The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1862-07-19

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noiselessly back and forth in the long, car
peted passage, be came opposite an old, gray
haired servant. She had set her pail of wa
ter down, and kneeIing on the lower stair,
she prayed
%, Father, heavenly Father save that
dear little child O, Lord of life, save that
good little child But if Thou seest fit to
take her home, o Lord, make her one of Thy
brightest angels, TO sing evermore near Thy
throne Amen
So simple, so brief, so fervent The old
man held his breath, almost as he moved
back into the shadow. And what if there
was God a future, an immortality Tor
these creatures OF clay? What Impossi-
bic. Had not his reason rejected that doc
trine long ago? Had he not made his in
creduIity his boast The poor, weak.lnindcd
serving maid, old and almost blind, might be-
lieve it-he could no.
Suddenly great cry sounded the door
dew open his daughter stood on the hresh-
old, her arms uplif;ed, gray white, sickly
as the hue Of the grave, pressed on her face,
as she cried
0, father, father he has gone. My
darling, my darling is dead Let me die,
too o, cannot bear it cannot. What
shall do-what shall do ?
He caught her half senseless form, and bore
her from the chamber of death, but not to
repose. After insensibility, came agony most
fearful to witness. The cries. the sobs, SO hard
that they seemed like to burst the laboring
heart the pititul wall :
She's dead-my darling is dead o,
cold, cold Father, father, FATHER VINO
will restore her TO me again Where shall
see her: o, where is she Where
Tell me
And Tor that appeal OF anguish the old
man had no answer His philosophy had
tailed him as completely as suddenly. That
the child was gone he could not bring himself
to believe. Did he not almost feel the pres.
sure OF the tiny arms, the velvet check
And when he saw her in her cold beauty, like
most lovely image of white marble lying
puseless, volceless, dead--a whisper would
echo IN his Utmost SOUL She lives, she lives -
Tho nurse told him that just before she
breathed her last, her little hands flew up,
the old intelligence came back to her face,
and with SMILE as OF triumphant recogni.
ton, she passed away. Yes, the smile was
still there
DoubIy mournful was that house because
there Was 10 Christ within.
Dcad-dead" was all the white Hps Of
the mother could articulate. She would lis.
ton to no Christian sympathy. No, no
will not believe it O, that could
But my father cannot believe it, and | can
not. 0, that l could ?
And thus she passed the wretchcd DAYS, de.
laying the child's funeral falling upon its
grave, insane with an unholy sorrow no
strength OF her own to support her no nope
beyond earth no faith that the babe she had
loved wo 4ld ever meet her again no belief
IN prayer or eternity.
But the old man ?
be too was near despair, but it was of
the conflict going on 10 his own soul. 1t
seemed as If mighty hand had snitter as
sunder the bars OF his unoelief, yet he strug.
gled for days with bis naughty skeptlcism,
till his strength vas gone, and h S heart al.
most dead within him. Then he condescended
70 call for old Adelaide, whose simple PRAYER
had awakened him, and whose first cry. when
she heard his sorrow, was the tears gushing
the while o, Mr.. Hart for twenty wears
1have suppllcated my God that this hour
might come y, do take the blessed Savior
tor your master ?
The weeks passed on, and like one s,rug.
Cling bIindIy through the thick mists the old
man at last groped out of the chains of his
wretched hellct, and took upon him the silk.
en- bonds OF the Gospel. His daughter mean
time, had continued to give way t. her des.
pairing sorrow. She sat day after day in her
darkened room, refusing food, refusing corso-
lation. One day he went to her She saw
the change in his countenance, IN his manners.
MY daughter he saiG as he took her
nand III HIS, have you still your old faith in,
your old love for me I?
Yes, father she murmured. | believe
you above all others. Have not proved it
Believe, then, what tell you now. Your
cniid-our angel--poSsessed an immortal
soul. That soul still lives, brighter and
' more beautiful than ever il was in its mortal
form. You and shall see our little Marv
again J
Who has told you ?-how do you be.
lieve 2 she cried, breahlcssy.
Christ, whom | have rejected has, in his
great mercy, stopped to convince me of nv
unbeliet ., my child, forgive me for max
ing your life barren Tor tearing out of
your heart the conviction born in every soul,
That there is Godv