The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1861-08-15

NO, I'm not her. This is her house thoupb
/ +, Wlll you tell her gentleman wants to ace
Ter ! said l putting my foot inside the door as
spoke The room, saw, was plainly but
aeaty furnished. rag-carpet covered the
moor; green rush-bottomed chairs. a settee with
chlntz cover, and straightforward racking-
cnalr We're distributed around the walls: and
ior ornament there was an alphabetical sampler
IN ID, frame, over the low wooden mantel-piece.
Ahe woman, however, still held the door
Snoo IN her hand, saying, Miss Emmons is
ousy. She can't well leave her work Did YOU
want some sewing done?'
| No. said l +; Il wish to speak with her. It's
On private and particular business
Well she answered with some hesitation.
III tell her. Take Cheer
one disappeared through door into back
room, and / sat down. In another minute the
ooor nolselessly re-opened, and Rachel EN-
mons came softly into the room. l believe l
snouid have known her anywhere. Though
IRON Eber Nicholson's narrative she could not
nave Deen much over thirty, she appeared to
DC al least forty-fve. Her hair was streaked
win gray, her face thin and of an unnatural
waxy pallor. her lips of a whitish-blue color
ana nightly pressed together, and her eyes,
seemingly sunken far back in their orbits, burn.
eu win strange, ghastly-I had almost said
phosphorescent-ligh / remember thinking
Gney must shine like touch-wood in the dark.
naVe come in contact with too many persons,
passed through too wide range of experience,
10 lose my selfpossession easily but l could
NOT NOT, meet the cold, steady gaze of those eyes
without strong internal trepidation. It would
nave been the same if had known nothing about
her.. A'0N'
ohe was probably surprised at seeing stran-
gen out could discern no trace of it in her
lace. She advanced but few steps into the
speak. "
lou are Rachel Emmons q I asked, since
commencement of some sort must be made.
i come from Eber Nicholson said I, fixing
my eyes on her face,
Not muscle moved, not nerve quivered,
but fancied that faint purple flush PLAYED
for an instant under the white mask. III were
correct, 1t was but momentary. She lifted her
left hand slowly, pressed it on her heart, and
then let it fall. The motion was so calm that
should not have noticed it, if l hand not been
watching her so steadily.
well :" she said after pause.
Rachel Emmons, said l, and more than one
cause eonspired to make my voice earnest and
authoritative-I know all. come to YOU not TO
meddie with the sorrow-let me say the SIN
which has blighted your life; not because Eber
Nicholson sent me not to defend him nor ar
cuse you; but from that solemn sense of duty
which makes every man responsible to God for
what he does or leaves undone. An equal pity
for him and for you forces me to speak. He
cannot plead his cause you cannot understand
ms misery. l will not ask by what wonderful
power you continue to torment his lite; l will
not even doubt that you pity while you aflict
MN; but ask you to reflect whether the sell
nshness OF your sorrow may not have hardened
your heart, and blinded you to that consolation
which God offers to those who humbly seek it,
You say that you are married to Eber Nicol-
son, in His sight. Think Rachel Emm ons think
OF that moment when you will stand before His
AWFUL bar, and the poor, broken, suffering soul,
whom your forgiveness might still make yours
in the holy marriage ofheaven shrinks from you
with Fear and pain, as in the remembered perse-
cutiohs of earth!' 1
The words came hot from my very heart, and
the icecrust of years under which hers Law be-
nambed gave way before them. She trembled
slightly; and the same sad, hope less moan which |
| had heard at midnight in the Illinois shanty |
came from her lips. She sank into chair. let
ting her hands fall heavily at her side There
was no movement of her features, yet saw that
her waxy cheeks were moist, as with the slow
ooze of tears SO long unshed that they had for.
gotten their natural flow.
i do pity him., she murmured at last, 'and
believe l forgive him but, oh ! I've become
an instrument of wrath for the punishment of
BOTH
If any feeling of reproof still fingered in my
mind, her appearance disarmed me at once
l felt nothing but pity for her folorn, helpless
state. 1t was the apathy of despair, rather than
The GOODNESS of cherished malice, which had so
frozen her life. Still, the mystery of those night
y prosecutions
Rachel Emmons,' said, you certainly know
that you still continue to destroy the peace of
Eber Nicholson ind his family. Do you mean
to say that you cannot cease to do so, if you
would
1T is too late, said she, shaking her head
slowly, as she clasped both hands hard against
her breast DO you think would suffer night
after night, if could help it Haven't stayed
awake for days, till my strength gave way,
rather than tall asleep, for his sake I? Wouldn't
give my life to be free and would have TAX
en- it, long ago, with my own hands, but for the
sin =
She spoke in low voice, but with a wild
which startled me. She then, was
equally victim!
But said I F.; this thing had beginning -
Why did you visit him in the first place, when
perhaps, you might have prevented it?
am afraid that was my sin, she replied !;
and this is my punishment. When father and
mother died. and was layin' sick and weak,
with nOthin' to do but think of him, and me ali
alone in the world, and not KNOWN how to live
without him, because had nobody left-that's
when it begun. When the deadly kind O. sleeps
came on, they used to think l was dead or
faintin' at frst-and could GO where my heart
trawed me, and look at him away off where he
lived; twas consolin', and didn't try to stop
it. | used to long for the night, so cou Id go
and be near him for an honr or two, l don't
know how went; it seemed to come of itself.
They're only sorrow to me now, but s'pose
shall have 'em till I'm laid in my grave
This was all the explanation she could give.
t was evidently Que OF those mysterious cases
Of spiritual disease which completely battle our
reason. Although compelled to take her state
ment, felt incapable of suggesting any -eme-
dy. could only hope that the abnormal con-
dition into which she had fallen might speedily
wear out her vital energies, already seriously
shattered. She informed me, further that each
attack was succeeded by great exhaustion, and
that she felt herself growing weaker and weaker
from year to year. The immediate result, |
suspected, was disease of the heart. which
might give her the blessing of death sooner than
she hoped. Before taking leave of her, l sue
ceeded in procuring from her a promise that
she would write to Eber Nicholson, giving him
that free forgiveness which would at least ease
his conscience and make his burden somewhat
lighter to bear Then, feeling that it was not
in my power to do more, rose to depart. Then |
taking her hand, which lay cold and passive in |
mine-so much like dead hand that it requir-
ed strong effort in me to repress nervous
Shudder-I said, Farewell, Rachel Emmons, |
and remember that they who seek peace in the
right spirit will always find it at last
1t won't be many years before 1 find it, she
laHa al,
of her eyes shone upon me for the last time.
l reached Nv York in due time, and did not |
tail, sitting around the broiled oysters and Gel
cry, with my partners, to repeat the story of the
Haunted Shanty. knew, beforehand, how
they would receive it, but the circumstances
had taken such hold ofme-so burned me, like |
a boys money,to keep buttoned up in the pock-
et-that could no more help telling the tale
than the man l remember reading about,
great while ago, in poem called The Ancient
Mariner Beeson, who, 1 suspect don't be-
lieve much of anything, is always apt to carry