American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1878-07-06
STRANDED LIVES.

JIG VIII clustering n1gnL not many
years ago q stage-coach made short
detour through one of the mountainous
regions of Pennsylvania, and stopped at
the house of the preacher. 1t was an
old brown house at the foot of sterile
rock, seemingly as-remote from civiliza-
ton as the heart of an Arabian desert.
The Rev. Paul Hume had already spent
here, SO far as vitality went, the best
years of his life. He had been of late
glad to find the old rebellious longings,
the fierce ambition, even the fretting dis
content and latent hope for the future,
becoming more dim and dull, and he be-
gan to believe, as the years went by, he
would be able to live out those allotted
to him honorably at least, and in meas
ure resignedly. He had given up the
old foolish fondpess for putting fire and
fervor in a long Sunday discourse. He
was quite content that some of his con-
gregation should sleep quietly through
the sermon, and others ruminate over
whatever fieshly aggravation or joy that
was uppermost in their minds. Proba-
zjbly his sole spiritual companion, even
:. in the degree suited to her capacity, was
his serving-womnn Hagar-black,
straightforward, stoical and reticent,
but given to bursts of religious enthusi-
asm tlazt in a measure relieved the dull
monotony of the life they lived there
alone together.
HagAr ought to have known her mas
ter better than to believe he would re-
fuse succor to any helpless fellow-crca-
ture, and it was foolish for her to short
en- the chain that barred the door that
night in March when the driver of the
coach begged that they would take tenn
porary care of a sick passenger. She
had been getting worse and worse, the
driver said, for the last ten miles, and,
"seein' there was no hotel nor hospital,
nor nothin' handy" he had made bold
to fetch her to the parsons house. But
Hagar shook the crimson turban on her
fine Egyptian head, and declared it was
not the parsons business to risk his life
with pestilential fevers.
Even as she spoke, however, the par
son had unloosed the chain, and gone
out in his scant gown and close cap to
the coach, and lifted the poor woman
out in his strong arms. Hager fol-
lowed him and his burden up the stairs,
and as the light from her candle fell
upon tangled curls and braids, bits of
ribbon, and long strip of embroidered
lace that hung from the head of the sick
woman, a gold chain about her neck,
and other personal gewgaws that ap-
pealed to the contempt of Hagar, she
muttered to herself that her master had
had quite enough of these miserable
fummeries for the rest of his natural
life.
The lady's trunks had been bumped
in after her, and presently they had to
be pried open, for the lady's lips and
eyes were closed, and she could not tell
Hagar where the key lay to these fine
treasures. But Hagar went to work
with will, and before the preacher had
saddled his gray cob and started off on
, his five-miIe journey across the noun
tain for doctor, Hagar had put aside
the ribbons and bits of travelling adorn.
ment for a long white muslin robe
= which struck the preachers heart with
a chill somehow, and made him speed
the pony on his way.
The doctor had some broken bones to
set, and told Hume, frankly, that so far
as fevers and disorders of that kind went,