Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1854-06-29

most pleasant days were sure to find him amid
the scenes so dearly familiar to him nor even
seemed he cold, nor feeble, nor tired of roam
ing. Safety grew not upon him for day af
ter day, month after month, he visited the
same haunts with the same freshness of feel
ing. But he had sorrow-above all things
he had one sorrow that never left him, night
nor day-he had no mother
He had no mother Poor Willie! How
should he know of parent he had never seen.
Why should he mourn for what he never had
possessed But he had companions, and he
knew that they had mothers, who loved them
and cared for them; but alas he was an or
phan in the world, without either parent, and
cast among strange kindred, who strove but
little to understand the feelings Of the child,
and who oft times chided him for his strange
fancies; and many time, when for the love
Of rock or tree, he wandered away from home,
blows and harsh words were sure to meet him
on his return, yet still undaunted and uncheck-
ed, his passion thrived.
He had often made many inquiries for his
mother, and they told him that she was in
Heaven. Ah,' he would exclaim, wish
knew the way, would gN there in search Of
her, even though the road v IS checked with
stones and briars
And when out at times with his playmates
amid the fields, he would question them OF
their mothers, and ask them if they were kind
to them, and if they ever expected to lose
them, as he had lost his.
Oh, it is a hard thing for young child, be-
reft of his mother, to be taught the rude, harsh
lessons of the world, and the wild, bad pas
sions of unbridled thought, in place Of prayers.
And no one need doubt but that mothers
eyes, wandering from the pure regions of the
blest, beam like the stars in midnight skies,
placid and calm on those they love; and if it
were possible, would warn them from the
paths of error and of danger for the heart OF
a child is so tender and full Of trust, and SO
full also, of fear, that the simplest griefAvill
wiring its chords, and the simplest word as
quickly bring the sunshine back again-just
as lutte will render music as you touch the
strings. Therefore, how much caution should
be used in the training of child.
II was always a mystery to him why his
mother died, when those Of his companions
lived. He could not conceive why she went
away, as he had been told, locked in the icy
house of death.
don't know, said he one day 10 a Few of
his companions who were sitting around him,
don't know what it is to die; nor can see
why it is that me, who can laugh out so mer-
rily, should not live always under this blue
sky
And then it was an equal mystery to all the
children about, and none could explain why it
should be so. They only knew that they had
mothers and Willie had none.
But | shall see my mother, he would say.
know the way to heaven. / have seen its
gates at sunset, cleaning with gold and pur-
pie, and have seen angels standing there,
dressed in dazzling robes and certainly
know that it must be the way to heaven, it
looks so very beautiful and so some day,
when have been whipped for nothing and
treated unkindly-for | am not slave-I will
take Tray, and start for the hills away yonder
where the sun sets, and travel onward from
there till | reach heaven, and there | know
shall find my mother, and we shall be happy
forever =
Alas, for SO sweet boy He had never
known the holiness and beauty Of mother
love. He had never known what it was to
have such being bend over his pillow at
eventide, and join her tender tones with his in
prayer Our Father which art in Heaven,
hallowed be thy name = He had never felt
her warm breath upon his cheek, nor her soft
kisses on his brow, yet in his prisons, when
he laid his head upon his lonely pillow, and
the pale, mellow light Of the moon came
streaming through the window of his room,
throwing halo around the apartment, and a
radiance over his humble cot, Illuminating his
pure and placid features, he would breathe a
prayer of trust and love, in which was blended
his mothers name, with plaintye supplica-
ton, that she would come down to him from
the blest realms above, to which he knew she
had ascended, either holy spirit or dove
This, dear reader, is no faint picture of the
imagination. We have seen that boy in his
solitary wanderings through the forest, sitting
by bubbling springs, or musing by purling
brooks, or sleeping in the sweet and fragrant
grass, beneath the outspreading branches of
the trees. We knsw him when he had no
mother to watch over him, and guide him with
her counsels. We knew him to be craded
by those who were unconscious that the rose
had fragrance, and whose passions were as
wild as the sea-scud that flies over some stor-
my strait of ocean and thus was he tutored
in a rude and hard school, without the solace
of tender tone, such as might throw a ra-
dance over the heart in grief's most dreary
mood, and light with joy weary solitude
What wonder, then, that his young heart
bounded at the glad sound Of happy voices
and gushed with love, like young bird thai
rejoices in its first wild flight, or the young
kid that gambols amid the sunshine, and ovel
the flowery leas of spring time!
What wonder that shadow of gloom was
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