Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1857-09-12

Game bounding out OF school:
There we're some that ran, and some th
leapt,
Like troublets in O stream.
Awny they sped with gamesome minds,
And souls untouched by sin;
To level mead they came, ard thors
They drave the wickets in
Pleasantly shone the setting sun
Over the town Of Lynn.
Like sportive deer they coursed about,
And shouted as they ran
Turning to mirth all things Of earth.
AS only boyhood can;
But the usher sat remote from oil,
A melancholy man
His hat WAS off, bis vest apart.
TO catch Heavens blessed breeze;
For burning thought was in his brow,
And his bosom i'll at ease:
So he leaned his head on his hands and re'
The book between his knees
Leaf after leaf he turned it DER,
Nor ever glanced aeide;
For the peace ef bis soul he read that book
In the golden eventide:
Much study had made him very lean,
And pale, and leaden-eyed.
At last he shut the ponderous tome;
With fast and fervent grasp
He strained the dusky covers close,
And fixed the brazen hasp;
40 God, conld 80 close my mind.
And clasp it with claspr'
Then leaping on his feet upright.
Some moody turns he took
Now up the mead, now down the mead,
And past shady nook:
And 10 ! he saw little boy,
That pored upon book.
"My gentle lad, what is't you read
Romance Of fairy fable3
Or is it some historic page,
Ofkings and crowns unstable !"
The young boy gave IN upward glance
ut is the death OF Abel"
The usher took six hasty strides,
AS smit with sudden pain;
Six hasty strides beyond the place,
Then slowly back again:
And down he sat beside the lad,
And talked with him Of Cain;
And long since then. OF bloody msn.
Whose deeds tradition saves;
or lonely folk cut of unseen,
And hid 10 sudden graves;
OF horrid stabs. in groves forlorRs
Aud murders done in caves;
And how the sprites of injured mon
Shrek upward from the sod
Ay, how the ghostly hand will point
To show the burial clod;
And unknown facts of guilty acts
Are seen In dreams from God
He told how murderers walked the earth
Beneath the curse Of Cain,
With crimson clouds before their eyes,
And flames about their brain
For blood has left upon their souls
Its everlasting stain
"And WE'LL" quoth he, 81 know for truth,
Their paugs must be extreme
Wo, wo, uputterable wo-
Who spill life's sacred streamf
For why Methought last night ! wrought
A murder in dream!
"One that had never done me wrong
A feeble man, and old:
| led him to lonely field,
The moon shone clear and cold:
Now here, said /, this man shall die.
And l will have his gold
Two sudden blows with ragged stick,
And one with heavy stone,
| One hurried cash with hasty knife
And then the deed was done
There was nothing lying at my feet,
But lleless flesh and bone
"Nothing but lifeless flesh and bone,
That could not do me i'll
| And yet I feared him all the more
I For lying there so still.
There was a manhood in his look,
That murder could not kill
"And 10 ! the universal nir
Seemed lit with ghastly flame
Ten thousand thousand dreadful eyes
Were looking down in biame:.
took the dead man by the hand,
And called upon his name.
80, God it made me quake to see
| Such sense within the slain
| But when touched the lifeless clay
The blood gushed out amainl
For every clot, burning spot
Was scorchiug in my brain!
"My head was like an ardent coal
Ny heart as solid ice;
My wrethed, wretcbed soul, kew,
Was at the DEVILS price
A dozen times groaned, the dead
Had never groaned but twice.
"Apd now from forth the frowDing sky,
From the Heavens topmost height,
heard voice-the awful voice
OF the blood-avenging sprte:
Thou guilty man take up thy dead,
And hide it from my sight
al took the dreary body up,
And cast in stream
A sluggish water black as ink
The depth was 80 extreme.
Ny gentle boy; remember this