Vandalia Whig and Illinois intelligencer. [volume] (Vandalia, Ill.) 1832-183?, 1833-09-04


ed in flowing robes. exceeding in white
ness the purest snow, issuing from feecy
cloud, and standing on its summit, bowed
| three times to the name; then offering a
cloud Of incence, which seemed to ascend
to the highest heaven, they proclaimed
with shout, which shook the earth to its
centre-''AMEMcA's VALIANT soNn' start
ed in establishment at the vision which my
Imagination had conjured up; and having
with some difficulty, assured myself that
it was delusion of the fancy, | again
1 laid me down, still medtating on the
slransencss of the scene."
"Dreams," remarked the father, care
of little consequence, and though it some
times happens that something similar to
what we have dreamt does fortnitously
occur, they are, however, not the more
to be credited on that account. Yet
cannot but acknowledge that have my
self been little disturbed by dreams for
some nights past, which seemed to me by
| their unusual tenor, to forbode something
strangely wild and uncommon"
While they were thus speaking, flash
| followed flash in such rapid succession,
that there was presented to the eye con
tinued stream of fame, which, being re-
Elected by the river. gave it so much the
appearance of a torrent of liquid lava, as
to cause them to shudder as they looked
pprehensively on its luminous surface.-
| The dog howled piteously, and approach
ing the child, began to lick bis extended
hand; when suddenly the electric fluid,
descending by the aged cedar, struck the
boat, killing the three watermen and stun
ming the gentleman and his wife; then pas
sing thro' the bottom it expended its fury
in the current beneath. In moment the
boat sunk with all it contained, except the
dog, which, with peculiar sagacity, sezcd
the child by his garment and bore him to
the bank, where leaving him in safety, he
returned for the mother, whom he also
succeeding in saving. Then plunglng in
again he eagerly sought bis master, div
ing several times beneath the turbid wa
ters: but, alas! he sought in vain, for, in
icaple of any exertion at the moment Of
sinking, the treachorous element bore him
j away; and the poor animal was at length
obliged to abondon the search and return
. exhausted, to the destitute pair who ow.
ed their preservation to his fidelity.
Slowly did the unhappy mother recov
err her scattered senses sufficiently to dis.
cover the misery of her situation; and
bitterly did she bemoan the rude fate that
had thus deprived her of an alfectionate
husband, and cast her helpless and worse
than alone on desolate wilderness, with
out any other prospect than to die of fam.
lne, or to be destroyed by the sunburned
savage, or the beasts Of the desert. But
as water finds its level, so does grief some
times meet consolation even in the bosom
OF necessity, and merge the woeful re-
Elections of the past IN the paramount
need of providing for the future.
Having long sought a place of shelter
from the weather, she at length, finding no
better asylum, took refuge in the hollow
OF blasted sycamore, where, reclining
with her child, exhausted nature soon be-
came insensible, and both sank into pro-
found sleep, which was only disturbed oc-
caslonally by a convulSive sigh. or the
whlstling of the expiring wind; while
Tiger, squatting on the heritage without,
vlgantly kept guard for the night.
Thus they remained till the orient
beams of expanding morning burst asun-
der the lettering ties of the sombre shroud
which had trammeled the earth in its
darkening folds; when the feathered ten
ants of the sylvan landscape merrily
chanting their notes of gladness, hailed
IN strains of softest melody, the triumph
OF tranquility over tempest, of light over
darkness: all was gaiety and cheeriulness,
and The respendant luminary of day, as
he rose in reinlgent majesty above the
!. tops OF the woodcrested hills, seemed sm.
ling in ectasy at the beauty exhibited by
the renovated face Of nature. Nought
was there to mar the hlarity of the Joy,
Gus scene, save the inmates of the hollow
hearted sycamore, who, awakened by the
growlng'harmony around sought with sad,
ness somewhat to alleviate the cravings Of
appetite and recruit their wasted vigor.
A few nuts and wild berries were all that
their utmost eXertions could procure, upon
which, however, they fed with ca
gerness; and having slaked their thirst at
IA purling rilI, which hastily pursued its
ripping course along the side of a gentle
deciivily, they pressed forward in quest of
some settlement, where the lenient hand
of sympathizing humanity might mitigate
It