Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1869-12-07
The Old Miracle.

| WOODS with peCullar raulance.
As they stood in the grove-ADnie
Linn and Charles Manson-the rush
of the river below, and the voices OF
the children from the road, mingled
together ike the bass and soprano of
some exquisite melody; but if they
heard it all, it was with that impa-
tience which comes over one when
happy sounds break in upon restless
ness and trouble.
She had come down there to bid
him farewell-not from any girlish
desire for quarrel which should end
in a pleasant reconciliation, but from
a settled conviction Of the necessity Of
the step, which, once taken, must be
| irrevocable.
They were both young. A year be-
fore they had been, for short time,
engaged but all that had long since
been broken of, and this last inter-
view was great deal worse than use
less, though perhaps, without it nei.
ther could have brought their minds
to regard that book in their lives as
forever closed.
Charles Manson was the eldest son
of widow. He had been a spoiled,
! handsome boy-I am afraid he was a
wayward, reckless young man-just
one Of those young fellows whom ev-
erybody likes, and whose agreeable
qualities and faculty ofmaking friends
prove their own greatest snare and
temptation.
| | should have made one exception
when | said everybody liked Charlie,
| for old Mr.. Linn had detested him
from his boyhood. He was a close
| listed, grim old chap, who always
prayed as if he meant to frighten the
angels into doing their duty, who had
toiled necessarily all his life, and
could not understand why anybody
should expect an existence at all diff
ferent.
Now, as a boy, Charlie would not
work, except to gain some special OBJ
ject. He hated farmers life, and
was determined to 90 to college. He
had accomplished that, by dint of sac
rifce8 on his mothers part-those
few words tell the story Of her life
and considerable labor on his own
He played tutor during the vacations
a distant relative helped him, and so
he had gone on.
; But, alas! During the last year
OF his course everything changed
Charlie made the acquaintance of an
entirely different set-young men of
fortune and expensive habits, whom he
ought to have ayoided-and his natu-
raj disposition did the rest. He left
college very suddenly-good natured
people said he was expclled-and the
next the village heard OF him he was
in London, but whether in business or
not. no one knew.
Before he came home, old Mr.. Linn
discovered the engagement existing be-
tween him and Annie, and, with his
usual peremptoriness, broke it off at
once.
: Charlie wrote her scores of re-
proachful letters, which her father
cOOlly burned before her eyes. Then
. long silcnce-then terrible stories
of bis bad habits and dissipation.
Nobody yentured to question the
widow, for she was one of those wo-
, men whom even village gossip did not
care to approach with their affected
sympathy and iIl-conccaled curiosity.
As she sat in acr place at church, peo-
pie noticed how. week after week, the
smooth hair gained an added tinge of
gray, and the patient lines around her
mouth deepened with hidden anxiety
and trouble.
Annie met her but seldom, and
then there was but little conversation
between them, never a word concern
ing the subject which filled both their
hearts. Mr.. Linn had forbidden any
, intercourse between the families but
the widow had known him too long
not to understand the truth, and ex-
onerate Annie from all blame in the
matter.
Old Linn loved money. If Char
ley had been as steady as a young So
Ion, he would not have given him his
daughter. II was convenient that the
young man offered him a reasonable
excuse for the course he pursued.
Annie held her father in great awe.
She had inherited the feeling from her
mother, who, ten years before, had IA
ded into her grave, perhaps glad that,
for once, she could do something in
> peace and quiet. The neighbor8 talk
ed still about her resignation; the old
minister often alluded to her death
bed as the most ediiying scene he had
ever witnessed.
c I suppose Mr.. Linn was sorry. Her
health had been failing for a long
time, and she had been obliged to
neglect her duty, and that fact helped
to support him in his bereavement.
> He never married again, and Annie
e grew up under the shadow of her faith
er's presence, and the tyranny of two
elder brothers, who were really pro-
totypes of her parent. One of them
was married now, and his bustling,
active wife gave Annie a word of good
/. advice, and set her face against
: Charles Manson, and all belonging to
), him, with a praiseworthy pertinacity
= There they stood in the maple grove
81 with the sunset streaming about them
j and the black sorrow swoopirg down
over their souls like the heavy clouds
that hovered above the radiance of
the West
e lie had been pleading so earnestly
But though her heart trembled be-
: meath his words, and swayed toward:
rs rs him with old affection, his passionate
= language beat vainly against the forti
tude with which her ideas of duty and
: right had armed her.
"You never loved me- he exclaim
l. ed, with all mans selfshness and
&c cruelty. "You are cold and hard
you can't feel p
She only shivered little-her
d tears had crowded back upon her
heart, and refused to flow. 1t seem.
5, ed to her that they were slowly freez
= ing there, and would press life out be.