The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1878-12-10
Selert Sturg.
A MOTHERS DARING.
A SCOTCH SKETCH.

the fear OF the parish, swooped down,
and away with something in its talons.
One single, sudden female strickland
then shouts and outcries as if church
spire had tumbled down on congrega
ton at sacrament. soia, s.-.l /
"Hannah Lamond's BARN! Hannah
Lamond's bairn! p was the loud, fast
spreading cry. "The Eagle has ia en- off
Hannah Lamond's bairn!" and many
hundred feet we're in another instant hur-
rying toward the mountain.
Two miles of hill and dale and copse
and shingle and many intersectine brooks
lay between; but in an incredibly short
time the foot of the mountain was alive
with people. The eyrie was we'll known,
and both old birds were visible on the
rock edge. But who shall scale that diz-
zy cliff, which Mark Stewart, the sailor,
who had been at the storming of many
a fort, had once attempted in vain All
kept gazing, or weeping, or wringing of
hands, rooted to the ground, or running
backward or forward like SO MANY ants
essaying their new wings in discom6t-'
ure. Aaci 5eH ,09H laaE 3tlJ 19t
eWhat's the use-what's the use o.
any puir human means2 We have nae
power but in prayerp' And they knelt
down-fathers and mothers thinking of
their own babies-as If they would force
the deaf heavens to hear. ga ga
Hannah Lamond had all this while
been sitting on stone with face per-
fectly white and eyes like those of a mad
person, fixed on the eyrie.a Nobody TO-
ticed her; for strong as all sympathies
with her had been at the swoop of the
eagle, they we're now swallowed up in
the agony OF eyesight, gae aouti
"Only last Sabbath was my sweet wee
wean baptized in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Ghost!"
And ON uttering these words she flew
on through the brakes and over the huge
stones, up-up-up-faster than ever
huntsman ran into the death-feailess as
agoat playing among the precipices. No
one doubted-no one could doubt-that
she would soon be dashed to pieces
But have not people who walk in their
sleep, obedient to'the mysterious guild
ance of dreams. clumb the walls of old
ruins, and found footing, even in decrep.
itude, along the edge Of unguarded bat
Elements, and down dilapidated stair,
cases, deep as draw.wells or coal-pits
and returned with open, fixed and unsee
ing eyes, unharmed to their beds at mid
night? 1t is all the work of the soul, to
whom the body is slave; and shall moi
the agony of mothers passion-who
sees her baby, whose warm mouth has
| just left her breast, hurried off by de.
mon to a hideous death-bear her limbs
aloft wherever there is dust to dust, til
she reach that devouring den, and fiercel
and more furious than any bird of prey
that ever bathed its beak in blood, throt
tie the iends that, with their heavy wings
would fain flap her down the cliffs, ant
hold up her child in deliverance2
No stop-no stay; she knew not tha
she drew her breath. Beneath her fee
Providence fastened every root. How
was she ever to descend? That fear
then, but once crossed her heart, as up
up, up to the little image made of bel
own flesh and blood.
"The God who holds me now from
perishing-Rill not the same GodShel(
me when my child is at my. breast ?"
Down came the fierce rushing of th
eagles. wings, each savage bird daships
close TO ber head, so that she saw th
yellow of their iwrathful, eyes. All a
once they quailed and were cowed. Yell
lirg, they few. off to the stump of an asl
ljutting out Of the cliff, thousand fee
above the cataract; and the Christian
mother, falling across the eyrie, in th
| midst of bones and blood. clasped he
| child dead-dead, no doubt, but unmar
| gled and untorn, and swaddled up just q
| il was when she laid Il down asleep anon
the fresh hay id a nook Of the haryes
| field. Oh! what pang of perfect bless
| edness transixed her heart from tbs
| faint, feeble cry-"It lives! it lives !!
llives!'' And barring her bosom with lou
laughter, and eyes as dry as stones, sh
ifelt the lips of the unconscious innocer
once more murmuring at the fount of Ill
and love. =.
"Oh, Thou great, and Thou dreadfi
God, whittier, hast thou brought me ?
Oh! save me, lest I perish, even for th
own names sake! Oh, Thou who die
to save sinners, have mercy upon me!'
Cliffs, chasms, blocks Of stones, ar
the skeletons of old trees-far, far dow
and dwindled into specks thousar
creatures Of her own kind, stational
or running to and fro! Was that Il
sound OF the waterfall, or the faint ro
of voicesg Is that her native strait
and that tuft Of trees-does it tconta
the hut in which stands the cradle Of b
child? Never more shall it be rock
by her foot! Here must she die; al
when her breast is exhausted-her bah
too. And those horrid beaks, and eye
: and talons, and wings will return, ev
within the dead arms that can protect
no more!
Where, all this while, was Mark 81
:, tart, the sailor3 Halfway up the cliff
: : But his eyes had got dim and his he
.. dizzy and his heart sick; and he who b
/. often reached the top-gallant sail VIII
lg at midnight the coming of the gale "
heard afar, covered his face, with
hands and dared look no longer on
swimming heights. ~ =.
|. "And who will take care of my pc
bed ridden mother ?" thought Hams
!. who, through exhaustion of many p
. sions, could no more retain in her grs
. the hope she had cutcbed in despair.
, A voice whispered "God." She look
!. round expecting to see spirit, but no
ing moved except a rotten branch tn
under its own weight, broke off from
crumblng rock Her. eyes-by Sol
secret sympathy with the inanimate c
= iect-watched 1t fall, and It seemed
stop not far off on small platfor
Her child bound upon her shoulders
ID she knew not how or when-but it "
is safe-and scarcely daring to open |
Is eyes, she slid down the shelving roc
- and found herself on small piece
If firm root. bound soil, with the tops
h,aboo appoorino holou