The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1856-11-05

SO closely on the hurrying heels Of life. All
see all the older graves are bare and naked
while only the recent marble is clothed wit
blooms Of green and gold! ! will return at tn
dawn Of tomorrow, and wait for the solution
of the mystery" And with this determination
he walked slowly back to the hotel.
The next day, with the first faint streaks o
rosy light, colonel Moulton was again at tn
old cemetery. He concealed himself behind
monument, and fixed his eyes on the tomb 0
his daughter.
In short time, several weeping friends o
the pale sleepers, whom the music Of the morn
ing air should never waken more, began to en-
ter and streW flowers over the dust that hac
lately died; but no one so much as sprinkled {
rose-leaf on the ancient messy graves of the
| ashes SO long forgotten. N@as @"
"Ah, me!'' sighed the Carolinian, ttsuch is
life, and such is death A brief battle, sure
defeat, a wild cry, few tears, and then the
great Lethean river rushes over US, onwards
forever and ever, and bots out even the fond
est marks Of memory from the most faithful
hearts. = @g1a 81 A a r...a=-
last, just as the sun emerged above the
of the horizon, the colonel, with utter
amazement, saw the flower girl Of the previous
day advance to the tomb of his Marie, and af-
ter adorning it with her brightest bouquets,
dropGon her knees before it, as if in prayer.
H. At first the lips of the maiden moved trem-
ulously, large tears rolled down herpale cheeks,
and her breath issued in heart breaking sighs.
Then she became more and more impassioned,
her voice uttered musical murmurs, and, at
length, she walled aloud-"Oh! mother of mine
in heaven, dost thou see the sorrows of thy un-
happy child? Pray the Savior of the world to
deliver me from life of sin and shame, or take
me home to thy BOSOM"
She gave startled scream, as pair of ten
der arms encirced her waist, and the weeping
Carolinian pressed his granddaughter to his
throbbing heart.
Mutual explanations followed, confirming the
fact beyond the possibility of a doubt Mary
had but lately learned her parentage from the
disclosure of her pretended mother, the widow
Merlin, while in state of intoxication. The
latter acknowledged the truth to colonel Moul-
ton, and explained everything else that SEEM
ed mysterious, stating that she had carried the
infant to her house, when the parents were first
laid upon their beds by the pesti]ence, and hop
ed afterwards to render the singular beauty of
the child a source of profit.
The gloom has passed away from the brow
of the bereaved colonel, and the beautiful Mary
is the wife Of celebrated southern lawyer,
with blue eyed babe of her own; yet still she
loves flowers, the falrest of the year.
The fact we are about TO relate has the very
rare merit of truth combined with the pleasant
excitement of the wonderful. .0
Some time ago friend of ours purchased a
number of picture frames, tastefuly made of
acorns and handsomely stained and vanished,
which he placed in his library at his country
house. The ensuing season he and his family
departed on rather distant tour, and for some
months the country house was untenanted and
closed. The season was an unusu-
ally damp one during their absence, and upon
their return it was deemed advisable to have
their rural homestead well aired and dried by
constant fires in all the rooms before inhabiting
it again. Orders to this effect were therefore
dD6patched and the opening began under the
dhection OF the old house-keeper. Window
and door were flung wide open one after another,
letting in the sunshine to mildewed walls and
haagings, until the "house-hold corps arrived
at the library, when, as the first pair of shut
;ers swung back, the breeze fluttered in and
Hayed on the walls with sound as Of rustling
foliage, causing a universal and rather startled
movement of eyes in the direction of the mys-
erious sound. That the astonishment of the
yazers was by no means lessened when they be-
1eld the cause of the rustling, our readers will
EASILY credit, when we inform them that sever
u acorns ON each picture frame had sprouted, |
md grove of miniature oaks were gently wa
ing their tiny boughs and fluttering their dark
green leaflets around the majestic brows of
Washington, and Franklin and Adams, and
,alf dozen others of our venerable fathers of
he republic. Even nature herself had broken
trough her accustomed laws to crown these
patriot heroes with her own wreaths of honor,
md offer, even in her dying struggles, this
beautiful tribute to their memory. 4
Now, is not this fact worth all the fables of
or Swift a hundred times over?
philadelphia Ev. Journal
SINGULAR .-Circumstantial evidence
lot always reliable.-A man at Hague, be-
oming tired of his wife, attempted to poison
Ter, in the following manner: They had sat
[own to dinner and while she had left the
oom, or her back was turned, he put the poi
on into her soup. Not daring to trust him
elf in her presence, he feigned some excuse
nd left the room. By a wonderful Provi-
[ence, when she came to the table, spider
lad dropped from the ceiling ofthe room into
he soup plate. She was especially afraid of
piders, and her husbend had often laughed at
Ter for it. So she carefully took the spider out
With the spoon, and finding she could not bring
ersef to eat after it, she, in the absence Of
'er husband, changed the plates, and ate his
CUP. After awhile, he came back and de-
oured what he supposed to be the pure soup
was Immediately taken with convulsions,'
nd expired. Before death, he confessed that
e had poisoned the soup, and that it must have
een placed before him unintentionally by his
wife. Now, how narrow was the escape Of his
'ife, not only from being poisoned but from
eing hung! If the man had died withouta
the woman must have been mme-
lately arrested. Poison would have been
ound in the man and in the soup plate She
ave him the soup. Here would have been
ircumstanlial evidence strong enough to have
ung her, an innocent woman would have ex-
ired but for the confession. -