The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-01-24

ter, into piles Of coin. Aud, when Mr. Gather
gold had become 80 very rich that 1t would have
taken him hundred years only TO count his
wealth, he bethought himself Of his native valley,
and resolved to go back thither, and end his days
where he was born. With this purpose in view,
he sent skilful architect to build him such pal
ace as should be fit for man Of his vast wealth
TO live In s-e-s--s---s---.-,'.'-----
As have said above, II had already been ru-
mored in the valley that Mr.. Gsthergold had
turned out to be the prophetic parsonage, 80 long
and vainly looked for, and that his visage was the
perfect and undeniabe simlitude Of the Great
Stone Face. People were the more ready to be-
iieve that this must needs be the fact when they
beheld the splendid edifice that rose M if by en-
chantment, on tbesite of his fathers old weather
beaten farmhouse. The exterior was of marble,
so dszzlingly white that il seemed rs though
the whole structure might melt away in the sun
shine, like those humber ones which Mr.. Gather.
gold, in his young play-days, before his fingers
were gifted with the touch Of transmutstion, had
been accustomed to build of snow. Ii had rich
ly ornamented portco, supported by tall pillars,
beneath which was a lofty door, studded with sill
yer knobs, and made of kind Of variegated wood
that had been brought rom-beyond the sea. The
windows, from the floor to the ceiling of each
stately apartment were composed, respectively, Of
but one enormous pane Of glass so Transparency
pure that il was said TO be finer medium than even
the vacant atmosphere Hardly any body had been
permitted to the interior of this palace but it
was reported, and with good semblance of truth,
to be far more gorgeous than the outside inso-
much that, whatever was iron or brass in other
houses, was silver or gold in this; and Mr. Gath
ergoid's bed-chamber especially, made such a
glittering appearance that no ordinary man would
have been able to close his eyes there. But, on
the other hand, Mr.. Gathergold was now so in
ured TO wealth, that perhaps he could not have
closed his eyes, unless where the CLEAN Of 1t was
certain to find its way beneath his eyelids.
In due time, the mansion was finished next
came the upholsterers, with magnificent furni-
ture then, whole troop of black and white SER
wants, the hsrbingers Of MIR Gathergold, who, in
his own majestic person, was expected to arrive
at sunset Our friend Ernest, meanwhile, had
been deeply stirred by the idea that the great
man, the noble man, the man Of Prophecy, af-
ter SO many ages of delay, was at length 10 be
made manifest to his native valley. lie knew,
boy as he was that there were thousand ways
in which Mr.. Gathergold, with his vast wealth,
might transform himself into an angel OF beneh-
cence and assume a control over human affairs
as wide and beDignant as the smile Of the Great
Stone Face Full of faith and hope Ernest
doubted not that what the people said was true
and that now be was to behold the living likeness
of those wondrous features on the FOUNTAIN side.
While the boy was still gazing up the valley, and
fancying, as he always did, that the Great Stone
Face returned his gaze and looked kindly at him,
the rumblng Of wheels was heard, aPproaohins
swiftly along the winding road.
Here be comes ~ cried group of people who
were assembled to witness the arrival" Here
comes the great Mr.. Gathergold!n
A carriage, drawn by four horses, dashed round
the turn of the road Within it, thrust partly
out of the window appeared the pbysiognomy of
a little old man. with skin as yellow as if his own
Midas-hand had Transmitted it. He had a low
forehead, small, sharp eyes, puckered about with
innumerable wrinkles, and very thin lips, which
made still thinner by pressing them forcibly he
together.
"The very image of the Great Stone Face!n
shouted the people Sure enough, the old proph-
ecy is true; and here we have the great man, come
at last ~
And, what greatly perplexed Ernest they SEEM
ed actually TO believe that here was the likeness
which they spoke Of By the road side there
CHANGED to be an old beggar-woman and two little
beggar-children, stragglers from some far-of re-
gion, who, as the carriage rolled onward, held out
their hands and lifted up their doleful voices
most piteously beseechipg charity. A yellow
claw--the very same that had clawed together 30
much wealth-poked itself out of the coach-win-
dow and dropt some copper coins upon the ground
80 that, though the great mans name seems to
have been Gathergold, he might just as suitably
have been nicknamed Scattercopper! Still new
ertheless, with an earnest shout and evidently
with as much good faith as ever, the people bel
lowed
Gle is the very image of the Great Stone
Face u
But Ernest turned sadly from the wrinkled
shrewdness of that sordd visage, and gazed up
the valley, where, amid gathering mist, gilded
by the last sunbcams he could still distinguish
those glorious features which had impressed them
selves into his soul. Their aspect cheered him
What did the benign lips seem to say
"He will come Fear not, Ernest-the man
will come "
The years went on, an Ernest ceased to be a
boy He had grown TO be young man now
He attracted little notice from the other inhab-
-itants of4tbs- valley -for they saw-nOtbing re-
markable in his way of life, save that when the
labor Of the day was over, he still loved to 90
apart and gaze and mediate upon the Great Stone
Face According to their idea of the matter, it
was a folly, indeed, but parlonable, inasmuch as
Ernest was Industrious kind, and neighborly
and neglected no duty for the sake of indhlgiDg
this idle habit. They knew not that the Great
Stone Face had become teacher to him, and that
the sentiment which was expressed in it, would
enlarge the young mans heart, and fill it with
wider and deeper sympathies than other hearts
They knew not that thence would come better
wisdom than could be learned from books, and
better life than coud be moulded on the defaced
example of other human lives. Neither did Err
nest know that the thoughts and affections which
came to him so naturally, in the fields and at the
Preside, and wherever he communed with him
self were of higher tone than those which all
men shared with him. A simple soul--simple
as when his mother first taught him the old proph-
ecy--he beheld the marvellous features beaming
adown the valley, and still wondered that their
human counterpart was so long in making his APP
pearance.
BY this time poor Mr.. Gathergold was dead
and buried aud the oldest part OF the matter was,
that his wealth, which was the body and spirit of
his existence, had disappeared before his death,
leaving nothing of him but living skeleton, COW
cred over with wrinkled yellow skin. Since the
melting away of his gold, it had been very gener-
ally conceded that there was no such striking re-
semblancc after all, betwxt the ignoble features
of the ruined merchant and that maj estc face
upon the mountain side. So the people ceased to
honor him during his lifetime, and quietly con-
signed him TO forgetfuness after his decease
Once in awhile, it is true, his memory was brought
up in connection with the magnificent palace
which he had built, and which had long ago been
turned into a hotel for the accommodation of
strangers multitudes of whom came, every sum-
mer, 10 visit that famous natural curiosity-the
Great Stone Face Thus. Mr.. Gathergold being
discredited and thrown into the shade, the man of
Prophecy was yet to come.
1t so happened that native-born son of the
valley, many years before, had enlisted as a SOL
der, and, after great deal of hard fighting, had
now become an illustriOus commander Whatever
he may be called in history, he was known in
camps and on the battle. field, under the nickname
of Old Blood-and- Thunder. This war-worn vet
eran, being now infrm with age and wounds and
weary of the turmoil of a military life, and ofthe
roll of the drum and the clangor of the trumpet
that had so long been ringing in his ears, had