The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1852-05-13

IeiIcate taper Hngef WIN ring.
Unering cry Of agony, our clairvoyan
starts from her seat She raises her I'D
She gazes eagerly at glttering baubl,
that encircles one Of her own thin fingers
The fame Of her chamber lamp is feeble
and dull; tears swell beneath her eyelids
aud she sees the ring but dimly. Pressin.
il to her lip with sob, she falls again up
on her chair
Again her large eyes are fixed, gazing
at the embers Of the CRATE; again the eye
# her spirit are looking into the embers 0
he past.
WHAT do they see?
The same figures, the youth and ibt
maiden. lie has grown more manly-no
less fond: she moro wom,nly-not less
beautiful. Both have grown more thought
fal-not less happy.
Oh! how they love each oiherl The,
are sitting, i, seems, in little parlor o
their own. She has been reading to him .
touching tale, | am sure, for her eyes g'is
ten, and his face is sufinsed with tender
ness. A touching tale indeed it was;
simple, truthful narration OF young, fonc
couple, like themselves, who had heauli
ful child, and lavea il, and lost il, and
mourned for il with broken hearts.
The young wife leans towards her bus
band, who presses her to hi. bosom; ane
both rise together, aud enter tairy-lik,
chamber, where nestled in the midst Of Ink
ury, an infant is sweo,ly sleeping. The,
gaze al i, with ovefhowing hearts; j
awakes, looks up, laughing
Our clairvoyant ulters sii1ed scream
and springs to The miserable bed, where ih'
children are sleeping. She gazes ut th'
e'desi-a pale suffering boy, Of perhaps
seven or eight years. lie wakes as tha
infan, woke; he looks up into his mo,her''
face. and smiles sadly; not as that infant
smiled--she clasps him in her arms, sob
bing and weeping, and holds him there un
Ill he is again asleep, and his fair locks srs
moist with her tears. Then she gently re
moves his arms from her neck, and placing
them around that of the younger child
leaves them to their repose.
Again on her wre,chcd chair, her i,eglcc
ted work lying upon tho floor and the storm
lashed the window, she gazcs at the dul
ashes Of The CRATE.
What does she see?
The same phrlor, the same woman sitting
there alone; sitting and watching.
Yet can il he the same? This woman il
unhappy. She has been weeping. Tha
one never shed tears--except tears Of hap
piness.
All! there has bccn sad change in ih
fair young creatures life! You can hard
! " realize ii-but her husband, the youth
into whose keeping she gave her destiny
he man whom sho so loved that she forgo
The world--the beloved father Of her below
ed child
| Can it be she is watching for him? Car
| Il be his iontsieps she strains her anxious
ear TO hear? Can il be that noble-hcnr,et
youth, who leaves her. at this desolate hou'
Of night, to watch aud weep, awaiting hi.
return?
Alas, thai the truth should be told! some
thing has allied her husband Of late. Trcu
BILE weighs upon him by day he grows hag
gard and morose.
At length the lonely woman hears the
llknown footsteps. He enters; she
raises her anxious eyes to his flushed face
aud shudders. He speaks to her unkndly
and she weeps. He throws himselnpon q
chair. and gazcs savsgeIy at the floor
Forgetting. lorgiving his unkindness-feel-
ing only that be is unhappy, and that il is
her duty to console him, comfort him, she
kisses his fesercd brow. She endeavors te
express her love, and tells him it is killing
her to see him suffer SO much; and then his
heart is soiiened. He weeps like child
He con(esscs all. The truth falls upon hel
sensitive heart, coldly as the shadow o
death! Cards and wine have proved his
ruin!
The scene changes. The same young
wife-now the mother Of two chlldren-E
once more beneath the paterna roof. lie
the husband the father is not with her.
| Alas! where is he? His repentance, his
desire 10 uionc for his errors, came too late
His property was swept from him. To
drown his remorse and despair he resortcd
again TO The fatal cup. One night he reeeo
| into the paternal abode, whittier he and
his wife had taken refuge. lie was intoxl,
ca,ed; he had broken his promise 10 bis
wife, and to her father. The latter was q
stern, rcsolute man, and bis wrath was ter
rible. He bsnished the fallen, wretchet
husband. from bis house, and closed h's
door against him.
The young wife, loving him still, ready
to die for him, would have followed, 10 share
his degradation and distress, but he lovee
her too well to permit it.
And now she is here alone, with her two
children-,he boy and his baby sister
here in her fathers house. She is in deer
mourning. She has lost her mother; bu, he'
great grief is not for her. Oh, no, no! she
knows that the good who die are happy
and all her sorrows are for him-ihe wan
derer, the outcast, the lost
Our clairvoynnt starts from her muslng
as before. She kisses the ring, she bathe'
i, with her tears, she throws her nrms a
round her sleeping children, and prays Il
God for help.
The las, ember has expired. The sick
" flame Of the lamp is dying. The rair
aud slec, no longer lash the window; oni,
the moaning Of the wind is heard without