Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1863-08-11

AUSTIN ELLIOT. BY Henry Kingsley, Author
of Ravenshoo," &c. Boston ficknor &
Fields 1868.
This work, just published, we have read with
more satisfaction and delight than any other
work of fiction for q long time has given us.
1t is work Of 1852 pages, and yet we hardly
laid it down, after commencing it, until VIC
reached the end. And yet it was not SO much
the interest Of the story that kept us,--although
that is well sustained as tho authors fresh
and unhackneyed style, and his freedom from
the mannersm go common in fictitious writings,
The plot is not deep laid ono, and the results
occasionally disappointed US, and did not seem
true to nature, but the author has given us, as
whole, an intellectual treat, rare enough in
these days OF yapid sentimentaism. And what
we most liked the book for, is the natural easy
way in which the author tells his story His
characters are all flesh and blood, and talk and
act as in everyday life, and not as though they
were acting parts on stage, Tho dialogue
does not 60 upon stills, and the tragedy s not
oyerdone. The scene Of the story is laid in the
Kingdom Of Great Britain, and there is some
descriptive writing in the progress of it, in
which the author wlelds the pen Of master.
The following description Of the approach Of
winter to the island Of Ronaldsay we give our
readers as q taste Of the authors style and
ability
All through November the south.wind poured
steadily up through the Kyle, and filled Ronald
say with mist and gloom. But in the FIRST week
in December, when tho days we're getting to-
wards their shortest, the north-wnd came down,
drove the mlsts away, and invested the island
with cold cruel, merciless beauty. Undor an
inexorable brazen sky, every crag came out clear
and sharp as crystal, every cataract WAS turned
into glacier, every little spOutDg burn on the
/ hillside into beautiful leo palace. The lochs
were frozen three feet thick but the curling
stones lay neglected un Ter the bed. place, and
the faded ribands upon the handles only served
J to remind the young men Of the merry rinks
last year, before the potatoes rotted and left
them all starving.
The old folks died first That was as it
should be. One could not complain at that I; one
: might envy them but one could not complain.
They had had sixty years oil this sort Of thing,
!, and it was hard if they were not to enter into
their rest before the misery grew to its full head
: The loss Of The dear old faces al the reslde was
l. very sad, and the hearts OF those who were left
& behind starving ached ,orely; but God had
+ taken them from the misery, which grew more
j, terrible as the wlnter went on, and fle knew
=, best
, Then the children began to die, and this was
i, very bitter very, very hard to bear. The
bonny bare-legged little things, who had done
no wrong ; who padded in the surf, that made
J wreatbs of those isiernal potato. flowers, and
called them the lilies Of heaven. To be locked
up here in an island in the Atlantic, without
one chance of making ones voice heard till it
was too late, and to sec ones own bonny dar-
: lings dying before ones own face Hush II
was well for the MacTavi.h that these men were
Scotcbmen, not Irishmen 1t was well Tor the
, peace OF the kingdom that these things happened
in Ronnldsay aud Lewis, and not in Manchester
q and Birmingham.
Twas weary Halloween for the poor souls
The men who dug the graves noticed that day
by day the frost got deeper into the earth The
fishing lines froze like wires, the blocks refuse
to run, the sails were stiff as boards, and the wo-
; men Who YEARLY, with blue fingers, knocked the
limpots of the rocks to save ,h.mseve: from star
vation, began to notice that even the salt water
. in the little pools among the rocks was begin
ming to freeze. And they came home and told
. the men, and the men lost heart, and won't no
more a.fshing? How could they ? Did you
| ever sit hour after hour fishing, with fourteen
degrees of frost, and in state of starvation ?
The men stayed at home, and lay in the bed
places.
And then Mey began to die. Yes! The old
est of the able-bodied men began to lie down,
' and to fall asleep, in a strange, quiet way.
Perfectly happy perfectly calm. They would
lie for day or two, and at last give over speak
ing. In the morning they would bc found qui-
etly dead without the sign OF spasm on their
i faces This is no novelst's fancy the author
has seen what he is describing.
\ All this lime, the island lay in the bright
! brazen sunshine, more beautiful than ever. The
ducks and the snipes had fed southwark the
n curlew and the peewit had followed them, and
the moor was silent. But for the shadows of
the crags and corries, which soped so long to-
wards the north and for the fantastic glaciers
on the hillside, which in summer time were
. whipping burns one might have fsncied, il
: one only used tho sense Of sight, that il was
I, spring-iime the island had never looked more
: beautiful. Alter Christmas it got new and
= awful beauty The wind was still steady, and
! quiet from tho north but one day, Gil Mac
= donald pointed out to Mr.. Monroe and the
!; Macrayish, long low light-brown line Of
cloud, which was backing the lower SUBMITS oi
= the Argyleshire hills, to the southeast.
i For two days the dun yaror had grown and
!, spread until it had obscured the sun. When il
B had fairly disappeared, broad rec orb, into
I, the snow-oloud, Gil Macdonald said, s I'm wish.
7 ing you good-day, old friend belize I'll never
IT see ye again"
!. In the morning the wind, which was in front
:, of the dull cloud began to blow, The thermom.
eter rose to six degrees of roSt and there stayed
70 and would come no higher in spite Of the south
: east wind Then the edge Of the cloud reached
them, and the dust ut the corner Of the littl,
street in the village begun to grow white and
soon after the air was tilled with straying crys
tails Of snow, which rose and fell, and whirlet
8 about, and was driven into every Granny anC
corner. And those who looked toward Ber
er More saw that the towering peak was rapidly
D. growing from brown to gray, and IRON gray u
silver.
For two days tho snow came down, and thel
1, the north-wind came down onco more and laiC
ps his deadly icy baud on the island. The sky wa
clear again, blue overhead, but cleaning yel
N low towards the horizon. Ben More lowered VI
ID over tho vast sheets Of snow which covered tn
e. island, IA tall peak Of ghastly white, barre'
)t with lines Of purple orag.
;, A NoyRL pRojEcr.--Gen. Ben Prentiss, the her
Is of Helena, who was the chief officer IN eomman