Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1866-10-05
DR.. John Haze, and Margaret Thorne

1t was a day one cares to remember.
There was 30 clear shining, and yet
no token of storm. The air was still,
no breath disturbed the tree tops
Summer birds sang plaintively in the
orchards and low shrubbery. There
was a smell of sweet brier in the air ];
clover bloomed in the stony pastures !;
primroses flushed the hodges; butter
cups spangIed the cultivated fields
that with their grassy slopes went
quite down to the waters edge. We
were out riding that still Saturday
afternoon. DR.. John Hale and |.
Dr. John Hale was a physician in
the busy town of Rockland, village
that lay behind aa just over the hill.
I. Margaret Thorne, was spending a
year with my uncle in the same town.
and Dr.. John Hale was member of
our family. Therefore, it was not so
very srrange that / occupied the other
wise vacant seat in his carriage.
We were very sensible, cookbook
inc people. IrecolIect thinking 50 as
we drove through the main street Of
Rockland. wore my chip hat that
afternoon with fresh ribbons, and soft
pink roses under the brim. The pink
roses and fresh ribbons bordered a
good, not strictly beautiful face. 1t
suited me we'll enough however. 1t
also pleased one or two others, for
whose opinion ] cared most. D..
Hale drove slowly over the road
which was new and strange to me.
1t was little used except by pleasure
parties who went down II the Sound
! imp Beach Oh midsummer days. He
IcalIcd myattention TO the islands which
/ lay long and low against the rocky
coast. | recall only Haslett's and
IThatcher's with their tall white light
houses and dangerous shores. Far
ther on we passed by Deadman's S
/ Ueadiand. standing boldly out to sea.
The rock Of Avcry's Woe stood
miles away from the coast, far to the
South. and when | asked for it, DR..
Hale repeated the old ballad, well
known among the simple people here
about, concerning the sad fate OF
/ Avcry's bark, and afterwards, as | was
in the mood, listened to quaint bal
lads of Norsemen and Vikings, and
wondrous sea legends, of which he
knows full store. From the rocky
headland where we rested, we could
look far away to the old fort, whose
brave soldiers $50 runs the legend
once on a time vauquished, by THEN
long puritan prayers, legion of evi
spirits who had come to tempt then
from their strong and beautiful faith
The evil spirits fed confounded,'
said DR.. John "as they always vii
when, with strong crying and tears
we pray: Keep US from temptation
deliver us from evil"
Down in the heart of dense woods
between Rockland and Hamilton, lie
an enchanted valley; there the mag
f nolia blooms and all tropical plant
: tWine.
The enchanted valley never saw,
continued DR.. John. The ghostl
Ilegions long since ceased to disturb
There are only stately mansions, an
: lowly fishers cots, high-born folks
: and people Of low degree along thes
e shores"
: : We rode. on that summer afternoo
n quite down to the end of that rock
: cape, where the tide kissed the silve
It sands. DR.. Hale took me from th
1t carriage close down to the resties
waves, and for long time we wake
mp and down the shining shore; no.
talking together in low, subdued tone
and now pausing in our walk, to loo
out over the ocean with eyes thou
and miles away. A lone fisher boz
rested on the clam, unruffled surfaC
of the waters A solitary sea-bir
came and perched on a black, storr
beaten rock just beyond the beac
We rested, at length, on broad shell
ing rock, that a few hours before mu
ge have been covered by the creepir
VI VI tide; now it stood high and dry abo'