The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-11-06
For the National Era
THE WIDOW AND HER CHILDREN
BY MARTHA RUSSELL
CHAPTER ".

Day was scarcely dawnng in the East when
a young boy stole softly through the back door
of house in the city Of B., and stealthily
made his way to the street. With an Occa-
sional glance behind him, as if he feared pur-
suit he walked rapidly onward, until just
beyond the limits of the city, he reached
spot marked by tall guide-pOst where road
branched off from the great turnpike he was
pursuing and stretched away toward the noun
tains on the East Here he paused and stood
for some seconds gazing at the white guide
board not that he needed it's aid to tell him in
what direction that road led, for he well knew
that, after tugging up hills stealing through
Wales and leaping many Gmpid stream,
through a course of twenty miles, it ran close
along the edge of a tract Of forest, in the shad-
Ow of which dwet pale, wan-cheeked widow,
whose every thought sleeping or waking, was n
prayer for her boys
For a moment, this thought pulled at his
heart-strings, and even the great, black hand on
the guide-bOard seemed, in the dim twilight
TO point with solemn gesture towards home,
but then came the memory of his stern, mpe-
riOus master dragging him back to his hated
service; the thought of his uncle's biting re-
Dukes, the ridicue of his young shopmates--and
Jim Farnham turned his back doggedy on the
friendly guide-board and took the great turn
pike to Troy, from whence he expected to reach
New York
Proud pettcd and self-wilIed, as the boy was
when he was apprenticed to Mr.. Meeks ignO-
rant as he was Of the services which would be
required of him, perhaps with different mas
ter he might have succeeded better, or Mt least
been spared much subsequent suffering. But
Mr.. Meeks was hard man his apprentices
were to him, not 20 many immortal beings for
whose future destiny he was in some degree
responsible but so many speculations, in which
pecuniary profit and loss were involved and he
treated them accordingly. Jim had not been
there long before he began to think of running
away. But the trouble was which way TO 60
He did not care to go home, for he was exceed
ingly sensitive TO ridicule and had boosted quite
too largely, before he went away, of what he
should do when he got to the city to hope to
escape hdt-besides, his master had not failed
TO impress it upon his mind, that there were
certain writings in his possession, that gave him
unlimited control over him, and he knew that
he should be compelled TO 90 back SO he deci- |
ded to leave it until his brother came home, and
make Ben take him to sea-
When the letter dictated by the widow, and
written by Ellen Cross reached him. announcing
the fact that Ben had come and gone without
seeing him, his course was taken at once, and
the next morning found him, as we have seen,
on the road to New York which he hoped to
reach before Ben sailed
The first intlmatiOn that his mother had of
his leaving his master was through an adyer-
hsement in the county newspaper warning, rs
usual, AL persons against harbOring or trust
ing him on his masters account" 1t was a sad
blow to the poor woman rendered inexpressbly
bitter by the thought that after all her indul-
gent love, her boy had preferred wandering
among strangers to returning to her arms; and
even the hurried note which soon reached her
from Ben, stating briefly that he had met Jim
as he was on the eve of sailing, and should take
hun with him, brought with it little comfort for
IN those few words she read the utter destruc-
ton of all her plans the uselessness of her life
long battle with the ocean. IL had, as it were,
stretched forth it's resistless arm and plucked
her children from the very bosom of the hills,
leaving her desolate and alone Ii was in vain
that sweet Ellen Cross tried to infuse into her
something of her own trustful, hopeful spirit
:" shall never see my boys again" was the
sorrowtul reply-s0 constantly repeated that
Ellen could no longer keep her dark forebodingc
from shad0wing her own heart-a shadow tina,
grew more distinct when the time came for tn,
Tartar's arrival in port and she did not appear
broader deeper, and colder when month afte
month went by, and there came no news from
her, and even ship owners and insurance off
GERS gave her up as lost until all its fearful
darkness was realized IL was a touching sigh
to see this young girl struggling to bear al
against the great sorrow that Swallowed all he
young life, and striving TO comfort the childlesS
heart-broken widow, whose reason at time
seemed 10 grope dimly amid the night Of thicl
darkness that had closed around her. Tn
baptism of pain had come.
CHAPTER V.
battered and dismantled hulk upon 4
broad and limitless expanse OF sea was all tina
remained of the noble Tartar
The long regular sweep of the waves, among
which the wreck plunged heavily every mo-
ment proved that the fury of the storm was
long since over yet this fact although il did
not escape the eye of the elder of the two wretch
ed beings cllnglng to the wreck, brought with
it little comfort. The struggle for life was well
nigh over
Drenched to the skin, shiyering from cold
exhausted by pain and hunger, we much donb,
whether the mother that bore them could have
recognised, in those wasted squalid figures the
strong-limbed athletic boys who few month,
before had caused her widowed heart TO sins
for JOY.
The elder slept--a broken, leyerish sleep lo
at last he murmured, family, a. in dream
"There il the old well, brother, and the wa
ter dripping from the bucket and the YER,
same old gourd from which we used 10 drink
Don't you see il Stand away, and let m,
drink, Jim, for | am choking with thirst !"
Ben Ben - moaned the frightened boy b,
his side, striving to sit up and arouse the sleep
or, "don't talk So for mercy's sake. There i
nothing here but this terrible sea. We shall