The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-03-13

| I'll cheer her up 70 hoping bit, may bel
Some less garrulous comforter would have been
more congenial TO poor Mary in her hour of ST.
| lent sorrow But she was grateful for the good
will that prompted her neighbours visit and she
knew that it is not always good for the grief
stricken heart to be alone. So she strove to smile
| thankfully and even TO converse with her chat
| teriug guest though every sound grated on her
nervous ears that aching TO catch the slight
est echo of football without.
The Goals crumbled low on the hearth and
Mary's hope went down with their CLEAN. Like
| the hum of spinning wheel Der companions low,
monotonous tone was ringing in her ears but she
| took no note of her words, as she paced heavily
across the boards, or, by violent effort, forced
herself TO sit calmly few moments in her rush
rocking chair. At intervals distant call star
tied both to the door, and they heard the name of
ELLEN % swell and die over the dry, whispering
| grass, while dim lanterns, like shooting stars
| glanced and swsyed in the distance Not until
morning did one of the anxious searchers enter
the house, and then he brought no tidipgs.
That day, fifty men mounted on scrsebsck, and
as many on foot, tracked the prairie up and down,
back and forth, for many miles. They pushed
into the wood that skirted one edge of the farm,
leaving not stone or log unturned frighten-
ing every timid squirrel and partridge from its
| nook, with the one cry of Ellen little FL
len ln
That day and the next night passed as fruit
| lessly On the second, which was the day Of our
arrival in the vicinity, one hundred and fifty
horsemen, (you would not have supposed that the
thinly dotted prairie could have furnished that
number, unless they had sprung up, like the
armed men from the sown Dragons teeth) follow
ed in the traces of the others, and, like them,
came back at night with the full conviction that
they had left not bush nor sod untried or I'M
| trodden.
A message had at first been sent to the grand
parents and, coming with all possible speed,
| they arrived on the morning OF the third day
The poor father Of the lost Ellen, worn out with
fasting, watching and agony. fell down in swoon
at his mosAes's feet, as he arose TO receive her
Mary was more calm, and they said she felt the
pang less keenly. Woman-like she had learned
to hide the thorn piercing her heart, and to smile
while that heart was bleeding. That the child
must have been stolen, seemed now to be the
opinion of every one.
ooh! could bear to kn0w that she is deadW
were almost the first words of John Warning, on
recovering from his fanting fit "but this uncer-
tainty, this suspense, it will kill me %
Who could have stolen the child, and with
what motive, were questions not easily answered.
Perhaps some stroller, who had caught sight of
her sweet face in the city-and the parents hearts
thrilled with new terror at the thought--sn old
had sometimes been provided with a supper on
their hearth and bed in their barn.
An advertisement was inserted in all the pa
pers Of the region, describing the lost child and
offering large reward to any one who would
bring tidings Of her.
Still the search was kept up near home, though
almost hopelessly The neighbors could not rid
their minds of the impression that some trace,
some shred of her dress some little shoe or shoe
| al ;oh laod IN tha L..
body the spirit must long since have taken
wing
One morning, it was nearly week after the
little one had left her home one of these cleaners
of q forlorn hope was pacing the prairie slowly,
thinking of his own beloved children, and Of the
anguish stricken parents in their loneliness when
his eye caught sight Of dark object dimly seen
through the waving meshes of the prairie sedge
He took one bound forward-and the veil of mys-
terry was rent from little Ellen!
There she lay-tRers, Graded in hollow be-
tween two hilocks Of the prairie, 60 narrow as to
be unobserved except in one direction, within one
short half mile from her home, while her friends
in tenderest tones were calling her. trampling all
around, and almost upon her, sweet Ellen had
lain, silent and cold, five freezing nights.
The man stood one moment transfxed by the
surprise and grief then, with deep-brcathed
groan, springing to the spot, he lifted up the
stone-like form Of the child, and looked into her
face. Ii was like waxen statue, in its pure
beautiful whitenees The Angel Of the Frost,
who had opened the gate of Death to her spirit
had TRANSPORTED cheek and brow, when he breath
ed his chill blast upon them She had dreamed
sweet dream before she awoke in Paradise, for
smile was frozen on her still face, like the first
fash of sunbeam after q shower. Her eyes,
like halfopened volets, blighted by the storms of
early spring, lay, weighed down with icy dew.
She had wept before she had laid down to sleep,
and to die. She had fallen upon her face,
probably in very WEAKNESS and the angels had
looked down in pity-they had taken in the poor
benighted little wanderer. The lips whence life
had ebbed away were parted, as though In
gentle, sweet surprise, she had heard the call
Little Ellen come home to Heavenw
He united the little blue hood and parted back
the curls, heavy with boar frost and icices He
tore away the blanket, and felt where the heart
had throbbed but life had frozen at it's spring
long before! The touch Of the round, hard arm
chilled his Utmost nerves but he lifted 1t, for it
clasped something tightly in its palm. lie un-
clenched the stffened fingers and took away the
treasure-purple and white flowers of the prai
RE wild asters and daisies, frozen, like herself in
her dying grasp.
Poor little thing! they told her story well
enough. She had always loved flowers, bud Of
Paradise that she WAS and when she had left
her fathers side, they had beckoned her, wsv-
ing their bright heads among the tall grasses.
She had loitered 10 pluck them-wandered on
grown weary-laid down to sleep-aDd walked in
| Heaven
Suspense had nerved the parents hearts to en-
dure certainty They looked on the shattered
casket that had enshrined their treasure, and
bowed to the dispensation Of their God But
when the thought Of that first night--ths agoniz-
| ing realization that she had been almost within
hearing Of the beating of their hearts, came over
them il broke the seal of calmness, and the foun-
tain Of grief poured forth its deep bitterness IN
| checked.
The blighted blossom was believed with the
tears of many an honest eye, that had seldom
opened it's sluice Of sympathy. Rough men, who
| had almost forgotten how to weep, IN the hard
ness Of their lifes rugged path, looked into her
coffin and drew their sleeves quickly across their
trimming eyelids. Warm hearted Irishwomen
touched the golden curls, and Calculated" The
darlint! Rest her soul wild the angels-avour-
neenw
"sSuffer little children to come unto me- said
the Saviour, and He hath taken her p whispered
enc, stopping to give the last kiss to the waxen
lips, before they were sealed up to the morning
| of the Resurrection!
Ellen was buried near her home The SHOWS
rest lightly on her grave now; but in'~ummer
time the grass waves whisperipgiy over her, and
the daisies she died to gather dot her little mound
Il was fitting that she, the farest purest heaven
Hest flower Of all, should sleep under the flowers
of Prairie de Ia Fleurl
DEATH.
Died in the city Of Brooklyn, near New York,
February 27, RANSOM G WILLIAMS, aged about
40. Of ind ANIMATION Of the lungs. Mr.. w for