Vermont daily transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1868-1870, 1869-04-30

pulpit, Cnarllc naU crossed over, ana
now stood there, regardless of danger,
laughinply holding out his floral treas
urcs to his mother.
Martha flew over the frail bridge, and
the next instant held her child IN her
arms. joyful because she had found
him uninjurcd, and mentally resolving
that the logs should be removed to pre- /
vent further accident, she turned to re-
trace he. steps, but the sight that met
her eyes iroze her with horror.
Confronting her on the bridge, not |
six feet distant, was an enormous wolf, |
gaunt and bony with hunger, his eyes
gloom, his hot, fctid breath scorching
the very air she breathed.
\ low growl of intense satisfaction |
stirred the air, answered by the grOwl
of fifty moro of his kind belonging TO
tn pack in anoth r moment they
would be upon her!
Without an instant'c thought of the
cons aquences, Martha obcyed her first
impulse, and struck the logs with her
foot, cXcrting all her mad strength in
the blow. The frail fabric to.tcred
the soft earth gave way; there wa a
breath of awful suspense, and then the
bridge went down, with Il dull plunge,
into the waters beneath. The sharp
claws OF the wolf had already fixed on
the scant vegetation OF the rock, and
he held there Il moment, struggling
wi II fcrociOus strcngt to gain foot
hold, the next he slid down into the
chasm, utteiing wild howl of dissap-
pointed rage.
Martha sank on her knees and
offered up fcrvent prayer of thanks
giving for her escape but, simultane-
Ously with the heartfelt "amen,"
l., Il Irs.l
formed the only connecting link be-
tween the pulpit and the main land,
and that was severed. True, she was
not more than twenty feet distant from
the shore of the river, but she might
as we'll have been u thou. and miles out
in the ocean. The waite was deep, and
ran with almost incOnceivable rapidity
forty or fifty feet below her. over rocks
so sharp and jagged that it made her
shiver to look over the brink.
Her only hope was in her husband.
Should he return at the expected time,
they might still be alive; but if, by any
accident, he should be detained beyond
that time! She closed her eyes, and
besought God for protection and help.
Cold and hungry, and drcnched by
the mist of the river, Charlie began to
cry for home. She could bear anything
better than that. She took off her own
garments to fold around him, held him
to her o east. and sang him the sweet
cradle-songs which had so often soothcd
him.
But the fierce howls of the wolves
and the sullen thunders OF the river
till-d his little heart with terror, and ,
all the lorg, dark night through, he
chung to ler neck, slecplessly crying to
, go home to papa.
) Day dawned at last; TIE pale sun
| swimming through sickly sky, the
pallid forecast of storm. Weak and
faint from hunger, and suffering, in
, tensely from the cold-for summeris no
bearer of tropical heat in that inhospit-
able clime-Martha paced back and
f forth the harrow limits of the rock.
Noon came; the faint sun declined; it
was night again. A cold fog sank
, down over the mOuntsin, followed by a
drizzling rain, which. before morning,
changed to a perfect deluge. The river
rose fearfully, foaming milk-white
down the gorge, filling the air with a
, shuddering roar, like the peal of an i'm
, prisoned earthquake.
, The day that followed was no better,
only gray rain and then white mist
not a ray o! sunshine.
A new fear alose in the heart of Mar
tina Warren. The turbulence of the
stream must have swept away the
bridge over which her husband would
) cross on his return, and he wOnld be
, de'ained-fOr days, maybe for weeks.
She gave up all for lost. Strongly
and fearfully was she tempted to fold
her child in her arms and plunge in the
cauldron beneath, and thus end all her
fear and doubt. 1t would be better,
| she thought, than to suffer that slow,
| painful death of starvation. But some
thing held back-God's curse was on
those who do sclf-murder.
Tuward night, lost ROBIN, beaten
, about by the storm, stopped to rest a
| moment on the rock. Martha seized
+ upon him, and rent him in twain, with
almost savage glee, for her child to de-
e YOUR raw-she, who, tire. days before,
: would have wept at the sight of Il
wounded sparrow.
4 Another night and day like the other,
only more intensely agonizing. Martha
| Warren was sullenly indifferent now ;
9 suffering had palsied every noble feel
ing. Cha lie moancd for supper; too
: weak and spent to sit up, he was lying
G on the rock, his head in her lap, his
/ great eyes fixed on her face.
She tore open a vein in her arm with
! her scissors, and made him drink the
{ blood. Anything. she said to herself,
, to calm the wild, wistful yearnings OF
E his eyes.
+ The by raised he sat up, and peered
Q through the darkness.
Mamma" he said, "papa is COM
= ing; fel, him touch me0
e She wept at the mOckery, and drew
: the child frantically to her bosom.
: The night was fair lit up by a new
/ moon.
Overcome by deadly exhaustion,
+, against which she could make no resist
ance, Martha fell into an uneasy slum-