The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-03-05

| uOOh III al tuo yCdIs tudu WOuiu AaNO
been, but for the children, very joyless
and very thankless.
"Them's Just cherubs, and he'sa brute.
He as drinks the blessed wine every sac
rament day, and should know betterP
she muttered in her wrath. Had she
been learned in hagiology, she would
have wished that her master could swal-
low spider in the holy wine like Ger
man st. Narbert, and be blessed with a
beautiful spirit ever afterward.
The day wore slowly on; snowy,
blowing, boisterous day, dark and
dreary. When twilight fell the Vicar
| had not come back. "There's reason in
roasting eggs" thought Keziah. II must
let 'em out now. I'll tell him as they've
been in all day, and he knows as me amt
a one to fib."
So she let them out. Rob rushed with
a bound and shout down the passage;
Ray came with slow step, wondering
If letting them out would get his nurse
into trouble.
Masters rare late," said the man who
did odd jobs "M'appen he'll sleep at
the Squire's@'
cay, shouldn't wonder that he do,"
answered Keziah.
The Squire's was the biggest house at
Tamsleigh, the village where the furze-
cutter, Job Stevens, lay on his death
bed.
"Sure, he's staying at Squire's, and a
more natural thing than what he often
do," she thought, as she did the bolts
and bars, and shut the shutters, and told
the odd man that be had better sleep
upon the premises, as master was away
No one felt anxious. The Vicar had
gone to Tamsleigh, and, seeing how bitter
and wild the day was, had staiid to sleep
at his old friends; what more likely?
The children had merry time while
the snow fell and the winds blew; K4ziah
was merry soul by nature, and had all
kinds Of funny stories, and, saying it was
next but one to Christmas Eve, roasted
apples for them, and stuck the apples
full of cloves and set bobbing on bowl
of currant wine in the old game that
Ben John sings of in his carol.
1t was quite late, quite eight o'clock,
W en- the children went to bed.
"And.please, God, take care Of the birds
in the snow. Amen," said Ray, at the
close OF his bedside prayers.
"Amen," said Rob, winking and
sleepy.
No one was anxious at all that night,
but when the morning came, and the
noon passed, and their father had not re
turned, great alarm spread itself from
the servants to the children.
The weather had become terrible. The
snow fell perpetually, the air was very
dark, the winds were very rough; such
a day had not been seen in Dover for
twenty years; and away where the sea
was ships and barks were tossing in the
snow storm in sore peril.
"Where can the master be?" said Kez-
iah in great perplexity. 1t would be i'm
possible to stay at the Squire's at Tams-
leigh, for the morrow was Christmas
Day, and where would the church be
without its church service2
The parish was very scattered one; a
few farms, few cottages, with miles be-
tween each, spread over the moorland,
and about the vicarage and church itself
there were but a few poor houses; the
only house of any importance was the
Squire's, over at Tamsleigh. The few
people, however, who did not dwell near,
came-dropping in as the short day wore
itself en-, and each had some darker sug-
gestion, some ghostlier remembrance
than the last to offer in consolation.
Ray stood listening with big, startled
eyes. He was happy because his nurse
had given him sieve full of grain for the
birds, yet he felt a dull sense of some
thing dreadful being near. Rob sang,
and raced, and shouted and played, at
his pleasure; the terrible snow storm
had no terrors for him.
"It is passing strange" said Keziah,
anxiously, and knew not what to do, for
it was not weather to send man or beast
over the moor, and the Vicar might only
scold if she did send, supposing that he
was safe and we'll at Tamsleigh great
hall; he always hated "a fuss"
She did not know what to do.
But at twilight, orr rather just as the
black day was merging into the yet
blacker night, and the mounds of snow
were rising higher and higher against
windows and doors, there came poor
old peddler who had struggled through
storm with his pack on his back, and
was half frozen, and begged shelter.
He was man we'll known in the dis
trict. They had HIM in and set him in
the chimney corner, and gave him muled
wine aud the promise Of a bed; but
scarce had he come to his full senses out
of his cold and fright than he asked for
the Vicar, and when he heard that as yet
the master of the house was not at home,
he got up in his agitation, though his
limbs were stiff as statues with rheuma-
tism.
"But I passed his Reverence yester-
eve, coming for home above Tamsleighp
he shouted. "The Lord save us! the
Lord save us. Sure as l be living soul,
he's lost On the moor"
The few neighbors who were gathered
in the kitchen screamed aloud, and the
children listening grew pale.