Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-07-30
4 NIGHT IN A RESERVOIR.
CONCLUSION.


OF him " The young man smiled bitterly
rs he said this, and shuddered once or twice
before he went on musingly.
"The last time had noted the planet with |
any emotion she was on the wane. Mary was
with me- had brought her out here one
morning to look at the view from the top of
the reservoir. She said little of the scene
but as we talked of our old childish loves,
saw that its fresh features were incorporating |
themselves with tender memories of the past
and was content
"There was rich golden haze upon the
landscape, and as my own spirits rose amid |
the voluptuous atmosphere, she pointed to
cash in the welkn, and wondered how long |
1t would be before the leaves would fall. |
Strange girl did she mean to rebuke my |
joyous mood, as If we had no right to be |
happy while nature whitening in her pomp, |
and the sickly moon wasting in the blaze of
noontide, were there to remind us of 'the
gone-forever'?
"sThey will all renew themselves, dear
Mary said / encouragingly, 'and here is
one that will ever keep tryst alike with thee
and nature through all seasons, II thou wilt
but be true to one of us, aud remain rs now a
child of nature
"a tear sprang to her eve, and then
searching her pocket for her card case, she
remembered an engagement to be present at
Miss Lawson's opening of fall bonnets at two
| o'clock
"And yet, DEAR wild, wayward Mary, /
| thought OF her now. You have probably out
| lived this sort of thing, sir but l. looking at
| the moon, as hoated there upturned to her
yellow light, thought OF the loved being
| whose tears / knew would flow when she
| heard my singular fate, at once so grotesque,
| yet melancholy to awfulness.
| "And how often we have talked, too, Of
that Carian shepherd who spent his damp
nights upon the hills, gazing as do on the
lustrous planet! Who will revel with her
amid those old superstitions? Who, from
our own unlegended woods, Will evoke their
yet undetected, haunting spirits2 Who peer
laws and challenge the whispers of poetry
from the volceiess throat of matter? Who
laugh merily over the stupid guess-work Of
pedants, that never mingled with the in.
finitude OF nature, through love exhaustless
and all-embracing as we have? Poor girl !!
she will be companiOnless
"Alas companionless forever-save in the
exciting stages of some brisk filtration. She
will live hereafter by feeding other hearts
| with loves lore she has learned from me, and
then, Pygmahon-like, grow fond of the inn
ages she has sherselfendowed with semblance
OF divinity, until they seem to breathe back
the mystery the soul can truly catch from
only one. How anxious she will be lest the
coroner shall have discovered any OF hor
, | notes in my pocket!
! ~ felt chilly as this last reflection crossed
my mind, partly at thought of the coroner,
partly at the idea Of Mary being unwillingly
| compelled to wear mourning for me, in case
of such a disclosure of bur engagement
II is provoking thing for girl of ninteen
to have to go into mourning for deceased
lover at the beginning of her second winter in
. the metropolis
t "The water, though, with my motionless
position, must have had something TO dc
| with my chilliness. i see sir, you think
@ that i tell my story with grea. levity; but
indeed, / should grow deliristis did ven
ture to hold steadily to the awfulness of my
: feelings tho greater part of that night
n | think j must have been most of the time
n hysterical with horror, for the vibrating
: emotions / have recaptulated did pas
n through my brain, even as have detailed
them.
> "But as | now became calm in thought,
, summoned up again some resolution OF ac
3 ton.
n ~ will begin at the corner, thought /, anC
l., swim around the whole enclosure. l viii
. swim slowly, and again feel the sides OF tn
. tank with my feet. If die i must, will per
ish at least from well-directed though ex
y hausting eflort-not sink from mere bottles
If WEAKNESS in sustaining myself till the morn
q ing shall bring relief
n "The sides of the place seemed TO groy
" higher as j now kept my watery course be
. meath them 1t was not altogether dea
y pull. i had somo variety of emotion II
l. making my circuit. When / swan in tn
1t shadow it looked TO me more cheerful bt
a yond in the moonlight. When i swan il
=. the moonlight l had the hope of maxim
y some discovery when / should again reac
ID back TO rest just where those wavy line
would meet. The stars looked viciousl
bright to me from the bottom of that WELL
,e there was such company OF them, the
were so glad in their lustrous revelry an
they had such space to move in / was alon,
sad to despair, in strange element, prisOnec
s. and solitary gazer upon their mockin
! chorus. And yet there was nothing els
. with which could hold communion
81 turned upon my breast an
: struck out almost franticaly ono
l. more. The stars were forgotten
se the moon, the very world of which / as "
IN forgotten. l thought only of the strong ma
- there perishing of me i'm my lusty manhoo
10 in the sharp vigor of my dawning prim,
5 with faculties illimitable, with senses a
K which men like myself had brought togetht
ii for my undoing The Eternal could neyt
m have willed this thing! l could not and
- would not perish thus. And grew stron
X in insolence of selftrust, and laughed alou
a. as dashed the sluggish water from side
o. side.
le "Then came an emotion of pity for myse
L of wild regret OF sorrow, oh, infinite, fC
heartsickening! You may laugh at tn
3 contradiction If you will, sir, but / fe
N that / could sacrifice my own life on the il
at slant, to redeem another fellow-creature froI
4 such place ofhorror, from an end so pteou
,e My soul and my vital spirit seemed in tn,
=, desperate moment to be separating-whil
~ one in parting greved over the deplorab
j. fate of the other.
ID "And then / prayed! / prayed, why c
@, wherefore / know not 1t was not from fea
rs 1t could not have been in hope. The days +,
h. miracles are passed, and there was no naturi
a, law by whose proyidential interposition
~ could be saved. did not pray it praye
10 of itself-my soul which was within me.
n. "Was the calmness that l now felt to
70 pidity? the torpidity that precedes dissolution
L. to the strong swimmer who, sinking froI
~ exhaustion, must at last add bubble to th
n !, wave as he suffocates beneath the elemer
II which now denied his mastery? If we wer
r So how fortunate was it that my floating ro
at that moment attracted my attention as
dashed through the water by me. / say
on the instant that a fish had entanged hin
self in the wire moose. The rod quivereC
plunged, came again to the surface, and riI
pied The water as it shot in arrowy figf
from side to side fthe tank. At last, drive
towards the southeast corner of the reservoir
NJ the small end seemed to have got foul som,
ID where. The brazen butt, which, every tim
Ig the fish sounded, was thrown up to tn
moon, now sank by its own weight shown
,o that the other end must be fast But tn
~ cornered fish, evidently anchored somewher
:, :, by that short wire, fioundered several time
% to the surface before l thought of strIkin
\, out to the spot
!, "The water is low now and tolerably ceai
" You may see the very ledge there, sir, i
IL | yonder corner, on which the small end
W. my rod rested when secured that pike wit
y | nv hands. i did not take him from the sliI