The Republican journal., 1869-12-02

be detained beyond the time She closed
her eyes, and besought God for protection
and help.
/ Cold and hungry, and drenched by the
mist of the river, Charlie began to cry for the
house. She could bear anything better than
that. She took off her own garments to fold
around him, and held him to her breast, and
sung him the cradle songs which had 50 Of
ten soOthed him.
But the fierce bowls of the wolves, and the
sullcn thunders of the river, filled his little
heart with terror. all the long, dark night
through, he chung to her neck, sleeplessly
crying to 90 home to papa.
Day dawned at last, the pale sun swim
ming through the sicl>y sky, the pallid fore
cast of a storm. Weak and faint from cold
for summer is no bearer of tropical smiles
in this inhosptable clime-Maltha paced
back and forth the narrow limits Of the rock
A cold fog sank down over the mountain fol-
| lowed by drilling rain. which before morn
ing changed into a perfect deluge. The river
rose fearfully, foaming milk-white down the
gorge, filling the air with a shudlering roar,
like the peal of an imprisoned earthquake
| The day that followed was no better. only
rain and ashen white mist-not a ray of sun
shine.
A new fear rose in the heart of Martha
Warren. The turbulence of the stream must
have swept away the bridge over which her
husband would cross on his return, and he
would be detaned-for DAYS, may be for
weeks.
She gave up all for lost Strongly and
tearfully was she tempted to fold her child in
her arms and plunge into the cauldron beneath.
and thus end her fear and doubt. 1t would
be better she thought than to suffer that slow.
painful death of starvation! But something
held her bach-God curse was on those who
do selfmurder.
Toward night, q lost robin, beaten about
by the storm, stopped TO rest a moment on
him in twain, with almost savage glec, for
her child to devour raw-she who two days
before would have wept at the sight of
wounded sparrow.
Another night and day like the other, only
more intensely agonizing. Martha Warren
was sullenly Indifferent now; suffering had
palsied every noble feeling. Charlie moaned
for supper-too weak and spent to sit up, he
was lying on the rock, his head in her lap,
his great eyes fixed on her face.
She tore open a vein in her ann with her
scissors, and made him drink the blood
Anything she said to herself, to calm the
wild, wishful yearning of his eyes.
The boy rose-he sat up and pcered through
mamma" said he, papa is coming l felt
him touch me"
She wept ut the mocIlery and drew the
child frantically to her bosom.
The night was fair, lit up by a new moon. |
Overcome by..a deadly exhaustion, against
which she could make no resistance, Martha
fell into an uneasy sumber, which toward
midnight was broken by Il startled cry. She |
sprang to her feet and gazed around her
No! her eyes did not deceive hcr-therc on
the shore stood the stalwart form Of her hlls-
band, and he was calling her name with the
energy OF despair. She could only cry out
80 Mark, Mark - and fell scnselcSS to the
earth
When she woke to consciousness, she was
lying on her bed in the cottage, supported bv
her husbands arms.
1t was no dream. She and her darling boy
We're almost dead; and he came back.
Many weeks passed before she grew strong
again. but Mark tended her as Il mother
would an infant, and by the time the autumn
trosts fell, she was the blithe Martha Warren
of old.
AT the time of the trcshct the bridge over
the Ammonoosuc had been swept away, but
Mark, impellcd by IN uncomfortable fear. al
most a presentiment, had crossed the river,
at the risk Of his life, on 4 raft and reached
home only to find it vacant
The descendants Of Mark Warren and his
wife still dwell among the fertile valleys of
the Ammonoosuc, and the old men still tell
their grand children the story of Martha War
rem and her child