The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-12-22

Of comic determined frankness, which yet
had in it such wholesome honesty that it
was scarce possible to be angry.
"The fact is Mary he added with q
sudden earnest darkening of the face, 81
won't stand this nonsense any longer
Aunt Katy has been holding me at arms
length ever since l got home; and what
have | done? Haven't been to every
prayer-meeting and lecture and sermon
since | got into port, just as regulsr as q
psalm book and not a bit of word could
| getswith you, and no chance even SO
much as to give you my arm. Aunt
Kate always comes between US and says.
Here Mary, you take my arm What
does she think l go to meeting for, and
almost break my jaws keeping down the
gaps3 lneyer even go to sleep, and yet
I'm treated in this way! It's too bad!
What's the rowe What's anybody been
saying about me? | always have wal
ted on you ever since you were so high.
Didn't [ always draw you to school on
nay sled? didn't we always do our sums
together? didn't | always wait on you to
singing school! and I've been made free
to run in and out as if | were your broth
er;-and now she is as glum and stiff,
and ALWAYS stays in the room every min
ute of the tine that [ am here, as if she
was afraid | should be in some mischief.
It's too bad y
"Oh, James, | am sorry that you only
90 to meeting for the sake of seeing me;
you feel no real interest in religious mat
tiers; and besides, mother thinks now l
am grown so old, that. Why you
know things are different now,-at least,
we mustn't, you know, always do as we
did when we were children. But | wish
you did feel interested in good things"
81 am interested in one or two good
things, Mary, principally in you, who
are the best know Of, Besides" he said
quickly, and scanning her face attentively
10 see the effect of his words, don't you
think there is more merit in my sitting
out all these meetings, when they bore
ME SO confoundvdly, than there is in your
and Aunt Katy's doing it. who really
seem to find something to like in them:
| believe you have sixth sense, quite
unknown to me; for its all a maze,-I
can't find top, nor bottom, nor side, nor
up, nor down to tits you can and you
cln't, you shall and you shan't, you viii
and you won't" -
"James!"
"You needn't look at me SO. Tn not
! roinr to say the rest of it. But, serious
", it's all anywhere and nowhere to mo;
it don't touch me, it don't help me, and /
think it rather makes me worse; and then
they tell me it's because l am natural
man, and the ma ural man understandeth
not the things of the Spirit. Well, | am
q natural man,--how's a fellow to help
itw :a
"Well, james, why need you talk ev-
erywhere as you do? You Joke, and jest,
and trife, till it seems to everybody that
you don't believe in anything. I'm afraid
mother thinks you are an infdcl, but [
know that can't be; yet we hear of all
sorts of things that YOU say"
II suppose you mean my telling Dea-
con Twitchell that | had Sc n as good
Christians among the Mahometans asa any
in Newport. Didn't l make him open
his eyts2 It's true, tool"
ain every natioa, he that feareth God
and worketh righteousness is accepted of
Him." said Mary, '.and if there arc bet
Ter Christians than us among the Mahom-
etans, ! am sure Pm glad of it But, af-
ter all, the great question is,-'Aro we
Christians oursolves?' Oh, James ifyou
only were real, true, noble Christian {"
''Well, Mary, you have got into that
harbo,, through all the sandbars aud
rocks and crooked channels; and now do
you think it right to leave fellow beat
ing about outside, and not go out to help
him in? This way of drawing up, among
you good people, and leaving us sinners
to ourselves, isn't generous. You might
care little for the soul of an old friend,
anyhow !"
'And don't care, James? How many
days and nights have been one prayer
for you! If [ could take my hopes Of
heaven out of my own heart and give
them to you, I would. Dr.. II. preached
last Sunday on the text, Il could WISH
myself accursed from Christ for my
brethren, my kinsmen'; and he went on
to show how we must be willing to give
up even our own salvation, if necessary,
for the good Of others. People said it
was bard doctrine, but / could feel my
way through it very well. Yes, ! would
give my soul for yours; | wish | could"
There was a soemnity and pathos in
Mary's manner which checked the con-
versation. James was the more touched
because he felt it all SO real, from one
whose words were always yea and nay,
80 true, SO infexibly simple. Her eyes
filed with tears, her face kindled with q
sad earnestness, and James thought, as
he looked, of picture he had once seer
in a European cathedral, where the youth
full Mother of Sorrows is represented,
" Radiant and grave, as plying mans decline
All youth, but with an aspect beyond time;
Mournful, but mournful Of another's crime
She looked as if she sat by Edens door, b
| And grieved for those who should return NJ
~ more" 8&8A m
James had thought he loved Mary; b
had admired her remarkable beauty, ht