Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-09-28

cranky and crotchety every day. did hope
that the illness of his child would have
wrought change; but If so, it is change
for the worse. | am informed that he for
bids young Murray TO enter his door and
when | asked him to increase his subscrip-
ton to the Domestic Board, he treated me
as though | were begging for myself. Adj
versity hardens man when it does not re-
fine him."
ait may be-" said the pastors gentle wife,
" that God is striving with the deacon.
There is good in him, / am sure. | think
he is not at peace with God or with himself
just now He knows he is in the wrong
about Agnes, and he is, therefore, not com
Portable. Perhaps, dear, we have not prayed
for him as we ought"
The plain fact was that the deacon was
exceedingly uncomfortable in his mind. He
had offered genuine prayer and had
pledged an honest vow, fully meaning to
keep his word, while in his heart had been
a vague idea of Precipitation, as he knelt be-
meath the oak. When Agnes had first begun
to grow stronger, his resolution had been
firm to fulfil his word but as she had crept
onward to health, it had loosened its hold
upon him. Could miracle have been per-
formed, and the maiden have arisen from
her couch, at one triumphant bound, from
death to life, he would have been awed and
overwhelmed and in haste to make good his
word to the Almighty The comparative
slowness of her restoration had given time
to his nature to assert itself, and he was
really more ill-tempered, cross-grained and
churlish than he had been before. Even to
Agnes he was sometimes harsh the more
so that, under her soft exterior and win
some ways, the slender girl had an underly
ing subsoil of granite, not unlike his own
character and far firmer than the fabric of
which her gentle mother was made.
Agnes loved her father, but she loved her
friend too. If Edgar were prohibited from
visiting her at her own hearth, she was not
ashamed to meet him openly under the sky ;
to walk with him to the choir rehearsals,
and to go riding with his sister, while he
held the reins and swift horses, the admira-
ton of the country, trotted smoothly up hill
and down vale and over the hard beautiful
floor-like roads which swept around noun
tain sides, skirted limpid streams, and in
tersected the thriving villages which dotted
that portion of the state. Had any other
member of the family thus dared his dis
pleasure, the deacon would have met them
with prohibition and threatening but it
was too late to begin this course with
Agnes, whom he did not wish to drive into
entire estrangement. So the year wore on,
darkling and sorrowful in the Cameron
household, though outwardly all things pros
pered and whatever the deacon touched
turned to gold.
His main trouble was with his bible.
Turn where he would, the verses familiar
from his childhood Knocked him. The word
vow seemed to stare at him from every page
1t was David who said: "Shall | offer to
the Lord sacrifices of that which hath cost
me nothing? ?" And David had always been
his favorite character. But they all paid
their vows.
Even Jephthah, whose rash and sweeping
pledge to the deity had involved the offering
of his only daughter in dark and mysteri-
GUS doom, had not shruuk from the terrible
exaction. Saul, in a moment of haste, had
condemned a possible offender to death
and 10 it proved to be Jonathan who must
meet the bolt of faith, and only the majestic
protest of the united nation had availed to
save him. The Bible was an armory which
bristled with weapons turned constantly
against the deacon's conscience. And while
he sat at the head of his table, silent, con-
strained, and gloomy, imposing an unwhole-
some and irritating repression on wife and
children, a fiery battle was raging within
him. lie grew to dread Agnes sweet, com
posed face, where the patience that could
wait indefinitely, and hold its own to the
last, was already stamped with Madonna
like dignity. Often, as he saw Edgar Muir
ray in church, he felt that he was unreason.
able in opposing his suit. There could be
no valid objection to pure, steady, we'll
educated aud honorable young man who
loved his daughter, and whose love she
returned The obstinate antagonism Of his
dislike had no foundation which could be
sustained by arguments.
Days wore on. Months and seasons
waned. The apple-trees blossomed, ripened
and were shorn of their fruit Successive
harvests were reaped. And then the tide
of good fortune turned, and the deacon had
new experience. He lost money. Ap-
parently stable investments collapsed. His
eldest son went to distant state. A horse
of which he was proud was carelessly tied
and famed in consequence. A favorite AL
derney sickened and died. The barn took
fire and was consumed. None of the losses
so far, were crushing; but the aggregate
bore heavily on the deacon and made him
very sad AS he sat in his armchair or fol-
lowed the pillow, he felt that the warfare OF
the Almighty had assumed tangible form,
and that his arrows were being aimed for
his destruction.
One sorrowful day there came greater
loss. The hand Of paralysis was laid upon
the meek and ever submissive wife, and she
lay for hours in that death-in-life which i:
so horrible and so inscrutable. Now was the
cap of calamity full and running over
Never demonstrative nor a very loving
husband, the deacon had felt true respect
and complacent proprietary affection fol
the woman who had given herself in tn,
radiant bloom of her grlhood, when she haC
chosen him from many suitors. Away
had she been faithful wife, diligent, frugal
obedient TO his wishes. When she passed
softly away, amid the sobs of her children
he shed no tears but Gods lightning had
nevertheless, smitten his soul. When sh,
lay, queenly, in silent state, in the hous'
where she had been chief servant rattle
than mistress, he sat for hours in the room
living over long years and suffering poignan
remorse which none knowing the man woulS
have imagined possible. When he followed
the hearse to the family lot where the Cam
erons had been buried for generations, HI
was bowed under an anguish as deep as !
was unspeakable Agnes slid her hant
into his but he scarcely felt the pressure
though he suffered her to lead him HON
like little child, after the earth had beel
packed upon the coffin.
A few days crept on--interminably lonI
in the abode of mourning-and one nigh
the family were gathered for worship. Tn
deacon took the Bible, and slowly turne
the leaves until he came TO the sixty-sixt
psalm. In a voice low and deep with emo
| ton he read these words
"And thou, o God, hast proved us. Tho
hast tried us as silver is tried. Tho
broughtest us into the net. Thou ladest a
Fiction upon our loins Thou hast cause
men to ride over our heads. We wen
through fire and through water; but tho
broughtest us out into wealthy place.
will go unto thy house with burnt offering
will pay thee my VOWS, which my lii
have uttered and my mouth had spoke
when was in trouble"
The deacon paused. "Children," he sal
81 have had a controversy with the Lor
/ have made VOWS but ! have not pal
them. The Lord is too much for Alexand
Cameron. / shall resist him no longer.
have been vain, conceited and stubborn
fond of my own way and careful OF my ON
interest. But now ! shall begin again, If
may, and seek, if haply he let me find hir
, my wife's God. Your mother was nearer