Literary cadet and Rhode-Island statesman. [volume] (Providence, R.I.) 1827-1829, 1827-10-27
MISODLLANx,


From Blackwood's Magazine for Sep
tember, we make the extracts that fol-
low. 1t is from an article entitled the
Minister'S Beat, or visits accompanied
by friend among his prisoners.
We were just turning the corner Of the
lane to regain the high road, wnen wo-
man from cottage IN an adjoining field
came running to intercept US. There
was in her look a wildness bordering on
distraction, but it was evidently OF no
painful kind. Sho seemed like one
recovered from the first shock Of some
delightful surprise, too much for the irail
fabric OF mortality to bear, without tot
tering to its very foundations. The
minister checked his horse, whose bri-
die she grasped convuisively, painting
partly from fatigue, and more from
emotion, cndeavoriug, but vainly, to give
utterance to the tidings with which her
bosom labored. Twice she looked up,
shook her head ,and was silent; then with
q strong effort she falt cred rut-'he's
come back THE Lord be prulsed for
| for it"-
'Who is come back, Jenny'" said the
pastor in tho deepest tone Of sympathy
"is it little Andrew, ye meani"
Andrew! J" echoed the matron, with
an expression Of contempt, which at any
other time this favorite grand child would
have been very far from calling forth
"Andrew! Andrews father, mean, my
ain first born son jamie, that wore
mourning for till they would wear nae
langer, and thought lying fifty fathoms
down in the solid ice, in your wild place
Greenland, or torn to pieces wi savage
bears, like the mocking BARNS in Scrip
ture.-He's yonder" said she, wildly
pointing to the house" he's yonder liv-
ing, and living like; and o. gin yo wad
come, and may be speak word in season
to US, he might be better able to praise
the Lord, as in his due"
We turned our horses heads and fol-
lowed her, as she ran, or rather few to-
wards the cottage with the instinct Of
seme animal long separated from its
offspring. The little boy before mention
ed ran out to hold our horses, and whis-
pered, as the minister stopped to stroke
his head" daddy's come home frae the
sea-"
The scene within the cottage battles
description. The old mother exhausted
with her exertion, had sunk down beside
her son, on the edge of the bed on which
ho was sitting, where his blind and bed
rid father lay, and clasped his wearied
hands in speechless prayer. His lips
continued to move, unconscious Of our
presence, and ever and anon he stretch
cd forth feeble arm 10 ascertain the ac-
tual vicinity of his long mourned son.
On low stool, before the once gay aud
handsome, but now frost-nipt and hunger
worn mariner, sat his young wife, her
hand firmly clasped in his, her fixed eye
riveted on his couhtenance giving no
other sign Of life than convulsive pres
sure Of the former, or big drop descend
ing unwiped from the latter! while her
unemployed hand was puckiug quite
mechanically the badge OF widowhood
from her duffic cloak, which (having just
reached home as her husband Knocked
at her fathers door, was yet laying
across her knee.
The poor sailor gazcd on all around
him with somewhat Of bewildered air,
but most Of all, upon rosy creature
between his knees, Of about year and
hall old, born just after his departure,
and who had only learned the sad word
daddy from the childish parttle of his
brother Andrew, and his sistcrs.-Of
these one Of them had been summoned,
wild and parelegged, from the herding,
tho other meek and modest, from the VII
Iage school. The former, idle and in
tractablc, half shrunk in fear from her
returned parents strictness; tho other,
too young not 10 have forgotten his per-
son, only wondered whether this was the
father in heaven, Of whom she had heard
50 often. She did not think il could be
80, for there was no grief or trouble there,
and this father looked as if he had seen
much Of both.
Such was the groupto whose emotions,
almost too much for human nature. our
entrance gave a turn. "Jamie," said
the good pastor (sentle pressing the still
united hands Of the mariner, and his
faithful Annie) 'You are welcome back
from tie gates Of death and the perils
of tho deep. Well, It is said, that they
who 60 down to the sea in ships SEQ more
OF the wonders Of tho Lord than other
n