Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1846-12-12

Dor.
1t was neighbours face, but there was
an awful agony stamping those plain fea-
tures-there was an awful agony flashing
from those diating eycs-there was a dark
and terrible mystery speaking from those
thin lips that moved and moved, but made
no sound.
For moment the farmer tried to speak
the horror that convulsed his features.
At last, forcing the blacksmith along the
brown graveled walk, now strewn with Gin
ders, he pointed to the smoking embers.
There--there, amid tina, heap Of black and
smoking ruins, the blacksmith behcld dark
mass of burnt flesh and blackened bones.
"Your wifep shreked the farmer. as his
agony found words. "They came in the
night. They and then he spoke that
outrage which The lip quivered to think on.
which the hear, grows palsied to ,ell-,ha'
outrage too foul to name. "Your wife!"
he shrieked, pointing to that hideous thing
among the smoking ruins. "the British
they murdered your wife: they flung her
dead body in Inc fames--,hey dashed your
child against the hearihstoner'
This was the farmers story.
And there, as the ligh. Of the breaking
day fell around the spot, there stood the
husband. the father, gazing upon that mass
of flesh and blackened bones-all that was
once his wife
Do you ask me for the words that trem.
bled from his white lips7 Do you ask me
for the fire that blazed in his eye7
l can't tell you. But can tell you that
there was VOW going up TO Heaven from
that b!acksmth's heart--,hat there was
clenched hand appraised in the light of the
breaking day.
Yes, yes, as the first CLEAN of the au-
tumnal dawn, broke around the spot, as the
first long CLEAN of sunlight streamed over
the peeled scull of that fair young wife
she was that last night-there was vow
going up TO Heaven, the vow of madden
ed heart and anguished brain.
How was that VOW kept! Go to the
Brandywine. and where the carnage gathers
thickest, where the fight is most bloody,
there you may see stout form striding on,
lifting huge hammer into light. Where
that hammer falls it kills, where that ham.
mer strikes it brushes! 1t is the blacksmiths
form. And the war cry that he shouts
Is it the mad cry of vengeance--half howl,
half hurrah? Isl but fierce yell, breaking
up from his heaving chest!
All, no! All, no!
1t is the name of--"Maryp it is the name
of his young wife.
Oh! Mary sweetest name of women--
name SO soft, so ripping, so musical--name
of the mother of Jesus, made holy BY
poetry and religion, how strange did your
syllable of music ring out from the black.
smiths ps, as he went muttering on.
MARY" he shouts, as he drags that red.
coated trooper from his steed. "Mary!"
he shrieks as his hammer brushes down,
laying that officer to the dust Look
Another officer, with a gallant face and
form-another officer, glittering in tinsel,
clasps the blacksmith by the knees and begs
for mercy.
Il have a wife-mercy! have a wife
yonder in England, spare mel"
The blacksmith, crazed as he is, trem.
bles-there is tear in his eye.
ii would spare you, but there is form
before me--the form of my dead wife!
That form has gone before me all day! She
calls on me to strike"
The hammer fell. and then rang out that
strange war-cry-"Maryp
Al last, when the battle was over, he
was found by WAGNER. who had at least
shouldered cart-whp in his country's SER
vice. He was found sitting by the road
side, his head sunken. his leg broken. the
life blood swelling from his many wounds.
The WAGNER would have carried him
from the field, but the stou, blacksmith re-
fused.
"You see, neighbor," he said. in that voice
husky with death. II never meddled with
the British till they burned my home--till
they" he could not speak the outrage,
but his wife, his child. were there before
his eyes--"and now have but five minutes
life in me, I'd like to give shot at the
British before die. Dye see that cherry
tree' place me there. Give me powder
horn. three rifle balls, and a good rifle.
That's all / ask"
The wagner granted his request; he lf.
ted him to the foot Of the cherry tree. his
head sunk, his broken leg hanging over the
roadside bank. The blood was streaming
; from his wounds-he was dying.
Suddenly he raised his head; sound
struck on his ear. A party of British
came rushing along the narrow road; they
pursued a scattered band of con,inentals
An officer led the way, waving them or
with his sword.
The blacksmith loaded his rifle; with hi
eye bright with death he took aim.
That's for Washington he shouted, a
: he fired. The officer lay quivering in th'
' roadside dust. On and on came the Brit
r ish nearer and nearer TO the tree; the con