The Fairfield herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1849-1876, 1869-03-17

NhSh Ei'oii i"NG " S"ottlS. ~ tSl ~
long, however, as Clotho, Lachesis
AMI Atropos spin and weave gold and
silver threads for me, Just so long will
| remain, in ease, luxury and refine
mcnt. We're in your log-cabin on
! the banks Of the legendary Enorce, l
should hold up my hands in holy hor-
ror and cry Oh for sweet civilization
once more"
The young man flushed painfully =
and turned away, then as if suddenly
changing his mind, he went to her,
took her hand and in low and mex
prossibly sweet and mournful voice,
he said,
"Darling, if the time should ever
come when you have no roof to pro-
tect your head, recollect that the
humble cabin in the woods stands
open to receive you, that warm hearts
and cheerful faces will welcome you
there"
IIc raised the hand to his lips,
looked long and earnestly into the
violet eyes that we're slowly filling
with tears and then, was gone.
Mabel watched his rctreating figure
with a dull pain at her heart, scarcely
realizing that he was gone, yet fully
conscious that he was too proud to
return. After he had vanished :,
with sigh of tremulous weakness,
she raised the hand that he had clasp.
cd so fondly and closely regarding it
for few moments, suffered it to fall
heavily in her lap.
''It is too small and delicate," she
murmured, "work would destroy its
symetry, sully its whitcness."
Mabel VAno was the only child Of a
widower in good circumstances, whose
delight it had been to surround her
with all Of the comforts and many cf
the elcgancies Of life. Mars and
Bellona had summoned him to Join
their standard short timo previous
t. the opening of our story and she
was left under the protection of re-
spectacle widow lady, who had been
installed as housekecper. Two years
before Mabel had met Lionel Danvers
in Charleston !; he was then wealthy
and might have offered her princely
home, but for relentless war, which
hno fevoritos and oporon none In it's
wild fury. IF he had remained in
easy circumstances, Mablc would have
accepted him, for sho did not deny
that he had gained possession of her
heart, but now that he was poor, she
was neither noble nor self-sacrifcing
enough to share his noble fortunes.
Incidence was the bane of her life
the deadly Upas tree that was slowly
bnt surely poisoning her existence.
Dressing for parties, dancing, reading
novels and sleeping late in the morn.
lug were her chief employmcnts some
times, but rarely, she was seen with a
piece of embroidery in her hands.
The ultima thule of her ambition was
to be considered the bello of tho ball
room. Lattcrly, she had grown SO
feeble from ovcr-excriing herself at
night and not exerting herself at all
in the day time, that the family ply
sician had forbidden her to attend
any more parties. Day by day Mabel
grew paler, fecbler, and more discon-
tented, and when General Sherman
entered Columbia she was scarcely
able to leave her room.
Lionel DAnvcrs, after brief visit
to his mothers home, returned to Vir.
ginia, where, he soon after lost an arm
and lay for weeks in dreary hospital,
prostrated by nervous feyer resulting
from the wound.
Oa one of those fearful nights in
February, eighteen-sixty-fve when
South Carolina lifted up her voice in
weeping aud lamentation, refusing to
be comforted, because of her sous
slain in battle, her daughters rcnder-
ed houseless and homeless, her bcauti-
full city laid in ashes. Oh on ono of
those nover-to-be-forgotten nights
when mothers clasped their wailing
infants to their bosoms and begged
God to have mercy upon them, Mabel
Vane stood at the window of o small
dwelling in one Of the more retired
portions of Columbia and witnessed
the destruction of her fathers house.
From tho open doors and windows of
the proud dwelling huge flames, like
fiery writhing scrpants, wero leaping
and kissing and cracking in wild and
demoniao glee. Other stately cdifices
were sharing the same fate, reddening
the. sky and illuminating the earth
with the g,are of their conflagration,
but the girls gaze seemed riveted on
that particular spot, the spot where
she had beon born and reared. There
were no tears on her. check, but the
quick gasp for breath now and then,
indicated plainly the intense mental
excitement under which she labored.
Once she2whispered, 81" M &: 9.
"All is lost--everything! am a
beggar without even change of raj
ment; no house, no home, and my
father, my. dear father, incarcerated
ina Yankee dungeon" t''i
p Then there flashed before her minds
eye the picture Of little cabin in
hewoods, she smiled involuntarily
and the angel Of hope cropt into he,
heart.
The invaders marched on, Colum.
bia WIS left behind In her dssolation