The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1850-07-13


wholly given herself to the fancles and
the hopes Of the untried Alas she had
reached, she had passed, too soon, that
crisis OF life which uniolds next TO the ex-
pectant the season of winter-she had
seen the gay flowers fading, the leaves
whitening, the glory of summer past. And
yet how young how very young she was.
They who saw ne shadow brooding
over her, out Of which she could not
move, they who loved, who almost wor-
shipped her, the father and the mother,
had in every manner sou5 ht. how vainly!
to stop the course OF that disease which
fastened upon her-they co uld not dipel
the sorrow which had blighted her life.
She also for moment, desperately as
they had striven with her grief, but now
in the cherries autumn time she wac
come back to her nome, feeling that it
would be easier there to die.
Gazing from her couch out upon the
"'teadfas' skies''-thinking on the past,
and the to come-the to come OF the dy-
ing Yet the thought of death and Judge
ment terrified her not. Surely she would
find mercy and hearts ease IN the Heav-
en- over which the merciful was king.
But suddenly in the nights stiffness
in the GOODNESS and the darkness, she
arose; steadfastly gazing for an instant
upward. far upward, where a star shot
from the zenith, down, down; TO the very
horizon. and she fell back at the sight
her spirit sped away with that swift so-
ry-hash-.Wary pus dcnd,
In that moment the student stood be.
side his window. The fire in the CRATE
had died away, the lamp was nearly ex-
hausted, wearied with his long contin-
ned work, he had risen, and now for an
instant stood looking upon the heavens.
There was sadness and WEAKNESS in his
heart. The little violet, and the travel
lers return, had strangely affected him:
for once he found not in his books that
satisfaction which hr sought: he felt that
another life than that Of a Flooding book
worm might be led by him His dreams
IN the morning hour We're not pleasant as
he slept. They were soely ofone whose
love he had set at nought for the smiles
OF sterner love; of one whom he now
thought of, as in the spring time of his
lite, when she was all the world to him
now hat she was come again, and
he should see her once more ah. he
would bow before her as he once had,
and she who was ever SO gentle, so low
ing, so good, would net spurn him: she
would forget his torgettulness, she would
yet give to HIM that peace, tina, Joy
which he had never qnafrd at the toun-
tain oil learning
Up rose the sun, and the people saw
how the Back Frost was over the earth,
blding all things in its hard close, cold |
embrace. I.aterin the morning little
child, passing by the cottage, paused and
peeped through the bars upon the violet
root. Yesterday night when she went
home from school, she saw the flower
blooming there, the pale, blue, faint
hearted looking flowers and now she
remembered to look ifthey were there
still. Bat though she looked long and |
steadtastly where the sunlight fell be-
meath the current bush, she could not see
that she sought for; so passing quietly
through the gate she stopped down where
the violets had been, and felt the leaves
and kne" that they were frozen; and It
was only by ali efolt that she kept back
the fast-gatherng tears, when she look
ed on the one flower Mary had left, and
saw how it was dropped and dead.
But sadder sight, and one more full
OF meaning was presented in the pleasant
chamber, whose window opened on the
yard where tia blossoming bushes grew.
For there woman bent over the bed
wherron another fIost-klIed flower Law
moaning in the bitterness of grief the
death OF her one treasure
Still later in the day another mourner
stood in that silent place. thinking ofthe
meteor and the violet 1t was the stu
dent, he who in the remorse and anguish |
CAM, bemoaning the trost.blghted. Too
late too late, he came to tell his love-
too late to crave forgiveness, too late to
soothe the broken hearted! Now stood
he himself in the valley OF the shadow of
woe.
And the snow and the storms aboun-
ded. Winter was come.