The Republican journal., 1881-02-03

ana 10. the old familiar passages are like
stately rooms resting on massive pillars,
and garnished and adorned with all fair
and beautiful things; or they rise before
us the gardens filled with trees, whose
branches are burdened with gold and
purple, whose winds are full of the breath
of sweet flowers and whose silence is stir
red by the voice of soft falling waters,
amid which the soul may walk and be
refreshed.
., reader. for you, too, sooner or later,
must come this time when all earthly
help must fail you, when no human words
can be of avail or healing to you, and in
those silent and awful SORROWS. when only
the voice Of God can speak to the heart,
you, too, may find what it is to have the
windows Of the promise opened, and your
soul shall sit down under their blessed
shadows and be healed,
Days passed away. A young man
walked along the country road slowly and
YEARLY, leaning upon stout oak staff.
His face was ghastly white, and he wore
the blue uniform of the "Continentals." )"
He had terrible wound in his right
shoulder, and had been left for dead.
He opened the back gate softly, and
gazed all about him at the woodpile in
one corner Of the great yard near the
suniloWer stalks, and the small ounce
trees which grew on one side of the old
brown homestead of Deacon Palmer.
Suddenly the kitchen door opened, and
Rebecca Palmer came out of the door
with a tin basin in her hand, and the
mans heart leaped as he heard her say
in her quick way:
"Never mind sprinklin' them clothes,
III attend to it as soon as I've
hunted up a few O them winter pears to
stew for supper
He saw the light, rapid figure hasten
round the corner of the house to the old
pear tree Just in the edge of the pasture,
which he remembered climbing 50 many
times in boyhood, and amid whose branch
es he had gathered the faded birds nests
every fall.
He followed the quick figure stealthily,
and stood still moment just outside the
bars, and she did not see him, for her
back was turned, and she had dropped
down on the yellow grass, and was search
ing amid it for the fruit which the wind
had shaken Oft
"Becky. Becky, say. Y
She turned quickly, and as her eyes
fell upon his face a ghastly pallor crept
over hers. She covered it, with Shrek,
not loud, for it seemed to lie for very ter
ror in her throat.
"Why, Becky, do look up here. Now
haven't you got a better welcome than
this for your brother when he 5 come back
from the dead like .'
But she cowed closer down in the grass,
and moaned and shlvered like the leaves
in the old pear tree.
"See here, now, what on earth ais YOU
If you take me for spirit Just look, and
III be able to convince you I'm flesh and
blood yet"
He lifted her up with one arm, for she
was too weak betwiN fright and wonder
to resist, but the old familiar hearty tones
half treasured her She lifted her face
from her hands and looked at her brother
a moment with a strained, wild glance,
and then the glad truth broke into her
heart for the hazel eyes had their old ro-
guIsh glance, though they We're set in a
pale, wasted face
"oh Reuben, Reuben. | thought it
was a ghost :" and she fell back upon his
neck with wild sob Of Joy.
1t was long before lie could get her to
talk nationally. She would throw her
arms around his neck, and hugging him
tightly, murmur such tender words over
him betwiXt Sobs and laughter as Reuben
Palmer had not heard since he lay babe
in his mothers crib. ''Iou precious, dar-
ing fellow, have you really come back to
us alive ? Bless your heart, how white
and changed you are. O Reuben, darlin',
is it really you, or am dreamin'?"
At last the girl grew calmer, and was
able to tell her brother Of the terrible
night when the awful tidings came of his
death, and how they hadn't one of them
smiled since, and how, though his mother
tried to 'bear up" every one who looked
in her face could see that her heart was
broken. And then both the Young man
and maiden sat down on the grass and
wept as though they were little children.
At last keDecca rose up. con what
will mother say? You must come right
into the house, Reuben, only perhaps I'd
better break it to her slow like, for she's
weakly now and the sudden 10y might
kill her. Oh, there's father
And they saw the deacon come Slowly
into the yard and alight from his horse
Just before the barn door, and remove
the heavy bags Of flour from the animals
back, for the old man had Just returned
from the mill.
"We'll go and tell him first You Just
keep around the corner of the barn. and
I'll break the news" cried Rebecca. She
came painting up to her father just as he
was leading the horse to the barn. 40,
say, father, want to tell you-some-
things happened ?"
The old man looked into the eager
face of his daughter, AMI his son, stand
ing a little way off, could see the change
which the last two weeks had wrought
in his face.
"Well, what is it, my chld?n
"You'll be 50 glad, father, and yeti
can't tell it, o, Reuben, do come here !"
And he came out. "Father7
And the vague superstition which al
most all country people held at that
period, of ghosts who haunted their old
homes, and visits made by the dead to
the living, at once suggested even to the
well-balanced mind Of the deacon the
possibility Of his sons spirit returning to
him. He turned white as the child had
done, but did not speak, and Rebecca
cried out. Don't be afraid, father. 1t
isn't ghost, but Reubens old self, and
he wasn't dead, as we all thought"
One long, greedy glance, and the father
knew his child.
80 Reuben, my son Reuben, the Lord
be praised.'
And the father and son fell upon each
others necks, like Jacob and Joseph of
old, and wept.
''We must break it to mother easy, my
children, or it'll sartin kill her for joy"
said the old man, vigorously wiping his
face with his pocket handkerchief.
SO it was arranged that Deacon Palm
er should go in and speak the joyful It'd
ings to his wife according to his best
Judgment The trio went into the house;