The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1865-10-18

! lObb lpl ShpDblb OutSluN NiiO olllOu WdilN
and, what is an uncommon circum.
stance in our day, no person of superior
condition in that vicinity took any inter-
est in the troubles of the poor. Unaided
or, at all events, unassisted in any eff
fectual manner-the misery of this un-
fortunate family had reached its hight,
the father being able only to obtain a few
hours work now and then, as on that
day, and that for the most trihng renu-
meration. In truth, they were all but
starving.
Mrs, Applcbee had listened to the old
woodlands narrative with the most fixed
attention. When he had finished, she
reminded him that he had not mentioned
| the seducers name.
'We never know'd it, said the man.
'She wouldn't tell. Perhaps it was as
well for ALL he added, gloomily.
But his regiment, was it the-the
llighlandcrs ,
'Why, how do you know that ? asked
the man, reused from his apathy.
Black hair, dark blue eyes, thick eye
brows that touched ?
well, you arn't a fairy are yer ?
No. said Mrs. Applebee, I'm his
mother
'lIis mother!'
Yes Now you take me to Alice,
and look sharp about it, said the brisk
old dune, for I'm a-cooking here, and
We got to be back in jiifty'
The man looked at her and led the
way. On a wretched pallet, in the mis-
cradle hove to which the family had des-
cended, lay the once envied beauty of the
hamlet, a querulous, desponding invalid,
nursing yet more weakly child.
How the very presence of the comfort
able old lady seemed to bring relief and
blessing, and how the good creature
brought the deserted ones to believe that
they saw in her the nsti ument of a mer-
cltul Providence, to help and comfort
them in their great extremity, we have
not space to tell. The interview. though
earnest. was necessarily short. For the
time, Mrs. Applebce had to hurry away.
Alice detained her for moment, both
with hand and eyes as she asked
But how, dear, good woman, did you
trace me ont.
Bless you, my dear, was warned
said the old lady, and trotted away.
That evening, in the study, Mrs Ap-
pebee accorded to the family certain ex-
plantations, subsequently embodied by Mr..
Gaunirell in the following singular state
mcnt, TO WHICH we beg the readers atten-
ton.
In the spring of eighteen 'ffty-fve, be.
ing the second year of the campaign Of
Neba>iopol. Mrs Applebee received let
Ter signed by her son, then lying severely
wounded in hospital at Balaklava, in
which, after declaring his belief that he
should not recover. he related TO her the
whole affair of Alice. Her name and
place of abode We're, however left blank
hy his amenucnSis-th young man no
doubt intending to supply these important
pa:tcuiarS with lms own hand. This,
either from lorgetiulness, increasing weak
ness, or from some cause never ascertain
ed, hai not been done, and Mrs. pplcbce
was thus left without any clue TO the
mother and child whom, in the early
1 part of the letter, she was afftctionatcly
adjured to seek out and relieve.
1t was known that young Applchcc
had been dispatched, among a shipload
ol sick and wounded, to Scutari: but
here all trace of him was lost. The vcs-
sci, half disabled on her passage, had to
put back 10 reft. and in this interval he
might have died, as did many Others, or
1t is possible he might have ultimately
breathed his last in the hospital ward at
Scutari, at period when deaths were
numerous, and the identity of the fever
stricken or unconscious patients often lost
and coniounded.
One evening towards the close of that
anxious year, Mrs. Applebee was sitting
| in the houSekecpers room of large coun-
try mansion, near Carleon, of which she
had taken charge IN the absence of the
proprietor. She had had bustling day
and, overcome with fatigue, dozed and
had dream. She thought that, while
still sitting in her accustomed chair, the
room began TO fill with a whitish light.
which presently grew into amazing luster,
and that, at its hight, an impression was
conveyed to her, without spoken language,
that the appearance concerned her son,
and the message he had sent her.
'But what can | do, my dearr the
slumberirg old lady had demanded, ad-
dressing the light
An answer was returned in the word
less manner before described, to the effect
that, when the appearance should next
recur, the object of it, Alice, would be
close at hand.
Thenceiorth, the existence of Mrs. Ap-
plebee was a condition of expectation,
fidget and dream. Attaching an undue
importance TO the visions of the night,
the good lady trotted about in fancied
obedience to them, no whit discouraged
by her frequent disappointments.
One night she had singularly vivid
dream of sitting in the parlor of temper
once hotel, in Abergavenny, and seeing
handsome young man, likewise pale,
said Mrs. Applebee, 'who said (don't
laugh, IN, please you're TO come and
be our cook
When saw Mr.. Richard with cur
tesy( Il knew he was my young man.
sWhen | saw him. reDeated the old