Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1860-04-25

AulI DuSJ, Will YOU Ccl Hlc Tic SUOTy you CI
some time ago? The fire is burn tc
ng brightly, and / will wheel up the rocking Il
chair before it, and you will be very comfort 7
able" q,
"What story, child" o.
"Why, Of that poor, lone minister I saw k
afternoon in his study door, looking so
sad and hopeless. How | pity himl' a.
Don't pity him; there is no cause for t.
that he needs no pity from you who know h
of his joys" d
''Tell me, Aunty, of the events in his life, n
coming cast their shadows before them, n
those that did not, also. / am all atten-
ton, F" and | seated myself by her side a ready :
il
lie was an old man; his whitened locks
spoke of the years that had changed them to d
the silvery tint Of age, and the trembling step S
revealed that it was one of 1ife's last, slow,
difficult steps : and yet each Sabbath day he /
WAS in his place in the pulpit of Evergreen |
church. The trembling hands are still raised a
toward Heaven, and the feeble voice still S
plead for blessings on his little flock. {
"Lizzie, to tell you of mis- Life will awaken 9
recollections in my heart that might well be
left to slumber with the faded hopes of my {
years, yet | will fulfill my promise, /
"Years pass on, child, almost UNDECIDED by
the gay child chasing his butterfly. A calm
period succeeds thisyand yet it is childhood,
a. unaffected ahd happy. A few more
. (sGaQ andssay within the heart, %,
" w'whelIa a woman
yagy~f1cSxy, not making
IMaahtE MAXIM ~
tint hear true and kind, when falsehood
and deceit are coiling themselves around the
heart, like serpcnts vile and loathsome.-
yU:4b ,u.oaA c,usIa, LooI:oo. - 46o4 Iooo;
ness dwclls in the heart, when black despair
is resting so securely in the soul, that it
smiles hideously at the pretty bird, Hope, that
is flying around, trying to enter. Like a
broad ocean is time, and all over its blue
waves little banks are floating. Many, very
many arc wrecked; the fragments are scat
tered around, and only a few, a very few,
reach the haven in safety-the haven of eter-
nal rest. But my story is not a sad one; so
lay aside thefrown, Lizzy, dear, on your face,
and listen while tell you the long promised
story. If did begin sadly, it was to re-
mind you that not all in life have their
widest hopes fulfilled, and if yours should
fade before you as sunset hues fade into
night, you need not wonder; but remember
you are an example under this rule; while
Amy and fall under the exception. Do
you hear, Lizzie p
] nodded an affirmative to the queer old
woman who sat in the corner, leaning on her
staff, and dreaming of days long since passed
away. Aunt Susy,' she was called, and for
years she had sat there in the warmes seat
in Evergreen cottage. My uncle and aunt,
whom l was visiting, seemed to look upon
her with a feeling almost of reverence, and
listened to her ~counsels with respect, and gen.
= orally followed them, if they could be remod
!, eled so as to suit the present age for aunt
/ Lucy lived more in the past than in the pres
| ent; and her thoughts belonged to another
, age whose representatives were fast passing
= away, and often she turned away from life
/. remembering only what it had to her been
: and mourned that she was Left to the last
/. Evergreen cottage was hers. For year
+ my uncle and aunt had lived with her, an,
at her death it was theirs. No loving bein,
called her mother, and she had no near rela
f tive. Her only daugter passed from life on
r bright Spring morning, and before. the Al
!. tumn's winds commenced their dirge, her OF
e ly son rested by his sisters side in the oil
p burial ground at Evergreen Church; and q
It long as her weary feet could bear their bu
l. den, she wandered there every Sunday,
.o listen to the old minister, who-like her
le had heightened out life's span until he WI
weary, weary;-and to look upon her chill
l. NAS SAN'" 0NUASSoGOAl Nc LUN CSNh oAIO
Mt years before-they were almost forgott'
r. now-that the old white-haired man who
r. hands trembled as he turned the leaves
n the worn old Bible that had lain there for
r. long years, had once loved the AIDED WON
he who fingered there each Sabbath day amid t
&c groves. | could not realize it, or anythi
,s else that seemed to bring those two into Ii
oh real and active. They seemed to me more
ed those whose years never had a spring or su
IL mer; but not from anything they did or sa
for they were good and true, and are now
,cr tered into their rest
es 81 used TO sit by the window that lool
I'd. toward the parsonage and sec the minis
walking in his garden so lone, so sad, | wi
ne ed | might 90 and sit on his steps and
* how bright, how dazzlingly bright life W
ere as if l could pour into his heart, overgro
Ter with the scenes of eighty years, the bri
if hopes of seventeen; and then [ turned
,s' aunt Lucy and asked why our minister Ii
;ch all the long years of his life alone, alone.
"Why do you ask, Lizzie? Have you
nv. sympathy for the poor old man; or is itm
curiosity?'
lst. sympathy, dear aunty. Will you tell
de- all about it"
,th. "About what?" she asked, moving to
rms fro, as one does when the mind is agitated
lick about the minister and his life.
rive know it all, do you not?"
not "All? why there isn't much, Lizzie. III
can isn't much of any ones life, is there, ch
wav But" she added kindly, "some time / will
you; not now y and her eye bent down s.
by to her knitting, her daily occupation,
sure while | sat there before the large fire, |
t. cied it must be true, what village gossip
nder long ago said out auntS usy's love. My
,etu- Ellen could not enlighten me on the sub
pped LIZZIE, child, don't think of such thi
Why aunt Susyloved just whom she mar
4 af Dr. John oward. Why do you think
this pie marry without loveY'
M myself he question ! hundred h'ldn times ssG an a
outh. ceived no answer. Before God, in his S
deed it is sin; yet so many do it, perhaps aun
tread sy did"
IS eye 'Psha"! ,that Is mo"efn, LIZZIE. A
mess belongs to the past age, almost. Sheis
sun dent of the old school t~heory-marriag
q for love. That was fashionable in her day
her dear. Is it not nowY' she added W
reyer searching look.
Iblushed, l knew not why, but there
,ssay, into my mind wildly the remembrance
sweet home in the green fields, and a
may willow that grew by the spring, where
r the told some one how sweet it was to love
If re- joyous was the song of the birds, the mt
gayer of the stream, if within the heart ther,
love-pure, Interchangeable.
IA. Aunt Ellen left me to my own thol
and the old grey haired woman by tn
NJ the side was plying her needles industriC
York. her f,ca that Ir;aht scanoS &c ntbor dov,
shops present with her, that she was living