The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1868-08-14


resting place, and making it soft with
moss, covered the cold little form forev-
er from her sight. Then she sat down
by the grave in stupor of grief. Hour
after hour passed, how many she knew
not, when she arose to her feet to COM
mence the pilgrimage. Then she noted
every thing about thespot. Here was
q rock, there stood an immense hemlOck.
Yes, she would know the place. She
could find it easily with Robert. Then
began again the struggle through the
wilderness.
Day after day, week after week, she
passed on. Her shoes were worn TO
fragments and fell from her feet. Her
garments were torn to tatters. But the
days grew warmer, and the fever that
was burning in her veins made even
the soft showers that fell upon her, wei
come. First she ate the buds of trees
and the bark of birch; presently she
began to find the young cheekerberry
leaves, and now and then she came up
on the partridge's nest, and greedily
sucked the eggs. After time there
was red raspberries and black thimble-
berries in the woods, and then she knew
it was July. The trees had now put on
afresh their beautiful garments. But
for the delicious poetry that one finds in
the woods, sauntering out from the busy
life for an hour, she cared nothing. She
saw nothing but trees, trees, in inter-
mlnable succession. 1t seemed years,
yes, ages ago, that she swept the hearth
with a birch broom, and sung the baby
to sleep, in Roberts cabin. Her mind
grew bewildered still she went on, on,
on. When she came TO large stream
she went up towards its source till she
could wade across. SO she said, and
affirmed that she never crossed stream
wider than a brook. She paid no atten-
ton to sun or moon a. u guide or indica-
ton of the points of the compass, but
she must have taken a nOrthwesterly
direction. There was Black, Mill, Otta
Quechee, White, Waits, and Wells Riv-
ers, 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 10 take on
the gorgeous crimson, and the silver
birches to wear the pale gold of Septem-
ber the birds were leaving the forest.
Occasionally she had glimpses of brind
led fur among the branches, or black
bear turned out Of the path, afraid of
the human form; but no human being
did she ever meet and long before human
voices had ceased to call her name.
" a. she alone on the earth, and was
the earth one vast wilderness without
outlet, without clearing or settlement
Had God taken all life but that of the
brutes, and forgotten her, or ordained
her to wander forever. Tramping,
tramping, with her feet bleeding and
cracked at first, and afterwards cal
loused; naked, or nearly so, knowing
nothing of time or place, she was fast
becoming idiotic. When she was hun
CRY she sought for food, but the great
idea lingering iii her mind was that of
pressing on. Since the luXuriance Of
summer had filled the forest with ferns
and a new growth of brier and under
brush, there was more trouble in passing
through But she had become quite ac-
customed to the rough work, and the
frenzy at last became a steady constant
habit, almost the labor of life 10 her.
One day in October, the inhabitants
of the village of Charlestown, n. H.,
were startled into the widest excite
tment, by seeing nearly naked, ENACT
lated woman, with hair stre:Yling upon
her shoulders, walk with -bewildered
gaze along their streets. She told them
she was Robert Harris's wife, and she
was lost.
Robert Harris's wife, who disap-
peared from the opposite side of the riv-
er in April" exclaimed the villagers.
How had she crossed the Connecticut?
Where has she been all this time But
she told them she had never crossed the
Connecticut. And she had been lost III
the woods all this time. There was no
lack OF hospitality the wanderer was
Immediately clad and fed and cared for
to the utmost. Volunteers went at once
and brought her husband, for the story
of his bereavement was well known on
the Charlestown side of the river. We
can only imagine the meeting and VIII IL
tears were shed at the thought of the
little forsaken grave by the uproOted
tree. But it is said joybells were rung in
thevillage, and the poor woman a living
skeleton, was nursed and petted-every
body vieing with her neighbor to lavish
every good thing upon her, until her
weakened mind recovered its tone
again. AS she constantly asserted she
had never crossed the river, il is sup
posed she wandered into Canada and go
ing round the Connecticut at its source, or
crossing where it was brooklet, passed
down on the New Hampshire side, till
she reached a location just opposite
where she started.
When she began TO grow strong again
her mind required constantly to the
grave in the wilderness. She described
to her husband its surroundings, and he
went out to look for ii, but without sue
cess. As soon as she was able she went
out with her husband and other friends
to search, but baby's grave was never
found. 1t was thought very strange
that she, in all her wanderings, never
met rowing Indian, but so it was. The
Indian tribes had, perhaps, mostly dis
appeared from New England since the
French and Indian war, but, however
that may be, the first human being she
met after the burial of her infant,
strange as ii may seem, was in Charles
town. This singular legend has descen-
ded to the writer from a defendant of
hers, who was the third child born in
the town of Rockingham, VT. and the
story is an undoubted fact.