Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1857-01-15

1Dut Herc Is taken quite away.
Pray, Alice, pray, my darling wife,
That we may die the Eelfsame day.
TESNYsoS.
1t is my fiftieth birthday, and the
existence which | once thought would
be so dark, so dreary so desolate, has
garnered within its half century ofyears,
much of JOY, and peace, and sunshine.
Fifty years ago this day, the lids which
yelled two dark, strange looking eyes,
were first appraised to meet my mothers
smile over her irst-born. She was
young and fair, my mother; scarcely two
years wife, and they have told ipe
since, very proud and happy in the
young infant life-which was her very
own-Heavenhas MISUNDERSTANDING
Perhaps it may have damped her joy a
very little that | was not pretty baby.
I never cried like other children, though
sometimes low, patient wall of sorrow
would bring that tender mother to my
side. But for the most part / was hap
| py, and gleeful, and thriving, though
visitors used to say
Glow came your baby to be so unlike
you, Mrs. Raeburn? / supposed she
would have been beauty"
But this opinion made but little differ
ence to my happiness during the first
six years Of my life. At the end of that
period ] went to ride one day with my
parents. My little year old sister Hell
en-, a most beautiful child, even in her
infancy, was left at home, and we rode
gaily along the mountain road very hap
ny fhrnn fha hop,t4,f,,l
day, and in each other. Perhaps [ was
a precocious child, and understood more
than children of my age in general; or,
| it may have been that the after events
of that day branded its scenes and con-
yersations upon my memory. At all
events, | remember every look and word
distinctly.
1t was warm, bright summer day,
and my mother wore blue muslin dress
with low neck and short sleeves, while
over her beautiful arms and shoulders,
she had thrown a lace scarf. A light
straw hat sat like crown upon her
wealth of golden ringlets, a clear, car
nation tint, glowed on her cheeks, her
red lips were parted, and her blue eyes
appraised.
From my birth, / have been a pas
sionate lover Of beauty, and sitting in
my mothers lap with her arm clasped
about me, l fairly Toasted my eyes on
her loneliness. My father had watched
her also, for some moments, in silence,
and then he threw his arm about her
waist for in that mtrequented road there
was no one to see u.s. and guided his
| fiery horse onward with his right hand.
''IIelen," he said, tenderly, Il have
been thinking how beautiful you are
Never were you lovlier than now. They
say marriage brings changes, but every
change only makes you fairer. Our lit
tie Helen will grow up like you. She
will be very lovely"
eyes; but | am afraid that I love
Agatha best" and my mother drew me
closer to her. ''Perhaps it's because
she is my tirstborn, and then, David,
those great, dark, uncanny eyes are her
fathers own.
My father laughed.
'The child is not beauty, certainly;
but if her eyes are mine, you'll admit
they are the best part Of her. Helen,
my wife, I've been thinking oflate what
my life was before your love came to
brighten it; so dreary, so desolate so UNI
loved? When | first saw you knew |
could never live any more without YOU"
She laughed her little, silvery, birdlike
laugh and said
II know it, David, and you wouldn't
wait. How you hurried me. We were
married, You know in six weeks after
you saw me first"
Eyes; but if you had looked into my
heart you would not have wondered. 1t
was all dark there, dark, dark. Twas an
orphan whom nobody cared for or un-
derstood, and you-you were to me in
place of all things-home, friends, pa
rents, brothers, and sisters. You made
a halo, bright as q rainbow above, around
that dungeon life, where my heart was
CROPPING"
And vet, David, you are such a great
man-an author, a novelist. All the
world-that is, all the world which is
good for anything-knows you and adj
mires you. And |, l am only the great
mans little Helen. | almost wonder
sometimes YOU could have me at all"
My father turned towards her his UNI
fathomable eyes, luminous with unshed
tears, and said TREMENDOUSLY
Helen, you are more. You are my
life, my sunshine, my inspiration, my ev-
CT patient guardian. Without you |
should be nothing"
Then for few moments we rode on
in silence. but the tears still stood upon
my fathers laShes and still his wrapt
gaze rested upon the beautiful face of
that true woman who had given the
boarded riches Of her love, Of her pure,
young life into his keeping, content if so
she might brighten his darkness.
At that moment while he still care
leSsly held the reins, the sudden report
of a gun caused our horse to rear and
plunge, and become unmanageable. His
| first quick leap wrenched the reins from
my fathers hand, and while he strove in
vain to recover them, the frightened an
imal dashed along the narrow road at a
| fearful pace. On our left was lofty
mountain lust around whose base we
were winding; on our right a river, "
I inc ut some distante below the road
with no fence between. 1t was q mar
row and rapid stream, with a rocky
and very dangerous channel There
was sudden turn in the road; faint
shrek from my mother, who until that
instant had been frozen into silence, and
then down We went. BY some strange
fortuity my father escaped unhurt; but
my beautiful mother was taken up dead;
and God knows there have been
years since, when have thought had
Item thousand times better have died than