Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1853-06-16

gun It, The next moment he was as quiet, mild,
sensible, and respectable in his department as
when he first scraped acquaintance with the
company
AS may be supposed, the exhibition was
greeted with universal laughter, clapping of
hands, and shouts of Encore s" to which the
canine performer responded by wagging all that
there was to wag of his tail, but appeared total
ly unable to repeat his very successful effort to
amuse the spectators.
Meanwhile, Ethan Brand had resumed his seat
upon the log, and moved, it might be, by per-
cept'on or some remote analogy between his
own case and that of this self pursuing cur, he
broke into the awful laugh which, more than any
other token, expressed the condition of his in.
ward being. And at that moment the merri-
ment OF the party was at an end they stood
about, drcading lest the inaus2cous sound
should be reyerberated around tho horizon. and
that mountain would thunder it to maintain. and
SO tho sound be prolonged upon their ears Then.
whispering to one another that il was late that
the moon was almost down that the August
night was growing chill, they hnrid homewards,
leaving the lime-burner and little Joe to deal as
they might with their unwelcoms guest. Save
for these three human beings, the open space on
the hillside was a solitude, set in vast gloom
of forest. Beyond that darksome verge, the
fire-lights gimmered on the stately trunks and
almost black foliage of pines, intermixed with
the lighter verdue of sapling oaks, naples and
poplars, while here and there lay the gigantic
copses of trees, decaying on the eafstrewn
soil. And it seemed to little Joe-a timorous
and imaginative child-that the silent forest was
holding its breath until some fearful thing should
happen.
Ethan Brand thrust more wood into the fire,
and closed the door of the kiln then looking
over his shoulder at the lime-burner and his son,
he bade, rather than advised, them to retire to
rest.
=" For myself, cannot Sleep" said he; 81
have matters that it concerns me to mediate
upon. will watch the fire, as used to do in
the old times"
"And call the devil out of the furnace to keep
you company, | suppose" muttered Bertram,
who had been making intimate acquaintance
with the black bottle above mentioned "But
watch if you like, and call as many devils as
you like For my part, shall be a Il the better
for a snooze. Come, Joel
As the boy followed his father into the hut,
he looked back at the wayfarer, and tears came
into his eyes, for his tender spirit had an ntui-
ton of the bleak and terrible loneliness in which
this man had enveoped himself.
When they were gone, Ethan Brand sat list
ening to the cracking of the knded wood, and
looking at the spirits of fire that issued through
the chinks of the door. These tribes, how ever,
once so familiar, had but tho slightest hold of
bis attention, while deep within iss mind be was
reviewing the gradual but marvellous change
that had been wrought upon him by the search
to which he had devoted HIMSELF He remember
ed how the night dew had fallen upon him
the stars had cleaned upon him, simple and
loving man, watching his fire in the years gone
by, and even musing as it burned. He remem-
bered with what tenderness, with what love and
sympathy for mankind, and what pity for human
guilt and woe, he had first begun to contemplate
those ideas which afterwards became the nspi-
ration of his life; with what reverence he had
then looked into the heart of man, viewing it as
a temple originally divine, and, however desc
Grated, still to be held sacred by brother with
what awful fear he had deprecated his pursuit,
and prayed that the objectionable Sin might
never be revealed to him. Then ensued that vast
intellectual development, which in its progress,
disturbed the couuterpoise between his mind
and heart
The idea that possessed his life had operated
as means of education it had raised him
from the level of an unettered aborer to stand
on starlight laden eminence, whittier the phi
osophers of The earth with the lore of the uni
verse might vanly strive to Chamber after him
So much for the intellect! But where was the
heart? That indeed, had wthered, had con-
tracted, hardened, had persisted 1t had ceased
to partake of the universal throb He had lost
hold of the magnetic chain of humanity. He
was no longer brother man, opening the cham.
bers or the dungeons of our common nature by
the key of holy sympathy, which gave him
right to share in all its secrets; he was now
cold observer, looking on mankind as the sub
ject of his experiment, and at length converting
man and woman to be his puppets, and pulling
the wires that moved them to such degrees of
crime as were demanded for his study.
Thus Ethan Brand became fiend. He be-
gan to be so from the moment that his moral
nature had ceased to keep the pace of improve
ment with his intellect. And now, as his high
est effort and inevitable development-as the
brightest and gorgeous flower, and rich, deli
cious fruit of his lfes labor-he had discovered
the objectionable Sin.
"What more have to seek ? What more to
achieve " said Ethan Brand to himself. g" My
task is done, and well done !"
Starting from the log with a certain alacrty
in his gait, and ascending the hlock of earth
that was raised against the stone circumference
of the lime,kiln, he thus reached the top of the
structure. 1t was space Of perhaps ten feet
across from edge to edge, presenting view
: of the upper surface of the immense mass Of
, broken marble with which the kiln was heaped.
All these innumerable blocks and fragments of
marble were red-hot and wildly on fire, sending
up great spouts of blue fame, which quivered
aloft and danced madly, as within magic cir.
. Gle, and sank and rose again, with continual and
multitudinous activity. As the lonely man bent
: forward over this terrible body Of fire, the blast
4 inc heat smote up against bis person with 8