South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1853-04-29

pleasures into which no doubtful or dan.
gerous feeling ever entered. Their me.
mory will strengthen our love OF virtue
and justify our thoughts us
from every evil which may surround US.
The name Of home may call up differ.
ent picture TO every eye, a different feel.
ing to every heart. Some may remember
broad and lighted halls, messy s,aircases
large rooms, old pictures, portraits Of thei'
ancestry, extensive parks, enclosing beau
tiful forests, and game Of every kind. To
others, that name may recall 20 mind a
white cottage, far from crowded streets oil
lighted halls-in green valley, covered
with sweet creeping vines, with forest
of fevergreens, shaded by trees whose bough:
spread over it like green tent-a place
i most beautiful in summer, with gay flo W.
ers, green leaves, and fragrant grass. Iu
| winter, cheerful with its bright fires and
lovelit faces-the happiness Of earth and
home.
How beautiful and touching is the re-.
turn Of ill-fated Ulysses, after being tossed
upon the angry waves, passing through
storms and teppests, shipwrecks, and ma
ny dangers, he returns to his home, where
his old dog meets him upon the threshold,
knows him, and strives IN vain 10 crawl
and kiss his feet
"Yet ull he could, his tail, his ears, his eyes,
Salute his master, and confess his joys,
Takes a last look-and having seen him, ies!''
The heart must be cold and calIous, in
Il al bat "a 8, II
re-visiting the home of its childhood
whether the scene be in crowded cities or
on green prairies, surrounded by bluffs,
watered by many beautiful streams, the
same feeling swellsthe heart ,as the thoughts
OF the past rush over it, till every event OF
our youth is arrayed before US in colors
bright and fresh as spring morning. Past
pleasures seldom grow dim in memory, and
the present often suffers from the contrast.
Every shrub and tree have something to
tell, and they speak eloqusntly to the
heart. They are silent, but witnesses OF
many joyous hours. They remind us OF
many incidents, of many scenes in which
we have borne a part they recall the
careless happy days Of childhood, the gay
dreams Of youth, transient pleasures, faded
joys; we go back again to those sunny
days when we gazed into the future as a
fairy scene, and longed 10 tread its flowery
paths, but :sdistance lends enchan,ment TO
the view"
Our playfellows, and the companions of
our youth, in fancy pass before us; we see
each well known face-their histories are
remembered-somr, perhaps, are in dis
tant land others changed, alienated; and
friends, whose bright faces and warm hearts
beamed on and beat with our own, have
become Indifferent to us, their time and
minds have found new objrcts and new in.
terests-but oh! how sadly does this
thought come to our lone and weary hearts;
who can tell its deep, deep feeling of desc
lationz Yet though there are some events
painful to remember, some regrets, some
wreck OF hope, there are some "flowers'
which have bloomed in our pathway, we
would never forget, and their fragrance"
may still be ours.
We also meet new and unknown faces
in every turn, which make US feel like
strangers in our native land. These we
left children, in few years become actors
themselves, playing their parts in the dra-
ma Of life--but Of ell changes that come
over home, none are more sad than finding
"Some face beloved hath vanished from the
social hearth,
Some tones that sladIened it with music,
mirth."
a vacant place around The festive board,
where sat the dearest and most beautifuI-
for the "brightest things Of earth soonest
fade;" and it is sickcning thought that
the form We so lovrd and idolized is now
no more than the dust on which we tread.
Well might we wonder why we were pla-
ced on this little dark planet 10 struggle
with sorrow awhile, then pass away and
be forgotten. Did not faith point out to
us q home in the skies-an uDcbargine
home -"whcre the rainbow never fades z"
"Anj they are there whose long loved m;en,
In earthly home no more is seen;
Whose places where they smiling safe
Is left unto us desoiate !
\ nd they are where all lousings vain,
Trouble no more the heart ard brain:
The sadness Of our earthly love,
Dims not our heavenly home above"
We may, in after life form many local
attachments; but they can never have the
sweet associations Of our first home, which
seems entwined with our very existence.
screen forever be the groves,
And bright the now'ry sod,
Where first the ehild's glad spirit loves,
Its country and its Cod"
Home is oftener found in the cottage
than in the palace, and always in the heart.
'Tis TO know we are loved, that faces
brighten in our presence, that one heart at
least, is ever true to US. II may BE- a mo-
theirs or sisters; it may be brothers.
or dear friends. Ifthe lone hear, be de-
prived Of all these ties, if it be clouded O.
yer, its "stars" all set, not one ray Of light
left 10 guide it DER life's rugged way, ill
the star Of faith rises--then ii will moi on
ly find home in the "howers'' which me-
rnory plants in its pathway, and waters
with lis tears, but 10 the beautiful dwell
ing place Of the loved and departed, 10
those heavenly mansions the heart Of the
loved one will wend its way, for there its
treasures are. In that home no change