The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-01-25

"Wl you let me walk by myself, and never hold
me, yet touch me % said the boy, slowly with
drawing the hand with which he threatened, and
beginning to get up.
/ 81 will ~
| "And let me go before, behind or anv way
| like 2"
will"
"Give me some money first, then, and III go.'
The Chemist laid few shngs, one by one, in
his extended hand. To count them was beyond the
| boys knowledge, but he said one," and ava
ricously looked at each, it given, and the
| donor. He had no where to put them out of his
| hand, but in his mouth and he put them there.
RedlaW then wrote with his pencil on a leaf of
| of his pocket-book, that the boy was with him
and laying ii on the table, signed to him TO follow.
| Keeping his rags together, usual, the boy COM
| piled, and went out with his bare head and his
naked feet into the winter night.
Preferring not TO depart by the iron gate by which
he had entered, where they We're in danger of
| meeting her whom he anxiously avoided, the Che
4 mist led the way, through some of those passages
among which the boy had lost himself and by that
portion of the building where he lived, to small
| door of which he had the key When they got
into the street, he stopped to ask his guide-who
instantly retreated from him-if he knew where
| they We're.
| The savage thing looked here and there, and at
length, nodding his head, pointed in the direction
| he designed to take. Redaw going on at once, he
| he followed, somewhat less suspiciousy; shifting
his money from his mouth into his hand and back
| again into his mouth, and stealthily rubbing it
bright upon his shreds of drsss, as he went along.
Three times in their progress. they were side by
side. Three times they stopped, being side by side
| Three times the Chemist glanced down at his face,
and shuddered as it forced upon him reflection
The first occasion was when they were crossing
| an old churchyard, and Redaw stopped among the
graves, utterly at loss how to connect them with
| any tender, SOttenIng cODSOlatOrV thought
| The second was, when the breaking forth of the
moon induced him to look up at the heavens, where
he saw her in her glory, surrounded by host of
| stars he still knew by the names and histories
| which human science had appended to them; but
where he saw nothing else he had been wont to
see, felt nothing he had been wont to feel, in look
| ing up there, on bright night.
The third was when he stopped to listen to a
plantlve strain of music, but could only hear tune
| made manifest to him by the dry mechanism of
| the instruments and his own ears, with address
| to any mystery within him, without whisper in it
of the past, or of the future, powerless upon him
the sound of last years running water, the rush.
ing of last years wind.
At each of these three times, he saw with horror
that, in spite of the vast Intellectual distance be-
tween them, and their being unlike each other in
| all physical respects, the expression the boy
| ace was the expression on his own.
They journeyed on for some time-now through
such crowded places, that he often looked over his
snOulueT thinking tldt he ndQ lOSt MS gulue DuL
| generally finding him within his shadow on his
! other side !; now by ways quiet, that he could
| have counted his short, quick, naked footsteps
coming on behind-until they arrived at ruinous
collection of houses, and the boy touched him and
stopped.
q In there 70 he said, pointing out one house
where there were scattered lights in the windows,
| and dim lantern in the doorway, with Lodgings
| for Travellers - painted on it.
| Redlaw looked about him: from the houses to
| the waste piece of ground on which the houses
STOOD or rather did not altogether tumble down,
unfenced, underlined, unlighted, and bordered by
| sluggish ditch; from that to the sloping line of
arches part of some neighboling vaduct or bridge
with which it was surrounded, and which lessened
| gradually toward them, until the last but
mere kennel for dog, the last plundered little
heap OF bricks from that to the child close to him.
covering and trembling with the cold, and limpng
little foot while he coiled the other round
his leg to warm it. yet staring at all these things
with that frightful likeness Of expression so appa.
| rent in his face that Redlaw started from him.
In there - said the boy, pointing out the house
| again. ''I'll watt
"Will they let me in % asked Redaw.
Say you re doctor" he answered with nod
'There IS plenty ill here.'
| Looking back on his way to the house door, Red
| law saw him trail himself upon the dust and crawl
within the shelter of the smallest arch, if he
were rat. He had no pity for the thing, but he
afraid Of it; and when it looked out of its den
| at him, he hurried to the house as a retreat
Sorrow, wrong, and trouble" said the Chemist,
with painful effort at some more distinct remem-
brance, at least haunt this place, darkly. He can
do harm, who brings forgetfulness of such things
| here
| With these words, he pushed the yielding door,
| and went in.
| There was a woman sitting on the stairs, either
asleep forlorn, whose head Was bent down on her
| hands and knees. As it not easy to pass with
| out treading on her, and she was perfectly re-
| CARELESS of his near approach, he stopped, and
| touched her on the shoulder. Looking up, she
showed him quite young face, but one whose
bloom and promise were all swept away, as if the
haggard winter should unnaturally kill the spring
| With little no show of concern on his account
she moved nearer to the wall to leave him wider
| passage.
"What are you9" said Redlaw, pausng, with
| his hand upot the broken stair rail.
"What do you think am :" she answered, show
| ing him her face again.
He looked upon the ruined Temple of God so
| lately made, soon disfgured and something,
| which was not compassion-fort the springs in which
true compassion for such miseres has its rse
dried up in his breast-but which nearer to it,
for the moment, than any feeling that had lately
struggled into the darkening, but not yet wholly
| darkened night of his mind, ming lied touch of
softness with his next words
tn he onfin leI