New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-14

excessive love ZOE MS CnllUk00 Wao ~ &Eo0V
a. ever, he, urged by his wife, performed
the duties Of his vocation with more persis-
tency than usual. In short time the little
family was again surrounded by the plain
comfort of home, and the prudent wife
began to lay up the traditional something
for rainy day"
- In this manner winter, with scarcely per-
ceptible change, passed into spring, and to
crafty his great desire to be with his chill
dren, Rupert began to make his holidays
more frequent. His little son was now
seven years old and his daughter four, and
two more interesting children could scarcely
be found within the broad limits of our
land. They wore not only beautiful but
good, and the fathers love for them was
little less than idolatry. Their innocent
prattle was to him the sweetest of sweet
music, and in their amusements he partici-
pated with more than the zest Of childhood.
One Sunday evening, as the little family
was seated together at the domestic board.
thunder storm, 60 common throughout
the South, burst in mad fury upon Algiers.
and continued its duration for nearly an
hour. At first the children were alarmed
by the vivid flashes Of lightning, and awed
by the startling rumble of "heaven's dread
artillery" but their alarm soon gave way
before the habitual merriment which was
their wont in the presence Of their father.
The gloom without, contradictory in it's in
tense darkness and nomentary CLEANS Of
dazzling brightness, could not long over
shadow the sunny smiles of children so
lovable, SO loving, and so loved. When the
storm was at it's height, md little Lizzie
was nesting in her fathers bosom, young
Sylvester took book. presented to him on
the previous Saturday, and seated himself
by light in the chimney corner. As he
did go he was excited to laughter by q play
full remark Of his little sister, and just at
that moment vivid flash of lightning ea-
tered the apartment, followed almost in
stantly by o defening thunder. crash. The
light on the stand. beside which the boy
was seated, was extipguished, and when
another was procured he was still seated
there with sunny smile upon his face.
'.Foolish boyr exclaimed his mother,
"what do youl Why mock our alarm at
such a time as this''
Still sat the boy with the sunny smile on
his face. as if transformed into monument
Of laughter. He moved not; answered not.
All had felt the shock; but to him it had
been translation from time into eternity,
and one so sudden as to arrest the smile
upon his lips and the deepened dimple on
his rosy cheeks. In the midst of his mirth
the fiery shaft had burst from the bosom
of the storm-cloud, aud, as If IN mockery
of death, a look of laughter was fixed upon
his face.
When the terrible reality became known,
the bereaved father was all but frantic.
He questioned even the providence of God,
by which he had thus been afflicted, and
refused to be cOmforted. because the child
was not. In the laughter of that dead face,
80 unchanged, go beautiful, and withal, so
lifeless. there was that which reminded
him of joyous hours in the past. and the
remembrance made the desolstion of the
present more sadly terrible, So fixed
smile on the face Of one so dearly loved,
gave to grief its bitterest contrast and most
direful emphasis. Even the mother was
aroused into strong expressions of maternal
hove, though ner grief was tame beside that
of either her husband or her remaining
child. To be thus suddenly bereaved Of
the family branch on whi-h hung so many
budding hopes, was indeed painful.
Itwas fearful tack to sit with that blight
ed blossom during that long, dark night,
the winds sobbing without and the skies
weeping as if IN sympathy. The smile that
Knocked the mourners was pure and sweet
enough to be an angels, but they knew
that ere many hours, when dust and ashes
claimed their own, il would be extinguished
in the silence and darkness Of the tomb.
After the narrow house had been pre-
pared and the smiling dead was laid away
tor that sleep which knows no waking upon
earth, there was q sad void as well in Ru-
pert's household as his heart. The child's
grief was sorrow for the l0ss of pretty
playmate; but such grief though deep at
arst. soon loses its pang in the constant
changes of life's young dream; the mothers
was that of woman who knows that ex-
istence is not all sunlight, and is neither
oyerjoyed by blessings nor seriously de-
pressed by everyday calamities; while the
fathers, on the contrary. was such as car
ried chill to the very citadel Of life, and
made existence torture.
After weary weeks of mourning, change
seemed gradually effected. The love of the
dead boy was transferred to the living girl,
and she became to her fond father an OBJ
ject of worship rather than of mere pater-
nal regard. 1t was pain to be absent from
her, even during the hours Of labor, and
only value in his eyes was to supply her
real or imaginary wants. As a man and
father he erred in his conduct toward his
child, though this weakness in the matter
seemed almost holy in its extreme tender.
ness and unquestionable sincerity.
At length summer came, and Rupert,
with his wife and child, moved from Algiers
to a small house in the First Municipal
District of New Orleans. He still worked
It his trade. whenever q satisfactory job
presented itself, but the great delight of his
life was to be with bis little Lizzie, to stroll
with her through unfrequented streets, and
play with her at his own humble home.
Having no other companionship the child
soon acquired those peculiarities known in
domestic circles as cold fashioned" Only in
her beauty and her innocence was she like