Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1855-01-31
Originul MoraI GaIe.
WRITTEN FOR THE JOURNAL.
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CHAPTER XIII.

Verttia, left alone in the arbor, and with
the shades of evening gathering fastIy around
her, had multitude OF conflicting thoughts.
Her mind, however, was fully made up on
one point-to renounce the world, and becom
{ Christian. She had experienced, she
thought, the necessary change; and nothing
now remained for her, as she urgently felt, but
the duty OF speedily protesting her faith be-
fo.e tl.e world. As TO the odium that every
where attached 70 the name, or the fires of q
speedy martyriom that everywhere blazed
around hcr,-thesc things had never once oc.
CURED 20 her mind, nor had they in any way
influenced her in this all-important decision.
Her experiences, and above all her hopes of
another and better life,- life, some scntilla-
tioas OF whose untold glories had played be-
fore her eyes, and awaIled the slumbering en-
ergics Of her ul,-had absorbed her thoughts
AMI banished the fear of death.
And now rs she sat. oughtful-thinking
or the glory to come,-of her dear sister in
heaven, and jOying inly over her own happy
change, her eyes closed, she gradually sank
into dreamy Inconsistencies, and her
thoughts were all away from earth.
world of which she had just been thinking F;
and a ssloved ONE too, now much more in her
thoughts than ever, passed in 4 living, grace
full form before her.
AS to the place itself, it seemed to be just
like this earth, and yet very unlike it. Some
things there were just as they are here, and yet
there was strangeness about even these, that,
Oft to dnpict in, words
useless. There was the green sward, the
bubling brook,-the scented fower,-the un-
dulating slope blue line of hill, and the
tall spiles of a city, glttering in the dim dis
tance. But then about every thing there was
An indescribable something,-an unutterable
hue "a sort of spiritual transparency that
facinated while it be -dimed the eye.
The light of the land, however, seemed the
strangest thing of all. There was no sun in
the clear, still skies, and yet the light stream
ed all through the air, above that of the clear
est and brightest days. No day on earth could
be likened to it,-in its balmy freshness, or in
its elastic effects upon the spirits.
And now as Verttia seemed to herself to
stand on the margin of a gently ly-howing rivu-
let, its green-swarded banks strewed with
flowers of nameless varieties, and gazed off in
the direction of the city, the gentle breezes
bore to her ear the soft, sweet sounds of dis
tent music. Then, presently, long train of
white forms appeared moving down a gentle
siope, but We're soon lost again behind an in
tervening copse of mingling trees and flowers.
AT sight of these, she felt strange timidi-
sy steal over her. and she quickly concealed
herself behind fowery knoll.
More and more audible grew the music. and
more varied and enchanting its strains, till, at
length, peeping through the flowers. she OBJ
served the train issuing from the copse. into
the clear, open lawn, at short distance from
her. Her fears increased, but her curiosity.
IN spite of herself, kept her blue eyes peerinc
through the flowers.
The forms we're light and airy,--their step
elastic and bounding.-their dress q shining
White, long and flowing, g,-their eyes bright
aud lustrous, and their long hair hung in CLOS
sY f"ids over their shoulders. On their heads