The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1846-07-04
CHAPTER III.
Trials vet more Severe.

ATAdLS yet more severe.
Briefly, and almost silently we pass over
the next fifteen years, during which time the
trials ofCharlotte Austin were bitterly severe.
The fireless hearth--the pitifIl mcal-the
long nights of wearing, wasting diligence in
plying the needle-the mengre, squalid, hun
cry children, whose cries for bread she could
not always satsfy-and more than this, the
heart-sickness, the WEAKNESS of life, caused
by the memory of departed Joys, by the blast
ing of cherished hopes-al these were known
to Charlotte Austin. Had not her heart been
buoyed up by vital confidence in the mfiu-
tie Father, had not the gates of Heaven been
unlocked TO her by the power of prayer, her
fortimde would have been enfeehled, and des-
pondency would have eaten out her life.
George, her eldest son, her beautiful dark
eyed boy, early manifested rowing, restless
spirit, and shortly AFTER the death ofhis faith
er, his mothers reluctant and fearful consent
being gained he went to New Bedford and
shipped for whaling voyage---a more unfa-
vorable choice than which he could not have
made. His first and second voyages were
not very lucrative, and a letter to his mother,
informing her that he had shipped for the I'D
time, and enclosed for her his advance mon
ey, were the last tidings she ever received
from him.
Charles the youngest son, was delicate
youth, and the object ofhis mothers most So
licitous care. As he evinced decided me-
chanical genius, he was, at the age of fifteen,
apprenticed to a cabinet-maker, in town
adjoining the city. Removed as he thus was,
from the allurements and temptations of the
city, he might have been preserved from the
evil habits and practices into which many of
the young men of the day were seduced, but
for the circumstance ofthe deicacy of his
constitution. He was often the subject of ac-
ute pain, and extreme debility,and the suffer-
ing that he endured from impaired digestion,
deficient appetite, and exhausted spirits, in-
duced a Willingness to resort TO any restora-
tive, or means ofrelef. Unfortunately, there
were not wanting those who prescribed and
administered bitters, cordials, and other like
seductive draughts; and installing the pleas
ant eXhiliratiou his deceptive medicines for
beneficial result, he was led on insidiously
to a love of that which caused his fathers ru-
in and the restitution of his family. Society
eXerted on him no restraining influence, he
was almost removed from his mothers influ-
ence, and ere the close ofthe fourth year of
his apprenticeship had become confirm
ed tippler, disagreed violently with his mas
ter, ran away, was advertised as u runaway
apprentice, and in fit of intoXication and
4
Of the United States for three years. A has
ty and agoniZed farewell visit to his mother,
and he was then sent on board a receiving
ship lying at Charlestown navy-yard, which
conveyed him to Norfolk, Va, where lay the
frigate Constitution, destined for cruise up
the Mediterranean.
These occurrences rent the hearts of both
mother and daughter; their warm and cling
ing affections were twined around the wan-
derers, and loneliness and desolation had
crept into their hearts, IA the sickening
thought came upon them that they might see
their faces no more. But both Charlotte
Austin and her daughter had learned resigna-
ton to the allotments of life, and had expert
enced the perfect peace which it imparts,and
they soon passed into the calmness of sub
mission antitrust. Day after day they toiled
in the apartment where was now their home
IA chamber in large old wooden building
in one of the most retired localities of the Cit
Y, where in one corner stood the bedstead,
with its tall, antiquely carved posts, in anoth-
err an old clock, while arranged around the
room were the brass adorned secretary, the
dark mahogany table, and the straight back
ed, leather bottomed chairs, preserved amid
all their changes. Here they toiled here
they bowed in morning and evening prayer,
and here they beguiled the long hours of their
WEAKNESS by such blessed and cheerful con-
versation as can only be imagined by, a moth
err and daughter whose very souls have been
knit together by long years of'partnership in
suffering. l.a..-r.-a st ., seI.
But now another and a sorer trial was n
waiting Mrs. Austin. The Interest ingredi-
ent was now to be added to her cup of life,
and the furnace of affection was again to be
heated for her, more fiercely hot than ever
before A slight cold first neglected, and af-
forwards increased, fastened on the frame of