The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1860-07-26
The Shadows we Cast.
BY T. S. ARTHUR.

A child was playing with some build
ing blocks, and as the mimic castle rose
before his eyes in graceful proportions,
a new pleasure swelled in his, heart.
He felt himself to be the creator of a
"thing of beauty" and was conscious
of new born power. Arch, wall, but
tress, gateway, draw-bridge, lofty-tow-
er and battlement, were all the work of
his hands. He was in wonder at his
own skill in thus creating, from an un-
seemly pile of blocks, structure of
such rare design.
Silently he stood and gazed upon his
castle with something of the pride Of
an architect who sees, after months
and years of skillfully applied labor,
some grand conception in his art, en-
bodied in his imperishable stone. Then
he moved around, viewing it on every
side. 1t did not seem to him toy,
reaching only few inches in height,
and covering but square Moot of
ground, but a real castle, itself hun
dreds of feet upwards to the blue sky,
and spreading wide upon the earth its
ample foundations. AS the idea grew
more and more perfect, his strange
pleasure increased. Now he stood
with folded arms, wrapped in the over
mastering ilusion-now walked slowly
around, viewing the structure on all
sides, and noting every minute particu-
lar, and now sat down and bent over it
with the fondness of mother bending
over her child. Again he arose, pur-
posing to obtain another and more dis
tinctive view of his work. But his
foot struck against one of the buttress-
es, and instantly, with crash, wall,
tower, and battlement fell in hopeless
ruin.
In the room, with the boy, sat his
father, reading. The crash disturbed
him; and he uttered sharp, angry re-
buke; glancing for moment toward
the startled child, and then returning
his eyes to the attractive pages before
him, unconscious of the shadow he had
cast upon the heart of his child. Tears
came into those fair blue orbs dancing
i'm light a moment before. From the
frowning face of his father to which his
glance was suddenly turned, the child
looked back to the shapeless ruins OF
his castle. Is it any wonder that he
bowed his face in silence upon them and
wet them with his tears?
For more than FIVE minutes he sal
still, as if sleeping then in mournfu
kind of way, yet almost noiselessly, he
commenced restoring to the box, from
, which he had taken them, the many
shaped pieces that, ftly joined togeth
er, had grown into a noble building
After the box was filed, he replaced
. the cover, and laid it carefully upon ;
shelf in the closet
Poor child The shadow was deer
one, and long in passing away. Hi
,. mother found him half an hour after
: wards asleep on the floor with cheeks
+ f1ushed to an unusual brightness. Sh'
t knew nothing of that troubled passag,
, in his young life; and the father hat
forgotten, in the attraction of the bool
he had read, the momentary annoyance
expressed in the words and tone, witt
: power in them to shadow the hear
, of his child.
E E A young wife had busted herself TO
n many days in preparing pleasant SUI
+ prise for her husband. The work wa
finished at last, and now she awaite
his return, with a heart full of war;
emotions. A dressing gown, a pair 9