Squatter sovereign., 1855-07-17

oil Sl9nt Will d DcShOuSu SoOu-UyC- -tii1Hh-
ing of the babe, that lay smiling as it slept
on her bosom, he hurried on-he turned
the bend of the wood, he looked upon his
home.
All! what sight was there!
Where, the night before, he had left
peaceful cottage, smiling under green
chesnut tree, in the light of the setting sun,
now was only heap of black and smoking
emhers, and a burnt and blasted tree.
This was his home!
And there stood the blacksmith gazing
upon that wreck of his hearthstone-th
he stood with folded arms and moody brow,
but in moment a smile broke over his
face.
He saw it all. In the night his home
had taken fire, and been burned to cinders.
But his wife and child had escaped. For
that he thanked God.
With the toll of his stout arm, plying
there on the anvil, he would bald fairer
horne for wife and child; fresh flowers
should bloom over the garden walks, and
more lovely vines trail along the easement.
With this resolve kindling over his face,
the blacksmith stood there, with cheer
ful light beaming from his large grey eyes
when-a hand was laid upon his shoul-
der. He turned and beheld the face of a
neighbor.
1t was neighbor's face; but there was
an awful agony stamping those plain fea-
lures, there was an awful agony flashing
from those dilating eyes-there was dark
and terrible mystery speaking from those
thin lips, that moved and moved, and made
no sound.
For moment that farmer tried to speak
the horror that convulscd his features.
At last, forcing the blacksmith along the
brown gravelled walk, now strewn with
cinders, he pointed to the smoking embers.
There, tbere-amid that heap of black and
smoking ruins, the blacksmith beheld a
dark mass of flesh and blackened bones.
=" Your wite' % shrielSed the farmer, as
his agony found words. "The British,
they came in the night, they and then
he spoke that outrage, which the lip quiv-
ers to think on, which the heart grows pal
sled to tell-that. outrage too foul to name.
&c Your wife," he shrieked, pointing to the
hideous thing, amid the smoking ruins,
g the British, they murdered your wife,
and flung her dead body in the flames
they dashed your child against the hearth
stoner -
This was the farmers story.
And there; as the light of the breaking
day fell around the spot, there stood the
husband, the father, gazing upon that mass
of burned flesh and blackened bones-all
that acas once has lorely ,rite'
Do YOU ask me for the words that trem-
bled from his white lips2 Do you ask me
for the fire that blazed in his eye2
I cannot tell you. But l can tell you
that there was VOW going up to Heaven
from that blacksrnith's heart; that there
was clenched hand upraised, in the light
of the breaking day!
Yes, yes, as the first CLEAN of the au.
tumnal dawn broke around the spot, as the
first long CLEAN of sunlight streamed over
the peeled skull of that fair young wife
she that was last night-there was VOW
going up to Heaven, the VOW Of madden.
| od boo~t ood 1,ro,1
How was that vow kept2 Go there tc
Brandywine, and where the carnage gath.
ers thickest, where the fight is most bloody
there you may see a stout form strlding on
lifting a huge hammer into light. Where
that hammer falls, it kills-where tha
hammer strikes, it crushes. 1t is the
blaeksmith's form. And the war.cry tina
he shouts, is it a mad cry Of vengeance
half howl, half hurrah. Is it but a fierce
yell, breaking up from his heaving chest
All no! ah no!
1t is the name of-MARY. 1t is the
name of his young wife
i Oh, Marv-sweetestn name of woman
name sosoft, so ripping, so musical-name
of the Mother of Jesus, made holy by po.
etry and rehgion-how strangely did your
sylIables Of music ring out from that black.
smiths lips, as he went numbering on!
! Nary he shouts as he drags tha
relocated trooper from his steed Mary!
he shrieks, as his hammer crashes down
laying that officer in the dust. Look
another officer In glittering tinsel, clasps
that blacksmith by the knees, and begs fol
mercy!
!; q have wife-mercy. have a wife
in England spare me. :"
i The blacksmith, crazed as he is trem-
i bles-there is tear In his eve