The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-08-26


Bradley
''Aye, for that is his detested
name" ,u.
Bradley, mother-why is it that
name sounds to me as one I have
heard before?" '''
:.'It may be some place we have
cast our tents against, and you recall
it to your mind"
''No, mother, it is not so-for it
| seems to me confused idea of some
thing 1 cannot we'll remember; the
sound is familiar, and yet I know not
when or how I heard it."
/ "Thou has dreamt perhaps of
something, and the name perchance
is thus fixed on your remembrance. "
''Well, mother, it does seem as if
it wete dream; and yet cannot be,
for L almost think I do remember of
''Do not tell me your dreams-I
am in no humor to listen to them
now" .
"Nay, it is not dream, for I do
think that 1 remember me, that with
the name can recall something of
Naomi, cease this idle nonsense,
and look if you see Jabeth with the
tents, for we shall rest here"
81 see him in the distance; what
can make him loiter thus?"
| 81 know not; but tell me, mother,
more of this Luke Bradley, for I
know not why, yet 1 feel I could
listen to you for hours, if you would
speak about him. What is the cause
of his grief?"
81 know not-I have told you all I
know"
"But you said, the same sorrow
affected his poor wife-tel me, then,
of her."
"I know nothing of either of them.
l told you what report told me-"
"But why curse him?"
"He has been q bitter enemy to
our race, and for that I do and ever
shall curse him."
'tBut there are many that have
been thus bitter against us, and you
have not cursed them as you have
done this Luke Bradley"
Naomi, my child, your questions
weary me, for I am tired like your
self, and would rest awhile"
Naomi forbore to press her mother
further; but, as she continued to
recline on the ground, she leaned her
head upon her hand, and remained
gazing intently on the mansion; it
was like many she had seen in her
wanderings, and from the doors of
which she had been rudely thrust,
with either an ill-timed Jest, or an
angry threat; there was nothing in
it that should fix her attention, and
yet she felt pleasure in looking at
it; in vain did she endeavor to re-
member when or how she had heard
this name of Bradley, for she could
find no clue to it, and she briefly ran
over herin mind the history of her life;
but in this there was little to remark; {;
IL was one course of wanderings from
place to place, and few eyentful cir
cumstances; she had been treated by
her mother and Jabeth with the
greatest kindness, and brought up
with more than the usual care be-
slowed upon children Of their race.
That Jabeth was not her father, she
knew, since he had been with her
mother after their fashion, only with
in her remembrance. and her father
had died when she was O child, and
| she remembered him not.
Her mother, except at the general
meetings of her tribe, was little with
those of her kind-she wandered
with Jabeth and herself, and seemed
to avoid enoamping with any others
she met in her way; there were times
when she was much oppressed with
grief for some loss sustained in early
life, and when the dark spirit was on
her, she seemed to avoid even the
presence of her child, whom she,
however, always treated in the fond
est manner. Tt occurred to Naomi,
that once when she had laid awake,
unable to sleep, her mother had
risen from the tent, and gone forth
into the open r. much troubled in
spirit, and ST. eemed wailing for her
loss; after q pause of o few minutes,
her complainings were changed to
malediotions, and she was convinced
that her mother had more than once
mentioned the name of Bradley. OF
this she had thought but little at the
time, but now it was recalled with all