Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1860-08-17

! these were strangers who SAT by my
! hearthssonel | shuddered and turned
! sick. The window was too high Tor me
/ 70 see within the recm and ! staggered
J up to the door, and with wild, despe-
: rate wish 10 know the worst, / opened
the door and stood poor, weary and
! foot-sOre stranger within my own walls.
! Blanche was there with baby in her
arms, sitting by the FIRE, and beside her
stood Carl Reimer So earnestly were
they talking. that they bad not heard my
3 quiet entrance. The baby was cooing
: cut its soft notes, and Blanche was sing
! ing the same old melody that had
} heard so often over little Carl's cradle.
: She looked up to Reimer's face with n
] sudden smile Of fond regard Linger-
ingly, slowly came the bitter truth. Had
: it come faster, ii had been well, for then
7 must have died under the shock. !
: saw 1t all now. They saw me too, and
under the changes which l had under
: gone, Blanche knew NE. She sprang
/. mp with wild shrek and face that was
blanched to marble whiteness.
Why do we ever seek to describe
. such moments? / sat down, for could
/ not stand, and there by the fitful freight
] they told me how it all came about. Carl
: had returned home with the troops aud
}, the comrade who marched next to him,
: told him OF my death. He bad seen
: me, as supposed, lying dead upon the
+ field in the hottest Of the combat. Carl
= mourned like true friend, and was alb
solutely unable for many days after his
n arrival to bear the tidings TO Blanche
a She heard of his return, and went lead
! ing her little Carl, to his house. There,
a she fell sick, and was nursed kindly by
- his mother, but ere she recovered, the
!, boy was taken i'll and died. Afterwards
4 she returned to her desolate home and
/ lived lonely and dreary life for long
\ time. Then her rare beauty brought
- her many suilors. She turned from all
- and would receive no one to her house
Even Carl whom she called her brother
9 Icould only be admitted at long intervals,
4 accompanied by his mother or sister---for
IN already had village gossip Joined their
ID names together. Well, after a long while
70 Carl spoke to her Of marriage. He die
i ask her 10 forget the dead. Even then
! he told her could her husband be brough
m to life, he would rejoice to give her up
), but as all was over why should not the,
:, who mourned him most deeply, units
their two deselate lives together? Ani
Z Blanche listened, and weepingly con
:. sented but not until the second little Car
was born, did she ever smile as of old
All this Carl told me with tears in hi
manly eyes, and with his brotherly arm
around my neck. And then--althougl
/ could see the words wrung his soul
- he offered to take bis boy aud go far, ia
e away from the sight of our happines:
- and never intrude on us again.
Blanche sat with quivering lips AM
fearful eyes looking from one to the 9th
er, and then on her sleeping baby. A
z the sound of his last words, she locke
:, up in his face with an expression full {
" tender rcverenee--as indeed nc deserve
that my resolution was taken at oncs
"No." ] said calmly and decidedly
that God knows the anguish that w
- gnawing at my heart strings, let me b
- - the victim Of this unhappy mistake, Ca
:. blanche your child is the tic tn.
Il, must bind you. Had mine lived,
& should have said otherwise. May Go
3 bless you bothl You have not erre
- wilfully, aud have nothing to pardoI
,b, 1 viii try 70 forget"
5e- So, amidst sobs and tears, and passion
IAN ale entreaiies from both, ] turned ava
ba. from my own hearlhstone, aud lefs the
,ct forever.
en- ] am gray old man nova weaI
i worn out mariner. The sea has been Il
aid home for long years. Never easy, ne
er quiet, save when / am On the bro'
bosom Of the Atlantic, nsyer wishing
- - look upon the blue Rhine. am near
- at my journeys end. In that far la
i,le beyond the setting sun, / shall mf
.ms Blanche again, with our own little "a
:. bat ia this world / shall never aga
.o,o trouble The current of her life. She y
- be nay wife again in that land, and ] sh
,rcb then have nothing 70 pardon--noihiag
no, forget.
az.4a