The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-09-23

Come down from your bower, my talr ladlo,
Come into these arms Of mine;
And we will fee to a far distant land
Where the sun doth ever shine
1.-THE ladie came down from her bower so high,
Her ain true love for to meot;
And he has kissed her bonnie rcd lip
And oh that kiss was sweet.
He has mounted her on his ain guide steed,
And ava to the south they do fee;
But lang ere they crossed the Scottish border,
An ice-caud corpse was She"
Hastily DOMINIC her riding gear she stole
through the window, and joined the lad whose
song had ceased as soon as he saw her emerge
from the shadow of the house. With his
finger on his lip, and an air of Importance
which, under other circumstances would have
drawn hearty laugh from the girl, he took
her hand, and led her down the street a few
rods, where she found her own horse, ready
saddled and tied TO the fence.
Before she sprang into the saddle she paused
and pressed kiss on the poor lads forehead.
Surprised at the tears that fell at the same
time, he looked up anxiously in her face and
said
"Don't cry, Molly; never fear for Johnny
he'll have his fiddle yet"
Gathering up her reins, she spoke to the
well-trained animal, which struck into a can
ter, and a few moments after she was urging
her way up the steep ascent on the east
CHAPTER III.
On the night of Molly Grahams sudden
flight from Bill Glovers, an ancient couple sat
alone in the large front room of an 0ld-fash-
Toned farmhouse, standing about half mile
distant from the one selected by General Put
nam as his quarters. As the old man rose and
crossed the room for handful of white ash
splinters, with which he was mending the
played tall, bony fgure-one that would in
its day have measured six feet and more
though now the shoulders were somewhat
bowed, as well from disease as age. His face
was pale and furrowed by many wrinkles
but lit up by pair of large blue eyes, mild
and serene in their expression as noon-tide
sky in June, while his high, bald head was
fringed with hair of that peculiar slvery white.
ness so beautiful on the head of age, which
chung about his neck in curls His whole as
pect gave one the impression of venerableness
and you felt at once, that he was not unwor-
thy of those primitive days when the angels
sojourned with the children of men, This
was Andrew Graham and the angels did So
iourn with him, for we cannot but believe that
some of the fair children he had seen pass on
before him to the Unseen Land were with
him at all hours, to strengthen and to comfort
just as truly as Molly and Andie his only re.
naming grandchildren, were with him, a
visible blessing to his aged heart Oh 1! how
many unseen angels are sitting by our hearth.
stones, and blessed, thrice blessed are the
dwellings thus sanctifed, for
1T is better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all"
The old dame, in the whitcst of all caps
with its border shading pair of bright, black
eyes, and face not exactly wrinkled but
slightly withered, like sound apple kept late
in the spring, is Goodie Graham his wife, or
Aunt Sara, as The young folks call her-the
kindest liveliest, cbeeriulest most companion
able old dame in the whole county, as ready
to take an interest in their affairs as when,
half a century or more before, she and Andrew
Graham had
E" Sat in the brave old screen and age had looked
and sighed,
Alack their simple hands were free, their cunning
hearts were tied
She was knitting stocking for the old man,
none of your short, halfway things, but real
old-fashiOned stocking; and the long slope
from the calf to the heel was marked at regu-
lar intervals by white thread-for the old
DANES eyes were getting dim, and she did not
like to I've deceived in the distance of one mar
rowing from the other. 1t was getting much
later in the evening than the old people
thought, for the friendly voice of the comical-
faced clock in the corner of the room was
silent as if it sympathized with the troubles of
the times. In fact, this was the case for
Bill had only stated the truth, when he said
that the clock-weights of the patriots had
been taken off, and run into bullets, to supply
the lack of ammunition Every clock in the
whole town of R was silent, save the min
ister's; the time-weight in his had been spared
that he might know when to call them up tc
worship on the Sabbath.
81 do wonder what makes Andie stav 80
late =" exclaimed the good dame, at last. roll.
lug up her knitting and fastening upon it her
great, butterfly-shaped knitting-sheath. "He,u
get so bime-by, that he never'll know when to
come home, she added as she rose and peered
out into the bright starlight.
"Don't worry mother. No harm will hap
pen to the lad between here and neighbor Law
toni" replied her husband, as he put the fin
ishing touch to the basket, and handed it over
for her inspection, with" There, it's about AZ
good as new, now, motherW
ayes, jest as good she replied, setting it
aside, and placing the great Bible, with it's
binding neatly covered with green flannel, to
protect it from dust, on the small candle-stand
between them; and adding, as she took her
seat, and smoothed out the tapes to her checked
apron--"I don't know, gran'ther; ] feel
kinder fdgety tonight jest as if something
was going to happen and wish the boy was
at home"
"Oh he'll want to stay until the last bullet
is run knew how it would be when | told
him he might go but then boys must be boys,
you know, mother" returned the old man, as
he deliberately settled his great-eyed glasses
on his nose. "But III tell you what do wish"
he went on, after a moments pause /" wish
our Molly was safe at home Short visits
make long friends and Bill Glover's is not
exactly the place for young girl"
"Thats just what ] have been thnkin' all
day | can't think what makes the child stay
so But s'pose she finds something to keep
her busy all the while, and she always will
when Hetty Glover is mistress wouldn't
have let her gone, only Hetty plead so hard. 1t
is such an QUITO the way place too-but then,
Bill Glover, rough as he is, always seems to
think n great deal of Molly, and would scorn
the notion Of her coming to harm under his
roof"
Seeming and being are two things, mother,
and Bill isn't mind to put himself much out
Of the way for anybody, least-a-ways for wo-
men kind, as he calls them We had better
send for the girl home,
The old man had scarcely ceased speaking
when merry voices were heard on the doorstep,
and Andie lad Of fourteen or so, came in, ac-
by yonng soldier, in the Continen-
tal uniform, whose athletic figure and hand
some, manly face would have been passport
in his favor anywhere.
He was evidently welcome guest, and the
old dame, in her joy at seeing him, forgot for
time to chide Andie for staying out 10 late.