Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1858-02-05

)ne of his mothers, and he fell IN dead
5aint into her arms.
"Puir laddie-puir bairn % sighed the
as she tenderly lifted him in her
arms and chafed his little wrists and tenn
pies; then with one foot upon the rocker
Of her baby's cradle, watched Hugh's
fitful slumbers through all that
terrible night, while the storm rocked
the little cottage to and fro, and beat at
the windows like an angry demon, and
the waves Numbered on the beach below.
Puir laddie, he's his fathers joy, and al
ways claps his wee hands in glee when
he sees the ship comm in. But it as a
terrible night! God keep my guide man
safe on the stormy sea. He's been out
many wilder night, and why should l
fear now?" Yet all that night of storm
that pale woman sat silent and shudder-
ing, her heart keeping time to the boom
ing breakers and the trampling surf upon
the shore; and little Hugh, tossing in
broken slumbers, talked of the great white
hand he had seen waving from the angry
ocean.
/ And when the morning broke sweet
and mild, and the waves rolled in upon
the shore with a gentle murmur, and the
little sea-iaring village of Cromarty was
early astir, group of fisherman upon the
harbor beach gathered about two or three
wan, ghas;ly forms, lying stark and stiff
upon the sand. And then Jane Miller,
holding her boy by one hand and hugging
her Aaxen-haired babe tightly TO her bo-
som, came with fierce strides down over
the sands and when she had looked up
on one white, dead face, framed in its
long golden curls all draggled with brown
F sea-weeds-when she sat down on the
wet beach, and draw that head to her bo-
:. SON, and kissed the lips and stroked every
feature, uttering no words, only broken
moans-then the rude fishermen, stand
ing apart, whispered in husky tones, Il
was a terrible storm last last night -
We shall hear o mickie shipwreck be
. fore sundown; but the salt sea neve
strangled the life O braver or blither lad
die than puir Captain Miller
But little Hugh, standing pale and stil
beside his mother, uttered no cry or sol
= as children do at the sight of death in II
O ghostliness, nor shrank away in terror
he only stopped, and lifting one cold, Gvi
hand in both lis own, kissed it reveren
, Ily, then laying it gently down upon th
h sands, whispered softly aud superstition:
=. ly, Il knew it last night. l saw the hand
Il was a ecraitA's. mither!"
I In the little seaside cottage of Or
ID marty, Hugh Miller grew up to vigoror
7r boyhood. Very early he came to II
knowledge that his mother, bereft
d the husband of her youth, must lean U
: on her stalwart boy for support, and tn
sr very knowledge made him thoughtful
d her comfort far beyond his years. Ma
ii a day he passed upon the blue waters
1T his little fsher-boat, and the fruits
e. these piscatory excursions, sold at t
9s, adjacent towns, added to their humble
Die come.
"a But the lad, though yielding and o.
Is dent, and fliaI to the slightest wish
the maternal voice. still nursed in
'er heart a strange, wild waywardness, VIII
be manifested itself, not so much in act
wi or speech as in moods Of gloomy thoug
ne, fulness, when, for hours and days toge
er, he would stray alone over the heath
did clad hills and lonely moors, through
ced thick woods, or along the wild sea-be
alls listening to the solemn voice Of the oce
'am or silently coming the mysterious lor
rock and shell; and it was in one of th
9Th, little excursions, when his adventur
'on- spirit had led him to penetrate int
sre ! deep cave under a wild ledgy Promont
the heading far out on the wild Scottish CO
n that the tide, inrushing into the 70
see cavern, bubbled and boiled up around
and youthful form, and lie came nigh pa
,ints with his life the penalty Of his rashr
Perhaps thus and there, in these
hing tary rambles, alone with Nature and
wonderful works, the youths mind
wi imbued with that love for those gee
ONE ical discoveries which he aferw
lead made, and which have so enriched
lore of our age, and created Hugh 1I
20 " the Prince of Geologists. Certain
her that the boy, imbued by the inspirati'
face Nature, discarded his books, threV
! see dry Latin grammar TO the wind, and
one ! from the thraldom of schools, passed
the greater portion of his days in his c:
see rations, collecting and arranging il
hand miniature cabinet, fossils, shells,