Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1872-01-11

dragged on, and December came but not
Holinshed. Snow lay upon the ground
now, and the wintry gusts stripped great
brown leaves from the oak trees knotted
arms these Mildred gathered up and
put i'm her bosom, saying TO herself that
her heart was not less sere than they.
AT last the morning of Christmas eve ar
rived 1t was just hundred years since
that heavy box had been entrusted to the
oak trees care. Small chance of its ever
seeing the light of day again.
Toward evening Mildred threw her
cloak about her shoulders and slipped I'M
perceived out of the house. The air was
still and warmer than usual; strange,
indeiinable moaning came lowering in
from the sea it was evident that great
storm was about TO burst upon Cape Ann.
Mildred reached the oak tree, and sank
down upon the circular bench which still
encompassed it and gazed out upon the
desolate Atlantic. The branches of the
old tree tried to murmur word of SYM
pathy, but only gave forth discordant
croak. Mildred's life seemed slipping
away from her ; she felt as if she could
never rise from that bench again.
But in moment more her ear caught
the sound Of a hurrying step on the road,
and that was all she was conscious or
until she found herself in her lovers
arms. He had come back to her, and he
was safe. At last he said, in a voice
whose tremor he could not command:
"But I've come to tell you that | am
not what | was, my darling. We can
build no beautiful villa on the site of the
old cottage If you take me now, Mil
dred, you take beggar | have no
money-no home The war has taken the
one, and destroyed the other. Yet | will
make fortune with my hands, if may
work for you also"
Mildred answered, with her head on his
shoulder
"You have my love, and you live in
my heart and yet you call yourselfa beg
gar, and homeless" But Holinshed never
ventured to do it again.
They went on into the house, and left
the tree to itself. A thrill ran through it
from topmost branch to root. 1t lifted
its head and waved its arms triumphantiy.
The dried-up sap seemed to course through
its cells once more. 1t sent forth low
call to the ocean, the ocean. answered
with long-drawn, laundering moan,
through which yet quivered a cord OF
sublime joy, as if mourning and yet re-
joicing that now, after the weary waiting
and disappointed hopes of century, the
moment when the end of all must take
place had arrived; for no great purpose
can be attained without sacrifice, and the
oak now felt that the accomplishment of
its lifelong desire would only be effected
at that lifes cost. Yet it did not shrink,
but gloried in the conviction.
Now the wind began to rise, and black
clouds gathered together to witness the
final scene. The sea beloved like an inn
prisoned lion, and leaped madly forward
up the steep bank, as if striving to clasp
| its ancient friend in last embrace. The
| tree swaycd and strained, and was bent
hithcr and thither in the mad thrOes Of its
grand agony. Now it seemed to turn
| toward the house, where those for whom
| it was about to die were sleeping uncon-
scious of its sacrifice; now toward the
| tumultuous ocean which for so many cen
turtles had been its constant companion
and unwaiverng friend Then the wind
yelled yet more ticrcely, the clouds gath
cred closer and more darkly STILL the sea
sene a gigantic breaker booming and
foaming to the coast, freighted with last
mighty farewell, and the faithful oak tree,
with final convulsive throb and wild, APP
! palling shrek of victory, was wrcnched
| away from its sturdy foothold in it's
mother cath, and flung, crushed and
headlong, down the rocky slope.
" X
! ooh! where is the dear old oak treey'
cried Mildred
fpr htr hn q
! and fallen head-foremost down the bank,
exclaimed Holinshed. "But what is that
sticking up there in the roots? Is it a
| rock, ora box %
They approached closer The tree had
fallen on its branches, and its knotted
| and twisted roots spread upward thirty
feet into the air And there, in the midst
of them, bound round and firmly clutched,
even in death, by those faithful hands, APP
peared the massive, brass bound chest,
which it had guarded so well, and now
delivered up again SO nobly. AS Mildred
and HOlinshed gazed up at it in wonder
stricken silence, it was loosened from its po-
sition, and fell crashing down upon jut
of rock. The decayea wood was shattered
by the blow, and and a flood of gold, sill
yer, and precious stones was scattered in
countless profusion at their fcet--the
oak trees Christmas Gift; only, at the
moment, no one thought of that But
the next morning, when the first excite
ment was over they sought for the old
tree, and sought for it in vain. It's i'm
memorial friend had come up silently in
the night, and borne the lifeless remains
away upon its soft and mighty bosom
.Scri6ner's Monthly