Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1880-03-31
The StOne.CniterS,S Story.

D. less, from long custom, OI Inc solemn sig
niiicance of the letters he was cutting in
the white marble. The June sun was
nearly at the end of the days journey,
sinking slowly to rest upon the bosom of
the broad Atlantic, whose waves washed
the shores of the little seaport town Of
| MonklOn. A stranger handsomely dress
ed in gray, with large, lustrOus brown
eyes, came to the fence that was around
The yard where the stone-cutter worked,
and read the lettering almost completed,
upon the tombstone:
HIRAM GOLDBY,
! Aged 50,
LOST AT SEA, JANUARY. 1866.
The last six was nearly completed. A
strange pallor gathered for II moment upon
the strangers face, and then he drew Il
! long, deep breath, and said
" Is not ten years long time TO be cut
| ting letters on Il tombstone, friends'
En-, sir?'
The stone-cutter looked, shaded his eyes
with his brown hand, as he turned his face
to the setting sun.
{" THIS is 1876" was the grave reply,
land Hiram Goldby must have been ten
J ears under the waves"
We'll, sir, that's the question-is he
there?
Is he thereof Your stone tells US he
is, and has been for ten years"
Yes, sir, SO it does-so it does. And
yet she has ordered it. She came over II
week or SO back with a worried look upon
her sweet face that have never seen any
thing but patient in ten long years, and
she said to me- You may cut stone,
Davy, she says, and put it up in the
church-yard, and l don't want to see it.
IL pay you whatever you choose to ask,
Davy,' she says; but he's not dead, and
don't want tombstone Lor, mum,
says |, he'd Il turned up all these years if
he was not dead But she shook her pref
ty head, the prettiest | have ever seen,
sir, and she said: My heart never told
me that he was dead, Davy, and I'll never
believe it till my heart tells me so.'"
" His sweelheart?" questioned the
stranger.
I" His. wife, sr-his loving, faithful
wife, that had poverty, and loneliness
and misery, her full share, and might ha
bettered herself"
" How was that?"
" Mr.. Miles, sir, the richest shpowner
uG NdllCu DtlltHlll tOl StNtll
long years, trying to win her. Then he
said that she was free, even if Hiram came
back"
"Enoch Arden" muttered the stranger.
" What did you say, sir?'
" Nothing, nothing. What answer did
the widow make, MIR. Milee?h
- If Ililam's dead said she, I'm his
faithful widow while | live. If Iiiram's
living, I'm his faithful wife. Maybe you
are from the city, sir, and have heard the
story of our Pea.l? ?"
What story is that?''
{" Well, sir, it's been told many times,
more particularly in the last year. hut
you re we come 10 what | know of it.
There. that SIX is done, and III leave the
Scripture text till morning. |: You II
come to the gateway and take seat on
some of the stones, IN tel! you, that is If
you care to hear it,"
&" do care was the grave reply; -
want very much to hear the story
Maybe you're some kin to the Pearl OF
Monkton-thats what they call Mrs.
Godby hereabouts. L. is "a matter of thirty
tlIree years back, Sir, that there was Il
wreck oil Mon klon rocks, that you can see
from here, SIT, now that the tides low
Cruel rocks, they are, and many u wreck
they We seen, The more The pity. You see
them, sr?"
" see lhemn
Well, sir, this one wreck. thirty-three
years ago, there WAS nothing washed
, a, hore but bit of u bahy-gr three or
four years old, with II skin like lily leaf,
and great black ewes. Hiram Goldby
Il. II Ia, .l
= twelve years, strong and tall, and he car
: ried the child in his arms to his mother.
You may see the cottage, sir, the second
= white one on the side of the hill.'
+ see it,
Well, Hiram took the baby there, and
II Mrs. Goldby was the same rs mother to
e her-a good woman, God bless her soul
Il the Widow Goldoy."
:, - Is she dead, thenw
VI "Aye, sir, six years agone. The baby
5 | was telling you Of, sir, talked II loreigr
IS lingo, and was dressed in rich clothes
:; that must have cost Il power of money
u But never would Hiram or the widow sci
T. them, putting them up carefully in cas-,
81 the child was ever looked for. She wa
Il that pretty, sir, and that dainty, that every
: body called her Pearl. though she was no
e like our girls, but afraid, always dead
IS afraid of the SEA. have seen her cenc
g her mite of u hand and strike at it, for sb
+ had II bit of temper in her, though moth
's ing TO harm
N "When Hiram made his first voyage, fo
Is they were all seaflring men hereabouts
X and there was nothing for II lad to do bu
ship, and Pearl was Just Il little washet
OF out lily, affecting until he came hom
IN again And it was so whenever he wen
for they were sweethearts from the fir
ne time he nestled her baby face on his brea,
le when he picked her up from the wrecl
VI She was sixteen when she was married, 9
m near rs we could guess; Hiram was ma
l9 of twenty-four. She prayed him stay ;
K home then, and he staid year, but b
~ fretted for the sea, and he went agail
thinking, spose, that his wife would g
ut used to it,as all wives hereabouts must d,
G. But she never did. It. was just pitiab
Sc to see her 90 about us white as corps
of when Hiram went away, never lookln
to ut the sea without shudder like "A deaf
he chill All through the war it was ju
is awful for Hiram enlisted on board NAL
IT. o-war. and Pearl was just Il shadow wht
wv he came home the last time"
80 AllCl lhC Will
ld "Ycs sir; but he made no money of al
on account. and so he went again, after sta,
he ing ut home long time. Well, he new
1e- came back. 'Twasn't no manner of u
a a-teling Pearl he was lost; she'd ju
ui shake her pretty head and say: He'll con
nd back Not mite of mourning would 81
as wear even after his own mother gave hi
'ss up and put on black; for. sir, it stands
I'm reason he's dead years ago"
DC at seems So"
up "Of course it does; nobody else doub
'es it but Mrs G6ldby. Old Mrs. Goldby
er. last words We're, I'm going to meet Hiram
of and they say the dying know. But ev
IN then that did not make Pearl think so. S
wore mourning for her who had been t
only mother she had knowed of, but
weeds. Weeds was for widows,s she said,al
she wasn't widow"
d" But the stoner'
"Well. sir. I'm coming to that A ye
,ak ago, sir, fine gentleman from Fran
if came here hunting for II child lost on tt
l. al L..