Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-01-04

Mother bears il better than ! should have ex-
pected. She is trying to comfort father.
Yes, she may bear the prospect OF change
but the reality Of poverty-she who has never
known it-so excitable, so feeble, what will II
be to her And our father broken, crushed,
under mountain Of debts that he can never
throw off, unaided Oh if strength was in
these arms again But it can never be !"
And he dropped his thin hands hopelessly, yet
with resignation.
"Tell me what 1 can do brother !" ex-
claimed, rtsolutely.
A light dawned in his clear gray eyes as he
turned upon me.
VII you do what you can, Ralph 20 he
asked, earnestly
"May Heaven hear and help me, rs prom
seo returned, solemnly.
"Do you comprehend what that promise in
v,lves, dear boy-the giving up Of your cher
ished pursuits, your plans for lile?"
III the sacrifice wrench my heart-strings,
Eben, it shall be made for our parents, to
whom owe all Tell me what to do!n
Eben lay in silent meditation tor minutes.
At last he began:
What would have done, Ralph, had this
failure happened three years ago, and left me
in the henlth you enjoy, with the wisdom have
it may in !, me degree guide your course.
81 could not have given myself more en-
t'rely than have already done to the bust
ness which is now at an end But would not
have arasted SO mucho
pressed his hand, and my ewes filed, but
his own were clear, and glazed with bright
ness.
"Toil Of day and night in the counting house,
bending and reckoning, reckoning and bend
ing from boyhood, have brought my labors to
in early close, brother Your fate must not
be like mine ought to have gone West. /
would have done it, ii could. would have
cxerted muscle and sinew, no less than brain. |
would have strengthened my physical being,
while was giving its energies as well as those OF
my mind, to the task before me. Our father will
be fettered man, until he is once more free
from debt know him well-better than any
other, and know he will never have energy
enough to help himself or rise to his former
standing, until he feels that this stain Of dis
honor is tfaced, until these debts are all hon
orably paid. Our mother, she must know
some years Of privation; let it be your care to
provide her declining years with o home once
moro comfortable. leave this sacred trust in
your young hands, Ralph! God strengthen
and keep you ~
!" accept IT, brother, IN His strength" and
knelt by the led Of Eben.
That night, deeper gloom than even the de-
spair Of bankruptcy fell upon our stricken
household The shadow that can only be
lifted in Eternity, lay on that supper cham
ber" The heart that had crowded lifetime
into nineteen years, had ceased to beat and |
kept watch beside it
had lived years in that day. was no
longer boy! Dismantling Of that bereaved
home, wreck Of boyhood associations, saori-
lege upon all that was holy in the memories Of
Life and Death beneath that roof-why should
dwell upon these, comprised in the disn,al
sack Of all things, preceding the auction
sale?" | took my poor weeping mother from
the midst, to quiet but humble country home
My father moved, like one in dream, amid
the wreck Of his household.
10 week. | was on my way westward.
TO BE CONTINUED.