Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1857-02-13


the sick man. "There she is putting her
head out of the window, and the red roses
shone around it like rubies, and the curls
toss over her face ike sunshine.
Alice, sweet sister, come down to me;
the raspberries are ripe along the field
hedges to day, and we will go out and
gather them. She bows her head she
whispers with her bright smile, Willard,
I am coming
"She is running down the steps now.
Is she not a picture, as her white bonnet
swings in her hand?
@Our father comes reund from the ar
Dor, and looks at her with eyes full of
love and pride. Do you see the kisses
she filings him Do you hear her laugh
climbing up to the echoes in the hills
yonder? o, Alice, my sister, sweet image
of my dead mother, how do we love you
We are ont by the field hedges now,
and our baskets are almost filed with |
berries.
Somebody is cOmingup through the
meadows, and he is beckoning TO Alice.
I see his face. 1t is the son of our old
gardner" And now the look of scorn
and hatred that crossed the sick mans
face was fearful. "If could reach him,
if could knock him down and stamp the
life out Of him for his temerity
Alice, Alice, do not leave me. She
is going, going to him. 1 could not hold
her back. There are tears on her sweet
face. but she does not turn away.
must go to her father alone, and
tell him that Alice, the light and the love
of both our hearts, is gone-gone to the
gardeners son, Harold Wood
1t is done. 1 have told our father
all, and he has sworn in his wrath that
her name shall never be spoken under his
roof-that she shall be as the dead to
him
90, Alice, Alice, my golden-haired
sister, how we love you But our pride
,0as greater than oetr lore n
And so through the long hours the
sick man moaned and murmured in his
wanderings, as the years of his youth
came up from their burial places, and
walked, each ike living presence before
rrrIEI.
The light of the newly waking Decem-
Der day was struggling gray and gloomy
through the windows when Willard Mel
lien sank into a ftful slumber. He did
) not wake for several hours, and when he
did he knew that day must be his last.
Paul, Paul" moaned the dying man,
"pray for me- p
And Paul could not for his agony, for,
| alas his heart had never learned sub
: mission to the Will ofthe Father, and
he had well-nigh forgotten the prayer his
mother taught him in his childhood.
But they sent for minister, and after
a petition whose childlike faith and fer.
veucy sofened every heart in that sick
: chamber, he adjured the dying mar
solemnly. "If there be any work yot
have left undone, ifthere be any you have
wronged, or any you have left un forgi1
= en-, 1 beseech you, in the nameof that Coz
before whom you must soon appear, settle
these things with your own soul
A deeper shadow came over the dying
l face.
e Leave me alone with Paul." sal,
Willard 3ellen.
! And there, for the first time, the youn:
I man learned the history of his adopte'
/ fathers early life, ofthe sister upon who's
'i face he had not looked for twenty years.
L All was told briefly, amid dying spasm:
T, alternating with bitter reproaches, an
lie concluded with these words
4 You know my father died suddenly
is Paul, and left NE all his property, as m
le will does you all mine.
Of One morning, less than year after
ward, [ received letter, and / knew th
n handwriting was my sisters. Years ha
only hardened my heart toward her, for
ly always thought her marriage broke n
tn fathers proud heart. l returned it VI
lg answered. Five years later there cam
an another, and less than six months az
the last one. Both shared the fate Of ii
be first. 1 have since learned incidental
I'D that Alice's husband was dead, and thi
it. she had removed to the north with b
ed child. That Is all know Of her.
ID, @And, now, Paul, / have made n
Bg viii l have left you my heir, and it
too late to add codicil. But, after a
ac- gone, 1 want you to seek Alice, and t.
ms her with your own lips, that her broths
M on his dying bed, acknowledged +
ass wrong he had done her, and asked b
ck pardon with bis last breath"
let The yo6ng man bowed his head.