Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1841-03-13

1t was past midnight, and she sat leaning
her pale cheek on her hand, counting the
dull ticking of the French clock. that stood
on the marble chimney-piece, and ever and
anon lifting her weary eye to its dial to
mark the lapse of another hour. 1t was
past midnight, and yet he returned not
She arose, and taking up the lamp, whose
pale rays alone illumed the solitary cham
Der, proceeded with noiseloss step to a
small inner apartment. The curtains of
his little bed were drawn aside, and the
young mother gazed on her sleeping child
What a vivid contrast did that glowing
cheek and smiling brow present, as he lay
in rosy slumber, to the faded, yet beautiful
| face that hung over him in tears "Will
he resemble his father ?" was the thought
that passed for a moment through her de-
voted heart, and sigh was the only an
swer
IT'S his well known knock--and the
steps of the drowsy porter echoed through
the lofty hall, as with murmur onhis lip,
he drew the massy bolts and admitted his
thoughtless master. -Four o'clock, Willis, is
it not? ?" and he sprang up the staircase
another moment he is in her chamber-in
her arms
No reproaches met the truant husband,
none-save those she could not spare him,
in her heavy eye, and faded cheek-yet
these spoke to his heart
Julia, / have been wandering hus-
band"
"But you are come now, Charles, and all
is WELL"
And all was well, for, from that hour,
Charles Danvers became an altered man.
Had his wife met him with frowns and
sullen tears, he had became hardened
libertine; but her affectionate caresscs, the
10y that danced in her sunken eye, the
hectic flush that lit up her pallid cheek at
his approach, were arguments he could not
withstand Married in early life, while he
felt all the ardor, but not the esteem of
love; possessed of a splendid fortune, and
having hitherto had the entire command of
his own pleasures, Danvers fell into that
common error, Of newly married men
the dread of being controlled. In vain
did his parents, who behcld with sorrow
the reproaches and misery he was heaping
up for himself in after life, demonstrate !;
| Charles Danvers turned deaf ear to adj
vice, and pursued, with companions every
way unworthy of his society, the path of
folly if not absolute guilt. The tavern, the
club-room, and the race-course, too often
left his wife solitary mourner, or mid
night watcher.
Thus the first three years of their welded
life had passed--to him in fevered and
restless pleasure, to her in bghted hope
or unmurmrtring regret But this night
crowned the patient forbearance Of the
neglected Julia with its just reward, and
gave the death blow to folly in the bosom
of Danvers. Returning with disgust from
the losses of the hazard table, her meek
ness and long-suffering touched him to the
soul the film fell from his eyes, and vice,
in her own hideous dcformity; stood IN
masked before him.
Ten years have passed since that solitary
midnight, when the young matron bent in
tears over her sleeping boy. Behold her
now still in the pride of womanhood, sur
rounded by their cherub faces, who are
listening ere they go to rest to her sweet
voice. as it pours forth to the accompani-
ment of her harp an evening song of joy
and melody; while manly form is bend
ing over the music-page to hide the tears
of happiness and triumph that springs from
swelling bosom, as he contemplates the
interesting group. Youthful matrons we
who watch over a wandering perhaps an
erring heart-when reproach trembles
on your lips towards a truant husband,
initiate Julia Danvers, and remember,
though hymen has chains, like the sword
of Harmodius, they may be covered with
flowers; that unkindness and irritability
do but harden, if not wholly estrange the
heart-whie on the contrary patience and
gentleness Of manner las water dropping
on the fiinty rock, will in time wear il into
softness) seldom fail to reclaim to happi-
ness and virtue the Truant Husband.
The House OF Representatives Of Louisiana, on