Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1859-06-22


to stand in the parlor; but the eyes of the ,
curious looked at them too rudely-l did
not wish to see the tiny trinkets fingered
over and priced with the precision of
Jewish pawnbroker, so I took them up
to my own room, and have arranged them
on the mantel shelf l have only to turn
my head, and my eyes fall upon those me-
MORALS Of other and of pleasanter days
Sometimes, as | gaze upon them, mist
gathers before my eyes; and they fade a
way, and instead of them, there is the broad,
high forehead of Mark Ingersoll; and the I
fashings of his dark blue eyes answer back
to me the mute questionings of mine.
But, in a moment the past glides from
me, and the present is with me again
bringing with it the saddened memory of
the eight years since | saw him for the last
time.
That was to be the last parting before
our marriage. When his ship came again
from over the deep, blue sea that he spoke
ofso often and SO eloquently, we were to be
made one in name, as we had long been
one in heart. He left us in the winter,
and it would be late in the spring before
he returned. How eagerly my heart look
ed forward to the coming Of the early
spring birds to the budding Of the naples,
and to the blossoming of the flowers, Heav
en- and my own memory alone can tell
How gladly welcomed the first sunbeam
that seemed to smile of May! How ca
gerly watched the sky grow to deeper,
purer blue!-and how I shuddered as the
wild winds blew the clouds across it on
those dresry spring days, and sat and
wondered where Mark and his ship could
be, as its wild wailings broke out in a
shrek, then sank in low mosn! On the
long, dreary evenings, father and | would
draw the curtains, and sitting down in
front of the crate, each would busy their
own thoughts with "reminiscences and with
hopings.
Perhaps father was thinking of the time
when he was young, and before the friends
of his youth had fallen from his side, as he
and they were journeying together down
the wayside of life-thinking, perhaps, o.
the one who used to occupy the other arm
chair in the opposite corner of his freside
but who, years ago, heard the angels whis
pering: "Come up higher! !" and who, il
obedience to their summons, had gone u
to join the great family-circle that God i:
day by day, drawing to His home and Hi
presence.
One word will tell you who | was think
see him again; and my heart beat Yer
still and very low in its great happines
while I thought again that his comm
would bring with it our wedding-day.
That night, when father prayed, he r,
remembered, in his petition for protection
"those who go down to the sea in ships
and l knowin in that moment he, too, though
of Mark.
All that night I lay awake, listening I
the wild, wailing shrieks of the March win
and to the patter of the rain-drops-tha
, like the rain-drops Of this afternoon, wei
= falling thick and fast upon the gabled roc
! | could not shut my eyes as long as Il
= darkness and the storm lasted; but at Il
= early dawn the wind ceased its moaning
and the rain ceased falling; and fell in
:. a half-waking, half-asleep reverie.
: l was aroused from it by the cheerf
laugh of our and-boy-who had taxi
" especial pains to come up to my door al
call me. found father aud my breakfa
- awaiting me, and, heartily ashamed of 4
y idleness and my fearful imaginings of t
;. night before, did not mention the seve
, ty of the storm.
!, In about a week after that morning, t
:. Herald gave long account of sever
. shipwrecks that occurred on the night
% the eighteenth and among them was
- notice of the total loss of the new and el
# giant steamship, the Ocean Queen.
- Father saw it and read it first He
10 10 taken the paper with him into the stuc
10 and left me sewing in the sitting room.
"a was sitting with my back to the study dc
h and was so much engaged with my VIC
- that did not turn around to notice t
Il expression of his countenance, but ask
~ him, as had asked him so often before
- "Any new arrivals q
"None-in this port !"
- The peculiar stress of voice which
W laid upon the "this" made me turn
=, face to his, and the expression of it corr
~ grated my worst fears-realized all my
~ ~ aginings of that stormy night. I did
- speak for moment. Ny head sank ar
~ j. the window-sill, and the sunshine t
~ ~ streamed in upon my hair and the loc
al that had clasped and opened, scenes
~ mockery rather than blessing. For
or fifteen minutes sat there, holding
locket, and looking at the face in it, |
the waves had kissed before now; the
90 clasped it again, and put it in its old I
on m ing-place, and reached ont my hand for
his paper. Father handed it to me, an
+he preston of the tenderest sympathy res
~ upon his time-worn features, and a
md sad light was resting in the glance that
,ab mine, SO very, very sorrowful.
nil- "Not soul saved from the wreck
r And, further on they said that
we Ocean Queen had not been expecte,
nth yet into port but owing to some I
rest readily-completed business arrangen
ght she had disposed of her cargo, and
mr. turned her course homeward.
bu- Thus everything was accounted f
to And my beauty had been turned into
es. Although the Herald sail that
in might be mistaken in regard to the We
end but, from present reports, there was
Par single straw to catch at in hoping Il
was not the Queen.
few I could not sew any more after