Tribune and telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1855-1856, 1855-09-13


ed, and he hardly knows whether or not he saw a
dish of apples, and another of cakes on the table
before the fire, but he thinks he did, and that he
also saw prim-loobing woman, in a silk gown,
shaking her head at the man in the black coat,
while he held the door so cautiously open.
The house was not like farm house, exteriorly
nor interorly, and he is almost sure is the par
sonage; but he is not quite sure about anything,
poor fellow. He is sure enough, however, to an
athematize all piety as hypocrisy 81 he says with
an oath he don't care for all the preachers in the
world he will get to heaven soon as any of
them and he wishes the white neckclOth of the
man to choke him this very instant. And then he
imagines how he would take possession ofthe par
sonage, and sitby the warm fire and eat apples ard
cakes, and, and never pay one cent for preaching
as long as he lived One thing he would do, he
knows, he would entertain poor travellers. 1t is
the duty of everybody, he says, to do some good,
and if it were in his power to benefit anybody he
would be glad to de SO. He does not think, poor
deluded creature, why it is not in his power.
He has climbed long hill, and gone over a hol-
low, where there is a one arched wooden bridge,
and where he heard the tnkling ofno water; even
that has shut itself away from him, under ice; he
almost expected a murderer to come out from be-
meath the dark arch, but there did not and now
he ascends another HILL abrupt and high and as
he nears the summit he sees a good many lights
shining, and presently becomes aware that he is
entering village. A number of covered wagons
almost block up the way before him; each is load
ed with boxes d barrels, and farming implements,
full as it can be- and from among them, or from
under the wagon, looks out huge dog-the faith
full guardian while the teamster sleeps. Immedi-
ately overhead creaks the sign of entertainments
he is so glad to throw down his budget and scat
himself at the fire, that be needs little the fumes of
whiskey and tobacco with which the room is reek-
ing. The idlers there make him welcome, and Of
fer him cigars and punch, and in return for their
kindness he and tn Tx freely and
discreetly; sometimes profaney; and so the night
wears into midnight, and the merry making has
become a carousa. We will not lnger over it, it
is too sad TO see manhood debase itself; intellect
burning itself out in evil passion, and the likeness
of the angel becoming more groveling than the
brute.
Sunday morning comes; the heavens are full
of clouds and of Winds very rough and cold they
are blowing every where; but toughest and col
dest through the leaAess locust trees that grow
along the fence of the Cloverneok graveyard
so thinks the poor fellow who lies beneath one
of then1 his stick by his side and his bundle for
a pillow-all the wild merriment that filled the
tavern last night dwarfed to a drunken dreaming.
The people ride by to church, one wagon load af-
ter another, and now and then some one saws,
g There is Il drunken man. :" but many pass with
out seeing him at all, and stops to see
whether he is alive or dead. is lying nearly
opposite the narrow lane where he paused last
evening, seeing the light in the rude house, half
a mile away. If he were reused up he would
not know how nor why he came to be where he
is, nor do myself know unless itwere that Pro-
violence directed his staggering, when he was
found to be inebrated and pennylcss and driven
away from the tavern where he had paid his last
sixpence for his present imbecility. ...-.t
Heavy and mournful through the dull air
sounds the church bel, like summons TO penancc
rather than a cheerful call TO Thanksgiving; the
troubled sleeper hears it and thinks doomsday
has come and groans and turns on his confortless
pillow. A stout gray horse, with on eye that
looks kinder and nober than has been given to
some reasoning creatures, climbs steadily the
steep hill in the lane, and trots bris>y forward,
tile neat little wagon behind him rafting in loud
and lively key; out into the main road he comes,
and turns toward the call of the bell; but as he
passes the graveyard he looks around as if seeing
the man lying there and plying him.
Dear me ~ exclams the woman who is driv-
ing the gray horse; and she draws up the reins
and is on the ground in moments SO is the young
woman who sits beside her, and she indeed is the
first to climb the clay bank and reach the dead
man, as she thinks he Isl and as truly he is dead
to all that n man should be alive for. ,.a
20, mother, mother" she cries, clapping her
hands joyously, che is only asleep, after all! Of
am so glad what makes him lie here, mother!"
II don't know, my poor child" answers the
good woman wipng her eyes; II I'm afraid he has
been drinking at the tavern and STOPPING over
him she shakes him by the shoulder.
eyes, mother, win get up in minute he
answers, without opening his eyes.
GLOW funny" says the young girl, laughing
aloud; che thinks you are his mother"
Mercy says the deacon, pccpng from the
front ofhis dearborn, 'if there is not Mrs Goforth
and her daughter Elsy, talking with drunken
MANI don't children don't any OF you look at her
And he touches his horse smartly on the flank
and does not apparently hear Mrs. Goforth call
to him.
She is at a loss what to do, and we'll she nav
be; for though she tugged and lifted the man to a
sitting posture, he cannot retain it for moment
unsupported by her; bow then is he to stand or
walk? The mir is bitter cold, and he may freeze
to death if she leaves him. She asks him who he
is, and how he came tlcre7 but he saws he don't
know; and pulls at her shawl and locks in her
face like a bewidered child; and repeats that he
Will go as soon as he can walk, that he is sure he
is not harming anybody.
'But you are harming, yourself, my son, "says
the good woman; 'that is the trouble
''Why, it is not any trouble to you" replies
the young man, because what do ain t nothing
to nobody" And he relapSes again into his hor-
rihle Inconsistencies.
The bells were already done ringing; but Mrs
Goforth was not a woman to go to church and
leave a man freezing to death by the roadside;
she could not, to use her own words, have any
comfort ofthe meeting whatever and though she
tltl NOT Ike 10 stay ncT place, she tnot
it was right TO do under the circumstances so
saving turned about her grey horse, she brought
the little wagon as close to the clay bank as She
could and she and Elsy, half dragging and half
lifting the poor outcast got MIN into it, in some
way.
| 1t had come to the ears of the parsOn, before
the hour for service, that man was lying drunk
en- by the roadside; and the fact afforded a text
for the severest denunciation of all sinners espec-
! tally of this sort. He did not once reflect let us
hope, how large share he had had in bringing
/ his fellow-mortaI. and fellow-sinner too, to the
condition and exhibition of infamy which he so
numerically condemned.
The meaning of the vacant seat Of Mrs Goforth
was hardly construed, form the preachers mind,
when taken in connection with other absences of
I late, it argued cenclusively growing inditfer-
ence to the Lords sanctuary This was wrong,
and unchartable as the reader secs; but none of
! the congregation saw, or felt it then. Good Mrs
Goforth was casting her bread upon the waters,
with no thought offuture reward; but after many
days, as we shall see, reward came.
To be Continued
A CHILD's IDEA OF MEAsLEs.--Little FL
len, a child FIVE years of age, and the
4 only one of the family who had escaDed an