Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1862-01-18
THE BLACK Witch.
rcoNTINuEp.l

inc backward before the cloud Of smoke,
with outstretched, cropping hands, like one
suddenly struck blind, an "instinet" or
what you please to call it, struck her, and
she tore off her flannel petticoat wrapping
it about her head and shoulders. Then,
holding her hands over mouth and nose, she
rushed desperately up the stairs.
No one unless he has been through such
o smoke, can conceive of the trials she had
to undergo in mounting those stairs. No
one can fancy except from the recollection
of such an experience, how the fierce heat
beat her back when she reached the upper
hall. The walls were not yet fully on fire,
but great lounges Of flame curled along the
ceiling, and hot blasts swept across her
path.
She knew his room. 1t was but step to
it, and the door opened easily. The nurse
was fast asleep, SO fast that poor Hannah's
warning cry, as she stumbled in, hardly
aroused her. On the bed lay Jason, so
thin, so white, so corpse-lke she would
hardly have known him. In the fierce
strength of her despair it was no task to
lift that emaciated body, but, ah how to
get out of the house with it 2 For when she
turned she saw that the hall was wholly on
fire.
But she did not hesitate Wrapping him
quickly and tenderly in a blanket taken
from the bed, she rushed out into the
flames.
Meanwhile Peter Hopkins and his 'hired
man" had been aroused by Hannahs first
screams, and had hurredly scrambled on
portion of their clothing and rushed out
They had been in time-running quickly
across the field--to see Hannah disappear
behind the house. Neither of them sup
posed for an instant that she had entered
1t.
Trying the front door, and finding it fast
Peter uplifted his stout foot and kicked it
crashing in, but he found it impossible to
enter by the breach he had made. The
front stairway was all in flames, and the
fierce heat drove him hopelessy back.
Then they ran around to the rear By this
time the entire upper portion of the build
ing seemed to be one mass of fire and
smoke, and now they could hear shrill and
terrible shrieks, evidently proceeding from
the suddenly awaked inmates. They ran
to the kitchen door and burst it in.
AS they did so there rushed toward them
from the foot of the kitchen stairs some hor-
rible, blazing, and unnatural shape, that
came stumbling, but swiftly, forward. With
it came smoke and fame and o horrible
sound Of stifed means.
AT the approach Of this strange and un-
slightly object they sprang back amazed,
and it passed them headlong into the open
air; passed them and dropped apdrt rs it
were, into the stream before the door.
For many years thereafter the slumbers
of Farmer Hopkins were disturbed by vis-
ions of what he saw when the two parts
of that terrible apparition were taken from
the water.
There lay Hannah Lee, no longer beauti.
full and fresh as the morning, but blackened,
crisped, scorched and shrunken, with all
her wealth of silken hair burned to ashes,
with all her clear loveliness of complexion
gone forever. And there lay Jason Fletcher,
unburned-so carefully had she covered him
as she fed-but senseless, and 10 all ap-
pearance corpse.
Thus Hannah Lee went through fire and
water, even unto worse than death, for the
sake of him she loved. And verify she had
her reward.
When the sun rose, there only remained
black and ugly pit to mark the place
where Deacon Fletcher's house had stood
And of all its inmates only Jason--care-
fully watched and tended at the house oi
Peter Hopkins-was left to tell the tale Of
that nights tragedy. And he, poor fellow
had no tale to tell the delirium of fever
having been upon him all the night. 1t
was very doubtful if he would recover
more than doubtful. Not one in a thousand
could do so, with such an exposure at the
critical period of his sickness.
Even more tenderly, with even more
anxiety, did all in the country round min
lister to poor Hannah Lee. The story Of
her love, of her bravery, of her heroic self.
abnegation, spread throughout all those
parts and there was no end to what was
done for her by neighbors and friends. So
widely did her fame spread, that people
from thirty, forty, and even fifty miles away
came to see her, and sent messages OF
money, or delicacies TO comfort her.
What could be done for them was done
and they both lived.
When Jason Fletcher arose from his sick
bed, he arose another man than the JasoI
Fletcher who was thrown down into the ar
Dor by Farmer Hopkins. He went sick,
dependent, simple, good-hearted, though i'm
patient boy, worn out by the constraint 0
twenty years, but capable Of future cultiva
ton and improvement; he arose from hi
sickness, a moody, cross-grainel, dogget
and impatient man, whose only memorie
were tinged red with wrong, and made bit
ter by thought of what he had endured.
was little matter to him that all his father
broad acres were now his own-the though
of the horrible death his parents had die
only suggested a question in his mint
whether it were not 'judgment on them
they having lived to persecute him too lon
already. Through all the vista of his pas
life he saw only gloom and shadows, an
no ray Of brightness cheered the retrospec
tive glance.