The Democratic advocate., 1885-04-18

close behind them they disappeared SO en-
tirely that, fearing to lose them altogether,
[ bent over the spot to find their tracks,
preferring to feel my way along their foot
steps rather than be left utterly without
guidance in that wilderness In vain.
Behind me my own tracks were scored deep
and plain upon the snow, but they were
the only ones and before me all lay smooth
and unbroken. Their footsteps left no
track
ssOnce again the figures reappeared, and
again | followed them, for how long we
shall never know; but it seemed to me in
my agony as if, like the Wandering jew,
centuries rolled by beneath my weary feet.
At last the two paused; one of them had
slipped from the Others grip, and that
other stood bending over his companion.
With one supreme effort I plunged for
ward until [ was almost within an arm
length of them, and then-the snow held
mel
"Strive as I would to lift my feet, they
clung to the cruel snow; snow that, instead
of being light as feathers or sea-foam, was
now heavy as lead or the burden of an un-
repented crime.
"My lips froze and my power of speech
CONCEALED.
"My heart stood still on the very brink
of breaking. [ felt one word would save
me. I could not say it.
''Cold as the Christmas wind on the
steppe-land was, a colder breath swept over
me as [ stood before those silent gray
forms, which seemed to grow vast and
vague in the dancing snow-wreaths.
ain some other life, at some other time,
[ had known these two before. AsI gazed
the wind rose louder, wilder than before,
and as it tore furiously across the dreary
waste it caught the cloak that shrouded the
standing figures face, and as it blew back
for one moment 1 recognized nay own
father. Not the face l had known as a
child, bright and brave, but terribly wan
and sad.
"Do we indeed, desire the dead
Should still be near us at our side;
Is there no baSeneSS we would hide
No inner vileness that we dreadT
@Alas the sorrow In those awful eyes
answered the question for me. My cup OF
bitterness was full, indeed Given over to
death, traitor to my brother, without hope
either here or hereafter, | stood yet
warm corpse before my judge, and that
Judge the one who, in this life, had loved
with all a child's heart, with all boy s
hero worship. In mercy the cold wind
crept into my heart and stilled its beating,
The figures wavered in the storm, grew
dim, and then were blotted out. thought
[ heard the death-rattle in my own throat,
saw my own dead face looking up at me
from the snow, still with an awful stiffness,
but not of peace set rather in the frozen
agony of eternal despair, l staggered for
ward and fell.
at seemed to me that in those minutes
[ really passed through the valley Of death,
really suffered the whole punishment for
my sin. 1 pray it may be SO. At least,
the worst seemed past, for even as | fell my
head in falling rested not on the snow,
which should have been my sepulcher, but
on your icy cheek.
stOh of course | knew men of science
would explain it all. The left leg takes
shorter stride than the right Cor some
such theory, and so, as was inevitable,
had wandered round in a circle until re-
turned to my starting point.
'Possibly they are right. l disagree
with them. To me it seems that other
aid than mans had led my erring steps
back to the path of duty, aye, and was
with me still as lifted your body in my
arms.
almost as if her dear voice was speak
ing in the wild night, l seemed to hear
again the old, old story your mother used
to tell to us children-how in that night
after Inkerman, the brothers, one sore
wounded, and the other sore spent, had
held together manfully, and through the
darkness of night had struggled back to
their lines, almost dead, but not divided.
'Nothing seemed strange to me then. |
knew that those brothers had come to me
from that silent graveyard at Sevastopol
where both now lie forgotten with Eng
lands dead to save one son from death
and the other from death and dishonor
II hardly felt your weight as lifted
you on to my shoulder (did | lift you, /
oesen wandered, or were they still helping
me ?)-you seemed so light, so light Ut
terly careless now of self, and acting under
an impulse altogether beyond ny power to
control, I bore you forward, not now with
any uncertain step, not now seeking any
guide, but going direct to my point like
one who knew his road and saw his goal
before him.
"The snow still whirled about us and
covered us, until we must have seemed a
part of the storm the wind raved and
mourned by fits, but [ saw nothing, heard
nothing any longer.
cali seemed to be gradually merging
into a dream.
"Pain and WEAKNESS, cold and despair
the weight | carried and the woe | suf.
fered were gone.
''Home voices were whispering in my ear
and when food of light streamed out
through the storm the sobbing wind died
away, and as | stumbled across the thresh-
old of the wretched inn, and dropped with
my burden on the floor, loud and full from
the wild waste without broke upon my ears
which now seemed closing to all earthly
sounds forever, the music of England's
loyal soldier sang, as they sing it, hands
clasped round the mess table:
For auld lang syne,. my lads,
For auld lang syner
"For days and days the Russian peas
ants nursed us, as mother might nurse
her only child.
"You recovered consciousness first, and
save for those two fingers which you left
as spoils to the frozen north, were little the
worse for that bitter night
"After weeks of delirium, on the very
threshold of the next world, | too recovered
''Do you wonder now, Will, that [ can.
not look in the face of the man who calls
me his preserver with the happy smile Of
loyal comrade? 1t took nothing less than
the presence of one risen from the dead to
prevent my dying as your murderer
Through years of successful toll l have
tried to keep my secret and forget-to keep
you still in ignorance, so that l might
always enjoy the love and trust you gave
me.
at could not be. Those haunting eyes
have never left me, and now after 1 0 years
they compel me to give up my secret, as
they compelled me then to retrace my steps
and do my duty.