The Newtown bee., 1878-05-02

Heaven pity her? Have the sweet April | skies become brass, 10 shut out her cries for help? Has God forgotten to be gracious? The little 0nc grOws weaker {: ne cannot hold up his head. Another terrible night; he noans pitcollsly; hC ial5 into C Il. ulsions; the next day he dies. All day she carries the litttc life less body in her arms and all the night, beneath the far-olf, upitying stars, she holds it to her bosom. Poor woman We do not know what lesson was meant to her by the good Father. But perhaps she has known long since; perhaps at this very moment she thanks and adOre3 him for that great and sore distress, of which we cannot even lear, at thiI far remove of time. without hCurt-achc.
 She carried the little Cead burden day after day, until the purple hue of decay wa5 settling rapidly over it, and she felt, with a EElng Nt her heart, that Shc must bury it. Then she looked about for q spot where she might dig the tiny grave 50 deep that the wolf should not scent it out. Weak a3 sine was, this was no easy task, but in her WandGrings she came upon Il giant tree, uptOrn at some former time by a hurricane. Iu the soft earth where the r, O.s had lain,. she SC lopcd the babys resting place, and making it soft with moss, covered the cold httIc form forever from her sight. Then she sat down by the grave
 in u StupOr of grief. Hour after hour passed, how long time she knew not, when sine rose to her feet to commence again the dreadful pilgrimage. Then she noted everything about the spot.
 Here wits a rock; there stood an i'm mcnse hcmlOck. Yes, sEC wuu Il know the place. She could find il easily with l Robert. Then began the struggle ! through the wilderness. Day after day,
 week after week she pressed on. Her shoes were worn to fragments, and fell 1 from her feet. Her garments were torn to tutters. But the days grew warmer, and the fever that WI. burning in her veins made even the soft showers that fell upon her welcome. First she ate i the b.ids of trees and tho bark of the i black birch. Pre- ,ently she began to : find young chcckerberry leaves, and now and then she came upon a part ridges nest, and grcedily sucked the eggs. After q time there were red ruSp- berries and black thinbicbcrric5 in the woods, and then she knew it was July. ] The trees had now put on afre,5h their beautiful garments. But for the deliri- ous poetry that one finds in the wo ,ds, sauntering cut from busy life for an hour, she cared nothing She saw noth- ing but trees, trees trees, in tntermin- able SuCrCs jon, in bcwiltlcli z Samc- Ee;s. It seemed years, yes, ages ago, that she swept the hearth with il birch broom and sung the Iahy to sleep in Roberts cabin. Her mind grew be- wildcrcd, still she went on, on, on. When she came to a large stream she went up towards its s1uicc till she could wade across it. So she said; and she arerrcrf that she never crossed any stream wider than q brook. She paid no attention to sun or moon as a guide, or indications of the points of compass, but she must have taken a noithwt ster- lY and then d LCrt lcast,ry C e. There was Black l;iycr, Mill River,
 Watcrqucchy, White, Waits, Wells, flowing into the Connccti IL from the Vermont side; but she constantly as- serted that she saw none of them. / Through July and August therc were berries, and by means of these shc su5- 1 timed what little life was left to her. i And now the naples began to take on ; the gorgeous crimson and th3 silver
 birchcs to wear tie pale gold of Sep i tembcr; the birds were leaving the
 frrest; still she went on; on, on. Oc- ca .icnrlly the mpscs of: br;n'lled fun
 among the branches, or a. black bear . [ lrlCd out of her path, afraid Of the hu-
 man form: but no human being did she ever meet. and long long lcfOre, human
 voices had ceased to calihcr name. Was she all al0nc on the earth, and was the
 earth but one vast wilderness without
 outlet. without clearing or settlement:
 Had God ta ling awayall fife but that ci l brutcs, and forgotten her, or ordained
 her to wander f0rver? Tiampil 2,
 tramping, tramping, with feet hl, linz
 and cracked at first and afterwald cal
 l0uscI: naked, or nearly so, knowing
 nothing of time or place, she was fast
 becoming idiotic. When she was hungry
 she sought for food, but the great idea ! lingering in her mind was that of press
 ing on. s SEce the luxuriancc of summer had filled the forest with ferns end new
 growth of brier and mderlrdsl', there was more difficulty in passing through But sho had become accus. omed to tho
 rough work, and the frenzy became a'
 last steady, const nt habit; the latol
 of lie to her.
 One day in October the inhabitants o
 the village of Charle5town, N. H., wat
 startled into the widest excitement, bN
 seeing q naked, emaciated woman, witt
 her hair streaming upon her shoulders
 walk with bewiidered gaze along thtii
 street. She told them thlt she Wa
 Robert Harris wife. and she was lost.
 Robert Harris's wife, who disappear
 ed from the opposite side of the river il i Apr;lr' exclaimed the villagers. N How
 has she crossed the Connecticut? Where
 has she been all this time: But sle told them she had eve crossed tic
 Connecticut. And she had been lost ii
 the woods all this time. There was nc
 lack of hospitality; tho wanderer was
 Immediately clad, and fed, and cared fol
 to the utmost. Volunteers went at oncs
 and brought her husband, for the stor,
 of his bereavement WAS well-known of
 the Charlestown side nf the river. w can only imagine the meeting. and wha
 tears were slled at the thought of thai i little fer saken grave by the uproote'
 tree. But it is said that ioy-bells wef'