New Oregon plaindealer. (New Oregon, Iowa) 1859-1866, 1859-09-10

be trodden on but woman,-Abner
Dlmock rioted and revelled to his full
PLEASURE, while all his pale and speech
less wife could do was to watch with fear
full eyes and straining ears for his COM
ing, and stink out of the way with her
child, lest both should be beaten as we'll
as cursed; for faithful old Keery, once
daring to face him with volley of re-
proaches from her shrill tongue, was lev
elled to the floor by blow from his rap
id hand, and bore bruises for weeks that
warned her from interference Not long,
however, was there danger of her med
ding. When the baby was year and a
half old, Keery, in her outdoor labors,-
now grown burdensome enough, since
Mr.. Dimock neither worked himself nor
allowed man on the premises,-Keery
took heavy cold, and, worn out with a
life of hard work, sank into rest quickly,
her last act of life being to draw Hitty's
face down to her own, wridkled and wan
as it was, scarce so old in expression as
her mistresss, and with one long kiss and
sob speak the foreboding and anxious
farewell she could not utter.
"Only you now!' whispered Hitty to
her child, as Keerys peaceful, shrouded
face was hidden under the coffin-lid and
carried away to Greenfield Hill. Pitiful
whisper! happily all-unmeaning to the
child, but full of desolation to the moth
er, floating with but one tiny plank amid
the wild wrecks of a midnight ocean, and
clinging as only the desperate can cling
to this vague chance of life.
A rough, halfcrazed girl, brought from
the alms-house, now did the drudgery of
the family. Abner Dimock had grown
penurious, and not one cent of money
was given for comfort in that house scarce
for need. The girl was stupid and rude,
but she worked for her board,-recom-
mendation enough in Mr.. Dimock's eyes;
and so hard work was added to the other
burdens loaded upon his silent wife. And
soon came another, all-mysterious, but
from its very mystery deeper fear. Alb
ner Dimock be, IAN to stay at home, to be
visited at late hours by one or two men
whose faces were full of evil and daring;
and when in the dead of the long nights
Hitty woke from her broken and fever
ish sleep, it was to hear mufled sounds
from the cellar below, never heard there
before; and once, wrapped a shawl about
her, she stole down the stairways with
bare feet; and saw streams of red light
through the chinks Of the cellar-door,
and heard the ring of metal, and mutter-
ed oaths, all carfully dulled by such de-
vices as kept the sounds from chance pas
sers in the street, though vain as far as
the inhabitants of the house itself were
concerned Trembling and cold, she
Istole back to her bed, full of doubts and
fears, neither of which she dared whisper
to any one, or would have dared, had she
possessed single friend to whom she
could speak. Troubles tbickened fast
over Hitty; her husband was always at
home now, and rarely sober; the relief his
absences had been was denied her entire
~; and in some sunny corner Of the un-
inhabited rooms upstairs she spent her
days, toiling at such sewing as was need
AuA3 esiAN oAAOAC oS ClC OCdU, 6dFC us ucr
life appealed to God from the ground,
and called down the curse of Cain upon
head she would have shielded from evil
with her own life -ar~
Keen human legislation! sightless JUS
tice of men!-one drunken wretch smites
another in a midnight brawl, and sends a
soul to its account with one sharp shud-
der of passion and despair, and the mad
dened creature that remains on earth suf.
fers the penalty of the law. Every sense
|sobered from its reeling fury, weeks of
terrible expectation heaped upon the
cringing soul, and, in full consciousness,
that murderer is strangled before men and
angels, because he was drunk! necessary
enough, one perceives, to the good Of So
| ciety. which thereby loses two worse than