The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1853-08-11


her arms new born child. This child
said by him to be the posthumous son Of
dear friend recently deceased, he rep
resented it was his interest to adopt, and
produce to the world as his own. To in
sure his wife's aid in the project, he care
fully concealed from her whatever deep
laid schemes were working in his own
mind-made light of the affair-asserted
that it was but to serve a temporary pur-
pose, and that, the object in furtherance
of which this singular deception was car
ried on, once attained, the whole thing
should be revealed.
A quick instinct of wrong in the mind
of the young wife, made her at first hesi-
tate; but the recollection of that strict
abncgation of her own will to which she
had vowed herself, at last prevailed over
her scruples, and the pleading looks of
the helpless little orphan, lying safe and
warm within her arms, melting her soul,
she took the forlorn babe to her bosom
and bestowed upon it heartily mothers
care. The child proved sickly, weary
burthern to any but real mother; yet
its foster parent, though young and un-
used to such charge, never for mo-
ment shrunk from the responsibility she
had incurred. The consequence natural
ly was, that the boy learned to love her
strongly and entirely. But towards his
reputed father he at all times evi,ced
most strange and unaccountable aversion,
amounting to an instructive horror and
shrinking from his presence. When the
child had grown to be about year old,
Mr.. A--g, the gentleman in question,
his plans now apparently matured, re-
solved at once to introduce his protege to
his family as his own legitimately born
son and heir. Mr.. A-g was
descendant of one of the old border fam
lilies, renowned in history for many
raid and many foray across the Eng
lish frontier, and, Judging from his deeds,
the unscrupulous character and adven-
turous spirit of the early freebooter
would seem to have been transmitted
down through many generations, little
modified by the march of CENTURIES
And now came the poor wife's trial.
In her husbands home, and under the
eyes Of his kindred and household, she
was soon doomed to feel bitterly how a
single deception inevitably leads to num-
erous others, and how one falsehood en-
tails the necessity of thousand more to
follow in its wake. A mother in SEEM
ing, yet no mother in truth, her entire
ignorance concerning all that related to
the birth of her supposed child became
subject Of redicule with the female mem
bers of the family. Sooner or later be-
trayal seemed inevitable. Nor was this
ALL the worst was to come. No sooner
had the imposture been carried out sue
cessfully, than the young wife found her
self about to become mother. Here
was new involvement She had then
given up the birth-right of her own child
in favor of a stranger 1t was true
that the fact of the imposition of the
adopted child could be proved, but what
humiliation must accompany such a con-
fcssion-what heart-wearing tissue of
law proceedings might not be entailed by
the admission! To the married pair,
years of torturing anxiety and strange
discord followed. Heart -burnings of
many kinds unavoidably arose out of
state of things so unnatural. The real
son became secondary consideration in
the household, the very servants seeking
favor with the presumed heir, and look
ing down on the younger brother
All this time the mystery was still
maintained. Whence the adopted had
come, and to whom he belonged of right,
was throughout kept a guarded secret
from the wife-her husbands solitary
admission to her being to the effect, that
the boys mother was lady Of noble
birth: of the father he never spoke
Mr.. A--g made frequent and sudden
journeys from home, no one knew whittier
or for what purpose, always returning as
unexpectedly as he had departed After
these absences he was observed to be
gloomy, nay, almost fierce in his temper,
especially towards the child of his adop-
ton, between whom and himself mortal
antipathy appeared to exist, and to in
crease with the boys years. What might
have been the issue in after-years it is
needless to surmise. The Gordian-knot
of this evil was suddenly and unaccounta-
bly, cut by that unseen Hand which has
undone many another coil of mischief in
the world One day the adopted child
was found drowned in the Tyne, which
rolled its waters through Mr.. A--g's
estate. There was hurried and unsat-
isfactory inquest held on the body, and
all was done. Through one breast
that of the wife-a secret shudder ran
| A sickness as of death fell upon the
heart of her who alone knew what hid
den temptation might have laid in wait,
like the weird sisters of Macbeth, urging
on the man with whom her fate was
bound up, to the commission of "a deed
without name From that hour a
blight fell over the fated house. But to
this day all is enveloped in mystery. 1t
is true, that the bare fact of the imposi
ton of such child in place of a real