thus extensively treated are, in Genesis, the temptation and
-the fall, the dispersion from Babel, the prophecies of Noah, the
-character of Melchizedec, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the
-history of Joseph, and the prophetical benedictions of Jacob; in Exodus,
-the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, the miracles of the magicians, the
-pillar of cloud as the seat of the Shekinah, the decalogue, the Hebrew
-theocracy, the tabernacle, the cherubim, the candle-stick, the shew
-bread, the altar, &c.; in Leviticus, a clear and minute specification of
-the different sacrifices, the law of marriage, including the case of
-marriage with a deceased wife’s sister, very largely considered, and a
-full account of the Jewish festivals. The sixth volume, including Joshua
-and Judges, contains an ample and erudite exposition of the Song of
-Deborah, and an extended discussion on the subject of Jeptha’s vow, with
-a view to determine whether the Jewish warrior really sacrificed his
-daughter. The Professor gives an array of very strong reasons in favor
-of the negative.
-
-In his celebrated “Treatise on the Millennium,” which merely as a
-literary performance has received the highest commendations of the
-critics, our author has assumed the position that the millennium,
-_strictly so called_, is past. But by the millennium he does not
-understand the golden age of the church, which he, in common with nearly
-all good men, regards as a future era. He contends that as the memorable
-period of the thousand years of the apocalypse is distinguished mainly
-by the binding of the symbolical dragon, we must first determine by the
-legitimate canons of interpretation what is shadowed forth by this
-mystic personage, before we can assure ourselves of the true character
-of the millennial age. But the dragon, he supposes, is the grand
-hieroglyphic of Paganism—the “binding of the dragon,” but a figurative
-phrase for the suppression of Paganism within the limits of the Roman
-empire, a fulfilment which he contends commenced in the reign of
-Constantine, and was consummated in that of Theodosius, his successor.
-Professor Bush draws largely on the pages of Gibbon in support of his
-theory, assuming all along the great foundation principle that _the
-apocalypse of John is but a series of pictured emblems, shadowing forth
-the ecclesiastical and civil history of the world_. From a cursory
-examination of his Treatise, we are inclined to adopt the opinion of one
-of the first theologians of our country, that if his premises be
-admitted, his conclusion is irresistible; and that _he_ did not know how
-to gainsay the premises.
-
-In the Hierophant, a monthly publication of which he is editor, he
-enters elaborately into the nature of the prophetic symbols, and in the
-last number brings out some grand results as to the physical destiny of
-the globe. He assumes that a fair construction of the language of the
-prophets is far from countenancing the idle dreams of Miller and his
-school respecting the literal conflagration of the heavens and the
-earth, and does not even teach that such a catastrophe is _ever_ to take
-place. He denies not that this _may_ possibly be the finale which awaits
-our planet and the solar system, but if so, it is to be gathered rather
-from astronomy than revelation—from the apocalypse of Newton, Laplace
-and Herschell, than from that of John.
-
-In general literature, in science and in art, America has furnished some
-of the best names in the world of letters; but it is in theology and
-religious philosophy that our countrymen have made the greatest
-advances. We need but allude to Edwards, Dwight, Emmons, Marsh, Beecher,
-Alexander, Stuart, McIlvaine, and Bush in proof of this. Perhaps we may
-add to the list Orestes Brownson, who, however erratic and peculiar, is
-a man of singular genius and sincerity. In our endeavors to keep the
-readers of this magazine advised of the condition of our literature, we
-should fail of our intent if at times we did not notice books and
-authors of a grave character. The useful and the true is in every thing
-the national aim. The writings of which we have spoken particularly in
-this brief notice, are distinguished for remarkable directness of
-language and logical clearness, as much as for profound scholarship, and
-they are among the most original works of their class brought out in our
-times.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Songs, Odes, and other Poems, on National Subjects: Compiled
- from Various Sources: by William McCarty. Three volumes
- duodecimo. Philadelphia, W. McCarty._
-
-Mr. McCarty is a bookseller, of the long established house of McCarty &
-Davis, in Market street. He is an antiquary also, and has in his
-chambers one of the best collections of books relating to our history
-and antiquities to be found in this country. Several years ago he
-“formed the plan of gathering together our national songs and ballads,
-deeming the task, however humble,” he says, “one of which the result
-would be acceptable to his countrymen.” He has since gleaned from all
-the files of magazines, newspapers and other periodicals, in the public
-libraries and in his own possession, published since Braddock’s defeat
-at DuQuesne, every scrap of verse, “good, bad, or indifferent,” relating
-to men, manners and events in America, and had them printed in three
-neat volumes, the first of which contains the “patriotic,” the second
-the “military,” and the third the “naval.” It is certainly a very
-curious collection. Some of the pieces, indeed, were written by
-foreigners, and have as little relation to any thing in America as to
-the quackeries of Græfenberg; and others are not decidedly poetical; but
-by far the greater number belong to one or another of the divisions in
-which the compiler has placed them, and, as he well remarks, “the
-present and future generations of Americans will hardly disdain those
-strains, however homely, which cheered and animated our citizen soldiers
-and seamen, ‘in the times that tried men’s souls,’ at the camp-fire or
-on the forecastle.” We perceive that Mr. McCarty has copied from our
-Magazine for October most of the pieces included in the article on “The
-Minstrelsy of the Revolution.” We have many others not embraced in his
-volumes, of which we intend to present a few additional specimens to our
-readers, in connection, perhaps, with some of the most curious verses in
-the books he has given us.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Wing-and-Wing, or Le Feu-Follet. By the author of “The Red
- Rover,” “The Pilot,” “The Path Finder,” etc. Two volumes,
- duodecimo. Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard._
-
-We received this novel too recently to be able to do it justice in our
-present number. It is a story of the sea, and from a cursory examination
-we are inclined to believe it equal to Mr. Cooper’s most celebrated
-naval romances. The scene is in the Mediterranean, in the memorable
-years 1798 and 1799. Le Feu-Follet is a French privateer, commanded by
-Raoul Yvard, a skilful, bold and chivalrous sailor, and the interest of
-the tale turns principally upon the manœuvres by which he preserves her
-from capture by the English frigate Prosperine. The character second in
-importance on board the republican privateer is Ithule Bolt, a shrewd
-Yankee, who, impressed into the British navy, had shared in the dangers
-of Nelson’s victory, and now added to a patriotic hatred of the English,
-some slight ill will created by what he deemed unjustifiable appliances
-of the lash during his service on board the Prosperine. Blended with the
-main narrative is a history of the loves of the commander of Le
-Feu-Follet and a beautiful Italian girl, Ghita Giuntotardi, one of our
-author’s most admirably drawn heroines. Those who would know more of the
-plot we refer to the book itself, or to the Yankee lieutenant, who in
-due time returned to the United Slates, married a widow, and “settled in
-life” somewhere in the Granite State. He is said at the present moment
-to be an active abolitionist, a patron of the temperance cause, and a
-terror to evil doers, under the appellation of Deacon Bolt. We are
-pleased to learn that the publishers have fixed the price of
-Wing-and-Wing at half a dollar—lower by fifty per cent. at least than
-an American novel was ever sold for before. For this reason, as well as
-on account of its remarkable merit, we predict for it a sale equal to
-that of “The Spy,” or “The Red Rover.”
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Poets and Poetry of America: with a Historical
- Introduction. By Rufus W. Griswold. Third edition. With
- Illustrations by the First Artists._
-
-Messrs. Carey & Hart have just issued a new edition of this work, with
-beautiful illustrations from paintings by Leslie, Inman, Creswick,
-Sully, Thompson, Verbryck, Hoyt, and Harding, engraved by Cheney,
-Cushman, Dodson, and Forrest. We believe that no other book of so
-expensive a character has passed to a second edition in the United
-States during the year. The fact that this has reached a _third_ edition
-in six months seems to indicate that our poetical literature is properly
-appreciated, in our own country, at least. The price of the third
-edition has very properly been reduced to two dollars and a half.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Little Boys’ and Girls’ Library: Edited by Mrs. Sarah J.
- Hale. Six books, small quarto. New York, Edward Dunigan._
-
-The stories in these little volumes are written with taste and
-simplicity. Though Mrs. Hale’s incidents are generally pleasing, we do
-not in all cases approve their tendency. With deference for her better
-judgment, we think the boy who, in “The Way to Save,” bought the glass
-box, was much wiser than he who bought the draught board.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Youth’s Keepsake: A Christmas and New Year’s Gift for Young
- People._ _The Annualette: A Christmas and New Year’s Gift for
- Children. Philadelphia, Thomas, Cowperthwaite & Co._
-
-Two very beautiful and interesting annuals, of the character of which
-the titles are sufficiently descriptive.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Sporting Scenes and Sundry Sketches: being the Miscellaneous
- Writings of J. Cypress, jr. Edited by Frank Forester. In Two
- vols., 12mo. New York, Gould, Banks & Co., 1842._
-
-“J. Cypress, jr.” was the late William P. Hawes, of the city of New
-York; and “Frank Forester” is the name by which one of the finest
-scholars, critics, and writers, whose productions have ever given a
-charm to our periodical literature—Henry William Herbert, the author of
-“Cromwell,” and numerous tales and other compositions in this
-Magazine—is known in the “sporting world.” Mr. Hawes was educated for
-the bar; his writings were generally on political or sporting topics, in
-the daily gazettes, or the magazines. The admirable series of papers,
-entitled “Fire Island Ana,” was written for the American Monthly, while
-that work was under Mr. Herbert; and most of his later compositions
-appeared in the “Turf Register.” We have not room to do them justice.
-They have never been excelled in this country, in richness of humor,
-freshness, or originality. Mr. Hawes had the modesty of genius. He lived
-in the quiet enjoyment of the life and the scenes he so felicitously
-delineated, and was unknown as a writer beyond the limited circle of his
-intimate friends until they and the world were deprived of his presence.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Task, and other Poems: By William Cowper. One volume,
- duodecimo. Philadelphia, Carey & Hart._
-
-Among the poets who have written in the English language on religious
-themes, Cowper unquestionably ranks next to Milton in genius, and before
-him as a teacher. The Presbyterian poet is admired for his sublime
-conceptions and his unequaled mastery of language and the intricacies of
-rhythm; but the bard of Olney is loved by the good and the true as a
-friend. The new edition of the Task is one of the most beautiful
-specimens of typography produced in this country, and the etchings, by
-Cheney, which illustrate it, are of course admirably executed.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Way of Life: By Charles Hodge, Professor in the Theological
- Seminary of Princeton, New Jersey. One volume duodecimo, pp.
- 348. Philadelphia, American Sunday School Union._
-
-Among the many very excellent works published by the American Sunday
-School Union, we know of none written with more ability, or calculated
-to do more good than this admirable treatise. The plenary inspiration of
-the Scriptures, the great practical doctrines they teach, and the
-influence which these doctrines should exert upon the heart and life,
-are set forth by the learned author with candor, simplicity and
-eloquence.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Books for Youth: Heroines of Sacred History, by Mrs. Steele;
- Philip and his Garden, by Charlotte Elizabeth; Rocky Island, by
- Samuel Wilberforce; Alice Benden, by Charlotte Elizabeth;
- Clementine Cuvier, by John Angell James; The Simple Flower, by
- Charlotte Elizabeth; The Flower of Innocence, by Charlotte
- Elizabeth; and Moral Tales, by Robert Merry. New York, John S.
- Taylor & Co._
-
-The eight volumes, of which we have given the titles above, are bound in
-a uniform style, and constitute a very neat and excellent library for
-juvenile readers. We know of no books that can be more appropriately
-presented to the young in the approaching holidays than those of
-Archdeacon Wilberforce, John Angell James, and Charlotte Elizabeth.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- EDITOR’S TABLE.
-
-
-Miss Barrett.—In this number will be found a series of sonnets by Miss
-Elizabeth B. Barrett, among the first of her contributions to any
-American periodical. They were originally intended for “Arcturus,” to
-which magazine they were sent; but arriving after the discontinuance of
-that periodical, its editors placed them at our disposal, “thinking the
-good company into which they would be introduced in ‘Graham,’ would be
-every way agreeable to the fair authoress.”
-
-Miss Barrett’s productions are unique in this age of lady authors. They
-have the “touch of nature” in common with the best; they have, too,
-sentiment, passion and fancy in the highest degree, without reminding us
-of Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Norton, or L. E. L. Her excellence is her own; her
-mind is colored by what it feeds on; the fine tissue of her flowing
-style comes to us from the loom of Grecian thought. She is the learned
-poetess of the day, familiar with Homer and Æschylus and Sophocles, and
-to the musings of Tempe she has added the inspiration of Christianity,
-“above all Greek, all Roman fame.” She has translated the Prometheus to
-the delight of scholars, and has lately contributed a series of very
-remarkable prose papers to the London Athenæum. Her reading Greek
-recalls to us Roger Ascham’s anecdote of Lady Jane Grey; but Lady Jane
-Grey has left us no such verses.
-
-A striking characteristic of Miss Barrett’s prose, is its prevailing
-seriousness, approaching to solemnity—a garb borrowed from the
-“sceptred pale” of her favorite Greek drama of fate. She loses much with
-the general reader by a dim mysticism; but many of her later poems are
-free from any such defect. The great writers whom she loves will teach
-her the plain, simple, universal language of poetry.
-
-Her dreams and abstractions, though “caviare to the generale,” have
-their admirers, who will ever find in pure and elevated philosophy
-expressed in the words of enthusiasm the living presence of poetry. On
-Parnassus there are many groves: far from the dust of the highway,
-embosomed in twilight woods that seem to symbol Reverence and Faith
-trusting on the unseen, we may hear in the whispering of the trees, the
-wavering breath of insect life, the accompaniment of our poet’s strain.
-Despise not dreams and reveries. With Cowley, Miss Barrett vindicates
-herself. “The father of poets tells us, even dreams, too, are from God.”
-
-We cannot here do justice to Miss Barrett’s volume of the Seraphim, or
-to her other poems. We cannot here illustrate as we would the lofty tone
-of her conceptions, which in grandeur and human interest belong to the
-highest and most enduring of lyrical strains. She has thrown aside
-sentimentality, the fluency without thought, the cheap eloquence that
-marks a certain school of lady poets, for the genuine language of
-emotion, the fire-new currency of speech forged in the secret chambers
-of the heart. From two volumes of her poetry before us, (unfamiliar as
-yet to American readers—they cannot be so long,) we quote one poem,
-perhaps not the most brilliant of all, but inferior to none of the rest
-in the pathos, the tenderness, the deep Christian sympathy with human
-life, which dwell in the soul of this rare poetess.
-
- THE SLEEP.
-
- “He giveth His beloved sleep.”—_Psalm cxxvii. 2._
-
- Of all the thoughts of God that are
- Borne inward unto souls afar,
- Along the Psalmist’s music deep—
- Now tell me if that any is,
- For gift or grace surpassing this—
- “He giveth his beloved sleep?”
-
- What would we give to our beloved?
- The hero’s heart, to be unmoved—
- The poet’s star-tuned harp, to sweep—
- The senate’s shout to patriot vows—
- The monarch’s crown, to light the brows?—
- “He giveth _His_ beloved sleep.”
-
- What do we give to our beloved?
- A little faith, all undisproved—
- A little dust, to overweep—
- And bitter memories, to make
- The whole earth blasted for our sake!
- “He giveth His beloved sleep.”
-
- “Sleep soft, beloved!” we sometimes say,
- But have no tune to charm away
- Sad dreams that through the eyelids creep:
- But never doleful dream again
- Shall break the happy slumber, when
- “He giveth His beloved sleep.”
-
- O earth, so full of dreary noises!
- O men, with wailing in your voices!
- O delved gold, the wailers heap!
- O strife, O curse, that o’er it fall!
- God makes a silence through you all,
- And “giveth His beloved sleep!”
-
- His dew drops mutely on the hill;
- His cloud above it saileth still,
- Though on its slope men toil and reap!
- More softly than the dew is shed,
- Or cloud is floated overhead,
- “He giveth His beloved sleep.”
-
- Ha! men may wonder while they scan
- A living, thinking, feeling man,
- In such a rest his heart to keep;
- But angels say—and through the word
- I ween their blessed smile is _heard_—
- “He giveth His beloved sleep!”
-
- For me my heart that erst did go,
- Most like a tired child at a show,
- That sees through tears the juggler’s leap,—
- Would now its wearied vision close,
- Would childlike on _His_ love repose,
- Who “giveth His beloved sleep!”
-
- And friends!—dear friends!—when it shall be
- That this low breath is gone from me,
- And round my bier ye come to weep—
- Let me, most loving of you all,
- Say, not a tear must o’er her fall—
- “He giveth His beloved sleep!”
-
-Stars that Have Set in MDCCCXLII.—Among the dead of the year now
-drawing to a close, America laments her Marsh and Channing, and Europe,
-Sismondi and some less brilliant luminaries.
-
-The Rev. James Marsh, D.D. was, at the time of his death, the third day
-of July, Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy in the
-University of Vermont. He was a calm, chaste scholar, an earnest and
-profound thinker, and a powerful and eloquent advocate of the highest
-principles of religion and philosophy, with the perfect simplicity and
-grandeur of whose life were blended the rarest virtues that adorn
-humanity. His principal published writings, excepting a few articles in
-the leading reviews, and some translations from the German, are devoted
-to those high and spiritual principles of philosophy, of which Coleridge
-and Kant were the most celebrated European exponents. We are pleased to
-learn that Professor Torrey, one of the dearest friends of the departed,
-is now superintending the publication of a complete edition of his
-works.
-
-The name of William Ellery Channing has been long familiar to the
-readers of America and Great Britain. He was equally popular in both
-countries, and in both was regarded as one of the greatest authors of
-the age. The first edition of his collected writings we believe was
-published some five or six years since in Glasgow, and the last, in six
-octavo volumes, in Boston, in the winter of 1840. We presume his later
-productions, unprinted sermons, etc.—sufficient to fill several
-additional volumes—will soon be published, with his memoirs. Doctor
-Channing was for a long period the leading divine of the Unitarian
-belief, and though an ardent controvertist, was regarded by all men with
-love and reverence. The purity of his life, his high aims, his candor,
-and the dignity and beauty of his diction, won for him a reputation that
-will endure when most of the names now prominent in the world of letters
-are forgotten. He died in Bennington, in Vermont, on his return way from
-an excursion among the Green Mountains in search of health, on the
-second day of October.
-
-John Charles Leonard de Sismondi was one of the most celebrated
-historical, political and æsthetical writers of the time. He died near
-Geneva, on the twenty-fifth of June, in his sixty-ninth year. He was the
-author of New Principles of Political Economy, A History of the Italian
-Republics, A History of the Literature of Southern Europe, A History of
-France, Julia Severn, a romance, and several other works, making in the
-aggregate about one hundred and fifty volumes, in the French editions.
-As a historian he has rarely been surpassed, and in every department of
-letters he exercised a powerful influence for nearly half a century.
-
-Mr. James Grahame, author of the excellent History of the United Slates
-which bears his name; Sir Robert Kerr Porter, the traveler; Theodore E.
-Hook, the novelist, biographer, and dramatic writer; and Robert Mudie,
-author of several works on natural history, etc. were better known in
-this country than any of the other literary characters who have died in
-Europe during the present year.
-
- * * * * *
-
-New Books.—We received several new works too late to be noticed
-properly in our present number, of which we have space to mention
-particularly only Mr. Norman’s “Rambles in Yucatan,” and Mr. Lester’s
-observations on “The Condition and Fate of England,” both from the press
-of Messrs. Langley, of New York. The first is an exceedingly interesting
-work, and the last quite as good as the same author’s “Glory and Shame
-of England.” We shall endeavor to do them full justice in our Magazine
-for January.
-
-The End of the Year.—With the present number we bring to a close
-another year of the publication of Graham’s Magazine. The many
-improvements which since our last anniversary have been effected in the
-work, and the extraordinary accessions to our subscription list—between
-twenty and thirty thousand in twelve months!—impart to us a
-satisfaction which we trust is shared in some degree by our million
-readers.
-
-Since the commencement of the present year, Rufus W. Griswold has become
-associated with the proprietor in the editorship of the Magazine; and to
-our corps of contributors have been added William C. Bryant and Richard
-H. Dana, the first American poets, and the equals of any now living in
-the world; James Fenimore Cooper, the greatest of living novelists;
-Charles F. Hoffman, one of the most admired poets and prose writers of
-our country; Elizabeth B. Barrett, the truest female poet who has
-written in the English language; J. H. Mancur, the author of “Henri
-Quatre;” George H. Colton, the author of “Tecumseh;” H. T. Tuckerman,
-the author of “Isabelle, or Sicily,” etc.; the author of “A New Home”
-and “Forest Life,” who, under the name of “_Mary Clavers_,” has won a
-reputation second to that of none of the writers of her sex in America;
-Mrs. E. F. Ellet, the well known author of “The Characters of Schiller,”
-etc.; Mrs. Seba Smith, whose elegant and truthful compositions are as
-universally admired as they are read; and several others, whom we have
-not now space to mention. All these, with our favorite old writers,
-Professor Longfellow, George Hill, Edgar A. Poe, Mrs. Embury, Mrs.
-Stephens, and others, we shall retain for our succeeding volumes.
-
-We shall likewise receive regular contributions during the ensuing year,
-from N. P. Willis, whose many admirable qualities as a writer have made
-his name familiar wherever English literature is read; T. C. Grattan,
-the popular author of “Highways and Byways,” “The Heiress of Bruges,”
-etc.; “_Maria del Occidente_,” the author of “Zophiel,” and many others,
-whose names will from month to month grace our pages.
-
-Let our Past speak for our Future. The improvements made in Graham’s
-Magazine, in 1842, will be surpassed by those that we shall introduce in
-1843. In all the departments of our work we shall remain in advance of
-every other candidate for the public favor.
-
- * * * * *
-
-The Author of the Sketch Book.—In a notice of the Miscellanies of Sir
-Walter Scott, in the number of this Magazine for September, we made
-allusion to reviews of various publications of Mr. Washington Irving,
-which we had good reason for believing were written by that gentleman
-himself. We learn with pleasure, from one who speaks on the subject by
-authority, that Mr. Irving is guiltless of the imputed self laudation.
-He did indeed write the article in the London Quarterly on his
-“Chronicles of Grenada,” and received for it the sum we mentioned; but,
-like so many of the modern “reviews,” it had very little relation to the
-work which gave it a title, or to its author.
-
- * * * * *
-
-H. Hastings Weld.—We notice that this talented and agreeable writer,
-formerly editor of the Brother Jonathan, has taken the editorial charge
-of the United States Saturday Post, a family newspaper of the largest
-class and circulation. We feel assured that the humor and vivacity of
-Mr. Weld’s pen will tend to make the paper still more popular, and to
-add greatly to the already enormous subscription list. This paper
-already circulates more copies weekly than any other family newspaper in
-the Union.
-
- * * * * *
-
-Transcriber’s Notes:
-
-Table of Contents has been added for reader convenience. Archaic
-spellings and hyphenation have been retained. Obvious punctuation and
-typesetting errors have been corrected without note.
-
-In the story _Malina Gray_, this concluding installment had two parts
-titled Chapter III. The second Chapter III has been corrected to Chapter
-IV.
-
-[End of _Graham’s Magazine, Vol. XXI, No. 6, December 1842_, George R.
-Graham, Editor]
-
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-<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Graham&#039;s Magazine, Vol. XXI, No. 6, December 1842, by Various</p>
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
-at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
-are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this eBook.
-</div>
-
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Graham&#039;s Magazine, Vol. XXI, No. 6, December 1842</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Various</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Editors: George Rex Graham</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em;'>Rufus W. Griswold</p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: May 8, 2022 [eBook #68027]</p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
- <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Mardi Desjardins &amp; the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net from page images generously made available by the Internet Archive</p>
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRAHAM&#039;S MAGAZINE, VOL. XXI, NO. 6, DECEMBER 1842 ***</div>
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0000' style='width:50%;height:auto;'/>
-</div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;font-size:1.9em;font-weight:bold;'>GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;font-size:1.2em;font-weight:bold;'><span class='sc'>Vol. XXI.</span> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;December, 1842 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;No. 6.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:1.2em;font-weight:bold;'>Contents</p>
-
-<table id='tab1' summary='' class='center'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' style='width: 25em;'/>
-<col span='1' style='width: 1em;'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tab1c1-col2 tdStyle0' colspan='2'><span class='bold'><span style='font-size:larger'>Fiction and Literature</span></span></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#ric'>Richard Dale</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#wid'>The Widow of Newbury</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#mal'>Malina Gray</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#tru'>Truth</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#per'>The Persecutor’s Daughter</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#rac'>A Race for a Sweetheart</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#har'>Harry Cavendish</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#lad'>The Ladies’ Library</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#has'>The Hasty Marriage</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#rev'>Review Of New Books</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#edi'>Editor’s Table</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-</table>
-
-<table id='tab2' summary='' class='center'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' style='width: 25em;'/>
-<col span='1' style='width: 1em;'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tab2c1-col2 tdStyle0' colspan='2'><span class='bold'><span style='font-size:larger'>Poetry</span></span></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#the'>The Serenade</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#son'>Sonnets</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#sonn'>Sonnet</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#noo'>Noon</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#aff'>True Affection</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#far'>The Farewell</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#hol'>The Holynights</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#pas'>The Pastor’s Visit</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#win'>To the Night-Wind in Autumn</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle1'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'><a href='#notes'>Transcriber’s Notes</a> can be found at the end of this eBook.</p>
-
-<hr class='pbk'/>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/i001.jpg' alt='a young woman standing by a window' id='iid-0001' style='width:85%;height:auto;'/>
-<p class='caption'><span style='font-size:smaller'>Painted by E. Prentice &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Engraved by H.S. Sadd</span><br/></p> <br/><span class='it'>Awaiting the Husband’s Return</span><br/> <br/><span class='it'>Engraved Expressly for Graham’s Magazine.</span>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='pbk'/>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;font-size:1.9em;font-weight:bold;'>GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk100'/>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:1.1em;font-weight:bold;'><span class='sc'>Vol. XXI.</span> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;PHILADELPHIA: DECEMBER, 1842. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class='sc'>No. 6.</span></p>
-
-<hr class='tbk101'/>
-
-<div><h1 class='nobreak'><a id='ric'></a>RICHARD DALE.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY J. FENIMORE COOPER, AUTHOR OF “THE SPY,” “THE PIONEERS,” ETC.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Among the many brave men who early contributed
-to render the navy of the republic popular and respectable,
-the gallant seaman whose name is placed
-at the head of this article is entitled to a conspicuous
-place; equally on account of his services, his professional
-skill, and his personal merit. Although his
-connection with the marine, created under the constitution
-of 1789, was of short continuance, it left a
-durable impression on the service; and, if we look
-back to the dark period of the Revolution, we find
-him contending in some of the fiercest combats of the
-period, always with heroism, and not unfrequently
-with success. Circumstances, too, have connected
-his renown with one of the most remarkable naval
-battles on record; a distinction of itself which fully
-entitles him to a high place among those who have
-fought and bled for the independence of their country,
-in stations of subordinate authority.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Richard Dale was born in the colony of Virginia,
-on the 6th November, 1756. His birthplace was in
-the county of Norfolk, and not distant from the well
-known port of the same name. His parents were
-native Americans, of respectable standing, though
-of rather reduced circumstances. His father, dying
-early, left a widow with five children, of whom the
-subject of this memoir was the eldest. Some time
-after the death of his father, his mother contracted a
-second marriage with a gentleman of the name of
-Cooper, among the issue of which were two well
-known ship-masters of Philadelphia.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Young Dale manifested an inclination for the sea
-at a very early period of life. The distrust of a
-parental control that has no foundation in nature, and
-which is apt to be regarded with jealousy, stimulated
-if it did not quicken this desire, and we find him at
-the tender age of twelve, or in 1768, making a voyage
-between Norfolk and Liverpool, in a vessel commanded
-by one of his own uncles. On his return
-home, he appears to have passed nearly a twelve-month
-on shore; but his desire to become a sailor
-still continuing, in the spring of 1770 he was regularly
-apprenticed to a respectable merchant and
-ship-owner, of the borough of Norfolk, named Newton.
-From this moment his fortune in life was cast,
-and he continued devotedly employed in the profession
-until his enterprise, prudence and gallantry enabled
-him finally to retire with credit, an unblemished
-name, and a competency.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>During his apprenticeship, Dale appears to have
-been, most of the time, employed in the West India
-trade. Every sailor has his chances and hair-breadth
-escapes, and our young mariner met with two, at
-that period of his life, which may be thought worthy
-of notice. On one occasion he fell from the spars
-stowed on the belfry into the vessel’s hold, hitting the
-kelson, a distance of near twenty feet; escaping, however,
-without material injury. A much greater risk
-was incurred on another. While the vessel to which
-he belonged was running off the wind, with a stiff
-breeze, Dale was accidentally knocked overboard
-by the jib sheets, and was not picked up without
-great difficulty. He was an hour in the water, sustaining
-himself by swimming, and he ever spoke of
-the incident as one of more peril than any other in a
-perilous career.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When nineteen, or in 1775, Dale had risen to the
-station of chief mate on board a large brig belonging
-to his owner. In this situation he appears to have
-remained industriously engaged during the few first
-months of the struggle for independence; the active
-warfare not having yet extended itself as far south as
-his part of the country. Early in 1776, however, the
-aspect of things began to change, and it is probable
-that the interruption to commerce rendered him the
-master of his own movements.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Virginia, in common with most of the larger and
-more maritime colonies, had a sort of marine of its
-own; more especially anterior to the Declaration of
-Independence. It consisted principally of bay craft,
-and was employed in the extensive estuaries and
-rivers of that commonwealth. On board of one of
-these light cruisers Dale was entered as a lieutenant,
-in the early part of the memorable year 1776. While
-in this service, he was sent a short distance for some
-guns, in a river craft; but falling in with a tender of
-the Liverpool frigate, which ship was then cruising
-on the Cape Henry station, he was captured and carried
-into Norfolk. These tenders were usually smart
-little cruisers, another, belonging to the same frigate,
-having been taken shortly before, by the U. S. brig
-Lexington, after a sharp and bloody conflict. Resistance
-in the case of Dale was consequently out of the
-question, his capture having been altogether a matter
-of course.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On reaching Norfolk, our young officer was thrown
-on board a prison-ship. Here he found himself in
-the midst of those whom it was the fashion to call
-“loyal subjects.” Many of them were his old school-mates
-and friends. Among the latter was a young
-man of the name of Bridges Gutteridge, a sailor like
-himself, and one who possessed his entire confidence.
-Mr. Gutteridge, who it is believed subsequently took
-part with his countrymen himself, was then employed
-by the British, in the waters of the Chesapeake, actually
-commanding a tender in their service. The
-quarrel was still recent; and honorable, as well as
-honest men, under the opinions which prevailed in
-that day, might well be divided as to its merits. Mr.
-Gutteridge had persuaded himself he was pursuing
-the proper course. Entertaining such opinions, he
-earnestly set about the attempt of making a convert
-of his captured friend. The usual arguments, touching
-the sacred rights of the king—himself merely a
-legalized usurper, by the way, if any validity is to
-be given to the claims of hereditary right to the
-crown—and the desperate nature of the “rebel
-cause,” were freely and strenuously used, until Dale
-began to waver in his faith. In the end, he yielded
-and consented to accompany his friend in a cruise
-against the vessels of the state. This occurred in
-the month of May, and, hostilities beginning now to
-be active, the tender soon fell in with a party of
-Americans, in some pilot boats, that were employed
-in the Rappahannock. A warm engagement ensued,
-in which the tender was compelled to run, after
-meeting with a heavy loss. It was a rude initiation
-into the mysteries of war, the fighting being of a
-desperate, and almost of a personal character. This
-was one of those combats that often occurred about
-this period, and in those waters, most of them being
-close and sanguinary.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In this affair, Dale received a severe wound, having
-been hit in the head by a musket ball; with this
-wound he was confined several weeks at Norfolk,
-during which time he had abundance of leisure to
-reflect on the false step into which he had been persuaded,
-and to form certain healthful resolutions for
-the future. To use his own words, in speaking of
-this error of his early life, he determined “never
-again to put himself in the way of the bullets of his
-own country.” This resolution, however, it was necessary
-to conceal, if he would escape the horrors
-of a prison-ship, and he “bided his time,” fully determined
-to take service again under the American
-flag, at the first fitting opportunity.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the peculiar state of the two countries at the
-time, and with the doubtful and contested morality of
-the misunderstanding, there was nothing extraordinary
-in this incident. Similar circumstances occurred
-to many men, who, with the best intentions and
-purest motives, saw, or fancied they saw, reasons
-for changing sides in what, in their eyes, was strictly
-a family quarrel. In the case of Dale, however, the
-feature most worthy of comment was the singleness
-of mind and simple integrity with which he used to
-confess his own error, together with the manner in
-which he finally became a convert to the true political
-faith. No narrative of the life of this respectable
-seaman would be complete, without including
-this temporary wavering of purpose; nor would any
-delineation of his character be just, that did not point
-out the candor and sincerity with which he, in after
-life, admitted his fault.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale was only in his twentieth year when he received
-this instructive lesson from the “bullets of his
-countrymen.” From that time, he took good care
-not to place himself again in their way, going, in
-June or July, to Bermuda, on a more peaceable expedition,
-in company with William Gutteridge, a
-relative of his beguiling friend. On the return passage,
-the vessel was captured by the Lexington, the
-brig just mentioned, then a successful cruiser, under
-the orders of Capt. John Barry; an officer who subsequently
-died at the head of the service. This occurred
-just after the Declaration of Independence,
-and Dale immediately offered himself as a volunteer
-under the national flag. He was received and rated
-as a midshipman within a few hours of his capture.
-This was the commencement of Dale’s service in
-the regular navy of his native country. It was also
-the commencement of his acquaintance with the distinguished
-commander of the Lexington, whose
-friendship and respect he enjoyed down to the day of
-the latter’s death. While the brig was out, our midshipman
-had another narrow escape from death,
-having, together with several others, been struck
-senseless by lightning during a severe thunder storm.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Barry made the capture just mentioned near the
-end of his cruise, and he soon after went into Philadelphia,
-which place Dale now saw for the first time.
-Here Barry left the Lexington to take command of
-the Effingham 28, a ship that never got to sea, leaving
-our new midshipman in the brig. Capt. Hallock
-was Barry’s successor, and he soon rated Dale, by
-this time an active and skilful seaman, a master’s
-mate. Early in the autumn, the Lexington sailed for
-Cape François, on special duty. On her return, in
-the month of December, she fell in with the Pearl
-frigate,<a id='r1'/><a href='#f1' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[1]</span></sup></a> and was captured without resistance, carrying
-an armament of only a few fours.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As it was blowing very fresh at the moment this
-capture was made, the Pearl took out of the prize
-four or five officers, threw a small crew on board,
-and directed the brig to follow her. By some accounts
-Dale was left in the Lexington, while by
-others he was not. A succinct history of the events
-of his life, written by a connection under his own
-eye, and which is now before us, gives the latter
-version of the affair, and is probably the true one.
-At all events, the remaining officers and crew of
-the Lexington rose upon the captors in the course of
-the night, retook the brig, and carried her into Baltimore.<a id='r2'/><a href='#f2' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[2]</span></sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The English landed several of their prisoners on
-Cape Henlopen, in January, 1777, under some arrangement
-that cannot now be explained, though
-probably it was connected with an exchange for the
-men taken and carried away in the prize. Among
-these was Dale, who made the best of his way to
-Philadelphia, when he received orders to proceed to
-Baltimore; which he obeyed, and rejoined his brig,
-the command of which had now been transferred to
-Capt. Henry Johnston.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The next service on which the Lexington was employed
-was in the European seas. In March, she
-sailed from Baltimore for Bordeaux, with despatches.
-On her arrival, this brig was attached to a small
-squadron under the orders of Capt. Lambert Wickes,
-who was in the Reprisal 16, having under his command
-also the Dolphin 10, Capt. Samuel Nicholson.
-This force of little vessels accomplished a bold and
-destructive cruise, making the entire circuit of Ireland,
-though it was eventually chased into a French
-port by a line-of-battle ship. Its object was the interception
-of certain linen-ships, which it missed;
-its success, however, in the main, was such as to
-excite great alarm among the English merchants,
-and to produce warm remonstrances to France, from
-their government.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At this time France was not at war with England,
-although she secretly favored and aided the cause of
-the revolted colonies. The appearance of American
-cruisers in the narrow seas, however, gave rise to
-so many complaints, as to induce the French government,
-in preference to pushing matters to extremities,
-temporarily to sequester the vessels. The Lexington
-was included in this measure, having been detained
-in port more than two months; or, until security was
-given that she would quit the European seas. This
-was done, and the brig got to sea again on the 18th
-September, 1777.<a id='r3'/><a href='#f3' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[3]</span></sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It is probable that the recent difficulties had some
-effect on the amount of the military stores on board
-all three of the American vessels. At all events, it
-is certain that the Lexington sailed with a short supply
-of both powder and shot, particularly of the latter.
-The very next day she made an English cutter lying-to,
-which was approached with a confidence that
-could only have proceeded from a mistake as to her
-character. This cutter proved to be a man-of-war,
-called the Alert, commanded by Lieutenant, afterward
-Admiral Bazely, having a strong crew on
-board, and an armament of ten sixes.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the action that ensued, and which was particularly
-well fought on the part of the enemy, the Americans
-were, in a measure, taken by surprise. So
-little were the latter prepared for the conflict, that
-not a match was ready when the engagement commenced,
-and several broadsides were fired by discharging
-muskets at the vents of the guns. The firing
-killed the wind, and there being considerable sea on,
-the engagement became very protracted, during
-which the Lexington expended most of her ammunition.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>After a cannonading of two hours, believing his
-antagonist to be too much crippled to follow, and
-aware of his own inability to continue the action
-much longer, Capt. Johnston made sail, and left the
-cutter, under favor of a breeze that just then sprung
-up. The Lexington left the Alert rapidly at first, but
-the latter having bent new sails, and being the faster
-vessel, in the course of three or four hours succeeded
-in getting alongside again, and of renewing the engagement.
-This second struggle lasted an hour, the
-fighting being principally on one side. After the
-Lexington had thrown her last shot, had broken up
-and used all the iron that could be made available as
-substitutes, and had three of her officers and several
-of her men slain, besides many wounded, Capt.
-Johnston struck his colors. The first lieutenant,
-marine officer, and master of the Lexington were
-among the slain.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>By this accident Dale became a prisoner for the
-third time. This occurred when he wanted just fifty
-days of being twenty-one years old. On this occasion,
-however, he escaped unhurt, though the combat
-had been both fierce and sanguinary. The prize
-was taken into Plymouth, and her officers, after undergoing
-a severe examination, in order to ascertain
-their birthplaces, were all thrown into Mill Prison,
-on a charge of high treason. Here they found the
-common men; the whole being doomed to a rigorous
-and painful confinement.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Either from policy or cupidity, the treatment received
-by the Americans, in this particular prison,
-was of a cruel and oppressive character. There is
-no apology for excessive rigor, or, indeed, for any
-constraint beyond that which is necessary to security,
-toward an uncondemned man. Viewed as mere
-prisoners of war, the Americans might claim the
-usual indulgence; viewed as subjects still to be tried,
-they were rightfully included in that healthful maxim
-of the law, which assumes that all are innocent until
-they are proved to be guilty. So severe were the
-privations of the Americans on this occasion, however,
-that, in pure hunger, they caught a stray dog
-one day, skinned, cooked and ate him, to satisfy their
-cravings for food. Their situation at length attracted
-the attention of the liberal; statements of their wants
-were laid before the public, and an appeal was made
-to the humanity of the English nation. This is always
-an efficient mode of obtaining assistance, and the
-large sum of sixteen thousand pounds was soon
-raised; thereby relieving the wants of the sufferers,
-and effectually effacing the stain from the national
-escutcheon; by demonstrating that the sufferers
-found a generous sympathy in the breasts of the
-public. But man requires more than food and
-warmth. Although suffering no longer from actual
-want and brutal maltreatment, Dale and his companions
-pined for liberty—to be once more fighting the
-battles of their country. Seeing no hopes of an exchange,
-a large party of the prisoners determined to
-make an attempt at escape. A suitable place was
-selected, and a hole under a wall was commenced.
-The work required secrecy and time. The earth
-was removed, little by little, in the pockets of the
-captives, care being had to conceal the place, until a
-hole of sufficient size was made to permit the body
-of a man to pass through. It was a tedious process,
-for the only opportunity which occurred to empty
-their pockets, was while the Americans were exercising
-on the walls of their prison, for a short period
-of each day. By patience and perseverance they
-accomplished their purpose, however, every hour
-dreading exposure and defeat.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When all was ready, Capt. Johnston, most of his
-officers, and several of his crew, or, as many as
-were in the secret, passed through the hole, and
-escaped. This was in February, 1778. The party
-wandered about the country in company, and by
-night, for more than a week; suffering all sorts of
-privations, until it was resolved to take the wiser
-course of separating. Dale, accompanied by one
-other, found his way to London, hotly pursued. At
-one time the two lay concealed under some straw in
-an out-house, while the premises were searched by
-those who were in quest of them. On reaching London,
-Dale and his companion immediately got on
-board a vessel about to sail for Dunkirk. A press-gang
-unluckily took this craft in its rounds, and suspecting
-the true objects of the fugitives, they were
-arrested, and, their characters being ascertained,
-they were sent back to Mill Prison in disgrace.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This was the commencement of a captivity far
-more tedious than the former. In the first place they
-were condemned to forty days’ confinement in the
-black hole, as the punishment for the late escape;
-and, released from this durance, they were deprived
-of many of their former indulgences. Dale himself
-took his revenge in singing “rebel songs,” and paid
-a second visit to the black hole, as the penalty. This
-state of things, with alternations of favor and punishment,
-continued quite a year, when Dale, singly,
-succeeded in again effecting his great object of getting
-free.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The mode in which this second escape was made
-is known, but the manner by which he procured the
-means he refused to his dying day to disclose. At
-all events, he obtained a full suit of British uniform,
-attired in which, and seizing a favorable moment, he
-boldly walked past all the sentinels, and got off.
-That some one was connected with his escape who
-might suffer by his revelations is almost certain; and
-it is a trait in his character worthy of notice, that he
-kept this secret, with scrupulous fidelity, for forty-seven
-years. It is not known that he ever divulged
-it even to any individual of his own family.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Rendered wary by experience, Dale now proceeded
-with great address and caution. He probably
-had money, as well as clothes. At all events, he
-went to London, found means to procure a passport,
-and left the country for France, unsuspected and undetected.
-On reaching a friendly soil, he hastened
-to l’Orient, and joined the force then equipping under
-Paul Jones, in his old rank of a master’s mate.
-Here he was actively employed for some months,
-affording the commodore an opportunity to ascertain
-his true merits, when they met with something like
-their just reward. As Dale was now near twenty-three,
-and an accomplished seaman, Jones, after
-trying several less competent persons, procured a
-commission for him from the commissioners, and
-made him the first lieutenant of his own ship, the
-justly celebrated Bon Homme Richard.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It is not our intention, in this article, to enter any
-farther into the incidents of this well known cruise,
-than is necessary to complete the present subject.
-Dale does not appear in any prominent situation,
-though always discharging the duties of his responsible
-station, with skill and credit, until the squadron
-appeared off Leith, with the intention of seizing that
-town—the port of Edinburgh—and of laying it under
-contribution. On this occasion, our lieutenant was
-selected to command the boats that were to land,
-a high compliment to so young a man, as coming
-from one of the character of Paul Jones. Every
-thing was ready, Dale had received his final orders,
-and was in the very act of proceeding to the ship’s
-side to enter his boat, when a heavy squall struck the
-vessels, and induced an order for the men to come
-on deck, and assist in shortening sail. The vessels
-were compelled to bear up before it, to save their
-spars; this carried them out of the firth; and, a gale
-succeeding, the enterprise was necessarily abandoned.
-This gale proved so heavy, that one of the
-prizes actually foundered.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This attempt of Jones, while it is admitted to have
-greatly alarmed the coast, has often been pronounced
-rash and inconsiderate. Such was not the opinion
-of Dale. A man of singular moderation in his modes
-of thinking, and totally without bravado, it was his
-conviction that the effort would have been crowned
-with success. He assured the writer, years after the
-occurrence, that he was about to embark in the expedition
-with feelings of high confidence, and that he
-believed nothing but the inopportune intervention of
-the squall stood between Jones and a triumphant
-<span class='it'>coup de main</span>.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A few days later, Jones made a secret proposal to
-his officers, which some affirm was to burn the shipping
-at North Shields, but which the commanders of
-two of his vessels strenuously opposed, in consequence
-of which the project was abandoned. The
-commodore himself, in speaking of the manner in
-which this and other similar propositions were received
-by his subordinates, extolled the ardor invariably
-manifested by the young men, among whom
-Dale was one of the foremost. Had it rested with
-them, the attempts at least would all have been made.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On the 19th September occurred the celebrated
-battle between the Serapis and the Bon Homme
-Richard. As the proper place to enter fully into the
-details of that murderous combat will be in the biography
-of Jones, we shall confine ourselves at present
-to incidents with which the subject of this
-memoir was more immediately connected.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Bon Homme Richard had finally sailed on
-this cruise with only two proper sea-lieutenants on
-board her. There was a third officer of the name of
-Lunt, who has been indifferently called a lieutenant
-and the sailing-master, but who properly filled the
-latter station. This gentleman had separated from
-the ship in a fog, on the coast of Ireland, while in
-the pursuit of some deserters, and never rejoined
-the squadron. Another person of the same name,
-and believed to be the brother of the master, was the
-second lieutenant. He was sent in a pilot-boat, accompanied
-by a midshipman and several men, to
-capture a vessel in sight, before Jones made the Baltic
-fleet coming round Flamborough Head. This
-party was not able to return to the Bon Homme
-Richard, until after the battle had terminated. In
-consequence of these two circumstances, each so
-novel in itself, the American frigate fought this
-bloody and arduous combat with only one officer on
-board her, of the rank of a sea-lieutenant, who
-was Dale. This is the reason why the latter is so
-often mentioned as <span class='it'>the</span> lieutenant of the Bon Homme
-Richard, during that memorable fight. The fact rendered
-his duties more arduous and diversified, and
-entitles him to the greater credit for their proper
-performance.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale was stationed on the gun-deck, where of
-course he commanded in chief, though it appears
-that his proper personal division was the forward
-guns. Until the ships got foul of each other, this
-brought him particularly into the hottest of the work;
-the Serapis keeping much on the bows, or ahead of
-the Bon Homme Richard. It is known that Jones was
-much pleased with his deportment, which, in truth,
-was every way worthy of his own. When the alarm
-was given that the ship was sinking, Dale went below
-himself to ascertain the real state of the water, and
-his confident and fearless report cheered the men to
-renewed exertions. Shortly after, the supply of powder
-was stopped, when our lieutenant again quitted
-his quarters to inquire into the cause. On reaching
-the magazine passage he was told by the sentinels
-that they had closed the ingress, on account of a
-great number of strange and foreign faces that they
-saw around them. On further inquiry, Dale discovered
-that the master at arms, of his own head, had
-let loose all the prisoners—more than a hundred in
-number—under the belief that the ship was sinking.
-Dale soon saw the danger which might ensue, but
-finding the English much alarmed at the supposed
-condition of the ship, he succeeded in mustering
-them, and setting them at work at the pumps, where,
-by their exertions, they probably prevented the apprehended
-calamity. For some time, at the close of
-the action, all his guns being rendered useless, Dale
-was employed principally in this important service.
-There is no question that without some such succor,
-the Richard would have gone down much earlier
-than she did. It is a singular feature of this every-way
-extraordinary battle, that here were Englishmen,
-zealously employed in aiding the efforts of their
-enemies, under the cool control of a collected and
-observant officer.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At length the cheerful intelligence was received
-that the enemy had struck. Dale went on deck, and
-immediately demanded Jones’ permission to take
-possession of the prize. It was granted, and had he
-never manifested any other act of personal intrepidity,
-his promptitude on this occasion, and the
-manner in which he went to work, to attain his purpose,
-would have shown him to be a man above personal
-considerations, when duty or honor pointed out
-his course. The main-yard of the Serapis was hanging
-a-cock-bill, over the side of the American ship.
-The brace was shot away, and the pendant hung
-within reach. Seizing the latter, Dale literally swung
-himself off, and alighted alone on the quarter-deck of
-the Serapis. Here he found no one but the brave
-Pierson, who had struck his own flag; but the men
-below were still ignorant of the act. We may form
-an opinion of the risk that the young man ran, in
-thus boarding his enemy at night, and in the confusion
-of such a combat, for the English were still
-firing below, by the fact that Mr. Mayrant, a young
-man of South Carolina, and a midshipman of the
-Bon Homme Richard, who led a party after the
-lieutenant, was actually run through the thigh by a
-boarding pike, and by the hands of a man in the
-waist below.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The first act of Dale, on getting on the quarter
-deck of the Serapis, was to direct her captain to go
-on board the American ship. While thus employed,
-the English first lieutenant came up from below, and
-finding that the Americans had ceased their fire, he
-demanded if they had struck. “No, sir,” answered
-Dale, “it is this ship that has struck, and you are my
-prisoner.” An appeal to Capt. Pierson confirming
-this, the English lieutenant offered to go below and
-silence the remaining guns of the Serapis. To this
-Dale objected, and had both the officers passed on
-board the Bon Homme Richard. In a short time,
-the English below were sent from their guns, and
-full possession was obtained of the prize.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As more men were soon sent from the Bon Homme
-Richard, the two ships were now separated, the
-Richard making sail, and Jones ordering Dale to follow
-with the prize. A sense of fatigue had come
-over the latter, in consequence of the reaction of so
-much excitement and so great exertions, and he took
-a seat on the binnacle. Here he issued an order to
-brace the head yards aback, and to put the helm
-down. Wondering that the ship did not pay off, he
-directed that the wheel-ropes should be examined. It
-was reported that they were not injured, and that the
-helm was hard down. Astonished to find the ship
-immovable under such circumstances, there being
-a light breeze, Dale sprang upon his feet, and then
-discovered, for the first time, that he had been severely
-wounded, by a splinter, in the foot and ankle.
-The hurt, now that he was no longer sustained by the
-excitement of battle, deprived him of the use of his
-leg, and he fell. Just at this moment, Mr. Lunt, the
-officer who had been absent in the pilot-boat, reached
-the Richard, and Dale was forced to give up to him
-the command of the prize. The cause of the Serapis’
-not minding her helm was the fact that Capt.
-Pierson had dropped an anchor under foot when the
-two ships got foul; a circumstance of which the
-Americans were ignorant until this moment.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale was some time laid up with his wound, but
-he remained with Jones in his old station of first
-lieutenant, accompanying that officer, in the Alliance,
-from the Texel to l’Orient. In the controversy which
-ensued between the commodore and Landais, our
-lieutenant took sides warmly with the first, and even
-offered to head a party to recover the Alliance, by
-force. This measure not being resorted to, he remained
-with Jones, and finally sailed with him for
-America, as his first lieutenant, in the Ariel 20, a
-ship lent to the Americans, by the King of France.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Ariel quitted port in October, 1780, but encountered
-a tremendous gale of wind off the Penmarks.
-Losing her masts, she was compelled to
-return to refit. On this occasion Dale, in his responsible
-situation of first lieutenant, showed all the
-coolness of his character, and the resources of a
-thorough seaman. The tempest was almost a hurricane,
-and of extraordinary violence. The Ariel
-sailed a second time about the commencement of the
-year 1781, and reached Philadelphia on the 18th
-February. During the passage home, she had a
-short action, in the night, with a heavy British letter-of-marque,
-that gave her name as the Triumph; and
-which ship is said to have struck, but to have made
-her escape by treachery. Jones, who was greedy of
-glory, even fancied that his enemy was a vessel of
-war, and that he had captured a vessel of at least
-equal force. This was not Dale’s impression. He
-spoke of the affair to the writer of this article, as one
-of no great moment, even questioning whether their
-antagonist struck at all; giving it as his belief
-she was a quick-working and fast-sailing letter-of-marque.
-He distinctly stated that she got off by out-manœuvring
-the Ariel, which vessel was badly manned,
-and had an exceedingly mixed and disaffected
-crew. It is worthy of remark that, while two articles,
-enumerating the services of Dale, have been
-written by gentlemen connected with himself, and
-possessing his confidence, neither mentions this affair;
-a proof, in itself, that Dale considered it one of little
-moment.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The account which Dale always gave of the meeting
-between the Ariel and Triumph—admitting such
-to have been the name of the English ship—so different
-from that which has found its way into various
-publications, on the representation of other actors in
-that affair, is illustrative of the character of the man.
-Simple of mind, totally without exaggeration, and a
-lover, as well as a practicer, of severe truth, he was
-a man whose representations might be fully relied
-on. Even in his account of the extraordinary combat
-between the Richard and Serapis, he stripped the
-affair of all its romance, and of every thing that was
-wonderful; rendering the whole clear, simple and
-intelligible as his own thoughts. The only narratives
-of that battle, worthy of a seaman, have been written
-rigidly after his explanations, which leave it a bloody
-and murderous fight, but one wholly without the
-marvelous.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On his arrival at Philadelphia, after an absence of
-four years, more than one of which had been spent
-in prison, Dale was just twenty-four years and two
-months old. He was now regularly put on the list
-of lieutenants, by the marine committee of Congress;
-his former authority proceeding from the agents of
-the government in Europe. It is owing to this circumstance
-that the register of government places
-him so low as a lieutenant. Dale now parted from
-Paul Jones, with whom he had served near two
-years; and that, too, in some of the most trying
-scenes of the latter’s life. The commodore was
-anxious to take his favorite lieutenant with him to
-the America 74; but the latter declined the service,
-under the impression it would be a long time before
-the ship got to sea. He judged right, the America
-being transferred to the French in the end, and Jones
-himself never again sailing under the American flag.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The name of Dale will inseparably be connected
-with the battle of the Richard and Serapis. His
-prominent position and excellent conduct entitle him
-to this mark of distinction, and it says much for the
-superior, when it confers fame to have been “Paul
-Jones’ first lieutenant.” We smile, however, at the
-legends of the day, when we recall the account of
-the “Lieutenants Grubb” and other heroes of romance,
-who have been made to figure in the histories
-of that renowned combat, and place them in contrast
-with the truth-loving, sincere, moral and respectable
-subject of this memoir. The sword which Louis
-XVI. bestowed on Jones, for this victory, passed into
-the hands of Dale, and is now the property of a gallant
-son, a fitting mark of the services of the father,
-on the glorious occasion it commemorates.<a id='r4'/><a href='#f4' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[4]</span></sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale was employed on board a schooner that was
-manned from the Ariel, after reaching Philadelphia,
-and sent down the Delaware to convoy certain public
-stores. The following June, he joined the Trumbull
-28, Captain Nicholson, as her first lieutenant. The
-Trumbull left the capes of the Delaware on the 8th
-August, 1781, being chased off the land by three of
-the enemy’s cruisers. The weather was squally and
-night set in dark. In endeavoring to avoid her pursuers,
-the Trumbull found herself alongside of the
-largest, a frigate of thirty-two guns, and an action
-was fought under the most unfavorable circumstances.
-The Trumbull’s fore-topmast was hanging over, or
-rather through her forecastle, her crew was disorganized,
-and the vessel herself in a state of no preparation
-for a conflict with an equal force; much
-less with that actually opposed to her. The officers
-made great exertions, and maintained an action of
-more than an hour, when the colors of the American
-ship were struck to the Iris 32, and Monk 18. The
-former of these vessels had been the American frigate
-Hancock, and the latter was subsequently captured
-in the Delaware, by Barney in the Hyder Ally.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This was the fourth serious affair in which Dale
-had been engaged that war, and the fourth time he
-had been captured. As he was hurt also in this
-battle, it made the third of his wounds. His confinement,
-however, was short, and the treatment not a
-subject of complaint. He was taken into New York,
-paroled on Long Island, and exchanged in November.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>No new service offering in a marine which, by
-this time, had lost most of its ships, Dale obtained a
-furlough, and joined a large letter-of-marque called
-the Queen of France, that carried twelve guns, as
-her first officer. Soon after he was appointed to the
-command of the same vessel. In the spring of 1782,
-this ship, in company with several other letters-of-marque,
-sailed for France, making many captures
-by the way. The ship of Dale, however, parted
-from the fleet, and, falling in with an English privateer
-of fourteen guns, a severe engagement followed,
-in which both parties were much cut up; they parted
-by mutual consent. Dale did not get back to Philadelphia
-until February of the succeeding year, or
-until about the time that peace was made.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In common with most of the officers of the navy,
-Lieutenant Dale was disbanded, as soon as the war
-ceased. He was now in the twenty-seventh year of
-his age, with a perfect knowledge of his profession,
-in which he had passed more than half his life, a
-high reputation for his rank, a courage that had often
-been tried, a body well scarred, a character beyond
-reproach, and not altogether without “money in his
-purse.” Under the circumstances, he naturally determined
-to follow up his fortunes in the line in
-which he had commenced his career. He became
-part owner of a large ship, and sailed in her for
-London, December, 1783, in the station of master.
-After this, he embarked successfully in the East
-India trade, in the same character, commanding
-several of the finest ships out of the country. In this
-manner he accumulated a respectable fortune, and
-began to take his place among the worthies of the
-land in a new character.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In September, 1791, Mr. Dale was married to
-Dorothy Crathorne, the daughter of another respectable
-ship-master of Philadelphia, and then a ward
-of Barry’s. With this lady he passed the remainder
-of his days, she surviving him as his widow, and dying
-some years later than himself. No change in his pursuits
-occurred until 1794, when the new government
-commenced the organization of another marine, which
-has resulted in that which the country now possesses.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale was one of the six captains appointed under
-the law of 1794, that directed the construction of as
-many frigates, with a view to resist the aggressions
-of Algiers. Each of the new captains was ordered
-to superintend the construction of one of the frigates,
-and Dale, who was fifth in rank, was directed to
-assume the superintendence of the one laid down at
-Norfolk, virtually the place of his nativity. This
-ship was intended to be a frigate of the first class,
-but, by some mistake in her moulds, she proved in
-the end to be the smallest of the six vessels then
-built. It was the unfortunate Chesapeake, a vessel
-that never was in a situation to reflect much credit
-on the service. Her construction, however, was
-deferred, in consequence of an arrangement with
-Algiers, and her captain was put on furlough.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale now returned to the China trade, in which he
-continued until the spring of 1798. The last vessel
-he commanded was called the Ganges. She was a
-fine, fast ship, and the state of our relations with
-France requiring a hurried armament, the government
-bought this vessel, in common with several
-others, put an armament of suitable guns in her, with
-a full crew, gave her to Dale, and ordered her on the
-coast as a regular cruiser.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In consequence of this arrangement, Capt. Dale
-was the first officer who ever got to sea under the
-pennant of the present navy. He sailed in May,
-1798, and was followed by the Constellation and
-Delaware in a few days. The service of Dale in
-his new capacity was short, however, in consequence
-of some questions relating to rank. The
-captains appointed in 1794 claimed their old places,
-and, it being uncertain what might be the final decision
-of the government, as there were many aspirants,
-Dale declined serving until the matter was
-determined. In May, 1799, he sailed for Canton
-again, in command of a strong letter-of-marque, under
-a furlough. On his return from this voyage he
-found his place on the list settled according to his
-own views of justice and honor, and reported himself
-for service. Nothing offered, however, until the
-difficulties with France were arranged; but, in
-May, 1801, he was ordered to take command of a
-squadron of observation about to be sent to the
-Mediterranean.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale now hoisted his broad pennant, for the first
-and only time, and assumed the title by which he was
-known for the rest of his days. He was in the prime
-of life, being in his forty-fifth year, of an active,
-manly frame, and had every prospect before him of
-a long and honorable service. The ships put under
-his orders were the President 44, Capt. James Barron;
-Philadelphia 38, Capt. Samuel Barron; Essex
-32, Capt. William Bainbridge; and Enterprise 12,
-Lieut. Com. Sterrett. A better appointed, or a better
-commanded force, probably never sailed from America.
-But there was little to do, under the timid
-policy and defective laws of the day. War was not
-supposed to exist, although hostilities did; and vessels
-were sent into foreign seas with crews shipped for a
-period that would scarcely allow of a vessel’s being
-got into proper order.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The squadron sailed June 1st, 1801, and reached
-Gibraltar July 1st. The Philadelphia blockaded the
-Tripolitan admiral, with two cruisers, in Gibraltar,
-while the other vessels went aloft. A sharp action
-occurred between the Enterprise and a Tripolitan of
-equal force, in which the latter was compelled to
-submit, but was allowed to go into her own port
-again, for want of legal authority to detain her. Dale
-appeared off Tripoli, endeavored to negotiate a little
-about an exchange of prisoners, and did blockade
-the port; but his orders fettered him in a way to
-prevent any serious enterprises. In a word, no circumstances
-occurred to allow the commodore to
-show his true character, except as it was manifested
-in his humanity, prudence and dignity. As a superior,
-he obtained the profound respect of all under his
-orders, and to this day his name is mentioned with
-regard by those who then served under him. It is
-thought that this squadron did much toward establishing
-the high discipline of the marine. In one instance
-only had Dale an opportunity of manifesting his high
-personal and professional qualities. The President
-struck a rock in quitting Port Mahon, and for some
-hours she was thought to be in imminent danger of
-foundering. Dale assumed the command, and one of
-his lieutenants, himself subsequently a flag officer of
-rare seamanship and merit, has often recounted to
-the writer his admiration of the commodore’s coolness,
-judgment, and nerve, on so trying an occasion.
-The ship was carried to Toulon, blowing a gale,
-and, on examination, it was found that she was only
-saved from destruction by the skilful manner in which
-the wood ends had been secured.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The vigilance of Dale was so great, however, and
-his dispositions so skilful, that the Tripolitans made
-no captures while he commanded in those seas. In
-March, 1802, he sailed for home, under his orders,
-reaching Hampton Roads in April, after a cruise of
-about ten months. The succeeding autumn, Com.
-Dale received an order to hold himself in readiness
-to resume the command from which he had just returned.
-Ever ready to serve his country, when it
-could be done with honor, he would cheerfully have
-made his preparations accordingly, but, by the order
-itself, he ascertained that he was to be sent out without
-a captain in his own ship. This, agreeably to
-the notions he entertained, was a descent in the scale
-of rank, and he declined serving on such terms.
-There being no alternative between obedience and
-resignation, he chose the latter, and quitted the navy.
-At this time, he was the third captain on the list, and
-it is no more than justice to say, that he stood second
-to no other in the public estimation.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dale never went to sea again. Possessed of an
-ample fortune, and possessing the esteem of all who
-knew him, he commanded the respect of those with
-whom he differed in opinion touching the question
-which drove him from the navy. With the latter he
-never quarreled, for, at the proper period, he gave
-to it his two elder sons. To the last he retained his
-interest in its success, and his care of mariners, in
-general, extended far beyond the interests of this life.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Many years previously to his death, Com. Dale
-entered into full communion with the Protestant
-Episcopal Church, of which he proved a consistent
-and pious member. Under the newly awakened
-feelings which induced this step, he was the originater
-of a Mariner’s Church, in Philadelphia, attending
-it in person, every Sunday afternoon, for a long
-succession of years. He was as free with his purse,
-too, as with his time; and his charities, though properly
-concealed, were believed to be large and discriminating.
-With some it may be deemed a matter
-of moment, with all it should be a proof of the estimation
-in which Dale was held by certainly a very
-respectable part of his fellow citizens, that he was
-named to be the first president of the Washington
-Benevolent Society; an association that soon degenerated
-to serve the ends of party politics, whatever
-may have been the design that influenced the few
-with which it originated.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The evening of the life of Dale was singularly
-peaceful and happy. It was as calm as its morning
-had been tempestuous. It is true he had to weep
-for the loss of his first-born son, a noble youth, who
-died of wounds received in the action between his
-old ship, the President, and a British squadron; but
-he had given the young man to his country, and knew
-how to bear up under the privation. He died, himself,
-in the seventieth year of his age, in his dwelling at
-Philadelphia, February 26th, 1826; departing in peace
-with God and man, as he fondly trusted himself, and
-as those who survive have every reason to hope.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>By his marriage with Miss Crathorne, Com. Dale
-had several children, five of whom lived to become
-men and women, viz. three sons and two daughters.
-Of the former, Richard, the eldest, fell, at an early
-age, a midshipman on board the President. John
-Montgomery, the second, is now a commander in the
-navy, having served with Warrington, in the last
-English war. This gentleman is married to a lady
-of the well known family of Willing. Edward Crathorne,
-the youngest son, is a merchant of Philadelphia.
-He is married and has children. The eldest
-daughter, Sarah, married T. M’Kean Pettit, Esq., a
-judge of the District Court, in Philadelphia, and is
-dead, leaving issue. Elizabeth, the youngest, is the
-wife of Com. George Campbell Reed, of the navy,
-and has no issue.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In considering the character of Dale, we are
-struck with its simple modesty and frank sincerity,
-quite as much as with its more brilliant qualities.
-His courage and constancy were of the highest order,
-rendering him always equal to the most critical duties,
-and never wearying in their performance. Such
-a man is perfectly free from all exaggeration. As he
-was not afraid to act when his cooler judgment approved,
-he had no distrusts to overcome ere he could
-forbear, as prudence dictated. Jones found him a
-man ready and willing to second all his boldest and
-most hazardous attempts, so long as reason showed
-the probabilities of success; but the deed done, none
-more thoroughly stripped it of all false coloring, or
-viewed it in a truer light than he who had risked his
-life in aiding to achieve it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The person of Dale was in harmony with his moral
-qualities. It was manly, seaman-like, and of singularly
-respectable bearing. Simplicity, good faith,
-truth and courage were imprinted on his countenance,
-which all who were thrown into his company
-soon discovered was no more than the mirror of his
-mind. The navy has had more brilliant intellects,
-officers of profounder mental attainments, and of
-higher natural gifts, but it has had few leaders of
-cooler judgment, sounder discretion, more inflexible
-justice, or indomitable resolution. He was of a nature,
-an experience, and a professional skill to command
-respect and to inspire confidence, tributes that
-were cheerfully paid by all who served under his
-orders. The writer of this article has had extensive
-opportunities of hearing character discussed among
-the sea-officers of his country; few escape criticism,
-of some sort or other, for their professional acts, and
-fewer still, as men; yet he cannot recall a single instance
-in which he has ever heard a whisper of complaint
-against the public or private career of Richard
-Dale. This total exemption from the usual fortunes
-of the race may, in part, be owing to the shortness
-of the latter’s service in the present marine, and to
-the limited acquaintance of his cotemporaries, but
-it is difficult to believe that it is not chiefly to
-be ascribed to the thoroughly seaman-like character
-of the officer, and to the perfect truth and sterling
-probity of the man.</p>
-
-<hr class='footnotemark'/>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_1'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' class='footnoteid'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div class='footnote-id' id='f1'><a href='#r1'>[1]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This ship has been differently stated to have been the
-Liverpool and the Pearl. We follow what we think the
-best authorities.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_2'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' class='footnoteid'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div class='footnote-id' id='f2'><a href='#r2'>[2]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The prize-officer of the Lexington was a young American,
-of a highly respectable family, then an acting lieutenant
-in the English navy. His prisoners seized an occasion
-to rise, at a moment when he had gone below for an
-instant, in consequence of which he was dismissed the service;
-living the remainder of his life, and dying, in his
-native country.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_3'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' class='footnoteid'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div class='footnote-id' id='f3'><a href='#r3'>[3]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It is a curious feature of the times, that, the French
-ordering the Americans to quit their ports with their prizes,
-the latter were taken out a short distance to sea and sold,
-Frenchmen becoming the purchasers, and finding means to
-secure the property.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_4'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' class='footnoteid'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div class='footnote-id' id='f4'><a href='#r4'>[4]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This sword has, quite recently, become the subject of
-public discussion, and of some private feeling, under circumstances
-not wholly without interest to the navy and
-the country. At page 63, vol. 2, of Mackenzie’s Life of Paul
-Jones, is the following note, viz.:</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r8'>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“This sword was sent by Jones’ heirs to his valued
-friend, Robert Morris, to whose favor he had owed his
-opportunities of distinguishing himself. Mr. Morris gave
-the sword to the navy of the United States. It was to be
-retained and worn by the senior officer, and transmitted
-at his death, to his successor. After passing through the
-hands of Commodore Barry, <span class='it'>and one or two other senior
-officers</span>, it came into possession of Commodore Dale, and
-now remains in his family, through some mistake in the
-nature of the bequest, which seems to require that it should
-either be restored to the navy in the person of its senior
-officer, or else revert to the heirs of Mr. Robert Morris,
-from one of whom the writer has received this information.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>That Captain Mackenzie has been correctly informed as to
-a portion of the foregoing statement, is as probable as it is
-certain he has been misled as to the remainder. It would
-have been more discreet, however, in a writer to have heard
-both sides, previously to laying such a statement before the
-world. A very little inquiry might have satisfied him that
-Commodore Dale could not have held any thing as the
-senior officer of the navy, since he never occupied that
-station. We believe the following will be found to be
-accurate.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Of the manner in which Commodore Barry became possessed
-of this sword we know nothing beyond report, and
-the statement of Captain Mackenzie. We understand that
-a female member of the Morris family gives a version of
-the affair like that published in the note we have quoted,
-but the accuracy of her recollections can hardly be put in
-opposition to the <span class='it'>acts</span> of such men as Barry and Dale.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The sword never passed through the hands “<span class='it'>of one or two
-other senior officers</span>,” as stated by Captain Mackenzie, at all.
-It was bequeathed by Commodore Barry to Commodore
-Dale, in his will, and in the following words, viz.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Item, I give and bequeath to my good friend Captain
-Richard Dale, <span class='it'>my</span> gold-hilted sword, as a token of my
-esteem for him.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We have carefully examined the will, inventory, &amp;c. of
-Commodore Barry. The first is dated February 27, 1803;
-the will is proved and the inventory filed in the following
-September, in which month Commodore Barry died. Now,
-Commodore Dale was not in the navy at all, when this
-sword was bequeathed to him, nor when he received it.
-Dale resigned in the autumn of 1802; and he never rose
-nearer to the head of the list of captains, than to be the
-third in rank; Barry, himself, and Samuel Nicholson, being
-his seniors, when he resigned.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The inventory of Commodore Barry’s personal property
-is very minute, containing articles of a value as low as one
-dollar. It mentions <span class='it'>two</span> swords, both of which are specifically
-bequeathed—viz. “<span class='it'>my</span> gold-hilted” and “<span class='it'>my</span> silver-hilted
-sword.” No allusion is made in the will to any
-trust. Only these two swords were found among the assets,
-and each was delivered agreeably to the bequest.
-The gold-hilted sword was known in the family, as the
-“Paul Jones sword,” and there is not the smallest doubt
-Commodore Barry intended to bequeath this particular
-sword, in full property, to Commodore Dale.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Let us next look to the probabilities of the case. The heirs
-of Paul Jones, who left no issue, gave the sword to Robert
-Morris, says Captain Mackenzie, as a mark of gratitude.
-This may very well be true. But Mr. Morris “gave the
-sword to the navy of the United States,” to be retained and
-worn by its senior officer. It would have been a more
-usual course to have lodged the sword in the Navy Department,
-had such been the intention. That Commodore Barry
-did not view <span class='it'>his</span> possession of the sword in this light, is
-clear enough by his will. He gave it, <span class='it'>without</span> restraint of
-any sort, to a friend who was not in the navy at all, and
-who never had been its senior officer. This he did, in full
-possession of his mind and powers, six months before he
-died, and under circumstances to render any misconception
-highly improbable.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Can we find any motive for the bequest of Commodore
-Barry? It was not personal to himself, as the sword went
-out of his own family. The <span class='it'>other sword</span> he gave to a brother-in-law.
-“Paul Jones’ sword” was bequeathed to a distinguished
-professional friend—to one who, of all others, next
-to Jones himself, had the best professional right to wear it—to
-“Paul Jones’ first lieutenant.” Commodore Dale did
-leave sons, and some in the navy; and the country will believe
-that the one who now owns the sword has as good a
-moral right to wear it, as the remote collaterals of Jones, and
-a much better right than the senior officer of the navy, on
-proof as vague as that offered. His <span class='it'>legal</span> right to the sword
-seems to be beyond dispute.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the inventory of Commodore Barry’s personals, this
-sword is thus mentioned, viz.—“a very elegant gold-hilted
-sword—$300.” The other sword is thus mentioned, viz.—“a
-handsome silver-hilted, do. $100.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk102'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='the'></a>THE SERENADE.</h1></div>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Beneath a bower, where poplar branches long</p>
-<p class='line0'>Embracing wove Seclusion o’er the abode</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of hermit sage, what time the full moon rode</p>
-<p class='line0'>’Mid spectre clouds her star-paved streets along,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Rose on the listening air a plaintive song,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Sweet as the harmony of an angel’s lyre,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And soft as sweet; breathed heavenward from a quire</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of Beauty, hid the encircling shades among.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of mysteries high, I ween, that sage had dreamed⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Who now, upstarting, clasps his hands to hear</p>
-<p class='line0'>The <span class='it'>mystic notes of Nature’s Anthem</span> clear,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Which holiest bards have heard and heavenly deemed!</p>
-<p class='line0'>’Tis even thus as to that sage it seemed⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>’Tis Beauty makes the dreams of Wisdom, dear!</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk103'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='wid'></a>THE WIDOW OF NEWBURY.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY THE AUTHOR OF “HENRI QUATRE.”</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>’Twas the eve of Newbury fair, and the time
-near the close of the long reign of Harry the Eighth,
-after monasteries were suppressed. Reform stalked
-through the land—all things were turned topsy-turvy—abbots
-and monks beggared, that poor lords might
-thrive—priests permitted marriage, and nuns driven
-from their pleasant retreats, were forced to spin for
-a livelihood. But amid the greater marvels, the
-townspeople of Newbury had often leisure to ask
-why Mistress Avery remained so long a widow.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Sitting in her embowered porch, watching the
-cavalcade of merchants, buffoons and jugglers, on
-their way to the encampment and site of the morrow’s
-revels, she attracted many a longing eye. The
-merchant, whose wandering vocation led him from
-ancient Byzantium to the shores of the Thames, who
-came to Newbury to exchange rich silks and foreign
-jewelry for broadcloth, as he rode by the capacious
-square tenement, with its deep, embayed windows
-of dark chesnut-wood, and caught a glimpse of the
-fair owner, sighed when contrasting his own desolate,
-wandering lot with that of the fortunate wooer of the
-rich, comely widow. Mistress Avery was relict of
-the richest clothier of Newbury, who, dying, left her
-in sole possession of looms, lands, tenements and
-leases. Handsome, young, brisk, with riches unquestionable,
-she attracted tender regards from all
-quarters—even the proud gentry of Berkshire, with
-genealogical tree rooting from Norman marauder,
-far back as the conquest, disdained not an alliance
-garnished with broad manors, woods of a century’s
-growth, and goodly array of tenements, of which
-our widow held fee-simple. But when pressed successively
-by belted knight and worshipful esquire,
-she courteously declined their offers, alleging she
-was bent on marrying one of her own class in life,
-(if she should change condition,) one who could take
-upon himself, without degradation, the task of superintending
-the looms. High born swains repulsed, the
-field was open to gallants of lowlier rank. But these
-faring no better, and incurring the ridicule of neighbors,
-suitors became shy and reserved, seeking to
-extract token of favor ere they avowed themselves.
-If the curate called, ’twas merely an inquiry after
-her soul’s health—the inquiry perhaps linked to a request
-that she would, from her stores of boundless
-wealth, add a trifle to the contributions of the poor’s
-box. The lawyer had his ever ready and undeniable
-excuses for visiting—leases there were to sign, indentures
-to cancel. Nor was the tailor barred his
-plea—was there not much broadcloth yearly fashioned
-into apparel for lusty serving-man, active apprentice?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Behind Mistress Avery, as she sat gazing at the
-straggling pageantry, there loitered in hall and doorway
-the apprentices and domestic servants of the
-household. Distinguished amongst his companions,
-by superior stature, stood John Winehcomb, chief
-apprentice. To him the widow oft turned with remark
-on passing stranger; the soft regard thrown
-into her address would have excused boldness in
-one far less favored by nature than the apprentice,
-but his answers were submissive, modest, even bashful.
-An acute observer might perhaps have detected
-a shade of discontent on the widow’s handsome features,
-perhaps, as fancifully, attributed it to the coyness
-and reserve of young Winehcomb; and, indeed,
-as revolving months lengthened the period of widowhood,
-there had not been wanting whispers, that
-’Prentice John stood a fairer chance with his mistress
-than all the knights or reputable burgher citizens
-and yeomen of the county. His appearance certainly
-did not gainsay the rumor—he had completed his
-twentieth year, health flushed his cheeks, honesty
-and intelligence stamped his looks—the features
-were bold and decided, though of modest expression.
-In character, he was one of those gifted youths, in
-whom strict attention and unvarying promptitude
-supply the place of experience, and who acquire the
-management and conduct of business, in ordinary
-cases, rarely entrusted to men of mature years. The
-clothier, when dying, recommended his spouse to
-confide business affairs to John—she had done so; in
-the factory and with the workmen ’Prentice John
-was all and everything—from his word ’twas useless
-to appeal.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But when young Winehcomb’s credit with Mistress
-Avery was canvassed, the gossips were at a loss to
-affix on decisive marks of favor or tenderness. ’Tis
-true, he accompanied her to church, but so did the
-other apprentices—walked by her side, sat next his
-mistress during prayers, his arm was accepted, his
-hand arranged the cushions—but then, was he not
-chief apprentice, would it not be slighting to prefer
-the services of a junior? Look narrowly at his
-conduct—there were none of the characteristics of a
-favored swain, no semblance of behavior indicating
-one presumptuous of the honor, nor could the absence
-of these tokens be attributed to natural timidity in
-the presence of the sex, for at country meetings and
-fairs, where hoydenish romping was the usual diversion
-of youth, John participated in rustic gallantries.
-Yet, sooth to say, though the gossips were at fault,
-they were not wrong in their conjectures; the widow
-was deeply in love with ’Prentice John, for his sake
-had dismissed high-born suitors, wealthy citizens,
-and, we need hardly say, (though scrupulously regardful
-of reputation,) had given him many hints,
-which, alas! he was slow to understand. It might
-be inexperience, want of self-confidence, or innate
-modesty, which withheld the youth from tracing her
-encouragement to its real motive; but from whatever
-cause, Mistress Avery, who had a very high opinion
-of her own personal attractions, knew he must be
-perfectly well acquainted with her riches, was greatly
-perplexed with his diffidence, his want of susceptibility,
-and concluded the apprentice must be in love
-elsewhere to withstand such allurements.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>One while, racked with jealousy, determined in
-very spite and vexation to accept the offer of the first
-suitor, the next hour affection gained the ascendancy,
-and she resolved to declare her love. But pride took
-fire and caused a tumult in the heart, of which young
-Winehcomb, the unconscious origin, was little aware.
-How provoking the calmness of his replies, the quiet
-gaze which met her impassioned glance! Oft with
-difficulty she refrained from bestowing a hearty cuff
-on the cold youth, object of fond desire—as often,
-and with greater difficulty, did she refrain from tenderer
-salute. To-morrow shall put this wilful-headed
-boy to the test! If his heart be engaged, it
-is more than likely he has made an assignation,
-which I will frustrate! So thought Mistress Avery,
-revolving a scheme to bring young Diffidence on his
-knees, or to a direct confession that he loved another.
-Under pretence of making inquiries respecting the
-description of merchandise then passing the house,
-borne on a long train of pack-horses, under conduct
-of merchants of foreign aspect, the widow beckoned
-the apprentice (who was standing at respectful distance,
-beneath the threshold, with his fellow apprentices)
-to approach her chair, placed outside the house
-under cover of the overarching porch.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“John!” said the dame, fixing her large eyes on
-the youth, “I warrant there is store enough of trinkets
-and finery in yon bales to satisfy the wants of
-every maiden in Newbury. Happy the youth whose
-wages are unspent, for to-morrow, by ’r Lady! he
-might buy the love of the most hard-hearted damsel.
-Certes, no swain need die of love, if he have money
-in his purse!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If the love were bought by those foreign pedlar
-wares, it would not be much for a Newbury lad to
-boast of,” replied the young man, blushing—for the
-gaze of his mistress was keen and ardent.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Are the lads of Newbury then so disinterested,
-Master John,” exclaimed the widow. “Well! I
-will put one, at least, to the proof. I must walk
-through the fair, if only to chat with my tenants’
-wives from Spene and Thatcham, and shall need
-your protection, for these strange foreigners may be
-rude, and Cicely is such a coward she would run
-away.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Avery was rather baffled by the result of her
-own feint; for, contrary to expectation, she could
-discover neither chagrin nor disappointment; the
-apprentice answered cheerfully, he should be proud
-to attend on his honored mistress, and would not forget
-a good cudgel, more than a match for any
-foreigner’s steel—nay, to ensure her from insult, he
-would bring all his fellow apprentices. This was
-more than the lady desired. She was again puzzled,
-and declined, rather pettishly, the extra corps of
-gallants, volunteered by the apprentice, more especially,
-as she affirmed that it was contrary to the letter
-and spirit of their indentures, which guaranteed
-festival and fair-days to be at their own disposal.
-But they would gladly abandon the privilege to do
-her service, rejoined the pertinacious and simple
-youth, with ill-timed assiduity.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Fool!” muttered the widow between her teeth,
-but not so indistinctly as to pass unheard by the
-apprentice, who immediately drew back abashed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A bright morrow gladdened the hearts of the good
-folk of Newbury. The morn was occupied in the
-sale and purchase of commodities—the staple article
-of the town was readily exchanged for foreign merchandise,
-or broad Spanish pieces, as suited the inclination
-of the parties dealing. These were busy
-hours for young Winehcomb and his associates, but
-amply redeemed by the gayety and attractive dissipation
-of the afternoon. In walking through the fair,
-Mistress Avery leaned on the youth’s arm, an honor
-envied the apprentice by many an anxious, would-be
-suitor. Ere growing tired of the drollery of the jugglers,
-mountebanks and buffoons, or the more serious
-spectacle of the scenic moralites, they encountered
-Master Luke Milner, the attorney, who thought the
-opportunity should not be thrown away of endeavoring
-to gain the widow’s good graces. Master Luke
-believed his chance very fair—he was of good family,
-on the youthful side of thirty, but exceedingly foppish,
-after the style of the London gallants, but caricatured—too
-many ribbons on doublet, too many
-jewels on beaver, shoes garnished with roses large
-as sunflowers. “The worshipful attorney will never
-do for me,” thought Mistress Avery! She had often
-thought so, and was blind to many courtesies and
-compliments which the learned man ventured to
-throw in with his legal opinions. But now she had
-a part to play, a stratagem to practice on the feelings
-of young Winehcomb. Love, like hunger, will
-break through every restraint; she scrupled not
-making the lawyer’s vanity subservient to her policy,
-and, accordingly, listened to his flattery with more
-than ordinary attention, keeping an eye, the while,
-on ’Prentice John, to observe the effect of the
-legal gallant’s honeyed speeches. Alas! for poor,
-love-stricken Mistress Avery—no burning jealousy
-flushed the cheek of John—lightened in his eye, or
-trembled through his frame! Hearing the conversation
-grow each moment more interesting and tender,
-believing himself one too many, he politely retired to
-a respectful distance. Was he so cold and insensible,
-the handsome blockhead? soliloquized Mistress
-Avery, heedless of the lawyer’s flowing speeches—I
-will break the indentures—banish him the house!
-The wretch!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Not cold, not insensible, Mistress Avery, for see!
-Even whilst he loiters, there approaches a party from
-the village of Spene, with whom our apprentice is
-intimate—he laughs, chats with the young men and
-maidens, and finally, as the mirth grows more uproarious,
-salutes a very handsome, fresh colored,
-smart young damsel. The dame, who witnessed the
-scene, stung with jealousy, believing her suspicions
-confirmed, broke off abruptly, whilst Master Luke
-was at the very <span class='it'>acme</span> of his tender theme; leaving
-the astonished gallant, cap in hand, to the derision of
-acquaintance, who sarcastically advised him to repair
-the loss by writ of error.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1em;'>——</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER II.</h2>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Though the widow took no notice of the incident
-which aroused her jealousy, John was made sensible
-he had incurred her displeasure. She walked silent,
-moody, reserved, scarcely replied to his remarks;
-her large, dark eye flashed anger, but the apprentice,
-though awed, was struck with its beauty, more struck
-than he had ever been. It was a new sensation he
-experienced. He inwardly deprecated the threatened
-wrath, wondered by what sad mischance he had incurred
-it, was more tremblingly alive to her resentment,
-than when oft-times—during the course of apprenticeship—conscious
-of deserving it. A strange,
-uneasy feeling began to haunt him—he was sensible
-of loss of favor, and though, after taxing memory,
-unconscious of merited disgrace—was surprised, inquieted,
-by the deep dejection of spirits under which
-he labored. It seemed as though he had incurred a
-loss, of which he knew not the extent till now. His
-arm trembled, and she snappishly rebuked his unsteadiness;
-he again encountered her glance—it was
-wild, angry, fierce, yet he felt he could have looked
-forever.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>They were opposite one of those temporary taverns,
-erected for the accommodation of the higher classes
-frequenting the fair—tricked out with gaudy splendor,
-yet affording delicious viands, choice wines to wearied
-strollers. It so happened that, passing by the
-open doorway, their progress was arrested by Master
-Nathaniel Buttress, the wealthy tanner—mean,
-avaricious, advanced in years, yet ardently longing
-to add the widow’s possessions to his own accumulated
-riches. With studied bow, and precise flourish
-of beaver, he bade Mistress Avery good day, and followed
-up the salute by invitation to sip a glass of
-sack, the fashionable beverage of the time. At fair-season,
-there was not the slightest impropriety, either
-in the offer, or its acceptation—it was quite in the
-usual license of these festivals. But ’Prentice John
-was doubly surprised; in the first place, that the
-miserly tanner (his niggardliness was proverbial)
-should have screwed up courage to treat any one with
-the high-priced nectar—and that his arm, which he
-gallantly offered, should have been accepted with
-alacrity by the fair dame, who, our apprentice was
-aware, had oft made devious circuits, on many
-occasions, to elude a meeting. Young Winehcomb
-found himself, lacquey-fashion, following in the rear.
-He was deeply mortified—such circumstance had
-never happened before—yet, though vexed, the annoyance
-was only secondary to extreme surprise at
-the character of his own feelings. He had valued
-highly the good will, kind words, and occasional
-gifts of the lady, as proofs of favor, founded on his
-honesty, diligence and promptitude, or, at least, without
-deeply analizing his feelings, believed that in
-such spirit he received them. But now, smarting
-under disgrace, it seemed as though lost favor was
-dear for its own sake—bereft of smiles to which he
-had been insensible till the present hour, he was unhappy,
-miserable. ’Prentice John had great difficulty
-in withholding his cudgel from the tanner’s back, but
-though he gave him not a beating, he mentally promised
-one. Master Buttress, elated with good fortune,
-was more vain-glorious than cautious; unlike
-prudent lover, uncertain of continuance of sudden
-favor, dreading loss of vantage ground, snatched by
-eager rivals, he escorted the dame to a conspicuous
-seat, whence they could behold the fair, from whence
-his favored lot was visible to all. The ready drawers,
-ere ardor called, hastened to place before the guests
-a tray laden with costly delicacies, crowned with
-silver flagon full of the favorite potation. Young
-Winehcomb, who sat apart, though partaking the
-dainties, was maddened to behold his mistress listen
-so complacently to the addresses of the veteran
-suitor. Could she be serious? And if she were—what
-then? Was she not absolute mistress of herself,
-her wealth—and was he so specially concerned
-in her choice? This self-questioning elicited the
-conviction, startling though true, that he was deeply,
-personally concerned. He was, then, undeniably in
-love with his mistress! Was the passion of sudden
-growth, the birth of the present hour? Alas! no—it
-had been long smouldering unconsciously—nay, if
-he doubted, memory flashed innumerable, though till
-now, unnoticed facts proving its existence—and he
-had foolishly let slip the golden chance of wooing
-till too late—till his advantages were the prey of a
-successful rival!—his own affection only brought to
-light by the torch of jealousy. Such was the cruel,
-torturing position of young Winehcomb. ’Twas
-aggravated in being obliged to listen to the tanner’s
-flattery, to witness its favorable reception. Nay,
-worse—he became conscious that Mistress Avery
-remarked his inquietude, his ill-suppressed hatred of
-Master Nathaniel, as her eye was often for a moment
-bent on him. He was convinced she took pleasure
-in his torments, for on these occasions her manner—though
-strictly within the rigid limits of propriety—invariably
-was more marked and tender toward
-the detested, fulsome niggard. He had heard, alas!
-such was the custom of the sex. Often was ’Prentice
-John resolved on leaving the lovers to their own
-conversation, but restrained anger on reflecting it
-was his duty to be present with and protect Mistress
-Avery, till she quitted the fair and returned home.
-Nor did he relish the notion of leaving the field altogether
-to the tanner—jealousy united with sense of
-duty in detaining the youth.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Master Buttress was in rare good humor; he could
-not deem otherwise but that he was the fortunate,
-chosen man, and he found leisure in the intervals of fits
-of gallantry, to conjure flitting visions of broad manor
-added to broad manor, tenement to tenement, and to
-picture the future Master—nay, Worshipful Master
-Nathaniel Buttress, richest gentleman in the county
-of Berkshire. The only damp on his high spirits was
-the present outlay; he had been drawn into expenses
-far beyond usual habits; had never been guilty of
-similar extravagance; the veriest prodigal of London
-could not have ordered a more costly board; and
-that tall, rosy-cheeked lad imbibed the precious sack
-with the avidity of a sponge, and never looked a
-tithe the better humored, but sat grinning menaces at
-him—the donor of the feast! Well! well! all should
-soon be remedied, and the disagreeable, lanky apprentice
-turned adrift.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But who is that now passing the tavern; is it not
-Master Luke Milner, the attorney? How enviously
-he looks! he has the reputation of having pressed
-hard his own suit, but in vain! If I invite him, he
-will gladly come—drink the widow’s health—and it
-will save me half the reckoning!” So reasoned the
-tanner. The lawyer accepted the invitation, though
-a slight shade of displeasure, he could not wholly
-dispel, flushed his brow. Master Luke entered,
-bowing lowly to the widow. Drawing a chair, near
-as good manners admitted, to the fair dame, he carefully
-deposited scented gloves and jeweled beaver
-on adjoining bench, and, in sitting, showed anxiety
-to display a trim foot, though rather overshadowed
-by the large roses. The tanner soon perceived that
-avarice had induced a grievous oversight, for the
-widow was not quite won. It was both unaccountable
-and annoying—how perverse these women are!
-she seemed now disposed to extend as much favor to
-Master Luke as she had previously exhibited to Master
-Buttress. ’Prentice John was pleased and distressed
-at the scene—glad of the tanner’s discomfiture,
-he was enraged at the other’s success. The
-elder suitor had shown indifference to the presence
-of the apprentice, viewed him as a necessary appendage
-to the widow’s state, or, at worst, a tax on his
-purse to the extent of sack imbibed; but our lawyer,
-nearer John’s own age, and gifted with keener eye
-than his rival, liked not young Winehcomb’s vicinity,
-his prying, resolute gaze.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Mistress Avery,” said the lawyer blandly, “our
-young friend appears uneasy; nor do I wonder, for
-more than once, in the fair, did I hear red, pouting
-lips lament the absence of Jack Winehcomb. I pray
-thee, suffer the lad to stroll where he lists; Master
-Nathaniel and your unworthy servant, with permission,
-will zealously protect the pride and boast of
-Newbury.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>If John had broken any engagement by attendance
-on her, replied the dame—and a keen smile, part
-malicious, part searching, lit up the widow’s features
-as she gazed on the disconcerted youth—let him seek
-Cicely, who was not far off, to take his place, and he
-had full permission to absent himself. ’Prentice
-John, though vexed and out of countenance, said he
-had no other engagement than duty enjoined, and he
-was entirely at his mistress’ command.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Then I must not spoil Cicely’s holiday,” remarked
-the widow. The apprentice was doubtful
-whether she spoke in displeasure or not—the tone of
-voice and expression of countenance were equivocal.
-A quiet smile, which played for an instant around
-her mouth, when he declared he had no engagement,
-presaged returning favor, but the horizon was again
-clouded. Mistress Avery, turning to the gallants,
-said the youth should have his own way, that for herself
-she never found his presence irksome—he was
-so stupid, she might talk treason in his company
-without danger—what she was obliged to say was
-generally misunderstood. Stupid! misunderstood!
-Were there, in these words, more meant than met the
-ear? Had he been so blind, so deaf? Meanwhile
-the situation of the rivals was far from pleasant; the
-tanner had introduced an enemy within the fortress,
-whom he could neither dislodge nor compete with;
-the lawyer was angry that he had not the field to
-himself; whilst fair Mistress Avery, with impartial
-justice, hung the scales of favor suspended. Neither
-could now positively declare he was the chosen
-swain. Half suppressed taunts, and sarcasm clothed
-in ceremonious language, threatened more open
-bickering, when Master Luke, with due regard to a
-lady’s feelings, besought her to pardon their absence
-for a few minutes, as he suddenly recollected an affair
-important to the welfare of his friend, Master Buttress.
-The dame was condescending, declared she
-had too much regard for Master Nathaniel to deem
-their absence a slight, under the circumstances; so
-the lawyer, affecting to produce a leathern note-case,
-retired with his rival. The apprentice felt his situation
-awkward, but he was presently relieved; Mistress
-Avery bade him follow the gentlemen unperceived,
-and if they drew weapons, or otherwise exhibited
-hostilities, immediately interfere to prevent
-mischief. Concealed by the angle of a canvass booth,
-he listened, unseen, to the wordy strife. The lawyer
-was cool, sarcastic, overbearing; the tanner, fiery
-and threatening. Presuming on youth, good figure,
-and flowing rhetoric, the former contemned the pretensions
-of the elder rival, whom he affirmed had
-nothing to recommend him but wealth not needed;
-why, therefore, pursue a rivalry, when he could not
-lay claim to one certain token of affection? And the
-man of law began enumerating the distinguishing
-marks of favor which Dame Avery, spite of prudent,
-cautious, self-restraint, could not avoid exhibiting as
-soon as he entered the tavern. The tanner’s replication
-was in the same style. If these be marks of
-affection, thought the listener, what would they say
-to my pretensions if I told all? And ’Prentice John,
-as he listened and commented on what he heard,
-grew a wiser, more knowing youth.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If thou wert a younger man, Master Nathaniel,”
-said the lawyer, “there would be no need for these
-mutual taunts. We have a readier mode of settling⁠—”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Curse thy youth, and thee too,” exclaimed the
-tanner; “ ’cause thou art a vain, braggart fop, with
-thy galloon and thy large cabbage roses, think’st
-to brave it over me?—there!—and there!” And so
-saying, the valiant tanner dealt successive cuffs on
-Master Luke’s doublet, and drawing weapon, awaited
-the attack. Their rapiers—for the tanner, though
-following a handicraft, yet, as owning broad lands,
-deemed himself entitled to wear a weapon and
-dub himself gentleman—immediately crossed, but
-the alert apprentice, with stout cudgel, threw himself
-between and struck down their guard.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Good sirs! good sirs! forbear!” cried one hastening
-to assist young Winehcomb. ’Twas the curate
-of Spene. The belligerents immediately sheathed
-their weapons, muttering future vengeance. The
-holy man requested to know the cause of quarrel,
-and offered to act as umpire. This, after demur and
-consideration, was agreed to. Hearing each in turn,
-he proposed, as more becoming their respective
-characters than fighting, that the case should be stated
-to Mistress Avery—the election left to the fair widow.
-As each deemed himself the favored candidate, and,
-indeed, with good cause, for our dame had been
-gracious to both, the curate’s proposal was accepted,
-and his eloquence solicited to open the pleadings.
-The party thereupon returned to the tavern, the apprentice
-not the least interested actor in the drama.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The curate of Spene, though grave and sententious,
-threw into his speech an under current of humor and
-<span class='it'>bonhommie</span>, which touched off the pretensions of each
-suitor with dramatic effect and felicity. Neither
-could question his impartiality, nor had he, as he
-affirmed, secret preponderance either way; both
-were esteemed friends, both had received the offices
-of the church at his hands, both had listened to his
-Sabbath exhortations. Which of the twain reigned
-in the lady’s heart, to him he should offer congratulation;
-to the other he could fairly say, that he merited
-the honor for which he had unsuccessfully striven.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There was a pause, a deep silence. The blushing
-widow must now speak, declare herself, decide her
-own fate, and with it the fortunes of the suitors. How
-ardently did ’Prentice John long for one of the many
-opportunities of pleading his passion, oft thrown in
-his way, so heedlessly neglected! Would she indeed
-make an election? then, farewell, Newbury! in some
-far distant land would he hide his disgrace, forget
-his folly.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mistress Avery said the gentlemen had certainly
-given her cause long to remember Newbury Fair;
-yet they could not expect her mind made up on so
-momentous a question of a sudden; besides, it was
-now Wednesday, which had ever been an unlucky
-day with the Averys, but to-morrow (Thursday) week
-they should have a decisive answer—her preference
-made known—provided, and it was the only stipulation
-besides secrecy, they both refrained pressing
-their amorous suits in the interim.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>So ended the conference, and as the rivals, with
-the curate, gallantly bade the lady adieu (having promised
-obedience in every particular) ’Prentice John,
-in a paroxysm of anger and remorse, made firm resolve
-that he would challenge to mortal combat the
-favored suitor, beat him within an inch of life if he
-refused to fight, upbraid the widow for secretly fomenting
-a passion which she laughed at, and flee,
-forever, the town of Newbury.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You forget, John, I shall need your arm through
-the press,” exclaimed the dame reproachfully. The
-apprentice started; he had been leaning against the
-bench, lost in bitter reverie; he saw not his mistress
-was waiting. Uttering an indistinct apology, he escorted
-the lady from the tavern in time to witness that
-the tanner had been sufficiently adroit to palm off
-half the expense of the entertainment on his rival.
-Whether this was omen of higher fortune, the sequel
-will show.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>They scarcely spoke during the remainder of the
-walk, nor even after reaching home. ’Prentice John
-was reserved, melancholy, brooding over bitter reflections;
-the dame, sly, observant, oft casting furtive
-glances at young Winehcomb, seemingly, as he
-thought, indulging secret pleasure on beholding his
-misery. On the morrow they were together in the
-compting-room; it was his duty to produce entries
-of the bales of cloth sold during the business-period
-of the Fair; to account for the same in bullion, or
-according to the terms of sale.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“These for thyself, John,” said the widow, placing
-a few gold pieces on the table, whilst she proceeded
-to place, under triple lock, the remainder. They remained
-untouched. The third lock of the huge iron
-chest duly shot, the dame arose, was surprised on
-beholding the money still lying unappropriated; John
-looking like man under sentence of death.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Have I grown niggardly, Master Winehcomb?”
-exclaimed the widow, “speak, if you would have
-more.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>John replied by asking if she thought the ten pieces
-sufficient to equip him, and pay passage to Cadiz,
-where he heard an expedition was fitting out, in which
-many Englishmen had volunteered. Mistress Avery,
-with a calmness which confirmed his despair, replied
-in the negative, but demanded why he should think
-of starting for Cadiz, ere, indeed, his indentures were
-determined. The apprentice declared wildly, if she
-married either tanner or lawyer, he would depart,
-even with no more than the ten pieces, and for his
-reasons—he was not then sufficiently master of himself
-to detail them!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But, John,” said the widow, in a tone of expostulation,
-whilst a smile lurked in the eyes and round
-the mouth, “what am I to do if I say No? they press
-me so hard!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Newbury apprentice, at his mistress’ feet,
-taught the answer she should give. On the following
-Monday, Master John Winehcomb was united in
-marriage with Mistress Avery—the wedding celebrated
-by the grandest entertainment ever beheld in
-the county of Berkshire, the fame whereof spread
-even as far as the court of bluff Harry. If lacking
-splendor in any particular, the omission was owing
-to the short time for preparation, as no expense was
-spared. The unfortunate suitors, of course, understood
-the affair from common report, and thought it
-unnecessary to seek their fate at the widow’s domicil,
-when they could learn it from every man,
-woman and child in the town. They were invited
-to the wedding feast, but wisely declined, as the story
-of their strange wooing was already abroad.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was the custom, in those days, for the bridegroom
-to salute the bride on the cheek, in the church,
-after the ceremony was performed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“And you are ready to swear, Master John,”
-whispered the dame as the bridegroom approached,
-“that you never saw that damsel before Fair-day,
-whom you kissed at the Fair?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“No—nor since!” replied he, believing it a hint
-for his future conduct.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Master Winehcomb lived happily—his wealth increased
-so quickly, with the increasing demand for
-the staple article of Newbury, that when the Earl of
-Surrey marched against James the Fourth of Scotland,
-who was then ravaging the borders, the rich
-clothier accompanied the expedition with a retinue
-of one hundred servants and artisans, clothed and
-armed at his own expense. The memory of John
-Winehcomb and his rich and handsome spouse was
-long preserved in their native town.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk104'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='son'></a>SONNETS.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY MISS ELIZABETH B. BARRETT.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;I.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless;</p>
-<p class='line0'>That only men incredulous of despair,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Half taught in anguish, through the midnight air</p>
-<p class='line0'>Beat upward to God’s throne in loud access</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness</p>
-<p class='line0'>In hearts, as countries, lieth silent, bare</p>
-<p class='line0'>Under the blenching, vertical eye-glare</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of the free chartered heavens. Be still! express</p>
-<p class='line0'>Grief for thy dead in silence like to Death!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Most like a monumental statue set</p>
-<p class='line0'>In everlasting watch and moveless wo,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Till itself crumble to the dust beneath.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Touch it, spectator! Are its eyelids wet?</p>
-<p class='line0'>If it could weep it could arise and go!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='pbk'/>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;II.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>When some belovéd voice, which was to you</p>
-<p class='line0'>Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And silence against which you dare not cry</p>
-<p class='line0'>Aches round you with an anguish dreadly new⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>What hope, what help? What music will undo</p>
-<p class='line0'>That silence to your sense? Not friendship’s sigh,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Not reason’s labored proof, not melody</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of viols, nor the dancers footing through;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Not songs of poets, nor of nightingales,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Whose hearts leap upward from the cypress trees</p>
-<p class='line0'>To Venus’ star! nor yet the spheric laws</p>
-<p class='line0'>Self-chanted—nor the angels’ sweet “all hails,”</p>
-<p class='line0'>Met in the smile of God! Nay, none of these!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Speak, Christ at His right hand, and fill this pause.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='pbk'/>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;III.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>What are we set on earth for? Say, to toil!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Nor seek to leave thy tending of the vines</p>
-<p class='line0'>For all the heat o’ the sun, till it declines,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And Death’s mild curfew shall from work assoil.</p>
-<p class='line0'>God did anoint thee with his odorous oil</p>
-<p class='line0'>To wrestle, not to reign—and he assigns</p>
-<p class='line0'>All thy tears over like pure crystallines</p>
-<p class='line0'>Unto thy fellows, working the same soil.</p>
-<p class='line0'>To wear for amulets. So others shall</p>
-<p class='line0'>Take patience, labor, to their heart and hand,</p>
-<p class='line0'>From thy hand, and thy heart, and thy brave cheer,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And God’s grace fructify through thee to all!</p>
-<p class='line0'>The least flower with a brimming cup may stand</p>
-<p class='line0'>And share its dew-drop with another near.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='pbk'/>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;IV.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>The woman singeth at her spinning-wheel</p>
-<p class='line0'>A pleasant song, ballad or barcarolle,</p>
-<p class='line0'>She thinketh of her song, upon the whole,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Far more than of her flax; and yet the reel</p>
-<p class='line0'>Is full, and artfully her fingers feel,</p>
-<p class='line0'>With quick adjustment, provident control,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The lines, too subtly twisted to unroll,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Out to the perfect thread. I hence appeal</p>
-<p class='line0'>To the dear Christian church—that we may do</p>
-<p class='line0'>Our Father’s business in these temples mirk,</p>
-<p class='line0'>So swift and steadfast, so intent and strong⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>While so, apart from toil, our souls pursue</p>
-<p class='line0'>Some high, calm, spheric tune—proving our work</p>
-<p class='line0'>The better for the sweetness of our song.</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk105'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='sonn'></a>SONNET.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY MRS. SEBA SMITH.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>I dreamed last night, that I myself did lay</p>
-<p class='line0'>Within the grave—and after stood and wept⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>My spirit sorrowed where its ashes slept⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>’Twas a strange dream, and yet meseems it may</p>
-<p class='line0'>Prefigure that which is akin to truth⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>How sorrow we o’er perish’d dreams of youth!</p>
-<p class='line0'>High hopes, and aspirations doom’d to be</p>
-<p class='line0'>Crush’d, and o’er-mastered by earth’s destiny!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Fame, that the spirit loathing turns to ruth⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>And that deluding faith so loath to part,</p>
-<p class='line0'>That earth will shrine for us one kindred heart;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Oh, ’tis the ashes of such things, that wring</p>
-<p class='line0'>Tears from the eyes! Hopes like to these depart,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And we bow down in dread, o’er-shadowed by death’s wing.</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk106'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='mal'></a>MALINA GRAY.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY ANN S. STEPHENS.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;'>(Concluded from page 278.)</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER III.</h2>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';fs:0.9em;' -->
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>“I sigh when all my youthful friends caress—</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>&ensp;&ensp;They laugh in health, and future evils brave;</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>Love has for them a gentle power to bless,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>&ensp;&ensp;While I shall moulder in my silent grave.</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>God of the just, thou gavest the bitter cup,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>I bow to thy behest, and drink it up.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'>We had penetrated to the depth of the pine grove,
-and it was difficult to find our way out through the
-tangled undergrowth and the unequal hollows; but
-Malina had become thoughtful for others once more,
-and though excitement no longer made her own progress
-easy, she guarded me with double care; lifted
-me over the hollows and carried me in her arms
-when the thickets were too intricate or the ground
-very uneven. She kissed me as we reached a foot-path
-which led to our cottage, and, pointing to the
-door, would have left me to go home alone; but when
-she saw that I was troubled regarding my torn frock,
-kindness of heart prompted her to come back. She
-led me to the house, explained my misfortune, and
-went away. I sat down on the door-sill and watched
-her till she entered the portico of her mother’s dwelling,
-and when they remarked on her dejected looks,
-and questioned me of the cause, I answered that Malina
-was tired with walking so long in the woods,
-for it seemed as if the tears which I had seen her
-shed and the passionate words which she had uttered
-were a secret which I should do wrong to mention.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In about an hour Phebe Gray and our young minister
-stopped at the door-yard gate to inquire for Malina.
-I told them that she had gone home, and when
-Mr. Mosier lifted me in his arms, and, looking into
-my face, asked what I had been crying about, I
-turned my head away to evade his kiss and besought
-him to set me down. The contrast between his
-happy face, the deep and almost brilliant expression
-of joy which lighted it up, and the sorrowful look of
-poor Malina forced itself even on my childish mind.
-I felt that which I had no power to comprehend, and
-from that time never loved our minister nor Phebe
-Gray as I had loved them. They walked home very
-slowly, she leaning on his arm with an air of dependence
-and trustfulness which was full of feeling
-and feminine delicacy; he would check their progress
-every few moments to point out some familiar
-beauty in the landscape, as if they had never looked
-upon it before. They loitered by the rock spring,
-and along the river road, tranquil in their happiness,
-till the dusk almost concealed them as they entered
-Mrs. Gray’s house.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Almost every evening, for a week, our minister
-and Phebe Gray took their walk around the pine
-grove, and always alone. Malina was confined to
-the house. She had taken cold, Mrs. Gray said, and
-the night air was bad for her lungs. But often, when
-her sister was loitering along the river’s bank, happy
-in the wealth of her newly aroused affections, Malina
-might be seen at her chamber window, with her
-cheek languidly supported by a hand which was becoming
-thinner each day, and gazing earnestly after
-the two beings dearest to her on earth, but whose
-happiness she could not witness without emotions
-that were well nigh killing her. Her mother saw
-nothing of this. She only knew that Malina was
-quieter than usual and not very well, that her eyes
-were heavy and her step languid as she moved around
-the house. She did not see the heart struggling
-against itself, the stern principle which grew strong
-in the contest. She never dreamed of that desolate
-and lonely sensation which haunted her daughter’s
-pillow with watchfulness, and made her waking
-hours a season of trial cruel as the grave. She saw
-that Malina was strangely affected; true, she smiled
-still, but it was meekly, sadly, and it seemed as if
-the music of her laugh was exhausted forever; her
-eyes grew misty and sorrowful in their expression,
-and tears would sometimes fill them without apparent
-cause. Still it was gravely asserted that Malina
-had only a slight cold, a nervous attack which would
-go off in a day or two! But there was something in
-her illness which Phebe could not comprehend; a
-wish for solitude, and a strange nervous dread of
-any thing like intimate conversation with herself,
-which prevented an acknowledgment of her own
-deep causes of happiness. Her sensitive modesty
-made her desirous of some encouragement to unburden
-her heart of its wealth of hope even to her
-sister, and when she saw that Malina shunned her,
-that her eyes had a wandering and estranged look
-whenever they turned upon her face, she felt checked
-and almost repulsed in her confidence. If any thing
-could have disturbed the pure happiness which
-reigned in her bosom, it would have been this extraordinary
-mood in one who had from childhood shared
-every thought and wish almost as soon as it was
-formed. It had a power to disturb, though it could
-not entirely destroy the tranquillity of her mind.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I will talk with her about it to-night,” murmured
-Phebe, as she opened her chamber door one evening,
-after a long conversation with Mr. Mosier in the
-portico. “I wish, though, she would ask some question,
-or even look curious to know what keeps us
-together so much; I little thought to have kept a
-secret from Malina so long.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As these thoughts passed through her mind, Phebe
-Gray gathered up the bed-drapery, and lying down
-by her sister, passing an arm caressingly over her
-waist, laid her blushing cheek against the now pallid
-face which rested on the pillow. She felt that tears
-were upon it, and that the snowy linen under her
-head was wet as if Malina had cried herself to sleep.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Malina, wake up a minute, I have something to
-tell you,” murmured the young girl, in a low, half
-timid whisper.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The moonbeams lay full upon the bed, and Phebe
-Gray was looking earnestly in the face of the beautiful
-sleeper. She could see the silken lashes quivering
-on her cheek, and a tremulous motion of the lips,
-nay, it seemed to her as if a single tear broke through
-the lashes and rolled over the pale cheek, and she
-was certain that something like a faint shudder crept
-through the form which was half circled by her arm.
-But Malina gave no answer, and the gentle questioner
-was too sensitive for another effort to win attention.
-She quietly laid her head on the pillow and sunk to
-sleep, but not to indulge in the sweet, unbroken dream
-of happiness which had shed roses over her couch so
-many nights. There was sadness at heart, a presentiment
-of coming ill, and a solicitude regarding
-her sister which kept her anxious and rendered her
-slumber broken and unrefreshing. About midnight,
-when the stillness of her chamber rendered every
-sound more than usually audible, she was disturbed
-by the broken and half stifled sobs which arose from
-her sister’s pillow. Again she stole her arm over
-the weeping girl, and questioned her regarding the
-source of her grief. Malina only turned her face
-away, and sobbed more bitterly than before.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why will you not speak to me, Malina? what
-has come between us of late?—speak to me, sister—you
-are in sorrow, and I have—oh how much—cause
-for joy! yet we have all at once learned to conceal
-thoughts from one another. Tell me what troubles
-you—for I cannot be entirely happy while you are ill
-and so sad.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina redoubled her sobs, but amid the tumult of
-her grief she murmured, “Tell me all, Phebe, all you
-feel, all you wish; but I have no secrets, no sorrow.
-There is a little pain in my side, sometimes, and that
-makes me low spirited. I have always been so
-healthy, you know, that a little illness frightens me.
-Do not mind me, but talk of yourself. You are happy,
-Phebe, <span class='it'>very</span> happy! were not those your words?
-tell me all—I can be glad and rejoice in any thing
-that gives you pleasure—any thing on earth—if my
-heart were breaking. So let us talk it all over now,
-the room is so quiet and dark, and we shall neither
-of us get sleepy—do you think we shall, sister?—you
-may, but I have almost forgotten how to sleep,” and,
-as Malina ceased speaking, she stole an arm around
-her sister’s neck, and, choking back her sobs, composed
-herself to listen.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe rose up in the bed, gathered the drapery
-around them, for the moonbeams were bright enough
-to reveal her blushes, and, sinking to her pillow,
-again murmured the story of her love, its return, and
-all the bright anticipations that made her future so
-beautiful. Malina nerved herself to listen; she uttered
-no word of distrust, and checked all manifestations
-of discontent by a strong effort of self-control,
-when all was told—when she was made certain that
-her sister and the only being she had ever regarded
-with more than a sister’s love, were to be married—that
-their wedding day was fixed, and, that the mother’s
-sanction had already been granted—she remained
-silent for a moment, and strove to gain the
-mastery over her feelings. When she spoke, her
-frame shook with the bitter emotions which could
-not be altogether subdued, but her voice was low
-and very calm. Mr. Mosier was poor, and Phebe
-not yet of age. If he were installed in the old meeting-house,
-they would be compelled to live with Mrs.
-Gray till something could be saved from his small
-salary to purchase a dwelling and begin housekeeping.
-This thought caused some anxiety to the engaged
-couple. The young clergyman had learned something
-of Mrs. Gray’s real character, and was reluctant
-to erect his domestic altar beneath her tyrannical
-auspices. Phebe, too, longed for a quiet home
-of her own, a happy, free home, where she might
-follow her own innocent impulses, unchecked and
-without fear.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You shall have that home, my sister,” said Malina
-Gray, twining her arms around her companion,
-and kissing her with a gush of true affection; “there
-is the old parsonage house; you shall have that, and
-the money which dear minister Brown left to me;
-all are yours and <span class='it'>his</span>. You will be happy there—very
-happy. I know he loved the old place. Now,
-good night, Phebe; let us go to sleep!” and with a
-low gasping sob, which was not the less painful that
-it gave no sound, Malina turned away her head.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe was too disinterested and high-minded herself,
-for a thought of refusing Malina’s generosity.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“We shall, indeed, be happy,” she said; “you
-will come and live with us, and by the time you are
-married, we shall have saved enough to pay all the
-money back again. You <span class='it'>will</span> live with us?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina thought of the quiet grave-yard, which
-could be seen from the parsonage window, and answered—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I shall want no other home.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe talked on, more cheerfully than usual, and
-when her sister did not answer, she thought her
-asleep; but Malina had fainted, and lay senseless
-upon her pillow.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was soon rumored through the village that our
-new minister was engaged to Phebe Gray, and every
-body was delighted with the match. Phebe was just
-the creature for a clergyman’s wife, quiet and gentle,
-with manners that gave dignity to the softness of her
-disposition. In the general satisfaction which reigned
-in the village, Malina was quite overlooked. Her
-change of appearance was imputed to sadness at
-parting with her sister; and, at times, when the wedding
-was talked of in her presence, the rich color
-which burned over her cheeks, the brilliancy of her
-eyes, and the flashes of wild merriment that sprung
-to her lips, deceived the unobserving into a belief of
-her entire happiness. She spent much of her time at
-the old parsonage, superintending the arrangements
-of her sister’s home with a degree of taste and energy
-which surprised all who witnessed her exertions.
-The rooms were all newly arranged, delicate paper
-was purchased at New Haven for the walls, new
-stepping stones were laid at the front door, green
-blinds gave a look of elegance and seclusion to the
-windows; the profuse rose bushes and lilac trees
-were pruned, and a white picket-fence hedged in
-the little wilderness of flowers which blossomed in
-the front yard. The cabinet maker, on School
-Hill, was busy with the furniture, all of a superior
-kind. The carpet-weaver had borrowed two <span class='it'>quill-wheels</span>,
-and all the spools, for a mile round, in order
-to expedite the progress of sixty yards of striped carpeting
-through his cumbrous loom. The house and
-its adornments were to be comfortable and elegant
-beyond any thing that had been known in our village
-for a long time; and all was Malina’s work. Her
-untiring assiduity created the little paradise which
-another was to enjoy. Her money purchased the
-books which filled the little study, whose window
-opened upon the most verdant corner of the orchard.
-Her trembling hands placed a new inlaid flute on the
-little table, and drew the easy chair close by, that the
-bridegroom might find every thing ready and home-like
-in his new dwelling.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>One afternoon Malina was left alone; the workmen
-had departed to their suppers, and her task was
-finished for the day. She had just hung the pet robin
-in his old place by the dining-room window; he
-seemed to recognize the room, and flew about his
-cage, chirping and fluttering his wings, as if to thank
-her for bringing him home once more. It was the
-first hour of repose that Malina had known for many
-weeks, and now, that she had nothing more to perform,
-painful thoughts and regrets that would no
-longer be stifled, fell back upon her heart, and she
-was, oh, how desolate! There, in her blooming
-youth, she sat hopeless and weary of life—for what
-is life to a woman without affection? The heart
-was full of warm and generous feelings, burthened
-with a wealth of tenderness, and yet she had no
-future, nothing to hope for, nothing to dread; her
-destiny seemed consummated there and then. Youth
-is in itself so hopeful, that we can scarcely imagine
-a creature in the first bud of life yearning for the
-grave. But Malina was very sad. She looked through
-the open door into the orchard; the green old apple
-trees were heavy with blossoms, and through the
-garniture of thrifty leaves, and the rosy shower which
-blushed among them, a corner of the old meeting-house
-met her gaze—a portion of the grave-yard, and
-a new tomb-stone, which gleamed out from the young
-grass which had already started up from our minister’s
-death place. How green and quiet it looked—and
-oh, how earnestly Malina Gray longed to lie
-down in that still spot, and be at rest. Yet Malina
-was young, and no human being dreamed how
-wretched she was. The orchard was full of singing
-birds that day, and there had been a time when the
-gush of sweet sounds, that rose and swelled amid the
-foliage, would have made her heart leap, but now it
-filled her eyes with tears. The sunshine that played
-and quivered among the leaves—the wind that now
-and then gushed through the heavy boughs, scattering
-the grass with rosy flakes, and sighing as it swept
-off to the open plain—all seemed a mockery.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She was heart sick, and yearned to die. How
-cruel is that power by which a broken heart draws
-thoughts of sadness from the sweet and beautiful
-things of nature. Malina gazed through her tears at
-the change her own hands had wrought. The unseemly
-plantains had disappeared from the back
-door-step, and around the well-curb a bed of valley-lilies
-were just forming their pearly buds.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“They will be in blossom for Phebe’s hair,” murmured
-the young girl, “and for mine—for am I not to
-be bridemaid?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>With a mournful smile gleaming through her tears,
-Malina arose, and tying on her bonnet, left the house.
-She met Phebe and Mr. Mosier near the front gate.
-They were sauntering toward their new dwelling,
-tranquil and happy; to them, every thing whispered
-of joy; the fragrant orchard, the birds caroling within
-its shadows, and all the beautiful landscape were full
-of pleasant associations. Every hope and thought in
-<span class='it'>their</span> bosoms blossomed in unison with nature.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>How true it is that thought and feeling, like the
-sun, give color to outward things. The heart creates
-its own sunshine, or the cloud through which nature
-is revealed to it. Phebe Gray and her betrothed
-husband felt nothing but the sweet and the beautiful—their
-hearts were brimful of sunshine. But, alas,
-for Malina, she looked through the cloud.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina walked on. The two contented beings by
-the gate were happy enough without her. She strove
-to smile cheerfully as they spoke to her, and in a tone
-of forced playfulness forbade them entering the house
-till their wedding day.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina had gathered beneath the roof of that old
-parsonage house many luxuries almost unknown in
-the neighborhood; every thing calculated to gratify
-the fine taste of the young divine, or add to the comfort
-of her sister, had been unsparingly purchased,
-till her patrimony was almost exhausted. While
-this duty lasted, and the excitement of action was
-upon her, Malina sustained the burthen of her sorrows
-with an aching, but firm heart. She had taken
-no time for thought—scarcely for tears—but worked
-on, as if toiling through a feverish dream. Her
-cheeks were always flushed, and sometimes the
-music of her laugh rang loud and strangely through
-the bridal chamber which she was decorating; but
-the companions who assisted her were often startled
-by the reckless tone of her laugh; it was too absent
-and wild for happiness or merriment, entirely deficient
-in that low, rich melody, which had once
-made her voice so full of healthy joy. Yet all the
-neighbors were commenting on her generous conduct,
-and the brilliancy of her spirits; and it was
-often remarked that Malina Gray was never so fond
-of company, so careless in her mirth, or so startling
-in her wit, as she had been since the engagement of
-her sister, and since she had recovered from the
-slight cold which confined her to the house when
-that engagement was first whispered in the village.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>To a heart capable of self-sacrifice, there is no
-feeling so lonely as that which follows exhausted
-power. No conviction, so keenly painful, as a
-knowledge that a beloved being, who has cost us
-the hopes of a life in resigning, can be happy without
-our aid—that we have nothing to render up—no
-aim for exertion—nothing to do but sit down and
-gaze upon the blank which existence has become.
-Her task was done. The excitement over, and then
-came to the heart of Malina Gray the toil and pain
-of concealed suffering; the aching restlessness which
-eats into the bud of human life. Once more it was
-rumored that she was ill, and, but for other and more
-absorbing subjects, Mrs. Gray might have been
-alarmed for the safety of her child; but she was so
-intent on other things, that the poor girl and her sufferings
-remained unheeded at home, save by the
-gentle Phebe and her betrothed husband.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When Mrs. Gray invited our young minister to reside
-at her house, it was probably with some vague
-expectation of the result which followed; and when
-her consent was desired to his union with Phebe, it
-was given promptly, and with evident satisfaction.
-But the young divine, though a meek and true Christian,
-had a dignity of character and opinion which
-sometimes proved at variance with the exactions of
-an ambitious and arbitrary matron. She had expected
-that he would continue to reside in her
-family, after the marriage, and looked forward to
-an extended dominion in her own household, and
-increased influence in the church, to be secured by
-this arrangement. But when he persisted in establishing
-an independent home, in managing his own
-salary, and becoming the sole protector of his future
-wife, whose state of moral servitude he could not
-witness without pain, Mrs. Gray’s enthusiasm in
-favor of the match gradually subsided, and when
-Malina insisted upon surrendering her newly acquired
-property to the young couple, and giving
-them the parsonage for a residence, the haughty
-woman became stern in her opposition, and while
-she took every means to render her own house an
-unpleasant residence for the parties, found some excuse
-to delay the wedding, from week to week, and
-at last refused to sanction it, till Mr. Mosier should
-be regularly installed in the pulpit, which he had
-now filled almost a year. Still Mrs. Gray was not
-a woman to talk openly of a change in her opinions.
-She was too calculating and subtle for useless words.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It had been settled in church council, that our
-young minister should be installed a few weeks after
-the time appointed for his marriage, and the young
-couple submitted to the imposed delay without a
-murmur. During these intervening weeks, and
-while Malina was occupied in embellishing the parsonage,
-Mrs. Gray was observed to be absent from
-home more frequently than usual. There was
-scarcely an influential church member near the old
-meeting-house, with whom she had not taken her
-knitting work, to spend a social afternoon; and
-several tea-parties were given in a quiet way at her
-own house, where she presided over the silver tea-urn,
-and old fashioned china, with more than ordinary
-condescension and dignity. But these were all
-impromptu meetings, and invariably took place
-when Mr. Mosier and Phebe were invited elsewhere.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The parents of our young minister were aged and
-very respectable farmers, residing in the vicinity of
-New Haven; but they were far from wealthy, and
-the farm they cultivated was not their own property.
-A week before the Sabbath appointed for the installation,
-Mr. Mosier accompanied his intended bride
-and her mother on a visit to his parents, where the
-haughty matron first learned that the man whom her
-daughter was about to marry had been a <span class='it'>charity
-student</span>. A benevolent society had paid his tuition
-at Yale College, at least that portion which he had
-been unable to meet by his own exertions. There
-had been no concealment of this truth on his part, for
-he had informed Phebe of the matter, and believed
-Mrs. Gray already aware of it. But Phebe, in the
-generous simplicity of her heart, never conceived it
-possible that the manner of his education could be
-deemed a cause of reproach, and it had left no impression
-on her mind; to her upright understanding
-there was no degradation in the thought that her
-lover had been a <span class='it'>charity student</span>.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Gray gave no demonstration of the displeasure
-which filled her bosom on receiving this intelligence,
-but she quietly made an excuse for returning
-home with her daughter the next day, and, with every
-appearance of disinterested kindness, insisted that
-Mr. Mosier should not interrupt his visit to accompany
-them. “She could easily drive home,” she
-said, “the horse was gentle, and the roads perfectly
-good; her son-in-law must remain with his family;
-it would be cruel to force him away so abruptly.”
-Mrs. Gray said all this in her usual manner, shook
-hands with the old people, allowed the young divine
-to assist her into the chaise, and pretended to be
-very intently occupied in searching for something in
-her traveling basket, while he placed Phebe in her
-seat, and, with her slender hand clasped in his own,
-was whispering his farewell.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Remember, and be in readiness next Sabbath,”
-he said, in a low voice, “tell Malina that she must
-take good care of you. I shall come on Saturday
-evening.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe murmured that she would be ready; but as
-she returned the farewell clasp of his hand, tears
-started to her eyes. She could not have told the
-reason, but a strange feeling of melancholy came
-over her, and it seemed as if the parting were forever.
-She looked back as the chaise drove away—he
-was standing on the door step by his parents, and
-the whole group waved their hands, smiling cheerfully,
-as they saw her turn for a last glance. But
-still her heart was heavy.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>What passed between Mrs. Gray and her daughter
-during their drive home, we have no means of
-recording. But as Malina sat in her chamber window,
-and saw the chaise toiling up the hill that afternoon,
-her sister leaned forward, and she caught a glimpse
-of her face. It was white as marble, and stained
-with tears. Malina had been ill, but she started up,
-hastily girded her white morning wrapper to her
-waist, and went down. Mrs. Gray loitered to give
-some directions to the “hired man” about her horse,
-and Phebe was descending from the chaise without
-assistance. The moment her foot touched the earth,
-she tottered, and would have fallen but for Malina,
-who sprang forward, and flinging her arms around
-her, inquired eagerly and kindly what had befallen
-her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe attempted to speak, but the words died on
-her lips, and the color left them; she lifted her hand
-as if to grasp at something for support, and fainted in
-her sister’s arms.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Mother, what is the matter?—where is Mr.
-Mosier?—tell me, pray tell me, what has made poor
-Phebe so ill, and why is she looking so wretched?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Gray turned, and saw that her child was
-senseless.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Go and bring some water,” she said to the man,
-“carry that basket in with you, and make haste.
-Raise her head a little, you are crushing her bonnet,”
-she continued, turning to Malina; “there,
-take it off—she will come to, directly.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As she spoke, Mrs. Gray calmly untied her daughter’s
-bonnet, and held it till the man came with water,
-while Malina stood trembling beneath the weight of
-the fainting girl, tenderly smoothing back the bright
-tresses from her forehead, and wildly kissing her
-pale lips, amid a thousand vague questions, which
-no one thought of answering.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Gray took a pitcher of water from the man,
-who came panting from the well, and laving her
-hands in it, laid them on the pale face which Malina
-was still covering with tears and kisses. There was
-a faint struggle, a gasping sigh, and after a little
-Phebe began to murmur upon her sister’s bosom,
-like one just awaking from a dream. She shrunk
-from her mother, when that stubborn woman would
-have assisted her to rise, and clinging to Malina,
-walked with trembling steps toward the house.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh, not there—up, to our own room, Malina,”
-said the poor girl, as her sister would have led her
-into the parlor. She was obliged to sit down more
-than once in ascending the stairs; and when at
-length Malina laid her upon the bed in their own
-dear room, she looked sadly around, and reaching
-up her arms, clasped the bending neck of her sister,
-and began to weep.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I must never see him again—never—never,” she
-said, while her voice was broken with tears; “oh,
-Malina, did you think any human being could be so
-cruel?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina started, and for one instant a flash of pleasure
-broke into her eyes. It was an unworthy feeling,
-and the next moment her face was flooded with
-shame that she had known it; and when she sat
-down by her sister, and besought her to say what
-had thus unnerved her, it was with as true sympathy
-as ever warmed the heart of a noble and self-sacrificing
-woman.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The cause of her sorrow was soon explained.
-Phebe had been commanded by her arbitrary mother
-to give up all thoughts of a union with Mr. Mosier.
-The gentle girl, for the first time in her life, had
-ventured to expostulate with her parent. The hope
-of her young life was at stake, and her heart trembled
-at the thought of separation from the man whom
-she had learned to love so devotedly. It was all in
-vain. Mrs. Gray was resolved, her prejudices were
-aroused, and to their gratification the happiness of
-her child was as dust.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe had been educated with almost holy reverence
-for the authority of a parent, and though her
-heart broke, she dared not oppose her mother’s command.
-Her spirit withered beneath it, like a flower
-trodden to the earth, but she submitted. Not so Malina.
-Once more she ventured to reason with and
-oppose her mother, but only to call down resentment
-on her own head. This was no sudden resolution in
-Mrs. Gray; she had gone steadily to work, and
-planned out her own results. She was one of those
-cold pattern women who never know an impulse—whose
-virtues are polished, like marble, and as cold.
-She had paved her way quietly and well. The next
-morning, while her two children were sorrowing in
-their room, she was driving from house to house,
-exerting her influence over better hearts and weaker
-minds than her own, to the ruin of those who had
-loved and trusted her. And while Phebe lay upon a
-sick bed, a vestry council was called at the old
-meeting-house, and a decision passed by a majority
-of a single man, which deprived our young minister
-of the pulpit he was to have taken as his own the
-following Sabbath. Many good and just men of the
-congregation protested against this cruel and unjust
-act; but in churches, as in communities, the good
-and the merciful do not always constitute a majority.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The decision of this church meeting was forwarded
-to Mr. Mosier, and with it a letter from Mrs. Gray.
-The next morning he rode by our cottage on horseback,
-slowly, and as one in deep and morbid thought.
-He crossed the old bridge, and, as he did so, looked
-earnestly toward Mrs. Gray’s dwelling. He paused
-a moment at the end, and then rode at a brisker pace
-up the hill.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe had been feverish, and very low, all that
-morning. Malina was watching by her side, and as
-she lay with her eyes closed in an imperfect slumber,
-the sound of a horse coming up the road made
-her start from the pillow, and while her cheek burned
-with a more feverish red, she fixed her eyes upon
-the open sash.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“It is he—I know it!” she said, clasping her hand,
-and looking into Malina’s face; “I will get up;
-mother cannot refuse to let me see him this once;”
-and with a kind of feverish joy the poor girl flung
-aside the bed clothes, and stepped out on the floor.
-With trembling and eager hands she gathered up her
-beautiful tresses, and began to braid them about her
-head, earnestly beseeching Malina all the time to assist
-her in getting ready to go down.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The kind hearted sister required no entreaty. She
-helped to array the invalid, though her own breath
-came gaspingly, and her hands shook like aspens in
-performing their duty.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“There, now—there, I am ready. See, do I look
-very ill, Malina?” said the excited young creature,
-turning to her sister; “it will make his heart ache
-to see how red my cheeks are. Do you think he
-will detect the fever?” and dashing some lavender
-over her handkerchief with an impetuosity all unlike
-her usual quiet movements, the half delirious girl
-took her sister’s arm, and was hurrying from the
-room. But the sound of a horse, rapidly passing the
-house, again came to her ear, and, with a faint exclamation,
-she sprung to the window just in time to
-catch a glimpse of her lover as he rode by. He
-lifted his face to the open sash, and she saw that it
-was very pale. He saw her, checked his horse
-an instant, half raised his hand, and then turning
-away with seeming effort, he rode slowly down the
-hill.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“He is gone,” exclaimed the unhappy girl, “gone
-without a word, almost without a look!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And with a wavering step, Phebe Gray moved toward
-the bed, and amid the confusion of her feverish
-thoughts, she called on Malina to come and undo the
-bridal wreath which was girding her forehead so
-painfully.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But Malina was away. She had caught one
-glimpse at the pale face uplifted to her window,
-and with a wild impulse to see the minister once
-more, she flung a shawl over her head, and left the
-room. With the speed of an antelope, she darted
-through the garden, and forcing a passage through
-the brushwood which lined a hollow beyond, leaped
-down upon the natural basin of granite, where the
-rock-spring poured its waves, just as he had dismounted,
-and was proceeding to dip up the water in
-his palm, and bathe his forehead with it. He looked
-care-worn and pale, and the expression of his eyes,
-as he dropped the water from his hand, and turned
-them suddenly on the young girl, was that of a strong
-heart in ruins, and with its energies prostrated. He
-held forth his hand and tried to smile, but the attempt
-was a painful one, and died in a faint quiver of the
-lips.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina did not take his hand—she had no power—but
-stood with her left foot half buried in the damp
-moss which lined the spring, and the other planted
-hard against the granite basin; her hands clasped
-amid the drapery of her shawl, and her eyes lifted to
-his, glittering with excitement, and yet full of tears.
-The breath came pantingly through her unquiet lips,
-and in the struggle of her emotions, the words of
-greeting which she would have uttered, were broken
-into sobs.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“This is very kind of you, Miss Gray,” said the
-young clergyman, in a low voice, which had something
-of proud constraint in its tones; “I inquired
-for you at the house, but your mother informed me
-that you were engaged, and that your sister did not
-wish to see me.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Not wish to see you!” exclaimed Malina, suddenly
-finding voice; “Phebe—my poor Phebe—not
-wish to see you! Alas, for her, she cannot see any
-one; this cruel business has broken her heart. Oh,
-Mr. Mosier, why is it that such wrong can be done?
-why submit to it? what right has my mother thus to
-interfere, to the unhappiness of her child?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mr. Mosier did not reply, his thoughts were far
-away, and, though he gazed earnestly on the enthusiastic
-face lifted to his, Malina knew that he was
-not thinking of her. She felt humbled, and turned
-away her face as one who had been rebuked. So
-she stood gazing, with a look of patient humility, on
-the waters sparkling in the basin at her feet, till at
-last he aroused himself and spoke. But she, who
-felt every word he uttered as if it were a tone of music,
-had no share in his speech or his thoughts.
-Things all too precious for her were rendered to
-another, and she must endure the pain.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“So she was ill, and <span class='it'>could</span> not come. Yet she
-knew I was there, and sat in the room all the time.
-I saw her at the window, and she looked—tell me,
-Malina, my sweet, kind sister,” he added, suddenly,
-“did she wish to see me?—would she come for a
-moment here or into the garden?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The young man looked anxious, and his cheek
-flushed brilliantly as he spoke, for the moment his
-well regulated mind had lost its balance, and the
-passions of earth were strong within him. It was
-but for a moment; before Malina had time to reply,
-the flush died from his face.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“No,” he added, with a sorrowful motion of the
-head, “it is wrong to ask, foolish to desire an interview—comfort
-her, Malina, say that which I cannot
-have permission to utter in her presence; say how
-deeply, how earnestly I have loved her, how weary
-I am of the world, how lonely my heart is now—say
-to her—alas! what message have I to send—I, who
-can scarcely turn my face heavenward, the clouds
-are so dark that lie heaped before me!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>These words were uttered in a tone of such despondency
-that Malina once more lifted her eyes,
-and would have spoken words of encouragement
-which she was far from feeling, for her own wretchedness
-seemed completed in that of the beings she
-most loved; but, while her lips were parted, he made
-a sudden effort at composure, and saying that all
-might yet be well, in a broken and hurried voice, he
-drew Malina toward him and stooped to press his
-lips to her forehead, without seeming conscious of
-the act—but she was all too conscious, the blood
-rushed to her cheeks, and she trembled in his arms
-like a frightened child. He saw it not, for to his
-thought she was a sister only, and though his lips
-had pressed her forehead for the first time, he did not
-think of it, but mounted his horse and rode away before
-she had power to utter a word or make a gesture
-to detain him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>He was gone forever, and she was alone—alone!
-how often is that word misapplied; the loving and
-the loved are never alone—but so it was with Malina
-Gray.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1em;'>——</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'><a id='chap'></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';fs:0.9em;' -->
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>“In the cold, damp earth we laid her,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>&ensp;&ensp;When the forest cast its leaf,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>And we sighed, that one so beautiful</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>&ensp;&ensp;Should have a lot so brief.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'>“So, Madam, you refuse—my boy is dying, and
-he yearns to look once more on the poor girl who
-would have been his wife in a single week.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was but a few days after her interview with Mr.
-Mosier, that Malina heard these words issue from
-her mother’s parlor, as she was passing through the
-hall, from the chamber where she had just left Phebe
-striving to beguile her weary thoughts with a book.
-The door was ajar, and there was a power in the
-words which made her start and listen. It was a
-deep, manly voice, that of an aged person, but entreaty,
-tenderness and something almost like resentment,
-combined to render it startling and pathetic.
-Malina held her breath, and, drawing a step nearer,
-looked through the door.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>An aged man was standing before her mother, he
-held a cane without resting on it, and a broad brimmed
-hat was in his left hand; firm and erect he stood
-in the quiet room, the gray hair sweeping back from
-his forehead, and his plain dress giving him the look
-of a patriarch; his face was agitated, but so full of
-benevolence that Malina loved the old man before
-she guessed who he was. Violent passions could
-seldom have passed over those mild features, still
-they were disturbed as he spoke, and the good old
-man was evidently struggling with strong and bitter
-emotions. There was something in the grasp of his
-hand on the cane, and in his dignified bearing, which
-awed the sympathy it excited.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Gray was sitting in her easy chair, looking
-rather earnestly at the old man. She had been engaged
-in knitting when he entered, but had laid the
-work on a little round stand by her side, and seemed
-rather anxious to take it up again; but she was too
-punctilious for that, and very blandly requested her
-visitor to resume the seat from which he had risen.
-“No, I have not time to sit down, every minute is
-worth years to me now—my only son is dying, and I
-am absent from his side.” The old man now paused,
-his chin began to quiver, and turning away his face,
-he strove to conceal the tears that broke into his eyes
-from the calm and heartless woman who sat gazing
-upon him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Madam,” he said, but his voice was broken, and
-his hand shook till the hat fell from his grasp to the
-floor. “Madam, I beseech you, think better of this!
-My boy cannot live forty-eight hours; the doctors
-told me so before I left him. But I came from his
-bed side, when each lost moment was as a drop of
-blood wrung from my heart, thinking that you might
-refuse any messenger but his father. You are a woman
-and should feel for him, and here I gave up five
-whole hours of this precious time that he might look
-on the face of that poor girl before he dies; and his
-mother—you have had children sleeping against
-your heart, madam—do you think his mother would
-not find it a comfort if the soul of her only child
-could go up to heaven from her bosom where he
-nestled in his first infancy? Do you think she has no
-woman’s yearning wish for the last embrace, the last
-endearing word? She loves the boy better than her
-own soul, and he is dying before her eyes—but she
-gave him up. When she saw that he moaned for
-the presence of one who had become dearer than his
-own mother, she bade me come hither and bring the
-girl that her first born might die in the arms he loved
-best—think, woman, every moment I spend in talking
-here is wrung from the death bed of a child that
-was all on earth that two old people had to love and
-hope for. I must depart, but let <span class='it'>her</span> go with me.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The old man unconsciously clasped his hands as
-he spoke, and tears fell like rain over his withered
-cheeks.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Gray glanced at him with something of wonder
-in her face, and extending out her hand, took up
-the knitting work as if to end the conference.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“And can you still refuse!” exclaimed the old man.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“It would not be proper,” replied Mrs. Gray,
-quietly unscrewing the top of her silver knitting
-case, “besides, Phebe is not well enough to ride so
-far even if she desired it, and the fever may be contagious.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If I could talk with the young lady I am sure she
-<span class='it'>would</span> desire it,” said the old man, almost humbly,
-for his heart grew heavy at the thought of returning
-to the death bed of his son with his errand unaccomplished.
-“Leave it to her good feelings, madam, and
-if they plead against me I will depart and trouble
-you no more.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Neither the pleading voice, nor the agony of over-wrought
-feelings with which the unhappy father
-spoke, reached the heart of Mrs. Gray. While the
-old man stood before her, trembling beneath the burden
-of his grief, she placed her needle in its sheath,
-twisted the worsted over her finger, and went through
-the intricacies of a seam stitch before even her eyes
-were lifted toward him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You must recollect, Mr. Mosier,” she said,
-“Phebe is not at present engaged to your son, and
-even if she were, I do not think it would be exactly
-correct for her to visit him. I am sorry for the
-young gentleman, very; I will see that our new minister
-mentions his case in prayer next Sabbath; we all
-feel for him—but he would not be advised. Indeed⁠—”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Here Mrs. Gray dropped a stitch, and paused while
-it was looped up again. When she raised her eyes,
-the face of her auditor was stern, and as calm as her
-own. The tears had dropped from his cheek, his
-hands were both grasping the head of his cane, and
-if that pharisaical woman could have shrunk from
-any thing, the solemn and reproving eyes which
-dwelt on her face would have kindled the most
-generous blood of her heart into blushes of shame.
-But it is hard to wring the die of shame from a self-righteous
-heart. Mrs. Gray believed herself to be
-acting in a most Christian-like spirit, in still retaining
-the heartless civility of her manner toward the
-poor old man whom her own cruelty had bereaved.
-Her heart was entombed in the self-conceit of its
-own sanctity, like dust in the marble of a sarcophagus.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Woman,” said the old man, and this time his
-voice was firm, and thrillingly solemn; “you have
-no heart. You are a mother, and should know how
-much worse than death it is to see the child whom
-you have loved and cherished, and woven in your
-very heart-strings, perishing before your eyes. Oh,
-how proud we were of that boy! how his poor mother
-loved him! what a day it was when she and I
-walked up the broad aisle of that old meeting-house
-yonder, and saw him standing in the pulpit—a minister
-of the gospel. We had prayed for that sight—toiled
-and slaved for it—and were so happy—so very
-happy. He is on his death bed now. Woman, <span class='it'>you</span>
-have sent him there—you, who were a mother,
-thought nothing of smiting a sister woman through
-the heart—you, a professor of religion, can do murder
-more subtle and cruel than that which cleaves
-a man through the brain, and look calm and speak
-softly, nay, smilingly refuse the last dying request of
-your victim. Woman, I will not curse you—that
-right rests with the high God of Heaven, who looketh
-down upon the murder you have done, not as
-man looketh, not as the law looketh—before <span class='it'>him</span>,
-shall you be arraigned, and that cold heart shall be
-made to shudder at the depth of its own crime—<span class='it'>he</span>
-will be thine accuser—he, thy victim, who was so
-gentle, so sweet tempered, that thoughts of revenge
-never entered his heart. In a few short hours he
-will stand in the broad light of Heaven, sent there
-untimely; and even as Abel bear witness against his
-brother, he shall bear witness against thee! The
-Almighty may not place his mark upon thy brow—the
-law may not brand thee—but one who can wring
-the life from a human being by silent and moral
-cruelty, is not less a murderer than the man who
-smites his brother to the heart with a poniard!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Gray was at length moved—for the solemn
-and stern energy of that pale old man might have
-startled the dead from their graves—the knitting
-dropped from her hands, her eyes darkled with terror,
-and her face turned white as a corpse beneath
-the snowy lace and the black and false hair that
-shaded it. She would have spoken, but the pallid
-lips trembled without uttering a sound, while the
-hands which rested in her lap began to shiver, as she
-strove to lift them and motion him away.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The old man left her where she sat, and went into
-the hall; but his feelings had been too cruelly outraged,
-and there his strength gave way; he sunk
-helplessly to a settee, and covering his face with his
-hands, wept like a child.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina had left the hall and stood in her sister’s
-chamber. Phebe was dressed and seated by the
-window, pondering over the pages of a book, though
-she had not turned a leaf that day. She did not raise
-her eyes when the door opened, but seemed unconscious
-of a second person.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Come with me,” said Malina, grasping the hand
-which lay in her sister’s lap, with fingers that clung
-to it like ice. “Come!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There was something in Malina’s face that frightened
-her companion from the apathy that had for
-days settled on her spirits. She arose, without a
-word, and was led down stairs, and into the hall.
-It was empty. Old Mr. Mosier had departed, and
-the front door was left open behind him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Phebe,” said Malina Gray, in a faint whisper,
-“<span class='it'>he</span> is dying, and has sent for you—his father sat
-there, but a moment since. Our mother has refused
-that you should see him. He is pining to die with
-his head against your heart. Sister, will you go?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I will plead with her—kneel to her,” said Phebe
-Gray, and opening the parlor door, she entered
-alone.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina paused an instant, and turning through a
-side door, passed across a small clover lot, toward
-the stables. A horse stood cropping the white blossoms
-in a corner of the field. She looked around for
-some one to help her, but the men were all away on
-the upper farm—so she drew toward the gentle animal,
-and beckoning with her hand, uttered a few
-coaxing words, and persuaded him toward the
-stables. He bent his neck while her trembling
-hands placed the bit in his mouth, which was yet
-half full of fragrant grass, and turned his head to
-watch her, as she girded the saddle to his back.
-When she tied him to the garden fence, and entered
-the house again, he followed her with his eyes, and,
-with a short neigh, fell to tearing with his mouth the
-honeysuckle vines that crept along the fence.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As Malina entered the hall she saw Phebe gliding
-up stairs toward their room; she was walking feebly,
-and held by the bannister as she went. When the
-sisters stood within the chamber together, Phebe
-sunk to a chair, while Malina looked earnestly in
-her face, and uttered a single sentence⁠—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Will you go?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“She has forbidden it,” replied Phebe, faintly.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Will you go?” said Malina, once more.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I dare not disobey her!” Phebe spoke with difficulty,
-and clasping both hands over her face, moaned
-as if in pain, for the struggle within her heart was
-terrible.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When Phebe became sufficiently composed to look
-up, her sister was gone. She was glad to be alone,
-and creeping toward the bed, knelt down and prayed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina had snatched a bonnet and shawl from the
-bed while her sister’s face was concealed, and gliding
-down stairs into the open air, she mounted the
-horse and rode away.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was sunset as the poor girl came slowly over the
-old bridge, and rode by our house. I was playing in
-the front yard, and ran out to meet her—but all at
-once she drew the bridle tight, and the spirited horse
-sprung forward on the way before my childish voice
-could be heard. The gloom of coming night lay
-heavily amid the pine boughs, as the young girl rode
-under them, and when she dashed up the road, and
-disappeared over Fall’s Hill, both horse and rider
-were for one moment displayed in bold relief against
-a pile of crimson and golden clouds which lay heaped
-in the horizon. When she disappeared, it seemed,
-to my infant fancy, as if the gates of heaven had unfolded
-to receive her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The night came on clear, and lighted both by moon
-and stars, the solitary traveler still kept the road,
-accompanied only by her spirited animal, and the
-shadow which seemed gliding along the dewy green-sward
-by her side, like a silent guardian. It was
-late in the evening when the horse checked himself
-at the fence before a red farm-house, with a sloping
-roof, and two large trees embowering it with foliage.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It seemed like supernatural instinct in the animal,
-for he had only been there once before, and Malina,
-in the tumult of her thoughts, scarcely knew where
-she wished to stop. There was a light twinkling
-through the thick leaves of a tree bough that dropped
-over one of the front windows, but it was very faint,
-and seemed forcing itself through the folds of a window
-curtain. Malina grasped the horn of her saddle,
-and dropping feebly down to the green-sward, moved
-toward the house. There was a foot-path which led
-to the front door—she followed this, and found herself
-in a dark entry, with a narrow stream of light
-falling through the entrance to an inner room. The
-sound of a faint, wandering voice, and of smothered
-sobs, stole from the room. Malina breathed heavily
-as she touched the door, and glided into the room.
-It was indeed the chamber of death. A solitary
-candle burned on the table, amid glasses and vials,
-sending forth just sufficient light to reveal an old
-fashioned tent bed, with its white drapery sweeping
-to the floor, and its heavy fringes hanging motionless,
-as if they had been cut from marble. At the
-foot of this bed knelt an old man; his hands were
-clasped beneath his face, and the long gray hair
-swept thickly over them, as he prayed. A female
-stood between Malina and the bed; she was bending
-over the pillows which were heaped high upon
-it, and though the poor girl could not see her face,
-she <span class='it'>felt</span> that it was <span class='it'>his</span> mother. She moved, and the
-sound of her footstep on the sanded floor made the
-old lady lift her head, and Malina saw his face once
-more. Oh, how white and changed it was! The
-damp, black hair fell heavily over his forehead,
-shadows lay about the closed eyelids, and there was
-an expression about the mouth, which was not a
-smile, and yet seemed deathly and sweet. His head
-was raised high with pillows, and though he seemed
-to sleep, the breath came painfully from his lips, and
-with a struggle that constantly disturbed the linen
-which lay in waves across his breast.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina stood upright in the dim light, motionless
-as a thing of marble, her eyes fixed on the dying
-man, and unconscious, in the force of her grief, that
-to all in the room, save him who saw her not, she
-was a stranger, and had intruded into the sanctuary
-of private grief.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It mattered not; Malina’s step had been mistaken
-for that of a woman from the kitchen, and no one
-knew that the wretched young creature was there.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There was a motion of the bed clothes, a faint
-murmur, and the dying man opened his eyes—those
-large, eloquent eyes that Malina had thought upon
-so often, and so thrillingly. There was a mist upon
-them now, but through it broke a soft and strange
-light, heavenly and beautiful. The old lady bent her
-ear, and listened to the faint murmur, which seemed
-dying on his lips.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“My father—when will he come back?—it is
-late!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The sound was very faint, but the old man had
-heard it amid the strong agony of his prayer. He
-arose, and moving round the bed, bent over his son.
-A light, almost preternatural, came to the eyes of
-that dying man, and with a sudden effort he found
-voice to speak.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“My father,” he said, “thank God—you have returned
-in time. Where is she?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“My son,” said the old man, in a voice which he
-vainly strove to render calm, “in a little time she
-will meet you in heaven—but she is not here.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The invalid had turned his head upon the pillow,
-with a look of touching eagerness; but it fell back—his
-eyes closed faintly, and after gasping once or
-twice, he lay motionless, save the lips, which gave
-forth broken but beautiful fragments of speech, such
-as came uppermost in his pure, but wandering mind,
-for he was delirious now. The last vibrations of his
-soul were disturbed by disappointment in his sole
-earthly wish. In the broken murmurs that fell from
-his lips, Malina heard her own name, and it unlocked
-the ice which seemed closing round her
-heart. With a sob that broke to her lips amid a
-gush of tears, she sprung toward the bed, and falling
-upon her knees, clasped the pale hand which fell
-over the bed, and pressed her quivering lips repeatedly
-upon it, while her voice mingled with the choking
-grief that shook her whole frame.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Forgive me! oh, let me stay!” she said, lifting
-her face to the old woman, but still nervously grasping
-the dying man’s hand; “I loved him better than
-she did—better than anybody could—better than my
-own soul! Let me stay, and die with him! No one
-asked <span class='it'>me</span> to come, but I am here. You will not send
-me away?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The voice of Malina Gray was soft and low, like
-that of her sister; and though broken with grief, it
-is probable that the dying man was bewildered by
-the sound. He started from the pillow—a glorious
-lustre broke through the mist which whelmed his
-eyes, and as Malina sprang to her feet, his face fell
-upon her shoulder, and his cold cheek lay against
-hers. It was very strange—Malina knew that he
-was dying, but a flash of wild joy thrilled through
-her heart, and for the first time since she had heard
-of his illness, a faint color broke into the cheek
-which pressed his. She laid him gently upon the
-pillow, and parting the damp hair from his forehead,
-pressed her lips tremblingly upon it, while her sobs
-filled the chamber. When the dying man felt the
-touch of her quivering mouth, a smile stole over his
-face—again the misty eyes were unclosed, and feebly
-lifting his arm, he wound it over her neck and drew
-her to his bosom, while the unformed words he would
-have spoken were lost amid the dying music of his
-soul. A moment, and his arm fell softly from Malina’s
-neck. The young creature lifted her face
-from his bosom, and looking at his mother, murmured⁠—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“He loved <span class='it'>her</span> living—but is he not mine in death?—mine,
-for ever and ever!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She turned to lay her face near his heart once
-more, but there was no color in her lips then. She
-started, and, with a cold shudder, bent her cheek
-slowly to his bosom—it pressed heavily, and more
-heavily, on the cold clay—her limbs relaxed, and
-she sunk across the bed, senseless as the beautiful
-corpse which cumbered it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The gloom of death had shadowed that farm-house
-two days, and now it was desolate. The kind neighbors
-who had walked in and out, ministering to grief,
-no longer broke the solemn hush which pervaded the
-dwelling. The departed was indeed the departed—for
-they had borne him over his father’s threshold,
-and laid him down to sleep in the dark earth. Malina
-followed him to the grave. She was a stranger,
-but no one asked why she stood among the mourners,
-and without their sable vestments. When the aged
-mother bent over the coffin, and looked upon the
-dead, the young girl drew to her side, and fixed her
-eyes upon the cold still face which had never met her
-glance coldly before. The mother wept, but Malina
-could not shed a tear, although the solemn and hushed
-grief upon her face awed even village curiosity.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And now they were alone—the parents, and that
-poor girl. She was upon her knees—her head was
-bent, and its redundant hair veiled her face, while
-the broken hearted young creature begged a blessing
-from <span class='it'>his mother</span> before she went away. The sorrowing
-woman laid her hands upon the bright tresses
-which flowed over her lap for a moment, then lifting
-the suppliant to her bosom, wept over her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mr. Mosier, when he heard the sobs of his wife,
-arose, and clasping his hands over Malina’s head,
-silently besought a blessing on her. She drew back,
-and he saw that her face was still calm; so taking
-her hands in his, he began to persuade and reason
-with her. She listened, and gazed earnestly in his
-face as he spoke. At last, tears started to her eyes,
-and when the old man saw this, big drops began to
-stream down his own cheek, and the clasp of his
-hand grew tremulous, as he led her from the room.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As the old man placed Malina in her saddle, he
-glanced in her face, and a misgiving came to his
-heart. He questioned himself if it was safe to trust
-her to the road without protection; but when he proposed
-accompanying her part of the way, at least,
-she pleaded against it with startling eagerness, and,
-thinking of his afflicted wife, he allowed her to depart.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina had a secret wish at her heart, which
-caused it to pant for solitude. Her road lay close by
-the grave-yard where our young minister was buried,
-and she yearned to stand once more by his death
-place, and alone. When she reached the sacred
-place, she looked to the right and left, timidly, as if
-her errand had been a wrong one. Her nerves were
-strung to their utmost tension, and she was morbidly
-fearful of being seen—every thing was solitary and
-quiet; the long grass bending to the breeze, as it
-sighed over the graves, and the soft rustling sound
-which whispered amid the leaves of a clump of
-weeping willows, that curtained an entire household
-that had gone down to sleep together, were all the
-sounds that fell upon her ear. She tied the horse to
-the fence, and passing forward to <span class='it'>his</span> grave, sat upon
-a pile of sods that had been left by the sexton. She
-neither wept nor moved—but there she remained in
-the bright sunshine, gazing hour after hour on a tuft
-of tiny white blossoms, which sprung up from a sod
-which they had placed just over his heart. Now
-and then, she twined her hands together as they reposed
-in her lap—and as the sunshine went suddenly
-away, and heavy black clouds rolled over the sky,
-with the lightning playing amid their ragged folds,
-she smiled, and drew closer to the grave.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At last, a roar of thunder burst from the clouds,
-big drops of rain came down upon the graves, and
-bent the willows more droopingly to the earth.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina lifted her eyes upward with a wild and
-startled look, then turning them on the willows
-which sheltered that single family, and on the congregation
-of graves which lay around her, all covered
-with long grass, she rested them on the mound at
-her feet, murmuring⁠—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Have all a covering from the cold rain, but thee?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As she spoke, Malina took off her shawl, and
-spreading it over the newly made grave, cast herself
-upon it, and for the first time since she felt his
-heart stop beating beneath hers, moaned and sobbed
-as if her very life were going from her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In a few moments the garments of our poor mourner
-were saturated with rain—still she clung closer to the
-grave, murmuring words of wild endearment to the
-unconscious inmate, and congratulating herself, with
-strange earnestness, that she was still able to shield
-his bosom from the storm.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At last, the clouds rolled away, and though the sun
-was just going down, his last fires kindled a rainbow
-amid the water drops that yet filled the air. Malina
-lifted her head, and gazed upward—a smile parted
-her lips when she saw the rainbow, and pressing her
-cheek upon the grave again, she whispered⁠—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“The angels have built thee a bridge, love!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The sun went down, and Malina arose from the
-grave, shivering from head to foot. She gazed
-around, and was turning her eyes with a wistful
-look on her late resting place, as if she meditated
-casting herself down again, when a low neigh from
-the horse which still remained by the fence, aroused
-her, and leaving the shawl behind, she hurried toward
-the patient animal, and mounting him, rode away.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina must have wandered from the usual road,
-in the strange abstraction of her mind, for it was
-midnight when she came opposite the old meeting-house.
-Prompted, doubtless, by some vague fear of
-returning home, or perhaps allured to pause by the
-open gate, the weary and half bewildered girl
-turned her horse, and riding close to the front door
-of the parsonage house, dismounted, and allowed
-him to wander amid the flower beds and rose bushes
-which filled the yard. Thrusting her hand beneath
-the door sill, she took out a key, and fitted it to the
-lock, but with difficulty, for her hands trembled; and
-though hot flushes every moment darted through her
-frame, she was shivering with cold. She went up
-stairs, holding feebly by the balusters, and guided
-by the moonlight, which fell from a window overhead,
-she entered a room—that which she had
-decorated as the bridal chamber of her sister Phebe,
-and of the departed. A clear moonlight came
-through the windows, and lay like flags of silver
-amid the black shadows which filled the apartment.
-Every thing was still and motionless; not a breath
-stirred the bridal ribands with which the muslin curtains
-were looped back. The bed lay with the
-moonlight sleeping amid its pillows, like a snow
-drift, when the air is calm; and the atmosphere was
-impregnated by the dead flowers which had been
-profusely lavished on the toilet, and now hung crisp
-and withered in their vases. Malina was very ill,
-and a fever burned through her veins—her limbs
-were almost powerless, and her forehead seemed
-girdled with iron. Still was she sensible of surrounding
-things, and her heart swelled with the
-recollections which thronged on her aching brain.
-She unfastened her damp dress, and with difficulty
-crept into bed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Poor, poor Phebe,” she murmured, gathering
-the white counterpane over her shivering form,
-“how little she thinks I am here—how she would
-pity me, so ill, and all alone. Alas, how sad a thing
-this trouble is—I have not thought of Phebe these
-many long days—I wonder if she is ill as I am—if
-her head is so hot, and her limbs chilled, till they
-shake so. This is a cold bed—very, very cold—but
-his is colder still. Oh, my God! <span class='it'>he is dead</span>—and I
-have seen his grave. I—but it was not me—no—he
-loved my sister. But I had his dying kiss! It was
-the last throb of his heart that beat against mine, and
-chilled me so. That was it—that was it!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>With such fragments of speech, and moans of
-pain, Malina verged into the delirium of a raging
-fever. At times she would weep, and call for her
-sister, in tones of yearning tenderness—then notes
-of music would break from her lips, and ring
-through every corner of the solitary house, as if a
-prisoned angel were pleading for release there.
-When the fever came on, fierce and strong, she
-began to ask for water—to weep, and wring her
-hands, while she entreated some visionary being to
-leave her in the grave-yard where <span class='it'>he</span> was; where
-showers were continually falling and weaving rainbows
-around those who thirsted for rest or drink;
-and so her voice of suffering rose and swelled
-through the lone building all night. When the day
-dawned, she was still awake and delirious; tears
-stood on her crimson cheeks, and entreaties for
-water still rose to her parched lips.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It came at last—she knew not how it was, but a
-pale, sweet face bent over her, a soft voice was
-speaking comfort, and a glass of water cooler and
-more refreshing than she had ever tasted before was
-held to her lips. She was just conscious enough to
-think that it was Phebe who ministered to her wants,
-or some good seraph that looked as sweetly sad and
-kind. Then she sunk to sleep, and it was many weeks
-before she awoke from the dream that followed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was Phebe Gray who stood by the sick bed of
-the sufferer. A villager had seen Mrs. Gray’s horse
-that morning, bridled and with his saddle on, trampling
-among the flower beds and feasting upon the
-choice rose bushes which grew in the parsonage
-yard—he went in to secure the animal and was terrified
-by the voice of suffering which issued from the
-house. He went up stairs, saw the delirious young
-creature who occupied the bridal chamber, and
-hastened to inform Mrs. Gray—but Phebe had struggled
-with her own sufferings and stood over Malina’s
-sick bed many hours before the mother had arranged
-her dress and prepared herself to pass through the
-village with that degree of propriety which she
-considered due to her character.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Malina lay many weeks before the fever left her;
-then a cough set in and a hectic spot settled and
-burned into her thin cheeks. The poor girl smiled
-a sad quiet smile, when she heard them say each evening,
-that a little over exertion had excited her, that
-she had taken a slight cold which in the turn of her
-disease was felt more than usual. Still the cough
-deepened, the crimson spot burned on, and she knew
-that the life which kindled would soon be exhausted.
-And so it was, that autumn when the woods were all
-flushed with those dyes which an early frost brings
-to the foliage, when the nuts were ripe and the brown
-leaves fell in showers over the crisp moss, Malina
-Gray was extended beneath the snowy drapery which
-her own hands had gathered above the bridal bed.
-White ribands were still knotted amid the folds which
-seemed brooding over her like a cloud, and a few
-crimson fall flowers lay scattered upon the pillow,
-some of them so close to the marble cheek that a
-faint tinge was coldly reflected there. For two
-whole nights Phebe watched the beautiful clay reposing
-in the dim light upon her own bridal bed, but
-scarcely more changed than her own sweet self.
-Malina was the happiest, her heart had broken amid
-the struggle of its suffering, but that of the watcher
-lay crushed and withering in her young bosom. She
-felt that life was yet strong within her; but hope,
-love, every thing that makes life pleasant to a woman,
-had departed. She was still good, still pure almost as
-an angel, but the sad smile which settled on her lips
-never deepened to a laugh again, and no human being
-ever saw a tear in her changeless and sorrowful eyes.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>They laid Malina Gray down to sleep beside old
-minister Brown—in the very spot she had yearned
-to repose in. A large circle of neighbors gathered
-around the grave, some in tears, and all very sorrowful.
-Mrs. Gray stood by the coffin; her mourning
-was arranged with great care, and a veil of new
-crape, deeply hemmed, fell decorously over her
-face, and the white handkerchief, with which she
-concealed those maternal tears proper for a mother,
-whose duty it was to be resigned under any dispensation.
-But Phebe stood silent and motionless; no
-handkerchief was lifted to her eyes, and the face
-which gleamed beneath the crape veil, was profoundly
-calm, almost as that of the corpse.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We had a new minister, on trial, of Mrs. Gray’s
-choosing, who performed the funeral service, and
-when all was over, returned home with the mourners;
-when they knelt in the little parlor that night,
-he prayed earnestly, and with genuine tears, for the
-bereaved mother; he besought the Lord to visit,
-with consolation, one who was a mother in Israel, a
-bright and shining ornament in the Christian church;
-a woman who had brought up her children in the
-fear and admonition of the Lord; whose path was
-growing brighter and brighter to the perfect day
-when she would reap a rich reward in heaven.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Amid a few natural sobs which awoke in the
-widow’s heart, she murmured, “Amen,” satisfied
-that her life had been one of perfect rectitude, and
-that in all things she had been a pattern mother, and
-an ornament to the church, which ought to be her
-consolation under any bereavement.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The new minister was a very conscientious man,
-but practical in all his ideas; he was honest in the
-high opinion which he entertained of Mrs. Gray, and
-not sufficiently sensitive to shrink from offering his
-hand to Phebe, when that lady delicately gave him
-to understand that the step would be satisfactory to
-herself. The old parsonage house was still empty,
-and Phebe’s inheritance. He was an installed pastor,
-and Miss Gray’s engagement to his predecessor
-never entered his mind as an objection.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Phebe betrayed no emotion when the proposal was
-made. She simply declined it, without giving a
-reason; and when he married another person, and
-would have rented the parsonage, she said with
-decision—“It must remain as my sister left it!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And when Mrs. Gray would have remonstrated,
-she answered, still with firmness⁠—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I am of age, mother, but still will obey you in
-all things else. Act as you like regarding the other
-property—but no stranger shall ever live in the parsonage.
-Poor Malina furnished it for <span class='it'>him</span>, and for
-me. She died there, and so will I!”</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk107'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It may be so, for the old house is still uninhabited.
-Every thing remains as Malina left it; the bridal
-chamber, the easy chair, and the flute upon the
-table; time has made little change in those silent
-apartments, for every week Phebe, who has become
-a calm and sorrowful old maid, goes up to the house
-alone, and remains there for many hours; sometimes
-seated at the study table, and gazing at a
-grave which may be seen through the trees. Once,
-a child gathering valley lilies, beneath the window,
-saw her standing at the open sash, with her sad eyes
-turned toward the grave-yard. She was talking to
-herself—the child dropped his flowers and listened,
-for there was something so mournful in her voice,
-that his little heart thrilled to the sound.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“They tell me that he wearied himself, and died
-of fever,” she said; “and that thou, my sister, perished
-naturally, and as we all must. Alas, if I could
-but think so. Why not have told me how he was
-beloved before it was too late? I would have given
-him up—and while you were happy, this heart had
-not become so palsied and feelingless. Alas, it was
-well that thy heart <span class='it'>could</span> break, my poor, poor
-Malina!”</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk108'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='noo'></a>NOON.<a id='r5'/><a href='#f5' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[5]</span></sup></a></h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;’Tis noon. At noon the Hebrew bowed the knee</p>
-<p class='line0'>And worshiped, while the husbandman withdrew</p>
-<p class='line0'>From the scorched field, and the wayfaring man</p>
-<p class='line0'>Grew faint, and turned aside by bubbling fount,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Or rested in the shadow of the palm.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;I, too, amid the overflow of day,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Behold the power which wields and cherishes</p>
-<p class='line0'>The frame of Nature. From this brow of rock</p>
-<p class='line0'>That overlooks the Hudson’s western marge,</p>
-<p class='line0'>I gaze upon the long array of groves,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The piles and gulfs of verdure drinking in</p>
-<p class='line0'>The grateful heats. They love the fiery sun;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Their broadening leaves grow glossier, and their sprays</p>
-<p class='line0'>Climb as he looks upon them. In the midst,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The swelling river into his green gulfs,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Unshadowed save by passing sails above,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Takes the redundant glory, and enjoys</p>
-<p class='line0'>The summer in his chilly bed. Coy flowers,</p>
-<p class='line0'>That would not open in the early light,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Push back their plaited sheaths. The rivulet’s pool,</p>
-<p class='line0'>That darkly quivered all the morning long</p>
-<p class='line0'>In the cool shade, now glimmers in the sun,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And o’er its surface shoots, and shoots again,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The glittering dragon-fly, and deep within</p>
-<p class='line0'>Run the brown water-beetles to and fro.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;A silence, the brief sabbath of an hour,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Reigns o’er the fields; the laborer sits within</p>
-<p class='line0'>His dwelling; he has left his steers awhile,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Unyoked, to bite the herbage, and his dog</p>
-<p class='line0'>Sleeps stretched beside the door-stone in the shade.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Now the gray marmot, with uplifted paws,</p>
-<p class='line0'>No more sits listening by his den, but steals</p>
-<p class='line0'>Abroad, in safety, to the clover field,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And crops its juicy blossoms. All the while</p>
-<p class='line0'>A ceaseless murmur from the populous town</p>
-<p class='line0'>Swells o’er these solitudes; a mingled sound</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of jarring wheels, and iron hoofs that clash</p>
-<p class='line0'>Upon the stony ways, and hammer clang,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And creak of engines lifting ponderous bulks,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And calls and cries, and tread of eager feet,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Innumerable, hurrying to and fro.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Noon, in that mighty mart of nations, brings</p>
-<p class='line0'>No pause to toil and care; with early day</p>
-<p class='line0'>Began the tumult, and shall only cease</p>
-<p class='line0'>When midnight, hushing one by one the sounds</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of bustle, gathers the tired brood to rest.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thus, in this feverish time, when love of gain</p>
-<p class='line0'>And luxury possess the hearts of men,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thus is it with the noon of human life.</p>
-<p class='line0'>We in our fervid manhood, in our strength</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of reason, we, with hurry, noise and care,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Plan, toil and strive, and pause not to refresh</p>
-<p class='line0'>Our spirits with the calm and beautiful</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of God’s harmonious universe, that won</p>
-<p class='line0'>Our youthful wonder; pause not to inquire</p>
-<p class='line0'>Why we are here, and what the reverence</p>
-<p class='line0'>Man owes to man, and what the mystery</p>
-<p class='line0'>That links us to the greater world, beside</p>
-<p class='line0'>Whose borders we but hover for a space.</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='footnotemark'/>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_5'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' class='footnoteid'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div class='footnote-id' id='f5'><a href='#r5'>[5]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>From an unpublished Poem.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk109'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='tru'></a>TRUTH.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY MRS. FRANCES SARGENT OSGOOD.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';fs:0.9em;' -->
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>“This above all!—to thine own self be true!</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>And it must follow, as the night the day,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>Thou canst not then be false to any man.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER I.</h2>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:0.9em;'>A MOTHER’S INFLUENCE.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Mother! mother!” exclaimed a sweet, eager
-voice, and the speaker, a child of thirteen years,
-burst into the room, where Mrs. Carlton sat at work,
-“don’t you think there is to be a prize given on
-exhibition day for the best composition! And I mean
-to try for it—sha’nt I?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She was a little, harum-scarum looking imp! I
-suppose she had run all the way home from school,
-for her straw bonnet hung on her neck instead of
-her head, and a profusion of soft dark hair was
-streaming in such disorder about her glowing face,
-that you could not tell if she were pretty or not; but
-you could see a pair of brilliant, gray or blue or black
-eyes—they certainly changed their color with every
-new emotion; but I think they were really gray—full
-of laughter, and love beaming through the truant
-tresses, and all eloquent with the beauty of a fresh,
-warm soul. This change in the child’s eyes is no
-freak of a foolish fancy; for every one noticed it;
-and her school-crony, Kate Sumner, used to declare,
-that when Harriet was angry they were black; gray
-when she was thoughtful; violet when sad; and
-when happy and loving, they changed to the tenderest
-blue.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Carlton drew the little girl toward her, and
-smoothed back the rebellious curls, at the same time
-exclaiming, with a long drawn sigh, “My <span class='it'>dear</span>
-Harriet! how you <span class='it'>do</span> look!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh, mother! it’s not the least matter how <span class='it'>I</span> look!
-If I were only a beauty, now, like Angelina Burton,
-I would keep my hair as smooth as—as <span class='it'>any</span> thing;
-but I wouldn’t rub my cheeks though, as she does
-always, just before she goes into a room where
-there’s company—would <span class='it'>you</span>, mother?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The mother gazed at her child’s expressive face,
-as she spoke, with its irregular, yet lovely features,
-the strange, bright eyes, the changing cheek, the full
-and sweet, but spirited mouth, and said to herself,
-“Whatever you may think, my darling, I would not
-change your simple, innocent, childlike unconsciousness,
-for all Angelina’s beauty, spoiled as it is by
-vanity and affectation.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But, mother, do give me a subject for composition,
-for I want to write it now, this minute!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Harriet,” said Mrs. Carlton quietly, “go and
-brush your hair, change your shoes, and mend that
-rent in your dress as neatly as you can.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Harriet half pouted; but she met her mother’s
-tranquil eye; the pout changed to a good-humored
-smile, and kissing her affectionately, she bounded
-off to do her bidding.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>While she is gone, you would like—would you not,
-dear reader?—to ask a few questions about her. I
-can guess what they are, and will answer them, to
-the best of my knowledge.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Carlton is a widow, with a moderate fortune,
-and a handsome house in Tremont street, Boston.
-She has been a star in fashionable life, but since
-the loss of her husband, whom she tenderly loved,
-she has retired from the gay world, and devoted
-herself to her child—a wild, frank, happy, generous
-and impetuous creature, with half a dozen glaring
-faults, and one rare virtue which nobly redeemed
-them all. That virtue, patient reader, you must find
-out for yourself. Perhaps you will catch a glimpse
-of it in</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1em;'>——</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER II.</h2>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:0.9em;'>AUNT ELOISE.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Harriet was busy with her composition, when her
-aunt, who was on a visit to Mrs. Carlton, entered
-the room. Aunt Eloise was a weak minded and weak
-hearted lady of a very uncertain age—unhappily
-gifted with more sensibility than sense. She really
-had a deal of feeling—for herself—and an almost inexhaustible
-shower of tears, varied occasionally by
-hysterics and fainting-fits, whenever any pressing
-exigency in the fate of her friends demanded self-possession,
-energy, or immediate assistance. If, too,
-there happened, as there will sometimes, in all households,
-to be an urgent necessity for instant exertion
-by any member of the family, such as sewing, watching
-with an invalid, shopping with a country cousin,
-poor Aunt Eloise was invariably and most unfortunately
-seized with a sudden toothache, headache, pain
-in the side, strange feelings, dreadful nervousness, or
-some trouble of the kind, which quite precluded the
-propriety of asking her aid.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Every morning at breakfast Aunt Eloise edified
-the family with a wonderful dream, which the breakfast-bell
-had interrupted, and every evening she grew
-sentimental over the reminiscences which the twilight
-hour awakened. It was then that innumerable
-shades of former admirers arose. Some doubted if
-they had ever been <span class='it'>more</span> than shades; but Aunt
-Eloise certainly knew best about that, and who had a
-right to deny, that Mr. Smith had knelt to her for
-pity; that Colonel Green had vowed eternal adoration;
-and that Lawyer Lynx had laid his heart, his
-hand, and his fees, which were not quite a fortune,
-at her feet?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Aunt Eloise had been—at least she hinted so—a
-beauty and a blue, in her day; and, to maintain both
-characters, she rouged, wore false ringlets, and scribbled
-love-verses, which she had a bad habit of leaving,
-by accident, between the leaves of books in
-every frequented room of the house.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She thought and avowed herself extravagantly fond
-of her niece, during her early childhood, and imagined
-that she displayed a graceful enthusiasm in exclaiming,
-every now and then, in her presence, and
-in that of others, “Oh! you angel child! I do think
-she is the sweetest creature! Come here and kiss
-me, you beauty!” &amp;c. &amp;c. But no one ever saw
-Aunt Eloise taking care of the child, attending to its
-little wants, or doing any thing for its benefit. The
-only tangible proof of her affection for her niece,
-was in the shape of bonbons and candy, which she
-was in the habit of bringing home from her frequent
-walks in Tremont street. Harriet regularly handed
-these forbidden luxuries to her mother, and Mrs.
-Carlton as regularly threw them in the fire.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Isn’t it a pity to waste such nice things, mother?
-Why not give them to some poor child in the street?”
-asked the little girl one day, as she watched, with
-longing eyes, a paper full of the tempting poison,
-which her mother was quietly emptying into the
-grate.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Carlton did not disdain to reason with her
-child—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“That would be <span class='it'>worse</span> than wasted, dear. It
-would be cruel to give to another what I refuse to
-you on account of its unwholesomeness.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But Harriet had now been for a long time out of
-the spinster’s books—as the saying is—and this misfortune
-occurred as follows—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>One morning, when she was about six years old,
-the child came into her mother’s room from her
-aunt’s, where she had been alternately pelted, scolded,
-and teased, till she was weary, and, seating herself
-in a corner, remained for some time absorbed in
-thought. She had been reading to her mother that
-morning, and one sentence, of which she had asked
-an explanation, had made a deep impression upon
-her. It was this—“God sends us trials and troubles
-to strengthen and purify our hearts.” She now sat
-in her corner, without speaking or stirring, until her
-mother’s voice startled her from her reverie.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Of what are you now thinking, Harriet?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Mother, did God send Aunt Eloise to strengthen
-and purify my heart?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What do you mean, my child?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why, the book says he sends trials for that, and
-she is the greatest trial <span class='it'>I</span> have, you know.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The indignant maiden was just entering the room
-as this dialogue began, and hearing her own name,
-she had stopped, unseen, to listen. Speechless with
-rage, she returned to her chamber, and was never
-heard to call Harriet an angel child again.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But we have wasted more words on the fair Eloise’s
-follies than they deserve. Let us return to Harriet’s
-all-important composition.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The maiden-lady, selfish and indolent as she was,
-took it into her head sometimes to be exceedingly inquisitive;
-and officious too, particularly where she
-thought her literary talents could come into play.
-She walked up to Harriet and looked over her
-shoulder.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What’s this, hey? oh! a story! That’s right,
-Harriet, I am glad to see you taking to literary pursuits.
-Come, child! give me the pen and I will improve
-that sentence for you.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Thank you, aunt! but I don’t want it improved.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Not want it improved! There’s vanity!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Indeed, aunt, I am not vain about it, and I
-would like you to help me, if it were not to be
-shown as mine. It wouldn’t be fair, you know,
-to pass off another’s as my own. I am writing for
-a prize.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“For a prize! So much the more reason that you
-should be assisted. There, dear, run away to your
-play and I will write it all for you. You’ll be sure
-to win the prize.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>With every word thus uttered, Harriet’s eyes had
-grown larger and darker, and at the close, she turned
-them, full of astonishment, from her aunt’s face to
-her mother’s. Reassured by the expression of the
-latter, she replied,</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But, Aunt Eloise, that would be a falsehood, you
-know.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“A falsehood, miss!” cried the maiden, sharply,
-“It is a very common thing, I assure you!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But not the less false for being common, Eloise,”
-said Mrs. Carlton; “pray let Harriet have her own
-way about it. It would be far better to lose the prize,
-than to gain it thus dishonestly.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Aunt Eloise, as usual, secretly determined to have
-<span class='it'>her</span> own way; but she said no more then, and Harriet
-pursued her employment without further interruption.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1em;'>——</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER III.</h2>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:0.9em;'>THE PRIZE.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The exhibition day had arrived. Harriet had
-finished her story several days before, and read it to
-her mother. It was a simple, graceful, childlike
-effusion, with less of pretension and ornament, and
-more of spirit and originality than the compositions
-of most children of the same age contain.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Carlton seemed much pleased; but Aunt
-Eloise had criticised it without mercy. At the same
-time she was observed to smile frequently with a
-cunning, sly, triumphant expression, peculiar to herself—an
-expression which she always wore when
-she had a secret, and secrets she had, in abundance—a
-new one almost every day—trivial, petty secrets,
-which no one cared about but herself; but which
-<span class='it'>she</span> guarded as jealously as if they had been apples
-of gold.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The exhibition day had arrived.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Good bye, mother; good bye, aunty,” said Harriet,
-glancing for a moment into the breakfast-room.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She was looking very pretty in a simple, tasteful
-dress, made for the occasion. She held the story in
-her hand, neatly enclosed in an envelope, and her
-eyes were full of hope—the cloudless hope of childhood.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Don’t be surprised, Harriet,” said her aunt, “at
-any thing that may happen to-day. Only be thankful
-if the prize is yours, that’s all.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If Kate Sumner don’t win it, I do <span class='it'>hope</span> I shall!”
-replied the eager child, and away she tripped to
-school.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At twelve o’clock Mrs. Carlton and her sister took
-their seats among the audience, in the exhibition
-room. The usual exercises were completed, and it
-only remained for the compositions to be read aloud
-by the teacher.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The first was a sentimental essay upon Friendship.
-Mr. Wentworth, the teacher, looked first surprised,
-then amused, then vexed as he read, while a gaily
-and fashionably dressed lady, who occupied a conspicuous
-place in the assembly, was observed to
-toss her head and fan herself with a very complacent
-air, while she met, with a nod, the conscious eyes
-of a fair and beautiful, but haughty looking girl of
-fifteen seated among the pupils.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“By Angelina Burton,” said the teacher, as he
-concluded, and laying it aside without further comment,
-he took up the next—“Lines to a Favorite
-Tree,” by Catherine Sumner.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was short and simple, and ran as follows⁠—</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thy leaves’ lightest murmur,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Oh! beautiful tree!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Each bend of thy branches,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The stately, the free,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Each wild, wavy whisper,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Is music to me.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>I gaze thro’ thy labyrinth,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Golden and green,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Where the light loves to linger,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;In glory serene,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Far up, till yon heaven-blue</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Trembles between.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>I shut out the city,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Its sight and its sound,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And away, far away,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;For the forest I’m bound,</p>
-<p class='line0'>For the noble old forest,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Which ages have crowned!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>I lean on its moss banks,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;I stoop o’er its rills,</p>
-<p class='line0'>I see, thro’ its vistas,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The vapor-wreathed hills,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And my soul with a gush</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Of wild happiness fills!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>I pine for the freshness,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The freedom, the health,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Which Nature can give me—</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;My soul’s dearest wealth</p>
-<p class='line0'>Is wasted in cities;</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Where only, by stealth,</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>The mountain-born breezes</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Can fitfully play,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Where we steal but a glimpse</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Of this glorious day,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And but by the calendar,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Learn it is May.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>But away with repining,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;I’ll study, from thee,</p>
-<p class='line0'>A lesson of patience,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Oh! noble, old tree!</p>
-<p class='line0'>’Mid dark walls imprisoned,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thou droop’st not like me;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>But strivest forever,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Still up, strong and brave,</p>
-<p class='line0'>’Till in Heaven’s pure sunshine,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thy free branches wave!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Oh! thus may <span class='it'>I</span> meet it,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;No longer a slave!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'>The next was a story, and Harriet Carlton’s eyes
-and cheeks changed color as she listened. It was
-the same, yet not the same! The incidents were
-hers, the sentiment more novel-like, and many a
-flowery and highly wrought sentence had been
-introduced, which she had never heard before.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She sat speechless with wonder, indignation, and
-dismay, and though several other inferior compositions
-were read, she was so absorbed in reverie, that
-she heard no more until she was startled by Mr.
-Wentworth’s voice calling her by name. She looked
-up. In his hand was the prize—a richly chased,
-golden pencil-case, suspended to a chain of the same
-material. The sound, the sight recalled her bewildered
-faculties, and ere she reached the desk, she
-had formed a resolution, which, however, it required
-all her native strength of soul to put in practice.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Miss Carlton, the prize is yours!” and the teacher
-leaned forward to throw the chain around her neck.
-The child drew back⁠—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“No, sir,” she said in a low, but firm and distinct
-voice, looking up bravely in his face, “I did not
-write the story you have read.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Not write it!” exclaimed Mr. Wentworth, “Why,
-then, does it bear your name? Am I to understand,
-Miss Carlton, that you have asked another’s assistance
-in your composition, and that you now repent
-the deception?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Poor Harriet! this was too much! Her dark eyes
-first flashed, and then filled with tears; her lip trembled
-with emotion, and she paused a moment, as if
-disdaining a reply to this unmerited charge.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A slight and sneering laugh from the beauty aroused
-her, and she answered, respectfully but firmly,</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“The story, I did write, was in that envelope yesterday.
-Some one has changed it without my knowledge.
-It was not so good as that you have read; so
-I must not take the prize.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There was a murmur of applause through the
-assembly, and the teacher bent upon the blushing
-girl a look of approval, which amply repaid her for
-all the embarrassment she had suffered.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Aunt Eloise took advantage of the momentary
-excitement to steal unobserved from the room. Harriet
-took her seat, and Miss Angelina Burton was
-next called up. The portly matron leaned smilingly
-forward; and the graceful, little beauty, already
-affecting the airs of a fine lady, sauntered up to the
-desk and languidly reached out her hand for the
-prize.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I cannot say much for your taste in selection,
-Miss Burton. I do not admire your author’s sentiments.
-The next time you wish to make an extract,
-you must allow me to choose for you. There are
-better things than this, even in the trashy magazine
-from which you have copied it.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And with this severe, but justly merited reproof of
-the imposition that had been practiced, he handed
-the young lady, not the prize, which she expected,
-but the MS. essay on Friendship, which she had
-copied, word for word, from an old magazine.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The portly lady turned very red, and the beauty,
-bursting into tears of anger and mortification,
-returned to her seat discomfited.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Miss Catherine Sumner,” resumed the teacher,
-with a benign smile, to a plain, yet noble-looking
-girl, who came forward as he spoke, “I believe
-there can be no mistake about <span class='it'>your</span> little effusion. I
-feel great pleasure in presenting you the reward,
-due, not only to your mental cultivation, but to the
-goodness of your heart. What! do <span class='it'>you</span>, too, hesitate?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Will you be kind enough, sir,” said the generous
-Kate, taking a paper from her pocket, “to read
-Harriet’s story before you decide. I asked her for a
-copy several days ago, and here it is.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You shall read it to the audience yourself, my
-dear; I am sure they will listen patiently to so kind
-a pleader in her friend’s behalf.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The listeners looked pleased and eager to hear the
-story; and Kate Sumner, with a modest self-possession,
-which well became her, and with her fine eyes
-lighting up as she read, did full justice to the pretty
-and touching story, of which Harriet had been so
-cruelly robbed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“It is well worth reading,” said Mr. Wentworth,
-when she had finished; “your friend has won the
-prize, my dear young lady; and, as she owes it to
-your generosity, you shall have the pleasure of
-bestowing it, yourself.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Kate’s face glowed with emotion as she hung the
-chain around Harriet’s neck; and Harriet could not
-restrain her tears, while she whispered,</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I will take it, <span class='it'>not</span> as a prize, but as a gift from
-<span class='it'>you</span>, dear Kate!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“And now, Miss Sumner,” said Mr. Wentworth,
-in conclusion, “let me beg your acceptance of these
-volumes, as a token of your teacher’s respect and
-esteem,” and presenting her a beautifully bound edition
-of Milton’s works, he bowed his adieu to the retiring
-audience.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk110'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Will you lend me your prize-pencil this morning,
-Harriet?” said Mrs. Carlton the next day. She was
-dressed for a walk, and Harriet wondered why she
-should want the pencil to take out with her; but she
-immediately unclasped the chain from her neck, and
-handed it to her mother without asking any questions.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She was rewarded at dinner by finding it lying
-at the side of her plate, with the single word,
-“Truth” engraved upon its seal.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk111'/>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/i069.jpg' alt='a young woman holds two young girls and a dog in her lap' id='iid-0002' style='width:75%;height:auto;'/>
-<p class='caption'><span style='font-size:smaller'>E. T. Parris. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Engraved by Rawdon, Wright, Hatch, &amp; Smillie.</span><br/></p> <br/><span class='it'>True Affection.</span><br/> <br/><span class='it'>Engraved expressly for Graham’s Magazine.</span>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk112'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='aff'></a>TRUE AFFECTION.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-weight:bold;'>ILLUSTRATION OF A PICTURE.</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Matron in thy golden prime,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Well the world may envy thee;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thou hast reached the happy time</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;When life holds her jubilee⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Midway on her pilgrimage,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Looking backward and before,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Where end infancy and age</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;On her being’s misty shore.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Turning to the past, thine eye</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Dwells upon a way of flowers⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Not a cloud upon the sky</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;’Neath which passed the happy hours.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Clear the vision of the True!⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Standing on the verge of Time,</p>
-<p class='line0'>See! Hope opens to your view</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Glories of the better clime!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>So the past and present life⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;What the tale the present tells?</p>
-<p class='line0'>Childhood—maidenhood—a <span class='it'>wife</span>⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thus the tide of being swells⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'><span class='sc'>Mother!</span> oh all else in this</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Fade as stars before the sun,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thou the highest point of bliss</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Yielded to the True hast won.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Love—communion—in these words</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;All the happiness we know;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Without them the world affords</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Nought to bind the heart below;</p>
-<p class='line0'>“True Affection!” with unrest</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;We the boon demand of all;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Vainly seeking, still unblest⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Strangers at life’s carnival.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Earnest, calm, unchanging love,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;With no doubt its light to shade⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Oh, the happiness above</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Is but this eternal made!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thou hast found it—in thine eyes,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;In the eyes that look to thine,</p>
-<p class='line0'>As the stars from summer skies</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Sweetly do we see it shine.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Exiles from a better sphere</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Weary wanderers are we,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Doomed ’mid clouds to linger here,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Source of bliss, unknowing thee!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Save, when from the world apart</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thou upon our gloomy way</p>
-<p class='line0'>Shinest from a kindred heart,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Turning darkness into day!</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk113'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='per'></a>THE PERSECUTOR’S DAUGHTER.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY CHARLES J. PETERSON.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The last days of November are at hand, and the
-melancholy woods, shorn of their foliage, stand
-skeleton-like against the cold, lowering sky; or toss
-their branches to and fro, with a low moaning
-sound, in the fitful tempest. Hark! how the gale
-swells out with the deep voice of a cathedral organ,
-or dies plaintively away like the cry of a lost child
-in the forest. The sky is covered with cloud-rifts of
-a deep, leaden color, only a spot of blue sky being
-here and there visible; but occasionally the sun,
-bursting, like a god, from the darkness that encircles
-him, covers the brown hills with an effulgent
-glory, while the opposite firmament is lit up with a
-dull, fiery glow, that has something almost spectral
-in its aspect. The streams are swollen and discolored,
-and roll their turbid waters hoarsely onward.
-Along the fields the brown grass whistles in
-the wind, and the bare flower-stalks rattle, with a
-melancholy tone, in the garden. Now and then,
-drops of rain plash heavily to the ground. The
-wind comes with a sudden chill to the nerves—the
-bay is crisped into foam by the fitful gusts—and
-along the bleak coast the now mountain waves roll
-in with a hoarse, sullen roar, forewarning us of
-shipwreck and death. Sad thoughts insensibly possess
-the mind, and tales of sorrow, that had long
-been forgot, come up to our memories. One such
-is even now heavy on our heart—listen! and we
-will rehearse it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was on just such a morning as this, many a long
-year ago, and far away from our own happy land,
-that a little congregation was gathered together in
-the hills to worship God. The time was in those
-sore and evil days when the decree of a tyrannical
-king had gone forth, that no man should worship,
-except as a corrupt hierarchy and lascivious court
-might ordain—and when, all over Scotland, those
-who would not give up the free birthright of their
-fathers, were driven to meet in mountain glens, and
-on lonely moors, whither their pastors—the holy
-men who had baptized them in infancy, and united
-them to the dear objects of their love—had already
-been hunted. And often, in solitary places, where
-hitherto only the cry of the eagle had been heard,
-the Sabbath hymn rose sweetly up from tender
-maidens and tearful wives, while their brothers and
-husbands listened with weapons in their hands, or
-watched from some neighboring eminence, lest the
-fiery dragoons of Claverhouse should be in sight.
-And when these God-defying troopers, with hands
-red with the blood of the saints, burst into the little
-flock, woful was the tale, and loud the wailing that
-went through all the vales around. Every new Sabbath
-brought its tale of slaughter, until the land
-smoked with blood, and the incense thereof went
-up from a hundred hills, crying for vengeance to the
-Most High.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And such a congregation had now met in the hollow
-of three hills, far away from the usual track of
-the persecutors. A simple rock served the hoary
-headed pastor for a pulpit; while hard by, a rivulet,
-brawling over its pebbly bed, and then for a moment
-expanding into a mimic lake, bottomed with silvery
-sands, formed the holy font for baptism. Around
-was gathered the little flock—aged sires and young
-striplings, staid matrons and meek-eyed maidens,
-young children and stalwart men—all gazing upward
-into the pastor’s face, a sacred throng. But
-there was one other there, who seemed equally with
-him an object of anxious interest, and on whom
-every eye was occasionally turned—a bright, beautiful
-being, with far more of heaven than earth in
-her deep, azure eyes. Oh! lovely was that fair-haired
-girl, even as we may have dreamed a seraph
-to be, all glorious with golden wings, under the
-throne of God. And now there sat in those soft blue
-eyes an expression of meek sorrow, tempered with
-high and holy faith, for many and sore had been
-the trials of Helen Græme; but grace had been
-given her to endure them all, and even to rise above
-them, with a courage which had made her dear unto
-every heart among these wandering and persecuted
-ones.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The father of Helen was the last son of a family
-which had been decaying for centuries, and which,
-of all its once mighty possessions, retained only the
-comparatively small estate of Craigburnie, in one of
-the southern counties of Scotland. To rebuild the
-fortunes of his house had been the darling wish of
-her father. For this purpose he had entered the
-army of the Covenanters, during the wars of the
-great revolution, and served with some distinction,
-though without permanent advantage, in consequence
-of the return of the king. On the happening
-of this event, Mr. Græme retired to his estate,
-soured and disappointed. Here he would have been
-far more discontented than he was, but for his wife,
-a lady of the meekest piety, and whose single minded
-charity was known throughout all her native hills,
-for Mrs. Græme was the daughter of one of the
-holiest ministers of the kirk, and inherited not only
-his piety, but the fervent admiration with which he
-was regarded by his parishioners. She early instilled
-into her child the pure precepts of our holy religion,
-and often might the little girl be seen seated at her
-mother’s knee, lisping the word of God, which the
-parent taught her thus early to peruse. And, on the
-Sabbath, who listened more attentively to the venerable
-pastor, or joined with sweeter voice in the
-anthem of praise? Nurtured thus, what wonder
-that at seventeen she seemed the counterpart of the
-mother, and was regarded by the poorer folk around
-the Brae—her mother’s birthplace, and where she
-spent several months each year—almost with veneration,
-for had not many of them, in times of sore
-trial, been sustained by the bounty, and cheered by
-the smiles of the heavenly girl?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But at length her mother fell sick, and for many a
-weary month Helen watched by the sufferer’s bed-side,
-a ministering angel. During this illness she
-noticed that, at times, her father would seem lost in
-thought, as if something weighed heavily on his mind;
-but Helen regarded it little, attributing it to his suspense
-at her mother’s danger, for he loved both her
-and his child with an intensity seemingly in contradiction
-to his hard, unbending character, but which,
-in truth, was the result of his total seclusion from the
-world; for the sympathies thus shut out from others
-lavished themselves wholly on his wife and daughter.
-At length, Mrs. Græme died, and for many days it
-seemed as if that strong man’s heart would break,
-while Helen wept in silence, though not less uncontrollably.
-Her father was now sterner than ever,
-though not to her. He was more alone, often indulged
-in fits of musing, and was absent at Edinburgh
-for some days—an unusual occurrence—and
-when he came back it was as Sir Roland Græme,
-a title which men said he had purchased by selling
-himself to the Court. Helen heard these rumors—which,
-however, came to her ears in whispers, and
-which at first she could not believe—with sorrow and
-despair of heart; but no word of reproof broke from
-her lips. Her sufferings were endured silently; but
-so deep was her grief, that she pined away, seeming
-to all eyes a being lent awhile to earth, and gradually
-exhaling to heaven. Her father, thinking her
-sorrow sprung wholly from her mother’s death, and
-wishing, perhaps, that she should be from home
-when he should first act for the government, sent
-her to her mother’s native vale, alleging, and doubtless
-hoping, that change of air would restore her to
-health. It were doing him no more than justice to
-say, that his paternal love was fully aroused to
-Helen’s danger, and that he took the only possible
-means to keep at his side this dear bud of her who
-was now in heaven. He forgot how much the little
-family at the Brae leaned toward the persecuted
-sect—he forgot the disaffected character of the district
-into which Helen went—he forgot the danger
-lest her own feelings should become enlisted in behalf
-of those against whom he was so soon to draw
-his sword; remembering only—for was he not a
-father?—that his child’s health was in danger, and
-that a residence in the mountain district where she
-had been born, and where she had spent so many
-happy years, was the sole chance of saving her
-life.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And now Helen was once more amid the scenes
-where her childhood had been spent, and every old
-counsel and prayer of her mother, recalled to mind
-by the spots where they had been first heard, rose
-up before her, and softened her heart; and often, at
-Sabbath eve, or in the still watches of the night, it
-seemed to her as if the spirit of that sainted mother
-hovered over her, whispering her heavenward, and
-bidding her never to forget or forsake her God. All
-the sympathies which now surrounded her, drew her
-to the persecuted sect; for her cousin and aunt were
-both among the non-conformists; and though the
-little kirk, standing all alone in the hills, a cool well
-in a parched desert, was now closed, and he who
-had formerly ministered there an outcast, yet the
-sight and recognition of him, at more than one stolen
-meeting, recalled to Helen’s mind the time when he
-blessed her, nestling bird-like to her mother’s bosom,
-she looking the while half affrightedly, yet oh, how
-reverentially, up into the face of the mild old man!
-And was not her heart softened, even to tears, when
-the patriarch, well remembering her—for none did
-he ever forget—sought her among the crowd, and,
-laying his hands on her head, blessed her, hoping
-that God still kept her in the way her mother had
-trod? From that hour Helen became a changed
-being. The light heartedness of youth was gone.
-She wept often, and prayed in solitary places by
-herself; for lo! the struggle in her bosom, between
-duty to her parent, and a higher duty to God, waxed
-stronger and stronger; but daily she yearned more
-and more to the oppressed remnant, until finally it
-was whispered in the scattered congregation that the
-persecutor’s daughter—that child of many prayers—was
-to become a professed member of the flock.
-And old men and nursing mothers in the church
-blessed God as they heard it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On this Sabbath morning, Helen had, for the first
-time, openly attended a meeting in the hills. At
-first, she had come with fear and trembling, but
-when she saw the looks of kindly sympathy with
-which all regarded her, she became more composed,
-and could enter on the holy duties of the day in a
-fitting mood. And when the aged pastor gave out
-the hymn, and the congregation joined in the sacred
-anthem, what voice sang of redeeming love so
-sweetly as that of Helen?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Lo! the vision of light has passed from our souls,
-and in place of that seraphic countenance, we behold
-the face of a stern warrior, in every feature of
-which we read of cruelty and blood. Even now he
-is hot in pursuit of the suffering remnant, and with
-his troop of fiery dragoons interrupts the Sabbath
-quiet of the vales and glens, with the jingling of
-broad swords and the ribald jests of scoffers; and
-many a dark-browed peasant scowls on the persecutor
-as he passes, and prays that God will yet avenge
-his slaughtered saints. Nor, if the popular rumor is
-to be believed, is that vengeance altogether withheld;
-for men say that Sir Roland Græme, having
-sold his religion for the paltry honors of earth, has
-been already cursed from on high, and that, sleeping
-or waking, he finds no rest from the stingings of
-remorse; yet, like one who has committed the unpardonable
-sin, he cannot draw back from his career
-of blood, but is impelled onward, as if by some irresistible
-power, to still darker crimes. Look upon
-his face again, and tell us if there is not something
-there which you shudder to behold—something of
-untold horror in that stern, God-defying brow, as if
-the arch-enemy had already been suffered to affix his
-seal upon it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And whither was that man of blood going? Far,
-far over hill and dale, to the slaughter of the saints.
-He had heard, through some traitor, of the assemblage
-to be held that morning in the hills, and with
-the first dawn of day he and his troopers had been in
-the saddle, thirsting to participate in the bloody sacrament.
-For the last half hour he had seemed lost in
-thought, and now he suddenly drew in his rein, and
-turned to his lieutenant.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Lennox,” he said, “I believe I will not lead
-these brave fellows to-day, but surrender the command
-to you. I see, over yonder hill, the blue summit
-that looks down on the Brae, where my daughter
-is visiting. I have not seen her for months, nor is it
-probable I shall be in this district for many months
-more. The country here is widely disaffected, and
-therefore an unbecoming residence for a child of
-mine. It has just struck me that I might cross the
-hills, and bring her home with me this afternoon.
-And yet something whispers to me that I ought
-rather to pursue these traitors and schismatics,” he
-continued, as if to himself; “however, I can trust
-to you, and it is imperative that my daughter leave
-this district. We will meet here by four o’clock.
-Your road lies down yonder glen. All I have to say
-is, ‘spare none!’ ”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I understand,” said the subordinate; “neither
-age nor sex.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Neither age nor sex, nor even those of rank, if
-such there be,” sternly said Sir Roland; “when the
-poison has sunk deep, nothing but the cautery will
-cure. And hark ye! on the faithful execution of
-your commands depends your hope of preferment.
-I would not spare my own child, if I found her
-among these spawn of Satan!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And, with these memorable words, he ordered a
-detachment of his company to follow him, and rode
-off, though at first reluctantly, in the direction of the
-Brae.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The route was passed in silence, for Sir Roland
-was buried in thought. There was indeed cause for
-it. One or two things in the last letter he had received
-from his daughter—and that missive had now
-been written a month—made him feel uneasy, lest
-she looked more favorably on the persecuted sect
-than became a daughter of his; and it was this fear,
-all at once recalled to mind by the business on
-which he had set forth this morning, that determined
-him so suddenly to leave the dispersion of the conventicle
-to his lieutenant, while he should ride over
-to the Brae, and bring his daughter home. Other
-thoughts, too, were busy within him. The long
-coveted rank had brought little alleviation to his
-soured and disappointed mind, for his fortune was
-now more than ever inadequate to his condition,
-and all the peculiarly sensitive feelings of a proud
-man were stung to the quick by the indignities to
-which, in consequence, he was often exposed.
-Moreover, he was aware of the light in which he
-was held, since his change of politics, not only by
-the common people, but by large portions of the
-gentry; so that, on every hand, he was soured and
-irritated, and longed to wreak on the Covenanters
-the hate which he felt toward all men.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And yet, as he approached the Brae, and saw at a
-distance the low roof of the mansion from which he
-had taken his bride, gentler feelings stole into his
-bosom. He thought of her whom he had once loved
-with all the fervor of a first passion—he remembered
-the happy years they had spent together—and when
-he recollected that she was now no more, and that
-the last time he had beheld these roofs he had been in
-her company, a tear almost gathered into his eye.
-Then he thought of his daughter. As her image rose
-up before him, his heart was fully melted. With all
-the sternness of his character he loved that daughter
-as few fathers loved—ay! loved her doubly since
-her mother’s death, for she was now the only object
-in the whole wide world on which he could bestow
-aught of affection. And now, joy at the prospect of
-meeting her gave to his spirits the glad exhilaration
-of boyhood, and quickening his pace, he galloped
-gaily across the hills, nor drew his rein until he
-reached the door of the old mansion.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Brae was an antique and partially dilapidated
-residence, at present inhabited by the aunt of Helen,
-and a daughter about the age of Miss Græme. At
-all times it wore a sombre, deserted look, but on this
-morning it seemed peculiarly desolate, for the whole
-front of the house was closed, and all the outhouses
-shut up. A strange fear came over the father, as he
-beheld the absence of these signs of life, and he
-hastily ordered one of the dragoons to dismount and
-knock at the door. The man obeyed, but for a time
-knocked in vain. The sound of the hilt of his heavy
-sword, striking on the door, echoed through the long
-hall of the house; but no signs of life within were
-visible. The usual frown on the face of Sir Roland
-grew darker, and he cried angrily—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Blow off the lock with a pistol, and search the
-house!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At this instant, however, and just as the trooper
-was proceeding to execute this order, the face of an
-old woman was protruded from one of the upper
-windows, while she demanded who was below.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Sir Roland Græme,” replied the leader; “where
-are the family? where is Miss Græme? Is any one
-sick?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“They are all well, but out!” briefly said the
-woman.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Out—out!” exclaimed the persecutor, “and on
-Sunday, when there is no church within miles. By
-G—,” he continued, striving to drown his fears in
-rage, “is this a time to be out? Where have they
-gone? Answer truly, on your life!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“May it please your honor,” said one of the
-dragoons, touching his cap, “may they not have
-gone to this conventicle, and taken your daughter
-with them?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Quick as lightning, Sir Roland wheeled round on
-the unthinking speaker, and while the indentation
-on his brow became deeper than ever, and his
-eye flashed with rage, he said—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>My</span> daughter consorting with traitors and schismatics!
-Breathe but the word again, and by the
-God of heaven I will cleave you to the chine!”
-and his fingers played nervously with the hilt of his
-sword; but, seeing the deprecating look of the
-trooper, he recovered himself, and added, “tush!
-man, you are innocent, but take care how even innocently
-you rouse the tiger.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Tiger,” shrieked the old woman, who had known
-Sir Roland in former days, and who now seemed impelled
-by some sudden gust of passion to speak out,
-“it is well said; ay! one whose fangs have been in
-the hearts of the persecuted remnant—but God will
-avenge his people. Know, false persecutor, that
-your daughter <span class='it'>has</span> gone forth to-day to become one
-of the chosen few against whom, oh! man of sin,
-you have so often ridden with steel and war horse,
-holding the commission of your master, the Evil
-One. Go to, Roland Græme, I mind ye when ye
-were a boy, and little did I think ye would ever become
-the Judas you are now.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It is probable that if her hearer had comprehended
-the whole of this harangue, a bullet would have been
-the speaker’s reward; but the first words of the old
-woman, when taken in connection with the desertion
-of the house, and his own misgivings from Helen’s
-late letter, assured him that his daughter had indeed
-attended the conventicle. The conviction fell on his
-heart with agonizing force. Remembering the injunctions
-of indiscriminate butchery he had laid on
-his subordinate, and well knowing that the command
-would be fulfilled to the very letter, he staggered
-back in his saddle, with a face whiter than ashes,
-and was fain to grasp the pommel for support, while
-he exclaimed in tones wrung from him by the keenest
-anguish—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“My child!—my child!—I have murdered my
-child!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What is that ye say?” screamed the old hag,
-leaning eagerly forward; “have ye sent out your
-reiving dragoons against the Lord’s anointed? and
-ye fear that they will slay your ain bairn. Oh! man
-of blood, the judgment of God has come upon ye—the
-judgment has come upon ye!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But to the voice of the speaker, as well as to the
-astonished looks of the dragoons, the father was insensible.
-He still remained clutching the saddle,
-every feature of his face working with intense
-agony, and his eyes glaring vacantly on the air.
-Those who looked on him shrunk back aghast at
-the horror of his aspect; which, fearful as it was,
-only faintly shadowed forth the torture of the soul
-within. The peril of his only child stupefied him for
-a time. Then a succession of wild images rose up
-to his mind. He saw his daughter flying before the
-ruthless dragoons—he heard her cries for mercy, and
-the bitter sneer of disbelief on the part of her pursuers—he
-beheld her lying a corpse on the bare
-heath, her bosom gashed with brutal wounds, and
-her long fair hair dabbled with blood. In that moment
-the memory of every one whom he had slain
-came up before him—the mothers who had clung to
-his knees, the babes who had looked innocently in
-his face as they died, the daughters whose aged
-parents he had slain before their eyes. He thought
-of the silvery headed patriarch whom he had shot
-for refusing the test, and the prophetic warning of
-the victim that he, even he, the proud persecutor,
-should curse the day he ever drew his sword against
-the saints, came up to his memory. He groaned in
-anguish. For a time none dared to intrude on his
-misery. One of his men, a trusty body adherent, at
-length ventured to speak, by asking him if they had
-not better ride with all haste after Lennox, in the
-hope that they might yet come up in time. Starting,
-as if a shot had struck him, the father plunged his
-rowels into the side of his steed, until the blood
-gushed forth, and wheeling his horse sharp around,
-looked back sternly on his followers, as he led the
-way at a fearful pace up the hill. Well did he
-know the country around, and necessary, indeed,
-was that knowledge, for his frantic gallop required
-the most intimate acquaintance with every turn and
-inequality of the road. Over hill and dale, through
-glen and moor he dashed, reckless of danger, for
-how could he think of aught but his daughter? Oh!
-what would he not have given to be assured that he
-should once more look into her soft blue eyes, that
-he should again press her to his bosom. What now
-to him was rank or wealth? Perhaps he thought
-that Helen would be able to reveal her name ere she
-fell a victim—but no! for even if she spoke, would
-his subordinate believe her story? Once, the very
-suspicion that she favored the Covenanters had angered
-him, but now he would forgive every thing,
-only to be assured of her safety. The contending
-emotions—hope and fear, love and anger, suspense
-and despair—that agitated his bosom, made that
-hour’s ride an hour of agony, such as he had never
-before thought a human being could endure, and
-live. He felt that the curse of God was on him—that
-all the agonies he had inflicted on others were
-now concentrated on himself—that he was bound to
-the wheel of fire. His punishment had already begun.
-He had rushed against the thick bosses of the Almighty’s
-buckler, and found, like him of old, that
-man could not contend against the Most High.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We remember, when a boy, waking from a dream
-of horror, to find our mother smiling over our sleep.
-Oh! never shall we forget the heavenly radiance of
-that loved face, for radiant with heaven it seemed to
-us, after the terrors of that midnight vision. Even
-so we feel when turning from contemplating the tortures
-of the persecutor, to gaze on his sainted child.
-The hour was now approaching noon, and Helen, in
-the presence of the silent flock, had taken upon her
-those vows she could never put off. Tears fell from
-many an eye as the worshipers beheld her thus in
-their midst; and the old pastor was so affected that
-he could scarcely speak.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“God will reward you, my daughter, and give you
-strength,” he said; “I bless His holy name that thou
-art delivered from the dominion of Baal. It is hard,
-I know, to disobey a parent; but saith not the Scripture,
-that we must leave father and mother, if required,
-and take up our cross and follow Christ?
-Only persevere, and God will make your way plain
-to you, guiding you, even as he led the children of
-Israel, with a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by
-night. Trials, and sore ones, we must all have in
-this world—and I boast not, but only speak to cheer
-you, when I say that mine have been many and hard,
-but God has given me grace to endure all, even as
-He will give it unto you. But my race is nearly run;
-the golden urn will soon be broken at the fountain.
-I only pray to die like the martyrs of old, with my
-armor on, and my sword girt to my thigh. Come,
-oh! Lord, most mighty,” he continued, raising his
-hands and eyes rapturously above, “come, oh! Lord
-most gracious, and come quickly!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A deep silence followed the conclusion of this
-prayer, while the tears of many fell fast and thick.
-Every eye was fixed on the holy man, or turned to
-Helen, for the countenances of both already seemed
-to glow, as those of angels. None dared to draw a
-breath, lest they should dispel the hushed stillness
-that so well accorded with the solemnity of the moment.
-But suddenly a cry was heard, clear, loud
-and startling—“The dragoons—the dragoons are
-here!” and had a voice come from the dead, it
-would not have produced a more sudden change in
-the hearers. Every one started up, and all eyes
-were turned toward the point whence the cry had
-proceeded. There, on a gentle eminence, stood a
-shepherd waving his plaid, and making gestures for
-the congregation to fly up the glen. In an instant all
-was confusion. Mothers clasped their infants to
-their bosoms, and looked up tremblingly, with faces
-whiter than ashes—maidens clung to their lovers,
-and gazed around with dilated eyes and looks of
-terror—and fathers and brothers, gathering around
-these dear ones, hurried them on foot and horseback,
-in the direction indicated by the sentinel. The escort
-of Helen and her aunt had been several armed retainers,
-and these now rallied to the side of their
-mistress and the pastor, prepared to make good their
-retreat, or defend themselves to the last. Hoping to
-escape the notice of the pursuers, they dashed off in
-a different direction from that pursued by the others
-of the congregation; but just as they turned the angle
-of the hill, the pennons of the troopers came into
-sight, and by the immediate diversion of a party in
-pursuit of them, the fugitives knew they were detected.
-Pricking their horses, they now hurried
-rapidly onward, and for several hundred yards lost
-sight of their pursuers. At length, the little party
-reached the brow of a slight acclivity.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Faster—faster,” said one who had looked back,
-“they gain on us—press on.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Every eye was turned in the direction of the pursuers,
-and there, not half the distance they had been
-before, were the dragoons, thundering along with
-fiery haste. The sight gave new energy to the fugitives,
-who urged on their steeds with redoubled vigor.
-For a while now the result seemed doubtful. During
-this interval of suspense the feelings of the fugitives
-were of the most conflicting character—the instinctive
-love of life alternating with a holy resignation
-to whatever fate might be assigned them. Now, as
-they gained on the troopers, the former prevailed,
-and now, as they saw their pursuers drawing nigher,
-the latter won the mastery. The emotions of each,
-meanwhile, were different. The old pastor, with
-eyes uplifted, seemed rapturously awaiting martyrdom—the
-aunt and cousin of Helen were pale and red
-by turns as their fear or faith rose triumphant, while
-the serving men frowned darkly as they looked behind,
-and appeared to wish for a chance to exchange
-passes with their steel-clad oppressors. But the feelings
-of Helen were most difficult to analyze, though
-perhaps they had less of earth in them than those of
-any except the pastor. Subdued by the day’s sacrifice
-of herself, and all glowing with divine faith and
-energy, what had she to fear from death? Yet, even
-with this perfect resignation, she could not avoid
-looking back on their pursuers, while her heart heat
-quicker as the distance increased between the troopers
-and themselves.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“We gain—we gain—press on, we shall escape,”
-shouted the leader of the little party, “the Lord will
-yet deliver us from our enemies.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Nay, nay,” said the pastor suddenly, “the hour
-has come—see ye not that we are cut off in front, lo!
-the horses and the men-of-war.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A cry—almost a shriek—broke from Helen’s two
-female companions as they looked ahead, and saw,
-emerging from a narrow ravine, another party of
-dragoons, led by a tall, dark man far in advance of
-the rest, and all riding with tumultuous haste. Helen
-spoke not, but only raised her eyes to heaven, for
-escape was now impossible. The ravine ahead was
-the only feasible outlet in that direction, from the
-glen up which the fugitives had fled, and to turn back
-would be to fall on the swords of their pursuers.
-The serving men looked aghast, and drew in their
-reins, which example the rest of the party immediately
-followed. For a minute there was a profound
-silence. At length the leader again spoke.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why stand we here? Escape is impossible, unless
-we can cut our way through. Let us charge the
-party behind, for that is the smaller. Form a circle
-around the women—wheel—trot.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There was no time for consultation, and the proposal
-seemed to point out the only feasible plan.
-With the words they wheeled their horses, and dashed
-to the desperate attack. The dragoons seemed
-for an instant astonished by the movement, but did
-not slacken their pace. Their leader waved his
-sword, and turning to his men, led the onset in person,
-shouting “God save the king and bishops,”
-while the Covenanters, unsheathing their blades,
-raised the cry of “The sword of the Lord and Gideon.”
-And thus, borne in the midst of those armed
-men as in the embrace of a whirlwind, Helen
-was hurried toward the dragoons. And as they galloped
-along, the heavenly girl, with heart uplifted,
-prayed, while her countenance shone with a glory
-as of the cherubim.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And who was it that dashed so frantically up the
-glen, as if fearful that he might not arrive to whet
-his blade in the blood of the fugitives? Who, but
-Sir Roland Græme, flying to save his daughter, and
-even now almost maddened with the thought that he
-had come too late, for the instant that he emerged
-from the ravine he recognized his child, and now,
-when he saw her turned back to the pursuers, and
-his practiced eye told him that he could not reach her
-until the two parties should be engaged in deadly
-combat, the same sickening sensation of horror
-which had attacked him at the Brae came over him
-again. With a sharp cry of agony he ploughed his
-spurs into the already bloody sides of his horse, and
-sprang forward at a pace even more frantic than that
-which he had before led; but swift as was his progress
-it seemed to him only that of a snail. On—on—he
-urged his gallant beast, and nearer and nearer
-the fugitives and their first pursuers drew to each
-other. What though he gained on the group!—he
-saw that the hostile parties would meet while he
-would yet be far away. Oh! what were his feelings as
-this conviction forced itself on him. If only another
-mile, in which to overtake them, had been given
-him, he might perhaps have succeeded; but now
-hope was in vain! Cold drops of sweat stood on his
-brow, while his heart throbbed almost to bursting
-against his corselet. Did none recognize him, and
-could they not understand his frantic signs? He
-shouted—again—again—again. The dead might as
-well be expected to hear. He waved his plumed hat
-on high, but, at that instant, with the shock of an
-earthquake, the opponents met. A dizziness came
-over his eyes, but with a mighty effort he rallied his
-reeling faculties, and looked at the fight. Was his
-child yet alive? He saw the gleam of the broadswords,
-the blaze of firearms, and all the tumult of
-the conflict, but his daughter was not visible. Suddenly
-a sharp, quick, female shriek, rising shrill over
-the uproar, met his ear. God of heaven, had his
-Helen fallen! Another leap of his frantic steed, and
-he was near enough to hear the shouts of the combatants
-and distinguish particular persons. He trembled
-with eagerness, but lo! his daughter was still
-unharmed, girt around as with a wall of steel, by
-the broadswords of her defenders. He rose in his
-stirrups at the sight, and waving his hat around his
-head, shouted with the voice of a Titan. Joy—joy!
-they recognize him, and his child extends her arms
-toward him. She is saved. But no! for at this very
-instant, when at length they understood by their leader’s
-gestures that they were to desist, one of the
-dragoons, availing himself of the confusion of the
-moment and thirsting for vengeance for a wound he
-had received, aimed a pistol at the pastor’s bosom,
-and though a fellow soldier struck aside his arm, it
-was only to wing the deadly ball to another heart,
-even that of Helen, who all along had been nestled
-by the side of the holy man. She fell back into his
-arms, the blood gushing from her bosom, and for an
-instant they thought her gone. But when the pastor
-called on her name she faintly opened her eyes,
-pressed his hand, smiled sweetly, and murmuring of
-heaven, sank away apparently into a slumber.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>One wild cry of horror had risen, at her fall, from
-those immediately around her, telling the tale of her
-murder; but the father needed not this confirmation
-of his worst fears, for he had seen the shot and beheld
-her fall. Galloping wildly forward, with a few gigantic
-leaps he reached the offender, whom he smote
-to the earth with a single blow of his broadsword.
-The next instant he was by his daughter’s side, the
-group opening awe-struck to let him pass. He spoke
-not, but oh! the terrible agony of his countenance.
-Putting them aside with arms extended, he approached
-and gazed down into the face of his child—gazed as
-Sapphira did when the apostle told her doom, and she
-saw the bearers returning from her husband’s burial.
-And for a minute of profound silence he continued
-gazing thus, into that fair sweet face, on which,
-though now stilled as in death, there yet lingered a
-smile of heavenly joy. He shuddered as he looked,
-and his countenance became livid as that of a corpse.
-He essayed to speak, but though his lips moved, no
-sound proceeded from them. At length slowly, almost
-reluctantly, he stooped down and took her
-hand.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Helen—Helen,” he said, in a choking voice,
-“you are not dead. Say so—tell me I am not your
-murderer. Oh! speak, and forgive me.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The dying girl faintly opened her eyes, and gazed
-vacantly into her father’s face. Her senses were
-fast deserting her. She did not recognize him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh God! my child is dying,” groaned the father.
-“Helen, Helen,” he continued, raising his voice,
-“do you not know me? I am your father—your
-murderer. Do not look on me with such strange
-eyes! Helen, Helen dear, say, if only by a smile,
-that you forgive me. Oh! Lord God of heaven,”
-he exclaimed, lifting his eyes agonizingly above,
-“have mercy on me—suffer her to live to forgive
-me—crush not the bruised reed,” and hot tears
-gushed from his eyes and trickled in his daughter’s
-face.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Who weeps?” faintly said the dying sufferer,
-“weep not for me. Tell my father how I love him,
-and die blessing him⁠—”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Thank thee, Almighty Father, I thank thee,”
-gasped the penitent. “Helen, here is your father—I
-am he.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>For the first time, now, the dying girl seemed fully
-to comprehend her situation. She looked a minute
-around the group, and then, with a sweet smile, her
-eyes rested on her father’s face. She faintly pressed
-his hand. Tears gushed from his eyes like rain, and
-though he strove to speak he could not for his sobs.
-She murmured of him, of her mother, of heaven, and
-then they knew she was dead. The father looked on
-her a moment, and with a groan—which none there
-ever forgot—sunk helpless to her side. They raised
-him, but he was a corpse. “Vengeance is mine,”
-saith the Lord, “and I will repay.”</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk114'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='rac'></a>A RACE FOR A SWEETHEART.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY MR. SEBA SMITH.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Hardly any event creates a stronger sensation in
-a thinly settled New England village, especially
-among the young folks, than the arrival of a fresh
-and blooming miss, who comes to make her abode
-in the neighborhood. When, therefore, Squire Johnson,
-the only lawyer in the place, and a very respectable
-man of course, told Farmer Jones one afternoon
-that his wife’s sister, a smart girl of eighteen,
-was coming in a few days to reside in his family,
-the news flew like wildfire through Pond village, and
-was the principal topic of conversation for a week.
-Pond village is situated upon the margin of one of
-those numerous and beautiful sheets of water that
-gem the whole surface of New England, like the
-bright stars in an evening sky, and received its appellation
-to distinguish it from two or three other
-villages in the same town, which could not boast of
-a similar location. When Farmer Jones came in to
-his supper about sunset that afternoon, and took his
-seat at the table, the eyes of the whole family were
-upon him, for there was a peculiar working about
-his mouth and a knowing glance of his eye, that
-always told them when he had something of interest
-to communicate. But Farmer Jones’ secretiveness
-was large, and his temperament not the most active,
-and he would probably have rolled the important
-secret as a sweet morsel under his tongue for a
-long time, had not Mrs. Jones, who was of rather an
-impatient and prying turn of mind, contrived to draw
-it from him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Now, Mr. Jones,” said she, as she handed him
-his cup of tea, “what is it you are going to say? Do
-out with it; for you’ve been chawing something or
-other over in your mind ever since you came into
-the house.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“It’s my tobacher, I s’pose,” said Mr. Jones, with
-another knowing glance of his eye.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Now, father, what is the use?” said Susan; “we
-all know you’ve got something or other you want to
-say, and why can’t you tell us what ’tis?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“La, who cares what ’tis?” said Mrs. Jones; “if
-it was any thing worth telling, we shouldn’t have to
-wait for it, I dare say.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Hereupon Mrs. Jones assumed an air of the most
-perfect indifference, as the surest way of conquering
-what she was pleased to call Mr. Jones’ obstinacy,
-which by the way was a very improper term to apply
-in the case; for it was purely the working of
-secretiveness without the least particle of obstinacy
-attached to it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There was a pause for two or three minutes in the
-conversation, till Mr. Jones passed his cup to be filled
-a second time, when with a couple of preparatory
-hems he began to let out the secret.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“We are to have a new neighbor here in a few
-days,” said Mr. Jones, stopping short when he had
-uttered thus much, and sipping his tea and filling his
-mouth with food.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Jones, who was perfect in her tactics, said
-not a word, but attended to the affairs of the table, as
-though she had not noticed what was said. The
-farmer’s secretiveness had at last worked itself out,
-and he began again.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Squire Johnson’s wife’s sister is coming here in
-a few days, and is going to live with ’em.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The news being thus fairly divulged, it left free
-scope for conversation.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well, I wonder if she is a proud, stuck up
-piece,” said Mrs. Jones.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I shouldn’t think she would be,” said Susan,
-“for there aint a more sociabler woman in the
-neighborhood than Miss Johnson. So if she’s at all
-like her sister I think we shall like her.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I wonder how old she is,” said Stephen, who was
-just verging toward the close of his twenty-first year.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“The squire called her eighteen,” said Mr. Jones,
-giving a wink to his wife, as much as to say, that’s
-about the right age for Stephen.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I wonder if she is handsome,” said Susan, who
-was somewhat vain of her own looks, and having
-been a sort of reigning belle in Pond village for some
-time, felt a little alarm at the idea of a rival.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I dare be bound she’s handsome,” said Mrs.
-Jones, “if she’s sister to Miss Johnson; for where’ll
-you find a handsomer woman than Miss Johnson, go
-the town through?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>After supper, Stephen went down to Mr. Robinson’s
-store, and told the news to young Charles
-Robinson and all the young fellows who were
-gathered there for a game at quoits and a ring at
-wrestling. And Susan went directly over to Mr.
-Bean’s and told Patty, and Patty went round to the
-Widow Davis’ and told Sally, and before nine o’clock
-the matter was pretty well understood in about every
-house in the village.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At the close of the fourth day, a little before sunset,
-a chaise was seen to drive up to Squire Johnson’s
-door. Of course the eyes of the whole village
-were turned in that direction. Sally Davis, who was
-just coming in from milking, set her pail down on
-the grass by the side of the road as soon as the chaise
-came in sight, and watched it till it reached the
-squire’s door, and the gentleman and lady had got
-out and gone into the house. Patty Bean was doing
-up the ironing that afternoon, and she had just taken
-a hot iron from the fire as the chaise passed the door,
-and she ran with it in her hand and stood on the door
-steps till the whole ceremony of alighting, greeting,
-and entering the house, was over. Old Mrs. Bean
-stood with her head out of the window, her iron-bowed
-spectacles resting upon the top of her forehead,
-her shriveled hand placed across her eyebrows
-to defend her red eyes from the rays of the setting
-sun, and her skinny chin protruding about three
-inches in advance of a couple of stubs of teeth, which
-her open mouth exposed fairly to view.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Seems to me they are dreadful loving,” said old
-Mrs. Bean, as she saw Mrs. Johnson descend the
-steps and welcome her sister with a kiss.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“La me, if there isn’t the squire kissing of her
-tu,” said Patty; “well, I declare, I would a waited
-till I got into the house, I’ll die if I wouldn’t. It
-looks so vulgar to be kissing afore folks, and out
-doors tu; I should think Squire Johnson would be
-ashamed of himself.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well, I shouldn’t,” said young John Bean, who
-came up at that moment, and who had passed the
-chaise just as the young lady alighted from it. “I
-shouldn’t be ashamed to kiss sich a pretty gal as that
-any how; I’d kiss her wherever I could ketch her,
-if it was in the meetin-house.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why, is she handsome, Jack?” said Patty.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yes, she’s got the prettiest little puckery kind of
-a mouth I’ve seen this six months. Her cheeks are
-red, and her eyes shine like new buttons.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well,” replied Patty, “if she’ll only take the
-shine off of Susan Jones when she goes to meetin,
-Sunday, I sha’n’t care.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>While these observations were going on at old Mr.
-Bean’s, Charles Robinson and a group of young fellows
-with him were standing in front of Robinson’s
-store, a little farther down the road, and watching
-the scene that was passing at Squire Johnson’s.
-They witnessed the whole with becoming decorum,
-now and then making a remark about the fine horse
-and the handsome chaise, till they saw the tall squire
-bend his head down and give the young lady a kiss,
-when they all burst out into a loud laugh. In a moment,
-being conscious that their laugh must be heard
-and noticed at the squire’s, they, in order to do away
-the impression it must necessarily make, at once
-turned their heads the other way, and Charles Robinson,
-who was quick at an expedient, knocked off the
-hat of the lad who was standing next to him, and
-then they all laughed louder than before.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Here comes Jack Bean,” said Charles, “now we
-shall hear something about her, for Jack was coming
-by the squire’s when she got out of the chaise. How
-does she look, Jack?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Handsome as a picter,” said Jack. “I haint
-seen a prettier gal since last Thanksgiving Day,
-when Jane Ford was here to visit Susan Jones.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Black eyes or blue?” said Charles.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Blue,” said Jack, “but all-fired bright.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Tall or short?” said Stephen Jones, who was
-rather short himself, and therefore felt a particular
-interest on that point.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Rather short,” said Jack, “but straight and round
-as our young colt.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Do you know what her name is?” said Charles.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“They called her Lucy when she got out of the
-chaise,” said Jack, “and as Miss Johnson’s name
-was Brown before she was married, I s’pose her
-name must be Lucy Brown.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Just such a name as I like,” said Charles Robinson;
-“Lucy Brown sounds well. Now suppose, in
-order to get acquainted with her, we all hands take a
-sail to-morrow night, about this time, on the pond,
-and invite her to go with us.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Agreed,” said Stephen Jones. “Agreed,” said
-Jack Bean. “Agreed,” said all hands.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The question then arose, who should carry the invitation
-to her; and the young men being rather
-bashful on that score, it was finally settled that
-Susan Jones should bear the invitation, and accompany
-her to the boat, where they should all be in
-waiting to receive her. The next day was a very
-long day, at least to most of the young men of Pond
-village; and promptly, an hour before sunset, most
-of them were assembled, with half a score of their
-sisters and female cousins, by a little stone wharf on
-the margin of the pond, for the proposed sail. All
-the girls in the village, of a suitable age, were there,
-except Patty Bean. She had undergone a good deal
-of fidgeting and fussing during the day, to prepare for
-the sail, but had been disappointed. Her new bonnet
-was not done; and as for wearing her old flap-sided
-bonnet, she declared she would not, if she
-never went. Presently Susan Jones and Miss Lucy
-Brown were seen coming down the road. In a moment
-all were quiet, the laugh and the joke were
-hushed, and each one put on his best looks. When
-they arrived, Susan went through the ceremony of
-introducing Miss Brown to each of the ladies and
-gentlemen present.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But how in the world are you going to sail?”
-said Miss Brown, “for there isn’t a breath of wind;
-and I don’t see any sail-boat, neither.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh, the less wind we have, the better, when we
-sail here,” said Charles Robinson; “and there is
-our sail-boat,” pointing to a flat-bottomed scow-boat,
-some twenty feet long by ten wide.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“We don’t use no sails,” said Jack Bean; “sometimes,
-when the wind is fair, we put up a bush to
-help pull along a little, and when ’tisn’t, we row.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The party were soon embarked on board the scow,
-and a couple of oars were set in motion, and they
-glided slowly and pleasantly over as lovely a sheet
-of water as ever glowed in the sunsetting ray. In
-one hour’s time, the whole party felt perfectly acquainted
-with Miss Lucy Brown. She had talked in
-the most lively and fascinating manner; she had told
-stories and sung songs. Among others, she had
-given Moore’s boat song, with the sweetest possible
-effect; and by the time they returned to the landing,
-it would hardly be too much to say that half the
-young men in the party were decidedly in love with
-her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A stern regard to truth requires a remark to be
-made here, not altogether favorable to Susan Jones,
-which is the more to be regretted, as she was in the
-main an excellent hearted girl, and highly esteemed
-by the whole village. It was observed that as the
-company grew more and more pleased with Miss
-Lucy Brown, Susan Jones was less and less animated,
-till at last she became quite reserved, and
-apparently sad. She, however, on landing, treated
-Miss Brown with respectful attention, accompanied
-her home to Squire Johnson’s door, and cordially
-bade her good night.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The casual glimpses which the young men of
-Pond village had of Miss Brown during the remainder
-of the week, as she occasionally stood at
-the door, or looked out at the window, or once or
-twice when she walked out with Susan Jones, and
-the fair view they all had of her at meeting on the
-Sabbath, served but to increase their admiration,
-and to render her more and more an object of attraction.
-She was regarded by all as a prize, and several
-of them were already planning what steps it was
-best to take in order to win her. The two most prominent
-candidates, however, for Miss Brown’s favor,
-were Charles Robinson and Stephen Jones. Their
-position and standing among the young men of the
-village seemed to put all others in the back ground.
-Charles, whose father was wealthy, had every advantage
-which money could procure. But Stephen,
-though poor, had decidedly the advantage over
-Charles in personal recommendations. He had
-more talent, was more sprightly and intelligent,
-and more pleasing in his address. From the evening
-of the sail on the pond, they had both watched
-every movement of Miss Brown with the most intense
-interest; and, as nothing can deceive a lover,
-each had, with an interest no less intense, watched
-every movement of the other. They had ceased to
-speak to each other about her, and if her name was
-mentioned in their presence, both were always observed
-to color.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The second week after her arrival, through the
-influence of Squire Johnson, the district school was
-offered to Miss Brown on the other side of the pond,
-which offer was accepted, and she went immediately
-to take charge of it. This announcement at first
-threw something of a damper upon the spirits of the
-young people of Pond village. But when it was understood
-the school would continue but a few weeks,
-and being but a mile and a half distant, Miss Brown
-would come home every Saturday afternoon, and
-spend the Sabbath, it was not very difficult to be reconciled
-to the temporary arrangement. The week
-wore away heavily, especially to Charles Robinson
-and Stephen Jones. They counted the days impatiently
-till Saturday, and on Saturday they counted
-the long and lagging hours till noon. They had both
-made up their minds that it would be dangerous to
-wait longer, and they had both resolved not to let
-another Sabbath pass without making direct proposals
-to Miss Brown.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Stephen Jones was too early a riser for Charles
-Robinson, and, in any enterprise where both were
-concerned, was pretty sure to take the lead, except
-where money could carry the palm, and then, of
-course, it was always borne away by Charles. As
-Miss Lucy had been absent most of the week, and
-was to be at home that afternoon, Charles Robinson
-had made an arrangement with his mother and sisters
-to have a little tea party in the evening, for the purpose
-of inviting Miss Brown; and then, of course,
-he should walk home with her in the evening; and
-then, of course, would be a good opportunity to
-break the ice, and make known to her his feelings
-and wishes. Stephen Jones, however, was more
-prompt in his movements. He had got wind of the
-proposed tea party, although himself and sister, for
-obvious reasons, had not been invited, and he resolved
-not to risk the arrival of Miss Brown and her
-visit to Mr. Robinson’s, before he should see her.
-She would dismiss her school at noon, and come the
-distance of a mile and a half round the pond home.
-His mind was at once made up. He would go round
-and meet her at the school-house, and accompany
-her on her walk. There, in that winding road
-around those delightful waters, with the tall and
-shady trees over head, and the wild grape-vines
-twining round their trunks, and climbing to the
-branches, while the wild birds were singing through
-the woods, and the wild ducks playing in the coves
-along the shore, surely there, if any where in the
-world, could a man bring his mind up to the point
-of speaking of love.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Accordingly, a little before noon, Stephen washed
-and brushed himself up, and put on his Sunday
-clothes, and started on his expedition. In order to
-avoid observation, he took a back route across the
-field, intending to come into the road by the pond, a
-little out of the village. As ill luck would have it,
-Charles Robinson had been out in the same direction,
-and was returning with an armful of green
-boughs and wild flowers, to ornament the parlor for
-the evening. He saw Stephen, and noticed his
-dress, and the direction he was going, and he at
-once smoked the whole business. His first impulse
-was to rush upon him and collar him, and demand
-that he should return back. But then he recollected
-that in the last scratch he had with Stephen, two or
-three years before, he had a little the worst of it,
-and he instinctively stood still while Stephen passed
-on without seeing him. It flashed upon his mind at
-once that the question must now be reduced to a
-game of speed. If he could by any means gain the
-school-house first, and engage Miss Lucy to walk
-home with him, he should consider himself safe.
-But if Stephen should reach the school-house first,
-he should feel a good deal of uneasiness for the consequences.
-Stephen was walking very leisurely,
-and unconscious that he was in any danger of a
-competitor on the course, and it was important that
-his suspicions should not be awakened. Charles,
-therefore, remained perfectly quiet till Stephen had
-got a little out of hearing, and then he threw down
-his bushes and flowers, and ran to the wharf below
-the store with his utmost speed. He had one advantage
-over Stephen. He was ready at a moment’s
-warning to start on an expedition of this kind, for
-Sunday clothes were an every-day affair with him.
-There was a light canoe, belonging to his father,
-lying at the wharf, and a couple of stout boys were
-there fishing. Charles hailed them, and told them if
-they would row him across the pond as quick as
-they possibly could, he would give them a quarter of
-a dollar a piece. This, in their view, was a splendid
-offer for their services, and they jumped on board
-with alacrity and manned the oars. Charles took a
-paddle, and stood in the stern to steer the boat, and
-help propel her ahead. The distance by water was
-a little less than by land, and although Stephen had
-considerably the start of him, he believed he should
-be able to reach the school-house first, especially if
-Stephen should not see him and quicken his pace.
-In one minute after he arrived at the wharf, the boat
-was under full way. The boys laid down to the oars
-with right good will, and Charles put out all his
-strength upon the paddle. They were shooting over
-the water twice as fast as a man could walk, and
-Charles already felt sure of the victory. But when
-they had gone about half a mile, they came in the
-range of a little opening in the trees on the shore,
-where the road was exposed to view, and there, at
-that critical moment, was Stephen pursuing his easy
-walk. Charles’ heart was in his mouth. Still it was
-possible Stephen might not see them, for he had not
-yet looked round. Lest the sound of the oars might
-attract his attention, Charles had instantly, on coming
-in sight, ordered the boys to stop rowing, and he
-grasped his paddle with breathless anxiety, and
-waited for Stephen again to disappear. But just as
-he was upon the point of passing behind some trees,
-where the boat would be out of his sight, Stephen
-turned his head and looked round. He stopped short,
-turned square round, and stood for the space of a
-minute looking steadily at the boat. Then lifting his
-hand, and shaking his fist resolutely at Charles, as
-much as to say I understand you, he started into a
-quick run.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Now, boys,” said Charles, “buckle to your oars
-for your lives, and if you get to the shore so I can
-reach the school-house before Stephen does, I’ll give
-you half a dollar a piece.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This of course added new life to the boys and increased
-speed to the boat. Their little canoe flew
-over the water almost like a bird, carrying a white
-bone in her mouth, and leaving a long ripple on the
-glassy wave behind her. Charles’ hands trembled,
-but still he did good execution with his paddle. Although
-Stephen upon the run was a very different
-thing from Stephen at a slow walk, Charles still had
-strong hopes of winning the race and gaining his
-point. He several times caught glimpses of Stephen
-through the trees, and, as well as he could judge, the
-boat had a little the best of it. But when they came
-out into the last opening, where for a little way they
-had a fair view of each other, Charles thought Stephen
-ran faster than ever; and although he was now
-considerably nearer the school-house than Stephen
-was, he still trembled for the result. They were
-now within fifty rods of the shore, and Charles appealed
-again to the boys’ love of money.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Now,” said he, “we have not a minute to
-spare. If we gain the point, I’ll give you a dollar
-apiece.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The boys strained every nerve, and Charles’ paddle
-made the water fly like the tail of a wounded shark.
-When within half a dozen rods of the shore, Charles
-urged them again to spring with all their might,
-and one of the boys making a desperate plunge upon
-his oar, snapped it in two. The first pull of the other
-oar headed the boat from land. Charles saw at once
-that the delay must be fatal, if he depended on the
-boat to carry him ashore. The water was but three
-feet deep, and the bottom was sandy. He sprung
-from the boat, and rushed toward the shore as fast
-as he was able to press through the water. He flew
-up the bank, and along the road, till he reached the
-school-house. The door was open, but he could see
-no one within. Several children were at play round
-the door, who, having seen Charles approach with
-such haste, stood with mouths and eyes wide open,
-looking at him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Where’s the schoolma’m?” said Charles, hastily,
-to one of the largest boys.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why?” said the boy, opening his eyes still
-wider, “is any of the folks dead?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You little rascal, I say, where’s the schoolma’m?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“She jest went down that road,” said the boy,
-“two or three minutes ago.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Was she alone?” said Charles.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“She started alone,” said the boy, “and a man
-met her out there a little ways, and turned about and
-went with her.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Charles felt that his cake was all dough again, and
-that he might as well give it up for a bad job, and go
-home. Stephen Jones and Lucy Brown walked very
-leisurely home through the woods, and Charles and
-the boys went very leisurely in the boat across the
-pond. They even stopped by the way, and caught a
-mess of fish, since the boys had thrown their lines
-into the boat when they started. And when they
-reached the wharf, Charles, in order to show that he
-had been a fishing, took a large string of the fish in
-his hand, and carried them up to the house. Miss
-Lucy Brown, on her way home through the woods,
-had undoubtedly been informed of the proposed tea-party
-for the evening, to which she was to be invited,
-and to which Stephen Jones and Susan Jones
-were not invited; and when Miss Lucy’s invitation
-came, she sent word back, that she was <span class='it'>engaged</span>.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk115'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='far'></a>THE FAREWELL.</h1></div>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Farewell, farewell—O! ne’er from me</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Till now that word hath hopeless passed;</p>
-<p class='line0'>But, sweet one, faltered forth to thee,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;It seems this once as ’twere the last⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>The last that thou wilt ever hear</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;From him who knows thy worth too well;</p>
-<p class='line0'>I’ll stifle one relenting tear,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;That mingles in this last farewell.</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk116'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='har'></a>HARRY CAVENDISH.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY THE AUTHOR OF “CRUISING IN THE LAST WAR,” “THE REEFER OF ’76,” ETC.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CONCLUSION.</h2>
-
-<p class='pindent'>I was now alone in the world; I had neither ship,
-nor home; and she I had loved was wedded to
-another. It is strange how misanthropical a man
-becomes, after disappointment has soured his disposition,
-and destroyed, one after another, the beautiful
-dreams of his youth. When I sat down and thought
-of the hopes of my earlier years, now gone forever;
-when I speculated upon my future prospects; when I
-recalled to mind how few of the friends I had begun
-life with remained, an indescribable sadness came
-over me, and, had it not been for my manhood, I
-would have found a relief in tears. My zest for
-society was gone. I cared little for the ordinary
-business of life. I only longed for a fitting opportunity
-to re-enter the service, and distinguish myself by
-some gallant deed, which I did not care to survive,
-for even fame had become hateful to me, since it
-reminded me how insufficient it was to win or retain
-the love of woman. In a word, I had become a misanthrope,
-and was fast losing all the energy of my
-character in sickly regrets over the past.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Of the St. Clairs I had not inquired since my return,
-and their names, from motives of delicacy
-perhaps, were never mentioned in my presence.
-Yet they occupied a large portion of my thoughts,
-and often would I start, and my heart flutter, when,
-in the streets, I fancied, for a moment, that I recognized
-the form of Annette. But a nearer approach
-made evident my mistake, and dissipated my embarrassment.
-Much, however, as I thought of her, I
-had never inquired to whom she had been married;
-yet my curiosity on this point continually gained
-strength; and when I had been a fortnight in Newport
-without hearing any allusion to her, I began to
-wish that some one would break the ominous silence
-which seemed to hang around her and her family.
-Still I dared not trust myself to broach the subject.
-I continued, therefore, ignorant of their present
-situation, and of all that concerned them.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There is, not far from the town, and situated in
-one of the most beautiful portions of the island, a
-favorite resort which has long been known by the
-familiar and characteristic name of “The Glen.”
-The spot is one where the deity of romance might
-sit enshrined. Here, on a still summer night, we
-might, without much stretch of fancy, look for fairies
-to come forth and gambol, or listen to the light music
-of airy spirits hovering above us. The whole place
-reminds you of an enchanted bower, and dull must
-be his heart who does not feel the stirrings of the
-divinity within him as he gazes on the lovely scenery
-around. He who can listen here unmoved to the low
-gurgle of the brook, or the light rustle of the leaves
-in the summer wind, must be formed of the coarsest
-clods of clay, nor boast one spark of our immortal
-nature.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The glen was my favorite resort, and thither would
-I go and spend whole afternoons, listening to the
-laughing prattle of the little river, or striving to
-catch, in pauses of the breeze, the murmur of the
-neighboring sea. A rude bench had been constructed
-under some trees, in a partially open glade, at the
-lower extremity of the ravine, and here I usually
-sat, indulging in those dreamy, half-sick reveries
-which are characteristic of youth. The stream,
-which brawled down the ravine, in a succession of
-rapids and cascades, here glided smoothly along on
-a level bottom, its banks fringed with long grass
-interspersed with wild roses, and its bed strewed
-with pebbles, round and silvery, that glistened in the
-sunbeams, which, here and there, struggled through
-the trees, and shimmered on the stream. Faint and
-low came to the ear the sound of the mill, situated
-at the upper end of the ravine; while occasionally a
-bird whistled on the stillness, or a leaf floated lazily
-down into the river, and went on its way, a tiny
-bark. The seclusion of my favorite retreat was
-often enlivened by the appearance of strangers, but
-as they generally remained only a few minutes, I
-had the spot, for most of the time, to myself. Here
-I dreamed away the long summer afternoons, often
-lingering until the moon had risen, to make the
-scene seem even more beautiful, under her silvery
-light. I had no pleasure in any other spot. Perhaps
-it was because I had once been here with Annette,
-when we were both younger, and I, at least,
-happier; and I could remember plucking a flower
-for her from a time-worn bush that still grew on the
-margin of the stream. God knows how we love to
-haunt the spot made dear to us by old and tender
-recollections!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>I was sitting, one afternoon, on the rude bench I
-have spoken of, listlessly casting pebbles into the
-river, when I heard the sound of approaching voices,
-but I was so accustomed to the visits of strangers,
-that I did not pause to look up. Directly the voices
-came nearer, and suddenly a word was spoken that
-thrilled through every nerve of my system. It was
-only a single word, but that voice!—surely it could
-be none other than Annette’s. My sensations, at
-that moment, I will not pretend to analyze. I longed
-to look up, and yet I dared not. My heart fluttered
-wildly, and I could feel the blood rushing in torrents
-to my face; but, if I had been called on at that instant
-to speak, I could not have complied for worlds.
-Luckily the tree, under whose shadow I sat, concealed
-me from the approaching visitors, and I had
-thus time to rally my spirits ere the strangers came
-up. As they drew near I recognized the voice of
-Mr. St. Clair, and then that of Annette’s cousin Isabel,
-while there were one or two other speakers
-who were strangers to me. Doubtless one of them
-was Annette’s husband, and, as this thought flashed
-across me, I looked up, impelled by an irresistible
-impulse. The party were now within almost twenty
-yards, coming gaily down the glen. Foremost in
-the group walked Isabel, leaning on the arm of a
-tall, gentlemanly looking individual, and turning
-ever and anon around to Annette, who followed immediately
-behind, at the side of her father. Another
-lady, attended by a gentleman, made up the rest of
-the company. Where could Annette’s husband be?
-was the question that occurred to me—and who was
-the distinguished looking gentleman on whose arm
-Isabel was so familiarly leaning? But my thoughts
-were cut short by a conversation which now began,
-and of which, during a minute, I was an unknown
-auditor—for my position still concealed me from the
-party, and my surprise at first, and afterwards delicacy,
-prevented me from appearing.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Ah! Annette,” said Isabel, archly, turning around
-to her cousin, “do you know this spot, but especially
-that rose-bush yonder?—here, right beyond that old
-tree—you seem wonderfully ignorant all at once! I
-wonder where the donor of that aforesaid rose-bud is
-now. I would lay a guinea that it is yet in your possession,
-preserved in some favorite book, pressed out
-between the leaves. Come, answer frankly, is it not
-so, my sweet coz?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>I could hear no reply, if one was made, and immediately
-another voice spoke. It was that of Isabel’s
-companion, coming to the aid of Annette.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You are too much given to believe that Annette
-follows your example, Isabel—now do you turn
-penitent, and let me be father confessor—how many
-rose-buds, ay! and for that matter, even leaves, have
-you in your collection, presented to you by your
-humble servant, before we had pity on each other,
-and were married? I found a flower, last week, in
-a copy of Spenser, and, if I remember aright, I was
-the donor of the trifle.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh! you betray yourself,” gaily retorted Isabel,
-“but men are foolish—and of all foolish men I ever
-met with, a certain Albert Marston was, before his
-marriage, the most foolish. I take credit to myself,”
-she continued, in the same playful strain, “for
-having worked such a reformation in him since that
-event. But this is not what we were talking of—you
-wish to divert me from my purpose by this light
-Cossack warfare—but it won’t do,” she continued,
-and I fancied she stamped her foot prettily, as she
-was wont to do at Clairville Hall, when she was disposed
-to have her way; “no—no—Annette must be
-the one to turn penitent, and I will play father confessor.
-Say, now, fair coz, was it not a certain fancy
-to see this same rose-bush, that induced you to insist
-on coming here?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>During this conversation the parties had remained
-nearly stationary at some distance from me. Strange
-suspicions began to flash through my mind, as soon
-as Isabel commenced her banter; and these suspicions
-had now been changed into a certainty.
-Annette was still unmarried, and it was Isabel’s
-wedding at which I had come so near being present,
-at Clairville Hall. Nor was this all. I was still
-loved. Oh! the wild, the rapturous feelings of that
-moment. I could with difficulty restrain myself
-from rising and rushing toward them; but motives
-of delicacy forbade me thus to reveal that the conversation
-had been overheard. And yet should I
-remain in my present position, and play the listener
-still further? I knew not what to do. All these
-considerations flashed through my mind in the space
-of less than a minute, during which the party had
-been silent, apparently enjoying Annette’s confusion.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Come, not ready to answer yet?” began Isabel;
-“well, if you will not, you shan’t have the rose from
-that bush, for which you’ve come. Let us go back,”
-she said, playfully.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The whole party seemed to enter into the jest, and
-laughingly retraced their steps. This afforded me
-the opportunity for which I longed. Hastily rising
-from my seat, I glided unnoticed from tree to tree,
-until I reached a copse on the left of the glen, and
-advancing up the ravine, under cover of this screen,
-I re-entered the path at a bend some distance above
-the St. Clairs. Here I listened for a moment, and
-caught the sound of their approaching voices. Determining
-no longer to be a listener to their conversation,
-I proceeded down the glen, and, as I turned
-the corner, a few paces in advance, I came full in
-sight of the approaching group. In an instant the
-gay laughing of the party ceased, and I saw Annette
-shrink blushing behind her father. Isabel was the
-first to speak. Darting forward, with that frankness
-and gaiety which always characterized her, she
-grasped my hand, and said⁠—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You don’t know how happy we all are to see
-you. Where could you have come from?—and how
-could you have made such a mistake as to congratulate
-Annette, instead of me, on being married? But
-come, I must surrender you to the others—I see they
-are dying to speak to you. Uncle, Annette—how
-lucky it was that we came here to-day!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“My dear boy,” said Mr. St. Clair, warmly pressing
-my hand, “I cannot tell how rejoiced I am to
-see you. We heard a rumor that you were lost, and
-we all wept—Isabel for the first time for years. It
-was but a few days since that we heard you were at
-Newport, and, as we were coming hither, I hastened
-my journey, determined to search you out. We are
-on our way there now, and only stopped here a few
-minutes to relieve ourselves after a long ride. This
-day shall be marked with a white stone. But here I
-have been keeping you from speaking to Annette—we
-old men, you know, are apt to be garrulous.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>My eyes, indeed, had been seeking Annette, who,
-still covered with blushes, and unable to control her
-embarrassment, sought to conceal them by keeping
-in the back ground. As for me, I had become wonderfully
-self-possessed. I now advanced and took
-her hand. It trembled in my own, and when I
-spoke, though she replied faintly, she did not dare
-to look into my face, except for a moment, after
-which her eyes again sought the ground in beautiful
-embarrassment. My unexpected appearance, combined
-with her cousin’s late raillery, covered her
-face with blushes, and, for some time, she could not
-rally herself sufficient to participate in the conversation.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>What more have I to tell? I was now happy,
-and for my misanthropy, it died with the cause that
-produced it. Mr. St. Clair said that the wedding
-need not be delayed, and in less than a month I led
-Annette to the altar. Years have flown since then,
-but I still enjoy unalloyed felicity, and Annette seems
-to my eyes more beautiful than ever. It only remains
-for me to bid my readers <span style='font-size:smaller'>FAREWELL</span>!</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk117'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='hol'></a>THE HOLYNIGHTS.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY HENRY MORFORD.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';fs:0.9em;' -->
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>Some say that ’gainst the time that season comes</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>Wherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>The bird of dawning singeth all night long,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>And then they say no sprite dares stir abroad,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>The nights are wholesome then, no planets strike,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>No fairy takes or witch hath power to charm,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>So hallowed and so gracious is the time.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:right;margin-right:0em;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:0.9em;'><span class='sc'>Hamlet.</span></p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Hushed be the voice of mirthfulness,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And stilled be the plaintive tones of care,</p>
-<p class='line0'>That from too many a heart recess</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Go forth to float on the midnight air;</p>
-<p class='line0'>It is no time for the wild excess,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;No time for the loose unbridled reign</p>
-<p class='line0'>That passion gives to her votaries</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;When they sever away the golden chain.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Stilled on the ears of the seraph choir</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Let the lingering hymns of the season go,</p>
-<p class='line0'>As they sweep their hands o’er the golden wire</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;To the anthem of love and peace below;</p>
-<p class='line0'>And let us keep in a holy mood</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The coming hours of that sacred time</p>
-<p class='line0'>When the word went forth for the hush of blood</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And the passing knell for the soul of crime!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>When the hosts of the upper region stirred</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;That another star came forth to shine,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And the rush of an angel’s wing was heard</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;O’er the moonlit plains of Palestine,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And a softer light o’er the earth was flung</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And the pale stars waxed no longer dim,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And forth on a thousand harps outrung</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The rising notes of the angels’ hymn.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>The same bright stars that then looked down</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;With a guardian watch o’er hill and plain,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Unfading gems in the starry crown</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Glittering on in the blue remain,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And the solemn awe that crept them round</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;As they watched their flocks that holy time,</p>
-<p class='line0'>An echo with us to-night has found</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;In the new-born light of another clime.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>It has been felt this many a year,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The sacred spell of the season’s death,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And the brighter glow of the starry sphere</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;As it came that time with the angels’ breath,</p>
-<p class='line0'>For brighter yet the stars gleam out</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;As the noisome vapor shrinks away</p>
-<p class='line0'>From the open glade that it hung about</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Darkened and damp this many a day.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>List how the spirit-breathings come</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Upon our ears from the voice sublime</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of him who ruled in the spirits’ home,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Who wrote and sang for the end of time!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Hark how he tells when the time is near,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The bird of the dawn sings all night long</p>
-<p class='line0'>And the fairy legions disappear</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;When he comes abroad with his matin song.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>No spirits forth, nor the rank compound</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;That glows with the witches’ midnight toil,</p>
-<p class='line0'>No deeps of the forest-close resound</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;With the wizard shriek and the caldron boil.</p>
-<p class='line0'>No planets chill the warm heart’s blood</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;With the mockery of a demon fire,</p>
-<p class='line0'>No vapors veil with a sickly shroud</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The moss-grown top of the old church spire,⁠—</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>For he who stood in that dreadful watch</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;On the gray rampart of Elsinore</p>
-<p class='line0'>Told how they ceased from their revel catch</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And their reign at the Christmas time was o’er;</p>
-<p class='line0'>We feel it now, as he felt it then,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;That the air is full of holiness,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And we need not forms from the earth again</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Of the starry hosts to guard and bless.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Then stilled on the ears of the seraph choir</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Let the lingering hymns of the season go,</p>
-<p class='line0'>As they sweep their hands o’er the golden wire</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;To the anthem of love and peace below;</p>
-<p class='line0'>And let us keep in a holy mood</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The passing hours of that sacred time</p>
-<p class='line0'>When the word went forth for the hush of blood</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And the passing knell for the soul of crime!</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk118'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='lad'></a>THE LADIES’ LIBRARY.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY W. A. JONES.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>That admirable manual of “<span class='it'>les petites morales</span>,”
-and even of higher matters occasionally, the Spectator,
-contains a paper which we hesitate not to accept
-as a just specimen of cotemporary satire on female
-education; we refer to the catalogue of a Ladies’
-Library. This heterogeneous collection embraces
-heroical romances and romancing histories, the ranting
-tragedies of the day, with the libertine comedies
-of the same period. In a word, it leads us to infer
-pretty plainly the insignificant pretensions the gentle
-women of Queen Anne’s day could lay to any thing
-like refinement of education, or even a correct propriety
-in dress and demeanor. Tell me your company,
-and I will disclose your own character; speak
-that I may know you, are trite maxims; but give me a
-list of your favorite authors is by no means so common,
-though at least as true, a test. The literary
-and indirectly the moral depravity of taste exhibited
-by the women of that age, is easily accounted for,
-when we once learn the fashionable authors and the
-indifferent countenance given to any authors but those
-of the most frivolous description. The queen herself
-was an illiterate woman, and we are told never once
-had the curiosity to look into the classic productions
-of Pope. King William, the preceding sovereign,
-was so ignorant of books and the literary character,
-as to offer Swift, with whom he had been agreeably
-prepossessed, the place of captain of a regiment of
-horse.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Indulging ourselves in a rapid transition, we pass
-from this era to the epoch of Johnson and Burke, and
-Goldsmith and Sheridan, we come to the reign of
-George III. Here we find the scene altered. From
-the gay saloon we are dropped, as if by magic, into the
-library or conversation room. We read not of balls,
-but of literary dinners and æsthetic teas, and we meet
-for company, not thoughtless, dressy dames of fashion
-and minions of the goddess of pleasure, but grave, precise
-professors in petticoats, women who had exchanged
-a world of anxiety for the turn of a head-dress,
-or the shape of a flounce for an equally wise
-anxiety about the philosophy of education, the success
-of their sonnets and tragedies, and moral tales for the
-young. The pedantry of authorship and dogmatic
-conversation superseded the more harmless pedantry
-of dress. Then we read of the stupidest company in
-the world, which arrogated to itself the claim of being
-the best. A race of learned ladies arose; <span class='it'>bas bleus</span>,
-the Montagues, the Mores, the Sewards, the Chapones,
-patronized by such prosing old formalists as
-Doctors Gregory and Aiken, and even by one man
-of vigorous talent, Johnson, and one man of real
-genius, Richardson. The last two endured much,
-because they were flattered much.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When we speak thus contemptuously of learned
-ladies, we intend to express a disgust at the pretensions
-of those who pass under that name. Genuine
-learning can never be despised, whoever may be its
-possessor; but of genuine learning it is not harsh to
-suspect a considerable deficiency where there is so
-much of display and anxious rivalry. Even where
-the learning is exact and solid, it is to be remembered
-that many departments are utterly unsuited to the
-female mind; where, at best, little can be accomplished
-and that of a harsh repulsive nature. We
-want no Daciers, no Somervilles, no Marcets, but
-give us as you will as many Inchbalds, Burneys,
-Edgeworths, Misses Barrett, as can be had for love
-or money.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>From the ladies we seek literature, not learning,
-in its old scholastic sense. They certainly have received
-pleasure from books, and are bound to return
-the gratification in a similar way by delighting us.
-And this they can do in their legitimate attempts. It
-shall be a prominent object of the present general
-introduction to a short series of critical sketches, to
-attempt a definition of the limits which should bound
-those attempts, and also to endeavor at suggesting
-the proper studies for ladies, and the authors that
-ought to rank as favorites with the fair. In a list of
-the latter, female writers should bear a considerable
-proportion, and will assuredly not be forgotten.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We believe the question as to the relative sexual
-distinctions of intellectual character, is now generally
-considered as settled. There is allowed to be a species
-of genius essentially feminine. Equality is no
-more arrogated than superiority of ability, and it
-would be as wisely arrogated. The most limited
-observation of life and the most superficial acquaintance
-with books, must effectually demonstrate the
-superior capacity of man for the great works of life
-and speculation. It is true, great geniuses are rare
-and seldom needed, and the generality of women
-rank on a par with the generality of men. In many
-cases, women of talent surpass men of an equal
-calibre of mere talent, through other and constitutional
-causes—a greater facility of receiving and transmitting
-impressions, greater instinctive subtlety of apprehension,
-and a livelier sympathy. We cordially
-admit the female intellect, in the ordinary concerns
-of life and the current passages of society, has often
-the advantage of the masculine understanding. Cleverness
-outshines solid ability, and a smart woman
-is much more showy than a profound man. In certain
-walks of authorship, too, women are pre-eminently
-successful; in cases narrative of real or
-fictitious events, (in the last implying a strain of
-ready invention,) in lively descriptions of natural
-beauty or artificial manners; in the development of
-the milder sentiments, especially the sentiment of
-love; in airy, comic ridicule. On the other hand,
-the highest attempts of women in poetry have uniformly
-failed. We have read of no female epic of
-even a respectable rank: those who have written
-tragedies, have written moral lectures (of an inferior
-sort) like Hannah More; or anatomies of the passions,
-direct and formal, like Joanna Baillie; or an historical
-sketch, as Rienzi. We are apt to suspect that
-the personal charms of Sappho proved too much for
-the admirers of her poetic rhapsodies, otherwise
-Longinus has done her foul injustice; for the fragment
-he quotes is to be praised and censured solely
-for its obscurity. This would have been a great
-merit in Lycophron.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the volume of British Poetesses, edited by Mr.
-Dyce, it is astonishing to find how little real poetry
-he has been able to collect out of the writings of
-near a century of authors, scattered over the surface
-of five or six centuries. It must be allowed that
-some of the finest shortest pieces by female writers
-have appeared since the publication of that selection.
-In the volume referred to, much sensible verse and
-some sprightly copies of verses occur; a fair share
-of pure reflective sentiment, delivered in pleasing
-language rarely rising above correctness; of high
-genius there is not a particle,—no pretensions to sublimity
-or fervor. The best piece and the finest
-poem, we think, ever composed by woman, is the
-charming ballad of Auld Robin Gray. That is a
-genuine bit of true poesy, and perfect in the highest
-department of the female imagination in the pathos
-of domestic tragedy. In the present century we
-have Mrs. Howitt and Mrs. Southey, but chief of all,
-Miss Barrett.<a id='r6'/><a href='#f6' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[6]</span></sup></a> The finest attempts of the most
-pleasing writer of this class, do not rise so high as
-the delightful ballad above named. They are sweet,
-plaintive, moral strains, the melodious notes of a
-lute, tuned by taper fingers in a romantic bower, not
-the deep, majestic, awful tones of the great organ,
-or the spirited and stirring blasts of the trumpet.
-The ancient bard struck wild and mournful, or hearty
-and vigorous, notes from his harp—perchance placed
-“on a rock whose frowning brow,” &amp;c. and striving
-with the rough symphonies of the tempest; but the
-sybil of modern days plays elegant and pretty, or soft
-and tender airs upon her flageolet or accordion, in
-the boudoir or saloon.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A poet is, from the laws both of physiology and
-philology,—masculine. His vocation is manly, or
-rather divine. And we have never heard any traits
-of feminine character attributed to the great poet, (in
-the Greek sense,) the Creator of the universe. The
-muses are represented as females, but then they are
-the inspirers, never the composers, of verse. So
-should be the poet’s muse, as she is often the poet’s
-theme. There are higher themes, but of an abstract
-nature, in general: ethical, religious, metaphysical.
-Let female beauty then sit for her portrait instead of
-being the painter. Let poets chant her charms, but
-let her not spoil a fair ideal image by writing bad
-verses. If all were rightly viewed, a happy home
-would seem preferable to a seat on Parnassus, and the
-Fountain of Content would furnish more palatable
-draughts than the Font of Helicon. The quiet home
-is not always the muses’ bower; though we trust the
-muses’ bower is placed in no turbulent society.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Women write for women. They may entertain,
-but cannot, from the nature of the case, become instructors
-to men. They know far less of life, their
-circle of experience is confined. They are unfitted
-for many paths of active exertion, and consequently
-are rendered incapable of forming just opinions on
-many matters. We do not include a natural incapacity
-for many studies, and as natural a dislike for
-many more. Many kinds of learning, and many actual
-necessary pursuits and practices, it is deemed
-improper for a refined woman to know. How, then,
-<span class='it'>can</span> a female author become a teacher of men?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Literature would miss many pleasant associations
-if the names of the best female writers were expunged
-from a list of classic authors, and the world
-would lose many delightful works—the novel of
-sentiment and the novel of manners, letter writing,
-moral tales for children, books of travels, gossiping
-memoirs—Mrs. Inchbald, Madame D’Arblay, Miss
-Edgeworth, Lady M. W. Montague, Miss Martineau,
-and Miss Sedgwick, with a host besides. Women
-have sprightliness, cleverness, smartness, though but
-little wit. There is a body and substance in true
-wit, with a reflectiveness rarely found apart from a
-masculine intellect. In all English comedy, we recollect
-but two female writers of sterling value,
-Mrs. Conley and Mrs. Guthrie, and their plays are
-formed on the Spanish model, and made up of incident
-and intrigue, much more than of fine repartees or
-brilliant dialogue. We know of no one writer of the
-other sex, that has a high character for humor—no
-Rabelais, no Sterne, no Swift, no Goldsmith, no
-Dickens, no Irving. The female character does not
-admit of it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Women cannot write history. It requires too
-great solidity, and too minute research for their
-quick intellects. They write, instead, delightful
-memoirs. Who, but an antiquary or historical
-commentator, had not rather read Lucy Hutchinson’s
-Life of her Husband, than any of the professed
-histories of the Commonwealth—and exchange Lady
-Fanshawe for the other royalist biographers.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Neither are women to turn politicians or orators.
-We hope never to hear of a female Burke; she
-would be an overbearing termagant. A spice of a
-talent for scolding, is the highest form of eloquence
-we can conscientiously allow the ladies.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Criticism is for men; when women assume it,
-they write scandal. The current notion of criticism
-with most, is that of libelous abuse. From all such,
-Heaven defend us.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Women feel more than they think, and (sometimes)
-say more than do. They are consequently better
-adapted to describe sentiments, than to speculate on
-causes and effects. They are more at home in their
-letters, than in tracts of political economy.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The proper faculties in women to cultivate most
-assiduously are, the taste and the religious sentiment;
-the first, as the leading trait of the intellectual; and
-the last, as the governing power of the moral constitution.
-Give a woman a pure taste and high principles,
-and she is safe from the arts of the wiliest
-libertine. Let her have all other gifts but these, and
-she is comparatively defenceless. Taste purifies the
-heart as well as the head, and religion strengthens
-both. The strongest propensities to pleasure are not
-so often the means of disgrace and ruin, as the carelessness
-of ignorant virtue, and an unenlightened
-moral sense. This makes all the difference in the
-world, between the daughter of a poor countryman,
-and the child of an educated gentleman. Both have
-the same desires, but how differently directed and
-controlled. Yet we find nineteen lapses from virtue
-in the one case, where we find one in the other.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Believing that what does not interest, does not
-benefit the mind, we would avoid all pedantic lectures
-to women, on all subjects to which they discover
-any aversion. Study should be made a pleasure,
-and reading pure recreation. In a general
-sense, we would say the best works for female
-readers are those that tend to form the highest
-domestic character. Works of the highest imagination,
-as being above that condition, and scientific
-authors, who address a different class of faculties,
-are both unsuitable. An admirable wife may not
-relish the sublimity of Milton or Hamlet; and a
-charming companion be ignorant of the existence of
-such a science as Algebra. A superficial acquaintance
-with the elements of the physical sciences, is
-worse than total unacquaintance with them.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Religion should be taught as a sentiment, not as an
-abstract principle, or in doctrinal positions, a sentiment
-of love and grateful obedience; morality, impressed
-as the practical exercise of self-denial and
-active benevolence. In courses of reading, too much
-is laid down of a dry nature. Girls are disgusted
-with tedious accounts of battles and negotiations,
-dates and names. The moral should be educed best
-filled for the female heart, and apart from the romantic
-periods, and the reigns of female sovereigns, or
-epochs when the women held a very prominent
-place in the state, or in public regard. We would
-have women affectionate wives, obedient daughters,
-agreeable companions, skilful economists, judicious
-friends; but we must confess it does not fall within
-our scheme to make them legislators or lawyers,
-diplomatists or politicians. We therefore think
-nine tenths of all history is absolutely useless for
-women. Too many really good biographies of great
-and good men and women can hardly be read, and
-will be read to much greater advantage than histories,
-as they leave a definite and individual impression.
-The reading good books of travels, is,
-next to going over the ground in person, the best
-method of studying geography. Grammar and rhetoric,<a id='r7'/><a href='#f7' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[7]</span></sup></a>
-(after a clear statement of the elements and
-chief rules,) are best learnt in the perusal of classic
-authors, the essayists, &amp;c.; and, in the same way,
-the theory of taste and the arts. The most important
-of accomplishments is not systematically treated in
-any system—conversation. But a father and mother
-of education, can teach this better than any professor.
-Expensive schools turn out half-trained pupils.
-Eight years at home, well employed, and two at a
-good but not fashionable school, are better than ten
-years spent in the most popular female seminary,
-conducted in the ordinary style. Such is a meagre
-outline of our idea of female education, into which
-we have digressed unawares.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Female authors should constitute a fair proportion
-of a lady’s library—and those masculine writers who
-have something of the tenderness and purity of the
-feminine character in their works. The subjects
-and authors we propose for occasional consideration,
-will embrace specimens of each, in prose and
-poetry, fiction and reality, satire and sentiment. We
-think we may promise a less erudite paper for the
-second number, though to some readers all that is
-not very lively is proportionably dull.</p>
-
-<hr class='footnotemark'/>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_6'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' class='footnoteid'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div class='footnote-id' id='f6'><a href='#r6'>[6]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This lady’s failure in an attempt to translate Æschylus,
-is a fair confirmation of our opinion of the inability of the
-female imagination to soar beyond a certain height.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_7'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' class='footnoteid'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div class='footnote-id' id='f7'><a href='#r7'>[7]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The benefit flowing from <span class='it'>these</span> studies is chiefly of a
-negative character.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk119'/>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/i106.jpg' alt='a man on horseback stopped at a cottage doorway' id='iid-0003' style='width:100%;height:auto;'/>
-<p class='caption'><span style='font-size:smaller'>A. L. Dick</span><br/></p> <br/><span class='it'><span class='it'>The Pastor’s Visit</span></span><br/>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk120'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='pas'></a>THE PASTOR’S VISIT.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-weight:bold;'>ILLUSTRATION OF A PICTURE.</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>The noon is past—the sun declines</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Below the western hills;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Upon the peasant’s face joy shines.</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And peace his bosom fills.</p>
-<p class='line0'>He stands beside the cottage door,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;His wife and children round,</p>
-<p class='line0'>With that content which evermore</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Doth with the true abound.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>The pastor, pausing on his way,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Surveys the happy scene;</p>
-<p class='line0'>If all mankind were pure as they</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Slights tasks for him, I ween!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Not in the peasant’s cottage dwell</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Sin and her joyless train,</p>
-<p class='line0'>He thinks of palace, dome and cell,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And passes on again!</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk121'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='has'></a>THE HASTY MARRIAGE.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-weight:bold;'>A SKETCH FROM REAL LIFE.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY THE AUTHOR OF “THE BRIDAL.”</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>How few “look before they leap,” even in an affair
-of so much moment as matrimony. We fear the
-fault is in our system. We educate our daughters
-superficially—for <span class='it'>display</span> rather than usefulness—to
-catch the eye rather than win the heart. Our girls
-are taught in early life, either directly or indirectly,
-that marriage is the great object of woman’s ambition,
-and in endeavoring to secure that object, and to surpass
-in the race of conquest their companions and
-rivals, they sometimes wed rashly and to the sacrifice
-of happiness. Difficult, we are aware, is the task
-of discrimination with the young and inexperienced.
-Pure and artless themselves, they are apt to imagine
-the possession of like virtues by all others, and to
-conceive it impossible for a fine form and a handsome
-face to be associated with a false heart. Alas!
-how often are they disappointed! How frequently
-do the sudden attachments of early life prove hollow
-and unsubstantial! How often is it discovered that
-the first dream of love, which has been so extravagantly
-eulogized by poets and romancers, was a mere
-delusion that would not bear the test of time and of
-reason! With what bitterness of disappointment
-have many started from this dream! Stripped of the
-rainbow coloring with which the fancy is apt to paint
-an object of idolatry, how prominent appear the darkness
-and the deformity! How broad the contrast
-between the just view of truth and the rapid and prejudiced
-survey of passion! How often do we see
-beings standing before the altar, pledging themselves
-to each other for weal and for wo, who, comparatively
-speaking, were strangers but yesterday!
-Knowing little of each other’s lives and dispositions,
-merits or demerits, they are willing to risk peace of
-mind for long years, and to identify destinies for time,
-perhaps for eternity! Can we wonder that strife
-sometimes mars the domestic circle—that wives are
-left lonely and deserted—that the agency of man
-should so often be invoked to part beings who have
-been joined together by an ordinance of God!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A happy union is indeed a scene upon which, without
-irreverence, we may suppose the angels in Heaven
-gaze from their bright places of abode with
-delight and approval. An unnatural or a discordant
-marriage, on the other hand, must form a source of
-delight to the arch enemy of mankind, for in it he
-can recognize the soul of evil. That the young
-should seek for and cling to a kindred spirit is natural.
-The undivided possession of a pure heart is perhaps
-the very acme of human felicity. “One home, one
-wife, and one God,” is the sentiment of one of the
-wisest of his race, and it is only when man is on the
-shady side of fifty that he begins to appreciate the
-truth of this philosophy in all its solemnity and force.
-Then his pleasures of life are derived as much from
-the past as the future, and the associations of that
-past, if mingled with virtue, fidelity, patriotism and
-religion, are indeed blissful.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We pity the lonely and the desolate—the loveless
-and the unloved—the being without a wife or a friend—without
-one trusting and confiding spirit, to whom
-the heart may turn in its hour of sorrow and pour out
-its inmost and saddest thoughts. The cold and selfish
-mortal who passes year after year without experiencing
-the delightful concord of sentiment to be found in
-a kindred soul, is indeed the most miserable of his
-species. Even his joys are robbed of half their delight,
-because unshared by another, by one to whom
-he is allied by love and friendship. Wretched indeed
-is the isolated individual who, mingling with
-the multitude, can single out no destiny identified
-with his—no faithful and devoted heart, the breath of
-whose existence seems bound up with his. Nature
-has denied to such a being the holiest impulses
-that warm and agitate the human breast. Even the
-birds are mated, and without a ministering angel “a
-sweet companion,” the first born was lonely and
-desolate in the garden of Eden. So it must ever be
-with the frail and feeble things of mortal existence.
-If Paradise could not be appreciated and enjoyed
-alone, how can man reconcile loneliness to his fallen
-condition? The desire of the heart is for sweet companionship—the
-inward craving of the spirit is for a
-being to love. Can we wonder then that in this
-country, where early marriage is taught to be desirable,
-so many should choose rashly?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We remember <span class='sc'>Annette Delisle</span> as a being of
-yesterday. She sang well—she danced well—and in
-many respects she was a beauty. Not one of our
-beauties at the time, for her form was too slight and
-sylph-like,—her joy was too gushing—her spirits too
-redundant. She dressed from early childhood with
-taste and elegance, and wore her dark hair in long
-ringlets over her shoulders. She had many friends,
-and even at sixteen her admirers were liberal in
-number and profuse in flattery. Her mother, a
-weak and vain woman, was proud of her daughter—proud
-of the attention that daughter received, and
-eager to display her on every occasion. Thus she
-not only frequently accompanied her to public balls,
-which were then more fashionable and somewhat
-more select than at present, but she permitted her to
-accept of numerous invitations to parties, and to
-mingle almost nightly during the winter season in
-the gay scenes of our metropolis. The father, good-natured
-man, was a manufacturer, and was so wedded
-to business, that he could not spare time even
-for the proper care of his favorite child. Alas!
-this good nature in fathers! It sometimes degenerates
-into a sad vice, and is the source of much
-misery in after life. The man who lacks the energy
-to control his own household,—who is either too
-negligent, or too weak to point out the true path and
-to direct the footsteps of his offspring therein, is
-guilty of much that is unpardonable.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But such a father was Mr. Delisle, while the mother,
-worse if possible, gave the reins almost wholly
-into the hands of her daughter, and was but too fond of
-the hollow and unmeaning admiration which the practiced
-in art and in compliment among the sterner sex
-are so apt to bestow upon the vain and empty, whether
-old or young.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The result of this course upon Annette Delisle may
-well be imagined. While she sparkled in the ball
-room, and glittered in the giddy throng, her heart,
-her mind, and her morals were neglected. The
-mazes of the world, its quicksands and its hypocrisy
-were unknown to her. She flirted, laughed and
-trifled with the many, caught one hour by a fine
-form, another by a rich voice, and a third by a dashing
-exterior. And yet, in the depths of that young
-girl’s breast, were rich and true affections. Properly
-trained, she would have graced any circle. Her
-mind was good by nature—her spirit was benevolent
-and cheerful—and many of the lights of beauty
-flashed and brightened around her. Despite her
-artificial manner, and her air of coquetry, her feelings
-were deep and strong. Her being was one of
-impulse, and her attachments, even to her school
-companions, were animated by truth and fidelity.
-Thus it was when Annette discovered that the society
-of Howard Leroy possessed an unusual charm for
-her—that she saw him approach with pleasure—that
-she listened with more than her wonted attention
-to his remarks—that she felt the blood mount to
-her cheek at his compliments—that she found her
-eyes following as he wandered through the ball
-room—that she lisped his name even in her dreams.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Never can I forget the dashing Leroy. He was
-what is usually denominated “a handsome fellow”—one
-of the butterflies of society—a ladies’ man,
-in the general acceptation, and a favorite also with
-his own sex. He rode well, talked well, and sang
-an excellent song. This latter qualification was in
-some respects a fatal gift, for it introduced him into
-many a gay circle from which he otherwise would
-have been excluded—made him sought for, and vain
-of his voice, and thus won him away from the more
-useful pursuits of life. Leroy, moreover, was fond of
-poetry—was able to quote glowing passages, and had,
-withal, a touch of romance in his character, which
-served not a little to enhance him in the estimation
-of some of his female acquaintance. He assumed a
-remarkable degree of independence—was rather
-bold and reckless in his manner and language, and
-possessed the faculty of talking for hours in relation
-to the prominent beauties of Moore, Byron and Bulwer.
-These were the traits of character which won
-upon the mind and heart of Annette Delisle. Her
-education and mode of life had fitted her for the arts
-of such a man. She fancied him something superior
-to the ordinary fop—to the mere merchant or shopkeeper.
-Leroy became her ardent and enthusiastic
-admirer. The fact soon reached the ears of her
-father. He roused himself for the moment, and proceeded
-to investigate the realities of the case. Leroy
-he ascertained to be an idle, dissolute pretender, and
-dependent, he feared, upon the gaming-table for his
-means of subsistence. He was of good family, and
-had received a fair education. But he had gone
-astray from the path of rectitude in early life, and
-now contrived to appear on the principal promenades
-as a fashionable lounger—but the world wondered
-how!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The manufacturer was terrified at the prospect for
-his daughter, whom he really loved, but it was too
-late. Leroy saw the storm coming, and prevailed
-upon Annette, by falsehood and misrepresentation,
-to consent to a secret marriage. Fondly and long
-she clung to the delusion that her husband had been
-slandered—that one who could <span class='it'>talk</span> so well, and <span class='it'>profess</span>
-so much, could not be a villain. He <span class='it'>was</span> not
-one, perhaps, in the usual interpretation; but we
-can conceive of no more heartless wretch than the
-man who deliberately deceives and betrays a fond
-and confiding woman. Leroy never loved Annette
-with a true and exalted affection. He felt himself
-bankrupt in fortune, and nearly so in character, and
-he was base enough to become the husband of an
-unsuspecting girl, in the hope of a dependency upon
-the bounty of her father. Deceived in this, for the
-old manufacturer would have nothing to do with
-him, he soon threw off the mask. At first cold and
-indifferent, he speedily grew harsh and unkind.
-True, there were moments when his better nature
-prevailed, and he would endeavor, by apparent contrition
-and well turned promises, to atone for his conduct.
-But, they were few and far between, and
-diminished in number as time rolled on. Strange,
-despite the giddy character of Annette—despite the
-little care which had been bestowed upon her principles,
-she clung to him with the true fidelity of
-woman. She loved him with her whole soul, and
-while the pride of her woman nature repelled the
-idea of any public exposure of her situation, and
-while she even concealed from her parents much of
-the unworthy conduct of Leroy, she still cherished
-a belief of his ultimate reform. Night after
-night she sat in her quiet chamber, or gazed earnestly
-from the window, in the hope that the form of
-her husband might appear before the midnight
-hour. Who may paint the agony of her mind at such
-moments—the jealous fears that shot like daggers
-through her breast, as to his haunts and his society—the
-apprehension of danger and of death—the terrible
-fancies which mingled him in some dreadful scene at
-the gaming table—and, worse than all, the oft repelled,
-but still returning conviction, that the wine
-cup was too familiar with his lips!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>God, in pity look down upon and impart moral
-courage to the lonely wives of the world—the dejected
-ones to whom home is desolate, whose hearts
-are breaking slowly, secretly, string by string—who
-live only for their little ones, and because they know
-it wrong to plunge unbidden into eternity! Beings
-who have ventured their all of earthly happiness,
-and have lost all—who have been deceived, betrayed,
-and are now deserted! Pity and console
-them, Great Creator, for the misery of unrequited
-love, of wounded pride, of crushed affection, of
-hopeless despair throughout this life, can only be
-soothed and softened by a heavenly influence!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Poor Annette! Step by step her husband plunged
-on in the downward path. Ray after ray departed
-from the light of her beauty. Wider and wider became
-the gulf between the manufacturer and his
-son-in-law. But, horror of horrors! the crisis soon
-came! The resource of gambling failed at last with
-Leroy, and <span class='it'>then</span>—he resorted to forgery!—ay! he
-forged the name of George Delisle, the father of his
-wife, and fled the country in order to escape the
-penalty of his crime!</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk122'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But a few days have gone by since we saw Annette.
-Only five years have elapsed since her marriage.
-What a change! The lily has supplanted
-the rose—the eye has lost its fire—the step its buoyancy—the
-form its grace. She is a doomed and
-broken hearted woman. Disease has “marked her
-for his own.” Loss of sleep—mental anxiety—the
-disgrace—the shame—the ignominy of her husband’s
-career, are hurrying her rapidly to a premature
-grave!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mothers, be warned! Virtue, Integrity and Religion
-are the only safe companions for your budding
-and beautiful daughters!</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk123'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='win'></a>TO THE NIGHT-WIND IN AUTUMN.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY THE AUTHOR OF “TECUMSEH.”</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Whence art thou, spirit wind?</p>
-<p class='line0'>Soothing with thy low voice the ear of Night,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And breathing o’er the wakeful, pensive mind</p>
-<p class='line0'>An influence of pleased yet sad delight.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thou tell’st not of thy birth,</p>
-<p class='line0'>O viewless wanderer from land to land:</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;But gathering all the secrets of the earth</p>
-<p class='line0'>Where’er, unseen, thy airy wings expand,</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;At this hushed, holy hour,</p>
-<p class='line0'>When time seems part of vast eternity,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thou dost reveal them with a magic power,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Saddening the soul with thy weird minstrelsy.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;All nature seems to hear,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The woods, the waters, and each silent star;</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;What, that can thus enchain their earnest ear,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Bring’st thou of untold tidings from afar?</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Is it of new, fair lands,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of fresh-lit worlds that in the welkin burn!</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Do new oäses gem Zahara’s sands,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Or the lost Pleiad to the skies return?</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Nay! ’tis a voice of grief,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of grief subdued, but deepened through long years,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The soul of Sorrow, seeking not relief,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Still gathering bitter knowledge without tears.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;For thou, since earth was young</p>
-<p class='line0'>And rose green Eden purpled with the morn,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Its solemn wastes and homes of men among,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Circling all zones, thy mourning flight hast borne.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Empires have risen in might,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And peopled cities through the outspread earth,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And thou hast passed them at the hour of night</p>
-<p class='line0'>Listing the sounds of revelry and mirth.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Again thou hast gone by⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>City and empire were alike o’erthrown,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Temple and palace, fall’n confusedly,</p>
-<p class='line0'>In marble ruin on the desert strown.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;In time-long solitudes,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Where dark, old mountains pierced the silent air,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Bright rivers roamed, and stretched untraversed woods,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thou joy’dst to hope that these were changeless there.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Lo! as the ages passed,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thou found’st them struck with alteration dire,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The streams new-channeled, forests earthward cast,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The crumbling mountains scathed with storm and fire.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Gone but a few short hours,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Beauty and bloom beguiled thy wanderings,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And thou mad’st love unto the virgin flowers,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Sighing through green trees and by mossy springs.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Now on the earth’s cold bed,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Fallen and faded, waste their forms away,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And all around the withered leaves are shed,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Mementos mute of Nature’s wide decay.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Vain is the breath of morn;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Vainly the night-dews on their couches weep;</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;In vain thou call’st them at thy soft return,</p>
-<p class='line0'>No more awaking from their gloomy sleep.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Oh hush! Oh hush! sweet wind!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thou melancholy soul! be still, I pray,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Nor pierce this heart so long in grief resigned,</p>
-<p class='line0'>With ’plainings for the loved but lifeless clay.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Ah! now by thee I hear</p>
-<p class='line0'>The earnest, gentle voices, as of old:</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;They speak—in accents tremulously clear⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>The young, the beautiful, the noble-souled.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The beautiful, the young,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The form of light, the wise and honored head⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thou bring’st the music of a lyre unstrung!⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Oh cease!—with tears I ask it—they are <span class='it'>dead</span>!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;While mortal joys depart,</p>
-<p class='line0'>While loved ones lie beneath the grave’s green sod,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;May we not fail to hear, with trembling heart,</p>
-<p class='line0'>In thy low tone the “still small voice of <span class='sc'>God</span>.”</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk124'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='rev'></a>REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.</h1></div>
-
-<hr class='tbk125'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Natural History of New York: By Authority. Albany,
-Thurlow Weed, Printer to the State. New York, Wiley
-&amp; Putnam, and D. Appleton &amp; Co.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We are among those who believe that, as characterizing
-the present age, the cultivation of purely mechanical and
-natural science has been carried much too far, or rather,
-has been made too exclusive and absorbing. It is not the
-<span class='it'>highest</span> science—for it concerns only that which is around
-us—which is altogether outward. Man is always greater
-than the world of nature in which he lives, and just as
-clearly must the <span class='it'>science</span> of man, the philosophy of his moral
-and intellectual being, rank far above that of the soulless
-creation which was made to minister to his wants. When,
-therefore, this lower science so draws to itself the life of
-any age, as to disparage and shut out the higher, it works a
-positive injury to the well-being of that age. Still it is
-only thus in comparison with a nobler and more lofty study
-that we would venture to cast the faintest reproach upon
-that natural science which in no slight degree absorbs the
-intellectual effort of the present generation. Regarded as
-related to, and a part of, a complete system of education, it
-becomes most important and necessary; and its cultivation,
-even to apparent excess, a cause of rejoicing and a source
-of the highest hope.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We need scarcely say, then, that we look upon the explorations
-which have been made “by authority” into the
-Geology and general Natural History of several of the most
-important States in the Union, as among the proudest
-achievements of the present day. Most of them, it is true,
-grew out of designs not the highest on the part of those by
-whom they were originated. The development of resources,
-the discovery of mineral wealth, or other elements
-of power, formed in most cases the principal aim of those
-at whose instance these surveys were undertaken. But
-this is of little importance. The results are, on this account,
-none the less valuable to the cause of natural science,
-nor is our joy at their successful prosecution the less ardent
-or sincere. In all the States in which they have been undertaken,
-they have been fruitful of the best results; and
-the facts thus brought together will be found of priceless
-value to students and inquirers for ages to come.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The State of New York has just completed her survey,
-which has been conducted on a scale commensurate with
-her wealth and enterprise. The different departments of
-the survey were, in 1836, assigned to eight gentlemen well
-qualified for the task, and from that time until their completion,
-the explorations were conducted with energy and
-enthusiasm. The reports are to be published in ten magnificent
-quarto volumes, of which the first is now before
-us. A more splendid monument of intelligent enterprise
-in the cause of science, has seldom been erected by any
-State. The first volume contains only a portion of the first
-report on Zoology, by Mr. <span class='sc'>James E. DeKay</span>, to whom this
-department was committed. Governor Seward has written
-an introduction to the work, which occupies nearly two
-hundred pages. It is valuable as a historical record of the
-progress of the arts, the sciences, and the various branches
-of enterprise and industry in the State, though as a literary
-performance it can claim no especial merit. It is, indeed,
-little more than a compendium of the history of the State,
-and of its general statistics, of which the different portions
-have been contributed by different persons. The portion of
-the Zoological Report which this volume contains—relating
-merely to the Mammalia of the State—is highly valuable,
-and, to the naturalist, exceedingly interesting. Previous
-to this survey, no complete Zoology of the State had
-been attempted. In 1813, Samuel L. Mitchell commenced
-an account of the fishes of New York, which was the first
-work on the subject ever undertaken; and the impulse
-given to the science by his labors in fact laid the foundation
-for whatever has been effected in the same department
-since. Several other branches of Zoology had received
-some slight attention before the commencement of the State
-survey. Bachman, a well known naturalist of South
-Carolina, had made interesting discoveries in the families
-of smaller quadrupeds, and much valuable information
-concerning the ornithology of the State had been collected
-by Wilson, Audubon, Cooper, Bonaparte and DeKay.
-Barnes had classified the Unionidæ of the lakes and rivers,
-and the Mollusca of the sea coast had been well studied by
-Dr. Gay, of New York city. But the report of Mr. DeKay
-in this department presents by far a more full and comprehensive
-account of the Zoology of New York than had
-ever before been made. The State was divided into four
-Zoological districts: first, the western district, embracing
-all the western portion of the State, as far east as the
-sources of the Mohawk; second, the northern, comprising
-all that portion of the State lying north of the Mohawk
-valley; third, the valley of the Hudson, including all the
-counties watered by that river and its tributaries; and
-fourth, the Atlantic district, embracing Long Island. In
-regard to its natural history, the northern district is by far
-the most important. Strange as it may seem to those who
-are accustomed to hear only of the wealth, the refinement,
-and the advanced civilization of the “Empire State,” there
-is embraced in this northern district a great tract of a thousand
-square miles, lying in loneliness, fresh as it came from
-the hand of God, untouched, and almost unvisited by man.
-It is clad with forests of great and majestic beauty, echoing
-only the sigh of the tempest, the screams of the untamed
-dwellers in its wilds, and now and then the rifle of the
-hunter, who there finds game, such as in long gone times
-the red men loved to chase. It is thickly overspread with
-lakes, embosomed in mountains, now lying calmly and
-smilingly beneath the sun, and the next hour lashed into
-frowns, when</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line0'>“The tempest shooteth, from the steep,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;The shadow of its coming.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'>Travelers who would wander through it, must provide
-themselves with guides, and trust to hunting and chance for
-food and lodging. No one <span class='it'>lives</span> there—the whole is one
-vast, solitary wilderness, untouched by man—lying in its
-own majesty—unconscious even that the foot of the adventurous
-Genoese has been set upon the continent.</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line0'>“Still this great solitude is quick with life;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Myriads of insects, gaudy as the flowers</p>
-<p class='line0'>They flutter over, gentle quadrupeds,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And birds that scarce have learned the fear of man,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Are here, and sliding reptiles of the ground,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Startlingly beautiful.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'>This vast wild region is inhabited by many animals that
-are rarely found in any other portion of the State. The
-bear, the moose, the panther, the deer, and most fur-bearing
-animals, make their homes among its mountains. Arctic
-birds, too, that are never known farther south, are seen in
-abundance. The whole district covers an area of about six
-thousand square miles. The western district is eminent for
-its fertility and beauty, and has also a high degree of zoological
-interest.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The number of quadrupeds enumerated in the report, as
-found within the State, is something more than one hundred.
-Each of these is scientifically and fully described. Included
-in the volume are a great number of illustrations, taken
-with the greatest care from the living animals or the best
-specimens that could be found. The real colors are preserved,
-and in every case the relative size is indicated.
-The outlines, for the purpose of accuracy, were always
-taken with a camera lucida, and the illustrations, drawn by
-Hill, were lithographed by Endicott.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The whole style of the work is eminently worthy the enterprise,
-results of which it contains, and the State which
-undertook its fulfilment. We look for the forthcoming
-volumes with no little interest. The botanical department
-has been under the charge of John Toney; the mineralogical
-and chemical were assigned to Lewis C. Beck; the geological
-to W. W. Mather, Ebenezer Emmons, James Hall,
-and Leonard Vanuxem, and the palæontological to Timothy
-A. Conrad. Beside these reports, the results of the survey
-appear in eight several collections of specimens of the animals,
-plants, soils, minerals, rocks and fossils, found within
-the State—one of which collections constitutes a museum
-of natural history at the capital of the State, and the others
-are distributed among collegiate institutions. We rejoice
-at the completion of this great survey, and hope soon to see
-a similar exploration effected in every State of the Union.
-The cause of science will receive from it an aid of which
-scientific men alone can rightly estimate the value.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk126'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Holy War, made by Shaddai upon Diabolus, for the
-Regaining of the Metropolis of the World. By John
-Bunyan. Philadelphia, American Sunday School Union.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The celebrated Dr. Owen was occasionally one of the
-hearers of Bunyan, when he preached in London; and being
-asked by Charles the Second how a learned man, like
-him, could listen to the prating of an illiterate tinker, he
-is said to have replied, “May it please your Majesty, could
-I possess that tinker’s abilities for preaching, I would gladly
-relinquish all my scholarship.” His genius as an author
-was even greater than he exhibited in the pulpit. Southey,
-Macauley, and other eminent critics, regard him as one of
-the “immortal authors of England.” The Pilgrim’s Progress
-has been the most popular of his sixty or seventy
-works. Probably no book by an uninspired writer has been
-more universally read. The Holy War was written ten
-years after the appearance of that beautiful creation, and if
-not equal to it in all respects, is certainly one of the most
-ingenious allegories in the language, as well as one of the
-most <span class='it'>useful</span> exhibitions of practical Christianity. The edition
-before us is superior to any other printed in America,
-in its typography and illustrations.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk127'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Little Gift</span>; <span class='it'>Useful Stories</span>; <span class='it'>Poems for Little Folks</span>.
-<span class='it'>Three small volumes.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mr. Colman, of New York, in the autumn of every year,
-publishes numerous miniature gift books for children, with
-fine engravings, instructive tales and poems, etc., of which
-the above are specimens.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk128'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Thulia: A Poem: By J. C. Palmer, M. D., U. S. N. Illustrated
-with Twelve Original Designs, by A. Agate,
-Artist of the late Exploring Expedition. One volume,
-octavo. New York, Samuel Colman.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This beautifully printed and illustrated volume resembles
-very much, in its appearance, the elegant edition of Gray’s
-“Elegy,” published several years since in London. We
-can say no more in praise of its typography and embellishments.
-The poem itself possesses considerable merit.
-Doctor Palmer was attached to the Exploring Expedition
-which returned to this country last summer from the southern
-seas, and “Thulia” is founded on incidents which occurred
-on the war-ship Peacock, and the schooner Flying
-Fish, while in the Antarctic ocean. The verse is free and
-melodious, and the ideas and illustrations generally appropriate
-and poetical. We quote a lyric that will convey
-to the reader a just idea of the poet’s style.</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;ANTARCTIC MARINER’S SONG.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Sweetly, from the land of roses,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Sighing comes the northern breeze;</p>
-<p class='line0'>And the smile of dawn reposes,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;All in blushes, on the seas.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Now within the sleeping sail,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Murmurs soft the gentle gale.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Ease the sheet, and keep away:</p>
-<p class='line0'>Glory guides us South to-day!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Yonder, see! the icy portal</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Opens for us to the Pole;</p>
-<p class='line0'>And, where never entered mortal,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thither speed we to the goal.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Hopes before and doubts behind,</p>
-<p class='line0'>On we fly before the wind.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Steady, so—now let it blow!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Glory guides, and South we go.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Vainly do these gloomy borders,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;All their frightful forms oppose;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Vainly frown these frozen warders,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Mailed in sleet, and helmed in snow.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Though, beneath the ghastly skies,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Curdled all the ocean lies,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Lash we up its foam anew—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Dash we all its terrors through!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Circled by these columns hoary,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;All the field of fame is ours;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Here to carve a name in story,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Or a tomb beneath these towers.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Southward still our way we trace,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Winding through an icy maze.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Luff her to—there she goes through!</p>
-<p class='line0'>Glory leads, and we pursue.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'>The notes appended to the poem contain the most interesting
-account of the expedition that has yet been given to
-the public.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk129'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Scenes in the Holy Land: one volume square duodecimo.
-Philadelphia, American Sunday School Union.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This work is founded on, or rather is a free translation
-of, the “Scènes Evangéliques” of Napoleon Roussel, published
-a year or two since in Paris. It contains an account
-of the principal incidents in the lives of the Savior and of
-the great apostle of the Gentiles, written with singular simplicity
-and perspicuity, and illustrated with numerous etchings
-by a clever French artist. It is published, we believe,
-as a juvenile gift book for the holiday season.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk130'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Ladies’ Annual Register for 1843. New York, S. Colman.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Ladies’ Annual Register is a neat little annuary,
-edited for several years by Mrs. Gilman, of Charleston. It
-embraces, beside the usual contents of the almanacs, many
-useful recipes for the housewife, with anecdotes, poems,
-etc.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk131'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Biblical and Prophetical Works of Rev. George Bush, D. D.,
-author of “The Life of Mohammed,” etc., and Professor
-of Hebrew in the New York City University. New York,
-Dayton &amp; Newman.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Professor Bush is one of the most profound and ingenious
-scholars and critics of the present age, and we perceive
-with pleasure that he is rapidly multiplying the fruits of
-his industrious pen. To all the lovers of sound biblical exposition
-it must be gratifying to know that the Hebrew
-Scriptures are in a fair way to develop their riches to the
-English reader more fully than ever before. Professor
-Bush’s commentaries on the Old Testament, now extending
-to six volumes, embrace all the works of the Pentateuch
-but the last two, and these, we learn, he proposes shortly
-to enter upon. His careful study, his scrupulous fidelity
-in eliciting the exact meaning of the original, and his peculiar
-tact in explaining it, have made his Notes everywhere
-popular, so that before the completion of the series, the first
-volume has reached a sixth edition, the second a fifth, etc.
-In all of them will be found discussions on the most important
-points of biblical science, extending far beyond the
-ordinary dimensions of expository notes, and amounting in
-fact to elaborate dissertations of great value. Among the
-subjects thus extensively treated are, in Genesis, the temptation
-and the fall, the dispersion from Babel, the prophecies
-of Noah, the character of Melchizedec, the destruction of
-Sodom and Gomorrah, the history of Joseph, and the prophetical
-benedictions of Jacob; in Exodus, the hardening
-of Pharaoh’s heart, the miracles of the magicians, the pillar
-of cloud as the seat of the Shekinah, the decalogue, the Hebrew
-theocracy, the tabernacle, the cherubim, the candle-stick,
-the shew bread, the altar, &amp;c.; in Leviticus, a clear
-and minute specification of the different sacrifices, the law
-of marriage, including the case of marriage with a deceased
-wife’s sister, very largely considered, and a full account of
-the Jewish festivals. The sixth volume, including Joshua
-and Judges, contains an ample and erudite exposition of
-the Song of Deborah, and an extended discussion on the
-subject of Jeptha’s vow, with a view to determine whether
-the Jewish warrior really sacrificed his daughter. The
-Professor gives an array of very strong reasons in favor of
-the negative.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In his celebrated “Treatise on the Millennium,” which
-merely as a literary performance has received the highest
-commendations of the critics, our author has assumed
-the position that the millennium, <span class='it'>strictly so called</span>, is past.
-But by the millennium he does not understand the golden
-age of the church, which he, in common with nearly all
-good men, regards as a future era. He contends that as
-the memorable period of the thousand years of the apocalypse
-is distinguished mainly by the binding of the symbolical
-dragon, we must first determine by the legitimate
-canons of interpretation what is shadowed forth by this
-mystic personage, before we can assure ourselves of the
-true character of the millennial age. But the dragon, he
-supposes, is the grand hieroglyphic of Paganism—the
-“binding of the dragon,” but a figurative phrase for the
-suppression of Paganism within the limits of the Roman
-empire, a fulfilment which he contends commenced in the
-reign of Constantine, and was consummated in that of
-Theodosius, his successor. Professor Bush draws largely
-on the pages of Gibbon in support of his theory, assuming
-all along the great foundation principle that <span class='it'>the apocalypse
-of John is but a series of pictured emblems, shadowing
-forth the ecclesiastical and civil history of the world</span>. From
-a cursory examination of his Treatise, we are inclined to
-adopt the opinion of one of the first theologians of our
-country, that if his premises be admitted, his conclusion is
-irresistible; and that <span class='it'>he</span> did not know how to gainsay the
-premises.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the Hierophant, a monthly publication of which he is
-editor, he enters elaborately into the nature of the prophetic
-symbols, and in the last number brings out some
-grand results as to the physical destiny of the globe. He
-assumes that a fair construction of the language of the prophets
-is far from countenancing the idle dreams of Miller
-and his school respecting the literal conflagration of the
-heavens and the earth, and does not even teach that such a
-catastrophe is <span class='it'>ever</span> to take place. He denies not that this
-<span class='it'>may</span> possibly be the finale which awaits our planet and
-the solar system, but if so, it is to be gathered rather from
-astronomy than revelation—from the apocalypse of Newton,
-Laplace and Herschell, than from that of John.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In general literature, in science and in art, America has
-furnished some of the best names in the world of letters;
-but it is in theology and religious philosophy that our countrymen
-have made the greatest advances. We need but
-allude to Edwards, Dwight, Emmons, Marsh, Beecher,
-Alexander, Stuart, McIlvaine, and Bush in proof of this.
-Perhaps we may add to the list Orestes Brownson, who,
-however erratic and peculiar, is a man of singular genius
-and sincerity. In our endeavors to keep the readers of this
-magazine advised of the condition of our literature, we
-should fail of our intent if at times we did not notice books
-and authors of a grave character. The useful and the true
-is in every thing the national aim. The writings of which
-we have spoken particularly in this brief notice, are distinguished
-for remarkable directness of language and logical
-clearness, as much as for profound scholarship, and they
-are among the most original works of their class brought
-out in our times.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk132'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Songs, Odes, and other Poems, on National Subjects:
-Compiled from Various Sources: by William McCarty.
-Three volumes duodecimo. Philadelphia, W. McCarty.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mr. McCarty is a bookseller, of the long established house
-of McCarty &amp; Davis, in Market street. He is an antiquary
-also, and has in his chambers one of the best collections of
-books relating to our history and antiquities to be found in
-this country. Several years ago he “formed the plan of gathering
-together our national songs and ballads, deeming
-the task, however humble,” he says, “one of which the
-result would be acceptable to his countrymen.” He has
-since gleaned from all the files of magazines, newspapers
-and other periodicals, in the public libraries and in his own
-possession, published since Braddock’s defeat at DuQuesne,
-every scrap of verse, “good, bad, or indifferent,” relating
-to men, manners and events in America, and had them
-printed in three neat volumes, the first of which contains
-the “patriotic,” the second the “military,” and the third
-the “naval.” It is certainly a very curious collection.
-Some of the pieces, indeed, were written by foreigners, and
-have as little relation to any thing in America as to the
-quackeries of Græfenberg; and others are not decidedly
-poetical; but by far the greater number belong to one or
-another of the divisions in which the compiler has placed
-them, and, as he well remarks, “the present and future
-generations of Americans will hardly disdain those strains,
-however homely, which cheered and animated our citizen
-soldiers and seamen, ‘in the times that tried men’s souls,’
-at the camp-fire or on the forecastle.” We perceive that
-Mr. McCarty has copied from our Magazine for October most
-of the pieces included in the article on “The Minstrelsy of
-the Revolution.” We have many others not embraced in
-his volumes, of which we intend to present a few additional
-specimens to our readers, in connection, perhaps, with some
-of the most curious verses in the books he has given us.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk133'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Wing-and-Wing, or Le Feu-Follet. By the author of “The
-Red Rover,” “The Pilot,” “The Path Finder,” etc. Two
-volumes, duodecimo. Philadelphia, Lea &amp; Blanchard.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We received this novel too recently to be able to do it
-justice in our present number. It is a story of the sea, and
-from a cursory examination we are inclined to believe it
-equal to Mr. Cooper’s most celebrated naval romances.
-The scene is in the Mediterranean, in the memorable years
-1798 and 1799. Le Feu-Follet is a French privateer, commanded
-by Raoul Yvard, a skilful, bold and chivalrous
-sailor, and the interest of the tale turns principally upon
-the manœuvres by which he preserves her from capture by
-the English frigate Prosperine. The character second in
-importance on board the republican privateer is Ithule Bolt,
-a shrewd Yankee, who, impressed into the British navy,
-had shared in the dangers of Nelson’s victory, and now
-added to a patriotic hatred of the English, some slight ill
-will created by what he deemed unjustifiable appliances of
-the lash during his service on board the Prosperine. Blended
-with the main narrative is a history of the loves of the commander
-of Le Feu-Follet and a beautiful Italian girl,
-Ghita Giuntotardi, one of our author’s most admirably
-drawn heroines. Those who would know more of the plot
-we refer to the book itself, or to the Yankee lieutenant,
-who in due time returned to the United Slates, married a
-widow, and “settled in life” somewhere in the Granite
-State. He is said at the present moment to be an active
-abolitionist, a patron of the temperance cause, and a terror
-to evil doers, under the appellation of Deacon Bolt. We
-are pleased to learn that the publishers have fixed the price
-of Wing-and-Wing at half a dollar—lower by fifty per cent.
-at least than an American novel was ever sold for before.
-For this reason, as well as on account of its remarkable
-merit, we predict for it a sale equal to that of “The Spy,”
-or “The Red Rover.”</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk134'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Poets and Poetry of America: with a Historical Introduction.
-By Rufus W. Griswold. Third edition. With
-Illustrations by the First Artists.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Messrs. Carey &amp; Hart have just issued a new edition of
-this work, with beautiful illustrations from paintings by
-Leslie, Inman, Creswick, Sully, Thompson, Verbryck,
-Hoyt, and Harding, engraved by Cheney, Cushman, Dodson,
-and Forrest. We believe that no other book of so
-expensive a character has passed to a second edition in the
-United States during the year. The fact that this has
-reached a <span class='it'>third</span> edition in six months seems to indicate that
-our poetical literature is properly appreciated, in our own
-country, at least. The price of the third edition has very
-properly been reduced to two dollars and a half.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk135'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Little Boys’ and Girls’ Library: Edited by Mrs. Sarah
-J. Hale. Six books, small quarto. New York, Edward
-Dunigan.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The stories in these little volumes are written with taste
-and simplicity. Though Mrs. Hale’s incidents are generally
-pleasing, we do not in all cases approve their tendency.
-With deference for her better judgment, we think the boy
-who, in “The Way to Save,” bought the glass box, was
-much wiser than he who bought the draught board.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk136'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Youth’s Keepsake: A Christmas and New Year’s Gift
-for Young People.</span> <span class='it'>The Annualette: A Christmas and
-New Year’s Gift for Children. Philadelphia, Thomas,
-Cowperthwaite &amp; Co.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Two very beautiful and interesting annuals, of the character
-of which the titles are sufficiently descriptive.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk137'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Sporting Scenes and Sundry Sketches: being the Miscellaneous
-Writings of J. Cypress, jr. Edited by Frank
-Forester. In Two vols., 12mo. New York, Gould, Banks
-&amp; Co., 1842.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“<span class='sc'>J. Cypress</span>, jr.” was the late William P. Hawes, of the
-city of New York; and “Frank Forester” is the name by
-which one of the finest scholars, critics, and writers, whose
-productions have ever given a charm to our periodical literature—Henry
-William Herbert, the author of “Cromwell,”
-and numerous tales and other compositions in this Magazine—is
-known in the “sporting world.” Mr. Hawes was
-educated for the bar; his writings were generally on political
-or sporting topics, in the daily gazettes, or the magazines.
-The admirable series of papers, entitled “Fire
-Island Ana,” was written for the American Monthly,
-while that work was under Mr. Herbert; and most of his
-later compositions appeared in the “Turf Register.” We
-have not room to do them justice. They have never been
-excelled in this country, in richness of humor, freshness,
-or originality. Mr. Hawes had the modesty of genius.
-He lived in the quiet enjoyment of the life and the scenes
-he so felicitously delineated, and was unknown as a writer
-beyond the limited circle of his intimate friends until they
-and the world were deprived of his presence.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk138'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Task, and other Poems: By William Cowper. One
-volume, duodecimo. Philadelphia, Carey &amp; Hart.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Among the poets who have written in the English language
-on religious themes, Cowper unquestionably ranks
-next to Milton in genius, and before him as a teacher.
-The Presbyterian poet is admired for his sublime conceptions
-and his unequaled mastery of language and the intricacies
-of rhythm; but the bard of Olney is loved by the good
-and the true as a friend. The new edition of the Task is
-one of the most beautiful specimens of typography produced
-in this country, and the etchings, by Cheney, which illustrate
-it, are of course admirably executed.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk139'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Way of Life: By Charles Hodge, Professor in the
-Theological Seminary of Princeton, New Jersey. One
-volume duodecimo, pp. 348. Philadelphia, American
-Sunday School Union.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Among the many very excellent works published by the
-American Sunday School Union, we know of none written
-with more ability, or calculated to do more good than this
-admirable treatise. The plenary inspiration of the Scriptures,
-the great practical doctrines they teach, and the influence
-which these doctrines should exert upon the heart
-and life, are set forth by the learned author with candor,
-simplicity and eloquence.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk140'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Books for Youth: Heroines of Sacred History, by Mrs.
-Steele; Philip and his Garden, by Charlotte Elizabeth;
-Rocky Island, by Samuel Wilberforce; Alice Benden, by
-Charlotte Elizabeth; Clementine Cuvier, by John Angell
-James; The Simple Flower, by Charlotte Elizabeth; The
-Flower of Innocence, by Charlotte Elizabeth; and Moral
-Tales, by Robert Merry. New York, John S. Taylor &amp; Co.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The eight volumes, of which we have given the titles
-above, are bound in a uniform style, and constitute a very
-neat and excellent library for juvenile readers. We know
-of no books that can be more appropriately presented to the
-young in the approaching holidays than those of Archdeacon
-Wilberforce, John Angell James, and Charlotte
-Elizabeth.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk141'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='edi'></a>EDITOR’S TABLE.</h1></div>
-
-<hr class='tbk142'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>Miss Barrett.</span>—In this number will be found a series of
-sonnets by Miss Elizabeth B. Barrett, among the first of her
-contributions to any American periodical. They were originally
-intended for “Arcturus,” to which magazine they
-were sent; but arriving after the discontinuance of that
-periodical, its editors placed them at our disposal, “thinking
-the good company into which they would be introduced in
-‘Graham,’ would be every way agreeable to the fair authoress.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Miss Barrett’s productions are unique in this age of lady
-authors. They have the “touch of nature” in common
-with the best; they have, too, sentiment, passion and fancy
-in the highest degree, without reminding us of Mrs. Hemans,
-Mrs. Norton, or L. E. L. Her excellence is her
-own; her mind is colored by what it feeds on; the fine tissue
-of her flowing style comes to us from the loom of Grecian
-thought. She is the learned poetess of the day, familiar
-with Homer and Æschylus and Sophocles, and to the musings
-of Tempe she has added the inspiration of Christianity,
-“above all Greek, all Roman fame.” She has translated
-the Prometheus to the delight of scholars, and has lately
-contributed a series of very remarkable prose papers to the
-London Athenæum. Her reading Greek recalls to us
-Roger Ascham’s anecdote of Lady Jane Grey; but Lady
-Jane Grey has left us no such verses.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A striking characteristic of Miss Barrett’s prose, is its
-prevailing seriousness, approaching to solemnity—a garb
-borrowed from the “sceptred pale” of her favorite Greek
-drama of fate. She loses much with the general reader by
-a dim mysticism; but many of her later poems are free from
-any such defect. The great writers whom she loves will
-teach her the plain, simple, universal language of poetry.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Her dreams and abstractions, though “caviare to the
-generale,” have their admirers, who will ever find in pure
-and elevated philosophy expressed in the words of enthusiasm
-the living presence of poetry. On Parnassus there
-are many groves: far from the dust of the highway, embosomed
-in twilight woods that seem to symbol Reverence
-and Faith trusting on the unseen, we may hear in the whispering
-of the trees, the wavering breath of insect life, the
-accompaniment of our poet’s strain. Despise not dreams
-and reveries. With Cowley, Miss Barrett vindicates herself.
-“The father of poets tells us, even dreams, too, are from
-God.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We cannot here do justice to Miss Barrett’s volume of the
-Seraphim, or to her other poems. We cannot here illustrate
-as we would the lofty tone of her conceptions, which
-in grandeur and human interest belong to the highest and
-most enduring of lyrical strains. She has thrown aside
-sentimentality, the fluency without thought, the cheap eloquence
-that marks a certain school of lady poets, for the
-genuine language of emotion, the fire-new currency of
-speech forged in the secret chambers of the heart. From
-two volumes of her poetry before us, (unfamiliar as yet to
-American readers—they cannot be so long,) we quote one
-poem, perhaps not the most brilliant of all, but inferior to
-none of the rest in the pathos, the tenderness, the deep
-Christian sympathy with human life, which dwell in the
-soul of this rare poetess.</p>
-
-
- <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
- <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;THE SLEEP.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'><span style='font-size:smaller'>“He giveth His beloved sleep.”—<span class='it'>Psalm cxxvii. 2.</span></span></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Of all the thoughts of God that are</p>
-<p class='line0'>Borne inward unto souls afar,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Along the Psalmist’s music deep⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Now tell me if that any is,</p>
-<p class='line0'>For gift or grace surpassing this⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>“He giveth his beloved sleep?”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>What would we give to our beloved?</p>
-<p class='line0'>The hero’s heart, to be unmoved⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>The poet’s star-tuned harp, to sweep⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>The senate’s shout to patriot vows—</p>
-<p class='line0'>The monarch’s crown, to light the brows?—</p>
-<p class='line0'>“He giveth <span class='it'>His</span> beloved sleep.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>What do we give to our beloved?</p>
-<p class='line0'>A little faith, all undisproved⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>A little dust, to overweep⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>And bitter memories, to make</p>
-<p class='line0'>The whole earth blasted for our sake!</p>
-<p class='line0'>“He giveth His beloved sleep.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>“Sleep soft, beloved!” we sometimes say,</p>
-<p class='line0'>But have no tune to charm away</p>
-<p class='line0'>Sad dreams that through the eyelids creep:</p>
-<p class='line0'>But never doleful dream again</p>
-<p class='line0'>Shall break the happy slumber, when</p>
-<p class='line0'>“He giveth His beloved sleep.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>O earth, so full of dreary noises!</p>
-<p class='line0'>O men, with wailing in your voices!</p>
-<p class='line0'>O delved gold, the wailers heap!</p>
-<p class='line0'>O strife, O curse, that o’er it fall!</p>
-<p class='line0'>God makes a silence through you all,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And “giveth His beloved sleep!”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>His dew drops mutely on the hill;</p>
-<p class='line0'>His cloud above it saileth still,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Though on its slope men toil and reap!</p>
-<p class='line0'>More softly than the dew is shed,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Or cloud is floated overhead,</p>
-<p class='line0'>“He giveth His beloved sleep.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>Ha! men may wonder while they scan</p>
-<p class='line0'>A living, thinking, feeling man,</p>
-<p class='line0'>In such a rest his heart to keep;</p>
-<p class='line0'>But angels say—and through the word</p>
-<p class='line0'>I ween their blessed smile is <span class='it'>heard</span>⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>“He giveth His beloved sleep!”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>For me my heart that erst did go,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Most like a tired child at a show,</p>
-<p class='line0'>That sees through tears the juggler’s leap,⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Would now its wearied vision close,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Would childlike on <span class='it'>His</span> love repose,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Who “giveth His beloved sleep!”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-<div class='stanza-outer'>
-<p class='line0'>And friends!—dear friends!—when it shall be</p>
-<p class='line0'>That this low breath is gone from me,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And round my bier ye come to weep⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>Let me, most loving of you all,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Say, not a tear must o’er her fall⁠—</p>
-<p class='line0'>“He giveth His beloved sleep!”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>Stars that Have Set in MDCCCXLII.</span>—Among the
-dead of the year now drawing to a close, America laments
-her Marsh and Channing, and Europe, Sismondi and some
-less brilliant luminaries.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Rev. <span class='sc'>James Marsh</span>, D.D. was, at the time of his
-death, the third day of July, Professor of Moral and Intellectual
-Philosophy in the University of Vermont. He was
-a calm, chaste scholar, an earnest and profound thinker,
-and a powerful and eloquent advocate of the highest principles
-of religion and philosophy, with the perfect simplicity
-and grandeur of whose life were blended the rarest
-virtues that adorn humanity. His principal published writings,
-excepting a few articles in the leading reviews, and
-some translations from the German, are devoted to those
-high and spiritual principles of philosophy, of which Coleridge
-and Kant were the most celebrated European exponents.
-We are pleased to learn that Professor Torrey, one
-of the dearest friends of the departed, is now superintending
-the publication of a complete edition of his works.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The name of <span class='sc'>William Ellery Channing</span> has been long
-familiar to the readers of America and Great Britain. He
-was equally popular in both countries, and in both was
-regarded as one of the greatest authors of the age. The
-first edition of his collected writings we believe was published
-some five or six years since in Glasgow, and the last,
-in six octavo volumes, in Boston, in the winter of 1840.
-We presume his later productions, unprinted sermons, etc.—sufficient
-to fill several additional volumes—will soon
-be published, with his memoirs. Doctor <span class='sc'>Channing</span> was
-for a long period the leading divine of the Unitarian belief,
-and though an ardent controvertist, was regarded by all
-men with love and reverence. The purity of his life, his
-high aims, his candor, and the dignity and beauty of his diction,
-won for him a reputation that will endure when
-most of the names now prominent in the world of letters
-are forgotten. He died in Bennington, in Vermont, on his
-return way from an excursion among the Green Mountains
-in search of health, on the second day of October.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>John Charles Leonard de Sismondi</span> was one of the
-most celebrated historical, political and æsthetical writers
-of the time. He died near Geneva, on the twenty-fifth of
-June, in his sixty-ninth year. He was the author of New
-Principles of Political Economy, A History of the Italian
-Republics, A History of the Literature of Southern Europe,
-A History of France, Julia Severn, a romance, and several
-other works, making in the aggregate about one hundred
-and fifty volumes, in the French editions. As a
-historian he has rarely been surpassed, and in every department
-of letters he exercised a powerful influence for
-nearly half a century.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mr. <span class='sc'>James Grahame</span>, author of the excellent History of
-the United Slates which bears his name; Sir <span class='sc'>Robert Kerr
-Porter</span>, the traveler; <span class='sc'>Theodore E. Hook</span>, the novelist,
-biographer, and dramatic writer; and <span class='sc'>Robert Mudie</span>,
-author of several works on natural history, etc. were better
-known in this country than any of the other literary characters
-who have died in Europe during the present year.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk143'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>New Books.</span>—We received several new works too late
-to be noticed properly in our present number, of which we
-have space to mention particularly only Mr. <span class='sc'>Norman’s</span>
-“Rambles in Yucatan,” and Mr. <span class='sc'>Lester’s</span> observations
-on “The Condition and Fate of England,” both from the
-press of Messrs. Langley, of New York. The first is an
-exceedingly interesting work, and the last quite as good as
-the same author’s “Glory and Shame of England.” We
-shall endeavor to do them full justice in our Magazine for
-January.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>The End of the Year.</span>—With the present number we
-bring to a close another year of the publication of <span class='sc'>Graham’s
-Magazine</span>. The many improvements which since our last
-anniversary have been effected in the work, and the extraordinary
-accessions to our subscription list—between
-twenty and thirty thousand in twelve months!—impart to
-us a satisfaction which we trust is shared in some degree
-by our million readers.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Since the commencement of the present year, <span class='sc'>Rufus W.
-Griswold</span> has become associated with the proprietor in
-the editorship of the Magazine; and to our corps of contributors
-have been added <span class='sc'>William C. Bryant</span> and <span class='sc'>Richard
-H. Dana</span>, the first American poets, and the equals of
-any now living in the world; <span class='sc'>James Fenimore Cooper</span>,
-the greatest of living novelists; <span class='sc'>Charles F. Hoffman</span>, one
-of the most admired poets and prose writers of our country;
-<span class='sc'>Elizabeth B. Barrett</span>, the truest female poet who has
-written in the English language; <span class='sc'>J. H. Mancur</span>, the author
-of “Henri Quatre;” <span class='sc'>George H. Colton</span>, the author of
-“Tecumseh;” <span class='sc'>H. T. Tuckerman</span>, the author of “Isabelle, or
-Sicily,” etc.; the author of “A New Home” and “Forest
-Life,” who, under the name of “<span class='it'>Mary Clavers</span>,” has won a
-reputation second to that of none of the writers of her sex in
-America; Mrs. <span class='sc'>E. F. Ellet</span>, the well known author of
-“The Characters of Schiller,” etc.; Mrs. <span class='sc'>Seba Smith</span>,
-whose elegant and truthful compositions are as universally
-admired as they are read; and several others, whom we
-have not now space to mention. All these, with our favorite
-old writers, Professor <span class='sc'>Longfellow</span>, <span class='sc'>George Hill</span>,
-<span class='sc'>Edgar A. Poe</span>, Mrs. <span class='sc'>Embury</span>, Mrs. <span class='sc'>Stephens</span>, and others,
-we shall retain for our succeeding volumes.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We shall likewise receive regular contributions during
-the ensuing year, from <span class='sc'>N. P. Willis</span>, whose many admirable
-qualities as a writer have made his name familiar
-wherever English literature is read; <span class='sc'>T. C. Grattan</span>,
-the popular author of “Highways and Byways,” “The
-Heiress of Bruges,” etc.; “<span class='it'>Maria del Occidente</span>,” the
-author of “Zophiel,” and many others, whose names will
-from month to month grace our pages.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Let our Past speak for our Future. The improvements
-made in <span class='sc'>Graham’s Magazine</span>, in 1842, will be surpassed
-by those that we shall introduce in 1843. In all the departments
-of our work we shall remain in advance of every
-other candidate for the public favor.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk144'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>The Author of the Sketch Book.</span>—In a notice of the
-Miscellanies of Sir Walter Scott, in the number of this
-Magazine for September, we made allusion to reviews of
-various publications of Mr. Washington Irving, which we
-had good reason for believing were written by that gentleman
-himself. We learn with pleasure, from one who
-speaks on the subject by authority, that Mr. Irving is guiltless
-of the imputed self laudation. He did indeed write the
-article in the London Quarterly on his “Chronicles of
-Grenada,” and received for it the sum we mentioned; but,
-like so many of the modern “reviews,” it had very little
-relation to the work which gave it a title, or to its author.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk145'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>H. Hastings Weld.</span>—We notice that this talented and
-agreeable writer, formerly editor of the Brother Jonathan,
-has taken the editorial charge of the <span class='sc'>United States Saturday
-Post</span>, a family newspaper of the largest class and
-circulation. We feel assured that the humor and vivacity
-of Mr. Weld’s pen will tend to make the paper still more
-popular, and to add greatly to the already enormous subscription
-list. This paper already circulates more copies
-weekly than any other family newspaper in the Union.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk146'/>
-
-<p class='line' style='margin-top:2em;font-size:1.1em;font-weight:bold;'><a id='notes'></a>Transcriber’s Notes:</p>
-
-<p class='noindent'>Table of Contents has been added for reader convenience.
-Archaic spellings and hyphenation have been retained. Obvious
-punctuation and typesetting errors have been corrected
-without note.</p>
-
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-
-<p class='noindent'>In the story <span class='it'>Malina Gray</span>, this concluding installment had two parts
-titled Chapter III. The second Chapter III has been corrected to <a href='#chap'>Chapter IV</a>.</p>
-
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-
-<p class='noindent'>[End of <span class='it'>Graham’s Magazine, Vol. XXI, No. 6, December 1842</span>, George R. Graham, Editor]</p>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRAHAM&#039;S MAGAZINE, VOL. XXI, NO. 6, DECEMBER 1842 ***</div>
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