Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1862-01-17
THE BLACK WITCH.
1coNTINUED.1

and ''vital piety" were strangers. he still |
respected Peters rugged honesty and direct
ness Of purpose, and ranked him foremost |
among the "world's people" He was man |
of powerful frame and strong impulses, and |
when his feelings were aroused he stood in |
awe of no man, high or low. When he ,
forced his way into the arbor, therefore, the |
Deacon paused in his invective and made |
no remonstrance.
Peter Hopkins at once put the worst con-
struction on the scene before him. He saw
in the son Of Deacon Fletcher only a Sc
ducer, in poor Hannah Lee only victim,
and his blood rose to boiling heat. With |
out pausing to ask any question, grasping |
at one guess, as he supposed, the whole sad |
history, he seized Jason by the collar, and,
lifting him up, dashed him violently down |
again, the boys head striking a corner of |
the bench as he fell.
Then he took the girl tenderly up and |
faced about upon the father, actually foam
ing with wrath.
"This comes of psalm singing" he cried.
"Clear the way thereP and be bore the
still unconscious maiden toward his own
house.
Then sudden and strange revulsion
came over Deacon Fletcher. For the first
llUe, DtIudpS, III lMtuLJ years. buO
fathers heart triumphed over the DeacOns
prejudiees. AS be saw his son-his only
son-lying pale and bleeding on the ground,
all recollection of his offense, all thought Of
sinfulness and godliness in connection with
his conduct, vanished, and he only consid-
cred whether this pride of his this strong
and beautiful son, were to die there, or to
LIVED and bless him. He stopped, sobbing,
ever the boy, reconciled, at last, to human
,ty, and conscious of a strong human love.
z Not more tenderly was poor Hannah Lee
borne to the house of Peter Hopkins than
the father carried the son he had only just
received into his own dwelling. There were
no thoughts of husks now, but only q sor-
rowful joy that one so long dead to him was
at length alive, that a new heart, full of hui
man instincts, had found birth within his
bosom. But mingled with this joy,
vas the fear that he had only, at length,
possessed his son to lose him.
While Jason Fletcher lay tossing, week
after week, through the fever that followed
the ecene of violence in the arbor, poor
Hannah went sadly but patiently about the
light duties that farmer Hopkins and his
wife allowed her to perform.
Thoroughly convinced through his wife's
communications with Hannah, of the inno-
cence of the pair Peter Hopkins had gone
to Deacon Fletcher and demonstrated with
him on his outrageous conduct.
"Your son is fine lad" he said, "and
Hannah is fit to be queen any where; and
if you don't give her fitting out when he
well enough to marry her, hang me if I
won'tl l owe the boy something for the
ill-trick played him in my hot-headedness
and be shall have it, too Say, now, that
they shall be man and wife |"
Deacon Fletcher astonished the hot
hearted man beyond measure by quietly
telling him that God willing his dear son
should marry Hannah as soon as the visi-
tation that now kept him on a bed ofraving
illness was taken away. He added meekly
that he hoped God would forgive him if he
had abused the trust placed in him, and,
misled by vanity of holiness, had done his
son great wrong, these many years.
"Give us your hand, Deacon" cried the
delighted pleader; 'you are good man, if
you are u Deacon, and that's moren I'd
have said week ago You hare hurt that
boy, and no mistake You've either beaten
the spirit all out of him, or you have shut up
a devil in him thatll break out one O. those
days, worse'n them that went into the pigs
that we read about But 'tain't too late
" LhShui dll IL u SlAtNh III llll4C LgOCo suf fC
niBe it's better to make the nine stitches
than TO wait till they are ninety times nine.
You've got TO be q thousand times kinder to
the boy than you would if you hadn't been
so hard on him all his life
1t was agreed that while the fever held
its course nothing should be said to poor
Hannah, and Sc the two men parted-warm
friends for the first time in their lives.
and poor Hannah Lee went droopingly
and patiently about her duties, asking
quietly from day to day as to the health of
Jason, and telling no soul how her heart
seemed breaking within her. and how all
the future looked to her like dreary waste.
Mrs. Hopkins threw out gentle hints that
the Deacon might relent and that if he did
the wish that was ever in Hannah's heart
might be realized. But the poor child paid
little heed to her suggestions q foreshadow-
ing of some direful calamity constantly en-
folding and saddening her. Still she kept
gravely and quietly about her duties, and il
was only when she was alone in her cham
Der at night that she gave way to the terri
BILE woefulness that oppressed her, and
prayed, and wept, and wrestled with heI
SORROW.
And this sweet and lovely creature was
the same pious and patient soul who was
afterward taunted by rude village boys, ant
pointed at as one who had sold herself Il
Satan.
One night she had cried herself asleep
and lay in an unquiet and ftful slumber
AS she thought of him always by day, 81
now in her dreams the image of Jason
Fletcher was fantastically and singularly
busy. 1t seemed to her that she stood upon
an eminence overlooking peaceful valley
Of that charming sort only to be seen il
dreams. Afar off, and STILL in some strangt
way, very near she beheld the youth of heI
love, who reclined upon q bank beside 6
quiet stream. Every thing was at rest. Th
soft moonbeams-for, in her dream, evening
rested on the valley-bathed all the pros
pect in cool effulgence. There was n
sound, save only that sweet music of never
sleeping nature which is forever hear
within all her broad domain. Still tn
dreamer felt that there was something dire
full and most to be dreaded that threatened
to invade and mar the heavenly peaceful
ness. She felt it coming, and fearful.
awaited its approach. And she had no
long TO wait. For presently there appeared
flying between the calm moonlight and tn
figure, and casting doleful shadow owe
his form, a scaly and dreadful dragon, lik
those we read of that devastated whole coun
tries in the old, old times. This hideou
beast breathed FIRE and smoke from its hoT
rid nOQtrilo nj Hanna1 IL