Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-08-28
sleigh-ti4e AID to spshd thtee whole even:


the prettiest girl on the river.
But Mary F. was not proud girl,
nor did she want feeling. Her character
needed only to be aroused by something
new or exciting, and it would soon give
evidence of as much feeling as is compa-
tihlc with safety. It resembled that clear
and placid lake, somewhere in the inte-
rior Of Vermont, which had slept on in
beauty and repose, Until some accident
caused its waters to break away, when it
suddenly rushed from its basin, tore its
way over the surrounding country, and
was finally merged into river that bore
its impatient waters to the bosom of the
sea. There are few Of us who can say
what may be the resulting destiny which
some latent principle or energy in our
own characters will produce. We pass
the first years of life Ill Indifferent re-
pose; accident rouses us from this tor
por, and we 60 rushing on to the great
ocean of Eternity, in that path which the
headlong intensity ard weight of our own
feelings ploughs through the obstacles in
our way, to be once more at rest and at
peace.
Very early the next morning after their
arrival, the strangers left the house and
took their way into the woods, carrying
the trunk with them.
They were gone nearly the whole day,
and when they returned in the afternoon,
Medad F., who was standing before
the house, observed that they brought
back the trunk, which was evidently
much less weighty than it had been. The
leader of the three took the old deacon
aside, and told him that he found it
necessary to change his plans; that in
stead of going directly to Canada, it was
necessary for him to send his men back
to the sea-coast to get new instructions
from his employers, whom he represented
to be some English merchants, who were
sending him on a secret expedition into
the then territories of the French, and
that, if possible, he should be glad to re-
main there, until his men should return
promising to remunerate the deacon tor
entertaing him. The deacon gave re-
luctant conceht, and the two men did not
return. In the meantime, the stranger
had become interested in Mary, and the
daily habits Of the family, as well as the
intercourse with her, began to soften the
distant character of his manners, and to
relax the lofty expression of his counte-
nance. Mary become more and more Gu
RIOTS, or I should say, ercited about him.
His strange and foreign air, the energy
and fire that seemed to Turk in his man
ners, and the mystery under which h
had come there reused and fixed her whole
attention. She thought it all very strange,
and thought him the most of character
that had ever crossed her simple path,
and from Ter very wondetment ana Gu
rlosity, she becaine fascinated. This
worked an entire change in her whole APP
pearance. She was constantly occupied ;
her mind had become reused and kept
her constantly IN motion, and she could
only relieve it by having something to do,
when she was not listening to the marvel
GUS stories of the stranger about foreign
countries.
The stranger was absent in the woods,
for considerable time every day. What
lie did, where he went and for what pur-
pose, no one knew. Mary's curiosity be-
came so great on the subject Of the expe-
ditions into the same wood, that she
could not resist the impulse Of following
bin one morning tor a short distance
only, in order to Sc whether he went far
from the house, for she observed that he
never seemed fatigued on returnieg, after
an absence OF Il whole day. According
ly, short time after the Stranger had
gone, she tri pped lightly along narrow
path, made by the sheep, into the woods,
and after crossing a small brook, soon
discovered the stranger seated on flat
stone that lay embedded in a bank, and
withvarious tools about him. He started as
he saw her coming forward and cndeav-
ored to throw some light brush over the
stone, before she could discovered what
he was engaged in. But she saw the
movement, and told him if he was pre-
pairing a gravestone, she should see it
some time or other in the burying ground
and he might as we'll let her see it now.
The stranger withdrew the bushes he had
thrown over the stone, and discovered a
number of letters and other characters
engraved upon it in no order or language
that Mary could understand.
"What's this nonsense 2" asked she.
"Sit down here answered the stranger
"and you shall hear"
But what he told, or what he SAID in
those few minutes that they remained to-
gether, and whether it was really non
sense, know. not, only when Mar went
back to the house the stranger was her
avowed lover, and she had promised.
About fortnight after the interview
the good deacon, his wife and son were
surprised one morning that Mary did not
make her appearance, and that the stran-
ger was also absent. The old lady went
to Mary's room, and found she had gone
somewhere, I'd the strangers room was
found equally tenantless. Medad was
instantly dispatched up to his Aunt
Keziah's to see if Mary was there; but
Aunt Keziah had not seen her since last
Sunday afternoon, coming out of meeting
| she had evidently gone off with the strang
e, and when the deacon found, on chai1
in the strangers room, purse of money
with slip Of paper, saying that it was
left as remuneration for his board, thu
old man felt his heart sink within HIN
at the thought that he should never SCI
his daughter again And truly enough
nothing was ever seen of Mary F. b,
her feiends from that tine to this. On,
Of the neighbors who had been down t.
the river that evening about dark, tt
catch some eels, said he saw quite
number of canoes at the landing place
and several Indians had been seen prowl
! ing about the deacon's house. But NJ
trace of the fugitives could be discovered
until one day IN Indian came and hand
ed a letter to the, deacon and Instant,
disappeared. The old gentleman put Of
his spectacles and read a few words
which assured him that. his daughte
would be in safe hands, and that her de
parture was entirely voluntary. .aa,:
But the good old deacon was sadly dis
! turbed at the itica Of his only daughter
going off with man whom he feared wa
no better than he should be. Indeed, i
would have gone to your very heart t
hear the old man, when they were all as
sembled at their evening devotions, put
ting up his prayers for Tat erring CHILD
4 who had gone forth from her father
house, to wander they knew not whithe,
| and tn hccOme thew knew not whaf Rn