The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1864-07-01

caught her hand and turned towards
the stern old man, with his iron face.
"Do you remember youth p / cried.
do YOU know what you are doing Z
And he answered. My duty,
hope. / shall endeavor to secure the
best interest of my daughter You
will cease to urge the point when You
hear that she is to marry the Rev Ben
jamin Bitterworth a week from next
Sunday"
Marry him r / cried. "Rose, have
you consented to this Are you false
TO he Have you"
He checked me with solemn wave
of the hand.
"You have done your best to fill my
daughters head with folly" he said,
''but You have not succeeded. She
knows now that this romantic talk
about truth, and falsehood, and love,
and soforth, is not fit for real life-not
modest or maidenly. She has chosen
for her protector one of more mature
Judgment, and [ am very glad of it. p
Rose" ] cried. rs this true I
Have you, Of your own free will, cho-
sen him p s
"My father isas commanded me,
was the answer 'and l must obey.
turned from her and fed from the
room and the house, mad and blind
with grief and Indignation.
"She is not what | thought her,
said -"She has been won by gold
My poverty has lost her to me-
Yet / loved her still, and the world
seemd dark and desolate. hated the
broad sunlight and the calm twilight
and the hour when the moon, broad
and yellow, rose from behind the pur-
pie hills. l had wild thoughts Of wan
dering away and hiding myself from
the eve of mortal man, and was thank
ful that excitement made me really SC
i'll that, on the Sunday Of the wedding
had ample excuse for deserving my
pulpit, and, having procured Il substi-
tute, spending the day in my own
room This, at least, was my inten-
ton, but, as the hours crept on, an in
fiuence which l found it impossible to
resist, urged me to leave the house
and 90 across the fields, and through
the village, to the church where Rose
was to be married, and witness the
ceremony. l think | was feverish-
almost deliiious Surely wise judy
ment would have led me to any other
spot in the universe. But / went
1t was wintry day, and the snow
lay thickly OH the country path l trod.
1t whitened the roofs and clung TO
the tall spire, from which the bell
rung clear and sharp upon the frosty
air. / listened to it. Surely, said
"some awkward hand is ut the rope
1t is more ike the peal tolled for the
dead than that rung for merry we'd
ding. But this might have been my
fancy sor a0Fty fhing l00l, dark 70 me
that day. knew this was so, for rs
| set in Il sheltered part Of the gallery
looking down, those who came in seemed
to wear sad countenances and to ex-
change mournful whispers yet still the
thought that it WAS more ike a tuner
al than Il wedding would creep acros.
my mind. And so it IS, | thought
the funeral OF the brightest hopes Of
every happy dream which 1 have
cherished
Then there was a Whisper Stir
The bride was coming. l should sec
her again. Could 1 bear it? ]
strained my eyes How slowly they
came-how grayely heads We're bent
and they were dressed IN black-ir
black, every one of them. | saw old
Deacon Olmstead--I saw Benjamin
Bitterworth. And what was this
Oh, merciful heavens the bride was
coming, not in bridal wreath and veil
blushing and beautiful, but cold ano
white as marble, lying beneath that
sable pail, motionless, sightless, deat
to words of earthly love foreyermore
Rose Olmstead was dead
They who lifted me from the floor
where l had fallen, told me that she
had died the night before; that she
had been failing for the last few days
and that on that night she had riser
and knelt down to pray, twas believed
for they had found her kneeling Will
her face upon her hands, quite dead
Her heart is broken" the doctors
said, and | believed them.
was very i'll after this-so i'll thai
they thought l must die. But Deatl
chose those who were happier, anc
left me; md l dwell now in the same
old place, where can sit beside my
darling's grave in the twilight of the
Sabbath cye-an old man weary viii
the weight Of years. Yet l shall b,
young again sometime-young anC
happy III heaven with my lost one
please Miss, Mr.. Dove says he'
made a mistake This here's the ser
mon on predestination, and that
suthing else
The minister's little handmade ut
tered these words as she pounced up
on me through the door in her little
blue sunbonnet And rolled up the
manuscript and gave it back, anC
took the sermon in its place.
-s-----
HooKER's SrRArEGEM.-The lates
method of capturing siege guns o
which we have any account was achiev
ed by Hooker IN the recent operation
near Dalton. Having failed to take
1. q. L. 4