The weekly Shasta courier., 1873-09-20


wife, will you marry him.
"l don't know-I can't tell nevel
thought of such thing. You don't think
he has any such idea, do you?'
That was my answer. 1t was enough
as far as it went, but | was no better of
than before. She did not love Tom, or she
never would have answered thus. But did
she love me? Would she marry me,
Wouldn't she receive the idea in just the
same way?
Il looked back Tom was on the
ground, had picked up his whip, and had
one foot in the stirrup, ready to mount
again. | gulped down my heart that wa;
up in my throat, and spoke out:
"' Sarah, will you marry me p
Philip, she turned her eyes again to
ward me-those large brown eyes, those
holy eyes-and blessed ME with their unit
terably glorious gaze. To my dying hour
shall not forget that gaze; to all eternity il
will remain in my soul. She looked at me
one look and whether it was pity, sorrow
surprise, or love, | can not tell you, that
filled them and overfowed toward me from
out their immeasurable depths but, Philip
it was the last light of those eyes l ever saw
the last, the last
is there anything left in that bottle
Thank you. just glassful You will not
take any? Then, by your leave, | will finish
it. My story is nearly ended, and | will
not keep you up much longer.
I'VE had not noticed, so absorbed had
we been in our pleasant talk, that black
cloud had risen in the west and obscured
the sun, and covered the entire sky and
even the sultry air had not called our atten-
tion to the coming thunderstorm.
AS she looked at me, even as she fixed
her eyes on mine, flash, binding and fierce,
Fell on the top of pine-tree by the road
side, not fifty yards from US, and the crash
of the thunder shook the foundations of the
Mills.
For moment all was dazzling, burning,
blazing light then sight was gone, and a
nomentary darkness settled on our eyes.
The horses crouched to the ground in ter
ror, and Sarah bowed her head as if in the
presence of God.
"All this was the work of an instant
and the next, Toms horse sprang by US on
1t furious galop, dragging Tom by the STIR
rup. He had been in the act of mounting
when the flash came, and his horse swerved
and jumped so that his foot caught, and he
was dragged with his head on the ground.
There was point in the road, about fifty
yards ahead, where it divided into two.
The one was the carrage-track, which
wound down the mountain by easy descents.
the other was foot-path, which was short
preclpltous cut to point on the carriage
road nearly quarter of a mile below.
Calling to Sarah to keep back and wait,
| drove the spurs into my horse, and went
down the steep path. Looking back, saw
her following, her horse making tremendous
speed. She kept the-earriage-road, follow
ing on after Tom, and pressed on, thinking
to intercept his horse below.
1.-The pace was terrible. I could hear
them laundering down the track above.
I looked up and caught sight of them
through the trees. looked down, and saw
a gully before me full eighteen feet wide
and as many deep.
" A great horse was that black horse Ca-
sar, and he took the gully at flying leap
that landed us far over it, and a moment la
ter was at the point where the roads again
met, but only in time to see the other two
horses 60 by at a furious pace, Sarah s
abreast of the gray, and she reaching her
hand out. bravely trying to grasp the flying
rein, as her horse went leap for leap with
him.
ITO ride close behind them was worse
Than useless in such case 1t would but
serve to increase their speed; so fell back
a dozen rods and followed, watching the
end.
AT the foot of the mountain the river
ran, broad and deep, spanned by the bridge
bridge, the road took short turn, directly
on the bank.
"On swept the gray and the black horse,
tide by side, down the hillside, not fifty
leaps along the level ground, and then came
the turn. She was on the off.side. At
the sharp turn she pressed ahead half.
length and refined her horse across the
gray's shoulder, if possible to turn him up
toward the bridge.
''It was all over in an instant. The
gray was the heavier horse. He pressed
her close; the black horse yielded, gave
way toward the fence, stumbled, and the
fence, light rail, broke with crash, and
they went over, all together, into the deep
black stream.
"Still, still the sound of that crash and
plunge is in my ears. Still can see them
90 headlong down that bank together into
the black water
81 never knew exactly what l did then.
When I was conscious | found myself
swimming around in a circle, diving occa-
sionally to find them, but in vain. The
gray horse swan ashore and stood on the
bank by my black, with distended nostrils
and trembling limbs, shaking from head to
foot with terror. The other black horse
was floating down the surface of the stream,
drowned. His mistress was nowhere visi.
bic, and Tom was gone also.
a found her at last
"Yes, she was dead!
Restore her? No. A glance at her
face showed how vain all such hope was
Never was human face so angelic. She
was already one of the saintly-one of the
immortals-and the beauty and glory of her
new life had left some faint likeness of it.
self on the dead form and face.
a said / had never grown a day older
since that time. You know now why. !
have never ceased to think of her as on
that day. have never lost the blessing OF
those eyes as they looked on me in the for.
est on the mountain road. | have never
left her, never grown away from her. If, in
the resurrection, we are to resume the bod.
les most exactly fitted to represent our
whole lives ; if, as | have sometimes thought
We shall rise in the forms we wore when
some great event stamped our souls forever
then L am certain that / shall awake in
form and feature as was that day, and no
memorial will remain of an hour Of my life
after her burial.
I'VE buried her in the old vault close by
the hnusp amnnn tho onl-. Ra...;c.I