National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1867-03-08
The Voice in the Heart.

letter which had just been brought
in, and glanced at the superscrip-
ton" Hon. Pierce Richmond "
He had seen his name thus writ
ten often enough before but it sug-
gested, just now, a curious continu.
alton of the train of thought which
had been absorbing him. 1t was
his pride to be a.self-made man, and
he had been going back, this morn.
ing, over a half-century, and re-
membering his bOyhOod. The little
brown cottage, with the thickest of
sweet brier round it freighting the
summer air with fragrance, was a
pretty spot when he lived there
the only son of his mother, and she
a widow. Ife could see it, looking
back, as plainly as if the fifty years
were only a mist of morning rolling
away from before the well known
scene. How pale and quiet, by ten
der and long suffering, his mother
was! He felt again her fond kisses,
and remembered how her lips used
to tremble when she called him her
fatherless boy. And again his veins
seemed to thrill with bOyish pride
of the old days when he sat beside
her and told her that he would grow
up stout and strong, able to do a
mans work among men, and then
she should never toll so YEARLY
with her needle any more.
If she had but lived, and he had
had her to work for, perhaps it
would have kept his heart fresh and
unselfsh. But he shivered again
with a throb of the old agony, as he
remembered how he had found her
one morning with IA smile frozen on
her still lips, Il look of peace on her
white face and knew that the lips
would never welcome him any more,
or the eyes rest on him with their
sad tenderneSS-that his mother had
gone from the land where she was
"a pilgrim to the home eternal in the
| heaven.
How he pitied himself, this morn
ing of which | write, recalling that
time. fifty years ago, when he was
only twelve, and his mother had
left him alone! a shy, shrinking
| boy he was then, despite his great
faith liz his own future a mother
bow as the phraseis in the country,
and quantity touching, it always
seemed to me. He had been 2'l his
life under her gentle wing, and now
could find there no more shelter.
Yet his lot was not intolerably
hard. He was apprenticed by the
town authorities, to prosperous
farmer aud he had comfortable
| home, and no more work than was
reasonable, and a little schooling in
winter. But no one loved him-thiS
boy who had lived hitherto, in an
atmosphere of 'her-love--and so
his proud sensiti heart grew hard
and cold. He cared for no one but
himself, and though he did his work
faithfully, he endeared himself to
none. lie seemed to live i'll Il world
of his own, into which he was not
disposed to open any doors. Strong
purposes grew into his nature i'll his
silent musings. He would make
himself name, position, career
But all his plans ended, as they be
gan, with himself; and it is a sac
thing when a human being has none
else to live for.
When he was twenty one, witt
his '.frcedom suit upon his back, h'
marched away from Freyburg, an(
went out into the world, to begir
the career which, through all thos'
brooding years of his solitary boy
hood, he had been planning. | vii
not weary you with the processes b,
means OF which he achieved success
Enough that he esteemed himself a
last to have reached it. He was ;
rich man, we'll known in tinancia
circles; anda term in Congress ha'
given hlm right to the title of hon
or upon his letters.
"Iretty well,r he said aloud, afte
, all these memories had passed a Ion
panorama before him--"pretty wei
for old Tim Scarborough's boun'
boy. think l may call my life
3. success.
And, if surroundings earthly an
temporal are the standard of mea
urement, You would not have pre-
t nounced him far wrong had yO
t glanced around the apartment, ha
study, half breakfast room, whel
he had Just been taking his mornin
meal. TO be a gentleman had bee
y one of his ambitions, and as soon
he was able to live elegantly he ha
surrounded himself with the app|
ances of luxury. On the floor I
this his favOrite room, a soft, war
carpet yielded Ike woodland mos
to his football, Handsomely y.boun
books filed the cavern cases fro
floor to ceiling. Chairs uphOlstcrc
in Russia leather held out capacio,
arms to him. His breakfast sc
vice was of silver and porcelain
+ : and at the least touch of that be
'. beside him, itself dainty toy, trail
ed servants were ready to obey h
b. behests.
v These things to-day--and bas
ffty years-thc llt,lo 'hrcc.roomt
cottage the mother, pad. ond wear
but tender, and himself Darefoote
: coarsely clad, but yonng and stroI
~ 81 and eager, hopeful, and with all u
VI futures possibilities before hi
Was he rich nOwi
-. A tan unon tho door clicifed a li