Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1857-01-02

is all we have, and you must not starve. They
will only want the setting, so you can still
have the face"
Alice knew the struggle il was costing her
mother to part with the miniature. She look
ed around the room, but there was nothing
more to spare from its furniture. They had
parted with every thing but the barest neces-
sities.
"If could only get some work to do"
sighed the poor girl.
"No it's for the best. Alice, you couldn't
get the situation in the factory, for your moth
er will want you with her but little while
longer"
"a little while longer What do you mean,
mammal 1t was strange Alice should ask
this question--strange that while her moth
ers eye grew dim and her step fainter each
day, that the truth had never flashed into the
girls mind
But it had not. and so she turned her large,
shadowy eyes upon her mother wondcringly,
as she repeated. 'sWhat do yeu mean. mammai"
"You must have brave heart, my daugh-
ter, when tell you. 1t is high time now, but
have kept IT hack. day by day hoping you
would see it yourself. Alice, in a few days
more God will call your mother to himself "
For a moment she did not comprehend this;
and when at last the fearful meaning crept
home to her heart and brain, she did not
shrek or faint, but, O, what a groan was that
with which she bowed her white face upon
her mothers knee
Don't take it so hard, dear child said
the mother bonding over her. at seems but
a step out from the cold and darkness here to
the warmth and light, and glory there. The
great Father calls me with his voice of love.
do not fear | shall be glad to go.
Alice looked up in her mothers face The
light that surged over it was not born of this
world. 1t hushed the murmur of the girls
heart Heaven. the souls Fatha-iapd, seem
ed to come very near them.
Take me with you, mamma; | shall be all
alone There will be none left to love me when
you ar" she could not speak the last word.
"Not 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
All-Friend. will lead you up it.
"You will not give way. dear, when the
trial comes. II will bring but one pang-that
of leaving you"
Alice did not trust herself to answer but
she wondered at the great calm that had
come over her soul.
Afterward they talked of the girls future
and thought did not seem very clearly dehn-
! ed. yet neither felt any great anxiety about it.
4 "NaG can 0at some employment for the win
ter, doubt not, and m the sprng yO,. .,....
open small infant school" said the mother
God will bring you friends you need
/ them'-she paused moment 1T may be
I that sometime you will meet your uncle. He
would not visit his anger for the mother on
her orphan child Three times since our ia-
thcr died have written TO him, and the let
tors came back 10 me unopened. BE sure and
tell him that Alice forgave him all before she
went home severe fit of coughing broke
the sentence, and when it passed Mrs Wood
was too far exhausted to complete It,
An hour later mother and daughter were
I sleeping quietly in each Others arms, while
/ nearer and neara~ d." tuc uai IA lccl Vi bo''h
90 the reddish brown house.
Five hundred miles away, in the deep heart
of one Of our Atlantic cities, stands large
granite mansion The moonlight surges with
the tree-shadows over its massive front, and
about the marble pillars and white porticos.
The blinds are all drawn closely, and the
rooms on the front are all darkened except
one of the chambers, where the light loses it.
self among the damask curtains, and breaks
dimly through the ohinks of the blind
That chamber is a study aud luxury. with
its rich carpet strewed with Paestum roses,
and lilies that look as if they had opened their
creamy lips on the green banks of Lake Nem,
with the Claude sunset pictures smiling along
its walls, and the graceful statues in opposite
corners
There are but three occupants Of the room,
for the physician has just left. First, and
least of these, is the nurse, who sits browsing
in her large armchair by the CRATE. Tho next
is a youth--he cannot have seen more than
twopty summors-who stands by the heavily
carved bedside. lie is tall and slender, with
thin, clearly cut features and you can see
there is great disquiet at his heart, by the
eager anxiety with which he gazes down on
the pillows and the face half turned away
from him.
Paul Mellen is not the sick mans son, bat
he could not love his adopted father with more
intensity if he were Seventeen years since
Paul's aunt, the wife of Willard Mellen, died,
and left him childess. Paurs mother follow
ed her sister, and because the boys eyes and
smile were like the twin pair under the sum
mer grass, the widower took him 10 his heart
and home. So Paul grew up in the old gran
ite mansion, the heir and idol Of his proud
uncle, Willard Mellen.
But the time to die has come suddenly to
the rich man. He is not old yet the thick,
dark halr ON the pillow is only frosted with
silver, and the face beneath it, with its few
wrinkles, can not belong to a life that has
covered much moro than fifty years.
But the fever has stricken him in the midst
of his days You look on the proud face,
with the story of an iron will written in eve
ry muscle, curying the parched lips, and print
ed on the broad forehead, and you feel Death 5
hand is drawing near it.
Paul fears this, though he does not acknowl-
edge it even to himself, as he leans over the
sick man. and moistens his temples with the
ice-water from the t-glass goblet on the mar
BILE stand. The sick man means and mutters
in his unquiet slumber. Suddenly his eyes
open; but Paul knows by their gassiness
that he does not see him, though he puts his
face down and whispers, slow do you feel
now, father"
''Was it Allie called me" murmurs 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
like 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