Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-01-02

lie visited his banker and his hrok-
er, and he left town that night with
out a word, without a sign; and Rose
waited for him, and waited ia vain
waited in an agony, cried out for him,
and had no answer. Weary. weary
waiting, full of prayers and heart
throbs and tears and longing and de-
spair IL was not Rose, but a pale
white shadow of her, at the end. And
one year passed, and another, and a
half-score Of them at last; and II he
were dead, her heart was In the grave
with him, and whether he were dead
or not she could not know. People
said he lived, but she felt he must be
dead, or else she herself was mad.
1t was a weary night in one Of
those islands that are the outposts OF
our northern coast, where a person
still young, still beautiful, but with "a
strange still sadness in her beauty,
who had chanced upon the place in
its summer radiance Of smiling seas,
and come again 20 make a home the
year round, TO teach the children Of
the fishermen, and to live the life of
a sister of charity among the dwellers
in the fishing-huts, half duft-wood
and half-primal rock. She instructed
them, she nursed them, she comfort
ed them, and they idealized her. For
her loveliness in her simple black
gown and her crown Of smooth spun
gold hair was something beyond their
dreams Of loveliness, and her self
forgetting goodness was beyond their
dreams of heaven. She wore always
on her white hand, guarded by
planer one, a ring with single dia-
mond in slender setting; 70 the eyes
of the iishing-people it was like "a
guiding-star. She had her dead cous-
in Margarets fortune, and she spent
it, with her own, on the homes Of
these people, on their boats, on their
narrow land, in school and chapel, ON
a light that laid its beams ON the wa
ters all around the island, on a clock
that tolled a sweet sonorous chime
heard fan out at sea and she gave
them more than money, for she gave
them all herself. reading 10 those that
would listen, working with them and
for them, and finding her only cheer
and consolation so.
Yet there were seasons when the
old pain and longing overmastered
all the rest, and she would have been
glad TO lie down and die that she
might know her suffering and sorrow
no more.
1t was the last night Of The year,
the clouds just clearing after n week /
Of foul weather that had shut them /
out from the rest Of the world In "a
mighty sphere Of storm, and the wind
still singing a wild and wicked strain.
A group of the young girls had come
lown to Roses cottage 60 bring her
heir gifts Of shells and sea-weeds,
md were lingering there 10 follow
some innocent superstition that she
lid not think worth rebuking a. they
watched the old year out and the
lew year in. They were telling her
low eerie stories of wreck and drown
ng along the coast, when suddenly
n one of the awe-struch silences came
he sharp report aud rolling echo Of
run; a pause Of listening and sus-
,ense, and then another and another,
nd then all was still again except
he long rote and roar Of the pillows
'reaking over the lodges and rushing
p the crags.
In a moment everything was alarm
nd alertness on the island the men
we're running to the boats, the wo-
nen throngng TO the shore; the
oung girls and children, and Rose
With them, were building a bonfire ON
he cliffs. Dimly could be discerned
N a distant reef the dark outline Of
huge steamship that, out Of her
eckoning, and heavy by the head
nth ice, had struck the reef with "a
force, had broken in two,
nd with frightful rapidity was set
ling to her fate. The rockets that
rere sent up from the island had no
eply; the sea ont there was running
Ugh, and If any boats had left her
hey were nowhere 10 be seen, swamp
d without doubt in the vast stretch
{ surf that, torn TO the whiteness OF
eece, raced up the shore, or possi-
ly no boats had put of at all, Death
ieeting his prey in their sleep. lt
'as plain that neither boat nor swim
ler could have overcome such water.
he wind, that had come round 30
he northwest, had blown all the
louds far over, and a waning moon
Ias rising like a great broken jewel
! the dark blue depths that glowed
18th their own clear lustres its light
He'd the hollow Of the heavens, and
an out with a cold sparkle on the icy
lifts. The last bristling fragments
the nearly sunken ship could bc
cen catching the level rays on their
ruel glitter Of ice spars and wreck
&c TOO, were washing nearer; and
lere was one dark object tossing
rom crest 20 crest, now as II Ia
lighty conscious struggle, now a.
thrown from wave to wave with
emoniac glee, now as If mere wreck
ge with the rest.