The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1851-09-18
EARLY FRIEN DS.
Where are they?

... EARLY FhtENDSs
Where are they?
cannot sit now, as once, upon the edge
Of the brook, hour after hour, finging of
my line and hook TO the nibbing roach, and
reckon it great sport. There is no girl with
auburn ringlets to sit beside and play upon
the bank. The hours are shorter than they
were then; and the little Joys that furnished
boyhood till the heart was full can fill it no
longer. Poor Tray is dead, long ago; and
he cannot swim into the pools for floating
sticks, nor can sport with him hour after
hour and think it happiness. The mound
that covers his grave is sunken, and the trees
that shaded it are broken and mossy.
Little Lilly is grown into woman and is
married and she has another little Lilly,
with haxen hair, she says-looking as she
used TO look. dare cay the child is pretty
but is not Lilly. She has a boy, too, that
she calls Paula chubby little rogue-she
writes, and as mischievous as ever | was
God bless The bo'
Ben, who would hare liked a ride in the
coach that carried me away TO school-has
had great many rides since then-rough
ones, and hard ones, over the road of life.
He docs no' rake mp the falling leaves for
bonfires as he did once he has grown TO be
a man, and Is fighting his way somewhere
in cur western world, to the short-lived hon
ors of time. He was married not long ago
his wife ] remember as one of my play
mates at my first school she was beautiful,
but fragile as leaf She died within a
year of their marriage. Ren was but four
years my senior; but this grief has made
him ten years oder. He does not say it,
but his eye and figure tell it.
The nurse who put the purse into my
hand that dismal morning is grown a feeble
old woman. She was over fifty then she
may well be seventy now. She did not
know my voice when went TO her the 9TH
or day, nor did she know my face at ALL
She repeated the name when told il her.
Paul, Paul, she did not remember any Paul,
except little boy long while ago-tsTo
whom you gave purse when he went "a
way and told him 10 say nothing TO Lilly or
10 Ben ?''-fYes, that Paul." said the old
woman, exuliing? "do you know aim w
And when told her-"she would not
have believed itw But she did and took
hold of my hand again. (for she was blind)
and then smoothed down the plais of her
apron, and logged her strings, 10 ''look tidy
in the presence of a genlleman.n And she
told me long stories about the old house and
how the people came in afterwards and
she called me "sir" sometimes, and some.
times "Paul" But asked her only TO say
Paul; she seemed glad for this and. talked
easier; and went on to tell of my old play.
mates, and how Ne used to ride the pony
poor Jacko land how we gathered nuts
such heaping piles; and how we used to
play fox and geeselhrough the long VIM
ter evenings; and how my poor mother
would smie-but here ] asked her to stop.
she could not have gone on much longer for
| believe she loved our house and. people.
better than she loved her own. 81
As for uncle, the cold, silent man, who
lived with his book in the house on the hill
and who used 10 frighten me sometimes
with his look, he grew very feeble after
left, and almost crazed. The country peo-
pie said that he was mad and Isabel with
her. sweet heart clung to him, and would
lead him out when his step tottered, 10 the
seat in the garden, and read 10. him out of
the books he loved to hear. And some.
lines, they told me, she would read TO him
|rs that had written 10 Lilly or 10 Ben.
"a ask him if he remembered Paul-who
saved her from drowning under the tree in
the msadow? But he could only shake his
head and mutter something about how old
and feeble he had grown.
Thcy wrote me afterwards that he died,
and was buried in far away place, where
his wife once lived. and where he now
sleeps beside her. Isabel was struck with
grief, and came to live for time with Lilly
but when they wrote me last, she had gone
back to her old home-where Tray was
buried-where we had played together SO
often, through the long days of summer.
was glad should find her there when
came back. Lilly and Ben were both liv-
ing nearer to the city when landed from
my long journey over the seas but still !
went TO Isabel first Perhaps had heard SO
much oftener from the others, that Felt less
eager TO see them or perhaps | wanted to