The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1858-10-08

Gifted with an arucnt, pOeLlc teih-
permanent, a lover of nature in her
simplest as we'll as grandest forms,
she loved the plants and trees, the
rocks and hills, and glorious old for
ests. tangled dells, wild vines, bright
streams and leaping floods, far better
than common, human companionship,
and so the world called her cold. She
was truthful and conscientious almost
to fault, if such thing could be,
and therefore had little sympathy with
the petty, prevnrications, and ioiGics,
and follies, which formed part of the
lives and conduct Of those around her;
consequently, was not Il general favor
ite, for though kind and generous, she
ever stood aloof from all such aSSocia-
ton. and so many called her proud
and naughty. But such being, when
love touches the master-chord to which
all the other strings vibrate, must
find her earthly veal secured, or to-
tally lost. Love, for her, must be a
pure, holy star, that with clear and
steady light shines on, and on, wheth,
crlhe sky is bright with undImmed
azure, or darkcned by the wing Of the
storm.angel; or it must be flashing
meteor whose vanishing track, cover
ed by the blackneSs Of darkness, can
never be lighted again.
Madeleine felt that she stood alone
in the world. That few felt and
thought like her, and how pleasant
was it then to find, even one! How
natural that her heart should be dear.
cr to such one. She had had little
companlonShip, or acquaintance with
her own sex, much less, with the 9th
er, An only child, pctted, caressed and
quietly INDUCED. and yet always with
judicious restriction, She had been very
happy in her wanderings beside the
stream, and in the grey, old woods, and
at home. with her books and work in
the quiet little room she called heI
own, or sometimes lending her aid
to the gentle, but feeble mother who
so often needed il.
Dearly and dcvotcdly she loved that
patient invalid, and many pleasant
hours she spent II minslcring to her
comfort, or qualification. and with Il
feeling OF pride mingled with her al.
lection, she looked upon IL father, who
though as | have said, kind and indul-
gent, had but little time to devote to
hls child, living, a, he had done, for
many years, in the world Of practical
excitement.
Dearly said she loved them, and
yet there were times when she felt
there was a void in her heart, which
must sooner or later be filled con-
sciousness that all the energies of
her being had not been called into ac-
ton, and an intense desire for more
full and perfect companionship, for an
apprecialive, intellectual association
with some high-toncd and lofty spirit
that could think and feel as she did,
And such had been partly supplied to
her during the past year her compan-
ionship with him whose Intellect was
equal to her own, whose judgment she
felt was superior and who $ emed to
understand and appreciate all her acts
and motives, and one who had never
failed to assist her in all her efforts at
mental and moral Improvement, it'not
in words, yet by the kindling eye and
approving glance, when she was more
than ordinarily successful. What a
stimulus had it proved to the develop
mcnt of the natural strength and eX-
ceIcncc of her character.
But on the morrow, all their pleas
ant intercourse must have an end, for
he was to leave her for his distant
home, and now upon that cottage
porch beneath The holy starlight, clasp,
ed by that timid arm, what were her
thoughts! and what were his!
The spring.iircs were burning in
scattered heaps upon the iaIlow
grounds below, consisting OF Old
stumps, the roots, of which had so de-
cayed during the previous winter that
they could easily be separated from the
soitened ground Of early spring, dead
brush from the zigzag corners OF the
fences, and all other superlluous trash
the farmer could turn to no possible
advantage on his lands and which rem
dered his fields unsightly to the eye.
The first brightness of their kind
ling had passel away. They no Ion
ger blazed, but the burning logs and
stumps aiar off looked like the gleam-
ing lights we read of, upon the prows
of the prinnaces, moored along the
shores of the Orient rivers.