The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-07-27

boy aroused me with a cry that was like a
shock to my faculties and ] rose feebly to
my feet. l remember thinking the boy
had almost a comical look of terror upon
his chubby face and breathed hard as if
from running. He was fat and round.
II was not certain of anything. Ny
sensation was of bewilderment. All was
u~naecountable, all a mystery. / looked
down at my feet and saw that they were
covered with coarse but new shoes. / was
dressed in a strong, clean gray suit like a
miller's working suit. wondered at the
long beard upon my face, at my sleeping
in a stable. felt weak and hungry and
asked the boy for food. He started away
at the sound of my voice, but came back
and resumed looking at me.
"As | again asked for food, he told me
to come with him, and when | stepped
slowly out into the open air and saw the
morning sunlight streaming down the val
ley and over the meadow, saw the brook
and the orchard, like a wave of reyiving
warmth came the thought am at home.
This was all was sure of. and l chung
TO it like one sinking, even though when /
turned to the house all was changed. The
trees were taller and the house had grown
larger. 1t was the same yet not the same.
While these thoughts were knocking at my
poor feeble brain, my guide had opened
the door of the farmhouse and called to
some one within.
ga mild featured, w~hite-haired old lady
came to the door and said come in AT
the sound of her voice the bonds of my
silence were loosed and | cried in a terrible,
voice, Mother! Mother, don't you know
me?' She turned like a fash and looked
at me wildly; then old as she was, ran to
me flinging her arms about my neck. It
was my mother. knew it and yet | did
not know it. For why was her hair so
white, her face so wrinkled and sad? My
mother was merry, and had soft, plump
cheeks; this mother was Did. True, ]
remembered her hair wss a little gray. but
not white like this.
81 reached out my hand and touched
her head. | did not know my " name.
Trembling with excitement. my mother
called, Mary, Mary, Arthur has come..'
He that was dead is alive again. At the
sound Of her voice a young lady of five and
twenty came running in, in answer to the
call.
'sMy sister Mary! Why my sister was a
little dancing girl of fifteen with hair in
shining ringlets, only yesterday. And with
a wild cry | sank under the weight of my
maddening thoughts.
THE next ! knew ! was lying upon a
bed in my old familiar chamber and mother
sat with food at my side. l inwardly
tina nked God that no further change had
taken place in her. And then my mother
told me what had taken place. How that
more than ten years I had fallen into a fit
and brain fever had set in. How one night
when the watcher. my father, was mo-
mentarily absent, l had arisen and stolen
away from the house in the night.
"0h, my son, how we searched for you.
Father blamed himself for the calamity,
and nearly all he had he spent in sending de-
t~ectives and letters all over the land. He
died, Arthur, trembling with age and sor-
sow, at fftY-three.
"But God be praised you are come back
to us!'' | lay stunned and mute under
this tragic intelligence. God in heaven, [
was thirty-two years of age and yet had
lived but twenty-five. ] who was yester-
day a beardless boy was now a mar Of
middle age. That ten years was one long
dreamless night to me.
but to shorten my story. when | be-
come stronger | asked the question | had
held in my heart and dared not ask
feared this last burden which came upon
mel asked of Agnes. and trembled to
poor boy" sobbed my mother, agnes
married five years ago. She remained true
to you and waited five long years and you
never Camel And Then my mother opened
for me the history Of that anxious time.
How they searched and followed false
elews, and suffered and hoped and were
disappointed, till the weary days faded in
to sleepless nights and years passed, till
father gave up the search, and-died.
This, sir, is my story. Little remains yet
to be told, except the efforts have made
to illuminate that awful gulf in my life.
"What became of me after that night,
how | came home again, and why had no
memory of All those years, these have
been my motives. All hat man could do
| have done. | have visited asylums of
the State aud homes of all kinds. ] shave
sent circulars to asylums of the %neighbor-
ing States asking if they ever had a patient
escape answering to my description. An
uncle dying just before my return had left
my mother a sum of money with a part Of
which | have prosecuted my search. | am
completely bafiled in every direction.
again and again have gone over the
mysterious circumstances of my return.
No scrap Of paper was upon my person and
my clothes were neat and clean. My shoes
were new but betrayed walking.
''My brain was numb and weak and re-
fused to control my limbs, and | was very
hungry, but my muscles We're firm and my
body in oood health. NV hands were