The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1850-07-13
s E L ECT MIS- LII A NY
THE BLACK FROST.
Ely CARLLINE CHEsEBRo',

Ely CARLLINE cHEsEBRo'.
"Methinks
This word of love is Al for all the world,
And that for gentle hearts another name
Would speak of gen,lcr Thoughts than the
world owns"
1t was clear, calm night. Brightly
shone the innumerable stars: the fixed
orhs of giant magnitude, the little twink
ling points OF light, the glorious constelIa-
tons in their imperial beauty stood, they
gazed upon the mysterious face OF dark
ness-a clear, calm, terribly cold night
Winter had not as yet fairly set in.
There had been no snow, but it was verv
late in the autumn, and the grass, and
thv Towering shrubs and trees. looked as
though they had each and all felt the cruel
breath of the Destroyer, as he pronounced
the doom upon them.
People rubbed their hands, and talked
win quivering lips Of the hard winter
coming as they fastened in the increasing
shadows of the night, to their homes. The
children, warmed, and gladdened by the
bright fires that were kindled on the hearth
stones, romped and trolicked, and prophe-
c'ed, with knowing looks, about snow
baling, sleigh-rid-s, skating, and all mani
ner OF fun. The young girls met together,
aud talked merrily of coming gayeties;
the old man wondered whether he should
see another spring-tme; and the poor Lrept
to their beds at nlghtfaIl, glad to forget
everythns-coId, hunger, and misery
in sleep
Midnight came. More and more bright
Iy shone the stars-they glowed, they
trembled, and smiled on one another. The
cold became intense = in the deep silence
how strangely looked the branches of the
leahess trees! how desolate the sardt ms
and the forest-how very still the night
did seem,
Close beside an humble cottage, under
a hugh bush of howering-curran,, had
nourlshed all the autumn tiny violet
root.-And still during tn" increasing cold
OF the later days, the leaves had continued
green and vigorous, and the flowers
opened.
There had been an arrival at the COT
tage that day. Late in the afternoon, a
father and mother, with their child, had
returned from their long wandering IN
foreign lands.
A student had watched their coming.
In the morning, he had gathered flower
from the little root IN their garden, aud
now, as he sat in the long hours of night,
porting ovef his book, he kept the violet
still beside him in vase which held the
treasures Of greenhouse, and his eyes
rested often OH the pale blue modest
flower.
At nighttall, youthful form had stood
for moment at the cottage door, and the
young invalid's eyes, which so eagerly
sought all familiar things, at las, rested on
those still living flowers flowers, where
she had thought to find all dead, even as
were those buds which once gave fair pro-
mise OF glorious opening in her girl-heart!
Unm'ndfrl Of the cold and dampness, she
stepped from the houses and passed to the
violet'root, and, gathering all the flowers
but one, she placed them in her hair, and
then fastened with shiver back 10 the
cottage.
In the fast increasing cold, the leaves
that were left bowed down close to the
earth, and the delicate fewer browning
the pale, slender stem, trembled under the
influence OF the frost.
The little chamber where Mary laid
down to rest, was that which from her
childhood had been set apart for her occu-
patton; pleasant room, endeared to her
by thousand joyful dreams dreamed
within its shade solemnized 10 her, also,
by that terrible Weakening to sorrow which
she had known.
She reclned now on her bed in the ST.
lentness, the darkness; but she rested not,
she slept not. The young girls eyes,
fixed on the tar-of stars, on the glorious
heavens, her thoughts wandered wild aud
free, but her body was circled by the arm
Of Death.
She had not slept at all that night; she
had not slept for many nights Winter
was reigning in Mary's heart-lt had long
reigned there. She was remembering now,
while others nestled IN the arms of forget
tulness. those days that were gone, when