The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-03-03

like those, and, as you shall hear, it was
religion that set her free from the horrid
dreams of madness, and restored her to
that comfort which is always found in the
possession of q reasonable soul"
There was not bee roaming near US,
nor bird singing in the solitary glen,
when the old man gave me these hints of
melancholy tale. The sky was black and
lowering, as it lay on the silent hills, and
inclosed US from the far-off world, In a
sullen spot that was felt to be sacred unto
sorrow. The figure which had come and
gone with sigh was the only dweller here;
and / was prepared to hear doleful his
tory Of one left alone to commune with a
broken heart in the cherries solitude of
nature.
"That house from whose chimnies no
smoke has assembled for ten long years, -
continued my friend, "once showed its
windows bright with cheerful fires; and
her whom we now saw so wo-begone,
remember brought home youthful bride,
in all the beauty of her joy and innocence.
Twenty years beheld her wife and a
mother, with all their most perfect happi-
ness, and with some, too, of their inevita-
bic griets. Death passed not by her door
without its victims, and, of five children,
all but one died, in infancy, childhood, or
blooming youth. But they died in natures
common decay,-peaoeful prayers were
said around the bed of peace; and when
the flowers grew upon their graves, the
mothers eye could bear to look on them,
as she passed on with an unaching heart
into the house Of God. AL but one died,
and better had it been if that one had
never been born. be112'". 20 ~f.s,r
"Father, mother, and son now come to
mans estate, survived, and in the house
there was peace. But suddenly poverty
fell upon them. The dishonesty of kins-
man, of which / need not state the parti-
culars, robbed them of their few heredit-
airy fields, which now passed into the pos
session of stranger. They, however, re-
manned as tenants in the house, which had
been their own; and for while, father
and son bore the change of fortune SEEM
ingly undismayed, and toiled as common
laborers on the soil still dearly beloved.
At the dawn of light they went out togeth-
or, and at twilight they returned. But it
seemed as if their industry was in vain.
Year after year the old mans face became
more deeply furrowed, and more seldom
was he seen to smile; and his sons coun-
tenance, once bold and open, was now
darkened with anger and dissatisfaction.
They did not attend public worship so re =.
gularly as they used to do; when met
them in the fields, or visited them in their
dwelling, they looked Oh me coldly, and
with altered eyes; and l grieved to think
how soon both seemed to have forgotten
the blessings Providence had so long per-
mitted them to enjoy, and how suddenly
they now struggled with its DEGREES. But
omething worse than poverty was now
disturbing both their hearts.
"The unhappy old man had brother
who at this time died, leaving an only son,
who had for many years abandoned his
fathers house, and of whom all tidings
had been lost. 1t was thought by many
that he had died beyond seas; and none
doubted, that living or dead, had been
disinherited by his stern and unrelenting
parent. On the day after the funeral, the
old man produced his brothers will, by
which he became heir to all his property,
except an annuity to be paid to the natur-
al heir, should he ever return. Some
pitied the prodigal son, who had been dis
inherited-some blamed the father-some
envied the good fortune of those who had
so i'll borne adversely But in a short
time the death, the will, and the disinher-
tied, were all forgotten, and the lost lands
being redeemed, peace, comfort, and hap
piness were supposed again to be restored
to the dwelling from which they had 80
long been banished.
"But it was not So The burrows on
the old mans face were deep before, when
he had to toll from morning to night, they
seemed to have sunk into more CHASTITY
trenches, now that the goodness of Provi-
dence had restored gentle shelter to his
declining years When seen wandering
through his fields at even-tide, he looked
not like the Patriarch musing TRANQUILITY
on the works and ways of God; and when
my eyes met his during divine service,
which he now again attended with scrupu-
lous regularity, I sometimes thought they
were suddenly averted in conscious guilt |;
or closed in hypocritical devotion. I
scarcely knew if I had any suspicion,
against him in my mind or not; but his
high5 bald head, thin silver hair, and
countenance with its fine features so in
telligent, had no longer the same solemn
expression which they once possessed, and
something dark and hidden seemed now
to belong to them, which withstood his
forced and unnatural smile. The SOD. who.
in the days of their former prosperity, had
been stained by no vice, and who, during
their harder lot, had kept himself aloof
from all his former companions, now be-
came dissolute and profigste, nor did he
meet with any reproof from father whose
heart would once have burst asunder at
one act of wickedness in his beloved child.
About three years after the death of
his father, the disinherited son returned to