The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1861-10-11

and those were all the words he uttered but
the look of agony that settled over his fea-
lures spakc more than any words. Though
Jerry Benton has seen ten years since then
he could not repeat to yoa the story withou,
weeping. Jerry and Bill had followed the
seas together since boyhood, and an attach
ment strong as that of brothers had grown
between them.
Jerry hurried from the shore to Hannah's
room in the factory When he told her OF
their disaster: when with husky voice he re-
peated the broken message, Tell Hannah
she fell across the beam where she was weav-
ing, with sharp, short shrek that brought
all the girls to her room. Hours passed be-
fore her consciousness returned, and then
how blank and drear, how stern and terrible
how like one continued Sahara lay all the fil.
ture before her!
How then could she take upon herself 9TH
er VOWS" All that was your question, sweet
maiden, yet in teens; and your eyes dilate
with wonder beneath their soft brown fringes,
and love-thoushts lay gathered in every dim
pie of your mouth. At twenty, with most of
US, the dreaming age ceases. The practical,
with imperative voice, demands tie fore
ground of life, and walks with a rough and
hasty tread over the ideal. Our natures, re-
quIring constant support and nourishment,
absorb sustenance like tibrous grasses from
every element of the soil about them if it
chance to be genial, the flowers of happiness
are Of rich dyes and heavy fragrance if cold
and clayey, they are pale and dwarfed and of
ieeber odor. 1t is said that the ocean has
two currents, each moving in diverse WAYS
and it is strangely true of human lives,-thsy
have opposite currents drifting toward the
future and the past toward the real and the
deal,-;ides that are sometimes strong, and
heavy, and conflicting.
Hannah, the factory girl. chose well, per-
maps. to answer Yes, when the sturdy Young
farmer, Joseph Stacey. proposed matrimony.
Joseph was a man well enough in his way "a
short horse is soon curried,' is the hostler's
maxim: so a character whose boughS are
stinted and hlossomless, whose times of fruit
age are uncertain and far between, is soon
described. He always exercised good princi-
pies in dealing with his brother man, but
when he came into the domestic sphere
when women and children were the subjects
Of hi> court. certain tyrannical trait Crept
out to full view, ike a serpent which hid be-
meath pile OF stones in some bare, brown
meadow. His nature was dark, perver>c, and
uncertain; found in every mood by which a
verb subject to the genus homo can be varied
and any married lady will bear me testimony
that they are more than Iindley Murray ever
thought of. Mrs Pckens, who lived across
the road, always told Hannah she was too
yielding; she made bold to say that If Sta
cey's wife would pull his hair. or use the
broom handle thoroughly once in a while the
effect would be improving. Not that size ever
resorted to such means,-Nr Plckens always
minded by being spoken to.
SO the years went by, weaving into the
coarse, rough warp woof of silken texture.
Though Hannah's lie was given to the churn,
the cheese press and the loom, many JOYS
sprans up along her way; be the songs OF lie
ever 50 homely. there will be interludes OF
peculiar sweetness. If sometimes her spirit
thirSted for waters whose fountain was drv. or
hungered for food that should ever be denied
those hungerings and thirstings found her
not alone or unoccupied; the words of the
drowning came to her amid wholesome care
and labor.-IIome Monthly.