The National tribune., 1881-10-08
For THE NATIONAL. TRIBUNE.
AN AUTUMN REVERE.

wonderful book is memory. The slightest
desire the part of its pOSsessor ana Ii opens al
the wished-for place, revealing to the MINDS eye
a faithful record of the long ago and images from
the past Its pages now lie open before me, and
through the curling smoke from my faithful meer-
schaum / behold, dimly at first, but gradually
Frightening like pictures we sometimes see dis
plaved on canvas through the magic lens, my
boyhoods home.
The old farmhouse, with its low projecting
caves and high-peaked gables thanked by two tall
sentinel-like chimneys, forms the foreground. So
wildly is it portrayed that l can almost see the
moss upon the roof and hear the hum of the bees
which used to lull me into soft and sweet repose
whenever, as was my wont in the long, sultry
summer days, sought one of the Testful seats
beneath its vine-clad porch to think and dream
On one side stands the well whose Anticipated
sweep made frequent visits to the depths below,
returning ladened with bounteous supplies of
clear cold water fit for king to drink. And
facing this, one Of its long arms reaching out SO
far as to almost brush the window of the room
in which / slept, stalwart oak, deep rooted,
rears its leafy crown. From one gnarled branch
depends a rustic swing, underneath which
row path, worn free from grass, bespeaks of fire.
quent use An orchard, rich in golden, luscious
fruit, forms an appropriate and Immediate back
ground to this home-like scene, and, farther on,
a stretch of forest browning a range of gently
rounded hills, completes the prospect.
1t is October, the queen month of the year
The long, dreamy Indian summer casts the CLAM
our of its mystic veil over homestead, field, and
forest, and the bright blue sky, fecked here and
there by soft f1eecy, silvery-white clouds, looks
kindly down upon two happy, youthful hearts.
o, what tender memories the picture brings to
mind!
Tom and were brothers of one birth and the
mysterious power that had given us being to-
gether had drawn our hearts very close to each
other We were inseparable from earliest
childhood; and as we grew older our hearts be-
came so interviewer that the joys and sorrows of
one were the joys and sorrows of both Together
we used to wander up and down the country SIDE
and together we used TO harvest our winters store
of chestnuts, walnuts, hickOry-nuts, and fruit.
When the autumn days were fully come and
nature made preparation for the burial of the year
in company we used to take of the coIored tro-
phies of the frost king-the maple, the lockwood,
the hickory, sumach, ivy, and the oak leaf-and,
weaving them into wreaths of beauty, crown with
them the heads of those we loved. But, alas!
those leaves would fade at last, just as did some
of those whom we loved and crowned with them,
fade, and finally be laid away never TO be seen
again by mortal eyes.
Anon the dying year would put off its gorgeous
robes and. as the sombre colOring gathered upon
the forest foliage replacing with its russell brown
the golden, crimson, and the purple the frail
leaves shOrn of all their beauty, would fall trem-
bling to the ground to be swept away into for
getfulness; and that, too, by the reckless sue
cessors of the very winds which, in the bright
glad summer time kissed them so tenderly, and
toyed with them so lovingly.
In all the country round about, wherever we
were known, the people called us dreamers-and
we were; we lived in the ideal, rather than the
real-the future, not the present. We saw beau
tiful visions of what might be, but, alas, which
never came to pass; and our ears listened and
our hearts thrObbed to the rythm Of fairy music
unheard save by ourselves.
Often, on holidays, we wandered into the forest
near our home, and in the mysterious twilight
which its shade created built castles in the air"
Sometimes We would sit and listen to the par
fridge drum, and in our youthful fancies see
armies marshaling at the sound: and would
hken the signing of the zephyrs through the
branches overhead to a requiem mass for the
slain. Then when the breath of natare quick
ened so that it came in hard, hurried gasps max
ing the trees to writhe and groan as if in agony
and the noise of the winds had drowned all lesser
sounds, our thoughts sometimes turned to the
sailors out upon the great ocean, not far away.
and we prayed God pity them, and protect them
as they listened to the roar Of the tempest when
at its height. Mayhap we thought, also, of those
other sailors upon that greater ocean, life-of
whom we helped make up the Misunderstanding
over the sea where tempest and sunshine inter-
mingle, and where wind and wave join to give
ali, at the best voyage beset with dangers; and
as we did so, our hearts swelled out to the full
ness of mature growth as we planned how we
would breast the storms-how we would battle
against the wrong, and for the weak against the
strong, when we should become men.
In all our boyish dreams then, for they were
out dreams, associated with every great achiev-
ment and triumph-reverses and failures had no
Pla0e III our thOaghts-each was to have dear
companion by his side-his other self She was
TO pe CHOSEN, sometime. how or when we knew
not; nor could either of us distinguish the feat
ures OF the woman Of his choice but she was 10