The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1858-03-04
Original Sturp
Written for the News.
The Girl Friends.
BY MARY D..
BY MARY
CHAPTER TX

stay!
Il but The casket we've laid ln the tomb,
The gem was too rare for oarth's shadows
and gloom.
Should they weep, ,hutthus early Ita lustor
is given,
To blend with tho light and the glory Of
Heuvenw
1--WE linger on earth, and we mark the decay
or its beautiful things 90 around our lone
way.
We SEQ It's hopes vanish, Its fondest ties
sever,
And in anguish we cry, Shall It be SO
forover7"
Old Mr. Lyle was troubled, deeply
troubled The world was beautiful in
its June glory, its June sunset Butho
needed not the glow, the brightness Of
the young Summer.
Looking from his window, he beheld
the saddest womau's face he ever saw
It was Mrs. Lee, the drunkard's wife I
Evening after evening, she came to
her window, holding her babe in her
arms, looking mournfully toward the
village tavern. Often the tears rolled
down her pale face, and her sweet, pa
tient lips would tremble. Perchance
she thought her husband might see her
there, so pale, so wasted, and would
come on home from his work, and not
stop at the tavern; for his stopping
there so often was leading him down to
death
Perchanco she thought he might look
that way, and seeing her with her
babe, some tender memory might stir
in his heart;-momories of how she
used to watch for him in the happy
days Of old, with her frst-born on her
bosom.
The white-haired man was troubled.
Did the stricken face at the window op-
posito, bring back some touching, al
most forgotten memory to his soul p
Were there no deep, sorrowful eyes,
looking upon him out of the dreamy
past-no plaintive wall, vibrating upon
his heart-strings? Tears dimmod his
eyes-dimmed the touching picture at
the window opposite He wiped them
away hastily, and looked again. How
little Willie danced in his mothers
arms How lovingly he laid his
little head back upon her shoulders,
looking into her face; but he knew not
the mystery of its pallor, the mystery
of its tears, How he crowed, and pratt
tied, in his sweet, unknown language
The sun was almost down; so was
the sun Of Willie's life. The old man
never saw them together at the window
again In the twilight, he saw the un-
happy husband and father staggering
home. Itwas no new sight, but never
had it wruug his soul as then.
A dim candle burned in the home of
James Lee, all that night. While he
lay in drunken sleep, his wife watched
over her babe. He had never seemed
moro full Of life than on that evening;
but few hours later hot flush came
to his little cheeks, and he tossed about
in his cradle, and moaned pitifuIly. In
the morning their physician was sum
moned but neither his skin, the pray
ers Of the fond mother, nor the agony
Of the remorsoful father, could save the
life Of their darling There we're a
few days Of painful anxiety to the par
ents, few days of suffering for Willie,
and then--he fell asleep The Girl
Friends made a shroud, in tho still,
solemn night;-not such a night as that
in which Luly had died, so wild and
stormy; but just such a night as you
might dream that the angels we're
abroad upon the moon-lit mountains,
waiting to convey pure spirits, like
Willie's, home
In the morning, an old man came
trembling upon his staff, and bent over
the beautiful clay. "Wnliem how that
name thrilled his aged heart evil
lisl' he murmured, "swect little Willie
is dead 70
In the hush Of the Summer evening
they bore the tiny coffin to the grave
yard on the hillside. They laid Il
down to rest, by little Luly. Pcrchanco
God saw how dark the way ofIifo would
be to his litdo Lambs, and SO He called
them home.
As the bright Summer days wore on.
old Mr. Lyle often looked towards thc