Hannibal journal and western union. (Hannibal, Mo.) 1851-1852, 1851-09-04


fusion with the sound
The bright and cheering sunlight, when it
first CLEANED upon the clean-swept hearth
through their solitary window, was pale and
dim. The blue tinge upon the far-oif noun
tains seemed to gather blackness as they looked
at it: all things, in short, that they for years
had looked upon as bright and beautiful, were
now changed, as in moment, by some magic
spell, and seemed to have assumed a dark and
sombre hue.
They neither spoke nor moved, but continued
their fixed and answering gaze upon the ford
and fall above them, as if watching still the pro-
gress of that deadly struggle in the troubled wa
tiers.
1t were hard to tell how much longer this
state Of partial paralysis, into which the two old
people had fallen, might have endured had not
the spell been broken by the sudden entrance of
neighbor, who came for live coal from their
fire to rekindle her own.
They both started from their kneeling posture
at the window-it was too low to admit of their
seeing the ford in any other-and the woman
thought she had disturbed them in their morning
devotions And as they appeared, from their
absent and confused manner, to look upon her
visit as unreasonable, she made it as short as its
object would permit.
The moment she was gone, they began to
ponder and deliberate upon what they should
do.
To alarm the neighborhood was their first and
best resolve. But the dreaded vengeance of
those fearful Dobsons frightened them from pur-
suing this right and proper course, and they de-
termined at last, as the safest plan they could
adopt, to say not a single word about it.
They could manage to live with the guilty Sc
cret on their souls, and did SO for long time,
but they could not they dare not, die with it,
Its weight, they thought and felt would sink
them to perdltion. They might, however, put
off the evil day OH which they must divuige it,
and they did SO, for a score of years. They
were now becoming very, very old. The grave
was opening before them. Yet, as the ''siver
cord" although attenuated and stretched TO its
utmost length, did not break last year, it might
not this. Thus they argued and still they put
it of, and might, perchance, have continued to
do so till it would have gone down with them
into that land where all things are forgotten,
had not an accidental circumstance brought "a
bout what the old people considered even now
a premature discovery.
One day, as the old man was out on his
monthly round to sell his rushes and supply his
regular customers, as well as to hear and tell
the news of the parish, for he was the greatest
gossip in it, he was asked by almost every one
if he had heard that the Dobsons were going tc
America.
Now, the impression of some vague idea Of
blood-guiltiness lying at his door, if he allowed
the murderers thus to escape, or the annoyance
that news of such importance should have been
so widely spead without his instrumentality, ol
perhaps both circumstances combined together
elected from him, in an unguarded moment, the
assertion that !Ie knew something, if he chose tc
tell it, that wo;lld stop them.
Two days after this, Sir Frederick v
the most active magistrate in all that neghbor-
hood, was observed 10 cross the brook at Rose
gill Ford, and his servant was soon seen walking
to and fro before old Langley's cottage door
with the reins Of two riderless horses in his
hand. And that self-same evening one of the
Dobsons was apprehended for the murder Of
Tom Smith, some twenty years before, and
Forthwith sent with a strong guard to the coun-
Ity Jail, to await his trial at the next assze.
The brother-in-law would have shared SIM
liar fate, but he was from home at that time, and
never came back.
The eldest brother was missing too. Wheth-
er to get away from the poverty and distress CO.
ming upon the family, or from his own guilty
conscience, or from fear that something might
transP.ire at his brothers trial or execution, il
4. u. duo EuSI' IIiP'' PtIsi''' leo his rarso
and White Granite Plates, Dishess'' tii' PeisI'
IN GLAn'