Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1867-04-30

and at some turnings she hesitated At which she
/ took the wrong one she never knew but Just as
the last light Of day departed, and only a cold,
grey twilight remained she discovered that she
had lost herself
IL was terrible discovery. There was no
house for miles It was bitter cold it was nearly
/ dark Those at home could not guess her where
abouts and would, perhaps, conclude that she had
/ been detained for the night at her cousins, where
I she often visited.
Nothing seemed more likely than that she was
doomed TO perish in the mountains.
/ Jessie loved life, and death seemed terrible 20
contemplate, Visions Of her grandparents grief
and of the sorrow Of a certain Malcolm Maxwell
who had broken sixpence with her only week be
fore, arose before her mind She drew her half
/ of the slxpence from her bosom, whore it hung
from blue ribbon, and kissed il iondy.
"Some ither lass mlun be your wife, Malcolm, ~
she sobbed. "l'll ne'er see dawn-l'm freezing
now and then she struggled with her fate again,
and fought her way through the snow, now thick
and white, until, unable 10 90 farther, she sank
down beneath an oyerhanging rock. Then know
/ ing all was over, she began to pray-not for her
life but for her soul
suddenly hand touched her shoulder. She
looked mp with low cry and saw a woman near
I her---l tall, pale woman, with very beautiful
/ face, and the peculiarly which black eyes aud
[ golden hair give 10 a womans features She wore
a white dress and plain kerchief, and on her bo-
I SOM uuuI llllle TuLN Nedft WIN a Eullcn tualns
She said no word to Jessie. but as she touched
her the girl felt a new strength infused into her
frame.
INTERESTINGLY she gave her hand TO the woman,
who, strangely enough was plainly visible amid
the obscurity OF other objects, aud conscious only
of strange electric shocks through her huvers, she
was led on over the bleak roads through narrow
passes. and down almost pcrpendiuular decliyities
until below her shone the red lights from The farm
house windows, and she heard her grandfather
voice calling % his man in the barnyard Then
the woman dropped her hand, lifted her own az in
blessing, smiled, and was gone-where or how
Jessie never knew.
A few steps more and home WAS reached and
she fell into her grandmother's arms,
For some days she very i'll, and unable tc
talk much. All she would tell that she had
logt herself in the snow and been very much fright
eued but as she grew better, her remembrance O
her singular guide haunted her
Either the cold hand had some strange ellec
upon her hands, or those Of the woman were moi
Of flesh and blood, but of some strange electrica
substance and then how could she walk in pur,
white and uncovered by hood or mantle through
the storm, had she been an actual woman! a
last she said to her grandmother-
Granny do ye ken woman not much olde
than l. wi black eyes and golden hair and the
skin like some white lily, wi a dimple in one
/ cheek, and on her neck a chain wi a red heart z:
The old woman clasped her hands.
You Gamma ken your mither. for she died when
We were born she said 50 but 50 she lookit, and
l / ave remember when your father brought hel
haue, seeing her stand where you stand now
in a white dress wi the Campbell tartan in he
kcrchiel, and little heart like a drop o bluid a
her throat;n and then, with strange solemn ter
ror upon her, Jessie knelt at her grandmother,
knee and told ALL
From that day the little household always be
lieved that Jessie Glenburn's mother hal left
heaven to guide her daughter home through that
bitter storm upon the bleak hillside, and from that
time Jessie felt sure that those ''twa punds had
saved jean MComb aad her BARN.
And a, last, wnen years had gone by, and pretty
Jessie had become matron, and dwelt with he
husband and children in her own home, and lons
after the good old people were at rest-for ever
one day a tall dark, welldressed woman, with
youth beside her, stopped at the farmhouse doc
and asked for Mrs. Maxwell and coming to ties
almost man. And the two women wept in eacl
others arms, and jean told how she had been
hlest and how those two pounds had kept her un-
til She had work to do, aud how She had been fol
years housekeepesr for two people, who, dying
had left her well off for life and how, for all this
next to God, she thanked Jessie, and had taugh
her boy to thank her all his life Then when the
day was fast departing she took her departure
first putting in Jesse's hand a little package,
81 can ne'er pay the debt she said Z" but LET
me Just gle back the slller,' and Jessie took 1t
for Jean was rich now, and she was not.
And when opening the package, she founC
not two pounds but twenty, Jessie was not hurt
but rather pleased, and the money though i
had been blessed sowed the seed for future pros
perity in Malcom Mlxwel's household.