Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-03-27


/ He felt isolated from the entire
world; was unconscious of what was
passing around him or of the rapidly
gathering storm overhead.
H one dim idea was to get to where
his wife and boy were; and think h0
really expected that once there they
would all go away out of the cottage
and out of the world-that they would
all die ogether, and at once.
There seemed to be no place in this
world for them, and yet they were or
dered to "move on" Where else could
they go TO except to the other world;
and who Use but Death was to point
the way. or be their guide upon the
Journey?
, AMI Erastus and Lucy were to 90,
too. and won d take the tile baby that
was not yet DO n. for they were without
a home also-they. too, had been Or
dered 10 move on"
Then he wonde ed if Jennie and her
husband were to go with them, end he
was not quite sure about it. They
would follow pretty soon, of course; for
all who tried TO get the r living by work
would be ordered o move on" sooner
or late'; but it did not appear that they
were to d e at once. as he and Martha
and Johnny, and Lucy and Erastus and
| Inc OaOy nuSC 10.
When the clouds. which had been
the ra n poured down in TORI tnts. lie
did not seem to know it. He was wet
to the skin in an instant, but he W as
not conscious of it. His rubber coat
remained tied the back of the saddle,
where he had f ened it in t. M rn-
ing before starting. The water ran
from b p rson and filled his boots, his
horse placed his no Q close to the earth
and plodded on blindy in face of the
storm, but his rder sat the same, one
hand upon the loosened rein and tho
other hanging idly at his side; his eyes
fixed upon the ground Just in advance.
but see ng nothing, taking no note of
anything.
Left to his own will. the horse
plodded on through the mud and rain
ut walk. Before they were half way
home night had set in-night as black
rs clouds and falling rain could make
it. Soon the water, still falling in tor
rents, began to fill the gulches with
floods of the color of clay; floods which
bubbled, and seethed, and roared their
way down the hillsides and across the
road, forming a frothy lie of white, the
only thing visible in the pitchy DARK
ness.
And still the horse plodded onward,
fording the streams IS he came to
them; scrambling up the steep and
SLIPPERY inclines where the road wound
round the mountain side. avoiding,
either by instinct or that peculiar power
of seeing in the dark which some horses
possess, the deep gullies cut by the
rushing water in the clay of the road
bed; and still the rider sat motionless-
save as he swayed to and fro with the
movements of the animal which he TO 10
and looked straight forward into tho
night
Suddenly, when they were about two
thirds of the way up the mounta u,
there came flash of lightning followed
by clap of thunder which seemed %
rend the very earth, and echoed and re-
echoed from peak to peak and then
went rumbling down the ravines and
gorges, finally dying out miles and
miles away among the foothills.
Many people have lived for years in
California and never heard clap of
thunder or seen a vivid flash of light
ming. A friend of the authors who
lived for twenty years, part of the
time in the foot hills and a part in the
valley, informs him that never but once
ments to be thus at war. 1t is no Won
der, then, when the flash of lightning
came, and the mountains shook with
the roar of the thunder, that the steady
} old horse which John Parsons rode
should be frightened into springing sud-
denly to one side, throwing his rider,
and with nostrils distended and head
and tail in the ar dash away in the
darkness, leaving him lying stunned by
the roadside.
How long he lay there John Parsons
never knew; nobody ever will know.
unless the angels who watch over each
of us have made a record of it as part
of the account against those whose
: greed sent fellow mortal on that Jour-
{ ney up the mountain through the worst
storm known for year, with his brain
turned by the knowledge of his loss, and
. all the blood in his body congestirg
about his heart And if the angels dc
keep such an account, there must be
added to it the sufferin IS of Martha Par
sons, as she watches by the cot of the
child - grown dangerously i'll since
mo ning-watcheS and waits, and lis.
, tens in vain for some sound that shall
{ tell her that. through the storm and the
darkness, her husband is safe at home
At last
Johnny. as his mother had written
Lucy, had been growing weaker fol
. some months. and had finally appeared
: so bad that his parents had taken alarm
r and called physic an: but as the lac
seemed to rally under the prescript OF
b left him, they had ceased to fear any
t serious results. But now that the effec
: of the medicine had spent itself the pa
= tent again began to s nix rapidly.
In the excitement of making ant
t signing the deed the day before, fol
Il which purpose Justice of the Peace
Q had come to the cottage in person. ane
t in the departure of Mr.. Parsons with thu
9 deed in his pocket with the intention o
y consummating the sale of the place. thu
+ change in Johnny's condition. If any
e had not been observed; and the lat
q .do ho. nnnaa 70 n