Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1868-08-12

terminable succession. IL seemed years, yes,
ages ago, that she swept the hearth with n
birch broom, and sung the baby to sleep, in
Roberts cabin. Her mind grew bewildered
still she went on, on, on. When she came 10
a large stream she went up towards its source
till she could wade across. So she said, aud
affirmed that she never crossed stream wider
than brook. She paid no attention TO sun
OF moon as guide or indication Of the points
Of the compass but she must have taken
northwcstery direction. There was Black,
Mill, 0tta Quechee, White, Waits, and Wells
Rivers, flowing into the Connecticut from the
Vermont side but she constantly asserted
that she saw none of them. Through July
and August there were berries Of various
kinds, and by means Of these she sustained
what little life was left her
And now the maple began to take on the
gorgeous crimson, and the silver birches TO
wear the pale gold of September the birds
were leaving the forest Occasionally she
had glimpses of brindled fur among the
branches, or a black bear turned out Of the
path, afraid of the human form but no hui
man being did she ever meet, and long before
human voices had ceased to call her name.
Was she alone on the earth, and was the
earth one vast wilderness without outlet, with
out clearing or settlement Had God taken
all life but that Of the brutes, and forgotten
her, or ordained her to wander forever. Tramp
| ing, tramping, with her feet bleeding and
cracking at FIRST, and afterwards calloused;
naked, or nearly so, knowing nothing Of time
or place, she was fast becoming idiotic. When
she was hungry she sought for food, but the
great idea lingering in her mind was that Of
pressing on. Since the luxuriance Of summer
had filed the forest with ferns and a new
growth of brier and underbrush, there was
more trouble in passing through. Bat she
had become quite accustomed to the rough
work, and the frenzy at last became steady,
constant habit, almost the labor of life to her.
One day in October the inhabitants Of the
village of Charlestown, n. H., were startled
into the widest excitement, by seeing near
ly naked, emaciated woman, with hair streams
ing upon her shoulders, walk with bewldered
gaze along their streets. She told them she
was Robert Harris's wife, and she was lost.
Robert Harris's wife, who disappeared
, from the opposite side of the river in April !"
, exclaimed the villagers. allow had she cross
r ed the Connecticut Where has she been
all this time? But she told them that she
had been lost in the woods all this time
! There was no lack of hospitality; the wander
! er was Immediately clad and fed and cared
. for to the utmost. Volunteers went at once
/, and brought her husband, for the story Of his
c bereavement was well known on the Charles
5 town side Of the river. We can only imagine
: the meeting and what tears were shed at the
& thought of the little forsaken grave by the
2 uprooted tree. But il is said that joy bells
v were rung in the village, and the poor woman,
/ a living skeleton, was nursed and pettcd-
$ everybody vieing with her neighbor to lavish
i every good thing upon her, until her weaken
}. ed mind recovered its tone again. As she con-
!. stanty asserted she had never crossed the
O river, it is supposed she wandered into Cana
i da, and going round the Connecticut at its
source, or crossing where it was brooklet
v passed down on the New Hampshire side, till
J. she reached a location Just opposite which
N she started.
It When she began to grow strong again hel
e mind required constantly to the grave in the
v wilderness She described to her husband
v its surroundings and he went out to look fol
J. it, but without success. As soon as she wa,
IT able she went out with her husband and othel
friends to search, but the bahys grave wa
1t never found. 1t was thought very strang'
al that she, in all her wanderings, never met I
in rowing Indian, but so it was. The IndiaI
IS tribes had, perhaps, mostly disappeared from
n, New England since the French and Indiai
y. war, but, however that may be, the first hu
/. man being she met after the burial of her in
L. FAINT, strange as it may seem, was in Charles
le town. This singular legend has descended Il
in the writer from defendant of hers, who wa
r. the third child born in the town of Rocking
ne ham, Yt and the story is an undoubted fact