Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1860-09-14
ouR VILLAGE.

Have afou q yillage7 Did you ever have q
yiliagcs II 50, then our word for it, however
sFaa may have wandered however you may
be weddea 10 The city, you often think Of it
with q fali-uay regret. that you ever left it,
$ that it isE't just what it used to be. And
what sort Of a place was It 7? Was it wee
bit of a fling, where the ring OF the black
sari lis hammer upon the anvil, was the only
bell IN all the country ronnd Where the
meeting house was school house, and the
ssclleol bouse slegs Where the store was the
post oaiee. and tle post Office cupboardf-
Ard had Il passed atae hateful age" for vii
lagcs Ike children have an era Of that sort ?
" Them eseFyhadg knows how everybody does.
; Nlat luxury il was olnow for a dead GER
fainsy Nisat everybody had for dinner, and how
1hey cooked it--to know the name of every
child in town, and all about it. even to the col
OF Of It's eyes and the curve ofits nose-to feel
that yon 10 turn were subiect tothe watch-care
Of your five and forty neigl:bors, ..aii in arrow,
son that one street of theirs?
May be tour village" was older and better
behaved -oas of these qniet home like places,
hewed out Of d great woods, and wonderful
way from anywhere Think back twenty
) years If yon are old enough, and fancy your
sself nesfied down once more ..in the cot where
y6a xers born" Let us restore if we can, the
dim od picture wander through the "north
room,s with its four windows and their little
green panes. Here were you born-here, as
they told you, the angels brought the new sis
ter that white ceiling did youuse to look
for a sign of cleft, through which baby and
its winged bearer could come and there, how
erred like chicken beneath its ioftier kindred
is the veritable trundle-bed, wherein you dream
ed your first dreams That mirror, magniG
cent once, how has it dwindled. How we used
to admire the ship with gold bows and green
sal that decorated thst little glass. There it
hangs yet, "a painted ship upon painted
ocean" The storm of sorrow that have swept
over US all, have never reached that sea of
glass. Smooth aud uuruffled is it, as that
other sea, God poured around the throne.
- There between the windows stands the bu-
rean, with its one false drawer anJ its pair OF
real osics. The brass handles are somewhat
; tarnished By time, but never mind, we'll lift
the i'd The till The mysterious till l.
! You had quite forgotten it---forgotten how,
mounted upon chair, you strove to reach it,
but yonr arm. like DAsdcmona's handkerchief,
waa istoo little But now you remember
: what treasures were deposited therein. You
remember flfa heirloom the STRING of old gold
beads that your grandmother used to wear,
md the tresses of hair, under the shadow and
out in the sun; some was faxen and some was
silver grey. How many times you have heard
the story of their wearers--some were beauti-
full, all were dear, and all were dead, and you
wondered if it made them die to love them,
nm you have since almost believed ii did, and
tremble for the great love You have for this
and that, lest they too should pass forever
away.
You turn from the till, so like an old heart
full of memories, and there. careened in a cor
ncr, is the old cradle-red once-wherein sue
cessively, the young uavigators Oh the sea of
life, took passage-the little pilot boat of hu-
mamity. You have rocked since then, on wild
er seas. and your upward gaze has met a clouds
Ter sky than the clear heaven of mothers
eyes. bending so lovingly and gently over you,
as you lay.
: You pass out into the hall ; you pause at
s.the door OF the parlor, and remember the glory
Of its carpet and the niagnificence ofits mirror,
and its old sideboard. ecIipsed by the closed
shutters 7 on remember the days, the festal
days, when that room was opened to the Fight;
when host of little fires glittercd like brass
saaslirons, and friends were gathered, and the
laugh went round. You remember when lit
tstle brother died. and the parlor was opened
then. and the little pale form lay extended up
on a little table, and the voices were all hush
ed. You remember stealing softly in and see
ing a stray sunbeam that had ventured through
the hall closed shutters, into the presence of
the dead, and played over the flowers upon the
carpet, as if they were living aud breathing
and as If the baby were living too. You re
member how you peopled that mysterious
room with spirits. and how a sigh in winter
nights as you passed the door, FASTENED your
footsteps, up the stairs to bed. What shapes
were hidden in the shadowy corners, who could
tell You pass to the sitting room. You
stand by "fhe old arm chair" faded and vacant
now, but there arises in it, that form--of all
other forms. that iace-of all other faces, and
there comes from thvse shadowy lips tone,
"my daughter, my sonl'
"The voice in your dreaming ear, melted
away, z and the pilgrimage of the heart was
ended.