The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1880-05-19

Justify again-called, and called. with
furious and half frenzied cries, till her
voice refused to come for more. Plainly
as she could see them, looking up, the
children could not see her for the
interlacing and protruding vines and
branches. But they could hear
her all too well-a viewless voice;
it reused all their little imagina-
tions, and they scampered away
as fast as their feet could carry them, in
amazement and fright, to tell of the
mysterious sounds they had heard.
"Now / must die" said poor little
Angel; and she fell back in her nest,
worn out with her frantic eXertions.
|" suppose there is some purpose in it.
If sparrows don'C fall to the ground un-
Needed" she said, "God knows I am
here" And it would have been very
much to her surprise, if it had been pos
sible TOR her to know it, that here she
fell asleep.
The sun was still shining brightly
when she awoke; but she was unable to
tell whether she had lost herself for a
few minutes, or had slept over night and
it was now next day. She felt so faint,
however, that she was quite sure it was
next day. "And he hasn't come for me
yet," she sighed. There is a great
deal of vitality in young people," she
said, and / am only seventeen" And
then in spite of her effort at rssigna-
tion, tears welled over her eyes, to think
of the light of her sweet-seventeen years
so early extinguished. She put her
hand into her pocket for her handker-
chief, to wipe the tears away, before she
remembered that she had hung it out as
a signal of distress; and she drew forth,
instead, letter, one that Mr.. Wilston
had slipped into her hand the evening
before, and that she had crumpled up,
hardly glancing at it, and had then
taken with her in the morning, thinking
she would read it in the wood.
What did he write her such letters
forP Why did he want to love herp
Why dio he urge it again and again?
She was only child; she had just be-
gun to taste the sweetness of life. Why
couldn't he let her alone for little
while, till she had looked on her sur
roundings and seen what the world
was; had had little freedom and
pleasure-at any rate, till she needed
himp
Till she needed him the next
thought came All, Heaven! did she
not need him nowP And storm of
tears nswered for her. "Oh. if he did
love me, if he really did love me, he
would know what / am suffering; he
would come and hell me and save me.
1t would break his heart to see mem
she sobbed. 1t would break mine to
see him So" And then all at once she
paused in her crying and exclaiming,.
and opened her brimming brown eyes
wide to the sunshine. What! Would
it really break her heart to see Mr..
Wilston suffering SOP Would she carep
Did she-could She Oh, if she never
saw him again at all Was it possible
that, after all, she really, really Was
itpossible that she-she loved Mr. Will
STOMP
Ard ifhe never knew!-if he never
knew! How good he had beer to herl
how patient with her! what noble
fellow he was how tonderly, how pas
sionately, his eyes had followed herl If
he was ugly-well, she had never
thought so. Now that she should not
see his face again, it seemed beautiful to
her. 1t was the 6rst face she should
look for when they both woke at last
in the life beyond this. And what a
tor rwaTd and perverse child she had
beenl What had he ever seen in her to
lover But he did-he did love her. And
she hugged her little hands over her
heart, suddenly conscious that the fact
was precious.
Well, if she must die, she must. But
here was a mercy in the very act of
death. 1t had been given her to love. 1t
seemed as if the Angel of Death had
touched her heart with the living fire.
This great JOY, this great rapture had
buoyed her heart over the abyss. There
f~r ,,1
the first moment of her awakening love,
like winged spirit soaring over death,
the seraph springing from the grave.
"My love is my SOUL" she cried, land
my dying sets it free"
And now if he never knew! But he
should know. Some day they would
find her, and the letter in her hand.
pencil-case, and addressed it to Mr.. Will
ston, aud wrote with her trembling fin
gers underneath: II never knew /
loved you. You must forgive me. But
do-indeed I do. l am going to die
presently. If had lived, would have
tried to be good wife to you" And
she signed herself his angel, and lay
back in her nest, half content.
She lay there little while, looking up
at the blue of the sky rising from the
red and purple of the rocks, with the
white flashes of wings across 1t, her
mind so made up to the inevitable that
she had hardly any fear; and she began
softly singing a hymn to herself. "If
mans love is so precious" she was
thinking, "what must Gods love bea'
In the midst of this tranquil moment,
however, she was reused by singular
vibration running through the stout
vine ropes of her cradle, and quite
another line of thought as instantane-
ously suggested itself. She had been
fully prepared tor this fainting, pain
less passing away, high up in air, al
most in the blue sky itself; but falling
on the jagged rocks and boiling water
all that was horrible, and she felt her
heart shaking.
All, yes, certainly the vine ropes were
shaking, too. Were they looseningP-
were they fallingP Oh, what was thisF
And some great Tapping object was fly
/ fno OunF baYs NTH a qarnora.-an ~ Il