The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1846-05-30


No heart, no heart offesh, but n stone, Il
cold stone, and hard as yonder rocky hillock.
lie climbed it for view,- land what view!
a panorama ofperfect desolation, a continent
ofvcgetabe death. His spirit almost 9iailed
within him; but he must on, or perish, where
he stood. Takingno count oftme, and heed
less as TO whittier he might wander, so it be
not back again along that awful track of lib
erty he onged for, he crept on by little and
little, often dropping for fatigue, night and
day, day and night: he had made his last meal;
he laid him down TO de,--and already the
premonitory falcon tapped him with its heav-
Y wing. Iln! whatare all those carrion fowls
congregated there for? Are they battening on
some dead carcase? o, hope, hope! there is
the smell ofiood upon the wind: up, man, up
battle with those birds, drive them away, hew
down that fierce white eagle with your axe;
what right have they TO precious food, when
man, their monarch, starves? So the poor G.
maciatcd culprit seized their putrid prey, and
the scared fowls lowered hut little space
bove, waiting instinctivey for this new victim:
they had not left him tnuch-it was feast of
remnants pickings from the skeleton of
some small creature that had persisted in the
desor,-a wombat, probably, starved upon
its travels; but royal feast was to that fam
ishing wretch: and, gathering up all the re-
mander of these priceless morsels, which he
saved for some more fearful future, again he
crept upon his way. Still the same, night
and day, day and night,-for he could only
travel league II day: and at length, a shadow
line between the sand and sky, far, far off,
but circling the horizon as bow of hope
Shall 1t be land of plenty, green, well wat
cred meadows, the pleasant homes of man,
though savage, not unfi'iendly? o hope. nm
lnI IL e.
dreadful woods, starving solitude under the
high arched gum trees.
Onward lie crept: and the line on the hori-
zon grew broader and darker onward stills
he was exuting, he had conquered, lie was
hold and hard us ever lie got nearer now
within some dozen miles; II was an mdistinct
distance; but green at any rate; huZ2a-never
mind nightlall; he cannot wait; nor rest. with
this Ely stun before him: so he toilcd along
through all the black night, and friendly
storm of rain refreshed him, as his thirsty
pores drank in the cooling stream. Aha by
mornings dawn he should he standing on
the edge of that green paradise, fresh as IL
young lion, and no thanks to any one but his
own shrewd indonitable self
Morning daW ned and through tie vague
twilight loomed some hugh and tangled wall
of green foliage, stretching seemingly across
the very world. Most sIckening sight n
matted tborny Jungle, one of those primeval
woods again, but closer, thicker, darker than
the park-like one before; rank and prickly
Heritage IN rottng swamp, crowding upup-
on the stately trees. Must he battle his way
through? Well, then, lift must be so, he must
and will; anything rather than tins hot end
blistering sand. Ifhe is doomed by fate TO
starve, he it in the shade, not in the fierce sun.
So he weakly piled his hatclet, fiinging him
selfwith boldncss on that league thick hedge
ofthorns: his way was choked with thorlls;
he struggled under tearing spnes, and
through prickly underwood, and over tangled
masses of briery plants, clinglng TO him eve
ry where around, us with thousand taloned
claws; he is exhausted, eXtricatiOn is impos
sble; he beats the tough creepers with his
dulled Ratchet, as a wounded man vainly; ha!
one effort more, a dying effort, must be be
impnled upon these sharp aloes, and strange
Ieated prickly shrubs; they have caught him
there, those thirsty poisoned hooks innumer-
able as his sins; his way, whichever way he
looks, is, hedged up high with thorns, thick
set thorns, sturdy tearing thorns, that he car
not battle through them. Emaciated, bleed
ing, rent, fainting, famished, he must perish
in the merciless thicket into which hard heart
edness has flung him!
Before he was well dead, those Tapping
carbon fowls had found him out; they were
ianllSnnS 100, ana nan lorgot tnelf natulhi
distaste for living meat He fought them
vainly, as the dying fight; soon there were
other screams in that echoing solitude; be-
sides the screeching falcons! and when they
reached his heart-if its matter apply typi-
fed its spirit-that heart should have been
very stone for hardness. a..
So let the selfish die! alone, in the vase
bowling wilderness; so let him starve uncar-
ed for, whose boast it was that he. had never
felt for other than himself,--who Knocked God
and scorned man,--whose motto throughout
life, one sensual, manipulating, harsh rou-
tine, was this: ''1'alse care of the belly, and
the heart will take care of itself"--who new
er had wish for others good, a care for 9TH
eE's evil, thought beyond his own base car
case; who was rnan,-no man,--a wretch
without heart. Solet hmperish miserable;
and the white eagles pick his skeleton clean
in yonder tangled jungle! u.