The Republican journal., 1871-04-06

through the trees. | looked down anC
saw the gully before me, full eighteer
feet wide and as many feet deep.
A great horse was that black horse
Cesar and he took the gully at flying
leap that landed us far above it, and q
moment later | was at the point where
the roads again met; but only in time tc
see the other two horses 90 by at furious
pace, Sarah abreast of the gray, and she
reaching her hand ont bravely trying tc
leap for leap with him.
10 ride close behind them was worse
than useless in such case 1t would but
serve to increase their speed; so | fell
back a dozen rods, and followed, watch
ing the end.
| At the foot of the mountain the river
ran broad and deep, spanned by the
bridge at the narrowest point. To reach
the bridge the road took a short turn up
stream, directly on the bank
On swept the gray and black horse,
side by side, down the hillside, not fifty
leaps along the level ground, and then
came to the turn
| She was on the off side At the turn
she pressed ahead half length, and rein
| ed her horse across the gray's shoulder,
| if possible, to turn him toward the bridge.
| 1t was the heaviest horse. He pressed
her close the black horse yielded, gave
way toward the fence. stumbled, and the
! fence, a light rail, broke with a crash, and
| hey went over, all together, into the deep
black stream.
Still, still, the sound Of that crash and
plunge ring in my ear. Still I can see
them go headlong down the bank together
into the black water
| | never knew exactly what | did then.
When | was conscious, l found myself
! swimming around in circle, diving oc-
cassionally to find them, but in vain.
| The gray horse swan ashore and stood
on the bank by my black, with distended
nostrlls and trembling limbs, shaking
| from head to foot with terror. The other
black horse was floating down the sur
face of the stream, drowned. His mis-
| tress was nowhere visible, and Tom gone
also.
| | found her ut last
| Yes, she was dead
Restore her? No. A glance at her face
showed how vain all such hopes was.
Never was human face so angelic. She
was already one of the saintly-on one of
the immortals-and the beauty and glory
of her new life had left some faint like
ness of itself on her dead form and face
"Philp," said he, 81 have never grown
day older since that time. You know
why. | have never ceased to think of
her as on that day. | have never lost the
blessing of those eyes as they looked on
me in the forest OF the mountain road. |
have never left her, never grown away
from her. If in the resurrection we are
to resume the bodies most exactly fitted
to represent our whole lives if, as have
sometimes thought, we shall rise in the
forms we wore when some great event,
stamped our souls forever, then | am cer-
tam that l shall awake in form and fea-
ture as | was that day. and no record will
remain of IN hour Of my life after her
burial
We buried her in the old vault close by
the house, among the solemn oaks.
Beautiful, angel-likc. to the very last
My voice is broken. | cannot say any
more, Philip You have my story. That
is the whole of it. God bless you, Phil,
my boy. You have listened patiently
to--my-talk.
tOou HlSnl, DOy NIO 10 Dcu III SlttN
here in the old chair awhile. don't
exactly eel-like-sleeping yet"
| left him sitting there; his head bowed
on his breast, his eyes closed, his breath
ing short and heavy, as if with suppress
cd grief. My own eyes We're misty.
In the hall found John sitting bolt up
right in 4 large chair.
"WhY, John, | thought the Major sent
you to bed long ago"
"Yes, sir; the Major always sent me to
be at the third bowl, sir, and | always
doesn't sc. He's been telling you the old
story, now, hasn't he, Mr.. Philip9'
"What old story, john
"Why, all about Miss Lewis and Mas
ter Tom and the General''
"Yes."
John laid his long black finger know
ingly up by the side of his nose, and look
ed at me.
"Why, John-you don't mean to say
eh ?"
''All the punch, sir"
'What Sarah, and the black horse,
and"
"All punch, sir"
John, my man, go in and take care of
him. He's either asleep or drunk. Curl
Gus, that Why didn't think that man
was hardly to be believed after the second
bowl, and perfectly incredible on the
third. BY Jove, he's a trump at u story
though -
1t would be difficult to describe all that
I dreamed about that night.