Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1861-07-26
THE OLD SEXTON.

OF July afternoon lost hall its fragrance,
and through the open window came, as it
were, a momentary chill. Why?
Out in the dusty street stood Nathan
Burgloss, the Squire of the little country
village, wiping perspiration from his
pleasant face and seemingly happy all
over. Just by him old Jude, the lame
sexton, leaned against the rickety fence,
tapping nervously the ground with his
smooth crutch, his wrinkled face thought
full and inquiring.
They've voted to pull the old church
down, said the Squire in louder tone.
l laid down my pen and listened.
You know it's getting old and leaky,
and besides it amt large enough either
last Sunday was too much, so hot and
crowded the society have been thinking
and talking the matter over a long time,
so this afternoon we've called meeting,
and concluded to build anew. You wasn't
in?
Didn't know it, said the old man,
musingly. Didn't know it. Tn Citing
old, and they don't come to me as much
as they used to. l should have voted
agin it though; voted agn it,
The Squire stood uneasy after this re-
buke, and set to wiping his glowing face
vigorously again.
Why?
Il couldn't do it. No, Squire Bur-
gloss, couldn't do it, couldn't do it. That
old church is my mother; eighty-six
years, Tuesday, last week, poor widow
hid herself from party of British hounds
under it, and there, Squire Burgloss, !
was born that woman was my mother.
She lived week, and went where nei-
Their British nor tory could worry her
any more, to heaven. The neishbors
found and maintained me till / was ten
years old Then | was put in the church
swept it and beat the drum Sunday
mornings. Later, l rang the bell and
built the fires. 1t has been M home,
my father, my mother. l was giicen to
it. | never knew where my mother
came from; nobody cared, | don't now.
| love it. No, couldn't pull it down.
Don't do it Squire, till Pm dead and
gone. ] was born under it, and, please
God, | want to be buried under ii, too =
The Chairman of the Societys Com
mittee came rumblng up the street in
his easy carriage. Nathan Burgloss
jumped in with well, vel see,' and |
the two ratified away.
The slanting sun-rays fell broad on the
face of the old man, half binding the lit
tie sight that the big tears in mercy
seemed to leave him, as he hobbled this
way and that, felt for the fence here, and
groped his way there slowly along. Sud-
denly he stopped, and | heard him re-
peating the WORDS of the Apocalypse :
and God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes; and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, no crying, neither
shall their be any more pain; former
things have passed away
] was stranger, and but few days
resident of Dalton. Thither an invalid
from the hot walls of the city, had come
to sniff purer air among purer scenes. II
will 60 and see this old church, / said
perchance learn more of him, its foster
child.
| stood before the threshold of the
doomed sanctuary, the old sections So
called home. Time had warred it well
his battery of winds and storms had
Numbered upon it, well nigh to its falling.
Eigbty-six years since hunted woman
crawled beneath it. and there gave birth
to him, the life-drafted sentinel and guard
of the holy castle over him All d! and
all the years down from thence, and their
burdens, who can know them? When
the long doorstone shall lie dusty and
neglected by the roadside, no one shall
think of the robed infants crossing it in
childhood, Of the robed maidens crossing
it for love, of the robed dead crossing it
for heaven none shall remember the feet
which have passed over and up to the
altar within; and yet such is and has
been the world, from the green leaves of
Eden until now.
The door was slightly ajar, and | passed
in all plain, sincere, transformations No
long drawn aisles nor shadow sculp-
tured niche no grand arch or lofty fres-
coed dome, neither blind nor curtain shut
ting out the great cataracts of light pour
ing through the tall, wide windows.
And they would pull this down,
nused, slowly passing up the narrow
aisle No wonder the old man loves it !.
50 well. No wonder, being kept, ne
null l.. Ill n