Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1875-01-08
Original.
For the Montgomery County Sentinel.
MY CHILDHOOD H0ME-AS SEEN
IN A DREAM.

had dream last night. | dreamed
was Jew; that the long expected sum
mons came, the lost tribes of Israel were
called home, back home to Jerusalem.
A Il was hustle and commotion, old men
and old women, young men and young
women, the large and small were hurry
ing into the vast assemblage and eager to
start upon the pilgrimage. 1t vas a
startling and suggestive scene--associa-
tons of a life time were to be broken !;
attachments severed and perhaps forever.
The final hour for starting came, and
amidst universal shout Of Joy ard glad
ness, the great concourse turned towards
the Eastern horizon and moved in the
direction of the land of their kindred.
The route lay through what appeared to
be boundess plain of unsurpassed
beauty and fertility-large groves of
graceful trees offered shade and seemed
to invite rest for the weary, herds of cat
tie could be seen browsing in every di-
rection or idly resting along the banks of
clear aud limpid streams, birds were war;
bling their sweetest notes from every
tree-top, flowers Of the rarest and most
delicate hucs were filing the air with de-
licious perfume, everything that met the
eye or sounded upon the ear was of joy
and beauty.
Night came, and such night ST.
lence did seem to hang trembling !!
the sky was deep cerulean I; the little
stars as they modestly peeped from be-
hind the curtain commenced at once to
Irvine wreaths as though in honor Of the
advent Of some pleads of unusual splen-
dor. From where the horizon spans the
earth gracefully and elegantly, like some
faultlcss beauty as she throws aside the
lattice bars of the boudoir appeared the
Queen of Night | laid down to rest and
as | pillowed my head upon the green
earth, my eyes opened upon the spangled
dome of heaven; and in the few moments
that interviewed before sleep, what con-
tinent of memory thought had traversed.
The stars that looked down upon me in
the calm hours Of that night, were the
same that had looked down upon me 10
the land Of the stranger they had
watched me in health, in sickness, in sor-
SOW. in hope, in the hour of prosperity
and in the darkness of despair; they had
been with me in youth and through life !;
they told me Of privations, Of suferings,
of trial and of prayer; they told me of
the many happy moments Of greeting and
the agonies Of parting, they told me of
disappointments Of virtue and vice, they
told me of friends and enemics-fricnds
who had proved false and treacherous--
enemies who had followed and bounded
me to the last; they had witnessed reso-
lutions formed, promises made; they
had seen those resolutions broken and
those promises disregardcl. Again and
again had these stars spoken to me. but
never before had they so softened and
subdued my iron nature; like some guar
dian angel they had followed every foot
step Of my wanderings and now at last
they were watching over me on my re-
turn home deep and unbroken sleep
followed, all was profound forgetfulness.
awoke from that sleep and found that
| had undergone transformation; |
was not jew, but was myself was
standing near the old playground Of my
boyhood, and as my eyes wandered over
that ground that was still so dear to me,
and whose every inch of soil had its in
nocent little story Of pleasure or romance,
| exclaimed, that time. which so rap
idly and cruelty destroys the mighty
monuments of empires had on this fa-
vored spot to which bad came, left
few traces. as though to perpetuate their
tender associations to the last hour Of my
existence" Many Of the old trees un-
der whose shade | had oft and oft again