Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-12-30
81 cant leave it crying" she said with
strange tenderness. "I'll hush her

with her. Inc Illtle one was reStiesS, anu
still moaned and pleaded in its own mar
ticulate language. Hannah walked the
floor with her hushing and soothing, and
finally she lay down on the fresh, sweet
pillow, patting the child and trying to
sing. i
Strangely enough, with that dark deed |
still in her thoughts, she fell asleep. Then
came in vision the presence of her moth
er who had long been dead. And in this
way she seemed to hold converse with
her.
Unburdening her heart she asked the
shade,
"Am doing right,
The answer was terrible, but needed
You are plunging your own soul into
irremediable darkness
''But must / bear this? ?"
"Aye, and hundred fold more"
but my poor brother
ssYour poor brother was the victim of
parental indulgence and encouragement.
God sends us immortal beings, and we
look upon them as hindrances, or play
things, or moving machines in our hands.
We use them for our pleasure, manacle
their minds, cultivate their baser passions,
indulge their fierce tempers, or make them
worse by exhibitions of our own, and then
dare to blame the Almighty if they turn
npon and rend US. wish you could see
as see now, what the capabilities of
mother are. She can form her children
into angels of light, or demons of dark
ness. Shall yours rise up and call you
blessed or" and she pointed to some
thing so terrible that Hannah awoke with
dreadful cry, and bathed in sweat.
The first thing that met her troubled
L la.
with world of feeling in his glance.
''Heavens?" he exclaimed, trying to
take her cold hand, ''what agony you are
inr'
- mo matter,'' she said, turning her face
away .sSr M YOU shouldn't have worked 50 hard hard
ae.r yvu'll make yourself sicA' anu lliei'
what shall do =. ohoLed tho words
eco alter" she enoAoH .nI 49,
down with q might hack to her nu. ''''' -
pallinS v ~ 0ua Ter the doctor. if you are
81 shall e1.feful." he said, playfully,
not more Aing what almost mortal an
never oTKed under the unfinished sem
guish But come, Hannah, I've got some
te1Gine for you in the shape of good
Ms. The machine is success; I've got
/ut the patent, and here's an order that
came only twenty minutes ago, that will
bring Bright and ten thousand dollars
apiece, at the first 60 off. hurried over
here to tell YOU"
Observation-Disclosures ough-of-me-
for that?"
The words came slowly out in a sort of
wondering maze. The man stood still,
COMPOUNDED:
s.Did think enough of you-you Han
nah Wells, my best beloved, my only
love my wife! what question Pr
Tears ran down the woman's faded
cheeks
'.Bessie-Bessie, she wanted to turn 1t
of, some way, by saying that Bessie Bright
had been over there, but her trembling
lips refused only that one word and her
slight frame was shaken by sobs.
Suddenly, like lightning flash, u
thought stabbed him to the heart.
"Why, Hannah!' he cried, 'surely you
didn't think-you couldn't-why, my own
wife, Hannaht' and he caught her to his
bosom, and held her as if he would never
release her, while he rained kisses upon
her bowed forehead.
Il see it ALL" he whispered" and l
dont know as wonder; but didn't think
Il never thought-why. what selfish
wretch have been! We were so wrap
ped up in that matter, Bright and land
! knew had vexed you, so with my mod
els, and the thing was so uncertain, and
cost such deal of money, and l stayed
over to Bright's day after day and far into
the night. But darling, my heart was as true
to you as the needle to the pole, my own
darling wife There now" and he kissed
her again and again, while her head laid
passively on his breast, and she, sorry,
ashamed, thrilled and happy, all at once,
knew not what to say, or how to thank
God for this unlocked for, this wonderful
deliverance.
''And now you shall not drudge any
longer my own true and tender wife, he
murmured, when she was more composed,
''for here is the bona fide order, just the
same as if the money were in our hands
and won't neglect my wife any more.
even for fortune, nor let MY boys run
wild. My conscience tells me that have
forgotten both them and you, in meas
ure, while absorbed in this last, not wild
scheme, thank God when saw my neat
home, this afternoon, full of tokens of
thrift and loving attention, why, l can't
tell you what monster felt"
''Oh, but you don't know what | did it
for" cried Hannah, her voice choked with
sobs, and he would rot let her tell; his
eyes had caught sight of the little bottle
she let slide from her hand, till it fell down
between the pillows.
Suppose" she thought shudderingly,
her consci ence aroused as it never had
been before-''suppose The minister's wife
had not come ino Suppose the baby had
not crieda Where would have been at
this moment?"
Taught by strange, mysterious lesson,
Hannah never again allowed herself to
harbor ungenerous suspicious, and pretty
Bessie Bright and she are the best OF
friends. Never again did Hannah allow
herself to be assaled by suspicion. Her
temperament was against her. and more
than anything else, the self-indulgence
which her inludicious training had foster
ed; but there was power beyond self,
which, often with tears and prayers that
were wordless from very anguish, she
sought faithfully. Finding her strength