The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1877-05-30

it quivsr.i in hsr wJrls anl shook her
trembling lips.
The chill boxed at her with earnest
eyes; then he came to her side and slid
his little hantl softly into hers.
Granny" he said, 1--WE will forget it
together
When she felt the clasp of those tiny
fingers, soft aud warm, holding her wick
ed hand, she tremble | and cried out that
God was too g)ol to her, evil as she had
been all her lie! Then the child TO com
fort her, .moothed her cheek with caress-
ing touch, and whispered You will
be good now, granny, and God will for
give YOU"
He .s too young TO know what evil
was, and he had no loathing for her sin,
her age, or her withered uglincSs; tender
and cires>ing and forgiving to all, like
the angel by the stream who had laid his
hand upon her head.
Telling her in baby words that he would
have her Tor mother, because his own
mother was so far away, he climbed on
her knee and showed her his swelled foot
asking her to 'make it well.
With heart that melted from tears to
smiles she listened and carefully bathed
eaa4 blniaged the little foot, then took
him in her arms again, he prattling all
the while; first OF the sea fight, show
ing her, with great round eyes full of
terror and tiny hand outspread, how the
men had fought, then, changing to a sad
tone, he said his father had fought too
and died After this, moments silence,
like a shadow, touched his lips, but re
Numbering his little sister at home and
| The pretty white rabbit she had promised
/ to tend in his absence, he laughed
/ again, and said he would soon go back
to France to see her and take old granny
with him.
Thus talking he fell asleep, and she
/ laid him gently ON the bed Of leaves and
watched him as he slept. The moon
| light as ii cleaned between the honey
/ suckle branches, made the child look pale,
and then she sighed, but the cracking
fire as it rose and fell on the hearth lent IA
ruddy glow to his fair cheek, and seeing
/ this she smiled
All that summer time the child aud the
old woman went hand in hand through
the wood He soon got to know where
the birds sang the merriest, where the
flowers grew the brightest, and he laughed
! joyfully as he made granny reach him
down the high branches oi honay-uckle
and wild clematis which hung from many
n tall tree. They took hon" such big
punches of flowers every ny that the
cave was gay with them as Il fairy bower.
And in remembrance of the French rabbit
he soon had little English one, for which
the oil woman never forgot to gather the
fresh leaves it liked.
BY her own labor, too, in collecting
wood for the peasants and herbs for the
sick she earned enough to buy goat,
and all its milk was for the child. The
coarsest food had served for her, but now
she made rude oven in the rock to bake
him better bread than the rough people
could give. And she spun and knitted
for aim for hours rs he played on tht
sands and she sat on the rocks near by
The beach was his favorite spot, and the
two miles were only play when she car
red him.
And 50 the summer passed away, anC
the autumn also, with its rich berries, it
wild fruits and showers Of haz i nuts
and then the winter came. And thu
child was still the little bird Of he
dwelling, singing in the snow as he hac
sung in the sunshine. He went every
where with her in her long walks to fetcl
meal to bake and wool to spin, sometime
sitting on her shoulder or held in hel
arms, and sometimes running by he
side, an always bright with happiness
He saw thous md things the old wO
man had never seen before a new
bright flower, a curiously twisted leaf
shining pebble or a broken shell; Blu
whatever it was that his earnest eyes fas
tened on in such eager wonder he would
have it, whether it were high up SOM
thOrny bank or deep below on the rock
and shingles. Those little nimble fee
surmounteI all difficulties, and the swift
hands-which made the old woman
laugh they were so small-seized tn
treasure and held it fast, while witt
curious looks he seemed to search for III
secret hidden in it.
, With eyes that smiled the old woman
watched him, and in places he could no
reach, she put her basket down and wen
for him, often over the sharp juttip:
rocks, where some pebble glis.ened it
( the sun, while he, with little hand out
stretched, pointed anxiously, his childis
= voice crying in eager accents "There
} dear granny, there that's 1.-THE shining
t one !"
Alas, she could not bring the sunshin
with it, and when the stone lay dull an
dark in his tiny palm, his blue eyes fel
on it wistfully, and he would ask wher
all the glory was gone.
Pointing upward to the sun she woul
tell how he had lent some of his bright
ness to it for Il time, making WORTHLESS
pebble seem a gem. And the child
turning and twisting it within his ros
fingers, would gaze upward at the dazzling
sun and again at the dull stone with Look
of awe and wonder.
The suIumer came again, and the oil
woman thought the child must now b
D five years old and should be- stronge
than he was last year, but it was not So
E He no longer laughed so merrily wheI
she shook down the June roses on him
or threw the huneysuckles into his lap
e and on the shore, instead of building hi
5 mimic forts and castles, he would com
| and rest his head upon her knee and gaz
d with fixed eyes over the blue waters.
4 She knitted faster; she would not nc
g tice this for a long while. He would pla
! the better to morrow, she told herself
p But the morrow never came.
"Why look over the sea so earnestly
e my child?" she asked at last, and sh
e made her voice quite gay and young
. France is there, and my little sister,
( he said, shading his eyes with his ham
+ To gaze out further still. II should like
e grauny-I should dearly like to see then
; again before die"
0 She caught him up In her arms an
I hurried away, but she saw that his blu
eyes looked steadfastly at the sea, till tn
tall hedges and trees hid it from his sight