Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1852-05-05
Affecting Incident of a Lost Husband


"What can be keeping Donald so long
tonight? - thought Mary wonderingly,
but without uneasiness, for the weather
was fine, as, occasionally letting her work
drop in her lap, she gazed across the
small strip of level land over which, ere
this, he should have been advancing
Still the minutes crcpt Oman hour at
least had passed since she had heard his
signal gun, and Mary at last was thinking
of rising and going to meet him, when
slight rustic beside her, and something
touching her hand, made her look hastily
up. 1t was his dog. "Where is your
master, Whitefoot?" she asked, wonder
ing to see the animal so near without her
husband, and observing that he was not
yet in sight. The animal pulled her skirt,
and whined, and then running back lit
tie way on the road he had Just came,
paused and looked round to her, as if ask
ing her to follow. Good help me p ex-
claimed Mary, rising hastily, terrible
fear darling through her mind, "some-
thing must have happened to Donald" -
Those accustomed to dogs easily under
stand the signs by which these sagacious
animals communicate intelligence. Mary
knew that something serious must have
occurred to account for the dogs behavior
She hurried along the little pathway,
tracked family through the small piece Of
messy land. The dog, satisfied that she
was following him, bounded rapidly for
ward, sometimes pausing for her to over
take him, whining and pressing to her
side, as If seeking consolation from her,
and then darling on as before. Mary's
step was wild and agitated; but she was
endeavoring to compose her spirits, that
she might be fitted for any emergency,
and her heart was crying nightly to God.
She was solitary in that wild place, and if
anything serious had happened to her
husband-she shuddsred at the idea. Up
the SIDE OF the steep craggy mountain
painted the dog, and Mary toiled perseyer-
ingly after him. She knew that the ami
NAL would lead her unerringly to the spot
where her husband was, so she had no
doubts about the proper direction to take
in her search for him. 1t was rapidly
darkening, however, and she feared if that
spot was distant, that the night would
have settled down before she reached it.
She exerted all her powers, and she was
strongly built though understood wo-
man but, poor thing, her present situa-
tion much untitled her for heightened and
excessive toll. Her husband once found,
how besides, if any serious accident oe-
CURED CURED, was va, she to get him conveyed
God during that dreadful walk. while nm i.
certainty as to the nature and extent Of
her husbands injury tormented her ina :
gination, and seemed to her even worse
than reality itself. "Thy will, o Father
thy will be done," was her ceaseless cry.
but oh grant support and strength r.
1t was after full hours constant toll that
Mary drew near the spot from which her
husband had fred his signal. The night,
as she had anticipated, had fallen but
the clear summer sky was thickly span
rising anu srEysr1agav the moon was Just
sne stood: The solemn silence of the
mountain heights was only broken by the
""Ang voice OF the many little streams,