The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1879-07-05
BRANDED.

at won't last long Can you bear it,
baby ?" and with wild look in her great,
brown eyes, she clasped the wee thing tight
or to her breast and went rapidly toward
the rocky ledge that hung over the ocean.
She had played here a thousand times in
her childhood; had watched the tide creep
lazily in and out on summers day, or,
wild and teinpestuous, dash ships with their
precious lives upon the rocks.
The ocean was like lover. 1t could be
all things.
"Will it be very cold for the baby my
baby-his baby2 Will he mind it much %
The birds sang sweetly, and the baby cooed
and the mild spring air brought up the
breath of the violets. For moment she
faltered. life were only birds and bios
SONS, but it was not, and, with last kiss on
her baby, and death-like grasp, leap, a
struggle, and all was over.
Missing
Grace Reeverly was missing, but the ocean
told no tales.
The little Atlantic village was stirred from
center to circumference. A lovely girl, con-
fiding in nature and pure as the snow, she
had been the pet and pride ofthe townsfolk.
Her voice was clearest in the choir of the
little church her hand was gentlest on the
head of the poorest and toughest child, and
the village schoolmaster thought she repaid
his teachings thousand fold by her intelli.
gence.
There had come young physician Of good
family to the town, a young man of manly
physique and agreeable manners. Acquant.
ance grew into love and the good people
looked on with joy that providentially theii
loved one had found one worthy other. HC
had been trained in city ways. Either wo
manwas not a sacred thing to him, or, match,
ing her artlessness with his art, he Judged
wrongly when he tested her virtue by hel
self-forgetting love. Perhaps it was not true
as Baffon says, "That every person has his
price" All may not fall under the strong.
est temptation, but must err because they
blindly trust a leader who leads over the
precipice. Is there no remedy? Mothers
must do more than they have, Girls mus
know that life is full ofquicSsands and boys
that virtue is of God, and the destroyer oft
if not always punished here, will meet a des
erved hell hereafter.
Missing The whole town knew the story
how he had deserted her, claiming that q
woman who could be won was unworthy o.
him how the day for the bridal came and
went; how Grace and her aged mother wep
and prayed how, when the baby came
she hid its darling face against her breast
so that nobody ever looked upon it save thl
mother, for, beautiful though it was, it had
his face how the spring.titne came and the
fresh May mornings, but no color came t.
her whitened cheeks, but a strange unusua
brilliancy came into her eyes, and then the
old mother was alonel
Everybody was questioned but nobody
had seen her. The aged woman crept down
to the ocean day by day, but the tide cam'
in bringing only sea weed and empty shells
One morning, far up the beach, kindly hill
den from sun and storm under clump o
trees, some boys ut play found the missing
ones. Her child was held fast in her arms
The sea weed was wound in out as though
to bind the hands still closer, lest the weak
ness Of death unlock them and let go he
treasure.
The town had a common sorrow. At th,
burial the little church was crowded. Al
the way to the graveyard that lay just abov,
the sea, where the waves sang constantly L
the sleepers, there was an unbroken process
sion. From that day no woman ever spok
to the young physician. He walked tn
streets unnoticed. He carried himself les
= proudly. Circumstances would compel hin
to seek another home. "Strange that in
country town a woman was so highly priced,
( he thought. The world was not all thus.
The aged mother soon lay beside Grac
and her baby.
The good ship Betsey heaves in sight. Tn
news went like wildfre through the town
The whaler of Captain Reeyerly-Grace'
, only brother-had been on ten years cruis'
; The crew We're wild with joy, swung thei
/ handkerchiels long before they gotinto por
hardly waiting for the pllnki and fairl
! embracing every person that came With
! their reach. The people whispered anon
5 themselves. Who could tell the captai
/ what those years had broughtY Nobody
After a few hurried directions, the bluf'an