The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1854-09-29
and laying them away with care, saidJ 4 wilt
wait for his return"
Sixty years after this adventure SO terrible


and at the same time so singular, things
had passed in the village. Margaret had clio.
sed the eyes Of her benefactors. Almost all
I those who were at her intended marriage, had
gone to their last rest. A new generation
n had sprung up, and the remembrance Of Pc
0 ter's adventure, Of his sudden disappearance
no longer existed, except as those traditions,
which passing from age to age, are incre ased
, by the reflection, the thoughtfulness with
!, which superstition is capable of inspiring
persons Of little education.
They spoke of Peter ia his country, as
supernatural being. They accused him, at
all events, Of having ,eagued with evil spir-
its. In the cold season, when the wind drove
the hoar frost over the earth, and made the
dry branches of the elms and beeches oreak,
or rather, when pent up in the chimney, its
sound resembled long and mournful groans,
the good danes pretended that it was Peter
who had come to ask their prayers and last
asylum. They used to say they recognised
his voice in the bowling of the storm; when
the snow no longer hid the smiling aspect of
the fields and when the sun clothed the wheat
and the vine-leaves Or the hillside with q
golden hue.
The cry of the night-ra, en-, the murmur of
adder, concealed in the thick grass, the dis
tant bowling OF the wolves, all carried fear
to the breasts of the inhabitants, when they
were obliged to leave their cabins.
| The woodmen, when these sinister warn-
| iEgs met his ear, would bring down his axe
with greater vigor, and would work on in 81
lence, knitting his brows, and ever and anon
casting troubled gances around him. The
mother collected her children about her, as
if she feared the cold hand of Peter was GO
ing to descend from above and harm her in.
nocents.
Peter was everywhere. Prayers were Of
fered to him, tapers were burned in honor Of
him. The terrified imagination of the poor
peasants led them to look upon him as al
ways busy in plotting harm for them. In
this manner did they fear him who during his
short career, had no other desire but to do
good to those about.
At last it happened that, after much labor,
all the veins of the mine were exhausted, and
it was nece ssary to commence upon new
ones. For this purpose the master came,and
his arrival was a signal for holidays and
pleasure.
He was only man, and yet was adored by
the miners as a sort of divinity. He assem-
bed them to communicate the project of the
engineers who had come with him. They
made plans, drew lines, pointed out the new
routes, and soon the dull sound of the pick
was heard against the granite rocks, and the
blows of the mattock and the rumbling of
burrows told that the work had commenced.
The work had gore on for four days, and the
party who had accompanied the master was
much diminished. The young girls and the
youths, who had come to attend the miners
holiday, at the opening of the work had re-
turned to the city; and all were gone home
except a few Intimate friends, and the engi-
neers. They were necessarily calculating,
for they wished to increase their masters
fortune, and provide for the safety of the mi
ners.
Suddenly an unusual noise was heard. 1t
was a dull murmur, like the distant warning
of storm. 1t ncreascs-Cries are heard,
pair ful cries--rhe earth trembles-.-
The master is soon at the mouth of the mine
The bell is rung with all haste, all the ropes
are put in motion. He wishes to leap into
one OF the baskets TO go to the aid Of the un-
fortunate miners, whose death, he believes,
is inevitable. All come up. The miners
have escaped. They are pale, trcmbling,and
the sweat rolls down their faces.
"What is the matter!" cries the master, as
pale and as tremulous as the living spectres
before him.
"a man !---death "a miracle!-an
apparition!" Such were the words, the eX-
camatioEs, which escaped from their mouths,
which were cold through fear, and horribly
distorted.
Soon, however, the master was able to
collect few words, to form an ineligible
sentence, Of the exclamations dictated by |
fear.
While engaged in opening communica-
ton between the new mine and the ancient |
ones, the workmen had discovered a stratum
less hard than any they had before met with.
Stones and earth were not its only ingredi-
ents,! but the foreign substances, which they !
found in great abundance, seemed to indicate |
that in times gone by, an immense sinking
had suddenly happened in that place.
The work was not difficult. A miner oos- |
ened large masses of earth and stones by a
single blow Of his pick. All of sudden, a
very large mass, which had nothing to sup
port it, slid down, gas escaped from the ap-
erture which it left, it took fire, and while it
was burning, what was the astonishment OF
the miners to sec descending by its light, a
young man all to appearances asleep
His brow is smooth, his cheeks fresh, even
retaining the color of life; but his eyes, his
mouth are motionless. Instead of going to
him, of endeavoring to recognise his features,
of aiding him, for perhaps he has need of aid,
overseers and minors all fly with the utmost
precipitation from this unexpected appal!-
ton. Fear, in the short distance they have
to pass through to meet their comrades, sup
piled their imagination with enough for
tale.
Itis no longer man, it is an Internal spir-
it, who has come to show himself to them,
IN the midst of lightning and thunder. 1t is
that divinity who has his home in the mines,
and who often appears to Interrupt the mi
ners in their labor, His form is colossal.