Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-04-17


had prophetic meaning? So often do we hea
people saying, "Ah, the very day before hear
OF this or that, we were saying so and so I" |
would seem sometimes as if the soul felt itsel
being drawn within the dark sphere of a comm,
evil, of which as yet nothing outward tells
Then the thoughts and conversation flow in a,
almost prophetic channel, which acoming fututr,
too well interprets.
The evening passed cheerfully with our friends
Notwithstanding the grave conversation in tn,
arbor. The mourning veil was laid away in {
drawer along with many of its brilliant compan
ions, and with it the thoughts it had suggested
and the merry laugh ringing from the half-opei
parlor door showed that Father Payson was nc
deSpiser OF the command to rejoice with them
that do rejoice
Rose played and sung, the children danced
and the mirth was prolonged till late hour in
the evening.
Olivia and Albert were lingering in the mar.
lor after the departure of the family, busy in
shutting windows setting back chairs, and at
tended to all the last duties of orderly house
holders.
a sudden shrek startled them; such shrek
as once heard, is never forgotten. With an an
swering cry OF horror, they rushed up the stairs.
Inc nall lamp had been extinguised, but the
passage and staircase were red with broad
glare from the open door of the nursery. A
moment more showed them the draperv Of the
bed IN which their youngest child was sleeping
IN ilames then they saw light from tearing
down the blazing curtains.
I'm, Kosc take care, for Gods sake YOUR
dress you'll kill YOURSELF Oh, God help us I"
mere were few moments-awful moments
oi struggle-when none knew or remembered
"hat they did; moment more and Rose Law
Pai',itg IN her fathers arms, enveloped in a
,hlck blanket which he had thrown around her
burning night-dress. The fire was extinr,,;sh-
ed, the babe lay unawakcned. and only the dark
flecks of tinder scattered over the bed. and the
crumped mass on the floor, told what had been.
But Rose had breathed the hot breath of the
flame, deadly to human life. and no water could
qucnch that inward fire.
"A word serves to explain ALL The child's
nurse mad carelessly set lamp too near the cur
laiis' and the night breeze had waited them in
10 ule ilame The apartment of Rose opened
ito 'ne nursery, and as she stood in her night
ircSs before her mirror arranging her hair, she
saw the flashing of the flame. and. in the one
dea OF saving her little sister, forgot every 9th
'r That act of self-torgetfulness was her last
'arthly acti few short hours of patient suffer
hg were all that remained to her. Peacefully
is she had lived, she died, looking tenderlv on
ler parents out of her large blue eyes, and only
intent to soothc their pain.
Yes, | suffer, she said, "but only short
'ain. We must all suffer something. Nv faith
n thinks a very little enough for me. have
1t the last" -'''''
a little later her mind seemed to wander.
Mamma mamma" she said hurriedly, Il
'ut the things all away: the lilac muslin ,nI ,be
Iarckc. Mamma. that xn;i ,b.,
IN the drawer. Oh, Mamma, that veil is for
ou don't refuse it our Father sends it. and
, ,e knows best Perhaps you will see heaven
through that veil"
.: IL Is appalling to think how near to the hap
nest and most yrcsc"-....- re
With awful possibilities, for whose realization no
rray of threatening agents is required-no
'ShtninF, ar tempest. battle a peaceful
household lamp, gust of perfumed evening air.
false step in a moment Of gaiety, draught ta-
Ken by mistake a match overlooked or mislaid.
! moments oversight in handling deadly wea-
the whole scene of life is irretrieya-
BY changed
1t was but a day after the scene in the arbor,
md all was mourning in the so lately happy,
lospitable house everybody looked through
ears. There were subdued breathings, low
nurmur, as Of many listencrs,-and then the
leavy tread of bearers, as beneath the black pail
she was carried over the threshold Of her home,
never to return.
And Olivia and Albert came forth behind
heir dead. The folds of the dark veil seemed
, refuge Tor the mothers sorrow. But how did
he howerS OF home, the familiar elms, the dis
-ant smiling prospect look through its gloomy
tolds,-emblem of the shadow which had fallen
between her heart and life2 When she looked
at the dark moving hearse she wondered that
Tho gfill Sbppn IL
that even her own flowers could be so bright
All mother the world had been Just as full
of sorrow the day before the air as full of
'farewels to the diving and MORNINGS for the
dead ! but thou knewest it not Now the out
er world comes to thee through the mourning
rcH!
But after the funeral comes life again, hard,
cold, inexorable life, knocking with business
like sound at the mourner's door, obtruding its
pertlnacity on the dull ear of sorrow. The
world cannot wait for us the world knows no
leisure for tears; it moves onward, and drags
along with its motion the weary and heavy Ia
den who would fain rest.
Olivia would have buried herself in her sor-
rows. There are those who refuse to be COM
forted. The coincidence of friends seems only
a mockery; and truly, nothing so shows'the
emptiness and poverty Of human nature as its
eHOrls at cOnuOlenCe.
Father Payson, however, was visitor who
would not be denied there was something of
gentle authority in his white hairs that might
not be resisted. Old, and long schooled in sor-
row, his heart many times broken in past years,
he knew all the ways of mourning. His was no
official commonplace about "atfiictive dispensa-
tons" lie came first with that tender and rev.
erent silence with which the man acquainted
with grief approaches the divine mysteries of
sorrows and from time to time he cast on the
troubled waters words, dropped like seeds, not
for present truitfulness. but to germinate after
the floods had subsidized.
He watched beside soul in afIliction as a
mother waits on the crisis of a fever whose turn
ing is to be for life or death; for he well knew
that great sorrows never leave us as they find
us that the broken spirit, ill set, grows callous
and disturbed ever after,
lie had wise patience with ever stage of sor-
row he knew that at first the soul is blind, and
deaf and dumb. lie was not alarmed when re-
turning vitality showed itself only in moral
spasms and commissions: for in all great griefs
come hours of conflict, when the soul is tempt
ed, and complaining murmuring, dark skept-
cal thoughts are whirled like withered leaves
through all its desolate chambers.
"What have learned by looking through
this veil" said Olivia to him. bitterly, one day
when they were coming out of a house where
they had been visiting a mournino family. sI