Spirit of the age., 1853-06-22

covered seated in the fork of nv beautiful |
mulberry, a savage looking man plying the |
axe with great vigor. I" "Woodnan, spare
that tree" was my inward petition--but too |
1ate--if, indeed, it could have ayailed any,
thing, for just as arrived at the spot,
stroke from his axe severed one of the giant
arms of the " Braided Mulberry" So close
it fell by me, that the noise of its crash sent
my beast shying to the other sideuf the road l
Involuntarily my eyes sought theaol school
house it was gSne--nots a vestige was left
to tell where it stood. Some cotton Of supe-
rior growth alone indicated the spot. My
gaze then fell on the place where was once
the sweet spring it was nearly hidden by
the trash and leaves from the surrounding ac-
cliyity. The stream was choked, and the
water stagnant. All this discovered in less
time than has taken to tell it.
| When the noise of the fallhad subsidized
thus addressed the axeman 7 1t appears to
me that all the other shades Have been some
time destroyed, could you not, have spared
this one tree 7" He replied "Rdoes no good
to stand here, as its shade stunts the growth
of the cotton"
" But" urged, it makes such friend
! ly shade for the traveller"
That is no business of mine, he return
ed my employer ordered it cleared away,
and am bound to do his biddingP
r | asked how the spring came tQpe so neg
lected? He said the owner of theplace had
= plenty of good water in other paits of the
f plantation and let this one fill up to prevent
people from pestering his enclosure. AnC
u does he not know inquired of the beautifu
history connected with this place /" I dt
Q not know, he returned, what he knows hu
believe myself, you are as crazy as one Ole
1 Wade, whom they say used to live here-abouts
V and told cussed rigmarole about this tree
being planted and trigged off by an angel
l. The fellows rudeness was repulsive, but
IL repressed my indignation and enquired wha
le became Of Mr.. Wade? The answer was
/ " Poor old fool, his good naturedness brok
Is him up; instead Of minding his own bus
% ness, he was always tending to other folk
ID and helping them out of scrapes, until he q
into difficulties his self, and was sold out t
10 strangers and moved clean away"
sr And we'll did the appearance of the plat
10 indicate the absence of its former genius /
IS The house and shade were gone-the plo
lit had furrowed deep lines nearly to the water
lie edge. No friendly entrance invited the wea
traveller in, and no pure water was there
IS allay his thirst left the axeman to do /
as work of destruction and went my way musil
- on the mutability of human events
h And is this, I soliloquized, the fate of ii
he cherished tree ?--this the end of that beau
We full romance? Is there nothing to be left
op relic of Harry's love and Lucy's truth /?
his But thy truth, sainted one, shall never d
.b- Though the wood-man's ruthless axe M
ra- destroy thy braided tWigs-though the ira
nd and sediments of the cutters may obstrv
- this once limped spring, still all may not
led lost. From the roots of thy tree may
nd spring up scion whose friendly boughs N
gh furnish resting place for the tiny warbl
Sc otthe air, ana the waters OF this spring, r
chance, gush out in some more generous S
lev to cheer the weary pilgrim.
And thy truth, Lucy, as tits in Jesus, 81
ing be to thee a we'll of g living water, spring
up into eternal life, to satisfy thy immor
being through eternity's ceaseless ages"