Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1873-07-12


damp woods, and the cheerful sound
of awakening life from every marshJ
| pool. Natures life and natures hear
were full of sweet prophecies, and annie
its soft enchantment Leslie WOlcot
walked home, hardly seeing or touching
the earth. His sister talked to him. ht
knew. but of what, he knew not.
soft, intangible mist surrounded him
shutting ont all the world but her. WhS
had he gone ?and yet how transcendent.
ally happy iG had made him!
! He lay awake long while after his
mind had recovered something of its
natural tone, and the enchantment
| though not dispelled, had lost a little oil
! ture course. Should he rush recklessly
into this alluring flame? Where and
how would it all end, if he did? lie
| shuddered; and shut his eyes, but wax
ing or sleeping, a sweet, bewildering
vision beckoned him perpetnally with
white, soft fingers, aud o, he was
so weak.
Mollie Sterne was not oyerpleaSed
when Luke Informed her of the return
of Wolcott. Somehow, the beautiful
winding river, writhing in and through
the gloomy gorge, that had terrified her
in her dream, always in some ineXplfca-
bic way assimilated itselfin her thoughts
with him. But she chided herself for
| her folly, for was not Lena safe in the
| love of a brave, strong, true man? And
had not her dream already had its per-
| feet tulffllment in Lena's marriage with
| the doctor? And then she chided her.
| self again for being suspicious and un-
| charitable towards Wolcott; for might
! not the terrible, swift-1owing river be
! the tide of death, from which Doctor
Dinsmore had reached down and saved
her? And in the midst of her un-
| certainty she had another dream more
| impressive and vivid than the first.
She thought she, was in the midst of a
beautiful forest. Great, solemn .magnif-
icent trees lifted their heads to the sky,
with drifts of pale sunlight fiItering
most beautiful birds sang in the trees,
and fitted, like shivered rainbows,
| through the soft gloom. A sweet, in
| tOxicating perfume exhaled from the
long, dropping clusters of beautiful
flowers that clung to the massive trunks,
or swayed from the ovcrhanging
| branches. The thick-sreen moss was
as soft as the rarest velvet, and sitting
| on it, her hair and bosom bound with
! flowers, she saw Lena Dinsmore. The
birds sang in her ears, and the sunshine
drifted across her feet. There was a
dreamy look in her eyes, and her white
hands We're folded listlessly in her lap.
| But the fear and horror of the dream
was, that in that beautiful enchanted
| forest lurked terrible miasma-a death
| in life-a soft, seductive poison, that,
while it charmed the senses with sweets,
stole irresistibly to the vitals and in
fiicted the death-wound. just beyond
the forest lay still, shadowless lake,
and as she gazed the forest moved al
most imperceptibly to the lake, and as
it touched the shore it melted and vail
ished in the fathOmless depths. And
still the forest moved on, and still she
| sat with folded hands, the odorous flow
ers on her brow and bosom, and the
dreamy look still in her eyes. One af-
ter another the lofty trees went down,
with never a stir or ripple in the silent
strange shore. She tried to shout to her
to warn her of her danger. but her lips
were dumb and she could make nc
sound. In an agony of terror, and with
the perspiration starting from every
pore, she made one fierce spring to-
| wards her just as her feet touched the
| syren sea, and she vanished, like bird
! and tree, and blossom, under its still
| shadoWless surface.
She awoke with a wild, frightened
cry, to find herself sitting up in bed
her arms. extended, and trembling in
every limb. She was used to dreams
in fact she rather liked them-but this
What could it mean? Would it come
true? What fathomless gulf yaWnei
for her darling, from which no han(
would save?
81 wish you'd dream of me some
times" Luke said. when she told it tt
him.
''I'm! | never dream of people
} don't think about" was the conselins
answer.
81 think it all comes from sleeping
alone. Now have the mos
wretehed-"
A ringing blow on the ears saved hin
the necessity of repeating his dreams
J and Mollie mentally declared that sh,
"wOuld never tell the bold impertinen
: fellow another dream so long as sh'
lived-never"' blushing scarlet at th'
thought of his impudence. 'sSh
: guessed he'd have to live in his shanty
5 and cook his own meat and potatoes
> good long day yet, for all her!" An,
+ yet that very evening she dressed her
self in a pretty blue merino that LAX
+. especially admired, and when after al
+ her trouble the ''impertinent fellow
: didn't come, she went to bed feeling a
f out Of sorts as it was possible for sue
Y an amiable little body to be. And
n strangely enough-though she wouldn:
!; he should have known it for 'fif1
t pounds--she did dream of Luke, an
e what was still more provoking, that sh
: was married to him.
d GAS ifI ever would do such an absur
: thing!" breaking her night-cap strin
5 in her ve>latiOn, and letting all her pre-
: ty brown hair over her shoulders.
n TO BE CONTINUED.