Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1871-08-17

oVer VIC ldhe anu DacR again, De1ore
: any one would observe his absence
He rose, as i to seek some friend
among the dancers, stole softly away
through the trees, threw back one
, loving glance at the UNCONSCIOUS
Ebba, leaped into the light canoe
sped noiselessly and unnoticed along
the margin Of the lake, and was
gone. IA s,f 3
;. Time few on; the sun went down
behind the mountains, and the glori-
Gus summer night Of Sweden, clear,
cloudless and bright, a long soft twi-
light, (which. ike a silver clasp
unites to-day with yesterday" reign
ed over the festival. Still the dam
cling went on with uhabated, nay,
with increasing ardor. The dancers
thought Of no one but, themselves
and their partners but Ebba and
/ Oluf missed Eric, and wondered at
| his absence. Anxious not to disturb
the enjoyment of the evening, they
for some time refrained from speak
ing to the rest, and communicated
their. surprise only to each other !;
but at length the uneasiness Of the
bride could no longer be checked,
and she went eagerly among the dan
GERS inquiring for her lover. No one
had seen him leave; no one could
give any reply. Dismay and a vague
terror spread rapidly through the
company; the young men dispersed
themselves through the wood, and
along the banks Of the lake, shout
ing and calling upon his name; the
maidens gathered round the weeping
Ebba, and proffered vague consola-
tiens and encouragement.
All that night he came not, nor the
next day, nor the next again. The
great beech forest was trayersed
through and through by parties Of
his comrades; the boat was missed,
and the lake dragged, but no body was
discovered in its depths. Neither inthe
beech forest, nor the blue lake, 1orthe
dark mine, was Eric Sture to be
found, living or dead; and Ebba, in
one day bride and widow, was left
to grief, to hope, to disappointment,
to despair.
When weeks Of search had been in
vain, the efforts of the peasantry
were given over, and the lost bride
groom was by all, save one, in time
forgotten.
lie never returned again.
Fifty years had well-nigh passed
away, and the tale of Eric Sture and
his fatal wedding-day had become
| freside story toldon winter nights by
fathers to their children.
Ebba still lived, a bent wrinkled
crone of three score and ten long Bit
ter years. She dwelt in q. ruincus
hut beside the lake-a wretched tene-
ment, doorless and windowless, set
in a wilderness of weeds and bushes.
The miners, pitying her desolation
and her traditionary sorrow, supplied
her regularly with the means of..s1b.-
sistence, and, accordingly, she was
rarely seen beyond the. narrow con-
| fines of her drear domain.
When she did go forth, however,
to the world beyond, which some
times was the case, it was to wander
round the brink of the great copper
mine, to gaze into its yawning chasm,
and to cry, in voice querulous with
grief and age, upon the name Of her
bridegroom.
Fifty years works strange altera-
tions in the page of human life. In
fifty years what new generations
spring up to tread out footsteps of
! those which have gone before Young
men have grown old and died. In.
fants, whose lips had not yet learned
to shape their mothers name, are
grave and careworn men, and nurse
their children's children on their
knees. Beauty has become weird
and foul. Strength has turned to
dotag,. The rich mans estate has
dwindled to six feet of earth, and,
behold, the twig to which they laid
| his head is now become q tree ]!
One day, in exploring the depths
of a murky chasm, cleft at least a
century before. and yet unworked,
they discovered the body Of young
man. He was fair and handsome (;
dressed in holiday attire, and looked
as though he had but just fallen
asleep. Some withered stalks and
leaves were yet fastened to the breast
Of his jacket, and clinging in the
band Of his cap. The money about
his person was coated with verdigris,
but it bore the date of coinage and
the head of a king of fifty years be.
fore. No one knew him. He looked
as if he had fallen there yesterday;
and yet his face was strange to the
miners.
Then an old woman came by, who
burst into tears when she beheld him,
kissing his dead lips and cold hands,
calling upon Eric Eric her BRIDE
groom and her love II
And SO it was. He lay there in
his youth and beauty; fair as when
she had last seen him and felt the
warm pressure of his hand. He was
unchanged; but she stood there with
cred and old; broken in body and
weak in mind; a living type of chat
slow and wasting sorrow, that =" hope
deferred which maketh the heart
sick"
When the morrow came they buried
them together in one grave.
WH1sKY HAS USED HIM o p
MI ., ,,,roo1xy innmmnn1tU mr.