The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1849-04-03

must 6e sick : and when night after night pass
ed, and they neither saw nor heard anything
Of Alfred, her anxiety would let her rest no
longer. I'VE will 90 to him, or at least GO
where we may hear of him, and Mr. Heath
now as anxious as herself, readily assented
Their simple preparations for the journey were
soon made, and with heavy hearts they pro-
ceeded in search of their son, with little hope
of gaining anything more satisfactory than de.
finite intelligence of his death.
1t was a dark ard rainy evening when they
entered the city, and after an hour spent in
fruitless inquiries, they found the place to
which Alfred had been carried. Little care
had he received in the crowded boarding house.
There was none of the neatness and order
that shows better in a sick room than anywhere
else. Rough hands had roughly tended him,
and pale and death-like as he looked, it SEEM
ed as if it mattered little what care he had
now. In the agony with which the parents
bent over the unconscious sleeper, and marked
the sunken cheeks and wasted form, there was
but one ray of comfort: they could watch over
him-they should not hear of his death with
the sad thought none but stranger had
smoothed his dying pillow.
The sufferer awoke from a troubled dream,
to find his aching head supported by his IA
Their, and to see his mothers eyes resting on him
with a look of unutterable tenderness. So
faint was the smile of recognition with which
he greeted them, that only parents eye could
have caught the fitting expression.
Can't live, can't live, said the doctor, with
professional carelessneSs, as he entered the
house the next morning.
But his mother has come, said the land
lord
That alters the case he may get up again,
answered the doctor, than whom none knew
better how much mother could do.
But how frail seemed the thread that held
that young and promising life. For days
it quivered and trembled with the light
est breath, and the mother tearfully prayed
that it might not be broken. A gentle care
and kindly watching as ever blessed sick
bed, had young Alfred Heath, and not in vain.
Gradually he grew better, and was able TO talk
with his parents, and ask them how they chanc-
ed to come to him in that hour of need.
1t was in the newspaper said Mr.. Heath !;
- Just three words in the paper told us that
your ship had come. You didn't come home,
and so VIC came to see if you was sick. You'll
soon be well enough to go home, my boy
God be thanked he added, feryently, for
sending us to take care of you
At length Alfred was pronounced well en-
ough to ride, and in a few days the pleasant
old homestead gladdened his sight How beau
tiful ii looked as the sun shone on the vines in
which it was embowered, with their wealth Of
grapes, just purpling in the autumn sunshine.
No one seemed so joyful as MIR. Heath, who
after being gladdened by hearing Alfred say
he would never 90 to sea again, expressed his
opinion of newspapers in general, and his
news]a in particular on this wise
I'm 50 glad, Millicent, that you took the
paper, for count a newspaper just the most
thing in family. We should new
er have had our boy here, strong and well. if
it had not been for it. 1t is an excellent thing,
and shall subscribe for it as long as live