The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-06-23

monstrous tuft CT water-weeds. Holdings
worth, with a g gigantic effort, uphcayed :
sunkenlog. When once free of the bot
tom. it rose partly out of water,-al
weedy and Shiny, dev;l;sll-looking object
which the moon had not shonc upon fol
half & hundred years,-then plunged
again, and sullenly returned to its old rest
ing place for the remnant Of the century
"That looked ugly quotl. S.las
s.I half thought it was the evil one, or
the same GRAND as ourselves, scare ing
for Zenobia."
'He shall never get her." said I, giving
| the boat a strong impulse.
That's not for you to say, my boy .
retorted The ycoman. "Pray God he
never has, and never may! Slow work
Ills, however! I should really be glad
o fill something! Pshaw! What a
patiqa .hat is, when the only good luck
would be to paddle, and drift, and poke,
and grope, hereabouts, till morning, and
have our labor for our pains! For my
part, I shouldn't wonder if the creature
had only lost her shoe in the mud, and
saved her soul alive after all. My stars
how she will laugh at us tomorrow morn
|
ing!"
1t is indescribable what an image OF
Zenobia-at the breakfast table, full OF
warm and mirthful lfe-this snrmise of
Silrs Fosters brought before my mind.
The terrible ph,ntasm of her death was
thrown by it into the remotest and dim
NEST background, where it seemed to
grow as improbable as a myth.
eyes, Silas, it may be as you say"
cried I.
The drift of the stream had again borne
us little below the stump, when l felt
YES, felt, for it was as if the iron hook
had smote my breast-felt Hollings-
worth's pole strike some object at the
bottom of the river! He started up, and
almost overset the boat.
Hold onr' cried Foster; "you have
hcrr'
Putting fury of strength into the e.
fort, Hollingsworth leavcd amain, and
up came q white wash to the surface of
tie river. 1t was the flow of a wonlans
garments. A little higher, and we saw
her dark hair streaming down the current.
Black River Of Death. thou hast yielded
up thy victim! Zenobia was found F!
Silas F,st ter laid hold of the body;
Hollingsworth likewise grappled with it;
and l stcered towards the bank, gazing all
the while at Zenobia, whose limbs were
swaying in the current close at the boats
side. Arriving near the shore, we all
three slept into the water, bore her out,
and laid her on the ground beneath a tree
"Poor childr' said Foster, his
dry old heart, l verify believe, vouchsafed
a tear,-"Tm sorry for herr
Were l to describe the perfect horror
of the spectacle, the reader might justly
reckon it to me for a sin and shame.
For more than twelve long years have
borne it in my memory, and could now
reproduce it as freshly as if it were still
before my eyes. Of all modes of death,
methinks it is the ugliest. Her wet gar
ments swathed limbs of terrible infiexi-
bility. She was the marble image of
death-agony. Her arms had grown rigid
in the act of struggling, and were bent
before her with clenchcd hands; her
snec-, too, were bent, and-thank God
f,e Z; IN the attitude of prayer. All,
hat ,gidity! 1t is impossible TO bear
-, ~; t +c..1. o1 1t. 1t seemed:-I must
needs impart so much of my own mlsera-
BILE idea,-it seemed as if her body must
keep the same position IN the coffin, and
that her skeleton would keep it in the
Grave: and that when Zenobia rose at
the day of Judgment, it would be IN just
the same attitude as now @
One hope l had; and that, too, was
mingled half with fear. She knelt, as II
in PRAYER. With the last, choking con-
sci. ust,ess. her soul, bubbling out through
her l:ns, it may be, had given itself up to
tie Father, reconciled and penitent. But
her arms! They were bent before her,
as if she struggled against Providence in
never-enJing hostility. Her hands =
They were clenched in unmitigable deh-
ance. Away with the hideous thought
The fitting moment after Zenobia sank
into the dark pool-when her breath was
gone, and her soul at her hps--was as
long, in its capacity of Gods infinite for
g;yenness, as the lifetime of the world !
Foster bent over the body, and care
fully examined it.
"You lave wounded the poor thing;
breast" said he to Hollingsworth )" clos
by her heart, too!'
5