Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-04-07
Daily 9Sennrbrt yournal.
TcoNrINuEp FROM FIRST PAGE.


CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE.
unchanged Why might it not happen SC
with him p Why might not
He closed his eyes in yet deeper thought,
shutting out from his brain that steady
light of cherries stars: at first lying still
in the old train of reflection, but after that
he must have slept little For, being
aroused by loud creaking, as OF loose
cordage, he saw that a small, sloop-rigged
boat was Just lowering its useless sail close
in to the shore, and yet he had not noticed
her approach. At the bank stood the little
crowd of his companions, looking on, and
prepared to assist; yet he had not heard
them spring up and pass across his feet.
Then came some muttered conversation
between those in the boat and on shore,
and then rope was thrown, by which the
latter pulled the little sloop close in, until
its bows struck the oozy bank alongside of
and almost touching the whaleboat All
this he now saw and heard, the whole
coming so suddenly upon his half-awaken-
ed perceptions that ii seemed rather like
vision than a reality-even as to the
wondering Cards must have appeared the
three vessels of Columbus, in the gray
dawn of that one eventtul morning. And
then, assisted in part by the miners on the
shore, those in the sloop began to disem-
bark.
There were two or three kanaka sailors
employed for the rough work of the voy-
age, and who now leaped lightly ashore,
and. taking position few yards from
the other party, began TO pile up the foun-
dation for a fire of loose wood and reeds.
Then came the evident proprietor of the
vessel--a young, middlc-sized man, be-
comingly and rather daintily- dressed in
stout, well-cut broadcloth; belt at his
waist, of course, with one pistol in it;
slouch-hat, shading well-ieatured face,
with an agreeable expression of combined
determination, hardwood, refinement, and
intelligence; the face of a gentleman, in
deed. who, in any pressure of cireumstan-
ces or poverty, would never exhibit him.
self as otherwise. And hanging upon his
right arm--a pleasant vision of floating
tresses and waving robes-there came
tripping along with him
What, indeed, could all this be Was
it part of the same troubled dream; this
young girl daintily resting upon that strong
arm, and with musical ripple slaughter,
lightly springing from gunwale of boat to
carpet of dry weeds, as though to her the
world was all a genial enchantment, and
agination? How, whence, and why had
she come thitherP 1t was a question which
any of those bearded men might well have
asked themselves, though they, more wide
awake to the reality of the scenes around
them, must have comprehended at once
all that there was of actual prose in the
situation. Even they, however, in their
inner minds, may have been startled at
that sudden, unlooked-for interruption of
youth and beauty, in place where, as
yet, only cumbrous, ungraceful coarseness
had been seen. How much more start
ling, therefore, to the sick, unquiet, fever
minded man, lying there half-dazed
with his sharp awakening9
How much more startling to him, in :,
deed, than the utmost power of thought
could have conceived, when, after a mo-
ment, she turned and releasing herself
from her husbands arm, let the outline of
her face and figure fall clearly and I'M
broken against the bright studded sky9
Where and when had he-and then, with
difficulty, sitting the wild sob that rose to
his lips, he tell back again upon his rough
pillow. Alas! there could be no mistake
What, though SO many years had passed.
he could not fail now to recognize those
features, and the graceful slope of that
slightly Blended neck, and the wavy move
ment of the body Forgotten for awhile,
it might once have been--cast from his
memory to the intrusion of other and reck-
less scenes-but none the less coming back
upon his heart with all the inspiration of
his early love at that first suddenly renew
ed glance upon her. And now he began
to feel how true it was that all the while
he may have been keeping her image
somewhere concealed in his heart; that,
let him disguise it as he might, it was not
merely the love of old association of brooks
and mountains drawing him homeward,
but the thought of the one pleasant, dear
ly-loyed face; that it was not alone the
comfort and kindness of old friends he
craved, but the affection which he had
once so reeklessly thrown away; that all
the while there must have been in his
heart a certain wild, unacknowledged hope
of finding her once again, as of old, will
ing to forgive him as only woman can,
and to let him make amends for the bitter
past. All that was over now. The ebbing |
life might pass from him and welcome
There was no longer hope to which he |
could cling: nothing left, indeed, except
to lis sat- asG asseE.
rcaTGLgEED nv no aoasow's PAPER.