The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1846-04-30

Oniskq, Sydney was muslng among those
scenes that now wore sadness to his eye.
He mourned for his boy, and something like
an old affection for Oniska came back now
that she was lost TO him, and he still fingered
about the familiar scenes Of their home. II
was the depth of night, and moonlight lay
on them with its tender and hallowing infu-
ence. Sydney climbed the bank, where an
opening in the trees showed the river. II
was near the spot where the maddened
mother drowned his child, and he sat down
there, and gazed into the tranquil current.
His conscience snote him for the past, and
the last words of Oniska came to him when
he sought the future for relief. While he
was sitting there moving object caught his
eye. 1t resembled Oniska, or his fancy
shaped the likeness. He watched auentively
and saw that she was excavating hole in
the ground, and when it was finished, she
laid something carefully in it, bent over it
few moments, then covered it, and passed out
of sight behind the trees. Soon canoe
was rowed swiftly away from the islet, and,
crossing the current of the Concord river,
passed up the Merrimack in the deep shadow
of the trees on lie bank.
Poor Oniska had watched the river till
she had recovered the body of her child, and
thus performed its lonely burial before she
returned 10 her tribe.
Sydney married Agatha Stanley, and re-
moved to the seaboard. For time he
thought himself happy. The dreams of his
early love seemed to have been realised
He was the envied husband of brilliant
woman, and the gay, the fashionable and ad-
mired Mrs. Sydney was the life of the So
ciety in which she mingled. Sydney was
vain of her splended beauty, and of the
sensation she created, and believed he was
happy. A little Agatha came to add delight
to their home, and if her playful wes re-
called thoughts of the bright-eyed boy who
slept on the little islet of the Merrimack,
the thoughts were but transtory, and the
maledcon of the forsaken one had remain
ed so long unfuflled that it was growing
dim in his recollection.
But on bright summer day, the little
Agatha was missing. She went wish some
of her little playmates to gather berries in
the wood on the outskirts of the settlement,
where they had often went without the APP
prehension of danger. All that the other
children knew Of the matter was, that
strange looking woman came out Of the
wood and talked with them, and asked their
names, and picked berries for them, and
played and talked most with little Agatha,
and then she took her in her arms and told
her something pretty, and carried her away
into the wood. They waited till the sun
was low for Agatha, but she did not come,
and they were frightened, and ran home.
Search was made in every direction, but
without avail. Suspicion rested on Oniska,
and the hamlets of her people, but no track
Of white child could be found there
Oniska herself was there, and when she
knew their object in searching, coldly said,
" Go; tell the false white man he must learn
to live in silent wigwam. Oniska has no
bird of beauty. 1t ceased to sing beneath
the waters"
Sydney grew moody and irritable. The
loss of his little girl preyed on his spirits
His gay temper was gone, and he stunned
society. Not so with Agatha. She wept
for her child, but her mind treasured no
feeling long. She grew impatient of the
abstraction and mournful habits of Sydney,
and her Indifference to his grief separated
their hearts still more. She reproached him
with his changed manners, and laughed at
his tortured replies. At such hours, the
thoughts of Oniska pressed hard on his mind
The soft hands laid so gently on his brow in
his moments of sadness-the silent caress,
SO light as to be felt by the heart more than
The touch-the patient watching for the re-
turning sunshine on his face, and the Joy
that welcomed that frightening gleam-all
these rose in painful contrast. Sydney's
friends dined at his table, and in the midst
of its well-appointed arrangements, wispered
each other. What splendid woman!
What happy dog is Harry Sydney" and
Frank Westall whispered it even to the lady
herself.
Time went on, and the moody habits of
Sydney increased, and Agatha grew more
Indifferent 10 his comfort, and they oftener
parted with mutual dissatistaction-she TO
find consolation in gay company, and he to
brood alone over his thoughts. His health
declined. He became morbidly sensitive
and she gladly sought every excuse to leave
the nervous invalid. Frank Westall was al
ways near, with soothing words of those low,
musical tones that speak SO much more than
words She found Sydney's friend more
agreeable than Sydney, and with the same
fckleness of character and recklessness of
impulse that led her first 10 reject, and then
cross the Atlantic to seek Harry Sydney, she
transferred her love and herself TO Frank
Westall. Sydney was obliged to leave home
for few days on business and when he re-
turned, his house had lost IFS mistress; Aga