Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1846-05-21
select Tales.
From .4rthm's Magaz1'e for .4priI'
THE SERVANT GIRL.

BY DIR, ROBERT ARTHUR.


property to lose, whose limbs are too weak to-
bear the musket, or to use the sabre. Dark
spirits follow the hostile crowd; where the ieIds
are laid waste, where the brand has made heapsI
of ashes out of house, where loathsome vaporsI
rise up from the heaps of bodies on the batte
field, there they alght and steal upon theI
wretched straw of the destitute, who have BEEN
plundered of ALL save their bare lives, and breathe
upon them--their breath is fever. And old
men and youths, matrons and maidens, fall vic
tins till the church yard is too narrow to con-
tain their bodies, and towns and villages are
desoated. Annals parents were day laborers inI
a Saxon village; French soldiers had been!
quartered in their hut; stragglers, just dismissed
from the hospital, had compelled them to gi,ej
them lodging, robbed them of every thing of thei
least value they could find, and as a guest-pres-
ent, left them the fever Without physician
without nurse, without any soul near them, eX-
cept their infant, weeping for hunger, they layI
upon their wretched straw, now tormented with
burning fever, now shaken with a freezing|
ague, till death took pity upon them. The hun
cry child, wearied with crying, had crcpt uponI
their straw and leaning its little head against!
the cold cheek of its mother, had fallen asleep.
In this condition was she found by the pastorI
things in those days of sorrow, but nothing hadI
met his eye which moved him so much as this
painful scene. He took the child in his arms
and carried her to the parsonage. His own
little family were partaking of scanty meal
Where there is enough for four, a fifth may
become satisfied he said.
And his wife understood him. Anna remain
ed at the parsonage.
The pastor was a man of honor, in the best
meaning of the term pous and faithful, free
from hatred towards those whose belief did not
accord with his own without that spirit of jeal-
ousy in which so many ministers of the present.
day indulge; free from that disgusting arrogance,
which induce some men to believe themselves
able to point out the future destiny Of every
one. He was mild, gentle, and of unbending in-
tegrty; displaying in these stormy times cour-
age in the performance of his duties which no
danger could subdue.
In the house of this man the child of the la
borers was brought up.
When her parents died, Anna was an uncon-
scious child, and she did not know that the par
sonage was not her birth place, and that the no.
bic pastor and his good wife were not her own
father and mother.
Anna was eight years old when peace came
1t would be better with them, the parson had
often sad, consolingIy, from week to week and
from month to month, during the continuance
of war, if they were only to have peace
Peace had now come, but the countries which
had been 50 long the scene of war; had to suffer
many after-pains before they could enjoy its
blessings; to bear the want Of money an OPP
pressve and Iong-continued scarcity, and the
burden of disappointed hope. The parson had
been compelled not only to bring his own fam
lily through the war, but, in assisting those of his
flock, who had been entirely impoverished, he
had been compelled to contract debts, and now
with the peace came the necessity of dischargng
these debts. The parson used his utmost exer-
tons to sustain his family, and to be Just toward
his creditors.
In this hard struggle for the barest necessa-
ries of life, many years passed away, and the
parson was engaged one beautiful spring morn
ing in his poor little study, with sad employ
ment. He had received from the war Office, the
list of those who were killed in battle, or who
had met death in the hospital, during the cam
paign of 1915; this list had been detained long
beyond its time, and he was now engaged in
transcribing the names of those Of his little
flock, who had lost their lives in the service of
their country, into the parish record.
AT this moment the door was opened, and
Anna, with newspaper in her hand entered
the room. She was much agated-she grasp
ed the hands of the parson, pressed it to her
lips, and her hot tears fell upon the hand Of the
honest man.
What ais you, AnnaF asked he in astonish-
ment.
Yesterday, Mr.. WalImann, whilst was put
ting your room in order
Mr.. WalImann, your room; what means this
language between father and daugherP
She wept more bitterly for a moment and
then recovering herself
i found the parish register open, and know
ing there were no secrets in it, | turned over
the leaves to see our family register. found
the names of Ernest, Edward, Maria, William,
and opposite to each, your words: This dear
child have l. their father, pastor of this church,
baptized then found, at later date, No
vember Sd: John and Wilhelmna Neukamp,
husband and wife, died of nervous fever, and |,
Karl Crstoph Wallmann, pastor of this church,
have taken their only child Anna, two years
and four months old into my house, and adopt
ed her as my daughter am not your child
and yet l am your child with all the ties
which bind children to parents, or youth to old
age
You are, and shall always remain So
Yes, but will leave the dear home; | will
now soon be eighteen years old, long have
felt with you; well do | know how much diff
Guilty you find in procuring the necesslrcs Of
life for u.s. and how dark and unpromisng the
future is before u.s. Ofone care, at least | will
tighten you