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

Ol lHlS NUlNd- H huotiCU tiiS AaSA "a
the girls heart. Heaven, souFs Father
land, seemed to come very near them.
+" Take me with you, mamma l shall
be all alone. There viii be none left to
love me when you are she could not
speak the last word.
mot yet, Alice, my child. You are
not eighteen yet, and God may have much
work for you to do before the night
comes.
You must not think of me as dead
when the snow is above me, only as gone
first. There is but one way, you know,
and Christ, the AlI-Friend, viii lead you
up it.
you viii not give way, dear, when
the trial comes. 1t will bring but one
pang-that ofleaving you"
Alice did not trust herself to answer
but she wondered at the great calm that
had come over her soul.
Q
Afterward they talked ofthe girls fu-
ture and though it did not seem very
clearly defined, yet neither felt any great
anxiety aboutit.
You can get some employment for
the winter, 1 doubt not, and in the spring
you can open small infant school," said
the mother.
{" God will bring you friends as you
need them''-she paused a moment. at
may be that sometime you will meet your
uncle. He would not visit his anger for
the mother on her orphan child. Three
times since our father died have I writ
ten to him, and the letters came back to
me unopened. Be sure and tell him
that Alice forgave him all before she went
home'-a severe fit of coughing broke
the sentence, and when it passed, Mrs.
Wood was too far exhausted to complete
ii.
An hour later the mother and daugh-
ter were sleeping quietly in each others
arms, while nearer and nearer drew the
dark feet Of Death to the reddish-brown
house.
/ Five hundred miles away, in the deep
heart Of one of our Atlantic cities, stands
a large granite mansion. The moonlight
surges with the tree-shadows over its mas
sive front and about the marble pillar;
Ss1T'1 TVi4stv Gfv57'
: The blinds are all drawn closely, ant
the rooms on the front are all darkened
except one of the chambers, where tht
: light loses itself among the damask cur
= tains, and breaks dimly through the clink
of the blind.
That chamber is study and a luxury
5 with its rich carpet strewed with Paestun
j roses, and lilies that looked as if they ha,
i opened their creamy lips on the greer
q banks of Lake Nemi, with the Claud
sunset pictures smiling along its walls
d and the graceful statues in the opposit
corners.
g There are but three occupants of tn
y room, for the physician has just left
It First, and least Of these, is the nurse, VIII
IS sits browsing in her large armchair b
st the grate. The next is a youth
e cannot have seen more than twenty sum
mers-who stands by the heavily carve
: bedside. He is tall and slender, wit
E. thin, clearly cut features; and you ca
,e see that there is great disquiet at hi
i heart, by the eager anxiety with whic
lg he gazes down on the pillows and ii
face half turned away from him.
:" Paul Mellen is not the sick mans so
but he could not love his adopted faith,
u with more intensity fl he were. Sevel
=, teen years since PauPs aunt, the wife
er Willard Mellen, died, and left him chill
less. PauFs mother followed her siste
ou and because the boys eyes and smi
ce were ike the the twin pair under the sur
at mer grass, the widower took him to h
er heart and home. So Paul grew up in t
ad old granite mansion, the heir and idol
his proud uncle, Willard MeIlen.
er But the time to die has come sudde
eI ly to the rich man. He is not old ye
do the thick, dark hair on the pillow is on
frosted with silver, and the face benea
ny It, with its few wrinkles, can not belo
gh to a life that has covered much more th
ay fifty years.
1r- But the fever has stricken him in t
I'll midst Of his days. You look On the pro
face, with the story of an iron will WI
nd ten in every muscle, eurying the parch
an lips, and printed on the broad forehe.
in. and you feel Deaths hand is drawi
lat near II.
Fed Paul fears this, though he does not
;! knowledge it even to himself, as be les
d" over the sick man and moistens his te
1t pies with the ice-water from the eut-gi
md goblet on the marble stand. The :
md man means and mutters in his unqu