Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-04-18

physician, thou vast 'sunable to heal
thyself !" Our salubrious climate and
bracing mountain air might battle every
effort of miasma to find victim among
us. But accident-the creature OF fate
how unforeseen, how impossible to
guard against its treacherous dealings!
The veriest invalid on earth was safer
from that than hale, hearty Fenton At
wick.
don't know how / got into sort of
reverie one eyening-thinking of our
lives, and the popular idea that we all
have mission to perform. | wasn't
given to such things, | should as soon
have thought of joining an opera troupe
having no more idea OF music than
steam engine-as turning metaphysi-
clan. But there [ sat, looking out at
my window on the giant mountains,
ablaze with the golden and aureola of
the setting sun, with my pen behind my
ear, and pOnderous volume of Coke all
UNDECIDED before me, asking myself, over
and over again, of what avail my life
had been to myself or others, and viii
Their it was tending, until the light died
too from the western sky, and the shad-
ows of night, or of death, crept darker
and darker into the room. s. PsnaW :"
| exclaimed, Il am as visionary as a
child emerging from, or as an old man
going into the realms of the unknown.
Very soon we too will be dust, as our
ancestors arc-perhaps part of that
which the young man, gallOplng madly
by but few moments ago, sent curling
into my window here, over my books
and into my very nOstrils. And then
our children (nOt mine, of course, as |
am a bachelor, but other people's) will
look out of this very window, as [ am
doing now, and wonder what they were
made for, and witherWard they are tend
inc. And they will find themselyes-in
the dark as | am" | struck myself a
sharp blow on the forehead, as if by this
means | should effectually floor the COB
lin thoughts that were bewitching me !;
and drawing a parlor match along the
green serge that covered my table, | lit
my lamp and re-Opened my book. But,
strange to say, | could not collect my
thoughts
81 am tempted, " | muttered, to go
for Atwick, and Fleet, and Jones, and
have a rubber of whist, for it seems |
am determined to be at purposes with
time this evening" | sprang up out of
my chair, as | concluded, for a heavy
''thud," like the falling of a human
| body, struck distinctly on my ear. |
glanced hastily around the room, and as
nothing was disturbed, listened for a re-
petition of the sound from without; but
the silence was profound and | took up
my book again. A moment more, and
heard some one walking rapidly down
the street. at is some visitor to me,
hope" Bnt no; the footsteps passed on
Then there came the sound of running
feet-One, two, three separate persons
going by Then there was hasty tread
on my own steps, and some one came
up. I turned quickly as the door was
pushed open.
''Ah, Fleet, it is you! I am glad to
see you. Come in" He did come in
and then / saw by the lamp that there
was CHASTITY look upon him, frightful
to behold.
GONE, Jerry" he said, while his
teeth chattered d" have been sent to
fetch you. A fearful accident has just
happened, DR.. Atwick-"
''What ?" | asked, while shudder |
thought to be mortal ran through and
through me.
is already dead, and as have told
you, by an accident as horrible as it was
unforeseen Jones was with him in his
office. and they had risen to come up
here, when Atwick eXtinguished his
lamp, and turning suddenly stepped out
at the window instead of the door, and
fell upon the rocks below. He was a
a dead man when Jones got down to
him"
'My God, how TERRIBLE"
[ was at the scene of the catastrophe
in few moments. And there, laid out
in all the grim formalities of death, |
gazed upon the dead body of my friend
Atwick, whom I bchcld but a few hours
before in the perfection of heath-a
mangled, bloody corpse, lying still upon
the pavement. with a crowd of people
gathered, like ghostly statues, in the
twilight about it, Some Of the men had
already constructed litter | was re-
ouested. as I knew Mrs. Atwick, per
haps, better than any one in the village,
to hasten on before, and break the
hidc0us truth to her as gently as | could
| shrank back appalled,. Dcmurring and
fearful. should have positively declined
this painful duty of friendship, but for
the temporary absence of our rector.
and the necessity of speedy action in
some one.
The statement of a great writer that
there is something not altogether I'M
pleasant to Us in the misfOrtunes of our
dearest friends, is a rank libel upon even
medium human nature. | should not
have been more distressed if Mary At
wick. the woman to whom | was going
on such an errand, had been my own
sister. And yet my acquaintance with
her was very slight. She was anything
but Il popular woman she had mingled
but little with the people of the village.
and had thus remained without friends,
while AtWick himself had been uni
versai faVOrite. | had visited his house
on more social terms than any one else,
I believe, and though | had never found
her varying from a cold and naughty
reserve, had every reason to believe
that AtWiC'l was devOtcdly attached to
her and his children. IT, however, |
had known it to be otherWiSe eff they
had been to each other objects Of indif-
ference. or sometimes even of aversion
should | not still have hesitated to break
the quiet of a household with tidings of
such a death to one of its members :?
Yet. | was so stricken with a dumb sort
of Amusement. that | had realized moth
ing of my position, and had not thought
of what | was to say-even when
found my hand upon the gate of the
yard incl0sure. All at once, however.
Il sense of what | had come to do struck
terror to my soul, and the same shudder
[ had experienced in my office thrilled
me from head to foot. There were no
lights about the house as | went up the
gravel walk But thought some one
had come on the same GRAND, as I saw
the figure Of a man going up the steps
before me. l paused an instant on the
threshold of the portico, waiting for the
figure, with its back toward me. to lift
the knOcker to strike for admission,
when the door flew open without a
sound, and the person entering revealed
to me, my God-the blood-stained feat
ules of FentOn AtWick himself.
''How, how :" | cried, ''have you re-
covered sufficiently to get here before
me, and alone ?"