The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1857-08-06

tightly in its bonds. Some flowers were
brought and laid beside me. Their
delicate fragrance seemed to steal into
my very inmost heart Among them
were one or two sprays Of white jas
min, with their peculiar aromatic odor.
On the wings of that subtle essence
recollection came to me, and renewed
consciousness. These we're favorite
flowers of our Wish; they had been
among those-the last gathered by her
hands--that l had carelessly taken up
that evening" whole life sincel and
distinctly, to every smallest detail, Of
"that evening" I membered
From these remembrances | lifted
my eyes, and read their sequel in Pau
la S face. Yet there was still something
in that shadowed face which L could
not understand. Involuntarily my
thoughts took words. "How changed"
L said. And again in my mind l com
menced groping about for some new
revelation which should make things
clearer to me. But at the sound of my
voice Paula came and stopped beside
me, looking earnestly into my face, as
if she were startled to hear me speak.
Her own voice trembled as she asked
me, "What has changed?' She was
afraid lest my answer should betray that
was still not myself, for-poor wife!
i had been utterly bereft of sense
for many weeks. "You are changed,
Paula, said; "is this new world?"
cay, it is, it isl" she answered me- and
she put her arms round me, and wept
abundantly.
By and by, she gradually told me the
history of those past seven weeks. 1t
all recurred to me with vividness as
lay on my sofa, holding her hand fast,
and watching the outline of the pale,
beautiful face that was slightly averted
from me. She was looking at the land
scape which was stretched out before
the window. 1t was early autumn now;
l knew the looks of the trees in the
garden, of the copse on the slope of the
hill. The hill remembered it! Cru
ely, relentlessly bright it looked now
in the soft sunshine. After a little
while ] hid my face from it.
"What month is this?" l asked her.
She told me August. "It was the
last week in June that our darling went, "
said she, softly. "And then" she pres
emily added, in the same hushed tone,
"ycu left me too. thought 1 had lost
both"
"How did you bear it, Paula?" I cried
hastily. "Why did your heart not
break? Why was the one to fail, and
fall helpless at this time?"
/ "a year ago" said Paula, II should
have fallen helpless too, Lewis. No
human strength--no human fortitude
is capable of enduring such woes as
ours She stopped abruptly; then ad-
ded, in a strange tone, low, but distinct,
and with tremulous quiver vibrating
through every word, "but II was not
comfortless."
| looked at her in silence.
Lewis" she whispered again, II was
not comfortless." A pause "No," she
went on, slowly, and now her voice
rose, steady and clear, like the light tht t
gathered and frightened in her eyes, "a
mother who has seen her child die, is
still not comfortless. For no mother
who has lost her child can doubt
Lewis, do you understand me? God is
good, she cried, passionately, Sand in
his mercy he ordered it so, that to a
bereaved mothers soul must come the
conviction that is more than knowledge
the faith that is worlds above all rea-
soning, l kno,0 shall have my child
again! Lewisl Lewis! know it %