Litchfield enquirer., 1869-02-18

mon. She confessed afterwards that sht did not know she had anything to do witt 1t. Like the Northern Farmer, she tool 1t all for the clergyman's business. which she amongst the rest had to see done. She did not even wonder why Stephen shoule have wanted to bring her there. She sal when other people sat. pretended to knee when other people pretended to kneel, an6 stood up when other people stood up.- still breeding upon Charley's jacket }
 But Archer's feelings were not those he had expected. He had brought her inten
 ding her to be done good to; but before the sermon was over he wished he had not brought her. He resisted the feeling for 8 long time, but at length yielded to it en tirely; the object of his solicitude all the while conscious only of the lighted still. ness and the new barrier between Charley and Newgate The fact with regard to Stephen was, that certain hard pan, occa stoned by continual ploughings to the same depth and no deeper, in the soil of his mind, began this night to be broken UT from within, and that through the presence of young woman who did not for herself put together two words of the whole dis. course. 1s.-e,as< os .
 The pastor was preaching upon the say. ing of St Paul. that he could wish himself accursed from Christ for his brethren. Great part of his sermon was an attempt to prove that he could not have meant what his wordsi implied. For the preachers mind was so filled with the paramount du- ty of saving his own soul that the enthusi- asm of the Apostle was simply incredible. Listening with that woman by his side, Stephen for the first time grew doubtful of the wisdom of his pastor. Nor could he endure that such should be the first doc Urine Sara heard from his lips. Thus was he already and grandly repaid for his kind ness; for the presence .ofa woman who, without any conscious religion, was to her. self law of love, brought him so far into sympathy with the mighty soul of St. Paul, that from, that moment, the blessing of doubt was at work in his, undermining prison walls.
 He walked home with Sara almost in si- lence, for he found it impossible to i'm press upon her those parts of the sermon with which he had no fault to find, lest she should retort upon that one point The arrows which Sara escaped, however, could from her ignorance have struck her only with their feather end. '''3'.-''
 Things proceeded in much the same fashion for while. Charley went home at night to his sisters lodging, generally more than two hours after leaving tho shol but gave her no new ground of complaint Every Sunday evening Sara went to the chapel, taking Charley with her when she could persuade him to go; and, in obe dience to the supposed wish of; Stephen sat in his pew. He did not go home witt her any more for 8 while, and indeed visi ted her but seldom, anxious to avoid scan dal more especially as he was deacon.
 But now that Charley was so far safe Sara's cheek began to generate 8 little ot that celestial rosy red which is the blossom of the woman plant, although after all il hardly equalled the heart of the blush rose. She grew little rounder in form, too, fo1 she lived rather better now,-buying her self rasher of bacon twice a week, Hence she began to be in more i danger, as any one acquainted with her surroundings will easily comprehend But what seemed at first the ruin of her hopes dissipated this danger. l..z.a G.a5. i |. 1. -I1..l ess.. .-
 One evening, when she returned from her work, she found Stephen in her room She made him the submissive, grateful sal utation, half courtesy, half bow with which she always greeted him, and awaited his will. sea " sa s1d .a. 5a.-r
 T am very sorry to have to tell you, Sara that your brother ..'. .
 She turned white as shroud, and her great black eyes grew greater and blacker as she stared in agonized expectancy, while Stephen hesitated in search of better form of communication. Finding none he blurted out the fact at~ -e
 :-has robbed me, and run away
 Don't send him to prison, MT. Archer!' shrieked Sara; and laid herself on tle floor at his feet, with 8 grovelling motion, as if striving with her mother earth for comfort. There was not film of art in this. She had never been to theatre. The natural urging of life gave the truest shape to her entreaty. Her posture was the result of the same feeling which made the nations of old bring their sacrifices to the altar of a deity who, possibly benevolent in the main had yet cause to be inimical to them. From the prostrate living sacrifice arose one prayer, Don't send him to prison; don't send him to prisonp
 Stephen gazed at her in bewildered ad- miration, half divine and all human. A certain consciousness of power had, con- fess, part in his silence, but the only de- finite shape this consciousness took was of benefcence Attributing his silence to Sara got half way from the ground, that is, to her knees, and lifted a face of utter entreaty to the sight of Steph- en.. Twill not say words fail me to des- cribe the intensity of it's prayer, for words fail me to describe the commonest phenom- enon of nature; all can say is, that it made Stephens heart too large for its con fning walls. MT. Archer she said, in a voice hollow with emotion. I will do any- thing you like. I will be your slave. Don t send Charley to prison. s2 &-a .55 3
 The words were spoken with certain strange dignity of self abnegaton. Itis not alone the country people of Cumber- land or of Scotland who in their highest moments are capable of poetic utterance
 An indescribable thrill of conscious de- light shot through the frame of stephen as the woman spoke the words; but the gen. tleman in him triumphed. I would have said the Christian, for whatever there was in Stephen of the gentle was there in virtue of the fGhristian; only he failed in one point: instead of saying at once that he had no intention of prosecuting the boy, he pretended, | believe from the satanic delight in power that possesses every man of us, that he would turn it over in his mind. It might have been more danger ous, but it would have been more divine,