Daily American telegraph., 1852-07-19
AMERICAN TELEGRAPH.
From the National FRA.
Our Minister'S Second Wife'
BY MARY IRVING.
Z

Our minister had gone SOUTH 10 was 1ne
first time he had left us within n.'een yIais y1aao
for SO long had he been PASTOR Oh ln1 m 'iAas
church. I saw the church; for our village, uh-
like many others, had only one heaven -poineihs
steeple True, there were a lew nteie Sohooi-
bopses in the outskirts OF the town, where .he .
wothod;sts and Baptists met to worship God
onJno 70 the dictates of their consciences
Rnt in the very centre of the village stood the
church, a white, massive building-ourtained
Of from the common world neither by waving
trees nor green lawn-yet separate ana SOL
ann. towering above ALL and marking OIL the
bours of the children of men with lts silent
clock. finger, or warning them by its deep, hid
den voice that those hours were numbered In
heaven.
Our minister seemed to have grown almost
one with the church before disease came to
separate him from it for while. We should
as soon have thought of exchanging it's white,
angular walls for the turreted stone of Gothic
architecture, or its mammoth pulpit cushion
for leaning desk of modern manufacture,
as of putting any one else, permanently, in the
place of good Pastor Young. Not that we
worshipped him our villagers were not slower
than others to spy out mortal failings, and
Pastor Young was by no means perfect But
though they meted out due measure of gossip
ing disapprobation to the faults as they term
ed them, into which too impulsve tempera-
ment sometimes beguiled our minister, still, in
the depth of their hearts, they perhaps loved
him all the better for these for they did not
look up to him as an unapproachable pattern
of perfection, an angel incarnate-but sat with
him, talked with him. on their hearths and at
their tables as felow-,nortal, treading nth
them the road of this pilgrimage of life, yet
gifted with wisdom from above to guide their
feet aright-for Parson Young's very fnilings
had d leaning to virtues side" His impulses
were as warm and generous as they were
quick and burning and never hasty reproof
dropped from his lips uncalled for by some act
or word Of meanness in some of his fellow
beings.
But these words made deep wounds some-
times as hasty words are likely to do. She
who was always ready to pour the balm of
winning gentleness into these wounds, was his
meeker half, the matronly "wife of his YOUTH
whose unerring Judgment tireless energy, and
impartial kindness, made her indeed a dearly
beloved mother" to our villagers, old and
young
We had reioiced with them had wept with
them, too-for they had seen much afliction.
They had laid down in the graveyard one af-
ter another of the blossoms Heaven drops upon
a mothers breast, until six little mounds, side
10y side had grown green in the parents tears
The fathers heart had bled under these re-
peated strokes, until the life of its youth SEEM
ed to have oozed away. His once upright form
began to bend earthward as though he We're
seeking his children's graves. His cheeks lost
al healthful color; his high forehead grew
cavernous and the thick locks that overhung
it blanched prematurely to almost the white
ness of an old mans hair.
Stiil he boreup, and cheerfully moved among
US, until she ON whom he leaned for all earthly
support sunk away from beneath him. The
mother went to her band of little cherub chill
dren, almost at an hours warning and left
our minister alone.
How much of the life of the soul friend
of friends takes to another world he only
can know who has felt the uoid Our minis
tor felt it not less in body than in soul. Th
doctors shook their heads over him, and talket
of unsound lungs; for they knew no remed,
for bruised heart However, they did thu
best that could be done. They ordered him tc
20 South-a better remedy for his actual dis
case than for the one under which they sup.
posed him laboring. There is nothing like
make an uprooted heart cast out its fbres
afresh.
So news came back to us every month, that
our good Mr.. Young was gaining flesh and spir-
its. The old ladies who had nursed him in his
illness, and crooned doleful dirges over him af.
ter his departure prophesying that he was
going to his death directly, were the loudest
to echo the good news, with the chorus
"Didn't we say SO? Nothing else would
have brought him around, you may be sure ~
He had gone from US in the early autumn
When the buds Of the beach-trees began tc
swell with the sap Of another spring, we heard
that he was coming home again. Vague sorts
of rumors foated to us in company with this
gratifying report, hardly referable to any Ger
tain source. Somebody-nobody knew who
had said that it had been reported that ou,
minister had been very much courted in til,
circles of the Southern city where he had beer
soiourning; that his preaching had drawr
great crowds; and that he, in return, haC
been drawn from his secluson, to mingle freel,
with his hospitable friends. But all thes,
whispers were soon swallowed up by o tornado
OF q report which came near oversetting the
cquanimity of the parish. Let me preface q
little, however, before let it. loose upon you.
The head woman of our, parish, after the
deceased Mrs. Young was the "Wdow
Ray"-or as she was punctilious in calling
herself Mrs Ray. She was tall, dark featured
and critical kind to her inferiors-owninq
none as superior-and mercless to her equals
wherever they chanced to cross her track o
man@uvring She had prided herself on being
the minister's chief adviser indeed, she die
not seem to feel that anybody had right tc
advise him, but herself; and the mysterious
air and low tone with which she always spoke
of him, after his departure had given som,
reason for the conclusion to which half tn,
villagers had come--that she was to be hi
adviser for life.
Into this lady's house rushed one evening
in hottest haste, the greatest gossip of tn