Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-12-12

. Amen" said ayenerablc a old man
who stood by. Inshalf an hour it will
be twelve feet undersSyater"
Twelve, Master an Helst ? Work
away lads-a good fifteen. So L say
again, God have mercy on the man who
is there"
You ought to say -a1ae'a to that prayer,
dear Elsie; you have the deepest inter-
est in that polder. For even now its
thick mist is rising above Egbert Van
denvelde, and forming in the moonlight
such halo round his head as that with
svhiels-,ves erseircletle gloriied.
The brave Dyke resists stubbornly.
There is heaying and pushing and ham
mering mighty strokes are rained down
on staple and bar ;axes and hatchets bite
fiercely on upright and cross beams !;
saws cut into the heart of the English
oak; but the great mass quivers not yet.
g 1t will be daylight before we are
through said Gerard van Kampen.
" Try again, lads, with will p
A Wild confusion of clamor and strokes
yes, it trembles now. More than one
huge timber has given its terrible death
groan. More than one staple has been
snapped in two. 1t shakes in good car
nest. Here and there little cataract of
water gushes through the wounds of the
erection. +" Newsstand back, all Back!
Philip van Erekel! 1t is going p
One terrible struggle of the yet paIpi-
tating timbers, and then, with the roar
like ten thousand wild beasts, the Zuyder
Zee leaps through the breach. A stream
forty feet broad and twenty feet deep,
rushes into the country. Down go cot
tages and hayrieks carts and cattle and
the wrecks of farms are dashed along by
the food the land is as the Garden oi
Eden before it, and behind it a foamine
waste of waters. The dyke sides crum
bic away 1t is as though the ZuydeI
Zee were pouring itself at once over the
land women and children shrek with
terror even the boldest of the men look
ghastly white in the moonshinc.
And the roar of that water proclaim;
to the Great Monarch, Thus far shal
thou come, but no farther r.
Egbert Vandenvelde is half way acros
Diemermee polder. His spirited littl,
pony has borne him stoutly on. Sudden
ly he grows restive, turns from the roaC
to the right, viii obey neither rein mol
spur, takes the bit in bis teeth and start
at full galop.
Why, what ails the beast now p sait
the rider. And vigorously be piled boil
whip and spur, and right heartily he pul
led the rain it was like trying to stol
the wind. On, on, on, still.
They are out Of the polder. To th
right is the ruins of castle, Gaping
rise of the softest turf. Thither tn
brave little horse gallops, and there q
the summit he stops.
Why the beast is bewitched." :" agai
exclaims the rider.
What is that dull distant roar-like tn
wind on a stormy day upon woode'
hill the air is perfectly calm All
there is neither hill nor wood TO tn
north.
A singular, fearful noise. A rushin
now rather than roar.
; " And what is that glare through th
moons haze on the polder p
1t is water.
Now he sees the truth. The Zuyde
Zee is let loose. Marsh and lowland wi
be blotted out from the continent wi
the rise Of the castle of Zalst still pee
above the inland sea
Yes; doubles the Angel that stood i
I; the path of the rider was a friend. An
oftan aDd oftap IN 4ba Iono e,,,,,,,,,
evenings, would Egbert and Elsie Van
denveld be asked by their children fer th
: story of how they cut the great dyk
Of Naarden, and how the good little pom
acouId go to the Castle Of Zelst.
e And this story Of that neyer-failin
i providence of OUR FATHER, which O.
: dereth all things in Heaven and in cart
: is strictly true.
- rnyz