The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-03-21

They both admitted to their neighbors that
the evidence was very strong, but John add
ed quietly that he was not guilty as if that
settled the whole matter.
But the voice OF the people and sense of
justice would nos let this crime rest. 1t came
to be very generally known that man guilty
OF murder was living near the shore of Lake
Champlain unmolested. Arrangements were
effected by which it came to pass that the
Canadian authorities made formal applca-
tlcn to the United States for the delivery of
one John Wilson believed to be guilty of the
murder of his cousin William Wilson.
And so again two officers, this time United
States officials, climbed up to the little log
house upon the edge of the great valley
Through a drifting binding storm OF snow
they were piloted by neghbor to the lonely
house. They made known their errand, ana
in the course of half an hour the officers and
their prisoner were out in the storm en- rou'e
for the distant city of Montreal.
TT was many DAYS before the m0tner saw
her son AGAIN. For four months John was
imprisoned. awaiting his trial before the "a
madam courts Doubtless those four mouths
seemed long TO the solitary woman. She had
not much opportunity to indulge IN melan-
choly fances she spent much OF her time in
puling brush and wood out of the snow and
the size of her stove.
The neighbors tried to be kind, and often
took commissions from her to the store and
grist mill in the valley: "But after ALL" said
Pete Searls, one Of Johns friends, in speak.
of the matter afterward, "what could neigh
bors amount to, when the nearest OF themved
mile away, and all of them were plain to
say that they believed she was the mother
Of a mul derer.
But the neighbors said the woman did not
seem to mind the solitude and the rough
work. Morning, noon and night she was out
in the snow or the storm at the little howell OF
a barn back of the house taking care OF two
aud few sheep which were hers and Johns.
At other times travellers upon the wilderness
road would see the gaunt, angular figure
clamberng down rocky ridge, dragging
poles to the house to be cut up for fuel.
She received two letters from John in the
course of the winter. The first told her that
he was imprisoned and awaiting his tIial in
Montreal, and the next one said that his tri
al hal been set down for an early day in
March.
This correspondence was all the informa-
ton the mother had of her son for the lake
was frozen during the winter, SO that the
boats did not run, and no news could come
from Canada by the boatmen.
When March came and passed away with
out intelligence from John, it was taken by
the dwellers upon the lake shore and along
the Wilderness road as a sure indication that
he had been convicted of the crime. A letter
or newspaper announcing the fact was conf
IDENTIFY looked for by the neighEors whenever
they went to the distant post office for their
weekly mail
As March went out, and spring days and
sunshine came, it was noticed that the face
of Johns mother looked sharp and white,
but she went about the same daily duties as
before, without seeming to feel i'll or weak.
On plashy April day, full of sunshine, she
stood on the rocky ridge back of the house,
looking down upon the lake. A few early
birds had come back and were twittering
about the clearing. Although the snow still
fingered in patches upon the highlands, the
valley looked warm below, and the first boats
of the season were dotting the wide, distant
mirror of ''old Champlain." A man came
slowly up the muddy line of road, through
the gate, and around the house; then first the
woman saw him. A slight spasm passed over
her face. There was little pitiful culver of
the muscles about the mouth, and then she
walked slowly down the ridge to where the
man stood. She struggled little with her
self before she said, "Well, John, am glad
to see you back
John tried to be cool also, but nature was
too much for him. He could not raise his
eyes to hers, and his simple response, Eyes,
MOTHER" was chokingly uttered.
The two walked into the house together in
the old familiar way the woman without a
word began to spread the table, and her son
went out and prepared fuel, and bringing it
in replenished the fire. Then he sat down
in his accustomed place by the stove, with a
pleasant remark about how well the fire burn
4 - I,
And the woman spoke few kind motherly
words.
1t was the way they had always done when
John came back, but now there was great
sadness in it, for he had come s.from pris-
or " Jupiter seemed fully to realize the
situation. He exhibited none of that friski-
ness which characterized the welcome he had
usually given but when John was seated,
the old dog came slowly up to him, laid his
fore paws and his head in his masters lap and
looked sadly in his face.
AS they sat down to supper, John began to
tell OF his fare in the Jail al Montreal, and to
to go back ?" said his mother with that quiv-
err about her mouth again. "No, mother"
said John, sit is finished, and am discharg
ed.''
After supper the story was told over how
Johns counsel had worked for him, and how
the judge had said there was not sufficient ev-
idence to convict of so great crime.
John continued from this time on through
the spring to live at home. He allowed his
sloop to float idly in the bay, while, as he
said, he himself rested. The truth was, he
saw, as others did not, that his mother had
carried fearful weight, and now, when it
was lifted by his return, that the resources of
her life were exhausted. The change, not
yet apparent to other eyes, was clear to his
vision. So it is that these silent spirits read
each other.
As the warm weather advanced, the strong
woman became weak; and as the June flow
ers began to bloom, she ceased to move about
much, and sat the most of each day in q
chair by the open door. John managed the
house and talked with his mother. Her
mind changed with the relaxation of her
physical frame. She no longer strove to hide
her tears, but, like tired infant, would weep
without restraint or concealment, as she told
her son of the early loves and romance of her
girlhood life in warm valley of the West.
He learned more of his mothers heart in
those Jnre days than he had surmised from
all he had known of her before. And he I'M
derstOod what they predicted, He felt that
the heart nearest his own was counting over
the treasures of life ere it surrendered them
forever.
There was no great scene when the woman
died. 1t was evening, just as the July flow
ers were coming on. She had wept mnch in
the morning. As the day grew warm she be-
came very weak and faint, and about noon
was moved by her son from her chair to her
bed, and so died as the sun went down.
John was alone in the house when she died.
Since his return from Montreal, he had been
made to feel that he had but one friend be-
sides his mother. Only one neighbor had
called upon him, and that was Pete Searles.
He had ever proved true. But John did not
like to trouble his one friend, who lived two
miles away, to come and atay with him dur
ing the night. So he lighted a candle, took
down from a shelf little Bible and hymn
book that he and his mother had carried on
an average about four times year to a school
house used as church, some six miles away,
and so alone with the dead he spent the
hours in reading and tears and meditation.
In the morning he locked the door of his
home and walked lover to Pete's." As he
met his friend, he said in clear voice, but
with eyes averted, 'She has gone, Pete-if
you will just take the key and go over there,
I'll go down to the lake, and get the things,
I 4II