Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1860-01-26
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ysL as uNO. a.
One hour and then another passed away
the storm had abated, the thunder dying
gradually away, and the wind and the rain
ceasing together. Bot the children did not
return. The men who had been in search
of then came back without them, sup
posing they had reached home by some
other path, and expressed SO much surprise
that they were still absent as toEraise to
the fears Of their mother to the highest
pitch. They departed second time, and
in greater numbers, tolook for the fugitives;
and separating into. small parties as they
ascended the mountain, left no place unex-
plored. They searched every sheep hut and
little cavern, enquired at every cottage, but
in vain. They could hear no tidings Of,
or find no clue to the fate Of the brothers.
At last it occurred to one Of the party
that they might have been overpowered and
carried away by the very sudden outaowing
of the stream, and they agreed to descend,
guided by its course, to the village. AFTER
following for some time It's uncertain wan.
dering without any success they reached
the upper end of the village, where the
stream somewhat abated its violence, and
wound round the wall Of the:church yard.
On that side Of the water the bank of the
stream was considerable height, shelving
over at the top, and being planted with
large old trees that threw half their 2shad-
ows.oyer the stream, and half over the rest
ipgplaces of the dead beneath. Here, cJose
under the bank, in hollow worn by the
water in Q rock, the farmers observed some:
thing like the object Of their search, and
in few minutes the Inflated brothers we're
drawn from :he water, closely locked ID
each others arms, and yet retaining the
aexibility and the hues Of life. All means
were Immediately tried to restore them TO
animation-but, alas! the spark Of life was
extinct forever! -
But who shall describe the feelings Of
the mother after the failure Of every RENE.
dy so anxiously but vainly resorted to It
could not be that her beys-hery young, her
beautiful, her healthy and happy children,
who had SO lately clung to her neck with
afectionate earnestness, whose warm breath
she yet felt upon her cheek--Whose glad
voices yet rungin her ear--whose buoyant
footsteps she had 80. lately watched could
they be dead! 1t was not in a widowed
mothers heart to admit so fearful "a truth,
and dretain any other feeling; and, there6ore,
from that hour, every hope, every recollec-
ton, every thought--all things were as
nothing to her; she wept for her children,
and would not be comforted.
There are many kids of solitude which
press heavily upon the heart. The gloom
of prison, of sick room, when distant
from all those who care for us, and.when
kindness would change the melancholy as
pect of the scene; of ahome from which
those we love have departed for atimes but
to all these, Hope may be welcome yisi-
tant. There may be freedom, and health,
and restored friends in the gift of futurity.
But to be alone in house whose cherished
inhabitants are gone to the tomb-tais, this
is solitude! The suppressed hustle of the
attendants at the funeral is; al hushed--
the guests have deprated-and they in
whose honor the moornfal rites were cele-
brated, where are they? It is in vain that
reason whispers to the sac survivor, why
shri1kest thou at the tempest that ravesh
around their narrow bed2' tits long, very
long, ere the memory can dwell upon those
we have lostswithout associating with their
image asense of human feelings-of wants
and suferipgs I'VE shrink instinct
ively at the idea of their lonerepose in the
cemetry, as though the dead could awake
TO the horrors Of such a bed. And under
the influence of this feeling, long and often
did that lone widow quake in the stiffness
Of night, when she thought of her children.
The low murmuring Of that stream which
had been SO fatal to them ever sounded in
her ears, and for the short remainder Of her
Melancholy life, she presented to the pity
ng beholders,.a heart moving picture Of
lesolation. ~
She has long lain in the grave of her
husband and her children, and the grass
las grown above them so luxuriant as al
noststo cover the inscription which simply
elates their fate. But the mountain stream,
yhich at once overwhelmed and ruined so
many hopes, still flows on in the bright
unshine, as though such things had never
,een.